The Apple iPhone OS 3.0 event has gone off, and while the event was a long one (darn close to 2 hours), the new features are fairly easy to sum up.

Accessories

Finally the iPhone will be able to work with input from other devices!  While they demoed it working with a speaker system, causing an equalizer to appear on screen, the most interesting concept was medical devices.  They showed a blood pressure cuff attached to the iPhone to record the reading, and this could open a whole interesting world of seeing the iPhone enhancing other devices.

Does this mean we could finally be seeing a physical keyboard attachment?  This would be a huge leap in moving the iPhone from just being a mobile phone to beind an actual mobile computing solution.

Cut, Copy and Paste

HUZZAH!  Finally you will be able to copy and paste things between applications… something you really should have been able to do since day one.  Simply double tap some text, drag your finger to cover as much as you want, and then choose cut, copy or paste from the pop-up selection bar.

In App Purchases

This is a new feature that could get potentially super annoying very quickly.  The best example they showed off was for a game app called “Touch Pets” where you have virtual pets.  Want to buy a new shirt for your dog?  Well, they’ll sell you one for $.99 and they will ask you via a pop-up window if you want to!

Landscape Mode

Finally you can do mail and SMS text messages in landscape mode.  This is another one of those features that you have to wonder why it took so darn long to come about.

Maps

Apparently developers of iPhone applications have been wanting the ability to wrap their tools around a map to bring you more tools, and 3.0 will allow them to do that with Google Maps from here on out.

Push Technology

People have been asking for applications to run in the background, meaning that when you close say an instant messaging application, it could still be receiving new IMs, but Apple says that after testing, they found it was just too much of a drain on the battery.  The battery was draining almost 80% faster with background apps running, but with push, which is where a server does the work and then “pushes” the information out to you, they saw the increased drain drop to 20%.

Now for an IM, you would receive a pop-up notification on your screen similar to the one you see for calendar events that you could then choose to reply to, or simply close.  This will not be limited to instant messaging, but could also include things like sports scores.

Spotlight

While Contacts has had search capability since last year, there was no way to search other applications such as Notes.  With the new Spotlight, you can now search every app all from one convenient screen.

Streaming Video & Audio

This boils down to you will now be able to play streaming games over the web along with the ability to talk to your opponents.

Conclusion

Some other things shown off included MMS messaging, recording voice memos, subscriptions to applications that will have new content, for an all told whopping new 100 features in the new OS.  Developers can start working with it today, and consumers will get it in June… you know, just in time for the suspected release of a new model of iPhone.

Current iPhone users will get the update for free while iPod Touch users will have to pay $9.95 for the update.

Something is afoot at Apple, and I’m not quite sure what it is… yet.

For the past several years, any time Apple had a new product to announce it was accompanied by a press event that would have everyone speculating for days beforehand of what was about to happen.  However, with no warning, over the past couple of weeks there have been two product updates, all of the Mac desktops and the iPod Shuffle, with no fanfare whatsoever.  The online Apple store has closed down as it always does before no products launch, and reopened with the new items in place.

The Mac desktops is somewhat understandable in that they just received hardware upgrades and new price points, but that hasn’t stopped Apple before from holding a press event.  True, Steve Jobs, their usual pitch man and CEO, is on medical leave currently, but it still seems odd that they didn’t accompany this with more horn blowing.

It’s the iPod Shuffle that has left me scratching my head the most.  Typically the iPod lines are refreshed in September, but the Shuffle did miss out on the 2008 iPod updates.  So not only did the Shuffle launch outside of the normal release window, it sports a brand new feature in the form of audible navigation menus, something you would normally expect Apple to crow about.  Why didn’t they hold the Shuffle off until the September 2009 updates?  Was this a 2008 update that ran late?  Or is this a new indication that iPods will release whenever they are ready, no matter what time of the year?

The reason we feel any of this is even newsworthy is that it worries us some.  Every time Apple has one of their big announcements, they get more press coverage than you can shake a stick at.  Why are they skipping this benefit?  The theories in our office run from Steve Jobs being out of action to the economy is impacting the company harder than anyone knows.  Press events aren’t cheap to run, but we doubt that is the economical factor, we think it’s that they don’t want to be sitting on any inventory.  If they held the Shuffle until September, that would have been six months of money just sitting around, waiting.  Course, the Macs and Shuffle came out so close together, why not just do them both at one event?

What makes all of this seem even a bit more strange is the fact that Apple is having a press event in two days to show a preview of the OS 3.0 for the iPhone.  This isn’t even a product launch, but just a preview of software that will be free to iPhone users, and will cost a fee to iPod Touch users.  Why hold the big press event for something like this?  This alone somewhat shoots down the theory that Apple is skipping press events for money because this one will return no revenue at all.

Whatever the causes of these changes are at Apple, I think we are seeing a definite shift in their strategy regarding product launches.

On March 17th, we’re all going to get a “preview” of the next generation of the iPhone operating system.

Tech bloggers have started receiving invitations to an event (we aren’t invited… someday we’ll be cool enough!) to be held on March 17th where Apple will unveil the third generation operating system for the iPhone. Presumably this will also be for the iPod Touch, but no confirmation as of yet on that.

This is being labeled as a “preview” event which indicates the software won’t be available for download yet, but they are also showing off the new version of the software development kit (SDK), so this looks like Apple is trying to prepare all of the application developers for whatever changes there may be to the core of the system.

We will bring you updates as soon as we have them, but people are already expecting things like tethering your iPhone to your computer to use it as a modem, MMS and, the ultimate dream, copy-and-paste functionality.

On a side note, doesn’t seem odd to everyone that Apple always gives you only a few days warning to these events? What if you have to fly in for it? What if you have appointments? Even though we don’t attend in person, we always try to cover the events, and it causes us to have to move things around in our schedule to accommodate them. A little more warning on the part of Apple sure would be appreciated.

Amazon has announced that they are bringing the ability to read Kindle formatted ebooks to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

If you’ve been envious of all the ebooks that are available for the Amazon Kindle, but haven’t wanted to pay $359 for the actual reader, there is now an option for iPhone and iPod Touch owners.  Amazon has released Kindle for iPhone (iTunes link) that will allow you to buy the books and read them on the device of your choice.  If you also own a Kindle, you can have the books on both devices, and thanks to Amazon’s Whispersync technology, you can start reading a book on one device, and wherever you leave off will be synced with the other device so you can go back and forth between them to continue reading your book.

While reading on the Kindle may seem a bit cumbersome, I can’t imagine reading an entire book on a screen the size of an iPod Touch.  It seems like an exercise in eye torture to those of us here at StarterTech.

For those that want to give it a go, the actual app is free, and the books will cost you.

If a new study is to be believed, iPhone and iPod Touch users have next to no attention span.

We recently asked When Do You Have Too Many Apps?, but if a new study from Pinch Media is to be believed, having any apps is pretty much pointless.  We’ve told you in the app story we did that the total number of application downloads was over 500 million, but it appears that people download them and quickly forget about them.  Only 30% of users bother to look at a paid app on the second day they own it, and only 20% of users of free apps do the same.

While we’re sure Apple doesn’t care if you ever use an application again after the initial download, you have to wonder how much longer people will put up with paying for applications they hardly ever use.  When will they finally say ‘enough, I don’t use them’ and stop purchasing new ones?  I have purchased exactly one application for my iPod Touch, an instant messenger, and I use it quite frequently.  However, I have downloaded around 50 free applications, and I actually couldn’t tell you how many of them get used on a regular basis.  They all sound like good ideas when you first grab the, but then you simply don’t find you have time to play with them as much as you thought you might.

The even scarier part of this story is that only 1% of users end up using an application over a long period of time, with games having the highest retention rate.  So the idea people are buying so many applications are fantastic for Apple and the developers, but no so much for the users.

What say you?  Do you find yourself dropping applications quickly, or do you try to get your money’s worth out of them?

Applications has been the hot word for awhile now, but how do you know when you finally have enough of them?

While applications have existed for a long time for various computer and mobile phone platforms, they didn’t really get all that much attention until the iPhone added support for third party produced apps.  The iTunes store now has over 20,000 different applications available, and they have been downloaded over 500 million times.  While it is obviously tempting to keep downloading the seemlessly never-ending stream of free applications that come out, you have to finally draw the line somewhere.

Pictured in this post is page 2 of my 5 pages of apps on my iPod Touch.  I am a music junkie, and as you can see, I have 9 apps installed just to feed my music additiction.  Besides this, I’ve got 2 apps for Twitter, 4 apps for weather forecasting, 3 for instant messaging, basically I am pushing the limits of what makes sense to have.  And while these apps are small, each of them is taking up space on my device.  The same goes for my BlackBerry, I downloaded several apps that I don’t think I’ve even looked at a second time after the initial install.

While these not only take up space, they also take up usable memory while your device is running.  Basically, while the apps may be free, you are paying a price in storage and possible lag time in your devices response time by just having too many items running.  Essentially you just need to think before you install, “Do I really need this?  Is this truly going to improve my experience on this device?”  True you can always delete later, but why go through the hassle if you think you might.

Just remember, the more apps, the slower your device may run.  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I need to delete some apps.

It seems that the biggest competitor to the popular Apple iPhone may be… the Apple iPod Touch.

With the release of the Apple sales figures for the holiday period this week, it showed that iPods were up 3% over the same period last year, but iPhone sales were down from 6.9 million units in the third quarter, to 4.4 million in the fourth.  While that is still a respectable number of units to move, it didn’t meet expectations from Wall Street.

While Apple doesn’t break iPod sales figures down by the various units, web traffic for the mobile version of Safari, the built-in browser, tripled on Christmas day.  There was also a 100% increase in downloads from the App Store, that, again, serves both the iPhone and iPod Touch users. While these numbers aren’t concrete since we do not have explicit iPod Touch sales figures, it does leave one to wonder if this device is cannibalizing some of the sales from its bigger brother.

The iPod Touch is lacking two things that the iPhone offers: a built-in phone and an exclusive contract with AT&T.

The phone part has partially been solved by the second generation of Touches having the ability to use a microphone/headset combination.  Because of this new feature, you can now use various VoIP apps to make and receive phone calls with it whenever you are near an open Wi-Fi network.  That is one major hurdle overcome.

As for the AT&T contract, well, while iPhones may appear cheaper in the short term, when you add in the service plans they require you to buy to make your device work, the Touch is an absolute steal at $399 for the 32GB version.

We here at StarterTech are huge fans of the iPod Touch, even to the point that our very first post was about the device.  While we would love it even more if we had a fully functioning phone, and didn’t have to rely on Wi-Fi, we also are not big fans of AT&T service.  For now we carry our first generation Touches and BlackBerrys, and are quite happy we don’t need to deal with AT&T.  We are not alone in this feeling as it was also stated by CNet News.

The iPod Touch: everything great about the iPhone, minus AT&T.

That pretty much sums up how we feel too, and it also appears to be how a lot of consumers are beginning to also feel.

Steve Jobs has announced he is taking a leave of absence from Apple due to his health.

In breaking news, it has been revealed that Steve Jobs’ health is causing him to step down as Apple CEO until June of this year.  What this means for Apple as a company is unknown at this time, but he did name an interim CEO in his letter to employees, Tim Cook.

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Suspicions had been heightened when Mr. Jobs passed on giving the keynote address at the latest Macworld conference that his health was worse than first suspected..

All of us at StarterTech wish him a speedy revoery.

The placeshifting leader, Sling Media, is prepping support for Apple’s iPhone at long last.

With it’s beautiful screen, and ability to stream media from other sources, it seemed like that Sling Box technology was a natural fit for the iPhone, but yet we weren’t seeing an appearance of an application for it.  However, it does seem that good things come to those who wait as they have finally announced that we can expect a release in the first quarter of 2009.

For those unfamiliar with what a Sling Box does, with just a few cables, and two little infra red emitters, you are able to login to your player from anywhere in the world, and watch your home television.  Say you are on a trip to South America, but you want to catch up on your soap operas while you’re away.  If you have an Internet connection, you can be watching your home television in a matter of moments, and even accessing yoru DVR, setting up future recordings and more.

This is not the first mobile device Sling Media has released an application for, but it is probably one of the most anticipated.  The application will be free to use during the beta test, but will cost $29.99 when it officially launches.

Macworld, the annual expo dedicated to all things Mac, was launched today in San Francisco.

The announcements of new upgrades was a mixed bag, but we’ve rounded them all up for you to digest in one easy read.

GarageBand ’09

This year GarageBand is going to get beginner friendly with the addition of learn-to-play features.  The software will come packaged with 9 beginner lessons for guitar and piano, but you will then be able to purchase “Artist Lessons” from a built-in store.  At a cost of $4.99 a lesson, you can learn how to play particular songs from the likes of John Foggerty and Sting, produced exclusively for GarageBand.

iLife ’09

As shocking as it may be, iLife ’08 has gotten an update into iLife ’09.  How do they come up with these names?  Hours of research, I’m sure.  While there were no Earth shattering updates to this, iPhoto ’09 did get two new features in the form of “Faces” and “Places”.

Faces will allow the software to do facial recognition so that you can organize your photos by people.  Say you want to bring up all of the pictures you have of your cousin Sue.  Just start a search for Sue by clicking on one image of her, and the system will try to find all of the images you have that she is in.  Sure there will be some mistakes, but still a very handy tool for organizing your photos.

Next up was Places which will allow you to geotag your images.  A goodly number of camera now support geotagging, and this feature will now allow you to organize photos by location.  If your camera doesn’t support this feature, you will be given the option to enter location information manually.

iMovie ’09

Video enthusiasts will get lots of new toys to play with this year in the way of image stabalization, new themes, effects such as aged film, move the audio track from one clip to another and so on.  Sounds like there are ton of new features this year for the amateur film makers out there.

iWork

The Apple produced office suite saw a lot of updates this year.  While Keynote, their presentation application, got new effects such as transitions, the most intriguing update was the remote app for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Once installed you will be able to connect to the presentation on your Mac, and then show the entire presentation file right threre on your device.  Very handy for people on the go, or say you are doing a lunch meeting.

The big announcement, however, was the launch of iWork.com.  You will now be able to click a button, enter an email address, and share the document with that person for review.  They can also make edits to it, you can share notes with each other about it and so on.  For now you can sign up for a free beta test of it, but it will eventually become a paid service.

MacBook Pro 17″

MacBook Pro 17″ models saw huge technical advancements, especially in the field of batteries.  Depending on the style of video chip you choose, you can expect 7 to 8 hours of life from a fully charged battery.  This is 30% ahead of the industry standard, and you will also get 1,000 charges from your battery, which is three times the normal amount.

While the new features of the MacBook are impressive (2.6 GHz, 4 GBs of RAM, 512 MB of video memory, etc), the price is a jaw dropping $2799 for the basic configuration.

iTunes

iTunes got the coveted last announcement spot with the news that songs will now be priced at $.69, $.99 and $1.29, but all of them will be DRM-free.  There are currently 8 million songs available without the draconian copy protection, and by the end of the month that number will grow by 25% to ten million.

iPhone users will also be able to now purchase songs no matter where they are via the 3G network.  You will get the exact same quality as you would buying it on your computer, and you will be able to synch it off your phone to your computer next time you attach the two.

Conclusion

While there were some interesting new features to the existing products, where was the Mac Mini?  The entry level Mac has not seen an update since August 2007, and while Apple sold a record number of Macs in 2008, their entry level options are sorely limited.  Disregarding the now severly outdated Mini, your cheapest option for an up-to-date system is the $999 MacBook.

I have said for years that Apple would be dangerous if they would pay more attention to budget conscience consumers, but yet they ignore them once again, even in this current economy.  Bad move, Apple, bad move.