Category: Apple

  • Video Review: Case-Mate iPhone 3G Fuel Rechargeable Battery Pack

    Case-Mate provided a review unit of their iPhone 3G Fuel – Rechargeable Battery Pack. I’ve got a pair of somewhat nit-picky issues with the unit. But, they do not detract from the product’s main purpose: Provide a convenient portable recharging solution.

  • iPhone Compared to Star Trek Communicator (STTOS Era Device)

    sttoscomm_iphone3g

    My daughter and I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night. As a long time Trekker I give the movie a big thumbs up despite the shocking ret-cons (no spoilers). My non-Trekker daughter (she’s never watched an episode of STTOS (Star Trek The Original Series) or previous Star Trek movies) loved it too. I liked it so much, it moved me to find my dusty old STTOS Communicator I was amused to note the iPhone 3G is about the same length and width as the Communicator though the iPhone is much thinner.

    Live long and prosper…

  • Podcast 25: Bento for iPhone – A Conversation with FileMaker VP Ryan Rosenberg

    FileMaker’s Bento is been a popular personal database app for the Mac. Its one shortcoming for me was the lack of a way to carry its data with me on a phone. The release of…

    Bento for iPhone 1.0 (iTunes App Store)

    Bento for iPhone (Product page)

    …earlier this week appears to have addressed that issue for me. Fortunately, I was able to speak with Ryan Rosenberg, Vice President of Marketing and Services, to learn more about Bento for iPhone.

    We also spent a few minutes discussing a second iPhone related product that was also released this week: FileMaker PHP iPhone Site Assistant. This server-side product produces iPhone friendly web pages for presenting data stored in FileMaker Server.

    – You can listen to the podcast right now from your web browser by using the embedded player above.
    – You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or this RSS feed.
    – You can also point your smartphone’s browser at mobiletoday.podbean.com to listen to or download the MP3 file over the air to your phone.

  • Blast from the Podcast Past: Podcast 11 – Conversation with Evernote CEO Phil Libin

    Every now and then, I re-push an old-ish podcast that I think people might have missed and be interested in. I just listened to last week’s Net@Nite podcast #98 in which hosts Leo LaPorte and Amber MacArthur speak with Evernote CEO Phil Libin. I’m a huge fan of Evernote. I have Evernote clients installed on Windows, Mac OS X, Windows Mobile and the iPhone. And, its web interface gets used a lot by me too. So, if you missed it the first time around, I’ve embedded my conversation with Evernote CEO Phil Libin from earlier this year (January 30, 2009). You can find MobileViews.com Podcast (then called MobileAppsToday Podcast) #11 embedded above. You can also download it from the iTunes Store.

    – You can listen to the podcast right now from your web browser by using the embedded player above.
    – You can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or this RSS feed.
    – You can also point your smartphone’s browser at mobiletoday.podbean.com to listen to or download the MP3 file over the air to your phone.

  • Will the Amazon Kindle DX Abandon Sprint’s WhisperNet for Pure WiFi Connectivity?

    s_t_vz_090505
    Chart courtesy of Yahoo Finance

    Larry Dignan’s ZDNet item…

    The big Kindle: Pondering Wi-Fi; Netbooks; Market implications

    …got me wondering about two things…

    1. Will Amazon abandon the Sprint 3G wireless network powered WhisperNet for the Kindle DX and, perhaps, the successor to the Kindle 2 (assuming the Kindle 2 and DX are separate models for different market segments)? None of the big U.S. telecom providers have been doing well. But, as you can see in the dramatic two-year stock chart above comparing Sprint (S), AT&T (T), and Verizon (VZ), Sprint has appeared to have fared far worse than AT&T or Verzion in the past two years based on their stock share price performance. Could Amazon be preparing for a Sprint meltdown by moving away from WhisperNet to pure WiFi access?

    2. I’ve always assumed (but have not verified) that part of the Kindle 2’s and ebooks’ relatively high costs were due to a percentage payout to Sprint for the “lifetime” wireless 3G data access. Would dropping Sprint 3G data service allow Amazon to keep the Kindle DX price down? And, if a 3G-less Kindle 3 emerges, could it be priced closer to the magic $200 price-point?

    I guess we’ll know more after Amazon’s press event tommorow.

  • Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor Rank Orders Smartphone Platforms After Apple Rejects iPhone App Update

    Engadget summarized commentary from NIN’s forums and found NIN’s own Trent Reznor essentially rank ordering smartphone platforms with a brief commentary on each one.

    Trent Reznor rips Apple, rates smartphone OSes

    End result, despite the app battle with Apple, he still thinks the iPhone is the number one platform.

    1. Apple iPhone
    2. Google Android
    3. RIM BlackBerry
    4. Microsoft Windows Mobile