Hasta La Gadget!

John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has a pretty good track record when it comes to Apple rumors — remember his spot-on predictions for the unibody MacBook Pro? — so when he’s got a thing or two to say about all the next-gen iPhone chatter, we listen. While not making any promises, he does say he’d wager quite a bit on a new model coming to WWDC, with about twice the CPU horsepower (and possibly twice the RAM, too) as the current model. He also adds some credence to all that talk of video recording, but makes no mention of potential background apps and plays down any surprise tablet or “iPhone mini” cameos. He goes on to add release date would be sometime in July in 16GB and 32GB varieties. We can’t say we’re willing to bet against him, but that doesn’t mean we’ll take his word as gospel. We can safely say, however, that we’re anxiously waiting to see what kind of shenanigans Schiller has in store for next month.

Filed under: Cellphones

More next-gen iPhone whispers: video recording, faster CPU, July release? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 May 2009 20:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not what you’d call audiophiles — we’ve stood dangerously close to a 128kb MP3 or two in our lives, and even tried internet radio once — but we still seem to prefer things that “sound good.” That cuts out most iPod docks on the market, which due to price, size and know-how constraints tend to do few favors for the low-bitrate music they usually serve up.

Enter the new iP1 dock from iHome, which kicks off a new “Studio Series” for the manufacturer, and features “Bongiovi Digital Power Station processing” to bump up the quality. Tony Bongiovi, audio engineer and cousin to Jon Bon Jovi, developed the DPS technology to improve sound in “compromised” environments like cars (it’s currently used by JVC in car stereos), planes and low-quality speakers, and is specifically tuned for its output device. The upshot is that the iP1 brings volume and clarity to the low and high end of the audio, especially in older recordings that haven’t already been compressed to high heaven, where details and oomph would be absent given the limited hardware. Sure, the result isn’t an “accurate” picture of what was recorded — you still need studio monitors to do that — but it makes most things sound “good” without adding the ruination of many digital audio enhancement techniques, and we even picked up a couple details in a favorite song of ours that’s received heavy rotation on our home system. It also had the unfortunate effect of turning a Bob Marley song into a bit of a banger (a “Could You Be Loved In The Club,” if you will) but can thankfully can be deactivated at the press of a button.

The dock itself packs a 100 watt amp, two 4-inch woofers and two 1-inch tweeters. The included remote can handle custom EQ in addition to switching Bongiovi on and off, and there’s also component video out and full iPhone support. It should be hitting stores in the middle of July for about $299.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

iHome iP1 isn’t bad for an iPod dock, packs a Bongiovi punch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 May 2009 13:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The anticipation is palpable, sure, but those hoping for a Steve Jobs comeback at this year’s WWDC should be prepared for disappointment. Apple just affirmed that this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference will indeed kick off on Monday, June 8th, and the keynote address will be given at 10:00AM PT (so 1:00PM here on the right coast, and 7:00AM on the gorgeous isle of Maui). The big news, however, isn’t that we’ll be there live for every last word (’cause you already knew that, yes?) — it’s that Philip Schiller and company, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will be manning the address, offering devs an “in-depth” look at iPhone OS 3.0 and OS X Snow Leopard. In fact, attendees can expect a “final Developer Preview release” of the forthcoming OS, but you’ll have to wait a few weeks yet to get details beyond that.

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops

Apple confirms WWDC keynote time, Phil Schiller leading the way originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 May 2009 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Despite not being its official US carrier, T-Mobile still seems to wanna maintain an amicable relationship with all those who came over with an iPhone in tow. According to a report by The Consumerist, a recent update to the carrier’s voicemail system caused some of the smartphones, including Apple’s touchscreens, became unusable, with a volley of blank text messages dated from the future arriving instead. Those who contacted customer service were called later to acknowledge the issue and offered an one month service credit. Said the rep, “T-Mobile, though they do not offer the iPhone, and that they are committed to supporting users on their network who have them” — not too surprising a stance, but a kind gesture for sure. The problem has since been fixed, and everyone lived happily ever after.

[Via iLounge]

Filed under: Cellphones

T-Mobile provides support, good vibes to its iPhone-using clientele originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 May 2009 03:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just two weeks after the last revision went up, Apple’s released iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4 to the developer community alongside an iTunes 8.2 pre-release. No word yet on what has / hasn’t been updated, but we do know the new iTunes is required to activate beta 4. More information as we get it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Update: We’ve toyed with beta 4 for just a few quick moments now, and naturally, the first thing we had to check out was that previously-empty “Store” settings pane. It’s now populated, and it’s mega-boring; all it does is allow you to sign in and out of your iTunes account, and while signed in, there’s an Account Info button that lets you get booted out to an unstyled web page where you can view and edit your credit card information and the like. On the iTunes 8.2 side of things, we noticed that we were explicitly warned that the app would verify that our phone was activated for use with the beta firmware — we don’t remember seeing that before — and the Gracenote legal mumbo jumbo in the About window now specifically calls out both DVD and Blu-ray metadata, which we’re taking as a promising sign of playback support in the not-too-distant future. Thanks, David!

iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4, iTunes 8.2 pre-release now live originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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