Despite predictions to the contrary, Apple did not announce a cheaper, mass market version of the iPhone today. Instead, it announced an upgraded iPhone 4 called the iPhone 4S. It’s the same on the outside, but with all new insides.
However, there are more affordable iPhones now on the market: the old ones. Apple says it’s keeping the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 around. Not only that, it’s dropping their prices. Why would Apple keep these aging devices alive? Simple. To battle Android, Symbian, RIM and Windows Phone – especially in emerging markets. → Read More
If you’re one of those folks who doesn’t need the latest and greatest, it may tickle your fancy to know that Best Buy is giving away the iPhone 3GS.
The sale will only last through today, and is only available to customers signing a new two-year contract with AT&T or renewing their contract. → Read More
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings got up on stage right after Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the WWDC 2010 conference, which we’re liveblogging here. Guess why he was there: there’s a Netflix app for iPhone on the way, and it’s coming this Summer.
It isn’t much of a surprise. I mean, Netflix already has an (amazing) iPad app, and it started surveying interest for an iPhone app early March 2010, while rumors of its impending launch have been swirling for much longer. → Read More
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings got up on stage right after Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the WWDC 2010 conference, which we’re liveblogging here. Guess why he was there: there’s a free Netflix app for iPhone on the way, and it’s coming this Summer.
It isn’t much of a surprise. I mean, Netflix already has an (amazing) iPad app, and it started surveying interest for an iPhone app early March 2010, while rumors of its impending launch have been swirling for much longer. → Read More
Business cards are an anachronism. We all have them, we all pass them out to people we meet, but how many of you actually own a rolodex, or file the business cards you receive in any meaningful way? For the people you actually care to connect with — as opposed to the people from whom you dutifully accept a proffered business card with no intention of ever contacting — you might manually transcribe the card’s details into your phone or contact management software. Personally, I wish business cards would die a fiery death so we could all move on to something a little more modern. Until that happens, or you become a master of business card throwing, you might want to check out the ScanBizCards application for your iPhone. → Read More
Before you start scrambling for your phone, laptop and data cable, just relax for a second. The latest update to the iPhone software, version 3.1.3, is a minor one. A quick glance at the changelog shows that the update will improve accuracy on the reported battery level on the 3GS, which is a huge help because we’ve sometimes seen it go from 20% to dead in just seconds. The launching of third-party apps should no longer lead to any weird crashes and the Japanese Kana keyboard is fixed. Happy downloading! → Read More
To be honest, I don’t really care which is the better smartphone (or super-duper phone): the iPhone 3GS, the Motorola Droid, HTC’s Droid Eris, Google’s Nexus One, Nokia’s N900 or the Palm Pre.
It’s just great to witness this seemingly never-ending advancements in mobile technology, both on a hardware and software level, and to see increased competition drive innovation at such rapid pace. Just compare the market today to five years ago, and you can’t help but be amazed by how far we’ve come – I still remember my epic struggles to get my previous phone (HTC S710 with Windows Mobile) to do half of what I really wanted it to.
In short: if all phone manufacturers keep on pumping out better phones, I’m a happy camper (for the record: I’m still very pleased with my iPhone 3GS as my primary device).
But comparisons will be comparisons, and MOTO Development Group this morning announced the results of its DIY touchscreen analysis, based on some touchy testing of the capacitive screens of the Nexus One, the iPhone, the Motorola Droid and HTC’s Droid Eris. → Read More
I’ll say it right off the bat: there are tons of ways people can communicate from iPhone to iPhone, not in the least by simple SMS or, you know, calling each other.
Then there are iPhone applications like Skype, eBuddy and Nimbuzz that allow you to call and/or IM your friends over the Internet waves, sans extra carrier charges.
Here’s another fun one to add to the mix: Blipr (iTunes link). → Read More
Apple has long been rumored to integrate video conferencing capabilities in the iPhone, and most expected Skype to incorporate such a feature in its free application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices sooner or later, but Israel’s fring is first to actually do it.
Big caveat for starters: the camera on the iPhone 3GS is located on the back, which is handy for recording videos of people and locations in front of you but of course makes it impossible for you to point the camera at your own face while still being able to see the screen (unlike Nokia N Series phones for instance). → Read More
Internet commerce juggernaut eBay is unveiling a brand new iPhone application dubbed Deals today, alongside an upgraded version of its shopping app for the iPhone and iPod Touch platform and an enhanced mobile website. And there’s a good reason for eBay to bolster its mobile offering: the company says its mobile GMV (value of goods sold) via its iPhone app and mobile website (m.ebay.com) is on track to top half a billion dollars by the end of this year.
Impressive number, and that’s not the end of the story. eBay also shared that its mobile GMV is growing at a double-digit rate month-over-month, and that approximately half of its 750,000 unique mobile users per month are situated outside the United States. Another interesting tidbit: eBay says 1 item is purchased every 2 seconds through its mobile offering.
Earlier this year, eBay CEO John Donahoe told a conference audience that the value of goods sold through the eBay iPhone app alone would exceed $400 million, and that an upgraded version of the app was imminent. That updated app should now be available, and it gained a little brother, too. → Read More
Back when I was a teenager my parents had a simple rule – I had to be home by midnight. There was a doozie of an exception, though. If I was drinking they didn’t want me to drive, so all I had to do was call home, tell them I was drinking and I could stay over at a friend’s house.
You can imagine that my parents pretty much thought I was an alcoholic in high school since twice a week like clockwork I called home at 11:45 pm to let them know I was too drunk to drive home and would be staying the night at wherever. Most of the time I wasn’t actually drinking, but who wants to go home at midnight? One time I remember calling home from Las Vegas (a four hour drive from Huntington Beach where I lived) to let them know I had had a couple of beers and would be staying at my friend John’s house down the street until morning (oh, right, like there’s anything you can do about it now, Mom).
Today things are different, though. And seeing iPhone apps like iCurfew just makes me shudder. Kids are still going to stay out late and not tell their parents what they’re up to. They just have to get way more creative about it, I guess. Because iCurfew tells your parents exactly where you’ve been and where you are now. You can send messages back and forth along with a handy Google map showing where the little troublemaker is right at that moment (probably outside a 7-11, trying to get someone to buy them beer).
Any kid worth his salt will try to figure out a way around this. My thought is to pay off someone to hold onto your phone and hang out at the movie theater messaging nice things to your parents while you are off doing God knows what. But I’m sure some enterprising young hacker to be can come up with a much more elegant solution.
But they better hurry, because adding a breathalyzer to this thing is probably next. → Read More
With the Holiday Season nearly upon us, we at TechCrunch thought it would behoove us to share with everyone a definitive list of the best smartphones currently available (or launching shortly), so as to help with any possible purchasing decisions which may occur in the upcoming months.
In making our decisions, we looked at these phones from the standpoint of the consumer. Thus, developer struggles, business security, and other such problems were not taken into account. Instead, functionality, price, and the overall usefulness of various smartphones made up the criteria which we adhered to during our reviews. These phones can be found on a multitude of carriers, operating systems, and continents. → Read More
Sportswear giant Nike has a nifty application in the App Store that allows you to create custom sneakers and order them straight away, with just a couple of taps. The app is in fact a mobile extension of NIKEiD, a program that allows customer to order personalized Nike shoes straight from the manufacturer. And an excellent extension it is.
The free app (iTunes link) has been available on the App Store since the beginning of this month, but surprisingly there hasn’t been a lot of coverage about it. Even despite this excellent video about it (embedded below). → Read More
During Apple’s Q4 earnings call today, a question was asked about how Apple viewed its increased competition for the iPhone in the coming holiday season. In particular, it was asked how Apple views all the new Android phones coming out. Apple COO Tim Cook made Apple’s stance very clear: They’re still catching up with the first iPhone.
Yes, Apple views the smartphone market as still being behind the first phone they released over two years ago. “We’ve moved beyond that,” Cook noted. → Read More
My name is Robin Wauters, and I’m a news junkie.
Being obsessed with consuming as much news – mostly technology related, of course – as humanly possible in the all too short span of any given day comes with the territory of working for TechCrunch, but I’ve always been a fan of obtaining as much information as fast as I could.
You could say my ever-growing habit of trying to consume as much news in my waking hours as I can is more of a natural cause for my employment in the fast-paced tech blogging scene than it is a result.
It also means I feel very disconnected when I’m not near a computer or mobile phone I can use to tap the Internet for the never-ending stream of news that gets pumped onto the wires. → Read More
My name is Robin Wauters, and I’m a news junkie.
Being obsessed with consuming as much news – mostly technology related, of course – as humanly possible in the all too short span of any given day comes with the territory of working for TechCrunch, but I’ve always been a fan of obtaining as much information as fast as I could.
You could say my ever-growing habit of trying to consume as much news in my waking hours as I can is more of a natural cause for my employment in the fast-paced tech blogging scene than it is a result.
It also means I feel very disconnected when I’m not near a computer or mobile phone I can use to tap the Internet for the never-ending stream of news that gets pumped onto the wires. → Read More
Half an hour ago, I just had an iPhone 3GS. Now, I have an iPhone 3GS with Layar installed.
It was one of the main questions I had for the Dutch company, which markets an augmented reality browser, when they launched at the Mobile 2.0 Europe event in Barcelona last year. When would they be complementing their Android program with an application for the iPhone?
They said it’d come in the fall of this year, and while there have been a number of AR applications made available on the App Store in the meantime, Layar’s finally arrived a couple of hours ago and it’s worth a second look. (iTunes link) → Read More
Half an hour ago, I just had an iPhone 3GS. Now, I have an iPhone 3GS with Layar installed.
It was one of the main questions I had for the Dutch company, which markets an augmented reality browser, when they launched at the Mobile 2.0 Europe event in Barcelona last year. When would they be complementing their Android program with an application for the iPhone?
They said it’d come in the fall of this year, and while there have been a number of AR applications made available on the App Store in the meantime, Layar’s finally arrived a couple of hours ago and it’s worth a second look. (iTunes link) → Read More
Easily the quote of the night at Palm’s Developer gathering in San Francisco came from Katie Mitic, Palm’s senior vice president of product marketing. “We want to leave it all out there. You know, ‘The Full Monty‘,” she emphatically said when noting that Palm’s goal was to be more open.
Anyone who has seen the 1997 British film of the same name will realize that such an act would certainly be more open. But will it work?
Open Apple
If there has ever been any question as to who Palm sees as its main rival in the quest for next generation smartphone domination, just look at its ranks. The company is filled with ex-Apple employees, all the way up to the top with CEO Jon Rubinstein (who was in attendance tonight), who is the man often credited for being instrumental in the creation of the iPod for Apple. And if that’s not enough, just listen to the rhetoric: → Read More
Never say never: Adobe Labs is today showing off a couple of Flash applications for the iPhone/iPod Touch platform at its annual Adobe MAX event.
A couple of demo applications made by third-party developers are already available on the Apple App Store and are built using the brand new Flash Professional CS5, of which a public beta with pre-release support for building applications for iPhone is planned for later this year.
You can sign up here if you want to be notified when the beta kicks off for real.
Basically, Flash Pro CS5 allows developers to use Flash technologies to develop content for iPhone and iPod Touch devices that were previously closed to them. The Flash developer tool converts Flash apps into ones that can work on the iPhone, since the iPhone still does not support Flash. So this is a workaround. But developers can write new code or reuse existing web content to build applications for the devices, and because the source code and assets are reusable across the Flash Platform runtimes (Adobe AIR and Flash Player) it is aimed to also give developers a way to more easily target other mobile and desktop environments.
Note that this does not mean you’ll be able to watch Flash-based web content on your iPhone just yet:
The new support for iPhone applications in the Flash Platform tooling will not allow iPhone users to browse web content built with Flash technology on iPhone, but it may allow developers to repackage existing web content as applications for iPhone if they choose to do so.
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