When the original iPhone was first launched, its camera ranked among its least competitive features. While the face of Apple's product broke ground for how it reacted to touch, its eye into the world was wanting. It could capture only two megapixels, lacked autofocus, a flash, or digital zoom, and had no support for video capture. It seemed as though Apple had somehow felt obliged to put in a camera, a feature the company would leave off the iPod touch and iPad. The 3GS bumped the resolution to three megapixels and added in video capture that even included trimming capabilities, but Apple's heart still didn't seem very into the iPhone as a digital imaging device.
That's changed with iPhone 4. While its five-megapixel camera lags behind the eight-megapixel cameras on devices such as the Droid Incredible and HTC EVO 4G in terms of raw resolution, and it includes just one LED flash bulbs as opposed to two on the EVO HD, Apple's inclusion of a backlight sensor has aided the product's low-light capture, and the included software makes use of the cameras in innovative ways.
Continue reading Switched On: An 'i' for imaging
Switched On: An 'i' for imaging originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Yesterday we reported on a music-streaming iPhone application called Rdio that has been waiting for weeks to have an update approved by Apple. Now we’ve learned that this may be part of a new trend: MOG, the music portal that offers an impressive on-demand streaming music service, is also having issues with the App Store. MOG submitted its iPhone application over a month ago, and has heard nothing from Apple since. Phone calls and emails have gone unreturned. And the company is understandably getting nervous that Apple may be thinking of blocking the app.
MOG has a lot riding on its mobile applications — it just closed a new $9.5 million funding round, some of which is going toward expanding its mobile platform. At SXSW it held a press event to preview its iPhone and Android applications, and what it showcased was pretty impressive. For $10 a month, users can stream any song or album they want, and they can locally download entire albums to their phone (which will work even when they lose connectivity) in one tap.
It’s possible that Apple is concerned that MOG’s app is too good. If you listen (and pay for) a lot of music, MOG’s all-you-can-eat service can quickly pay for itself. And it makes tethering your iPhone to your PC every time you want to sync songs a thing of the past. Apple has long been been rumored to be working on its own cloud music service, especially since it acquired Lala last December, and may be worried about getting beaten to the punch. Thing is, Apple has already approved Rhapsody, which offers much of the same music streaming functionality (albeit without the full-album download button) and Spotify.
On the other hand, Apple may just be overwhelmed — it has the release of the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 just around the corner, and now has to deal with developers who are upgrading their apps in time for the new OS launch.
We’ll be keeping an eye on this to see how it develops.
It seems like the entire United Kingdom (at least those who aren't out partying it up with Patsy Kensit at the Met Bar) has emailed us in the last two minutes to clue us in on the fact that O2 has posted its new
iPhone 4 pricing. It looks like your beloved "unlimited 3G" plans of are a thing of the past -- instead, you'll be paying for up to 1GB of data of month. As you approach the limit, a text message will notify you and let you purchase an 500MB for £5 or 1GB for £10. How very
AT&T of them, eh? But don't worry, kids!
Texting is still unlimited.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in... and we mean everyone.]
UK's O2 to impose 3G data limits for iPhone 4 users originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The T'Light lamp isn't the first one we've seen which boasts things
like chargers, docks and USB. It is, however, the nicest looking one we've ever seen. The modern stainless steel lamp has an iPod dock in its base, plus a USB port and a jack for charging laptops -- though there's no adapter for MacBooks as of yet, apparently. The T'Light is available now for $90 -- hit up the source for more details.
T'Light lamp for major nerds with good taste (should such a thing exist) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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