Car security company Directed Electronics is unveiling a new iPhone application Tuesday that lets customers control parts of their Viper SmartStart-enabled vehicle from their iPhone or iPod Touch. 

The app, called Viper SmartStart, is quite similar toZipcar’s recently released iPhone app, except it can work with your car, and not one you’re renting for the weekend. It too creates a virtual keychain control module that can do things like lock and unlock your vehicle, open the trunk, and activate the alarm, getting rid of the need to carry around one of those keychain clickers as long as you’ve got your phone handy. 

Coolest of all, though, there’s a “Smart Start” button in the center of the screen that can turn on your vehicle. The company is promoting this as a simple way to defrost or cool off a car before you get in–that is, assuming you correctly set the climate controls the last time you were inside. 

Since the app uses the iPhone’s data connection to send the commands, you can control your car (or cars) from anywhere you have an EDGE or 3G signal. It also means you can use it on a non-cellular data device like the iPod Touch, as long as it’s near Wi-Fi. 

The app is completely free, but it requires you have Viper’s SmartStart system installed in each car you want to take control of. This costs $499 for a new installation, or $299 for cars that already have a Viper alarm system, as well as an active subscription to Viper’s Smart Start service. Buyers of the system get a year of the $29.99 service included when they get the service installed; then they have to pay after that.

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, AppStore News & Reviews, Featured, What's New, iPhone, iPhone 3G S, iPhone Apps/Games app, App Store, iPhone, ipod touch, viper smartstart

Apple today held their It’s Only Rock & Roll event & announced some new features & products as expected.

-iTunes 9 <-download link
-iPod classic 160GB model returns
-iPod touch 64GB model debuts
-iPod shuffle new colours & special edition & camera
-iPod nano with camera 
-iPhone OS 3.1

A pleasant return as Steve Jobs, Apple CEO delivers his 1st keynote in quite a while. Here’s a rundown of what happened.

Steve takes the stage.

I’m very happy to be here today with you all. As some of you know about 5 months ago I had a liver transplant, so I now have the liver of a mid-20’s person who died in a car crash. I wouldn’t be here without such generosity. I hope all of us can be as generous and become organ donors.
“I’d like to thank everyone in the community for the support, and Tim Cook and the exec team at Apple. Thank you.

He announces that Apple has sold 30 million iPhones to date & then announces iPhone OS 3.1 (available today). A new feature in 3.1 is now the Genius feature extends to Apps as well. Also that 30 000 ringtones from the 4 major labels will be available for $1.29 USD.

iTunes 9 is then introduced. (Oh iTunes 8 we barely got to know you…)

A new feature that iTunes 9 brings is Genius Mixes.

Imagine a genius DJ that plays endless mixes of songs from your library that go great together. You just click on one of the mixes, and start playing it — and it will go on and on and on. It’s like a great radio station

They also announced improved syncing features

but the killer feature for iPod touch & iPhone owners, Application Management

& there’s even more. Another new feature announced was Home Sharing.

The iTunes Store also gets a nice revamp

and a summary of what iTunes 9 brings to the table

Phil Schiller then takes the stage & begins to talk about iPods.

he compares the iPod touch to having a portable computer in your pocket, which is unlike…

(Apple taking a little stab at Dell)

He then goes on to compare the iPod touch to Sony’s PSP & Nintendo’s DS

Some games are then demoed by their developers, some notable titles include:
Assassin’s Creed II & Madden (available today).

New prices for the iPod touch

Apple then announces the return of the 160GB iPod classic

Now on to the shuffle

& the new special edition

Ahh yes the infamous ‘One More Thing’

Looks like the rumors of an iPod with a camera are true

You can with one click send a recorded video to YouTube. The new nano also now includes an FM radio.

Summary of the new iPod nano

& in typical Apple fashion all the new goodies are available today.

the new iPod family

& thats about it. Good to see that Steve’s back & that the iPod line is alive & well & thriving.

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, AppStore News & Reviews, Apple Computers, Apple News, Featured, Firmware 3.0, What's New, iPhone, iPhone 3G S, iPhone Apps/Games, iPod Touch News, iTunes News/Updates apple, classic, iPhone, iphone 3g, iPhone 3G(S), nano, rock, roll, shuffle, steve jobs, touch

Qik, a popular iPhone application to stream live video, has arrived in the App Store without streaming capabilities. 

Unfortunately, the company has had to seriously restrict the app’s capabilities in order to get approved by Apple. Currently, the application only works over Wi-Fi, though a 3G version has been submitted for approval. 

Here’s what it can do… 

—– 
Upload videos from your iPhone’s Camera Roll 
First, this version of Qik allows you to pull videos right from your iPhone 3GS Camera Roll and upload them to your Qik account. So if you’ve recorded videos with the iPhone 3GS native camera, you can share those via Qik, too. Qik is the only iPhone 3GS app to let you share videos from your camera roll straight to your blog, website, Facebook, YouTube, and all the other networks Qik integrates with. 

Automatic uploading 
Once you’ve stopped recording, your video upload begins automatically - without the hassle of pushing any more buttons or filling out any form fields. 

Shoot video in portrait or landscape mode 
Qik is the first mobile video app to let you frame your videos either horizontally or vertically. w00t! 

Location sharing while uploading video 
Finally, Qik is the only iPhone 3GS mobile video app that lets you share your location while streaming video from your phone. So if you’re partying downtown, you don’t need to give your friends any address or directions - they can just check out the location information from your Qik stream to see where you are and join in the fun. (Of course, if you really don’t want them crashing the party, you can turn off the location sharing feature. ) 
—– 

This version of Qik is available free from the App Store. For those with jailbroken iPhones you can download the fully functional version using Cydia. 

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, AppStore News & Reviews, Apple News, Firmware 3.0, Jailbreak/Activate, What's New, iPhone, iPhone 3G S, iPhone Apps/Games 3G(S), apple, iPhone, iphone 3g, iPhone 3G(S), Qik

A: $144,326.06 USD

Just in case you felt compelled to assemble a collection of every push-to-fart program out there, BustedLoop calculates the price of purchasing all 55,732 available iPhone apps to be $144,326.06.

(via Gizmodo.com)

 Retweet This Post

AppStore News & Reviews, What's New, iPhone Apps/Games app, App Store, apple, buy, iPhone, ipod touch

The iPhone 3.0 firmware will allow the redownload of purchased applications for free, according to a AppAdvice report.

A couple weeks ago it was discovered that users running the iPhone OS 3.0 beta were unable to redownload purchased iPhone applications.

The mobile App Store presented a message stating, “You’ve already purchased this. You can redownload it for free on your computer, or tap Buy to buy it again.”

AppAdvice discovered that this message only occurred to users who had not updated to the new iTunes 8.2 software. This new version adds some logic that tells a device what iTunes accounts are authorized on the computer. Since those users’ devices never received the authorization information from iTunes 8.2 they were not able to pass it along to the App Store when they tried re-downloading apps.

So in order to redownload apps you must have installed iTunes 8.2 and have synced to a computer that has been authorized with your iTunes account.

(via iClarified.com)

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, AppStore News & Reviews, Featured, What's New, iPhone, iPhone 3G S, iPhone Apps/Games App Store, apple, iPhone, iphone 3g, iPhone 3G S, iPhone OS 3.0, ipod touch, itunes

Apple may begin charging full price if you try to redownload an app you have already bought over the iPhone, according to a report by The iPhone Blog.

The warning message pictured below has been appearing to some users on the iPhone 3.0 beta firmware. Previously if you had purchased an iPhone app you could remove it and then easily redownload and install it on your iPhone as many times as you like.

Now the warning dialog suggests that you must re-download it using your computer; otherwise, you will have to pay full price for the app again.

The iPhone Blog believes that this is due to the on-device account management coming to iPhone 3.0. The ability to log in and out of multiple iTunes accounts on your iPhone could lead to the sharing of iPhone purchases with others who haven’t paid for them.

Unfortunately, this could inconvenience the many who have legitimately purchases and simply prefer not to have all their apps always installed.

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, AppStore News & Reviews, Featured, What's New, iPhone, iPhone Apps/Games, iPod Touch News, iTunes News/Updates apple, apps, iPhone, iphone 3g, ipod touch, itunes, redownoad

Once believed to have blown its first chance at the iPhone, Verizon is now claimed to be in discussions with Apple for its own version of the iPhone in 2010.

Pointing only to anonymous people familiar with the negotiations as its sources, USA Today explains that Verizon reportedly entered serious talks before Steve Jobs’ hiatus and has been continuing those talks even with Jobs temporarily sidelined for medical reasons.

Other than a 2010 target release window, little else is divulged by the apparent insiders.

Although not explicitly stated, the newspaper infers that the phone would be a CDMA device compatible with Verizon’s existing network and therefore using EVDO for its 3G Internet access. Such a move would give the phone broad coverage but directly contradicts Apple COO Tim Cook’s own dismissal of CDMA last week: when discussing iPhone expansion plans, the executive justified the absence of a CDMA model by arguing that a single, GSM phone model is easier to produce than building a separate version for a relatively small batch of customers. Cook also sharply criticized CDMA by asserting that ithas no future, as most CDMA carriers plan to phase out the calling technology in favor of the same 4G standard that will be used on GSM networks.

More likely is a direct leap to a 4G. Verizon chief executive Ivan Seidenberg recently explained that a deal is more likely for a phone with the advanced networking technology as it would let Apple continue making one phone but still service North American carriers that are for now off limits. Verizon plans to officially launch its commercial 4G network in early 2010 and would therefore have at least some of its network ready for an iPhone by the time AT&T’s exclusivity term ends, which is likely for the same year.

However determined Verizon may be to land an iPhone of its own, AT&T may topple those ambitions through its own discussions. Separate rumors have the incumbent iPhone carrier pushing Apple to extend its US exclusivity until 2011 — enough to stall any Verizon deal until AT&T’s own 4G network is ready.

Any successful deal, no matter the network type, would likely be a serious blow to AT&T, which credited much of its ability to weather the ongoing economic crisis to iPhone sales and the resulting spike in data revenue. Aside from reducing incentives to launch massive, special upgrades to the network, a Verizon model would let those dissatisfied with AT&T’ s 3G coverage or its customer service defect to Verizon without giving up Apple’s handset.

(via AppleInsider.com)

on a side note

Apple has announced the lucky winner of the contest:

“The one billionth app, Bump created by Bump Technologies, was downloaded by Connor Mulcahey, age 13, of Weston, CT. As the grand prize winner of Apple’s one billion app countdown contest, Connor will receive a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule and a MacBook Pro.”

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, AppStore News & Reviews, Apple News, Featured, Rumors, What's New, iPhone, iPod Touch News 2007, 2010, apple, at&t, hiatus, iPhone, iphone 3g, iPhone 3G 'Pro', ipod touch, itunes, macbook pro, steve jobs, time capsule, verizon

The App Store has reached an amazing one billion downloads with both iTunes and Apple.com featuring celebration pages as predicted earlier. 

According to TUAW the billionth download took place around 4:52 EST. 

You can take a look at a few of the screenshots below… 

 Retweet This Post

3G iPhone, AppStore News & Reviews, Apple News, Featured, What's New, iPhone, iPhone Apps/Games, iPod Touch News app, apple iphone, billionth, iphone 3g, ipod touch, itunes, one, store