Even with the limitations of the iPhone, ESPN has chosen to partner with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) to release an iPhone-specific version of their PodCenter. The service will bring “a network of 35 different podcasts and a portfolio of 15 to 20 sponsors” to the iPhone, Andrew Hampp reports for AdAge.

Marc Horine, ESPN’s VP-digital partnerships and radio, says that the decision to relaunch the PodCenter service for the iPhone was based on the fact that, “It’s not as easy to deliver podcasts through mobile devices right now. [The] iPhone allows us because the Safari internet browser takes you to the special player. Most [phones] don’t have the functionality the iPhone has.”

Starting today, iPhone users will see the re-launched, iPhone-friendly content on ESPN PodCenter. And, iPhone users can expect exclusive PodCenter content to start showing up through iTunes – all thanks to that iPhone’s functionality.

Says Mr. Horine, “We’re constantly trying to innovate building applications to better serve sports fans, and the iPhone player was developed to make it better to consume content. What’s great about the [PodCenter] player is it’s now wherever you are.”

[Via: Apple Phone Show]

Well, it doesn’t natively support video conferencing of any sort (let alone video recording), but hackers at Mac Daddy World have come up with a neat little hack to hold a video conference between two iPhones. With the help of a handy mirror-gizmo,this custom hack “captures video from the iPhone’s camera, compresses it, and sends it to a web server, where it’s relayed to another iPhone, and vice-versa, resulting in a nice two-way video conference.” If you need audio, just make the call, put it on speakerphone, and start the program. Voila! Video conferencing on the iPhone.

Apparently, you can use your iPhone’s voice connection while pulling down data for the video stream, but the coolest part of this hack is the use of the iPhone’s camera to capture video. There may be hope for video recording on the iPhone yet! If these guys could turn the iPhone camera into a video camera for a contest, we imagine a natively installed third-party video recording app couldn’t be far away (or maybe even a tweak to the iPhone’s camera app to allow video capture).

The hack is not yet available to the public, as it was intended as a one-off contest entry/proof-of-concept project. We’re crossing our fingers for some sort of public release of this hack in the near future.

[Via: Mac Daily News]

Three months ago Nokia announced 7 products that were supposed to come out in Q2 of this year for the emerging markets. That never happened, but it looks like September is the new launch date according to an interview with Antti Kujala over at Business Week. It’s an interesting article that touches on how Nokia (NYSE: NOK) designs their products for these important markets. Did you know that a team of anthropologists is sent over to that region to study how the people interact with each other and what find out what the definition of communication is to them?

It is nice to see a company who actually does these kinds of things as opposed to giving some guy a PC with CAD installed and saying “make it look cool, but keep it under 50 Euros Bob.”

[Via: Business Week]

Burning money can be fun. If anything it shows people how wealthy you are. Keeping a company alive that hasn’t made any cash in 3 years however is down right foolish. Sanyo (OTCPK: SANYY)’s mobile phones division is struggling to stay afloat and with estimates to sell 11 million phones in the current fiscal year, down from initial expectations of 12.6 million, you have to wonder why even bother? No comments have been made, but speculation has risen that the the bleeding limb might be purchased by another Japanese vendor. Shares of Sanyo are down nearly 4 points from the bad news.

[Via: Reuters]

Too bad it looks like every other slider on the market. This roughly $550 device weighs 110 grams has a 2 megapixel camera, 320 x 240 resoultion screen with 262k colors, DMB support for you day time soap opera addicts and a second camera for video calling. Only in Korea, the magic land of mobile phones.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

What do you do if you’re in Japan and you just have to have the new hotness that is the iPhone? Well, if you’re this Japanese guy, you make your very own iPhone dummy shell from scratch. And we thought we were iPhone fans.

Apparently, this guy designed and fabricated his very own iPhone, complete with dummy display, in his own workshop. The execution on his project is incredible, to say the least. Every little detail has been replicated, right down to the recessed headphone jack (although, the homescreen icons are missing the YouTube application). The project was actually started on June 5, 2007 and finished before the US iPhone launch.

Hit up aoshima’s website for pics on the entire fabrication process, it’s actually pretty interesting. This guy documented everything from his sketched-out designs to actual manufacturing to finished product.

[Via: Engadget Mobile]

You know that little software update that Palm (NSDQ: PALM) released for its Treo 700p, Treo 700w, and Treo 700wx? Well, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) customers definitely do. They’ve been experiencing buggy data connections after updating their precious Treo 700s with the presumably benign patch. In response, Palm has pulled the update from their website, citing users’ complaints that the update rendered their Treo useless for data transactions – resulting in a “Error 3000 – Data network is not available” message.

The company has “taken down the Verizon Wireless Treo 700p and 700w/wx updaters as a result of increasing customer reports of network connectivity issues following the updates. We are currently investigating the issue and will re-post as soon as they become available.”

If you’ve been experiencing this problem, rest assured, Palm is working on it. In the meantime, head on over to your local Verizon Wireless Store and talk to a tech about service or replacement.

Oh, and let us know if you’ve been frustrated by this problem, will ya?

[Via: Brighthand]

If you’re just tuning in, Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will be announcing the N81 on August 29th at the infamous Ministry of Sound dance club in the UK. OPK will be there himself to launch the phone and a music store attached to it. More information on the viral site is here and pictures of the N81 are here. At the end of the viral ad there is a link to a RSS feed and today part 2 was just published.

Part 1: …just an important theory, but also a crucial part of how this consumption is perceived at present. Everything eventually merges to a point where it more or less becomes inseparable due to the dawn of new technologies. Everything we have known, as one replacement; ultimately being able to do the job of each other. This may spawn patterns that cannot be exchanged, but generally entertainment will merge into whatever a user may request. This fusion…

Part 2: …although this is already happening in many different fields. While broadcasting we have long been trying to come to terms to meet these new demands. To become more productive. This is a new model of entertainment on our own terms and evident throughout. The expansion of technology, allowing us the possibility of engaging what we actually wish to engage; our own preferred content – found intently or by chance. Soon, it is quite feasible that people will simply…

Part 1 is obviously talking about converged devices, the N Series “It’s what computers have become” tagline comes to mind.

Part 2 on the other hand is a little tricky. Sure we can find music intently, it is called search, but what about by chance? We will find out soon enough if Nokia’s acquisition of Loudeye over 2 years ago was a smart move or just a waste of money to create a “me too” music store.

Ricky’s got the scoop on the Nokia N95 that should have originally been released. There is a larger 1200 mAh battery compared to the European 950 mAh, the memory has been doubled to 128 MB and HSDPA now works on the 850/1900 MHz frequencies. What we don’t like is the fact that the Carl Zeis lens is now left unprotected. The sliding switch mechanism that is on the current Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95 has to be axed in order to fit this larger battery inside.

From the pictures it also looks like you’re not going to be able to interchange batteries between the different units, something not really surprising. The media player keys have also been raised.

[Full high resolution images over at Symbian-Guru]

HTC Iris has been cleared by the FCC, and we can expect it hitting the CDMA carriers soon — most probably Sprint (NYSE: S) and/or Verizon (NYSE: VZ). The full QWERTY keyboard equipped Iris — also known as S640 — is quite compact device, hence it has a 2.4″ QVGA screen. It also boasts 256MB ROM and 64MB RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi, gpsOne, 2 MP camera, and microSD expansion slot. For smooth user experience there’s Windows Mobile 6 Standard edition, which runs on top of Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) MSM7500 400 MHz processor. Best of all, it’s a 3G device sporting 1xEVDO Rev. A — meaning you’ll be able to quickly download all the files you need from the Web.

[Via: Unwired View]