MoBile MaNia

"At just $199 the iPod touch is the most affordable gateway to Apple's revolutionary App Store with more than 75,000 applications that you can wirelessly download right into your iPod touch," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "You get a great iPod, a great pocket computer with the industry's best mobile web browser and a great game player, all in this super-thin beautiful enclosure."

The new iPod touch supports Genius Mixes, which automatically creates up to 12 endless mixes of songs from your iTunes library that go great together.

It comes with built-in accelerometer, Multi-Touch user interface, and access to over 20,000 game and entertainment titles on the App Store. iPod touch customers can add new game titles from the App Store over Wi-Fi anytime and anywhere.

Users can surf the web, email, manage their calendars, organize contacts, and use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It comes with the latest iPhone 3.1 software including: Cut, Copy and Paste; Spotlight Search to search across iPod touch or within Mail, Contacts, Calendar and iPod; landscape keyboard for Mail, Notes and Safari; remote lock for MobileMe and anti-phishing features.

iPod touch features up to 30 hours of music playback or six hours of video playback on a single charge. The 8GB model holds up to 1,750 songs, 10,000 photos and 10 hours of video; the 32GB model holds up to 7,000 songs, 40,000 photos or 40 hours of video; and the 64GB model holds up to 14,000 songs, 90,000 photos or 80 hours of video. The 32GB and 64GB models also include up to 50 percent faster performance and support for even better graphics with Open GL ES 2.0.

- Review courtesy Tech2

Apple is warning users of the iPod and iPhone that they could well receive a small and quick electrical (static) shock from their earbuds while using the devices.

Hang onto your headsets people, Apple has previewed their Apple iPhone OS 3.0 software and it’s a doozy!!! The beta software release to registered developers is going to be available immediately. The iPhone OS 3.0 beta release includes an updated Software Development kit(SDK) with over 1,000 new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) including In-App Purchases; Peer-to-Peer connections; an app interface for accessories; access to the iPod music library; a new Maps API and Push Notifications.

Apple also announced over a 100 new features that will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer including cut, copy and paste and here’s a good one - MMS!!!

Some of the other new features that 3.0 brings to the table will include –

• Cut, copy and paste,
• System-wide landscape keyboard,
• Forward and delete individual messages
  
• Text and Notes,
• Stereo Bluetooth (FINALLY!),
• Syncing Notes to the Mac and PC,
• Password login manager for Safari
• Shake to shuffle,
• YouTube accounts and YouTube subscriptions available
  
• Parental controls for TV shows,
• Movies and apps from the App Store,  
• Automatic login at Wi-Fi hot spots,
• Voice Memo app,
• Live video and audio streaming
• Expanded search capability for all key iPhone apps
• Spotlight search across the iPhone or iPod touch

“The new iPhone OS 3.0 is a major software release packed with incredible new features and innovations for iPhone customers and developers alike. It will keep us years ahead of the competition,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

The MMS feature will finally enable users to send and receive photos, contacts, audio files and locations with the Messages app; and also allow them to capture and send audio recordings on the go with the new Voice Memo app. Search capabilities will be expanded, allowing customers to search within Mail, iPod and Notes or search across all key apps by typing a key word or phrase into the new Spotlight search, conveniently accessed from the Home screen. The updated Stock app will add the ability to display recent company news and current trading information like opening or average price, trading volume or Market Cap, and will offer a landscape view to see a full screen of any stock chart. Customers will also be able to view shared calendars right on their iPhone with CalDAV support and sync their calendars with iCal, Yahoo, Google and Oracle.


Another key developer feature in the iPhone OS 3.0 beta software is the ability for apps to interface with hardware accessories, creating a whole new element of control for iPhone and iPod touch accessory developers as well as a new ecosystem of solutions for customers. Developers will also be able to use Apple’s new Maps API to integrate Google Mobile Maps services within their apps which will offer Google Map tiles, current location, custom annotations and geocoding. The iPhone OS 3.0 beta software includes the Apple Push Notification service which provides developers with a mechanism to alert users with sounds, text or a badge.

Cool Design Awesome UI Good Battery Life Good Sound Quality App Store

Pricing No A2DP Incomplete GPS Basic Features Missing Still no 3G

View Specifications

It's been a long time coming. Sure, we've had the first-gen iPhone in India in some form or the other ever since it launched in the US, but hey, "official" is always better than "nothing official". Let's dive into Apple's coolness box and see what the iPhone 3G, which is available in India starting Aug. 22nd, brings to the table.

For your convenience, and to make it snappy, we've skipped the parts which are similar from the first-gen iPhone to the new 3G variant, you can read a review of the last iPhone here . We've split the review into four parts. First, we answer a few basic questions you might have, second, obviously, are the "Good Bits", then some "Bad Bits", and finally, the "whys" behind the Rating / Conclusion.

For those of you who are in a hurry to get a confirmation on the prices, our original article about the iPhone pricing was right. Yes, the iPhone is priced at a hefty Rs. 31,000 for the 8GB version, and Rs. 36,100 for the 16GB version. Obviously, that also means you get it without any contract or postpaid plan whatsoever. You can use it with either a Prepaid or a Postpaid SIM card, and pick absolutely any plan you like (though Vodafone and Airtel may also launch some iPhone specific plans as well).

Sadly, the phone is going to be operator-locked. So, if you buy an iPhone 3G from Airtel, you can't use it on Vodafone, and vice versa. It goes without saying that using it on any other GSM network isn't possible, so those of you on IDEA, BSNL or any other provider will have to wait a long time till you can get an official iPhone that runs on your network without any hacks.

The iPhone will be sold at Airtel and Vodafone stores nationwide, and some Apple Exclusive resellers may also stock it. From what information we've been able to gather, the quantity of iPhones coming to India is pretty small as compared to the demand that the operators have gauged with their Pre-Booking offers, so expect it to be sold out pretty fast, regardless of the price, unless Apple increases their shipments to India (which I am sure they will, once they see the demand).

We also have a confirmation on the fact that iPhone's cool value added, but operator dependent feature, Visual Voicemail, will not be launching in India. Also, the iTunes store will only work for Application Downloads (i.e. App Store), and will not allow users to buy Music, Videos or Movies just about yet. Obviously, you'll need an Indian credit card (Visa, Mastercard, or American Express) to sign up for iTunes to download applications, even those that are free.

That's enough of the FAQs, now let's get down to the good bits on the new iPhone 3G. Move to the next page to continue reading more.