Google has changed the appearance of its search page for the iPod Touch/iPhone. Results are now formatted in a similar manner to other Google services, with a blue navigation bar, and vertically-aligned text or imagery that eliminates the need to scroll horizontally. Where appropriate, results will automatically bring up maps, as well as larger and more obvious direction and phone call buttons. Google says it eventually intends to bring the formatting to other phones, countries and languages.
A company named Lutron has developed a new application that allows you to switch your lights on and off. This application also allows you to dim your lights. That lamp you see above is screwed into one of Lutron's wireless modules which is used to connect to the iPhone. This Application will be available on the AppStore in January as a free application.
Recent discovery has that Apple has been working on firmware 2.2 and will be releasing it on November 21, 2008.
New Features:
- New look for the Safari with the Google search bar now occupying its own space on the title bar
- Toggle On / Off to disable the auto-correction
- 461 Japanese emoji icons
- Support for new languages.
- Line-in audio is activated and can be used through the headphone jack
- Google Street View, Google Transit information - Routes public transport, Walking directions, Location sharing.
- App Store: 'Categories' now shows the icons of the applications instead of the list, In each page of the application has been added by a button 'Tell A Friend' & 'Report A Problem', Added the possibility of scoring the application when the user chooses to delete from the device, Added the possibility for direct downloading of podcasts from the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
The iPhone 3G is now the champion of the cell phone sells in U.S.A. RIM's Blackberry Curve was the #3 handset, followed by the LG Rumor at #4 and the LG en at #5. This ranking is for the broad market of cell phones in general, and not the narrower category of "smartphones," which Apple also leads.
Richard Solo has developed a backup battery for the iPhone/iPod Touch with some very neat features. It has a built-in LED flashlight and a laser pointer. In the kit, you get a complimentary 110-240 volt AC Wall charger, and also a dual-USB car charger, and a retractable USB cable. All of this costs about 70$, which i wouldn't say is worth buying because there are other devices like this for 10$ or so.
Recent study by SquareTrade shows that the iPhone is twice as reliable as the Blackberry after one year of ownership. SquareTrade, which sells extra warranties for cell phones and other devices, looked at the failure rate of 15,000 phones. They found out that the malfunction rate of an iPhone after one year is 5.6 percent, compared to a Blackberry which has a failure rate of 11.2 percent and a Treo with 16.2 percent.
They predict that the iPhone in two years will have a failure rate between 9.2 and 11.3 percent, compared to actual two-year failure rates of 14.3 percent for BlackBerries and 21.0 percent for Treos.
Aidan Malley at AppleInsider dug up and dug through a recent Apple iPhone patent that describes many possible future features for the iPhone. Including many that we are already expecting in the 3g iPhone expected to be announced by Mr. Jobs on June 9th.
If you want to know what else is in store for the future of the iPhone take a flip through the 371 page patent here. You will recognize every feature of the iPhone you currently know and love, but with enough digging you'll stumble upon some interesting ones.
Lucky for us Aidan already did! Of course Apple has no obligation to include all these neat new features, but if they want to nothing is going to stop them. We hope to see many of these in 3g iPhone release.
Possible features that would probably implemented on the original iPhone via a firmware update (if implemented at all of course):
[*]Instant Messaging
[*]Flash and Quicktime in Safari
[*]A blogging client
[*]Java software downloads
[*]MMS messaging
[*]Voice activated commands
[*]Voice Recording
Hardware changes expected for the 3g iPhone:
[*]GPS module with geo-tagging
[*]Optical sensor for videoconferencing
An anonymous tipster has sent us an image of the 3g iPhone. When I say anonymous I mean it; the email is completely untraceable sent through the dizum service.
According to our source this is a shot of the rear of the new iPhone taken at a major Apple store (I'm leaving the store location out to respect the source's anonymity, if you're smart you can probably make a very good guess to the location ) on Saturday. At possible risk of employment he/she has provided us with this photo because he/she feels that the iPhone community should have a little hint of what's coming. Note: This is not an iPhone case, this is the iPhone.
Apple has filed a patent for a method of placing photovoltaic cells underneath an LCD touch screen, which would give them a great opportunity to maximize that 3.5 inch screen on the iPhone.
According to the filing, the solar power info could be displayed either on the solar cells themselves, or on the device itself near the rest of the stats such as battery power, message alerts, etc.
Solar powered phones could change that constant need to find a plug, USB cable, or extra battery, and instead give way to people all requesting window offices. ;) Smoke breaks replaced by charging breaks. Sucks for those of you who live in depressingly grey cities like my hometown of Seattle.
Apple Wednesday afternoon released the sixth beta version of the iPhone SDK.
According to the notes, beta 6 requires OS X 10.5.3, and will not function correctly on previous versions of OS X. The SDK is a whopping 1.19 GB download (which I'm currently pulling down at 200 kb/s :D ).
21/11/08 