Verizon Unveils Teaser for Upcoming Android 2.0
Droid Phone, Pitched as Direct iPhone Rival

post from Daring Fireball on 17 October 2009 10:14:00 PM. © Daring Fireball

Thoughts:

The whole site is Flash.
The animation is pretty close to the commercial they showed during tonight’s Yankees-Angels game, which (I’ve heard) will be in heavy rotation during football games tomorrow.
Those “iDon't”s, with the straight primes instead of proper apostrophes, make the commercial look slapdash.
Seems pretty clear that Verizon isn’t getting the iPhone any time soon.
The small print notes that “Droid” is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd., licensed to Verizon.
It’ll be running Android 2.0.

Lastly, the big point: “Droid” is going to be a Verizon-owned brand. It’s purportedly a Motorola-manufactured phone, but Verizon is the licensee of the “Droid” trademark. (Which name, by the way, strikes me as the perfect name for an Android OS phone — sort of implicitly establishes it as the Android phone.) That’s the big thing. Verizon doesn’t see itself as a mere carrier for other companies’ phones. It sees itself as being bigger than the phones. It’s Verizon-vs.-Apple in this spot, not Verizon-vs.-AT&T.

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Read The Full Article:
http://droiddoes.com/

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MacMost Helps iPhone Users Find the Right Case

post from prMac on 17 October 2009 10:13:00 PM. © prMac

MacMost has announced a new iPhone Case Finder section. The new iPhone Case Finder section of the MacMost Web site allows users to quickly search through more than 700 iPhone and iPod Touch cases. They can narrow the field by specifying styles, colors and types. Finding the right case for your iPhone can be tricky. There are hundreds of cases currently available, of all different styles, colors and types.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-8078.htm

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The Idiot Test 3 Hits Half A Million Downloads on
the App Store

post from prMac on 17 October 2009 05:05:00 PM. © prMac

Nexx Studio announced that The Idiot Test 3 just hit half a million downloads since it was made free just a few weeks ago. Over the free period, the game peaked to the top of the App Store download chart in United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and ranked as the Top 100 App in over 18 countries. Past 2 weeks alone, the app was downloaded at the rate of 20 users/per minute worldwide.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-8071.htm

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Excel Software releases RbApp 2.3 for REALbasic
2009R4

post from prMac on 17 October 2009 03:51:00 PM. © prMac

Excel Software ships RbApp 2.3 for REALbasic 2009R4. RbApp components can be used for applications that require graphics, page layout, data entry and manipulation grids, text editing, undo/redo commands, tool bars and palettes, string lists, XML storage, cross-platform file management, charts or graphs.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-8070.htm

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macCompanion Magazine: October 2009 - Wake Up and
Stand Up America

post from prMac on 17 October 2009 03:10:00 PM. © prMac

The October 2009 issue of macCompanion magazine is now available online. The latest 60-page issue is now available online and as a PDF. Wake up and stand up, America! by Robert L. Pritchett discusses a myriad of items intent on taking away our free enterprise system and what we can do about them. All businesses, including Apple, are directly affected. C++0x Part 1, The Centre of the Universe, Manga Guide to Calculus, Manga Guide to Physics, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, and more.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-8077.htm

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Verizon starts anti "iDevice" campaign, vows Palm
Pre

post from Macnn | The Macintosh News Network on 17 October 2009 01:50:00 PM. © Macnn | The Macintosh News Network

Verizon today sent signals that it's about to launch an aggressive campaign against Apple through a ...

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=5a5c3b385e576a85eb32d963507596b3

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worldcloud announces Sponsorship of FileMaker
Konferenz 2010

post from prMac on 17 October 2009 01:42:00 PM. © prMac

worldcloud.com, an international cloud computing services provider specializing in dedicated server hosting solutions, is proud to announce its sponsorship of FileMaker Konferenz 2010 held at the Novotel Zurich Airport Messe in Zrich, Switzerland 27-29 May 2010. As a multi-national and multilingual provider of FileMaker hosting solutions, worldcloud.com is in an excellent position to be of service to the German speaking FileMaker world.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-8069.htm

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Weekly App Store Picks: October 17, 2009

post from TheAppleBlog on 17 October 2009 01:04:00 PM. © TheAppleBlog

Welcome to the weekend, a time for rest, relaxation and, most importantly, downloading the latest releases from the App Store. As ever, I’ve selected four fresh picks for the iPhone for you to check out.

This week’s picks are all about getting the most out of your iPhone. My top pick is Boxcar, an excellent push notifications app. Plus I’ve also been looking at Google Wave, Layar and Photoshop.com Mobile.

Boxcar (Free)

app_icon_boxcar Push notifications — those handy messages that alert you to stuff going on inside an app — are curiously absent from my favorite iPhone apps. Facebook’s latest update didn’t integrate push, perhaps because of the cost implication. And Tweetie 2, released just a few weeks back, omitted push notifications too.

Boxcar provides for all your push notification needs. The app can grab the latest @replies, DMs and notifications from Facebook, Twitter and even your e-mail account. Receive a message and you’ll get a push notification on your iPhone. Tap the ‘view’ button and you’ll be taken directly to the message in your app of choice, such as Tweetie 2 or Facebook.

The app is free to download with one service included. You can purchase additional services for a one-time fee. Note that, if you’re intending to use Boxcar for Twitter, there’s a trick to setting up your Twitter notifications: make sure to click Twitter’s ’sign in’ button rather than the iPhone ‘done’ button. Aside from that, you’ll find it’s perfectly smooth sailing.

Google Wave (Web App)

appicon_googlewave If you’re lucky enough to have access to Google Wave, this is a recommendation that you check out the iPhone app. Otherwise, if you’ve still not received an invite to Google’s new service, consider this a micro-preview.

Google Wave fever hit Twitter earlier this week and I caught the bug. In a desperate bid to get early access to Wave, I wrote and sent two poems to Google, hoping to coax an invite out of them. Despite penning some poetry, I ended up having to track down an invite via my contacts on Twitter.

To install, simply log-in to Google Wave then, using Mobile Safari, save the following address to your Home screen: http://wave.google.com. The Web app launches in ‘app mode’ which means it looks and acts like a real app — no Safari browser buttons or address bar.

From the main page of the Web app you’re able to browse through current waves, create a new wave and initiate a search. Despite feeling a little clunky (it’d probably run much more smoothly as a native app) it’s clear that Google has put a lot of effort into transferring the service to iPhone. For Wave users, this is one Web app worth bookmarking.

Layar (Free)

appicon_layar If you’re still clinging on to your dowdy old iPhone 3G, you might want to look away for a moment. This recommendation is for 3GS owners only. Layar is another augmented reality app, but with a slight twist — it packs in a ton of features and it’s free.

The app certainly isn’t as pretty as Nearest Places, but Layar really does pack in an overwhelming amount of reality augmenting tools and toys. The app fuses your iPhone camera with a browser, allowing you to initiate a search and then see an overlay of local points of interest relating to your search.

The interface is somewhat cluttered though and, because of the amount of options available, it does feel overwhelming the first time you open the app up. However, it’s totally free and certainly worth investing a few minutes getting to grips with the app’s nuances.

Photoshop.com Mobile (Free)

appicon_photoshop Last week I omitted Photoshop from the App Store Pick. I wanted to focus on fun and games, plus Photoshop.com Mobile just didn’t tickle my fancy. Indeed, it’s nice that Adobe finally brought Photoshop to the iPhone, but it’s nothing more — the app isn’t really Photoshop, it’s simply a few presets and a tool for uploading to Photoshop.com.

In fact, the app seems to be an extension of Adobe’s current strategy. Adobe haven’t necessarily dropped the ball, it’s more like they’re letting it slowly slip from their hands, as if that’s a more graceful way to fail. Their iPhone app is another example of that. It feels stifled and primitive when there’s so much potential for shrinking Photoshop down to palm-size proportions.

Nevertheless, if you’re looking to get your photo-editing fix for free, Photoshop.com Mobile is an excellent tool to download. Before you do though, I’d politely request that you take a quick glance at PhotoForge — it’s a few bucks, sure, but it’s just so useful, easy and fun.

That?s all the picks for this week. I?ll be back in seven days with a fresh selection of App Store recommendations.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

Read The Full Article:
http://theappleblog.com/2009/10/17/weekly-app-store-picks-october-17-2009/

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Damned Fireball

Some Grease Monkey-fueled solace from Greg Knauss, for those of you with sensitive baseball proclivities.

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Read The Full Article:
http://www.eod.com/blog/2009/10/damned-fireball/

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Ultimate Video Converter for Mac - Audio
Converter Inside

Leawo Software has announce Mac Video Converter, its ultimate video converter for Mac OS X. Leawo Mac Video Converter is a powerful video and audio converter that can convert among AVI, MP4, 3GP videos and MP3, WMA, WAV audios and others easy and fast. The update offers several internal improvements on the profile library and codec engine, which stretches the program to convert video and audio much faster and smoother.

Read The Full Article:
http://prmac.com/release-id-8058.htm

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