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If you’re a web designer, or just want to create a homepage that can display nicely on the iPhone, then you will need to consider the pixel limitations of the iPhone - 320 by 480-pixel canvas. Will your homepage look stretched or go off the screen on the iPhone? Well now there’s a way to tell. Welcome to the iPhone simulator, aka iPhoney, powered by the Safari browser.

This is a free downloadable simulator that can be used to view your website and how it looks on an iPhone. It’s also now open source, meaning anyone can improve on the code and functionality. Some of the best software around is open source (yes, WordPress as well), and encourages product updates and cool features to be developed.

A nice little product!

Technology - fast paced and especially so in the mobile phone industry. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with it all…

Mobile Phone Trend
Recently the iPhone started a new drive in smart phones. Now we see another causality of technology - SMS, or text messaging on mobile phones. Sending SMS messages to friends was a big thing, and all you needed was their phone number in order to send. However, the SMS days are now numbered according to research group Gartner. Within 3 years, 1 in 5 users will be accessing their email via mobile phone rather than PC.

Mobile phones, once designed for telephone conversation, are increasingly being designed now for wireless internet connection and as application friendly gadgets.

Powerful Gadgets
Today there are just under 20 million wireless email users, but this will grow to 350 million, or 20 per cent of all email accounts within 3 years. Traditionally, email enabled mobile phones lacked other features such as camera, mp3 player, GPS systems and video players. Noticed how I mentioned the word “traditionally”? This is no longer the case, and our mobile phones have become one mean and powerful device that we can’t leave home without.

The BlackBerry, once chunky and bland, now offers all these features in the BlackBerry 8800. Motorola MOTO Q 9h, the Palm Treo 750 and the Samsung BlackJack have also been designed to offer email functionality along with fun features and good looking aesthetics.

It’s interesting to note that the price of SMS per the amount of data sent is rather expensive. Where we’re heading now is free email accounts when signing up on a plan.

Ah the iPhone, a $500 gadget that in the hands of the average technophile will expand his or her ability to log onto the Internet for work or play on the go. Users have full Internet access whenever the urge strikes them. There have already been hundreds of articles written about the best features, worst features, and what to expect functionally from the iPhone, but I don’t want to talk about all that. What I want to discuss is the effect that the ability to log onto the Internet wherever you are, will have on mobile marketing in the United States.

Are these new phones going to be a revolution or just a reason to own a bigger, newer phone? Does it signify the next chapter in the big book of marketing, or will the numerous functionalities lie dormant?

What the iPhone will do is give Americans the ability to catch up with the rest of the world on the mobile capability front and finally help us start seeing the cell phone as a mobile computer, rather than simply a way to make calls away from home.

So how will all this be good for marketing?
Will it be harder to see banner ads on the smaller screen? Will users be able to see text ads at all? Is geocentric marketing (ads designed to change with the users position) going to create technical challenges for web developers? Do these types of devices fall under the laws of mobile phone use, or under the laws of the Internet? As users leave the comfort of the 19 inch computer screen and start using more compact smart devices with information collected more frequently, what role will advertising play? Finally, and most importantly, is there revenue out there to be earned?

This article is a beginning point, not an end. The nature of advertising is determined by the images we convey, and ultimately the effectiveness of the tools we use. In a world where we are moving from consumers sitting down at a computer for two hours a night and surfing the Internet, to having the ability to get online 24/7, how do marketers best utilize those sources to increase revenue? Where on that tiny screen is there room for the ads we love and rely on so much? I post these questions without knowing all of the answers, but as they say in the film Jurassic Park, “life always finds a way”. So does advertising.

The iPhone has such a beautiful screen, so there are no excuses for showing it off with different wallpapers.

Today I’ve just stumbled upon a very cool set of free iPhone wallpapers. These weren’t created by me, so credit is due to Mauricio. Anyway, with the download you get 199 free iPhone wallpapers. The download pack is 5MB.

Make the most of your beautiful screen and download today.

Enjoy!

Charlie Miller and a group of security experts have given the nod, that it’s now possible to hack an iPhone. The post I wrote earlier on the iPhone Activation Hack, shows just how a Norwegian hacker did it. I would have thought with all the resources and experts Apple has working for them, they would have designed a more hack-proof phone.

It’s theoretically possible for hackers to overtake a user’s iPhone when they are using it in a hotspot or visiting a doctored site. We’re still in the early days, so obviously there have been no reports of criminals making use of this vulnerability. But if hackers were to exploit this hack, then it’s possible that we can see the same gangs overtaking a user’s iPhone to disseminate spam, as they do when taking over a user’s PC.

How the iPhone Hack Works

How to Prevent Hacker’s Taking Over Your iPhone

• Only visit sites you trust
• Don’t open websites from emails
• Don’t visit unfamiliar Wi-Fi hotspots

Unfortunately the iPhone doesn’t offer the same high security as the Mac desktop, but hopefully things will change considering it’s only Apple’s first ever mobile phone venture.

Miller will be presenting full details of the hack at the Black Hat USA hacker conference on August 2nd. Whilst it’s an opportunity for hackers to learn the ways, it will also be an opportunity for Apple to release a patch to its users.

It has been suggested that cellular phones will be the tobacco of the 21st century. It appears that their use is almost as addictive as cigarettes, with psychologists’ reports claiming that there is evidence that users display withdrawal symptoms if deprived of their mobiles for more than 24 hours.

There is certainly no doubt that mobile phone use in public is just as annoying as smoking. Mobile-free zones are already being set up in cinemas and restaurants and it would seem that trains will soon be following suit with “mobile” and “non-mobile” carriages available on all the commuter serves to London. In fact, this has already occurred in Tokyo and Osaka.

How do you feel about mobile phone use? Personally I get irritated if dining with a friend and they accept a phone call and leave me dangling for more than a minute.

I’ve just come across a site that offers FREE unlimited music downloads. For a 3-minute automatic setup, members can be on their way to grooving with the latest music. Free free free… but is there a catch?

The site has been around for just under 5 years, and is hosted in the US. It claims to be 100% legal and free… but somehow there must be a catch. Nowhere on the site does it disclose prices or anything to suggest charges are involved. Anyway, the curiosity got to the better of me and I signed up.

Anyway, after entering my email address and name, I was shown the prices page below. Ok, it’s not free, but close to it.

The Unlimited access plan is a lifetime membership. All plans are a one-time charge with no re-billing.

Anyone with an iPhone can now get such affordable music downloads that it has become a consumer’s paradise. Beats the traditional ringtone download plans we’ve seen in the past and even to this current day. The future of free information!

On June 18th, Apple was quick to publish competitive data with other smart phones. It was timed well to build on the hype of the iPhone release. However, in an effort to get this data out asap, Apple made a convenient? blunder with the talk time of the Nokia N95. It does in fact have WiFi whereas Apple reported it doesn’t.

How do you use your mobile?

Whilst the mobile phone was initially developed for business users, it’s now obvious that it’s predominantly being used for contacting friends and family. These are the findings from a survey of 1300 users by Australian National University. The survey found some other interesting facts too:

• 90% said they could not live without a mobile phone.
• 10% do not switch off their mobile phone in cinemas. Shame on you!
• Worldwide, there are more than 1.7 BILLION mobile phones. That’s more than fixed line phones.

It seems the mobile phone industry is strong and shows no sign of slowing down either. In the past decade, mobile phones and the internet have changed our lives dramatically. Society shows no hesitation in embracing new technologies.

There are two trains of thought on the effects of mobile phone radiation on us. One group of people think mobiles are dangerous, and the other group think we have nothing to worry about. Which group do you fall into?

View 1

Yes, there is some danger in using a mobile phone. This is because mobile phones use electromagnetic waves in the microwave range. These radio waves are then absorbed by your head.

However, you are more likely to become sick from smoking, crossing the road and even from TVs and TV transmitters. Statistics have shown that you are more likely to win the lottery than to become sick from using a mobile phone. You are very likely to injure yourself from tripping over the cord of your fixed landline phone!

View 2

Just how much radiation do you get from a mobile phone?

A GSM handset can emit a peak of 2 watts, whilst an analog phone a peak of 3.6 watts. CDMA and TDMA have a lower output power, hence they typically emit less than 1 watt.

Calculations

It may seem that mobile phones cause negligible radiation in comparison to microwave ovens but a simple calculation will show you the opposite. If you talk on the mobile just one hour a day, you can expect the following radiation levels:

1 hour a day x 365 days a year = 365 hours
365 hours x 2 watts = 730 watts
730 watts x 10 years = 7300 watts!

7300 watts of radiation from a mobile is ten times more powerful than if you were to put your head in a microwaves oven. My microwave oven emits 550 watts. Now you can imagine what would happen to you… you would fry like bacon.

Mobile phones can cause the following sicknesses:

- Headaches
- Earaches
- Blurring of vision
- Short-term memory loss
- Numbing, tingling, and burning sensations
- Bad sleep

Which view do believe?

There have been a small number of lawsuits in the USA taken against companies as Motorola, Nokia, NEC and Siemens. However, as there is no scientific evidence showing the linkage of brain cancer / sickness with the use of mobile phones, these lawsuits have quickly become squashed.