It's Friday (TGIF!) so that means it is time to share some of the interesting iPhone-related news items that I ran across this week.
- Ars Technica reports on AT&T's latest financial quarter. With the release of the iPhone 3GS and the cheaper iPhone 3G, AT&T activated 2.4 million new iPhones during the last quarter, which means over 10.4 million iPhones have been activated by AT&T since the iPhone was introduced. I wonder how many of the 10 million iPhone users in the U.S. are attorneys? The iPhone remains a key reason that AT&T has been able to increase its number of subscribers, although AT&T's CEO Randall Stevenson acknowledged yesterday that, at some point, there will be a day when the iPhone is not exclusive to AT&T.
Kensington announced an interesting nightstand charging dock, available for pre-order for $40. It plugs in to your iPhone to charge it overnight, and also places your iPhone in a landscape position so that you can run the Rise&Shine app to act as a bedside clock. Whether you buy the charging dock or not, you can get the Rise&Shine app for free here:
- Immigration attorney (and internet marketing pioneer) Greg Siskind writes about why he likes his iPhone on the ABA TECHSHOW blog.
- I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I have previously discussed the legal wranglings between the makers of two of the most popular iPhone fart apps. The Daily Show did a funny piece on the lawsuit if you want to learn (and laugh) more.
- Google Latitude is a product that allows you to see where your friends are located on a map and for them to see where you are located. If you want to share this information with your friends, the iPhone would seem like a natural client because it is always with you and it knows where you are. Thus, Google developed a Google Latitude iPhone app. But as this post from the Google Mobile Blog reveals, Apple wouldn't add it because users might get confused between this app and the built-in Maps app. Perhaps Apple will be adding Latitude functions to the iPhone Maps app? Google then changed it to a web app, so it only works when your Safari web browser is on the Google Latitude webpage. I could still see this being useful under the right conditions, and to see how it works just go to www.google.com/latitude on your iPhone. But Latitude would be even more useful if it could run in the background—which is possible if Apple decides to add Latitude support to the Map app. (Google provides the maps for the Maps app, but Apple develops the app.) We'll see.
- What did you use as a cell phone before your iPhone? According to Silicon Valley Insider, about a third of you were using Motorola phones. Click here for an interesting pie chart showing the prior phones of iPhone users. (Thanks to Ernie Svenson for the link.)
- According to this Wall Street Journal article, quoting data from Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff, Apple and RIM (which makes the Blackberry) accounted for 3% of all cell phones sold in the world, but account for 35% of all cell phone profits. The analyst predicts that in 2009, they will sell 5% of all cell phones but reap 58% of total operating profits. There are also recent reports that Apple, which sells about 9% of all computers in the U.S., is selling about 91% of all of the computers that cost more than $1,000. There is a lesson for all of us lawyers: It doesn't matter how many clients you have, what matters is that you have good clients and that you provide them quality services.
- Sebastian Page of the iPhone Download Blog writes about the features that are missing from the iPhone 3GS, even though he concludes that "the iPhone 3GS is still my favorite phone ever."
- Jeremy Horowitz of the great site iLounge wrote an interesting article about updates to iPhone apps, noting that some developers use the ability to deliver updates as a crutch, shipping apps before they are really ready, whereas other developers delight users with very useful updates.
- And finally, the GeekDad column in Wired has a fun list of 100 mostly tech-related items that your kids may never know about. The list will both bring back happy memories and make you feel old.
