Looks like the iPhone (and the iPod Touch for that matter) will finally receive long overdue flash player support. We have no idea why this wasn’t originally included, but people like to speculate and say it has to do with flash player using too much battery life up too quickly. That does make sense, but it still seems odd they would wait so long to include support for what has become a major part of modern internet content.

Props to Apple for patching up a major complaint of the iPhone/iPod Touch. Expect to see this soon.

Apple has finally dropped 10.5.2 on us, and with it come a huge number of fixes and changes. Stacks, for example, have been rethought a bit and now allow browsing of files hierarchically in addition to toggling a few features. Menu bar transparency has gained a preference, allowing it to be toggled, a highly welcomed feature.

Among the new features, there are bugfixes for Finder, Mail, iCal, iChat, iSync, Preview, Time Machine, RAW support, and more.

Thanks Apple for a well needed update, now let’s just hope it doesn’t break anything new.

Ahhh, the Apple rumors are flying once again and this time it’s an event that could take place toward the end of this month.

Although nothing is for certain, the source seems credible so mark the week on your calendars. Of course, no one has any idea what the even will be about, but speculation is that it will announce the iPhone SDK that Apple has been promising for some time.

Of course, we won’t mind a 3G iPhone or a new laptop, but either way be ready for some exciting updates - be it hardware or third-party applications on your iPhone.
Image: http://www.tuaw.com

Apple has upgraded their iPhone and iPod Touch lines by doubling their storage. The new 16GB iPhone and 32GB iPod Touch are shipping immediately and are expected to be in stores within a few days. Both new models retail for $499.

DVICE also has some interesting predictions on where this trend is headed. They are forecasting a 256GB iPhone by September 2010. Now that’s big!

This upgrade is great news for the media junkies out there. Although great devices, the iPhone and iPod Touch are limited by the amount of storage they offer. Now that these two are coming up to par in storage, they will be much harder to beat.

We all know that Apple products aren’t the cheapest around, but according to a report by research firm Piper Jaffray that could change soon. The best part? The “coolness” factor doesn’t have to go.

In a report to clients, Piper Jaffray claimed that Apple saw the worst year-over-year growth rate in the history of the iPod. To change this, the firm thinks that Apple will have to change its strategy.

“In order to achieve this level of year-over-year iPod growth, we are expecting Apple to introduce cheaper, innovative iPods with Wi-Fi and multi-touch technology,” analyst Gene Munster wrote. “We believe that, despite a slowdown in growth in the MP3 market, Apple’s vision of the iPod line-up becoming a mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform will have two results. First, it will spur growth in the portable media player market, particularly from the replacement cycle. Second, if Apple is able to lower prices on Wi-Fi connected and possibly touch-screen iPods, it will be able to maintain or grow its leading market share position,” Munster concluded.

Apple has yet to respond on the matter, but considering the company’s close ties to Piper Jaffray, these predictions are probably not that far-fetched.

The wonderful iPhone Dev Team has been hard at work, and now thanks to them we have a jailbreak for the 1.1.3 firmware (the iPhone update released at Macworld).

There’s a few catches though, as always. First of all, the update can currently be performed from a Windows machine only, with the Mac version of the updater coming soon. Secondly, it requires an already jailbroken 1.1.1 or 1.1.2 iPhone.

Thanks iPhone Dev Team, keep up the good work!

Photo: http://www.tuaw.com/2008/01/24/are-one-third-of-all-iphones-destined-for-unlocking/

Netflix has announced plans to offer a Mac version of their Watch Instantly streaming service sometime this year. Netflix executive Reed Hastings dismissed Apple’s new iTunes rental service:

“You only have 24 hours in which to complete watching the movie [on iTunes], so if you watch over two nights, you pay twice. DVD rentals advantages over VoD are ubiquity of content, ubiquity of DVD players, an early window for new releases, and lower prices.”

Watch Instantly is a Video on Demand service that, for $5 a month, allows subscribers to watch as many movies as they’d like with no other charges or fees. The system is currently heavily dependent on Windows Media copy protection mechanisms, which aren’t available on the Mac.

I think this is fantastic news, seeing as Netflix has a very comprehensive library of films (although only 6,000 are currently available through Watch Instantly, that number is bound to go up as the service really takes off) and being able to access them on a Mac allows a wider audience of people to take advantage of the program. Thank you Netflix!

Photo: http://gizmodo.com

Apple’s biggest updated ever to OS X could arrive as early as Friday. The update is said to weigh in at 400MB and will pack new features such as a list view for stacks, CD/DVD sharing, support for wireless backups using a network drive attached to an AirPort Extreme, and the ability to finally get rid of the transparency in the menu bar.

The latest updated, converting your computer to OS X 10.5.2, is said to contain no known issues. Expect a busy weekend playing around with all the shiny new features.