The iPhone has captured much attention in our world, but it’s not the only smartphone on the market. Mark Anbinder looks at the $99 Palm Centro and discovers there’s still some life in Palm. Also in this issue, Sharon Zardetto looks at the state of font auto-activation under Leopard, and Adam cleans up his system with Service Scrubber. Getting back to the iPhone, Glenn Fleishman provides more details about the upcoming iPhone 3G, and Mark pines for SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone, while Adam crunches the numbers and discovers that the iPhone 3G will cost U.S. buyers more than the original, despite its advertised lower prices. We also note the releases of QuickTime 7.5, iMovie 7.1.2, iDVD 7.0.2, Iris 1.0, AirPort Utility 5.3.2, PopChar X 4, Mellel 2.5, Opera 9.5, BlogAssist 2.2, InterMapper 5.5, and updates to The Missing Sync for Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile.
Apple has released QuickTime 7.5, which fixes a number of security issues, along with iMovie 7.1.2 and iDVD 7.0.2, which provide unspecified compatibility and bug fixes.
In a pair of new ebooks, TidBITS contributing editor Glenn Fleishman goes in-depth with Leopard screen sharing and Back to My Mac.
Has a service ever taken over an essential keyboard shortcut from one of your apps? Or, for that matter, has your Services menu become unusable because of all the unwanted items in it? The solution to both of these problems is Service Scrubber.
Apple broke Leopard's font auto-activation feature in Mac OS X 10.5.2, and 10.5.3 unfortunately doesn't fix the problem. So if you've been wondering what happened, read on for what font expert Sharon Zardetto has been able to confirm experimentally.
The iPhone 3G has a few extras lurking beneath its improved exterior, including a better charging plug and geotagging of photos.
Own a Slingbox? Want to watch your TV on an iPhone? It could be possible with a proof-of-concept version of SlingPlayer Mobile from Sling Media. The only problem? Apple hasn't accepted the company's iPhone developer application yet.
Apple claims that the iPhone 3G is "Twice as fast. Half the price." But that's just the initial cost of the phone. By the time you factor in the increased price of AT&T's 3G data plan and the need to add a SMS text messaging plan, the iPhone 3G could end up costing $160 more than the original 8 GB iPhone. Adam runs down all the gory pricing details.
Even as the iPhone gains market share, Palm's Centro is an inexpensive alternative, especially if you prefer a physical keypad and the Palm OS to Apple's virtual keyboard and OS X.
Notable software releases this week include InterMapper 5.0, several versions of The Missing Sync, BlogAssist 2.2, Opera 9.5, Mellel 2.5, PopChar X 4, AirPort Utility 5.3.2, and Iris 1.0.
The iPhone 3G garners quite a bit of discussion this week, but readers also talk about MobileMe, encrypted Time Capsule backups, scrubbing the Services menu, Back to My Mac, and alternatives to Mail and Quicken.