iSmashPhone

Testing Testing One Two: Add An External Mic To Your iPhone

Whether it's that first cassette tape recorder I bought back in the 70's, or my nifty HD camcorder that was financed by Dubya's economic-stimulus check, the mantra is the same: Get An External Microphone!  The audio you record will be automatically better than from the built-in variety.

There are now a handful of add-on microphones available for the iPhone and its cousins, with the Brando Workshop Flexible Mini Capsule Microphone claiming to be both the latest and greatest.  It boasts battery-free operation, plug-and-play compatibility with the iPhone 2/3/3GS and iPod Nano 4G (sorry, iTouch fans!), a swivel design for omni-directional positioning, and a 25dB gain increase over the internal "iMic." 

("Boasts" being the operative word: the unit is not scheduled to ship until the end of July, but the pre-order page also includes sample audio recordings done with and without the Mini Capsule for your own comparison -- and the difference in sound, if legit, is like night and day.  Still, if you plan to do a fair amount of audio recording with your iPhone, its MSRP of US$14.00 -- plus another three bucks shipping from Hong Kong -- might make trying it out worth the risk.)

Son of Android: First Look At T-Mobile's myTouch 3G

Engadget got their hands on a hot-off-the-presses myTouch 3G (a/k/a T-Mobile's successor to the G1).  Their take?  It's good for a next-gen Android phone, but pales somewhat next to HTC's Hero and even Google's own Ion.  See for yourself.

[Via Engadget]

Amazon To iPhone Apps: Hands Off Our Data!

See the tagline in the Amazon logo above?  They might want to change it to "Use our data -- and you're done."

Delicious Library creator Wil Shipley ran afoul of the online book behemoth because his app pulled book info directly from Amazon's Product Advertising API.  The API's legal-usage info was recently changed, forbidding "mobile phone[s] or other handheld device[s]" to use the data "without our express prior written approval."  Shipley did, in fact, ask permission of Amazon, only to be told there were no exceptions -- and they'd pull down his site if he didn't comply.

The assumption here is that Amazon doesn't want competition for its own iPhone app and/or Kindle hardware.

[Via TechCrunch]

App Store Celebrates It's 1st Birthday

Today marks the one year anniversary of the iTunes App Store opening up for business. To celebrate it, Apple has made a special page in the App Store. Just open up the App Store and you'll see the big clickable banner on top. If you enter the page, there's a little message from Apple:

"Light a candle and cue the music. Okay, forgive us for sounding like doting parents, but we're just so proud - having watched the App Store go from promising newcomer to full-fledged revolutionary. To celebrate its first birthday, we've gathered some of our favorite games and apps. Part fun. Part function. Entirely amazing."

Wow - I almost cried. The App Store really has come a long way in a year though, with over 56,000 available apps, and truly an app for everything. 

The page features some "favorite" apps of Apple's. Here's a few of them (not really any surprised in the list):

• Pandora Radio
• BeeJive IM 3.0 with Push 
• Shazam 
• Fandango 
• Facebook 
• Loopt 
• NYTimes 
• Google Earth, etc... 

You get the idea. It's the really popular apps that everyone has heard of already. But anyway, if it weren't for the App Store, the iPhone would be quite boring. So, for keeping our iPhones entertaining, we can wish the App Store a happy birthday, and many more.