According to the sources from Apple Insider, AMD representatives have been seen recently on the meeting with Apple's top brass. The discussion was about the possible partnership between these two organizations as Apple looking forward in bringing AMD's CPUs to workstations and notebooks. The main reason for changing its main processor supplier is probably the try to increase the flexibility and competitive options of Cupertino's company. Another explanation is problems, that were encountered with Intel recently (they include limited availability of recently produced processors and new chipset designs that don't allow using any video chips except its integrated graphics chip). Read the rest of this entry »
For the last few months we have been witnessing the competition between Google and Apple that becomes more and more significant. We tried to analyze some facts and made a conclusion that the confrontation is more personal than corporate.
(different search engine strings on SDK on the left, Firefox 3.6 for Mac on the right)
Here's some more interesting information from the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK. Users will be able to set search to something besides Google in the search bar of the iPad's Safari in upcoming iPhoneOS releases.
Right now, the two options besides the current default Google are Wikipedia and Yahoo, but plugins could be developed to do things like Amazon and Bing searches directly from the search bar in the Safari browser.
There is even a suggestion manager for both Google and Yahoo depending on which search engine you choose. Unfortunately, no Bing… yet.
Businessweek reports that Apple and Microsoft are currently in negotiations to replace Google as the default search engine on the iPhone with Microsoft's Bing.com. The talks have reportedly been underway for weeks.
"Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy," says one of the people, who's familiar with Apple's thinking. "Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle."
With Google's entry into the mobile phone business as well as Apple's recent acquisition of a mobile ad company, the two businesses have encroached on each other's territories. Apple has even been said to be working on distancing itself from Google's Maps data in the iPhone.
If the negotiations are successful, it could also mean that Bing could eventually replace Google as the default search engine for Apple's desktop version of Safari as well.
Media research firm Nielsen released its lists of top U.S. mobile phones, sites, and brands for the first ten months of 2009. The iPhone 3G took the top spot among mobile phones with 4.0% of the market. The iPhone placed slightly ahead of Research in Motion's BlackBerry 8300 series at 3.7%, and well ahead of the remainder of the pack, which was led by Motorola's RAZR V3 series at 2.3%.
Apple also made an appearance on Nielsen's list of top ten brands accessed via mobile networks for the January-September 2009 timeframe, taking tenth place on a list topped by Yahoo! and Google.
Microsoft just released an official application of its search engine "Bing". The app looks really good and is well done. It allows you to find websites, images, videos, maps, shopping, news and offers step by step directions to navigate from one point to another! There is even a voice search, a business directory, ability to add pushpins and save locations.
Bing app is avaliable for free via AppStore (link).
Here is a list of 113 new features in 3.0 firmware. The information is from hackint0sh site forum:
1. Cut/Paste
2. Copy/Paste
3. Shake to undo/redo typing
4. Text selection for easy mass deletion
5. MMS
6. Landscape keyboard in Notes
7. Landscape keyboard in Mail
8. Landscape keyboard in Messages
9. Forward texts or picture messages
10. Delete individual texts or picture messages
iBomber is an amazing, arcade styled bombing game based in the Pacific Ocean in 1943. You play a young bomber pilot protecting your fleet whilst searching out key enemy targets on land and sea to destroy!
One more interesting, fantastic device. Indeed it is the first phone in the world to record video in HD 720p (1280 × 720). Here are the photos (click to get high resolution images):
Samsung OMNIA HD (I8910) Product Specification:
Network
HSUPA 5.76Mbps / HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
EDGE/GPRS Class 12 Quad Band (850/900/1800/1900)
UMTS Tri Band (900/1900/2100MHz)
OS
Symbian S60 5.0 (Full touch UI)
Display
3.7" 16M Full Touch QHD AMOLED (360x640)
Camera
8 Megapixel CMOS + CIF
Auto-Focus / Power LED Flash / Face Detection/Smile Shot / Blink Shot / Panorama Shot
Video
DivX / XviD / H.263 / H.264 / WMV / MPEG4, RV
24fps@HD(1280 x 720p) Video recording
DLNA & HD TV out (DLNA dongle needed)
Video Editing: Trim video, Audio dubbing, Live dubbing, Add subtitle, Image capture
This is a voice dial application. SayNDial automatically dials one of your contacts just by saying a name or company. It recognizes your speech making it faster than thumbing through your contacts and safer when calling while you drive. SayNDial is powered by Metaphor Solutions.
The application is free for a limited time. The price dropped from $2.99 to 0. AppStore link.
Portelligent and Semiconductor Insights published a document describing interals of IPhone 3G. Techonline described the details. (Previous IPhone 3G internals photos can be viewed here)
Commuunications (3G/GSM) are on Infineon chips. One for GSM/GPRS/EDGE, another for WCDMA/HSDPA (3G). GPS module is not SiRF as we all thought. Apple uses PMB 2525 Hammerhead II. The Hammerhead II integrates an assisted-GPS (A-GPS) baseband processor with a low-noise GPS RF front end and multi-path mitigation to avoid large errors in urban environments.
Ifixit recently published an article, describing how they had disassembeled the new IPhone 3G. Quite impressive. Especially taking into account that they bought it in New Zealand (it was 12:00 July 11 there when it was 5:00am July 10 in the US). Here are the internals:
From top left to bottom right: Display glass, LCD, Main board and EMI shield, Antenna and battery, Back panel.
George Hotz published an annotated version of IPhone's motherborad: