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Create iPod quizzes with free utility
Aspyr Media has released iQuiz Maker, a free Mac utility to create quizzes for Apple's iPod game, iQuiz. With a free PC version scheduled for May, maybe educators will begin using iPods as teaching tools in the same way as PSPs. While the iQuiz tool is suited to trivia games, we hope that Aspyr or others will release simple iPod game tools for other genres. However, our wish is tempered by how closed the iPod is to developers; there would be a lot of great games--and sure, bad ones too--if anyone could program for that MP3 player.
WSJ reports Apple and Cingular launching cellphone
"People familiar with the situation" have apparently informed the WSJ that Apple is launching the Applephone (or whatever it's called) as early as tomorrow. (See, even the kings of MSM aren't omitted from the Apple rumor mill.) They don't really give any more than that, but it's the WSJ, and conventional wisdom kind of states that when the business journal of record goes on the record, you should perk your ears up and listen (at least). Maybe we're interested just because we want to be done printing rumors and rumors about rumors from blogs and papers alike.
Ryan Block on why an Apple phone is so anticipated
For the sake of not trampling trademarks, I guess we can no longer refer to the feverishly-anticipated Apple phone as an 'iPhone.' Nevertheless, no matter what you want to call it, Ryan Block has written an interesting analysis of why everyone wants an Applephone so badly. I think it's a great look at the dynamics of the industry and what a phone from Apple could mean for it, in part because Ryan includes a down-to-earth list of realities about the device. The list includes things such as questionable battery life and how Apple's minimalist design philosophies might not yield a perfect phone that will be adored by all - that is, if the phone even exists in the first place. If you aren't quite tired of hearing about the Applephone just yet and you've been hoping for some more sensible insight into the possibilities of this much-rumored device, check out Ryan's post for a refreshing dose of speculative realism.
iPhone signal emanating from January's Macworld 2007
Think Secret has weighed in on the iPhone rumor saga once again, with a suggestion that Apple's cell phone will be released during the San Fransisco Macworld Expo in January next year. The tipster has apparently gained Think Secret's trust in the past by correctly predicting that the iPhone wouldn't launch earlier this year in March. The reasoning behind why the iPhone didn't launch last March (manufacturing issues), and why it will launch in January (they've fixed the manufacturing issues) is predictably dry, totally unverifiable, and therefore irrelevant, giving TS even more reason to spice it up a little. This time around they're telling us that the iPhone will have some k800-esque specifications (3 megapixel camera, 2.2-inch display) along with a totally obvious feature (iTunes support without the 100 song limit), but they also mention that there may be as many as three different models in the range, thereby cleverly maintaining the possibility that it might not have any of these specs after all. In fact, none of this could be true: there could be more manufactured manufacturing delays that cause the iPhone not to launch in January, or Apple could have a revelation and decide not to include one of the vague features. Like every other Apple rumor, we won't know until the day arrives: January 8th, save the date.
iPhone revealed finally?
A number of you have sent in this tip which points to an article in the French newspaper, iGeneration. A rough translation of the French text follows (French speakers: Feel free to "clean up" our translation!):"This morning, anyone with the current edition of '20 minute day' [which appears to be a french magazine] would have found a special 'Apple Expo' Booklet. What do we find in the middle of this booklet? A photograph of what would be the iPhone. It takes on the form of the iPod, and has a 20Gb Hard Drive. Fake or Scoop? We tend to side with the former, but who knows these days?""Fake or scoop" indeed. Reader Simon writes, "I've seen the paper, I live in France. They're covering the Apple Expo and it's a totally real newspaper." Time will tell (though I wish it had a lid, as I'm scratch-phobic).Thanks to everyone who sent this in.Update: False alarm, true believers. Apparantly the image of the phone is a mock-up that was used on the cover of the UK's MacUser magazine. Now I feel better about it not having a flip-lid.
iPhone to launch in August?
Is anyone else as tired about iPhone rumors as I am? No?Ah, in that case check out this post over at Engadget. It seems that a photographer who is regularly hired by Apple to take marketing shots (though probably not so much anymore) told his friend that he just took some shots of the sexiest phone he had ever seen. The interesting bits? It is set for an August launch and it is made by those wacky people up in Cupertino (that's Apple, folks).Will Apple launch the iPhone at WWDC? I'm not a betting man, but if I were I would bet against it. However, I said the same thing about Intel chips and we all know what happened there.
The Mac phone. No, not really.
Some people have quite a bit of spare time on their hands, some have an undying obsession with all things Apple, while others profess their appreciation of the customizability of Symbian devices. Apparently these all came to a head in the Mac phone, the resulting collision producing quite a little hack on the 6680 if we ever saw one. Ok, now who's gonna make us a Windows phone? Oh, wait.[Via Bienvenue a Kyoto]
