- Warner Crocker

I’m using the latest round of Apple rumors about a possible Tablet PC as an excuse to post these pictures of a mockup of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) version 2. The pictures have accompanied a number of posts on other sites today about the great “what if.” We’ve posted them here before.

No one knows if this mockup will come to be on the OLPC front, much less anything close to this with Apple, but I have to say, I for one would really like to see a device something like this. Of course, I’m also puzzled by these latest Apple rumors that seem to be calling whatever they might be revealing next month, ‘the Brick.’ That’s some bravado. Although, to be fair quite a few think that means it is just intended as a metaphor. You know something to break Windows.

- Warner Crocker

Mobile is all about getting the Internet in your pocket these days. It appears for some of the major players who are driving the scene it is all about picking customers pockets as well. Apple has led the charge with its iPhone and now that T-Mobile, Google, and HTC have announced the G1, the first handset featuring Google’s Android, there is another big player in the game. Of course the other OEMs and Telcos are still in their fighting for their piece of the pie.

Sales figures on the iPhone 3G are eye-popping, even more so given the problems it has had since it launched. Anticipation is high for whatever Android will see usher into the market over the next period of time. Everybody should be happy, but there are, to my mind, some self inflicted wounds that these companies are dealing with, that while they may not slow down momentum, tell me that they really don’t see the long view. This is analogous to the moves toward capping regular broadband and tiered broadband.

- Warner Crocker

Uh, oh. If you’re an Apple iPhone 3G user or if you just decided to purchase one of the newer and smaller USB adapters you need to check out this page from Apple. Apple is calling the recall the Apple Ultracompact USB Adapter Exchange program.

Important Safety Notice

Today Apple announced the Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange program. 

Apple has determined that under certain conditions the new ultracompact Apple USB power adapter's metal prongs can break off and remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock.  We have received reports of detached blades involving a very small percentage of the adapters sold, but no injuries have been reported.

The ultracompact USB power adapters were supplied with every iPhone 3G sold in the following countries, and may also have been purchased separately as an accessory:

• US
• Japan
• Canada
• Mexico
• Several Latin American countries (click here for a detailed list of countries)

Note: Apple USB power adapters supplied with original iPhones or supplied with iPhone 3G units sold in other countries are not affected. 

Apple says users should immediately stop using the adapters until they complete an exchange.

Head here to find out the procedures for exchanging your adapter.

- Matt Faulkner

Mobile music players are the talk of the town right now!!  Microsoft and Apple hitting new news at the same time... planned by MS????

Details have been flying around about some new Zune players, and now they are official.  120GB and 16GB players are being released - 120 with a HD and the 16 is full of flash memory.  Along with the hardware - Microsoft Zune is getting some new software!  Looks like it will allow WIFI downloading of songs and the ability to play some games.

Then tomorrow is something coming from Apple - updating the iPod line with... Well, we'll see tomorrow, but there is speculation all over the board.  New iTunes, new iPhone OS, subscription services (I wish) and some other 'secret' releases.  We'll have to wait till tomorrow to see what Apple is bringing to the table...  Maybe the picture below??

- Matt Faulkner

What is going to be released next from Apple a full blown Tablet or just some more touchy features added to the MacBook or MacBook Pro?  In this new news, Apple is using voice, the whole keyboard and a camera to move around OSX.  Pretty cool if you ask me!  Part of this is already around in Vista with the speech features built right in the OS - I can copy and past or navigate where I want with voice commands easily.  But, if you aren't in a quite office and can't use speech, maybe this idea of using a camera would be a good idea.  Hand gestures to control some extra functionality could work out well, but I do see some issues.  What if you are docked or crammed on an airplane?  Would the camera be sensitive enough to work at a greater distance or in a more confined area?  Hit up the USPTO if you want to read about the submission to the patent office by Apple.

- Warner Crocker

I’ve been thinking about this post for quite some time. I purchased my iPhone 3G almost a month ago and wanted to really work with it before committing any of my thoughts and impressions to the pages of GBM. The context here compares my usage and discoveries about the iPhone 3G to the Sprint Mogul, which is a Windows Mobile Device (6.1) that I have been using for over a year.

Background

I’ve been using a Windows Mobile Smartphone for about 3 years since purchasing the PPC 6700, the predecessor of the Sprint Mogul (PPC 6800), both made by HTC. I have enjoyed both devices and they have both served me very well on a number of fronts. I had no real issues with the PPC 6700 and have no real issues with the PPC 6800 as devices. Windows Mobile occasionally drove me a little nuts, but that’s par for the course. With both the Mogul and the iPhone, firmware updates were (and are) important. The Mogul had mediocre BlueTooth sound quality until after a firmware update and the GPS wasn’t activated when I purchased it either. Battery life also improved dramatically after a firmware update on the Mogul. Apple has rolled out two updates so far and I’ll give them this much, at least they are doing so with relative speed. Folks waited for updates (and promised features) on the Mogul for over 8 months. That’s one difference between Apple’s closed shop and Microsoft’s partner arrangements.

So, why buy an iPhone 3G and switch? Two reasons.

- Craig Pringle

I was looking for a SIP client for the iPhone and while I did not find that I did come across something that looks quite interesting.

TruPhone is a service that allows you to make cheap, or possibly even free, phone calls from you mobile phone to landlines, mobiles or other TruPhone clients by using VoIP over a Wi-Fi connection.

So when TruPhone contacted me the other day and asked if I had looked at their client I decided it was high time I did!

They currently have a client for selected Nokia phones and for the iPhone (via the iTunes App store).  They have a video promoting the iPhone client here.

Calls to landlines in countries in "the TruZone" (of which there are 40) are charged at a flat rate of US$0.06/min.  Mobiles in those countries are chared at US$0.30/min.  Calls to TruPhone clients are free - but it is important to note that the iPhone client cannot recieve TruPhone calls yet so to call someone for free they need to be running TruPhone on a Nokia.

There is also an OuterZone with about another 30 countries in it to which landline and mobile calls cost US$0.10/min and US$0.50/min respectively.

I've installed the client on my iPhone so I'll try it out and report back here soon.

- Warner Crocker

AppleInsider is reporting that they have their hands on a new Apple company filing illustrating a number of Tablet touch screen techniques. The document dates from April 15, 2008 and it looks like it shows an onscreen virtual keyboard as well.

Given that Apple is poised to make some announcments soon, I wouldn’t hold your breath on an Apple Tablet, but consider this just run-up-to-announcment-grain-of-salt kind of stuff.

 

 

 

- Warner Crocker

The closing line in an interesting article on touch and multi-touch from Michael Fitzgerald in The New York Times sums up one way to look at the potential for advances of touch and multi-touch in the future:

“A lot of people don’t realize they want it until they use it,” is attributed to Roger L. Kay, president of EndPoint Technologies, who thinks that by 2013 10 percent of mobile computing devices will have touch.

The article begins with the premise that Apple’s multi-touch has changed the landscape, which is a point that I can’t disagree with. It goes on to talk about N-trig digitizers being used on Dell Tablet PCs and on the UrbanMax that was demoed by Intel at the recent Intel Developers Forum (IDF). It also mentions that Microsoft’s inclusion of multi-touch in Windows 7 might just be the spark that gets developers to begin creating applications that take advantage of it.

In my opinion it isn’t just the applications. It is a combination of the device and touch that will answer the fowl or the breakfast protein question. Let’s talk about applications for just a second. What applications work well with touch, or better yet, demand touch as user interaction? In my limited experience, and perhaps vision, touch works well when we are consuming and selecting information or data. I think gaming will also have an impact here. Beyond that, the ways we interact with machines to  create content versus consuming it, seem, at the moment, to require input from a keyboard, a stylus, a mouse, or voice, if and when voice finally gets a foot hold. Again, my vision may be limited here, but touch as a metaphor seems geared more towards consumption than creation.

The iPhone offers no alternative way to work with the device beyond touch, (and voice in limited ways) and that’s the key to the advances Apple has sparked. But even that’s still a novelty. It says a lot that Koi Pond is the number one paid app in Apple’s App Store. A similar app can be had on Microsoft’s Surface, but as of today you’ve got to travel to one of a few locations to touch it on a Surface Table. But quite a few folks are walking around with it in their pocket on iPhones. Size of the device will matter also.

HTC is coming out with some very interesting touch screen mobile devices, but they haven’t completely cut the keyboard umbilical cord yet. What does that say? It points up the hesitance that most manufacturers have when it comes to reaching for a touch-centric world. Are they chicken, or just being prudent with their bottom lines? Ultimately, the answer to the barnyard riddle won’t really be known until device manufacturers swallow hard and cut that cord forsaking physical keyboards in their various mutations. Steve Jobs had the guts (vision?) to do that with the iPhone and it seems to be working. But why is it then that I wish I could occasionally tether a BlueTooth keyboard to my iPhone?

 

- Warner Crocker

At least four colleges and universities are experimenting with giving iPhones or Internet capable iPods to students, as the institutions take a look at how to communicate with their student bodies. I'm sure this isn't going to be without controversy. But according to this New York Times article, the University of Maryland, Oklahoma Christian University, Abilene Christian, and Freed-Hardemen are giving out the devices to some or all of their students.

Students have to pony up for the mobile phone service, and I'm sure AT&T is licking its chops, and the article makes a couple of knocks at AT&T's 3G service, saying that the campus networks will probably be more reliable.

- Warner Crocker

Somebody, somewhere in Cupertino is seriously beginning to regret calling the new iPhone the iPhone 3G.

Maybe (and I stress ‘maybe’) there is the beginning of some clarity coming with the mysterious issues surrounding 3G reception and Apple’s new iPhone 3G. No surprise that clarity isn’t coming from Apple or AT&T. For a few days now I’ve been watching as a growing chorus has been rising about 3G connectivity issues. Some analysts are saying the problem is with the Infineon chips Apple is using in the device, and that the problem may require a recall. Others point to software issues. As users complain and forums fill up with complaints, neither Apple or AT&T has felt any compunction to offer any info on the issues, while the lines still exist and the sales continue to roll in. Intriguingly other carriers overseas are beginning to point the finger at Apple. To be fair, a number of users are reporting no issue whatsoever. To be fair again, some are reporting that taking their phone in to an Apple Store to complain results in a fairly simple test and an exchange for a new phone. (I heard this on MacBreak Weekly’s podcast last night.)

MacRumors and Business Week are now reporting (based on the old reliable sources, …ahem) that Apple is going to address the issues with a software update. Because of Apple and AT&T’s silence on the issue so far speculation is rampant and it now looks like the discussion is moving into the mainstream media.

When I read things that say the problems may exist in areas of high density it makes me cringe. AT&T isn’t alone in this, as none of the Telcos seem to think that providing enough bandwidth in high density areas is a priority even as they try to find ways to cap and reconfigure charges for its usage on the one hand, while touting its availability on the other. They love to invite a crowd for dinner but not provide enough food to serve everybody.

AT&T, in my opinion, has largely failed with its 3G coverage unless you are in select areas and that alone makes me wonder why Apple chose to get into bed with them in the first place. Apple and AT&T may be on the brink of a larger failure unless they choose to change their secretive ways. Anyone who has had any experience at all with the Telcos know that they really don’t care about their customers despite their marketing. Apple used to get away with its secretive ways when it was smaller and its fan boys would rush to its support with a bleeding edge furor.  But now with huge growth (its market cap surpassed Google this week fueled in part by its success with the iPhone) Apple needs to seriously think of changing its ways. With the chorus beginning to get louder it won’t be long before State Attorneys General and EU regulators (and those in other countries) start to pay attention to consumers.

- Sierra Modro

It seems like practically everyone I know now has an iPhone. While it's fun being able to use some of the social networking apps like Loopt and Palringo, it also means that I'm frequently sitting at a table with 4 or more iPhones all laying out there getting confused. Which one is mine?

So, I decided to jazz up my iPhone with the help of DecalGirl. DecalGirl has over 330 custom-fit decals for the iPhone that are totally removable and don't add any size to the iPhone itself. I bought 4 decals at $6.99 each. They come with custom wallpaper to give you a fully seamless look for the front of the iPhone. I currently have Metamorphosis (left) on my iPhone, but that may get swapped out for Gypsy (right) or one of my other covers soon. They are very easy to install and seem durable. The decals are adhesive, but with a low-tack adhesive that is supposed to come off with no residue.

In addition to really cool decals for the iPhone, DecalGirl also has decals for a wide variety of other phones, computers, game boxes - even the ASUS Eee. The designs range from girly to unisex to masculine, so there's a design for everyone. There are even clear covers if you just want scratch resistance.

iPhone covers are $6.99 plus shipping at DecalGirl.

- Sierra Modro

Don't you just love it when the free version of something gets better features than the pay version? Such is the case with Yahoo! email and the Apple iPhone. Free Yahoo Mail gets a really nice IMAP push-style email on the iPhone. It works really well and I use it for my free account.

Then there's my Yahoo Small Business email account with my own domain name. For $9.95 per month, I get POP email but no IMAP. I'm continually annoyed that I'm paying for a service and get LESS service than the free account. I could set up the IMAP through the Yahoo account on the iPhone and it would receive email but it wouldn't send email. Needless to say, that's a less than optimal solution, so I'd been using POP (grudgingly). I'd had high hopes for the iPhone 2.0 software upgrade, but it didn't change anything.

Then I found my new best friend, Dave. Dave had the same problem I had with the iPhone and the Yahoo small biz email and he found a workaround and detailed the solution on his blog. I followed Dave's directions and I now have a working solution for receiving and sending my Yahoo small biz email. Fundamentally, you manually set up the IMAP for receiving email and then use the SMTP settings for sending email. It works fine for my custom domain on Yahoo small biz email. It's a bit tedious to set up, but once it was set up, it's been working great. I've been using it this way for about a week and not had any problems sending or receiving.

While Yahoo gets their act together to offer IMAP to their paying customers, I'll continue to use this great workaround. Thanks Dave!!

- Warner Crocker

The news is full today of the apparent and unsurprising success of Apple’s App Store, raking in over $30 million in a month. That news is also rounded out by some other commentary that wonders just how many of those apps people are really using once they’ve downloaded them, and where the real killer apps are hiding.

Couple this news with word from the Washington Post this weekend that T-Mobile is looking to open its own App Store, and it looks like once again Steve Jobs has shifted the dynamic. Although I think we are far and away from knowing what that shift really means beyond the fact that easy, over the air access to applications are a major attraction. (Even though many still counsel that the best way to prevent crashes on an iPhone is to download or update apps from your computer and sync them over.)

I’ve limited myself to the apps I’ve downloaded and they are mostly for specific purposes, not just because they are cool. Do I use them daily? Nope. But I use them as frequently as I did the apps on my Windows Mobile device when I need to accomplish a task.

Many have felt the siren’s call and gone download crazy whenever we get a shiny new device. And many in turn, have felt that enthusiasm fade when we realize it is time to put the device to work. And then comes that inevitable day when you go looking through your start menu or applications and wonder why in the world you ever downloaded this or that app. I don’t think that is any different in this circumstance, nor will it be in the future.

If anything this feeds on a geek lust that already exists, and like all lusty appetites it will fade with time. After all, how many flashlight apps or tip calculators does one really need?

 

- Warner Crocker

Apple released a firmware update to the iPhone 3G and iPod Touch last night take the version number to 2.0.1. I downloaded and installed it on both and it seems to make things a bit snappier all around. Of course it included the typical Apple non-communication communication about what is available with the update: bug fixes and increased stability.

Speaking of communication, a letter to Apple employees discussing the corporate response to the MobileMe problems leaked out as well. Mr. Jobs has apparently reorganized some staff on the MobileMe deck and declared that the release of MobileMe was a bit too hasty and not up to Apple’s standards. He adds that they will learn from their mistakes and “press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of the year.”

So, what happens to all of those who plopped down their $99 for a year’s worth of service between now and then?