Thank’s to Google’s “open” application marketplace (ie: No review process, post what you like), already 1% of the Apps on there have been detected as having Malware included in them – including several that were posing as Bank Apps and simply capturing your Bank details and sending them off to someone else.

The iTunes App store is a pain in the ass for developers for a reason – it stops assholes doing crap like this.

Just shows that comparing basic specs and pricing is no match for comparing the experience of a device.

iPhone, Droid, Nexus One, and Eris capacitive touch screens compared | 9 to 5 Mac.

DIY Touchscreen Analysis from MOTO Development Group on Vimeo.

Apple have announced an event to discuss what they are working on in the next version of software for the iPhone – iPhone 3.0. It’s going to be held March 17 US time – in about 17 hours from now. So time for a few quick predictions.

My SHUT UP List (just do it to shut everyone up)

• Cut & Paste
• MMS
• Landscape Mail
• Video Recording
• Turn by Turn GPS
• To Do list
• Custom ring settings / profiles

I’d be VERY surprised if all of these (except maybe video) wasn’t included. And seriously – after 3 revs of the software – people can rightly feel pissed if they aren’t.

Improvements to existing stuff

There are a lot of little improvements Apple could make to existing Apps.

• Camera – timer / press anywhere to take pic etc. Build in the best ideas from the App Store
• Better for uploading to FlickR / MobileMe / Facebook
• Some iLife / iWork / MobileMe integration
• Faces / Places ala iPhoto 09?
• Integrated Synch with iCal and Google Calendars
• Add Google Groups – Contacts Groups sync

NEW Features for iPhone 3.0

• Remote Wipe for the Rest-Of-Us
• XCode – more templates to make apps even easier (compare number of iPhone templates to Mac templates
• Wireless Syncing to iTunes
• And One More Thing – the big one – Core Fart Noises Layer for OSX 10.6

It will be interesting to see how many ideas Apple takes from Apps selling in the App Store. Yes it will suck for the developer, but you can’t use that as an excuse not to improve the OS. Not like they haven’t done it before with Mac OSX (Spaces, Dashboard etc)

Updated to add more.

There is nothing like hitting Publish on a post to unlock a flood of new ideas. Lets add a couple more to the list:

(this is the Wu Method of naming everything you and everyone else can think of, analysts get paid big bucks for this)

• PUSH
• Voice Dialing
• Tethering (I could care less, till I need it)
• Bluetooth support for Keyboards etc

One More Thing…

Support for larger sized screen – 7 or 10 inch – for Apple Tablet product to be released in September / October (with next iPod rev). If Apple plans to release something like this in 09 – this will be the occasion for developers to be told about it so they can.. develop.

Oh. And if Voice Play is announced – that one was mine too.

UPDATE: The silly section.

• New Version of iTunes
• Beatles on iTunes
• Stability updates
• and Flash support – why is no one talking about Flash support?

Now that the “SteveNote” from WWDC has been finished – lets see how I went with my predictions.

RIGHT

100% – 3G iPhone
100% – iPhone 2.0 software & App Store
95% – 3G iPhone to be triple or quad band
90% – GPS on 3G iPhone
75% – 3G iPhone in different colors
70% – OSX 10.6 announced
95% – OSX 10.6 called Snow Leopard
50% – .Mac refresh announcement
10% – iPhone Nano / Alternate models
0% – OSX 10.6 to have no new features

WRONG

75% – New MacBooks announced
65% – BluRay available
95% – .Mac Free (95% the basic service will be made free if its refreshed)
20% – MacBook Air 2.0
10% – iPhone gets plastic back
10% – MacBook Air Pro

DON’T KNOW YET

95% – Better camera on iPhone
65% – OSX 10.6 to be Intel Macs only

HOW DID WE GO?

10 right, 6 wrong (including a couple of long shots), 2 we don’t know yet.

Pretty happy with my guesses. I was pretty sure this was going to be the 3G iPhone 2.0 show with not a lot of room for other things like new Macs. Thought one of those I got wrong might have made a sexy “One More Thing” – but I guess Apple want the next 4 weeks of millions of dollars of free press to be all about the iPhone.

I like the changes to .Mac – now MobileMe. Pity the logo reminds me so much of Windows ME. Don’t think MobileME will ever really take off until it become a free service for all. $99 for a solo user with a iPhone is just a little too much. It rocks when you have multiple machines, but really it should just be free.

iTunes Music Store would never gotten to 80% market if people had to pay for it.

I kinda hate the plastic backs on the 3G iPhones. But as someone who has spent last few years with Motorola phones (with metal backs) and the crappy reception – it might not be such a bad thing.

No (RED)?

No 32Gig version?

Quick note on 10.6 Snow Leopard

I think the “low key” treatment of Snow Leopard was a good idea. The next 3 months are going to be a press frenzy on the 3G iPhone. The gestation of 10.5 Leopard from public announcement to release was way too long. But given 5000 developers are there for WWDC – your not going to call them back in a few months to show em 10.6. No doubt there will be a big Snow Leopard feature in January 09, when the software will be only a few months away from release.

No new features? Hardly. Improved enterprise support, new video with QuickTime X, no doubt the next generation of MobileME integration. Maybe nothing as shiny as Time Machine or Quick Look – but all important improvements nonetheless.

Roll on July 11.