Apple has announced that it is considering the expansion of AirPlay licensing to allow for more video streaming. The move might allow you to stream flicks from your iPhone directly to your TV with no box by licensing the tech to TV makers.

Microsoft is embracing the iPhone with a new tool called the System Center Configuration Manager 2012. The software will launch later this year and will manage Windows, Windows Phone, iPad, iPhone, and lots more devices.

Microsoft Tags are now being used in USA Today and a free iPhone app lets your smartphone read them. The tags offer interactive content like photos and video.

Onkyo has unveiled three new AV receivers for home theater and music fans. The three include the 7.2-channel TX-NR609, the 5.1-channel TX-NR509 and the 5.1-channel TX-SR309 and all are Made for iPhone certified.

Apple has now passed Microsoft in market cap. Microsoft is thought to have a market cap of $219.18 billion and Apple has $222.84 billion. This is a significantly milestone for both companies.

Mozilla has announced that it is developing Firefox Home for the iPhone. The app syncs bookmarks and other items with a desktop browser.

A company called Muzatch has unveiled a solar charger for the iPhone that is ugly. It has a 1000mAh battery inside and can charge the iPhone half way before running out of juice itself.

The WSJ has a new story up talking about iPhone use at Microsoft. Apparently, the use of the iPhone isn’t forbidden, but employees often hide the use around executives. The story also claims that 10% of Microsoft global workforce uses the iPhone to access company email.

A report has surfaced that claims some hard-core iPhone fans are linked to Stockholm syndrome. Danish consultants Strand Consult have dubbed it iPhone syndrome where fans are oblivious to the devices faults. The company is sure to get lots of hate over that report.

Microsoft has admitted that it was caught napping by the iPhone. The iPhone has significantly hurt the market share of Windows Mobile leaving Microsoft to play catch up.

File this one under “irony”‘ Microsoft’s is providing an incentive to purchase Apple’s iPhone though its Bing marketing campaign. In an attempt to entice users to try its Bing search engine, the company is offering 35% discount for AT&T’s online store, which sells iPhones.

[via Technologizer]

Melinda Gates, together with Bill, manage the Gates Foundation, which admits that little could be accomplished without its wealth.  However the philanthropy’s true power lies in its willingness to apply the merciless principles of the business world to charity.

Around the house however and through a rare insight to the personal Mrs Gates she admits, “there are very few things that are on the banned list in our household,” Gates told Vogue. “But iPods and iPhones are two things we don’t get for our kids.” Gates acknowledges the inevitable lure of forbidden fruit. “Every now and then, I look at my friends and say, ‘Ooh, I wouldn’t mind having that iPhone.’” Will she bite the Apple?

[via Style.com]

Truphone for the iPhone has just added Skype support for not only the iPhone, but the iPod Touch as well. Now you can make Skype phone calls easier by just opening Truphone and dialing as you normally would.  Truphone’s Skype feature is similar to other services such as fring and Nimbuzz.

Everyone’s favorite application Pandora Radio has just released version 2.0 in the App Store. Users have great features such as the song progress bar, cove-flow view for song history and the ability to share stations with friends using email. Microsoft has released their second application for the iPhone, Microsoft tag. This application allows users to snap a picture of a custom tag and instantly gain access to mobile content such as videos, contact information, maps, music and more.

Long Zheng of IStartedSomething wrote:

Microsoft Tag is based on a whole new technology called High Capacity Color Barcodes (HCCBs), which was invented in-house by Microsoft Research. The difference is not using square pixels, but triangle shapes and colors to store data.

Microsoft Tag is the third solution besides the existing technologies (QR Code and Data Matrix) we had today.

You can download the application for your iPhone via iTunes. This application also compatible with Windows Mobile, J2ME, Blackberry or Symbian S60 phone and can be obtained at http://gettag.mobi. (For the moment this is a free service, Zheng added).

Will it take off soon? Do you want to get it for your iPhone? Tell us what you think.

[via IStartedSomething]

All the popular web browsers will be compatible with this web service including Mozilla’s Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Apple’s Safari web browser. Of course the question arises, will this service work with the iPhone? Sarah in Tampa has put together a quick Q&A to clear these questions up.

Fortunately for all of us who have decided to stick it out with the iPhone, our long wait is finally going to pay off.  The upcoming Web Office Suite will work just fine with the iPhone’s Mobile Safari Browser. There are a few rumors going around right now saying that a private preview of this service will be available by the end of 2008 but we wont be holding our breath.

[Via On10]

Many business users have a huge demand for remoting into a work computer and retrieving information while out of the office, Citrix has been able to provide many different routs to doing so, and until now they never included the iPhone.

There is no specific release on it, it is still being tested and demoed on the phone, and unlike the past its been said that this option will be relatively inexpensive as compared to the corporate versions that they have had in the past which can run the corporate bill quiet high.

[Via ZDnet]

As the release of the iPhone nears we will begin to see some more Apps leaking through. Check back for updates on new releases.

[Via iPhone Alley]

So I asked my friend on the phone if he’d ever use the native Maps application on the iPhone. His reply was a quick “heck no.” My response was, don’t ever recommend another web application to me again until you’ve used the iPhone yourself. So why am I not happy with Live Maps? First of, it’s a web app, and web apps do not stand a chance next to the native application Maps. It’s painfully slow to load and requires a lot of work just to zoom in and out to get the damn map to look right. I find it retarded dumb that when clicking on the “Zoom In” control, it zooms in on the center of the map. I bet that if Microsoft wanted to do it right, they could have sized the map to fit the iPhone’s screen. If you really want to make it work, the iPhone needs to be in landscape mode. I can’t in good conscious recommend Live Maps on the iPhone to anyone at this point in time.

I challenge Microsoft to build a better map Application when the App Store opens up. Is it too much to ask for map that’s sized for the iPhone’s screen, implementations of pinch-zoom and swiping to move the map around?

“It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone. To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now” Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president, Specialized Devices and Applications Group, Microsoft

“We do have experience with that environment, and that gives us confidence to be able to do something. The key question is, what is the value that we need to bring? We’re still getting comfortable with the SDK, right? It’s just come out. So we had a guess as to what feasibility would be like, now we’ll really get our head wrapped around that” Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president, Specialized Devices and Applications Group, Microsoft

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the iPhone any time soon, but it does sound like they have at least viewers with, perhaps, basic editing functionality for those file types in mind. Considering the iPhone with Firmware 2.0 is being positioned as equally happy in the boardroom as it is in a fashionista’s manbag, it’s a feature enterprise users will expect, not just appreciate.

[Microsoft considering Office functionality for iPhone - PHONE Magazine]

“If you are impressed by the “touch features” in the iPhone, you’ll be blown away by what’s coming in Windows 7″ Hilton Locke, TabBlogger

It looks as though Microsoft are also doing their own work with capacitative displays, the sort that Apple use in the iPhone and iPod Touch; in fact one has shown up in Dell’s Latitude XT Tablet PC, which the manufacturer is calling the “forerunner to emerging multi-touch capabilities”.  Ever since the iPhone launched and gathered dropped-jaws by the bucket load over its incredibly intuitive interface, the Mac faithful have been begging for the same touchscreen technology to be included in a MacBook or MacTablet; could Microsoft beat them to it?

See Dell’s capacitive interface in action, after the cut…

Of course, it’s not likely.  Many rumors point to a smaller MacBook, possibly MultiTouch-enabled, being announced at MacWorld in January.  Even if the launch doesn’t come so soon, Windows 7 is likely to drop in 2010 at the earliest which gives Apple ample time to put the finishing flourishes to the device they’re likely got waiting in the wings.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsxyhc_VnPA[/youtube]

What’s left to consider, then, is the depth to which any touchscreen interface is immersed in the OS and the software it runs.  So far, the iPhone has had hardware touch an integral part of the software environment; that, in part, could be due to the closed system of specifically-coded applications, making not just compatibility but seamless integration possible.  As touchscreen-variants of the Windows OS have discovered, adding touch to a full system can be far harder; while Vista’s inking is a great improvement on that of XP Tablet Edition, there are still many programmes (both Microsoft-made and third-party) which fail miserably to make the best use of pen or finger input.

Apple perhaps has a head start, since so many users stick to their iLife suite of bundled applications that “merely” re-coding them to take advantage of MultiTouch would vastly improve the sense of touch being designed in rather than an afterthought.  But there are undeniably questions to be asked and answered that may further delay any MultiTouch Apple portable.