The editors at tech.com.uk report that Google Zeitgeist 2007, the “list of the most popular search terms it processed in” 2007 “has just been made public and, as expected, is topped by everybody’s favourite gadget, Apple’s iPhone. The iconic device was the fastest-rising search term both globally and in the US, which is where most of Google’s stats are drawn from.”
According to Jonny Evans (Macworld), “iPhones are the most popular mobiles on the Christmas wish lists of 13 to 25-year-olds in the US.” As he explains, “the statistics drawn from the survey of 1,175 Gen-Y consumers are a ’bellwether for up-and-coming consumer trends,’ said Murtaza Hussain, chief executive officer at Peanut Labs.”
Bryan Gardiner (wired.com) reports that Google has optimized its popular Picasa photo service for the iPhone. He quotes Google software engineer Joe Walnes as saying: “Today, I’m happy to tell you that we’ve just released this new iPhone interface for Picasa. After you go to Picasa on your iPhone and log in, you can quickly see all your albums that you’ve uploaded to Picasa web. If you click on any of the albums, you can get a full view of your picture with comments from your friends.”
After thoroughly testing the new iPod nano, Dan Frakes (Macworld) concludes that “it’s been improved in almost every way.” It offers “very good sound quality, excellent battery life,” and an “improved user interface.” And one great screen for watching video. “Even though this is the smallest video-playing screen we’ve used, after watching a 90-minute movie on the nano we were pleasantly surprised by the experience. Picture quality is comparable to that of the iPhone, just smaller.”
deleuth writes “The de facto online connectivity software sold along with many Apple computers, .Mac, has a Web interface through which users can check their ‘iDisk’ while away from their own computer. However, there is no Log-Out button in this Web interface, so most users just close the browser and walk away… not realizing that their iDisk has been cached by the browser and that anyone who wants to can open up the browser, go back to the link in History, and get into their iDisk completely logged in. From here, files can be downloaded and/or deleted. This seems like a minor security flaw via bad interface design, and podcaster Klaatu (of thebadapples.info) posted this on the discussion.apple.com site, only to have his post removed by Apple. Furthermore, feedback at apple.com/feedback has gone unanswered. The problem remains: there is no way for the average computer user to log-out of their iDisk on public computers. A quick review of any public terminal’s browser history could bring up all kinds of interesting things.”
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An anonymous reader writes “Monsters and Friends has just released the beta of Drunknbass, a new iPhone hack that allows the unit’s camera to capture video. ‘While the iPhone’s 2.0 megapixel camera resolution may be mediocre for a still camera, it is excellent resolution for a consumer video camera.’ A standard definition Canon digital camcorder uses a 680K pixel sensor chip (because a standard definition TV’s resolution is only 520 x 360), while one of Canon’s HD camcorders uses a 2.9 megapixel sensor. The beta presently allows 5 second clips at 10 frames per second, but the finished version will soon allow infinite recording at 45 frames per second. Video of Drunknbass in action can be found on YouTube.”
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