If you’re obsessed with all things Apple, particularly the iPhone or iPod touch, you can now go to the next level… with iPhone bedding.
I would like to think that this was designed for young kids, but I have a feeling it will be purchased by grown men who don’t plan on bringing anybody back to their place.
Rumors have been circulating blogs and Twitter for months, but today they were confirmed as Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPad tablet computer at an invite-only event.
From Engaget.com
Like other Apple devices, the iPad will run on a 3G network, have Wi-Fi capabilities, and be compatible with iTunes and the app store. Content publishers are hoping the tablet will be an opportunity to increase subscription revenues.
While Jobs calls the new product “a truly magical and revolutionary product,” other people are skeptical that consumers will agree. The tablet computer in general is not a new product. In fact, you can trace the idea back to at least the 1990’s. But so far no tablet has gained wide acceptance in the market and really taken off. Apple is hoping that with the popularity of the iPhone interface the iPad becomes the first success story.
According to a couple reports out of Korea, the next generation iPhone is scheduled to be released in April. The new iPhone is expected to have a dual-core processor (in a phone? Wow), video chat, improved graphics, OLED display and *gasp!* a removable battery.
The reports refer to the new iPhone as the “4G iPhone” or “iPhone 4G,” although it’s believed that the G refers to “generation” and not 4G as in the network.
Stay tuned.
While I don’t think anyone will dispute that the iPhone user interface is much better than Windows Mobile, it was until recently lagging behind Windows Mobile in terms of overall users. Well that is no longer. According to a recent comScore survey, the iPhone now has some nine million users as compared to seven million for Windows Mobile.
So take that, Microsoft.
The iPhone also leads the world in mobile web presence, accounting for about half of all mobile web traffic.
Wow! Go, iPhone!
AT&T is getting fed up with people using up too much of their bandwidth on the iPhone. The company says that only 3% of iPhone users take up 40% of the bandwidth and it is a problem for areas with heavy iPhone usage such as Manhattan and San Francisco.
AT&T’s head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, said that a different pricing system could be coming to discourage people from hogging bandwidth with things like streaming audio or video. This would be “to either reduce or modify their usage so they don’t crowd out the other customers in those same cell sites,” he said.
We can’t see this endearing AT&T to Apple and could very well hinder a chance at getting a new exclusivity contract.
The research firm IDC predicts that by the end of 2010, the iPhone and iTouch will about 300,000 apps available for download. Certainly not a crazy prediction considering how many apps come out on a daily basis.
Our question is this: How many apps will be out by then that are worth a damn? Now that is a much better question.
With AT&T’s exclusivity running out on the iPhone, it seemed to most that Verizon would be the next to get it. Not so, says industry analyst Dough Reid.
Reid told The Street “Apple wants to move away from exclusivity; T-Mobile would achieve this for Apple in the U.S.”
While T-Mobile is a much smaller company, they do have the same GSM network as AT&T. This means that Apple wouldn’t have to manufacture a whole new device in order to work. This could be the deal breaker for Verizon.
But, we don’t know that this would happen. AT&T has some 71 million customers and T-Mobile has about half of that. The solution could be to offer the iPhone to both companies and then let users select which one they’d like to use.
Stay tuned on this one.
Appleinsider.com is told that Apple is coming out with a new “Concierge” app for the iPhone that would allow customers to make an appointment with a retail store right on the phone.
Yayyy. Thank god for this. It is so incredibly difficult to pick up a phone and actually call someone.
Here is an entertaining list of what not to do when constructing your iPhone app. It makes sense and they give examples for each:
Be Slow and Stingy: Wired Product Reviews (2.5 stars, 3,724 ratings) gets high marks for good reviews and video when users can find them, but the app gets slammed by users for poor loading times and a dearth of new content. Crashes and reviews not loading properly are frequent complaints from users. In our own experience, we have tried loading reviews in some of the product categories in this app and given up.
Don’t Pay Attention to the Competition: Sports Illustrated quietly came into the app store a couple of months ago with its news and sports scores app (2.5 stars, 867 ratings). Many of the users who actually did discover that their favorite sports brand was here were sorely disappointed by poor updating and buggy behavior. While some users simply like having access to the magazine’s great writing and imagery, the majority of reviewers say they are let down. The big problem for SI is that their main competition, ESPN, has hands down some of the most popular applications across the App Store.
Overpromise, Under-deliver: CBS promises “personalized TV” in its TV.com streaming media applications (2.5 stars, 7,929 ratings) and instead gives most users TV the way we remember it in 1957. With only a handful of shows available in full episodes, a weird collection of brands (CBS, CNet, CW, Showtime) and a lot of promotional trailers. Without clear utility or a reliable and rich content experience, this is a tube TV still waiting to warm up.
Keep Making It Worse: The jury is still out on whether the magazine branded shopping apps we have seen in recent months really are getting traction with users. Many suffer from tepid and few reviews. Lucky At Your Service (2 stars, 1,228 ratings) got slammed by some reviewers who actually like the early iterations of the app and then felt betrayed by cluttered and buggy updates. Complaints about crashes and slow downloads abound, and the reviews have not rebounded even as the app reaches Version 3.0.
Here is a good article from ZDNet.com on their top business apps for the iPhone.
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