iPhone Social Network Shows Location And Music Playing

TuneWiki’s iLyricPlayer shows lyrics on YouTube videos or other audio sources for creating an iPhone karaoke player, so you can perform karaoke by yourself in any place. Not bad, but TuneWiki’s new GPS feature is really worth consideration.
The new GPS feature enables you to see the locations of other TuneWiki users on a map, and what they’re listening to. With a tap of the screen, you may listen in on their playing at the moment songs. iLyricPlayer gets songs from imeem, YouTube and other sources.

It currently works only on jailbroken iPhones. However, it has a nice side effect: TuneWiki joins members from various cell networks.

Two former Israeli fighter pilots founded the company - Amnon Sarig and Rani Cohen, the CEO of mSoft. They have made TuneWiki available in such countries as India, Indonesia, Russia, China, France and the United States.

The combination of mobile GPS, music and an opt-in social network provides user with full control over the information.

See TuneWiki’s Google Android demo of the service

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Meet New iPhone 3G, At Last!

Yes, we got GPS, 3G, and lower prices, but some highly anticipated iPhone rumors, such as additional iPhone models or videoconferencing, didn’t get the realization.

The $199 price tag for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB model get people excited. Considering the iPhone 3G features, the price is reasonable and it will get its lines after July 11, when it gets on sale.

AT&T announced that the data plan fee of $30 per month is required for the iPhone 3G, that is $10 more than the EDGE-only plan. And even if you’re a current subscriber, you’ll need to resign a 2-year contract with AT&T.

The iPhone 3G is only about 0.02 inches thicker than the Edge-only model, and the new model is nearly 0.1 ounce lighter than the old model.

You’ll be able to browse and get access to data while on a voice call, even not in Wi-Fi range. The new 3G iPhone will have two times quicker connection over HSDPA network than over the old EDGE. It’s really fast enough for video and music, but yet there’s no word on the opportunity to download videos, songs or podcasts from iTunes. A future firmware upgrade can make it possible.

The battery life is promised to be 5 hours of talk time, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of music. But as a rule it is often less, we’ll see.

With announced GPS, live tracking of your position looks great on the iPhone. Additionally, Loopt has announced a GPS social-networking app to indicate your nearest friends. Finally, the iPhone switches GPS off automatically when not in use.

Unfortunately, the rumors on videoconferencing didn’t come true: no front cam for video iChat. Video syncing with iTunes and wireless music wasn’t confirmed as well. And no 32GB model or higher, no original EDGE-only iPhones, and only in black and white flavors.

Considering service side, the upcoming MobileMe will now get over-the-air syncing of Address Book contacts, e-mail and photos, events from iCal, and now Outlook Windows users are on the list. MobileMe is still $99 per year, not bad considering the doubled 20GB of online storage compared to the old .Mac.

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iSkin Offers Unique iPhone Protection

it seems that iSkin really cares about the protection of the current iPhone. It has announced the latest case, that will offer fused dual-layer protection.

The case incorporates a soft shock-absorbing layer and a hard outer casing with a soft rubberized grip on the front and back, as well as a protective film to protect the display. iSkin claims to give the world’s unique protection against everything – scratches, shock, moisture.

The fuze looks, works and fits just as you want it to, with major control button coverage and docking port.

The case is now available from iSkin for $39.99

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Pogo Stylus Stick For iPhone Prevents Smudging

The Pogo Stylus is a clever little stick for iPhone and iPod Touch, incorporating anodized aluminum and an electrostatic tip.

Some would argue that we all have fingers and that can be enough, but iPhone may get easily smudged from the dirty fingers. No smudges are left with The Pogo Stylus, so full-time users have less need to polish their screen.

The Pogo Stylus goes with a handy clip for attaching to the back of the iPhone. Interestingly, the clip doesn’t fit closely to the frame, perhaps because it is made to complement any sized iPhone or iPod Touch.

The stylus itself coincides with the length of a business card. One end is capped in black plastic and the other with a ball of knitted fibers. These fibers are meant to generate the static electricity, same as the body’s own current.

So let’s see how it works on practice. For answering the phone and making calls, the stylus didn’t show itself at all. For surfing the web and typing, it was a reasonable tool. The stylus’ reaction differs from that of a finger as it needs some downward pressure for grabbing on to things. It is really easy to use after you get used to the stylus physical requirements.

The clip worked not quite very well because it leant tightly on the stylus and loosely on the iPhone, so often popped off and it took time to get everything into its place again. The idea of putting the stylus in the pocket is not quite good, because it is short and you may easily lose it.

So let’s recollect the pros and cons of that device:

The Pros: doesn’t smudge, great for gloves and helps in situations where the use of finger pad is difficult.
The Cons: takes time to get used to, the clip is unreliable, small size of stylus and not really better than a finger.

The Pogo Stylus is available for $24.95, plus shipping

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iPhone Prices Drop To $154 In Europe

Some speculation got its spread on the US side that AT&T is going to subsidize the iPhone to boost sales. In early May Apple was believed to provide a $200 subsidy and easily double iPhone sales. Now subsidy-rumored speculations have crossed the Atlantic, where UBS analysts claim that the new iPhone may be priced for just 99 euros (or $154) across Europe in order to drive sales. In the UK the new iPhone will be available July 9 and priced at £100 (or $197).

Actually no records have been broken by European sales of the iPhone. By the end of last year France, Germany and Britain sold only 330,000 units, unlike what industry insiders had predicted – nearly 600,000 units. And the results of sales are frustrating, providing the fact that in these European countries Apple had exclusive dealers - O2 and Orange.

Meanwhile, Apple intends to reach ten million in sales by the end of this year. In recent weeks, a lot of distribution deals with the iPhone to be sold from Southeast Asia to South Americahave been announced.

If Apple allows the operators to subsidize the mobile devices, we’ll see how it holds up. For instance, Motorola’s decision to reduce the price of the Razr from $500 to $150 doubled market sales, and when Moto cut the Razr to $100, it doubled again. The iPhone is no Razr, but once once it happened with the Razr, it got rid of becoming just another commodity.

But big sales of iPhone are about to be real. There are over 40 countries with iPhone deals, where multiple carriers are about to offer the new iPhone. So it looks like Apple is going to quickly conquer the world with the iPhone. The potential market for the iPhone is calculated to get the number of 575 million. In case Apple keeps its existing 3 percent market penetration, it could sell 17.25 million items. And it is quite possible for Apple to shift 45 million iPhones by the end of 2009.

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