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Apparently this is news to people. Well, here is the deal. When you buy an application from the Apple App Store, you are allowed to install that application on multiple authorized iPhone and iPods. This is controlled by Apple’s FairPlay. Before the App Store the same was true for DRM’ed music.

My wife and I both have iPhone. Whey I paid $99 for TomTom Navigator, I installed it on both our phones. Actually, Apple did that automatically for me since we both use the same account (my iTunes account) for all our purchases. Try that with a Garmin GPS device. Go buy 1 and then see how you can turn it into two devices. You can’t. So a $99 purchase is effectively spread across all the iPhone/iPod devices you own.

I’m not sure how many devices this is supported for, but basically, this becomes a cost effective way to buy and share programs with your family in a legit way. For once DRM is not total FAIL.

So there you go. More info here.

I’m a pretty big fan of convergence when it’s done well. Having fewer gadgets, cables, and power supplies to carry around is all good. This is especially true since we had our daughter and are looking to shed stuff that gets cumbersome to carry, pack and deal with.

The iPhone has turned out to be a pretty decent convergence device. Specifically it combined a smartphone with a music / video / podcast player that was just as good as a stand alone iPod. This was a huge selling point for me.

However, the original iPhone 3G had a pretty lousy camera and so it was never in the running to really replace a real camera. Furthermore the maps program while cool, was no replacement when you needed voice and turn by turn navigation. So for that I had a Garmin nuvi device that I used faithfully for the past 2 years. Otherwise the iPhone is an excellent “I am here, tell me what is near me device”.

Since getting the iPhone 3GS I’m frankly surprised at how many photos and videos I take with the thing (including close ups now that it can do Macro). The iPhone is actually “good enough” for many scenarios that my camera was previously required. For one thing, I carry my iPhone everywhere with me, so the likelihood that I will have it when I want to capture a video is extremely high… like when we were driving around in our car and our 2 year old said she wanted to listen to Lady Gaga and Madonna. Pretty funny, and no camera with us at the time, but we got it on video and were able to upload it to Facebook directly from the iPhone.

Now, with TomTom for the iPhone, another piece of technology that I would schlep around on vacations and around Seattle when I’m trying to navigate to Home Depot or Best Buy is no longer necessary.

So now we have a device that can do:

• Phone
• Email and Calendar
• Photos
• Video capture
• Music
• Turn by Turn navigation
• Games
• etc

And you get the point. This thing can replace at least 3 or 4 independent device and do the same job 80% as good as dedicated gadget.

I call that progress.

If you car has an integrated iPod kit, chances are when Apple removed the ability for Firewire to charge through the iPod adapter, your iPhone 3G and iPod don’t charge any longer.

In the past few months a few options have emerged that basically allow a firewire powered iPod connector to charge the iPhone or iPod using USB.

I had luck with an adapter that Apple sells called Scosche passPORT. It works great in one of my cars that has an aftermarket Blitzsafe adapter, but it doesn’t work at all in my new car, a Mercedes with a Media Interface (which is basically a killer interface that allows control of the iPod or iPhone via the system’s COMMAND interface, steering wheel etc).

Anyhow, even though automakers have had about 3 years to adapt to this change, the bottom line is that many of them have yet to release anything that allows their kits to charge a modern iPhone or iPod. Silly really.

So these adapters are great. Griffin makes one now called the Griffin Charge Converter however it states very clearly on their web site:

Our Charge Converter is not compatible with Pioneer head units that use the CD-iB100 or CD-i200 iPod to IP-Bus adapter. The Pioneer units send proprietary data as well as FireWire power. Although the cable will continue to pass the audio, iPods that charge via USB-only will not charge, remote commands may be limited, and the head unit may display an error message. iPods that charge via USB-only include the 4th generation iPod nano and 2nd generation iPod touch, as well as iPhone 3G.

This may also apply to the Mercedes Media Interface Cable.

Bummer. Mercedes released a service bulletin S-B-82.60/643a in January that says:

If you receive customer reports in the above model vehicles (equipped with any of the two options below) that their Apple product (refer to below list) is not charging but music/telephone communication functions are operational, this maybe due to a change in the charging circuit design by the Apple Corporation.

Apple Product:  iPhone 3G, iPod Nano 4th Generation, iPod Touch 2nd Generation and iPod Classic  120 Gigabyte (GB) storage capacity, as well as all iPod/iPhone products superseding the ones  referenced in this Bulletin.

For vehicles equipped with the Accessory Media Interface Option, a customer-pay remedy is forthcoming. This bulletin will be updated accordingly when available.

For iPod Interface Kits (part numbers listed on Page 1), a new iPod data cable connecting the iPod Interface Module and the iPod/iPhone, the part number is B6 782 45 31. 

This is a customer-pay remedy.

This technical change (change in charging circuit in newer Apple Products) is applied by the Apple Corporation; MBUSA is not responsible for diagnostics, parts and labor costs.

So basically what they are doing is blaming Apple for this when they had a few years to address the problem while also saying they have no solution for 2009 cars with their brand new Media Interface.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I found an adapter that does work made by a nice fellow in Sweden. I PayPal’ed him last week and received my adapter today. The best part is, IT WORKS.

You can get the Small iPhone 3G Charge Converter for $29.90 plus $9 shipping.

Note: Mercedes has fixed this problem with a new cable for the iPhone. Part number is A 001 827 84 04 and the cost is about $70.

Big news day in my book, first Kindle2 and now this.

It’s interesting when you see a combination of technologies from so many fiercely competitive companies.

Google wants iPhone users to sync their calendar and contacts to the iPhone, so they go to Microsoft and license the Exchange ActiveSync protocol to do just that.

REDMOND – Feb. 9, 2009 – Earlier today Google announced Google Sync, which is made possible by a patent license they obtained from Microsoft covering Google’s implementation of the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol on Google servers.

Of note, Microsoft recently announced an expansion of its Exchange ActiveSync Licensing Program, and licensees currently include partners and competitors Apple, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson, among others.

Each of the three companies competes on 1) phones, + 2) services but it turns out that the company with the right plumbing to make it all happen is Microsoft and the company with the phone driving all this seems to be Apple.

Exchange ActiveSync has won for the universal sync protocol of your Calendar and Contacts data. Congrats to the Exchange team for hitting a protocol home run .

“Google’s licensing of these Microsoft patents relating to the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol is a clear acknowledgment of the innovation taking place at Microsoft.  This agreement is also a great example of Microsoft’ s openness to generally license our patents under fair and reasonable terms so long as licensees respect Microsoft intellectual property. This open approach has been part of Microsoft’s IP licensing policy since 2003 and has resulted in over 500 licensing agreements of the last five years.” 

Now Apple if you are listening, please add multiple Exchange Account support to the iPhone.

I had 5 min to kill yesterday and wanted to figure out how to enable Emoji on my iPhone.

What’s Emoji? Basically Japanese emoticons. They are simply gorgeous on the iPhone. However, Apple has only enabled the ability to author Emoji icons for Japanese users. Why you might ask? No idea, probably because here in the US the only phone that can render Emoji is the iPhone with 2.2 firmware. Practically everyone that I text has an iPhone already, so I wanted this feature.

Well, it’s pretty easy to enable Emoji authoring on your phone and it will only cost you $1. Here’s how.

1. Download this application. I have no idea what this program is for other than enabling Emoji.
2. Launch said application
3. Quit the application
4. Go to Settings –> General –> Keyboard –> International Keyboards –> Japanese
5. Turn Emoji on

Now, when you go and author something you can place pretty emoticons in your text.

I sent one of these messages to my Wife and she is already jealous.