iPhone Daily News Digest

MacRumors reports on an email being sent to users of Apple’s iWork.com document sharing site that outlines a few updates to the service, including one for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad:

Refined user interface. A redesigned Sign In and Shared Documents page for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch makes it easy to access your documents while on the go. The new interface and improved scrolling help you find your shared documents faster. Visit www.iwork.com from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to view your shared documents.

iWork.com has been in beta since it was introduced at Macworld 2009 and it’s still unclear exactly how much effort Apple is putting into it compared to say iWork touch recently unveiled for the iPad, and whether or not Apple will ever release full-on Web App versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote to compete with Google Docs and Microsoft’s new Office 2010 Online.

If you use iWork.com, let us know what you think of the changes.

Apple Updates iWork.com with Better Interface for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Siliconrepublic.com

No cut/copy/paste for Windows Phone 7 Baltimore Sun (blog) iPhone users moaned for a long time that their phones didn't have that feature, until OS 3.0 last year. Bringing cut/copy/paste to the iPhone was seen as … Does Microsoft thinking copying the 2007 iPhone is a good idea?ZDNet (blog) 8 Reasons Not to Replace Your iPhone with a Windows Phone 7 Handset [Does …TFTS (blog) Windows Phone 7 to Be An iPhone KillerCoolTechZone.com (blog) New York Daily News -InformationWeek (blog) -Techie Buzz all 698 news articles »

Today at MIX10 Microsoft told our sibling site WMExperts that there would be no cut, copy, and paste in Windows Phone 7 Series, which follows on the news of an Apple iPhone-style closed app market and lack of 3rd party multitasking. When the original iPhone 2G debuted in 2007 without cut, copy, and paste, multitasking, and most importantly a third-party app platform, it led certain editors-in-chief who shall remain nameless (though not pictured-less) wondered — and not unjustifiably — if the iPhone could be considered a smartphone?

iPhone 2.0 brought the 3rd party apps. iPhone 3.0 brought cut, copy, paste and a host of other “missing” features. iPhone 4.0 may even bring multitasking. Regardless, we thought the iPhone 2G certainly was a smartphone then, and now, and certainly think the same about Windows Phone 7 Series, and Palm webOS when it debuted lacking certain features. It takes an incredible amount of effort to launch a new mobile OS and no company, not Apple, not Google, not even Microsoft have unlimited time, talent, and resources to nail everything in version 1.0. Our question remains, to get cut, copy, and paste (or whatever feature you think is missing), what other feature would you give up? Notifications? The new user experience? There’s an opportunity cost to everything.

Of course, when Apple launched iPhone 1.0 it wasn’t leaving behind a large existing user base accustomed to many of those now missing features the way Microsoft is with Windows Phone 7 Series. So, yeah, it’ll be interesting to see if they can grab enough new users to make up for all the ones they’re gone to lose. Because, if all those Windows 6.x users are suddenly faced with something new and different, it may not be too far a stretch to go for a different platform entirely. Including an iPhone. Which has cut, copy, and paste and may just have multitasking by then. So to them, to you, potential iPhone switchers:

Welcome! How you doing?

No Cut and Paste in Windows Phone 7 Series. So is it a Smartphone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

I watched WMExperts‘ coverage of Microsoft’s big Windows Phone 7 Series keynote at MIX10 yesterday and while I once again wasn’t wowed by the hyperactive quadrilateral tiles of the home screen, the workflow/funflow of moving through the panoramic hubs continued to impress. While Microsoft deserves a lot of credit for creating one of the few new, post-iPhone user experiences/interaction models, however, it’s interesting to note that they’re pretty much copying entirely Apple’s closed iPhone App Store model.

That’s right, free developer tools (like iPhone), no app distribution outside the market (like iPhone), except for beta and enterprise (like iPhone), which means no side-loading (like iPhone), and little-to-no multitasking (like iPhone… at least until iPhone 4.0), and push-notifications to handle alerts (like iPhone). (They do, however, claim they will be far more transparent than Apple has thus far been with the App Store approval process).

On one hand that’s a huge compliment to Apple’s highly successful, if sometimes controversial App Store model. On the other hand, users of previous Microsoft handsets up to and including the most recent Windows Mobile 6.5.x have seen open app installation and ubiquitous multitasking as bragging rights over the iPhone going on 3 years now. The mainstream consumer Microsoft is obviously targeting with WP7S will no doubt find it simple and clear. The traditional base of tinker-happy, ROM-cooking, power users? Likely not.

What think you, is Apple’s App Store model something Microsoft should have emulated?

Microsoft Creates Whole New UI Experience, Copies iPhone App Store Experience is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

We didn’t notice this until @pivale pointed us towards PCWorld’s article, but sure enough according to Apple’s iPad tech specs, the iPad does indeed support a type of .AVI video:

Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

No .AVI support of any kind is listed under iPhone or iPod touch tech specs. (Then again, none of those devices are running iPhone 3.2 like the iPad — yet).

.AVI, the audio-video interleave is a container introduced by Microsoft. Motion JPEG is a type of .AVI compression. While .AVI in general is ubiquitous for standard definition video content on the internet, there’s no indication Apple is supporting the specific XviD codec (encoding/decoding) used by those files.

In other words, and as pointed out in comments below, this will help owners of some types of video cameras watch their footage via the camera card reader accessory, it won’t let anyone watch their bootleg movies on the iPad.

iPad Supports .AVI M-JPEG Video is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Unlike Palm’s CEO, Microsoft’s employees seem to be nuts for the iPhone, so much actually, that it’s getting embarrassing.

While they’ll probably tell you it’s out of professional interest, as much as 10,000 Microsoft employees, or one out of then according to the Wall Street Journal, accessed their corporate email account from an iPhone last year.

This embarrassing situation didn’t go unnoticed and a first attempt to tamper with it was made last year already, when Microsoft modified its corporate cellphone policy to only reimburse service fees for Windows Phone owners, without much success.

They didn’t go as far as banning the device, but the practice is definitely criticized. As Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO whose father worked at Ford put its; Work for Ford, Drive a Ford.

I guess that explains why their new Mobile OS seems so similar to the iPhone…

Related Posts

• Review: Quickoffice Connect Mobile Suite
• Rumor: Google As The iPhone’s Default Search Engine: $100 Million/Year
• Bing To Become iPhone’s Default Search Engine : It’s About Money & Hatred
• Rumor: Bing To Become iPhone’s Default Search Engine
• Microsoft Worked With Apple And Is Bringing Us Silverlight To The iPhone, Instead Of Flash By Adobe

I had the chance to talk to Microsoft’s Loke Uei about Windows Phone 7 Series at GDC last week and he was cagey and super-secretive about the version running on his pre-production unit. He did, however, promise more would be revealed at MIX 10 this week in Las Vegas. Well, our very own editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, is at the show right now to seek it out. He’ll be covering the keynote live at 9am PT, 12pm ET over at WMExperts.com.

What might be interesting to TiPb readers is the approach Microsoft is taking — it looks to be one of the first truly different post-iPhone smartphone concepts that’s not really app-centric but rather aggregation centric. They haven’t sold me on the UI yet, but the flow between “experiences” looks stellar, as does the logical way in which information is grouped and made available. It’s going after consumers, which is the heart of the iPhone market.

Will Apple have to up their game for iPhone 4.0 in face of what the competition is (finally!) bringing to market in 2010?

SPE at Microsoft MIX10 for Windows Phone 7 Series — The Competition! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

MacDailyNews (blog)

Google vs. Apple: World War III Examiner.com What brought the two companies to this point, such that we may even see Microsoft's Bing replacing Google on the iPhone, if things work out as rumored? … Steve Jobs feels betrayed by Google?Afterdawn.com Apple's HTC patent lawsuit is a bluffBetaNews Apple's Spat With Google Is Getting PersonalNew York Times OS News -Apple Insider -MacDailyNews (blog) all 37 news articles »

Rhapsody just released a little teaser video for the next version of its iPhone app (to be followed closely by its new Android app) that marks a major change for the service: You can now download songs instead of streaming.

It’s great news for users of Rhapsody’s $15-per-month all-you-can-eat service, who can now simply download songs from the catalog for later use instead of depending on unreliable wireless signals. As the voice of Rhapsody’s disembodied hand notes, that’ll also save battery life, since just playing a music file is a pretty low-intensity function and streaming music is fairly draining on a battery. Even better, it'll reduce frustration with AT&T or a lack of nearby hotspots. The app is in the final approval process now, so it should be out within a few days.

Oh, and for Android users: The Rhapsody Android app, now in beta, is just about done with its testing time and should be appearing in the Android Market any day now. Rhapsody needs this kind of market coverage—if Microsoft's Windows Phone Series 7 phones are as good as they look, Rhapsody’s going to be in a tough fight with MS’s Zune Pass this fall. [Rhapsody]

The New York Times has a full length feature up about the state of the Apple vs. Google rivalry and how it’s getting personal. We’ve heard similar several times before, of course, and Apple has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Android manufacturer HTC. But the details here are interesting:

As Google’s plans took shape, Apple and Google executives either met in person or spoke on the phone on multiple occasions about Apple’s concern about Android, executives on both sides say.

Many of those meetings turned confrontational, according to people familiar with the discussions, with Mr. Jobs often accusing Google of stealing iPhone features. Google executives said that Android’s features were based on longstanding ideas already circulating in the industry and that some Android prototypes predated the iPhone.

At one particularly heated meeting in 2008 on Google’s campus, Mr. Jobs angrily told Google executives that if they deployed a version of multitouch — the popular iPhone feature that allows users to control their devices with flicks of their fingers — he would sue. Two people briefed on the meeting described it as “fierce” and “heated.”

It’s undeniable that Google bought Android before Apple released the iPhone (though Apple was reportedly working on the iPhone/iPad technology for 2-3 years already by then). It’s also undeniable that the early Android prototypes we saw looked more like BlackBerry or Windows Mobile Standard, yet when Google debuted the G1, it was a full screen, capacitive touch device with the same screen resolution as the iPhone. From the Hero to the Droid to the Nexus One, similar form factors have followed while the BlackBerry-esque devices have yet to be seen.

Many other incidents, such as the still-unapproved/rejected Google Voice app for iPhone, Google CEO Eric Schmidt leaving the Apple Board of Directors, and Google buying (and paying a premium for) AdMob after Apple expressed an interest in the company, are all said to result from this souring in relations.

The two remain successful partners for now, and Google keeps saying everything is “stable”. The NYT suggests, however, that someone like longstanding Google mentor and Apple board member Bill Campbell, formerly of Intuit, needs to act as a peacemaker to bring the two giants back together. Otherwise, rumors persist of Steve Ballmer and Microsoft’s Bing standing poised to take Google’s place as Apple’s default search engine, map provider, and ally.

It’s a long article but well worth a read, especially the parts about how Google founders Sergy Brin and Larry Page, and Steve Jobs used to enjoy a close relationship. Check it out and let us know what you think…

Apple vs. Google is Getting Personal is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

« Previous entries