dTunes, a new app by Richard Shearman, lets you grab all the free music you’d like, downloaded straight to your iPhone using some magic to combine SeeQPod’s streaming .mp3 service and Jonathan Misurda’s useful Safari Download Plugin.

Download dTunes (available via Cydia now on the MMi repo), and once installed, tap the magnifying glass or the Search Seeqpod button. dTunes will bring up a window with Seeqpod in it – simply search for the music you’d like, and when found, tap the song.

dTunes will bring up a download screen, and pull the .mp3 from Seeqpod’s source to your iPhone. Then head back to the main screen of dTunes, and simply tap the song you’d like to hear to play it! dTunes includes a media player directly in it, so you don’t have to switch applications, etc – its an all in one solution.

And yes, it even works via 3G and EDGE. Great for when you’re out and about, and hear a song you remember you want to grab at home (which I do all the time) – now you can just open dTunes and get it for free.

Please also check out the dev’s site, and send him a donation if ya like what he’s done.

via [ModMyiPhone]

Are you an avid magazine reader? Do you look at your iPhone and think that it’d be the perfect device to read digital magazines? Well, Zinio Mobile Newsstand for the iPhone offers such digital magazines in high-resolution glory. With loads of popular magazines in tow, Zinio Mobile Newstand gives iPhone users a free look at issues that typically cost anywhere from $5 to $10.

How does it perform? Can you actually read anything?

Read the rest of this entry »

Google Reader is a hot ticket for iPhone and iPod Touch users lately. We saw a native attempt at Google Reader, which worked quite well actually. There is just nothing like the real thing though right? So here it is, Google has finally brought full support of its RSS reader, Google Reader, to the mobile Safari browser. The service says it is still in beta, but it seems to be working very well.

“This new version is designed to offer many of the same features as the desktop, while making it quick and easy to act on items. If you’ve used list view, then it should be familiar to you. Scan the titles for an item that interests you, tap and it expands in place. Starring, sharing, and keeping unread are done in place, so you never have to leave the list view or refresh the page. We think it’s a very fast way to power through your reading list.” – Google Reader Blog

The application looks to bring a more desktop like Google Reader experience to the mobile Safari browser. To access the new Google Reader, just visit http://www.google.com/reader/i/ on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The service is still in beta and you will not be redirected to that page just by visiting Reader, so bookmark it for future use.

[Via Google Reader Blog]

As the iPhone continues to march across the globe, Google’s special (and slick) interface that was introduced in mid-December has been limited to English speakers. However, yesterday the company rolled it out to 33 countries in 16 languages, including Chinese–despite the fact the handset is not available through any Chinese carriers.

More importantly, Google continues to create special mobile variations of its other pages, which now includes Google News and support for users of Google Apps. Google Apps users can now check their mail using the same interface regular Gmail users have been enjoying, with the added benefit of being signed in to use the other mobile Google services.

The updated news viewer allows users to browse by the front page or by section, and features a built-in search tool. It’s still essentially a link repository to other third-party sites, but it’s now far easier to parse through on smaller screens than its original format.

What really makes the updated News page shine is that it integrates YouTube videos in the related stories. If there are videos for a selected subject, you can view them as thumbnails, which when clicked will jump you to the handset’s built-in YouTube viewer. Short of actually having Flash, this is the closest you’ll get to being able to casually watch Web videos while browsing other news networks. You could also use a conversion tool like vTap or Avot mV, but this new system requires one less step.

I still think most iPhone users will be inclined to use Safari’s built in-search tool, which can be set to use either Google or Yahoo without having to venture to a search page first. With the speed of EDGE, I often find myself skipping any unnecessary page load when it comes time to search on the go, something that won’t be fixed until the purported 3G version of the handset comes out later this year.

The recently released iPhone SDK Beta 3 continues to give up juicy hints as to Apple’s intents for the handset’s next major update; not only has the 3G chipset been identified but new code referring to stereo Bluetooth headset support, suggestions of GPS and new functionality for mobile Safari and Google Maps.  There are also signs that Apple may not be taking the ongoing hacking of the iPhone lying down, with the inclusion of a “BRICKED_AND_LOCKED_SIM_STRING” that suggests the handset could seize up should an unlocking attempt be made.

In terms of Bluetooth, A2DP has been included in the code as well as “HeadphonesBT” that indicates wireless stereo capabilities, long requested for the handset.  Bluetooth remote control is also mentioned.  The new beta also references “RoleGPS”, which many have assumed will mean either in-built navigation capabilities or at least compatibility with an external GPS device (likely connected via Bluetooth).

The library also includes a mention of “Printers”, a new addition, while reference to Nike+ sports monitoring equipment have been deleted.  The suspected integration of the currently standalone YouTube app into mobile Safari is also present, via a “YouTubePlugIn.webplugin” component, and “Google411″ – the search company’s directory enquiry service – is now associated with Google Maps on the iPhone.

Finally, there are suspicions that Apple will require official activation of an iPhone via iTunes before Firmware 2.0 is permitted to install.

Via Phone Magazine
Poring through the latest iPhone 2.0 firmware that Apple has distributed to developers, The Boy Genius spotted that a new YouTube plugin for MobileSafari.app has been added. At present, video embedded into webpages won’t display in the iPhone’s browser, and only YouTube content is visible in a separate program. It’s unclear right now whether this new plugin will simply embed the separate YouTube app into the webpage, or is a sign of more advanced Flash development on Apple’s part.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has previously criticised Adobe’s Flash offerings, claiming the full desktop version to slow and the specially-formatted mobile version not good enough for the iPhone. In response, Adobe examined the iPhone SDK to see whether they could code a unique version of their embedded Flash viewer for the handset; however, Apple’s third-party software rules scuppered any chance of that, as they do not allow for Safari plugins, only standalone apps.

As it stands, then, the only possibility for an official Adobe Flash solution with the current SDK is if Apple gives them special treatment and permits a version of their software to work with Mobile Safari. This new Firmware 2.0 plugin could be a sign of that, but it’s simply too early to say.

Today Mac OS X hints offers an easily overlooked internationalization hint. You probably know already that you can hold down a key on the iPhone keyboard to select international versions of a character (eg. Accented characters).

What you might not have know about was the regional domains. In settings, choose General > Keyboards and enable some of those international keyboards.

Next go to Safari and start to enter a new URL. Tap the globe to switch the active keyboard from US English to some other nationality. (Russian is shown here.) Finally, tap and hold the .com button. After a second, a regionalized version of .com appears just to the left of the default.

Recent developers in WebKit on which Safari is based, ended up in Safari browser for iPhone 2.0 as well as in newly released Safari 3.1.

Apple has implemented HTML 5, CSS 3 and SVG into it. HTML 5 provides a standard for embedded SQL statements into a script code. SVG (scalable vector graphics) brings motion into places where only static bitmap graphics worked before. SQL (through SQLite) and SVG are linked into Safari but not by plug-ins. CSS 3 sets up implicit and explicit animation, and manages both using renderer.

The advancements to Safari are not only the additions of new standards. Apple has also managed to speed up JavaScript performance.

Early on Apple decided not to include cookies and XML to Safari, and hence ported SQLite from iPhone OS to Safari. It allows JavaScript coders the ability to manage data using real SQL with transaction support.While SQLite is client-sized, it is very powerful for a database that links entirely into your code.Since iPhone has space restrictions, using SQLite forces developers to use space carefully.

The advancements in Safari on iPhone 2.0 are great. In fact, Mac users will want it in their desktops! At least viewing for the developers’ perspective since it allows great stand-alone web apps, and that’s something you can’t do on other browsers.

Posted by David on March 22nd, 2008

While Lotus Notes and Exchange Server are still in development, Sybase has decided to take matters into their hands and make their own corporate e-mail solution.

Their method utilises standard iPhone mail client, together with Information Anywhere suit to access corporate mails on the server.

You can check the video of it here.

It uses IMAP/SMTP protocols, however iAnywhere keeps the information secured. So you can check and receive mails, check corporate directory using iPhones Safari browser, you can even check recent contacts while being offline, as well as writing email, and as soon as you are connected it will send mails automatically. And all this without compromising enterprise security.While Exchange will use ActiveSync, Lotus notes will need to use something different. Maybe even iAnywhere solution? In such case it would be a huge win for Sybase.

It is unclear now how much Sybase iAnywhere suite will cost, but it’s great to see that there are alternatives.

Thanks: Zdnet

In a shareholder meeting on Tuesday, Steve Jobs said that Adobe Flash will not be supported by iPhone anytime soon.

He said that the cause for that was Flash’s architectural limitation. This due to the fact that Flash was designed for PC, which has huge computing power. IPhone on the other hand has much less powerful CPU, memory, disk storage and battery.

So in order to develop a Flash plug-in for the iPhone, Adobe’s proprietary software would need to be recompiled and optimized for the ARM architecture, which would require huge input from Adobe. Basically it should be designed to use CPU much more wisely, saving as much power as possible, also using limited RAM and storage.

While we don’t have flash support here is something iPhone web developers should take into consideration:

“Don’t bring up JavaScript alerts that ask users to download Flash. Flash isn’t supported and neither are downloads.”
“Safari on iPhone does not support… Java applets, Flash, Plug-in installation”
Under the section “Unsupported Technologies,” Apple listed one technology: Flash.
“You’ll want to avoid using Flash and Java for iPhone content. You’ll also want to avoid encouraging users to download the latest Flash on their iPhone, because neither Flash nor downloads are supported by Safari on iPhone.”

Thanks: AppleInsider