Today Verizon let the world know that it doesn't really care about the iPhone being exclusive to AT&T, stating that "Exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation in device development and design." The statement was made in a letter announcing Verizon's plans to allow smaller carriers (with 500,000 customers or less) to get exclusive Verizon phones six months after they're released.

Although Verizon didn't come right out and say it, reading between the lines you get the impression that Verizon would rather hold out for the next "iPhone killer" than take the iPhone from AT&T. Discuss!

Filed under: Multimedia, Reviews, iPhone, App Review

Be sure to check the end of this post for details on your chance to win a free copy of Playlist Alarm Clock!

We covered Chilli X last year, with their release of the successful iPhone to-do application, "Done" (iTunes link), and again with myCal, their app for creating custom calendar wallpapers for your iPhone lock screen (be sure to check out the free, user-generated wallpapers they're making available). They've been pretty quiet for a while, updating and tweaking Done (now at version 1.7), handling an App Store rejection of their own, and working on a newly-released app: Playlist Alarm Clock.

Playlist Alarm Clock is not necessarily a new or novel idea, but it's well-implemented. It's an iPhone app which allows you to create playlists, one for falling asleep and one for waking up. You can configure the length of time the sleep playlist will play, and how long it will take to fade out, as well as a fade-in time for the wake-up playlist. Setting times and fades comes down to a couple of taps, and adding songs to the playlists is done with a familiar iPod interface with full access to your library and playlists. If you're generally drowsy in the morning, you're covered as well: the snooze time can be configured to five, ten, fifteen or thirty minutes and is just a groggy tap away.

As is often the case, there are a few things I'd love to see enhanced. First, a night mode, ala the excellent Night Stand (iTunes link), which would let Playlist Alarm Clock function more appropriately as an always-on clock. Currently, the time display is large and easy to see, but the brightness of the interface is not ideal for bedside use. Second -- and this is really my only other complaint -- removing songs from the playlist doesn't seem to be an intuitive process. Accidentally tapping the wrong song during playlist creation seems to be a pretty permanent blunder, requiring a do-over of the playlist creation sequence. Beyond that, this app does exactly what the wrapper says, and I'm looking forward to falling asleep tonight to some favorites of mine, and hopefully not jarring my wife into a bad mood when my personal idea of "wakeup" music fades in.

Playlist Alarm Clock is $1.99US in the App Store. However, Chilli X is offering TUAW readers a chance at one of 10 free copies. All you have to do is submit (in the comments) your ideal playlists, one for falling asleep, and one for waking up. Be creative, be funny, be brilliant ... Chilli X will choose their favorites winners will be randomly selected next Thursday and promo codes will be sent to the winners.

Here are the rules and a link to the legal statement:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment listing your choices for sleep and wake playlists.
• The comment must be left before Wednesday, July 22, 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Ten winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prize: Promo code for one copy of Playlist Alarm Clock (US$1.99 value)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Good luck!

Playlist Alarm Clock, drift off and wake up to custom soundtracks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Playlist Alarm Clock, drift off and wake up to custom soundtracks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Barnes & Noble app that was released last month [App Store] has a trick up its sleeve! Head into any B&N with the app loaded on your iPhone, show it to a barista at the Starbucks counter, and you'll get a free tall coffee! The free Starbucks is only being being offered for a limited time and is only good for one coffee per device (there's a code they get from the app).

So grab that B&N app, head down to the bookstore, and enjoy some free coffee! I'm enjoying mine RIGHT NOW.

SyncMate 2.0, gives Mac users the ability sync their computers with Nokia series 40 mobile phones, Google accounts, and other Macs in addition to Windows Mobile devices. Also, BravoTunes got an update while MacProVideo.com launched a new online tutorial library.

Cloudburst is a weather application that quickly splays a slew of information onto a page for you to view. This application displays a bounty of information in the sections of the screen and allows you to view a larger image of the radar by simply double-tapping the image. Not only can you input any location you wish, but the application is also location-aware.

PocketMac, the long-time developers of handy Mac apps, has released RingtoneStudio 2.0 for iPhone. The app is intended to be the "Final Cut" of ringtone creators, adding several robust features to get the sound from your computer to your iPhone, allowing you to create an unlimited number of ringtones, and bypassing Apple's 99 cent charge to convert songs.

Talk of an official WoW app for the iPhone has been going on for some time now, though nobody could say for sure what form it would take. Now the guessing is over, as Blizzard Entertainment has released World of Warcraft Mobile Armory. It lets you keep track of your charachter, plan adventures, monitor your guild's activities, and acess you in-game stats. While it's not a full version of the game as some had hoped, WoW players may find it useful.

UPDATE: Engadget heard from Drew Herdener, Amazon.com’s Director of Communications:

These books were added to our catalog using our self-service platform by a third-party who did not have the rights to the books. When we were notified of this by the rights holder, we removed the illegal copies from our systems and from customers’ devices, and refunded customers. We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers’ devices in these circumstances.

Good on them for coming clean and changing the policy going forward. Though it would have been nice to have the candor and insight up-front.

ORIGINAL: According to Engadget, Amazon has remotely wiped copies of George Orwell’s classics, 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles, refunding the purchase price of affected users.

We’re not yet certain, but users of the iPhone Kindle app are probably similarly effected.

It remains unlikely that Amazon broke into any houses, repossessed any copies of same, and left change on the bureau.

By contrast, when Apple removed NetShare from the App Store, already purchased copies remained — and remain to this day — on the devices of whomever purchased them.

Takes a lot of wrong to make App Store policy seem right these days, so way to go, Amazon. You’ve either redefined ownership in the DRM age, or broken faith with any customers thinking of owning any more Kindle content…

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

UPDATED: Amazon Remote Wipes Kindle Copies of 1984, Animal Farm — Redefines Irony

What you are about to see is the product of who is either a very brave or slightly insane iPhone owner. Someone had the guts to tape their shiny new iPhone 3GS to the bottom of an RC plane, shooting it hundreds of feet into the sky, and then trusting a few measly layers of scotch tape to keep it up off of jagged asphalt zipping past it just a few inches away. The result is some pretty incredible, if not a little blurry and noisy, video footage. Video after the break.

iPhone 3.0 brought us push notifications, and Twitter applications have already started adding them, albeit in a variety of ways.