Applelinks iPhone News Reader - Thursday, October 9, 2008
RIM's Impressive BlackBerry Storm
Hands on with the BlackBerry Storm
The BlackBerry Storm is no iPhone
Is the BlackBerry Storm Touchscreen System Better Than The iPhone?
Why iPhones are just like German tanks
For Apple, the kids are alright
Software Makes iPhone Photography Fun
Survey: 8% of U.S. teens own an iPhone; 22% want one
The iPhone 3G "The Greatest Piece Of Consumer Electronics That Has Ever Been Made"
iPhone 3G Enterprise Scores Are In
PDF version of iPhone developer's cookbook available
RIM's Impressive BlackBerry Storm
BusinessWeek's Stephen H. Wildstrom says:
Back in 1999, an obscure Canadian company called Research In Motion defied conventional wisdom and put a keyboard on a pager-size device, creating the first BlackBerry. Now RIM has struck again, this time by eliminating the physical keyboard from its new BlackBerry Storm smartphone.....
Apple's iPhone made the world safe for onscreen keyboards, but the Storm is radically different and (based on the hour or so I spent with the handset) considerably better. The Storm uses a touchscreen similar to the iPhone's, where you move your finger lightly on the surface to navigate around the screen. To confirm a selection or menu choice, you press harder. The slight flexing of the display triggers a tiny switch beneath it, generating distinct tactile feedback. This avoids a common problem on touchscreens: It can be difficult to distinguish between just moving around the display and initiating an action.....
The Storm's browser is an improvement on previous RIM efforts, largely because Web pages are easier to view in the horizontal format and because you can pull hidden portions of the page into view with a finger. Nice—but it's still no match for the iPhone's browsing finesse. The Storm also lacks Wi-Fi, which iPhone users may miss....
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/45285d
Hands on with the BlackBerry Storm
The Guardian reports:
First an admission. I have never been a fan of BlackBerry devices. Maybe that's partly because management have never found me worthy of one, but it's mostly because they have always felt 'plasticky' to me. The Pearl was, of course, slimmer than the traditional BlackBerry brick but still lacked a certain physical gravitas, while the Bold just seemed unnecessarily bulky. So the Storm really is a revolution.
Basically the same size as the iPhone - though admittedly about the same weight as the heavier G1 - the Storm just feels more sturdy than many of its predecessors. That said, I never got to chuck it on the floor to see whether my perception of its resilience is warranted and it needs to be, because customers will be stuck with it for two years if they want to get it free from exclusive network partner Vodafone.
But it is the Storm's touchscreen that sets it apart from the rest of the recent button-less pack. It actually makes the iPhone look flat....
For the full review visit here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/oct/08/blackberrystormreview
The BlackBerry Storm is no iPhone
CNET's Don Reisinger says:
Tech journalists and gadget lovers across the globe are rejoicing over the announcement of the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's first touchscreen cell phone to compete with the iPhone.
Those who can't wait to get their hands on BlackBerry's latest call it a marvel and its keyboard functionality, which makes you press down on the screen to register a "touch", is something worth drooling over.
OK, I guess I can concede that the Storm is really neat and the touchscreen idea is fantastic. But I still don't see how the BlackBerry Storm will be able to compete on any level with the iPhone 3G.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/3m6hmv
Is the BlackBerry Storm Touchscreen System Better Than The iPhone?
ZNet's Andrew Nusca says:
I just got done reading Matthew Miller's preview of the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's first BlackBerry that's replaced the keyboard with a touchscreen system - one that you must physically depress with your finger to manipulate (resulting in a "satisfying click," as many reviewers have reported).
My question is simple: is this truly an advancement?.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/gadgetreviews/?p=424
Why iPhones are just like German tanks
The Guardian says:
You'll have noticed the PDA blog's report about the latest estimates of how many iPhones have been sold - a solid 9.1m and counting.
But you might have wondered how the process of simply asking people for their phone's serial number, IMEI number and date of purchase would allow someone to make such a specific calculation of the number sold (which, according to the spreadsheet, was 9,190,680).
The answer: tanks. Well, the same process that allowed the Allies to calculate how many tanks the Nazis were producing during World War II. You can read Gavyn Davies's full-length account, or we'll give you the extracted version here.....
You can check it out at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/oct/08/iphone.apple
For Apple, the kids are alright
CNET's Tom Krazit says:
Apple continues to do well among some of the most fickle and influential consumers of technology: teenagers.
Piper Jaffray does a biannual survey on the purchasing habits of 769 teenagers as they related to devices like cell phones and music players, and released the results of the latest survey Tuesday. Not surprisingly, the market leader in portable digital music players is the market leader among high school students: 84 percent of those surveyed own an iPod, up from 82 percent last year.
The iPhone is also gaining ground, perhaps as a result of the new $199 entry fee to iPhoneland this year. Just 8 percent of teenagers surveyed own an iPhone, but that's up from 6 percent from the last survey in the spring of this year, before the iPhone 3G was released. And 22 percent of those surveyed said they planned on buying an iPhone in the next six months, while 33 percent said they wanted one.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/4ql2zu
Software Makes iPhone Photography Fun
CultofMac's Giles Turnbull reports:
I cooked up many reasons to justify buying an iPhone, and the fact that it had a camera (no matter how poor quality) was one of them. I liked the idea of having a camera that was so well integrated with the rest of the software on the machine.
As it turns out, third-party software that makes use of the camera is the stuff I'm getting most excited about, and playing with most often.
The most recent addition to my iPhone home screen is CameraBag....
CameraBag, created by 3D modeling specialists Nevercenter in what looks like quite a radical departure for them, lets you take a photo (or import one from your on-phone library) and add preset effects that mimic classic film styles from the days when cameras used to use film....
For the full report visit here:
http://cultofmac.com/opinion-software-makes-iphone-photography-fun/3643
Survey: 8% of U.S. teens own an iPhone; 22% want one
Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt says:
Today's economic crisis doesn't seem to have reached the 769 high school students polled in Piper Jaffray's 16th bi-annual survey of teenage buying patterns and preferences.
The survey, conducted at several apparently well-heeled high schools in the United States over the past few weeks - while the global financial markets were melting down - focused on MP3 players, online music and Apple's iPhone.
The results, released late Tuesday, may say more about the demographics of the population Piper Jaffray is testing than the buying power of most U.S. teenagers, but they will be music to Steve Jobs's ears.....
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/3nvhn4
The iPhone 3G "The Greatest Piece Of Consumer Electronics That Has Ever Been Made"
Daring Fireball's John Gruber says:
Let's just say it up front: the iPhone is the greatest piece of consumer electronics that has ever been made.
If I could travel back 20 years and show my then 15-year-old self just one thing the future of today, it would be the iPhone. It is our flying cars. Star Trek-style wireless long-distance voice communicator. The content of every major newspaper and magazine in the world. An encyclopedia. Video games. TV. Etc.
For the full review visit here:
http://daringfireball.net/2008/10/iphone_3g
iPhone 3G Enterprise Scores Are In
Infoworld's Tom Yager reports:
Mobile solution decisionmakers, from individual professionals to CTOs, are beginning to see the need for style to play an increasing role in device selection, and the iPhone 3G is the de facto choice.
Apple's iPhone 2.0 OS brought Cisco VPN, Exchange Server e-mail, and native custom applications to Apple's devices, bringing utility to the mix to make the iPhone an enterprise shoo-in. On style, the iPhone is unbeatable. As a lure for prospective employees, a salve for ailing morale, or an image-setter in a business meeting, the iPhone 3G is unmatched. For some millions of buyers, that's the whole story, full stop, and there is nothing wrong with that.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/yager/archives/2008/10/iphone_enterpri.html
PDF version of iPhone developer's cookbook available
TUAW's Brett Terpstra reports:
It's a good day to become an iPhone developer: in addition to the screencast we mentioned, someone near and dear to us at TUAW finally got her book out into the wild ... at least the PDF version. Erica Sadun's* "The iPhone Developer's Cookbook" is available as an electronic download from informIT.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/10/08/pdf-version-of-iphone-cookbook-available/
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