I am an iPod groupie, like i said previously and now that the iPhone is out, I am ecstatic! Did you guys see how it looks? It’s exactly like a touchpad on the iPods and you can scroll, click, push, type, do everything at the tip of your finger. Don’t even think about looking for any buttons except for the on/off button maybe…everything else is done on the touch screen.

It just looks sexy as hell…. i waaaaaaannnnntt!
The iPhone runs on a system that combines only the best features from the BlackBerry, Apple iPod, Palm and Windows mobile. So, technically, the best features from each of these gadgets means the iPhone doesn’t do everything but it does everything else that’s fun very well! That’s what a phone is for, isn’t it? Multi-purpose so that when you’re bored it can entertain you to the very least. It’s definitely a fun phone to have but right now patience is the key as it won’t be out for the general public consumption till June 2007 and Asia may not see the phone till 2008! Oh well….too bad, at least Canada will see it soon! yay! Now i gotta save money.The size of the iPhone is about the size of an iPod - 4.5 inches tall, 2.48 inches wide but still very slim at 0.46 inches thick. Airtime for this baby, is officially 5 hours (this also includes video time, yes it play videos too!) and if you’re using it for music only, it’ll play for 16 hours. I think that’s about the same time as the older version of the iPod Nano. iPhone comes in two storage sizes; 4Gig and 8Gig for $499 and $599 respectively.

For more information on the spec and accessories go to iPhone

Samsung, the biggest producer of DRAM and NAND chips, has launched its thinnest HSDPA slider in the world! For those in the dark, HSDPA means High-Speed Download Packet Access. Basically, it’s the little chip that allows internet to work in electronics that has transmissable devices in it, like a phone, a laptop, or for a PC. So mobile users will now be able to have better quality video streaming and such on their electronic mobile devices. The profile of the slider is its slimmest thus far in the gadget world with only 13.8mm for its profile. The HSDPA transmit speed for up to 1.8Mbps - that is up to six times faster than the current 3G speed.

For more info go here.

picture courtesy of bbc.co.uk

Joi Ito posted a few figures from the Impress 2005 annual Internet White Paper on his website (he notes that he took notes based on a verbal presentation so there could be some mistakes):

- There are 32,244,000 broadband households which is 36.2%.
- There are 70,072,000 Internet users.
- 72.5% of people have heard of blogs, up from 39% last year.
- 25% of women in their teens and 20’s have blogs.
- 9.5% of Internet users use RSS Readers.
- 46.5% of Internet users have decreased spending in physical shops because of online shopping.
- 29.6% of offices have wifi up from 10.7% last year.
- 2.8% of companies have corporate blogs and over 50% express no intention of ever having corporate blogs.
- 5.5% of companies have corporate web pages for mobile phone users.

Just like with any stats, anything can mean everything, but if you are interested in the state of the Internet in Japan, here is the press release summary of the white paper in PDF format. (includes charts / Japanese)

Yes, here ends the era of all electronic devices named “iSomething”, now comes the new glorious time where all gadgets will be called “i-Something-Something”. Maybe.

In this case, this new voIP mini phone device could easily have been named the iPhone, but I “AM” Phone sounds so much cooler, and prevents the cease-and-desist letter from Apple’s lawyers. Smart move. I AM sold. But what convinces me better than the name, is the device itself. Taro, over at 3Yen News talks about this “World’s smallest IP-based phone” and sums it all up eloquently with:

K-kool! It just slips into the USB port of sub-notebook computer and I can say bye-bye to vile DoCoMo and NTT forever!

This new cool device is expected to launch this August in Japan by Anyuser Global. It uses a USB memory with the IP phone software system already in. The IP phone software works automatically when plugged into a computer connected to the Net. I think it is time for Skype to come up with a nice USB wireless/Bluetooth plug-and-play headset now… (Everyone here using Skype yet?)