July 31, 2007
Bookmarklet / Favelet Smorgasbord
So, yeah. Favelets and bookmarklets. In the podcast, I promised a review article about useful bookmarklets and favelets, for the iPhone. And here it is.
I've written a few simple bookmarklets as well; it seems a lot of the bookmarklets are designed for web editors, and not always so much for the average web user. I'm guessing that not many regular folks need to edit CSS from the iPhone, and those that do already have those bookmarklets synched over. But still, there's a void for popular sites. It seemed that all I found were eBay, Amazon, and Google sites. So I set out to make a few of my own, and edit a few others so that they'd work on iPhone Safari (henceforth, iSafari).
If you have any requests for a custom bookmarklet, put them in the comments. It has to be said that I make no guarantees that I can make the resulting request as I'm not an expert with javascript by any means, but the worst that can happen is that I say no. Okay, that's not the worst that can happen. The worst is that I say no VERY IMPOLITELY.
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| Posted by Mike Overbo on July 31, 2007 at 3:22 PM
Tags: bookmarklet, favelet, featured, hack, omgnoappz, phonedifferent, review, roundup | 
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Convert Internet Video to iPod / iPhone
There's an app called CosmoPod 1.8 that detects Flash, Div, Real Media, or WMV video when it appears on a page. Then, with one click, you can convert the video for iPod, with a little download / convert in Safari's address bar. Downloading and converting is a one-click process, and this app will set you back $9.42. I'm still searching for a good app that does stuff like this that's open source or free, and I'll post it as soon as I see it. [via] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 31, 2007 at 9:20 AM (0)
iPhone: Big In Japan
A whopping 27.6% of a 2200-person sample said they were willing to buy the iPhone when it becomes available. 5.2% were "very willing," and 22.4% were "somewhat willing." Only 11.8% of those polled were willing to switch providers, so it looks like there's going to be some angst on the other side of the pond. The Land of the Rising Sun is also the land of 3G; it piques my curiosity to see if they'll only sell a 3G version for Japan. The iPhone isn't due in Asia until 2008, so there's time for Apple to up the iPhone internals.... Waiting Japanese hopefuls will have to become overseas penpals with Verizon customers to pass the time. [via] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 31, 2007 at 9:10 AM (0)
Decent Wallpaper Site
This is probably one of the better wallpaper sites I've seen so far. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 31, 2007 at 9:00 AM (0)
July 30, 2007
iFuntastic 2.0
The folks of iFuntastic have already released a new version of their app. Instead of just ringtones, they now allow you to re-order application icons, and change the carrier logo. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 30, 2007 at 1:49 PM (0)
Mac App: Filemark Maker
Insanely Great Tees recently released an application called Filemark Maker. To use it, you can drag and drop a file onto it, and it will encode the images in a higher resolution than the native Photo app will show. Also included is a Perl script that will do the same thing for those that prefer the command line. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 30, 2007 at 1:43 PM (0)
iPhone Update Rumors
The internet rumor mill is at it again, and there's a bevy of rumors indicating updates soon. Most of what I'm reading indicates a fix for the wi-fi security vulnerability posted earlier, though at least one site thinks a patch for the volume issue is imminent. I'd put money on just the security fix; I doubt we'll see a feature update until Leopard comes out. Not that I wouldn't prefer to be wrong, mind you. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 30, 2007 at 12:50 PM (0)
More Web Games
There's a spate of games available for the iPhone over at MacMost.com. Those heavy hitting games are Word Spell, Reversi, Solitaire, Poker, Minesweeper, Match 3, Blocks, Sudoku, Word Search, Think Ahead, Knight&Squire, and Assassin. If you think Knight&Squire is an action game like Ghosts 'N' Goblins, or Wizards & Warriors, well, you're hopelessly wrong. [via] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 30, 2007 at 12:43 PM (0)
Beta App: Read Many Magazines for Free
There are many magazines available for reading on the iPhone as part of Texterity's beta program. The list includes: Popular Science, Make, Craft, ReadyMade, Vibe, Rachael Ray, Quick & Simple, Taste of Home, Quest MAgazine, Northern Home & Cottage, and many more business and internet-heavy publications. I doubt this service will stay free for long, so enjoy it while you can. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 30, 2007 at 12:37 PM (0)
Bejeweled for iPhone
The developer of Diamenty had ported a version of PopCap's popular Bejeweled game for the iPhone browser, and it is now the official version of PopCap's Bejeweled game. To play, point your browser to popcap.com in your iPhone browser. If reading press releases is your thing, there's a link. [via] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 30, 2007 at 12:27 PM
Tags: games, iphone | (0)
Phone Different Podcast #1
The inaugural voyage of our iPhone-centric podcast, by the same folks that gave you the #1 Palm Treo podcast, the TreoCentral Treocast.
- Our podcast feed
- Download Directly
- Subscribe via iTunes Coming soon!
As usual, our show notes are after the break.
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 30, 2007 at 11:28 AM
Tags: phonedifferent, podcast, roundup | (4)
Sneak Audio onto the iPhone
You can sneak supported audio on to the iPhone from *any* computer by using a utility called Typecast from Red Sweater. Apparently, if you have your iPhone set up sync podcasts from a separate computer, you can typecast your audio as a podcast, and sync it from that foreign computer. It's a clever idea, coming from Jason Snell of MacWorld. You can read about it on the Red Sweater Blog. This is better in some ways than disk mode; you'll be able to play the audio immediately. Granted, I'd rather be able to sync audio from every computer and do it, but the law-talkin' guys probably wouldn't let it work that way. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 30, 2007 at 10:03 AM (0)
July 27, 2007
Good Things For Those Who Wait
So back to the "good news for those who wait," I don't have news posts for this morning, as I'm working on a surprise for Monday. Suffice to say, I think you'll like it. If you don't, I'll have some posts up this afternoon.
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 27, 2007 at 9:47 AM
Tags: phonedifferent | (3)
July 26, 2007
On the Number of iPhones
July 25, 2007
Apple's Q3 Earnings Report
This is an article that I'll be updating throughout Apple's Quarterly Earnings report for Q3 2007. All times are CST. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 25, 2007 at 4:56 PM
Tags: apple, featured | (0)
The War On Buttons
The Wall Street Journal has an article on Jobs, his war on hardware buttons, and the minimalism that so often occupies their devices. [via Slashdot] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 25, 2007 at 12:30 PM (0)
Interview with Woz
- 3G in a future revision
- voice dialing
- current temperature on the home screen
So now we'll have to waste half a day bringing him in and hearing all his big ideas and letting him draw on a white board and give orders to some cafeteria workers that we dress up as engineers.
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 25, 2007 at 10:04 AM
Tags: FSJ, haha, wozniak | (0)
Just Another Mobile Monday
This guy went off on a rant about Microsoft and their approach to mobiles. I thought it was amusing, so here it is. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 25, 2007 at 9:47 AM (0)
Apple Stock Dip, "Disappointing" Activations
There's a spate of stories (my favorite was from Om Malik) out there about the dip in AAPL stock, how analysts originally thought there were up to 700,000 activations, but AT&T's Q3 earnings report indicated a different story, 146,000 activations that first weekend. The stock dipped quite a bit on this news, something like 8% at its peak, but I'm sure Piper Jaffray remains confident that Apple stock will hit $205. Anyway, one thing that I've realized from AT&T's earnings report is that their 40% of iPhone activations that came from other carriers is in line with the 40% of non-AT&T subscribers on their iPhone email notification list. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 25, 2007 at 9:44 AM
Tags: att | (0)
iPhoneDevWiki Update
The folks at iPhoneDevWiki continue to amaze. You of course remember hello world a few days ago. They've apparently moved on from there and have built full apache & python installations on the iPhone, all from that toolchain we reported on. They also continue to make noise on the unlocking front. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 25, 2007 at 9:12 AM (0)
Ringtones on iPhone via Windows
Windows users, rejoice: if you wanted to make ringtones out of your MP3, WAV, or OGG collection, there's a | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 25, 2007 at 9:06 AM (0)
iPhone Tethering Hack
If you're like me and wanted to be able to tether the iPhone to your laptop and use the iPhone's EDGE network in the event that no wi-fi is available, you're in luck. The creativity of the various iPhone hackers doesn't cease to amaze me: they figured out how to set the iPhone up as a SOCKS proxy. It's still in the proof-of-concept phase, you can expect it to get easier over time. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 25, 2007 at 8:59 AM (0)
July 24, 2007
NewsGator Announces RSS Reader for iPhone
Ars Technica reports that NewsGator, owners of the popular Mac RSS client NetNewsWire, announced a web version of their service optimized for iPhone today. Whether you should be using the standard mobile site or optimized iPhone site is auto-detected when you sign on. If you read news on the iPhone, it will be synced back via the NewsGator service and you won't have to read that article on the desktop client. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 24, 2007 at 3:25 PM (0)
Official Numbers from AT&T
AT&T posted their 3rd quarter earnings this morning, and there's some good news in it for everyone. There's only 2 days worth of iPhone coverage in that quarter, but it's interesting that they activated 146,000 people in those two days.Sales of the Apple iPhone have been robust. The June 29 launch allowed for less than two days of sales and activations before the end of the quarter. In that time, AT&T activated 146,000 iPhone subscribers, more than 40 percent of them new subscribers. Sales of the iPhone continue to be strong in July with store traffic above historical levels.The 40% new subscribers is a higher number than I'd seen; I believe the estimates I was seeing were more around 25%. It will be interesting to see what kind of churn the other carriers experience; granted, 146,000 customers might just be a dip of a percentage point, if that.
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 24, 2007 at 11:10 AM (0)
Possible Hints About Firmware Updates
It looks like an enterprising member of Howard Forums found references in code to widgets and applications that don't yet exist on the iPhone; that is to say, they're not public yet: Translator, Unit Converter, Business Phonebook, and Radio. [thanks, cmaier] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 24, 2007 at 10:15 AM (0)
New Mac Apps Make Hard Stuff Easier
There are new easy GUI interface applications for stuff that was once hard. Isn't that the story of the Mac's life, though? Activating, formerly a $2000 and 500,000 step process, has now been reduced to just $0 and 9 steps or so. Brilliant! And installing ringtones, previously a journey fraught with peril, with despair at every step, had now just requires you to kill the iTunes helper process and maybe force-quit the app here and there to unfreeze. Um, sorry. Great news for Mac users. iActivator, the front end for iPhone activation, is Mac only at this point. It's the same story with custom ringtones, Mac-only. Hopefully the .NET GUI interfaces for Windows are on the way soon. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 24, 2007 at 9:34 AM (0)
Web-based File Storage
It looks like there's a new web-based browseable filesystem optimized for the iPhone. It's still bandwidth-limited, as in, it may take a while to download your filesystem, but it's a good reminder that there might be better ways to store files than to email them to yourself. I have an easy-to-type personal domain that I use for things like this, but by no means does it have a fancy interface like box.net's. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 24, 2007 at 9:19 AM (0)
Apple Bluetooth Headset Unboxing
Nomad, a loyal TUAW reader, found an Apple iPhone Bluetooth headset at an Apple store yesterday, and has posted the results of his unboxing to Flickr. The AiBH shows up on the charging screen to indicate how much charge it has. Ooooooh! That's kind of neat.
So Vincent of MYiTablet saw that and gobbled one up for a review, and they basically say that it small, comfortable, could sound better; they recommend the Jawbone for sound quality. So, if you want something light but doesn't sound great and is very fashionable and expensive and yet underperforming, the AiBH is your headset. It will be interesting if the AiBH is updateable via firmware as well.
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 24, 2007 at 9:13 AM
Tags: headset, iphone | (0)
July 23, 2007
Cingular Receives Passing Grades
Vocal Laboratories published a customer satisfaction survey that gives AT&T a "C" for customer satisfaction and a "B" for call completion. The folks of the survey are interested to see if the iPhone changes the game. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 23, 2007 at 12:51 PM (0)
Convert WM device to iPhone
This is for anyone that's using Windows Mobile and wants an iPhone, or anyone who even wants a little bit of the best of both worlds. If you want to convert the home screen from WM to look like an iPhone, and unlock the device the same way, it looks like there's yet another way to do it. [via] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 23, 2007 at 11:43 AM (0)
Colbert Gets iPhone
[via]
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 23, 2007 at 11:26 AM
Tags: haha, iphone | (0)
Developing: Fonts for the iPhone
John Gruber of Daring Fireball has posted a list of fonts that are available for CSS within iSafari. Elsewhere, your font choices are made: Helvetica and Marker Felt. He includes a list of typographic likes and dislikes with the iPhone font choices. Apple, are you looking for something to give him for his birthday? There are 4 big ticket items he strongly hints at: Futura, Gill Sans, Hoefler Text, and the head of Marker Felt. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 23, 2007 at 11:10 AM
Tags: gruber | (0)
iPhone Contract Analyzed
The results are in: we've been owned. Wired had a EULA lawyer from the EFF to analyze the binding contract for anyone that has activated an iPhone. Your contract, like any other cell phone contract anyone ever agreed to, is hilariously long and screws you six ways to Sunday. [I Agree] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 23, 2007 at 11:02 AM
Tags: att, contract, iphone | (0)
Duke: Uuuuuuhhhmmm...
"The reality is that a particular set of conditions made the Duke wireless network experience some minor and temporary disruptions in service. Those conditions involve our deployment of a very large Cisco-based wireless network that supports multiple network protocols."Translation: "It's pretty much Cisco's fault." Duke's Cisco-based wireless network sucks!
More iPhone Vulnerabilities
The New York Times posted an article about a security company called Independent Security Evaluator that claims to have found a vulnerability in the iPhone's wi-fi stack. The firm has its roots in Johns Hopkins University; I think it's safe to say that the exploit is legitimate. ISE has started a website devoted to the vulnerability. That will detail the exploit. ISE was quick to point out that this exploit is "not the end of the world; it's not the end of the iPhone," but that's not the best quote. The moral of the story?"I will think twice before getting on a random public WiFi network now [....] You’d have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands to get it away from me."[via MYiTablet]
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 23, 2007 at 9:10 AM (0)
Google Launches iPhone Search
Google has launched a stripped down interface page for their web searches using the iPhone as a sample of their API. It's definitely a mobile version of their page; it's also a long URL, you'll have to bookmark it. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 23, 2007 at 8:53 AM (0)
July 20, 2007
Piper Jaffray: AAPL to hit $205
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 20, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Tags: apple, att, stock | (0)
First 3rd Party App: Hello, World
This is really big news; outside of Apple, there wasn't any known linker or assembler or ABI for Apple's Mach-O on the ARM processor platform (and a compiler is pretty useless without them). The toolchain that they built provides those missing tools, and now that it's confirmed to work, they can refine those tools and begin 3rd party development in earnest. W00tding, the iPhone goes up a level.After many, many hours of intense work from "Nightwatch", the first independent "Hello World"* application has been compiled and launched on the iPhone. This was made possible using the "ARM/Mach-O Toolchain", Nightwatch's "special project", that he has been working on so carefully over the past few weeks. Certain parts of the toolchain (such as the assembler) are being refined and tested and these will be released as soon as possible.
It should be noted that Nightwatch has been instrumental in creating these tools, working in near isolation to get them finished. Nightwatch was also responsible for the "jail exploit" that he developed from information he and other members of the the dev team discovered.
Please join us to thank Nightwatch, Tmiw, Darkten and Daeken for making this happen.
Random Snippets
Take this with a grain of salt, but Apple makes an estimated $11 per month if the iPhone customer switched to AT&T from a different network, $3 per month if the iPhone user was already on AT&T. Also, AppleCare for the iPhone is $69, and Pogue's Missing Manual is out. Vodaphone officially "looks forward" to a 3G iPhone. Don't we all, though? | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 20, 2007 at 10:11 AM (0)
About 20,000 New Applications
There's about 20,000 new widgets on the way from Plusmo, a service that modifies content to make it available for mobile users. Word has it that they're almost finished optimizing their content for the iPhone and should be done next week. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 20, 2007 at 10:06 AM (0)
Ive Wins Another Award
This one was awarded by a New York branch of the Smithsonian, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Smithsonian. He was awarded at a special ceremony at the White House, and was handed the award by First Lady Laura Bush. Not too shabby! His last design award was two months ago, I was starting to get worried. Hey, put the trophy over there on that pile of trophies. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 20, 2007 at 10:02 AM (0)
iPhones Still Available, For Now
I haven't really heard much about lack of availability, or anyone that was trying to get an iPhone that wasn't able to get one, but they still sell out some locations every day. It looks like Apple is managing the high demand for the iPhone well; the daily shipments method of replenishing inventory insures that 1) high demand, or the illusion of it, continues, and 2) if they're out where you're shopping, you should be able to show up tomorrow morning and get one. According to SeekingAlpha, the demand for iPhones was supposed to dry up, but is still going strong. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 20, 2007 at 9:53 AM (0)
July 19, 2007
iTunes Conduit for Other Phones
Even if you don't have an iPhone, it looks as if there's a chance you can get iTunes syncing from your mac to your other phone. A German company called nova media wrote an app that works with some of the major featurephones (and some Nokia smartphones, too), though their compatibility list isn't yet complete. If your phone isn't listed, there's an app you can download to test. [via] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 19, 2007 at 10:27 AM (0)
Apple to Use 25% of Flash Supply
Apple is purportedly using 25% of the world's flash memory chips for this upcoming 3rd quarter. I hope they're getting a serious bulk discount. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 19, 2007 at 10:21 AM (0)
Apple iPhone Bluetooth Headset
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 19, 2007 at 10:15 AM
Tags: apple, bluetooth, iphone | (0)
iPhone Still In Congress
I reported earlier on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet and their Wireless Innovation and Consumer Protection hearing. And there's an article up at Salon (holy crap, Salon is still alive!) that details a bit of the current legality of unlocking cell phones. Reading it makes me think: Holy crap, Salon is still alive. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 19, 2007 at 10:07 AM (0)
ADC Tech Talks for Web Programming
Apple is hosting four different tech talks throughout the nation next month: Los Angeles 8/2, San Francisco 8/24, Chicago 8/28, and New York 8/30 and 8/31. The focus will be on optimizing applications for the iPhone, you should come with code for your web 2.0 app, your iPhone, and your laptop. Registration is open for Apple Developer Connection (ADC) members, and being an ADC member is free. And Chicago... that's only 8 hours away from here. Hmmmm. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 19, 2007 at 9:58 AM (0)
Use Any AT&T Card in Activation
If you've already got an AT&T SIM card and would like to activate an iPhone with that SIM card instead of the one shipped in your iPhone, there is now a way. It does not unlock the phone for other carriers' SIM cards, unless they are MVNO operators like TracFone and Net10. Also, AT&T Corporate SIM cards are accepted. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 19, 2007 at 9:52 AM (0)
July 18, 2007
Dieter Likes His Windows Mobile
Dieter Bohn of WMExperts recorded a longish video of comparisons between the HTC Touch and the Apple iPhone. He spent about a week with the iPhone before the Touch came in, so the iPhone gets a pretty fair shake in terms of how its stacked up. I'll spoil the ending, the HTC Touch wins. So why link the video? Well, it does a fine job of showing why I gave the iPhone a 7/10 for smartphone users and a 9/10 for featurephone users in my review: the iPhone is a monster in media and browsing, but a bit of a laggard for 3rd party apps and PIM. The iPhone looms heavily in his mind, though. Witness his closing sentence:"Man... Microsoft, you gotta get that browser fixed... Like, right now."It has to be said that this video compares "Windows Mobile version 6" to "iPhone version 1." As I said in my review, I have no plans to return to any of my previous Palm OS or Windows Mobile smartphones. Many of these shortcomings will be fixed with software updates. The big question is pretty much "when?"
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 18, 2007 at 12:19 PM
Tags: iphone, video, wmexperts | (0)
Upcoming: Bevy of Reviews
| | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 18, 2007 at 11:23 AM
Tags: phonedifferent | (0)
Collections of Bookmarklets
Bookmarklets, or JavaScript bookmarks, are a handy way to extend the browser's capabilities. MYiTablet linked to an excellent LifeClever post that lists 17 of the most useful bookmarklets. Smashing Magazine has a list too, and there's an older list of bookmarklets at samrod.com but it checks out. I checked this bookmarklet site and it accused me of running Netscape 5; Netscape 5 didn't even exist! Here's another one. Of note is the site Blummy.com, a javascript drop-down menu for your bookmarklets. If you like, it seems that the mother of all bookmarket lists, of special note from that list are the Bookmarklets for Safari and Bookmarklets/Favelets that work in Safari. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 18, 2007 at 10:39 AM (0)
TTY Adapter for iPhone
You can apparently plug a TTY adapter from Apple's site into the headphone plug on the iPhone, and it enables you to use the iPhone's keyboard as a TTY (TeleTYpe) keyboard. This is cool for anyone that has a TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) in their home or business. [via iLounge] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 18, 2007 at 9:56 AM (0)
iPhone Skinning Guide
If for some reason you're not satisfied with the interface on the iPhone, there is now recourse to fix your malady. The folks at ModMyiPhone.com have posted guides for re-skinning the home screen applications. They have separate guides for Windows iPhone owners and Mac iPhone owners. [via MYiTablet] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 18, 2007 at 9:52 AM (0)
Anti iPhone
The Best Page in the Universe (Rated R, language) has posted a page that details how cruddy the iPhone is compared to the glorious E70. The verdict is not good for the iPhone. The bit of this site that "seals the deal" for me is that I had a Nokia 6600, which shares the same unfortunate form factor of the E70. I had lost my previous phone, and wanted something where I could re-type in all of my contacts easily. It was great for a while, until the left side of the keyboard stopped registering keypresses. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 18, 2007 at 9:47 AM (0)
Apple Phone from 1983
Boingboing has posted an image of an Apple concept phone from 1983. You can see the iPhone and Newton as a gleam in their eye through this. | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 18, 2007 at 9:41 AM (0)
3G vs. EDGE: Battery Life
The folks at Anandtech did a Samsung BlackJack vs. iPhone battery life comparison for a bunch of network tasks. The aim was to test Jobs' claim of 3G handsets not being ready yet, and the results are about what you'd expect; you get a lot more talk time and slimmer handsets by ditching the 3G. It's interesting to see how much more. 3G would have turned the iPhone's battery life into about 3 hours of talk time. [via MobilityToday] | | Posted by Mike Overbo on July 18, 2007 at 9:35 AM (0)
July 17, 2007
Review: Pacific Rim Tech iShield
For our first review, the Pacific Rim iShield (store link) for the iPhone. It's available in 3 colors: Black, White, and Red. I received the red version for use and abuse. So, after about a week with it, read on for my thoughts and opinions about it.