Win a $10,000 Apple iTunes Gift Card

You've seen the $25 Apple iTunes gift cards at your local retailer, right? But have you ever seen a $10,000 iTunes gift card?

Whoa!

The Apple iTunes website wil soon record their billionth download. To celebrate, they're giving away lots of great prizes: One winner will receive a 17” MacBook Pro; one winner will receive an iPod Touch 32GB; and one winner will receive a..

you guessed it... a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card!

You can enter the Billionth Download at App Store contest up to 25 times per day. Good luck!

Related Links:
Billionth Download at App Store
Twitter About the Contest

My iPhone Wishlist... A Nintendo Wii Controller

Are you looking for some new "techie" ways to shed those unwanted pounds?

I know this is an iPhone and Android blog and I promise we'll get to that in just a minute. I need to divert to the Nintendo Wii for just a moment though because it rocks in the exercise department and it actually ties in with my iPhone wishlist.

I just got my first Wii for Christmas and I'm addicted to their fitness games! I'm working out (well, er... playing games) constantly on this thing and I cannot get over how easy it is to exercise when you're using this type of technology. My friend at the daily planet turned me on to snowboarding ala Wii - very cool because we don't do a lot of snow boarding here in Honolulu. She even brags about her Wii fitness routine.

Now the iPhone developers have developed a pretty slick little exercise app too called StepTrak Lite. It's a free pedometer app that is unbelievably accurate on my afternoon walks. In any case, Step Track lite is excellent and well worth downloading. In fact, it is currently the #1 app in the health and fitness category.

So here we have these two technology giants, Nintendo Wii and the Apple iPhone, and both are revolutionizing the way we interact with the world around us. My iPhone is a phone, an iPod, and an Internet Browser all in one unit.

Which leads me back to my iPhone wishlish...

I wish my iPhone could serve as my Nintendo Wii controller!

That way I could use the iPhone pedometer on my afternoon walks to my friend Malena's house. Then I could use it as my iPhone Nintendo Wii controller and go snowboarding with her. Then I could switch back to my pedometer app and walk back home again.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Question.... Is the iPhone 3G Too Expensive at $199?

When Apple launched the iPhone 3G, they dropped the price on the 8GB model to what I felt was a very reasonable $199. Many folks complained that the price should be cheaper however, suggesting $99 or perhaps even free with a carrier subsidy.

Interestingly enough, it's not just the consumer that is suggesting the price needs an adjustment. Research by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty indicates that iPhone sales were half as strong in September and October when compared to July and August. To increase sales, Huberty has stated that Apple should take heed to the current rumors and cut the price in half to $100. She believes that this strategy could double iPhone sales without any negative effect on profits because of the data subsidy from AT&T.

So what do you think? Is the $199 iPhone still too expensive? What price is fair and attractive?

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Book Review: iPhone for Dummies
Kogan Agora Release Date is January 29.... 2009

iPhone for Dummies

iPhone for Dummies:

• Activate your own service
• Master the multitouch interface
• Turn on the speaker phone
• Use Visual Voicemail
• Get video, podcasts, and RSS feeds
• Surf the Web with your iPhone
• Browse your iTunes library and create playlists
• Send and receive text messages and notes
• Choose wallpaper and ringtones
• Troubleshoot problems
• Lock your iPhone and secure your stuff

It's amazing that the authors can know all this complex stuff and yet present it in such an easy-to-follow format. I really didn't expect to learn anything new about my iPhone when I got the book from a friend. Wow! Was I ever wrong. Every tip works flawlessly. I would recommend iPhone for Dummies to every iPhone owner. Going even further, I think Apple and AT&T should include it with every purchase.

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Kogan Agora Release Date is January 29, 2009 - $225 and $295 Models

Using the powerful open source mobile operating system, T-Mobile's G1 was the first Google Android Mobile Phone. Now, a virtually unknown company named Kogan from Australia is launching the second!

The new Agora mobile handset will be available in Standard and Pro models and will be priced at $225 and $295 respectively. Release date of Kogan Agora is 29th January 2009 but you can now pre-order both models.

Features of Kogan Agora Google Android Phone:

• 2.5-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen.
• Integrated QWERTY keyboard
• High-speed 3G network connection
• One-Touch Google Search
• Easy Web Browsing
• Easy-to-use email with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents
• Customisable Home Screen with instant Email, text message and IM notifications
• Instant access to mobile Internet services (Gmail ™, YouTube ™, Google Talk ™, Google Calendar ™, Google Maps
• Music Player
• Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
• MicroSD™ expansion slot for all your storage needs

The T-Mobile G1 Explores the Potential of Google Android's Open Source Code

The dawn of a new era in mobile phone technology? You bet!

The T-Mobile G1, also known as the Google Android Phone, is the first mobile device to operate on the Google Android open source mobile software platform (hence the name Google Android Project). Open source, with the idea that anyone can create an application on the Android platform staggers the mind.

Here are the main G1 features:

• Touch Screen  
• QWERTY Keyboard
• One-Touch Google Search
• Real Web Browsing
• Easy Access to Google Apps
• 3G Network and Wi-Fi Access
• IM/Text/E-mail
• 3.2 Megapixel Camera
• YouTube™ Videos
• Music Player
• Android™ Market
• Customizable Home Screen
• Colors Options

Motorola Android Launch Just in Time for Christmas... Christmas, 2009

According to Dan Frommer, Motorola is restructuring their entire mobile phone portfolio around Android, and they are planning to launch Android phones just in time for Christmas!

Christmas 2009... 

Not until next Christmas season, co-CEO Sanjay Jha said on this morning's Q3 earnings call. That's later than the "sometime in the second quarter of 2009" that BusinessWeek reported earlier this month.

With the Christmas '09 announcement, Motorola is clearly moving at a much SLOWER pace than we’d prefer, and their timeline does not take possible delays into account. But as Gizmodo properly points out, Android is supposed to make the lives of manufacturers EASIER, and to their credit they are at least being honest and up front about timelines and goals.

Timing is everything, and I’m not sure if Christmas 2009 is even worth counting on yet.

T-Mobile's G1 Android Phone

There is a lot riding on the success or failure of T-Mobile's G1 Android phone. In a number of ways, the G1 carries the collective hopes of Linux, open source and Google fans everywhere. It's open, it's collaborative, and it's community-based - everything the iPhone and Windows Mobile are not.

The T-Mobile description says:

"Experience the Web just like on your computer, wherever you are with your T-Mobile G1. The browser makes your web experience fluid and natural by integrating it with other applications and features on your phone. Click on a phone number from a website, and your phone will dial it. Save images from the web as wallpaper. The list goes on and on."

The G1 delivers on Google Android's promises:

• An Android phone allows you to browse the Internet just as you would on a normal computer.
• Android allows you to run several applications at the same time - on one phone.
• The Google Android phone allows you to chat and share photos on applications such as Yahoo Messenger, Google, Talk, etc.
• The Android Phone Allows you to copy URLs and share them with friends via a live chat line while using a simple touch-screen interface.

Nokia's Internet Tablet and the Google Android Project

The number of wirelss mobile devices that have successfully ported Google Android is growing fast. Here's a screenshot of a Nokia 810 Internet Tablet that looks very cool indeed.

The N810 Internet Tablet is not a phone. Instead this internet "appliance" allows the user to browse the Internet and communicate using Wi-Fi networks or with a mobile phone via Bluetooth.