Japan went crazy over the iPhone when it made its debut in summer last year, but China as another big Asian market for Apple seems to react differently. The iPhone officially launched in China today, offered by China Unicom, one the country’s three big cell phone carriers. But our friends over at major Chinese news portal 163.com are reporting [Google machine translation] that not too many people were actually queuing up to get one, at least in Beijing.
Bad news, you guys. If you were thinking of dropping $120 on TomTom’s iPhone car kit and then another $100 on TomTom’s navigation app for use with your first-generation iPhone or second-generation iPod touch, it now looks like you’d to run into some compatibility issues.
AppleInsider is reporting “that although the Car Kit dock is compatible with all iPhone models, the TomTom application will only work with the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G – even with the dock connected to a first-generation iPhone or iPod touch.”
One of my favorite games of all time, Catan, is now available as a $5 download for the iPhone and iPod touch. As board games go, The Settlers of Catan is a psycho-erotic thriller capable of hooking even the most un-hookable of gamers.
Keep in mind, 100,000 approved apps doesn’t mean 100,000 GOOD apps, but according to the App Shopper, a major milestone has been hit. There are a few technicalities though.
Last week, Volkswagen “launched” the new 2010 GTI via an iPhone App. This week, famous rock band Alice in Chains launches its new album via an iPhone App. It comes out tomorrow, and includes the album itself, along with photos, news, videos, etc. Think of it as a bonus DVD, back in the early days of when the record labels were trying to figure out how to get people to buy CDs.
Nothing says “please rob me blind” like riding a foot-powered scooter and housing your iPhone in a dedicated quiver-like sash that exposes the top-most part of the device, logo and all.
TomTom’s iPhone car dock is now available from the U.S. Apple Store for $120 with a shipping time of 2 to 3 weeks. You’ll recall that the actual TomTom iPhone app runs for $100 on top of that.
As many of you are aware, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple last week in the Federal District Court in Delaware. Nokia’s complaint alleges that Apple has infringed on 10 of Nokia’s patents for various, “fundamental” GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) technologies. In particular, the patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption. Nokia believes that all 10 patents have been infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced back in 2007.
This brings up the question: Why wait until now, Nokia, to sue Apple? Clearly, without speaking directly to Nokia’s legal team, all of the following is pure (albeit educated) conjecture. Nonetheless, with intellectual property (i.e. copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets) becoming increasingly important and relevant to (technology) companies around the globe, it is worth taking a few minutes to explore some of the possible motives/strategies behind Nokia’s latest legal muscle flexing.
To call us a “car blog” would sorta be stretching the truth. Occasionally one of the guys—aka Matt Burns—will do a car story, yeah, but that’s primarily because he thinks he’s James May. I have no such illusions of grandeur; I’m just sitting at a desk typing things, and writing student loan checks… Before this gets any further off track, the news: Volkswagen has teamed up with the guys behind Real Racing, Firemint,
A new day, a new iPod dock hits the market. But unlike the rest, this one has something new to offer. The PDX-60 introduces a new form of wireless audio transmission from Yamaha, yAired. I imagine for those consumers who are too lazy to walk all the way across the room to their stereo, just to change the song.
You set up the dock unit wherever you like, and attach a small transmitter to your iPhone or iPod, and voila! You’re connected to those speakers like it’s nobody’s business! The big selling point behind yAired is that it uses Linear PCM encoding. So unlike Bluetooth, it doesn’t compress the audio stream before flying it through the air. So you get to hear your compressed MP3s uncompressed. Yay.
The woofer is only rated to 60 Hz, so don’t expect a booming bass response. It supports all flavors of iPod (Phone, nano, classic, etc.). It’ll charge, playback, even let you control them with the included remote. My stereo system is centered around my computer, so listening from my iPod is something I only do on the subway. But if you really want one, you can pick it up at your local consumer electronics retailer in any of four fantastic colors for $299.95.
The much anticipated and hyped Rock Band for iPhone and iPod Touch is out! We first scooped the news of the launch of the app a few weeks ago. Shortly afterwards, Rock Band for the iPhone/iPod touch was officially announced by Electronic Arts. The app costs $9.99.
The game features a multi-player mode (via Bluetooth), allowing up to 4 players to rock out on the go. While you can also play via single-player mode, you can use the integrated Facebook Connect to invite your friends to join in.
Oh, boy. It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Automobile security system company Viper has just introduced its SmartStart line consisting of an in-car hardware module with a cellular connection that allows you to lock, unlock, and remotely start your car from just about anywhere in the world.
If you’ve been waiting to upgrade, now you’re ready to rock. A new app, blackra1n, will jailbreak any 3.1.2 iPhone or iPod Touch.
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It seems that Apple has such of thirst for flash memory (for use in its iPods, iPhones, maybe tablets, etc.) that it’s having a profound effect on the flash suppliers. Tighter supplies, uncertainty about where to go for more flash, etc. Apple gets most of its flash memory from Samsung, but other people get flash from Samsung, too, and now they’re all, “Um, hey Samsung, do you have any flash for us?” Then Samsung shrugs its shoulders, “Yeah, man, Apple just paid us $80 zillion for the lot of it. You’ll have to go somewhere else. Sorry.”
Trying to use a cell phone while riding a motorcycle can’t be an easy task – maybe it isn’t that hard for experienced riders, I have no idea. I’d be all wobbly thanks to a) never having driven a motorcycle in my life and b) having no business trying to operate a phone one-handed while piloting a two-wheeled moving vehicle for the first time. For those of you who can do all that stuff, though, here’s an interesting iPhone motorcycle kit from France.
Seems like just yesterday when we started to get a funny feeling about an official Rock Band for iPhone release. Turns out, our very own Inspector Gadget, one Mr. Kumparak, was spot on with his sleuthing – Rock Band for the iPhone / iPod touch was officially announced by Electronic Arts earlier today.
There are some modders out there whom I would accuse of having too much free time. Whoever made this latest iPhone tweak would certainly be among them.
Whoever manipulated the above image to make this humongous iPhone battery pack look relatively manageable ought to be given a raise. Conversely, whoever wrote “It is not bulky either as it just extends a little at the bottom” in the product description ought to immediately undergo a workplace evaluation. If it happens to be the same person who handled both the photo and the product description, then God help us all.
Growing up, was there anything worse than being called a rich kid? Granted, it was probably just a case of petty jealousy—I wish I had a power wheel!—but man oh man did the rich kid win no friends. Fast-forward a few years, and the rich kid isn’t just flaunting his new lunchbox and Spider-Man sneakers, no sir: he’s driving a brand new car and checking his Facebook on his shiny, new iPhone 3G S. Or, a long way of say the obvious: Apple products are popular with kids from wealthy parents.
Do you have an iPhone? Would you like to play Myst for free? You can, sorta! What used to be the Myst demo is now called Myst FREE. You can explore Myst Island, but that’s about it.
