For the iPhanboi Who Has Everything: iPhone App Coasters

Have more money than fanboi shame? Itching for just one more hit of iPhone in your life? iPhone Coasters has a buy now button for you. Cashing in at £12.99 per 6-iPhone app-themed coaster pack, you have your choice of Core (SMS, Calendar, Phone, Email, Safari, and iPod), Home (Notes, Settings, Camera, Clock, and Contacts), and Media (Maps, YouTube, Stocks, Movies, Weather, and Photos). And no, there’s no discount for getting them all.

But if you’ve always dreamed of parking the tasty beverage or spicy drink of your choice on an Apple-designed iPhone app (or getting a nifty set of iPhone-themed safety-ninja stars), iPhone App Coasters is there for you.

Let us know if you order them, and how they turn out.

[via TUAW]

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

For the iPhanboi Who Has Everything: iPhone App Coasters

Take your apps to the table with these iPhone icon coasters

Filed under: Humor, iPhone

With over 100,000 applications available, there's no shortage of ways people are using the iPhone's features. But how about on the coffee table or in the dining room?

A new website is offering sets of coasters featuring the iPhone's default application icons. According to the website, the coasters are genuine app icon enlargements from the iPhone 1.1.4 firmware. They also have a non-slip cork backing and are heat resistant. If you or someone you know is a big iPhone lover, this would be a great one to add to the holiday wish list.

iPhoneAppsCoasters.com is offering three sets including:

• "Core Apps" featuring SMS, Calendar, Phone, Mail, Safari and iPod
• "Home Apps" featuring Notepad, Settings, Camera, Calculator, Clock and Address Book
• "Media Apps" featuring Maps, YouTube, Stocks, Video, Weather and Photos

The three "sets" each retail for around $19 USD. Here's some shots of the coasters:



Thanks to Chris Pirillo

Take your apps to the table with these iPhone icon coasters originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Take your apps to the table with these iPhone icon coasters originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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4th Generation iPhone (3,1) Now Being Tested in San Francisco

Yup, pretty much right on schedule identifiers for iPhone 3,1 (which would be the 4th generation iPhone — likely set to debut next summer at WWDC 2010 — have shown up in PinchMedia analytics, which tracks device usage, this time for iBART developer Pandav. (Apple is based outside San Francisco, so a SF public transport app makes sense as a test app).

To recap, the original 2007 iPhone 2G was internally classified by Apple as 1,1, and the similar guts in the 2008 iPhone 3G (radio notwithstanding) was classified as 1,2 (a minor revision). The 2009 iPhone 3GS, with its enhanced internals, was classified as 2,1, the first major revision. If the next iPhone is showing 3,1 (and we saw this in firmware leaks back in March), it should be a similar scale hardware upgrade.

We should see some web analytics for this baby soon, and of course a slew of rumors over screen size and other hardware. Oh yeah, it’s ON.

[via MacRumors]

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

4th Generation iPhone (3,1) Now Being Tested in San Francisco

Apple Starts Field Testing Next Generation iPhone (3,1)

iPhone developer Pandav has informed MacRumors that they have spotted usage records for an unreleased iPhone in their app's analytics. The app used was iBART [Free / Paid], a public transportation guide for the San Francisco train system.
...

AT&T Puts Refurbished iPhones On Sale: $49 Onwards

Apple iPhone Launches In South Korea Today

Handbrake Video Encoder Hits 0.9.4

A year to the day after the previous version was released, Handbrake has hit 0.9.4, and boy is it faaaaaaaaast:

There’s an old proverb in the video encoding world: “Speed, size, quality: pick two.” It means that you always have to make a trade-off between the time it takes to encode a video, the amount of compression used, and the picture quality. Well, this release of HandBrake refuses to compromise. It picks all three.

If you have video you want to get onto your iPhone, Handbrake is the way to go — and it’s free. New, streamlined presets still include Apple Universal, iPod, iPhone & iPod touch, and Apple TV (as well as others if you’re rocking the Xbox, PS3, Zune, or whatever floats your video boat).

Improvements include much better H.264 encoding via the x264 project, a new build system, new soft subtitles, live preview, and constant quality encoding. As can be seen by the list above, they’re all about x264 now, so they’re also winding down support for AVI, OGG/OGM, and XviD — they’ll tell you why via the link above, but basically they want to pull you kicking and screaming into the better looking future. Love them.

Here’s the direct link to downloads for Mac OS, WIndows, and Linux.

Note to 64-bit Mac users: If you decide to go with Handbrake 64-bit for OS X, and intend to rip DVDs, know that Handbrake uses VLC for the task and VLC 1.0.3 doesn’t yet have a 64-bit version, so you’ll have to stick to 32-bit Handbrake, or downgrade your VLC to 1.0.2 64-bit.

If you give it a spin, let us know how it transcodes for you!

[via TUAW]

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

Handbrake Video Encoder Hits 0.9.4

ESPN Radio Comes to the iPhone

Many sports fans enjoy listening to sports radio, but what are they supposed to do when they are not in their car or by their stereo at home? ESPN has just launched their latest application for the iPhone and it is available for download in the app store for only $2.99. ESPN radio has quickly taken [...]

N.O.V.A Trailer Emerges- What Will Microsoft’s Lawyers Think?

We saw a preview of Gameloft’s N.O.V.A back at WWDC 2009 for iPhone/iPod Touch. Even then it looked suspiciously like Halo. But now, there can be no doubt in saying that Halo “unofficially” makes its way to iPhone. This teaser trailer shows a lot of video reminiscent of Microsoft’s Halo franchise. The last 50-seconds of the trailer shows actual gameplay, let’s just say that the players involved look a lot like Master Chief a military soldier and The Covenant some aliens in an intergalactic battle.

Microsoft has to take critical eye to this game as the similarities are TOO close for comfort. But, at the end of the day, I am just excited to get a Halo-like experience on my iPhone; I’m not complaining. Thank you Gameloft.

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

N.O.V.A Trailer Emerges- What Will Microsoft’s Lawyers Think?

53,000 Pre-orders — South Koreans Can’t Wait to Get Their iPhones!

Pre-orders for Apple’s iPhone, set to debut in South Korea Saturday, have already hit 53,000 on carrier KT Corp. With a market of over 400,000 smartphone users and 47 million handset holders in general, and entrenched local competitors like Samsung and LG, AP quotes the former as saying it thinks Apple will “invigorate” things.

Very likely. The iPhone has apparently already caused SK Telecom, the largest in South Korea, to drop service prices for the Samsung Omnia. Apple has also shown the ability to turn dumbphone users into smart, so growing that 400,000 towards that 47 million is no doubt what KT Corp is really interested in.

If you’re picking up an iPhone in South Korea, let us know how it works for you!

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

53,000 Pre-orders — South Koreans Can’t Wait to Get Their iPhones!

The Pomodoro Technique, or how a tomato made me more productive

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Odds and ends, iPhone

I've alluded to my search for personal organization a couple of times during 2009. While it's not something that I'm obsessing about, I now capture my major goals in Things, and that at least tells me what I'm supposed to be doing in terms of short and long-term goals. However, I found that sometimes I couldn't figure out how to organize a single day in my calendar, simply because I would jump around to all sorts of projects and never get even one of them accomplished.

Back in August, fellow TUAW blogger Brett Terpstra started writing a post about The Pomodoro Technique[TM]. Being a foodie and part Italian, I knew that pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato, so I asked Brett if he was talking about cooking. What he turned me on to was a wonderful concentration and organization technique.

In 1992, a student by the name of Francesco Cirillo was looking for a way of improving his study habits. He took a tomato-shaped kitchen timer (hence the name Pomodoro) and found that if he broke tasks into 25-minute sessions, now known as Pomodoros, followed by a 5-minute break, and then took a longer 15-minute break after four Pomodoros, he was able to concentrate more fully on the tasks at hand and accomplish more work.

The technique is deceptively simple, easy to implement, and surprisingly effective. You can download Cirillo's book for free and learn more about the technique at the official website, just to see if the method works for you. If it does, then you might want to look at the assortment of Mac and iPhone applications designed to help you time your Pomodoros and get more work done. That's the focus of the rest of this post.

Continue reading The Pomodoro Technique, or how a tomato made me more productive

The Pomodoro Technique, or how a tomato made me more productive originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Pomodoro Technique, or how a tomato made me more productive originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac Pro to Get 6-Core Xeon Gulftown Processor in 2010?

HardMac reports that Polish website PCLab prematurely leaked performance numbers on Intel's upcoming Xeon Gulftown (Core i9). The results have since been pulled but is summarized by HardMac:

First figures indicate that this CPU is ve...