Why won’t they leave that single button alone? According to a BGR report, Apple’s planning to come out with iPads and iPhones without a home button at some point in time. Apparently, that’s one reason Apple added multitouch gestures for the iPad in the latest iOS 4.3 beta—probably to test if we’d use the new gestures for navigating the home screen and launch the app switcher, because that’s how the future (buttonless) iPads and iPhones are going to roll.
Looking for a way around using just your iPhone? Here’s a good one if you don’t mind parting with 40 bucks. Garmin just put out StreetPilot, the company’s first navigation app for the iPhone. The app adds full turn-by-turn directions, lane assist, 2D and 3D map views, weather and real-time traffic updates to a device that probably already have in your pocket.
What you’re looking at is a photo of a promotional display that’s being called “the world’s biggest iPhone.” Clearly, it’s all a big joke though, since it’s obviously 56 iPads tied together inside a gigantic iPhone-looking frame to promote a new Lara Croft game for iOS. It’s definitely eye-catching, although it’s also a pretty big waste of iPad since they could have just used a projector pointed at that giant iPhone screen for a clearer view of the game, but whatever. It’s cool though, since they later gave those iPads away—loaded with the game, of course—to lucky commuters passing through after the gimmick. We’re just a bit bitter because of the random iPad giveaway that we never seem to stumble on. All we got from our last commute was a nasty head cold from a random dude who sneezed on us on the train.
Seriously, is there anything you can’t do with an iPhone? Wait, it can’t do Flash (at least not natively), so let’s rephrase that: is there an iPhone accessory that you can’t prefix with “i”? Apparently not. We’ve seen something called the iGrill that basically adds a meat thermometer to your iPhone, but that thing at least used a timer app and a Bluetooth connection, so it still used a bit of the iPhone’s iSmarts. But this thing? It’s called the iBottleOpener. Which is exactly what it is: a bottle opener stuck to the back of an iPhone case (hence, the “i”). It’s as simple as that. As simple as paying $20 for an iPhone case that comes with a bottle opener. Is it worth it? That entirely depends on how often you find yourself with an unopened beer bottle. But the promo video that demonstrates how awesome it is to have a “party in your pocket” is definitely worth the 27 seconds. Yeaaaah, buddy! Video after the break.
