The number of iPhone users should continue to grow, the New York Times loves talking about the iPhone, lots of people love to speculate about the iPhone, plus cheese, all in this week's edition of In The News.
- Reuters has an article about patients being told by attorneys to use their iPhones to record appointments with their doctors, without telling their doctors. Obviously, the doctors are not happy about this, nor are the malpractice attorneys who represent them.
- GigaOm has a neat infographic on smartphone OS share.
- As that GigaOm chart shows, there are still a lot of Blackberry owners, but Art of the iPhone reports on a study by Crowd Science that finds that 40% of Blackberry owners want their next phone to be an iPhone.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, 10% of Microsoft employees are using iPhones. I presume they are hiding them in paper bags or something.
- Attorney Finis Price of TechnoEsq.com discusses PadNote, an app for the upcoming iPad that will allow you to easily annotate PDFs. Price predicts that this could be very useful at trial, considering that the iPad has a VGA out port.
- Charles Starrett of iLounge writes that Apple is banning from the Apple Store all products which are, or which include, protective screen film. I don't use one of these products myself -- I find the iPhone screen sturdy enough, I prefer the feel of the iPhone screen without a cover, and I especially like the oleophobic coating on the iPhone 3GS -- but having reviewed the Invisible Shield product last year I can understand the appeal, and my wife likes having one on her iPhone.Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times reports on an update to the PayPal iPhone app that lets you send someone else money just by bumping iPhones, giving you an easy way to pay someone back or divide a check.
- Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times reports that the cable channel Epix is developing a new TV series called "iCon" written by Dan "Fake Steve Jobs" Lyons and television veteran Larry Charles. The show will focus "on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed."
- Brad Stone and Miguel Helft of the New York Times report on a rumored spat between Apple and Google because of Google coming out with phones to rival the iPhone.
- And the iPhone articles from the New York Times aren't over yet. Jenna Wortham has written several interesting iPhone-related stories for the New York Times over the last few months (previously discussed here: 1, 2, 3, 4). Her latest is this one in which she speculates that Apple may be developing a service called iGroup that would "use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to allow a group of users in the same area to share information such as contact information or chat about an event while it’s happening." Interesting, if true.
- If you are in the mood for more iPhone speculation, AppleInsider reports on an Apple patent that would add walkie-talkie capabilities to an iPhone.
- Let's keep the speculation coming: Stan Schroeder of Mashable reports that Chetan Sharma Consulting estimates that mobile app downloads on all smartphones, which were around 7 billion in 2009, will jump to almost 50 billion in 2012, at which time the market will be worth $17.5 billion.
- I'm not sure if this is inside information, speculation, or just hopeful thinking, but according to Art of the iPhone, the parent company of T-Mobile USA has said that it hopes to offer the iPhone on T-Mobile by the end of 2010.
- Ars Technica reports on a study by mobile analytic firm Localytics which concludes that most iPhone app use occurs around lunch-time and around 9pm on weekdays, and throughout the day on weekends.
- If you are a woman, you like to use your iPhone while you workout, and you don't mind giving people a reason to stare at your chest, TiPb writes about Gracie Gear workout clothes with an iPhone holder built-in to the top.
- And finally, are you trying decide what food you serve when you have a party to celebrate your love of the iPhone, or perhaps the arrival of the iPad? Ken Aversano, Director of Public Relations at the cooking enthusiast website CooksDen.com, with the help of his wife Diane, created a sculpture of Steve Jobs's head made out of mozzarella cheese, and his website gives you step-by-step directions so that you can create one yourself. Aversano even suggests three different servings: Apple Cheese Plate, iPad Thai, and my personal favorite, Spicy Steve Nachos Supreme which starts out looking like Steve Jobs and then melts over your chips. Here are a few pictures, but you should really check out The Cooks' Den to see all of them. Aversano's creation has gotten him much attention, including an article in the L.A. Times. I give the credit to New Orleans attorney Dewey Scandurro for bringing this one to my attention:
