Netflix on the iPhone
We all knew this was coming since we already have it on the iPad but Netflix is now available down to the iPhone and iPod touch devices. Version 1.1 allows you to stream TV shows and movie streaming possible so go get it! AT&T, just wait until it’s over 3G…ouch
Netflix iPhone App Video from Netflix on Vimeo.
xtrememac incharge duo
We all know Apple produces very nice consumer electronic pieces. But what we don’t like is how they suck a lot of power throughout the day. The XtremeMac InCharge Duo is a new accessory that combines a dock and wall charger and can charge simultaneously with any two iPads, iPods, or iPhones at any time in any combination possible.
The Duo comes at a steep price at $60 (Amazon $30) and comes with adapters that fits your iPad and any model iPhone or iPod. LED indicators are lit when it’s ready for you to jam out and continue using when it’s finished charging.
The InCharge Home system comes in at $35 (Amazon $20) and comes with a 30 pin USB cable and lets you charge two of your devices at the same time.
Look out for these at your Apple stores and directly through XtremeMac soon. While you’re at it, pick up another Apple device when you get there.
In another strange turn of events in the app approval process for the iPhone, Apple has given the green light to a new application that supposdly allows video recording on non iPhone 3Gs models. This means that the phone was not limited by hardware but software. For $0.99 cents, you can download an app that basically allows the same functionality as the iPhone 3GS for video recording. Hurray! One less reason to upgrade to the 3GS or jailbreak…
Read more about it here:
http://theappleblog.com/2009/12/15/apple-approves-video-recording-app-for-iphone-2g-and-3g/
With Apple’s resounding success in their App Store, major carriers and phone manufacturers are jumping on the app store bandwagon to avoid being a “dump pipe” or just another hardware manufacturer. With loads of new app stores and new ways to download applications, this is by far a better user experience than in the past than having to browse from a clunky interface on the web and syncing it on the phone or downloading it from unfamiliar and risky 3rd party sites.
Now with everyone and their mother implementing an app store, developers are the last piece of the puzzle to develop and fill up their catalog. But what carriers and new app store promoters don’t realize in the resounding success of Apple’s App Store is that it was on a narrow target of mobile phones and operating systems. This alone cuts down on the difficulty of the developer to develop and maintain a stable and worthwhile experience of applications so that the end-user aka customer can enjoy and return for more. With Windows Mobile, Symbian, Brew, Java, Android, Apple, Blackberry, and other OS’s, it gets pretty overwhelming to maintain and update across all these different operating systems. Let’s say you narrowly focus on two or three OS’s, Apple, WM, and Android, you not only cut yourself off from 50% of the market but you also expand the number of phones and screen sizes to develop for. Apple’s success was that it was a homogeneous product of devices (iPhone and iTouch) with little deviation between the two.
My advice to these new app stores, don’t try to preload every phone with access to the app store. Only preserve it for the higher end phones that can handle this and narrow down the hardware that it can work universally without having to pressure developers to program specifically around for a particular phone.