Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer had some interesting things to say yesterday about which companies Microsoft sees as its competitors in the client operating system space. You’d think Apple was their number one competitor - and you’d be wrong. Microsoft sees two other competitors as their primary adversaries.

As you can see, Microsoft sees piracy as its biggest competitor. “Number two market share goes to Windows pirated, or unlicensed,” Balmer said, “That’s a competitor that’s tough to beat, they’ve got a good price and a heck of a product, but we’re working on it.”

Balmer said “I think depending on how you look at it, Apple has probably increased its market share over the last year or so by a point or more. And a point of market share on a number that’s about 300 million is interesting. It’s an interesting amount of market share, while not necessarily being as dramatic as people would think, but we’re very focused in on both Apple as a competitor, and Linux as a competitor.”

In any case, it appears that Linux (and piracy) is a larger blip on Microsoft’s radar than Apple, and it’s not hard to see why. With an economy that’s not doing very well, people will opt for cheaper products. Apple cannot offer those, but Linux and piracy can.

Today iPhone is a superb gadget, and most of us using it. People want to make use of this gadget in most of their work. Now you can search torrents from our iPhone itself. Now there available a third party software which provides a good user interface for seraching and downloading the torrents to use your Bit torrent  when your are not in front of your PC.

As we all know there is a major flaw in iPhone rather i should say weakness that it doesn’t support copy and paste. Here also this third party s/w, utorent webAPP, gives the ability to search the torrent and directly add them to the download queue.

In order to browse through your torrents on the iPhone, you need to have the uTorrent WebUI installed on your local PC, with the iPhone GUI addon. When you have everything setup, you can browse to louish.com/iphone, enter your IP and port, and you’re set. The IP and port will be saved on your iPhone, so you don’t have to enter it the next time you search for a torrent.

In the search results you will see a blue icon next to every torrent. A single click on this icon is all that’s needed to add the torrent file to the download queue. So have a try on this.

Download Apple Wallpapers

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German site wiwo.de (English translation) is claiming that Apple will launch iTunes movie purchases and rentals within the next few weeks in Germany.

According to the site’s sources Apple is currently building a catalog of German movies to provide at launch.

Apple began selling TV shows in Germany in April 2008. By year’s end, HDTV-quality offerings should also be available according to wiwo.de.

REVIEW - NLU PRODUCTS BodyGuardz for iPhone 3G

NLU provides nice packaging. Included are 2 screen protectors, 2 body protectors, 1 bottle of application spray liquid, 1 microfiber cloth, 1 hard plastic squegee, installation instructions and some small promotional cards.

SEE ATTACHED PHOTOS

Important pre-application tip: use the application spray! Use lots of it! Make sure you liberally spray your fingers before pulling off the stickers, and then spray liberally on the sticky part of the stickers themselves. Your precious iPhone is actaully pretty well sealed off against liquid damage (after all, that one guy dropped his in a bowl of cereal and milk with no problems)

The liquid will help you move the stickers around a little bit, because you DO NOT want them to immediately stick on contact. You are not perfect and you will not get the stickers perfectly aligned without the liquid. Even if you run out of liquid, it is a simple mixture of water and baby shampoo, so you could easily make more.

PART 2

My advice: Apply the screen protector first. It is much easier to do and will provide you with good practice for the much more difficult back part.

Make sure your screen is completely clean before you do anything, and wash your hands VERY WELL. Use a lot of application liquid, and go for it.

The cutouts for the speaker and home button are PERFECT. They leave just a little bit of “breathing room”, but it looks great. I still have some “bubbles” present after squeegeeing (I use my fingers, not the plastic squeegee), but NLU assures these will go away after some time. I’ll post more pictures after it is completely dried and settled - so don’t make any final judgments yet.

The screen protector provides perfect coverage all the way to the sides of the black-glass area, leaving ever so small a gap (which looks nice).

PART 3

My initial installation of the back film has proved to be slightly difficult (thank goodness they provide 2 sets of film for your money).

It seems like the film is cut perfectly, wrapping all the way around the back of the iPhone 3G, and covering all the way over the side of the chrome frame. All of the cutouts are perfectly shaped (leaving room for the headphone port, sleep/wake button, vibrate button, volume control, camera, dock connector, and speakers). The first time, I lined up the film based on the location of the camera cutout, but it seems like I got a little sideways with the application from that point.

The corners seem to wrap to be cut very well (see the cutout diagram in my first post), however, the slightest deviation from the correct positioning will leave some of them looking a little creased.

I will try application #2 tomorrow and try to get it a little more straight. I will post more photos after I do.

By the way, I think the material/finish of the BodyGuardz is perfect. The screen has the same shine and glossy look as a naked screen would, and the plastic back retains its fully glossy finish. The touch sensitivity is unaffected. Honestly, one you get the bubbles out of the film, I think the film will look truly invisible.

PART 4 (Final)

What an excellent product we have here.

NLU shipped my BodyGuardz on the day the iPhone 3G was released. I was very impressed with their ability to get the product off the manufacturing line so quickly, but I was also very skeptical about how good a “1st generation” body protection product would turn out. There are some things they could improve though…

DISCLAIMER: The installation of the back shield is the most tedious and annoying process i’ve ever gone through for a gadget. You will need to set aside AT LEAST ONE HOUR to do the back shield installation. No, I’m not kidding.

My first attempt at the back shield was very poor for a couple of reasons. 1) I thought it wouldn’t take “that long” and I was impatient, 2) I didn’t use enough of the spray solution.

So here’s what I did the second time around:
-Turned on my shower and filled up my bathroom with steam. This gets all the dust particles out of the air, and having more ‘moist’ air will help keep the back from immediately sticking.
-Washed off my hands a lot.
-Turned off my iPhone and cleaned it a lot. Used water and a very modest amount of hand soap on a small dust-free cloth.

Following all of NLU instructions, I liberally sprayed my fingers and the sticky part of the shield with the provided spray. You need to look carefully at the layout of the sticker before you pull if from the backing. It’s not easy, and you could easily stretch it out in the process… so be patient and plan it out. Use lots of spray!!

Lining up the back shield is NOT EASY, but it is cut nearly perfectly. I suggest paying close attention to the camera cutout and the volume/silent cutouts. My shield was cut precisely to the size of the volume switch - there is not breathing room so pay close attention to it.

You will need to press the shield down in the middle and work your way toward the outsides. VERY SLOWLY. If you use enough solution and work slowly, you should have no air/water bubble problems.

The corners are a horrible thing to deal with. You need a lot of time to “work” them down. They are not very sticky with the solution applied, so you need to press them back down again, and again, and again, about a hundred time before they completely stick. . . . . After you finally get them to stick down (paying close attention to their positioning on the chrome sides), you will want to use a hair-dryer to help them “form” into place. Do thins for a few minutes and you should get them to stick down nicely.

Pros:
-You get two shields in the package. You will probably mess up the first time, so you need them
-Wraps perfectly around all the holes of your iPhone (dock connetor, speakers, volume, headphones, etc..)
-The clarity is perfect. Matches the iPhone’s gloss perfectly - you really can’t see it except at the corners.
-Feels the same as a “naked” iPhone. Although the back seems a little more “sticky” to prevent it slipping out of your hand. Very nice.
-Price is a steal compared to competitors (who usually provide only 1 shield for the same price)

Cons:
-Installation is an extremely tedious process.
-The corners are not completely covered by the cutouts (see close up shots)

Pictures below
You may see ‘dust” in the photos, but it is not becasue of the shield, just a dusty environment in which I took the photos. It really looks the same as a naked iPhone. The screen clarity is perfect.

More

[VIA :theotherrogue]

http://store.apple.com/hk

As stated in the website:
“iPhone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier. Simply insert the SIM from your current phone into iPhone 3G and connect to iTunes 8 to complete activation.”

8GB for HKD 5400 (About USD690)
16GB for HKD 6200 (About USD 790)

Credit goes to CNET.COM for this one.

While using your iphone, hold down the home button and quickly tap the power/sleep button on the top of the phone, and you will see your screen flash.

From there, go to photos and you will see a print screen of what you were doing. I tried this on my email, the web, and Yelp, not sure if this works on every app or just certain ones.

You definately have to tap it pretty quick on the top, hold down the home button, but DONT hold down the power just tap it real quick.

iPhone Tips

Phone: To stop an incoming call from ringing, press the sleep / wake button. To send the call immediately to VoiceMail, press the sleep / wake button twice.

Email: To delete email by just swiping left to right on the email in the list and press the delete button that pops up on the right

Caller ID: If you select a photo for a contact from the iPhone, the selected photo is shown full screen for the caller ID

Caller ID: If a contacts photo is transferred with the contact’s info from the Address Book, the contact’s photo is shown as a thumbnail (just like with the commercials) for the caller ID

Keystroke Saver: The trick David Pogue mentions for entering a period (hold down the punctuation key and then slide to the period and release) will allow you to enter anything on the non-alpha keyboard and return to the alpha keyboard in one swipe

iPhoto: The phone shows up in iPhoto (turn off in image capture)

iPhoto: You can use ‘Camera is not Apple iPhone’ in a smart playlist

iPhoto: A contacts picture folder /album is a good idea

iPhoto: A wallpaper folder / album is a good idea

iPhone: Keeping the favorites screen open allows you to unlock the screen then dial with three motions

iPhone: The home button can be used to access unlocking instead of sleep wake

iPhone: To use the CAPS LOCK feature, make sure it is enabled in the General Settings. To use it, simply double-tap on the shift key. The shift key will turn blue

Google Maps: Typing in the three letter airport code while in maps will bring the airport up on the map. So if you are trying to view a map of say Renton, WA. Typing SEA (or sea) will bring up the Seattle airport. It’s relatively quick to zoom out, recenter over Renton, and zoom in again. It seems to recognize all primary and secondary US airports and many overseas airports as well.

A link to find airport codes: http://www.orbitz.com/App/global/airportCodes.jsp#USK

Safari: When you’ve scrolled down to the bottom of a page, and you want to go back to the top- just tap on the top bar of the phone (where “AT&T” and the time are) and the page jumps right back up to the beginning

Safari: Doesn’t provide scroll bars for text area form fields and scrollable areas in a text page. An example of this is the field I’m using to type this message in. Dragging a single finger on the page scrolls the page. If you want to scroll one of the areas I just described, use two fingers

Safari: To email a page to someone tap on the address bar. The Share button on the top left will create a message for you!

Safari: Page down. When not using a zoomed-in display, double-tap towards the bottom of the screen. The page will re-center around your tap. Make sure not to tap a link!

Safari: Jump to the top. Double-tap the very top of the screen, just below the time display to pop back to the top of the page

Safari: Zoom onto a single picture. Double-tapping images in Safari zooms them to fit your iPhone display. If the picture is linked to a URL, this can prove a little tricky but it works great for non-linked images. Double-tap again to return to the unzoomed display.

Safari: Zoom a column. You can zoom text columns as well as pictures. Double-tap on the column to fit it to the display. Double-tap again to return out of the zoom. Not only does Safari zoom block-quoted text independently of regular text but if you move your finger after the first double-tap-to-fit, it interprets the next double-tap as a re-center page command rather than a return-to-previous-zoom. Smart.

Safari: Stopping a scroll. After flicking a page to get it to scroll, you can tap the page at any time to stop that movement. Don’t forget, you can also manually drag the screen display to reset the part you’re viewing.

Safari: Manual zoom. This is probably one of the most-advertised Safari features (along with the flip-the-phone-on-its-side-trick) but it’s worth mentioning again. To zoom into a Safari page, put your thumb and forefinger on the screen and move them apart. To zoom out, pinch the fingers together after starting with them apart.

Safari: Examining the URL. To peek at a link’s destination, touch and hold the link for a few seconds. You can also do this with images to see if they are linked. If a link appears and you don’t want to activate it, just slide your finger away until the destination text disappears.

Safari: Well just point your iPhone browser to a Video on google video and choose download for iPod/PSP and you can watch it right there in safari. This also shows that you can also watch videos in the vertical position not just landscape.

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Bookmarks: Create a separate folder / section for all your iPhone web sites. This makes is easy to locate them while browsing the we on your iPhone.

iPhoto / Photos: Create an Album (folder) called iPhone Wallpaper and load up your favorite 320×480 wallpapers. This makes it very easy to pick a new wallpaper on your iPhone.

Address Book: Create several subgroups, this can speed up the location of a contact given the lack of an actual search function. I use Work, Family, iPhone and it automatically puts the All Contacts group. Unfortunately I do not know how to do this on a PC. Hopefully someone can post.

Web Usage: If your favorite ‘news’ sites offer an RSS feed, bookmark and use that on your iPhone (not update your bookmarks because your iPhone will need to revise the link and use the .mac reader). This can make browsing, even while on EDGE much faster.

Force Quit: To actually close (or Quit) an application, HOLD the Home button for about 4-8 seconds while in the application. Apparently this will save battery usage and will also keep it cooler.

Apple today released MobileMe Control Panel 1.2 (for Windows).

This update provides better support for syncing a large number of contacts (more than 2,000) and prevents syncing of data between Microsoft Exchange Server and MobileMe, a configuration that is not supported.

The update weighs in at 1.6 MB and requires Windows XP Home or Professional SP2 or Vista SP1 or later, iTunes 8.0.1 or later, and a MobileMe account