It’s interesting that, since Steve Jobs announced during his iPad keynote that iBooks would be available for download from the App Store, recently there’s been some coverage of this as news — including that the iBooks books will be using Apple’s FairPlay DRM.

That iBooks won’t be built in like iPod, Music, or Movies apps, and that it includes the iBooks Store inside it instead of in a separate — also built-in — app like iTunes Store or App Store, is what made TiPb assume Apple was intending to compete on equal terms with existing App Store apps like Kindle. Making iBooks built in, and making the store part of the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad would clearly be a sign that Kindle’s days in the App Store might be numbered. This way, however, we took it as just the opposite, especially since Jobs went to the trouble of mentioning it.

In terms of FairPlay DRM, while recent media coverage implies that it hasn’t been seen since iTunes music went DRM-free in April of last year, iTunes Movies and TV Shows certainly haven’t (a point 9to5Mac makes as well), and App Store apps are protected as well. TiPb has always assumed they’ve been using FairPlay this whole time, since Apple prefers technology they control, especially when they’re contractual bound to maintain things like copy protection. (This is why they historically refused to license it to third parties — it would make it easier to break and harder to re-secure).

So, again, when Jobs announced iBooks Store, we just took it for granted it would be using Apple’s DRM system, FairPlay. It nicely sets the stage for a big DRM-free books movement in a few years, doesn’t it?

Regarding iBooks as App Store App, Books Using FairPlay DRM is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Capcom has just announced Street Fighter IV for iPhone, and it should be coming to the iPhone this March! IGN has the details:

Capcom is not accepting any loss of the console game’s beloved art direction in the iPhone edition. It has taken assets straight from the current-gen code, so the new art style that won universal accolades is faithfully recreated on the iPhone’s smaller, but crisp screen. In our shots of Ken and Ryu battling it out, you can see the fidelity to the console version at play. These are the same models, just slightly scaled down – but with minimal loss of detail or color.

My childhood reborn. I want. Let us know what you think!

[Thanks Ben for the tip!]

Capcom Announces Street Fighter IV for iPhone! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Microsoft today announced their long anticipated — possibly long delayed or oft re-started — Windows Phone Series 7 and showed off a brand new user “experience” including deep social network integration and full on Zune services. (Every Windows Phone is a Zune, but they’re not Zune phones — clear?).

So, after my recent Round Robin Windows Phone review concerns, how did they do? My quick take, after the break!

some 3 years post original iPhone 2G, they showed off a new Start screen that’s a series of big square or rectangular tiles. This is the least impressive part to me, however, as I’m not sold on the glance-ability or use of space. Even the animated flips and slides, as slick and sexy as they were, didn’t really amaze me as much as something else Microsoft showed off — a deliberate, decided attempt to reduce the amount of taps it takes users to accomplish tasks, and to make workflows (and fun-flows!) as streamlined as possible.

We’ve had great looking on Windows Phone before, thanks to HTC, Sony, and others. Now Microsoft is pulling a Palm and aiming for great working. That’s key, and huge kudos to them for it.

And while I’m not sold on the static screens of the UI (Georgia remarked that big blue screens/squares is something Microsoft has trained us not to enjoy), the typography was phenomenal, with Microsoft raising the bar on their already fantastic ClearType. (Apple and iPad need to pay attention to that).

There was an Xbox Live! tile, so we’ll keep our fingers crossed there, but it was unclear how apps would deploy at scale. While 180 icons currently fit on an iPhone screen, many users don’t use anywhere near that many — still, apps are where it’s at now and it’ll have to handle whatever users do require. Hubs, as shown for pictures and contacts, might be part of that answer.

Microsoft — again like Palm — has re-invented themselves for the modern mobile era. They even said the phone isn’t a PC, something everyone else got years ago but when turning a ship as big as Microsoft is still worthy of a cheer.

Furthermore, our old friend AT&T showed up to be their premiere partner for launch. Maybe that’s why we haven’t seen much Android from them, and why we expect iPhone-on-Verizon rumors to bubble up again as if on cue. But at least it shows some traction.

Some problem areas might be the reported lack of Flash as a differentiator (it’s coming later), no or limited multitasking (not sure about that yet, could just be a rumor), and no or limited backwards compatibility with previous Windows Phone/Windows Mobile apps (again, nothing solid on that yet).

While many clamor for an iPhone 4.0 UI overhaul as well, Apple keeps stating they’ve just trained 75 million people to use their UI, so while a Lock Screen/Home Screen reboot could happen, they likely don’t want to lose or confuse existing users. And could you imagine if iTunes App Store apps didn’t work on iPhone 4.0? (They work on the iPad, after all). That’s a problem Microsoft faces on the Windows desktop side, but was obviously willing to risk on the mobile platform — and who can blame them at this point? (Due especially to fragmented UI in Windows Mobile 6.x — HTC Sense, Sony Xperia, Microsoft Tatanium, etc. probably helps them out here.)

All that aside, however, Microsoft worked wonders last year with the Zune HD and ultimately the mainstream market didn’t care. That has to be the Windows Phone teams greatest concern right now. Is there still any mindshare left for them?

So is Windows Phone Series 7 competition for the iPhone? Hopefully enough for Apple to really give us that A+ 4th generation iPhone Steve Jobs referenced following the iPad announcement, but likely not enough to dent mainstream consumer market share. At least not yet. If Microsoft was really serious about it selling, they’d have quit the typically ridiculous “Windows Phone 7 Series” branding and released it as the Xphone, along with a Call of Duty Special Edition.

[via WMExperts]

Windows Phone Series 7 — Is it Competition for the iPhone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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It would appear that Apple has taken a more agressive approach to certain iPhone hackers by banning their Apple IDs from the iTunes App Store.

iPhone developer/hacker, Sherif Hashim, first received a message on his iPhone after attempting to log into iTunes saying:

"This Apple ID has been disabled for security reasons."

Now one would think this may be just a single incident but no, fellow hacker iH8sn0w responded saying he too was hit with the Apple ban hammer. This is turning out to be very Microsoft with their Xbox Live bannings to stop hacked consoles from playing on their online service and it’s exactly what we predicted could very well happen.

Now, to be clear, Apple isn’t banning Jailbreakers — they’re banning people who actively work to find exploits in the iPhone software to create Jailbreaks for the rest of us.

This may be a sign of things to come, however. Will Apple open the gates to unleash hell onto hackers, or is this simply a case of a few isolated instances? You be the judge, lets hear your thoughts in the comments below!

[Thanks for the tip Taimur! Via Redmond Pie]

Apple Banning iPhone Hackers (NOT Jailbreakers) from iTunes App Store? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

By all accounts, Microsoft is set to unveil it’s next-generation mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series (say that 10 times fast!) at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona today, and WMExperts will be live-blogging the whole thing.

Join Dieter and Phil starting 9am ET, 6am PT, 2pm GT, 3pm CT for all the Steve Ballmer keynote action!

Microsoft to Unveil Windows Phone 7 Series at MWC Today — The Competition is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Even though it’s almost 6 months newer, Google’s Android Nexus One isn’t producing the same frame-rate as Apple’s iPhone 3GS according to a Distinctive Developments test. In fact, it’s lagging behind. The reason? iPhone 3GS is using Neon floating-point optimization and the Nexus One isn’t.

Add this to the capacitive screen performance, multitouch keyboard, and It’s interesting to see what Apple got right months or years ago, that others haven’t finished or polished even today.

They may seem small or minor, but when taken as a whole those details create the user experience iPhone owners enjoy.

Video after the break!

[Distinctive Development via Engadget]

iPhone 3GS Beats Nexus One on 3D Frame-rate Test is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Florian Voss from Microsoft Bing for Mobile talks to TiPb’s Rene and Leanna about Bing for iPhone [Free - iTunes link]… and iPad! Recorded live at Macworld 2010.

Watch along after the break…

Microsoft Bing for iPhone and iPad (Macworld 2010) — TiPb Apps #1.2 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Slingplayer Mobile [$29.99 - iTunes link] for iPhone has just hit version 1.2 and the single-line update says it all — 3G streaming enabled.

And it seems to be in App Stores outside the US and beyond AT&T. (If it’s not in your App Store, let us know.)

It was a long time and a lot of controversy coming, but it’s here, so go get it and let us know how it’s working for you!

[Thanks to Scott for the head's up!]

Slingplayer Mobile for iPhone Goes 3G in App Store! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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UPDATE: John from Adobe (in comments below) point us to OSNews, which states:

The concerns in question have to do with charter and scope, and are not exclusive to Adobe. The problem seems to be that all these documents – Microdata, RDFa, Canvas 2D API, HTML5 document – are all lumped together, and some are confused about whether or not an objection to a single one can block all of them. The answer is clear: no, it cannot. In other words, Masinter’s objection does not block HTML5.

They further claim that since the objection was discussed in a publicly accessible archive, it wasn’t secret either. A tempest in a teapot, perhaps, but the debate concerning Flash and HTML5 shows no signs of breaking soon…

ORIGINAL: Daring Fireball has linked to a post by Ian Hixie that states, while Adobe has been publicly supportive of HTML5 — sometimes seen as a open rival to their proprietary Flash technology — they’ve secretly but a block on the publication of the specification.

Gruber expands as follows:

My understanding is that Adobe is trying to block the API spec for the canvas element. The canvas element hasn't gotten as much attention as the video element, but clearly, 2D graphics in canvas is competitive with Flash, and it appears that Adobe's plan is to sabotage it via W3C politics.

Would this be analogous to Microsoft trying to block JavaScript and CSS back during the height of ActiveX? (If you don’t know what that is, thank the open, standards-based web).

Adobe was apparently supposed to have made the objection public 4 days ago but as far as we know have not followed through on that yet.

This may sound like a bunch of geeky web geek geekery, but it involves the next step forward in web technologies — something which in the past has brought us the likes of Web 2.0’s Google Maps and Facebook, WebKit (the basis of iPhone Safari) and Twitter, and now seeks to give us less resource intensive, vendor-independant specs for the future.

And since the iPhone doesn’t (and the iPad won’t) support Flash, HTML5 is how Apple hopes we’ll be enjoying the dynamic web for a long while to come.

UPDATED: Adobe Blocks HTML5 Canvas Competition via “Secret Hold”? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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