Mobile Mania

Looks like that Bluetooth chip in the iPod Touch 2G we've always thought was for Nike+ suddenly got a lot more useful: Apple's Greg Joswiak said that Bluetooth can be "unlocked" on the device during the iPhone OS 3.0 Q&A session. That's two years of rumors to rest, right there, and a solid move, seeing as three of the major 3.0 features are A2DP, wireless accessory control and peer-to-peer connections over Bluetooth. Any touch owners feeling more inclined to drop the $9.95 now?

Dropping a Benjamin on mophie's iPhone 3G Juice Pack didn't seem too painful considering the alternative of possessing a brick after about four hours of 3G usage, but we get the feeling iPod Touch 2G are going to have a slightly more difficult time rationalizing this one. Launched today for $99.95, the Juice Pack for iPod touch 2G was specially crafted to hold Apple's latest touch, and it promises to practically double the amount of jam time by including a rechargeable Li-ion. The case / battery extender also sports a pass-through USB cable design, and the four light LED status indicator gives you visual cues on battery level. Specifically, mophie claims that this device adds up to 42 hours of audio playback or 7 hours of video playback, and if you've already decided to become an early adopter, you can head on over and get one shipped out today. Full release is past the break.

mophie Debuts Juice PackTM for iPod Touch 2G
Ergonomic 'Made for iPod' Case/Battery Extender Now Available for $99.95 at mophie.com

Los Angeles, CA – March 19, 2009 – mStation | mophie announces the immediate availability the latest Juice Pack which is designed to offer second generation iPod Touch users twice as much time to watch, rock, surf and send. The juice pack is a rechargeable lithium polymer battery in the form of a non-slip, soft grip case and offers the following fantastic features...

* Battery Extender and Case in One – The juice pack is an official "Made for iPod" Apple certified accessory that offers the convenience of an extended battery and the protection of a case, all with an ergonomically designed, soft-touch, non-slip rubberized finish. It comes charged up and ready to go straight out of the box.

* Pass-Through Design – Included USB cable enables you to simultaneously charge and sync with iTunes without having to remove it from the juice pack. The pass-through headphone jack ensures that you'll always be connected to your music.

* Advanced Battery Technology – Intelligent power distribution instructs the iPod Touch to always drain out the juice pack first. When you're done with the Juice Pack , simply detach and you still have a fully charged iPod. Highly condensed lithium polymer battery delivers an incredible amount of juice in a small form factor and features built in overcharge, short circuit, and temperature protection.

* 4 Light LED Battery Status Indicator – Integrated LED status indicator tells you exactly how much juice is left and also displays how much time remains during the charging process

* Full Charged Juice Pack give users more than twice the power –
Audio Playback – Up to additional 42 hours
Video Playback – Up to additional 7 hours

"We're proud to now offer users of the iPod Touch 2G a convenient and ergonomic extended battery to ensure their favorite videos and tunes never run dry" says Ross Howe, Sales and Product Development Director for mStation | mophie. "Our mission is to keep every last iPod/iPhone enthusiast charged up at all times which is now possible with our latest addition to the Juice Pack family."

The mophie Juice Pack for iPod Touch 2G is available now online and in stores at an MSRP of $99.95. For more information on the mophie Juice Pack please visit http://www.mophie.com/pages/information

About mStation | mophie
mStation is consistently praised for its ability to create quality products with innovative Industrial Design. mStation's flagship brand, mophie, is an iPod accessory company with a wide array of award-winning cases. Their products can be found in Apple Stores and major retailers worldwide.

We all know as soon as a feature comes to the iPhone, Apple invented it right? Perfect examples are the full touchscreen form factor, mobile apps, visual voicemail and the accelerometer — all brought to market by Cupertino. But none of those things are Apple inventions, you say? Pfff, clearly you’ve never met an Apple fanboy. So let’s take a look at a few of Apple’s latest mobile inventions fresh from today’s town hall:

• Push notifications for apps. Finally. As you well know, this will allow the iPhone/iPod Touch to be notified (via a badge, text pop up and/or audio alert) in near real-time of a new server-side event associated with a specific app. Think of it as a poor man’s answer to background processes. Background processes, by the way, are not an addition to version 3.0. Apple’s excuses: Battery performance and memory strain.
• Updated media player adjusts streaming video quality according to current bandwidth.
• Cut, copy and paste. That’s right folks, Apple’s polio vaccine. Double-tap to select text, drag start/end points and do your thang. You can even shake to undo/redo edits.
• Send multiple images at once. Joy.
• Wider landscape keyboard availability. Apple finally tossed the landscape keyboard into all native apps, including Mail. Thank you.
• MMS! Hooray for decade-old tech! SMS and MMS are now lumped into a Messages app. It won’t be available on 2G (1st gen) iPhones.
• New calendar features. CalDAV allows for sharing across a bunch of services such as Google and Yahoo and .ics subscription support.
• Flushed out Stocks app.
• Extended search. Users can now search in all key apps including Calendar, iPod, Notes and Mail.
• Spotlight for iPhone. A “search homescreen”. It’s like Spotlight for Mac and it only searches native Apple apps.
• Bluetooth A2DP support (stereo Bluetooth) — but it won’t be available on 2G (1st gen) iPhones.
• Tethering.

Beyond that, Apple recapped the iPhone’s current position of course, with a presence in over 80 countries, 13.7 million iPhones sold, over 16 million iPod Touches sold and the App Store now has over 25,000 apps and over 800 million downloads. The iPhone SDK has been downloaded over 800,000 times by over 50,000 different entities, though over 60% of them have submitted no apps to the App Store. Damn, the Dev Team is growing by leaps and bounds — wink, wink. Apple tried briefly to woo potential developers by showing off how easy it is to develop an iPhone app, also touting that Gameloft has over two million paid downloads to its credit. Bank.

With iPhone 3.0, Apple is introducing 1000 new APIs for developers. It is also allowing developers to submit apps that carry subscription models — one download that is periodically refreshed with new content. In other words, Apple is now facilitating a more continuous revenue model compared to the one-time purchase model. Sell new magazine editions in a magazine app, sell new levels in a game, etc. This model will apparently not apply to free apps, so devs can’t give an app away and then charge for content. Apple has also added APIs to support peer to peer connectivity for things like online gaming via Bluetooth without the need to pair devices. Woo! Beyond that, additions such as the ability to build apps that communicate directly with hardware accessories via Bluetooth or the dock connector, streaming audio and video APIs and the introduction of a Maps API to facilitate app integration (including the use of Maps for turn by turn directions) were covered. Some pretty cool stuff, though nothing earth-shattering.

A beta version of 3.0 is available today to developers and end users will get it some time this Summer; free for iPhones, $10 for iPod Touches. So there you have it folks — discuss.