Articles by Rene Ritchie

Not evil twin to Phone Different Week in Review, not an invasion by Fake Steve, This Week in Smart Phone Schadenfreude brings you all the feel-better news you need about the smartphone world outside Apple’s current media dominator. (Who knew there was such a world? We were just as surprised! Inelegant, interface challenged, keyboardy, crashy, single-touchy place — best not to linger…). Join us as we mock review the big news from last week at our sister sites. Everybody loves sibling rivalry!

Read the rest of this entry »

Originally taken as a simple iPhone multimedia remote for controlling your Sony Playstation 3, NetBlender has now open the doors to a full blown SDK! Not to be confused with Apple’s iPhone SDK, the BD Touch SDK from NetBlender would not only allow for iPhone/iPod Touch control of a networked Blu-Ray player (a la PS3), but bi-drectional connectivity (in ur iPhone beaming digital copiez?), transfer of movie collection data, and the display of blu-ray “extras” directly on the iPhone, etc.

Denny Breitenfeld, CTO of NetBlender, tells Gizmodo:

It’s a technology that is built into our professional Blu-Ray authoring tool that will allow studios, independent movie companies to enable BD Touch features. These features send data in two directions from the Disc to the Iphone and vice versa. Video, Audio, text, and player commands can be sent. So right now it seems everyone likes the “remote control” idea. However the player can control the IPhone as well. One idea is to automatically pull up IMBD of the movie you are watching right on your Iphone or send the movie information a movie database on your phone. The ideas are only limited to what people want and will use. We are releasing an SDK for the 100k Iphone developers out there so they can take advantage of BD Touch features to build applications that easily work with all kinds of titles.

Gizmodo further speculate that a system could be worked out where, upon hearing a particularly w1cked sound track on your blu-ray, you could buy it directly from the iPhone iTunes store similarly to how the Starbucks system works now.

I have both an iPhone and a PS3 (which uses a BT remote) and the idea of one less controller is compelling (now let me do that with iTunes, Apple TV, and Front Row, okay Apple?), as is wirelessly moving a “digital copy” from a BD disc to the iPhone (wireless iTunes sync would be nice too, okay Apple?), so I’m all for this. Heck, give us full-on PSP style remote-play, why don’t you! (Oh, competitive advantage… dang…)

What do you think?

Remember that Quake III video running on jailbroken iPod Touches a couple of days ago? Engadget hunted down the developers and wrung us out some more:

According to developers Cameron and Marcia Tofer of Hermitworks managed to get the game up and running on the touches in, “Between eight and twelve hours,” using jail-broken units, no official SDK, and modified code that added basic accelerometer support. The game in the video is being hosted on one of the devices and played over a local network — and the Tofers claim that running a full 64-player match wouldn’t be out of the question.

A couple of developers? 8-12 hours? Without the SDK? Scaling up to 64 players?! Holy FPS! If that’s what a couple of devs can churn out in a day, what can Carmack and the id software team come up with given months and offical SDK goodness? The mind boggles. Boggles and explodes.

The deep dig into the latest iPhone 2.0 firmware beta 3 continues, with iPhoneBuzz reporting that they’ve found strings and/or references to A2DP stereo bluetooth support, bluetooth remote control, GPS (internal or external via BT not determinable yet), something to do with printers, Google 411 for Maps, as well as previously rumored YouTube plugin for MobileSafari Touch, the Infineon 3G chipset, and the apparent removal of the previous Nike + Sports references.

Hinting that Apple might be getting back into the cat’n'mouse game with unlockers is also a new reference to the chillingly named “BRICKEDANDUNLOCKEDSIMSTRING” (cue Imperial March theme). What this means, and how long it takes to pwn it remains a mystery at post time.

So, is our 2.0 lust reaching a fever-pitch yet? Does brick-timidation put a damper on it? And where the name of all that’s Jobsy is our cut’n'paste?

What do you think?

Ars Technica brings word that Australia may just be giving Singapore, the Netherlands, and Mexico a run for their international money in the great race towards the 7th official iPhone launch.

If rumors are to be believed, resellers have been told to say g’day to an UNLOCKED 3G iPhone down-under come the end of June. This would bring our current score to:

Without an Apple retail presence or strong carrier-branded stores, resellers are said to be key in getting the device out to market in Oz, and Apple COO, Tim Cook did say they would be open to different business models, but UNLOCKED?! And 3G in June?

Personally, I hope this is true as unlocked may be the only way we’ll get an iPhone in Canada any time soon (though 3G will do little good if it’s $1K a month…), but I’m taking this with a kangaroo-sized grain of salt for now… What do you think?

3G rumors will never die; just multiply!

Engadget’s been on the iPhone the last couple of days like Andy Ihnatko on Internet pants, and they show no signs of slowing down what with this latest 3G rumor:

Tgdaily is the one making waves today, claiming that we’ll see next-gen 8GB and 16GB iPhones debut at WWDC this June for $399 and $499, and that the iPod touch will always offer twice the storage at any given price point. The new units are said to feature revised casings that eliminate the current model’s “plasticky” feel…

TG Daily’s industry sources allegedly told them, but could not confirm, a 32GB model at $599 as well. Envious of all the Mac Book Air attention, iPhone 3G has also apparently crash-dieted to become 2.5mm thinner. Lastly, those hoping for a removable battery will apparently be disappointed as 3G will remain an inney, not an outey.

That the iPhone has one NAND slot to the iPod Touches 2 slots makes the latter bit pretty much a given (gotta but the cell radio somewhere!), and I don’t believe the iPod line has ever had user-switchable batteries, so likewise. Thinner is wicked obvious, though with increased battery demands may not make sense. Price points for the iPod line have also been semi-predictable, with the iPhone pretty much fitting in ever since the initial price-drop.

As to the date?

I’m still on the WWDC bandwagon for the announcement of 3G, with shipping to follow some time later (6 weeks earliest, Thanksgiving latest). Guess we’ll all have to wait and see, and if you haven’t already, head on over to our 3G Pool and pick your date!

OMG!!11 Contactz search FTW!!11

So says Engadget, continuing the excellent 2.0 Beta 3 coverage. Turns out that magnifying glass that was spotted way back when actually does something now, and that something isn’t Exchange server queries as some (no names… ok, it was Dieter!) feared, but full-on contact search.

And if that isn’t enough, there a new “inbox” style icon on the calendar screen which shows incoming meeting/event requests with the same red circled goodness as new MobileMail or SMS messages.

Check out the full post for screen caps!

Thanks Apple! Now, about that cut’n'paste…

Engadget (via jailbreaking maestros, ZiPhone) is reporting that the newly released iPhone SDK Beta 3 has some code inside that refers to “SGOLD3″, which they are guessing may be the upcoming successor to Infineon’s S-GOLD-2 chip inside the current iPhone. What will S-GOLD-3 offer?

7.2Mbps HSDPA chip with all the video acceleration and media playback features iPhone users have come to expect. Advantages over its predecessor include higher resolution camera support (5 megapixels instead of 2), a 2x speed MMC / SD interface and DVB-H module support

Deep digging Apple code has provided clues to everything from iTunes Movie Rentals to new Apple product models in the past, so could ZiPhone be on to something here? Or is everyone just completely 3G crazy these days? What do you think?

After waking up on Tuesday to face the dreaded Blue– er… Pink-Screen-of-Death (?!) that signaled the expiry of the 2nd beta release for the iPhone SDK, would-be-developers managed not to go to bed angry as Apple kissed and made-up in the form of SDK Beta 3.

Erica Sadun over on TUAW reports that the latest/greatest weighs in at 1.4GB, or just three-quarters the size of the original beta, with the matching firmware at under 200MB according to a commenter.

What new goodies does this release hold? We’ll have to wait a bit to find out. But with the continual slow, grinding, excruciating march towards an anticipated June release (WWDC? June 30 at 11:59 pm? Little help?) waiting is something iPhone lovers are used to.

After “Uncle” Walt Mossberg teased the interwebs wild with an offhand remark about the iPhone 3G coming within 60 days, Silicon Valley Insider caught up with the Wallstreet Journal’s very own Mac Daddy to find out just when we’d be getting that next gen release. Walt’s answer: He has no idea.

“If I knew when this date was, why would I announce it in the middle of a sentence at the Finnish embassy, rather than report it in the Wall Street Journal?”

Moreover, Walt doesn’t care.

Seems he was just guess’timating based on the same interweb reports the rest of us have been reading, and whenever Apple decides to bless him with a test unit, he’ll sit down and review it. Until then, know means no. Got it?

(Hey, if you’re really desperate, you can always try one of those cheap iClones…)