A couple of years ago Steve Jobs called a Town Hall meeting at Apple and rallied the troops by saying the next iPhone, which was to be the iPhone 4, would be an A+ update and take it to the turncoat Google and their Android operating system. According to our sources, a similar sentiment is being expressed by Apple in Cupertino again this year, but with a decidedly different twist. Instead of just hitting Google and Android in the market place with better hardware and software, and in the courts with patent litigation, they're going to hit them where it really hurts.

While the exact numbers are hotly debated, it's long been said Google makes more money off iOS than they do off their own Android operating system. The reason for this is simple -- mainstream iOS users tend to use the web and apps more than mainstream Android users, and iOS is filled with Google services. The built-in Maps app is powered by Google and provides sponsored search results. The built-in Safari web browser defaults to Google Search and serves Google Search ads. When iOS users use those services, Google makes money. Regardless of whether or not iOS or Android is winning in the market place, Google is winning in the wallet.

And Apple wants to end that.

Removing Google from Maps is an easy step in that direction. As reported by 9to5Mac earlier today, and as we've confirmed from our own sources as well, iOS 6 will come with an updated Maps app that removes the Google backend and replaces it with an Apple backend.

This isn't without precedent. Both Apple and Google used to use Skyhook for Wi-Fi router location mapping, and both have now switched to in-house databases. Google used to license map tiles and has since re-drawn them themselves. Apple has bought 3 mapping data related companies, and could have either re-licensed or redrawn tiles by now as well.

For the end-user, the interface is the app, and switching out backend pipes is far more transparent than altering front ends. Mail is Mail regardless if it's being fed by iCloud or Gmail. The same holds true, in large part, for Maps.

So in this case, the goal is more interesting than the process -- to remove Google as much as possible from iOS.

Realistically, Google Search will be tougher to replace since Google enjoys an almost monopoly sized share of the search space. But it may not be impossible to displace. Apple is already intermediating Google Search with Siri and that will likely continue.

Google isn't in the search business, it's in the data collection/advertising business. It doesn't make money when you search its index, it makes money recording your information, aggregating it, and brokering deals for it. Search isn't the product it sells. We are. If Apple steps in and makes the queries on our behalf, and returns them on Google's behalf, Google is cut out of the important parts -- the money.

All of this is in stark contrast to January 2007, when then Google CEO Eric Schmidt took the Macworld stage with then Apple CEO Steve Jobs to celebrate the Apple/Google iPhone partnership. That was before Google pulled a 180 and turned Android from a low-end Windows Mobile and BlackBerry competitor to an iPhone competitor. That was before Apple started suing Android manufacturers and Steve Jobs threatened to go "thermonuclear".

And that's before Apple decided to stop helping Google's revenue stream, data stream, and perhaps bolstering their stock profile, by giving them built-in access to iOS users, and Apple branded data deals.

Now, Apple isn't just fighting back by making the best iOS software and iPhone hardware they can, and by trying to legally force Android manufacturers to stop copying Apple. With iOS 6 on the upcoming iPhone 5 and rumored 7-inch iPad, they're fighting back by removing as much of Google as they can as well. By denying Google access to iOS eyeballs and data.

If history is any indicator, both new devices will sell incredibly well, and tens of thousands of new customers, and hundreds of thousands of newly updated customers, will be funding and feeding Google less than ever before.

This time Apple's fighting back by hitting Google where it really hurts -- in the wallet.

Search giant Baidu owns roughly 87% of of the huge Chinese market, and according to rumors, Apple could be planning to add support for their service to a future version of iOS. Sina Tech is reporting that, according to their "knowledgable sources", Baidu integration could come as early as next month. Tech in Asia translates and encapsulates:

Apparently, Baidu’s cloud and mobile chief Li Mingyuan hinted at this during the launch of Baidu’s cloud storage service last week, saying that the company already had a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Apple in China.

iOS currently has Google as the default search engine, with options to switch to Yahoo! and Bing in the Safari Settings. There's been no official word from either Baidu or Apple on the matter, but OS X Mountain Lion contains expanded Chinese web services so iOS adding one more search engine, especially one as big as Baidu, in a market as important to Apple as China, doesn't seem far-fetched.

Indeed, China currently tops the charts when it comes to iOS device activations, recently blowing past the US. Even though Apple still trails Samsung, Apple has increasingly stressed the growth of their retail presence and product adoption in China. Apple CEO Tim Cook has placed China ahead of Brazil and Russia on Apple's priority list, saying demand in China has been staggering and off the charts. Apple has even reportedly been working to help better support gray-market iPhones on China's largest carrier, China Mobile.

If accurate, it would also likely need to be part of an iOS 5.1.x or even iOS 5.2 update.

Whether or not this has anything to do with Apple's increasingly tense relationship with Google is uncertain, but putting Baidu on iOS, even if Google retains default status, could further erode what percentage of the search space Google has managed to secure in China.

Source: Sina Tech via Tech in Asia, The Next Web

Google can keep track of everything you've ever searched for using their Web History service, even if you've cleared the browser history on your iPhone, iPad, or PC. Now that Google is changing their privacy policy -- which some view as an excellent simplification and standardization and others see as a disturbing data grab -- it means your search results won't be kept separately but potentially shared with each and every other Google service.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has this to say:

Until now, your Google Web History (your Google searches and sites visited) was cordoned off from Google's other products. This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and more. If you want to keep Google from combining your Web History with the data they have gathered about you in their other products, such as YouTube or Google Plus, you may want to remove all items from your Web History and stop your Web History from being recorded in the future.

If you choose to disable Google Web History, here's how:

1. Log into your Google account
2. Go to http://www.google.com/history
3. Tap on Remove all Web History

Once you remove your Google Web History, Google will also stop recording it going forward (unless or until you re-enable it via the same page).

Google has been under increased scrutiny lately when it comes to online user privacy, for the heavy handed way they've used Search and Gmail to push their social networks like Google Buzz and Google+, and more recently for the discovery they've been circumventing Safari's third party cookie protection.

Via: EFF

Siri, Apple's digital assistant technology exclusive to the iPhone 4S, currently accounts for nearly 25 percent of all search queries conducted through the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine. According to The New York Times:

Less than three years ago, Dr. Wolfram created a new kind of search engine, called Wolfram Alpha . Unlike Google or Microsoft’s Bing, Wolfram Alpha does not forage the Web. It culls its own painstakingly curated database to find answers. [...] the technology has come a long way, including delivering many answers for Siri, the question-answering personal assistant in the Apple iPhone 4S.

Originally geared towards math and science queries, Wolfram Alpha has expanded functionality to cover tasks like unit conversions, statistical data aggregation, and consumer-oriented activies such as displaying local show times or calculating distances. This has made it far more useful to mainstream consumers -- the kind likely to have an iPhone 4S and Siri.

Apple sold over 37 million iPhones last quarter and the iPhone 4S took the top spot in terms of smartphone popularity, so it's no surprise that a full quarter of searches on the service are from Apple's digital assistant. And with smartphone adoption hitting massive growth -- paired with speculation that Apple has plans to bring Siri to future iOS devices -- it doesn't seem all that far-fetched to imagine Wolfram working overtime just to provide curated results for Apple products.

Source: NYT

Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners -- who previously made headlines before they sold Palm to HP -- is back with some interesting views on how Apple's App Store might have already killed Google's open web.

McNamee asserts that search, which makes Google billions in advertising revenue on the desktop, has been reduced to 1% of mobile activity, effectively obliterating it as a business. He blames/credits that to Apple and their App Store model, where they present the internet not in open, standards based web pages but closed, proprietary native applications.

The open web was too wild for the mainstream, MacNamee says, which makes Apple's iPhone and iPad far more accessible, approachable, and comfortable. (He also thinks iPad is the most important device since the IBM PC and urges everyone to get one.)

McNamee doesn't seem to be casting Apple as the villain of the open web, or the hero of the app mainstream, but rather both, or rather still commenting on the re-closing of the web.

That's something we've been speaking about a lot on our podcasts lately. Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL, etc. all started as mainstream-friendly, walled-gardens built on top of the internet. Eventually, they had to give users real email and real web access, and the walled gardens fell.

Now, however, the App Store has repackaged it again. And Facebook has erected a new, more social, but just as walled a garden. And Google is having to walk the line with Android and Plus and other services to provide a good experience while still staying as open as their original philosophy allowed.

MacNamee thinks it's done in Mobile. Google's model lost. I'm not so sure. "It is what it is" is far too easy and final for the turbulence we're still undergoing. Apple is all in on open HTML5 as a second development platform, for example, so just like Google they're embracing/hedging what they feel is the best of both models. That might be the new normal. We might finally be recognizing one model doesn't work for everyone, and a combination of the two is more than the sum of it's parts -- or its soundbites.

Video after the break.

[Fortune via Android Central]

Want to know how to find the closest sushi restaurant, or pizza, or who to call to make a reservation when it's your anniversary and you completely forgot to make a reservation? Never fear, the native Google Maps app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is here! We'll show you how it can save the day -- or at least save yourself from pizza famine -- after the break!

1. Launch maps
2. Get your current location by tapping the arrow button at the bottom left.
3. Using the search field at the top right, type in the type of food you want, the name of the restaurant you're looking for, or anything you can remember about the address. For example, I’m in New York City near Broadway and Reade Street and I’m in the mood for Pizza. Typing “pizza” will then search the environs for the nearest pizza joints and drop a pin on their precise locations.
4. Tap the pins to get more information. You can click the small blue chevron to bring up more information about your chosen pizza place, and if it has a Google Streetview icon on the left, you can even see the place and its surroundings!
   
5. Tap the link to the homepage of the restaurant, or if you're on an iPhone, simply tap of the phone number to call it right up (so they can have your pie hot ‘n ready for you when you get there).
6. Finally, tap the “Directions to Here” button at the bottom of the info page and select if you are driving, taking public transit or walking with estimated time it takes to get there.

That's it, a few simple steps to find the food, Starbucks, burger joint, pizza place, or 5-star restaurant of your choice, all right on your iOS device! If you have any other Maps tips, let us know in the comments!

[Special thanks to Master from the iPad live chatroom for this tip!]

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Google held their Inside Search event today, and once again the focus is on speed and convenience, especially in mobile. For iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users, this means faster local searches and faster suggested searches in Safari. (Or your WebKit browser of choice on other mobile platforms.)

Local search:

On the results page, you'll see a map with markers for your current location and places around you. When you scroll through the results, the map remains at the top of the page and adjusts automatically to the listing you are looking at. That way, you can see the listing information while still getting location context from the map. Tapping on a result will quickly show you more about a place including reviews and other useful details. Discovering great places nearby has never been easier on your mobile phone.

Suggested search builds:

Another mobile improvement we’ve introduced today is an easier way to build longer, more complicated searches. You can now add suggested phrases to the search box and “build” your search piece by piece. This feature is already available on the Google Search app for Android and iOS devices and we’re now making this available on www.google.com from your mobile browser. Watch the video below to see how you can search faster with less typing.

It works on iOS 4 compatible browsers (and presumably iOS 5 as well). Google announced a lot of other improvements for their non-mobile search today as well, like Instant, improved Voice and Image, etc. so hit up the Google Inside Search link below for the bigger picture.

Then go search Safari and tell us what you think.

[Google Inside Search Blog, Google Mobile Blog, Android Central]

About to embark on a much needed, well deserved vacation and wondering how to find lodging close by? Hotels, motels, beds and breakfast places, the Google Maps app can help you easily locate tons of possibilities. Follow on after the break and we'll show you how!

Let say you are planning a trip to San Francisco and need to find places to stay that are closest to the airport.

1. Where will you be? - Instead of using iOS’s location services in the Maps App, type in the city name in the search field.
   
2. Refine the details - Once the Google Maps App resolves the city name and drops a pin, you can then type the word “Airport” in the search field (in case you don’t recall the name). I know that Berkeley is the airport I’m heading to, so next I pinch and zoom to the pin for Berkeley Airport.
3. Search!- search for “Hotel” to find a hotel that is nearest to the Airport. I’ve chosen La Quinta Inn Berkeley.
   
4. More info - Click the info chevron and select if you want to call them direct or visit their website to make a reservation.
5. You can finally click the “Directions to Here” button at the bottom of the info page and select if you are driving, taking public transit or walking with estimated time it takes to get there.

Any other great vacation planning tips to share? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks to Master from the iPhone Live chatroom for the tip!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward...)

Along with notification changes, twitter integration, and tons of new APIs - the iOS mail app will get some welcome additions as well.

New features include:

• New keyboard - you can split it up! (iPad only most likely)
• Rich text editing (about time!)
• Indentation control
• Draggable addresses
• Built in dictionary (iOS wide - tap a word and click define to bring up the dictionary - I still want to be able to add entries)
• Search entire content of messages
• Flag messages

More as we hear updates!

Twitter today announced improved search, and first-party (i.e. Twitter's own) image hosting service.

Today we're starting to roll out a completely new version of Twitter search. Not only will it deliver more relevant Tweets when you search for something or click on a trending topic, but it will also show you related photos and videos, right there on the results page. It's never been easier to get a sense of what's happening right now, wherever your curiosity takes you.

The image hosting is an even bigger deal, given the somewhat dubious licensing terms some third party hosts have been putting in place (taking ownership of users' photos as their own).

Millions of people share photos on Twitter every day. We're going to make that easier than ever. Over the next several weeks, we'll be releasing a feature to upload a photo and attach it to your Tweet right from Twitter.com. And of course, you'll soon be able to easily do this from all of our official mobile apps. A special thanks to our partner Photobucket for hosting these photos behind the scenes.

So expect updates for Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for iPad soon to take advantage of these new features... and perhaps some bigger announcements come the WWDC keynote on Monday...

Video after the break!

[Twitter blog]

Planet-iPhones has released a browser-based Cydia Search. You can browse cydia's default repositories, or add your own, which the website will refresh every hour. You can also search through categories or look for a specific app directly.

The app view on the site is very clean and and clearly lists: the description, the price, the developer and the repository including whether its from a trusted or untrusted source. It also shows, the iPhone's cydia UI, for screenshots and any other notes.

Tell us, will you use this as an alternative cydia search?

[Cydia Search] via [iSource]

Don't use Spotlight on your iPhone very much and wondering how you can just remove the feature altogether? If you have a jailbroken iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad there's a free and easy way to stop Spotlight from ever bothering you again, and we're going to show you how after the break!

To remove Spotlight search go into Cydia and search for an app called NoSpot (free). What NoSpot does is removes Spotlight from your iPhone homescreen completely. I personally can't recall the last time I actually used Spotlight for searching my iPhone or iPad, so this is a great way to stop it from always showing up when you swipe left or press the home button on the main home screen.

Installing this extension will not put a new app icon on your springboard and won't add any additional settings in the settings app. There are no options for this extension, it simply removes Spotlight search from ever showing up. Brilliant!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

The popular Google Mobile app has just received a major update and a complete name change too -- it will now be known simply as Google Search.

The update offers more ways to interact with the app using swipe gestures. Swiping down in a page will reveal the search bar whilst browsing. There is also a dedicated apps button for quick access to mobile versions of Google Apps. A new toolbar is available to filter search results; again a swipe is initiated to access this toolbar, left to right.

If you leave the app and come back later, you’ll be able to either start a new search by typing in the search box, hit the microphone button to do a voice search or tap on the camera icon to use Google Goggles. If you want to get back to exactly where you were before you left the app, you can simply tap the lower part of the page and it will be restored.

Google Goggles, Voice Search, My Location and Gmail have also all been improved in this new app. There is a short video after the break, demonstrating the new features.

[iTunes Link]

Earlier today Google rolled out their Instant Previews feature for mobile devices like iPhone. The feature adds elegant thumbnail previews to your search results and works perfectly on your iPhone or iPod touch, even bearing a resemblance to the way Mobile Safari handles tab management.

Instant Previews has been available on the desktop since last year but I never found myself actually using it. I've only been playing with it on my iPhone for a few minutes but can already tell you I'll be using Instant Previews a lot more on the go than I ever did on the desktop. Just tap the little magnifying glass next to your search results to see Instant Previews in action.

If you don't have your iPhone handy then check out the video after the break to get a better idea of how it works, and don't forget to let us know what you think in the comments!

Looks like Apple has made some changes to the App Store on iPad, including adding a slew of filters and will even let you know if any of the resulting apps are already bought/downloaded by giving you a new Install button.

New filters include Category, Release Date, Customer Rating, Price, and Device, as well as a Reset Filters option. Since App Store, like iTunes is really just an app-wrapped, internet powered, WebKit UI Apple can make all sorts of changes without having to wait for a new iOS version to ship. Usually these are just content features, banners, etc. (or the addition of Ping...) but it's nice to see new functionality sneak in every once and a while.

Also new, if you've already bought or downloaded an app but it's not currently loaded on your iPhone, you get an Install button instead of the usual Buy button.

Andrew also noticed that if you leave a search to go to Featured or Top Charts, etc. and then tap the search field at the top right, you're whisked right back the previous search results, sans keyboard.

So what do you think, welcome new features?

UPDATE: iPhone App Store now has the install buttons as well.

[Thanks Peter and Trevor!]

Google 'Instant Previews' is slowly appearing on iPhones and iPads.

Google rolled out their 'Instant Search' feature to iOS last November which allowed you to see instant results as you typed in your search. 'Instant Previews' allows you to view a screenshot of any webpage before loading it up, saving you time in the long run.

'Instant Previews' is accessed by tapping a small magnifying glass next to a result, which opens a new UI (reminicent to Safari's Tab UI) so you can scroll through all the different page screenshots.

Instant Previews hasn't hit all iOS devices yet, and Google is still yet to make an official announcement.

Have you had the pleasure of Instant Previews on your iPhone or iPad? Let us know what you think below.

[via 9to5mac]

Google's annual Zeitgeist reports has come out and shows Apple's iPad has taken the number one position for consumer electronic search queries in 2010. It also took the number two overall fastest rising search query behind Steve Jobs' favorite thing...chat roulette. Apple's iPhone 4 came in in the number two position in the consumer electronics category.

The iPad has had quite the year in 2010 taking home many honors which include the number three spot of the top 10 obsessions of 2010 and the number one spot on Time Magazine's top 10 gadget list of 2010. Not too shabby for a product that analysts claimed would be lucky if it sold 1 million units by the end of the year.

Any guesses as to what will lead the search results next year?

[ Google Zeitgeist via TUAW ]

While iOS 3 (iPhone 3.0) introduced Spotlight search for on-device information like contacts, songs, and apps, iOS 4 examples Spotlight to search the Web and Wikipedia as well.

From the main home screen, just swipe to move left to Spotlight, or click the home button to toggle to it, and start typing your search. You may see the aforementioned local results start to pop up but you'll also see a Safari icon saying Search Web and a curiously blank icon saying Search Wikipedia.

Tap those and Spotlight fades, Safari comes up, and you're off and searching the internet.

Already familiar with this? Then let us know if you're using it and how it's working for you. Any advantage to just going straight to Safari or tapping open a Wikipedia app?

For more features, see our complete iOS 4 walkthrough.

Spotlight in iPhone 4.0 takes a %&@ good on-device search that could find your apps, contacts, and other personal data, and makes it a ^%^(&$ fantastic on-device and web-resource search that can also send text strings out to the internet -- spelled Google and Wikipedia and bring you back the results.

First, yes, Google is still the default search engine, so that coffee break obviously worked. Second, yes, those Wikipedia strings that were discovered in previous iPhone 3.2 betas looks like they've finally surfaced.

Now if we could just search Twitter for real-time results... (Yeah, give us two services, we want twenty!)

[via Engadget]

Silicon Alley Insider claims, according to a source, that Google pays Apple $100 million dollars a year to be the default search engine for the iPhone. Frenemies indeed:

For Apple, that's not a lot of money. But, it's enough that it doesn't make sense for Apple to put considerable resources towards building its own Internet search engine. And, if Apple wanted more money or options, there's Microsoft -- with Bing and a big checkbook.

With Apple building a $2 billion dollar data center in North Carolina, and those rumors/manipulations about talks with Microsoft's Bing, it might be less about the money (which Apple has in ginormous, Scrooge McDuck-sized piles) and about, well, what these things are usually about for Apple -- control.

The iPhone's share of mobile search is likely something Google wants to maintain and Microsoft more than likely would love to take over via default status. The oncoming iPad, depending on its level of mainstream adoption, could be a significant presence as well. And users who valued design and experience enough to get a premium device like the iPhone (or iPad in the future) could be lucrative targets for advertisers once they figure out their segmentation models.

We can't dismiss Apple completely, however. They bought Quattro Wireless, a competitor to Google's recent Admob acquisition, because Steve Jobs wanted to "provide a better user experience", i.e. hedge Google and compete on his own terms. (Just like iWork does for Microsoft Office, MobileMe does for Exchange, Final Cut Pro does for Adobe Premiere, etc. etc.)

Jim Goldman of CNBC claims to have a source that is giving up some goods on the whole Apple and Microsoft teaming up against Google fiasco story:

• Microsoft wants part of the iPhone pie as the Bing app is currently bringing more web traffic than all of their Verizon deals put together.
• Microsoft is willing to pay Apple more than Google.
• Apple simply needs the search API from Bing, nothing more. (They will roll their own UI).
• Lastly, "Jobs hates Eric"

Ouch, that last one stings. How long will it be until we see Apple create their own search engine? Anyone taking bets?

[Via Yahoo, thanks to The Reptile for the tip!]

Microsoft has just made Bing [Free - iTunes app] their second iPhone and iPod touch app (no, Office wasn't first -- that's still MIA -- the amazing image-zooming Seadragon was), and it's fairly impressive. It takes a lot of the services Google powers throughout the iPhone and the Google Mobile app and collects them all in one place -- internet text string search, image, movies, a business directory, news, and maps and directions. You can also do Voice Search though without the accelerometer and proximity sensor tricks that make's Google's version so Star Trek.

The Bing app is great looking as well, with large photo backgrounds a la Bing website (and yes, you can tap the rounded square overlays to get factoids). Text string searches are pretty much on par with Google, sometimes returning more sensible results in more logical orders, sometimes not. A simple image search for "theiphoneblog bing", however, returned no results from the Bing app, and exactly what I was looking for in Google. (see below). Likewise, Voice Search tended to crash the app when it went into "thinking" mode. The business and other directory-style information is great, as usual with Bing.

If you're interested in comparing Microsoft's own Windows Mobile version, our buddy Phil from WMExperts has you covered. If you're wondering why Microsoft made Bing for the iPhone, despite Steve Ballmer cracking wise about the iPhone and the internet, Apple's platform enjoys a huge share of the mobile browsing space and Bing wants those eyeballs as much as the just-as-competitive-now Google.

Screenshots after the break!

[Bing via Thurrott]

Search Google.com from your iPhone (or Android or webOS device) and notice the brand-spanking new Options drop-down on the top right. Tap it a list Google's Mobile Blog says:

Finding the exact information you need sometimes requires filtering and refining your search results. Earlier in the year, we launched a collection of tools called Search Options which enable you to easily and quickly do this from a computer. Today in the US, we are making Search Options available on Android/iPhone/Palm WebOS devices so that you can slice and dice your mobile search results as well. For example, suppose you are shopping at a store for a camera, and you would like to see what users have been saying about a specific model within the past week. You can do this simply by searching for the name of the product. Then, on the search results page, use "Options" to filter by "Forums" and refine further by choosing "Past week".

Let us know how it works for you...

[via PreCentral.net]

Yahoo! and Microsoft have just announced a 10-year search deal where Microsoft's newly re-branded Bing service will take over web searches for the venerable Yahoo! For its part, Yahoo! will get 88% of ad-based search revenue for 5 years and the ability to sell ads to some Microsoft search sites as well and limited access to user data.

Um, okay. Is that a good deal? Even if it doesn't face any regulatory or approval problems, the deal won't close until next year and then will take up to a couple of years to get up and running.

So, impact on the iPhone and iPhone users in the short term is likely nothing. Although, like Jacob's nemesis on Lost, it could mean Microsoft has finally found a loophole to get their Bing search service onto the iPhone...

Currently the iPhone offers too search options via Settings > Safari: Google and Yahoo. Will Apple be switching that to Google and Bing?

Apple's lone outstretched hand to the social web, the MobileMe News "blog" is back with another helpful hint for users, this time about using iPhone 3.0 to search older email on the server:

select your Inbox or another folder from your MobileMe Mail account and access the search field by scrolling to the top of the message list. (Tap the status bar at the top to quickly reveal the search field.) Type what you want to search for and tap To, From, or Subject, or All to search all three. You'll see the messages that match the search on your device, and you can then tap "Continue Search on Server" to see the remaining messages that are stored in the MobileMe cloud.

I've used this to find old order info, network machine names, and scads of other stuff buried in server-side email. Since it doesn't (yet?) search the body of the email, it's not as useful as Gmail's WebApp, for example, but it's lightyears ahead of where it was under 2.2.1.

One of Dieter's longest longings for the iPhone was the ability just to start typing to search. Just turn the phone on and start typing to launch a device-wide query for all your contacts, emails, events, etc.

Well, it looks like iPhone OS 3.0 finally delivers for him, and all of us. The new iPhone 3.0 Settings > General > Home Button preference page expands on the iPhone 2.0 options of Home, Phone Favorites, and iPod with the two new, much appreciated additions:

• Search
• Camera

Primarily an on-the-go photographer? Just set this option and the Camera is always just a double-click of Home away. Mobile accomplisher like Dieter, choose Search and with a double-click you can immediately start typing in Spotlight to launch Apps or find your data.

Boom.

The intertubes are a flood with rumors that Apple may be building their own search engine. Does this mean they're going into competition with Microsoft Live! Search? With Yahoo!? With Google?! (After all, Google went into competition with Apple in the smartphone market!)

Probably not, according to TechCrunch:

The answer is they’re not. But the rumors persist, and we believe they have a nugget of truth. Here’s what we think is really going on: Apple doesn’t like the search experience on its mobile devices, and may be building a radically different user experience which is much more visual than exists today. It will likely still be powered by Google results, but Apple may present it in a very different way that suits mobile users much better.

Apple's already proven with the iPhone Map application that they can produce absolutely killer front-ends for Google's data pipes, could they do the same for search? And what would it be like?

The New York Times (via Giz) is reporting that Google's love for the iPhone is about to hit epic, Shakespearian proportions with the release of their ground-breaking "advanced voice search" App:

Users of the free application, which Apple is expected to make available as soon as Friday through its iTunes store, can place the phone to their ear and ask virtually any question, like “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” or “How tall is Mount Everest?” The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine.

Will it be perfect? Nope. It will sometimes return nonsense, and indeed the researchers behind it claim it will never reach 100% -- but they're aiming to make it as good as it can possibly be.

This caps off several weeks of Google announcements for the iPhone, of course, including OS 2.2 updates for Street-View, Transit and Walking Directions, and Location Sharing for the Maps App, the release of Google Earth, and an optimized version of the Google Search page for the iPhone.

So, when's this hitting the App Store, and aside from candy, flowers, and a lobster dinner, what could possibly be next?!

Safari on the iPhone is the best mobile internet experience in today’s market bar none. It is as much intuitive as it is pretty which makes for a superb user interface and browsing experience. But one complaint I had with Safari was the lack of quick search tools. If you ever used Sogudi or Saft on the desktop Safari, you know that it makes Safari an even more powerful web browser.

WebSearch on the iPhone comes from a similar mold. Because in Safari the default search engine is Google (you can also switch to Yahoo! in the settings) it kind of limits the specific searches you might need. Especially considering the slow pace of EDGE, quick searches in the wild can often be cumbersome. Well with WebSearch you are allowed quick easy access to the searches you want. How does it perform?

Read on for the rest of the review! (and remember you'll need a jailbroken iPhone!)

How to Install:

Design/Interface

There is minimal flair to the program because let’s face it, Google has proven that Search needs no bells and whistles. The folks who developed WebSearch realize that the best way to let you search multiple domains is through a quick and easy interface. Want to check prices on Amazon? Click and type. Who’s that actor in this movie? Fire up the IMDB widget and type.

Usability

This native app fulfilled my thirst to know things on the spot. Whenever I needed quick answers for simple questions on-the-go, I needn’t make a mental note to search on my Mac when I get home but rather was able to just fire up WebSearch and everything I used to search on my Mac was now easily accessible on my iPhone.

Because let’s face it, as great as Safari is, sometimes it is TOO good for its own good. Especially when on EDGE, I like to make my web browsing as text based and photo-less as possible, when searching eBay or IMDB without WebSearch, the process can take foooreever.

Criticism

Also, I used WebSearch a lot more before I figured out the usage of bookmarklets. We’ve covered Bookmarklets more than a few times here at TiPb, but its worth mentioning again. Bookmarklets are more useful than WebSearch because it is essentially embedded in Safari. I have Bookmarklets for all my necessary searches such as eBay, Wikipedia, and IMDB. Having to not wait for WebSearch to launch Safari cuts down on the seconds that matter for quick web searches.

Final Thoughts

For quick web searches on your iPhone WebSearch is a great tool. Because Safari is much too good a browser to use on EDGE, the searching process becomes kind of slow. With WebSearch, you get your answers as quickly as possible.

Pros

• Simple, easy interface
• Loads of search engines
• Customizable to your needs

Cons

• Has to launch Safari which adds time
• Bookmarklets are better

Final rating: 4/5

A lot of people have been poring over screenshots from the iPhone Software Roadmap event -- our own Chad Garrett saw evidence that there might be Task/ToDo functionality built into iCal. The other shot that's been making the rounds is the one above, where you can clearly see a magnifying glass at the top of the "scrolling strip" in the contacts app. The current speculation is that it will finally allow us to "Type to find" a contact rather than have to scroll through the list. That's what I want, but Pocketnow has just posted up an editorial with this little tidbit:

However, none of the internet communities made mention of how this may be a function of the integration of Microsoft function; rather, these sites just mention it as an Apple update. [...] However, thinking back to the contacts search, perhaps this is a Microsoft innovation related to server searching ability for contacts and emails.

AHA! We know that Apple already told us we'd be able to search through an Exchange server's Global Address list, and I wondered how exactly it would work. On Windows Mobile a search just automatically scans through both your local and the Exchange list -- with luck it will do the same on the iPhone. It's possible, though, that all we'll get is a separate search of Exchange with that icon. Windows Mobile uses very similar databases as Exchange so a common search is likely much easier to implement than it would be on the iPhone.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that search icon might not give us the contact search functionality we've been jonesing for.

Apple's Thursday press release (via Ars Technica), while big on Enterprise and chock-full of SDK goodness, also snuck in some new, long sought-after features for one of the built-in apps: MobileMail (Mail Touch?).

In addition to these new iPhone network and security features, the beta iPhone 2.0 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages.

But what about the other built-in apps like Calendar and Contacts?

Our own eagle-eyed Chad Garrett has already spotted a mysterious new icon on Calendar, and predicted we may indeed see Task integration (GTD'ers, put it on your to do's!).

Now BlargKABOOM (via TUAW) has hauled out the iMicroscope and discovered yet another tantalizing new icon, this time in Contacts:

It is a little spotlight icon right above the A on the alphabet.

Does this mean we may just be getting search as well? If so, how will it be implemented, and will it be limited to contacts or (dare we hope?) system wide, SDK-level CoreSearch?

iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, YouTube, the Weather, Stock and other widgets, and MobileSafari Touch have all had search for a while now. C'mon Apple, share the love!

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?