[App Review] TAITO’s Cooking Mama

TAITO, a Japanese company famous for numerous arcade classics, has finally ported one of their most successful games to the iPhone - Cooking Mama Don't know how to cook? Don't worry! Mama will teach you - and it's easy as 1-2-3! Based on the ...

Apple Reports $1.21B Profit & AT&T Exclusivity

Yesterday in their earnings call for the Second Quarter of 2009, Apple reported a revenue of $8.16B and a net quarterly profit of $1.21B. These numbers are impressive, more stunning given the fact that they represent the best March Quarter report ever in Apple's history.No doubt the earnings are due ...

technoBox Brings Roland 303, 808 and 909 sounds to iPhone

When I was a teenager I saw a guy named Bob Kilpatrick perform on stage at a youth camp I was at. He had only his acoustic guitar and two little silver plastic machines that he called his backup band. One of the machines I was familiar with was ...

iPhone App Store hits 1 billion downloads!

Apple just delivered its 1 Billionth application downloads from the App Store. It's only been nine months since the App Store launced on iTunes. Amazing. Fortune's Apple 2.0 wrote: One of the factors feeding that growth, and in turn being fed by it, is the size of the App Store’s installed base. ...

Sprint Palm Pre Leak Shows why iPhone Users May Not Want Multitasking?!

Our sibling site PreCentral.net has gotten their mobile accomplishers on yet another rumored to be leaked internal document, this one from Sprint detailing what, to them, are some interesting factoids. To us, however, there are some far more interesting questions.

• The picture above shows what looks to be a fairly user-toxic troubleshooting steps for Pre and memory management. While the iPhone has memory issues as well, you either reboot, or restore. Here, steps are approaching the level of finicky task management and triage Apple has made fun of in previous iPhone keynotes.
• Tethering looks to be gone, which may be a bad sign for iPhone users hoping AT&T would throw it in when OS 3.0 — which enables it — rolls around this summer.
• Also, no cut and paste from web pages, which is interesting given the whole webOS is based on web 2.0 style pages.

For much, much more, check out the source blog and let us know how the Palm Pre is developing, competitively to the iPhone, from your point of view. (Of course, we won’t know any final feature set or functionality levels until it actually ships… sometime before June 30).

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

Sprint Palm Pre Leak Shows why iPhone Users May Not Want Multitasking?!

Snow Leopard QuickTime X Player to Offer Integrated Video Sharing Features?

AppleInsider reports that QuickTime X Player, slated for release as part of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard later this year, will feature integrated uploading of supported video files to YouTube and MobileMe.

In particular, the application wil...

Review: Juxtaposer for iPhone

This image-editor provides a nice range of tools that allow you to have a lot of fun manipulating photos with impressive results.

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone Coming Soon?

No, SlingPlayer Mobile is still not available in the App Store. Are any of our readers getting sick of hearing about SlingPlayer for iPhone and the numerous reasons/rumors on the applications delays in making it’s debut in the App Store?

Well maybe, just maybe we have a bit of good news for you today. Sling has recently updated their web page to give the iPhone world a little more insight on the status of their SlingPlayer Mobile.

“The team has been working hard to bring the SlingPlayer Mobile experience to the iPhone and iPod Touch. We’ve submitted the first release of our application to the iPhone App Store. We are in close contact with our partners at Apple and are optimistic that it will be approved soon. We hope the wait won’t be much longer.”

They “hope” [emphasis ours]? That’s not a very confident word. We don’t know about you, but TiPb will believe it when we see it.

[Via Sling]

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

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone Coming Soon?

TiPb Retorts: Customers are Smarter than the Average Phone

Time Magazine has an interesting article up on Apple’s ongoing success with the iPhone in not only a poor economy, but in face of competition like Nokia, Palm, Sony/Ericsson, etc. doing badly, even when they offer much cheaper alternatives.

BlackBerry is enjoying similar success with their higher end products, leading Time to speculate that it’s based on brand, a multi-factor and mysterious currency that companies spend fortunes earning so they can make even greater fortunes exploiting:

A lot of people think that consumers who buy brand are suckers, the kind people WC Field used to mock in old movies. Samsung builds a smartphone that looks and works a lot like the iPhone. It is called the Instinct and Apple owners think it is junk.

Where the article falls off the rails, however, is in it’s conclusion:

All Apple cares about is that their customers have enough money to buy an iPhone, iPod, or Mac. Suckers have money, too.

It would be a mistake — and likely one other companies are still making — to assume “suckers” buy on brand absent other factors, rather than brand embodying the factors customers want to buy. (Even when Apple states just this much during every quarterly conference call.)

Could it be consumers are smarter than many companies — and perhaps journalists — give them credit for, and in tougher times they tend towards better products? A junk phone that provides daily frustration and requires monthly or yearly replacement is in no way a better value than a highly refined user experience with tremendous build quality that’s offered year-after-year free software updates and a previously unimaginable stream of ever-new applications, creating not only great initial value, but great sustainable value as well.

A better closing would likely have been:

“In tough times, smart customers make smarter choices on where and when to spend their money. Apple realizes this and makes sure their products are ready and waiting… in elegant, inviting little boxes.”

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

TiPb Retorts: Customers are Smarter than the Average Phone

One billionth App Store downloader is Connecticut, USA teenager

Apple on Friday revealed that Connor Mulcahey, a 13 year-old from Weston, Connecticut, as the winner of its billion app countdown contest. He downloaded Bump (which allows users to send contact information between iPhones) –the App Store’s billionth download, to his iPhone. Apple awards Mulcahey a MacBook laptop, an iPod Touch, an Apple Time Capsule backup [...]

Verizon said to be talking with Apple about the iPhone in 2010

Once believed to have blown its first chance at the iPhone, Verizon is now claimed to be in discussions with Apple for its own version of the iPhone in 2010. Pointing only to anonymous people familiar with the negotiations as its sources, USA Today explains that Verizon reportedly entered serious talks before Steve Jobs’ hiatus and [...]

Steve Jobs’ Thoughts on Accepting Apple’s CEO Position and More

Last week, Forbes published the full text of Steve Jobs' deposition to the Securities and Exchange Commission. While a number of stories have been circulating around the internet about Jobs' take on the stock options scandal, perhaps most interestin...

Apple addresses (and apologizes) for Baby Shaker app’s (brief) release

Apple’s App Store, often blasted for being slow and excessively conservative in its approval process, is now apologizing for having approved a game where players kill babies by shaking them to death. The Baby Shaker app was pulled two days after it was approved this Monday following a barrage of complaints forced Apple to both take [...]

Verizon Negotiating for iPhone in 2010?

USA Today rumors hope for the US’ largest network:

Verizon (VZ) and Apple (AAPL) are discussing the possible development of an iPhone for Verizon, with the goal of introducing it next year, people familiar with the situation say.

Talks, claim their unnamed sources, began before Steve Jobs’ leave of absence. How would the effect the players:

• Verizon would get the iPhone. Give Apple’s disinterest in CDMA, it would more likely be 4G LTE device, which Verizon has already been sniffing around. Given less than spectacular competitive launches of the Instinct and BlackBerry Storm, Verizon would get the highest profile smartphone on the fastest next-generation 4G LTE technology. Would it be ready by 2010? Either way, it would be a monstrous marketing coup that would prevent users from leaving the network for AT&T and may bring many who’d previously left running right back.

• AT&T last quarter had the iPhone to thank for a large part of their results. 40% of iPhone activations went to new customers and 75% of net new bill-paying customers were iPhone users. If Verizon were to get the iPhone, even if non-exclusively, it would likely be a huge roshambo to AT&T’s bottom line. (Like why AT&T is trying to extend it’s deal with Apple).

• Apple would gain access to Verizon’s monstrous user pool — people unwilling or unable to switch to AT&T for the iPhone. No carrier has complete coverage, after all, and Apple likely doesn’t want to see that large a group of customers left lying on the table.

We know many of you want to see your iPhone on Verizon, is 2010 soon enough for you? Or don’t you see AT&T giving up their golden exclusivity any time soon?

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

Verizon Negotiating for iPhone in 2010?

The iPhone Blog Week in Review for April 27, 2009

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Let’s get started, after the break!

Software 3.0 Walk-through

Curious to know about all of the fun new features in Apple’s Software 3.0 Beta? Well, our article has been updated, check it out!

HD out of iPhone, to replace Apple TV?

What? Well it looks like there will be new cables coming out that would support HD signal out of the iPhone. This means you could plug in your iPhone and watch HD movies, etc. Could it be? Heck, I don’t know about you, but I would like to play my games on the big screen!

Quickoffice is now available for the iPhone!

The first Office application is now available for the iPhone. Though limited in features, you do get Word and Excel-like functionality on your iPhone/iPod Touch with copy/paste. Now, I wonder what Dataviz is bringing to the table…

Voice Control coming to iPhone?

Maybe, at least that is what it looks like. Code-named “Jibbler” could add functionality to launch apps as well as voice dialing. For now it is a rumor, but an exciting one at that!

AT&T increasing their networks speeds?

Looks like it! AT&T has confirmed that they are doubling their network speeds to 7.2mps (for you non-tech nerds that equates to about 1MB a second… that is pretty quick for over-the-air data!). Will this speed bump work with the iPhone 3G? Well, that remains to be seen…

How to improve your iPhone photos

These week we look at how to improve the pictures that you take with the iPhone. There are apps and numerous articles to help you in this endeavor. Read on to learn more!

iPhone undisputed king of apps?

Um, with 1 billion apps just reached… do I even need to elaborate?

AT&T getting ready to duke it out with the Palm Pre?

There is a leaked AT&T internal document detailing why the iPhone is better then the Pre. AT&T says this document is to educate their sales staff to possible questions about the Pre. Hmm…

App Store reaches 1 Billion app downloads. That is “B”‘ as in a Billion

Wow. I don’t know if there is anything else to say about this…

Phone Different Podcast #37 is now available!

Dieter and Mike discuss all of the recent iPhone news. Listen on the web or subscribe in iTunes!

Bluetooth 3.0 Just announced… in time for iPhone 3?

Hmm, these are suspiciously close together. So why is this a big deal? For starters it basically doubles the data speed of Bluetooth making it much more useful for say, wireless syncing, wireless game playing, you get the idea…

TiPb Picks of the week!

Take a look at what our staff has picked this week for you! From GPS Maps (yes you read that right) to passwords and games. Check it out!

WOW (World of Warcraft) coming to iPhone?

I am not sure about that, but this video looks promising. If it were… I would then have to play, I have some friends that have been bugging me to join for a while. Very tempting…

Apps for Less

Yeah, them prices keep dropin’! Take a look at what is less expensive this week, there are some good ones to like WordFu and Enigmo and BeejiveIM!

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

The iPhone Blog Week in Review for April 27, 2009

Review: WifiTrak for iPhone

Not everyone needs WifiTrak's features. But if you're constantly on the lookout for open wireless networks, WifiTrak will certainly help you get online a bit quicker.

Vopium application for iPhone

Vopium today announced its latest application to the iPhone, enabling users to make free and cheap international calls. Powered by mobile VoIP and Wi-Fi technology, Vopium is now available in Apple’s App Store. Once you downloaded application and registered, you will receive 30 minutes of free calls and 30 text messages ...