YouTube Mobile Uploads Up 400% Since iPhone 3GS Launch

If there was any question about the significance of the iPhone 3GS’s impressive video functionality, here’s your answer: YouTube reports that in the six days since the iPhone 3GS was released last week, the number of mobile uploads has increased by a whopping 400%. For a single phone model to have such a major impact on the site is simply phenomenal.

Even without the iPhone, YouTube is seeing major growth across the entire mobile space — the site has seen uploads go up 1700% over the last six months. It’s not hard to guess why. Video-enabled smartphones are becoming increasingly popular, as are high speed data connections. YouTube also attributes part of the growth to a streamlined upload flow (note how easy it is to upload a video from your iPhone to the site), as well as its improved sharing capabilities (you can now syndicate your videos to services like Facebook and Twitter).

As the still-nascent iPhone 3GS continues to take off and more people figure out how to use the video sharing functionality, these figures are going to skyrocket. Other phones are increasingly getting in on the action too, like Android phones, which introduce direct-to-YouTube uploads with the 1.5 Cupcake update.

The implications for this are huge. Lowering the barrier to uploading a video will probably result in an increase in the silly user-generated content that litters YouTube, but it will also streamline the uploading of more significant videos. As our commenters point out, an increase in mobile uploads could very well spur the ‘iReporter’ movement, as citizens upload video taken at the scene of a newsworthy event as soon as it happens (we need look no further than the protesting and tragedies in Iran for examples).

iPhone 3G S New

Meet the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet. iPhone 3G S features video recording, Voice Control, up to 32GB of storage and more.

The Fastest iPhone Ever

The first thing you’ll notice about iPhone 3G S is how quickly you can launch applications. Web pages render in a fraction of the time, and you can view email attachments faster. Improved performance and updated 3D graphics deliver an incredible gaming experience, too. In fact, everything you do on iPhone 3G S is up to 2x faster and more responsive than ever.1

Video

Now you can shoot video, edit it and share it — all on your iPhone 3G S. Shoot high-quality VGA video in portrait or landscape. Trim your footage by adjusting start and end points. Then share your video in an email, post it to your MobileMe gallery, publish it on YouTube or sync it back to your Mac or PC using iTunes.

3-Megapixel Camera

The new 3-megapixel camera takes great still photos, too, thanks to built-in autofocus and a handy new feature that lets you tap the display to focus on anything (or anyone) you want.

Voice Control

Voice Control recognises the names in your Contacts and knows the music on your iPod. So if you want to place a call or play a song, all you have to do is ask.

Compass

With a built-in digital compass, iPhone 3G S can point the way. Use the new Compass app or watch as it automatically reorients maps to match the direction you’re facing.2

Cut, Copy & Paste

Cut, copy and paste words and photos, even between applications. Copy and paste images and content from the web, too.

Landscape Keyboard

Want more room to type on the intelligent software keyboard? Rotate iPhone to landscape to use a larger keyboard in Mail, Messages, Notes and Safari.

Messages

Send messages with text, video, photos, audio, locations and contact information. You can even forward one or more messages to others.3

Search

Find what you’re looking for across your iPhone, all from one convenient place. Spotlight searches all of your contacts, email, calendars and notes, as well as everything in your iPod.

Accessibility

iPhone 3G S offers accessibility features to assist users who are visually or hearing impaired. These features include the VoiceOver screen reader, a Zoom feature, White on Black display options, Mono Audio and more.

Internet Tethering

Surf the web from practically anywhere. Now you can share the 3G connection on your iPhone with your Mac notebook or PC laptop.4

Voice Memos

Capture and share a thought, a memo, a meeting or any audio recording on the go with the new Voice Memos application.

Nike + iPod

iPhone includes built-in Nike + iPod support. Just slip the Nike + iPod Sensor (available separately) into your Nike+ shoe and start your workout.

Stocks

Stocks on iPhone shows you charts, financial details and headline news for any stock you choose. Rotate iPhone to see even more detailed information.

YouTube

Watch YouTube videos wherever you are. Log in to your YouTube account to save and sync bookmarks and rate your favourites.

Everything you love about iPhone.

Phone, iPod and Internet device in one, iPhone 3G S offers desktop-class email, an amazing Maps application and Safari — the world’s most advanced mobile web browser. And your iPhone does even more when you add apps from the App Store.

Yahoo! Adds Voice Search To iPhone App

Not too long ago, Google added voice recognition to their iPhone search application. Not one to be behind the times, Yahoo! has gone and done the same.

Well, that’s what we should have been able to say. Instead, Yahoo’s voice recognition add-on comes nearly 6 months after Google’s. Of course, Yahoo’s application is a bit more complex than Google’s, being that it also handles news, aggregates various social sites, and a good amount more beyond search. That being said, search is Yahoo’s main gig. Combined with the fact that everyone hates typing, Yahoo should have done this ages ago.

Yahoo’s implementation is quite different than Googles – for better or worse.

Back when Google initially launched their app with voice search functionality, it caused a bit of a stir. Google had made use of an API that was generally off limits the app developers. The API they used took input from the iPhone’s proximity sensor, allowing them to tell if the phone was placed near the user’s face. Once the proximity sensor went off, voice recording began. Had Apple let Google slide intentionally, or did the person in charge of reviewing the app just miss the memo that this was a no-go? As with anything on the internet, conspiracy theories were fairly rampant.

Whether they tried to make use of the same API and were denied or they simply chose to avoid conflict, we’re not sure – but Yahoo opted to go with a more traditional push-to-begin, push-to-stop recording method. It’s not quite as slick, but it has an upside: it doesn’t screw up. At least, it doesn’t screw up without an obvious reason (see below.) I’m not sure if the proximity sensor just hates my manly facial scruff or something, but Google’s solution tends to misfire a lot. It’ll detect my face and begin the recording, then stop a second or two later. I’ll pull my iPhone away to see what’s going on, and the sensor will fire off, starting the recording again. Every one of my voice-powered Google iPhone app searches seems to begin with “Wait, damn it, okay ..” This is a little more fool-proof.

On the downside, they placed the Record/Stop record right in the middle of the screen – smack dab where your cheek bone will sit, potentially misfiring the button. This happened to me twice in testing. Holding the iPhone at a slight angle (so that it doesn’t touch your cheek) fixes things.

This recording method could arguably be more user-friendly, but the voice recognition isn’t. Of 3 tests, 2 of which were significantly inaccurate.

Test #1:
What I said: Blah blah blah, blah blah blah.
What Yahoo! detected: Blah blah blah, blah blah blah

Test #2:
What I said:This is a story all about how, My life got flipped-turned upside down
What Yahoo! detected: This is a story of the town of west africa upside down

Test #3:
What I said:This is a test of yahoo voice recognition, test test, 1 2 1 2
What Yahoo! detected: This test of yahoo voice recognition, test, test tube 1 2 4

As you can see from test 1, Yahoo!’s voice recognition is outstanding at picking up “Blah”s. As you can see from test 2, however, it is fairly terrible at picking up the Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air theme. And for test 3? We can see where the “test tube” mistake happened (”Test One Two” kind of sounds like “test tube”) – but where the hell did that “4″ come from?

Oh well – maybe it’s just my crazy exotic Californian accent screwing things up

Y Combinator’s ReMail Finally Brings Full-Text Email Search To The iPhone

I love my iPhone, but I’ve always harbored some contempt for its built-in Email application. Not because of the occasional message download issues and display quirks, but because the iPhone’s Email application has absolutely no search function at all. Given how much essential data is now stored in most peoples’ inboxes, from phone numbers to flight confirmations, this has been an endless source of frustration.

Today, these problems are solved: a new Y Combinator startup called ReMail has just released its application on the App Store, and it’s bringing full text Email search to the iPhone. The application is currently free during its Beta period, and you can grab it here.

Now, I know the first response people will have is that the upcoming iPhone 3.0 update is going to include Email search as part of the new Spotlight feature. This is mostly true – 3.0 will allow you to search through Email headers, which include the message’s subject line and its ‘To’ and ‘From’ fields. But that’s only half the battle. Spotlight omits the actual Email message, which accounts for a sizable chunk of an Email’s content.

So how is ReMail doing what Apple can’t? The company has built a server optimized for rapid Email search, which the iPhone client connects to and grabs results from in a few seconds. It works exactly as it should, offering suggestions as you type your query and presenting matches as threads so you can see the context that a result was found in. If you search for “Jason inbox”, it knows that you’re looking for a person named Jason in the folder “inbox”.

While the application requires internet connectivity if you want to search through your whole inbox, for most queries you won’t need a connection. ReMail has built in smart caching that locally stores all messages from the last two weeks, as well as any messages you’ve previously searched for (people often search for the same messages multiple times to look up things like phone numbers).

My initial reaction to the app was that it was great, but that it seemed to have a short shelf life – couldn’t Apple just update the 3.0 firmware to include full-text search? But CEO Gabor Cselle says that the iPhone simply can’t handle it in its current form. Even if the phone had an index of your Email stored locally (which would be costly in storage space), Cselle says that the iPhone doesn’t have the processing power to quickly scan through multiple gigabytes of messages.

ReMail was founded by Gabor Cselle, who completed his Master’s thesis on Organizing Email, worked on the Gmail team, and was also VP of Engineering at Xobni, which he left last year to pursue his own company. The company’s backers include Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Singh, who built a little application called Gmail (they also co-founded FriendFeed). These guys know what they’re doing.

But there are some caveats that may keep some people from using ReMail. There are a few UI quirks (it appears that the client doesn’t render HTML), and the maximum inbox size is 10,000 messages, which is smaller than some users would like. It would also be nice if the app could serve as a replacement to Apple’s mail application (you can forward and reply to messages in ReMail, but for some reason you can’t compose a new one).

The biggest issue, though, is privacy. ReMail works by sucking in your messages from your IMAP server and hosting them on its own server, which is optimized for rapid searching. Cselle says that the server is secure and that all messages are encrypted, but acknowledges that ReMail does have access to your Email. The company vows never to access or read any of it, unless they are given written permission to do so in the case of a support issue. That may not be enough for some people, especially those who deal with confidential information on a regular basis, but for most people it probably isn’t a show-stopper. It’s also worth noting that the same issues are associated with many other startups that host your private data.

The application will stay free throughout the ReMail Beta, with plans to switch to a $3.99/month subscription plan later on.

Video Of SGN’s Unlaunched iPhone Jet Dogfighter Game

People say the iPhone is really a gaming device with a mobile phone bolted on. And given how much time I spend playing games on my iPhone, I tend to agree. The touchscreen, accelerometer and (mostly still untapped) ability to play games against others over Wifi or 3G make gameplay compelling.

Social Gaming Network (among the first to exploit the iPhone accelerometer to create Wii-like games), is coming out with a new jet fighter dogfight game. The graphics are stunning, and you can fight against computer opponents or other people playing the game.

This isn’t the first iPhone dogfight game (Flying Aces and Top Gun are popular), but the graphics are way beyond what I’ve seen with the other games, the social fighting aspect is a first and unlike those games, SGN’s will be free. I had a chance to play it this morning in our offices, a video of that demo is below.

The application hasn’t been named yet and is still a month or so from launch, but SGN says if you email launch@sgn.com they’ll respond back when the game launches. The game will be free, and eventually users will be able to pay to upgrade their jets and weapons. In the first version users will train and add levels, but when the iPhone 3 comes out this summer, they say, a war is going to break out.

Google Product Search now plays friendly with iPhone and Android

Oh Froogle, how far you’ve come.

As they’ve been doing with products throughout their services suite, Google announced this morning that they’ve revamped the Google Product Search page for iPhone and Android.

If you’re familiar with Google Product Search from within a standard browser, you’ll feel right at home. Search for products by name or type, sort by various criteria (low to high, high to low, rating, etc), and view product details or reviews. Outside of the aesthetics, there wasn’t much that needed changing for the jump to mobile – so not much changed.

An increasingly common practice in the smartphone space is the idea of price comparison and product research by camera-based barcode scanning, something which Google has yet to really build upon in Product Search. Having begun to play up the convenience of Product Search when on the go, might they be considering adding a Product Search-powered barcode scanner to the Google iPhone App or the Android platform?