Did you just get your iPhone? Want to put it in a little cozy? Wrappers has 50 of their little iPod condom thingies to give away provided you have proof of iPhone ownership. Wrappers’ covers are designed for using your Apple iPhone in its natural state. To use your iPhone, you remove the cover. → Read More
Dave at MobileCrunch dug up an interesting comment by his Steve-ness about the iPhone being the third leg in the Apple chair, next to iPod and Mac. During the internal Jobs-note, however, an employee asked if the iPhone would cannibalize the iPod, to which Jobs responded that he’d rather see Apple cannibalize it’s own gear rather than someone else. So, as Dave points out, that chair is going to have only two legs, if all goes according plan. The resulting chair, it seems, will really suck. Man. These metaphors are trippy. Free iPhone? [MobileCrunch] → Read More
Our intrepid intern Ilya is down at the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan shooting live video of people waiting in line. Watch as he watches the folks watching for the iPhone (click “more” below to see the stream). For our complete coverage, click here. Only a few hours left before this news-cycle hog dissipates and we can all go back to thinking about more important stuff. → Read More
Late last night some AT&T geeks started benchmarking their network speed. Suddenly, after months of sub-standard EDGE speeds, they noticed 200+kbps during most trials, suggesting that someone out there has been tweaking things to make iPhone browsing a little less like pulling teeth. → Read More
A few months ago some of the CG crew were offered a spot on the Huffington Post, which is essentially a big free-for-all that includes work by Henry Rollins and a few other cultural luminaries along with a bunch of media schlubs like me. I decided to talk to their audience about the iPhone, explaining in no uncertain terms that they’d better get their noses out of their Kafka and pay attention. Kind of a dopey read, but fun nonetheless. Why Everyone Else Should Care About the iPhone [HuffingtonPost] → Read More
Today we take a look at Belkin’s new Network USB Hub which claims to be the most easily configured wireless USB hub on the market — you could probably also say it’s the only wireless USB hub on the market. Basically, Belkin’s software tricks your computer into thinking that it’s connected to a printer or peripheral directly while they are actually hooked up to your router. Sneaky! Sounds simple right? Let’s check it out… → Read More
IT Ads Throughout History (OK, Just the 1980s) Sound ID SM100 Bluetooth Headset Review Parrot PARTY Portable Boom Box: Cue “Ain’t No Party” Jokes Nielsen Now Tracks Your Cellphone Habits Blu-ray Camp Cheats To Win The War iPhone Contest: “Share Your Location” With TeleNav GPS Navigator → Read More
Technology seems to improve rapidly as time goes by. Think back to fifteen years ago – ah yes, I can still remember my IBM PS/1. I was drawn to it by its sexy Windows 3.1 operating system and of all things, Paintbrush. That computer system is the reason I am writing this article today, because it sparked my love for technology. But that wasn’t my only childhood love. Another was camping. Camping isn’t for everyone, but for some, it is hands down the greatest way to get in touch with nature. Way back when, camping meant a tent (maybe), sleeping bags and fresh air. When it came down to food, you ate whatever you could cook over an open fire, if it was cooked at all. But just like the evolution of computers took us from PS/1 to PDA’s, the science of campsite cooking has made giant leaps as well. In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the products that will help you cook and grill like you’re at home, all while taking in nature’s beauty. → Read More
The folks over at MY iTablet have hunkered down in front of New York City’s 5th Ave. Apple Store and are sharing their experiences. The hype and attention surrounding the launch of the iPhone is the kind we usually only see for next-gen game consoles when they launch, but for cell phones/MP3 players/PDA’s, this is relatively uncharted territory. iPhone Camp Out [MY iTablet] → Read More
MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe has indicated that MySpace will likely open its platform to 3rd party developers, according to a report at FT.com The move will see MySpace following in the footsteps of Facebook; Facebook’s wildly popular F8 release has seen in excess of 1000 additional applications made available to Facebook users and has driven enormous growth. MySpace still maintains leadership in the social networking space based on user numbers and traffic, and has continued to grow; however there is little doubt today that the hearts and minds of the people who count have abandoned MySpace for Facebook. The moves to an open platform also comes after reports earlier this week claiming that DeWolfe was asking for a $12.5 million annual salary to stay on at MySpace. If DeWolfe can successfully play catch-up with Facebook he may end up being worth it. → Read More
For the sleepless or bored, and who can think of nothing but the iPhone: the iPhone queue Live from Palo Alto, staring Robert Scoble and friends. The broadcast is said to continue until the iPhone goes on sale later today. To join the chat, visit the Zooomr page at Ustream. → Read More
As iPhone anticipation reaches a fever pitch, we are getting flooded with reports of people lining up to nab their own wonder phone. A quick trip down to the valley’s Apple store in Palo Alto shows the fervor taking over the valley. CrunchGear even caught blogger Robert Scoble, second in line only to his son, looking to trade in his $750 N95 3G 5MP camera phone for the $600 2MP camera edge-only iPhone. He was joined by Zoomr CEO Thomas Hawk and founder Kristopher Tate, who were running crowd control by handing out numbered tags. They were later joined from Diggnation’s Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, who were also covering the controlled chaos. You can see live coverage of the iLines on Ustream and Justin.tv. They’ll all be waiting in line until the iPhone goes on sale today, June 29, at 6:00 p.m. Here are some photos: Image credit, Gabe Rivera of Techmeme → Read More
Nice piece on ArsTechnica about how all Apple employees who’ve been with the company for more than a year are getting a free iPhone in July. Well, there’s more to it than that, but that’s the part technophiles will drool over first. In the company-wide meeting, Apple honcho Steve Jobs called iPhone the third leg on the Apple chair (Mac and iPod being the first two). A staffer asked if the iPhone would cannibalize iPod sales. According to Ars Technica’s notes, Jobs responded that if Apple were to be cannibalized, he’d prefer Apple to do it. Er…Steve-o…first of all, the only way Apple can be cannibalized is by itself. Second, what does this do to your three-legged chair metaphor if the second leg is all chewed up. Third, what’s the deal with the three-legged chair? → Read More
Helio users are lucky people. Besides not being nickel and dimed to death with extra charges that don’t actually cost the carriers anything, they get badass handsets like the Ocean that do pretty much everything, and rate plans that don’t leave them with self doubt in the morning. And things are about to get better. To be announced Monday, Helio is upgrading its Helio UP service. Currently it’s an online storage locker for photos and video taken with Helio devices. But come midnight tonight, it’s a lot more. Users can upload photos from their phones handsets directly to their Flickr accounts. Likewise, video can be sent straight to YouTube. Coupled with the built-in MySpace support, that is so socially-networkably radical it makes my head hurt like the first time I saw Megafox. Er, Megan. Fox. It’s unofficial until Monday, so we don’t wanna hear about it if it doesn’t work for you on the first try. But the message is this: Helio is making its already strong offerings stronger, and in all the right ways. If the iPhone’s not your bag, look at the Ocean and at Helio. They’ve got the best hardware/network synergy we’ve seen yet, and they’re making it better all the time. → Read More
Google Answers, famously shut down by Google in November 2006 after losing the Q&A war to Yahoo, has risen from the dead in Russia. Google Questions and Answers (Вопросы и ответы in Russian) allows users to ask a “difficult question that is interesting” and receive an answer from other users. Users earn points based on the quality of answers given and can gradually become an expert in a particular field. According to Alex Moskalyuk every new user starts off with 100 points, and can spend those points asking a question. The cost of the question can be 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 or 100 points. Logging in daily earns a user 5 points, every answer to a question is worth 2 points, and rating a specific answer if worth 1 point. The best answer gets all the points paid by the user who asked that question, providing motivation for answering higher-priced questions first. Whether these points can be purchased or redeemed for cash or something else of value was not clear from the translated version of the site or the post announcing the service on Google’s Russia Blog. The Google Russian team notes that they are particularly pleased to announce that Russia is the first country “where we are launching this service”, a sure sign that Google is planning on rolling out the new Google Answers to other countries, possibly worldwide in the future. Google Answers was an innovator in the online Q&A market and yet its model of paid experts answering questions failed dismally against free and open competitors including Answers.com and Yahoo Answers. The new Google Answers will still face that same competition today. Google must have something planned for the service to help it compete this time around; it’s not clear from the Russian version what secret recipe Google has planned but it surely wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice. Yahoo has nothing to fear quite yet, but it does look like the Q&A space may well get interesting again in the near future. → Read More
Russel Shaw at ZDNet got ahold of an AT&T employees’ objection script. These scripts are used by salesmonkeys to overcome the objections of unconvinced customers. They’re handy and pointed, and often do the trick. But beyond telling how the employees are going to be forcing people to take iPhones, the guide hints to a mysterious new product that AT&T might be selling alongside the iPhone called the “AT&T Wireless Gateway”. It’s a Wi-Fi router. OK, it’s an 802.11n Wi-Fi router with DSL and service via AT&T. With the Gateway, you’ll be able to send and receive calls via your iPhone’s Wi-Fi at home. Kind of a cool idea, much like T-Mobile’s UMA initiative. What’s unknown is if it’s a special AT&Tified router, or if you can upgrade a standard router or network. Chances are AT&T is using it as a way to bundle even more services into what it’ll call an “environment” or “platform” or “personal money-sucking network”. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. Again may I say, I’m so ready for this week to be over. Here are THE 13 AT&T Store iPhone Objection-Response scripts [Shaw at ZDNet] → Read More
Almost all of the music that’s piped through the audio system at my gym sucks and you’d think the music would be good for the amount of money I pay on a monthly basis, but no, it’s not. And I need music to motivate me — as I’m sure it does for a lot of you — to help get through that last set of squats or the final mile of my run. But I’ve grown weary of lugging around my iPod, mostly because the earbud wires annoy me to no end and just get in my way or I accidentally rip them out. The Jensen SportFones solve this by going all-in-one, which despite being a bit apprehensive about them, made up for a lot of its shortcomings. → Read More
iTaggit aims to change the way people collect, organize, and enjoy their personal items and collections by providing a service to catalog collections online. iTaggit provides an online environment for cataloguing, managing, and sharing collections of items, while preserving user and data privacy. The site features community resources, where users can connect and interact with friends, like-minded collectors, and experts. Recent upgrades include an Add Item Wizard, a Flickr-like picture uploader, an Amazon import tool, and Item Publisher. The best way of describing iTaggit is as a personal asset management service. If you’re a hobbyist or someone who likes cataloguing collections then iTaggit will appeal; although notably this would likely be a relatively small vertical. iTaggit took $1.04 million Series A financing round in August 2006 and makes revenue from eBay and similar affiliate advertising programs. → Read More
PressDisplay.com, an online newspaper kiosk, is now available on BlackBerry devices. The service, which sports more than 500 newspapers and magazines from around the world, allows viewers to read the publications in their entirety. Daily alerts use keywords to notify users of relevant news updates. The service costs $29.99 per month. A demo of the service is on YouTube. PressDisplay.com → Read More
