iPhone Daily News Digest

That’s right TiPb ‘verse, for the first time ever I’m hitting CES with the rest of the Smartphone Experts crew — because for the first time ever, Apple’s not at Macworld, Macworld isn’t in January, and iPhone stuff will be at CES!

If you’re going to be there as well, if you’re an App Store developer, an accessory maker, a fellow blogger, an Apple engineer with a secret HD iPhone or tablet-esque device to leak, or — and especially — a fellow TiPb member, ping me and let me know. I’m looking to fit in as much as is inhumanly possible.

All major iPhone and related stories will of course go up right here, and as you know there are a ton of ways to follow TiPb’s feed.

I’ll also be tweeting everything else meta-style from @reneritchie, including whatever behind the scenes shenanigans and competitive insights I can sneak out. (tag-line, nothing will stay in Vegas!)

Also keep an eye out for our editor-in-chief Dieter Bohn (@backlon), Kevin Michaluk (@crackberrykevin), Matt Miller (@palmsolo), Phil Nickinson (@philnickinson) as they cover everything else for CrackBerry.com, PreCentral.net, NokiaExperts.com, AndroidCentral.com, and WMExperts.com, as well as our Round Robin co-hort, Mickey Papillon (@tcpj_mickey) who might just get us back on the mic again.

See ya there, or we’ll bring it to ya here!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb at CES 2010!

Year End 10% Off Sale at TiPb iPhone Accessory Store!

To celebrate the end of 2009, we would like to give you 10% OFF all Accessories at The iPhone Blog Store. This is a great opportunity to save big before the New Year and get the Hot New Accessories you’ve been wanting!

Stuck for an idea? Check out TiPb’s top 5 must-have iPhone accessories, and holiday gift guide!

When you are ready to shop, use the Coupon Code “TIPBNY” at the Checkout to receive your End of the Year Savings! Act soon because this offer expires on December 31st, 12:00am PST!

(Cannot be combined with any other offer and does not apply to handling charges, taxes or software.)

Don’t forget! The iPhone Blog Store charges a flat fee of just $5.95 for UPS Ground Shipments. Once you’ve added an item to your cart, you can see a real-time quote for all the available services, delivery dates and shipping costs to your destination.

So get shopping!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Year End 10% Off Sale at TiPb iPhone Accessory Store!

One of Phil Schiller’s favorite iPhone apps, ESPN ScoreCenter, [iTunes Link] just got that much better with the addition of push notifications. Even better you get the ESPN SportsCenter jingle as your notification sound.

With ESPN ScoreCenter you get real-time scores, live game details, game summaries and stats for 9 major sports including the following: MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, Soccer, NCAA Football and Basketball, NASCAR, Golf, and Tennis.

The only major sport that I wish was included is mixed martial arts coverage. That would make this app absolutely unreal. Life goes on and at the end of the day, with push notifications, this is the best sports app to get your up to the minute sports information and best yet, it’s free!

One more image after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: ESPN ScoreCenter

I had an opportunity to check out the Jabra BT2080 [$39.95 - TiPb Store link] and not only is this headset reasonably priced, but has some nice functionality too! You can check it out in the in the . Now, let’s check out why makes this headset nice!

Bluetooth headsets are a dime a dozen these days; the market is literally flooded with them. So, when given the chance to look at the Jabra BT2080, I reluctantly gave it a go. I mean, a headset is a headset right? Well, for the most part yes, but there are some things that separate this headset from the rest of the crowd. For starters, it has a dedicated On/Off button. Most headsets don’t have this feature. Instead they rely on the user holding down the talk button for 5 or more seconds. On the BT2080, you hold the power button for 2 seconds (you don’t want to accidentally turn it off after all). Next you have your standard volume controls. The volume can be controlled from the headset or the iPhone. I mention this because iPhone software 3.0 and later has rather sketchy bluetooth support and I have found some features in headsets to not work. Rest assured, everything on this headset works with the iPhone. To answer a call and end a call you can press the call button on the outside of the headset. Want to dial the last number? Double click the call button.

How do you tell if the headset is connected to a device to if the power is running low? On most headsets you have a single light that blinks or changes colors to indicate all of this information. On the BT2080, you have two dedicated lights; one for bluetooth (connected) and one for power. To turn the lights on, click the call button once quickly and they light up. Very convenient.

So, lastly let’s discuss how the headset fits and how comfortable it is and how it sounds. The good news? Well, there is no bad news! That is right, the headset is lite and gives a few fitting options; it comes with three different sizes of ear-gel inserts and two sizes of ear loops. In my opinion, once you find the ear gel that works for you, it stays in place thus eliminating the need to use the loop. Since the headset is lite, it is comfortable to wear over time. When it comes to call clarity, it sounded good, especially with the ear gel as it did not let any external sound in. As for background noise such as the window down while driving, I did not run into any real issues; people on the other line could hear me. Oh, and one more thing, there was also a good range for the headset to be away from your body without static interfering.

So, I liked this headset and was presently surprised. It is lite, has some nice functions, sounds good and is very reasonably priced. It works for me!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Jabra BT2080 Reality Review

MikaMobile, the developers who brought us the popular side scrolling shooter Zombieville USA, [$1.99 - iTunes Link] recently submitted their follow up release, OMG Pirates! to Apple for App Store approval.

Looks like we can expect a great side scrolling experience along with a campaign mode, an unlockable “hard mode”, and survival modes. Personally I am a huge fan of Zombieville USA so can not wait for this to land in the App Store. Look for it to hit the App Store within the next month at the $1.99 – $2.99 price range.

[Thanks to PhxBlue for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: OMG Pirates!

When Google opens their wallet, big buyouts follow, and this time it’s iPhone/mobile advertising company AdMob for $750 million, and VoIP startup Gizmo5 for about $30 million.

AdMob is an obvious choice for Google, as it’s built mobile and in-app advertising (especially on the iPhone) into a $100 million a year business, enough to get Brin and Page personally involved in the courtship. Says TechCrunch:

Google is gunning hard to dominate mobile Web advertising and AdMob has an early foothold in the display side. [...] Google’s purchase price tells us it thinks the opportunity for mobile display ads is in the billions of dollars, at the very least.

Gizmo5, rather than advertising, could help round out Google’s services portfolio. Again, TechCrunch has the details:

Google Talk allows voice calls between users but has no PSTN link to allow incoming or outbound calls to real phones. Gizmo5 does this well already. [...] And Google Voice is a great VoIP and phone identity service, but they have no endpoint for calls. Gizmo5, which by the way already integrates with Google Voice, is a soft phone end point for Google phone users.

Of course, Apple will have to stop considering/reverse the rejection of Google Voice, or Google will have to deliver that killer web app version, before iPhone users benefit from that…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Google Buys AdMob and Gizmo5

When Google opens their wallet, big buyouts follow, and this time it’s iPhone/mobile advertising company AdMob for $750 million, and VoIP startup Gizmo5 for about $30 million.

AdMob is an obvious choice for Google, as it’s built mobile and in-app advertising (especially on the iPhone) into a $100 million a year business, enough to get Brin and Page personally involved in the courtship. Says TechCrunch:

Google is gunning hard to dominate mobile Web advertising and AdMob has an early foothold in the display side. [...] Google’s purchase price tells us it thinks the opportunity for mobile display ads is in the billions of dollars, at the very least.

Gizmo5, rather than advertising, could help round out Google’s services portfolio. Again, TechCrunch has the details:

Google Talk allows voice calls between users but has no PSTN link to allow incoming or outbound calls to real phones. Gizmo5 does this well already. [...] And Google Voice is a great VoIP and phone identity service, but they have no endpoint for calls. Gizmo5, which by the way already integrates with Google Voice, is a soft phone end point for Google phone users.

Of course, Apple will have to stop considering/reverse the rejection of Google Voice, or Google will have to deliver that killer web app version, before iPhone users benefit from that…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Google Buys AdMob and Gizmo5

Today the London based company, Shazam, announced the launch of its new Shazam Encore [$4.99 - iTunes Link] app on the App Store. The original Shazam is a free app that currently has over 10 million downloads so why not try to cash in with a new app that costs $4.99. Here is what you get for your money.

• Improved speed performance: making it even quicker for users to tag tracks and learn more about their music.
• Music recommendations: users can discover other music similar to the track that’s been tagged to enhance their music collection and knowledge.
• Find what’s hot and popular: Shazam music charts generated by millions of other Shazamers can be accessed to help users keep up to date with the new tracks and players in the music scene.
• Search music: easily find music by artist, album or track from over 8 million songs.
• Drive and Tag: Shazam automatically enters into car mode when the iPhone is placed in an in-car dock to make it simple to discover what’s playing on the radio even when driving.

Okay, so they’ve added some nice new features, but are those features worth $4.99? Let us know what you think.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Shazam Encore

Today the London based company, Shazam, announced the launch of its new Shazam Encore [$4.99 - iTunes Link] app on the App Store. The original Shazam is a free app that currently has over 10 million downloads so why not try to cash in with a new app that costs $4.99. Here is what you get for your money.

• Improved speed performance: making it even quicker for users to tag tracks and learn more about their music.
• Music recommendations: users can discover other music similar to the track that’s been tagged to enhance their music collection and knowledge.
• Find what’s hot and popular: Shazam music charts generated by millions of other Shazamers can be accessed to help users keep up to date with the new tracks and players in the music scene.
• Search music: easily find music by artist, album or track from over 8 million songs.
• Drive and Tag: Shazam automatically enters into car mode when the iPhone is placed in an in-car dock to make it simple to discover what’s playing on the radio even when driving.

Okay, so they’ve added some nice new features, but are those features worth $4.99? Let us know what you think.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Shazam Encore

Today the London based company, Shazam, announced the launch of its new Shazam Encore [$4.99 - iTunes Link] app on the App Store. The original Shazam is a free app that currently has over 10 million downloads so why not try to cash in with a new app that costs $4.99. Here is what you get for your money.

• Improved speed performance: making it even quicker for users to tag tracks and learn more about their music.
• Music recommendations: users can discover other music similar to the track that’s been tagged to enhance their music collection and knowledge.
• Find what’s hot and popular: Shazam music charts generated by millions of other Shazamers can be accessed to help users keep up to date with the new tracks and players in the music scene.
• Search music: easily find music by artist, album or track from over 8 million songs.
• Drive and Tag: Shazam automatically enters into car mode when the iPhone is placed in an in-car dock to make it simple to discover what’s playing on the radio even when driving.

Okay, so they’ve added some nice new features, but are those features worth $4.99? Let us know what you think.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Shazam Encore

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