SharedThought

David Pogue’s review of the new iPhone due to be released on Friday is out. This is probably the best overview of the phone’s new features I’ve seen in a review. Pogue’s favorite new features are the iPhone 2.0 firmware/software/OS upgrade and the AppStore. Both of these features are available to existing iPhone users.

Disappointingly, Pogue says the iPhone’s GPS is too weak to support a turn by turn application. Bloggers have noted that the terms of service of the iPhone SDK prohibit development of such an application, so perhaps the underpowered nature of the GPS device itself explains this prohibition. I hope that the GPS device is powerful enough to support an application like Nike+. I am hoping for an upgrade to the Nike+ service that would allow the iPhone to use the built in GPS in place of the existing shoe chip and iPod nano system it currently uses.

Here is a very cool implementation of Google’s street view. Look for the yellow line in the picture below. You might have to use the controls to pan the image a little, but once you see the yellow line you can click on it to follow the individual stages of the race. You can find and follow the other stages of the 2008 Tour de France course using Google’s street view site devoted to the race.

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This morning after trading opened Apple, Inc. passed HP in market cap again. Following the release of the iPhone in June, Apple’s stock took a dive and is just now getting back to where it was.

Update: HP has passed Apple again! Apple is up today, but so is HP. It looks like they’ll be back and forth for awhile now.

This morning when trading opened on Wall Street, Apple, Inc. passed HP in market cap for the first time. Earlier this year, Apple passed Dell in market cap and now stands 6th overall in the technology sector.

Office 2007 is introducing new fonts that will change the way most documents will look and feel. It’s nice to see that Redmond is starting to focus on design at this level. Poynter Online has an interesting article detailing the fonts to be introduced when Office 2007 debuts.

Futurosity was kind enough to provide me an invitation to Newsvine. Newsvine is a nice Web 2.0 site that gives you access to AP news feeds that can be accessed by topic. Then, similar to digg, members have the ability to vote for news stories of interest, and comment on the stories. Members can “seed” their own stories from other websites, and can even right their own “columns.” If you would like one of my 20 invites, please leave a comment and I’ll email it to you.

I just came across a new tool that makes including RSS feeds on your website a snap. The program is called CaRP. It’s a nice little PHP-based program that actually works. I’ve added news from both the Bush-Cheney and Kerry campaigns using it.