iphone

sweetcell wrote:
looks like MS is still earning its stars in netbookdom: Switched On: Windows 7, Non-Starter Edition (a little background)

With 96% of the netbook market, they deserve it.  However, the Starter Edition is really designed to fight piracy in third world countries (make a version so cheap that you'll buy the legal version and not the pirated version).

The 3 application limit is probably not a hindrance to most netbook users (I rarely use more than an email app and browser on my netbook), but, just in case, I run Win7 Ultimate edition without a hassle.  As a matter of fact, I install updated versions of Win7 on my netbook before any other computer in the smackie arsenal  (I put the release candidate on the book yesterday).  I don't have an XP or Vista machine left, just a bunch of Win7s, HomeServer, and one OSx for shits and giggles.

Now they've done pissed off Trent Reznor, the "digital music visionary who's gone it alone and found gold in the deep coffers of the Internet."  He had a few things to say in his forum:

I'll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago, which is a matter of consistency and hypocrisy. Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and "clean" versions be made for them to carry. Bands (including Nirvana) tripped over themselves editing out words, changing album art, etc to meet Wal-Mart's standards of decency - because Wal-Mart sells a lot of records. NIN refused, and you'll notice a pretty empty NIN section at any Wal-Mart. My reasoning was this: I can understand if you want the moral posturing of not having any "indecent" material for sale - but you could literally turn around 180 degrees from where the NIN record would be and purchase the film "Scarface" completely uncensored, or buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto where you can be rewarded for beating up prostitutes. How does that make sense? You can buy The Downward Fucking Spiral on iTunes, but you can't allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it. Geez, what if someone in the forum in our app says FUCK or CUNT? I suppose that also falls into indecent material. Hey Apple, I just got some SPAM about fucking hot asian teens THROUGH YOUR MAIL PROGRAM. I just saw two guys having explicit anal sex right there in Safari! On my iPhone!

Come on Apple, think your policies through and for fuck's sake get your app approval scenario together.

But, to be fair, he still loves the device…

Everyone - let me be clear. I love Apple products and as goofy and out-of-touch as their app approval process / policy is, I will still use them because they work 1000X better than the competition. This is not a debate, it's a fact. The iPhone is THE most elegant, modern smartphone at this point in time and it's perfect for what we want to do with the NIN app - except for the ludicrous approval process, and that's what I want to draw attention to.

Android is cool, but nobody has an Android phone. Blackberry is OK but the hardware is inconsistent and WinMo straight-up sucks balls. If Apple doesn't get it together, we will most certainly make it available to the jailbreak community. I didn't invest in this app to see it languish on the sidelines from an idiotic policy while this tour is in full swing.

Report: BlackBerry Curve outsells the iPhone 3G - Research In Motion's BlackBerry Curve overtook Apple's iPhone to become the top-selling consumer smartphone in the United States during the first quarter of 2009, according to research published by NPD Group on Monday. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10232698-94.html

RIM sees big retail market, plans next Storm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050401912.html

I'd be willing to bet that the election has a lot to do with that.  Most government officials use RIM products because of the security, and with many new elected officials and their new staff, it probably swayed a lot of those purchases.

The interesting battle will be Q3, assuming there's a new iPhone.  Palm vs Apple….

I'm betting that RIM's buy one get one free promos on verizon for RIM devices had more to do with this than anything.  Indeed they've gained market share, but it sounds an awful lot more like BUYING market share to me.

and for today's segment of everyone's FAVORITE game, "Let's Get Smackie All Wound Up"…

Apple rejects Bittorrent control app from App Store because it might be used to infringe copyrights

I cannot stand my blackberry…the iPhone is 1000% better than that piece of shit.

This will work perfectly for when you're sitting on your couch and someone stands in front blocking your view.  Otherwise, not very useful. This is what happens when you have exclusive deals….


SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone coming shortly: $29.99, no 3G support
by Chris Ziegler, posted May 12th 2009 at 12:36PM


After what has become one of the longer (and certainly one of the highest-profile) App Store approval delays, SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone has finally gotten Apple's blessing – with some serious changes under the hood. Most importantly, 3G access has been disabled, meaning you'll only be able to get your Sling on over WiFi – a serious blow to the app and a huge change from the way SlingPlayer Mobile works on other platforms – and likely a verification that either Apple or AT&T took serious issue with the bandwidth load imposed by this type of app on the HSPA network. Despite the restriction, Sling will be charging a whopping $29.99 for the download; in exchange for your troubles, though, they've decided to lift the ban on older Slingboxes, with the caveat that they won't be officially supported if you run into trouble.

We've had a chance to play with the app, and it certainly gets the job done – we just wish it worked a little better. Even on WiFi, control feels laggy, and there's no native guide (though there's an icon to quickly pull up your set-top box's guide). When you're in letterbox mode, you've got black bars around all four sides of the image, meaning that the app isn't taking full advantage of the phone's display; we're hopeful this'll be fixed in a future release, though. Happily, we think Sling really nailed the app's UI – the on-screen translucent controls are pretty cool and generally work well without obscuring the view. Look to grab your own copy some time between 12:01AM and 6:01AM EDT tomorrow morning, and in the meantime, check out our gallery.

AT&T says, you may blame us.  But we have a good reason - our network sucks.

Slingbox, which would use large amounts of wireless network capacity, could create congestion and potentially prevent other customers from using the network. The application does not run on our 3G wireless network. Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our terms of service. We consider smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs.

That said, we don't restrict users from going to a Web site that lets them view videos. But what our terms and conditions prohibit is the transferring, or slinging, of a TV signal to their personal computer or smartphone.

The Slingbox application for the iPhone runs on WiFi. That's good news for AT&T's iPhone 3G customers, who get free WiFi access at our 20,000 owned and operated hot spots in the U.S., including Starbucks, McDonalds, Barnes & Noble, hotels, and airports. AT&T is the industry leader in WiFi.

i think it could be useful for watching soccer from a hotel room that doesnt have setanta but yeah. actually never mind, i'm sure youd bring a laptop. big blow and $30 is crazy. youd have to be never home to justify that

Some new iPhone music apps of interest…

iMeem has an app out that has similar artist playlist functionality as last.fm and pandora…. the feature that being touted is  that you can upload music to it's site and then stream it your phone anywhere.  however  i wouldn't personally put a great deal of effort into uploading music to the site, as money and licensing woes abound for this site.  plus, when transferring my uploads that were on anywhere.fm to iMeem all them have disappeared.  it would appear that unless a track already exists in their database it wont upload.  hopefully 8tracks.com will have an iPhone app some day, I like that site mucho more than iMeem.

Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe app allows one to great mini remixes using several song loop snippets.  Had some fun creating glitchy remixes…

Junior Boys - Has full length songs and videos for stream, news, tour dates… all in all a pretty slick app

Kitsune Maison - an electro music label out of Paris has a new app out with streaming 30 sec samples from their future and current releases.

Haven't spent much time with the Rentals app which chronicles their year long project "Songs About Time"

Lineup fanboys….it's available next week.

iPhone 3gS

$199 16GB of storage, and $299 for a 32GB version

And with video (finally)

and apparently with picture messages finally. jeez.

back wrote:
and apparently with picture messages finally. jeez.

Actually, that will vary per carrier and at&t has not yet signed on.  But yes, the next phone will have Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) capabilities.

vansmack wrote:

back wrote:
and apparently with picture messages finally. jeez.

Actually, that will vary per carrier and at&t has not yet signed on.  But yes, the next phone will have Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) capabilities.

"Official" iPhone OS 3.0 Software Update features

From the footnotes:
2. MMS support from AT&T coming in late summer. MMS is not supported on first-generation iPhone. Sending video via MMS is not supported on iPhone 3G.

vansmack wrote:

back wrote:
and apparently with picture messages finally. jeez.

Actually, that will vary per carrier and at&t has not yet signed on.  But yes, the next phone will have Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) capabilities.

I imagine ATT will sign on for this, but doubt they will allow blue tooth tethering which would be a huge deal for me.  Does anyone know if the bluetooth tethering is a feature of the new OS or the new hardware?

Either way I won't be getting a new one until I drop the current one in the toilet or it meets some other untimely end.

EDIT - Beats beat me to the MMS issue by a second or two…

beetsnotbeats wrote:
From the footnotes:
2. MMS support from AT&T coming in late summer. MMS is not supported on first-generation iPhone. Sending video via MMS is not supported on iPhone 3G.

That's an interesting way of putting it.  Does that mean that the iPhone 3g will be capable of recording video (obviously not sending it via MMS, but that seems to imply that they will at least stop halting the jail breaks)?

chaz wrote:
I imagine ATT will sign on for this, but doubt they will allow blue tooth tethering which would be a huge deal for me.  Does anyone know if the bluetooth tethering is a feature of the new OS or the new hardware?

Bluetooth tethering is in iPhone 3.0 software, so it should work with iPhone 3g.

Again, at&t has said that they wil support tethering, just haven't announced when or if there will be a charge.

vansmack wrote:

chaz wrote:
I imagine ATT will sign on for this, but doubt they will allow blue tooth tethering which would be a huge deal for me.  Does anyone know if the bluetooth tethering is a feature of the new OS or the new hardware?

Bluetooth tethering is in iPhone 3.0 software, so it should work with iPhone 3g.

Again, at&t has said that they wil support tethering, just haven't announced when or if there will be a charge.

That will compliment my new netbook nicely (unless there is an outrageous fee for it). 

vansmack wrote:

beetsnotbeats wrote:
From the footnotes:
2. MMS support from AT&T coming in late summer. MMS is not supported on first-generation iPhone. Sending video via MMS is not supported on iPhone 3G.

That's an interesting way of putting it.  Does that mean that the iPhone 3g will be capable of recording video (obviously not sending it via MMS, but that seems to imply that they will at least stop halting the jail breaks)?

I think only the new phone can record video.