Nokia N97
I see that the Nokia N97 has been announced. A very nice new phone which as well as a touchscreen also has a slide out keyboard.
Obviously designed to compete with Apple’s iPhone and Google’s G1 it is Nokia’a answer to the new internet phone now being demanded by consumers.
There are some early reviews out now, CNET and ZDNet.
The new MacBooks
Popped into the Apple Store today to check out the new MacBooks and boy are they nice. Though I had seen them online, there is something about seeing them in the flesh.
They are constructed well and I like the way they are made from a brick of aluminum.
I might have to get one.
Mail.app believes iTunes receipt from Apple is junk
You might have thought that the Mail.app included with OS X might have a hunch that e-mails from Apple (specifically from apple.com) probably isn’t going to be a spammer.
True you as a user may mark e-mails from Apple as junk manually, but the automated process, nah!
Or so you would think!
A few days ago I “purchased” a fair few apps from the iTunes store and as per usual Apple sent me a receipt outlining my purchases. I have received many of these not just because of the stuff I buy, but also as I more often then not download the free single of the week as well.
So you can imagine my surprise when Mail.app marked my latest receipt as junk!
No idea why.
iPhone 3G available 11th July
Apple announced iPhone 3G on Monday in a keynote by Steve Jobs at the WWDC in San Francisco. It will be available in the UK on the 11th July via O2.
New features include:
- 3G-capable. 2.8 times faster than EDGE.
- GPS built-in
- Thinner
- Better battery life – 300 hours of standby, 2G talk-time 10 hours (as opposed to 5), 5 hours of 3G talk-time (competition is 3 hour 3G talk time), 5 to 6 hours of high-speed browsing, 7 hours of video, 24 hours of audio.
- Flush headphone jack
Other new features are:
- contact searching
- complete iWork document support
- complete Office document support (now includes PowerPoint)
- bulk delete and move for Mail
- save images you receive
- scientific calculator in landscape mode
- parental controls
- language
I wonder if the Keynote (iWork) and PowerPoint support also allows you to show the presentation via an AV cable in the same way you can do at the moment with video and images.
It will be interesting to see also if iWork (or even Office) support includes editing and creating support, or is it just going to be reading, I suspect the latter.
Of course there are also all the features announced when the iPhone SDK was released earlier this year which include:
- Exchange and ActivSync support
- Applications
- VPN
Downside is that you now need to activate the phone in store, so now unlocking just became a lot more expensive as you will have to buy into a phone plan as well as the phone.
Though O2 do say they will be offering it on a Pay As You Go contract in addition to the Pay Monthly contract they had with the old iPhone.
Overall I am tempted by the new iPhone, it’s certainly a much
iTunes Movies in the UK – hmmmm
I was quite pleased the other day to hear that movies films would be available in the UK iTunes Store.
At the time I had a quick look over the store and saw lots of films. The number one film was (at that time) I am Legend
At that time I was busy with work so knew I would leave until later to get them.
So today I upgraded my version of iTunes and decided I would buy I am Legend and rent National Treasure 2.
So you can imagine my disappointment, to see that I am Legend had gone up in price to £10.99. So why was it cheaper to begin with? Why has it gone up? Was it a mistake that Apple has now corrected? Or did I imagine it all?
Ah well so not to worry I’ll rent National Treasure 2 instead. Even with the rental limitation, I was fine with that, I could always transfer the film to an iPod and connect the iPod to my television.
Oh.
No.
Yes, though I can buy National Treasure 2 for £10.99, I couldn’t rent it!
It’s suppose to be a reasonably fun film, worth renting, but not worth buying it and certainly not worth paying £10.99.
So my first proper attempt to get films off the iTunes Store was not a great success, ah well maybe next time.
iTunes Movies in the UK
Great news for all iTunes Store users in the UK, we can now buy and rent movies.
From the Apple press release:
Apple® today announced that movies from major film studios including 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate UK are now available on the iTunes® Store in the UK (www.apple.com/uk/itunes). Movie purchases and rentals feature iTunes’ legendary ease of use, which makes discovering and enjoying movies as simple and easy as buying music on iTunes has always been. The iTunes Store in the UK features over 700 films available for rent or purchase, with titles available for purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including favorites such as “Hitman,” “I Am Legend,” “National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets” and “Into the Wild.” iTunes Movie Rentals also features over 100 titles available in stunning high definition, perfect for viewing on a widescreen TV with Apple TV®.
I am very pleased with this, and I suspect I may use it a fair bit.
I am even now seriously considering getting an Apple TV just so I can watch the movies on my TV, well I guess I can use the iPod nano in the meantime.
Wireless Network Tutorials
Apple have posted a nice couple of video tutorials on wireless networking and setting up a wireless network at home.
For seasoned techy geeks like myself who have been using wireless for the best part of a decade, we sometimes forget how magical and fantastical wireless is to people new to it.
“You mean I don’t need to connect any wires to connect to the internet!”
So nice and simple tutorials like these from Apple are useful and can set the groundwork for people to enter a wireless world.
ITV chasing BBC on iTunes Store
Following the BBC, ITV are now putting TV shows on Apple’s iTunes Store.
Finally!
BBC reports
ITV is to make more than 260 hours of archive programmes available for sale on Apple’s iTunes store.
Brideshead Revisited, Cold Feet and puppet show Captain Scarlet are already available for download. Inspector Morse and The Saint are due later this year.
I am pleased that both the BBC and ITV are finally selling TV shows in the iTunes Store.
Now all I need them to do, is sell HD versions.
Also would be nice if American shows were also made more widely available.
New 802.11n Airport Express
As predicted, Apple announced their new 802.11n Airport Express.
Now featuring support for the faster 802.11n Wi-Fi specification, the new AirPort Express Base Station delivers up to five times the performance and twice the range of the previous model. The world’s smallest 802.11n-based mobile base station, the new AirPort Express offers a great option for anyone who wants to set up a high-speed wireless network, share a printer wirelessly, or stream iTunes music wirelessly from a Mac or PC with AirTunes. And because its so compact, you can take AirPort Express with you and set up an ad hoc wireless network in your hotel room.
So the main difference is the 802.11n speeds which is welcome.
Interestingly at the time of writing the 802.11n Airport Express was not available in the UK online Apple store, but that might be just because today is the day of release.