While Apple's new in-app purchase feature for iPhones is being widely touted as an antipiracy measure, Apple's more overarching motive seems to be that of keeping the iPhone at the development forefront for the coolest new apps for mobile users.
From the Google voice fiasco to this week's Pepsi pick-up line app, Apple's vaunted app store is showing its weaknesses. CIO.com's Tom Kaneshige suggests five steps Apple should take to make the store better for users and developers.
Apple seems to have, for the moment, stopped experimenters from "jailbreaking" its most recent shipment of iPhone 3GS handsets. How long this situation will last is anyone's guess--Apple must hope it's forever.
You put it up to your ear and the screen goes blank. Turn it on its side, and the screen rotates. Walk outside and it can find your location, point a compass in the correct direction and post your geostatus on Google Latitude. Point it at a Twitter user in the real world, and you can see his or her status on a pop-up screen.
Adobe delighted on Monday the smartphone world, when it announced that Flash Player 10.1 will be available by the end of the year on BlackBerry, WinMo, Palm WebOS, Google Android, and Symbian phones.
Adobe Systems has come up with a way to let developers write Flash applications for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices, even without the support of Apple.
While the Apple iPhone is known for its great simplicity, some apps drive users absolutely crazy. The problems stem largely from the poorly designed ways that certain apps manipulate the iPhone's touch features, as well as confusing button placement.
If it hadn't been so crazy expensive to use Google Maps on my Apple iPhone 3GS while I was in the UK, I might never have met Elizabeth. I probably wouldn't have made it to that charming inn/pub high up on the hill, either. And my trip would have been a bit less rewarding as a result.
Browsing the Web while you're on the move is one of the perks of owning a smartphone. The new touchscreen phones now entering the market are ideal for this job, as they're equipped to display Web pages on their large, high-resolution screens.
Most people would agree that Apple's mobile Safari browser is one of the iPhone's great strengths. While Steve Jobs leaned on the iPhone engineers to get the new device just right, on the other side of the house Apple's browser people also felt under pressure to do their part. Everyone at Apple knew that much of the iPhone's magic would lie in the way it accessed Web content.
Many iPhone customers have already decided to switch carriers, if AT&T wants to keep them the time to act is now. AT&T cannot wait until Verizon and others appear at its door.
Don't get me wrong- the App Store is incredible and unmatched. There truly is an app for just about everything on the iPhone.
Microsoft will reportedly push two mobile operating systems at once in an effort to battle Google's Android and Apple's iPhone, but are two heads better than one?
Apple's missing link for the iPhone has been a two-way connection with the cloud. With its new push notification service, Apple enables greater interactivity for the handset's applications and users.
As Steve Jobs' reputation continues to sink, we receive word that the Apple boss tried to make a deal with Palm not to poach each other's employees. Palm rebuffed the suggestion as "likely illegal."