New iPhone firmware 2.2 update—and Apple vs. Podcaster: Continued e-book ramifications?
Remember the battle between Apple and Podcaster—which let you download podcasts via wireless connections while skipping iTunes?
Apple didn’t just ban Podcaster from the App Store for the iPhone and Touch and otherwise thwart its developers. Now Apple is apparently preempting Podcaster with an iPhone firmware 2.2 update. Among the goodies in the update is the ability to download podcasts via 3G or WiFi. So, while I haven’t tried the new firmware, I’ll ask the inevitable question. Doesn’t this make Podcaster deader than ever?
Of course I welcome the new built-in capabilities, which I hope will reach my iPod Touch. Nice move, Apple. But at the same time I wonder if Apple someday will take steps to make third-party e-book apps redundant. Or otherwise war against them. With Android around, perhaps not. But Apple still deserves watching, given what’s at stake here.
Meanwhile here’s a list of 2.2 improvements as reported by Venture Beat:
- "Google Street View in Google Maps
- Public transit and walking directions in Google Maps
- Display the address of a place when you drop a pin (very cool)
- Share your location via email (kind of pointless, I think)
- A fix for a scheduled fetching of email bug
- Improved stability and performance of Safari
- Podcasts can be downloaded right to the iPhone over WiFi or 3G
- A decrease in call failures/dropped-calls
- Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages
- The ability to return to the main home iPhone screen with the click of the home button (AWESOME)
- The ability to turn on and off the keyboard auto-correction feature"
November 22nd, 2008 at 2:36 am
Unless Apple plans to exactly duplicate eReader’s or Stanza’s functionality (e.g. link to my Fictionwise bookshelf, and to Manybooks catalogue, and support for both of those formats) I don’t think they can ban the app without customers crying foul. I don’t want to read *ebooks* on my iPod. I want to read my Fictionwise purchases and freebies from Project Gutenberg. Unless Apple plans to offer these features, I don’t see how they can ban apps that offer them.
Btw, how are you enjoying the Touch, David? I am loving mine!