Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few days, you’ve probably heard that Apple has released iTunes 7.7 bringing with it the much anticipated App Store as well as the 2.0 software update for the iPhone and iPod touch. This also happs to be the day that the iPhone 3G is released. Pretty big day for Apple.

I’m in the process of updating my phone right now. It’s take about 20 minutes so far, and looks like it has another 20 or so to go. It did warn that it’d take a while. Word of warning, some people are experiencing issue with the update turning their precious iPhone into an iBrick because they couldn’t connect to the App Store (down due to traffic). I was able to browse the App Store, so I figured things should be safe now… we’ll see.

Aside from all the new games and applications, my favorite thing with this update is the ability to sync Google Contacts from GMail to iTunes. This is one of the things I’ve hated not being able to do since pretty much all of my email travels through GMail.

Here’s a roundup of iPhone related news for the past few days…

- How the iPhone App Store Will Kill iPhone Web Apps
- Battle of the iPhone Apps: MySpace vs Facebook
- iPhone App Store Is Live. So, What’s On The Menu?
- The Native iPhone 3G Apps We’ll See This Week (and Some We Won’t)
- Before the App Store “Opens”, it has already made Apple $55,000
- WordPress and TypePad Spawn Mobile Blogging
- That Didn’t Take Long…iPhone 2.0 OS Unlocked
- iPhone App Store: The Early List of Top Downloads
- iPhone Application Overview And Demo Videos

Enjoy the links!

Apple has released larger capacity versions of the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Both units run $499.00, keep in mind the iPhone requires an additional 2 year AT&T service contract on top of the phone price. Still no 3G version of the iPhone.

Source: Engadget via Digg

According to iPodNN, a patent application that has been submitted to the US PTO suggest that the control wheels for future iPods may have touch based illumination. The article also states that the same function could be applied to touchpads on MacBooks.

While I think this would be cool to see, I’d like to see the control (specifically on an iPod) pulse (multiple colors?) to the music playing. Pressure based LCD or OLEDs? Hmm…

Last month NBC pulled their library of shows from iTunes, and had some not-so-nice things to say about Apple. Why? Basically NBC got greedy, and wanted to jack the price up for NBC content that was offered over iTunes. Now, it looks like NBC is singing a different song.

I decided to hit up the Apple Store here in Knoxville to see what kind of accessories they might have for the iPhone. What I really wanted was something that would allow me to charge my iPhone in my vehicle, and allow me to listen to the music (in stereo), and when needed have a hands free option. Sorry, but I don’t want to use the iPhone ear buds or someother type of headphone while I’m driving. Anyway, did you know that no such gadget exist? Well, if it does, it’s not at the Apple Store.

Matter of fact, I learned something new about my iPhone today. If you connect it to a AM/FM transmitter, or even to a speaker station, then the iPhone will automatically switch to “Airplane mode”. Did you know that? I didn’t until a rep at the store informed me of that. Kind of stupid if you ask me.

If you configured your iPhone to check GMail using the big GMail icon, there is a little surprise for you with the latest update. Apple decided that you needed to be checking your GMail account with IMAP rather than POP3, so they’ve gone ahead and switched you. Don’t worry, IMAP really is better than POP3, just take note that messages you delete will be moved to the trash on Google’s servers. That means after 30 days they’ll be wiped.

Google has updated their mobile apps for the iPhone again. The first time wasn’t that bad of an update, and this time is even better. The new UI has a much cleaner and crisp appearance. Additionally you can customize what tabs are displayed (up to three). By default you have GMail, Google Calendar, Google Reader, and of course the main Google page. A more button will give you access to Google Docs, Picasa Web, Blogger, Google Notebook, GOOG-411, and Google Search SMS.

Also, I don’t know if i it’s just the Google stuff or if it is related the the 1.1.3 update, but the new sites are going much, much faster for me.

Earlier today Steve Jobs game his keynote address at MacWorld. There was some cool things announced, including a new MacBook called MacBook Air. While the new MacBook Air is pretty cool, there was another product that I was more interested in. The Time Capsule. This sucker is about the size of the Apple TV and is a wireless NAS system. You use it with Leopard’s Time Machine feature to create point in time backups of all your files. It’s wireless (802.11n) and comes in 500 GB and 1 TB sizes. What really amazed me though was Apple has it listed for only $299 and $499, which is reasonable compared to similar wired devices.

Remember the bit about the Time Capsule having 802.11n built in? It is it’s own access point. You can connect it up to your broadband modem and use it to share your network, or use it to extend an Apple Air-Port based network. So, you’ve got a wireless router and a NAS system all in one. Pretty dang nice.

Of course there was more that came out of MacWorld. Continue reading »

We already know that there is an iPhone SDK in the works, and Apple plans to have it available for developers next month. And there is a pretty good chance that we’ll see something about it this week, if not today during Steve Job’s MacWorld 2008 keynote.

My question is, once the SDK is available will we see an Opera browser on the iPhone? I’ve not had any problems surfing with my iPhone, aside from the occasional “safari could not open the page because the server stopped responding” error message. If my experience is already good, could it get better? Continue reading »

It’s been stated that Apple is working on a way to allow people to order and pay for items via their phone (iPhone of course). Today images surfaced that show how iPhone ordering could work at Starbucks. Real or not, it looks pretty fraking sweet. Could something official about this come next week at MacWorld 2008?