Cellphone Sidekick

Palm to run iTunes? Well we’ll hope that was true, and you know having dreams is good anyway. About last year, we all believed that this was going to be true when the Palm Pre comes to say that it’s iTunes compatible!

It looked like the iPhone is in serious trouble, as the Palm Pre once had announced news that will have Apple HQ wearing sackcloth and ashes before very long. The Palm Pre to be able to sync with iTunes- cue drumroll, gaping mouths, and a serious problem for the Apple clan. Back then and up till now, iTunes as well as a snazzy interface and web browser has been what’s kept the iPhone ahead of the game, but with news that the impressive looking Pre was going to be compatible, well, battle lines have been firmly drawn.

Indeed, DRM will still be an issue with the Pre, but considering you’re getting superior specs to the iPhone combined with their natty new OS, it’s going to be a close call. But sadly for us, the Apple soon disarmed that function and the Pre gets only Palm Pre when it came out.

Well this is a sad story, but maybe a nice start, let’s just hope these things to get real one day. And nevertheless, the Pre still has a 3 megapixel camera, 3.1 inch touchscreen and the usual Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections. It also gives you a 3.5mm jack- important for audiophiles, and quite nice looking too, still a nice phone!

The iPhone undeniably is a milestone in smartphone history, Apple has really made a generation with it, and now here comes the iPhone 4, a new generation of iPhone, and a new generation of all smartphones. If you haven’t read a lot about this new iPhone already, then let’s have a quick look at the new iPhone 4 with iOS 4 together.

First of all, since the iPhone 3GS resembles the iPhone 3G so much, I just want to give you a heads up that the iPhone 4 is drastically different from the iPhone 3G or 3GS, it’s literally the new generation of iPhone.

To start, it has an all new design features a sheet of glass on the front as well as the rear. Having glass on the rear means that it is scratch resistant. The edges are aluminum and act as the antenna for the WiFi, Bluetooth, and cellular radios. The iPhone 4 is the thinnest smartphone available at 9.3mm, but is a bit heavier than the iPhone 3GS. The display has such high resolution, that each pixel is nearly the width of a human hair. This makes for a super smooth image that is many times clearer than what you’ll find on any smarpthone. The resolution is 960×640. Most high end smartphones like the Google Nexus One or EVO 4G have resolutions of 800×480. The iPhone 4 has two cameras. The camera on the front is used for the FaceTime video chat feature. The camera on the rear is 5MP with an LED flash, and can also record 720p video.

Sounds to me, this is really the most impressive smartphone for both entertainment and communication! The new iPhone ships with iOS 4 and is going to be available on June 24, and you can get the 16GB model for $199 and the 32GB model for $299, with a contract of course. Let’s just wait and see if it is really that good as the official said “It’ll change everything again”.

Internet, the fastest way to spread news and rumors, as long as we love reading fresh news, or even rumors, some of them are just rumors that might never be true, but however we do believe there is something going on, one way or another. So let’s see how this rumor comes!

Just when you think the internet can’t take any more crazy it laughs, loosens its belt another notch, and unleashes something like ITWorld’s story about Adobe getting ready to sue Apple over the iPhone’s lack of Flash support or the iPhone OS 4 SDK prohibiting cross-compilers, or Canada winning Olympic hockey, whatever.

It’s not like the real news isn’t crazy enough right now, what with iPad and Adobe CS5 shipping and iPhone OS 4 getting previewed all within the last week or so.

Just what exactly is Adobe’s cause of action remains unaddressed, of course. Last we checked, being upset — even being righteously PO’d — isn’t grounds for legal action.

If ever Apple gains a true monopoly position in mobile and abuses that monopoly, then cases will no doubt be made (remember, you can have a monopoly, and you can be abusive, you just can’t be an abusive monopoly). Until that time, we get the feeling Apple is going to do everything they can to leverage their technology to get as far ahead of the mobile platform competition as they can. They’re going to go at a dead sprint, in fact, until they reach that very line. They want to be so far ahead by the time they have to worry about anti-trust and may be forced to switch gears, competitors will be too far behind to catch up.

Adobe’s only option is to do the same — take Flash further and faster than Apple takes the iPhone. Make it killer on the backs of Android or some other platform. That or sue Apple for patent violations if they have the portfolio stones, because as far as we can tell, there’s nothing involving the iPhone’s lack of plugin support or cross-compiler acceptance for them to sue over.

Of course, free enterprise means the freedom to sue just because, so ultimately who knows what Adobe will do.

We’re indeed no expert on that, so we don’t really know what exactly happened, and we’re just guessing. So if you know anything, please tell us in the comments.

As luxury goes, crystallized gadgets are very popular today, binged phones are really shinning. As far as Apple productions are renowned for their beautiful design and nice hand feeling, some people just don’t think that’s enough, they want them to be more shinning! And what can we say, they’ve got the money…Well, besides those luxury iPhones, let’s check out this stunning iPad today!

Like it or not, but there is still a wealthy strata of the society who craves bling like anything, and before you dare to call them tasteless, the list of celebrities who like to flaunt it out includes Stefano Gabbana, co-founders of Dolce and Gabbana, who reportedly buys gold-plated iPhones, rapper and producer Pharrell Williams, to name a few. So, after the diamond iPad from Mervis Diamond Importers, the next blinged iPad comes from CrystalRoc, studded with over 6000 individual Swarovski crystals. Their Swarovski version will go on sale sometime late April. This CrystalRoc’s crystallized iPad really fans the blinged gadgets craze further! And I’m just asking, which one Steve Jobs will prefer?

OK, this is it, stunning, shinning, perfect way to show your wealthy…

In a society like this, we respect and admire personality, and we always want to find a way to highlight our personality. Because we all have cellphone today, having a nice special case might be just the way to show your personality, but now covering your phone with a cool skin might be even better! Let’s start dress up your dear phone like a superhero!

Geeks, wear your geekdom more proudly: in rubbery casing on your gadgets as well as in your heart. Pull a tight Spiderman gelaskin over your iPhone or Pod and bring some superhero to your smartphone. Marvel have teamed up with GelaSkins using the legendary comic art to bring high-drama, sharp-coloured and quintessentially Marvell skins to Apple’s tech. Knowing how tight Marvell are about copyright to their images, this is a coup for Gelaskins.

Legendary Marvel superheros on your iPhone, makes it amazing and personal, totally cool! Such shinning skins really speaks a lot for your personality. Thank you very much, GelaSkins, for such a good job!

I mentioned it before that the world’s most popular smartphone company-Apple suited world’s No.1 smartphone manufacture-HTC, and we’re sure that this is going to be a very long fight. So people just start to think, why this lawsuit happens now and what for? And whenever there is a question, there will be someone to answer it. So here’s the voice of Fortune.

Fortune just quoted Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner, who thinks Apple’s patent infringement suit against Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone manufacturer HTC was a warning shot meant to disrupt competitors’ roadmaps: ”Starting in January, Apple launched a series of C-Level discussions with tier-1 handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing its iPhone-related IP [intellectual property] infringed. The lawsuit filed against HTC thus appears to be Apple’s way of putting a public, lawyered-up exclamation point on a series of blunt conversations that have been occurring behind closed doors.

Our checks also suggest that these warning shots are meaningfully disrupting the development roadmaps for would-be iPhone killers. Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy teams are working to chart OS strategies that are better hedged.”

And will they make it? Let’s just see what have already changed: “Top-tier handset makers continued to avoid implementing multi-touch, but Apple could safely assume that they were hanging back to gauge Apple’s response to Motorola and HTC. If there wasn’t one, the OEMs would likely read the silence as a green light, especially after Google also moved to enable multi-touch on its Nexus One phone.

It was likely in order to counter that perception that Apple began reaching out to handset OEMs in January and explaining in no uncertain terms that it was now ready to do battle–and not just on multi-touch. It was ready to press its case along a number of axes that had made the iPhone experience unique, from the interpretation of touch gestures, to object-oriented OS design, to the nuts and bolts of how hardware elements were built and configured.”

By now, he believes it’s working, and might end up driving people away from Android and… towards Windows Phone. Yeah, nice, but there’s something I have to say: Windows and Microsoft may in the end be more of a difficult opponent than Google and Android. So is this lawsuit really important, or is this the right thing to do for Apple?

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It’s all about patent, and despite their occasionally arrogance (like name their salesman Genius) Apple do have brilliant designs. The appearance of iPod, Mac and iPhone do pleases us and there’s really something going on, for we can see replica phones everywhere. And now it’s a big battle between two big companies.

Apple filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware. “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Apple reinvented the mobile phone in 2007 with its revolutionary iPhone, and did it again in 2008 with its pioneering App Store, which now offers more than 150,000 mobile applications in over 90 countries. Over 40 million iPhones have been sold worldwide. Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

This is the long glorious history of Apple, and honestly I don’t really see so much innovation in Apple today! They used to mock Microsoft on their Windows OS, but the Windows 7 is actually good and a really big step, and look at Leopard, nothing innovation indeed! Fighting for Patent, it’s a good thing, we do need originality and innovation, but seriously, pay more attention to the real thing!

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Apple changed its “sexy app” policy of App Store, and coming right after is a huge war of words, only then I truly understand how large the apple users are and how many eyes have set tightly on Apple!

So here’s the story: Apple’s hypocrisy with regard to the App Store is something that has been arguable for long. Just last year, many works were set about Apple allowing apps like “Asian Boobs” and “upskirt apps” into the App Store while rejecting things such as “satirical” apps which mocked public figures. Ridiculous as it is!  So when this new “sexy app” policy comes up, we’re actually all aware of a “war”.

Who woulda thunk that Apple’s new shift in App Store policy – the one that now has them banning ‘overtly sexual’ apps from the store – would end up causing controversy, ridicule, and daft decisions and decision reversals when it comes to individual apps affected by it?

Sure enough, just a few days after the new policy started being put into practice it is causing lots of controversy and, in typical App Store style, providing some fine entertainment due to dopey decisions in applying it. Just today, there’s already so many of the things in this area at TechCrunch, Gizmodo…ect.

To be honest, I do see some people (very few though) is actually happy about this new policy, but much more I’ve got are rejections, reversals, and plenty of criticism, and I managed to notice that most of these are coming from the fact that Apple is now rejecting and removing sexy apps from the App Store, but not all the them! And then here comes the question: Who gets to stay? Big publishers like Sports Illustrated and Playboy. In fact, not only is Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit 2010 app not being removed, it’s being featured in the App Store. Both it and the Playboy app clearly violate the new rules of the more prudish App Store, yet they get to stay. Why? I think that just touched some kind of sensitive region of social problem, which makes a start of the war!

These are just one day’s worth of fun and games generated by this latest App Store policy shift. I’m pretty sure there will be plenty more of this kind of news over coming weeks, most likely ends only until whenever the next switch or adjustment to this policy comes. So there surly will be more spits and the war continues, as usual. Just be prepared.

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The whole world is crazy about the “Apple iPad” since Wednesday, and we’ve long known the Apple names as “i-ish”, and we do think that “iPad” is quite perfect for the new Apple tablet. However there’s someone obviously don’t think so! If you say “iPad” to Fujitsu PR director Masahiro Yamane, he doesn’t think about Apple at all. No, the one thing that comes to mind is Fujitsu’s Windows CE-based iPad, from 2002. And soon, there come lawyers, lots of lawyers.

This isn’t the first time Apple’s appropriated a name that existed before, but this time the story might not play out like it has in the past. Here’s the whole story according to the NYT:

Fujitsu’s application to trademark the iPad name stalled because of an earlier filing by Mag-Tech, an information technology security company based Seal Beach, California, for a handheld number-encrypting device. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office listed Fujitsu’s application as abandoned in early 2009, but the company revived its application in June. The following month, Apple used a proxy to apply for an international trademark for the iPad. It has since filed a string of requests with the U.S. Patent Office for more time to oppose Fujitsu’s application. Apple has until Feb. 28 to say whether it will oppose Fujitsu’s claims to the iPad name.

This looks isn’t quite as clear cut as Apple marching in and snatching a name from someone, so instead of just paying Fujitsu off, there stands a good chance that Apple will actually fight this, and this might not end well for Fujitsu! Well, we just want that cute amazing device and let’s just wait and see what happens!

We love Apple products, they always bring many surprises. And yes, I know it’s not a cellphone, but doesn’t it seem like a giant iPhone to you?! And did anything other than the iPad happen Wednesday? Did anything even matter before the iPad? Well, that’s why we’re talking here about this fabulous new device!

My first impressions of the device are mainly positive. Apple has once again built a product that looks good and feels great in the hand, and the familiar user interface, borrowed from the iPhone and iPod touch, is perfectly suited to the bigger screen. The iPad whizzes along, opening applications, re-sizing web pages, and zooming in and out of maps almost instantaneously. It’s a great, fun gaming platform, and it’s lovely to view full-size web pages while browsing the internet.  As Steve Jobs said during his keynote, if you’re going to create a third category of device, between the smartphone and the laptop, then it needs to be better than either for certain tasks. In many areas, this is true for the iPad — web browsing is much better on the iPad than the iPhone, just because of the bigger screen, and physically flicking through photos, music and movies is just more enjoyable on the iPad than a laptop.

But in several crucial areas, the iPad falls short of the functionality that would have made this more than just a large iPod touch. The lack of Flash support is a major issue; The iPad’s inability to multi-task could also severely hamper its appeal. It’s being pitched as a portable device that you could kick back and use on the sofa at home, but you can’t run two missions at the same time. It’s one or other, just as it is on the iPhone and iPod touch, but for the extra money you’re paying for the iPad, you expect something more akin to a laptop computing experience.

Still, a very good device that really offers lots of advantages over your smartphone or laptop, but to totally replace both, we might need to set out eyes on the second or third version.