The internationally geolocated geek's slavery [GeoLocation]

Hi, I'm Rani and I am a geek. I'm also international because I live in Israel, which is located outside US. As a geek I love gadgets and new tech but you've probably figured that out already, if you've seen my blog.


Last month I got my latest toy, a Google Nexus One, which hasn't left my hands since (my wife is close to taking my two year old boy and leaving home). I download and test apps on a daily basis and try to read the reviews as much as time allows. I find the geolocation apps to be very game-ish with their continuing appeal on me to win more points and activate more mayorships as well as complete challenges.

Lately I've started to feel a little frustrated. There is no single venue in Israel in the indexes of SCVNGR, in my city there are about 40 places in Gowalla (a few of which I created), and last but not least, FourSquare, which is better but still I already registered at least a dozen venues. So I'm like making my town visible to the people coming to visit here. I feel like a lone rider boldly going where no one has gone before.

I said a lone rider for a reason. Not only the Israeli places are missing in the geolocation apps but also available friends are scarce. I have more then 500 contacts in my gmail account and more then 250 friends, mostly close friends, and non are SCVNGR usrers, 1 is a Gowalla user which until recently was my only FourSquare friend. I now have 7 friends in FourSquare, 2 of which didn't log in for centuries, 3 promotion companies, 1 from Thailand which I don't even know and asked me to befriend him. I did, what do I care... The last one is the one from Gowalla which is my only true friend. As I said, this is pretty frustrating being the pioneer. I actually feel a little like those pioneer to came and tamed the land here in Israel in the beginning of the previous century. Brave, strong headed, motivated and patriots.

If you are a non-US located geolocation user like me, let me know how is it you experience the check-ins lifestyle? What other locations are miserably abandoned like Haifa?

BTW, you can reach me as ranibaron in FourSquare, Gowalla and SCVNGR.

Apple Holding Special Event To Preview iPhone OS 4 This Thursday [iPhone]

Apple has just sent out invites to press inviting them to a special event where they’ll “Get a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS”.

The event, which obviously comes just after the launch of the iPad, will showcase the new features coming with the latest release of the iPhone/iPad operating system, giving developers time to plan for and integrate the new features into their apps. There have been rumors for months that this new update will include the ability for certain third party apps to run in the background.

Apple has been holding these developer preview events since before the App Store launched — there was one in March 2008 where the iPhone SDK was announced. And last March

Apple gave a preview of the iPhone 3.0 software update. Historically (by which I mean, the last two years) these updates have been released alongside new iPhones in the summer (the iPhone 3G came out July 11 2008; the 3GS was released June 19 2009).
[TechCrunch]

Watch the iPhone Swipe a Credit Card [Square]

Square, one of a few iPhone peripherals hoping to turn the iPhone into a credit card swiper, sounds promising. But how does it work? YouTube shows us!
Through its own app, Square processes a credit card, produces a receipt and even takes a signature. But as you'll see in this clip, there's one petty but fixable problem to the system—the Square dongle. Watch as Rose needs to steady the plug with his finger to swipe a card without popping anything loose.

I mention this now because I'm hoping that Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Digg's Kevin Rose—who are both behind the project—don't each have a ski house garage full of these horribly design dongles. Beef up the casing a bit to increase its surface area against the iPhone, just as Mophie has with their recently announced credit card scanner, and everything will be right as rain.
[Gizmodo via Kevin Rose via Ubergizmo]

Rumor: iPhone 4 Casing Will Be Touch-Sensitive Like The Magic Mouse [Apple]

We're not usually prone to listening to analysts' speculation—especially when it comes to Apple products—but this latest, previously unheard-of rumor could see the iPhone experience reinvented completely if proven to be true. Still, please do BYO salt bag.
Robert Chen, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg that the next iPhone will launch in June (obvious to anyone in this world), but will also be remarkably different to what we've seen before.

'Apple's going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone'

The 'new plastic casing' will be touch-sensitive, much like Apple's Magic Mouse, and according to Chen it will also have a 5.0-megapixel camera. The camera will undoubtedly be upgraded in the next iPhone model, so that's not a far reach for Chen to make, but this new touch-sensitive casing sounds intriguing.
Making the next iPhone completely touch-sensitive sounds slightly redundant, if you ask me. Why would you want to be able to make a gesture on the back of the iPhone with your finger, to answer a call or turn the volume up on your music, when it's already all too easy to do that on the touchscreen?
Unless Apple has something else up their sleeve. When you think about how you hold an iPhone, your index finger is usually pointed upwards, resting somewhere in the middle of the back. Could a touch-sensitive area there allow for quicker one-handed scrolling through emails, or application of pressure to perform a different task? Could it be used effectively in gaming?
It's perplexing thinking about what Apple can offer via a touch-sensitive casing that its touchscreen can't already do, but if you've got any ideas about this big fat piece of analyst hype, do let us know.
[Gizmodo via Bloomberg]

Nexus One vs Droid vs iPhone vs Palm Pre [Comparison Chart]

Now that Google’s Nexus One phone has been revealed, the question everyone is asking is how does it compare to the other current top smartphones on the market, most notably, iPhone and Motorola Droid? Moreover, is it worth switching to Nexus One from your current device?

BillShrink has put together a handy comparison chart that breaks the devices down (including Palm Pre too) on all key features. There are a few obvious differences — the iPhone still lacks multitasking while the Android devices have fewer apps — but for the most part, the devices are fairly similar on paper.
The biggest difference is total cost of ownership, and Nexus One wins big there over iPhone and Droid because T-Mobile’s plans are less expensive than those offered by AT&T and Verizon, who carry the iPhone and Droid, respectively. But that comes with a caveat too — T-Mobile’s 3G coverage isn’t on par with that of Verizon, and even trails that of the much maligned AT&T.
Overall, it seems just about impossible to pick a winner just off the specs, but here’s a look at how the device’s stack up:


[Mashable]

iPhone and Android Are Taking Over the (Mobile) Internet [Smartphones]

So, what does it take to snatch a combined 75% of US mobile internet traffic? Two operating systems, a handful of phones, and one great browser core.

That the iPhone is a massive source of online traffic isn't a surprise—that's been apparent since the week it launched. What's interesting here is Android's rise, which is dramatically quickening, already accounting for a fifth of mobile traffic in the US, when the real marketing push for the OS, starting with the MyTouch ads and the massive Droid launch, is only recently starting in earnest. What is a surprise, or at the very least a Sad Thing, is how poorly Palm is faring. Their tiny sliver of market share might seem understandable since they really only had one new phone for the duration of the survey, but this phone was supposed to be their savior; in the year since it was introduced, their mobile traffic actually fell.
Google and Apple's stark gain in the stats, collected by mobile advertising firm AdMob, is a little less spectacular worldwide, mainly because Symbian's established, but waning, 40% smartphone market share helps it snatch about 25% of mobile web traffic. Still though, two things are clear: Android and the iPhone are who mobile web developers are going to have to cater to, and WebKit, which Symbian uses in its browser too, is basically it.

Anyway, how about a bonus chart! Ever wondered how common the different Android handsets are, which is most popular, and which don't register? Well hello, extra pie:

The G1 is the predictable star here, but the Droid is exploding.
[Gizmodo via AdMob via Techcrunch]

Verizon Takes iPhone Directly on with “Droid Does” Campaign [VIDEO]

This is the ad campaign we’ve all been waiting for. Verizon has decided to step up to the plate and show Sprint and T-Mobile how to generate serious interest in Android. And what’s the trick? TELL PEOPLE WHAT IT DOES. Start there.

Beginning this evening, Verizon Wireless is running a commercial that points out all the shortcomings of the iPhone with quotes like “iDon’t Have a Real Keyboard” and “iDon’t Run Simultaneous Apps”. Finally, a platform that can do more paired with a carrier ready to spend more.

The ad has a definite “Apple” feel to it with the pop/folk song and simple black on white font. One thing is certain – Verizon is not afraid to take on AT&T or Apple. Their previous “There’s a Map for That” commercial show just how much larger their data network is compared to 2nd place AT&T.

The website DroidDoes.com has a countdown running with numbers replaced by unique carriers. A little bit of math and Encyclopedia Brown work reveal a timer that expires on October 30. The commercial simply mentions “November”. Why conflicting date? Perhaps the countdown reveals an interactive demo site or pre-order ability. We’ll see in a few weeks!

For now, head to the site and register for information and try to contain yourself. If you’re curious as to what happens when you sign up, you get an email like the one below!

[AndroidGuys]

Now This is How the iPhone Should Handle Multitasking [IPhone]

I really hope someone at Apple sees these concept interfaces from Ocean Observations. They've taken the best elements of the Pre's card system, combined them with Cover Flow, and created an awesome vision of multitasking on the iPhone.
The designers also have an idea for managing the mess of home screens that comes along with app hoarding. Tapping the home button would bring up a paneled Exposé page. From there, you could easily jump to a specific page, rather than swiping a hundred times to find Peggle.

Hopefully someone at Apple is keeping up with this page to see what else these guys come up with.
[Gizmodo via MobileCrunch]

Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps: Fall 2009 [IPhone Apps]

More than a year after launch, there are 74,031 apps in the iPhone App store. Most of them are crap. Some of them aren't. Here are the 50 iPhone apps you actually need, all in one place.
Well, OK, if you count the overlapping apps—paid and free Twitter clients, neck-and-neck navigation apps, the jailbreakers—it's more like 56, but that's not the point, people: The point is, since the last time we corralled all the best of the best (barring our weekly roundups, of course), the iPhone and App Store have changed immeasurably. In the last nine months we saw the release of the 3GS and iPhone OS 3.0, Apple loosening its grip on what kinds of apps people are allowed to create, and hundreds of fresh developers making genuinely new, genuinely impressive stuff. It was time for an update, and a big one.

So, hit the 'iPhone Apps' link on the left sidebar, just above Bestmodo, or just click here. We've got the best games, messaging apps, eBook readers, dictionaries, productivity software and timewasters. We've got apps to keep you up on current events, to keep your daily music intake interesting, to keep you entertained on the train, and to keep you on the right interstate. These are the essential iPhone apps—a list that'll transform that shiny, boring brick you just bought into the device that everyone's always raving about. (Note: It's split into two pages, so make sure to click through)
What counts as an essential iPhone app changes all the time, and so should our guide: If we've missed anything huge, or you've got a much better suggestion for a particular type of app, let us know, or say so in the comments. We'll be updating this thing pretty frequently, and a million Gizmodo readers can do a better job at sorting through the app mess than a single Gizmodo editor. Enjoy! [Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps]

משחק ראשון שמשתמש במסך "רב-מגע" של ה-iPhone

אני לא נוהג לכתוב כאן על משחקים והאמת היא שגם ה-iPhone לא הוזכר פעמים רבות אבל החדשנות של המשחק הזה היא באופן השליטה. לרוכב גלגש (סקייטבורד) ותיק כמוני המשחק הזה נראה כמו האפשרות היחידה שעוד נשארה לי לרכב. הביצועים נראים טוב בוידאו המצורף.

המשחק Touch Grind בא מבית Illusion Labs ומביא עימו שימוש ראשון ביכולות ה"רב-מגע" של ה-iPhone מה שנותן לשחקן תחושה שהאצבעות שלו מדמות את רגלי הרוכב במשחק. ניתן לבצע תרגילים מדהימים וגם ליצור רמות חדשות למשחק והעביר אותם לחברים לנסות. המשחקמתוכנן לצאת באוקטובר והמחיר שלו עדיין לא פורסם.

[דרך OhGizmo!]