Still wondering if all the iPhone rumors are true? There has been a trail of clues about the iPhone’s existence all over the Internet for over a year now. But many people still remain skeptical. Perhaps the discovery of the iPhone patent application and a recent quote from Kevin Rose will make the skeptics iPhone believers.

First things first… the iPhone patent pictures. If you go to this page on the US Patent & Trademark Office website, you will find a patent filed by Apple Computer for a “portable computing device capable of wireless communications.” The mystery device is also defined as a “cell phone” and “media player.” Apple filed for the patent on August 7th of this year.

Although the patent page doesn’t include any photos of the “iPhone,” I was able to find several credible looking patent pictures on MYiPhone.com.

Now let’s talk about Kevin Rose. Apparently Mr. Rose, the mastermind behind the mega-popular website Digg.com, has his own “deep throat” informer at Apple HQ. This is what Rose had to say after a couple beers in his Diggnation video podcast.

“I don’t know if I should talk about this or not… I have a little bit of inside information on the Apple phone.”

Despite his initial reluctance, he did go on to talk about the iPhone. According to Rose, the iPhone will come in 4GB and 8GB versions and will feature a touch screen and a slide-out keyboard. This seems to support the credibility of the patent images from MYiPhone.com. Rose also said the iPhone will be ‘carrier independent’ and support both GSM and CDMA phone standards. This means just about anyone can use an iPhone. To quote Borat, “Very nice..”

As you can probably tell, Rose was very forthcoming with iPhone details. But in my opinion, the coolest thing Rose said in his video podcast was about the iPhone battery. According to Rose, the iPhone will have two batteries - one for the MP3 player and one for the phone. Personally I’ve left my iPod on before and killed the battery. I absolutely wouldn’t want that to happen to my cell phone. The two battery system should prevent such an occurrence. Excellent idea and kudos to Apple for such a smart and useful feature.

The phone is to (supposedly) be released in January.

digg story | methodshop

That’s right, you can find out what groups are playing near you simply by delving into your itunes playlists with sonicliving!!

I found out from a good friend, they’re just now opening up to the public (the private beta is over). So it’s all for one and let’s show up at the show where that local band we like is playing a gig with that band that’s blowing up all over and watch a show!!!

I’m sure you’re wondering, what’s this, is it magic? Sorcery? Evil Doings? How could someone know what bands I like?! Well its right there in your playlists silly, these geniuses have found a way to put you where your ears have been for years, live and up front (ok, they don’t pay for tickets but they do let you know when you can get them!)

It’s worth a check and a signup to see what this great new app has to offer.

Most importantly they’ve got a ton of listings for London, which, if I take my bike to the bart station, where I will take a $3.95 ride to the airplane. Then get on a plane and fly to london, in 6 to 10 hours I could be there jamming with all of you!! Then again, maybe I’ll just stay here in the bay area and watch any one of the measly 2,490 shows listed (not the whopping 11,501 events listed for London!)

Either way this looks like the next wave in live music finding (is that a term?!)

It works with a bunch of calendar programs and blogging too: MySpace Profile, Yahoo/Google Calendar, iCal, Mozilla, so like everything! Can’t wait till they link to alerts on your mobile too!
See you at the show!!!

Thanks Dan for the heads up!

The TuneView iPod dock is not as ordinary as its other brethren which flood the accessory market at the moment, as it enables you to remotely manage both your music and video on your iPod once it is docked. All you need to do is to connect the TuneView dock to a stereo and/or TV (depending on your iPod’s capabilities) while being connected to an electrical outlet as it doesn’t have hamsters running around in a wheel to generate electricity. Once you’re done, you can then use the included TuneView remote control that uses the 2.4Ghz radio frequency signal to transmit commands as long as you are within the radius of 150 feet.

Read the rest of this entry »

The demand for everything iPod is so high that even an iPod accessory was outselling Microsoft’s new MP3 media player on Amazon.com. Microsoft’s new Zune media player, despite heavy marketing, came in only at No. 75 on Amazon’s list of 100 best-selling electronics this week. The Zune was trailing many iPod accessories such as Apple’s $29.99 iPod USB power adapter, at No. 65.

But in the time since CBS Marketwatch first reported this story on Monday, the Zune has managed to gain some ground on the iPod charger. Amazon updates their sales ranks hourly but when I last checked this morning the score was 59 to 73 with the Zune in the lead. Apple fanboys will probably be disapointed to hear that the Zune is now outselling iPod chargers but some things just take time, effort, and money. Microsoft has at least one of those.

Pete Mortensen from Wired.com has this to say in his blog about these super selling iPod chargers:

“Apple is dominating digital music in a way that they’ve never owned a category. And what’s funny is that I can’t really understand why the Mac never had the same kind of runaway success. The limitations of the iPod are similar to those of the Mac, its closed architecture, cheap clone knock-offs, everything. But for some reason, Windows bowled over Apple, while the iPod continues to get more popular by the day. It’s a little wonder.”

I wonder if Bill Gates knows that a power cord was beating the latest “iPod Killer” from Microsoft.

digg story | methodshop

When Nike and Apple first went to bed together, the product of their union was the Nike+iPod Sports Kit which was able to gather various data such as the distance, amount of calories burnt, running time, and pace of the user thanks to a wireless Bluetooth module that was inserted under the heel of a Nike+ compatible sports shoe that communicates with the transceiver plugged into an iPod nano. Both companies aim to add yet another offering to their exercise line-up by bringing us the Nike Amp+, a wireless wristband device that empowers runners to control their iPods without staining the Click Wheel with their sweat-soaked fingers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Is the arrival of the iPhone, a hybrid mobile phone and iPod music player from Apple Computer, right around the corner?

According to analysts, Apple is rumored to be ready to release the “iPhone” at the January 2007 Macworld conference. “From a technical standpoint, the phone is pretty much done,” said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu. “It’s a big endeavor and we believe it’s beyond speculation.” Apparently the rumored existence of the iPhone has morphed from a question of “If” to “When.”

A trail of clues about the iPhone’s existence have been popping up all over the Internet for over a year now:

• In June 2005, the source code of an iTunes update contained multiple references to an Autofill phone playlist function.

• In March 2006, a source at BenQ, a Taiwanese phone manufacturer confirmed that an Apple product called the iPhone was in the works. Why would BenQ leak info about the iPhone to the media? Sour grapes. Hon Hai Precision, a competitor to BenQ, allegedly won the iPhone contract with Apple.
• Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, might have let the ‘cat out of the bag‘ on an Apple analyst 2006 Q3 conference call when he said the following: “As regards cell phones, we don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And [Apple is] not sitting around doing nothing.”

Since Apple’s introduction of the iPod five years ago, the company has sold more than 67 million of the devices and more than 1.5 billion songs from its iTunes online music store. We can only speculate what the iPhone will mean for Apple’s bottom line. But as a result of all this iPhone hype and rumors, American Technology Research has upgraded Apple stock (AAPL) to a ‘buy’ and raised the target price to $92 (US).

digg story | methodshop

At first, I just used my iPod on the go, but now I find myself using it at home as well with my iHome, be it in my room, or anywhere else in the house. Now there’s a new iHome model out, one designed especially for a room with some space constraints (think under cabinet design).
Read the rest of this entry »

It looks easy to market a product and have a greater probability of people buying it when it comes to Apple, with this being said they have started a new campaign on the UK to promote iTunes (subliminal message to buy iPod).

Apple has the Picadilly Circus and Coca-Cola as partners, on the circus location there is a giant (?) billboard that was always owned by Coca-Cola until this year. Anyway, the panel will flash a keyword, and when that time comes the people going to the circus only have to send a SMS to 85100 and will instantly get a freebie, which means at least one song for free on iTunes.

How to get free songs from iTunes until 3 of December - only to people from the UK:

• To take advantage of this abnormal project and get free songs on iTunes, just become friends with someone that works at the Picadilly Circus and ask him/her to text message you the keywords whenever they pop up
• Another alternative is to visit the Circus and pay £5 to the guy that cleans the elephants shit to send you the keywords
• The next step is to create a website that has the updated keywords and promote it all over the UK
• There is a limit of 3 songs per day but some can come with a bonus of +10 or +100, and even more
• If done right, this means thousands of free iTunes songs for thousands of people

Their other idea for the promotion is to offer five free songs for whoever goes to the circus and shows his glossy iPod to the Apple reps, this only happens on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays during the promo period.

If only the Zune people got this idea first…

[source about the Apple promo via t3; idea to get free itunes song via my imagination and brain]