The Today in iOS / iPhone Podcast

Mon, 18 January 2010

Tii - iTem 0115 - AT&T Lowers Some Pricing

Click to listen to latest episode of the Today in iPhone Podcast

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Apple Tablet rumors: A timeline - THE WEEK
JavaScript Hack Enables Flash on iPhone | Wired.com
Analyst: Apple tablet 'in full production' | CNET News
AT&T Announces New Unlimited Plans - Yahoo! Finance
Possible Verizon iPhone found in screen cap | Electronista
Apple iPhone 3GS - 32 GB Cell Phone Package - AT&T
The case against a 10" AMOLED Apple tablet
Apple January 27th event to show off its 'latest creation' - Engadget
Apple announces Jan. 27 event - USATODAY.com

Apps and Software Mentioned in this Episode:
eReader - Sponsor - Discount Code = tii10

Tii App

Layers
Brushes
PhotoForge
PhotoGene
Rat on the Run
Spring Back - Cydia
Infinidock - Cydia

Category:podcasts -- posted at: 4:55pm EDT

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Mon, 18 January 2010

iPhone App Elevator Pitch Challenge Segment

Calling All App Developers - we are introducing a new segment to the Today in iPhone Podcast - it is an elevator Pitch challenge for iPhone Apps. What we are looking for is a 60 second audio recording by you the developer - talking about your app that is already in the App store. This must be in your voice - no celebrity or guest voices. You can either record on your iPhone or computer and email to us at: todayiniphone@gmail.com or you can call in to 206-666-6364.

Please note it is a hard fast 60 sec limit - at 60:001 - We will cut off any extra audio - even in mid word.

The Challenge part is we will play your recording along with two other recordings from other developers. Then ask for listeners to vote by emailing in for a promo code for just one of the three apps. So your app must be a pay for app and you must supply at least 5 promo codes to participate. You can supply more promo codes if you like - but to keep from biasing the audience we will say only 5 are available for each app.

After 7 days from when the segment airs we will count the votes (requests for each promo code) and put up the results in a blog post on the site and also mention on the next episode.

If you would like to participate - Please send us your recording first. Do NOT repeat do NOT send the promocodes YET!!! - as they expire and we are only doing 3 Apps per episode. Once we have you scheduled we will let you know and then follow up a week prior to the airing of the segment for the promo codes. But we must have your recording to schedule you. Placement in episodes will be based on a first come first serve basis. No Pay for placement is allowed / possible for this segement. Your ONLY cost is the 5 promo codes and time to make the recording.

Please also send a link to both your iTunes Store page and your website when you send in your recording. We use your Website link to tag for upcoming show notes so we need both.

When we provide the promo codes to the listeners we will be asking for them to write reviews in iTunes and Blog / tweet about your App. Plus your app will get mentioned in at least two episodes and one blog post on the Today in iPhone site.

If you have any other questions please email us at todayiniphone@gmail.com or just send me your recording. Again first come first serve so get us your recording.

Category:breaking news -- posted at: 11:02am EDT

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Fri, 15 January 2010

Tii - iTem 0114 - Loose French Lips Sink Ships

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Orange exec 'confirms' Apple tablet with 3G | Electronista
Orange: Apple Tablet Not Confirmed By France Telecom - PC World
Fingerworks.com Content Pulled - Mac Rumors
Photo of 10" Apple Tablet Glass | News | The Mac Observer
Apple May Sell 3M iSlates « Velocity - Forbes.com
Apple takes a bite out of LCD and OLED supply | TG Daily
4G iPhone coming in 'early May'? | 9 to 5 Mac
Apple - Quarter 1 - 2010 Financial Results
InformationWeek.com - Korea Times rumors.
John Gruber: No Camera on Apple Tablet - Mac Rumors
Apple’s tablet is an “iPhone on steroids” « Boy Genius Report
Valleywag's Apple Tablet Hunt: Win Up to $100,000! - Gawker
Why No iPhone Updates? The Tablet, Perhaps. - washingtonpost.com
IPhone w/ New Camera May Be Out By June - Bloomberg.com
Apple App Store Has Lost $450 Million To Piracy – 24/7 Wall St.
Apple Wins the First Prize in Our Tablet Scavenger Hunt! - Gawker

Apps and Software Mentioned in this Episode:
i-Inject - Sponsor

Tii - App

Doodle Buddy
Battleship - EA
Spider
Rogue Touch
Tagcrumbs
Catan
SBSetting - Cydia
OTF Surfing

Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:08am EDT

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Sun, 10 January 2010

Tii - iTem 0113 - Rumors about Flash and a Flash

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Daring Fireball - Tablet Musings
AT&T Hedges Bets, Adds Android and WebOS - PC World
Ion add-on full Qwerty keyboard - Register
Security Cam takes iPhone pics - CNET News
Imagination Technologies Announces Graphics Chip - Mac Rumors
iPod Touch Themed Bedding
Apple tablet supply chain points to Q2 launch: sources| Reuters
iPhone dominates holiday sales on Orange France | iLounge News
iWork for the Apple Tablet - NYTimes.com
iPhone wins In Touchscreen Performance - washingtonpost.com
AppleInsider - Apple shopping for LED camera flash components

Apps and Software Mentioned in this Episode:
i-Inject - Sponsor

Tii App

Cropulator
KaleidoscopeX
Type Drawing
SketchBook Mobile
PhotoShop
Security Cam
ooTunes
Rock - Cydia
MyWi - Rock
DropBox
Docs2Go
JobSearch
iPregnancy

Category:podcasts -- posted at: 1:35pm EDT

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Fri, 8 January 2010

Tii - iTem 0112 - Pick a Rumor Any Rumor

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Apple iSlate specifications revealed - Phone Arena - Total BS
How many iPhones did Apple sell? Fortune
Apple's $20 billion revenue explosion | 9 to 5 Mac
Apple iSlate Concept
Apple Product Announcement Scheduled Jan. 27 AllThingsD
Magic Mouse linked up by BTstack (video) -- Engadget
Google Voice+PushMail+iPhone=Free Text
Apple to Buy Quattro Wireless for $275 Million - AllThingsD
Apple’s App Store Downloads Top Three Billion
Release of iPhone OS 4 on 27 of January – SoftSailor
ARM Cortex A9 Performance Demo - Mac Rumors
Tablet will use Verizon's 3G network, sources say - Computer World
Apple employee says Tablet UI has “steep learning curve” | Cult of Mac
Apple tablet: $340 in parts? - Fortune
FLO TV and mophie Partner to Bring Live Mobile TV
MotionX GPS Drie App Review - Blog by Vlatte
Apple Tablet Has No Intel Inside - TheStreet.com
Push Notifications Come To Facebook App - Mac|Life

Tuning into SciFi Podcast

Apps and Software Mentioned in this Episode:
i-Inject - Sponsor
eReader - Sponsor - Discount code = Tii10

Tii App

Doodle Buddy
BT Stack - Cydia
PushMail
MotionX GPS Drive App
Voltron
iReal Quick SMS - Cydia
SBSettings - Cydia
File Locker
A Sufer's Paradise
CoinMobile

Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:34am EDT

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Sun, 3 January 2010

Tii - iTem 0111 - Up to my eye balls in Tablet rumors

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
Microsoft Zune Eats Apple iPod Dust in Holiday Sales - PC World
Apple Tablet looks like an over-sized iPhone
FOXNews.com - Apple's January Announcement Confirmed
Stolen iPhone Is Being Sent To Apple - The Consumerist
Apple Tablet concept video from 1987 | ithinkdifferent
Mophie iPhone credit card reader coming to a CES near you - Engadget
AppleInsider | Possible Apple tablet multi-touch tactile keyboard detailed
Next Generation iPhone 4G to Support WiFi N Standard | Redmond Pie

Apps and Software Mentioned in this Episode:
i-Inject - Today's Sponsor

Tii App

Autodesk's Sketchbook
Word Oddities
Pocket Adder
CoinMobile
Remotely Possible

Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:20pm EDT

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Wed, 30 December 2009

Tii - iTem 0110 - A Tablet by any other name

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
iPhone Bluetooth Keyboard Driver
The iPhone is 2009's top seller - Fortune
MD by day, iPhone developer at night
Legendary Indie Developer Jeff Minter Finds the iPhone | Touch Arcade
AppleInsider | Supplier rumored to provide 5MP iPhone camera upgrade
Munster: An Apple tablet in March? - Fortune
Apple tablet definitely coming in 7″ size? - Boy Genius Report
What Will The Apple Tablet Look Like?
Apple To Demo Tablet In January
FT.com | Exclusive: Apple to host event in January
2010: The Year of the Tablet - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
Has AT&T Wireless data congestion been self-inflicted?
LCD 8.9INCH - LTD089EXWS
More Evidence of iPhone OS 4.0 Already in Testing - Mac Rumors
Next iPhone to take better pictures 5MP camera - Geek.com
Android, iPhone & the Freelance Nation – GigaOM
New York City Is Not Ready For The iPhone - The Consumerist
Flurry: App Store Sees Record Breaking Christmas
Apple 'iSlate' Trademark and What is a 'Magic Slate'? - Mac Rumors
After Christmas Sales iPod Touch Huge Clearance | News Trends Today
Walmart Electronics Trade In Program
mophie - iPhone Battery, iPod Cases, iPhone accessories and more!
Why Apple's rumored iTablet will fail big time | Windows - InfoWorld
The Speculative Prehistory of the iPhone | Technologizer
Apple's Quarterly iPhone and Overall Sales Estimates Continue to Rise
Nokia Expands Patent Dispute Beyond Apple iPhone - NYTimes.com
O2 says iPhone demand strained its London network| Reuters

Apps and Software Mentioned in this Episode:
Tii - Today in iPhone App

Doodle Buddy
BTstack - Cydia
CoinMobile
Word Oddities
Pocket Adder
iVideoCamera
Air Contacts

Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:10am EDT

Comments[0]

Sat, 26 December 2009

Apple Tablet vs iPod Touch vs iPhone 3GS

Link to Large version of Table

The chart above for the Apple Tablet, is NOT based on the mythical “unnamed source whom has always been right in the past” but rather is based on looking at available components and what has already been done with the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd Gen. The following paragraphs go over each line in the chart and the reasoning for the specs shown. For those not familiar with my background – I spent 16 years in the electronics component industry as a Design Engineer, Engineering Manager, Product Manager, and VP of Sales and Marketing. One of the companies I worked for was a supplier to Apple as well as Motorola and Nokia.

Display: There has been a lot of rumors and speculation on the size of the display for the Tablet. Conventional wisdom / rumors have settled in on either “between 10 to 11 inches” (10.1” or 10.6”) or 7 inches (7.1”). Given in the past how conventional wisdom like this has proven to miss the mark almost every time – I am going in between the two sizes and that means the standard LCD size of 8.9 inches. I will take it one step further and say it is a TFT display not OLED – this due to cost considerations.

Screen Resolution: Assuming that Apple really wants to make the Tablet a world class video play back device – that means HD, which means 720p. The Toshiba LTD089EXWS fits the bill nicely with 1280 x 768 resolution making for 720p playback. No I don’t see them offering the 1080p resolution – I think price and power consumption issues will make the LTD089EXWS or another LCD with similar specs the best trade off.

Size: The Size of the display is going to be the biggest contributor to the size of the unit. If we go with the same amount of area above and below the screen per the iPod touch and just a little more size on the edge for ease of holding we come up with 256.4 x 137.3 mm for L x W. We will also assume that Steve dictated the Tablet be less than half an inch in thickness – so the 12.3 mm (0.48”) dimension of the 3GS makes sense for the tablet as well. The larger the volumetric area in the Tablet the more room for the custom battery.

Weight: This is simply taking the ratio of L x W of the 3GS and the speculated dimension of the Tablet and then applying that to the weight of the 3GS to come up with the weight of the Tablet. This works out to be 662 Grams or 1 pound and 7.3 ounces, which just so happens to come in under a believable 1 1/2 pound Steve requirement.

Battery: One component that 100% will not be off the shelf is the battery. Apple likes to maximize battery size by creating custom batteries that fit in all the empty space. Based on the size difference between the 3GS and the Tablet it is easy to see how they could get to the 5,700 mAh size. You can forget about the battery being removable – just look to the Mac Book, Mac Book Air, Mac Book Pro, 3GS and iPod Touch for a “hint” on what Apple thinks about removable batteries these days. Actually the 5,700 mAh is conservatively low. If they go with more of an iPhone 2G type case design they could easily fit in a 7,100 mAh battery.

Video Playback: 12 hours may actually be conservatively low on this. When you consider that the 13” Mac Book Pro has a battery size of 5450 mAh, which is smaller than the 5,700 mAh projected for the Tablet. Granted it also only offers 7 hours of life – but it has a lot larger LCD and more power hungry processor than would be needed for the tablet. But a 12 hour playback for Video / constant use – seems to be a nice marketing point and could be one of the initial design goals.

Storage: I only see them offering one version of the Tablet to start and that would be the 64 GB version. I put in an asterisk for this as once the new Toshiba 64 GB NAND modules are ready for full production in Late Q1 2010 – then Apple could switch to a 128 GB version. Again staying with just one offering. But right now with an either Feb or March launch of the Tablet – it does not look good for a 128 GB version. Most likely that would be in the June / July time frame. Now given Apples use and influence when it comes to NAND it is very possible Toshiba’s announcement of production availability is for everyone other than Apple and for Apple they are already in production mode – in which case the Tablet will be at 128 GB of storage goodness.

SD Slot: This one I bet Apple went back and forth on. I could see Steve rejecting this idea multiple times before coming to the reluctant agreement that people will use the Tablet different than a Touch or iPhone. It will be in many cases their primary computer and being able to import directly in your photos and movies – is a big plus for the end user. So at the end of the day I think a brave product manager will have won out and convinced Steve to add the SD slot. But not before two or three other “brave” product managers were fired for pushing their points.

Bluetooth Keyboard Support: Probably one of the last things added into the firmware / OS would be support for a Bluetooth keyboard. Going under the assumption there is an SD slot, this would show that Apple sees the Tablet as more of a netbook competitor than an iPod Touch replacement. Given that you can already use a Bluetooth keyboard with a jailbroken App for the 3GS and Touch – it is not a technical issue – this is a marketing / Steve issue. Of all the items on the list, this is the one I have the least confidence in.

OS: This time I am going with conventional wisdom and saying that the Tablet OS will be an enhanced version of the iPhone OS. This will allow for compatibility of iPhone apps, plus offer some special features for the larger screen of the Tablet. I do not see the Tablet running Mac OS X as I think the devices sweet spot is email, web surfing and rich media playback – you know all the things the iPhone OS does so well. Not Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Garageband – you know all the things the OS X does so well.

Price: I know many are calling / hoping for a $500 to $700 device. I just don’t see that working economically for Apple. The $799 price is the lowest I could get to considering the price points currently for an unsubsidized 3GS and the added cost of the larger LCD with the better resolution. Anything less than $799 and the Bluetooth Keyboard support and SD slot go away. As then the device would be too full featured and could / would eat into sales of the Mac Book and Mac Book Pro.

Yes these predictions are a little different than those put forth by “unnamed sources” and analyst de jour. But the issue with the oft-quoted analysts that just have a degree in finance is they don’t know the difference between Ohms Law and Megan’s Law and that often shows in their predictions. That all said it will be fun to compare the chart above with the actual specs once the Apple Tablet is released.