News

Yesterday social arts community Deviant Art released a beautiful mobile version of its site that’s been optimized for Apple’s iPhone.

To access it, simply navigate to DeviantArt.com on your handset and you’ll automatically be directed to the finger friendly version.

I have been playing around with it quite a lot, and I must say, I love it. It is just as easy to operate as the Facebook app.

Coming in the future will be iPhone optimized versions of DeviantArts forums, news pages, and the the message center, which alerts users to new content submitted by users they’ve bookmarked.

Infineon’s S-GOLD3 has been confirmed as the chipset to be used in Apple’s upcoming 3G iPhone as predicted.

According to DigiTimes, Chinese paper Economic Daily News has confirmed that UMC have been selected and will produce the chip on Infineon’s behalf.  The chip, PMB8878, will be manufactured on UMC’s 65nm line.

To recap, the chipset is capable 7.2 Mbps, camera resolution of up to 5-megapixels, a 2x speed MMC / SD interface, MPEG/H.263 hardware acceleration and video telephony, streaming, recording and playback.

Perhaps Apple will take advantage of those impressive features, or more likely, lock all those features out and slowly grant access over time. I know Apple all to well…

The Associated Press will offer a new offering dubbed the “Mobile News Network,” which will put together the company’s own news coverage with that of local newspapers, then deliver the content on customized pages designed specifically for the iPhone.

“The Mobile News Network will provide a national platform for smart phone users to access local content from brands they trust. Members can participate by providing local news that will appear alongside their logos. Importantly, the network also offers a new outlet for members to sell local advertising to the mobile audience

“AP is working with mobile phone manufacturers and carriers to develop the best user interface for this comprehensive collection of news stories, photos and video from the news industry. The network will be optimized for the richest multimedia experience the new wireless devices will allow. For AP television and radio members, work continues on the technical plan for video and audio participation in the Digital Cooperative program.”

The press release says a bit more, but I pointed out the most interesting. I look forward to the news of this news service coming to the iPhone as I read news on my iPhone… more...

The Black app. Is it a viral campaign for attention? Maybe, but if all goes well it will be a great social tool for iPhone users all around. It is said that when iPhone 2.0 is released so will one of the first social networking applications for the phone, but… this is merely speculation. “The first iPhone social consumer network.” Any ideas as to what this means? Regardless, the app will be launching on June 5th from Epic Apps, so it seems as if it may be a while before we get any more significant information. Keep an eye out, but until then, be satisfied with looking at the site.

The Nike+ Sport Kit released a few years ago for iPod Nano digital music player is finally getting an upgrade that will see support extended to iPhone and iPod touch.

I have not used the kit, but I have heard that with the existing version of the kit, runners must first return to their Mac or PC, dock their iPod nano, launch iTunes, and then push their latest performance data to the Nike+ website.

However, with the new application coming to the iPhone and iPod touch, runners will be able to beam that data to the website wirelessly the instant they complete their workout.

That being said, I assume the iPhone SDK will allow this to happen, with the application being available via the AppStore. For more information, take a look here.

Similar to Apple.com’s videos, the pre-release build of iPhone OS 2.0 is capable of recognizing YouTube content embedded in Web pages, allowing the user to click through and view video in the YouTube application.

Only YouTube content that has been encoded in the right format (H.264) is available for playback on the iPhone.

The embedded YouTube functionality is via a YouTube plug-in for Safari included with iPhone OS 2.0.

Other plug-ins may be avaible for Safari soon via Apple themselves or third party.

TGDaily has some new knowledge about the upcoming 3G iPhone. According to “their sources,” the 3G iPhone will be introduced at Apple’s WWDC in June.

The 3G iPhone is expected to retain the same price points as the existing iPhone with an 8GB model priced at $399 and a 16GB model priced at $499.

There is talk about a $599 32BG version, but we’ll see about that one.

In a recent update, a new beta of Apple’s iPhone software v2.0 released privately on Tuesday includes a handful of refinements and feature additions, such as a contact list search.

I’m excited about this feature, and not quite sure why the first version on the software did not have this feature.

At last months iPhone Software Roadmap event, Apple threw little hints that the feature would finally arrive as part of the iPhone software v2.0 due this June.

In addition to the search feature, it has also been reported that a new iCal event invites icon is now operating on the iPhone; Before it was not usable.

It is getting closer and closer to June. More features to come, I’m sure.

The people over at ZiPhone spotted some code in the brand new 2.0 beta iPhone firmware that could point to the chip to be used in the upcoming 3G iPhone.

The code makes mention of ‘SGOLD3,” which could very well refer to Infineon’s followup chip to the S-GOLD2 which powers the current iPhone.

Infineon’s other name for the S-GOLD3H chip is the PMB8878, a 7.2Mbps HSDPA chip with all the video acceleration and media playback features iPhone users have come to expect.

Some features include higher resolution camera support (5 megapixels instead of our current 2), a 2X speed MMC / SD interface and more. However, that doesn’t mean any of these specs will end up in the iPhone 3G, but it is capable, leaving our minds souring as to what will come for the next iPhone.

Stay tuned…

iPodObserver posted an image that they claim represents what the rumored 3G iPhone will look like:

Apparently the new iPhone will also sport a glossy black back, replacing the satin nickel look found on the current model.

If iPodObserver.com’s source is correct, the redesigned iPhone back also drops the black plastic end piece that covers the antenna, and it appears that Apple will continue to offer an 8GB model.

Hmmm, I can take this with a grain of salt, but if real, what do you think about the black glossy back? I’d like it...that is until the first scratch appears.

Keep in mind, it is very rare that “leaked” photos turn out to be legitimate. Only time will tell…