Verizon's First iPhone Commercial?

'Apple: The First Trillion-Dollar Company?'

[ed] Dave Morgan is always one of the more astute and analytical writers in the online game.  Great reflection today on a panel of big hitters that led to a talk on Apple's growth potential...

I participate on panels at a lot of trade and banking conferences, but probably none as fun and engaging as this past Tuesday's Gridley & Company's IDEA conference in New York. On our panel, which closed out the conference, was Kevin Ryan, CEO of Gilt Groupe; George Bell, CEO of Jumptap; Russ Fradin, former CEO of Adify and now CEO of Dynamic Signal; and our moderator, Henry Blodget of Business Insider.

The panel was a repeat performance from last year and, just as they did the year before, our hosts opened up the bar before the session started, and made sure to serve the panelists in addition to the audience. As you can imagine, it only enhanced what was certain to be the kind of frank discussion you might expect to hear from some grizzled digital entrepreneurs. That chemistry led to a number of thought-provoking exchanges among Henry and the panelists, but one really stood out for me.

At the end of the session, Henry asked what we thought about Apple's prospects over the next few years. We all agreed that Apple was on a tear and that the company's growth wasn't likely to slow down for some time. Then, Henry asked how high we thought that Apple's stock price could go. Kevin jumped right in and declared that Apple could be the world's first trillion-dollar company. Apple is doing great, but that's a pretty bold statement, given the company's current market capitalization of just above $300 million dollars.

I think Kevin is right. Here's why:
Apple is out-innovating and out-executing the entire market. No other company is delivering better consumer electronics products with better content and communications experiences to the market, and iterating them constantly, than Apple. Not only that, but no one else is delivering consumer electronic products and related software and content at the scale, and with the degree of customer service, that Apple is today. Not Sony. Not Samsung. Not LG. Not Google. No one.

iPhone and iPad market apogees well in the distance. As many iPhones and iPads as Apple has sold so far, the company has barely begun. Only this week did the largest mobile carrier in the U.S. announce plans to sell and support iPhones. IPad penetration in the U.S. is less than 3% of consumers. Hardware costs for both products are falling at an extraordinary rate. It is not inconceivable that in three years iPhones will be free with a standard mobile contract and iPads will cost less than $50. And, what happens when the 700 million Chinese and Indian mobile telephone users have access to affordable iPhones and iPads?

No close competitors yet. I spent the better part of last week at the Consumer Electronics Show. For as much cool stuff as I saw, I didn't see anything that was ready to truly rival Apple's products. Certainly, competitive or even superior products will show up in the market soon. However, given the rate with which Apple's business is accelerating, it has established a lead on competitors that will be nearly impossible to close. Apple is likely to be still gaining -- not losing -- market share for the better part of this decade.

What about Facebook? Kevin also said he thought Facebook could very well be the second trillion-dollar company. Might that happen? I don't know, but Facebook is certainly building an extraordinary business with extraordinary prospects for the future. Of course, I don't think that company strategists are doing anything that necessarily makes their success mutually exclusive to Apple's.
What do you think? Will Apple become the first trillion-dollar company?

Like I Need To Tell You Verizon Got The iPhone

The question turns to how it will alter the balance of power in the wireless world, especially between Verizon and AT&T. The latter, of course, will lose its nearly 4 years of iPhone exclusivity with Verizon planning to launch a 3G version of the Apple device next month.

I can tell you that as an AT&T customer, I've been awaiting this day for awhile. Not because I want to jump ship to Verizon, but because AT&T always says the iPhone connectivity issues are due to crowded bandwidth. Well, hopefully this is like an overcrowded freeway, and now everyone hopefully exits.

Since each side now will have the same potent weapon in their phone arsenal, the fight will come down to the competing service offerings and network quality that Verizon and AT&T provide, according to analysts. That could lead to a new series of moves and countermoves as the nation's two biggest carriers try to convince consumers to choose their version of the iPhone.

Verizon iPhone News: Apple Will Release 21 Million iPhones, 5 Million CDMA iPhones | The APPera

We've all been hearing the Taiwanese stories leaking the shipment of about 14 million CDMA powered iPhones to the states. And for those keeping score at home, Verizon runs a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) network here in the states, AT&T runs a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications). Ipso facto, the Verizon rumors are feeling more and more legit.

Being that it's the new year, here are my hopeful predictions for this whole situation:

1) Tons of AT&T iPhone users scramble to cancel their plans and move to Verizon. In turn, the crowded freeway that is the AT&T network opens up and I stop dropping calls in downtown San Francisco. Run for the hills I say!

2) The price of the iPhone takes a small dip now that the scarcity of providers is relieved. With AT&T being the only option thus far, they and Apple can charge whatever they like. Hopefully, adding another carrier ups everyones game and makes it a bit more price accessible. Let's be fair though, it isn't outlandish at $200 for new users.

3) AT&T has needed a check on their apparent claims that they are working on expanding/fixing their struggling network and service. Until now, we've had to put up with their shite service because we had no options. If you want an iPhone, you have to take the AT&T service with it. But no more. Customers can now demand phenomenal service and product updates because we have the most threatening negotiating tactic in the world; the walk out. Ask George Costanza about the walk out. It's unbeatable.

Verizon iPhone News: Apple Will Release 21 Million iPhones, 5 Million CDMA iPhones | The APPera

A Quick Splash of Thought; Find My iPhone Is Awesome, Scary

I haven't downloaded 'Find My iPhone' yet. I will no doubt get it, because I do whatever it is Apple tells me (it's not my fault, I'm a twenty-something and their advertising helps me decide).

I'm not sure why, but thinking about it this morning, I'm extra aware that they know exactly where I am considering my phone is always on me. Obviously the GPS functionality of every other app can let Apple and all my advertising buddies know that I'm still in bed when I should be working. And yet, this morning it makes me nervous. This is like the first time I explained to my mother what behavioral targeting was and she swore off the internet forever.

Microsoft and Diddy Teaming Up?

Microsoft and Sean P. Diddy Combs launched a social media holiday campaign this week to get fans involved with giving away thousands of dollars to charities by deciding the beneficiaries without costing them a dime.

For seven days, Sean Combs, also known as P. Diddy, will use Tag to share exclusive content with fans through a link via Twitter and Facebook. More than 3 million Twitter followers and oodles of Facebook Fans also will participate in the giveaway of $10,000 per day for five days. Proceeds will go to five charities.

Diddy uses Twitter to promote the exclusive giveaway, tweeting to followers how to find the content, scan the Tag, and unlock the gift via smartphone, either iPhone, Android, BlackBerry or Windows.

The campaign -- created for Microsoft by Izea, a social media marketing company -- gives $50,000 to charity for twelve days. During the remaining five days, those scanning tags have an opportunity to vote on how thousands of dollars are divvied up to charities.

Izea CEO Ted Murphy, who is responsible for getting Diddy on board, says Tag can more accurately read results and gather backend data compared with a QR code. He calls it the "biggest campaign of its kind" where tweets are sent through a sponsorship in a social media platform.

Marketers can build rules into the platform that only allow each individual to phone scan a tag once hourly to vote for a charity. For each day during the five, site visitors will see a list of three charities to choose from. At the end of the day, Diddy announces the winner. "We're happy to support charitable giving," says Jeff Somers, director of marketing at Microsoft.

Microsoft Tag -- a slightly different technology than QR codes, another 2D barcode -- works in color or custom code images. The technology, which lives within Microsoft's startup and incubator business group, lets marketers continually change the code on the fly to point the URL in another direction, so designers need not hardcode the URL into the campaign. That flexibility aims to encourage testing and increase the lure for marketers.

As for metrics, Tag's backend platform tracks device IDs, so it recognizes the phone type and when the user engages with the tag. This lets marketers create campaigns targeting specific phones. The backend infrastructure, designed as an end-to-end solution, allows marketers to collect data every time a phone engages with a tag. On the backend, a heat map identifies the location of the scans, as more location-based data is built and pulled into platforms.

Could It Be? iPad 2 In The Next 100 Days?

says CrunchGear...

According to Digitimes, Foxconn factories are currently assembling iPads 2 for shipment within the next “100 days” which, by my calculations, puts the ship date at around February/March or, if WolframAlpha is to be believed, March 17, 2011.

Foxconn is said to be preparing 400,000-600,000 units for sale. If this is true, we can expect a press conference in mid-January and a release date of February or March, which is line with Apple’s traditional start-of-year releases. It looks like CES (January 4-9th) is about to be spoiled.

As far as we can tell, the iPad 2 will have a front-facing camera made by Largan Precision and potentially a more iPhone-esque styling as suggested by this fake mock-up, below.

iPhone 4 Firmware Reveals File-Sharing, Orientation Lock, and How to Close Multitasking Apps

The rumor mill continues....

Apple's just released the latest developer firmware before the official iPhone 4.0 roll-out. This is geeky. What is not geeky is some of the secrets it reveals about the future iPhone workings. Apple seems to have utterly nailed it.

File sharing direct to iPhone

This is an oft-requested feature by the more traditionally minded iPhone user, used to managing files in folders on desktops rather than the iPhone OS's hidden file management layer, but it's going to be damn useful all the same: Apple's enabling direct user-manageable file transfer between your computer and your iPhone (and later, presumably, your iPad). It's a question of syncing the two devices, then clicking through to the Apps tab in the iPhone and scrolling down to the "Files" section, from where you can drag and drop stuff to and from your main computer. As the name suggests, Apple's keeping a certain degree of control over this, and you can't just dump files of any type willy-nilly--it's app driven. For now it looks like only Mail is enabled, but it's certain that other apps, like Pages and whatnot, will get this power by the time the OS officially rolls out.

Orientation lock and widgets

The iPad's physical-switch orientation lock is handy for those reading-an-ebook-in-bed moments when the device's gyros might otherwise detect your reading position incorrectly. It too is a feature oft-requested for the iPhone, but it looks like it won't be replicated in hardware for the iPhone 2010--it's appeared as part of iPhone 4.0's multitasking pop-up panel as a virtual button. Hence, for users prone to using their iPhone when...erm...prone, a quick double-tap of the home button then a left-swipe will bring up the menu, then it's just a question of clicking the icon.

Apple's engineers have obviously decided that this new menu has some useful functionality, though, and have viewed it as a mini widget portal, of sorts, because there's also now a quick-access button to get to the iPod app (previously accessible by a double click of home in earlier iPhone OSs) as well as very basic iPod controls.

Closing Apps

Introducing multitasking also introduces the issue of users managing which apps are running (though iPhone 4 does a pretty good job of this automatically). That means letting users close active apps from the multitasking menu. Apple's just tweaked this, not a lot, but in a way that makes it super easy to do: It's now just like the old "delete app" function, where you hold your finger down over an app's icon. The OS then enters a "close app" mode, which lets you shut down as many sequentially as you like.

iPhone 2010 summary

iPhone 4

So with this news, the earlier iPhone 4.0 data, and information gleaned by Gizmodo from the leaked iPhone 2010 prototype, what can we work out about this year's new iPhone experience? A lot. Here's a guesstimated specs list:

* Size: Similar to iPhone 3GS, just squarer and a tiny bit shallower
* Weight: Similar to iPhone 3GS
* Battery life: Possibly up to 20% more for all functions, dependent on software power management
* Screen: High res, possibly 940 by 640 pixels (four times as many as before)
* Camera: Front facing, possibly VGA (may be higher though.) Read facing, 5 megapixels, with flash
* Multitasking: Check
* Direct file transfers: Check
* Screen orientation lock: Check
* Direct wireless printing: Probably
* Proper support for Bluetooth keyboard in iPhone: Possibly (to support iPhone iWork apps.)
* ARM-based 1GHz CPU: Very likely

Add those together and you have a smartphone positioned to challenge the growing army of Android phones, but coming with the provenance of the iPhone's history, lots of Apple chic, and hundreds of thousands of existing apps. iPhone 2010 with iPhone 4.0 aboard is going to be, let's face it, the bees knees...and since many of these powers will also be available on older iPhones too, when their firmware is updated, it's a bit of a win-win for iPhone fans.

The iPad: Despite The Name, It Is Amazing

The rumors, the speculation, the potential death of the Kindle....all things came true today when Apple finally released the iPad in tandem with it's new iBooks store.

courtesy Fast company...

After months of speculation that grew into a fevered pitch of rumor and leakage, Apple today introduced the device that everyone's been talking about: A new type of handheld computer called the iPad.

The simplest way to explain the iPad would be to call it an overgrown iPhone. The 9.7-inch screen is encased in a frame that has the same rounded edges and bevel as Apple's hugely successful mobile phone. And the software operating system is also a more muscular version of the iPhone OS. But the iPad has multiple features that push it beyond that iPhone and into a new category of device--somewhere between a netbook and a smartphone. It is, as Steve Jobs noted during the presentation, a device that's the third way: Half smartphone, half PC.

But what is the iPad like, really? It's a slim slate-like device, with an aluminum unibody construction a lot like the first-gen iPhone, and it's running a custom version of the iPhone OS. It'll come in two versions, one with Wi-fi only, and one with WiFi and another version with 3G GSM connectivity (still using AT&T in the U.S., unfortunately). It's running a custom Apple-made ARM chip dubbed the A4 that, with its 1GHz clock speed, promises to tackle the impressive Snapdragon chip other devices are just beginning to use--Intel can't be entirely happy right now. It's multitouch, has accelerometers, ambient light sensors, speakers, microphone, GPS (in the 3G version) and it has a claimed battery life of 10 hours of video and a month of standby time. Which is incredible.

But that's all the dry and dusty tech specs. Is this thing amazing? Absolutely. It confirms about 95% of the rumors that popped up in the last few days--and it's an amazingly clever move by Apple. In one fell swoop, by building in the iBooks app, Apple's dealt a near-deathly blow to Amazon--the app seems to do pretty much everything a Kindle can, but on a color screen, with fully rendered fonts that appear on pages that turn just like a printed page when you swipe it. Apple's also supporting the open-format EPub standard, versus Amazon's closed proprietary system, and its books are priced between $4.99 for older paperbacks and up to $14 for new releases.

But book reading is almost an aside to this device's other capabilities, which include playing movies and games and very high resolution. And don't forget that the iPad is compatible with most of the existing 140,000-odd iTunes apps, meaning it launches with a huge app directory ready to be sampled. The majority of those apps will play in a smaller window on the screen, and can be bumped up in resolution to fill the screen (with some tradeoff in graphic quality). But with the release of a new software development kit today, there is no doubt that app developers will be upgrading their apps to the new resolution in the next 60 days until the iPad goes on sale.

The New York Times was on hand to demo their enhanced iPad app (also as rumored) and this makes it clear why so many rumors suggest the iPad might be the future of digital newsprint. Seeing this full-featured app, which makes the text come alive (versus the dead ink physical edition) was truly a wow moment, particularly when video clips and slideshows came to life right from withing the wrapped text. Harry Potter's newspapers, anyone?

Apple also revealed that its iWork suite had been completely re-worked for the device, with each app carefully tuned to work with a multitouch screen. Pages, Numbers and Keynote all seem to work dreamily on the iPad--and you can even present your data via a VGA convertor link through its 30-pin dock. The apps are an astonishingly cheap $9.99 each. And remember: These things are compatible with Microsoft Office files...meaning Apple just took a huge swipe at MS's much-vaunted tablet plans. Because, let's face it, which tablet would you prefer to be using on that 8-hour business flight to check out a movie, and tweak your financial calculations?

To be honest, iWork is not primarily what you'll want to use this device for. It's an entertainment gadget, at the end of the day. But what today's iWork demo showed was a stunning variety of touch gestures and functions that preview a few of the new ways you'll be able to interact with this device, from cut and paste to alternate keyboards based on what kind of work you're engaged in.

Buried within Apple's presentation were a handful of features that are almost too small to be noteworthy in themselves, but sum up to a machine that's going to be fantastic from a user interface perspective--like the spyglass "preview" effect for browsing document pages when you run a finger own the right side of the page. It's attention to detail like this that makes the iPhone stand out from all the other smartphone OS's, and it's done here on a more powerful machine with a bigger screen and far more capability.

The iPad also feels extremely sturdy in the hand, matching the iPhone's "light but rugged" physical form. Phil Schiller even explained why Apple chose the IPS (in-plane switching) LCD technology over other competing versions--it makes for a much greater viewing angle. This is another Apple fine detail which'll be damn useful when you're using this thing flat on a table top. The screen is also only slightly lower resolution than a MacBook, but is physically smaller, which leads to more dots per inch and thus a smoother rendering of fonts, so it can easily compete with the Kindle's eye-friendly e-ink tech.

As always, there are some things missing (webcams for one, which'll upset many a user, and no stereo speakers either). But there's one final absolutely killer feature about this device. Its entry price is only $500. How the heck Apple has managed to optimize its design and production pipelines so tightly boggles the mind. $500 places it almost in netbook territory, with all that added Apple cachet, and makes it a major threat to Amazon's single-use and now archaic-seeming Kindle DX (and probably the cheaper Kindle 2 too, from a multipurpose point of view). $500 is also a figure that could threaten the iPod Touch, with its $399 high-end price for a 64GB machine--we're guessing Apple will drop this price soon. Of course the iPad's price scales with more storage inside the iPad--just like the iPhone--and of course a 3G option costs $130 more, so the top price for a 64GB iPad is a high-sounding $829. But that's still $170 cheaper than the heavily-rumored $1,000 price tag.

It's the price that makes this thing revolutionary, along with its UI. Yes, if you opt for the $30 all-you-can eat data plan in the U.S. it's going to cost you a lot more... but you probably already own an iPhone, and there may be the option of Bluetooth tethering to think about (it already works outside the U.S., but Apple tells us they're still in negotiations with carriers.)

In some ways the iPad is exactly what we expected technically, and slightly less than we'd hoped for--and we'll be looking at its shortcomings in the near future. But that $500 really makes it a game-changer.

Solar Powered iPhones?

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been a goldmine for green-minded Apple fans recently. Last week, the technology giant filed a patent for an "intelligent power monitoring" system, and now Apple has revealed a design for a solar powered portable device (i.e. an iPod or iPhone) in an advancement of a patent originally filed in 2008.

According to the patent, such a device would include built-in solar cells on its front and back for an increased surface area to collect power. Since solar cells can be made with rigid materials, Apple imagines that the entire front and back of the device could potentially be covered in solar cells. It would also have circuitry to monitor the battery's state and determine whether to recharge using external solar power or store solar energy for later use.

It's already possible to juice up an iPhone with solar power--Novothink's solar charger case for iPods and iPhones is certified by Apple--but this is the first time Apple has expressed interest in making solar power an integral part of its portable devices.

No word on when we might see a solar-powered iPhone in stores, but Apple's move to update its 2 year-old patent makes us think that the company still has solar on the brain.

The Seven Most Expensive iPhone Apps; Starting at $1,000!

Courtesy of Fast Company...

According to recent calculations, Apple sewed up around 98% of all mobile app downloads in 2009. The App Store is evidently a soaring success, serving up apps for everything. Literally everything. All this demand seems to have resulted in a reverse price war--check out the high-dollar Apps we found:

BarMax | $1,000

This is the news that started us wondering about the most expensive iPhone apps: BarMax, an app designed to help students studying for their bar exams. According to the site's blurb it's a "complete solution and the most thorough yet flexible way to study for the bar exam. Listen to audio lectures on your iPhone wherever you are. Practice MBE questions or review flashcards on the go."

It's over 1GB in size, has thousands of digitized pages of information (an the company will send you more on request) and it would seem to be an ideal prep companion thanks to its portability, particularly if the other option is to haul around a huge pile of books. Expensive? Yes indeed, but for this price the makers BarMax LLc will sell you an iPod Touch with it pre-installed. And though it is expensive, we're pretty sure legal types will, somehow, be able to afford it.

iRa Pro | $900

One for the Big Brother in you: iRa Pro is a professional-grade app that lets you view security camera feeds. According to makers Lextech Labs, the app delivers "a video command center to the palm of your hand" and effectively lets you manage some aspects of your site security without requiring you to sit in an office. It shows six thumbnail views at a time from whatever array of IP-connected surveillance cameras you own, and lets you have full pan/tilt/zoom control of compatible cams and even offers a still image capture facility in case you see something of interest going on.

For the huge price you get an app that's capable of accessing a wide range of connected cameras and their data/control servers.

MATG SAP | $450

This app is more properly called "My Accounts to Go" and it's designed to be a fully integrated part of the SAP BusinessOne financial management system, connected wirelessly but still capable of displaying full financial data, transaction history and warehousing information.

It's specifically designed for finance, sales and marketing execs who find themselves out in the field often, and if your company already uses SAP's accounting system it'll likely prove invaluable, even at nearly $500.

Mobile Cam Viewer Enterprise Basic Version | $350

Like iRa, MCV is designed to be a security office camera control room on the go--it basically lets you securely monitor all of your net-connected security cameras or Webcams on your iPhone. It too supports a wide range of camera protocols, but it doesn't seem to allow you to interact with the cameras like iRa does. Perhaps that's why it's $550 cheaper.

Tunelab, Color Extractor | $300

Tunelab is an app based on the already successful Tunelab implementations for other smartphones, laptops and PDAs--it comes with a warning that it's only for professionals. And to that end it delivers a full tuning analysis capability, with the ability to store custom tuning profiles for all the pianos tuners may encounter on their rounds.

Color Extractor is a tool designed for post-production photography enthusiasts, and it does pretty much exactly what its name suggests: It gives you precise control over the color parameters of an image, such that you can remove a particular color from an image. In all honesty, this app might be a joke, or one bearing a mistaken price label--it seems to be incredibly simple, and the capability it offers is certainly replicated elsewhere in the App Store at a significantly lower price.

Lexidental Complete | $300

Lexidental is a full drug/image/medical database app for dental practitioners, with photographs, charts, and encyclopedic information that's designed to help dentists with their work. It's also going to be useful for dental students.

There's a host of other apps that come with a price tag of between $100 and $300 too--apps like Navigon's Mobile Navigator (Europe) edition. And taken as a whole, particularly with the massive price of BarMax, it would seem to indicate one thing: The App Store, though it contains much that is frivolous, is growing up and serving software that's extremely useful to professionals of all sorts of different genres.

Google China To Be Shutdown?

The story of Google choosing to un-censor it's service in China is of course a day old (those late on the news click here). This of course ruffles the feathers of the ancient Chinese government who is still certain their inhabitants are not wise enough to make choices on their own. Apparently in the falling of censhorship, "Tianamen" was a popular search term. I could spend some time going into the things wrong with the Chinese govt on this idea, but I wont. I'm going to take the business route here....

If the reports across the Web today are true that Google.cn may in turn be shutdown due to the egregious offense to not censor their search results, would mean the door swings wide open for a variety of players. The obvious players of Yahoo and MSN are salivating, but what about the upstart community of burgeoning search leaders? I'm hearing quite a bit about Baidu.cn which attracts almost 58% of all searches from China. But thats within it's walls. Googles ability to allow outside access means communication with what is most likely the world's next powerhouse (open that for argument).

Plenty to shake out, but Apple is thrilled according to Fast Company:
Meanwhile there may be one very unexpected techno casualty of a Google China shut down: Android OS. Android has seemed to be making headway in the country, with devices like Lenovo's OPhone, the HTC Magic, and Dell's Mini 3 device on sale. But if Google pulls out, it might hurt how well future Android devices do: Though the OS is effectively an open and free platform, Google's support is essential to pushing its development in the future--and why would Google push next-gen high-tech Android phones like the Nexus One in China if it's so opposed to the way China's government forces it to run its business? The move could even result in a further splintering of Android into China and everywhere-else versions. Would this move then shine more of a spotlight on Apple...which recently introduced a special China-friendly version of the iPhone a, is happy to comply with Chinese restrictions, and has numerous business interests in the country? It's extremely difficult to tell, but it would seem more likely than not.

The Nike ID iPhone App

Only a matter of time until fresh sneakers came out o the iPhone....

Sportswear giant Nike has a nifty application in the App Store that allows you to create custom sneakers and order them straight away, with just a couple of taps. The app is in fact a mobile extension of NIKEiD, a program that allows customer to order personalized Nike shoes straight from the manufacturer. And an excellent extension it is.

The free app (iTunes link) has been available on the App Store since the beginning of this month, but surprisingly there hasn’t been a lot of coverage about it. Even despite this excellent video about it (embedded below).

The software program allows you to select flashy looking sneakers that were custom designed by others and purchase them straight away, but there’s a lot more to it than that. For instance, you can dive into your photo library and select any image, after which the NIKEiD iPhone app will automatically detect which colors are in them and let you choose two for your own custom shoe. Or you can just use the Color Picker to select two colors you like.

Evidently, you can filter the results even more based on your specific needs (e.g. only shoes for men, unisex basketball clothing, etc.). Using the My Locker feature you can also save your favorite designs and access those you’ve customized on the NIKEiD website. Once you’ve selected a custom design you like, you can shake your iPhone to shuffle the colors, but you also get some options to genuinely personalize sneakers with your name, a custom logo or whatever you like.

Did I mention you can buy designs straight from the app?

Apple's Invite Only Product Release Session In San Francisco

Apple held an invite only event today, which was surprisingly hosted by CEO Steve Jobs. This was Jobs' first appearance since October 2008 as he has been recovering from a liver transplant. Some interesting iPod and iTunes updates to look out for in the near future.

Apple introduced an updated version of the iPod Nano that sports a built-in video camera and microphone located on the lower left-hand side. It also features a slightly larger 2.2-inch display, up from 2 inches. There is still no Wi-Fi, or built-in Web browser, so users will first have to sync the videos to their computers to access and edit the files. The upgraded device also has an FM tuner, which lets users listen to radio tracks. This is a feature iPod users have been pining for, for a very long time.

Apple announced the release Wednesday of OS 3.1, which will be a free update to iPhone users and $4.95 to iPod Touch owners.
With 3.1, users on both platforms can now get Genius recommendations for applications they've purchased. These show up in the App Store app, as well as in iTunes, and function in a similar fashion to how Genius for music works. It takes your purchase information and sends it to Apple, which will analyze it for similar purchases, and offer up recommendations. This may end up being a more precise system since there are fewer apps than music tracks.
3.1 also adds a new security feature for iPhone owners--the capability to lock down the device over the air using MobileMe. Previously, if your phone was lost or stolen, this feature would only be enabled if the user had set it that way.
iTunes 9
Apple introduced a new version of iTunes, which offers iPhone and iPod Touch users a way to better organize applications they have added to the device. Users can now drag and drop apps to multiple home screens at once, instead of doing so on the device itself.

Read the rest of the story here, provided by cNET.

ATT Investing Millions To Stop iPhone's Dropped Calls?

As a dedicated iPhone user who curses AT&T everyday, I'd be thrilled if this actually went down and we could go a day without dropping a call. Apparently there are too many iPhone's for the AT&T network....glad they sorted that out ahead of time.

ATT Wireless Sucks

"More bars in more places" my ass. If only I didn't love my iPhone...

The Very First Cell Phone Ad From 1989

Fancy iPhone's beware, the cell phone bigger then you're head could make it's return if the joy of this commercial gets out...

The Latest iPhone 4G Video Leak

Note some of the homepage shortcuts at about the 1:20 mark...

iPhone 4G Being Rumored To Mimic Macbook

Here's what's going around the Mac world today...

Hulu iPhone App Coming Soon

Safe to say this will be the greatest iPhone app in the history of the app store...

Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that a dedicated Hulu application is indeed on its way to the iPhone and should be here in just a few months. SAI says the application will work over Wi-Fi and AT&T's 3G network, meaning that users will be able to view programming anywhere with a fast data connection.

Rumors suggesting that an iPhone-friendly version of Hulu swirled around this time last year, however, they predated the launch of the App Store, and Hulu flat-out denied that one was being worked on.

This time around, though, it's far more plausible, with the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 software update, which lets developers bake streaming media into their applications. For Hulu, this means that the advertising could be stuck into the mobile stream and that users would be able to watch videos without leaving the application.

One of the things that keep this rumor from holding water is that Hulu is in direct competition with Apple's iTunes business. Users of Hulu can watch ad-supported, full-length television shows and movies on their personal computers for free, instead of paying Apple to download a copy for offline viewing.

If such an app were available on the iPhone, it would also offer portable TV and movie watching, something not yet offered in Apple's own mobile iTunes app, which is limited to video podcasts. In past instances of this, the company has simply denied applications such as Podcaster from making it through the app approval process, only to launch it as a first party feature later on.

On the other hand, some of Hulu's competitors have already gotten a foot in the door, including Joost and CBS-owned TV.com, which has its own iPhone application that streams in content in chunks. In addition, Google's YouTube, whose application comes preinstalled on the iPhone, has recently reached an agreement with major studios, including Sony Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS (publisher of CNET News), to offer visitors full-length TV shows and feature films.

If Hulu can't manage to pull off getting advertisements in the stream, using this system, it would be fairly simple to force users to sit through advertisements between clips.