Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Odds and ends, Apple Financial, iPhone

TG Daily (via Fortune) is reporting that Japanese market research company BCN's latest rankings of cellphone sales in Japan are showing that Apple's smartphone is the the current market leader in that country.

I did a quick check at BCN this afternoon while writing this post, and the iPhone 3GS 32GB is listed in first place in sales (see screenshot at right), with the iPhone 3GS 16GB in second place. The 3GS was just introduced in Japan on June 26th, and the sales figures are from the week of June 22 - 28. BCN's source of data includes point-of-sale information from many of Japan's largest electronics retailers, including Amazon Japan, Eiden, Bic Camera, K's Denki, and Best Denki.

Akky Akimoto at Asiajin is providing some perspective on the numbers. It's not unusual for a new phone to jump to the top of the list as it is released. As he notes, the Sony Network Walkman was #1 in the BCN ranking of music players at one time in 2005, but for the complete year, Apple iPod had a 60% share of the Japanese market.

Still, this is good news for Apple, and as Mr. Akimoto says, "Becoming No. 1 even for a week is better than never being No. 1..."

iPhone 3GS ranked #1 in cellphone sales in Japan... for now. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone 3GS ranked #1 in cellphone sales in Japan... for now. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looking for what you may have missed in the smartphone world last week? Look no further, it’s the best of Smartphone Experts.

HTC Sense Not Coming to T-Mobile G1 or myTouch 3G Sprint Testing HTC Hero, Developing Android WiMax Phone? HTC Hero Passes FCC, Could Be Headed To AT&T or Rogers	Contest: Win a BlackBerry Tour Courtesy of CrackBerry.com! Verizon BlackBerry Tour Available for Pre Order Bolt Browser Beta 3 Released - Faster/Better Web Browsing on BlackBerry
Nokia N97 NAM Firmware Update Available First Impressions of the Nokia N86	Palm Closes Homebrew App Install by Email Loophole Palm Pre as Webserver is a Go Palm Pre Keyboard Tricks and Tips
Apple releases iPhone 3.1 Beta and SDK to developers Original hacker unveils iPhone 3GS purplera1n jailbreak iPhone App Store Just Says No to Nudity — For Now?	Malatesta reviews the HTC Snap on Sprint. Skype 3.0 out of beta. Skyfire updated, is still blocked by Hulu.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Best of Smartphone Experts, 5 July 2009

Postage is an app that allows you to create amazing looking electronic postcards to e-mail to your loved ones. The app is gorgeous to the smallest detail and feels completely natural to use. It literally takes seconds to master and you can count on the outcome of your design always looking super swanky!

Remember Rock'em Sock'em Robots, the old game where a couple of robots try to knock each other's heads off? SmackBOTS is that, on the iPhone. The concept is still just as simple and the amount of frustration is just as high, but the game's been given some shiny graphics, a little story, and taken out of the old plastic boxing locale.  

Thanks to the combined efforts of AriX and westbaer, they are releasing a version of GeoHot's purplera1n jailbreak for the 3GS for the Mac. Both Windows and Mac versions have also received payload stability improvements, updating the the Windows version from RC2 to RC2a (although there's no reason to use it if you already have RC2 installed). You can get both the Mac version and the new Windows version at purplera1n.com.

Ngmoco, the iPhone game development studio responsible for Rolando [iTunes link] and Rolando 2 [iTunes link], today updated the original Rolando game to version 1.7.

We’ve just gotten word from TiPb forums that George Hotz has released his much anticipated Mac OS X version of purplea1n.

So you say you have an iPhone 3GS along with that jailbreak itch? Hit the link and get your download on. As always proceed at your own risk. TiPb and all of it’s staff take zero responsibility to any wrong doings that may occur while using the software.

[Thanks for the tip Matt74!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Purplera1n for Mac OS X Released

Filed under: Multimedia, Odds and ends, Flickr Find, iPhone, MobileMe

Shooting photographs of fireworks can be a real challenge. The good shots happen quickly, cameras don't always get the focus right, and there is a lot of movement that can make for blurry pictures. The iPhone is not the best camera in the world for demanding photo jobs -- that's true for all cell phone cams, with the possible exception of digital cameras that happen to include phones as a bonus feature.

Nevertheless, we asked our readers around the U.S. to send us their fireworks images, and that they did. Actually, the iPhone acquitted itself pretty well, both with still images and in movies done with the new 3G (plus one movie done with a jailbroken 2G and Cycorder).

Look below for a gallery of some of my favorite stills. Many were sent anonymously, so we can't always credit the photographer. Some were uploaded directly from their phones to MobileMe and YouTube.

Thanks to all who participated and made our 4th of July sparking and colorful. Visit this link to see the full collection of entries, check out comments in our request for pictures article yesterday for more YouTube links, and view the gallery below for our selection of some great images from around the country.

iPhones pass the fireworks test: best of the reader-submitted 4th photos originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhones pass the fireworks test: best of the reader-submitted 4th photos originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The horror stories of the iPhone 3GS discoloration have been circulating across the Internet since last week, but before you slap a case on your precious device, you might want to read what frenchiPhone.com is reporting about certain cases and the white iPhone 3GS.

Reports of overheating and discoloration on the new white iPhone 3GS have been circulating over the past week or so, but a new report [Google translation] from frenchiPhone (via Hardmac) claims that the discoloration is due to contact with so...