Apple made good on a target set by Steve Jobs when he originally announced the release of the original iPhone in June of 2007. He wanted the iPhone to take 1 percent of global cellphone market share by the end of 2008, and according to at least two different market research firms, Apple has met, and surpassed that goal. That number puts it pretty much on par with HTC, who makes a large number of different handsets, and ahead of Sharp, who also offers many different models.

For the sake of reference, consider that Nokia still dominates the space, taking a whopping 38.6 percent. Research in Motion, makers of BlackBerry devices, also still outshine Apple, with 1.9 percent, which is up from 1.1 percent in 2007. So yes, technically, BlackBerry gained as much ground as the iPhone did in the same period, but Apple was also only really selling one device, while RIM has an entire line of products aimed at different categories of consumers. Also, the iPhone was only sold in 2007 from June forward, so Apple had less time to sell their product…

If the only time you set your iPhone down is to catch a wave, then Surf Report from Oakley deserves a spot on your mobile device. With this app close at hand, you’ll always know what the surf conditions are where ever you happen to be.

Surf Reports features listings for surf spots from North America to Asia, so you’re sure to find at least a few of your own local breaks. In my testing, I found 19 of my local surf spots listed in just a few seconds.

The first thing you will notice when opening up Surf Report is the sleek, beautiful, and intuitive interface. Finding your local surf spots couldn’t be easier with the “Near Me” button, which uses the location features in the iPhone and iPod touch to automatically bring up a list that includes the current wave height. Tap on a spot in the list, and you’ll be presented with many more details such as current and forecasted air and water temperatures, wind direction, wave period and direction, tide times, and sunrise and sunset times. You also can tap a button to get a map of the surf spot…

The iPhone and iPod Touch take another step toward recognition as legitimate atristic tools with the introduction of an app called Lignt, from Digital Film Tools. The app allows users to introduce realistic lighting and shadows to any photograph using digital versions of the gobo library created by Gamproducts.

Normally used in front of lights during photography, gobos, or patterns, are widely used by lighting designers in theatre, film, photography and television to create atmosphere, project scenery, and generally enhance the visual impact of their lighting.

With Light, these same exact patterns can be applied digitally to an entire image or inside a selected…

Prepare to avert your eyes.  Dell is planning on entering the Smartphone space with a little gem they might call the MePhone, according to SAI.  People they’ve chatted with (as well as the Wall Street Journal) say Dell has two models coming our way.  One running Android a la the G1.  The other running Windows Mobile.  How will Dell differentiate itself?  That remains to be seen.  They are entering a very crowded market currently dominated by RIM and Apple’s iPhone…

Apple uses these models numbers to distinguish between different hardware models. The original iPhone carries the model number of “iPhone 1,1″ while the 3G iPhone is labeled “iPhone 1,2″. These numbers do not change for simple storage increases and instead represent functionally different devices. Similarly, the iPod Touch was originally introduced as the “iPod 1,1″ and the most recent hardware revision was labeled “iPod2,1″. The 2,1 iPod Touch added a speaker, volume controls, microphone support and a much faster processor than the 1st generation model. This new model number can be found in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist in an unencrypted firmware…

Apple on Tuesday afternoon released iPhone Software version 2.2.1, a maintenance and stability release that improves performance in mobile Safari and corrects issues with photos saved from Mail.

For iPhone

More specifically, Apple said the 246.4MB update:

• Improves the general stability of Safari.
• Fixes an issue where some images saved from Mail do not display correctly in the Camera Roll…

Best Quarterly Revenue and Earnings in Apple History

iPod Sales Set New Record

CUPERTINO, California-January 21, 2009-Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter ended December 27, 2008. The Company posted record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, equal to the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone™ and Apple TV® over their economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $11.8 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $2.3 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”…

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded Apple patent number 7,479,949 covering key aspects of the iPhone’s multi-touch user interface.

The filing, with 358 pages of drawings and Steve Jobs as its first author, comprehensively describes the iPhone operating system’s interface, and how hardware on the phone interprets finger movements and taps as instructions for the software. The filing makes liberal use of the word “heuristics” — a trial-and-error-based engineering technique that reduces the calculations necessary to arrive at a solution to a problem. Heuristics may not always be correct, but good heuristics result in something at least close to the right answer…

South Korea’s LG Display on Monday said it has signed a five-year deal to supply LCD panels to Apple.

The deal is important for LG Display, one of the largest makers of LCD panels in the world. It gives the company a high profile customer in Apple and offers a financial boost at a time the global economy appears to be worsening.

The company will receive an initial payment of $500 million from Apple, LG Display said in a statement to the Korea Exchange (KRX).

LG Display offered few other details of the agreement.

Ever since USA Today first rolled off the presses nearly 30 years ago, critics have derided the Gannett-owned paper as shallow and a superficial publication whose coverage lacked depth, and whose graphics-laden pages merely pandered to a TV-sodden audience conditioned to have the shortest of short-attention spans.

Maybe so, but the format fits the iPhone and iPod touch perfectly.

See the USA the iPhone Way: The mobile app for USA Today shows you the day’s headlines, including stories from several different sections such as Life, News, Money, and Sports.

I don’t mean that as a knock on USA Today or the iPhone. News in graphically appealing, easy-to-read, easy-to-navigate and digestible bites, with just the facts, then USA Today’s content meshes well with a handheld platform like the iPhone…