Google Adds Push Gmail for iPhone and iPod Touch Via Google Sync

Google today announced that it has expanded its Google Sync service to include push e-mail for the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as Windows Mobile devices. Google Sync, launched earlier this year, also provides synchronization of contacts and cale...

App Store accepted over 1,300 iPhone apps on last week?

AppShopper (a popular app profiling site) notes that Apple approved nearly 1,300 iPhone and iPod touch applications last Friday, by far the largest number approved in a single day in the past few months. Over 300 of the approved applications were games, creating a host of new selections for consumers to choose from and continuing [...]

GoogleSync Brings Push Gmail to iPhone – At Last!

Google’s official mobile blog has just (and finally!) announced Push Gmail support for the iPhone!

Integrated into their existing GoogleSync service, which up until now supported only contacts and calendar, now:

Using Google Sync, you can now get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your phone. Having an over-the-air, always-on connection means that your inbox is up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Sync works with your phone’s native email application so there’s no additional software needed. Only interested in syncing your Gmail, but not your Calendar? Google Sync allows you to sync just your Contacts, Calendar, or Gmail, or any combination of the three.

One big caveat remains, however. GoogleSync is powered by Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and most devices — including the iPhone — can only handle one (1) EAS account at a time. So, if you’re already using Exchange ActiveSync for your corporate email, that slot is taken and GoogleSync is useless to you.

For everyone else — joy! And if you try it out, let us know how it works for you!

[Thanks to mattshall for the head's up!]

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

GoogleSync Brings Push Gmail to iPhone – At Last!

Kid Finds Porn in Apple Store & Angry Mom Complains

Porn and iPhone, it is out there and every once in a while you may even find porn in there. In an Apple Retail Store on one of the iPhone and iPod Touch demos, that is.

That’s exactly what happened just the other day as a mother found her 10 year old girl mesmerized by some X-rated content on one of the Apple Store demo devices:

“I called to complain and was told matter of factly by staff this happens a lot as people come in and download it for a laugh, I don’t find it funny and all my friends think it’s disgusting, but Apple say there is nothing they can do to stop it.”

Apple does a fantastic job of keeping smut out of iTunes and their App Store, surely they can figure something out for their real-world stores.

[Via Cult of Mac]

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

Kid Finds Porn in Apple Store & Angry Mom Complains

‘Layar’ Augmented Reality Platform to Gain 3D Capabilities

MobileCrunch reports that Layar, one of the earliest and highest-profile augmented reality platforms for mobile devices, is in the process of adding 3D capabilities to its Android tools, opening the door for developers to offer new levels of immersiv...

Aussie drivers: Buy a cradle, or no iPhone GPS for you

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, iPhone

Live in Australia? Have an iPhone? Do you use the iPhone's built-in Maps app, Navigon, or TomTom [iTunes links] to navigate? If you answered yes to all three of those questions, then I have some bad news for you: under the Australian Road Rule 8th Amendment, all use of the iPhone in your car is soon to be banned unless you buy a cradle for it, including using it as a GPS navigator.

An article from the Sydney Morning Herald initially makes it sound as though you won't be able to use such apps at all, especially after reading this quote from a spokesperson for VicRoads, the traffic authority for the Australian state of Victoria: "A phone will only be allowed to be used for its primary purpose. If it's a phone, it's a phone." But once you read farther down the article states, "Drivers will only be able to use mobile phones if they are placed in purpose-made cradles and operation is entirely hands-free." The language of the amendment itself also supports that interpretation.

So it's not the end of the road for iPhone nav apps in Australia, but if you want to continue using your iPhone for said purpose, you'd better go buy a cradle for it, because the fine for getting caught using your iPhone in the car without one is heinously expensive: AU$234! Even TomTom's iPhone cradle doesn't cost that much.

So far the new rule is only confirmed to be rolling out in Victoria, and not until November 9. But don't be surprised if other states and territories follow suit afterward.

New Zealand has a similar cellphone ban coming on November 1, but the NZ proposal is less draconian than the Australian version: the fine is only NZ$80, and the language in the proposal focuses on use of mobile phones for talking and texting, without making any mention of GPS or other uses.

The Australian law seems a bit of an overreach, but I fully support New Zealand's upcoming ban on talking and texting while driving (especially texting - I can't fathom why anyone would think it's okay to text and drive at the same time). I can't speak for Australia's roads, but the roads in New Zealand definitely require one's full attention. The iPhone in particular requires a lot of visual focus in order to use it as a phone unless you have a handsfree setup, and that kind of distraction from the task of driving could potentially lead to a fatal crash on our narrow, winding roads.

Of course there's a question of just how enforceable these laws will be in either country. Unless you're holding the phone up to the side of your head or using it at night, it's unlikely that a passing police car is going to see that your eyes are focused on what's in your hand rather than what's on the road. That's where common sense has to step in: is that phone call from your boss important enough to risk flying off the road? Probably not.

Thanks to reader Brian Rayner for sending this one in.

Aussie drivers: Buy a cradle, or no iPhone GPS for you originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Aussie drivers: Buy a cradle, or no iPhone GPS for you originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone moisture sensors a little too touchy?

A number of iPhone users are reporting problems having their still-warrantied iPhones worked on at Apple Store Genius Bars after their devices’ external moisture sensors are falsely tripped. Techgeist reports that one of their iPhone units exhibited this issue, and after contacting Apple, discovered that the company’s protocol when responding to a customer with a [...]

AT&T MicroCell will offer unlimited $20/mo calling soon

AT&T customers who live or work in one of the company’s many pockets of poor or dead 3G service will soon have the option to pay $20 extra to obtain unlimited calling over 3G using their own Internet access. AT&T hasn’t yet set a retail price on its forthcoming new 3G MicroCell appliance, which connects to [...]

Poor battery life an issue with iPhone 3.1?

The iPhone Blog reports that Apple is taking steps to investigate numerous reports of reduced battery life from iPhone OS 3.1 users. The company’s AppleCare division has reportedly begun contacting users complaining about the problem in its support forums, asking users a series of 11 questions about their battery life issues. An undisclosed number of users [...]

Netflix Sees Apple Partnership, iPhone Streaming to “Come Over Time”

Netflix, which mails DVDs and Blu-Ray discs to subscribers and streams movies and TV shows directly to Xbox 360 and other set-top box owners, commented on the likelihood of their working with Apple, and specifically providing an app for the iPhone:

“[A partnership with Apple] is something that’s likely to come over time, but nothing in the short term. [With] movie watching, we are not focused on mobile yet, but on the TV, on Blu-ray and on the video game consoles. We will get to mobile eventually, including the iPhone.”

This either goes against, or pushes back previous rumors that “Watch Instantly” was on its way to the App Store.

Of course, there are significant hurdles to overcome. First, media licensing is still an outdated mess, with different rights for different content making it difficult for any company to provide similar services across geographical boundaries. Indeed, Netflix is US-only still. While Apple’s own iTunes Store movie and TV platform is in several countries around the world, including the US, Canada, UK, Australia, content varies incredibly from one to the other, and many iTunes stores are still app-only, or app and music only.

In terms of competition, Apple has recently let Spotify and Rhapsody onto the App Store, so Netflix might find a similar home despite iTunes’ own offerings. There’d still be the question of the streaming itself, however, as despite recent FCC net neutrality proposals, AT&T and other carriers might not have the capacity to handle that much bandwidth on such a popular device, consigning Netflix to Wi-Fi, much like SlingPlayer.

[Reuters via Digital Daily via Gizmodo]

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

Netflix Sees Apple Partnership, iPhone Streaming to “Come Over Time”

Microsoft Stores Staffing Up… With Apple Store Employees

Microsoft is beginning to staff up their upcoming retail store chain using freshly poached Apple Store managers and employees. Using “significant raises” and in some cases, moving expenses as the carrot, Apple Store managers are hunted and then asked to contact their (now former) top Apple Store salespeople and offer them similar incentives to switch from Mac to PC.

Employees, of course, are not the only thing Microsoft is taking from the Apple Store experienced. Having hired Apple’s former retail location scout, George Blankenship, their plan is to open up right next door to Apple Stores everywhere.

Though they still, stupefyingly, don’t seem interested in actually selling much of anything (they’re focusing on consumer experience), along with the shrink-wrap copies of Windows 7 and Office, Zune HD and XBox 360 that Microsoft manufactures themselves, they’ll be showing off their hardware partners’ wares with PC, PCTV, and Smartphone walls, along with Learn, Connect, and Info tables, and “Guru” bars modeled after… you guessed it…

The strategy is certainly sound, but we’re still not sure that a company with a split software/hardware model will find the same formulae brings the same success.

[The Loop via Ars Technica]

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

Microsoft Stores Staffing Up… With Apple Store Employees

Netflix CEO dreams of iPhone, TV, and game console ubiquity

When a CEO is asked to dream we shouldn't be surprised when he dreams big. In an Reuters interview with Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, we learn that Netflix is working in parallel to bring its services to "all the game consoles, all the Blu-ray players, all the Internet TVs." Naturally, he added that the Xbox deal is exclusive for the time being. The company is currently focused on the big screen but "will get to mobile eventually, including the iPhone." And while the streaming business is "booming," he says the DVD business is still growing as well, likely peaking in "5 years or so" with people still doing DVD-by-mail over the next 20 years. Reed then adjusted his monocle and disappeared in a flash of cigar and brick-and-mortar ash.

[Via All Things Digital]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Netflix CEO dreams of iPhone, TV, and game console ubiquity originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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