Mac notebook and other portable computing is covered
in The 'Book Review, and general Mac
news is in Mac News Review.
All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News, Reviews, & Opinion
Apps & Services
Accessories
iPod and iPhone Deals
These price trackers are updated regularly.
News, Reviews, & Opinion
Could We See an iPhone in the White House
Soon?
Cult of Mac's
Lonnie Lazar says:
"It's no secret President Obama and much of his team are big Mac
fans, or that some of their more publicized frustrations with the
transition to power in DC have come with confronting the challenges
posed by outdated Windows technology and requirements to meet legal
guidelines for security and archiving of official communications.
"Perhaps readers will recall, as well, Obama's stated desire to
continue using his Blackberry in office and the various and sundry
security concerns that have arisen around that issue.
"News Wednesday is that Waltham, Mass.-based Onset Technologies may
be working on technology that could allow the President to use an
iPhone, should that desire strike the Commander in Chief...."
Link:
Could We See an iPhone in the White House One Day Soon?
iPods and iPhones Forbidden at Gates Home
Macworld's Dan
Moren reports:
"While we knew that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had forbidden his
offspring from using competitors' products like iPods and, yes, even
Google, we always thought his predecessor, Bill Gates, hovered above
the fray, unconcerned with such earthly matters. Alas, it seems our
otherworldly faith in Mr. Microsoft might have been misplaced.
"Geeksugar reports that in an
interview in this month's issue of Vogue, Bill's wife
Melinda says that Apple products are among the persona non grata
(objecta non grata?) in the heavily fortified Gates compound.
"'There are very few things that are on the banned list in our
household. But iPods and iPhones are two things we don't get for our
kids.'"
Link: iPods and
iPhones Forbidden at Gates Home
Bill Gates Bans Progeny from iPhone Nation
The Register's
Rik Myslewski says:
"Our hearts go out to little Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe Gates. Their
mom and dad won't let them have an iPod or iPhone.
"But before you iPhone haters start cheering, we're talking about
choice. Shouldn't Bill and Melinda's kids have a say in what
digital-music player or texting-about-that-cute-new-kid-in-class device
they use?
"Apparently not.
"In an effusive article about mommy Gates, Vogue quotes
Melinda as saying: 'There are very few things that are on the banned
list in our household . . . But iPods and iPhones are two things
we don't get for our kids.'"
Link: Bill
Gates Bans Progeny from iPhone Nation
Melinda Gates: I Want Apple Products
The New York Post's Clemente Lisi reports:
"Microsoft founder Bill Gates has banned all Apple products from his
home - but doesn't mean his wife doesn't still crave an iPhone.
"In an interview in the current issue of Vogue magazine,
Melinda Gates said that there are 'very few things that are on the
banned list in our household. But iPods and iPhones are two things we
don't get for our kids.'
"She also admitted to be intrigued by the iPhone...
"'Every now and then I look at my friends and say, 'Ooh, I wouldn't
mind having that iPhone',' she said...."
Link:
Melinda Gates: I Want Apple Products
iPhone Surfs to Mobile Web Domination
The Register's
Gavin Clarke reports:
"The iPhone dominated the market for mobile web surfing last month,
and there were relatively healthy showings from Google's Android and
Microsoft's Windows Mobile.
"Net
Applications found Apple's handheld status symbol accounted for
66.61 per cent of mobile traffic browsing the web during February.
"The phone's nearest competitor was Microsoft's Windows Mobile, with
6.91 per cent of traffic...."
Link: iPhone
Surfs to Mobile Web Domination
Setting the iPhone Free from AT&T
BusinessWeek's
Olga Kharif reports:
"As the exclusive US carrier for the Apple iPhone, AT&T has had
a lot to celebrate. Rivals hope to crash the party.
"A growing number of public interest groups want an end to the
partnership that forces buyers of Apple's iPhone to buy their
mobile-phone service only from AT&T. And they're taking their case
to the highest levels of government.
"The Consumers Union, the New America Foundation, and the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, as well as software provider Mozilla and small
wireless carriers MetroPCS (PCS) and Leap Wireless International
(LEAP), are lining up in opposition not only to the Apple-AT&T
partnership, but to all manner of arrangements whereby mobile phones
are tethered exclusively to a single wireless service provider.
"Consumer groups are reaching out to the Federal Communications
Commission, the Copyright Office, the Federal Trade Commission, and
congressional leaders, asking them to outlaw exclusive handset and
software deals. Judging from the track record of Julius Genachowski,
the newly nominated head of the FCC, petitioners may get a sympathetic
hearing, at least at that agency...."
Link:
Setting the iPhone Free from AT&T
Bad Dataplans Killing iPhone Adoption in Japan,
Canada
Smart Mobs' Melanie McBride reports:
"Back in June of 2008, many tech writers speculated that the iPhone
might not go big in Japan. For my part, I wondered if philosophical and
cultural differences might constitute barriers to adoption. I reasoned
that the challenges would be practical as well as aesthetic.
"Turns out the speculations were correct, though not for all the
reasons we thought. Wired writer Brian X. Chen, explains in his
'Why The
Japanese Hate the iPhone'....
"Bad pricing isn't unique to Japan. Here in Canada, the iPhone's
data plan is prohibitive for many - including myself. As much as I
appreciate the technical virtuosity and elegance of the iPhone, I'm
alienated by an unreasonable cost of use...."
Link:
Bad Dataplans Killing iPhone Adoption in Japan, Canada
Catholics Urged to Give Up Texting for Lent
The position of Associated Press (AP) is that you may
not quote more than 5 words from any of its copyrighted articles
without paying $12.50 or more for a "quotation license". Rather than
pay this fee or risk the wrath of AP, we are removing all AP quotes
from the site along with links to those articles.
We regret any inconvenience to our readers, but we will never pay
for what is considered Fair Use under copyright law. We consider brief
quotations in our news roundups to be Fair Use and a benefit to the
site that we quoted from and linked to. (We adhere to the Open Link policy, and our Fair
Use policy specifically allows quoting up to 50% or 300 words of
our original content, whichever is less.)
Sync Your iPhone/iPod with Any Computer
The
Apple Blog's Jenny Kortina says:
"One thing I have always wanted to do is be able to sync my iPhone
or iPod with any computer. Lifehacker had an article a while back on
doing this, but the software they used does not support the iPhone or
iPod touch. So, I have developed a method to connect any iPod or iPhone
to any computer to download the music or movies from that computer to
the iPod or iPhone...."
Link:
Sync Your iPhone/iPod with Any Computer
AirPhones Turns Your iPhone into a Wireless Music
Receiver
Wired's Michael Calore
reports:
"A new app for the iPhone and iPod touch lets you stream any audio
from your Mac to your Apple mobile over a wi-fi connection.
"It's called AirPhones, and it basically turns any pair of
headphones or speakers into a wireless sound station. Any audio source
on your Mac desktop - be it an album in iTunes, a YouTube video or a
podcast in Miro - can be streamed to the iPhone and played back through
the handset's audio out jack...."
Link: AirPhones
Turns Your iPhone into a Wireless Music Receiver
Coders Bring Mac System 7 to the iPhone
iLounge's Charles Starrett reports:
"A group of iPhone developers has succeeded in getting Mac OS System 7 to run on the
device, and has posted a number of photos showing the software in
action...."
Editor's note: The Mac
Plus, which is being emulated here, uses a 512 x 342 pixel display.
The iPhone's screen is 480 x 320 - a bit smaller, but it should still
be practical for most apps. dk
Link:
Coders Bring Mac OS 7 to iPhone
Apps & Services
Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch Free from Apple's
App Store
PR: Amazon.com, Inc. has introduced "Kindle for iPhone and
iPod touch," a new application available for free from Apple's App
Store that lets customers enjoy over 240,000 books, including 104 of
112 New York Times Bestsellers, on the iPhone and iPod touch using
Apple's Multi-Touch user interface. Amazon's new Whispersync technology
saves and synchronizes a customer's bookmark across their original
Kindle, Kindle 2, iPhone and iPod touch, so customers always have their
reading with them and never lose their place. Kindle customers can read
a few pages on their iPhone or iPod touch and pick up right where they
left off on their Kindle or Kindle 2.
"We are excited to bring the new Kindle application to Apple's App
Store and think customers are going to love how easy and fun it is to
read their Kindle books on the iPhone and iPod touch," said Ian Freed,
vice president, Amazon Kindle. "Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch is a
great way for customers to catch up on their current book wherever they
are, like in line at the grocery store or between meetings."
The Kindle application for iPhone and iPod touch lets customers
bring their Kindle books with them wherever they go and takes full
advantage of Apple's Multi-Touch user interface. With the new Kindle
for iPhone and iPod touch application, customers can:
- Shop for hundreds of thousands of books on their Kindle or online
at http://www.amazon.com/kindlestore
, and wirelessly transfer the books to their iPhone or iPod touch
- Access their entire library of previously purchased Kindle books
stored on Amazon's servers
- Adjust the text size of books
- Add bookmarks and view notes and highlights
Periodicals such as newspapers, magazines, and blogs, and personal
documents cannot be viewed on Kindle for iPhone.
System requirements: Kindle for iPhone can be used on any iPhone,
iPhone 3G, or iPod touch with Firmware 2.0 or higher installed.
Link:
Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch (available through the
iPhone App Store)
Report and Increase Happiness with New iPhone
App
PR: Representatives from happier.com, a website created to
help users measure, track and improve their level of happiness,
announced they have released a mobile application that can be
downloaded directly to an iPhone or purchased through iTunes. Users of
happier.com's gratitude journal are directed to make a daily entry of
three positive events that happen each day. A simple 24 question
assessment then informs the user of their happiness score. Users can
track milestones and increase their happiness over time using the
gratitude journal.
"It's so easy to focus on what goes wrong in our lives, but studies
show when you focus on what's going right you live a happier, more
fulfilling life," said Andrew J. Rosenthal, Vice President at
happier.com. "With the new iPhone application a person can measure,
build and sustain happiness in just a few minutes a day. All of the
exercises and assessments at happier.com, including the gratitude
journal, are created from more than 20 years of research on happiness
and its sources. Research has proven that daily awareness and tracking
of emotions is one of the first steps toward lasting, sustainable
happiness."
The new mobile application includes an introduction by
internationally-renowned happiness expert and University of
Pennsylvania professor, Dr. Martin Seligman. "The way humans are wired,
when things go well, we tend to forget them. When things go badly we
remember them," says Dr. Seligman. "The more you pay attention to
things going well, by writing them down as in the gratitude journal,
the more positive emotions you'll experience."
The gratitude journal guides each user through features that measure
current happiness, display the six most recent happiness scores and
create a journal including a summary of happiness milestones and
achievements. The application can be downloaded from the iTunes
AppStore onto either an iPhone or iTouch device.
Happier.com goes beyond the books and uses research based tools to
inspire people to feel happier and more resilient. Through assessments
and exercises to measure, track and improve happiness, thousands of
users have experienced a meaningful improvement. Easy-to-use
applications, both online and for the iPhone, provide users with the
tools they need to be happier. Focusing on what goes well, and why,
helps you build your life around authentic sources of happiness.
Link: happier.com (available
through the
iPhone App Store)
'Supersize Me' App Puts Your Whole Media Library
on Your iPhone
PR: Following a successful private trial, ZumoDrive became
available to the public on the same day its "Supersize Me" iPhone
application appeared on the Apple App Store. Now anyone can join the
over 10,000 people who have supersized their netbooks, iPhones, Macs
and PCs with ZumoDrive. Never again will consumers have to choose what
to put on their 8-GB iPhones, 16-GB netbooks or other space-constrained
devices.
ZumoDrive is the first service to give users the experience of
having their entire media libraries with them on any device, and
ZumoDrive's "Supersize Me" application makes this possible on the
iPhone. It no longer matters that iPhones come with just 8 or 16
gigabytes of storage. Anyone can use "Supersize Me," along with the
underlying ZumoDrive service, to enjoy all their music, photos and
documents on their phones whether connected on WiFi, 3G or Edge.
ZumoDrive users can also put all their content on their portable
computers, such as a 16-GB netbook, without any change in experience.
They continue opening their documents from a file manager, playing
songs in iTunes, and browsing images with their favorite photo
programs. ZumoDrive looks and performs just like a local drive on their
computers.
The team behind ZumoDrive built the service to address a frustrating
problem that each of them faced personally; that is, their digital
content kept growing, while they relied more and more on ultraportable,
capacity-constrained devices. "I tend to carry around just a smart
phone and a netbook," said David Zhao, Cofounder and CEO of Zecter, the
company that built ZumoDrive. "Now, I get the convenience of these
lightweight devices without any compromises, as ZumoDrive lets me
easily put all my content on them."
ZumoDrive's "Supersize Me" iPhone application is available in the
Music and Utilities categories of the Apple App Store. The regular
price of "Supersize Me" is $4.99, but ZumoDrive is giving the
application away free for a limited time as a special introductory
offer.
Meanwhile, the primary ZumoDrive service is available for instant
download on PCs and Macs at http://zumodrive.com. The service is free
for up to 1 GB of space, and paid plans are available with more
storage for a monthly subscription fee starting at $2.99.
ZumoDrive and the company behind it, Zecter, are funded by Tandem
Entrepreneurs and Y-Combinator. "ZumoDrive extends cloud computing
beyond its current state by working behind the scenes on your devices,"
said Doug Renert, a principal at Tandem Entrepreneurs. "We like to say
that it puts the cloud in your pocket."
ZumoDrive is a service of Zecter, Inc., which was founded in May
2007 and is located in San Mateo, California. ZumoDrive delivers
unlimited storage on computers and smart phones with its Hybrid Cloud
technology.
Link: ZumoDrive
(available through the
iPhone App Store)
Turn an iPhone or iPod touch into a Shoot-Em-Up
Gun
PR: Remember when you were a kid and played cops and robbers?
Damabia, in association with RnSK Softronics, lets you experience it
again in a whole new way with Bang!Bang!. Experience the sweet release
you can only get from firing a finely crafted firearm - a firearm so
smooth and well-balanced it feels like an extension of your own hand.
And save money on ammunition - Bang!Bang! uses no actual bullets.
Jean-Paul Florencio, CEO of Damabia, is ecstatic about these new
program. "What better fun can you have than to shoot all your friends,
and not hurt them? With Bang!Bang!, you can play cops and robbers, even
if you're grown up."
Feature Highlights:
- Natural Motion-Controlled Firing and Reload Action
- Beautiful Graphics and Smooth Animations
- Cinema quality effects sourced from Oscar-Winning Sound
Designers
- Lefty flip so southpaws don't shoot themselves accidentally
- Light weight - no heavier than an iPod touch or iPhone
- Reduced recoil - just a comfortable vibration when fired
- Optional silencer for stealth operation
Bang!Bang! Like Cops and Robbers . . . with style.
Languages: English
Requirements:
- Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch v2
- Requires iPhone 2.1 Software Update
Bang!Bang! is $1.99 and available exclusively through Apple's App
Store.
Link: Bang!Bang!
(available through the
iPhone App Store)
Cortado Develops Business Solutions for
iPhone
PR: Mobile solutions expert Cortado converts the iPhone to a
business phone.
Cortado, a global leader in mobile applications, is announcing the
development of practical business applications for the Apple iPhone. By
providing the smartphone with classic PC functions, the solutions allow
business users to effectively utilize the performance potential of the
iPhone. A variety of new solutions will become available within the
next six months.
Cortado's Exchange Hosting, a solution optimized for mobile devices,
already offers an efficient and cost-effective communication solution
for iPhones used by entrepreneurs, freelancers and small to
medium-sized businesses.
Cortado now announces that it will also be offering its standard
business solutions for the Apple iPhone. This means iPhone features
will be augmented by classic PC functions such as printing, faxing,
access to corporate networks, scanning and copying, database access and
much more. The advantages of Cortado solutions are evident: The iPhone
serves as a laptop substitute even more frequently, work processes are
optimized, costs are reduced, and productivity is increased.
"Within the next six months, we will be offering a series of
business applications through the Apple AppStore, and are expecting to
have the 'Cortado Corporate Server for the iPhone' ready by summer,"
states Dirk Löwenberg, Business Director Cortado Services. "At the
moment, the iPhone is developing into our second most important
platform, just after BlackBerry smartphones."
A video offers a first overview over the numerous possibilities of
the iPhone as business smartphone
More information about current business solutions can be found at
cortado.com/enterprise.
Comprehensive information about Cortado's hosting products is available
online.
Link: Cortado (software
available through the
iPhone App Store)
Accessories
Hit the Road With Proporta's Panther Pack
PR: The Panther Pack -
Bundle is one of the newest additions to the Proporta product family,
and is ideal for anyone who has to spend a lot of time on the road.
The Panther Pack - Bundle includes the Dual USB Car Charger,
Magnetic Dashboard Mount, and Proporta 3.5 mm (1.8") Male to 3.5 mm
Male Stereo Link Cable - everything you need for a trouble-free
journey. Whether it's charging your mobile device on the go, or getting
a break from the radio, the Panther Pack - Bundle has everything you
require and stores it all neatly out of harm's way in the handy Panther
Pack bag. This fantastic product also comes with a free cable tidy.
Proporta truly have everything covered.
The
Panther Pack - Bundle sells for $52.95.
P.S. Proporta understand what a great little product the Panther
Pack bag is, and so have made it available to buy separately.
The Panther Pack will protect any of your mobile devices including
iPods, MP3 players, mobile phones, digital cameras and PDAs, keeping
them safe from the nasty surprises of everyday life and always close to
hand.
The Panther Pack sells for $14.45
iPods Not Working Well Enough as 'We-Pods' Due to
Cheap Speaker Systems
PR: Reviewers hit back at low quality speaker systems for
iPods. iPod generation is losing touch with joys of collective
listening due to substandard equipment
A generation of music fans brought up on a diet of personal
listening via their MP3 players are losing touch with the joys of
shared music due to the growing availability of cheap tinny speakers
with inbuilt iPod docks. Manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon and
developing low-cost, low fidelity iPod accessories in a market
estimated to be worth US$1.8
billion annually.
Despite the huge sums spent on iPods and MP3 players, many shoppers
are buying low quality speaker systems. iPod-specific speakers
frequently deliver poor quality sound, according to genuine customer
reviews of speakers collated by Reevoo.com.
Sam Bostock,
home entertainment category manager at Reevoo.com, said: "People are buying
speakers for their iPods that offer high convenience, but often they
sound no better than a clock radio."
Shoppers browsing for iPod speakers at Reevoo's network of 60 of the
top UK online retailers outnumbered shoppers for stand-alone speakers
by 2 to 1. But the ratings from genuine customer reviews collected by
Reevoo were reversed. Stand-alone speakers scored 8.5/10 or more twice
as often on average as iPod speakers. Reviewers commonly complained
about hiss, interference and crackling in reviews of iPod speaker
systems.
The average price of a pair of stand-alone speakers with a score of
8.5/10 or more was £122 versus £90 for the best performing
iPod speakers. Despite the lower average cost of dedicated iPod speaker
systems, they also fared worse on value for money, with an overall
score of 8.4/10 versus 8.9/10 for stand-alone speakers.
According to Forrester Research, more than 160 million iPod devices
have been sold since the iPod first launched in 2001. Critics of MP3
players and iPods have referenced the relative lack of emotional
engagement that listeners experience when connected to their device.
Reevoo argues that poor quality sound via cheap iPod speakers is doing
little to introduce music fans to the pleasures of collective
listening.
"Long gone are the days of listening to an album via a turntable on
a hi-fi," said Sam Bostock. "The trouble is that when we do get
together to listen to music, we're compromising the quality by
listening through poor quality speakers."
"People are being seduced by the convenience of a plugin set of
speakers or a unit with a dedicated iPod dock. The reality is that for
a similar price, shoppers can buy a set of relatively high-end speakers
that they can connect their iPod to via an amplifier and a low cost
lead."
"The iPod generation of today run the risk of never experiencing the
true quality of music, as we did with CDs and vinyl. People aren't
experiencing music as collectively as people did a couple of decades
ago; today it's much more about the personal experience but when music
is opened up into a social setting, it seems people aren't making sound
investments and instead going for cheaper, lower quality speakers to
play their music."
Disappointed customers offered the following reviews of dedicated
iPod speakers:
- "A pronounced hiss can be heard when the volume is turned up above
the low to mid range (general listening) level. There is also some
'fluctuation' of the sound at higher levels."
- "The sound quality is shocking (even when wired up)."
- "Hissing/interference noise that didn't go away."
- "Terrible crackling when iPod plugged in, and a whistle when the
iPod is charging and playing music at the same time."
- "Sound quality is awful."
- "Sound poor and lots of BUZZ."
- "Bass isn't that strong (weaker than a decent 2.1)."
- "The sound quality is very poor."
If quality of sound through iPod speakers is an emerging issue,
quantity of sound stored on iPods isn't. iPods have enabled a new
generation of music lovers to take an unprecedented amount of music
with them. Today, iPods are capable of storing up to 160 GB, enough
capacity to store 2,500 albums or more - or the equivalent of
approaching half a tonne of vinyl.
The Top 5 Speakers, with sound quality rating (out of 10):
- Mordaunt
Short Avant 902i (9.1)
- Wharfedale
Diamond SW1500 (9.1)
- Acoustic Energy
Aego M (9.1)
- Acoustic
Energy Aego m System (9.1)
- EPOS ELS
Sub Subwoofer (9.0)
Bottom 5 Speakers:
- AQSound
Wireless Speakers (6.1)
- Hitachi
Ax M133 (7.2)
- Philips
SPA3200 (8.2)
- Mission
M33I (8.4)
- Tannoy
F1 Custom (8.4)
Top 5 iPod Speaker Docks:
- Bose
SoundDock (9.5)
- Harman
Kardon HKGO Play (9.4)
- Onkyo
DSA1X iPod Dock (9.1)
- Intempo
IDS-05B (9.1)
- Altec
Lansing E35088 (9.1)
Bottom 5 iPod Speaker Docks:
- I Want
It IW150 (6.6)
- Gear4
BassBox iPod Speaker (7.0)
- Griffin
Wireless Speakers (7.7)
- Gear4 Blackbox
24/7 (7.9)
- Intempo RDI
iPod Speaker with DAB (8.2)
