iPhone Hill

Stalwart Apple analyst Gene Munster is back, this time predicting the iPhone will hit multiple US carriers within an year — specifically Verizon — as well as expanded video offerings from iTunes — including a subscription service akin to satellite or cable, and an updated Apple TV to go with it.

Oh, and flying unicorns.

We joke. Slightly. Of course we want all these things too — and more — but we have a feeling that that’s all there is to some of these analyst reports — a bit of logical deduction and some surveys combined with what any of us would want:

“For various reasons the company moved from an exclusive relationship with French wireless carrier Orange to a multi-carrier model,” Munster said. “In France, the company now enjoys dramatically higher market share (in the 40 percent range vs. about 15 percent in ROW) than in countries with exclusive carrier agreements (such as AT&T in the U.S. where the iPhone has market share in the mid-teens). We believe Apple is seeing the increased unit sell-through more than offset the slightly (~10 percent) deteriorated economics per unit involved in non-exclusive agreements.”

So, expect it only when you see it.

[via AppleInsider]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Analyst Predictions: iPhone on Verizon, Updated Apple TV, Subscription Video, Peace on Earth

Ars Technica brings word that supplies of current generation iPods are running low, with no new deliveries in sight. How convenient, then, that Apple’s annual Music Event, focused on iTunes and the iPod, is just around the corner, presumably on September 9th?

Just over a week to go!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Current Generation iPods Being Discontinued in Preparation for September Music Event and Next Generations?

While the wait for TomTom’s iPhone software to hit the App Store has come and gone, most of you are still eagerly awaiting the arrival of TomTom’s iPhone car kit, first shown off at WWDC back in June. Engadget Mobile is now reporting that your wait may be coming to an end as TomTom’s car kit has received its FCC approval. Included in that link, for your viewing pleasure, is the kit’s manual, some images, and a few test reports.

Since it’s announcement TomTom has kept pretty quite about the kits full capabilities. Well, a quick look in the user manual gets us all of the official details.

Your TomTom car kit for iPhone is designed to provide you with the best
possible navigation experience. A built-in GPS receiver enhances your iPhone’s GPS signal, ensuring the most reliable navigation, wherever you are. Using the car kit, you get loud and clear voice instructions, can make hands- free calls, as well as charge your iPhone while you drive. The car kit is a safe and secure dock with the award-winning fold-and-go EasyPort® mount.

Are those the features you’ve been waiting for?

[Via Engadget Mobile]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TomTom’s Car Kit Gets FCC Approval

Last week we linked to an AdMob estimate that the iPhone and iPod touch App Store could represent a $2.5 billion a year economy, which based the estimate off usage stats for their mobile ad network, and a survey of 1000 iPhone, iPod touch, and Google Android users. But not so fast, says Cult of Mac along with developers from Polar Bear Farms, App Cubby, and the Yankee Group.

$2.4 billion divided by the 65,000 apps in the App Store is $37,000 per app, per year. And while some developers earn that, many do not.

They figure it’s closer to $250 million to $500 million, or roughly one fifth to one tenth the size.

AdMob is sticking to their original numbers, however, according to the methodology shared again with GigaOm.

To us, it just seems like they’re all guestimating how big that really, really big pie is — just stupid, or goram ridiculous.

[Thanks Icebike for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

$2.5 Billion App Store Market Called Into Question?

Exploding iPhones have been a very popular topic as of late, but now an alleged tier 2 iPhone support agent has contacted Gizmodo to further back up Apple’s claims that the exploding iPhones are not the result of faulty batteries but rather simply cases of user abuse.

I’m a Tier 2 iPhone agent for Apple. I’d like to add that roughly one to two calls out of every thousand that I take deal with the battery “overheating”. Generally, this incident can be described as “uncomfortably warm”, and I have not ever received or heard of a coworker receiving a call about someone being injured by the iPhone, including people too stupid to stop using their phones after the screen is broken.

The email later goes on to say Apple gets tens of thousands of calls and zero of them have proven to be safety issues. From the beginning of this debacle we’ve had a feeling that this was simply the media blowing this way out of proportion. We still get this feeling…

Does this alleged tech support email put some of your minds to rest regarding the “exploding” iPhones?

[Via Gizmodo]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Support Agent Comments on Exploding iPhones

Following the Metro Paris Subway application, here is another Augmented Reality (AR) app for the iPhone 3Gs that’s welcomed into the App Store: RobotVision. The Bing-powered app has interesting features which appear on top of your iPhone’s camera viewer when you point at a restaurant or other places. It also displays Tweets and Flickr photos published nearby wherever you are.

By using Bing Local search to glean location and business review data, RobotVision gets access to some key Bing features like aggregated reviews from CitySearch, Judy’s Book and Yelp. Bing looks at the reviews of restaurants and tells you how they stack up in aggregate for a business’ food, ambience, service and more. (That’s a feature we’ve seen at BooRah, though that service doesn’t have access to Yelp reviews.)

Tim Sears, a Portland-based developer, expects to launch his AR browser next month.

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Facebook 3.0.1 for iPhone [Free - iTunes link], which fixes some of the bugs found in Facebook 3.0 (others are reportedly being fixed on the Facebook backend servers), is now being served piping hot and ready from the iTunes App Store.

(And wow but can Apple approve fast in some cases?!)

[Thanks Cameron for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Facebook 3.0.1 for iPhone — With Bug Fixes! — Now in the App Store

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Best of Smartphone Experts, 30 August 2009

On Friday, Apple shipped Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, their latest computer operating system (which is jailbreaker safe!), and for the first time focus wasn’t on fabulous new consumer-facing features, but on internal re-architecting, the (far too often quoted) refinements and enhancements.

Many of these advancements, as we’ve discussed before, were leveraged from work done for the iPhone version of OS X. QuickTime X, with its yellow trim bars and built-in sharing are an obvious example.

We’ve already seen Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard technology like Data Detectors cross-over to the iPhone, but with this newest, arguably greatest version of Mac OS X now on the market, what can we look forward too for the next generation(s) of iPhone OS X?

Better, faster, easier

The iPhone has already nailed the refined part, and no doubt Snow Leopard benefitted from the compression and other space-saving techniques. Likewise, the aforementioned Quicktime X (and we can’t help but notice — and crow a tad about — some iPhone inspired UI elements to go with it), as well as the touch input of Chinese characters came from the iPhone. What can we get in return?

The more nimble-finder, while we’d LOVE a way to access the iPhone file-system, doesn’t yet seem to be in Apple’s roadmap. Stacks, however — a way for a single dock icon to expand a fan or grid of enclosed apps — have already made an appearance in the Jailbreak community and given the continuing growth of apps yet confined space of the iPhone screen, it seems a logical bit of technology for Apple to move over.

Next generation technologies

It’s a bit early for 64-bit requiring RAM sizes on the iPhone (sigh), and iPhone security, with sandboxed apps and all, is fairly strong already. Likewise, Grand Central-style multi-core process packetization and dispatch may be a way off for our ARM internals (though who knows where Apple’s new PA Semi system-on-chips will take us, right?). Open CL, however, a technology that allows GPU’s to be used for general-computing, CPU-like tasks when they’re not painting pixels or flinging polygons, is something we’re definitely looking forward to. Not watching a moving or playing a game? Take that PowerVR chip and speed up everything else!

We’re not going to keep going on about QuickTime X, since we already have the H.264, hardware acceleration, trimming, the sharing, and the HTTP live streaming on the iPhone, along with voice recording courtesy of Voice Memo. However, the ability to record video not only off the iPhone 3GS camera, but screen recording as well would be appreciated, especially by those of us who cover iPhones and iPhone apps…

Accessibility

Yeah, we got this with the iPhone 3GS back in June as well, and while it isn’t the most widely covered of improvements, we applaud Apple for continuing to raise the bar, both for mobiles and for desktops.

Custom labels for poorly or unlabled screen elements would be a welcome update for the iPhone, however.

Exchange support

Okay, we got this first on the iPhone as well. We even have it better, as while the iPhone supports Exchange 2003, the Mac can only make do with Exchange 2007 or the the upcoming 2010. (We’re not sure why, but we feel like blaming MAPI for something and this’ll do).

And more…

We’d also like to see iPhone Spotlight beefed up to search inside apps that are developed to support the feature, and of course to remember recent searches. Also, syncing photos over from iPhoto, including the Faces and Places metadata, would be nifty to include in search criteria (so we see pictures of Steve Jobs if we search for him, for example.)

System-wide text substitutions, where (c) is replaced with © would be great.

iChat, of course, would be nice to see as a Apple-branded IM app!

Conclusion

Unlike Google or Microsoft, Apple using the same core for their desktop and mobile OS, means more band for their development buck, and more features for users. Win. Win. Since we’re still installing and getting used to Snow Leopard, we may have missed some more examples what else we just might see in future iPhone OS. If you’ve come across any others drop us a comment and let us know!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

What Mac OS X Snow Leopard Means for the Future of the iPhone

Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.

So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!

Chad’s Pick: Alive 4-ever

Alive 4-ever is the latest zombie erradication game for the iPhone! You can choose between different characters, level them up and buy equiment and weapons. The game borrow heavily from iDracula, but really takes it to another level with its customization options. If you love blowing away zombies with added depth and customizations, check out Alive 4-ever! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Chris’ Pick: TapDefense

This tower defender game is entertaining and FREE! Try to prevent various demons and other underworld minions from entering Heavan with well placed archer towers, canon towers, and more! With a variety of game boards, modes, and goals you can mix and match to create a wide array of game options. It is add supported (and includes two new towers that you can only get my “filling out a offer”) but even on the basic level it is still good for passing the time. [Free - iTunes link]

Jeremy’s Pick: UFC

Not home to watch the fights? The UFC app has you covered — stream live events directly from your iPhone via 3G or WiFi. (Normal ppv fee does apply) – [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Justin’s Pick: Facebook 3.0

I’m not that big of a Facebook user as Twitter consumes most of my social networking time. I think I use Twitter more because I really love social networking “on the go” vs sitting in front of my computer and the pre 3.0 app version was pretty awful. Before this version my main interaction with Facebook was via selective Twitter updates, but now the Facebook app is fun to use again and will pull some time away from Twitter. [Free - iTunes link]

Leanna’s Pick: Facebook 3.0

As you probably know, Facebook for iPhone got a huge update this week. Finally, I can visit Facebook on my iPhone without any feelings of anger! Notifications are no longer a disaster and it’s just a quick tap to “like” a post. For the past couple months, my Facebook usage (both on iPhone and computer) has gone down, but with Facebook 3.0, I’m back in business! [Free - iTunes link]

Rene’s Pick #1: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Had. To. Be. Picked. No, not because it’s refined or enhanced, but simply because with Snow Leopard Apple Shows that, as much as OS X helped make the iPhone (and iPod touch) OS, all the work that’s gone into optimization and UI for the iPhone is being brought back to the Mac as well. Win. Win. From the compressed files that take up less space, to QuickTime X and its trim and share features, to ActiveSync support for Exchange, the iPhone’s tiny footprints are all over this big cat and gosh darnit, that just makes us proud. [$29.99 - Apple Store link]

Rene’s Pick #2: Brushes 2.0

The original Brushes, a finger-painting wonder for the iPhone and iPod touch, gained attention when it was used to make the cover for the New Yorker. Deservedly so. Brushes 2.0, however, says “meh!” at it’s predecessor and ups the finger-painting ante with layers, a better brush panel, and more powerful zoom. If you want to let your inner iPhone artist out, give this a whirl. Or a dap. Or any stroke you feel like! [$4.99 - iTunes link]

Your Pick?

You’re part of team TiPb too, so what’s your pick? What app was your absolute fav last week? Let us — and everyone — know in the comments!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Alive 4-ever, TapDefense, UFC, Facebook 3.0, Snow Leopard, Brushes 2.0 – TiPb Picks of the Week!