iPhone

Instead of trying to scrawl down lyrics, doing a search on Google (only to be lead to some bizarre lyric website repository that may or may not work, all the while offering me free ringtones and ceaseless pop-up ads), with Shazam's app, I've actually found songs by, well, listening to them. Shazam is slick. You hear a song, start the app, hold your iPhone's mic up to the sound source and viola! It's been 'tagged' and identified like a wild bird you caught on Animal Planet. Another app by Midomi even lets you hum a tune … Read more

Still waiting for your iPhone 3G? Wondering if you should buy a Mac?

Come over to CNET's Forums for an Ask the Editors session with me at 11 a.m. PDT for an open discussion on anything and everything Apple. With the iPhone 3G launch last week, and Apple's earnings on tap for Monday, there should be plenty to talk about.

I'll try to get to as many questions as possible, but I can only take questions for an hour. Bear with my fingers as I shake off the effects of a three-day vacation and re-learn how … Read more

One solution to the what-to-do-with-the-iPhone-1.0 dilemma that occurred to me over lunch with my grandpa on Tuesday (in San Francisco's Chinatown no less) was to give him my old iPhone 1.0.

My grandfather is an immigrant and a jolly, happy type who stays vibrant by talking with his friends from church or with family members. But because English is not his first language and because he's not as tech-savvy as his grandchildren, he has often found dealing with a typical cell phone difficult. The technology gap, generation gap, and language gap all posed by a typical … Read more

The Macalope is sure that many of the kinks in the iPhone App Store as it exists now will get worked out over time, but one of the purported selling points was that customers would know that they're getting applications that have been vetted by Apple.

That's great and all, but if the "vetting process" means that bug fixes are slow to make it to users, it kind of tends to increase the exposure, rather than decrease it.

For those of us who have a hard time deciding what to eat or where to dine out, Urbanspoon has made a slot machine/roulette application (complete with 'pull' slot machine sound effects) to help us make a decision on where to eat. The application will determine your location from the GPS feature (which is still a pretty marked and powerful feature to the iPhone 3G that invariably raises privacy issues) and you can select he criteria you want, i.e., neighborhood, cuisine and price. And, for some inexplicable reason, you literally shake the phone to activate the selection feature. … Read more

I've mentioned it before, but I continue to be amazed at all the buzz about Pandora's online radio service, which creates playlists based on your musical tastes. About once a month, someone comes up to me and asks me if I'm familiar with it, and don't I just love it?

These fans seem to be casual music listeners in their thirties, knowledgeable about computers and personal technology but not obsessed with it. They may have an iPod at home, but have grown tired of their own personal music collection or haven't gotten around to connecting … Read more

How 1.0 iPhones use battery life with the 2.0 firmware and all those tantalizing applications is something that may be worth considering against the iPhone 3G's voracious appetite for power. During the past weekend, as new applications get tested out, I've seen the iPhone 3G use more and more power with the charge indicator gradually slipping away, ultimately flashing the "low battery" warning. This warning wasn't something common with the 1.0 iPhone I had. In fact, I had never seen that "low battery" indicator even after 7 days of camping-like … Read more

Loopt has an appealing application that allows you to track your friends and allows them to track you on a graphic map. It's kind of like a GPS-sonar radar that I've just discovered on the iPhone 3G. But, is this application really more like an electronic leash? Will your significant other track you? Will moms and dads track their children this year? Yes, Loopt has an extensive privacy policy that discourages/prohibits kids under 14 years old from using the service, but even one of my most 'public' friends (both online and in off-line) was actually hesitant about … Read more

Was it worth the wait? The 5-hour phone service/text/data outage? Do you really have to get the new iPhone on the first day? The first weekend? From a rational point of view, the answer is probably not. But, from an admitted early-adopter Apple-phile, a resounding hot tamale train YES is the answer. But, this is not without caveats of course (battery life, hassle, and jittery/buggy application crashes). Overall, the new iPhone 3G is slick. The applications (which work 90 percent of the time) are even slicker (many worth special attention to come in the next few posts). … Read more