Today at MIX10 Microsoft told our sibling site WMExperts that there would be no cut, copy, and paste in Windows Phone 7 Series, which follows on the news of an Apple iPhone-style closed app market and lack of 3rd party multitasking. When the original iPhone 2G debuted in 2007 without cut, copy, and paste, multitasking, and most importantly a third-party app platform, it led certain editors-in-chief who shall remain nameless (though not pictured-less) wondered — and not unjustifiably — if the iPhone could be considered a smartphone?

iPhone 2.0 brought the 3rd party apps. iPhone 3.0 brought cut, copy, paste and a host of other “missing” features. iPhone 4.0 may even bring multitasking. Regardless, we thought the iPhone 2G certainly was a smartphone then, and now, and certainly think the same about Windows Phone 7 Series, and Palm webOS when it debuted lacking certain features. It takes an incredible amount of effort to launch a new mobile OS and no company, not Apple, not Google, not even Microsoft have unlimited time, talent, and resources to nail everything in version 1.0. Our question remains, to get cut, copy, and paste (or whatever feature you think is missing), what other feature would you give up? Notifications? The new user experience? There’s an opportunity cost to everything.

Of course, when Apple launched iPhone 1.0 it wasn’t leaving behind a large existing user base accustomed to many of those now missing features the way Microsoft is with Windows Phone 7 Series. So, yeah, it’ll be interesting to see if they can grab enough new users to make up for all the ones they’re gone to lose. Because, if all those Windows 6.x users are suddenly faced with something new and different, it may not be too far a stretch to go for a different platform entirely. Including an iPhone. Which has cut, copy, and paste and may just have multitasking by then. So to them, to you, potential iPhone switchers:

Welcome! How you doing?

No Cut and Paste in Windows Phone 7 Series. So is it a Smartphone? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

When we met with Tezuka-san and the Capcom Street Fighter IV team at GDC 2010, he was gracious enough to give us not one, but two (2!) special edition promotional Street Fighter IV iPhone cases. Full color, they feature Ryu and Ken and are emblazoned with the slogan “Waiting for a new challenger” and the Street Fighter IV logo. When we got these Capcom told us there were only a few left in North America. This is the real deal, and they’re letting us give them away to you, our readers.

How can you enter? Easy, just leave a comment on any of our TiPb Apps Podcast posts (a real, on-topic comment, not just “can has win?”, okay?). Only one comment will count per podcast post, but you can make a comment on as many of the posts as you like (and we’ve got over 20 episodes now!) We’ll pick two (2) readers at random to get the cases so be sure to leave a valid email address with your comment. The give-away is open to anyone with a US or Canadian shipping address, starts now, and ends Sunday March 21, 2010 at 12pm PT.

(And to sweeten the pot some more, we have some promo codes and gift certificates to give away for a few of the apps as well. Which ones? That’s a surprise so try to hit them all!)

Oh, and every post you comment on also counts as an entry for TiPb’s big iPad give-away, so get going!

TiPb Give-Away: Special Edition Street Fighter IV iPhone Cases (iPad Give-Away Qualifier) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

From the Forums is a great way to see what all of the current hot topics are on the TiPb forums. In order to create any new threads of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is a simple process that will only take a few minutes out of your day, so if you have not already already done so, head on over and register now!

• For your chance to win a $10 iTunes gift card simply post your top 5 most wanted iPad applications in this thread right here. It’s that simple and you have until Sunday to get your post in for your chance to win!

• The iPhone 3G vs iPhone 3GS – what are your thoughts? Was the upgrade worth it for you?

• The iPhone 4.0 software is only a few short months away, feel free to discuss and speculate all you’d like about 4.0 in the following thread: Discuss the iPhone OS 4.0 software here.

• In search of some wallpapers for your soon to be released iPad? If so be sure to visit the thread: iPad Wallpapers Collection. Also feel free to post wallpapers you may have for the new device!

• Lastly for today, if you were creating the next generation of iPhone what is the one hardware feature you’d like to see added?

See you in the forums!

From the Forums: Top 5 iPad Apps, iPhone 3G vs 3GS, 4.0 Software, iPad Wallpaper, 4th Gen iPhone Feature is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

I watched WMExperts‘ coverage of Microsoft’s big Windows Phone 7 Series keynote at MIX10 yesterday and while I once again wasn’t wowed by the hyperactive quadrilateral tiles of the home screen, the workflow/funflow of moving through the panoramic hubs continued to impress. While Microsoft deserves a lot of credit for creating one of the few new, post-iPhone user experiences/interaction models, however, it’s interesting to note that they’re pretty much copying entirely Apple’s closed iPhone App Store model.

That’s right, free developer tools (like iPhone), no app distribution outside the market (like iPhone), except for beta and enterprise (like iPhone), which means no side-loading (like iPhone), and little-to-no multitasking (like iPhone… at least until iPhone 4.0), and push-notifications to handle alerts (like iPhone). (They do, however, claim they will be far more transparent than Apple has thus far been with the App Store approval process).

On one hand that’s a huge compliment to Apple’s highly successful, if sometimes controversial App Store model. On the other hand, users of previous Microsoft handsets up to and including the most recent Windows Mobile 6.5.x have seen open app installation and ubiquitous multitasking as bragging rights over the iPhone going on 3 years now. The mainstream consumer Microsoft is obviously targeting with WP7S will no doubt find it simple and clear. The traditional base of tinker-happy, ROM-cooking, power users? Likely not.

What think you, is Apple’s App Store model something Microsoft should have emulated?

Microsoft Creates Whole New UI Experience, Copies iPhone App Store Experience is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

We didn’t notice this until @pivale pointed us towards PCWorld’s article, but sure enough according to Apple’s iPad tech specs, the iPad does indeed support a type of .AVI video:

Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

No .AVI support of any kind is listed under iPhone or iPod touch tech specs. (Then again, none of those devices are running iPhone 3.2 like the iPad — yet).

.AVI, the audio-video interleave is a container introduced by Microsoft. Motion JPEG is a type of .AVI compression. While .AVI in general is ubiquitous for standard definition video content on the internet, there’s no indication Apple is supporting the specific XviD codec (encoding/decoding) used by those files.

In other words, and as pointed out in comments below, this will help owners of some types of video cameras watch their footage via the camera card reader accessory, it won’t let anyone watch their bootleg movies on the iPad.

iPad Supports .AVI M-JPEG Video is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

9to5Mac has been keeping a close eye on official Apple iPad accessories [Apple Online Store link] and while the iPad dock and iPod Dock to VGA adapter remain on April 3 schedule, the iPad Case is now listed as shipping in mid April while the iPad Keyboard Dock and iPad 10W USB Power Adapter have fallen to May. What’s more:

Perhaps even worse then those accessory delays is the iPad Camera Kit’s current situation. The kit which allows you to connect an SD card or digital cameras to your iPad is not even on Apple’s online store.

Did Apple underestimate demand for some of the iPad accessories? Did you manage to order one before the delays?

iPad Accessories Already Facing Delays, Shortages? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Articles [$2.99 - iTunes link] is a thoughtful, elegant new Wikipedia reader and discovery tool from Sophiestication Software.

Rather than just displaying the Wikipedia.com page, Articles takes the data behind the page and reformats it in a very clean, easy-to-read format with a chapter index control to briskly skim your way through to the section(s) you want to focus on. You can search for articles, find articles based on your current location, or ask Articles to surprise you.

Two of the more interesting features are Mobile Safari-style “Pages” that allow you to keep several articles open at the same time and quickly move between them, and an interesting variation on the pull-page-down-release behavior that, rather then refreshing, toggle between orientation lock and unlock (so your iPhone won’t spin content around wildly if you’re reading in bed, for example).

There’s also Mobile Safari-like bookmarks and history, and additional tips include double-tap-and-hold to display the chapter index, pinch or stretch to decrease/increase text size, tap-and-hold links to open articles in a new page.

Is it worth $2.99 when wikipedia.com (and other Wikipedia-based apps) are free? If you want more than the raw data, if you like the experience and features Articles provides, then absolutely. I read Wikipedia a lot and Articles is the way I’ll be reading it for the foreseeable future. (They had me at multiple pages).

Screen shots after the break, and if you give it a try, let us know what you think!

[via

Articles Wikipedia Reader for iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

With estimates of Apple’s first weekend of iPad pre-orders already topping 150,000 units, we thought we’d take a quick look at just which models TiPb readers — and staff — were getting. We posted our survey on Friday, just as pre-orders started and the results can be seen above. A lot of you are either not getting one or are waiting before taking the plunge. For those of you who did pre-order, the cheapest 16GB iPad Wi-Fi was most popular, followed by the most expensive 64GB iPad 3G, and then the 32GB Wi-Fi model.

As to TiPb (and SPE!) staff, here’s what we’re getting and why:

• Rene Ritchie: I went with the 16GB Wi-Fi version because I want it now and will be getting a 3G version as well so I’m keeping costs down up-front so I can splurge at the end. Also, I have to drive from Montreal to Albany to pick it up, so, yeah.

• Dieter Bohn: The iPad is an exercise in contradictions: looks like it could be a full, multitasking computer, but acts like a giant iPhone. Could be a giant iPhone, but the big screen makes it something more. So I figured I’d embrace the contradiction and get the craziest one in the lineup: 64 gigs, WiFi only. The fact that I have several phones which act as WiFi hotspots helps, though.

• Chad Garrett: It was a tough call, but I need an iPad like NOW. So, I went with the 16GB Wi-Fi only model. I already have a 32GB iPhone 3GS so I can’t see the justification of another $130 for 3G on the iPad. The base model will meet my needs just fine and fill the empty hole in my life.

• Jeremy Sikora: I ordered a 32GB iPad Wi-Fi. I blame Rene.

• Chris Vitek: I am going for the 3G because I want the option of having Internet/data connections even without wifi. The large disk size is so I can load lots of photos and media (mostly movies) and apps without worrying about running out of space. I would have preferred a larger storage size, but 64GB isn’t too bad.

• Matt Sawyers: I am going with the 3G iPad. While I expect to mostly use the iPad in WiFi areas, to know that I can get 3G away from a Wifi point if I need it. Also the fact that I will not have to pay for the service every month if I do not need it is an extra incentive! The 64GB size will be used for a large number of documents I like to have on the go & I will have a lot of my podcasts & videos on it as well.

• Mickey Papillon, The Cell Phone Junkie: I went with the 16gb iPad because I wanted to get and use the iPad to keep up with the technology, but won’t be keeping all my media on it. I determined from my 32gb iPhone that I don’t use all the space on it, and in fact, most of the space on the iPhone is being used by music. I will not be putting any music on the iPad, as I have other devices that I use for music (like the iPhone and ipod).

• Matt Miller, Nokia Experts: After much internal debate, I bought a 32GB WiFi-only version because I think it will be a great tool for my daily train commute. It may end up replacing my nook with the multiple ebook client support and it will keep me from buying this year’s new iPhone, no matter how cool it might be. I can get a great iPhone app experience on the iPad without having to sign up for an AT&T contract. I never use my iPhone 3GS as a phone so the iPad should also replace my iPhone, but my daughter will be happy to take it from me.

If you pre-ordered the iPad, tell us which one you ordered and why!

150,000 iPads Pre-Ordered, Which Ones are TiPb Getting? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Our last Macworld 2010 video! Rene and Leanna talk to Kent Griffin, Product Manager, Paypal Mobile, about their new iPhone offering that will allow developers to add easy Paypal payment integration right into their apps.

Watch along and let us know your thoughts!

YouTube link

TiPb Apps 5.2: Paypal Mobile for iPhone (Macworld 2010) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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