Automatic Filmmaker — you may remember the from the Technologic Overkill music video filmed entirely with an iPhone 3GS — have put together a technical breakdown of what they think so far as well a comparison with the Flip MinoHD.

If you’ve been putting the iPhone 3GS video camera through similar paces, let us know your results as well.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3GS Video Recording Technical Breakdown

iPhone vs. Palm Pre combat and comparison is nothing new, but is the latest rivalry in smartphones ready to take to the skies? Ars Technica certainly thinks so:

Ultimately, traveling with the Pre made me want my iPhone back

Though user-changeable, battery life on the Palm Pre was cited as one of the biggest disadvantages, draining rapidly under the onslaught of the famed Synergy and Card systems, and an estimated death in just 30 min. of Sprint TV viewing(?!). Lack of Apps was another.

Far from negative, however, the article gives Palm lots of suggestions to help the troubled Pre traveller out. (Ours, of course, would be actually getting that iPhone back…)

If you have any travel tips of your own to share, drop them in the comments!

[Thanks to Icebike for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Beats Palm Pre at Air Travel?

Back when Apple re-introduced Push Notification at the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Preview Event, Scott Forstall claimed that, unlike background multitasking that could cause an 80% drop in battery life, Push Notification would only cause a 20% drop. While some debated the truth (or truthiness) of his claims, it did set the expectation that users running Push Notification-enabled apps would see lower battery life, and gave an indicator of just how much less.

So, while it too a while, now that we finally have Push Notification, and some of the more popular messengers and games are implemented it, how’s your battery life doing?

Are you seeing a hit compared to your pre-Push Notification days, and if so, is it in the 20% range? Let us know which iPhone you have, how often you’re getting Push Notifications, and how your battery is holding up!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Is Your iPhone Battery Life 20% Less With Push Notification?

iPhone 3.1 Beta 1 has just been released, and unlike the major new version that was iPhone 3.0, it’s still unclear how many features — compared with bug fixes — will be added. However, enterprising developers have already discovered at least a few things we can all look forward too.

So, here’s TiPb’s iPhone 3.1 Beta Walkthrough, and we’ll keep it updated as/if Apple releases future betas.

Home Screen

The jigglies — what Dieter lovingly calls the little dance icons do when you hold them down long enough to make them moveable and rearrangeable — now make the iPhone vibrate once to further indicate the change of state. Whether or not this will somehow factor in to the iPhone 3GS accessibility features is uncertain.

Voice Control

Voice Control, after holding down the Home button for several seconds, let you speak simple commands to place calls and control music. In iPhone 3.1, it will also work over Bluetooth.

The exact process isn’t clear yet, but it’s hard to imagine anything other than holding down the call button on a Bluetooth headset function similarly to how the Home button currently works.

Messages

After being present in iPhone 3.0 Beta 1 through Beta 4, before being stripped out in Beta 5, AT&T users will again find MMS functionality restored to the interface. However, it’s not functional without hacking the carrier file, and it’s unknown if it will survive until release or be stripped out again if AT&T still isn’t ready for the feature to go live.

Calendar

Calendar gets a minor tweak in iPhone 3.1. Now event alerts also display the location of the event in the popup. Presumably, this is now considered important glance-able information.

Photos

Video trimming is now non-destructive. Previously, if you trimmed a video, it was automatically saved over the original, meaning you could never undo or go back to the full clip. Now, a Save As… dialog gives you the option of preserving the original and creating as many version copies as you want (an short clip to email, a longer one to share to YouTube, and the full clip to sync and bring into iMovie, for example).

Phone

Copy and Paste comes to the Phone Keypad. Just tap and hold and the input area will change from dark blue to light blue, and the Copy Paste menu will pop up.

Reportedly, the iPhone Paste feature is “smart” enough to change alphanumeric phone numbers to pure numbers (i.e. 1-800-FLOWERS to 1-800-356-9377).

When Will it Ship?

If history is any indication, iPhone 2.0 was released on July 11, 2008, and iPhone 2.1 followed some two months and 4 betas later on September 12, 2008 hot on the heels of Apple’s Let’s Rock introduction of the 2nd generation iPod touch. Will we have to wait for another new iPod and music event before we see 3.1?

Our guess is Apple will try to get 3.1 out earlier to fix a few of the more onerous bugs, but as always, only Jobs knows for sure…

Note on Using Beta Software

Unlike iPhone 2.0 Betas, where access seemed much more limited and leaks were few and far between, 3.1 like 3.0 seems to be on every iPhone users want-now list. Also, unlike 2.0 when many devs were seasoned pros, now Apple is touting thousands upon thousands in the program, some seemingly happy enough to enable 3.0 access for the general user base.

However, betas are intended for developers to test and report back on. They’re not as stable, not as snappy, not as feature-complete and anyone trying to use them as a production OS on their main (or worse, only) device is likely to have something less than an ideal experience. People trying to use it as such may wish they could go back to iPhone 3.0 almost as much as they wished for 3.1. Think thrice before taking the plunge.

[Via Chris, Muero, WhenWillApple, and BGR. Thanks to everyone who sent in descriptions and screenshots.]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone 3.1 Beta Walkthrough

Could the iPod touch and iPod nano also be getting in on the camera action? We’ve heard the rumor before but evidence continues to mount with Techcrunch claiming:

One of our sources in Asia say that Apple has placed an order for a massive number of camera modules of the type that they include in the iPhone. These are inexpensive cameras, in the $10 range. And the size of the order, our source says, means they can only be used for one thing - the iPods.

As Dieter mentioned on iPhone Live! a camera is such a natural fit for the iPod touch that it’s hard to imagine Apple not doing it at this point. Adding video recording, editing, and sharing (along with the beefier chipset) also seems like a no-brainer port from the already-enabled iPhone 3GS. Even if Apple sticks with VGA resolution, users who want highly portable video recording might easily take the iPod integration over the better quality of a dedicated device like a Flip Mino HD.

Macrumors is also showing off a case that, if real, re-enforces the iPod nano camera rumors as well. Absent the iPod touch interface and processor power, however, it’s hard to see that being functional for anything but still photography. That being said, it remains a great way for Apple to keep moving the traditional iPod line forward even as it approaches market saturation.

Anyone eager to get their iPod camera action on?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPod touch and iPod nano Getting Camera?

Looking for what you may have missed in the smartphone world last week? Look no further, it’s the best of Smartphone Experts.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Best of Smartphone Experts, 5 July 2009