Philips unveils Wake-up Light HF3490 and HF3480 alarm clocks

Philips uses a large light box that simulates a natural sunrise with light that gradually comes on starting 30 minutes before your alarm is set to go off. Philips claims the clocks are clinically proven to have an impact on the quality of awakening. After the 30-minute light period, the device can wake you to sounds or music.

Sounds the devices offer include chirping birds, gentle beep, African jungle sounds, or soft chimes. The iPod version of the device can wake you to FM radio or playlists from your iPod as well. Both versions have the FM tuner. Both versions are available now for $169.99 for the HF3480 and $199.99 for the HF3490.

Apple Set to Pass 100K Available iPhone Apps Milestone

Apple has approved over 100,000 applications in its App Store, according to the latest figures from App Shopper, an industry tracking firm. That number of approved apps dwarfs the number of apps offered by mobile app store competitors Android Marketplace, Windows Mobile Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, and Nokia’s Ovi Store. Apple’s next closest competitor, Google’s Android Marketplace, offers a relative small 10,000 mobile apps, according to App Shopper. BlackBerry App World hosts 3040 apps.

iPhone as an eBook Reader Threatens Kindle, Says Report

Apple’s iPhone is quickly becoming the ebook reader of choice for many, and could steal market share from Amazon’s Kindle, according to a report from market research firm Flurry.

The iPhone and iPod Touch turned into a popular handheld gaming platform over the last year, as most of the apps released for the devices were in the games category. Even Nintendo acknowledged that iPhone games were among the reasons its DS portable gaming machine under-performed in sales.

And now it appears it is the Amazon Kindle’s turn to take a beating, as book applications for iPhone exceeded the popularity of games apps in the last four months, according the Flurry report. In September, iPhone books (some running on Kindle for iPhone) overtook games for the first time, while one in every five new apps in the App Store in October were books.

Legally, Factory-Unlocked iPhone 3G To Given Away In New Contest..

To promote RingtoneStudio for
iPhone, PocketMac will be giving away one factory-unlocked iPhone 3G
in a contest starting today. Second and third place winners will win
a $50 or $15 iTunes gift card, respectively. The contest ends
November 30, 2009 and is based around the software, PocketMac
RingtoneStudio for iPhone.

“We want to get people to try and then talk about our great
ringtone creation software, PocketMac RingtoneStudio for iPhone,”
said Tim Goggin, VP Of Sales & Marketing. “The more people help us
promote this software, the cooler the prizes get.”

Different levels of prizes will be available to contestants based
on how many copies of RingtoneStudio are sold before the end of
contest. In the beginning, three $15 iTunes gift card are available
to win. If sales of RingtoneStudio exceed 100 copies sold during the
contest period, two $50 iTunes gift card will able to win. If sales
of RingtoneStudio top 250 sales, one lucky winner will take away a
legally, factory-unlocked iPhone.

Goggin continued, “These iPhones are the rarest of rare. In most
countries, iPhones are only offered by one or two carriers. But in
some areas, Apple ships these phones to the consumer unlocked. That
is, they can be used with a SIM card from any carrier. This is one of
these phones.”

Legally-unlocked iPhones require no “jailbreaking”, the process
of modifying an iPhone to work with a different carrier. Instead,
these iPhones are programmed to accept any SIM card.

Also, they can be updated to the latest versions of the iPhone
operating system without the hassles involved in updating jailbroken
phones.

The software at the heart of the contest, RingtoneStudio for
iPhone, was designed to produce an unlimited quantity of ringtones -
avoiding Apple’s 99 cent-per-ringtone fee. It creates ringtones from
any unprotected music format or from a variety of QuickTime-friendly
video formats.

This contest runes through November 30, 2009. RingtoneStudio 2.0
for iPhone is available now for $19.95.

Users can enter the contest at
http://www.CreateiPhoneRingtones.com/contest/

A YouTube video detailing the contest can be found at:

A YouTube video previewing RingtoneStudio can be found at:

A social media version of this press release can be found at:

http://pitch.pe/32011

More information about both products can be found at:

http://twitter.com/pocketmac

iPhone 4th-gen “midboard” on sale at Chinese retailer?

The vendor claims they’ll be able to ship the OEM part within 5-12 days, as well as that they have “final pictures” of the iPhone 4th-gen back cover that they’ll be adding to the site soon. As for the midboard itself, it’s said to be 113.5 x 57.3 mm which makes it slightly shorter and slightly narrower than the current iPhone 3GS.

Normally we’d be indecently sceptical about any leaked Apple parts – in fact we are now – but as Gizmodo points out, China Ontrade were spot on when it came to the iPhone 3G’s display assembly. They had access to that part a month ahead of Apple’s official launch; that raises the question of when this fourth-gen device might drop, considering a new iPhone handset isn’t expected on the market for another eight months. Keep a lookout for it maybe coming to the market a little sooner.

The iPhone is the worst phone in the world

That’s right, we said it — and we’re not taking it back. The iPhone may be the greatest handheld surfing device ever to rock the mobile Web, and a fabulous media player to boot. It may be the highest-rated mobile phone on CNET UK, rocking the pockets of half of our crack editorial team. It’s certainly the touchscreen face that launched a thousand apps. But as an actual call-making phone, it’s rubbish, and we aim to prove it.

Check out more of what they have to say at…CNet UK

Apple Plans For ‘World Mode iPhone’ Bad News For AT&T

The Apple rumor mill claims that work is underway todevelop a ‘world-mode’ iPhone capable of operating on both CDMA and GSM/UMTS networks. World mode. Rumors also persist that Verizon will begin to carry the iPhone in 2010. All of these rumors suggest that the AT&T honeymoon with the iPhone is nearing an end.

A ‘wordl-mode’ iPhone could signal the end of exclusivity and be bad news for AT&TThese are just rumors at this point, but when a rumor is both pervasive and tenacious there is usually a reason. That gives AT&T some reason to be concerned. Without iPhone exclusivity, what does AT&T bring to the table that would entice customers to switch to, or stick with the wireless provider?

I think it’s about time that they expand to different networks so the consumer has more choice.

via NetworkWorld