Phil Schiller Sheds Some Light on the App Store

The App Store is making the news just as much as the iPhone is these days and it is no wonder. iPhone ads are constantly bragging about how many apps are available on the iPhone, but Senior VP of Apple, Phil Schiller, recently did an interview with Business Week (http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2009/tc20091120_354597.htm) where he hinted that maybe [...]

Gobble up this deal on 1Password Pro touch

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

To celebrate Thanksgiving, Agile Web Solutions is giving thanks to its customers this week in the form of a free iPhone app. Previously $7.99, 1Password Pro touch [iTunes link] is completely free until December 1st.

Whether or not you use the excellent Mac edition of this app, which was recently updated to version 3.0, 1Password touch is a great addition to your iPod touch or iPhone. Essentially a password manager, this app stores login usernames and passwords, wallet information like credit card numbers, software license keys, and secured notes behind one or two levels of protection (depending on how sensitive you deem the data). With cut and paste functionality, as well as a built-in web browser, it's a great way to simplify logging into password-protected sites or even making online purchases. Of course, to get the most out of the mobile version, a copy running on your Mac is a must. With it, you'll be able to sync your information between the devices.

The standard app is great and all, but since both versions are free for the time being, you might as well grab the Pro. Extra features include folders for better organization, the ability to copy multiple fields to paste elsewhere, and a unique switching mode to quickly copy and past info into Mobile Safari. In addition, there are some Pro-only features on the way including MobileMe and WebDAV syncing (I can't wait for that!), and Favorites.

If you already have the regular touch edition, make sure to back up your data before removing the old app and upgrading to the Pro version. Those with the Mac application can rely on Wi-Fi syncing to ensure the latest info is on the computer, however Agile has instructions on its site for those without. Once you've removed the standard 1Password touch and installed Pro, you can restore the data.

Gobble up this deal on 1Password Pro touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Gobble up this deal on 1Password Pro touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Silent Swords for iPhone

This 2-D stealth platform game may not have advanced features or sophisticated graphics. But it offers a truly challenging set of missions.

iPhone Users Suffering from ‘Searching for Service’ Bug

Users over on Apple’s support forums are complaining of a bug that has been around since the first generation iPhone and the 1x software. Even on the 3.1.2 software users are randomly getting their iPhones stuck without service while the phone says it is searching for a signal. This bug does not discriminate either, it does not care what cell phone carrier your are with, whether your device is jailbroken or not, or model of iPhone.

Currently the only way to get around this bug is if you reset your device by holding down the power button along with the home button until you see the Apple logo appear on your screen. Once booted back up your service should be restored.

Fortunately, none of us here at TiPb have personally encountered this behavior from any of our current iPhones. Any of our readers find themselves ’searching for service’?

[Via iLounge]

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

iPhone Users Suffering from ‘Searching for Service’ Bug

MusicNAO offers unique dock for iPhone and iPod touch

Filed under: Audio, Hardware, Bluetooth, iPhone, iPod touch, Music

Canadian company Cignias has announced an interesting product in the home audio/iPhone category. It's called the MusicNAO and it allows you to wirelessly control a docked iPod with an iPhone or iPod touch. It also lets you play music wirelessly to the dock from an iPhone or iPod touch. The music streams using the stereo Bluetooth capability of your iPhone or second generation iPod touch.

The base unit, which is a bit reminiscent of the Bose product, has 40 watts of output power, contains equalization circuitry, and uses 4" speakers. You can skip music, select music, and control the volume remotely. If you have an iPod plugged in, you can view and select playlists, artists and genres from your iPhone or iPod touch.

The apps for your iPhone or iPod touch are available free from the iTunes app store [iTunes link]. The control connections are through Wi-Fi, while the music streams through Bluetooth.

The unit also has an auxiliary input for plugging in another audio source. Hey, anyone still have cassettes?

The MusicNAO is shipping December 1, with an introductory price of U.S. $249.00 until November 30, then it's $299.00. The prices are the same in Canada. I haven't heard the device, so I can't give testimony to the audio quality.

I do think the MusicNAO is a unique twist on portable music integration with Apple products. The system also supports Blackberry cellphones that have a stereo streaming feature.

MusicNAO offers unique dock for iPhone and iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MusicNAO offers unique dock for iPhone and iPod touch originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Malicious Worm Attacks Jailbroken iPhones Using Known Vulnerability

Rumors Revisited: Next-Generation iWork and iLife Plans? Apple Tablet Design Surprise?

Nearly a month before Apple updated its iMac line, French site Mac4Ever published a wide-ranging article revealing a number of tidbits on various topics obtained from its sources. At the time, the report was simply one of many circulating rumors abo...

Apple Joins AT&T to Counter Verizon - Launches New Ad Campaign

Tuesday Fun — No This is NOT the iFlip iPhone

No this is so NOT the iFlip iPhone, or the bastard child of one drunken iPhone and a white MacBook, but you have to give the knock-off artists credit for persistence in snake-oilery if nothing else…

[Via Gizmodo]

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

Tuesday Fun — No This is NOT the iFlip iPhone

Review: NetNewsWire Premium for iPhone

With version 2 of both the free and premium version of its newsreading app, NewsGator Technologies has introduced solid improvements (though some flaws remain). Still, this version of NetNewsWire feels more at home on the iPhone than its predecessor did.

Old World Publishers Unite For New Media iPhone, iTablet

The iPhone, iPod touch, and still rumorware iTablet (among other mobile platforms) are so compelling that publishers like Condé Nast and now Time Inc. and Hearst are racing to get their slowly dying print media content all prepped and ready for an iPod-like digital savior. Says the New York Observer (via MacRumors) says:

The company would make up one of the biggest alliances among rival publishers ever formed in print media, with Time Inc., Condé Nast and Hearst all expected to join, houses that together publish more than 50 magazines, including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Esquire and O, The Oprah Magazine.

The difference between this and just shipping e-reader content of Kindle-like devices and apps? They don’t want to “pave the cowpath” (TM Fake Steve), they want to try and come up with an innovative way to make their content available that harnesses the power and connectivity of mobile devices, and in a way delightful enough readers will be willing to pay for it.

“With magazines, the form has to change,” [Time exec John Squires] continued. “All I’m saying is that there are ways to design magazines differently for that kind of experience that’ll be attractive and will feel different to a consumer.”

Good luck with that — and we mean it sincerely. We want to be wowed.

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

Old World Publishers Unite For New Media iPhone, iTablet

Found Footage: Little World Gifts enters the world of virtual gifting

Filed under: Developer, Found Footage, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Have you ever wanted to send a loved one a rose, but knew that you wouldn't be able to deliver it yourself? Or maybe you wanted to cheer up a friend in the hospital, but you were on another continent? If the Liverpudlians at Little World Gifts have their way, you'll soon be exchanging virtual gifts with your friends.

The six-person UK startup has been working on a self-titled iPhone app that they hope to ship in December. The app lets you purchase virtual gifts from a shop and send them to others who either have the app or are Facebook users. As you can see in the video above, the gifts are high-resolution 3D items that you and your friends can touch and manipulate.

Your friends receive push notifications that you've sent them a gift, and can then add them to their collection in their copy of the app, or enjoy them in a separate Facebook app.

In case you think virtual goods are a silly idea, Little Worlds Gifts points out that it is estimated that consumers will spend over US$1 billion on virtual goods in 2009 through online games and social networks. Facebook generates almost US$40 million annually through sales of virtual gifts.

Little World Gifts hasn't announced a price for the app or the virtual gifts, but TUAW will keep an eye on this virtual boutique for future reference.

Found Footage: Little World Gifts enters the world of virtual gifting originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Found Footage: Little World Gifts enters the world of virtual gifting originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In Stock: Plantronics BackBeat 903 Stereo Bluetooth Headset for iPhone 3GS

In Stock: Plantronics BackBeat 903 Stereo Bluetooth Headset for iPhone 3GS

The Plantronics BackBeat 903 Wireless Headphones [$89.95 - TiPb Store link] feature Altec Lansing sound technology for rich, full-spectrum stereo music and dual-mic AudioIQ noisecanceling technology for exceptional call clarity. The Plantronics BackBeat Headphones let you enhance your music using the bass-boost feature or conveniently hear your surroundings with a quick tap of the OpenMic button.

Adjustable and flexible for all-day wearing comfort, the headphones quickly fold up and slip into your pocket or bag.

Features:

• Altec Lansing sound technology for Hi-Def music
• Dual-Mic Audio IQ Noise Canceling for Clear Calls
• Bass-Boost feature enriches Stereo Sound
• OpenMic button brings in the outside world
• 3-way adjustment for a comfortable, stable fit
• Flexible design quickly folds up for storage

Learn more about the Plantronics BackBeat 903 Wireless Headphones at the TiPb Store!

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

In Stock: Plantronics BackBeat 903 Stereo Bluetooth Headset for iPhone 3GS

Chillingo officially launches Crystal SDK for iPhone game developers

Filed under: Gaming, Odds and ends, Freeware, iPhone, SDK

Chillingo recently announced that it would be launching Crystal SDK, a service joining the increasingly crowded social network market for iPhone games. Xbox Live on the Xbox is an official social network, but the iPhone has no such official service. A crowd of contenders, from the popular OpenFeint service to ngmoco's Plus+ network, are jumping in and trying to get developers on board with them. Crystal SDK is one of those -- they've now launched the official website and are asking developers interested to sign up and see what their software has to offer.

Like many of the other services, Crystal is offering to integrate challenges, achievements, leaderboards, and other social services into iPhone apps. The SDK seems like it's still pre-release, however -- there's only a signup, no information on cost or implementation or anything else on the site. Still, if you happen to be an iPhone developer still looking for a network to hook up with, they might be the one for you.

While we're at it: what do you consumers think? Have you actually chosen a network to go with, or are you doing what I'm doing and still basically going game by game? The goal of these networks eventually is to have a unified stable of developers, where you'll jump into a new game simply because it's linked to the network you're signed up with (and your friends will be playing over there and encouraging you to join). But in reality, I haven't seen that -- most people I know are just playing the games they're interested in, and the network the games are connected to hasn't made a big difference.

Chillingo officially launches Crystal SDK for iPhone game developers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Chillingo officially launches Crystal SDK for iPhone game developers originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple and Live Nation Launch New Concert Downloads Via iTunes

Concert promoter Live Nation today announced that it has partnered with Apple to launch a new initiative focused on audio and video recording of live concert events for distribution via Apple's iTunes Store. Apple has also launched a...

Curb Your Enthusiasm for Seinfeld’s Costanza and his Killer iToilet App

Jerry Seinfeld and company were back on TV as a show-within the Curb Your Enthusiasm show (season 7, episode 10 for sticklers), and perpetual neerdowell George Costanza is dealing with the loss of his iToilet for iPhone millions — that’s right, his fictional character struck it fictionally rich making a fictional iPhone app to use GPS to find the closest clean fictional toilet.

Jerry also has a brand new Mac. So, yeah, insert Microsoft advertising jokes below.

[via 9to5Mac]

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

Curb Your Enthusiasm for Seinfeld’s Costanza and his Killer iToilet App

Are WebApps a “Gatekeeper”-Free Alternative to the iPhone App Store?

TiPb’s joked before that Apple may well consider “sweet” WebApps the alternative for developers who want to release iPhone apps outside the App Store and its “gatekeeper” model, but others are starting to take that line of thinking seriously.

Peter-Paul Koch of QuirksBlog thinks so. In a post provocatively titled Apple is not evil. iPhone developers are stupid., Koch states:

In order to release an iPhone application without having to submit it to Apple’s insane App Store process, developers could just use Web technologies and create Web apps instead of native apps.

He believes iPhone Safari is a great mobile browser with excellent support even for hardware-accelerated 3D animation via CSS, and that most of his frequently used iPhone apps could be re-released as WebApps right now

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber begs to differ, however:

The argument that you can make iPhone web apps that are “good enough” misses the entire point of iPhone apps — the entire point of the iPhone itself, even — all of the things that drive Twitter users to pay $3, $4, or $5 for apps that do the same things that can be done for free by loading Twitter’s web site in MobileSafari. “Good enough” is not good enough on the iPhone.

His best proof is that Apple itself is writing native apps, not WebApps, and that part of the power of the iPhone platform isn’t just the hardware and interface, but the Cocoa Touch frameworks Apple has provided developers as part of the iPhone SDK, and that’s a point well taken — and all too often overlooked.

There’s no arguing, however, that for apps that aren’t allowed into the App Store, like Google Voice, or for developers philosophically opposed to the App Store in general, like Joe Hewitt of Facebook, WebApps are an interesting alternatives — that by the way have a high likelihood of running on Google Android, Palm webOS, and upcoming BlackBerry WebKit-based browsers as well.

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

Are WebApps a “Gatekeeper”-Free Alternative to the iPhone App Store?

27″ Core i7 iMacs Arriving DOA or With Cracked Screens?

Engadget reports on a growing number of complaints from purchasers of Apple's high-end 27" Intel Core i7-based iMac who have received new machines that either refuse to power on or arrive with cracked screens directly out of the box.

...

Schiller defends App Store approval process

Filed under: Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK

Well here we go. Up until now, we've heard a lot from developers about how much of a mess the App Store's approval process is, from people who've been rejected outright to people who've been forced to resubmit to people who've just given up completely. But we haven't heard much from Apple, and now Phil Schiller has spoken with Business Week about what it is about the App Store's approval process that has devs pulling their hair out.

The verdict? Schiller says the process is in place for a reason. About 90% of the apps submitted merely have bugs or technical issues, and he says for the most part that devs are happy to get that feedback (though TechCrunch doesn't buy that for one second). But the other 10% of the apps Apple denies are simply what they deem "inappropriate," which could be anything from problematic coding (code that steals passwords or other private information), or app content that doesn't belong on the store, from porn to apps that help break the law or steal in some way. Apple is also vicious about trademark defense -- Schiller says that "if you don't defend your trademarks, in the end you end up not owning them."

That all sounds fine and dandy (ok, well, the "inappropriate" label is a little unclear -- that's broad enough that Apple could fit almost anything under that umbrella, which is a bit troubling), but what about all of those angry devs? Unfortunately, Schiller doesn't address at all the idea that Apple might someday allow devs to release apps that haven't been through their approval process, on the App Store or anywhere else. As far as Apple is concerned, it seems like they're keeping their grip on what gets released, and anyone who doesn't like it is welcome to go elsewhere.

[via TheAppleBlog]

Continue reading Schiller defends App Store approval process

Schiller defends App Store approval process originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Schiller defends App Store approval process originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More growth seen for iPhone in business

Filed under: Enterprise, iPhone

Support continues to grow for the iPhone in the enterprise. TBI Research (subscription required) says Apple's answer to telephony is gaining ground in business, thanks largely to employees and execs grabbing an iPhone for personal use and deciding they just have to have it for work as well.

TBI sees the iPhone having trouble in two of the biggest industries in the US. Government and finance are likely to keep favoring Research in Motion's BlackBerry, though Apple could take enough of the rest of the sectors to make up for what it misses. "The two industries we see as the least likely of switching from Blackberries are Finance and Government," says a TBI research note. "These are huge industries, but they make up only 20% of the total US workforce. That still leaves 80% of the total 150 million US workforce."

Meanwhile TBI sees iPhone adoption ramping-up aggressively in industries such as media, entertainment, hospitality, transportation, and consumer packaged goods.

TBI's report dovetails nicely with a report at the beginning of the month from Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore. Early in November, Whitmore said he expected to see 2 million iPhones in the enterprise market by the end of this year, giving Apple roughly 7% of the business end of smartphones in the US.

[via MacNN]

More growth seen for iPhone in business originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

More growth seen for iPhone in business originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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