Articles by Rene Ritchie
Google continues to optimize their websites for the iPhone (and Android, and webOS), this time giving Google News the bump. Says the Google Mobile blog:
This new version provides the same richness and personalization on your phone as Google News provides on desktop. Our new homepage displays more stories, sources, and images while keeping a familiar look and feel. Also, you can now reach your favorite sections, discover new ones, find articles and play videos in fewer clicks. If you are an existing Google News reader on desktop, you will find that all of your personalizations are honored in this mobile version too.
If you read Google News on your iPhone, let us know if you like it, and if you like it better than the regular version you got yesterday.
Regarding that picture making its way across the internet, the one at Microsoft’s invitation-only Mobius event where Big Redmond discusses their secret plans for all things Microsoft and Zune, and heartless bloggers show up with Apple Mac hardware…
Yes, that’s our very own editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn hard-left in the pic, and he assures us, even as we tease him, the machine mix was close to 50/50 and many were running Windows virtual machines (they needed to sync their Zunes, after all!)
(And no, there were no reports of Ballmer snatching iPhones at this event, sadly no reports of iPhones at the event at all…).
Our good friend Phil over at sibling site WMExperts got his geeky hands on Opera Mobile 10 beta for Windows Mobile and did what any self-respecting editor would do — took it one on one with the great one — Safari. Well, technically Safari running on last year’s slower hardware, the iPhone 3G (as opposed to the much faster iPhone 3GS), but it’s not a final build of Opera either. The results?
Opera Mobile 10 beta isn’t quite as good as Safari on iPhone 3G, but it’s getting there. Hit the link above to see Phil’s video, then come on back here and let us know what you think.
Apple has yet to announce an iTablet, which is good because the supposed universe dent’er is supposedly suffering a supposed “delay” — getting pushed back from early to late 2010 so that Apple can supposedly add a supposedly expensive, LG-crafted OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen to the mythical mix.
At 9.7 inches, it would cost $500 for the panel, and bump the entire kit up to a $1500 or $1700 price point. So much for the imaginary device filling a slot between the sub-$500 iPod touch/iPhone and the $1000 MacBook, right?
A cheaper 10.6 inch device is also rumored to be in the imaginary pipeline for that, somewhere over $800. Both could get “cheaper” (front facing consumer price-wise) if they run 3G and are subsidized by a telco, like the iPhone is by AT&T.
There were OLED rumors for the iPhone 3GS earlier this year (with iTablet chatter attached), which of course didn’t pan out (though they did for the Zune HD). Would Apple go big on OLED for an iTablet before they go small, and presumably more affordable, with the iPhone? Especially if it delays something that’s had no public mention and certainly no release date attached to it? (Insert Microsoft Pink references here).
Either way, you want OLED?
Mplayit [Facebook link] is a new online service that aims to let your Facebook friends share iPhone app recommendations with you — and then take it one step further and actually let you see videos, demos, and other information before you decide to buy it via the iTunes App Store.
Now anything with iPhone and Facebook in the title is no doubt attention-grabbing, but as the App Store zooms past 100,000, discoverability is going to need fixing, if not from Apple than from a ton of independent thinkers just so something (anything) can shake out. Is Mplayit it?
Mplayit introduces “playable discovery” for the iPhone today in its new Facebook app store and said it would add Android and Blackberry in the coming months. Rather than hunting and pecking for reviews and top lists, the Facebook page shows real “apptivity” that is going on in app stores so users can see which apps are receiving the most downloads, reviews, plays. In coming weeks, mobile users will also be able to see the “apptivity” within their social network so they can clearly see which apps their friends and family are most interested in.
Our guess is it will depend on how many popular apps they can really show off in a way that’s compelling for users. If you check it out, let us know what you think.
(And really, anything that keeps Facebookers busy, and not hitting “invite all” to spam online friends with random events on other continents — is huge.)
The TV show Lie to Me, a few weeks back (season 2, episode 3 to be exact) decided to take the lies just one step too far — they showed an iPhone where one of the characters could swipe between SMS notifications.
To the trained eye, of course, it was merely screenshots of standard model text dialogs over the Notes app, with swiping no doubt courtesy of the Photo App, and sound effects added in post. (The whole screen, not just the alert dialog, changed on swipe). However, it shows that even TV now has to work around the vexing lack of great notification handling on the iPhone.
Sci-fi aside, it does show one possible approach. If instead of that nasty little box you had to cancel or reply to immediately, or risk losing forever, Apple let you swipe back to see previous notifications, would that be a good solution? Or are we still holding our breath (and turning ever-bluer) waiting or a Palm webOS- or Google Android-level solution?
After a long time in limbo, fan favorite desktop Instant Messenger (IM) client Trillian [$4.99 - iTunes link] has finally (finally!) arrived for iPhone and iPod touch.
Features include AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk, tabbed chat windows, clean contact lists, killer connection management, instant cross-device sync (via Astra server), simultaneous sign-in, and “intelligent” push notification.
Confession: I’ve been podcasting, now I’m editing, so I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, but if you’re giving it a go, please let us know your favorite features, pros and cons, and just in general — what you think!
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Speaking of the ongoing ad-war between AT&T and Verizon, according to CNET:
A federal judge in Atlanta Wednesday declined to grant AT&T a temporary restraining order that would force Verizon to stop showing the ads.
So the “map for that” campaign can continue, even as AT&T counters on the marketing front with “side by side“.
On the legal front, though certainly a set back, we’re sure AT&T’s lawyers want to get as much as they can out of this legal challenges will continue as well.
Join Chad, Rene ,and special guest, Keith Newman (of PalmCast fame) tonight for all the week’s news, views, and rants. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, hit us up on Twitter @theiphoneblog, or better still — join us live in the chat room via http://www.tipb.com/live
REMINDER: You can watch us live on your iPhone with the Ustream Viewer app [Free - iTunes link]. Just wait until the show starts (8pm ET) and search for iPhone. We’ll pop up. Literally.
Chat with you soon!
UPDATE: Daring Fireball points out:
[This story] puts [TechCrunch's Michael] Arrington on the same side as the almost-always-full-of-sh*t Scott Moritz. On the other side: Andy Rubin, vice president of engineering for Android at Google, who just two weeks ago said Google would not “compete with its customers” and “We’re not making hardware. We’re enabling other people to build hardware.”
So either Mike Arrington is totally wrong or Andy Rubin is a liar.
Apple typically denies something, even decries it, until the moment they release it. Google’s not Apple, though…
ORIGINAL: Could Google be “pulling a Zune” and going from software provider to integrated device maker, ready to take on the iPhone with a pure, straight up Google gPhone? That the latest… retread of the old rumor, though TechCrunch is basically singing a castrati-high “nailed it!” at this point.
Rumors of a gPhone, or Google Phone, predated Android, but instead of following Apple, Palm, and RIM in the integrated hardware/software model, Google decided to go the Windows Mobile path, create Android OS (though with a liberal Apache license) and let other hardware makers do their thing.
Microsoft did similar a few years ago, competing against the iPod with PlaysForSure software for a variety of different music player manufacturers. Then they teamed up with Toshiba, killed PlaysForSure, and released the Microsoft-only Zune. Needless to say, their previous partners were not filled with happy joy (and how many PlaysForSure devices do you see today, oh bitter-named irony?)
There’s no indication, however, that if Google made a gPhone they would in any way kill Android for partners. Indeed, Nokia makes Symbian devices now that it controls (and is in the process of open sourcing) that OS, right alongside other manufacturers. But is it fair to be scared of Google now, having seen them decimate the competition in everything from search (anyone remember Alta Vista?) to turn-by-turn Navigation (remember those TomTom and Garmin stock charts, post Android 2.0 announcement?)
And is it even more fair when we consider that the tech community is realizing Android isn’t as open as they once hoped? Casey at Android Central sums it up:
Why would I buy a Motorola DROID or Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 if I can get an official Google Phone built from the ground up for Android? How will companies feel if the Google Phone launches with 3.0 but every other Android device is stuck at 2.0? Will they continue to make Android devices? Google would be leaving the companies that backed Android from the beginning in the dust. Simply put, the existence of a Google Phone automatically makes third-party Android phones second-tier devices because Google’s priority will shift to the Google Phone, all others second.
But back to the iPhone. One of Steve Jobs’ favorite quotes is from Alan Kay — “”People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” Google bringing a first-party gPhone to the table would likely be the strongest competition yet for the iPhone. As much as Google’s Android partners should be afraid, Apple should be more afraid. And they should — and no doubt are — working even harder on iPhone 2010 and the iPhone OS 4.0. And that’s great news for iPhone users.
