SOMEWHAT FRANK

WWDC 2009: iPhone 3GS & 3.0, Macbook Pro & More

I did not attend Apple's WWDC 2009 in person but thanks to the Web, I still could follow along as we all look for the new iPhone G3S, SDK 3.0, Macbook Pro and more. This is what I learned from following the chatter online:

Computers

• Launched 3 new Macbook Pro models at 13, 15 and 17 inches
• All have built in SD Cards
• The 13 inch version was formerly the Macbook
• Lowered the prices on the Macbook Air

OS X

• Finder was rewritten in Cocoa programming language
• Faster installs by 45%

Safari

• Safari 4 will ship today with faster Javascript than IE 8
• Separated out plugins so that the entire browser won't crash

Quicktime

• Launched Quicktime X with a new logo to boot
• Offers http streaming
• New user interface
• Offers ability to trim and share videos directly within QuickTime to iTunes, MobileMe or YouTube

Dock Expose

• If you click and hold any application icon on your dock it will just expose the windows associated with that particular program
• Drag and drop support allows you to drag a file to the a docked icon and all of your windows will line up, allowing you to drag the file directly to the right one

Mail, iCal & Address Book

• Offering new exchange support orks with Mail, iCal, and Address Book
• Spotlight search will now search PC docs and attachments from within Mail
• Meeting invitations can now be accepted from within Mail
• iCal now does search to find available times for group meetings

iPhone OS

• 1,000,000 SDK downloaded. 50,000 apps in store. 40,000,000 iPhones & iPod touches sold already
  
• New OS 3.0 available today with 100 new features on June 17th to all iPhone users for free and for $9.95 to iPod Touch users
  
• New OS supports cut, copy, paste, MMS support, landscape mode in all Apple applications
• Support for sending Photos, contacts, audio files, etc over the cell network
• MMS Support won't be available by AT&T till later this summer
• Spotlight: enables search across entire phone, contacts, apps and details within apps, etc.
• Tethering allowing users to share the Internet connection with with Mac/PC, USB or Bluetooth
• Parental controls introduced
• iTunes: Rent and purchase movies right from the phone!
• iTunesU also now available on the iPhone
• Safari Mobile: Performance upgrades, HTTP streaming audio/video, Autofill, HTML 5 support
• Find My iPhone: MobileMe Service launched that allows users to locate iPhone on a map then send wipe command to delete all items on the phone remotely
• In App Purchases: enables the purchase of content within applications
  
• Real-time data straight out of iPhone (i.e. medical alerts)
• Turn-by-turn navigation via TomTom GPS app on the iPhone
• Textbooks on the iPhone via Iceberg app on the iPhone
• ZipCar on the iPhone allows users to book and even unlock a car with the iPhone

iPhone 3GS

• iPhone 3Gs is for SPEED
• Photo Camera - 3.2 Megapixel auto focus - Has a new autofocus, tap to focus, autobalance, low light sensitivity, auto macro
• Video Camera - 30 frames per second with auto focus, exposure control, and more
• Videos are kept in your photo library and you EDIT videos on the phone!
• Videos can be auto share to iTunes, MobileMe and YouTube
• Voice control - make calls & play songs, playlists and play similar songs with the sound of your voice
• Digital Compass
• Accessibility settings - voice over, zoom in, invert colors and mono audio
• Nike Plus Support 
• Hardware encryption for business
• Better battery life
• Most environmentally friendly iPhone
• Priced for $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB in black and white
• Available June 19th

iPhone 3G

• Available now for $99

Apple MobileMe Syncs Everything For A Fee

The release of the new 3G iPhone and the launch of the Application Store secured the spotlight last week but there was another release which caught my attention. Apple launched MobileMe to replace the .Mac service which has been around for awhile. Though the .Mac migration may have had a few hiccups, the new MobileMe service offers users who pay just $99 per year an Apple run exchange for keeping contacts, calendar events and email synced to a PC or Mac computer and iPhone or Touch. The release positions Apple into a new space as a supplier of personal enterprise computing solutions. Apple takes on "free" email providers by locking up new me.com users to an account on a yearly subscription. Will this change the "free" email standard?

LiquidTalk: iTunes For Business

Keeping up to speed with the latest corporate or team communications while on the road or away from the office can be a bit daunting. Many companies leverage video or audio messages which cannot be accessed from outside the corporate firewall. LiquidTalk, a Chicago-based startup, offers a business solution to help keep people in the corporate environment in the loop via the devices (iPhones and BlackBerry) that we all have on them at all times. It is like having iTunes for business as it syncs all your corporate communication messages to your device for on the go consumption on your own terms.

Do You Do Good With E-Waste?

With Apple putting out iPods and other products out every quarter it is inevitable that you will want to get rid of some of your old electronic equipment or e-waste. What do you do with your old electronics? Good question right. Well, you can recycle it - what else can you do?

Typepad On The iPhone: Video Demo

Typepad, the popular hosted blog platform by Six Apart, has announced a new iPhone optimized interface. Typepad users can now visit http://i.typepad.com on an iPhone or the new iPod Touch in their Safari Web browser use an optimized version of Typepad. I tested it out with a brief video demo.

iPhone Mania Turns To AT&T Activation Hell, Google Widget Payday, AOL News & CNN Redesign, Web 2.0 Tracking, A Tour of myAOL & French Web 2.0

Photo of the Week: I spotted this sole mushroom while visiting 'the country' in Illinois.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 07.01.07

iPhone Mania Turns To AT&T Activation Hell
The iPhone caused quite a stir and it appears Apple handled demands very well as it was almost too easy to get the iPhone in several locations. I was able to pick one up with no wait. However, since acquiring the iPhone I have yet to get it activated. It seems I am not the only one. Thus far it has taken over four hours, 2 phone calls to AT&T and one trip to an actual AT&T store. I am hoping tomorrow I will be able to get my iPhone activated but it will take at least one more call to AT&T support to help me transfer my number from my current service provider. Bummer. :-S

The French Web 2.0 Wave
France leads Europe in its enthusiasm for Web 2.0 startups, an industry that has doubled in size across the continent since 2005. Jerome Archambeaud examines the French market on GigaOm.

New CNN.com Goes Live - Google and Yahoo Both Search Providers
CNN re-launched its website as an enhanced multimedia site - packed with web 2.0 features such as recommendations and user generated content. In addition, CNN is using both Google and Yahoo for search.

Wimzi: AOL’s Answer to MeeboMe
AOL is widgetizing AIM with the new Wimzi widget: like other chat widgets, this lets you chat with your website visitors in real time.

Google offers seed funding for widget startups
Google is directly investing in small companies to expand the popularity of its iGoogle product. If this is not validation that widgets have real value then I don't know what is.

When You’ve Got To Go, Go To Mizpee.com
MizPee is a new service focused on delivering pertinent information regarding the location of nearby restrooms - cause when you gotta go you gotta go!

AOL launches new blog-like news site
AOL News launched its new design in a blog-like fashion, with excerpts of all the day's main stories laid out chronologically from top to bottom.

A tour of myAOL, a Personalized Aggregator
Jeremiah Owyang had us into PodTech to share the new myAOL with the PodTech team and live blogged it.

Keeping Tabs on Web 2.0
A great roundup of sites that are tracking Web 2.0 directory-style.

Blogging is Like Songwriting
Kent Newsome explains why blogging is like songwriting.

Robert Scoble & Fast Company magazine
Robert Scoble is now writing a column for Fast Company magazine and offers up his first column.

iPhone Mania Captured On Video

Bub.blicio.us was in Palo Alto, California, yesterday covering the release of the iPhone at Steve Jobs' favorite Apple Store. This short video (above) highlights the day's events with interviews of Robert Scoble and Thomas Hawk. Interestingly, after all the iPhone mania settled down (around 7pm PST) I casually got in line for 1 minute and was able to purchase an iPhone without having to camp out in a lawn chair all night and day.

Poll: Are you getting an iPhone?

The iPhone frenzy has been brewing all week across the country. I just was curious to see how many Somewhat Frank readers were going to get an iPhone immediately. Take this poll and let me know.

Middio: Search YouTube Music Videos

Are you looking for music videos on YouTube? You are not alone. Middio launched publicly on Cinco de Mayo (May 5, 2007) to help users find all the music they are looking for on YouTube. Middio indexes YouTube music videos so that you can search by song or artist and returns search results with embedded video thumbnails. Interestingly, Middio was created by Jake Jarvis, the sixteen year web developer, blogger, student and son of popular blogger Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine fame. Nice work Jake!

I performed a few video searches and received pretty good results but I also expect the search algorithm to continue to improve with time. I think the real value in Middio lies in the fact that it removes many of the bogus results you might encounter when performing the same search on YouTube itself.

Additionally, Middio enables users to convert YouTube videos to iPod format to be taken with you which is similar to a product put out by the TechCrunch team that allows for the download of YouTube videos. TechCrunch reported that it is possible that YouTube will try and block this portion of the application. Middio also currently enables users to share videos to Facebook so it could use some additional means for sharing but I figure they will come with time. Videos are played within Middio and you can see a screen-shot below.

SplashCast Now Playing Podcasts & RSS

SplashCast, a Portland-based media player startup, has launched MyPodcastNetwork to enable users to play podcasts directly from the feature rich Flash-based media player. Previously, the SplashCast player was limited to only pulling in RSS feeds from YouTube and Flickr but with the MyPodcastNetwork feature you can pull in any podcast feed you like. Users can now play any podcast on your web site, blog or personalized startpage. When a podcast updates, the SplashCast player will automatically pull in the latest. This will make it easier to collect and play your favorite video and audio podcasts which could disrupt some podcast subscribers dependence on iTunes.

SplashCast is also assembling a Podcast directory to help users find the podcasts they are looking for. Users can submit any RSS feed with enclosures to the SplashCast catalog and it will be available for viewing in a SplashCast player.

What's next for SplashCast? It sounds like the focus will be on improving its search functionality and adding some basic editing tools to help users remix media content.

Find out more about MyPodcastNetwork from SplashCast Director of Content, Marshall Kirkpatrick in the video below.

Death to DRM, Future of RSS, AOL'Sphere It Widget, Zillow Relaunches, Blog Search Wars, Google My Maps & P2P Loans

Photo of the week: robobunny by Courtney Brooke. Happy Easter.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 04.08.07

DRM-Free Music
EMI announced DRM-free music earlier in the week and now Microsoft is hinting at doing the same. Is this the death of DRM?

500 million+!!! AOL'Sphere Goes Live
AOL and Sphere quietly turned on Sphere It in their AOL News, Sports and Entertainment articles. The Sphere It widget is great - I have one too on all my posts as it offers users the ability to find related content. Love it. If you would like one for your site be sure to check out the Sphere tools.

Google Personalizes Maps
Google Maps launched a new feature to its maps product this week (April 5, 2007) called My Maps with offers users the ability to personalize a Google Map. My Maps enables anyone to draw, plot or color a Google Map without having to know an ounce of coding knowledge thus bringing simplified personal mapping to the masses.

Yahoo Testing Alpha (Beta) Multi Search
Search Engine Land covers Yahoo's launch of Alpha a new search experience. Alpha is really more of a multi-search tool that submits your query to multiple sources. It really reminds me of AOL FullView Search.

10 Things You Can Do With Mixed Media RSS
Marshall Kirkpatrick, of SplashCast Media, presents a list of ways to leverage mixed media feeds produced by SplashCast.  He provides big-picture use-cases and explains how you can use other products I have previously reviewed like Tumblr, FeedBurner, ZapTxt and Rasasa to create some interesting feed mashups.

The Future of RSS
Read/Write Web looks at RSS today and asks if RSS is evolving into a tool for delivering complex, semantically rich information. A great article for anyone looking for information on RSS.

Technorati and the blog search wars
Mathew Ingram dissects Technorati's recent state of the blogosphere. It is still interesting to see how fast Technorati.com has been growing: over 9 million unique visitors in March, up 141 per cent in a single quarter, and double-digit growth every month in page views as well. Not bad.

Financing Web Work with Prosper.com
Prosper.com enables peer-to-peer loans for startups and anyone looking to do their own thing. If you are looking for funding you may want to check it out.

Zillow Relaunch - Adds Its Own Q&A Service
Every home in the Zillow database has its own dedicated page. Any user can now also add photos and information about any home and its neighborhood to the site. Users can also indicate if a home is for sale, and the asking price, as well as additional info.

Weblin’s Avatars Surf the Web with You
Kristen Nicole reviews the recent launch of Weblin, a program that lets you create a web avatar that travels with you on your web journey. According to the article when you come across a site where there are other Weblins, you’ll be able to see them and strike up a conversation. Chatting avatars on the web - interesting!

iminlikewithyou, an interesting new look at online flirting
iminlikewithyou is all about flirting, well, the art of flirting. Users sign up for the service and answer a few basic questions about themselves. Photos can be added as well as other personal information to be rewarded with valuable flirting points.

Widgets Arrive for the iPod
The iPod is still largely a closed development platform, but that's not stopping some folks from creating widgets that run on it. Steve Rubel points to two products from Kooloroo that bring handy information to the iPod.

Gates & Jobs Duke It Out In Apple iWorld

The "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials produced by Apple which consist of a war of words between two actors playing the roles of a Mac and a PC have created quite the buzz. With the release of Vista the most recent commercial describes the user "Allow/Cancel" prompts that might frequently bombard a Vista user. Current.tv decided to see what would happen if  one of these Mac commercials consisted of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Place your bets now, as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs square off and duke it out in the clean white virtual world of the Mac ads. Who do you think will win this "tech czar" duel?

 

Swivel: A Graph & Data Lovers Delight

Do you obsess about data? If so, Swivel might be able to help feed your obsession as it lets you explore, compare, share and upload data and graphs about politics, economics, weather, sports, business and beyond.

Swivel offers a free social-based reposistory and charting tool for interesting graphs and data sets. Users can register to upload data and create graphs. Users can also contribute ratings and comments which are used as a popularity metrics for organizational filter purposes. Graphs and data sets are organized by popularity, date and tags. If you are looking for a specific graph you can register and upload your own graph or chart. All the public data in Swivel is under the Creative Commons Attribution license.

In my explorations I found an interesting chart displaying trends in iPod sales and decided to share it by embedding it below.

Swivel launched in early December 2006 and already has over a half a million graphs created. Data-lover or not, Swivel could prove to be a handy tool for spicing up a blog post with an interesting chart of graph.

For additional perspectives on Swivel check out these articles on PRPulp and IT Redux.