I believe that all signs point to “yes” as it will be the day that Steve Jobs will take the stage at the World Wide Developers Conference as he has the past two years to introduce the new iPhone. Information from those familiar with manufacturing processes have concluded that the iPhone should be ready. AT&T has a vacation restriction in effect for June. AT&T store representatives are telling people it should be coming out in the next month. Last and most convincingly, AT&T has modified its data plan offerings which will be available on June 7th.

I will be hoping to hear of the following features on the fourth generation iPhone: a forward looking camera, higher resolution rear camera, camera flash, higher resolution display, micro sim, bigger battery, same chip used in the iPad, design like the “stolen” prototype, and I would pray for an upgrade in storage, battery life and memory. I will be crossing my fingers for a file system accessible to all apps, cloud syncing, wireless syncing to iTunes, and free cheaper tethering (okay that’s not going to happen as AT&T has announced their plans). Cloud syncing probably will not happen because of the new bandwidth caps instated by AT&T. I cannot wait to hear what other new unannounced features the iPhone OS 4 will bring.

Will other carriers get the iPhone? I hope so. I think it would be good for everyone to even out the data usage of iPhone customers a bit. There have been rumors of CDMA iPhones in production and major employees at Verizon working on a big ad campaign but nothing is for certain. My best guess is that CDMA phones will come later this year in order to give AT&T some sense of exclusivity during the begging of the new launch.

In other news there have been some rumors that they may announce update other Apple products on the 7th. It is possible that they may update or introduce something new like the next generation Apple TV but I do not think they will sell them right away as the next generation iPhone will take remarkable resources. iPhone launches are most likely the most busiest set of days for AT&T stores and Apple stores. I don’t believe they could afford to sell another new/updated product on the same day.

I wrote that I would give an update on the ThinkFlood RedEye a while back and never got around to it. Overall it is a great product with a great design. They have been steadily improving the RedEye iPhone app ever since they released it. ThinkFloods customer service has been phenomenal and their support during the beta period was great. I would recommend the RedEye for people that want to control multiple pieces of equipment in a single room without the need of an iPhone accessory. However if you are looking to control multiple devices in different rooms I would suggest holding off until the RedEye mini comes out this Spring. The RedEye mini is a dongle that fits in your headphone jack with an infrared transmitter in it. It turns your iPhone into an infrared remote from 30 feet away and leaves the dock connector open for charging whereas other infrared accessories occupy the dock connector. The mini is convenient because it does not require batteries and it is affordable considering its included features. I plan on purchasing one myself, when it becomes available.

The RedEye application on the iPhone makes it very simple to customize your remote layout. There is a tutorial that assists you through programming your remote and an icon based layout editor for easy customization. ThinkFlood has added a database of remote codes so programming remotes is even easier. By searching your device’s model number, preset codes can be found making it possible to easily program your iPhone without a remote control. The RedEye setup allows you to program single button pushes in one icon or to program multiple button pushes in one icon. For example: to watch TV you can program the remote to only turn on the TV or you can program the TV to turn on the TV, the cable box and your surround sound system all by one icon. Finally the last feature they added was the ability to backup your configuration to your computer or restore your configuration. I would definitely recommend the ThinkFlood RedEye or RedEye mini.

Reeling with excitement, I have no desire of falling asleep now. In 6 hours, Apple will release their new Apple tablet. I cant wait to hear about how Steve Jobs introduces this one. Supposedly a 10″ touch-screen tablet closely resembling a flattened first generation iPhone. It should have 3G connectivity, a front facing camera, and two dock connectors (for portrait or landscape positions). Hopefully it will have an OLED display.

It is said to be Steve Jobs’ most important product release yet. I can’t even imagine how it will surpass the iPhone. It will allow for downloads of book and most likely magazines and newspapers. You are said to interact with the tablet in a completely new way. I’m hoping it will be around $600. We shall see pretty soon.

This is one of the more exciting accessories I’ve seen for the iPhone. I’ve always wanted to control my electronics through my iPhone ever since my mom’s old PDA could (years ago). With ThinkFlood‘s RedEye unit and free app, you can control your infrared electronics from your iPhone. Back then, my mom’s PDA could only control a device with line of site, but the RedEye unit is controlled via wifi and therefore can be controlled in any direction, across the room, in another room, or outside the house as long as you can reach your wifi network. Just simply place the RedEye unit within range of your electronics. The great thing is you can control multiple units in multiple rooms or multiple people can control a single unit (which may be a bad thing :]). Another great thing is you have the ability to program your own remote. Which means you choose the buttons and functions of the remote control and can change it based on the different activities you want to perform. The RedEye and accompanying application seem like a set of very impressive tools for you universal remote control needs.

Right now while the RedEye is going through their beta process, ThinkFlood is offering each RedEye unit at cost $119 instead of the normal retail price of $149. This seems like an even better reason to jump on the bandwagon before they raise their price. It will be really interesting to see how well the unit works and I will follow up with what I think about the device and the software. I should have mine by the 16th.

ThinkFlood :: What is RedEye?.

Check out something ridiculously cool from the WWDC 2009 conference. There Apple had a semi-live updating board that would pulsate each time someone purchased an app. Developers called it the pulsating app store hyperwall, and pulsate it did. The idea that you can see all of these purchases happening in semi-real time in a graphical way is pretty neat. Plus I’m sure if you did some calculations based on the board you could tell the number of downloads (purchases) a day and the popularity of the different apps.
AppleInsider | Apple stuns WWDC crowd with pulsating App Store hyperwall.

To get a better look at the different applications on the wall, someone has made a photosynthesis. It’s a collection of over 200 close-up pictures stitched together to make one high quality portrait.

What you’re looking at:
Over 3,000 apps – and growing – are downloaded every minute from the App Store. This is a live feed showing the activity of 20,000 popular apps currently on the store. Every time a customer downloads an app, its icon lights up (5-min. delay).

How we made it:
This hyperwall was built using the latest in Apple technology. It’s powered by 20 Mac Pro towers running Mac OSX Snow Leopard. It was programmed in Quartz Composer using Open L APIs. And it’s shown on 20 synchronized 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays.