I saw this Neonode N2 phone cross by in my RSS reader, and it looks like it could practically be the iPhone Nano. After reading the review at pencomputing.com it’s clearly not, but the N2 is absolutely tiny. It’s also built off a touchscreen interface, though the N2’s is built off infrared instead of multitouch. The weirdest thing is that the Neonode N2 and N1 have been using iphone touch, tap, and swipe interfaces since 2002 — they’ve been around a while.
The other weirdest thing about the N2 is that it’s built off Windows CE, just like Windows Mobile, except the N2 doesn’t add all of the Windows Mobile interface, they just use the bare guts of CE and add their own pretty. I have to say, it looks pretty decent from the few screenshots.
I’m not going to say that it’s going to sell like hotcakes, because it probably won’t. It costs about $645 US, doesn’t do 3rd party apps, doesn’t even do EDGE, and does only 1 GB of storage. They use a mobile processor I’ve never heard of on its own boffo architecture, so converting apps over isn’t necessarily going to be a slice of pie or a walk in the park. I just figured it’s kind of interesting. I wonder how well they patented their stuff and if we’ll see yet another iPhone lawsuit.
This guy Core of wickedpsyched.net coded a version of AFP, the Apple Filesharing Protocol, for the iPhone and iPod Touch. This means that you could enable filesharing on your iPhone and copy some files over directly from your desktop over wi-fi. If you ask me, this is better than disk mode, where you can plug in your iPhone and it shows up as a removable disk. It apparently doesn’t show up in Installer.app yet, but give it a few days and I’m sure it will be there.
There’s also great news if you’re more of a windows person. Say you just prefer the Samba/SMB/Windows Filesharing so you can share with windows and mac, well he’s got you covered there too.
figure 1: It is with a heavy heart that Pogue informs us that the latest Windows Mobile phone from T-Mobile blows.
David Pogue has an excellent article on how the iPhone really broke down a bunch of barriers in the smartphone world, the best he claims, is “the way Apple took veto power away from the cellphone carriers.”
So yeah, that’s just the first sentence. The unfortunate part of the article is that most of the rest of it is a review for a T-Mobile Windows Mobile device. The good news is this: if you want to think about how awesome your iPhone is compared to a poorly-implemented Windows Mobile device, the second half of his article will really interest you. There’s a silver lining in every cloud, right?
For the past few days, I’ve been working with the AT&T Tilt, a Windows Mobile smartphone. I’ve used Windows Mobile before, so this isn’t quite the new experience that the BlackBerry Curve was, but I haven’t used the latest version of Windows Mobile (version 6) either. I used WM5 with a Treo 750 for a while, but I ended up dealing with a bad bug that prevented calls from ringing. That was pretty much a killer for the device, and I stopped using it.
And that would be the end of the story, but for the Smartphone Round Robin. And here we are again.
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The fourth annual iLounge 2008 Buyers Guide works for the iPhone and iPod, and is viewable online for smaller screens like the iPhone, iPod Touch, or laptops. If you prefer, for desktop viewing.
Verizon is lowering their data rates for feature phones in preparation for competition with the iPhone. Expect a snarky comment from Dieter on this one. Unfortunately, their smartphone data rates are still sky-high. And, you can add a Canadian roaming plan for just $20. The Phone they’re thinking about using to “compete” with the iPhone is the Samsung F700, though they might re-brand it as the U940. That’s some “brilliant marketing.” I don’t usually report on “iPhone killers,” but I’m glad to see the iPhone forcing prices down for everybody.
Rumors from AppleInsider indicate that iTunes 7.5 will be coming out in the next couple of weeks. This probably means that any iPhone updates with post-Leopard goodness require an iTunes update. This iTunes update will also bring support for the UK, German, and likely French iPhones. Oh, and it will include better duplicate song management. w00t!
Mark/Space, makers of many popular “Missing Sync” smartphone sync softwares, have announced their intent to release “Missing Sync for the iPhone” later this year. Their software will include Notes.app syncing, SMS backups, better call log management, and a migration tool to copy data from a BlackBerry, Palm OS, or Windows Mobile smartphone.
If you want to downgrade the firmware on your iPhone, iBrickr has an easy option for downgrading the firmware from 1.1.1 to 1.0.2. Thus spoke Nate True:
Just a small update – if you want to downgrade your iPhone from 1.1.1 back to 1.0.2, iBrickr will guide you through it. No button holding either, it’s easy!
And if you’d like to download it,
iBrickr has its own web domain that will redirect you to the proper place. The update doesn’t work with unlocked iPhones that were bricked by upgrading to 1.1.1, but that tool is still on the way from possibly multiple sources.
figure 1: All this and more for just 70 Schrutebucks.
If you use a Windows PC as a DVR and are looking to get away from iTunes for syncing your video to your iPhone or iPod, it looks like Beyond TV might be worth a peek. The new version of Beyond TV, 4.7, not only syncs your shows to the iPhone or iPod, but also pulls out your podcasts from iTunes. Not bad!
figure 1: for Windows PCs
Ever since the iPhone was announced, people have been clamoring to write native applications for it. Sadly, Apple has not yet released the tools necessary to develop those apps. However, if you’ve been following the iPhone news you realize that the iPhone has been “hacked.” What does this mean to you, the nonhacker? Well it means that thanks to the mighty efforts of many dedicated people, you can install applications directly onto your iPhone. The best part, it’s easy. Read on for our full How-To on how to hack your iPhone so you can install applications.
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ModMyiPhone is living up to its name. A haxor developer nicknamed “Cranium” has created a Windows-based File browser that enables users to access and transfer files directly to the iPhone, in mounted fashion, bypassing the sync process.
Unfortunately this is a quick and dirty application created in visual basic express. There is no installer and you’ll need .Net libs to make the magic happen. But if you do manage to fill these requirements, you’ll be rewarded with a window to your iPhone that allows full drag and drop support, Right-click save as, Auto previews, file backups, etc. The usual fare.
Finally! A reason to use Windows! Nah.
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Parallels is beta testing a new release of its desktop virtualization software that incorporates iPhone syncing with XP and Vista. Now you’re probably asking yourself “Why the hell would I want to sync my iPhone with a Windows virtual machine on a Mac?” And honestly, other than perhaps the same reason my Doberman Pinscher licks his genitals, I can’t think of one good reason. But it’s nice to know the option is there should I choose to utilize it, right?
Among the added features in this release…
<li>Coherence windows now work with Expose! This means that each individual Windows application window will appears a separate, selectable window when you hit F9 to enter Expose. Windows windows (man, that sounds weird to say…) also have neat OS X effects too, like drop shadows. You’ll also be able to “stack” Windows application and Mac application windows in any order you’d like, so the experience is completely seamless.</li>
<li>The Image Tool is back at full strength and completely compatible with snapshotted drives. Using the image tool, users can:
- Convert virtual hard drive format (plain to expanding, expanding to plain),
- Enable/disable the "undo disk" option, which will erase all changes made during a session at shutdown. Its ideal for those of you doing a lot of testing or working in school settings),
- Easily enlarge a virtual hard drive if you're running out of space.</li>
<li>Explorer, our free utility that lets you browse and work with your VM’s hard drive even with the VM is off, now also works with VMs that are suspended. Be sure to read the release notes/user guide on how to do this safely.</li>
<li>iPhone support in XP and Vista. Yes, I realize the irony of syncing an Apple device with Windows running on a Mac, but lots of people need to hook their iPhones up to Outlook. Try not to judge.</li>
Sounds delicious! Download the beta here.
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