One of my favourite applications, Evernote, released another update today. Besides fixing some minor issues, it features great news for especially Mac-users. The Safari plugin, lets you clip entire web pages to Evernote or a PDF. Evernote now also supports Growl notifications (known from Adium and Gmail Notifier).

FireFox Mac-users will enjoy the updated clipper. The clipping is sent directly to the Evernote client. No more signing in or pop-ups. If you prefer the “old” method you can still use the bookmarklet.

I have Evernote installed on all my supported devices, my PC, MacBook Pro and iPhone. I love how easy I can sync my notes, record an audio note and take advantage of the many Evernote-enabled apps. I used to be a huge fan of Google Notebook, but unfortunately Google doesn’t support that anymore.

What’s your experience with Evernote? Do you use another application to write and sync notes and clippings?

It was bound to happen sooner or later. A cracking program for iPhone apps has been released. It’s called “Crackulous”. I’m not mentioning it here because I want you to use it. On the contrary. This program can do more damage than good.

Crackulous removes copy protection (Apple calls it FairPlay) from iPhone app. There is nothing new in that. Several sites already offer pirated iPhone apps for free. But with Craculous everybody can remove FairPlay from their iPhone apps and share them with friends, p2p sites (torrents, newsgroups etc.) or sell them.

So what’s wrong in sharing your iPhone apps with your friends? I guess nothing is worng in that?! If only it would stop there. It won’t! The next thing we’ll see will be some kind of distribution program on your iPhone. It’ll be the pirated version of Cydia, which lets you download the pirated version of the app straight to your iPhone. Of course there are always some people who use pirated applications as a demo. “I’ll buy the program after I try it…”. Do you really want to try out a $ 1.99 application before you buy it?

90% of the applications on iTunes are made by people like you and me. (Well if I could develop an iPhone app I would, but you know what I mean.) Independent developers who has worked hard to make a great application for us.

I’m sure most developers aren’t making a living of the apps, so money isn’t my main concern here. I’m more concerned at how Apple will react on this. I’m no big fan of the way Apple locked the iPhone down. I mean it’s simlocked and you are forced to use iTunes to buy apps. I think the fear of piracy caused Apple to keep the iPhone on a leash like this. Apple could have allowed the “unofficial” developers more elbow space. A jailbreaked iPhone is even more powerful than an “official”. I think Apple knew, that if you allow the unofficial developers too much space, you would end up with a problem like this. I’m sure Apple know that they’ve sold even more iPhone because of the unlock and jailbreak possibilities, so they could live with that.

Apple can’t  have people distributing unlicensed iPhone apps. If pirated versions of EA Games’ Monopoly surfaces on too many sites, they will pressure Apple into doing something about it. This could mean the end of Cydia and all the great programs there. Swirly MMS has given us MMS on iPhone, Snapture let us take better photos, SBSettings let’s me control my shortcuts and Cycorder let’s me record videos. Cydia could now be the pirate’s extended arm and dig their own grave.

Would you use a pirated version of iPhone apps? Do you have any on your iPhone now?

Macworld 2009 is starting today. The rumours about what will be launched at the expo have been around since Macworld 2008. The biggest rumour is always about Steve Jobs’ health. I hope (like I hope for everybody else), that he is doing good and in perfect health. Besides that it’s really not my concern.

Besides Steve’s health there are more much more interesting rumours, will we see a red iPhone? A new AppleTV? Or perhaps a 17-inch unibody MacBook Pro with now removeable battery (yes, that very convenient when you have to erhmmm…well, the battery won’t fall out if you drop the MacBook).

Of course, at some point we’ll probably see a iTablet or some kind of tablet Mac as several tech blogs suggest.

I know a lot of hardcore fans are ready to spend money on a new Apple thingy. I would never do that of course….never ever (my wife reads this blog too).

Which Apple product are you hoping for?

Apple has just released iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPod Touch firmware 2.2. The software update contains many of the much anticipated changes including Google Street View, public transit and walking directions, and over-the-air podcast downloads via the iTunes app.

The update also includes numerous fixes including added stability in Safari and fixes for Mail.

Several blogs (including Gizmodo and Macblogz) expected the tethering option to be feature as well. The release notes doesn’t mention it though, so I doubt it’s an option.

This is the official release notes:

iPhone 2.2 Software Update
This update contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following:
• Enhancements to Maps
- Google Street View
- public transit and walking directions
- display address of dropped pins
- share location via email
• Enhancements to Mail
- resolved isolated issues with scheduled fetching
of email
- improved formatting of wide HTML email
• Improved stability and performance of Safari
• Podcasts are now available for download in iTunes
application (over Wi-Fi and cellular network)
• Decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
• Improved sound quality of visual voicemail messages
• Pressing the Home button from any Home screen takes
you to the first Home screen
• Preference to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard
Settings

Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone
• iPhone 3G

The update also upgrades iPhone 3G’s modem firmware (baseband). According to iPhone Dev Team you should NOT upgrade your iPhone 3G to 2.2. This will remove the unlock on your iPhone.

If your iPhone or iPhone 3G is jailbreaked, you should seriously reconsider upgrading too. The upgrade will remove the jailbreak feature. If the jailbreak doesn’t matter to you, you can safely upgrade your 1st generation iPhone.

If you plan on using the soft unlock from iPhone Dev Team for iPhone 3G when it’s released in the very near future, don’t update either.

Update: iPhone Dev Team has just written a post recommending those that want to soft unlock NOT to upgrade their iPhone 3G. The post also explains why you shouldn’t update.

Bonus info:
Tethering in cellular wireless is the connection of a non-mobile device (e.g. desktop computer, notebook computer, laptop computer), to a mobile device (e.g. cell phone, PDA) for the purpose of wireless Internet access by the non-mobile “tethered” device.

Thank you Wikipedia

Nimbuzz has just released this:

NIMBUZZ TO PROVIDE SOCIAL NETWORKS WITH REAL TIME WEB AND MOBILE COMMUNICATION
Announces first commercial partnership with StudiVZ

11th November 2008, Rotterdam – Nimbuzz (www.nimbuzz.com), the most comprehensive mobile VoIP, presence and IM provider today announces its first key revenue sharing partnership with a social network, formalising its push to provide online communities with real time web and mobile communication. StudiVZ, the biggest German speaking social networking site, becomes the first in a series of international networking sites to integrate the Nimbuzz technology into its community, bringing real-time web and mobile communication capabilities to members for the first time.

By integrating the Nimbuzz VoIP, presence and IM features, social networks can extend their offering beyond their current online networking experience. StudiVZ is the first partnership of this nature to be announced by Nimbuzz with similar deals in Turkey, Asia and Italy imminent.

The Nimbuzz powered web and mobile clients launch in unison today for StudiVZ members. The web chat is fully integrated into the existing StudiVZ interface allowing IM conversations between all community members. The full mobile Nimbuzz portfolio including voice calls, chat, file sharing across popular IM communities will also be available and a link to a bespoke download page will be promoted across the StudiVZ network.

Nimbuzz founder and CEO Evert Jaap Lugt: “Strategic distribution deals are our key targets for growth and we are pleased to announce this important social network partnership just six months after our launch. The ability of social networks to provide a complete day to day experience is restricted by the nature of the product being tied to the PC. But people are mobile so by partnering we can blend our technology with their existing communities with the resulting product benefiting and adding value to businesses and consumers alike. This deal is just the beginning for us and we will be making further social network and operator announcements in the very near future.”

StudiVZ is one of the largest European social networks and the biggest German speaking network with over 12 million members spanning across Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Adding this powerful and popular community to the existing Nimbuzz repertoire enforces the company’s goal of becoming the largest global communications platform for seamless IP-based communication among mobile devices and social media platforms.

Clemens Riedl, CEO of StudiVZ commented: “Nimbuzz’s impressive solution not only offers us an additional ad-revenue stream but enables us to seamlessly extend our product to offer real time communication on our platform and on the mobile phone.”

The partnership with StudiVZ sees Nimbuzz entering a revenue sharing agreement with income generated from adverts sold as part of the social networks own advertising opportunities.

~Ends~

About Nimbuzz
Nimbuzz offers a social interaction service combining presence, IM, and VoIP. The free application is available for mobile, PC and Web, enabling calling, instant messaging, file/location sharing across popular IM communities and 23 social networks including Facebook and MySpace.
Nimbuzz has positioned itself to become the largest global communications platform for seamless IP-based communication among mobile devices and social media platforms.

About StudiVZ
studiVZ Ltd. was founded in October 2005. Since January 2007 studiVZ Ltd. belongs to publishing group Georg von Holtzbrinck. studiVZ Ltd., with its platforms studiVZ.net, schuelerVZ.net and meinVZ.net, is the most successful and influential social Network in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Together, these platforms make up over 12 million users. Growth continues to be exponential.
It is the goal of studiVZ Ltd. to make it the most successful and furthest reaching network in all of Europe. StdiVz has its headquarters in Berlin has around 200 employees.

It’s about time soomething like this happened.

Nimbuzz supports all the major cell phone brands including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Windows Mobile and Blackberry, but not iPhone.

Nimbuzz: We need iPhone support for this too please

Thanks to my good friend Dan from Minute44.com, I’m now the proud owner of a iPhone icon. Well The Beta News are.

If you go to www.thebetanews.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch, you will see the cool new logo.

I’ve also added the Disqus plugin. I’m looking forward to using it. The plugin supports both Seesmic video comments, threaded discussion and better controls of your own comments.

Let me know what you think of it.