EDGE Data is Down in the Central US (Updated with Why)

Ouch! According to this thread on the Apple forums (via TUAW), AT&T users from Chicago to Milwaukee to St. Louis to Kansas City aren't able to get online via EDGE. That's a major black-eye for AT&T -- and of course it doesn't just affect iPhone users. Things are supposed to get running again by the end of the day ...unless it take until February 5th. I'm based down in Florida so everything's in the clear.

You down?

Update: Gizmodo tells us what's going on:

However, an insider who works on networks dropped me a line as to why AT&T's 3G network is having these sporadic issues today: apparentely, six GGSNs "rolled over". (GGSNs are gateways between wireless and regular networks.)

Review: Speck SeeThru Case

The Speck SeeThru Case ($29.95) for the Apple iPhone is a hard plastic case that also comes with a belt holster. When I saw Speck at Macworld, I was impressed with their wide array of cases and also with their clip/stand system. After some time with their SeeThru case, I continue to be impressed.

Read on for the full review!

Quick Fix for SMS Order Problem

We already told you that 1.1.3 hasn't been all it's cracked up to be, but one of the issues with the ROM slipped by us. Namely: some people have been experiencing SMS messages getting listed out of order. Threaded text is the best thing since, well, SMS, but it doesn't do much good if your texts are all out of order.

The problem arises when you don't have your iPhone's clock set to update automatically from the network time and your iPhone thinks it's one time, the carrier another. So presumably the SMS app lists incoming texts by their carrier-based timestamp and yours by the internal timestamp -- a mismatch means out of order texts.

The fix - turn on automatic updating and deal with whatever hassles that might bring you if you travel between time zones a lot.

(via Engadget Mobile)

iPhone v1.1.3 Round up

So we know that jailbreaking 1.1.3 is possible (but a bit of a pain), but now we're also hearing that the pain doesn't necessarily stop once you've finished the jailbreak. Gizmodo is reporting on various issues including the breakage of Google Location and of various native apps. The latter isn't too surprising, as there are lots of internal changes in 1.1.3 that seem to be getting the iPhone ready for official apps. How's that? Well most applications don't run as root and there's even a hidden application key that programs will need to run. (That last means that hackers might someday be able to provide native apps without resorting it iTunes)

If all that doesn't scare you and you haven't updated to 1.1.3 yet, a couple of 13-year-olds have released an over-the-air solution for you over at http://ijailbreak.com/. 1.1.3 folks will need to downgrade to take advantage of it, though.

Sadly,the issues don't appear to be limited to just people who are hacking away at their iPhones. Folks are noticing that 1.1.3 seems to be dropping calls and handing Bluetooth poorly (though there are some ugly fixes for that).

You? How's 1.1.3 been treating ya?

iCrossword, Native App

I'm going to come right out and say it: I hate Sudoku. Don't get me wrong, I can do Sudoku puzzles and I even know some of the tricks and (god help me) the terminology for the various combinations of empty boxes. But it's not my bag, my bag is crossword puzzles. So seeing this pop up inside installer.app is welcome.

It looks like getting the .puz files is a bit of a hassle -- it would be better to have a source list of online puz files, but these are getting tougher and tougher to find these days anyway. Otherwise, great native app. Come on, you have an iPhone, which makes you cool. Language puzzles are so much cooler than mere number and logic puzzles. If you're jailbroken, hop on over to installer.app and give it a shot.

Learn more here: iCrossword at Rustywagon (via)

LOL Cats Come to iPhone

You already know that the iPhone offers up the real internet, not the "Watered-down, Mobile Version, kinda sorta looks like the internet, internet." What you may not have realized is that the "real internet" basically consists of 3 parts:

1. iPhone news (we got ya covered)
2. Porn
3. Pictures of cats with amusing captions (in Kitty Pidgin)

Well, folks, the third part of the real internet is now optimized for your iPhone, in the form of i can has cheezburger, iPhone edition. What better way to show off your new toy to your friends than with cute asplosions? (via TUAW)

How To: Get Photo Speed Dial on the iPhone

My favorite innovation on the Treo 700w was touchscreen photo speed dial. Instead of a list of names, you have a grid of faces you can tap to call. The iPhone, mysteriously, doesn't take advantage of its gigantic and gorgeous screen to do the same. That's a pity, too, because I can recognize the face of the person I want to call much more quickly than I can their name.

No More!

Step 1: Make a bunch of thumbnails of the faces of your favorite contacts. Upload them to a server (or Flickr, or wherever) and copy their image addresses.

Step 2: Go grab use the little hack here to add speed dial links to your home screen, but as the "Advanced" instructions suggest, paste the URL of your favorites' face thumbnails (from step one) onto the end. (No Jailbreak required)

Step 3: Move all your cute photo speed dial faces onto their very own Home Screen page. Voila, you can now hit the home button, swipe over to your speed dial screen, and there are up to 16 faces per page you can dial by tapping.

(Thanks to rener for the inspiration!)

Unlocked iPhones: Over a Million of Them?

There's a lot of talk today (here and here for starters) about the iPhone's sales numbers from Apple's quarterly conference call and how they didn't match up with AT&T's numbers from their conference call. The gist is that Apple sold 3.7 million iPhones and AT&T had about 2 million iPhone subscribers. So where are the rest?

Of course, many were sold overseas, but most people very much doubt that Apple sold 1.7 million of them. Which has led to speculation that as many as a third of all iPhones have been purchased and unlocked. That's a lot, and it strikes me as an unrealistically high number. Naturally, we'd like Apple to help us understand this riddle. Naturally, we are sure they won't. Fake Steve Jobs agrees:

Why not just break out the numbers and share more information and tell Toni Sacconaghi and his pals on Wall Street exactly where all the iPhones are? Well, we're not going to do that. We're not going to break out any numbers or share any more information on this topic or try to explain how we arrived at the 4 million figure. We're just not going to do it, so stop asking.

It could be that Apple's number includes those shipped out to AT&T (and international carriers) for them to sell but haven't actually sold yet. It could be that hundreds of thousands of people bought iPhones just because they're really shiny. Whatever it is, it's clear that a significant number of these un-accounted for iPhones have been unlocked.

iPhone Jailbreak 1.1.3

Looks like our set of Native iPhone Apps articles are relevant again for a whole swath of people, as it looks like version 1.1.3 has not only been Jailbroken, but that Jailbreak is now live for both Windows and Mac. This comes after some drama yesterday regarding whether or not the impending Jailbreak release was some sort of prank. The Unofficial Apple Weblog, as is often does, had the last word and said they knew it was coming, and come it did.

So, 1.1.3'ers, will you be (re)Jailbreaking your iPhone?

Arrrested? Better Hope Your iPhone is Locked.

We're all familiar with the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution, right? The one that states that you're secure from "unreasonable searches and seizures?" Right, well, we all know from our TV-watching that the key word there is "unreasonable." Turns out that the most-common of police encounters, the traffic stop, could potentially open you up to having your smartphone searched.

Basically, if the police officer arrests you for real, he or she can then search your person -- including your iPhone -- without a warrant:

Adam Gershowitz, an assistant professor at the South Texas College of Law, raises an interesting point about the iPhone and similarly tricked-out mobile devices: If the police stop you and find some legal cause to arrest you, they are probably free, under judicial interpretations of the Fourth Amendment, to search the device. - Machinist

That's a scary thought, actually, because it's one thing to search a car, but to search an iPhone is tantamount to searching your entire life. Think about it: email, browsing history, received phone calls, all of it.

Of course, there's always the chance that when this gets tested for real in court, that court will set a precedent that will overturn this. As of right now, though, the ability to do that search is the best interpretation of current law.

What do to? Apparently if you just set a screen-lock password, a warrant is required. I'm not just saying this as a PSA to criminals, either -- setting the screen lock is a good idea all around. If your iPhone gets stolen, welcome to the special circle of hell reserved for those whose identity has been stolen. Not. Fun. (and no, I'm not just talking about iPhones, either.)

So that screen lock is a hassle, but it might just be worth it, no?

Hit Me On My iPhone

Music by Pete Miser. Video put together by Meritt Duff. Found by TUAW and Merlyn. Desire to write songs and videos about a cell phone by Apple, of course.

Mr. iPhone demo used to creep me out, but now I think I have a crush on him.

Add Phone different to your Home Screen!

Thanks to this excellent how-to and a surprisingly little time with Photoshop, we now have our very own custom Home Screen Icon for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. If you're here with your version 1.1.3 iPhone (or iPod Touch with the $20 upgrade), just click that "plus button" at the bottom and add us to your Home Screen. The iPhone's bookmark tool is even smart enough to grab the first two words from our title - "iPhone News," which seems like a pretty good indication of what you'll find when you tappy tappy that little icon.

The only bummer that I can see is the iPhone is a little overly-aggressive in adding the "glass gradient" curve on the top of the icon, but we dealt with it as best we could.

Be a cool kid and add us to your Home Screen!

Voice Dial, Home Screen Dial on your iPhone

Two fun little hacks for your iPhone this morning. The first comes from Nate True (aka iPhone genius), it's a neat little way to get speed dial icons on your Home Screen. The trick? 1.1.3 allows you to add web shortcuts to the home screen and Safari allows web pages to initiate calls (with your permisison). Two great tastes that taste great together. True tells you how:

So the new iPhone 1.1.3 firmware allows you to put icons on your home screen for websites, but I know many of us want to put phone numbers on there for a Speed Dial screen.

I've put a little hack together that lets you have a (somewhat) speedy speed dial icon. There's no jailbreaking required for this one - it can all be done using Apple-approved Web Clip creation. -

The next dialing hack is for those of you with jailbroken iPhones. This is actually one of the better apps I've seen for this gray market - real Voice Dialing on your iPhone. It's done up by Makayama and it's $27.95. You'll need to add them as a source yourself:

To get a free tryout, start Installer on your iPhone, press Sources, then Edit, then Add. Next, type http://tinyurl.com/2t8cax

...It might seem a little crazy to be paying for an iPhone app when the SDK is just around the corner, though. Nate True himself makes it clear that 1.1.3 takes more steps toward safely-installed apps by reducing the number of programs that run as "root." But if you're jonesing for voice dial and have money to burn, you have that option now.

Apple's Best Quarter Ever

If you hadn't heard, Apple was the lone bright point in a sea of bad financial news yesterday¹. Their last quarter was stupendous. revenue grew 35% year over year, total profit grew about the same amount. Apple's profit margin even grew by a couple of ticks. They're earning more revenue than ever and they're making more profit off of that revenue than ever:

The Company posted revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.1 billion and net quarterly profit of $1 billion, or $1.14 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, up from 31.2 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 45 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

What spurred this growth? Why, selling more gadetry, of course. Macs were way up, but check out these iPhone sales numbers:

Apple shipped 2,319,000 Macintosh® computers, representing 44 percent unit growth and 47 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 22,121,000 iPods during the quarter, representing five percent unit growth and 17 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 2,315,000. -

...For those of you keeping score, that means Apple sold only 4,000 more Macs than they did iPhones. That will change this quarter, I'm sure.

When I think about it, the most surprising thing about Apple's turnaround since the return of Steve Jobs is how long it took them to get into making things like the iPod and the iPhone. Apple's strength has always been making hardware and software seamless work together in a way that creates just a little joy for the user. Limiting that skill to just computers (well, and the Newton) as Apple basically used to do seems just plain crazy now.

Seems like every time I wrestle with a gadget lately - from a Cable Box to a Camcorder, somewhere in the back of my mind I'm thinking "Apple could so this better." Not "I could do this better," mind you. Apple could. I'm willing to bet that there are millions like me right now.

...And that's as good an explanation as any for why they just had their best quarter ever.

¹ - No, I'm not a financial analyst, but even that rate cut seems to have been taken as a sign that things are bad -- a desperate measure.

Can't sleep? Turn off your iPhone

I spend a healthy portion of my time at Macworld doing the following:

1. Thinking about Google's fixation on the iPhone and
2. Looking for a really good iPhone dock / Alarm clock.

...Keeping the iPhone in a dock by your bed seems like a no-brainer - charges it up, lets you play a song from your library to wake you up, maybe even lets you catch a quick movie before you fall asleep. Right? Apparently it does all of those things except the last part - the falling asleep part:

A study in Sweden and the United States finds that using a cell phone just before bedtime interferes with sleep patterns. - study

The deal is that the radiation from cell phone radios gets into your head and prevents you from getting into a deep sleep pattern. If it ain't deep sleep, it don't count. So maybe leaving that dock on the desk, next to your computer, and far from your sensitive squishy brain is the right idea after all.

Apple Loses a Co-Defendant, Fights on for Visual Voicemail

We already mentioned that Klausner is suing Apple over Visual Voicemail, to the tune of $360 million. Turns out there were plenty of other folks in on that suit - AT&T, Comcast, the list goes on. Well drop one off that list, SimulScribe. SimulScribe is basically the super-voicemail system for the non-iPhone set: offering both transcribed voicemails and something exactly like the iPhone's Visual Voicemail (SimulSays). Well they've dropped out of the case and settled with Klausner.

That basically leaves Apple as the biggest name not to settle - but Apple is also the most litigiously bull-headed corporation around. So expect a fun fight, but don't expect your Visual Voicemail to go away. Apple may not want to be forced into licensing agreement, but they definitely don't want to take our features away more. After all, Apple gave in to the very same company over the Newton way back in the day.

SimulScribe, LLC., a co-defendant with Apple, Inc.(APPL:NASDAQ) in the patent infringement lawsuit recently filed by Klausner Technologies, has settled the litigation and has licensed the Klausner Technologies visual voicemail patents. - Press Release

Google's iPhone fixation

One of the most interesting stories at Macworld hasn't gotten a lot of attention in the larger press - namely that Google was around at Macworld a lot more than most people realize. It's not just that they have a medium-sized booth featuring both their Mac products and new iPhone-compatible web offerings. No, the real story about Google at Macworld is that it's very clear that Google has the iPhone on their collective mind in a big, big way.

Google's services will continue to be great on the iPhone even after their Android OS hits the market. Read on to find out why!

Firmware 1.1.3 Unbricks iPhones, is also Jailbroken

Here's some good 1.1.3 news, two pieces of it. Piece one is that 1.1.3 looks to be pretty comprehensive in how much of the firmware is re-written. Which is to say that it seems to overwrite some of the nasty bits that could have been corrupted with a bad AnySIM unlock. If you have an iPhone that's inoperative, it's worth a shot to apply the 1.1.3 patch. Sure, you'll be stuck back on AT&T again, but at least the thing will be functional:

To upgrade, we put the phone in recovery mode, then connected to iTunes and restored/ upgraded. After the phone had finished upgrading, it would not work with our already valid ATT sim, so we had to activate the phone using iTunes. This is where we ran into some trouble, because after activating the iPhone under our existing account, the phone still did not show any signal and would not activate to our account. We restarted the phone and just like magic, were taken directly to the home screen. - Confirmed: Bricked iPhones Rise From the Grave With Firmware 1.1.3

The other news is that 1.1.3 has already been jailbroken (well, it was a hardware jailbreak first, then this software-jailbreak). Either way, people looking to get native apps back on their 1.1.3 iPhones will need to wait a bit longer for public consumption -- or just wait for the SDK to finally be official in very short order.

Oh - one last piece of 1.1.3 news, you're no longer stuck with it if you prefer the older version, but the downgrade isn't the easiest thing on earth.

Voodoo your iPhone to Increase Speaker Volume?

Voodoo doll courtesy ^Vanessa^

One of the biggest gripes about the iPhone is that its speaker isn't nearly loud enough for many people. This problem was exacerbated early on because the iPhone's alerts were originally too quiet to begin with. Apple themselves have fixed this problem by allowing you to change, say, the SMS alert volume. There's also rumblings that Apple has quietly introduced louder speaker on iPhones manufactured more recently.

But if you're one of those crazy early adopters, not only are you stuck with less money in your pocket (because of that unprecedented price drop), you're also stuck with a quiet iPhone in your pocket as well. What to do? well, according to skorpiond at modmyifone,

I grabbed a needle and sticked it into every single tiny hold on the bottom left corner of the iPhone. I think it was dirty in there or something because now this ** is EXACTLY how I wanted it since day one... LOUD!!! I really hope I didn't mess up the speaker though.

...So basically you engage in some warranty-voiding dangerfun with your iPhone -- presumably popping the protective cover over the speaker. Anybody brave enough to try this? We at Phone different already absolutely destroyed our first iPhone in the Video takeapart, so we're a little gunshy about voiding more warranties.

via engadget mobile

Best of iPhone Cases at Macworld 2008

Besides Google (much more on that tomorrow, stay tuned!), there weren't a lot of "iPhone Web Apps" booths. Actually, none that I can remember. What there are a ton of at Macworld are accessories booths. Clearly the accessory market for the iPhone is ramping up quickly and may even near iPod accessory market status sometime soon.

...But it's not there yet. Case in point, I saw probably a dozen different iPod speaker docks -- all of which were "compatible" with the iPhone in flight mode only. Apple is requiring (and rightfully so, I suppose) that accessory makers submit their accessories for their seal of approval, iPhone-wise, so that the dreaded GSM-interference issue is taken care of. I personally wish Apple had managed to handle that on the device rather than forcing companies trying to interact with the Dock connector to re-make their products, but c'est la vie.

Otherwise, the thing to see, iPhone-wise, is cases. There are more skin cases here than you could shake a stick at, but there are some other gems as well. After the break, our three favorite cases at Macworld 2008.

1.1.3 Surprises: Bad and Good

Well there have been a few more pieces of news tricking out about 1.1.3. Top of the list has to be the fact that it kills EDGE data for GoPhone users. When Christopher wrote in and said he's been without data for 48 hours and counting my iPhone wailed a bit for him. There's other oddities too, like SMS messages appearing out of order. It appears that I spoke too quickly when I said that Apple had the best ROM update method EVARS over at WMExperts.

But 1.1.3 also has some good surprises - the max number of SMS messages an iPhone can hold has been lifted from a crazy-low 1000 to around 75,000. That might be enough. You can also finally manually manage your music and movies for finer-tuned control of what goes on your iPhone. Of course, there are also all the previously discussed benefits.

In the mixed category - 1.1.3 switches Gmail over to IMAP access automatically. This is good news for most - IMAP is clearly superior to POP. But the change happens without telling user that deleting Gmail email on the iPhone acts is going to be a little different now. On POP, "Delete = Archive," so you could use delete to clear our your inbox Willy-Nilly. On IMAP, "Delete = Delete," so use a little caution.

Love Native Apps? Don't even try the 1.1.3 Update

The iPhone FAQ is reporting that the issue we've seen with the earlier leaked 1.1.3 ROM update holds with the official ROM update. To wit: if you decide to downgrade your iPhone back to 1.1.2 (or even earlier), you're phone will think that your SIM is invalid no matter what. You'll quasi-brick your iPhone. I say "quasi" because it does seem you can safely upgrade to 1.1.3 again.

Anyway, the advice that Phone different has given you again and again still holds true: if you've done anything non-standard to your iPhone, stay the heck away from new updates until the hackers have had a chance to put it through its paces. Then again, the new location feature is super sweet, sweet enough that even if you do love Lights Out, it's probably worth it to upgrade. After all, the SDK is getting released next month.

Hands On with the Macally FlexTune - Macworld 2008

Macally just announced the FlexTune, which is one of the very few iPod docks available right now that is also fully compatible with the iPhone. That's to say, it doesn't suggest you go into Flight Mode to protect the speakers from GSM interference. Otherwise it's a fairly standard set of iPod speakers - charges and is compatible with all iPods, medium-to-medium-low quality sound and volume, has a line-in on the back.

The FlexTune's trick is that its speakers slide out - meaning you can mount the iPhone vertically or horizontally. It's a little wonky to slide the speakers out and insert the iPhone, but not too bad. That wonkiness might be that Macally had a pre-production unit on the show floor -- the real deal will be available in February for the fairly low price of $59.99

Hands-on with the new iPhone Software - Video and Gallery!

The new 1.1.3 update to the iPhone's software is pretty incredible. As we just mentioned in the Liveblog of the Steve Jobs Keynote, there are several new features that were announced:

• Maps with Location
• Webclips on your homescreen
• Customization of your homescreen
• ...and more, including lyrics, support for iTunes movie rentals, and the ability to SMS multiple people at once.

We got the jump on the iPod Touches on the show floor to get a firsthand look at the new features. After the break, our hands-on video with the new iPhone software (as seen on the iPod Touch).

Hands On with the MacBook Air

We grabbed a quick look at the ultrathin MacBook Air, just released during Steve Jobs' 2008 Macworld Keynote. The MacBook Air is a pretty sweet little guy - it's ridiculously thin yet full-powered. Our only regret is that it has only 1(!) USB port. Oh, and the little fact that you can't replace the battery. Isn't that kind of a must for a laptop? We smell an accessory opportunity.

Otherwise - the hotness, even at $1799. A quick video of the gigantic crowd fondling the device above.

But you'll also want to check out our full (as in REALLY big!) high-res gallery of the MacBook Air. Go Go!

MacBook Air Announced!

The MacBook Air is "the world's thinnest notebook." It's ridiculously thin - .76 inches on the back and .16 inches at the front. It fits inside a manilla envelope - Jobs has one in an envelope now! ;) It is INSANELY thin. UNNATURALLY thin. It has a full sized keyboard and display.

it has a 13.3, LED-backlit display. There is, of course, a built-in iSight camera. There is also a full-sized keyboard, "perhaps the best notebook keyboard we've ever shipped." And yes, it's also backlit.

The "very generous trackpad" now supports multitouch. There are even short videos explaining how the multitouch trackpad works on the MacBook Air.

It does indeed sport a hard disk - a 1.8" hard drive, same as in the iPod. It has an 80gig as standard, you can also get a 64gb Solid State drive. The electronics, "a complete mac on a board" are tiny. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo, 1.6GHz is standard, you can go 1.8 GHz as well. The chip is 60% smaller than a standard 1.6GHz chip, and so Jobs has invited Intel CEO Paul Otellini to thank him for that incredible chip.

New feature: Remote Disk -- allows you to use another computer's optical drive to install software over the network. It's an incredibly neat idea. Otherwise you can buy a USB superdrive for $99.

Apple claims that under medium to heavy usage you can get five hours of battery life.

• 3 pounts
• .16 - 0.76 inches
• 13.3 LED display
• full sized, backlit keyboard
• Multi-touch trackpad
• iSight
• 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo standard
• 2 Gigs memory standard
• 80 Gig Hard Drive
• Bluetooth 2.1 EDR

.....$1799, available in 2 weeks.

..That's it folks, Randy Newman is coming on stage to perform for us now!

Apple TV 2: Rentals, HD Quality - FREE software upgrade and Price drop!

Jobs notes how everybody has tried and failed to get movies off the internet onto a widescreen TV. He admits that Apple TV was a miss as well, that people really want Movies, not an accessory for your computer.

"Apple TV Take 2: No Computer Required."

• You can rent movies directly on Apple TV.
• Movies will be available in DVD and HD quality!
• Audio and Video podcasts
• Grab photos from Flickr and .Mac
• An entirely new user interface

The HD movies are a dollar more to rent.

The new interface on Apple TV is really slick - the shopping experience of looking for movies, music, and TV shows on your television seems very intuitive and fun. You can also browse and download any podcast in the iTunes podcast directory. Browsing photos is easy too - despite the fact that Flickr refused to serve up photos for Steve. ;)

It's a free software upgrade! .....AND they're droped the price to $229. It will all be available in 2 weeks.

Jm Gianopulos, Chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox, has announced that going forward, their DVDs will come with a "digital copy" that you can use in iTunes or on your iPhone.

iTunes Movie Rentals Announced

They've sold 4 Billion songs, 125 million TV shows, and 7 million movies. However, that 7 million mark is lower than they'd prefer. So today, Jobs has announced iTunes Movies Rentals.

On board - every major movie studio! Steve presented them with a "and by the way." They will launch with 1000 films by the end of February. They will be on iTunes 30 days after their DVD release. You can watch on iPhone.

You can also start watching within 30 seconds of downloading. You have 30 days to begin watching, then once it starts you have 24 hours to watch it. You can also transfer even as you're watching.

Older titles will be $2.99, new releases are 3.99. It launches today and free software updates are available for all compatible devices (iTunes, iPods, and iPhones)!

Movie rentals will also be available in HD quality for $1.00 more (That's $3.99 for DVD quality and $4.99 for HD quality). You can also shop for these movies directly from your television with Apple TV 2.

New apps added to iPod Touch

It's a $20 upgrade to existing iPod Touch users - you can get

• Mail
• Notes
• Maps
• Stocks
• Weahter

The new software will be preloaded in new Touches, but the cost is disappointing to current Touch users.

New iPhone Features - Macworld Keynote

Steve jobs announced several new iPhone features in the keynote at Macword, including:

• Maps with location
• Webclips
• Customize Home screens
• SMS multiple people at once
• Chapters, subtitles, and languages in videos
• display of lyrics

The features fall very much in line with the previously leaked 1.1.3 update.

The new Google maps not only does location, but it also allows you to edit routes and add "pins" to the maps anywhere you like.

The SMS client allows you to send to multiple people, and the "thread" you create allows you to re-send to that same group multiple times.

There is a new "plus button" at the bottom of Mobile safari. Merely by tapping that "plus" button you can add any web shortcut to your home screen. Even better - web clips remember where you've zoomed and panned to - to customize the thumbnail on the home screen.

Jobs also confirmed the moving icons around the home screen does indeed use the "jiggly method," which clearly indicates to the user that you're in "re-arrange" mode.

The software update is available today and for free!

iPhone News in the Apple Keynote

They've sold 4 million iPhones in 200 days - 20,000 iPhones per day on average.

On US Smartphone marketshare, the quarter ending in September, In its first 90 days of shipping it garnered nearly 20% of the smarpthone marketshare. They nearly equaled Palm, Motorola, and Nokia combined. Jobs expects they'll do even better when the December numbers come out.

Apple Time Capsule - Macworld Keynote

At today's keynote, Steve Jobs announced "Time Capsule." It's a full Airport Extreme base station that also includes a "server-grade hard drive." It is meant for wireless backups for notebooks. Time Capsule runs on 802.11n.

The 500gb drive version is only $299. The 1 terrabye model is $499. It will ship in February. "It's the perfect companion product to Time Machine."

Live from the Macworld Keynote

We're here and we're live! The show got started a little late, but it's still on, baby!

We won't be fully liveblogging every moment, but we'll be doing a big new post for every big new anouncement. Stay tuned! Steve is on stage now! He's looking back at 2007, talking about the iMac, the iPods, and "of course the revolutionary iPhone."

4 things to talk about today.

Thing 1: Leopard. They've solved over 5 million copies. Steve is talking about Leopard's capabilities, its accolades over Vista. Microsoft Office is going native on Intel. It was Time Capsule

Thing 2: iPhone!

Google Improves Their iPhone Interface

Google gone and got itself all dolled up for Macworld. I'm a big fan of the new tabs and an even bigger fan of the new http://igoogle.com, which is pretty much the only web portal I've ever bothered with (besides, of course, just the plain jane Google page). They take full advantage of Safari's capabilities with neat AJAXification throughout. If you're a Google user (and you know you are) and if you're an iPhone user (and you're here so that's likely true too), it's worth a look-see. There's other improvements, including:

Customization of tabs
New and improved Gmail
New and improved Calendar
iGoogle for the iPhone - Official Google Mobile Blog: Google on the iPhone: Macworld Makeover

As long as we're talking Google, check out this Christmas miracle:

The New York Times reports that, based on internal data from Google, more iPhones were connecting during Christmas than any other mobile device, despite the fact that industry figures show only two percent of smartphones worldwide as belonging to Apple. A few days after Christmas, iPhone traffic dropped below that of phones using the Nokia-backed Symbian operating system, but kept a second-place ranking. - Electronista | Google gains iPhone traffic, updates apps

...Looks like more than a few lucky folks received an iPhone for Christmas, no? That's one benefit of Apple's non-standard activation agreement - it's a heck of a lot easier to gift an iPhone than it is any other phone in the US.

Another Keynote, Another Fake Leaked Outline

Above: a big yawner, courtesy of twob

It happens every year lately - a day or two before the big Keynote, some tiny site¹ claims to have the outline of what Steve Jobs will announce. The supposed goods on the iPhone: 16gb at $499 (really going on a limb there), arrival in Japan in March, and the unveiling of the SDK. A full unveiling, actually, with lots of details.

All of which are pretty safe bets.

After the jump: the full supposed outline. Give it credit for being realistic -- heck, give it credit for being boring. But do not, we hope, give it credit for beingreal.

¹ Yes, we are a tiny site as well and we know you thought it earlier. Be Nice.

Macworld 2008: Evidence for Mac Touch Builds

A little non-iPhone news:

A widely read