iPhone 2.2 Firmware 10 Days Away?

iPhoneHellas.gr claims that the iPhone 2.2 firmware will become available on November 21st based on what they describe as a "reliable" source. Meanwhile, Gizmodo also describes the iPhoneHellas site as "reliable" but we at MacRumors have had very li...

Searchlight goes native on the iPhone

Filed under: Software, iPhone

Gravity Applications has released a native iPhone application to complement Searchlight, their remote search application based on Spotlight. Searchlight previously sported an iPhone-optimized web interface, and the native app builds on that. Some noteworthy benefits of the native app include storing logins for multiple servers, Bonjour discovery, and a speedier interface than Safari had provided. It also integrates a new feature found on the Searchlight server: the ability to send the files you locate to yourself or a third party via email.

The iPhone app is basic, but it provides a solid foundation for building a richer feature set as it develops, according to developer Niclas Bahn. We discussed some cool features already existing in some of the iPhone file management apps like FileMagnet and Briefcase (iTunes links), and he was excited about implementing some innovations of his own. It will be fun to watch it develop.

The Searchlight iPhone application is free, but requires Searchlight to be running on the computer you'd like search access to. Current users will want to upgrade their Searchlight server to the 2.1 release (the upgrade is free). If you weren't one of the lucky ten readers who got a free copy of Searchlight last time we mentioned it, and the $99 price tag was a bit too high, there's some good news: the price has dropped to $49USD. It may be a temporary price-drop, but it should last long enough for new users to take the demo for a spin and make an informed decision. Get it at Gravity's website, and happy searching!

Searchlight goes native on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Searchlight goes native on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Parallels 4.0 Promises Significant Performance Improvements

Parallels has announced the immediate availability of Parallels 4.0. Parallels allows Intel-Mac users to run Windows alongside Mac OS X.

The latest update to their Windows-virtualization software for Intel Macs promises new perform...

Found Footage: Help test WordPress for iPhone 1.2

Filed under: Blogging, Open Source, Found Footage, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Have a WordPress blog? Own an iPhone or iPod touch? Have you been using WordPress for iPhone to update your blog from the comfort of your bathroom [insert your own visual image here]?

The WordPress community has been hard at work on the next release of WordPress for iPhone, and it will contain a ton of new features including:

• Landscape mode with the extra wide keyboard
• Link creation help
• Support for editing and creating Pages
• Comment moderation
• Asynchronous publishing
• Photo resizing options

A video of WordPress for iPhone 1.2 in action with a beta of WordPress 2.7 is available with a quick click on the video window at the top of this post. For more information, visit the WordPress for iPhone page.

As with the previous versions, WordPress for iPhone 1.2 will be free. As soon as the beta test is complete and all bugs have been successfully squashed, the new version will be available via the App Store.

Found Footage: Help test WordPress for iPhone 1.2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Found Footage: Help test WordPress for iPhone 1.2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Things for iPhone

Things for iPhone is a clever, simple to-do list manager that syncs well with its Mac desktop counterpart.

Judge Blocks Papermaster from Joining Apple

According to Apple Insider, US Federal District Judge Kenneth Karas has issued an order preventing Mark Papermaster from taking his new position as a vice president at Apple, pending a decision over IBM’s “no compete clause” inspired lawsuit.

Apple and Papermaster have responded, but Daring Fireball doesn’t think they have much to worry about, give “Application Group, Inc. v. Hunter Group, Inc., 61 Cal.App.4th 881 (1998), a California non-compete clause case”:

We further conclude, in agreement with the trial court, that California law may be applied to determine the enforceability of a covenant not to compete, in an employment agreement between an employee who is not a resident of California and an employer whose business is based outside of California, when a California-based employer seeks to recruit or hire the nonresident for employment in California.

Basically, California don’t play no-compete, and Papermaster’s going to be employed in California, so IBM’s legal maneuvering, while time consuming, is probably not a deal breaker.

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

Judge Blocks Papermaster from Joining Apple

First Look: Ocarina for iPhone

Filed under: iPhone, App Store

If you're a Zelda nerd like most of us on the blog (not to mention any names), then you will most likely run out and buy the app we're about to discuss. Ocarina [iTunes link] is a new musical entry to the iTunes App Store that allows anyone to be just like Link in the Ocarina of Time (probably one of the best N64 games next to Super Mario 64... just sayin').

When you launch Ocarina.app, you are presented with four buttons that control the pitch. You make sounds with the Ocarina by blowing into the microphone on the iPhone. You control the pitch of the sound by pressing one, two, or all of the four blue buttons. The more air you blow through the mic, the louder the sound gets. You can also tilt your iPhone up/down to change the vibrato depth, and left/right to change the vibrato rate.

All of this is cool, but the real magic happens when you tap the green button just above the home button. A small menu appears, and allows you to tap on a globe. In the world view, you can hear other Ocarina players around the world as they toot along to jingles and their favorite songs. You can even rate the player's performance by tapping the little heart next to their name. If music isn't the player's forte, then press the fast forward button to skip them.

I've used the application over the weekend, and have really liked it so far. I would like to see a favorites list added. It would be nice to mark certain players as favorites and be able to instantly start listening to them again. You can purchase Ocarina from the iTunes App Store for $.99 (US). Note that you must have an iPhone to use this application (no iPod touch).

First Look: Ocarina for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

First Look: Ocarina for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola RAZR Takes Back Seat to the New #1: iPhone 3G!

Motorola’s RAZR stood atop cellular handsets in the US, in terms of sales, for the past 3 years. Well as of today, it stands no longer. According to the market research firm NPD, enter in our new #1: iPhone 3G.

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD said:

“The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality, four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features.”

It seems U.S. consumers are looking for a few good but common features. 43 percent of consumers stated they needed a camera, while another 36 percent needed the ability to send SMS messages. Phones with a physical QWERTY keyboard showed the greatest year-over-year rise in sales. 30 percent of devices sold happened to have QWERTY keyboards, which was up 11 percent from the previous year.

All of this news coming days after it was announced that Apple has taken the number 2 smartphone spot away from RIM. And that is worldwide, not just in the US. Life must be grand for Steve Jobs…

It has taken Apple a very short time to reach this position, would it be wise to assume that it is only a matter of time for it to become #1 worldwide?

[Via Appleinsider]

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

Motorola RAZR Takes Back Seat to the New #1: iPhone 3G!

Remember the Milk for iPhone

Filed under: Software, Features, Reviews, iPhone, iPod touch

My search for the perfect software task management solution has been going on for a long time, and I think I've finally found the answer: Remember the Milk for iPhone (iTunes link). I've tried almost all of the big names in task managers: iGTD, Things, OmniFocus, and even Leopard's built-in todo functionality. None of them have met my needs.

For me, a task list needs to be ubiquitously available, and very quick and easy to interact with. For me, that means I need a native iPhone app, which immediately eliminates iGTD and Leopard's todo's, since there is no iPhone equivalent. That leaves me with Things, OmniFocus, and RTM, all of which now have native iPhone apps.

One of my requirements is that my tasks synchronize to a web server, so that I don't need to have my laptop turned on to synchronize my tasks to my iPhone. This eliminated Things as a contender for me, since it currently only supports direct synchronizing over the same wireless network. OmniFocus had therefore been my de-facto task management tool due to its ability to synchronize both the Mac and iPhone versions to either MobileMe, or your own web server using WebDav. The main problem I've had with OmniFocus on the iPhone is how incredibly slow it is to start up and synchronize. A recent update attempted to address this issue by allowing new tasks to be added while the synchronization was occurring, but it's still just not quick enough.

Continue reading Remember the Milk for iPhone

Remember the Milk for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Remember the Milk for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tatomic brings great puzzler gameplay to the App Store

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Tatomic came to my attention the other day, and I finally gave it a shot this afternoon -- it's terrific. They've done what all game companies should do (and what Apple really needs to support on the actual App Store) and provided a free version [iTunes] to test out, and I can't really recommend it any more highly. It's a falling block game basically, very much like Lumines (which I really enjoy on Xbox Live) -- little spinning atom blocks drop in pairs, and you've got to match them up in certain numbers to clear them off the board. Pretty addictive gameplay, too -- the fact that you've only got two blocks dropping makes it simple, unless things start to pile up, and then you've really got to start thinking what goes where.

Controls are also done pretty well, but take a little getting used to (you basically touch corners of the screen to move, drop or turn the little atoms yo'ure matching), but once you figure them out, you'll start dropping blocks like a maniac. If you finish up the first ten levels and still want more, there's a $4.99 version with three modes and thirty levels total. Excellent puzzler gameplay. I still would like to see a deeper game on the App Store, but for cheap puzzle thrilled, Tatomic delivers.

Tatomic brings great puzzler gameplay to the App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tatomic brings great puzzler gameplay to the App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone and 360 Chatpad hacked into a wireless mess of need

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals, Wireless

This hack isn't for the faint of heart. In fact, it's more a demonstration of Dr. Ralf Ackermann's technical badassery than anything practical. But its as good as it gets until Apple achieves a state of sanity and flips the switch on its Bluetooth stack to finally allow us the option of pairing a Bluetooth keyboard to the iPhone. The setup starts with a cobbled together Xbox 360 Chatpad and XBee wireless module. The good doctor then takes a Jailbroken phone (naturally) and attaches another wireless XBee module to the iPhone's jury-rigged serial port housed in an Akku enclosure. A work in progress, it will ultimately rely upon a VNC server running on the iPhone to feed keyboard input to any application of your choosing. See Apple, this is the corner of desperation that you've backed us into.

iPhone and 360 Chatpad hacked into a wireless mess of need originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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