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Join Rene, James, and Chris for more iTablet, iPod touch, and iTunes 9 rumors, Apple VP Phil Schiller’s email spree, the latest competition from BlackBerry and Microsoft, and all the news. Listen in!

Featured Accessory

• Plantronics Voyager PRO Hardcore Bluetooth Headset

News

New Product Watch

• Apple Shoots Top Secret Commercial for New Product?
• Updated: Apple Going Social? More iTunes 9, "Social App", and App Organization
• iTunes 9 to Add iPhone App Organizer, Blu-Ray?

App Store

• Apple VP Phil Schiller Responds to Ninjawords iPhone App Store Incident
• Apple VP Phil Schiller Emails Steven Frank, No E-Book Rejection Policy, Working to Improve App Store
• Google to Launch Google Voice on iPhone as WebApp
• iPhone 3GS-Specific Apps Start to Land in App Store

The Competition

• Zune HD to be Priced $100 Less than iPod touch?
• BlackBerry to Get iPhone-Class Web Browser… Next Summer
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 Caught on Video
• Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI to Launch iTunes "Cocktail" Album Competitor?

More News

• Would You Give Up Using Your iPhone in the Car for Increased Safety?
• Deposit Checks Via iPhone Photos
• Still No MMS on AT&T — But Would You Use it Anyway?
• Patent Watch: Apple Taking Stand Against Abused iPhones

Forums

• From the Forums: iPhone Jailbreak?, Yahoo vs Gmail, Tom Tom Car Kit, Wallpapers & Ringtones

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

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

TiPb Presents: iPhone Live! #23 - Schiller Time!

Will the third generation iPod touch, widely expected to be released at Apple’s next Music Event in September, weigh in at 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, and be position at $199/$299/$399?

Whether Daring Fireball is making the logical assumption based on Apple’s previous behavior and iPod touch price points, or they’re privy to something a little more concrete, that’s what Gruber is saying in response to the Zune HD’s pricing of 16GB/32GB for $219/$289.

(Though currently the second gen 8GB iPod touch is $229, not $199…?)

Since the iPod touch has two NAND Flash slots for the iPhone’s one, it typically gets double the upper-range of storage for the same year’s iPhone. Thus, the 32GB iPhone 3GS almost certainly means a 64GB iPod touch this September.

If accurate, then, there goes Microsoft’s purported pricing advantage, storage-wise. (If the iPod touch does indeed have built in camera and video capability, or other so-far-unleaked features, it could again be a case of Microsoft shipping a spectacular Zune, 1 or 2 years too late…)

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

Third Generation iPod touch Pricing at 16GB/32GB/64GB for $199/$299/$399?

MediaMemo reports that multiple music industry sources have been informed that Apple’s annual Special Music Event, typically involving iPod and iTunes, will take place the second week of September — and since Apple usually holds these events on Tuesdays, that would make September 8 the day to watch.

Widely expected to be seen at the event is Apple’s third generation iPod touch, rumored to be getting a camera like it’s big iPhone brother, and perhaps the same “S stands for Speed” performance chipset. Chatter has also spread about the iPod nano getting a camera, as well as iTunes 9 speculation involving app organizing, Blu-Ray support, and social network integration. And let’s not forgot iPhone 3.1 we saw iPhone 2.1 last year, after all).

The two biggest mysteries will, of course, be whether or not Apple chooses to debut their near-deafeningly rumored iTablet at the event, or hold off for another event (annual MacBook event perhaps?) or next year, and whether or not a newly returned Steve Jobs takes once again to the keynote stage.

TiPb will, as always, provide ongoing coverage leading up to, during, and post event. (We can’t wait either!)

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

Apple Special Music/iPod/iTunes/(iTablet?) Event Taking Place Sept. 8?

Looks like YouTube is following parent-company Google’s increasingly awesome mobile optimization initiative, announcing an iPhone-friendly version of the dominant media site. According to their official blog:

Just visit youtube.com from your mobile phone, and you’ll be taken to a new website specially designed for your device. You can log into your account, view your favorites, and discover and share new videos quickly and easily with whoever you choose. It’s part of our mission to create the best possible YouTube experience for you, whether you use the site on your computer, in your living room, or on the go.

Since Google’s own Android, as well as Palm’s Pre, use the same Mobile WebKit foundation as the iPhone, YouTube hits three advanced platforms with one code-base.

Nifty.

[Via PreCentral.net]

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

Quick WebApp: YouTube Optimizes for iPhone

Gizmodo honcho Brian Lam claims to have received a cryptic call with nebulous details on the much-rumored Apple iTablet, shedding light and casting in shadow at the same time. Highlights:

• Lam believes the source is in a position to know about the iTablet
• The source implies he or she has sat in meetings about the device
• 10 inch screen
• Looks just like a big iPhone (though that may change)
• 2 versions: with webcam and without (for education?)
• $700 - $900 price tag
• May function as secondary touchpad/screen for Macs
• OS is still big question mark
• Super-secret Lam-Googled product code name that “made sense”

So, do we know more now… or less?

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

Gizmodo: More (and Less) on the Apple iTablet

It’s just a snippet of the mythical iTablet user interface, and while Gizmodo is almost sure it’s fake, Brian Lam holds one tiny breath of hope for it to be true. Either way, it’s an interesting concept. We’ve heard rumors that, if Apple’s tablet uses a version of the iPhone OS, it may run multiple iPhone apps as windows on the larger screen.

We’re guessing most of you will chime in with “fake, fake, fakety, fake!” in the comments, but what do you think of a multi-window (and multitasking!) iPhone-like OS?

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

Fake or Really Fake? Apple iTablet UI Goes YouTube

China Unicom, the second largest mobile carrier in the world’s largest mobile market, has reportedly bought 5 million iPhones from Apple as it makes ready to launch the device in September.

These won’t be the same iPhones sold in the rest of the world, however, as they’ll be using China-specific WCDMA radios, and will also lack Wi-Fi. Aiya. That, of course, leaves the door open for gray market iPhones — a staple in the nation since the original iPhone 2G launch in 2007 — to linger around and compete with the official, crippled version. (Insert Verizon joke here if you must).

Also changing according to the report is Apple’s share of the money. While they typically get 20-30% of profits, they’ll be making do with 1000-1100 Yuan per unit under terms of this deal (which allegedly may run as long as 3 years).

Either way, and long-in-the-making though it may be, it’s a huge deal for Apple and the iPhone in a huge market. Guess we’ll see what this does for Gartner’s numbers next year…

(International Business Times via Apple Insider)

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

5 Million iPhones Heading to China Unicom?

For those of you who are not familiar with our Apps for Less posts, they are a great way for us to point out a few good iPhone (and iPod touch) applications available in the App Store that are currently on sale, or ones that have come down to a price permanently that we feel are worth mentioning to our readers.

Today’s first application happens to be one of my personal favorites - Pocket Tunes Radio. [iTunes Link] Not only does it have a ton of free internet radio stations you also get the ability to stream Sirius XM channels. And most of the channels that were omitted from the official Sirius XM application are actually available with Pocket Tunes Radio! Howard Stern anyone? Pocket Tunes Radio is now available for a limited time for $7.99 - $2 off it’s regular price.

Next up we have a pair of retro games many of you old school gamers should enjoy. Namco’s Galaga REMIX [iTunes Link] and Dig Dug REMIX [iTunes Link] are now on sale for $2.99 a piece! Namco has added a nice twist to two great classic games - the ability to play both the original arcade games and new remixed versions with new boss battles, power-up items, etc…

Last up for today we have another great iPhone game, ngmoco’s Star Defense [iTunes Link] has dropped permanently to a low $2.99! This is one game that has been covered here at TiPb more than once, so be sure to check it out.

So there you have it, three great applications at low prices that hopefully some of you will take advantage of. If you happen to have an application in the App Store that is on sale and want everyone to know about it, feel free to contact us and let us know!

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

Apps for Less: Pocket Tunes Radio, Galaga REMIX, Dig Dug REMIX, Star Defense

The research firm Gartner reports that, for the second quarter of 2009, the iPhone continues to increase its market share on a world-wide level. In fact, it leads the way with the highest increase of market share, as sales increased by 10.5% from one year ago.

This increase of market share can be accounted for due to a few separate reasons. For starters, the early June price drop of the iPhone 3G to $99 was clearly a great way to move inventory while boosting sales. Apple’s product release timing is also plays a large role in their success. While releasing iPhone 3GS to the market at the very end of the second quarter of 2009 all of the initial sales were included in this report.

Everyone knows the iPhone took mind share early on, and there’s little doubt left they own profit share as well. It will be interesting to see where market share ultimately ends up…

[via MacRumors]

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

iPhone Market Share Continuing to Climb

Looks like the latest version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard might just have gone Gold Master according to Apple Insider, leading to expectation — and anticipation — of a shipping date as soon as a few weeks from now.

Now, TiPb covers Apple news in general only so far as Apple’s 360 degree business model tightly integrates all their offerings and what happens in one product generally either involves or at least touches on many others, including the iPhone. However, following Snow Leopard as we have, it’s interesting to see how Mac OS X was originally stripped down to create the core of iPhone OS X, and now many of the iPhone’s innovations, like QuickTime X and built-in Exchange ActiveSync support are being leveraged back into the Mac — not to mention the whole OS being smaller and tighter. Likewise, iPhone 3.0 has benefitted from data detectors, while Mobile Safari is out pacing it’s big desktop brother in HTML 5 support.

Win. Win.

Snow Leopard promises some great new technologies we likely won’t need on the iPhone for a while, like Grand Central’s packetizing of processes to hit multiple cores, but OpenCL, which lets GPU’s be used like CPU’s for general purpose computing could really leverage that new PowerVR SGX chip in the iPhone…

Mac doesn’t get free OS updates like the iPhone, but at $29 for a single user and $49 for a 5-user family pack, Apple is putting on the pricing pressure.

And hopefully there’ll be some more iPhone-involved surprises in the roadmap. (64-bit Cocoa iTunes anyone? And dare we ask again for Mobile iChat?!)

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

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Goes Gold Master