iPhone 3.0 and Video Recording – now with YouTube Uploading
So the devkits have been explored, the interviews taken and the rumours integrated. It’s now a dead cert that video recording will hit the iPhone for its big 3.0 June re-launch. And that a basic ‘iMovie’ application will be there for splicing clips together.
“Big deal”, owners of other smartphones might think, “my phone has had high-resolution video recording for years”. And they’re right, I used a Nokia N93 to record my summer holiday in 2006 in full VGA resolution with stereo sound. It was sunny and it was glorious.
But Apple are set to go one better and by doing what they do best – making things easy for users while staying away from the bleeding edge. (more…)
Why gaming on the iPhone works
I’m more than a casual gamer but not quite a hardcore-stay up all night playing World of Warcraft-kind of gamer. I know what I like and right now I’m loving iPhone gaming.
I mooched around my local GAME (UK video game store) the other day, looking for a classic gaming experience on the XBOX 360. Besides the usual line up of violent games based on the premise that killing lots of things is exciting, there was nothing. Yes, I realise that I really should have bought Street Fighter IV, but just as I was making my way to the counter I realised that I could purchase at least fifteen decent iPhone games for the £34.99 asking price. It was at this point that it struck me. The iPhone is now my primary gaming machine. To be honest, I’m still reeling from this revelation. As someone who is a self-professed polygon junkie, you’d think that the iPhone wouldn’t even come close to satisfying my gaming needs. But it has, here’s why…
New iPhone Hardware Wish List
We are probably just two to three months away from a new iPhone. As the rumours fly, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of new hardware, but in reality much of what will make the next iPhone another worldwide hit has already been revealed as part of the iPhone 3.0 OS update.
Be that as it may, the current iPhone hardware could do with a bump. Here is my list of hardware changes that I’d like to see introduced with the next iteration of the iPhone legend.
When will O2’s iPhone exclusivity end?
The Observer reported on Sunday that O2 is “racing to sell iPhone [3G] as new model looms”.
In context, MacRumors Buyer’s Guide currently says “Don’t Buy!” against the current iPhone. This is because it’s fairly certain that one or more new models will be announced by Apple at the World Wide Developers’ Conference on June 8th. The question is whether O2 will still be the sole carrier for the iPhone in the UK.
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MMS to be included with O2’s iPhone tariffs
Behold the power of Twitter! I asked @O2UKOfficial – which is O2’s presence on Twitter – a question this morning:
What’s the plan for MMS on monthly tariffs when iPhone OS 3.0 comes out? 1 MMS = 4 SMS as usual?
Is live BBC TV coming to the iPhone?
I saw on All About Symbian yesterday morning that you can now stream live TV over wi-fi to certain phones (Nokia N96 and 5800) via the BBC mobile site. Although it’s low quality, this is pretty cool. I tried it on my iPhone, but no luck. It appears that Realplayer streams are being used, which rules out access via the iPhone at the moment.
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iPhone OS 3.0 – how was it for you?
The dust has settled, mostly. Apple have made their big iPhone OS 3.0 announcement – covered very well by posts at Intomobile and iPhone, Therefore I Blog. The video podcast of the announcement has been released. And those who have installed it are rapidly finding more than Apple was prepared to demonstrate on Tuesday – internet tethering, finding your lost iPhone, better podcast scrubbing, uploading video. iLounge has a great gallery of screenshots.
Personally, I’m glad some of the frustrating omissions from iPhone OS are being filled (MMS, handling vCards, cut ‘n’ paste). It’s basic stuff but it makes a difference when it’s not present. But aside from filling in the blanks, what did Apple really announce on Tuesday?
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Sync problems with single-name contacts
Well if Steve can have a rant then so can I! Is anyone else having a problem with single name contacts syncing to their iPhone?
The problem is simple: I have a contact on my iPhone, e.g. “Mum”, which is filled in as the First Name in Contacts. The Last Name is blank. That’s the way I want it.
The contact is also set up *exactly* the same way within Address Book. I sync with my Mac a few times, and everything seems fine. Then all of a sudden, on some random sync, the name will change from “Mum” to “Mum Radford”. Maddening!
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Listen to live BBC radio on your iPhone
I’m a fan of BBC iPlayer, and I noticed recently that if you sign up for BBC iPlayer Labs, you can now get radio via:
New high quality AAC+ streaming, plays back in our Flash player, no need to install Real Player.
Sweet! No need for Real Player! Wait a minute though – Flash? That means there’s no additional iPhone joy. So here’s a way around it (and it’s not one of those jailbroken iPhone-only hints). And it’s currently the closest thing to a native BBC Radio iPhone app.
Building an iPhone application in a month
Here’s an interesting document I found about iPhone development, via Guy Kawasaki on Twitter.
Ten23 Software built PhotoKast from scratch in a month. It says plenty about the iPhone’s development environment and distribution channel (not to mention their tenacity) that they were able to do this.
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