Rogers revising iPhone plans?
MacNN reports that Rogers Wireless will be revising its iPhone plans on October 1 to include a new 250 minute plan for $60, among other changes.
The new bundles, MacNN says, would feature a $60 plan with:
- 250 daytime minutes
- 75 texts
- 1GB data
- Visual Voicemail
- three months of unlimited local calling
- a permanent MY5 Local option
A $75 plan may also be available, with 400 minutes, 100 texts, and 2GB data.
Early on, Rogers has had a rocky relationship with iPhone customers, many of whom are unhappy with the relatively high cost of plan rates and miniscule data allowances.
Canadian readers: Is this an improvement, or does Rogers still have a long way to go? Let us know by leaving a comment. [Read]
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Rumor: New iTunes Visualizer will be the Stunning Magnetosphere
According to rumors, the new iTunes 8 presumably coming next week at the Apple “Let Us Rock” event will come with some beautiful new visualizations. Now, new rumors say that the new visualizations will actually be Magnetosphere, a formerly-available plugin by artist Robert Hodgins. After seeing the gorgeous video above, I hope this rumor ends up being true. [Apple@CooOne via Boing Boing Gadgets]
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iPhone document scanner
Since the iPhone’s introduction, people have been using the built-in camera for more than quick snapshots. Some have taken macro shots, used it as a webcam or even created high art (OK, so that last one was a bug).
Another popular practice is to use it to generate to-do lists and even as a scanner. People have taken photos of things they need to buy or remember to do. Others have sent snapshots of business cards, receipts, etc. into applications like iPhoto and Evernote.
That’s clever, but getting a legible image of your documents is difficult. Enter the iPhone Document Scanner. This device positions the iPhone and document to be “scanned” at the perfect distance and ensures a steady hand. If you’re a Ponko member, you can download a free .eps file of the plans to build your own.
We knew Apple put the camera on the back for a reason! Thanks, Baptiste! [Read]
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Learn a language with the Finder’s Desktop
Here’s a nifty little application. DesktopLyrics is a free utility that displays the lyrics of the song that’s currently playing in iTunes on your desktop. You can position it where ever you like, choose your font and then just let it run. Pretty neat, right?
Here’s the catch. The lyrics must be in iTunes already, as DesktopLyrics doesn’t fetch them. You could use an application like GimmieSomeTune (which we’ve written about before) to do this, or, if you’re a masochist, enter them by hand. But I’ve thought of a better idea.
I’m teaching myself Japanese with the fantastic podcasts at JapanesePod101.com. Something I like about them is that they embed each lesson’s transcript in the file itself. So, tapping on my iPhone’s screen as I listen brings up the text of the lesson.
Now, I can launch DesktopLyrics and follow along with the transcript, both the Japanese and the English translation, on my desktop as I listen. I love it. Check it out, and happy learning!
[corecode Via LifeHacker]
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Rumor: new visualizer in iTunes 8 to be Robert Hodgins’ Magnetosphere
On the heels of our earlier post about new features in iTunes 8 comes this post from video producer and designer Allan White, speculating that the new visualizer in iTunes might be Processing artist Robert Hodgins‘ amazing Magnetosphere, which was available up until a few months ago from The Barbarian Group (aka Robert’s design company) as an iTunes plugin.
As Allan points out, there are two very strong pieces of evidence for this: 1) Allan emailed Robert, who told him Magnetosphere had been sold to a “third party”, and 2) a twitter from Digg founder (and amateur Apple rumor mill) Kevin Rose on Sept. 2nd describing the new visualizer as “planet like objects wrapping around each other w/stars/light streams”. As you can see in the image above, this sounds like a pretty apt description of Magnetosphere, which visualizes sound as particle explosions like supernovas. The Barbarian Group website’s page for Magnetosphere says that “We’ve had a ton of interest in it, and we’ve got some exciting plans, but it’s gonna take us a couple months to make it all happen.”
Of course, nothing is confirmed, but it all points in the right direction. Personally, I’d love to see Magnetosphere on every iTunes user’s screen, and not just because Robert is an amazing artist and also always gracious and helpful when I email him because my Processing particle system animations don’t look as cool as his. The world just needs stuff this cool-looking everywhere.
[allanwhite via Create Digital Music]
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