So, I finally got my iPhone updated after the retarded iTunes debacle earlier today.  Unlike previous upgrades, this one actually introduced some valuable new features that make the iPhone a more powerful device.

I’ve been talking about this one a lot, but it’s really worth it…Virtual GPS is a great new feature in 1.1.3 that enables you to estimate your location on your iPhone in Google Maps.  I say estimate, because your location isn’t really pinpointed.  Depending on your location and connection, virtual GPS will provide you with a circle on Google Maps that contains your location.

This feature works by triangulating your location with cellular towers or wifi hotspots.  Basically, what happens is you push the locate button in Google Maps, and a circle appears where you are located.  In my testing, the circle was sometimes very large - like a mile in diameter or so.  But other times it was accurate to within a couple of blocks.  I found that virtual GPS was much more accurate with wifi connections, rather than just pure cellular…and this makes sense since the range of wifi is way smaller than that of a cellular tower.

Another feature is the ability to move around icons.  This is exactly what it sounds like…the only cool thing here is how the icons jiggle when they’re ready to move.

You can also save webpages to the mainscreen.  This saves a couple of steps by enabling you to open webpages directly from the main screen.

SMS texting is improved as well.  You can send a single TXT to multiple recipients.  A pretty simple feature, but one that was missing from previous versions.

Finally, 1.1.3 allows you to manually update your iPhone, rather than relying solely on playlists…FINALLY.  You can now drag and drop items into your iPhone, just like your iPod.  This was a big pet peeve of mine when I first got the iPhone…and thank god Apple finally took care of it.

Apparently, song lyrics can be displayed on the iPhone now, as well.  I don’t really know how to get these lyrics, and I don’t really care, but I guess some people may find this useful.  I’m betting you’ll need to buy songs directly from iTunes to get lyric support.

So that’s 1.1.3.  It must be noted is these features are pretty much exactly the same as the features previously leaked with 1.1.3 rumors.  That means that Apple has a big leak somewhere - I mean there were YouTube videos of 1.1.3 iPhones up a few weeks before today’s launch.

Oh yeah, Steve Jobs also announced that these features, along with weather, stocks and more will be available for the iPod Touch, as well…but it will cost you $20.  Yep…this is probably the most desperate move by Apple so far, and perhaps why the stock fell so much today.  I mean, charging for applications on a device that is not open to third party development - that’s monopolistic.  And cheap.  And not…well, not Apple.  Yet another sign that Apple is turning into Microsoft.

Google is now rolling out AIM support in Gtalk.  From Gmail, just go to Settings, then Chat, and you can add your AIM username and password.  Then, your AIM contacts show up in the Chat window just like your Gtalk contacts.  Cool.

This feature is available for me now, but google is rolling it out so just be patient if it’s not yet available for you.

I haven’t used AIM in years myself, but this is a great feature if you’ve been switching back and forth between the two IM clients.  It also brings the AIM client and AOL in general to the brink of totally obsolete.

Japs are to little computers like blacks are to fried chicken.  I love these things - especially now that they’re getting a bit more affordable, more powerful, and generally more useful.

Here’s an interesting UMPC (that’s Ultra Mobile PC, Jak) called the WiBrain B1.  Ok, the name sucks but it looks very very sweet.

The device has a 4.8″ touch screen with a 1024 x 600 resolution, split keypad, a 1.2GHz CPU, 60 GD hard drive and 1GB of RAM.  Those specs aren’t bad for a UMPC…they’re actually on par with many laptops nowadays (with the exception of screen size of course).  It even has a little trackpad for navigation.

It’s available at Dynamism now for $700, although the higher end model will run $850.  It’ll be early in late December.  Follow that link for a video of the device in action playing Quake 2.

Tired of iPhone news yet?

Engadget has a few more details about the upcoming device. I can’t wait until friday so we can finally do away with these half-baked preview articles.

Anyway, the Engadget article bemoans the onscreen keyboard, saying the the iPhone is “just not a business product.”

Other notes, the touchscreen requires hard presses and is hard to get used to, and YouTube didn’t work over Cingular’s EDGE network at all, meaning you need WiFi, not a cellular connection. And, as expected the browser is slow over the EDGE connection.

All bad news for apple, but I bet apple fanboys will not be deterred by the news.

We’re still 3 weeks away from the launch of the Apple iPhone, and competitors continue to pop up.  The HTC Touch, which was officially launched last week, seems to be a legitimate competitor.

The Touch is a Windows Mobile phone, but unlike other Windows Mobile devices, the Touch has an interface call TouchFLO that is optimized for finger-based navigation.  Users can scroll through messages, navigate between applications, or call up menus with finger flicks - very similar to the iPhone.

The device is also compact, measuring only 99.9 x 58 x 13.9mm.  Still, the touch has a nice 2.8 inch screen, and a solid suite of features like WiFi, Bluetooth and a 2MP camera.

It’s an interesting release for HTC that transforms the business oriented Windows Mobile OS into a more user friendly platform.  So, unlike the iPhone that lacks many corporate features like push e-mail and Outlook synchronization, the Touch combines the best of both worlds - a user friendly interface and a enterprise-level feature set.

Still, the Touch definitely lacks the panache of the iPhone.  It’s available online now, but will not be officially released in the US until later this year.

Here are a couple of videos that show how the interface works.

I’ve already mentioned the trend of restaurants taking old school food upscale.  Now you can do it at home!

When you think traditional BBQ, what comes to mind?  Oil drums and charcoal perhaps?

Not for Sur la table.  The upscale vendor of cooking tools is now offering a $600 digital smoker.  The device has 6 racks for lots and lots of ribs, and can run up to 8 hours without supervision.  Sorry Jakgrabbit, no shipping to HI.

Take this down to your local ghetto and challenge some locals to a throwdown, bobby flay style.

Is already on sale at buy.com.  Sure, you won’t see steve jobs on screen with the Nokia N95 - at most you’ll see some finnish executive.  But really, this phone stacks up pretty well against others.

How about real 3.5G HSPDA broadband (the iphone is still on 2.5G, if that), two cameras, bluetooth, WiFi and GPS.

You dial with the N95 by sliding down a keypad, and you can even slide the keypad up to expose dedicated music controls.

I got to take a look at this thing in vegas at the nokia store, and it’s pretty slim and feels solid.  The only problem, well, it’s nearly $700 - without a contract, and with all these features, the battery life is pretty bad.

At the All Things Digital Conference, Eric Schmidt mentioned a little about Google’s cell phone plans.  He mentioned that Google is working with several carriers to create applications that utilize mobile Internet.  He mentioned that a major hurdle has been trying to get different apps to work with a variety of cell phones.  Google even explored the idea of having an Asian manufacture integrate all the apps into one handset.

I wonder if these comments have anything to do with Google developing their own Ubuntu distribution, maybe its possible that Google is looking to use Linux as the basis for the OS?

  Ever been at a Sushiboat restaurant and wondered “how long has that Maguro been riding around the restaurant?”  Well, Forbes has an excellent article about Blue C Sushi in Seattle and their use of RFID tags to track the freshness of their sushi.  These tags also help manage inventory and speed up the checkout process.  Sushi chefs are able to monitor their inventory in real-time and restock the selection accordingly.

Sounds like an excellent idea to me, anyone foresee any problems with this process?  I wonder how much it cost the restaurant to implement this expensive technology.

Robert X Cringely on his PBS blog says Google’s own design will eventually be its downfall.

Wired Magazine is reminding all its readers that Monday is officially the deadline for ISPs to comply with the government regulation to equip their systems to easily eavesdropped.  What does this mean to the regular Internet user?  I’m not sure, maybe increased end to end lag times as systems funnel Internet traffic through filters.  I open up the forum to Jak to comment on liberty vs. public good especially from a post modern perspective.

At the JavaOne conference in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems announced plans to roll out a high end cellphone built on the Java platform.  The phone is expected to compete with other all-in-one devices like the iphone and Blackberry.  The phone will feature a full desktop operating system.

This “innovation” by Sun seems to me like a sad attempt at boosting its stock price.  Sun as a company has been in the doldrums for years.  Java never really took off like they expected it would, and with the introduction of all these Web 2.0 applications, it looks as those Just-in-time computing via a java applet is going to be a distant memory.  If it wasn’t for its huge debt load, lack of new product growth, diminishing margins in the server business, Sun probably would have merged already with a larger, sexier company.  I’ll be following the jphone closely, but my guess is that its not going anywhere.

The New York Post reported last week that Microsoft is in talks with Yahoo to possibly negotiate an acquisition.  What does this news mean?   Well, it probably means that Yahoo is fucked if this deal doesn’t go through.  Remember that Yahoo used to be the darling of silicon valley, Jerry and David were the Larry and Sergie of the late 90s.  After surviving the dot.com bust, Yahoo looked pretty successful.  They survived all those horrible acquisitions and poor planned new product launches.  Then came Google.  Remember those days when Yahoo used Google to supplement the in-house search results?  Well, I do.  It was a brilliant tactic to move users off the Yahoo platform on to Google’s own search site.  So as Yahoo built up its web portal franchise, Google perfected search. 

Now we come to the present.  Google has built critical mass in online advertising, they have one trick and its working really well.  Yahoo is now in perpetual purgatory, other than flickr, sports and finance, I don’t know any other Yahoo asset that my friends visit  Yahoo is slowly dying and everyone knows it. 

USA Today ran an interview with Steve Ballmer the CEO of Microsoft