No. 1 – Google app for iPhone does Speech Recognition. Enough said!
No. 2 – Obama faces ban on Blackberry and Apple at White House
There is a wonderful and interesting story about Obama and his geek toys not making it to the White House come his January inauguration. Apparently US Presidents don’t get to have their own laptops or cell phones. Gee? I wasn’t aware…were you? Obama is a MacBook Pro guy — so this is great to finally see a Mac user back in the White House again. Al Gore, who ran for the White House eight years ago was not a Mac user at the time, but has since switched back to the Mac after being appointed an Apple board member.
As for the Blackberry, last week RIM announced that it is finally coming out with Mac syncing software for its popular Blackberry smartphones. This should make a lot of people happy — including Obama (…if only he could keep using his cell phone!)
No. 3 – Microsoft’s Future Web-based Office Suite to Run on Linux, Safari and iPhone
According to this report on ZDNet, the future of Office isn’t tied to Windows or Internet Explorer. The upcoming Microsoft Office Web Applications will not require Internet Explorer. MS-OWA’s will work across multiple platforms and browsers including Apple’s Safari and FireFox too. They will even work on the Safari browser on the iPhone. And Linux!
According to this Microsoft blogger the future web-based Office suite will not replace the boxed version of software.
No. 4 – Will the iPhone gobble up iPods? No, the iPod will evolve into flavored versions — one version being a Gaming Machine
That is exactly what will happen and it’s nice to see the beginning of that coming to fruition now. This BBC report discusses Apple’s growing momentum in the mobile game device market, where Nintendo and Sony compete.
Sega, Electronic Arts (EA) and Hudson are all creating games for the iPod and iPhone now. The big advantage Apple has is that they have the App Store where buyers can peruse not just games but over 5000 programs (1500+ games) for their iPod touch or iPhone. And best yet, the programs cost much less than the “cartridge-based” old school method of mobile gaming. Whether Apple succeeds fully is yet to be determined. It’s an early market, as the report notes, but one where Apple can be a big player.
No. 5 – Apple’s iPhone Number One Handset in US in 3rd Quarter
The iPhone has taken the crown from Motorola’s popular Razr, according to NPD data for the US handset (mobile phone) market in the third quarter. The Razr had been the number one handset for 12 quarters straight.