A massive recall of the iPhone 4 over its antenna design flaw is ‘inevitable’, say PR experts, because protecting the Apple and iPhone brands is more important than the multimillion dollar cost to fix the issue.

Yesterday’s announcement by Consumer Reports that they tested the iPhone’s antenna and duplicated anecdotal reports about the iPhone 4 ‘death grip’ pits Apple’s reputation against the most respected name in consumer protection. And Consumer Reports basically said that Apple was lying about the iPhone 4′s antenna problem:

Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that the iPhone 4′s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software that “mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength.”

“Apple will be forced to do a recall of this product,” said Professor Matthew Seeger, an expert in crisis communication. “The brand image is the most important thing Apple has. This is potentially devastating.”

“Apple needs to put this fire out now,” said crisis communication expert Dr. Larry Barton. “There has to be a military-like response to this issue. And we have not seen this kind of urgency.”

“They’re response has been lackluster,” adds Barton. “It’s been borderline irresponsible. They are in danger of betraying customers’ trust and hurting the brand, which is infinitely more valuable than any one product.”

Apple is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The iPhone 4 is their most successful introduction ever and an update to their most important product. But it also has a basic design flaw, which, for a company that prides itself on having the best design in the world, is a PR disaster.

I’m a big fan of the iPhone 4. For many reasons, it’s the best mobile device for podcasters, because it makes mobile podcasting of audio and video fairly trivial. And the antenna issue, while real, has had no impact on my use of the phone.

Nevertheless, the iPhone represents a multi-thousand dollar commitment for buyers – and the last thing you want to do after spending a couple grand on a phone is spend your next day answering people’s questions about whether you have to wear gloves to make calls.

The iPhone 4 may be the best phone ever – but I think the PR experts are right: an iPhone 4 recall is probably inevitable.

What do you think? Is the new iPhone’s antenna problem overblown, or do you think an iPhone 4 recall is inevitable, too?

WordPress developer Danilo Ercoli has announced WordPress for BlackBerry version 1.2, an update that adds mobilecasting features and more.

Here’s what’s new in version 1.2:

• Ability to show comprehensive site stats for WordPress.com sites and for self-hosted sites running the WP.com stats plugin
• Ability to add audio recordings to a post/page
• Ability to post media files that are not tied to post/page
• Ability to add a signature on posts created from the mobile app
• “1- click” share to WordPress within the native BlackBerry Browser and File Explorer
• Improvements on GPS support
• Redesigned GUI with touch support
• Expanded multi-lingual support

The audio podcasting support and baked-in stats are great features. It’s also nice to see versions for various mobile platforms leap-frogging each other. It can’t be long before audio and video podcasting support is standard for WordPress apps across the leading mobile platforms.

Have you used WordPress for BlackBerry? If so – what do you think of the update?

Note: WordPress for BlackBerry requiress OS 4.2.1 or higher.

USB Flash Drive With Built-In Voice Recorder

This $23 USB flash drive offers not just data storage, but also a built-in voice recorder. It’s not going to replace your digital audio recorder or podcasting microphone, but it does promise to let you record 70 hours of audio.

Features:

• Built-in voice recording On/Off switch
• 1GB ~ 70 hours recording .wav format
• Built-in rechargeable battery
• Battery powered (around 5 hours per full charge)
• LED indicator
• USB 2.0
• Plug and Play
• Supports Window 7 / Vista / XP, Linux 2.4, Mac OS X or latest version

Details

via geekalerts

1stVideo (App Store link) is a new $9.99 iPhone video editor that’s described as the”world’s most advanced video editing suite running on a mobile device.”

Features:

• Use the onboard camera from within the App, or import h.264 video or pictures already saved in the Camera Roll.
• Edit with VeriCorder’s unique, multitrack, patent-pending editor.
• Send smaller files ( < 10MB ) by email, or share larger files with your computer over a WiFi networks.
• Export completed video projects into the Camera Roll, for simple posting on YouTube or MobileMe accounts.
• Software includes a multitrack audio editing suite, with advanced features, including volume curves, sound mixing, gain control and more.
• 1st Video can also combine still images with sound to easily create narrated or musical slideshows, ready for posting to the web.

If you’re interested in mobile video blogging – 1stVideo could be a great option.

Note: 1stVideo works only with iPhone 3GS devices.

Description:

Other editors may let you string together a few clips. 1stVideo allows users to put together professional quality news items, movies or podcasts, with multi-track audio, on an iPhone 3GS device. The secret is VeriCorder’s advanced audio-video editing software, which lets you seamlessly blend multitrack sound with video clips from multiple recordings in an powerful but easy to learn, touch-based, non-destructive editor.

1stVideo is a complete solution for anyone who needs to quickly record, edit, send and distribute video for traditional or web media. It is the most advanced mobile video editing solution on the market today, on any platform. It’s ideal for creating news stories on the fly, and posting directly into a newsroom or to an automated video podcasting system.

Specifications:

• Renders edited video project on the iPhone 3GS
• Exports h.264 .mov video files at 480X360 resolution.
• Sound files can be edited and sent separately as broadcast-ready .wav files, in Mono, CD quality, at 44.1 kHz
• Multitrack audio editing with volume curves and mixer
• Send video or audio by email ( < 10 MB file )
• Share recorded files to your computer over WiFi
• Onboard QuickStart Guide

Commercial integration of 1stVideo is already underway with many of the leading back-end media management systems, such as MOS, Octopus, AVID, ENPS, Burli and David Systems.

Foodev has updated Caster – its podcasting app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, to support multi-track recording and the iPad.

Caster is a $4.99 app designed to let you create and publish podcasts on your mobile device, including podcast recording, audio editing, uploading and RSS publishing.

Features:

• Record chunks of audio at a time or all at once
• Waveform editor
• Clip reordering and deleting
• Cut, Copy, Paste
• Audio Normalization
• All podcast clips are combined into a single file
• Writes podcast in m4a/ALAC format – if ALAC is unavailable on your device, it writes to a wave.
• Download your completed podcasts via FTP or publish directly from the palm of your hand!
• Existing podcast RSS files are synced with Caster
• Multi-track recording and editing
• All RSS Fields are editable from your device
• Review previously recorded podcasts
  copy and paste between podcast issues
• Automatically generates a new RSS when publishing
• Upload existing audio clips for use in your podcast
• FTP Server to download your podcast via WIFI
• FTP Client to automatically publish your podcast
• Built in documentation
• Publish via email, and link in twitter and facebook

WordPress.org has announced that WordPress for Blackberry is now available.

New in WordPress for BlackBerry 1.0:

• Record and upload videos from your phone.
• Support for the HD video service VideoPress.
• Streamlined UI and functionality relating to comment moderation
• Overall enhancements to the speed and stability of the app

No word on when the video blogging features will make it to WordPress for iPhone.

WordPress for BlackBerry is free and open source.

At CES 2010, Ion introduced a £70 QWERTY keyboard for the iPhone – the iType.

This is something that we called out in 2007 as one of the five things Apple needs to do to fix the iPhone:

Fix Typing On The iPhone – Apple has made a big deal about demonstrating how easy it is to type on the iPhone’s virtual keyboard.

With a phone this powerful, though, a phone that can do real email, view Word files and edit Web pages, lots of users will want to use it as a laptop replacement. While the phone makes the cut as a laptop replacement, the virtual keyboard doesn’t. If you’re a touch typist, being reduced to tapping out a handful of words a minute is painful.

Apple needs to work with accessory suppliers to develop Bluetooth keyboards that work with the iPhone. People that want just want to respond to an email can do it with the virtual keyboard. People that want to use the iPhone as a read/write Web device need a decent portable keyboard.

So, seeing the iType introduced is an exciting development.

Unfortunately, the iType is twice as big as it needs to be, puts the iPhone flat instead of tilting it up to make it readable, and is only supported by Ion’s own text editing application.

Let’s hope that Apple takes another look at this and opens up the iPhone to supporting accessories like this system-wide. The combination of an iPhone and a cheap portable keyboard would be a great mobile blogging, video blogging & podcasting platform.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Check out this video demo for ReelDirector (App Store link) – a $7.99 video editing application for the iPhone 3GS.

ReelDirector features a drag-and-drop timeline, 27 video transitions and 4 text styles at 9 positions.

This takes mobile video to another level. Just amazing.

Details below.

Features:

• Add and stitch together clips, drag-and-drop to rearrange order.
• Add text watermarks of title, opening credits and closing credits with 4 styles and 9 positions to choose from.
• Put transitions between clips to smooth or blend the change from one scene to another. With 27 transitions to choose from, create professional looking videos with ease and fun.
• Share your movies by email or save to Camera Roll.

Here’s a review/overview of ReelDirector:

Click here to view the embedded video.

via SteveRubel

iPod accessory vendor ThoughOut has introduced an iPhone tripod adapter designed to help you make the most of the iPhone 3GS’s new video capabilities:

Our new PED3-TriPhone and PED3-TriPhone-FORM is a rotating iPhone tripod mount and holder that makes great use of the new video features as well as the still camera and the slew of other great applications. Simply add this to any standard tripod of yours (with 1/4″-20 thread) and you will be shooting like a pro.

The FORM version, like our other products works with any cased or skinned iPhone and the standard version works without.

Works with all 3GS, 3G and original iPhones

Made from 100% USA materails and labor.

The TriPhone mount by itself will also be available (here) for current customers that already have any of our PED3 series holders.

ThoughOut expects the iPhone tripod adapters to be available before the end of this month (July 2009) for $28 PED3-TriPhone / $32 PED3-TriPhone-FORM / $12 TriPhone (mount only).

Mobilecasting startup Audioboo and SpinVox, a leader in voice to content messaging, have announced that the SpinVox API (Application Programming Interface) will be used to automatically convert speech to text across Audioboo’s applications – including iPhone podcasting and Twitter posting.

This is a cool new feature that will have all types of uses.

For example, Audioboo CEO Mark Rock suggest that the new speech-to-text feature can give “journalists a simple way to record draft articles and have them automatically converted to text and sent to their news desks.”

Beyond creating a mobile podcasting solution, Audioboo hopes to establish itself as a major platform for audioblogging.

“The deal with SpinVox is of immense importance to Audioboo as we roll out both our API and business model,” explains Rock.  “With the Audioboo API, any developer will be able to build their own mobile and web applications to record to Audioboo and SpinVox integration will be an important addition to that which we can deliver simply and quickly through the SpinVox API.”

About Audioboo

Audioboo was established in March 2009. Already, more than one Audioboo audio recording (boo) is being made every five minutes. The Audioboo.fm website is attracting more than 100,000 unique users, RSS and iTunes links every week with over 1000 hours of audio having been uploaded by the more than 30,000 registered users.