Phone Different Week in Review May 2, 2008

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Here we go!

It feels so good…

Is Apple adding some sort of haptic feedback to the iPhone? How would they do it. What is haptic feedback anyway?

You Control, iControl…

Could Apple be working on an app for the iPhone that would enable it to control an Apple TV and iTunes? It sounds to good to be true!

Jibber-Jabber-iChat

Looks like some very clever folks have found Jabber code in the latest iPhone firmware? What does it mean? Well for starters Google Talk uses the Jabber protocol…

THE IPHONE IS COMING TO CANADA!!!!! OMGZ

Yes, Rene Ritchie is jumping up and down. How much was that EDGE data plan again?

RIM Making “Something” for the iPhone?

That is what it looks like folks. However, RIM has nothing to offer Apple other than BlackBerry connect… hmmm, perhaps I am on to something here!

Details abound on 3G iPhone?

Some manufactures are claiming to have the information on the 3G iPhone. They reckon they have details on casings which can help us to deduce the size and information the 3G iPhone… but is it for realz?

The Jeweled crown of the week: Leaked pics of the 3G iPhone?

These are pretty darn convincing based on the what we know so far on the iPhone. It looks good, I like the black…but I want to see the mysterious second camera for videochat!

Reviews, Tips and more!

First off is Brian Hart’s Tip ‘O the Week. Two finger scrolling! Hey, I did not know! In frames you can, awe, just read it.

Got a jail-broken iPhone? Well they you might like the Native App-a-Week. This week we have Casey Chan talkin’ up the Installer.app, well, app. Read on to find out more about this amazing program!

Have you been aching for Internet Radio on your iPhone? Look no further than my Weekly Web App Review: FlyTunes. This is pretty cool if you are into Internet Radio. Check it out.

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Here we go!

So just how many countries are going to get the next iPhone anyway?

India seems to be the newest member of “What country is getting the iPhone next”. It seems like a new pops up every day. Who is the newest member? India.

Flash and Silverlight make Safari crash?

You need Safari for this? Just kidding.

Just how many new iPhones are coming anyway?

What did you say? New form factors? A BIGGER screen? What, an iTablet? So it isn’t so!

Is iChat coming to iPhone/iPod Touch?

Patent pundits say it is. Hmm, this could be really cool. I hope it comes to fruition.

Show me the money!

AT&T is making the cash, yo. With 22% in profits, everyone is smiling… at AT&T.

Apple buys PA Semi

Hmm, not familiar with this household name? Me either, but apparently they make some really energy efficient chips. Can you say “Going to iPhone”?

3G iPhone Rumors Rise Again!

This time the details seem a little more solid.

Oh, Canada. Canada, Canada, Canada

Why can’t you have the iPhone? What’s your deal. Why don’t you love your citizens?

iPhone tip O’ the week

What kind of week is it without a tip? Brian Hart delivers this week with another useful tip. What is it? You will have to read on to find out!

Financial news

Do you geek out over financial news, especially Apple news? Well then Apple’s 2nd Quarter results are really interesting!

Reviews

Whoa! We have three reviews this week. Let’s start of with Brian Hart’s review of the Sony Ericsson HBH-PV705 Bluetooth Headset. Is it the best out there?

Next we have the Case-mate Universal Privacy Screen Pro for iPhone. Need to prevent prying eyes from looking at yoru iPhone? This screen protector could be for you!

Lastly, we have the Web App Review of the week. This week it is AOL’s search customized for the iPhone. Can this player give Google a run for its money? Keep reading to find out!

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Here we go!

Nike and iPhone sitting in a tree…

Apple already has this gig with other iPods, but is the iPhone now going to hook up too? I sure would like to hook up my iPhone to track information while I exercise.

Novell GroupWise to talk to iPhone?

What? More synchronization coming to the iPhone besides Microsoft’s Active Sync? It appears so, thorough 3rd party support.

Save web images on the iPhone!

Blazer on the Palm OS has been able to do this for years. It comes in hand when you are moblogging and need a quick pick. Is this a precursor of what is to come?

Can’ get those Enterprise appointments on the iPhone… there is a solution!

Google give us iPhone users plenty O’ love. Did you know that you can forward corporate appointments to your Gmail account and it automatically makes a Google Calendar appointment? Read more to find out!

Skype for iPhone? Not yet!

If you have jail-broken your iPhone, now you can have a VOIP call option! Way cool. If only I was not a purist and jail break my iPhone…

New weekly column!

Looking for that killer tip of the week? Look no further than our own Brain Hart to deliver. His new column deals with that very topic!

For the gamers out there…

Love Super Monkey Ball? Have an iPhone? Apply here.

iPhone… shuffle?

Not sure how they would do this or why, but them’ Internets are atlaking!

NBC wants more money and control, you’re kidding me!

The newest information out of NBC’s camp for getting content onto iTunes is forcing Apple to create some sort of anti-piracy innovation for the actual iPod itself. Man, when will this madness end? Why don’t media conglomerates get it?

This week’s reviews!

We had two reviews this week the first review was for the Bodyguardz Protective Skin for iPhone. Got scratched on your iPhone? Looking for protection? Then this might be the solution for you!

Want an innovative way to read text on your iPhone without jailbreaking it? Reader web app just might be the solution for you. You can copy/paste any text document into this application and access it on the fly. Very cool!

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Here we go!

iPhone in 60-days flip-flop

What I consider one of the biggest sotries of the week Was Walt Mossberg letting slip that the 3G iPhone would be out in “60 days” will it come to pass?

Ways to extend .Mac… to iPhone?

I am really excited for this one. I want to have the .Mac experience on my iPhone… you know, useful things like iDisk and Back to my Mac… but will it happen?

Review Central!

We had a couple of reviews this week. Casey Chan starts us off with we had the Plantronics Discovery Bluetooth headset Review. With lots of options to meet your comfort needs, could this be the headset for you, read on to find out!

Can’t get enough of social networks? Give iRovr a try. Made exclusively for the iPhone, iRovr could be the best mobile social network yet! How doe it fair against its rivals? Read my review to find out!

New animations coming to iPhone’s Safari?

I like my web browsers to give me the dizzies! With the new Safari on the Mac and PC, it’s comin’ to an iPhone near you, but with what features?

Spotlight search? Try again!

I wish this would happen already. Apple is such a tease.

Last but not least…

Rumors. Rumors. Rumors. 32GB iPhone? Thinner? Hmmm…

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Here we go!

iPhone PWNED!

The iPhone Dev Team announce a tool called PWNED that will allow folks to load custom firmware onto their iPhones, totally bypassing a fully sanctioned Apple blessed OS… DOH!

1.2 to 2.0?

Yes, I was confused too. However there has been an update to the iPhone Beta release of the firmware 2.0. What is included you ask? Spotlight? Video recorder? The ability to sync notes and tasks from the Mac? No you silly fools, just some clean up of VPN and etc…

Is that an iPhone.. eerrr I mean BlackBerry in your pocket?

Seems like RIM has taken a hint from the folks in Cupertino. Why can’t companies innovate the way Apple can? Makes ya wonder sometimes…

New iPhone coming soon? 3G on its way!

Perhaps… the word is out on the streets and Internets that invrntory is low in Apple stores… but you can pick one up at an AT&T store easily. How can this be? Read on to find out more…

No Windows Mobile Love?

An out-of-the-closet Paul Thurrott is in love with the ‘Other’ phone. Man, once you go…

3G iPhone is Imminent!

Heard this before, but coming form this guy, can it be true?

Reviews

We had two reviews this week. First was the Speck Products Techstyle Classic case and a web app for iPhone, Meebo. If you like leather, then the Speck case looks really great and sharp. Need to IM? Meebo is here for you!

Dressed in Black Baby: 3G iPhone?

Looks good. Feels Good. Too Good to be True?

Interface

Meebo has a very clean interface with subtle hues that blend together. I know, it sounds like I am appraising artwork, but Meebo’s interface is really clean. You begin by selecting the service you want to use, let’s use AIM for example, your login, password and a convenient “remember me” checkbox. After you have filled in the appropriate information, tap Sign On and Meebo will sign you into that service.

Once logged in, you are treated to a familiar IM interface with all of the standard amenities such as who is online/offline and your status. The status does not pull from online, so if you have several saved status, they do not transfer. However, since Meebo uses cookies effectively, you can create your own local custom status messages.

Messaging

You can begin an IM chat by simply tapping the persons name you wish to chat with. You are given a simple text box on the bottom of the screen. Tap inside of the box and it expands Safari’s soft keyboard to enter in your text. You can then tap “Send” when you are done composing your message. Chatting occurs relatively quickly. Meebo appears to use a what I call “open connection”. What I mean by this is while you are chatting, the iPhone data icon located by the EDGE or Wi-Fi icon is constantly spinning. This means you get your IM replies as they happen! Way to go Meebo! If you are done with a conversation you can tap the icon to the left of the text box to bring you back to your list of contacts.

Conclusion

I really like Meebo, but it is not perfect. The biggest issue that I have found is that you can only be connected to one service at a time. I don’t think this is too much of a distractor though, the service is streamlined and accessible and most of all it is free. It is only a matter of time before there is a native client on the iPhone whether it is Apple’s own iChat or chat clients from other companies (iAdium anyone?)

Ratings (out of 5)

• Look and Feel: 5
• Navigation: 5
• Features: 4
• Reliability: 5

Overall: 4.75

Pros:

• Fills a need on the iPhone
• Free!
• Clean, pleasant interface
• Quick, even on EDGE
• Most popular services to choose from
• Emoticons automatically convert when IM’ing

Cons:

• Can only access one service at a time

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Here we go!

.Mac Services Custom Tailored for your iPhone?

For the most part, Apple has not optimized any of their websites for the iPhone, less the .Mac Web Gallery. Why not? How about browsing web apps on Apple’s site or .Mac services such as iDisk?

3G iPhone Rumors Aplenty!

We just can’t get enough of those tantalizing iPhone rumors discussing the future that might be for our blessed iPhones. Looks like Kevin Rose feels the same way. Could two video chat be on the way for the iPhone? Maybe…. I heard this rumor a while back…. could it be true?

Reviews: Belkin Clear Acrylic Case and iCopy for iPhone

Our accessory review this week is for the Belkin Clear Acrylic Case. Do you watch a lot of video on you iPhone? Want a stand to prop you device? Want to get a case out of the deal too? If so, this case might be for you!

Are web apps more your thing? How about copy/paste? Interested? Check out this review of iCopy. Will it fill you copy/paste needs? Probably not, but it is a great hold-over till the real-deal comes out.

Are We Getting Played?

This in-depth article discuss if all of this hoopla is planned. Flash, no flash. Unlimited music, no unlimited music. What is really going on here?

Word, Excel and PowerPoint for you iPhone? Maybe!

The MBU (Mac Business Unit) at Microsoft is a money maker. What better way to expand your business then giving iPhone users a mobile office sweet. I am in

New Version of the iPhone SDK Available?

Apple sure isn’t sitting on their laurels.! Looks like there is a new version of the iPhone SDK available. What is new? We should find out soon!!!

When I first heard of iCopy through fellow Phone Different writer Rene Ritchie, I thought, “Wow, what a great idea, I hope it works”. When I installed the software, I was immediately skeptical due to the complexity of the steps involved. So, without saying too much more, let’s dive right in!

To use iCopy is simple; install the JavaScript-based bookmarklet and you are good to go. To begin you simple tap the Copy/Paste bookmark in Safari on the iPhone. After doing this you are presented with three choice: Copy, Paste and Cancel.

Copy

After tapping copy you are presented with a few more choices:

• Copy Text
• Copy URL
• Email Text
• Email URL

These choices do what they say the do. For example, if you choose Copy Text, the iCopy page disappears and what ever body of text you tap on, iCopy will “copy” and store the text in a cookie within Safari. You can then feel free to navigate to what ever webpage you want to paste to and tap the iCopy bookmark again, and tap “Paste” which in essence retrieves the cookie… but wait, you are not done. Now you tap in the area you want to paste to again, select the text area for pasting and you are good to go.

Sound like fun and easy to use?

Not quite. However, the other choices such as Email Text or URL are vastly easier. If you want to copy text on a page into an email, simply tap the Copy/Paste bookmark and choose Email Text. You are then taken back to the webpage you were on. Tap a body of text and iCopy pastes it into a new email message! Sweet!

Bugginess

After using iCopy for a few days, I went back to it to use again and… nothing. The link just died. When I went to edit the bookmark, the JavaScript was still there, but it just was not working. I removed the bookmark and reinstalled it. After the install it appeared to work fine. However, the problem here is that this occurred 3 more times in the course of a week. This is very frustrating. To be fair, the product is still early and this developer seems enthusiastic and has a list of enhancements on the iCopy website.

Conclusion

I probably should be more positive than I am about iCopy, but I really feel the only redeeming function of the app is the Email Text function. It is certainly something to keep around for its usefulness, but I really don’t see using this tool all the time; it is a far cry from a real copy/paste feature we so desperately desire on the iPhone. But kudos are due since this is the only app of its kind (that I am aware of) that can give us this type of functionality.

Ratings (out of 5)

• Look and Feel: 4
• Navigation: 3
• Features: 4
• Reliability: 2

Overall: 3.25

Pros:

• Fills a need on the iPhone
• No hacking needed
• Useful if used occasionally
• Easy to copy text to an email

Cons:

• Very buggy, refuses to launch sometimes; needs re-installation
• Overly complicated process to copy text from page to page

Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Here we go!

Adobe Flash for iPhone

Would Adobe just make it for our beloved already? We started off the week with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen hopes Apple’s newly released SDK will help Adobe deliver that middle ground, with or without Jobs’ blessing. The world was ecstatic, could this really be?

… Well, not so fast, a few days later there was a, um, clarification.

Can’t we all just get along, join hands, sing Kumbaya and make Flash happen?

More of our best stuff after the break!

No Multitasking

Some want it, others don’t, but regardless of what side you are on, multitasking is not coming in this release of the iPhone 2.0 firmware this June. There was some hope that there might have been a “cheat” with the AIM software demo, but alas, it isn’t true…

Hands-on with 2.0

Firmware 2.0 that is, or is it 1.2? Or 1.2 of 2.0? I am confused. Our man Ryan Block has some great shots up and unveiled some new functionality such as more in-depth info on parental controls and Cisco VPN… but alas, no Spotlight, Contact search or Tasks in the calendar… heck, this version of the firmware even comes with a “dummy” calendar button. What up with that Apple?

Where Did That Rabbit Go?

Brian Hart gave us a great “roadmap” of how a PDA user turned PDA/Smartphone addict turned iPhone user made his way down the path that would forever change his life. Okay, that might be a little melodramatic, but this article is a great read (Brian has even made several of the same choices as I have when finally arriving at the iPhone: Palm Treo 650→ to Treo 680→ to iPhone, It is a natural progression…)

Reviews and more Reviews

We also had two great reviews this week. First out of the gate was yours truly with a review of Pimp My News (PMN). This web app gave me quite a surprise, and you might even like it! Don’t let the name fool you…

Next was Casey Chan with a review of the Seidio Inno case for iPhone. This looks like a slick case for anyone looking for a non-intrusive case for the iPhone with a nice rubberized grip, you can’t go wrong with this case! Read Casey’s review for more…

I have to admit, when I first heard about Pimp My News for iPhone, I was… less than enthusiastic. I mean, “Pimp” My News? Perhaps I am a little old school, but I thought with a name like this, the website is all bling and no substance. Boy was I wrong…

Pimp My News (PMN) has a standard website with an optimized iPhone interface. As you can imagine by the title, the website is an aggregator for multiple site feeds and more. Let’s start off with the aggregator.

Feeds

Once you create and account on the desktop version of PMN, you are led through a wizard to select feeds you would like to view. Feeds are broken down into categories such as Technology→ Apple or Politics→ Wonkette and so on. There is a surprisingly good selection of news choices. I was pleased to see plenty of familiar websites and a few I have not heard of before. Once you checkmark your selections, they get added to “Your Feeds”. The only issue I had with this is that you are unable to add your own feeds. This is not too much of a detractor however since their feed selection is rather good.

Viewing Experience

One you access PMN on the iPhone, you are given a familiar experience to their desktop version. Your feeds are combined into a running list. Simply flick your finger to get to the bottom. Once there you can view previous news stories by tapping a corresponding previous page such as 1, 2, 3 and so on.

You can look at each news story via a Summary or Full article. The summary choice will give you a summary below the article on the same page, the Full choice will open the page in the native website in a new tab. There is even an option to email the news story to a friend, however this is not done via the native Mail.app, rather in HTML. I would have preferred Mail.app integration like with i.Bloglines.

So What is the Difference?

By now you are asking yourself, “What makes PMN any different than any other feed aggregator such as Google Reader or Bloglines?” The difference in is the “pimp” factor. PMN, believe it or not, has the ability to play each story audibly or have a custom on-the-fly podcast created of your content! Let me explain how this works:

Among the list of news stories along with the Summary, Full and Email option is a speaker icon. Tap the icon and the iPhone will stream the article to you via the PMN voice. The voice is very good and only really stumbles on words that are spelled out, other than that, it sounds great. Though very cool, I did not find this feature particularly useful. When using the iPhone and reading the page, why would I stop and let the audio stream to me; it is faster to just read the page.

However, the podcast component is “pimp”. It will serve up about 10 minutes of spoken text from your feeds every morning! Now that is service. PMN even gives you a handy Subscribe in iTunes link.

Conclusion

PMN really surprised me. At first I thought it was just another news feed clone, but it offers something very unique that I have not seen presented before in other sites. I really like the idea of having my news read to me in a Podcast and the convenience of iTunes availability makes it that much more accessible.

Ratings (out of 5)

• Look and Feel: 4
• Navigation: 4
• Features: 5
• Reliability: 5
• Overall: 4.5

Pros:

• Choose between many available news sources
• Custom Podcast is awesome!

Cons:

• Account must be created on desktop Mac/PC
• Cannot add your “own” news sources
• Cannot use native Mail.app for emailing of news
• Cannot change that awful purple color!

For an extra bonus, here is a video showing you Pimp My News in Action!

With the iPhone’s lack of a built-in task list, the world of iPhone users have come to rely on web-based task solutions. For the most part these solutions fulfill on their promise; a web-based task list with iPhone optimization. For this week’s review I have decided to look at Toodledo (http://www.toodledo.com/slim) for the iPhone.

Toodledo is a task management system with ideas taken from David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. If you don’t know what that is, you can use Toodledo as a conventional task list. Toodledo for iPhone is a companion to its big brother on the web. The web application is free but there is also a pro account available if you want additional features. Everything in this review is based off of the free account. Toodledo organizes your tasks into different areas. We will take a look at these different areas and what they do.

Hotlist

The Toodledo Hotlist contains tasks that are due soon. By tapping on this link, you can easily see what is due in a running list. Depending on how you configure Toodledo, this list also tells you the priorities of these tasks and their due dates.

Folders

I akin folders to categories. They are simply an area for you to organize your tasks into meaningful groupings. Some typical examples of folders might be Home, Work or School. When you are looking at the lit of folders, there is a number at the end of the folder name. This number tells you how many tasks you have in that folder. There is even a “No Folder” folder, in case you forget to add task to one.

Due Dates

This list shows your tasks by their due date. I really like how Toodledo organizes the due date options. The top tier is Overdue, followed by Today, Tomorrow and so on, down to This Month and No Due Date. Tapping on a choice takes you to that dates grouping of tasks.

Priorities

Toodledo organizes Priorities into several categories, these include: Top, High, Medium, Low and Negative (you know, for that stuff you really don’t want to do, but have to do). These priorities are also given a number from 3 to -1, respectively. Just like with Folders, Priorities tell you how many tasks are marked a certain priority at the end of the priority name.

Recently Completed

This choice gives you a list of the tasks you have most recently completed. Not much else to say about that…

Settings

Settings allows you to choose what your default page will be. Perhaps instead of getting a list of choices such as Hotlist, Folders, etc, you prefer to log into Due Dates immediately. You can set this default option here.

Conclusion

There are plenty of other reasons to enjoy Toodledo beyond your iPhone. Some of these benefits include: iCal support, Twitter integration, Jottintegration, a FireFox Add-in, RSS subscriptions, SMS and email reminders and the list goes on. You can also customize what you see on the desktop version of Toodledo. For example, if you adhere to the GTD methodology, you can also ad Contexts, for example. Those Contexts will then appear on the iPhone version of Toodledo.

I also recommend Remember the Milk (RTM). It is a little fancier than Toodledo, has a lot of AJAX flying around, but in the end I like Toodledo’s simpler, more direct approach better. Also, RTM charges you for their iPhone web app! It just does not get any better if you are looking for a simple yet robust way to manage your tasks!… well, at least until the SDK comes, but that is another review.

Ratings (out of 5)

• Look and Feel: 4
• Navigation: 5
• Features: 5
• Reliability: 5
• Overall: 4.75

Pros:

• Highly customizable
• Can be used without desktop version
• Free! (With optional paid pro account)

Cons:

• On EDGE, loading Toodledo can be a somewhat painful experience