Review: DoApp’s React: Tests Your Reaction Skills

So you thnk you’re fast? React, created by a local company in Minneapolis named DoApp, gives you the chance to prove it.  You will have the opportunity to refine your reaction skills by racing against time.  The faster you make the correct move the more points you will get.  You will ...

Pastebud Aims to bring Missing Copy & Paste Feature to the iPhone

Review: Showtimes 2.0 for iPhone

Showtimes makes it easy to find a movie playing nearby, wherever you—and your iPhone or iPod touch—happen to be.

No Java, Flash for iPhone this Christmas

Don't expect a the gift of Flash or Java on your iPhone this holiday season.

AT&T now selling iPhone 3G online

AT&T is now offering the iPhone 3G for sale via its website, a first for the Apple handset.

Is the $199 iPhone Still Too Expensive?

With the launch of the iPhone 3G, Apple dropped the price point to a carrier-subsidized $199 for the 8GB model. Naturally, that led the usual suspects to complain it wasn’t cheaper. It should be $99. It should be free. They should pay us $199 to take it!

Somewhat — if only slightly — more seriously, however, that’s pretty much what Apple Insider says Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty’s studies are showing, with fully 46% turning their nose up at the current price point. She claims that sales of the iPhone 3G were half as strong in September and October when compared to July and September, and suggests:

To spike sales, Huberty suggests that Apple should take a cue from recent rumors and halve the price to $100, which she believes could at least double iPhone sales numbers. Apple’s prized profit margins likely wouldn’t be an issue, she claims, as the company only needs to reduce the cost of manufacturing and selling an iPhone by 17 percent to achieve the intended effect.

In addition to the launch buzz, pent up demand due to lack of iPhone 2G supplies prior to 3G launch, Kaufman analyst Shaw Wu points out that gift cards for the iPhone may cloud holiday numbers, with revenue from those sales not being counted until the iPhones are actually picked up and activated later.

Of course, everyone loves free stuff. However, few people would want to work for free or give away what they make without recompense, but who ever said the intertubes (and analysts) have to be self-consistent? So the question remains, is the $199 iPhone still too expensive? If so, what price should it be?

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

Is the $199 iPhone Still Too Expensive?

Use ‘Company’ field in iPhone’s Contacts app for tagging

Filed under: Tips and tricks, iPhone, iPod touch

The social media movement has trained us well to tag just about everything we see. The presence of tags on photos, videos, blog posts and even to-do items has become ubiquitous.

So this simple tip, from reader Greg F., struck me as an obvious, easy trick to help categorize contacts inside the iPhone's Contacts app. It involves using the Company field in Contacts to record tags -- just put in your tags, separated by a space, instead of a company name.

First things first. Why would you want to categorize contacts with tags? Consider Greg's example. When using the contact search feature to make a call, send an email or text message, he enters a tag, like 'drinkingbuddies,' instead of individual names. In return he's presented with a full list of contacts he can invite out for a beer.

Simple, powerful and a great way to prevent leaving anyone out when sending a quick, after-work invite. Other useful tags that come to my mind are 'family,' 'taxis,' 'pizzaplaces' and 'therapists.' It's not ideal, obviously, for contacts that actually have a real company name associated with them.

There's more to this though. Often I find myself sending photos from my iPhone, through email, to my Flickr, Facebook, Tumblr and Twitpic accounts. So I tagged each of those contacts 'Photos.' Now, it's a simple task to look these addresses up and pick the appropriate ones.

It's unfortunate the iPhone doesn't allow you to select more than one contact at a time, though. So even with this tip, it's still a time-consuming process to add multiple contacts to an email or SMS.

Use 'Company' field in iPhone's Contacts app for tagging originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Use 'Company' field in iPhone's Contacts app for tagging originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple and AT&T bring back iPhone home activation

Online shoppers looking to spend the holiday season firmly planted on the couch can add the iPhone 3G back to their lists -- we've just confirmed that Apple and AT&T have quietly brought back in-home activation. Sure, it's been available in limited circumstances before, but now it's here and for real, just like with the first-gen unit. We'll see how this works out for would-be unlockers -- if it's possible to buy a $199 iPhone without incurring an ETF somehow, things are about to get verrrry interesting.

Filed under: Cellphones

Apple and AT&T bring back iPhone home activation originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone firmware 2.2 reportedly locking unlocked iPhones

Other than your usual SIM card unlock the only place to get an officially unlocked iPhone is through Hong Kong and parts of Europe.  Unfortunately for those who spent untold amounts of money to get an unlocked iPhone 3G, your efforts may all go to waste. The new iPhone firmware ...

The App Store gets Amazon shopping app

It appears that not long after the T-Mobile G1 comes out the iPhone starts snatching features like there is no tomorrow. First feature the iPhone received was Google Street View, a feature thought to be an Android exclusive. Now the iPhone gets its own Amazon store. While this Amazon application is ...

Walmart to sell 4GB iPhone 3G for only $99?

Remember when we brought up the rumor that Walmart is going to get a discounted iPhone 3G? Well there are now more claims that these rumors are true. Apparently Walmart is getting a special version of the iPhone 3G that is going to sell for only $99 with a two-year ...

Tap Tap Dance brings a whole new look to our classic favorite

The most popular game of the year for iPhone and iPod Touch has recently gotten a big makeover. It’s still the same great game, but now instead of tapping to the beat on the same old interface, you can tap away on many newly added interfaces. Now if your expecting guitar ...

Flickr enables video support for iPhone and iPod Touch users

Flickr has had their hands in many applications for the iPhone allowing users to upload photos directly to the site. They have just announced that they have decided to bring it to the next level and offer video among other things on their m.flickr.com mobile site for iPhone and iPod ...

Apple instates promo code application distribution in US versions of iTunes

Apple has finally opened the door to a new promotional code system that allows developers to get full versions of their applications into the hands of reviewers. Now developers can issue up to 50 promotional codes for their application. These promo codes allow anyone who the developers wish, to download the ...

Give your dog a treat without even being there

The iPhone is finding many new uses lately, both useful and useless. The latest one we have stumbled upon is the webcam dog treat dispenser with iPhone remote. Apparently it took no more than 90 minutes for Stephen Myers to create. Constructed from a CD spindle case, scraps of cardboard, a ...

iPhone Buzz Week in Review - Week 49 2008

This week we were happy to announce that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported the Apple’s iPhone. So far the development team has managed to get a serial driver, frame buffer driver, serial over USB driver and Interrupts and MMU Clock. Eventually we will be seeing support for sound, ...

Walmart 4GB iPhone 3G rumor debunked

We recently reported on rumors that a 4GB version of the iPhone 3G was going to be sold at Walmart for an unbelievable price of just $99. Well it seems that these rumors are untrue, but Walmart will indeed be selling the iPhone at a discount. December 28th is still the ...

New Google AdWord options for iPhone

Today, the Google mobile ads team announced a new option that allows AdWord advertisers to show your desktop text and image ads on the iPhone and many other mobile devices with full HTML browsers. These ads can point to desktop landing pages so there is no need to create mobile ...

Want iPhone Cut/Copy and Past via Bookmarklet?

The previous attempt to make an end run around the iPhone’s lack of cut/copy and paste involved shared code called OpenClip and relied on a loophole Apple closed in iPhone OS 2.1

This latest tilt at the text editing windmill targets only 2 apps instead:

Pastebud—as the service is called—works using two bookmarks in Safari. One prepares and loads the page you are viewing, ready to select text at the touch of a finger. From there, you can copy any text you want and create a new mail message with that text in it. In addition to that, you will be able to copy and paste in the text field of a different web page.

Check out the full story and video over at Gizmodo. And then let us know if you think this is enough — for now — to satisfy your cut/copy and paste cravings?

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

Want iPhone Cut/Copy and Past via Bookmarklet?

TV Killed the iTunes Movie Catalog

Earlier this week, Macworld cried foul over some movies that appeared to be disappearing from the iTunes Store. There was no apparent pattern as the movies were all released by different studios. I checked a few of them in the Canadian Store, and they were still there…

So what was up?

CNet did some investigating, and it turns out we — once again — have big media to thank for our poor user experience:

Normally, release windows don’t affect retailers or video-rental services after they’ve begun selling or renting films. Warner Bros. doesn’t go into Best Buy and pull DVDs off the shelf when Comcast airs Casablanca. The corner Mom and Pop video store doesn’t surrender copies of Gladiator to Universal Studios when the film appears on ABC. But Internet stores are being treated differently. What this means for iTunes and Netflix customers is that movies will pop in and out of the services.

CNet notes that DVDs, of course, aren’t yanked off the shelves when TV wants to air a movie, so why are online stores like iTunes treated differently?

The answer, of course, is because broadcasters say they are.

Is that reasonable? Is the internet different than the brick-and-mortar? Should movies be yanked down from iTunes but still be for sale on a DVD at Walmart? Or have we evolved past those differences, and content should be available for us to buy when and how we want to buy it?

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

TV Killed the iTunes Movie Catalog