Thursday, March 19, 2009

3.0 Firmware Lists New iPhone, iPod Touch Entries


As soon as developers get their hands on new firmware, we always seem to learn something interesting hidden in all the ones and zeros. Boy Genuis today reported that multiple new device ID references were uncovered in the 3.0 firmware released to developers this week. This brings more weight to the idea I mentioned yesterday that new hardware was likely arriving this Summer.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

iPhone 3.0 Teased Today in Cupertino



















As mentioned, Apple announced a major revision to the iPhone/iPod touch OS platform today and detailed many of the new features headed our way this Summer. Remember all the complaints people had about copy and paste? Gone. MMS? Done. How about push notifications? No longer. Engadget of course blew out their coverage of the event today (I pounded refresh over my lunch hour too...it's OK), but an overview of new features is below:

  • Peer-to-peer connectivity over Bluetooth
  • New fee based system for in game purchases and add ons
  • Google Maps API opened for apps...AND YES: TURN BY TURN NAVIGATION.
  • The dock interface has been opened up and can now be utilized by apps (QWERTY keyboard undoubtedly forthcoming)
  • Sweet, sweet push notifications...but no background processing
  • In game voice, streaming video and audio implemented
  • Cut, copy and paste
  • MMS - Allows sending of location, contacts, etc.
  • Stereo Bluetooth
  • Spotlight search from a new home screen
  • TETHERING. Sweet lord above we get tethering
  • New app - Voice Memos will allow you to record reminders
  • The Stocks app is updated for news and a landscape view
  • New calendar features - CalDAV and .ics subscriptions

Based on this release and last year's events...I think it's a pretty safe bet that we will see a hardware revision coincide with the official release of 3.0 this Summer. As Nilay Patel has mentioned, Apple's made it fairly clear that they want a consistent platform for developers...so it could simply be a spec bump and slightly different form factor. The weather has just turned warm here...but suddenly I'm ready for June.

Monday, March 16, 2009

iPhone 3.0 Preview...Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Apple will be outlining the new features in its latest major revision of the iPhone OS. I'll stop by tomorrow evening to give my thoughts...

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Speaking of Boxee...








Boxee's blog announced that their remote control app is finally through Apple approval and available in the app store. Price = free. Duh.

http://www.boxee.tv/

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Boxee Gives My DVR Abandonment Issues

Boxee has generated a great deal of interest lately, as its public battle with online TV provider Hulu has provided more than one "three snaps in zig-zag formation" type reaction over the past month. Hulu, a joint online venture between Fox and NBC provides free streaming access to shows on those networks as well as their affiliates and associated partners. The content comes with short commercial breaks, hence the free nature. The service has become extraordinarily popular as it provides a fairly high quality viewing experience, on demand, FOR FREE.

Enter Boxee. Boxee for those unfamiliar, is a free media center software package that currently runs on Mac and Linux builds and is essentially an aggregator of all the free video and audio content available on the web. Its slick interface, social networking tilt, and ease of use has made it popular with many streaming media lovers. What's more, Boxee created a straightforward process to load its software onto Apple TV devices, providing a great source of media to those users as well. With Hulu being an Internet media streamer and Boxee being a streaming media aggregator...it seemed like a tiny thing for Hulu content to reside in the Boxee interface for all to enjoy. After all...you still watch the show with all the provider's intended commercials, what could go wrong? Well, in a word...everything. Hulu (read: Fox and NBC) have waged a technical war of hack and defend upon Boxee to block their software from providing content to their users. Boxee has retorted by working around the hindrance only to be blocked again. Only time will tell if NBC will come to its senses and realize that Boxee is driving more users to its content (and ads) than before.

Regardless..with or without Hulu, Boxee is an amazing piece of software. The ability to utilize the Apple remote to control, pause, and rewind content is a welcome addition. The ability to link Boxee to Twitter and FriendFeed while keeping your Boxee friends abreast of your recommended shows is a nice feature as well. For me, this is the future of media distribution. I'm willing to watch a commercial here and there (breaks are usually a single commercial) for the flexibility both Hulu and Boxee provide. The ability to provide on-demand content from major media sources at any time, on any network enabled device is extraordinarily powerful. In fact, as a self described TV junky...I'm feeling more attached to Boxee and my laptop than I am to my DVR.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Ping.fm & Pingle: All Your Status Updates are Belong to Us

There are a lot of social networking sites out there. Like, WAY too many. Unfortunately, this means that you likely don't keep up with every one of your friends through the same site, necessitating many different accounts. Each service has the ability to integrate with others (for example, twitter can simultaneously update Facebook) but you'd need a 350 million dollar Visio diagram to remember how it all fits together. If you're like me, this means you update Facebook by default and tend to neglect MySpace, Twitter, etc. Do not fear, Ping.fm is here to help. A web based aggregator designed to stitch together every imaginable IM, blog, and social networking site, ping.fm allows you to update each and every one in a single step. Ping.fm has a staggering list of supported sites, but major players are Facebook, FriendFeed, MySpace, flickr, linkedin, blogger, twitter...you get the idea. The service allows you to update via SMS, email, and IM in addition to the web portal, but you can also utilize a mobile application created by Curious Squid called Pingle. Pingle is one of the better Ping.fm implementations around, providing a quick way to update your services by category, (blogs, social networks, microblogs, etc.) or by single service. The app also shows you history and allows you to integrate photos and location into your updates or "pings". For instance, you can take a photo and add it to your facebook, myspace, twitter, and flickr pages all in one step. I'm not sure that demand can sustain the myriad sites that exist in these spaces, but in the interim aggregator sites like Ping.fm and FriendFeed can quickly make you a more efficient social butterfly.