Here’s a summary of the week’s digital lifestyle action on last100. Note that you can subscribe to the weekly wrapups, either via the special weekly wrapup RSS feed or by email.
Pre-Apple WWDC news and analysis
Sifting through iPhone 2.0 wish lists, predictions, prognostications, forecasts, prophesies
With Apple’s World Wide Developer Connference just around the corner, for our own amusement, and yours, we’ve sifted through wish lists and predictions to come up with what we think will happen, what may happen, and what’s still to come for iPhone hardware, features, and applications.
Will Apple develop MobileMe as my own personal cloud?
A lot is being made of cloud computing these days, especially in light of Microsoft’s Mesh initiative and the various online products and strategies cooked up by Google. With the rumored changes coming to Apple’s .Mac product, could a revamped MobileMe or Me.com — whatever it is ultimately called — eventually become my personal cloud?
Mobile news
Interview: zintin CEO talks iPhone, Android and mobile future
“Smartphones have historically been oriented towards business users. The iPhone is more of an entertainment platform”, notes John Jersin, CEO of mobile startup zintin. “Its not that there won’t be serious business applications on the iPhone, but the apps will have exposure to a different audience, and developers are very aware of that fact”, he says.
Android, it’s the browser stupid
Steve O’Hear: It’s hard not to be impressed by the latest demonstration of Android, Google’s soon-to-be-released open-source mobile OS. While last100’s Dan Langendorf is reserving judgment, I’m already sold on Android’s User Interface. Of course, the biggest promise of Android isn’t its UI but its openness, and it’s here where comparisons to the iPhone are also inevitable. But Google is banking on one app that carriers and handset makers won’t want to touch – the browser
Internet TV news
“the PoD”, the $99 Internet-to-TV set-top box
Another set-top box aiming to bridge the gap between the Internet and our televisions is due to hit the market later this summer — at a sweet price point of $99.
SanDisk kills off TakeTV and Fanfare
It was a simple idea: create a device that enabled premium and ad-supported online video content to be shuttled from a PC to TV, without the need for a home network. That was the promise of SanDisk’s TakeTV device and accompanying video download service Fanfare, which, reports NewTeeVee, was shut down on May 15th.
Live TV on PC: Zattoo and LiveStation showing steady growth
Whether or not you’re convinced that in the age of on-demand there’s an appetite for live TV over the Internet, two services that deliver just that are claiming impressive growth.
iTunes UK adds movie purchases and (48 hour) rentals
Six months after their U.S. debut, Apple has finally made movies rentals, along with purchases, available to iTunes customers in the UK.
Sony launches Qore, interactive HD video show for PS3
Sony might not yet be ready to roll out its own Internet TV service for the PlayStation 3 but the company is launching an original interactive HD video show to be distributed through the game console’s online service.
That’s a wrap!
