Phatdippin’

Twitter’s 3rd birthday

Happy belated birthday twitter — It was twitter’s 3rd birthday on Saturday, March 21st and here’s a little cupcake to celebrate. Let’s hope for many more fun years of twittering.. I can’t wait to see where this service goes in the next 3 years!

Anyone have any fun predictions?

iPhone 3.0 Software!

Today was a preview of the 3.0 software for the iPhone. This is a pretty crucial time because everyone is all up in arms about the Palm Pre and we are just patiently awaiting to see what Apple will do to compete.

Sadly, the release of the new update won’t be available until the summer for us but the developer beta is ready to go for them to start working on those new apps taking advantage of all the new features!

What I’m most excited about is that FINALLY there will be copy & paste. In addition, one the biggest features lacking in mail, is search.. which will also FINALLY be available! These are two such simple features that should have never been left out in the first place.. but I guess that’s Apple’s little way of teasing us along for 2 years. Hoping. Waiting..

For the iPod touch users, it will be a $9.95 update and not all features will be available to iPhone 2G owners like MMS and Stereo Bluetooth.. Keep reading for some keynote highlights from this morning.

APP STORE FACTS:

• 25,000 apps in the App Store.
• 98% apps were approved in 7 days or less. There have been more than
• Over 800 million downloads of all apps total in just 8 months

OVER 100 NEW FEATURES FOR THE CONSUMER!

• COPY AND PASTE!!!! You double tap on a piece of text and it will automatically place a bubble above it with the option to cut, copy or paste the current selection. To bring up the paste option, you just have to double tap again. To make a bigger selection of text, double tap and then drag where you’d like the text to end. You can also drag this text around. To undo a paste, just shake your phone!

• You can now send more than one photo by copying and pasting them into the Mail app.

• Use landscape (wide keyboard mode) in applications SMS, notepad, mail etc.
• New message app supports MMS! (Really, it’s about time) Send and received photos through the network.
• Voice memos that you can record edit, share and email directly from the app
• New calendar support! gcal! Subscriptions, .ics format, exchange
• Stock app added news and more details.
• SEARCH IN MAIL!!! finally! ..and other applications: Contacts, notes, calendar, iPod
• New Spotlight home screen that will let you search all of your applications.
• YouTube improvements!! ratings, subscriptions and profiles!
• Notes sync with iTunes, Shake to shuffle, WiFi auto-login, Stereo Bluetooth, parental controls, call log, iTunes account creation, anti-phishing, meeting invitations and more.

UPDATES FOR THE DEVELOPER:

• 1,000 new APIs: In game voice chat, iPod library access, proximity sensor, audio recorder, battery life, streaming audio and video, data detectors, text selection, UI alert view, shake API and GPS
• In-app purchases: Subscriptions for magazines, additional levels for games, and eBooks. Example, new Sims game — You will be able to buy items directly inside the game from the app store for $0.99 — this is really changing the revenue game for developers!
• Turn by Turn directions apps using Google Maps API
• Peer to Peer connectivity using bluetooth – Multiplayer gaming / sending business cards wirelessly

• With the new SDK, accessory developers will be able to make custom applications that can communicate directly with the accessory. Example: FM transmitter, blood pressure monitor, insulin meter

• Push notification for apps — Alerts appear like SMS, badges show up on the app icon, and audio alerts will be heard in the background. The battery life is said to only decrease by 23% while on other devices using background processes killed the battery life 80% — But still, with over 9 pages of apps and maybe 50% with with push notifications, my phone will last for 10 minutes!

SOME NEW APPS THEY TALKED ABOUT:

Sims 3: You will be able to purchase items directly from the application, playing music from the stereo using your music library.

LiveFire: First person shooter game.. You shake to jump, push-notify to play together with your friends, buy new weapons using real money. This could get pricey!

TouchPets: A social networking app for your virtual dog. Set up play dates using push notification, buy items for your pet like clothes, toys, food!

Leaf Trombone: Much like the Ocarina, but not..

Let me know what you think of the updates! Are you excited? Angry? Happy? Glad? Hoping for something else that wasn’t announced? Let me know!

New iPod Shuffle

Apple has released a new choking hazard iPod shuffle with a few new added features that weren’t in the last version. It has text to speech capabilities that will read you the title and artist of the song that’s playing. They’ve moved the controls to the earbuds to make it even easier to use.

Apple says you can use it with your eyes closed.. Maybe I will have to get one and test it out. I’ll go for a jog with my new shuffle keep my eyes shut the entire time!

It’s 4 gigs, can hold around 1,000 songs and retails at $79! I’ll have to have a new contest sometime soon

Facebook Home Page Getting a Major Update Next Week

The only way to stay ahead in this Internet game is to be constantly evolving. You need to be faster, more mobile, and more flexible than your competition. That’s how Google dominates search and Web mail, how Twitter pummels its micro-blogging competitors, and how Facebook has overtaken MySpace.

Facebook knows that its position at the top of the social networking heap is precarious. So, only a few months after undertaking a major redesign, Facebook is bringing some more new hotness to its home page. The news feed that appears on the main page when you log in will soon be replaced with a live feed view that will update in real-time as your friends change their status, add photos, or do anything else. For those who are staring at that last sentence in horror, don’t worry; the new home page will also feature powerful filtering tools that will allow you to block content from particular apps, or users, entirely.
At the top of the page will be a new publishing tool, allowing you to post pictures, status updates, links, and almost anything else that your heart desires, without ever having to leave the new hub.

Facebook ‘pages’ will also be updated to make them more like regular profiles, complete with status updates, which might be an interesting way for companies like CNN to keep people abreast of current events.