Monthly Archives: August 2009
Sun-powered Scosche solCHAT Bluetooth speaker phone is a bright idea
And now for something completely different — a post about something other than Snow Leopard.
Accessory manufacturer Scosche today announced the solCHAT solar Bluetooth speaker phone. Designed to work with Bluetooth phones like the iPhone, the solCHAT attaches to either the front windshield of your car or to the driver’s visor. When sitting in direct sunlight, a small solar panel charges up the solCHAT, although the manufacturer recommends giving the device an initial full charge through the included USB adapter.
When you’re ready to drive, you simply punch the big button to power up and connect to your iPhone. When a call comes in, a verbal caller ID speaks the number that is calling. A Scosche spokesperson noted that a future version may sync contact information from the iPhone to allow the caller’s name to be announced.
Report: iPhone will drop in China on Friday
Daily Finance is reporting today on the iPhone’s pending release in China. We’ve been reporting on this gradual deal for a while now. Back in July it looked like the deal might be delayed until 2010, but earlier this month, Apple’s VP of iPhone and iPod product marketing Greg Joswiak (among others) traveled to China to meet with China Unicom.
Earlier this week, China Unicom confirmed with Reuters that the iPhone would be part of a media briefing they’ve got scheduled for this Friday, further fueling speculation that a release is imminent.
The potential of the Chinese market is huge for Apple. A population of over 1.3 billion and an advanced mobile broadband network (download speeds are superior to the norm here in the US) seem to be the ingredients for a very successful market. We’ll let you know what happens.
Bring out your dead! App rejected? Roll again, adventurer
If you’ve had an app rejected by Apple in the past and it didn’t actually involve nekkid pictures or you think it did not violate App Store policies (yes, realizing those policies can be vague at times), try submitting that app again. It appears to be a season of reconciliation, and it’s time Apple got this right.
TechCrunch wrote (a couple of weeks ago) that the developers of the Rising Card app were happily surprised when none other than Phil Schiller intervened on their behalf and got their app approved. Great! We’re hearing similar stories of previously delayed or rejected apps getting a second going-over.
So all we need now is a senior VP from Apple to jump in every time there’s a minor discrepancy or some completely foolish misunderstanding of policy and implementation, right? Somehow I doubt this will scale. Phil is no doubt a ball of energy, but he can’t power the entire App Store approval process — which I’m guessing is getting a bit of an overhaul right now, but that’s my guess. For all I know Phil just cloned himself and this will all just go away as Phils 1-99 take care of business.
More Ways To Get Free iPhone Music!
The iPhonegizmo team have discovered and posted about many ways to get free downloads for you iPhone – including free music! So here are another two hot tips.
1) Become a Shockhound member (its free) and get free MP3s from the musicians that they promote. Here are ten free MP3s from a variety of artists that you can download. The really big artists like Pink, Mariah Carey, Justin Timberlake, etc – well, you won’t find too many freebies from them. Why would they?
But, many other artists offer free Mp3s to promote their new albums and you can find them without here, too much effort! The link above will get you to free MP3s from:- The Architects (see video clip below), Aspects of Physics, Miss Derringer, Volcano Choir, Johnny Polygon and others (quite a variety)
Delving into the iPhone’s DCIM folder
Today, Dave Caolo discovered what happens when your iPhone camera rolls past picture number 99999 (or so). As he and other Apple users have found, a picture count that goes too high can lead to unforseen errors. Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria. Or a camera roll that doesn’t acknowledge new photos.
Snapped images are stored on your iPhone in your home folder. As user “mobile,” that home folder is /var/mobile and the folder that stores your iTunes library, your voice memos, and your photos is /var/mobile/Media. Inside that media folder is a subfolder named DCIM.