iPhone Software

The clever people at onOne Software have brought the cable release into the 21st century. For users of Canon EOS digital SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras, there are already a few options for remote control.

Using DSLR Remote on the iPhone or iPod Touch may require more hardware, but the feature set is impressive for the price. Settings such as shutter speed, white balance and aperture can be controlled, along with the camera shutter.

Only one month after the initial release of push notification, Apple has invited iPhone OS 3.0 developers to participate in high-volume tests of the system. If all goes well, push notification is expected to be operative for general users with the release of iPhone 3.0.

Push notification saves the iPhone battery by allowing apps to receive information without actually running in the background. Recent reports have indicated that Apple is considering allowing a limited number of apps to run in the background, however this taxes iPhone resources.

Wouldn't it be great if every time you jumped to the iPhone home screen Pandora kept streaming music? The only application that Apple currently allows to run in the background is the iPod, however if recent reports are correct, this could all change.

Pandora is just one example of how useful allowing apps to run in the background could be. Another likely use would be keeping an instant messaging chat connected. Rumors have been swirling about just how Apple would implement background processing considering the limited resources of iPhone hardware.

Only a week after the previous release, Apple has made iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 available. Several new tweaks and features are apparent as the final release date for the new operating system approaches. Apple has also announced that all AppStore applications submitted for approval must be OS 3.0 compatible going forward.

First of all, leaked screenshots have confirmed rumors of a built-in digital compass (magnetometer). Along with the GPS and accelerometer, the compass could improve navigation and make a variety of "augmented reality" applications possible by overlaying graphics on top of live video.

Amazon has purchased Lexcycle, the company that developed the free iPhone eBook reader Stanza. The software is widely seen as a rival to Amazon's own Kindle application. Stanza provides free access to over 100,000 books in ePub format, which Amazon's Kindle does not support.

Details such as the cost of the acquisition were not revealed by either company. Over one million copies of Stanza were downloaded by the end of last year. Amazon's Kindle iPhone app is free, however users must pay for content. The Kindle 2 electronic reader is now priced at $349.