Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid Round 2

My inbox is in pain. Almost immediately after I hit the publish button on last week’s iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid Smartphone Showdown, a torrential blast of comments and questions has been barraging just about every communication inlet I’ve got. Phone calls. Twitter DMs. Lots, and lots, and lots of emails. Across the board, it all seems to indicate one thing: people want more. We hear you.

There are a number of worthwhile topics I simply didn’t get a chance to touch on, and a few observations I’ve made since that are worth mentioning. For those, may we present: Round 2.

Before we start, I should say: these aren’t all details everyone will care about, by any means. Some of them are quite important; others are downright nitpicky. I highly recommend that you read Round 1 before you read this – it covers many of the major topics, from aesthetics and keyboards to browsers and user interfaces. Also — and I might regret saying this later — feel free to use the comments section down below to ask any lingering questions you may have. I don’t have nearly enough time to test every last minutia – but if you’re curious and I’m able, I’ll add a bit to the post about it. [read]

New GrooveMaker Electro And Drums ’n’ Bass Released For iPhone/iPod Touch

IK Multimedia has released two new applications for the iPhone/iPod touch: GrooveMaker Electro and Drum ’n’ Bass (D’n’B). These complete the range of available GrooveMaker applications with two new style-based apps that allow anyone to create and share non-stop Electro and D’n’B tracks for DJing, remixing, multimedia and movie soundtrack compositions on the go, in real-time.

With over 350,000 downloads since its August release, GrooveMaker has quickly become the top loop remixing application for the iPhone and iPod touch, allowing any user to create professional, full-length songs in minutes, with its unique combination of advanced remixing software and high-quality included loops’ sound content.

GrooveMaker allows for instantaneous control over 8 stereo loop tracks, making it possible to remix the included massive loop library of drums, bass, bass drums, lines, pads, percussion and effects. Its unique and patented randomization feature allows musicians to generate a vast number of remixes on the fly, with one touch, to produce millions of possible groove combinations. [read]

Tab Toolkit – iPhone App

TabToolkit is an incredibly powerful guitar tablature and music notation viewer, including an audio synthesis engineer, tempo playback controls, metronome and built-in tab upload and download manager.  Definitely worth checking out.

Agile Partners Website

iTunes 9.0.2 update blocks Palm Pre syncing, again

This just in: Apple’s iTunes 9.0.2 update not only allows Palm Pre syncing, it embraces it wholeheartedly, offering to let you transfer all of your content to one of Palm’s devices to make it easy to switch to the rival handset and ditch your iPho—oh, whoops; apparently, I started reading my Bizarro World RSS news feed this morning.

No, in a far less surprising development, iTunes 9.0.2 once again blocks Palm’s attempt to ride on Apple’s coattails. The cat-and-mouse game between the two companies reminds me of some of my favorite classic John Le Carré Cold War espionage dramas—you know, if Cold War espionage dramas had been really boring and primarily revolved around arcane details of software development.

Apple reports $1.67 billion quarterly profit on record Mac, iPhone sales

Apple enjoyed its most profitable quarter ever, as the company set sales marks for both Mac and iPhone sales. The company announced earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter on Monday.

For the quarter ending September 30, Apple reported a net profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per share, on revenue of $9.87 billion. Those numbers blew away analysts’ earnings and revenue estimates of $1.42 a share and $9.2 billion in sales, respectively.

Comparing those numbers to Apple’s year-ago figures, quarterly profit rose 46 percent, while earnings per share jumped 44 percent. Revenue increased 25 percent from the September 2008 quarter. At the end of the corner, the company had $34 billion of cash on hand.

For the full 2009 fiscal year, Apple’s revenue rose 12 precent while its income increased 18 percent from 2008, according to chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer. Those increases come during what the Apple executive called “extraordinary challenging times” which have done little to slow the company’s growth. [read]

Rock Band For iPhone Hits The App Store

The much anticipated and hyped Rock Band for iPhone and iPod Touch is out! We first scooped the news of the launch of the app a few weeks ago. Shortly afterwards, Rock Band for the iPhone/iPod touch was officially announced by Electronic Arts. The app costs $9.99. The game features a multi-player mode (via Bluetooth), allowing up to 4 players to rock out on the go. While you can also play via single-player mode, you can use the integrated Facebook Connect to invite your friends to join in. [read]

Barnes and Noble’s E-Reader Like a Kindle/iPhone Chimera: First Photos and Details [Ebooks]

Barnes and Noble’s late to e-books. But the company’s new gadget—first seen here—should address the weaknesses of all other readers with multiple screens, each playing to tech strengths. A source from within reveals the first photos and details.

The Barnes and Nobles e-reader project, set to be revealed next week, has been under development for years, with several devices of varying size and capability in the pipeline. First rumors said it would have a color e-ink screen. Then people said it didn’t. They were both kind of right: The layout will feature a black and white e-ink screen like the Kindle has—and a multitouch display like an iPhone underneath. Pow! [read]

Review: iGmail for iPhone

There are quite a few Gmail apps out there already (PushGmail is a recent fave), but I do like what iGmail really brings to the table. First of all, it’s a full-screen app with some customization options. You can show the top status bar and the google apps bar as well, if you’d like to check your google calendar, google talk, or other such googly goodness from within the app.
Another huge difference is the double-sized text entry box when creating or replying to an e-mail. It’s a small touch that goes a long way, and it also makes it easier to two-finger scroll through the text-entry box. [read]

Ever Questioned the Price of an iPhone App? Then You’re a Whining Moron

That’s the headline on a Cult of Mac post earlier today.  The post author is pretty pleased with the weekend ‘protest’ by the developers of an iPhone game called Alchemize, and links the protest to ‘rampant idiotic’ reactions to the recent Tweetie upgrade pricing fuss, including mine – saying the developer of Alchemize has ‘clearly had enough of this kind of attitude’.

Here’s the gist of the protest, from a tweet by the developers of Alchemize:

Apparently the developers have received 3,400 emails in a month, ‘moaning about the price of his three-dollar game’ – and the protest pricing is the response to those emails.

I’ve seen quite a few people applauding this protest today – from individual folks on Twitter to a writer over at Boy Genius Report.  I don’t agree with their sentiments at all. I’m over in the whining morons section, booing this protest.

[read]

Photoshop Mobile for iPhone and iTouch

Adobe has released its new Photoshop.com Mobile application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The new application allows users to edit and share photos directly from their device, integrating with Adobe’s Photoshop.com online service to store the original photo online, as well as edited versions; users may also save edited photos back to their devices’ photo libraries [read]