These days are really exciting: Tomorrow at 9:00 PST (18:00 CET) Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing bei Apple, will begin his keynote at MacWorldExpo … and today CompareMe, the first codedifferent iPhone application is released at the iTunes AppStore! The financial utility app is used to compare, convert and negotiate prices or bargain. The app makes use of touchscreen gestures to convert or drag and drop prices. But let’s cut the long story short: Click on the video at the CompareMe application webpage to get an impression of the look and feel.

… so now, I’m really thrilled about Phil’s talk in San Francisco about Snow Leopard and new hard- and software … what ever battery solution Apple is coming up with in the rumored unibody 17″ MacBook Pro

Just now Vodafone published a press release, that the Vodafone Group will sell the Apple iPhone in the following 10 countries:

• Australia
• Czech Republic
• Egypt
• Greece
• Italy
• India
• New Zealand
• Portugal
• South Africa
• Turkey

… wow. There is still an open question, which rates Vodafone will offer with the iPhone – and whether Apple will go on with their strategy of working with national exclusive partners. Whatever we’ll here in the future – that deal will boost the market for mobile iPhone applications.

So, let’s see what will come next …

From June 9 to 13 it’s all about the Mac and iPhone developer community in San Francisco under the warm sun of California: At the Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference the whole hardware and software developer community is gathering to get and exchange Mac and iPhone first-hand insights.
The company is running a scholarship program for students developing for Macs and mobile iPhone and iPod-touch devices. This year, 400 students will get scholarships to enter the conference for free (a US $ 1,595 value). But coming to California has to be arranged by the student him- or herself.
Application deadline is April 10, 2008 at 5:00 PM PDT – so, if you are a student and want to join the conference, apply now.

Source: development.apple.com

Amazing news from John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), the Venture Capital company which invested into start-ups like Amazon, Sun or Google: KPCB starts a $100M investment initiative called iFund, to fund “market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform”.
2750 Sand Hill Road, Melon Park CA is the place to be for all developers with great ideas for the iPhone and iPod touch mobile internet

Good news from the iPhone Software Roadmap event in Cupertino: All business users who use (or want to use) the iPhone in an enterprise environment can be delighted: Apple licensed ActiveSync from Microsoft an will offer a direct connection between the iPhone Mail, Calender and Contact applications to a Microsoft Exchange server.
This strikes a blow against Apples competitor RIM with their Blackberry-solution: Within a Blackberry solution all messages are redirected through a server owend and managed by RIM itself – a real nightmare for everyone responsible for data security and protection within a company. Apple offers a direct connection between the iPhone and the Exchange server of the business customer himself with their new iPhone-solution.