Appletell

I do not own a PS3, but I am betting some of you do or will after Christmas. If you have not dropped the cash on an Apple TV yet and are looking for a way to stream media from your Mac to your TV, you can do so via the PS3 with MediaLink from Nullriver.

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Just as rumored, Apple has released the 2.2 firmware update to the iPhone. The update includes all of the rumored features and more.

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If you happen to navigate your mouse up to the Apple in the top left hand corner of your screen and check for updates, you’ll find the iTunes 8.0.2 update waiting for you. Although this may seem like just another update to you, many people feel as if it is another hint at the soon-to-come iPhone 2.2 Software update.

That said, this update—which “improves stability and performance and provides a number of important bug fixes,“ as usual—also contains some specific fixes.

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Apple seems to love touting the fact that there are so many useful applications for the iPhone. Now, Apple is bringing that same attitude to a new website they have created called iPhone Your Life.  Calling the iPhone “a way of life,“ this website collects the iPhone apps into various groups, selects an app of the week (which happens to be Air Sharing this week), and also provides some tips and tricks. First impressions are key, and this site definitely looks like one I will keep coming back to. It’s well organized and full of useful and interesting information.

It’s great to see this type of stuff for Apple. Not only does it help them to help their customers, it also shows the outstanding support they have for their third party developers who are spending time and money developing for the iPhone. By creating sites like this, Apple is helping to give those developers more customers, which, in turn, drives even more development of their apps, and, eventually, new apps. Not only that, but it brings Apple money when iPhone users purchase third party apps, which I’m sure is another motive behind this site.

Be sure to check it out; it’s well worth your time.

Via [iPhone Your Life]

• Swedish iPhone users get MMS, what about everyone else?
• Wrap your iPhone in bacon
• Who’s On Crack in tech: 11.21.08 edition

FROM GADGETELL - YouTube is finally making some changes to improve its video quality.  In a step up from the “high quality” versions of video, YouTube will be offering 720p HD and surround sound. MORE »

According to a recent patent filing from Apple, it appears as if Apple wants to incorporate some sort of dual backlight system into their devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch in order to show the user the status of their phone without killing battery life. The technology would consist of a secondary lower power backlight behind the primary backlight system that would be able to project through one or more layers of transparent material. This material would be able to change its shape and size in order to create the appropriate alert. And not only would this dimmer light technology save on battery, it could incorporate color and a blinking effect into it to alert users of new texts, low battery, or anything. With this, instead of having to turn the whole LCD on to see an alert, the user could simply look at it and see the alert at all times.

This sounds like a pretty interesting idea to me. If it can be done cheaply and efficiently, I don’t see why Apple wouldn’t incorporate this into the next version of the iPhone. With battery issues being one of the main concerns with the iPhone, this could drastically improve the life of the phone. Not only that, but it would make it easier for users to check their alerts without having to turn on the entire, bright LCD screen.

Via [AppleInsider]

• iPhone twice as reliable as Blackberries?
• Another iPhone battery/case combo for this holiday season from Incase
• Get more juice out of your iPhone battery with FastMac’s battery extender

Macintosh and iPhone software updates and announcements for November 20, 2008:

• Silly My Apple Space users, hurling your bodies out into The New Blog. If you had any inkling of the true nature of the blogosphere, any at all, you would’ve hidden from it in terror.
• I wonder if the fellows at publicspace.net have considered making Gene Gene the Dancing Machine the spokesman for The Big Mean Folder Machine.
• Speck announces SeeThru Satin for the MacBook. I think that may be naughty.
• The Big Concept and Alphabet Art, my two favorite PBS shows, are now also Logo Design Studio Pro expansion packs.
• Freeway has been updated. Three cheers for the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956!
• Use StoryMill to write your story, so long as it’s not The Mill On the Floss, because that’s already been written.
• Headphone companies need to quit giving their headphones helicopter names. I mean, HFI-15G is really the best you can do?
• VelaClock brings world clock capabilities and a bunch of moon phases to the iPhone and iPod touch. So…okay. Good.
• It’s about time someone revolutionized the way I view media with my iPhone and iPod touch.

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FROM GAMERTELL - A nifty, bullet-point list of stores offering Black Friday 2008 deals on video games, game systems, accessories andother game-related goodies… MORE »

iPhone users in Sweden now have another reason to avoid jailbreaking their phone. One of the largest complaints about the iPhone worldwide is its lack of MMS, a feature that almost every phone has had for years. In Sweden, that complaint will be nonexistent within two months, according to Ben Olsson, a spokesperson for Telia, the Swedish iPhone carrier. According to him, Telia is currently in the works of launching an application that will allow their customers to send multimedia messages such as pictures, audio, and video over their wireless network.

Although the iPhone has a great and simple-to-use interface for sending images and other media through e-mail, the phone currently only supports SMS, or text messages. Being that it is such an advanced phone (dare I say, smartphone), it has come as quite a shock to most of its users that Apple has left out MMS. We’re happy that Sweden will have it soon, but we can’t wait for Apple to release this for other parts of the world, as well. It sure would come as a nice surprise in the iPhone 2.2 software update.

Via [MacWorld Sweden (Translated)]

• Apple launches new iPhone Your Life site
• iPhone updated to Firmware 2.2 right on schedule
• Wrap your iPhone in bacon

iPod Touch Hacks may be a site focusing on jailbreaking, but they’ve just compiled a list of built-in tricks of which any iPod touch/iPhone user can take advantage.

Some examples:

• On Safari, while scrolling through a long page, tap the bar at the top of your screen containing the time and battery and Safari will automatically scroll up to the top of the page.
• Double clicking the home button in any application, or with the screen off will bring up the music controls.
• To completely exit an application to save battery power. Press and holding the home button for approximately 5-8 seconds. This will help boost battery life if you run lots of different apps regularly.

My favorite of the bunch is that pressing and holding certain letters in the keyboard will bring up the diacriticals associated with that letter (alas, there is no option for the heavy metal umlaut.

Via [iPod Touch Hacks]