Convert any YouTube video to play on the iPhone under Mac OS X

The iPhone includes a dedicated YouTube application with access to some of the site’s video content. Unfortunately, much of the vast library still has not been converted by YouTube to play properly on the iPhone. That’s where TubeTV comes in. Available as freeware, TubeTV can convert any YouTube video from its default Flash format to an .m4v file that can be synced to and played on the iPhone.

This nice little app has a built in Web browser (and a built-in YouTube search mechanism) that allows you to navigate to the YouTube (or Google Video) movie page of your choice, then click the Save button to automatically export it in an iPhone-compatible format (go to Preferences and select Auto convert downloads for: iPhone). You can also grab a URL from your currently running Web browser to save.

Once you’ve saved the video — by default, it goes to the Desktop — just double-click it, and the video will move to the iTunes library, then to your iPhone on the next sync. Make sure your iPhone is set to synchronize videos by clicking on its icon in iTunes, then selecting the Video tab).

The video conversions are done using QuickTime’s H.264 codec, but you’ll also need to install the free Perian conversion codec (you’ll be prompted to do so when you first launch TubeTV).

Download TubeTV here

Apple iPhone versus REST Smartphone Makers

Apple’s iPhone is without a doubt a game-changer for smartphones, whether it actually sells well itself or not. Smartphones have simply been to clumsy to use to be practical for a wide audience. That all changes with the iPhone, and it doesn’t even have to sell well - nay, doesn’t even have to actually be available - in order to harm the competition. According to USATODAY, Cellphone users set their sights on Apple’s iPhone:

Priya Sanghvi wants an Apple iPhone from AT&T’s Cingular Wireless when it comes out in June, and she is already strategizing how to get it. Now a Verizon Wireless customer, she’s exploring a range of options, including trying to wrestle with Verizon to let her out of her contract early, using one of the new online swap services to dump the remaining months of the contract, or even just paying the $175 early-termination fee.

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Interst in the iPhone Still High

In a survey of 2,500 U.S. customers, Morgan Stanley found that "more people are interested in buying an iPhone than the combined number of people who already own or are planning to buy a similar high-end device" in the near future. According to the survey, 23 percent of customers are interested in buying the phone, while 19 percent already own or are planning to buy a similar gadget.

Double-Digit Growth Expected

"Between now and when the iPhone is expected to be released in June 2007, there are few catalysts for the stock, and we believe that this provides an attractive price point for investors in the meantime," the analyst wrote, upgrading the Cupertino, Calif., company to "Overweight" from "Equal weight."

With several product launches in 2007, the analyst said Apple will be able to "meaningfully expand its addressable market, which should enable it to sustain double-digit revenue growth."

iPhone Interest High

Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty reaffirmed an "Overweight" rating on Apple and said the market is underestimating the likely success of the iPhone. In a survey of 2,500 U.S. customers, Morgan Stanley found that "more people are interested in buying an iPhone than the combined number of people who already own or are planning to buy a similar high-end device" in the near future.

According to the survey, 23 percent of customers are interested in buying the phone, while 19 percent already own or are planning to buy a similar gadget. "We view Apple's powerful brand, distribution and customer experience engine, and product development as key to driving incremental revenue growth," Huberty added.

Study: Apple iPhone 'too expensive'

Consumers aren't willing to pay what Apple may ask for the iPhone but if the price drops they'll switch their mobile service to AT&T in order to get it, according to results of a survey released Thursday.

Online market research firm Compete Inc. surveyed 379 people in the U.S., most of whom had heard of the iPhone and have shopped for an iPod, to find out how interested they are in the device to produce the uncommissioned report. The iPhone is a combined music player and cell phone that Apple plans to start selling in the U.S. in June.

Among the 26 percent of respondents who said they're likely to buy an iPhone, only 1 percent said they'd pay US$500 for it. When Apple introduced the iPhone in January, it said it would cost $500 on the low end.

Forty-two percent of those who said they're likely to buy the phone said they'd pay $200 to $299.

The iPhone will be available only to subscribers of Cingular Wireless, now part of AT&T. In a blow to the operator's competitors, 60 percent of those in the survey who said they were likely to buy the phone said they'd switch their mobile operator in order to get it.

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How Steve Jobs played hardball in iPhone birth

During a visit to Las Vegas last December for a rodeo event, Cingular Wireless chief executive Stan Sigman received a welcome guest: Steve Jobs.

The Apple Inc. chief stopped by Mr. Sigman's Four Seasons hotel suite to show off the iPhone, a sleek cellphone designed to surf the Web and double as an iPod music player.

The phone had been in development by Apple and Cingular for two years and was weeks away from being revealed to the world. And yet this was the first time Mr. Sigman got to see it. For three hours, Mr. Jobs played with the device, with its touch-screen that allows users to view contacts, dial numbers and flip through photos with the swipe of a finger. Mr. Sigman looked on in awe, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

Behind the scenes in the making of the iPhone, Apple bucked the rules of the cellphone industry by wresting control away from the normally powerful wireless carriers. These service providers usually hold enormous sway over how phones are developed and marketed -- controlling every detail from processing power to the various features that come with the phone.

Read the full article here.