It’s getting harder and harder lately to keep up with all the wild and wonderful apps that help you keep up with things.  Every day I wrestle a little with varying degrees of distraction from email, IM, Twitter, FriendFeed, and others - luckily I find myself hating Facebook more and more of late, so that has become a very minimal distratcion

eadBurner is another interesting entry in the RSS / news field.  It’s a ‘mashup’ type app built on and reliant upon Google Reader.  It’s a very simple but quite useful app that lets you keep track of ‘hot’ topics by seeing what is getting shared by Google Reader users the most.  As you can see in the screencap at top left, ReadBurner presents a very basic layout of the most popular stories, up and coming ones, most recent, and so on.  Each of the main sections gives you a short listing of articles per the section title, and you can tap once to view an individual article.  They’re formatted perfectly for iPhone reading, but you can also hit the ‘Full HTML’ button to open a new page to the full article at its original source.

I like ReadBurner a lot so far, partly because it gives a quick feel for what stories are hot (although not sure this is the best measure of that of course) and also because it’s an easy way to get myself reading some things that cover much broader subjects than my regular RSS feeds do - since my regular feeds tend to focus in quite a bit on iPhone, mobile tech, and general tech news.

You can give ReadBurner Mobile a look at http://m.readburner.com - and let us know what you reckon …

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According to Britain’s The Times ‘industry sources’ claim the 3G will be ‘radically different’ in appearance than the one so many of us have grown to love.

They suggest the Gen2 iPhone may come as a flip phone whose display is larger than the current model or that it may sport a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Moreover, they cite an unnamed Asia-based analyst who claims

“I think ultimately you going to see multiple versions,” one Asia-based analyst, said. “One for customers who want it principally as a music and video device, which will be similar to the existing model, one for people who want to communicate - with the keyboard, and one for people who want it as a substitute for their laptop - that will let them browse the internet on a larger screen.”

A few random thoughts on this current rumor…

1. I come from a tradition that is rooted in the importance of citing information “b’shem amro“– “in the name of the one who initially uttered it”. In other words, that which has a source has merit while that which does not have a cited source is, at best, suspect. I love when rumors are based on “industry sources” and “unnamed analysts”. FYI, my cousin ABCD knows someone who told him that…

2. I could understand multiple versions if the current model were a “jack of all trades but a master of none”. Since the current model handles all three– calls, internet and media– quite well already I am not sure why Apple would shift the focus to stressing on or the other. That strikes me as a step backwards.

2. Apple rarely lets on much, if any, true information prior to the release of new products. While we are close to the start of WWDC than we were this past Sunday, it is still weeks away. No matter what we do… WE HAVE TO WAIT.

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Since making my Mac-switch last December I have learned a good deal about Apple, Macs and iPhones. Perhaps the most important and consistent lesson has been this-

Apple is SMART, CUNNING, and ALMOST ALWAYS ONE STEP AHEAD- ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO PRODUCT RELEASES.

Translation- dream, hope, guess and prognosticate all you want but we have to wait.

We won’t really know anything until Apple decides to tell us and Apple isn’t talking until the Worldwide Developers Conference begins on June 9th.

If that is too long (let me repeat- you must wait no less than 4,924,800 seconds) the rumor-mill has much to keep your attention.

On the Hardware side of things–

Tgdaily is claiming that the new hardware will come in 8GB and 16GB flavors and will debut at WWDC in June with the 8GB running $399 and the 16GB one Benjamin more. According to their site-

The iPhone itself will come with a slightly thinner body, which sheds about 2.5 mm when compared to the original iPhone. The casing, we are told, will see revisions in its appearance, removing some of the “plasticky” feeling of some parts. There will not be any significant changes to the operating system as well as the graphical user interface, but we did hear that the accelerometer has been tuned a bit. Unfortunately, Apple decided to stick with a non-removable battery.

(I find the whole “plasticky” thing interesting since my iPhone feels the least “plasticky” of any of my recent phones- and there have been many.)

On the software side the rumors are even more numerous–

According to StuffTV (via Gizmodo), code found in the iPhone 2.0 beta firmware suggests we will see
-support for Nike+ .
-support for Bluetooth stereo headphones
-built-in GPS support
-the ability to use the iPhone as a computer or AppleTV remote
-support for direct printing
And (drum-roll please) dooms-day code that may well brick offending unlockers.
The string of code apparently reads

‘BRICKED_AND_SIM_LOCKED_STRING BrickedDevice Ignoring request to unlock because we’re blocked or bricked ‘

One hand gives while another takes away- ain’t it the way of the world?!

Enjoy the rumors– I am sure there will be many, many more– but remember-
there are almost 5 million seconds between now and WWDC
and no matter how nicely we ask…

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Two things you can count on just about every week at the moment - another set of 3G iPhone rumors, and at least one device talked up as an ‘iPhone Killer’ This week’s first entry in the latter category is an upcoming new phone from Nokia with a codename of ‘Tube’ - which Engadger reckons is the device pictured above.

The new phone will have a touch interface and is said to ‘closely resemble’ the iPhone. For me the iPhone is still all about ‘the sum of its parts’ - the hardware, the UI, OSX running on it etc., not just a big screen and a touch interface. I think when somebody brings out a device that can rival that whole package, then Apple will really have to take some notice.

There do not seem to be any details available yet on what the new phone’s specs will be or when it may be released.

See this link for more info:::
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WildEyes is a new iPhone document viewer app, that makes use of Mobile Safari’s ability to display a good variety of document types.  WildEyes is developed by Databinge, who are responsible for the excellent TimeCapsule iPhone backup app - and currently lets you view the following document types:

• pdf
• doc, docx
• xls, xlsx
• text files
• images

There are a number of solutions out there for viewing documents in this way on the iPhone, but WildEyes has quite a nice UI and feel to it. And if ti’s anything like TimeCapsule, we’ll see frequent updates and additional feature additions.   The program uses ~/Sites as is primary directory, but it will also let you view any documents stored under your main user path - either /var/root or /var/mobile depending on which firmware and jailbreak method you’re on.

The other requirements for using the program are that you need to have the BSD Subsystem and Lighttpd installed.  BSD Subsystem is found under the System Category in Installer, and Lighttpd is under the Network section.

WildEyes is available now on Installer.  You may need to add the Databinge source to Installer to see it, which is:

http://repo.databinge.com

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This has already been a stronger than average week for 3G iPhone rumors - but here’s a late entry that is getting lots of play.  Walt Mossberg - the Wall Street Journal tech columnist - has mentioned (in passing while discussing a different subject, but quite confidently) that the iPhone will be 3G in 60 days.

As 9to5Mac says …

As someone who regularly gets to test Apple products way ahead of the public, he would know!

If that old theory about smoke and fire holds any weight, you’ve gotta start thinking lately there’s an awful lot of smoke in this direction …

Check out the 9to5Mac post HERE for a video clip of Mossberg’s quote.  It’s a bit of a long video - so look for the 3G comment at around the 6:55 mark of it.

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There’s news today of another survey amongst iPhone users, with a fair bit of not-very-shocking stuff - like iPhone users being very satisfied, think we’ve got that pretty much down now - but also some findings that seem pretty surprsing to me. Rubicon Consulting’s survey was done among a randomly selected group of 460 US iPhone users, and the full report can be seen HERE.

Here are some of the survey’s results that I don’t find very shocking:

• iPhone users are happy with it - 80% said they were satisfied
• The iPhone increases mobile browsing - more than 75% of users say it has led them to do more mobile browsing
• The iPhone increases phone bills - by an average of 24% per year apparently
• The ability to add 3rd party applications and better Exchange compatibility were the most requested features

Now, here’s some of the things that I do find very surprising, stuff I would not have expected based on my conversations and contact with other iPhone users (via this site and forums etc) …

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I’m not sure when this cropped up, but it seems fairly fresh to me. Installer has actually got some Featured Apps listed on its first screen. And the little status / updates area is promising ‘new and exciting things’.

I guess with the Apple sanctioned App Store coming along soon, this is a great time to add some bells and whistles to Installer. Let’s hope we see some nice enhancements soon …

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The excerpt above is from an Apple job ad, spotted by Engadget, looking for a Handwriting Recognition Engineer, and mentioning the possibility that the recongition technology to be worked on may extend to the iPhone.

That would be sweet.  That is the one thing (apart from 3G) that I probably miss most in the iPhone.  I know, most people hate using a stylus and don’t usually care much for the typical handwriting recognition apps found on PDAs and smartphones.  I only want a stylus and handwriting recognition for one purpose - just to take notes, really quickly.  I don’t want to fumble around tyring to tap menus or buttons or any of that jazz - just want a faster note-taking method - and I have always been much, much quicker with letter recognizer sort of apps than with any keyboard - whether it was the Treo’s, an HTC slide-out, or the iPhone’s virtual one.

Anybody else have any use for this on the iPhone?

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Well, not a lot really … is what they reveal.  Screencaps of the upcoming iPhone App Store have been popping up at lots of sites over the weekend and today.  As you can see, the one used above is from The Boy Genius Report(google these key words). Some sites seem to think they’re faked, others say there is growing evidence that they’re legit.

Either way, these don’t seem far-fetched in terms of what an App Store page might look like.  As many have noted, the pages look a lot like Installer app right now, except the Uninstall button on the bottom row is clearly missing.  This sort of layout makes sense, and certinly works well on Installer  If Apple just throw in a few prettier icons and product screencaps amongst these pages, I’ll part with my money even quicker I’m sure

What do you all think?  Will the App Store look wildly different to the screencaps we’ve seen?  Do you care much, or do we just want the damn store to open for business???

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