Daily Marauder

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The marketing prowess of Apple Inc. is legendary, a reputation that was bolstered again Tuesday by a slick 30-minute online video that offers a guided tour of the iPhone 3G coming July 11. (http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C4006938800025747A006B0B7B.html?ref=technology 7/2)

If you have an iPhone, this video is overly simplistic and painful to watch.  I wonder if Bob here uses these same hand gestures in regular conversation.  Must be Italian.

Google has announced an iPhone version of Google Talk which is simply an iPhone-ized browser-formatted version of the Google’s text chat application. This means you can’t talk over the Interwebs but you can tap out halting messages to your friends on the iPhone’s screen and, thanks to Safari’s tendency to clear pages randomly, you probably won’t enjoy a sustained conversation. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/03/google-talk-for-the-iphone-not-what-you-think 7/3)

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AT&T will sell the new version of the iPhone without a service contract for $400 more than the price with a two-year plan, a break from the rules set when it debuted last year. (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-TEC-ATT-iPhone.html?ref=technology 7/1)

The cellphone maker signed a deal with Warner Music Group to make Warner titles available through its “Comes With Music” service and Nokia music store. (http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-nokia-warner.html?ref=technology 7/1)

I hope you got it out of your system, people. Today’s the day that you can no longer use a handheld mobile device in California and Washington (the two states where I spend most of my time). So break out the Bluetooth headsets and don’t even think about checking emails. It’s the law. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/01/todays-the-day-put-that-phone-down-while-driving-in-california-or-else 7/1)

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Sending in your old phone or iPod for money isn’t anything new, but I recently found Flipswap and they’re a little bit different than other services out there. For one thing, everything is free and they even pay for your shipping costs. I’m not sure how their algorithm works, but they claim to give the highest trade-in value for your phone. Simply input your info, answer a few questions about the device and the phone’s IMEI and they’ll give you an estimate of your device and send the check right out. First gen iPhones are currently fetching around $190. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/29/stuck-with-a-gen-1-iphone-flipswap-it 6/29)

I just tried it out and found my 4GB iPhone (at fair condition) is worth about $100.  I also love that the site allows you to donate to a list of charities if you so choose.  Perhaps that iPhone case wasn’t such a great investment in this situation.  My incase looks fly but undoubtedly scratches the phone when particles get lodged between the case and the phone.  Sigh.

OpenTable, the web-enabled restaurant management provider, has introduced a new mobile feature that lets users make restaurant reservations from their from their phone’s browser. The new site, which is available here, supports the 8,000 OpenTable restaurants scattered across the country. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/29/book-restaurant-reservations-on-the-go-with-opentable 6/29)

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Apple store drones, PR agents and customer service reps are being as tight-lipped as can be regarding details of the 3G iPhone leading up to the July 11 launch. Apple has actually distributed a 3-page document to sales personnel instructing employees not to gossip about features or, under any circumstances, hold an iPhone for a customer, according to Apple Insider. A report issued yesterday from FBR Capital claims Apple has already upped its chip orders for the iPhone to more than 15 million units. (Cynopsis 6/27)

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Never mind a price that is one-half the original model: Apple’s new 3G iPhone’s profitability will outstrip its entire iPod line, according to a study from iSuppli, a research firm. ISuppli cited the reduced costs of components and subsidies from wireless carriers as major forces behind the gains. (ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg 6/25, Yahoo!/Reuters 6/25)

Virgin Mobile USA plans to acquire SK Telecom’s Helio phone service and fold it into the pay-as-you-go Virgin Mobile USA brand, according to the Financial Times. That’s good news for Helio’s 200,000 some odd users as rumors have been swirling that the socially-oriented MVNO was about to pack it in. (Cynopsis 6/26)

Sony will introduce a mobile phone by the 2009 holiday season that will carry the PlayStation brand and incorporate features from its PlayStation Portable, according to reports in a U.K. trade publication. (MarketingWeek 6/25)

Global gaming revenue from mobile devices should reach $4.5 billion this year, a 16.1% increase from 2007, the consultancy Gartner predicts. Despite its sluggish growth, mobile gaming carries plenty of upside because of its potential popularity across all of the industry’s user base and its viability in emerging markets as a low-cost alternative to PCs and console platforms. (mocoNews.net 6/25)

If any city needs this it’s LA. NBC4 in Burbank partnered with 3rd Dimension to launch a new Traffic Cam service for mobile phone users, providing live feeds of trouble spots from a network of over 270 roadside cameras in LA and San Bernardino County. To download the application, commuters can enter their mobile number by clicking on the NBC Los Angeles Traffic Cam link at KNBC.com or by calling 1-877-NBC-LA04 (1-877-622-5204). (Cynopsis 6/26)

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Nokia has brought to the U.S. its N78 smartphone, a 3G-capable device that also features integrated Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3.2-megapixel camera and a microSD slot that holds 8 gigabtyes of music. Priced at $560, the unlocked handset does not have a QWERTY keyboard or a traditional dial pad, but instead relies on four raised keys for input. (InformationWeek 6/24)

Motorola’s ROKR E8 mobile phone, which will be available July 7 for just under $200, features a keyboard that changes depending on what function users are doing at the time. The keyboard offers typical phone options when it’s being used to make a call, for instance, but then dynamically morphs into different arrangements when it’s time to take a photo or listen to music. (The Wall Street Journal 6/25)

The secret sauce on the ROKR E8 is its keyboard, which changes when it’s used as a phone, music device and camera.

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While once formidable competitors like Motorola struggle just to deliver their phones on time, Nokia wants to transform itself into a next-generation entertainment company. Last August, Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone maker, created Ovi, an Internet service and online music store. Its intent, analysts say, is to compete directly against Apple. (Iwantmedia 6/24, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23nokia.html?_r=3&ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin 6/23)

The N96

Following reports Monday that Google is facing delays in completing its mobile-phone system, the company asserted that the handsets based on its Android operating system would go on sale in the second half of the year as it previously indicated. One of Google’s major issues is that carriers and phone makers have to configure Android into their systems, and analysts say they may have been distracted by the need to react quickly to the introduction of Apple’s new iPhone 3G. (ClipSyndicate/Bloomberg 6/23, The Independent (London) 6/24)

Nokia have today announced that they will be acquiring the remaining 52% of Symbian they don’t own and will be releasing the complete Symbian platform under the Eclipse open source license. Nokia have also announced the creation of the Symbian Foundation, which is an alliance of mobile vendors and application providers that any company can join. (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/24/nokia-acquires-symbian-goes-open-source 6/24)

Sales of cell phones fell 22% from January to April, but revenue dropped only 8.7% as consumers paid almost 20% more for handsets than in the same period a year earlier, according to an online survey of 150,000 customers conducted by the NPD Group. But a separate NPD study suggests that cell phone retailers could make ends meet through aggressive marketing of accessories, such as Bluetooth headsets, car kits, memory cards and devices for music players. (TWICE 6/23, cellular-news (U.K.) 6/23)