Archive for January 15th, 2010

According to a new patent application filed by Apple, the new and upcoming iPhone OS could offer contact icons on the home screen. These icons can be used to invoke apps, retrieve and display contacts information, or can be modified to display related info, tied to an individual contact. This patent, which was filed back in July 2008.

The icon can also be used to invoke one or more applications that are personalized to the contact. The icon can be modified to display information related to the contact. In one aspect, an icon associated with an entity can be temporarily displayed on the mobile device based on the proximity of the mobile device to the entity.

The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office today has accepted Apple’s filing. This could probably mean that we may soon see this feature being introduced in the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0, which is expected to be announced with the next-gen iPhone in summer.

Mysterious designer with nickname Hdi has created a nice concept image of what the iPhone 4G would look like if Apple modeled it after the iMac. This concept mixes aluminum and glass just like an iMac.

Looks really great!

One of the most popular courses on Apple’s iTunes U education is back. The Winter 2010 semester of Stanford University’s iPhone Application Development Course is now available via iTunes U.

This is a 10 week session that will focus on updated material for iPhone OS 3.1. The videos for the course will also offer more this year. “We’re getting the videos closed captioned this time, so they’ll be even more accessible,” said Julie Zelenski, a Stanford computer science lecturer who helps coordinate the class.

The course was downloaded more than 4.4 million times last year.