Apple’s iTunes News feed offers some helpful advice on Play Count for Smart Playlist users, especially those with iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads:

In addition to the Internet and your local network, iTunes is also alert to a different kind of network — the one made up of the iPhones, iPods (and soon iPads) that it runs on, as well as the computer you sync them with. Whether tracks have been played since the last sync is part of the information that gets updated when you sync. As a result, smart playlists using criteria such as “most often played” and “least recently played” update based on your overall experience and not just what you’ve done on any one particular device. By the way, if the play count for tracks ever gets out of whack, it’s easy to reset it. Just select the track(s) in list view in your library, right click (or control-click on a Mac), and choose Reset Play Count.

I stopped using smart playlists because, the way I had them set up, they’d often remove a podcast I was only part of the way through listening too. If anyone has tried this method and gotten better results, let me know in the comments!

iTunes Play Counts for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Gmail may only be the 3rd most popular email service on the planet (behind Yahoo! and Hotmail) but it ranks first in the hearts of geeks everywhere and can be used in a variety of ways on the iPhone:

• IMAP (or POP if you’re really old school) right from the iPhone Mail app. With its prominent place, and huge button, on the Account Setup page, it’s a default for many users. While it (still!) doesn’t support IMAP-IDLE push, plain old IMAP will keep all your accounts in sync, even if Google’s implementation is eccentric to say the least. (Labels mapping to multiple folders, simultaneous connection limitations, etc.)
• GoogleSync right from the iPhone Mail app. It licenses ActiveSync from Microsoft and fills up your lone Exchange slot on the iPhone but it does provide push if that’s what you need (even if it’s been a tad error prone).
• Gmail Web App from Mobile Safari. It supports all the Gmail goodness like labels and stars and threads and thanks to HTML5 it even has local storage and an almost native app-like feeling to it, even if it’s not a snappy as the real thing.
• As a spam-filter for another email account. May sound strange, but some people merely forward their Gmail to a different IMAP or webmail account, using Google’s excellent spam filtration but wanting a different service or front end for the actual mail.

Of course, some no doubt wish there was better built-in support for the unique Gmail attributes within iPhone mail, or a separate Gmail app like on Android, but given Apple’s App Store policies we don’t see that coming any time soon. So, given the choices above, how are you using Gmail on your iPhone? And if you have any pro-level or ninja tips for iPhone Gmail, let us know!

How Do You Use Gmail on Your iPhone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Doom co-creator John Carmack recently told Kotaku that we can expect to see id Software’s latest epic work in progress, Rage, land on the iPhone and iPad.

"Apple doesn't give us anything ahead of time either, so haven't put hands on it ourselves, but we certainly are expecting to try to have our Rage title for the iPhone, iPad, whatever, working across there."

Rage is a soon to be released first person shooter/racer that is set in a post apocalyptic world. Unfortunately there is no official word on a release date but hopefully that will change during the upcoming E3 game show.

It’s great to see a gaming icon such as Carmack continue to praise and support Apple’s iPhone platform, not to mention personally coding existing games such as the Doom and Wolfenstein already in Apple’s App Store.

[Via Cult of Mac]

id Software’s “Rage” Coming to iPhone and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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TechCrunch links to noted developer Tim Bray who’s taking a position as “Developer Advocate” at Google for Android but who announces it while taking a swipe at Apple’s iPhone and the closed nature of the App Store:

The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet's future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. It's a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord's pleasure and fear his anger.

Which is completely and utterly wrong, of course. That’s Apple’s vision of the mobile, curated App Store which they intend to be a family friendly, corporately liable software repository. Apple’s vision of the mobile internet is Mobile Safari and its WebKit rendering engine and other technological underpinnings, most of which are open source and heavily supported by Apple.

You can, now, today, get porn on the iPhone via Mobile Safari. You can get Google Voice. You can pretty much get anything and everything without any interference from or need for approval by Apple. It’s the definition of the Winer-ian vendor-less platform Bray quotes. Never mind:

I'm going to have to get savvier about HTML5-based applications, because a lot of smart people think the future's there, that the "native app" notion will soon seem quaint.

And HTML5 (which allows web-based apps to behave more like native apps) is something Apple has been pushing very hard as well (from promotion at Apple’s Developer Tech Talk World Tour to WebKit.org itself). And again, now, today, you can code and run some of the best, most robust HTML5 applications for mobile to run well on iPhone Safari — and other WebKit-based mobile browsers.

We’ve said many times Safari is Apple’s open app store, and Apple even includes it beside Mac and iPhone on developer.apple.com. That’s what confuses us about comments like Bray’s and TechCrunch’s mention of former Facebook for iPhone developer Joe Hewitt (who has since said the iPad is “everything he’s wished for”).

It’s awesome for Bray and Google and Android and developers, and we congratulate and wish all of them well on his new position. But it’s important to point out that while Apple’s App Store might be “closed”, Mobile Safari is wide open; if you’re a web developer it’s delivering as well or better than anyone else on the promise of of that platform today.

Confusing: Developers Who Complain Apple’s iPhone is Closed AND Think HTML5 is the Future is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

I had the chance to talk to Microsoft’s Loke Uei about Windows Phone 7 Series at GDC last week and he was cagey and super-secretive about the version running on his pre-production unit. He did, however, promise more would be revealed at MIX 10 this week in Las Vegas. Well, our very own editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, is at the show right now to seek it out. He’ll be covering the keynote live at 9am PT, 12pm ET over at WMExperts.com.

What might be interesting to TiPb readers is the approach Microsoft is taking — it looks to be one of the first truly different post-iPhone smartphone concepts that’s not really app-centric but rather aggregation centric. They haven’t sold me on the UI yet, but the flow between “experiences” looks stellar, as does the logical way in which information is grouped and made available. It’s going after consumers, which is the heart of the iPhone market.

Will Apple have to up their game for iPhone 4.0 in face of what the competition is (finally!) bringing to market in 2010?

SPE at Microsoft MIX10 for Windows Phone 7 Series — The Competition! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Once again proving that iPhone users don’t need no stinkin’ hardware keyboards, this YouTube’r claims 83 words a minute on iTextSpeed [$0.99 - iTunes link] which would be impressive on a full-sized desktop, never mind an iPhone.

And if you’ve got mad iPhone typing skills, feel free to drop your numbers in the comments as well! (I got 22 words correct, 0 incorrect, 43 words per minute).

Video after the break!

[148apps via Gizmodo]

YouTube link

Monday Fun Video: Typing 83 Words a Minute on an iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

According to TechCrunch, some of the worst scams in social gaming are moving from Facebook and MySpace to the iPhone:

Users are offered virtual currency in exchange for answering a quiz or some other seemingly harmless offer. But once they click through and awswer the quiz questions they're told they need to enter their mobile phone number to get quiz results. Often there is fine print outlining the charges. But the already tiny print is completely unreadable on a mobile screen, making that disclosure meaningless even when it appears.

SMS subscription scams are among the most lucrative offers to game publishers because users get a recurring fee of $10 – $25 per month until they are able to terminate the subscription. Many users never notice them, and those that do usually have a lot of trouble getting them shut off.

TechCrunch has reached out to the companies they claim are powering the scams, including “OfferPal Media and SuperRewards and now Google” and has received reassurances from some of them that they are working towards guidelines and policies — not to get rid of the practice but to make the terms clearer for end users. Apparently, there’s so much money involved in this type of “advertising” that it’s not going anywhere soon, it just might get less “scammy”.

Read the articles linked above for more information on how it works and who the players are, but bottom line remember — if something sounds too good to be true, it is. If a game offers you”free” in-game currency (or whatever they use to incentive play) there’s always a cost. Don’t give out your mobile number, and don’t download apps unless you trust them completely.

If you’ve had any experiences with social gaming scams, or any type of in-app scams, let us know!

Facebook and MySpace Social Gaming Scams Moving to iPhone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Live from GDC 2010, Rene talks with Jason Oberfest, VP of Social Applications at ngmoco about GodFinger for iPhone. Currently available in Canada [Free - iTunes link] with internationally release to follow soon, we get a sneak peak at playing deity to our own digital, mobile planet.

Watch along after the break and let us know what you think.

YouTube link

TiPb Apps 5.1: GodFinger for iPhone (GDC 2010) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Best of Smartphone Experts, 14 Mar 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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