Unwired View » iTV

Tap Tap Tap splitting up up up, offers Where To iPhone app for bidding

David Gonzales — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:03:39 +0000

Wondering what ever had happened to those awesome devs that brought Tap Tap Tap to your iPhone? Well, I could tell you a lot about their situation, writing down a few lenghty paragraphs to let you know how they’re doing, but I think it would be best if I summed it all up in two words: they’ve split.

Yep, unfortunately, Tap Tap Tap developers and long time friends John Casasanta and Sophia of Sophiestication have decided to call it quits, after having arguments that “ranged from the amount of money and effort to put into advertising and marketing to the design of the apps themselves.”

That doesn’t mean that their company will just fade off of the map, though, especially when they have one of the most successful iPhone apps ever, and a several new ones also poised for success or are already in development.

In a nutshell, Sophia will now be publishing iPhone apps under her own brand, called Sophiestication, and the first ones will be Tipulator, I’m Here and Groceries. Mike will continue with Tap Tap Tap and “a bunch of apps that [they] had in early development but hadn’t announced as of yet.”

They’re also going to offer another successful iPhone app of theirs called Where To for sale, promising to offer full details of the sale to interested parties “soon.”

Via TapTapTap

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Free SMS for everyone via AIM for iPhone

David Gonzales — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:54:26 +0000

AIM on the iPhone and iPod Touch has a feature that could make the SMS app on the iPhone obsolete. Or not. But it’s still a pretty neat little tweak, nonetheless.

By downloading the free AIM client from the iPhone App Store, you’ll be able to send free SMS messages to your “buddies” any time, anywhere you are.

To send free SMS on the iPhone or iPod Touch, you have to add the mobile number of the person you want to text as a new contact. The exact form is a plus sign followed by the mobile number (i.e. “+212231998″).

All SMS sent from the AIM client will be free on your end, but if the party you texted replies to you they will get charged. It’s not perfect, but it definitely looks like a great perk .

TidBITS

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AT&T store stock rooms hold last Apple iPhone stocks

David Gonzales — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:58:43 +0000

Now that the rumored launch date of the 3G iPhone is only 3 days away, all the places you’d expect to find the last traces of the old model won’t be able to help you. Neither Apple nor AT&T hold any stocks of the old iPhone, or at least, none that they are willing to sell openly.

As you may probably already know, the old iPhone is held as out of stock in various online stores, and even in Apple’s very own. And an insider tip to BGR tells us that you won’t have any luck waiting for them to replenish their stocks. Not until the new model comes along, that is.

According to a message sent to BGR by “someone who works for AT&T”:

“Just an FYI that as of today, the only iPhones left to sell are those in your inventory rooms in store. There will no longer be any availability online or via direct fulfillment from either Att.com or Apple.com as I understand.

That means that you should leverage this and sell those you have ASAP as you are the ONLY place someone can buy an iPhone at right now!”

Well, at least that confirms that they haven’t really run out of stock after all. Question is, why don’t they just replenish their stocks? We’re not sure what the reason is, but if there’s one, there’s nothing better than that a new model will soon be on the way.

Read BGR

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iTV – Apple’s play on Home Multimedia Convergence

Staska — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 17:30:52 +0000

When Apple first presented it’s iTV device in September everybody concluded that it ’s Apple ’s take on digital set-top boxes or PVR’s or it’s some sort of wireless TV extender. It’s obvious – with a name of iTV it has to have something to do with television.

But there’s one Apple patent filing called “Networked media station” which shows that iTV is much more then that. It’s a wireless router, media hub, a network bridge and more. It may be THE device that will finally make the elusive media convergence in your home the real thing.

While Steve Jobs characteristically played up the iTV side of “Networked media station” to wet media’s appetite he neglected to mention other cool features that this device will have or what they wanted to achieve with this device:

“…many consumers use their personal computer as primary vehicle for obtaining, storing and accessing multimedia information. One drawback of such system is that although the quality of multimedia playback systems for computers, e.g. displays, speakers, etc. have improved dramatically , these systems still lag behind typical entertainment devices, e.g., stereos, televisions, projection systems, etc. in terms of performance, fidelity, and usability for the typical consumer…
…thus it would be beneficial to provide mechanism …to obtain, store, and access multimedia content using personal computer, while also being able to listen, view or otherwise access this content using conventional entertainment devices, such as stereo equipment, televisions,, home theater systems, etc… it will also be advantageous to integrate such mechanism with home networking to provide an integrated electronic environment for the consumer…
…in addition there’s need … in allowing disparate devices in home or workplace to recognize each other and exchange data, perhaps under control of some central hub… by which various home networking components from differing vendors can interact in a home networking environment. ..”

In order to achieve these functions iTV will integrate several interfaces and feature sets into an integrated platform, including wireless network interface, a peripheral interface, and a multimedia interface.

The wireless network interface, e.g., 802.11b/g, allows the multimedia station to communicate wirelessly with other devices and to serve as a wireless base station or as a repeater for existing network. Wireless interface in conjunction with wired network interface, e.g. Ethernet, will allow it to serve as a bridge between wired and wireless network. It will also be equipped with switching and routing logic.

The peripheral interface, e;g., a USB interface, may be used to allow the networked media station to communicate with a variety of peripherals. In conjunction with network interface, this allows sharing of a single peripheral among multiple networked computers. These peripherals can include any device connectible via USB port – printers, cameras, iPods, storage devices, scanners, handhelds, etc. Peripherals requiring bi-directional communication can also be shared.

And, of course there’s a main function – Multimedia sharing. Networked media station will be able to receive multimedia information from a computer over a network connection and output this media information to an entertainment device – your home stereo or cinema system, projection TV or any other device. With Apple software it will be possible to access this device from the computer running e.g. iTunes and designate the output device from it. So the latest “Lost” episode will be played on your plasma, all your mp3 tracks and podcasts get sent to a home stereo system while system sounds (e.g. beeps, alerts, etc.) continue to be played back on your iMAC speakers.

Additional services may be designed to specify a variety of parameters relating to one or more multimedia input and output devices attached to media station. Devices that might have particular applicability in a home network environment include speakers, video display terminals, cameras, microphones, etc. For example a variety of of input devices interfaced into one or more media stations could provide basis for home security system (using cameras, motion detectors, microphones, etc.).

Easy automatic discovery features built-in the media station lets easily create and configure home networks to serve all user multimedia needs. For example, a user with large library of iTunes audio and video files in one room can create wireless multimedia home network by dropping a few stations around the house. A station by the stereo in the living room now can play music, while a station by the TV in the bedroom allows watching video’s stored on a PC. And since media station is capable of two way communication, it can easily be operated with a remote from anywhere.

So as you can see an iTV is about much more then a TV . It can be your wireless router, repeater, network bridge; it will allow you to share share printers, scanners, storage, iPod video and music collections and other peripherals; it can act as your home security system and it will also let you play any music, video or other media files anywhere in your home. While right now, at $299 iTVs may be rather expensive gadgets to have a lot of them scattered throughout your house, in a few years, thank’s to Moore’s law, you may actually have one sitting next to any media playback device.

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