Best of Smartphone Experts, 21 March 2010

AT&T gets the Nexus One, Sprint getting it too! HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions, prepared to defend itself Hands-on with Motorola Backflip, AT&T Nexus One	New Sexy Photos of the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 Emerge Win a Trip Around the World Courtesy of Fixmo Tools BlackBerry Slider Rumormill Continues: Final Device Model Numbers to Be 9900/9930? 9930 a Sprint Exclusive?
Barriosquare Foursquare app now in Extras-devel, getting closer to Ovi Store	webOS update promised ‘within 2-3 weeks’ to address 1.4 issues Palm Pre could have bettered Droid, says Palm CEO New Palm Ad Campaign: Life Moves Fast. Don’t Miss a Thing
Leave a comment on any TiPb Apps post, get entered to win one of two rare Street Fighter IV iPhone cases… and an iPad! Confusing: Developers Who Complain Apple’s iPhone is Closed AND Think HTML5 is the Future TiPb Live Podcast #90: Game On! Subscribe now via iTunes (and if you haven’t already, give us a review!)	Windows Phone 7 Series Developers tools released How I (might) stop worrying and learn to love the Start Experience on Windows Phonw 7 Series All MIX10 posts T-Mobile HD2 Annoucement Live

Best of Smartphone Experts, 21 March 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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iPhone font created out of 540 apps and a love for the arcane (video)

No, we can't give you a clear reason why this particular chap did this particular thing, but good gravy, look at the pretty pictures! We've come across an iPhone-inspired font that looks to have been created by collating and color coding a vast collection of apps in order to properly represent the English alphabet. There's not much info given beyond the app count and the fact it required an architect with "too much free time" on his hands, but we're not going to begrudge a visual attraction when we can get one. You might be able to get the typography for yourself by contacting the author at the source link, or you can skip past the break to see it on video -- if you're careful enough you should be able to spot the world's greatest mobile app making a guest appearance.

Continue reading iPhone font created out of 540 apps and a love for the arcane (video)

iPhone font created out of 540 apps and a love for the arcane (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 21:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs: iPad Won’t Support Picasa; iPhoto Is Much Better

Select SF-area iPhones insist they’re in Boulder, Colorado

The iPhone's iteration of Google Maps has been shown up time and time again by Google Maps Navigation on Android, but a quirk this big just has to be linked to some Skyhook database issue. According to a new report coming from NorCal, select iPhone users in southern San Francisco are seeing their GPS software linked to Boulder, Colorado, and the issue has been going on for around a week now. What's curious is that the erroneous positioning affects other third-party iPhone GPS apps as well, and an ABC report notes that a "spokesperson at AT&T said the problem is with Apple." So, have any of you SF-based iPhoners found yourself navigating to Folsom Stadium when trying to find your way to SoMa?

[Thanks, Charles]

Select SF-area iPhones insist they're in Boulder, Colorado originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Releases Bing 1.1 for iPhone, iPod touch

Microsoft has released a new version of Bing [Free - iTunes link] for the iPhone and iPod touch. Florian Voss chronicled on their blog, includes:

Bookmarks and improved web browsing: you can now bookmark maps, directions, web sites, businesses, search terms, even the weather report, and get to the bookmarks right from the Bing home page.

Sharing: you can share interesting results with your friends using e-mail.

Copy and paste URLs: you told us and we listened! We now support copying and pasting URLs.

Parental control on search settings: we helped make search safer by letting you set a SafeSearch level and create a passcode so it can’t be changed. This is a benefit for parents who want to make sure the kids are only going to safe sites on their devices.

Search history and private search: you can now view and edit your search history. You can also search the web without saving your history on the device using private search.

Explicit location setting: let your iPhone find you or set a specific location so you can search near there (super useful when you’re going to travel to another city and want to find things around there).

Tighter integration of contacts in directions: Bing now autosuggests contacts from your address book when you enter start and end locations in directions.

Support for 1st generation iPod touch devices: we now support all versions of iPod touch.

While Google and Apple continue to squabble, and speculation remains that Bing might become the next default search engine for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, it’s nice to see Microsoft continue to invest in — and improve –the App Store app.

Note: Sadly, it appears to be US only still. For the biggest software company in the world, ignoring most of the world is… disappointing. Let’s share the Bing, shall we?

Video from Macworld 2010 of TiPb talking with Florian Voss about Bing for iPhone re-embedded after the break!

[Thanks to our good buddy Phil for the tip!]

Microsoft Releases Bing 1.1 for iPhone, iPod touch is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Hackers At Pwn2Own Look To Exploit iPhone

Review: Paper Boat Race for iPhone

Paper Boat Race is a novel racing game where you race paper boats around a pool—by blowing into your iPhone’s microphone! While the game has its moments of nerdy joy, blowing into the microphone while trying to control the boat is hard to do—and there’s really anything else going for the game.

PhotoNest: your Twitter stream, in pictures

Filed under: iPhone

I just tried out PhotoNest, a cool new way to view just the images posted to your Twitter stream. It picks up just the photos, and presents them in a slide format, captioned with the tweet they were posted with. You can quickly flick through and see what your friends are up to (based on the photos they post).

Given that Twitter doesn't have a genuine photo-posting mechanism, this seems like a grand idea to me. I've done something similar to collect and expand just the links posted to my stream, but this app does a great job of pulling photos posted with multiple services and presenting them in an easy-to-navigate format.

The only trouble I ran into with PhotoNest was a login issue: when I mistyped my password on the first try, it gave me an error and took me back to the login screen. After that, though, a correct password just kept landing me back at that screen without any message. However, quitting the app and starting it again logged me in automatically without a hitch, so I assume it's a small bug that will be squashed in the next update.

The app will also let you post photos (with a tweet) to your Twitter account, and you can filter your view based on favorite contacts. PhotoNest is available on the App Store for $1.99US. If your Twitter friends post a lot of photos (and people with iPhones tend to), it's a fun way to keep up and worth checking out.

PhotoNest: your Twitter stream, in pictures originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PhotoNest: your Twitter stream, in pictures originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sent from Steve Jobs’ iPhone: No Google Picasa Support for iPad

Once again 9to5Mac reports on Steve Jobs answering Apple users’ questions, this time regarding iPad support for Google’s Picasa. The question:

…Are there any plans to support Picasa’s faces and albums in iTunes, so I can take full advantage of the [iPad] Photos application, since Photoshop Album is long discontinued. If not, please can you look into supporting the Picasa library format?

And the response from Steve Jobs:

No, but iPhoto on the Mac has much better Faces and Places features.

Sent from my iPhone

Sent from Steve Jobs’ iPhone: No Google Picasa Support for iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Sprint Ad Claims Overdrive Mobile Hotspot Makes Your iPhone 4G

Quick App: BugMe! for iPhone

One of my favorite apps from my days using Palm OS was BugMe! Back in the day, it offered functionality that the Palm OS did not have in its Memo/Notes applications. You can pick up BugMe in the app store for a deal [$0.99 - iTunes Link]. Let’s take a look at what BugMe! For iPhone has to offer.

BugMe! is setup to have a cork board-like interface where you can stick your notes and rearrange them in any order you like.  From the launch screen you can view and rearrange your notes as you want by tapping and holding. You can tap the “New Note” button to create a new note. Once created, you have several options available to you:

• Ink or eraser
• Change ink thickness
• Change note color and add an image to the note
• Share note (email, Twitter, Home Screen, Photo Album)
• Alarm

One of the innovative features with this release is the ability to take a note and send it to your home screen. Typically, this is done via the “+” at the bottom of a webpage. How does BugMe! do it? If you decided to share your note  to the home screen, the app sends the image to the web on BugMe!’s servers. This then allows you to save the note to your home screen. Once saved, it will take you to the web interface, it does not take you back to the BugMe! app; disappointing.

Another nice feature is the ability to set custom alarms with push notifications. This can come in really handy if you jot down a quick note and need to be reminded later.

I  like this 1.x release of BugMe!. It is simple and fun, but lacks some features such as resizable notes (ya just can’t fit in a lot of the release given, even with a smaller ink size) and options to not size-to-fit images you place on a note. Other than that, if you are looking for a simple ink note app for your iPhone, BugMe! fits the bill! Lots of pictures after the break!

Quick App: BugMe! for iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Line 6 peripheral brings MIDI and iPhone closer than you ever expected

It's no amplifier substitute, but Line 6 has come up with something potentially even better for the budding songwriter buried deep within your rhythmic veins. The MIDI Mobilizer for iPhone and iPod touch is an app-based peripheral that lets you record, playback, store, and transfer MIDI sequences and parameters using the MIDI Memo Recorder software. While it does sound convenient in theory, we'll have to wait until we can try the dongle out for ourselves. At this point in time, price of the Mobilizer is TBD and the release date is the ever-vague Spring 2010. As for the recorder app, it's currently available on iTunes free of charge, although it's more or less useless without the complementary hardware. For now, you'll just have to settle with living vicariously through the promo video, after the break.

[Thanks, Fred]

Continue reading Line 6 peripheral brings MIDI and iPhone closer than you ever expected

Line 6 peripheral brings MIDI and iPhone closer than you ever expected originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 08:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Football - Real Kick App Turns Your iPhone Into A Football Player (Kind of)

New Sprint ad shows iPhone using WiMAX… via Overdrive

Your existing iPhone (yeah, even the original) can surf the information superhighway at 4G speeds. Today. Who knew, right? Sprint's Overdrive -- which creates a WiFi hotspot that enables nearby devices to cruise on Clear's 4G (or 3G, if you're not in a 4G locale) network -- can theoretically enable any WiFi-capable phone to surf on WiMAX, but Sprint's taking a pretty bold approach by actually touting the feature in a new spot. Befuddled? Hop on past the break and mash play. Too bad this is about as close the iPhone will ever get to Sprint's shelves...

Continue reading New Sprint ad shows iPhone using WiMAX... via Overdrive

New Sprint ad shows iPhone using WiMAX... via Overdrive originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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