How to sync music and movies to your iPhone?

If you are a iPhone / iPod newbie, one of the first things that you would to get done is to sync your iPhone / ipod with your music collection. This article by Tazmanian (Previously mistakenly put as Chris pearson) explains the same in simple english. A highly recommended read for newbies and heavy users alike.

The making of the iPhone!

So when do you think the iPhone was concieved? The correct answer: 23 years ago! Marc Esslinger (Whose Father used to work for apple previously) has released a few photos on a german website about some of the earlier prototypes of some apple products. The image of a touch screen phone with a touch screen keypad from 1984 is striking and revealing. It takes extrodinary vision, creativity and persistence to transform that image to the way iPhone is today. Kudos Apple and thanks to Sean cooper of Engadget mobile who brought to our attention. Here are the photos:

iPhone unlocked ! (?)

Has iPhone been unlocked? "Yes", this company claims. Taking this claim one step further, this company has posted the unlocked iPhone for sale in its website. The price, however, is unlisted and the site only has options for preordering it and is also willing to give price breaks for five orders or more. I wonder how many preorders it has recieved up to now. I am guessing thousands.

I cannot help but think that the whole thing is a marketing ploy to attract more visitors to its website. Whatever the case, the fact is that the listing is causing quite a few ripples across the world.

The iphone wishlist!

Joe Hudsco of MSNBC has posted a iphone feature wishlist. I hope he (we) gets it by christmas this year. I would also append the list with points from Tom Yager's list of iPhone flaws. I guess we might be a little too greedy here.

My guess is that Apple might provide some features as updates but is going to save most of it for the next version of iPhone. Apple, please prove me wrong!

iPhone 2.0?

When do you think the next version of iphone will be released? I am sure you will be surprised to know that it is going to be in September, hardly three months away from its first release. Though the news is still unsubstantiated, people from different sources are agreeing that iPhone 2.0 release is probably scheduled in september. The source of much of the speculation seems to come from a news article from Taiwan's Chinese-language Commercial Times magazine. It carried an article which said that Taiwan's Wintek had obtained the touch-screen panel orders for the second-gen iPhone. It is speculated that the second generation iphone will be priced between 249$ and 299$ and is probably meant for Non US markets.

The news item leaves several questions unanswered. Firstly, Will the next generation iphone be defeatured because of its substantially lower price? In case of a defeatured model, will it still be attractive enough to command a premium to make customers switch? Will it also be locked so that it can be used with only few networks? In case it is not locked and can be used as a normal GSM phone, does it not pose an oppurtunity for arbitrage in domestic market?

iPhone flaws

Tom Yager of infoworld test center has come up with extensive iPhone Pros and cons list after extensive testing.

I have formatted the list into Five sections to make it a little more organised.

Phone:
Pros:

1. Visual Voicemail speeds through large voice mailbox, eases initial setup of greeting and PIN

Cons:

1. Substantial delay for new voice mail notification

Internet Browser
Pros:

1. Extremely high-quality text
2. Clever zoomed-in handling of HTML option lists

Cons:

1. Web apps cannot download, upload, or store data
2. Web pages cannot be saved for offline viewing
3. No Flash, Java, or native application support
4. Mail viewer HTML image display, JavaScript can't be disabled
5. Yahoo "push" e-mail did not deliver immediately in tests
6. Operation of interactive Web sites awkward
7. No external mute button
8. Slow rendering of zoomed HTML content
9. Slow JavaScript interpreter, no mouse events hamper Web 2.0 apps
10. No streaming audio/video support
11. No full-screen view in browser; large button strip always present
12. No edit-in-place in Settings; each line of text is a separate entry page
13. No master inbox covering multiple mail accounts
14. Chat substitute uses expensive SMS (Web alternatives available but don’t signal on incoming chat invite)
15. Safari doesn't try to reformat Web page for convenient viewing (like Windows Mobile IE's one-column view)

Mp3 player

Pros:

1. Incoming call smoothly fades out audio, fades back in after call ends

Applications and utilities
Pros:

1. Zoom, pan, and scroll gestures ease UI operation
2. Text editor has BlackBerry-like shortcuts for contraction, plus near-miss dictionary
3. Word, Excel, PDF document viewing built in (no editing); useful for file storage
   

Cons:

1. Cannot browse iPhone's folders by any means
2. On-screen keyboard is large, opaque; obscures underlying interface
3. No text select/copy/past
4. No rich text editor
5. Spelling errors are not flagged in text
6. Cursor positioning inside editable text is difficult
7. Vertical/horizontal scroll regions too narrow; trip underlying controls
8. Feeling for home button can delete e-mail (trash button is bottom center of display)
9. No file upload limits use of online document viewers
10. No musical ring tones
11. Fewer slideshow transition effects than video iPod
12. Cannot download content for offline playback except through iTunes
13. No Bonjour support for iTunes, Web sharing
14. iPhone pairs with MacBook Pro Bluetooth, but offers no supported services

Hardware / Misc.

Pros:

1. Works with standard iPod charger, USB cord
2. Buzzer motor powerful, silent

Cons:

1. Touchscreen imprecise; can't adjust for parallax (finger/screen offset)
2. Proximity sensor did not answer calls in tests
3. Extremely strong radio frequency interference
4. Enclosed speaker is too weak for speakerphone and voice mail playback
5. No VoIP support for Wi-Fi
6. No A2DP (Bluetooth stereo) support
7. Battery not user-replaceable
8. Memory not swappable or expandable
9. Quality of camera is comparatively poor; focus distance limited; no digital zoom; cannot capture video
10. No voice-record capability; iPod add-on did not function
11. No TV out
12. Device does not operate in landscape mode in all applications
13. Battery drains rapidly with Wi-Fi use; no transmit power setting
14. Will not accept existing SIM card
15. Not addressable as USB storage
16. Phone audio quality subpar
17. No over-the-air sync options
18. No exposure control in camera, very slow shutter creates blurry images
19. Headset jack not phone standard
20. Two-year commitment required for activation
21. No third-party software
    

iPhone in a blender

Would anybody in thier right mind put thier iphone in a blender and get it reduced to dust?. Looks like somebody has. Check this one out.
http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=iphone

It is amazing what people as marketing ideas. I am willing to bet that none of the company's other marketing ideas got so much attention as this one. This is what I call "oppurtunity obsession".