The Competition: Sony Ericcson Android UI

More big news for Android — and no, not just HTC finally going 3.5mm with the headphone jacks — but Sonny Ericcson’s new “Rachel” Android device and it’s UI.

Hot on the heels of the HTC Hero’s Sense UI, it’s again showing the power and flexibility of Google’s other OS.

Is that model, separating hardware and software development, finally going to pay off in the mobile space? And, ironically, will it be Google rather than Microsoft who realizes it first?

[Android Central via BGR]

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

The Competition: Sony Ericcson Android UI

Review: Instapaper 2 for iPhone

It wouldn't be quite right to say that Instapaper 2 improves upon perfection. Rather, this update to the app that saves Web articles on your iPhone or iPod touch to read later refines the simplicity, which is arguably Instapaper Pro's greatest appeal.

SoundAMP hearing aid app for iPhone unleashed on our delicate ears

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

SoundAMP hearing aid app for iPhone unleashed on our delicate ears originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Drinkspiration: a drink recommendation app with a twist

Filed under: iPhone, App Review

The following app is rated for mature audiences. Reader discretion is advised.

I just had to write that, because, in the spirit of liability, Drinkspiration by Absolut (iTunes link) made me confirm my birth date upon initial launch. That, and I'd have a major guilt trip if little Jimmy went out on an all-night drinking bender because some iPhone app encouraged him to do so.

Like legions of apps before it, Drinkspiration aims to solve an age old question that has dogged mankind: What drink should I get? And while some like featured apps provide similar functionality, it's Drinkspiration's delivery that sets it apart from the crowd.

Continue reading Drinkspiration: a drink recommendation app with a twist

Drinkspiration: a drink recommendation app with a twist originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Drinkspiration: a drink recommendation app with a twist originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXXI: Apple’s iPhone and iPod nano hook up, combine

Hey, Apple -- you know that inspiration you've been looking for in order to concoct a proper iPhone nano? We just found it. Over in some seedy warehouse in the depths of Shenzhen, the aptly titled iphone nano has emerged. As you could likely surmise, this completely improper knockoff gentle combines the best features from Apple's iPhone and the iPod nano to create a singular, if not awkward device. Heck, there's even a 5 megapixel camera, which easily trumps the 3.2 megapixel shooter on the iPhone 3GS. It's all yours for just 90 bones, and you don't even have to sign your cellular soul away to AT&T. Look out Apple, we get the feeling this thing's going to be huge.

[Thanks, facelessloser]

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXXI: Apple's iPhone and iPod nano hook up, combine originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Apple iPhone Patent Applications Surface: Object and Facial Recognition, Messaging, Voice Modulation

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a several dozen Apple patent applications this morning, and Unwired View highlights one group of them primarily related to iPhone software. The patents cover object and facial recognition, messaging, an...

More AR, this time with Twitter, on the iPhone

Filed under: Hardware, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, SDK

Here's another augmented reality iPhone app that might be slightly more useful for those of us outside of London than the Nearest Tube app we showed off the other day. TwittARound is a Twitter client (currently in beta) for the iPhone that uses your location info, compass, and the 3GS' video camera to place tweets close to your location in a realtime video view, so that the effect you get is like pop-up notes on the landscape. Very cool indeed. Unfortunately, it seems many of these AR (augmented reality) apps may never see the light of day, as some developers are saying Apple doesn't provide any public API calls for the live video (hence this petition from the burgeoning AR community).

There are other issues here too, though, even if Apple does open up all of the APIs needed for a project like this. Twitter doesn't actually include location information with each tweet, so what you're actually seeing (I'd imagine) is the location of each Twitterer. What you'd like to do with an app like this is walk around and use it to get information about what you see (look through the app at a line outside a concert hall, for instance, and see people talking about who's playing inside). But unfortunately, unless they have some way of seeing exactly where those tweets come from, they'll all still be from each Twitterer's location, not where the tweet was actually sent.

But maybe Twitter or some other app can start including that location (Brightkite is already location-based, and works with Twitter), and then we can get real-time information from where we actually are on an AR screen like this. There's still a few obstacles, but once those are evened out, the possibilities are very exciting.

More AR, this time with Twitter, on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

More AR, this time with Twitter, on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 3GS Doesn’t Support HSUPA for High Speed 3G Upload

Macworld is reporting that while the iPhone 3GS chipset does indeed support the new (for North America!) HSPDA download speed of 7.2 Mbps, Apple didn’t see fit to equip it with the matching HSUPA upload speed of 1.4/1.9 Mbps. Indeed, they claim the iPhone 3GS will top out its uploads (sending videos to YouTube, emailing photos, etc.) at a comparatively anemic 384 Kbps.

Perhaps not a big deal in North America where, as noted, the GSM networks are still building out their speed. (Hold your laughter, CDMA, your upload speed is faster but it’s not like you’ve flipped the switch to Rev B yet either — you all have your hidden shames!).

In Europe, however, where HSPA networks are as mature as their coffee is good, well… they’re going to suffer senselessly slower upload speeds.

We’ve asked you in the past how fast your downloads were, now let us know how your uploads are doing, and how much HSUPA — or the lack thereof — matters to you.

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

iPhone 3GS Doesn’t Support HSUPA for High Speed 3G Upload

Will Apple’s iPhone Surpass Nokia by 2012?

Matt Miller over at our sibling site, NokiaExperts, takes issue with a prediction that Nokia will drop to 20% while Apple and the iPhone soar to 35% worldwide market share by 2012:

The iPhone has a singular form factor and has been doing incredible the first couple of years in existence. However, as more Android devices roll out, Windows Mobile 7 shows up in force, RIM keeps chipping away with the BlackBerry OS, and Palm struggles to find itself with WebOS I doubt Apple will pass up Nokia.

Matt also points out that Symbian Foundation could replace the ailing S60 by then as well, making the situation even more of an unknown.

Granted, in North America we sometimes forgot the goliath that is Nokia internationally. They’re huge. I’ve argued before, however, that raw market share isn’t exactly the same thing for Apple. They already have massive mind share, clearly setting the pace for smartphone development for the last couple years (multitouch, better user interfaces, centralized application stores, etc.), but they maintain a very high profit share as well.

Back in January, it was reported that while Apple ships nowhere near the amount of handsets that Nokia does, it makes double the profit. So, every percentage of market share Apple does gain comes not with loss leaders and commensurate financial losses, but with huge, brimming bags of money to shovel back into iPhone R&D and marketing.

Apple has also figured out how to take iPhone innovations and leverage them for Mac OS X (like the upcoming QuickTime X), and vice versa — something no other company seems able to do yet.

All that to say I agree with Matt’s overall assessment, it’s ridiculous and risky to try to look 3 years out in a market like smartphones. After all, no one really predicted the iPhone in 2006, and many pundits thought it would fizzle and fail in 2007. Now look at it.

Who knows what the market will be in 2012? Microsoft could have shipped Windows Mobile 7.x — RIM could have a new OS as well. Heck, Nokia could snap up Palm and be selling PreN99’s like hotcakes…

What’s your prediction?

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

Will Apple’s iPhone Surpass Nokia by 2012?

iPhone 3GS — Twice the RAM… 10x the Impact?

tap tap tap points out something that perhaps should have been obvious from the start regarding the iPhone 3GS’ 256MB of RAM — that doubling the memory, once the OS loads and programs start eating away at it, often leaves more than double the free space.

The older iPhone models have been often considered underpowered when it comes to RAM, so even though the RAM amount is technically doubled, in actual use, you’ll often be working with 4x to 10x the amount of free RAM. And that’s one major aspect that’s contributing to the overall speedier feel of the 3GS.

As we saw in our video iPhone 3GS vs. iPhone 3G app launch smackdown, this translates directly into keeping Mobile Safari pages loaded, for example, when you exit out, load a large app, and then come back.

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

iPhone 3GS — Twice the RAM… 10x the Impact?

iPhone 3GS limited to 384 Kbps upstream

Glenn Fleishman follows up on last month's report about High Speed Packet Access and the iPhone 3GS, with word that the new phone is more limited in upstream data speeds than he first realized.

Review: iNag for iPhone

If you are running Nagios on your network, have an iPhone or iPod touch, and need to be able to talk to Nagios from those devices, iNag is a no-brainer, even with some interface annoyances.