Oink, a new app from Kevin Rose’s app development lab Milk, is now available for download in the App Store. Oink is a social recommendation and ranking app that takes a Foursquare-like check-in approach, letting users rate and rank the different items — instead of places — that they like.

The main idea is for users to recommend and rate products from different businesses so they can share with friends and spread the word about the things they enjoy. It seems like a really great idea, as long as enough of your friends are using the service, and gives a fresh approach to finding and enjoying items with like-minded people.

Oink is an easy way to rate and rank the things around you. Instead of just rating places, you rate the items inside. You could easily find the most popular items on a menu and see if a friend has tried anything there. Then if there’s something you like, it’s just a single press to rate it and share it with friends.

What you can do with Oink:

• Rate items around you and share with your followers
• See all the cool stuff your friends and other users are Oinking
• Find the best things in town (e.g. Best “Pizza” in Denver)
• Find the items at a place (e.g., Best roller coasters at Six Flags)
• Build “cred” in your areas of interest
• Share your Oink activity on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare

Oink is available on the iPhone and iPod touch for free.

App Store Link

Digg founder Kevin Rose, whose record with Apple rumors ranges from spot on to completely wrong, now claims he has it on good authority that iPad 2 will be announced in 3-4 weeks, possibly February 1, and include dual cameras as well as a Retina Display.

Dual cameras seem almost certain given how Apple is pushing FaceTime (and given our video hands-on with the dummy iPad 2 at CES). Retina Display though? We’ve been over that before but just to recap…

The current iPad is 1024 x 768. Apple needs to double that in both directions to go Retina, which would make 2048 x 1536. At 9.7-inches. That’s more pixels than Apple’s 27-inch LED cinema display at a fraction of the size. Even if LG or whomever could crank out those panels, the cost would almost certainly be prohibitive. And if Apple tries to do anything other than double the resolution, current apps would either look terrible when stretched or would have UI elements shrunken below the point of usability by boxing.

Sure, maybe Apple will invent automagic resolution independence but anyone who’s seen even the straight “blurry double chunky” pixel doubling mode on the current iPad knows sometimes less is more.

UPDATE: Kevin Rose has updated to hedge on the Retina Display:

Spoke w/another source, the display has a “higher dpi”, but not technically a retina display. This seems odd to me, we’ll have to wait and see..

[Kevin Rose]

Digg founder Kevin Rose thinks the upcoming $99, iOS-powered Apple TV/iTV will change everything when it launches this September:

• iOS TV Applications: Expect to see an iPhone/Pad like marketplace for television applications. Video sharing/streaming/recording apps, interactive news apps, and of course games.
• a la carte (app) stations: With Apple’s iAds, content producers (eg. ABC/NBC/etc.) can directly monetize and distribute their content. This will eventually destroy the television side of the cable and satellite industry, as your only requirement to access these on-demand stations will be an internet connection. Say goodbye to your monthly cable bill.
• .Me Picture/Video sharing: At $99 your parents, grandparents, and friends will have an iTV. Sharing pictures/videos from your iPhone will happen with the push of a button. Imagine getting a notification of new family videos the next time you turn on your TV. My mom will love this feature.
• The iPad will turn into one big badass remote control: The iPad will be the preferred input device for the iTV. You’ll be able to editing videos, control games, and extend the interactive television experience. Imagine watching monday night football on the TV while viewing/exploring other camera angles on the iPad.

Rose has mixed history on Apple rumors. He’s nailed some big scoops over the years, but he’s also been wrong on more than one occasion. Which is this, far out or far fetched?

[Kevin Rose]

Kevin Rose jumped on Facebook video (login to Facebook required) to basically confirm what he said previously about copy and paste, saying it would be across apps, with cut available as well in those apps that support it (?).

He also confirmed hearing MMS would be enabled from multiple sources, something he said he didn’t know previously.

A third, unidentified rumor was mentioned but not elaborated on as Rose said he had conflicting sources.

That was it from Rose, though hopefully not from Apple. Just over 12 hours from now we’ll find out for sure!

UPDATED 2: As commenters have pointed out, Rose doesn’t say “no MMS”, he says he doesn’t know about MMS. He does say Apple is not providing Video Recording due to technical limitations: writing too frequently to the NAND Flash memory would burn it out. (While it’s true writing to NAND is destructive and thus, there are limited write cycles, Dieter tells us devices like the HTC Touch Diamond and Sumsung Omnia allow writing to internal storage, so who knows?). Basically, the gist of Rose’s rumor is that iPhone 3.0 will have Cut/Copy and Paste, and “Palm Pre”-like features…

UPDATE: MacRumors has posted slightly clearer details on Rose’s description of how cut/copy and paste works, along with a link to the video (NSFW-L):

Double-tap to bring up a magnifying glass with two quotes, you drag quotes around text string to select, and then you can cut/copy and paste.

ORIGINAL: Kevin’s back. Back again. Digging iPhone rumors. Tell ya friends! Not iChat Mobile this time, unfortunately, but Gizmodo is reporting that during his SXSW live Diggnation, Kevin Rose – who’s flubbed almost all iPhone rumors, but nailed iTunes and iPod nano scoops — put it on the line again for iPhone 3.0 pre-Preview Event:

• Cut and paste (as previously rumored) using double-tap to zoom and activate, pinch boundaries, then options pop up.
• “Palm Pre” features. (Could that be integrated social network contacts, unified messaging, better notifications, multi-tasking?)

Also, what will NOT be included?

• MMS (despite previous rumors)
• Video recording

What do we think? Will Rose be right or wrong this time? Tuesday’s just under two days away!

Yup, Kevin Rose is back, back again, this time with a sneak peak at Qik for the iPhone, the online video broadcasting App that everyone and their Twitter-feed was “going live” with on the Nokia N95 last year.

Not a jailbreak, but a real honest-to-Steveness App Store application, Kevin says it will be available soon. We say… will Apple approve it? And if they do, what will it say having internet broadcast video capability on a device that still lacks support for local video recording?

Who knows? As Dieter points out, Apple’s cagey approval/rejection process is still incomprehensible.

Qik looks to be One Sweet App, however, and we can’t wait for it to “go live.” Can you?

Yeah, I know, I hear ya. But Kevin Rose did totally nail iTunes 8, so why not listen to what the founder of Digg, Revision 3, and Pownce has to say about the iTunes 9 Social? And hey, if it doesn’t pan out, we can all go back to hating on his predictions, b’okay?

Tops on his “idea of the month” list for iTunes 9?

• Get everyone’s music info into existing Social Networks, then import it into iTunes
• Smart Friends. Example: “Any new artist listened to more than 10x by friend [name]“
• Jukebox Live! All your friends can contribute to and share a common “radio station” on the local network.

You know what? Those aren’t half bad! Listen to the full explanations in the video, and let Kevin (and us!) know what you think!

Kevin Rose, bound by vengeance to clear his name of false rumors past, has been laying the veritable smack down on Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event. It’s like he’s got Phil Schiller on the Bat-iPhone or something.

The latest? The above mock up of what iTunes 8.0′s interface will look like, along with a roundup of rumors thus far. Maybe he’ll digg his way out of this yet! (Har!)

Meanwhile, Apple Insider is reporting that some users might have sneaked a copy of an early, pre-release iTunes 8.0 download. Nothing much there to substantiate it yet, but we all remember people getting iPhone 2.0 early last time, so who knows?

(Us, come tomorrow’s Live Meta-Blog — see you there!)

Kevin Rose rumored a newer, trip’ier, more galactic iTunes visualizer, and now according to MacRumors, he’s confirmed where it comes from:

Magnetosphere had been available as a free download from the developer’s site until a few months ago. The author has since responded to an inquiry by Allan White that the plug-in had been “sold to a third party”.

Since CoverFlow was acquired by Apple and integrated into iTunes (before progressing into Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard’s Finder file browser — and the iPhone!), this certainly has precedence.

We’ll find out for sure on Tuesday!

Update: Kevin Rose has a new blog post up, with some additional info:

iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together. Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.

With iTunes 8, browse your artists and albums visually with the new Grid view; download your favorite TV shows in HD quality from the iTunes Store; sync your media with iPod nano (4th generation), iPod classic (2nd generation), and iPod touch (2nd generation); and enjoy a stunning new music visualizer.

(Thanks Bad Ash for the update!)

Original post after the break…

Kevin Rose is going to get someone at Apple Jobsbliterated. If all these rumors he’s leaking are true, that is. First it was the new iPod Nano (which is looking likely), then the September 9th date for the Let’s Rock event (confirmed), and now he’s back Twittering additions to his previous iTunes 8 recommendations rumor:

the new iTunes 8.0 visualizations are really trippy – there is one with planet like objects wrapping around each other w/stars/light streams

Certainly not a major new feature by any stretch of the imagination, and we’d call immediate shenanigans if we didn’t think there was just the sort of 60s flashback stuff Steve Jobs might be hankering for these days.

We’ll see what the 8-ball says but in the meantime, can you digg it?

Welcome to the first in a new series from TiPb, where we take the often outlandish, sometime surreal predictions of iPhone analysts and pundits, blogeratti and the ‘net elite, and compare them to the potentially equally precise prognostications of a… magic 8-ball (running on an iPhone, of course!)

This edition kicks off with Gene Munster, who boldly states Apple will sell 13 million iPhone 3Gs this year, and 45 million next.

Magic 8-ball? “Most likely”

Next up we have Diggster Kevin Rose, with a multitude of maybes:

• Apple Event on September 9th? “Very doubtful”
• Firmware 2.1 debuting on sleeker iPod Touch? “Most likely”
• iTunes 8 with music recommendations? “Cannot predict now”
• New, candy-bar Nano with rounded widescreen? “It is certain”
• Massive iPod price drops across the line? “Don’t count on it”
• Mac OS X with Blu-Ray? “Ask again later”

Lastly, iDealsChina is rumormongering GPS for the iPod Touch? “Cannot predict now”

Who’s right? What’s left?

When a story breaks — if it breaks — we’ll come back and compare results. And we’re betting on a pretty even race, you?

(Special thanks to K. Michaels for the inspiration).

Following up his big blog rumor-fest with an appearance on This Week in Tech (TWiT), Kevin Rose filled in a few details, including that the supposed new Nano, face-lifted iPod Touch, and 2.1 firmware (presumably) would drop on September 9 at a Special Apple Event (or perhaps that the invitation for the special event would be issued on the 9th, it wasn’t crystal clear).

In addition, when bullied by Laporte and Dvorak, Rose — who said he feared criticism if he were wrong — revealed that one of the major new features in iTunes 8 could be song recommendations, perhaps similar to how Pandora or Last.fm work. He also said he’d heard the iTunes Unlimited subscription rumor was false.

Is Rose dead wrong? Startlingly right? We’ll know for sure in a few weeks!

Internet superstar Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, Pownce, and Revision3 has a… er… spotty record at best when it comes to iPhone speculation. Still, we give him full marks for getting back on that rumor horse once again. This time, Kevin’s saying he knows that sometime before the end of September we’ll see:

• Firmware 2.1, debuting on the iPod Touch (which will get a minor facelift).
• iTunes 8.0 with “new features and functionality” he can’t get into.
• Price drops along the iPod line to keep them competitive with iPhone’s $199
• Rounded wide-screen nano, back in candy-bar form factor
• Mac OS X 10.5.6 to feature Blu-Ray support.

Rose, who’s locked in a battle with Barak Obama and Leo Laporte for the crown of top Twitter’er, asks that we follow him there, or on his own platform, Pownce, for more updates.

Our take? Last year’s big pre-holiday Apple event introduced the iPod Touch, which debuted the new 1.1 firmware, including the WiFi Music Store, so that’s quite possible. iTunes 8.0 is more opaque, however. If App Store integration wasn’t a big enough marketing excuse to make the full point jump to iTunes 8.0, what would it take? (7.0, for example, added CoverFlow and iPod Games).

iPod price drops before the biggest selling season of the year make sense, as Apple dropped the iPhone $200 at last years event. Likewise a new Nano.

Blu-Ray support — if it’s to include BD movie playback — is a bigger nut to crack, however, because the short sighted industry killers in Hollywood demands HDCP DRM compliance (i.e. hardware enforced, digital rights managed copy protection) over the full path, from player, through cables and graphic cards, into the monitor — and in the OS. This caused a bit of an internet brouhaha when Microsoft “caved” for Vista. Laptops and the iMac would be far easier to implement, but is there business advantage enough for Steve Jobs to feel like doing it?

(via MacRumors)

One of the most important aspects of the iPhone is how it’s breathed the air of change into long stodgy, backwards thinking mobile cellular providers. We can argue whether its been less effective post iPhone 3G where subsidies have returned, but either way Apple fairly neatly removed the carrier middleman from its usual intrusive position in the smartphone space. App Store is clearly the crowning example thus far, but frequent firmware updates is sometimes likewise cited.

On the latest This Week in Tech (TWiT) podcast, however, Digg founder Kevin Rose credited an unnamed source inside Apple as saying AT&T had to approve the next iPhone firmware update. Of course, Rose has been, er… somewhat less than accurate in regards to iPhone news in the past (including his reports that the iPhone 3G would have video iChat). In his corner this time, however, are server logs showing iPhone 2.0.1 traffic on popular Apple news sites originating from both Cupertino and AT&T HQ regions.

Has AT&T always played a role in firmware testing or is this a new factor in a post 3G world? If it’s new, will it make 2.x updates take longer than 1.x did? And do international carriers like 02, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Rogers, Orange, etc. all have similar advanced testing privileges? If so, will 22+ (70+ eventually) carriers wanting to test new firmware result in huge delays or staggered launches? Or is this just another well Dugg tempest in a Royal Jasmine teapot?

On a side note, the same episode of TWiT saw the crankiest of geeks, John C. Dvorak “dot org slash blog” claim that one particularly damaging rumor circulating about Steve Jobs current health was deliberately and maliciously spread at an exclusive CEO gathering by an as-yet unnamed but well known executive with a personal grudge against Jobs and Apple. Dvorak maintains the rumor, which recent reports have indicated is false, was spread to other CEOs who then propagated it, adding to the confusion and downward pressure on Apple’s stock. If he can get a second anonymous confirmation on the story, Dvorak claims he will name names in his Marketwatch column.

As a huge fan of Karma, that should make for an interesting day, and likely more than a “slime bucket” response from El Jobso.

“Inside Steve’s Brain” author Leander Kahney of Wired magazine is reporting a programmer source inside a major software house has revealed that the next generation iPhone 3G will thinner — we’re talking Paris Hilton thinner — by a whopping 22%.

Not only that, it will sport better battery life than the already impressive 8 hours talk time of the first gen model, and twice the NAND flash capacity, topping out at 32GB. (Paving the way for 64GB iPod Touch’s?)

Still not enough, echoing Kevin Rose (historically not the most reliable of iPhone prognosticators), Kahney thinks the phone may be heavily carrier subsidized — down to the $200 level in some cases — in an effort to put the hurt on Blackberry.

Okay, fess up, who left the rumor mill jacked up to max?!

Read

Joking that the iPhone Risk map was getting a little crowded up in Europe… turns out not to be a joke anymore:

Swisscom on Wednesday confirmed it will begin selling Apple’s iPhone in Switzerland this year, possibly bolstering a recent report on the matter which also stated that the handset would arrive with video conferencing and other fresh features.

What fresh new features? As if borrowing from Kevin Rose’s twitter feed, GPS, bi-direction video iChat Mobile, and mobile TV.

Checking the score board:

Personally, I’m not sold on 2-way iChat yet, or Mobile TV unless Apple can break it out of the carrier-controlled sandbox in which it now languishes. This is a little too close to rumor-regurgitation for now. GPS, on the other hand, seems likely.

What do you think?

Read

“Phone different, real posts no gimmicks”

[With apologies to Eminem and - ahem - our readers.]

Rumor’s back. Back again. iPhone packed. Tell your friends.
From VP. Close to APPL. Kevin tweets. He’s top lvl.
3G soon. GPS spin. Here by June. FTW!
Kevin’s back. Back again. {interweb hums}

For those of you who aren’t up on either your Eminem or your Twitter, the story here is Kevin Rose posted up another teaser, this time on Twitter, that he has the inside line on the 3G iPhone with the above specs. He’s playing with us, right?

Right?

Digg and Pownce founder and web 2.0 darling Kevin Rose, during the latest Diggnation podcast, made the following prognostications about the eventual 3G iPhone (via Apple Insider):

[Kevin Rose] claims that a 3G version of the iPhone hardware due in a few months will employ two digital cameras situated back-to-back — one on the front side of the unit behind the transparent touch-screen, and a second one on the back of the handset as it exists today.

Rose also conjectures that this may be why Apple has limited background processes in the current SDK: to prevent competition to their upcoming iChat Touch application.

iChat Touch, according to Rose, will allow full-on video conferencing via high-speed HSDPA between 3G iPhone users and desktop iChat users alike.

As to how reliable Rose’s predictions may be, Apple Insider reminds us:

In the week’s leading up to last year’s iPhone introduction, the Digg founder cited sources in saying Apple would introduce the handset with a slide-out keyboard, two separate battery compartments, and make it available for both CDMA and GSM networks — all of which turned out to be false.

So, um… er… yeah — we’ll take this with a shovel full of salt for now.

Still, the idea iChat Touch with video is exciting and functionality I’d love to see on the second generation iPhone. What do you think?