iPhone Live! podcast is tonight people and we want you to show up and chat with us! More than that, we want you to bring a friend, frenemy, or straight out foe and share the fun! We can’t promise punch and pie but we can promise a great time with special guest Mickey Papillon, the Cell Phone Junkie.

Time: 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 1am GMT (darn daylight savings time changes!)

Place: http://live.tipb.com/live/

(You can watch from iPhone via Ustream Viewer app (here’s how) and iPad (we recommend Duet Browser.)

If you have any questions or stuff you want us to make sure we cover tweet them to @TiPb, email them to podcast@tipb.com, or leave them in the comments below!

iPhone Live podcast tonight at 9pm EDT, come chat! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

ZDNET reports that Microsoft has announced that System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) 2012 will provide remote management for ActiveSync devices… like iPhone and iPad. The successor to Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager (MSCMDM, an acronym that, if spoken out loud, no doubt sends a Superman villain back to the 5th dimension…), it makes you wonder why Microsoft would be expanding to support devices other than their own Windows Phone? Mary Jo Foley answers:

My first thought when I heard that SCCM 2012 will enable management of iPads is that Microsoft may be undercutting its own argument that Windows-based slates and tablets are inherently better because IT managers can't manage iPads as easily and well as they can Windows-based PCs and devices. If Microsoft makes enterprise management of iPads a key selling point, won't the company be removing one of the advantages it claims for Windows slates?

Because different Microsoft teams have different masters — and different views of what's needed to drive their respective businesses — one Microsoft product team may end up doing something that another team may not love. Example: The Bing team is continuing to roll out all kinds of mobile browser enhancements for iPhones and Android phones that Windows Phone 7 users won't get until the end of this year. Another: The Office team has ported OneNote to the iPhone and may end up moving other Office apps to the iOS platform — a decision that may not be popular with the Windows team, which would prefer Office to remain a crown jewel for Windows users.

Do you manage iOS device in your enterprise? Will this functionality be of use to you?

[ZDNET]

Microsoft announces remote device management… for iPhone 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

According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is weighing up the possibility of extending its current licensing of AirPlay to include video. Currently third party manufacturers can use AirPlay but only the audio protocol. This is why we are seeing high end stereos and iPod docks with AirPlay but no products that can receive video streamed from an iOS device.

Under the new plan, according to "two people familiar with the project", Apple will license AirPlay video software to consumer electronics makers this year. This could then be included in TV's, Media Players, Blu-ray Players etc.

AirPlay is one of the killer features of the new Apple TV. If Apple decides to let other manufacturers use the technology it would surely lessen the attraction of the Apple TV for many. On the other hand, it would make owning an iOS device with AirPlay a very attractive proposition to many more potential users; and open more iTunes accounts too.

What do you think? Would you still buy an Apple TV if you could use AirPlay directly with your TV or Blu-ray ? Let us know in the comments!

[Bloomberg]

Apple to extend AirPlay video streaming licence to third parties? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Okay, how impressive is it that U.S. Air Force Combat Controller Ron Walker’s iPhone 4 survived a 1,000 foot drop from an airplane without a scratch on it?

The plane was traveling at 130 knots (roughly 150 mph) when he stuck his body out of the plane door to look for landmarks. At that point, one of his pockets opened and his iPhone took flight before plunging to the ground. "Well, guess I'll be buying a new phone," he thought to himself, and continued on with his duties.

He suspects the foliage broke the fall. Later he and a friend used Find my iPhone and some ATVs to hunt down his iPhone 4. He did have a Griffin Motif TPU case and an aftermarket metal backing (so my worries about the glass back haven’t been alleviated!), but that’s still very impressive.

What’s the worst fall your iPhone 4 has survived unscathed?

[iLounge]

iPhone survives 1,000 foot drop from an Air Force plane is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple has announced that Bertrand Sertlet, Vice President of Mac Software Engineering, is leaving to pursue scientific interests.

"I've worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless."

He’ll be replaced by Craig Federighi, current VP of Mac Software Engineering. While this represents a change to the Mac group and not the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad group run by SVP of iOS Software Engineering, Scott Forstall, Apple has a history of bringing technology from Mac OS X to iOS X and vice versa. Also, since iOS and Cocoa Touch are based on Mac OS X and Cocoa, and Serlet played a pivotal roll in in the development of both, his contributions even to Apple’s mobile efforts have no doubt been immense.

Everyone at TiPb wishes Serlet a successful future! Video memories after the break!

[Apple PR]

Head of Mac OS X software, Bertrand Serlet is leaving Apple is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

CrackBerry Kevin is at CTIA this week and managed to snag this video comparing the upcoming BlackBerry Playbook’s form factor and dimensions against the just-released iPad 2.

Kevin has a bunch of other new PlayBook videos up, so check them all out and let us know what you prefer, the pocket-ability-ish nature of the 7-inch PlayBook or the big screen of iPad 2?

[CrackBerry]

BlackBerry PlayBook vs. iPad 2 form factor showdown is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

The TiPb forums are naturally a great place to talk, commiserate, celebrate, get help, and offer advice to your fellow iPhone users. In order to create a new thread of your own or reply to any of the existing threads, you must be a registered member. Becoming a member is easy and free so if you haven't already, head on over and register now!

• This is your last chance to win your very own Steve Jobs action figure! Visit this thread for all of the details on how you can win!

• Other companies such as Samsung are introducing smaller sized tablets and with that being said, do you want a smaller version of the iPad?

• Not happy with your Verizon iPhone 4 purchase? Voice your opinion in this thread.

• Let’s settle this debate once and for all – AT&T vs Verizon. You pick the winner!

See you in the forums!

Steve Jobs action figure give away, Mini iPad, Verizon iPhone 4, AT&T vs Verizon – From the Forums is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

There’s been talk of an Amazon super-Kindle running Android OS since… about 5 minutes after Steve Jobs left the stage following the original iPad introduction. Now that Amazon has launched their Appstore (TM in contention), that talk is heating up again. And why not? It’s an obvious play. I’d be surprised if Amazon hasn’t had one in the labs for a while now (just like I would have been surprised if Facebook hadn’t been working on a phone…)

Amazon has content like iTunes, including (in the US at least — and more on that in a moment), ebooks, movies, TV shows, music, and now apps. They’ve made hardware before with the Kindle line.

But they’re hardly the only one.

Sony makes phones, owns a movie studio and record label, and almost everything else in place to launch a similarly competitive offering but they’ve been struggling of late and don’t seem to be that Walkman strutting, Trinitron innovating Sony of old. Samsung, however, is coming on strongly with their Galaxy S range of devices in assorted sizes and their Hub media services.

What Amazon has is a single login, credit card holding advantage. Both Google and Facebook could probably match Amazon on logins but they’re internet based advertising companies (what they sell is users’ attention). Amazon is an internet based commerce company (what they sell are goods). That’s an important difference. Most importantly, Amazon has the only checkout system in the world to rival iTunes, in terms of both one-click ease of use (Amazon actually patented one-click) and sheer number of credit cards on file.

Even so, they will be “just another Android tablet”. It’s no coincidence all these competitors — real and rumored — are being built on Android. Google has done to mobile what Microsoft did to PCs — make an OS that’s so great OEMs and VARs can’t justify the effort, investment, and resources necessary to make their own mobile OS anymore. (That’s a good sign for the maturity of the space, though a loss for those of us still hoping to see more innovation like a true Facebook or Mozilla mobile OS.) That means that market, skin, and branding aside, Amazon (and others) will benefit from huge economies of ecosystem but will also have to face competition within their own platform and struggle for differentiation and attention in the market. (They’ll also be facing internal tension since they’re providing Kindle and other apps for their competition — Apple doesn’t make iBooks or GarageBand for Android.)

Let’s say for the sake of argument Amazon’s brand is big and strong enough to really stand out from the pack –it still only gives Amazon some pieces of the puzzle.

Apple is offering an almost 360-degrees of integration. Everyone else has some part of that same story but no one else has all of it yet. RIM and HP/Palm have integrated hardware/software but lack the global checkout system of Apple or Amazon. Google has great services but their checkout is lackluster, their content still in process, and they’re almost always at the mercy of their hardware and carrier partners. Microsoft also has a desktop OS and previous consumer electronics like Xbox that could help with a halo effect, but none of them provided the existing accessory base and upgrade path iPod did, and Microsoft’s entire mobile strategy has been slow to the point of abdication. And almost no one else has anything like Apple’s retail stores.

So while upcoming mobile competitors will be bringing specs to an experience fight, Amazon and their hugely successful ecomm business will at least be bringing content as well. But it’s still an experience fight.

At the end of the day — or more appropriately at the moment of consumer decision making — you can’t match Apple on content any more than you can match them on specs. You have to match them on the feeling of the person in the Apple Store, hands-on with the device, absent any distracting logos on the bezel, easily obtaining and joyously not only using apps, but having the device become the app.

It’s a visceral response from mainstream consumers, an ability to engage with technology in a new, more understandable and incredibly intimate way that’s selling iPads, and that’s what needs to be competed against.

Regarding an Amazon tablet (or, bringing content to an experience fight) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

New! Protect your new iPad 2 with BodyGuardz!

The video above shows just how well BodyGuardz can protect the original iPad — and now they’re back with BodyGuardz for iPad 2. We’re talking top-of-the-line defense against nails, stones, harsh language, you name it. iPad 2 is a big slice of aluminum and glass. You can sit there and worry about it getting scratched or you can slap on a BodyGuardz and know you’re keeping it safe. Back and front. Get yours now.

Shop BodyGuardz for iPad 2…

New! Protect your new iPad 2 with BodyGuardz! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• Flow for iPhone: Keep your personal and professional life organized in one place – create, delegate, and discuss tasks. [Free, with Flow account - iTunes link]

• Shazam: New friends feature: see what your friends are tagging – listen to previews of their tags, buy the track, watch videos and more! [Free - iTunes link]

• Evernote: Create snapshot notes using the iPad 2 cameras, and on the iPhone, add titles, dates and location to images. [Free - iTunes link]

• Atomic Web Browser: Update added search suggestions to full screen search. [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

New and updated iPhone and iPad apps for Wednesday, March 23 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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