phone

Arik Hesseldahl of BusinessWeek said today (here) that a group of independent software developers led by Patrick Walton have created what "appears to be the first downloadable program created for the iPhone." (More details here.)

But actually I think the first genuinely useful downloadable iPhone application might have been this one:

http://scicalc.belfry.com/

The programmer, a friend of mine named Garth Minette, discovered on July 28 that he could encode an entire application, 85 Kbytes in size, into an iPhone bookmark. So it works even when the iPhone is not connected to the network-- the basic … Read more

Apple could have a lot more in mind for the multitouch user interface found on the iPhone.

A recent Apple patent filing spotted by Macsimum News, among others, covers technology described as a "multitouch gesture dictionary." It's basically a way of assigning certain tasks, such as opening an application, to a series of gestures and "chords," according to the patent application.

Right now, iPhone users navigate by dragging a finger up, down, left or right to scroll through contacts, music or e-mail. Zooming in or out of a Web page requires two fingers that either … Read more

Nokia, the No. 1 cell phone maker in the world, reported another strong quarter of growth, as it capitalizes on poor sales from one of its main competitors, Motorola.

Nokia said Thursday that it shipped 100.8 million handsets during the quarter, an increase of 29 percent compared with the previous year. The company now boasts that it has roughly 38 percent of the worldwide handset market. Meanwhile, Motorola's market share has slipped in the second quarter, placing it in third place behind rival Samsung Electronics.

Nokia's success was driven mostly by sales in Europe, the Middle East … Read more

Six new unannounced handsets have shown up on Motorola's image gallery, and they all appear to be budget candybar devices. Not too much information on these phones aside from model numbers (Motorola W206, W213, W156, W160, W175 and W18), and we don't even know where they'll be headed. Judging from the two monochrome displays though, these phones are definitely on the lower end in Motorola's product lineup.

As many of you know, the world of tech can be such a frustrating waiting game. Companies will tease you by announcing a hot little product, but it can be months and months before it actually comes to market. Take the HTC Cavalier S630, for example. The successor to the T-Mobile Dash already has passed FCC tests but we're still waiting for an official carrier and availability announcement. Lucky for us, we were able to get an unlocked version of the Windows Mobile 6 smart phone from Mobile Planet, so take a look at our slide show, and check … Read more

At last, we have the Venzero Slickr MP3 player in our cold, gadget-lusting grip. The German gadget manufacturer has been taunting us with images of their Slickr MP3 player for months now. We've only just opened the box, but we wanted to share a pre-review glimpse with our loyal Cravers.… Read more

If you own a Mac or an iPhone, chances are you'll need to download at least one of the security updates issued by Apple late Tuesday.

Dozens of vulnerabilities and bugs were covered by a total of six downloads for Mac OS 10.3.9 (Panther), Mac OS 10.4.10 (Tiger) on PowerPC, and the Universal version of Mac OS 10.4.10, as well as the server versions of each of those operating systems. Each download contains several patches to correct flaws, and Apple is recommending that all users of those operating systems download the updates.

Some … Read more

Ready for download via iTunes. It's a security bug fix release (properly crediting security researchers as usual).

I'm starting to wonder how many people are taking advantage of the Internet age, and the volatility around anything to do with Apple, to make some money.

Apple's stock fell $9.71, or 6.87 percent, to $131.72 during today's trading on the Nasdaq. The stock was up early in the morning, but started to fall around mid-morning Eastern time, apparently after rumors started flying that Apple was cutting its iPhone production goals in half.

At around 12:30 pm in New York, TheStreet.com came out with a report saying that financial analyst firm Miller Tabak … Read more