The big reason is it is a multi function device; it’s not a device to communicate its really much more. There are lots of application are their just like business app, games, entertainment, enterprise app, real estate related app etc. so by that people are moving to iphone for buying products any different people have its own purpose to use iphone.

The iphone application development tool supports well to the iphone app developer. That gives the freedom to developer to create a application with more liberty. There are lots of companies putting their application on apple store but it’s not guarantee that every app will generate a sell. So to get the people attention developer try to development mainly business iphone app.

Here are the benefits you will get with the business iphone app development.

Normally, the apps that is unique and creative that will get the more public attention. You must keep in mind that, if your iphone app development company builds business apps then they will defiantly get more sell in the apple store, as there are a big demand of mobile app development now a days, and the company that have developed more innovative apps will get the more publicity and earn money.

Visitors can easily access the business iphone app then any other applications, business apps must be unique and user friendly as it’s a business apps so more client will use it. So your apps must be very user friendly.

The company will defiantly get more traffic if they have business iphone app. You can also generate revenue by business apps. So the big benefit is you will get all your business people attention from all over the globe.

So if you want to create a world best business oriented iphone apps than Fusion Informatics is a leading iphone app development provider company that understand your business requirement and create a best iphone app to fulfill your business needs.

As the users are rising in numbers and realize it’s prospective, there are more and more iPad applications being launched in the market. iPad apps development is become an industry in itself users are getting modified iPad applications to better suit their requirements. Apple being the leader in the technology world already has outdone itself with the iPad. iPad allows a mind boggling gaming experience with its heavy machinery, 9.7 in multi touch screen and liquid crystal high resolution display is just what the doctor ordered for anybody who wishes to use the iPad for entertainment.

With iPad app development your products and services are even closer to the clients. Customers can accesses your products and services through the iPad and order them through iPad applications developed for this reason only. This way you are not only making products more reachable through iPad but you are doing this in a way that is more appealing and attractive.

Because of the booming in ipad and iphone the requirement of using different kind of application has also increasing, people like to use useful apps on their own device, for providing that needs, lots of software development companies offering ipad apps development, iphone mobile application development, blackberry mobile application development, mobile apps development, ipad apps development, mobile application development, and you can also hire iphone app developers, web application developer, blackberry application developer, mobile application developer, ipad apps developer as per your project requirement.

iPhone application development services provider company that can convert your desired applications into reality. At fusioninformatics, you can even hire iPhone application developers for custom ipad application development, android apps development, mobile apps development.

Fusioninformatics offers you

• iPhone application development Deutschland

• Hire iPhone developer Deutschland

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Fusioninformatics company from Deutschland has well set developers team to work on iPhone Application Development Project using simulator and iMac. We are specializing in all iPhone Content and iPhone compatible website design and development.
We have developed iPhone applications of the following categories:

* Social Networking software

* Travel Booking software

* GPS Tracking software

* Utility software

* Productivity software

* Touch screen application

* Entertainment industry related software

We have developed custom-made mobile application development for our clients worldwide across various categories and are also ready to give a hand you in providing services to bring your favorite applications from other Smartphone devices to the Apple iPhone 3GS.

All good things in life don’t come for free always. But costs a few dollars, you can easily enjoy the best of services, at least in terms of applications download for the Apple iPhone.

iPhone Application Developers has proven success rate at Apple App store. Fusion informatics offers its services at affordable rates. It has highly affordable hiring schemes. you can hire a developer as full time, part time or on hourly rates. iPhone Application Developers delivers iPhone application development, ipad application development, mobile application development, android application development, blackberry application development services under one roof

iPhone apps development is so useful and in demand because it makes the operation of your needs very simple. It can develop applications that can be customized to your individual needs catering especially and specifically to what you want. The need could be as simple and small as developing a simple game to the development of a complex project level application, iPhone apps development can gratify it. Be it business or personal life, it has its own effect and it has made things far easier to operate than they were ever before.

A few weeks ago Apple released a new draft of their iPhone developer program license which contained the following section

Iphone application development may use documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and not to use private call APIs, and Applications must be initially written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS Web Kit engine. This has the effect of restricting applications built with a number of technologies, including Unity, Titanium, MonoTouch, and Flash CS5. While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5. Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications (100+ on the store today) created with Flash CS5.

As we know iPhone has brought about a new flourish in the market, the vogue for this device is growing by the hour, the demand in the market are on the climb, our iPhone application are very useful and our application will provide some functionality by that users can save theirs time and resources and users will also feel some enjoyable experience. If you also want to experience such things keep an eye on latest iPhone updates.

We have skilled and vastly expert ipad application developers to fulfill all the needs of our world wide potential client. Our specialist ipad apps developer team who has successfully made the iphone applications for new features in Apple iPad Tablet.

iPad application developer team is ready to achieve any challenges from various ipad application development projects. We have following spectrum:

• iPad Game Development
• iPad Books Development
• iPad Social Networking Application Integration & Development
• Offshore Custom iPad Applications Development
• Offshore iPhone Apps Development
• Apple iPad games development

iPad application development is a modern and well multi featured device that allow us to browsing the internet, sending and reading emails, playing games, watching videos, map-based navigation, enjoying photos, listening music, reading e-books and much more.

If you are looking for high quality and cost effective iPad application solution then you are in right place. Fusion Informatics Pvt.Ltd is well known and trusted organization, provides 99.98% accuracy in iPad application programming services.

Over 1 million people now have an Apple iPad, and that means the full range of experience it offers are being explore. In the fields of art and music, the iPad is opening up new opportunity to be creative.

While some people aren’t convinced at the worth of touch screen tablets, many of us see the nonstop possibilities this new form factor brings us. Bigger than a smart Phone, more portable than a laptop, more entertaining than almost any other gadget.

Twitter has announced the release of a set of business tools for corporate users. The tools are currently being tested by selected users but will be available to all in the near future.

Microsoft will challenge Google’s dominance of the web apps domain with the release of its Microsoft Office 2010 productivity suite.

Matousec.com have discovered a serious flaw in Windows’ security software that leaves it vulnerable to an ‘argument-switch-attack’.

UK-based charity DePaul and advertising firm Publicis have released the iHobo application for the iPhone, allowing users to download a homeless person onto their iPhone.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/5/11/news5-twitter-microsoft-and-iphone/

Engadget dug into the court documents and on Monday confirmed that Apple and AT&T’s deal was intended to last until 2012, although the blog noted that the two companies may have renegotiated the deal since then, so it may not still be in effect.

USA Today broke the news of the five-year exclusivity deal prior to the iPhone’s launch in May 2007, but the report was never confirmed and no one paid much attention to it. But as reported by Engadget, Apple and AT&T were targeted in a 2007 class action in part for not revealing the length of their exclusivity deal.

In defending itself, Apple cited the USA Today report as evidence that the five-year exclusivity deal was public knowledge, according to Engadget.

No one knows if the original exclusivity deal is still in effect, and it’s definitely possible that Apple, in the meantime, has grown tired of the constant drumbeat of negativity surrounding AT&T’s iPhone service and negotiated a change of terms.

Meanwhile, Verizon (NYSE:VZ) CEO Ivan Seidenberg hasn’t been shy about his desire to add the iPhone to his smartphone roster. At a conference in New York last month, Seidenberg almost sounded like he was actually campaigning for Apple to grant Verizon such an honor.

“We’re open to getting the device,” Seidenberg said at the conference. “Our network is capable of handling it.”

There has been plenty of other speculation about AT&T maneuvering to maintain its iPhone exclusivity. Last week, Brian Marshall, an analyst at BroadPoint AmTech told Computerworld he believes AT&T cut a deal with Apple to offer deeply discounted iPad data plans in exchange for a six-month extension of iPhone exclusivity.

AT&T isn’t requiring a service contract with the 3G iPad, a puzzling move given the early runway sales of the device. The iPad isn’t designed for voice, but it would seem that AT&T would be trying to maximize its profit on data plans for the device.

For now, only Apple and AT&T know whether their original five-year iPhone exclusivity deal is still in effect, although countless frustrated iPhone subscribers are hoping upon hope that it’s not.

Resource:

http://www.crn.com/mobile/224701464

In the new Android handsets accounted for 28 per cent of the market, beating Apple’s 21 per cent but still below market leader Research in Motion (RIM), which holds 36 per cent. NPD attributes the increase to the number of vendors using the operating system, marketing campaigns and new investment in the sector.

“Recent previews of BlackBerry 6, the recently announced acquisition of Palm by HP, and the pending release of Windows Phone 7 demonstrates the industry’s willingness to make investments to address consumer demand for smartphones and other mobile devices,” said Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis for NPD.

“Carriers continue to offer attractive pricing for devices, but will need to present other data-plan options to attract more customers in the future.”

Of the major carriers AT&T had the largest slice of the smartphone market, with almost a third of its customers using advanced handsets. Verizon’s share stands at 30 per cent, with T-Mobile and Sprint at 17 and 15 per cent respectively.

Android may have problems in the future however. Apple is widely expected to unveil a new generation of iPhone next month and, if the leaks are accurate, it could well prove to be a huge hit.

Resource:

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2262773/android-handsets-outsell-iphone

Sales for iPhone on the rise, but Android OS tops in share

Apple’s share in the smartphone market continues to rise, as the iPhone maker now ranks third in the world in terms of sales, according to first-quarter data released recently by IDC. The iPhone’s share rose 5.2 percent, hitting 16.1 percent for the first quarter compared to the same time last year. The world’s top smartphone maker remains Nokia, even though the Finnish carrier has minimal influence in the U.S. It hopes to change that with the recently announced Nokia N8, which is getting mixed reviews while offering Apple-like controversy. Research in Motion’s BlackBerry line-up is second in terms of hardware sales.

But the story is different when it comes to share of operating systems in the U.S. BlackBerry is on top, but the Android operating system moved into second place in the first quarter, according to data released Monday by NPD Group. Here are the top three smartphone operating systems, in terms of first-quarter 2010 market share:

1. RIM — 36 percent
2. Android — 28 percent
3. Apple — 21 percent

Android’s rapid growth can largely be attributed to the fact that the OS is now available on phones at all four major U.S. wireless carriers. Meanwhile, the iPhone remains available only through AT&T. Yet AT&T’s footprint, thanks to the iPhone, is substantial. According to NPD’s press release, smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire U.S. smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).

Mouse, meet iPad. You don’t have to be pals

People, if you keep adding accessories to your iPad, why did you buy it? Yes, there are times when having a keyboard attachment could be useful, but it raises the question of why. Such as, why do you want to use your iPad like a laptop when it was designed to be operated with your fingers? Now comes word that you can use Apple’s Magic Mouse to control the iPad. Again, why do this?

Adding tools to control the iPad is completely missing the point. If you’re the first kid on the block to figure out how to use a mouse with your iPad, good for you. You’ve earned extra credit today in your uber-geek class. But let’s be clear: If you drop $500 for the iPad — and that’s the low-end model, of course — stop adding the accoutrements. You’ll start looking like an Apple fanboy with an uncontrollable habit to buy everything Apple just so you can make it work together.

You want a keyboard with that? Buy a MacBook. You want a mouse, try an iMac. If you love to use your fingers, get an iPad.

Got it?

Can we finally cut the cords?

The Wi-Fi Alliance announced new standards for transmitting data over the air. But the twist here is that these standards pertain mostly to video transfer issues, so that the jumble of cords that sit behind our home entertainment centers could vanish.

It may take two years for these new standards to appear in products, Wi-Fi Alliance marketing director Kelly Davis-Felner told the Associated Press, with Blu-ray players likely the first. The Wi-Fi Alliance has partnered with the WiGig Alliance to promote the standards, and that group is made up of tech heavyweights like Cisco and Intel.

This push could be bad news for start-ups in the field of wirelessly moving HD video files across the house, according to this GigaOm story. Still, the opportunity to seamlessly move high-def video content from devices like the iPad to a television, or from a computer and cable box to the TV, would be a lovely development for geeks and interior decorators.

Resource:

http://www.appolicious.com/finance-aapl/articles/1862-app-industry-roundup-android-overtakes-iphone-in-key-measure

The war of words between Apple and Adobe over the former’s resolve to never to let Flash on its devices has taken a new turn now. Apple is all set to launch Gianduia, which is a substitute for Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight platforms, on its mobile devices. Apple had stated earlier that it would rather go for HTML5, JavaScript and CSS. Apple unveiled Gianduia at World of WebObjects Developer Conference, describing it as a client-side, standards-based framework for Rich Internet Apps to create quality online apps for its retail users.

If you think that Gianduia is a new thing, you are in for a surprise as this technology is already in use in its retail support applications such as One to One program, iPhone reservation system and Concierge program for Genius Bar and Personal Shopping reservations.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs had stated his opposition for Flash on Apple devices because it is “a closed system” and that Apple would support only open web standards. He further stated, “We know from painful experience that letting a third-party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in substandard apps, and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform.” Will Gianduia will be a Flash-killer? Only time will tell.

Resource:

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Apple_Gianduia_to_Substitute_Flash/551-111098-580.html

The iPhone Dev Team has released the jailbreak for iPad (both Wi-Fi and 3G versions) as well as for new firmware on iPod Touch and iPhones. This first jailbreak for iPad and other iPhone OS devices is called Spirit. At the moment, this tool doesn’t support carrier unlock.

The Spirit jailbreak is untethered for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch with latest firmwares and works smoothly with most recent iTunes 9.1.1 update. Spirit jailbreak tool is available for both Mac and Windows platforms. On the latter, in case you get “c0000005″ error, then use the tool in Windows 98 or 95 compatibility mode setting.

More details about the jailbreak can be found at its website – http://spiritjb.com.

Let’s wait and see how fast Apple blocks the holes exploited in the Spirit Jailbreak too.

Resource:

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Spirit_Jailbreak_for_iPad_iPhone_Released/551-110954-580.html

Shares of Apple were down sharply in late afternoon trading Tuesday, one day after posting a modest gain on news the company has sold more than one million iPads in the device’s first month on the market.

Apple shares were off 3.21%, to $257.79, with less than an hour until the closing bell.

Analysts cited concerns that the stock may be overvalued, as well as broader market fears that Greece’s economic woes could spread elsewhere, as the reasons for the selloff.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Monday said iPad sales were significantly outpacing those of another hot seller from Cupertino—the iPhone.

“One million iPads in 28 days—that’s less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,” said Jobs, in a statement.

Apple also revealed that iPad customers have downloaded more than 12 million apps from the App Store, and more than 1.5 million e-books from Apple’s new iBookstore.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, meanwhile, estimated that Apple sold about 300,000 iPad 3Gs over the weekend.

The iPad 3G, which features cellular connectivity through AT&T as well as built-in WiFi support, hit stores on Friday. Jobs conceded the iPad craze is creating some logistical problems for Apple.

“Demand continues to exceed supply and we’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers,” said Jobs. The wait time for those who order an iPad from the online Apple Store is five to seven days, according to a note on the store’s Web site.

For less patient shoppers, numerous eBay merchants claim to have iPads on hand and ready for sale—at prices well above Apple’s official list price.

Pricing for the Wi-Fi only version, which features 802.11 connectivity, starts at $499 for the 16GB model, $599 for the 32GB model, and $699 for the 64GB version. The Wi-Fi + 3G versions are priced higher. The 16GB model is $629, the 32GB model is $729, and the 64GB version is priced at $829.

Resource:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=224700595

Due to the way the WSJ anonymizes sources, it wasn’t clear whether the contact was from Apple, hinting at possible reciprocation, the FTC, or another organization altogether. Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ criticism of third-party tools makes it unlikely that his company has changed opinions in a short space of time.

The new update as well as companionstories have also reinforced the one-time rumor and now have both the FTC and the Department of Justice potentially launching investigations. Procedures are reportedly at such an early stage that neither agency is certain which should lead or when one of them can commit to any investigation.

Government pressure may be opposed by Apple, which believes that third-party development tools have often held back advancement of the Mac and could do the same for the iPhone. However, developers have criticized Apple for not only restricting the software they can use to write apps but for artificially inflating the cost of supporting more than one platform. Mobile advertiser Greystripe’s CEO Michael Chang has explained that writing an app using Flash CS5 for the iPhone could cost $75,000 initially but would cost just a few thousand dollars more to port to Android. Without Adobe’s tool, however, developers could be forced to rewrite from scratch and spend as much as they did before. The sheer expense could be considered anti-competitive as it would make writing for more than one platform cost-prohibitive for smaller studios.

Adobe has tried to sidestep technical questions and has accused Apple of political maneuvering to attack Flash. It has said it plans to stop supporting the iPhone in cross-platform development after Flash CS5 and may be giving employees Nexus Ones to promote a personal switch to the more Flash-friendly Android platform.

Resource:

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/05/03/apple.could.dodge.ftc.complaints.with.sdk.change/

The hacker has written a piece of driver code for Zephyr2. It basically brings multi-touch feature on the iPhone. Apparently, Apple also uses this driver on their iDevices, which mainly includes iPhone, iPod Touch and newly launched iPad.

Android OS is now almost ready to run on iPhone 3G, but there are some major issues that need to be solved before moving ahead in the process. If Android OS runs appropriately on iPhone 3G, it’s quite possible to run it on iPad tablet. However, it will require much time and development to get full featured Android OS for iPad models.

For time being, watch the following status update video of Android on iPhone 3G.

Resource:

http://www.tech-exclusive.com/2010/05/02/multi-touch-support-for-android-on-iphone-3g/

The fixes, however, are subtle. The most significant one rights a network issue that caused Opera Mini to freeze at start-up. This release also set the app’s fallback language to English rather than Arabic, as it previously was (in other words, an error with a language pack will now revert back to English.) Opera Mini is now also available in Hungarian, and the company says it has fixed backend bugs and stability soft spots.

However, Opera’s mini update may disappoint some users who are on the lookout for Opera Mini to adopt multitouch pinch-to-zoom capabilities, finer-detail zoom levels, improved page rendering, and support for iPhone-optimized Web pages.

The fact that Opera Mini is a proxy browser that more or less beams an image of a Web page to your screen courtesy of Opera’s servers, can account for some of the user grievances. For instance, Opera Mini isn’t a native iPhone app, and therefore doesn’t have access to the pinch-to-zoom technology of iPhone’s Safari browser.

In the meantime, a brand-new entrant into the mobile browser space should have Opera reconsidering its position.

Skyfire, a previous Opera Mobile competitor on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, has also on Thursday introduced Skyfire beta browser for Android. Skyfire’s browser is based on the same open-source WebKit engine used to build Safari–as such, it already employs pinch-and-zoom. Skyfire definitely has its sights set on a version for iPhone, which would bring it into direct opposition with its Opera Mini rival.

While Opera has gone on record boasting that it’s found a way around Apple’s browser restrictions using its own software code, the company’s stubbornness could lose users who care more about pinching the screen than they do about how quickly pages load.

It’s also worth noting competitor Skyfire’s buzzed-about ability to transcode and stream Flash video through the company’s servers. That, combined with multitouch support, could give Skyfire, and not Opera Mini, the next iPhone edge. Flash video has been the hot topic in mobile of late, with Google affirming that its Android OS update 2.2 will carry it, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ going on record to bestow his kiss of death for Adobe Flash on iPhone.

Opera may yet have a little breathing room to rethink its strategy before Skyfire and others make their iPhone move. Skyfire’s CEO Jeff Glueck told CNET in an interview that while an iPhone version of their native/proxy browser hybrid is certainly in the works, the company wants to make sure it can handle server hits comparable to a million new users in one day, assuming their success were to follow Opera’s in the first full day of its iPhone release.

Resource:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20003802-233.html

Deals

Analysts say 2010′s third-largest U.S. tech acquisition grants Palm’s devices global production and distribution reach while launching the world’s top PC maker into a tech arena experiencing blistering growth.

The news on Wednesday surprised many on Wall Street, since much of the long-running takeover speculation surrounding Palm had shifted in recent weeks to focus on potential Asian bidders, such as China’s Lenovo (0992.HK).

An early pioneer in handheld devices, Palm once dominated the market but has since been surpassed by Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion’s (RIM.TO) BlackBerry. Palm put out a new mobile operating system, the well-reviewed webOS, last year but even that has been overshadowed by Google Inc’s (GOOG.O) Android software.

In a sign of Palm’s struggles, the money-losing company headed by Jon Rubinstein — an ex-Apple executive famous for developing the iPod — slashed revenue expectations for the current quarter. It said slow product sales have led to low order volumes from carriers.

“If you saw the guidance Palm just put out, it was clear they had to sell,” said Phil Cusick, analyst at Macquarie Research. “Given how quickly Palm’s business was falling off and how fast their cash was going out the door, they’re lucky to get what they got.

Palm reported losses for each of its last two fiscal years.

Shares of Palm, 30 percent owned by Elevation Partners, jumped 27 percent to $5.88, above HP’s $5.70 cash offer. Some investors could be betting on a higher bid, while others could be covering short positions on the heavily shorted stock, analysts said..

HP said the deal for Palm, which both boards have approved, valued the company at $1.2 billion including debt. Based on Palm’s latest filing, the deal values Palm’s 167.892 million shares outstanding at $957 million.

Analysts said HP has deep pockets to invest in Palm, can expand its carrier relationships and negotiate better component pricing from existing suppliers.

“PC companies don’t need cellphone-type margins to make the model work; they can be much more price-aggressive in capturing share and will certainly drive margins down for everyone else,” said Avi Cohen at Avian Securities.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch advised HP, while Goldman Sachs advised Palm.

GOOD DEAL OR NOT?

HP’s foray into the fiercely contested smartphone arena, while it may not immediately threaten Apple, and Research in Motion’s BlackBerry, may increase pressure on Nokia (NOK1V.HE), Motorola (MOT.N) and other device manufacturers now battling to expand their market share.

“Nokia will be one of the most affected players,” said IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo. Because of a “wrong portfolio and lack of carrier support, Nokia never moved from its eighth position…in the smartphone segment. This deal puts also pressure on Motorola and HTC.”

Others, however, were more skeptical about HP’s ability to turn around Palm, whose Pre and Pixi phones have withered in the face of fierce competition.

“If HP wants to have a global role in the mobile space, spending $1.2 billion in Palm is not the way. Palm has no brand outside the U.S., and it has no distribution outside the U.S.” said John Strand, chief executive of Strand Consult.

“To pay $1.2 billion for a U.S.-centric mobile player that’s not successful is a first-class way to destroy shareholder value. Palm has tried to move from the PDA world into the mobile world for eight years without success,” Strand said.

According to Gartner, Palm held 1.2 percent of the global smartphone market in 2009, compared with Nokia’s (NOK1V.HE) 41.1 percent, RIM’s 19.9 percent and Apple’s 14.4 percent.

Despite Palm’s shortcomings, persistent takeover rumors have attracted many investors to the heavily shorted stock. For example, Philip Falcone’s hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners LLC bought Palm shares on April 12, when they were trading between $5.43 and $6.29, and had a 9.48 percent stake.

The deal may mark the culmination of a long-running effort by private equity firm Elevation Partners, the private equity firm that boasts U2 frontman Bono among its partners.

Elevation — which bought a quarter of Palm for $325 million in 2007 — had brought in numerous ex-Apple executives over the years in hopes of turning the company around, including Rubinstein.

It was unclear how much Elevation, which has invested about $460 million in Palm, made or lost.

Some investment banking sources had thought that Lenovo (0992.HK) was the leading candidate to buy Palm after the U.S. company was rebuffed by other potential Asian buyers including HTC Corp (2498.TW) and Huawei HWT.UL.

Palm now expects fiscal fourth quarter revenue in the range of $90 million to $100 million, compared with its mid-March forecast that revenue would be less than $150 million.

Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP’s computer division, said the company plans to “invest heavily” in Palm, increasing spending on sales and marketing and research and development in the hope of spurring the developer community into writing more applications for the platform.

Palm’s app universe now has more than 2,000 applications, dwarfed by Apple’s App store with closer to 200,000 apps.

Bradley also said Palm’s platform is attractive for an entire ecosystem of mobile devices, from smartphones to slate devices to netbooks.

HP Executives expected a few cents” dilution for from the deal in the second half of fiscal 2010 and “mild” impact in 2011 — for a company that in the fiscal first quarter reported non-GAAP earnings of $1.07 per share.

“Coupled with our scale, global reach and investments in the ecosystem, we expect we will see solid growth,” he said.

HP already has a smartphone, the iPaq, which runs on Microsoft’s (MSFT.O) Windows mobile platform. But the device has gained little traction in a crowded market.

Rubinstein is expected to remain with the company, HP said in a statement, adding that the acquisition would likely close during its third fiscal quarter ending July 31.

Shares of HP fell 1 percent to $52.75 in extended trading from their New York Stock Exchange close of $53.28.

HP “would be one of the few companies that I think could successfully turn Palm around. The company has great brand, great international distribution,” said C.L. King Associates’ analyst Lawrence Harris. “That will open a lot of doors.”

Resource:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63R5HO20100429

Apple will hold the WWDC from June 7 through June 11 in San Francisco at the Moscone West conference center, a popular venue for local technology conferences.

Naturally, Apple did not make any statements about whether it would launch new hardware at the show, but did make it clear that iPhone OS 4 would be in the spotlight. Apple announced a developer preview of the OS on April 8.

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Not surprisingly, an Apple announcement of a new iPhone will be eagerly anticipated. However, the saga of the lost or stolen prototype iPhone has overshadowed the launch, as Gizmodo has already printed a hands-on evaluation of the new prototype. Consumers, of course, will be interested to see whether the site was indeed right.

That iPhone prototype issue is currently being treated as a potential criminal investigation by the San Mateo Country District Attorney’s office, although no charges have been filed. Police seized computers and servers belonging to Jason Chen, a Gizmodo editor, and reports now say that police know and have interviewed the individual who found the prototype at a Redwood City, Calif. cafe.

Apple said sessions would be concentrated in five areas: application frameworks, the Internet and Web, graphics and media, developer tools and the core OS. Apple will almost certainly encourage and assist developers into implementing HTML 5 technologies into their applications, as Apple has rather vocally criticized Flash and has banned it from even content creation. However, a press release announcing the WWDC show listed just one, “Using HTML5 Local Data Storage”.

Additionally, there will be five iPad and five iPhone Apple Design Award winners announced at WWDC 2010, Apple said. “There is no requirement to enter and winners will be selected from the App Store based on criteria that includes design, technical excellence, innovation, quality, technology adoption and performance,” the company said. Apple has also listed sessions on iAds, its new integrated mobile ad platform, which have already been criticized for misreading customer preferences.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363173,00.asp

Technology blog Gizmodo is in a difficult position. The site’s editor, Jason Chen, recently had his home searched and electronics equipment seized to see if he committed a crime at any point over the past few weeks when he paid $5,000 for a lost iPhone 4G.

Chen says he’s innocent and Gizmodo’s legal counsel has publicly said that Chen was acting well within journalistic standards. The legal counsel says that he cannot be charged with any crime for acquiring the iPhone 4G.

But determining exactly what happened and whether laws or journalistic ethics were violated might be more difficult that it seems on face value. Gizmodo has been forthright about its contention that it acted within its rights as a news service in sharing information about the Apple iPhone prototype with the public. If its account is true, it appears that Gizmodo tried to perform journalistic due diligence before it started the process of acquiring the iPhone 4G and posting details about the device on its site.

But that doesn’t mean that Gizmodo was necessarily entirely right in this scenario. It also doesn’t mean that law enforcement has made the right moves. It seems that there is adequate blame to go around. And it’s incumbent upon us as the spectators to be as informed as possible before we pass judgment.

So, let’s take a look at 10 things to know about Gizmodo’s iPhone 4G saga.

1. An Apple employee lost it

   Although some have said that Apple secretly leaked the iPhone 4G to Gizmodo, it reportedly didn’t happen that way. An Apple employee lost the iPhone 4G in a bar, which was eventually recovered by another patron. After unsuccessful attempts at getting the iPhone back into Apple’s hands, the person offered it up to Gizmodo. According to Gizmodo, the person held onto the iPhone for weeks before giving it to the tech blog. That’s an important factor in all of this. Considering the person tried hard to give the device back to Apple, some fault might need to be placed on the hardware company for not performing its own due diligence.

2. Gizmodo paid $5,000 for it

   Gizmodo reported recently that it paid $5,000 for the lost iPhone. That figure might not mean much to some, but under California law, that puts the transaction into felony territory. That’s not a good thing. But it also speaks to whether or not Gizmodo should have paid for the product and if it acted ethically by doing so. It’s difficult to say what any publication or editor would do in a similar situation, but a spectator’s individual ethics must come into play when deciding where the fault should be placed.

3. Apple had ample time to recover it

   As mentioned above, Apple had about three weeks to find and retrieve the lost iPhone, according to Gizmodo. The tech blog said that the person who recovered the iPhone from the bar attempted to contact the company to no avail. Rather than hold on to it, he decided to sell it off for a handsome sum. It makes sense. But it also begs the question of whether or not Apple truly cares. Steve Jobs has a proven track record of being secretive and unbending in his distaste for those who leak company secrets. If he was really that upset about what was lost, wouldn’t he have attempted to more proactively seek it out? One would think so.

4. There’s still no telling if it’s really the iPhone 4G

   Try as it might to say that the phone it found is in fact the iPhone 4G, Gizmodo, like the rest of us, cannot confirm it. Apple has yet to say whether or not the lost device was actually the new version of the iPhone and it’s entirely possible that the device is one of many prototypes the company is working on. As appealing as it might be to seemingly look at the next version of the iPhone that Apple doesn’t want us to see, there’s no way to know if it’s what we’ll be using in the coming months. Gizmodo recovered an iPhone prototype, but not necessarily the iPhone 4G.

5. Apple finally got it back

   After the news broke that Gizmodo had acquired the iPhone and it discussed its features, Apple’s legal counsel sent a memo to Gizmodo requesting the device back. The tech blog used that request as proof that it was in fact an authentic Apple product. Upon receiving the iPhone, Apple has said nothing about the device and has yet to confirm it was really the iPhone 4G. Nonetheless, the iPhone is back in Apple’s hands and we won’t learn anymore about it until Apple finally confirms its existence.

6. Chen could be charged with a felony

   Until Apple recovered the iPhone, it was all fun and games for Gizmodo and those that wanted to learn more about the new iPhone. But it quickly turned serious when reports started surfacing claiming Chen could be charged with a felony because of the way he acquired the device. Since then, his home has been searched and computers and other electronics have been seized by local police in an attempt to determine if a crime was actually committed. For his part, Chen says he is innocent. But whether or not the district attorney will agree remains to be seen.

7. He could also be covered under media shield laws

   Chen might have a valid defense if he is in fact, charged with a crime. Gizmodo’s chief legal counsel sent a letter to local police, which was subsequently posted on the tech blog, saying that Chen is a journalist and thus, under California (and Federal) law, a warrant cannot be issued to search his home and seize property that could have been used for the purposes of a news story. Court decisions in the past provide Gizmodo and Chen with the precedent they need to show that online journalists are, in fact, covered under the same protections as traditional journalists. Assuming the district attorney interprets the laws the same way Gizmodo’s legal counsel does, Chen might not be charged with a crime.

8. Apple hasn’t chimed in

   As the drama continues at Gizmodo, Cupertino has been silent. Steve Jobs, his executives, and even his PR team have been mum on whether or not they have any opinion about what’s happening to Chen or Gizmodo. It’s rather typical from Apple. The company has imposed its will by acquiring the lost iPhone and now that its work is done, it has decided to say nothing about the issues Gizmodo is facing. Depending on where the law-enforcement effort goes, though, at least one Apple employee—the man who lost the iPhone—might need to chime in.

9. Gizmodo maintains its journalistic standards

   Some journalists have contended that Chen’s decision to buy the iPhone for $5,000 breaks journalistic ethics and standards that have been in place for years. They contend that from an ethical perspective, Chen shouldn’t have paid for the story and instead should have reported on the news that the iPhone was lost. Gizmodo and Chen don’t agree. They contend that they were doing what they were supposed to do: inform the public on Apple’s upcoming products. Either side of the debate can make a valid argument, but it’s tough to say which is right.

10. It’ll probably blow over

    In the end, the chances of Chen being charged with a crime and Apple taking issue with Gizmodo seem relatively slight. Gizmodo could potentially have its trump card, thanks to journalistic protection. And Apple, realizing that Gizmodo was only doing its job, likely won’t press the issue more than it already has. In a couple weeks, Gizmodo’s ordeal with the iPhone 4G will blow over and the story will be just another interesting saga to discuss in end-of-the-year roundups. But it’s certainly fun to watch while it lasts.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/10-Things-You-Should-Know-about-the-Gizmodo-iPhone-4G-Probe-313161/

A new report by mobile ad company AdMob measures the amount of ad traffic sent from different smartphones in March — and the Droid’s blinking red eye is going to be very pleased with what it found.

AdMob and the Android Lineup

First up, let’s be clear about what exactly we’re discussing here: AdMob measures the number of ad impressions served by applications and mobile Web sites using its platform. In nondipstick speak, that means it’s counting the number of times its little ads show up on apps — you know, the ones that are free and thus ad-supported — as well the number of times they pop up on smartphone-specific versions of Web pages.

That said, here’s what AdMob discovered: The Motorola Droid accounted for nearly a third of all the company’s Android-oriented traffic during the month of March. No other handset even came close to matching the Droid’s 32 percent stronghold: The HTC Hero came in second place, with 19 percent of the traffic. The HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) and HTC Magic (myTouch 3G) tied for third, with 11 percent each.

Next came the Motorola Cliq, with 10 percent of the total March traffic. Then you have the Samsung Moment, at 6 percent; the Samsung Behold 2, at 2 percent, and the Nexus One, also accounting for only 2 percent of all Android-based AdMob traffic.

Android’s Expanding Options

What’s interesting about this data is how it shows the increasing spread of popular options within the Android ecosystem. Just seven months ago, two handsets were responsible for nearly all of AdMob’s Android-based traffic. Now that same traffic is divided among nearly a dozen different options.

This is truly the key to Android’s inevitable mobile market dominance: choice. I’m not talking about the choice to customize a device and use it the way you see fit (though that’s certainly relevant, too). What I’m talking about here is choice in hardware: Whereas certain unnamed platforms present you with only one basic form, Android devices come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors; there’s something to meet practically any desire.

Case in point: keyboards. Turns out more than half of AdMob’s March Android traffic came from devices with physical QWERTY keyboards — namely the Motorola Droid, Motorola Cliq, and T-Mobile G1. The physical QWERTY keyboard is one reason why I personally prefer using the Droid over newer and more technically impressive handsets such as the HTC Incredible. It’s all about the options.

The Android-iPhone Comparisons

Now, I like a good Android-iPhone smackdown as much as the next guy — but one thing AdMob’s data doesn’t do, contrary to what some reports floating around the blogosphere suggest, is imply that Android has now surpassed the iPhone in overall Web traffic.

In addition to the Android-specific data, you see, the AdMob report breaks down March ad impressions based on mobile operating systems. For the first time, Android does come out ahead of the iPhone, with 46 percent of all U.S.-based traffic compared to the iPhone’s 39 percent. But let’s consider what that really means.

AdMob, as I pointed out early on, measures the number of ad impressions served by applications and mobile Web sites using its platform. The important phrase to take away from that: “using its platform.” When you’re looking within a single operating system like Android, you can draw some general conclusions by treating the data as a broad sample. But when you’re looking from one platform to another, it’s just not a consistent comparison.

AdMob, after all, very well could serve far more apps on Android than it does on iPhone. Developers have options as to whether to include ads and — if they do go the ad-supported route — which mobile ad provider they want to use. Differences in the number of and popularity of AdMob-using apps on each platform would clearly skew any meaning a cross-platform comparison would have.

So, sorry to disappoint, but there’ll be no crown-changing bragging rights awarded here today. That doesn’t mean Android and Apple fanboys can’t still call each other names, though, and mock each others’ platform limitations. Just don’t do it in Apple’s App Store; I hear uttering the word “Android” there can get you banned.

Resource:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/27/google_backtracks_on_nexus_one/

1. What does “4G” mean, anyway?

   4G is a marketing term that service providers are using to describe the “fourth generation” of wireless services. Such services may use different underlying technologies, depending on the provider, but they typically offer between four and ten times the performance of “3G” networks.

2. What are the technologies behind 4G services?

   The two main technologies are WiMax and Long Term Evolution (LTE). WiMax is a standard developed by the IEEE, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; Development of the LTE standard is led by the 3GPP, an industry body for providers that use GSM, the current leading technology for cellular communications. Both WiMax and LTE use advanced antenna technology to improve reception and performance. However, the technologies rely on different types of wireless spectrum.

3. How fast is 4G compared to 3G?

   WiMax providers today are offering contracts that advertise download speeds of between 2 megabits per second and 6 mbps, with peak speeds of 10 mbps and more. Verizon, which will launch LTE networks in the United States later this year, is expecting to offer services with download speeds in the 5 mbps to 12 mbps range. Most 3G data systems today deliver speeds of between 400 kilobits per second (that is, 0.4 mbps) and 1.5 mbps.

4. Why should I want 4G?

   4G’s faster download speeds and better overall data performance will significantly improve the performance of demanding applications such as streaming video, videoconferencing, and networked gaming. You may also be able to replace your home DSL or cable modem service with a 4G service that you can use both at home and on the road.

5. Are 4G services available now?

   Yes, in some places. In the United States, the partnership of Clearwire and Sprint currently offers WiMax-based services in 28 cities–among them, Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon), and Seattle. Clearwire and Sprint plan to add Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco to this list in 2010.

   On the LTE side, Verizon is the most aggressive of the U.S. providers, with plans to launch commercial services in 25 to 30 as-yet unnamed markets before the end of 2010; AT&T plans to follow with LTE in 2011. Internationally, WiMax services are already in use in many countries, including Japan, Korea, and Russia; and one commercial LTE network is running in Sweden.

6. What providers other than Verizon and AT&T plan to offer LTE in the United States?

   In March, MetroPCS announced plans to launch LTE services in Las Vegas before the end of this year, using a dual-mode 3G/LTE phone made by Samsung. T-Mobile is expected to launch LTE services sometime in the future, but it has not specified a timeframe for deployment.

7. What are the cost advantages of 4G versus 3G?

   Right now, the Clearwire/Sprint plans typically provide true “unlimited” data usage, whereas virtually all 3G cellular plans impose extra charges for downloading more than 5 gigabytes of data per month. Plans from Clearwire and its reseller partners (which include Comcast and Time-Warner Cable) are typically $10 to $20 per month cheaper than the standard $60 per month 3G cellular data plan, too. Verizon has not announced LTE pricing.

8. Can I get 4G on the 3G phone or USB modem that I have now?

   No. The 4G networks are designed to run at different frequencies than the ones current cellular services use, so you’ll need new radio chips tuned to the 4G frequencies.

9. Does 4G support voice calls?

   Not in any current implementation, other than Voice over IP applications like Skype or Vonage. Most early 4G phones will be “hybrid” devices that include a 3G chip to handle voice calls.

10. Are any 4G phones available now?

    As of April 2010, the only 4G phone announced for U.S. markets is Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G, which was unveiled in March and is expected to be available by this summer. (Earlier, HTC shipped a WiMax phone for a network in Russia.) Verizon has said that it expects LTE phones to ship by mid-2011.

    iPhone in the United States under an exclusive contract with AT&T, it has manufactured the phone with chips that connect to AT&T’s 3G cellular network. Many people hope that Verizon, which has more-immediate 4G plans for its network than AT&T does, will begin selling a CDMA version of the iPhone later this year.

11. Can I use 4G while I’m on the road, as with a cell phone?

    Yes. The whole idea behind 4G is that it’s not just broadband, but mobile broadband.

12. Can I use 4G services in different cities, similarly to roaming with a cell phone?

    Yes, sort of. Roaming is supported between different cities covered by the same service, so a Clearwire or Sprint device you buy in Portland should work fine in Las Vegas or Chicago. LTE proponents say that they will support cross-provider roaming, but we’ll have to wait a couple years to see whether that works. And while chip vendors have announced silicon that could link to either a WiMax or an LTE network, no as-yet-announced device can accomplish that trick.

13. Will 4G be offered in rural communities?

    Smaller providers such as DigitalBridge Communications–which has services in Jackson Hole, Wyoming–already offer mobile WiMax similar to Clearwire’s. A company called Open Range Communications has just started offering WiMax services in rural Colorado, and it plans to cover more than 500 rural communities over the next several years.

14. Can 4G services replace my home DSL or cable modem?

    Yes, unless you’re looking for extra-high-speed services for extremely demanding broadband usage. Clearwire’s WiMax service already offers faster speeds than the lower-end DSL plans, and it can match some cable modem offerings. For users who want both home and mobile service, WiMax 4G may be a better deal than the combined price of a stationary service and a 3G data plan.

15. What is a portable Wi-Fi router, and how does it use 4G?

    Clearwire and Sprint sell two versions of a portable Wi-Fi/WiMax router, which uses a link to WiMax on the back end to support a “personal hotspot” capable of broadcasting a Wi-Fi signal that several devices can share. Sprint’s forthcoming HTC EVO 4G phone will be able to act as a portable router, too, sharing its WiMax connection with up to eight other devices via Wi-Fi.

16. I’ve been hearing recently about “HSPA+” or “3.5G” service. What is it?

    T-Mobile USA is in the process of launching a mobile data network based on a more-advanced version of the 3G protocols in use today. Theoretically the network can support speeds of up to 21 mbps, but in tests so far it is only marginally faster than most 3G data services. T-Mobile hopes to have the service available in 100 U.S. cities by the end of 2010.

17. Why do some people say that current 4G services are not “true” 4G?

    Standards bodies have set higher speed goals for what they would like to define as “official” 4G services, performance marks that likely won’t be met for another couple years at the earliest. But marketers think that what’s available now is a big enough leap to justify the “next-generation” label–and they’re the ones who buy the ads.

18. Will “real” 4G services ever be available?

    Both WiMax and LTE backers are working on versions of the technology that will support “true” 4G speeds of more than 100 mbps for downloads, but real products using those versions probably won’t appear for several years.

19. When will this great service be available in my town?

    It all depends on when providers decide that your metro area is worthy! Clearwire and Sprint both have interactive maps on their Websites showing where and when services are likely to be available. Verizon is expected to announce its first LTE cities later this summer or early next fall.

Paul Kapustka is editor and founder of Sidecut Reports, an independent research firm that specializes in wireless technologies.

Resource:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100427/tc_pcworld/4gwireless20questionsaskedanswered

The company Monday updated its Web site to tell customers waiting for the device that they should instead buy another smartphone running Google’s software.

Google previously indicated the Nexus One, which the company designed and sold directly to consumers, would be available for Verizon’s customers in the spring. A Google spokesman declined to comment on why discussions with Verizon fell apart.

After lackluster sales, it was Google that decided to pull the plug on a CDMA version of the Nexus One that would have worked on Verizon’s network, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Google hasn’t disclosed how many Nexus One phones it has sold since launching in January. Google executives have defended the phone, noting it is part of the company’s long-term mobile strategy and saying they are pleased with initial demand.

The announcement is a blow to Google’s only branded phone, as it won’t be available to Verizon’s more than 90 million subscribers any time soon. Verizon Wireless is owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc.

Vodafone Monday said it will start giving Nexus One phones free to U.K. customers who sign up for service plans and that the phone would be available in stores—a departure from the online-only approach Google has taken in the U.S. The Google spokesman said it has no plans to offer the phone in U.S. stores.

Verizon Monday distanced itself from Google’s phone. “Verizon had never made a comment or statement about the product coming to our network,” said a Verizon Wireless spokesman.

Google broke with convention when it launched its phone, saying it would sell it on a Web store with or without a cellphone contract. Google said its aim was to drive its Android operating system, the company’s response to Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

The Nexus One sells for $529 without wireless service. U.S. customers can also buy the phone for $179 if they commit to a two-year contract with Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Mobile USA, the only U.S. carrier.

Resource:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465204575208283988502188.html?mod=wsj_india_main

The decision reverses an earlier pledge in which it said it would help get Flash working on the gadgets.

Flash is very widely used on the web and many sites use it to power animations, media players and other multimedia elements.

Despite this, Apple’s products do not support Flash and it has made public statements criticising the technology.

Closed tools

In mid-April, Adobe released software called Creative Suite 5 that contained translation tools that automatically turn Flash code into programs that run on the iPhone.

Shortly before the release, Apple updated the terms and conditions of the license software developers must sign to create iPhone and iPad applications. The revisions prompted a lot of criticism from many iPhone developers.

The revised terms placed strict restrictions on what developers can use to create these applications and effectively banned them from using code translators such as Creative Suite 5.

At the time Adobe wrote that it still intended to deliver the translation tools. Now it has said it will halt development of future translation tools for Creative Suite.

“We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5,” wrote Mike Chambers, Adobe’s principal product manager for developer relations, on his blog. “However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.”

Mr Chambers also commented on Apple’s revision of its terms and conditions. He wrote: “…as developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at any time.”

Apple responded in a statement to technology news site CNet in which it described Flash as “closed and proprietary”. Apple preferred to support more open standards which replicate everything Flash can do, added the statement.

Mr Chambers wrote that now Adobe will concentrate on Google’s Android smartphone software and ensure that its Flash technology works well with that.

“Fortunately,” he wrote, “the iPhone isn’t the only game in town.”

Resource:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8639240.stm

Besides declining to work with Adobe to bring Flash to the iPhone OS, Apple has recently changed the Terms of Service for the iPhone SDK to disallow development with unauthorized tools like Adobe’s new Creative Studio 5.

Earlier this week Adobe’s Mike Chambers indicated that due to the new restrictions in the iPhone SDK TOS, Adobe won’t contine development of tools to create iPhone apps in Flash CS5. Chambers wrote that Apple wants to “make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.”

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller shot back in a statement pointing out that the iPhone OS supports common open standards like HTML5, CSS, Javascript and H.264, calling Flash “closed and proprietary.”

But does support for open standards actually make the iPhone OS itself open? After all, Flash also supports H.264, but as Muller correctly points out that doesn’t stop it from being closed.

Does Apple’s decision to restrict development tools and methods really have anything to do with openness? It seems unlikely.

Apple’s own approach, the iPhone SDK, is proprietary and closed as well and gives Apple control all the way through distribution to consumers.

In response to an email from an OS X developer critical of the new SDK TOS, Steve Jobs recently outlined a more believable, if not entirely accurate, rationale.

Jobs wrote, “intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform.”

The problem with this argument is that using non-Apple sanctioned (ie controlled) development tools isn’t an indication of poor quality any more than using the official tools improves it. Ultimately quality is in the developer’s hands.

As to hindering progress, that’s only true if you define platform as the iPhone SDK, rather than the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or even iPhone OS itself. In reality app development on these platform is limited by the iPhone SDK

Their capabilities could be exploited to come up with even more innovative apps by third parties if not for Apple’s obstruction.

It’s hard to believe that Apple’s reliance on DMCA anti-circumvention language and restrictive language in SDK agreements with developers is either open or conducive to progress. Both are artificial barriers to the creative process of developing software.

Even harder to believe is that Apple is oblivious to the growing government interest in various aspects of the iPhone business, including the app approval process.

Apple is already involved in various iPhone related patent lawuits against companies including prominent Android phone vendor HTC and worldwide mobile phone (and smartphone) industry leader Nokia. Federal investigators have already gotten involved in the Nokia dispute.

If Adobe ends up filing a lawsuit against Apple, which seems to be the rumor or speculation du jour every day, it would certainly lead to more pressure on Congress and federal regulators.

There’s no doubt Apple’s decision to outlaw converted Flash apps from the App Store will have a negative impact on Adobe, particularly with their new CS5 software having just been released. Some have argued that the reason for Apple’s oddly timed introduction of the next iPhone OS to developers was intended to coincide with Adobe’s CS5 launch.

The ability to convert Flash projects to iPhone apps has been touted as a major selling point for months, and with good reason given the number of App Store downloads. However that doesn’t automatically make what Apple is doing illegal.

Which may explain why there’s been no lawsuit from Adobe yet. The only grounds for forcing Apple to open the iPhone OS to third party application frameworks would seem to be an antitrust claim.

The iPhone, successful as it has been, hasn’t made Apple the number 1 mobile phone or even smartphone vendor in the US. Those titles belong to Motorola and Research In Motion (RIM) respectively.

Without a dominant market position Apple certainly can’t hold a monopoly so any antitrust complaint seems doomed.

However there still might be an alternative solution for Adobe and other companies who want to develop software for the iPhone without Apple’s blessing. They could throw support behind the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) effort to get a DMCA exemption for smartphone jailbreaking.

Such an exemption would allow Adobe, Microsoft, Sun or any other application framework provider the chance to extend their architecture to the iPhone by piggybacking on consumer rights.

Resource:

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2010/04/23/apple_rep_says_iphone_os_is_open_while_flash_is_closed_and_proprietary

The study based on the survey of more than 1500 women claimed that more than 50 percent of the women surveyed are interested in men who own iPhones, and referred to them as more reliable, humorous, intelligent and well-groomed than the men who do not have Apple’s signature phone.

However, in a press statement issued later in the day, the company denied to have conducted any such survey and called it absolutely fake, directing the sites to drop the it.

Later, it came out that the survey was published by Sticky Eyes, its digital marketing agency, which conducted it through a third party, without a prior permission from Phones 4U, leaving the press deceived.

Apple’s smartphone alone has led the Cupertino-based to surpass all estimated targets of its earnings, by increasing its second-quarter income of the last fiscal by almost double

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/22/phones-4u-denies-commissioning-iphone-survey/

The iPhone HD is coming at the end of June. When Gizmodo got hold of a lost or stolen iPhone this week, they only cemented what insiders like Daring Fireball’s John Gruber have been speculating for weeks: that the next iPhone will be a video-centric device.

According to Gizmodo and Gruber, the new iPhone has front and back cameras and a super-high-res, 960-by-640 display. The rear camera has been greatly improved over the iPhone’s camera, with a bigger lens and a flash. There’s a second microphone, which might be for noise cancellation, and a larger battery.

The new phone will not be called the “iPhone 4G,” as it probably won’t run on 4G mobile networks, and otherwise the name would be really confusing. Along with Gruber, I’m betting Apple will call it “the iPhone HD,” with high-def video recording, iChat video calling and amazingly lifelike video playback.

Needless to say, Apple refuses to comment on the leaked phone, or acknowledge plans for a launch event in June.

Mobile video has existed for a decade; I reviewed phones that did two-way video calls back in 2004. But video calling never became mainstream because it was expensive, unreliable, and didn’t work on enough phones. (Did you know that AT&T sells a one-way mobile video calling service even today? Yup.) Recording and sharing mobile videos is more popular, but not enough people understand how to share the videos on their phones. And mobile video streaming services such as MobiTV have had trouble sweeping the market with their tiered pricing plans and complex menu systems

Apple’s recent strength has been in taking existing technologies like the MP3 or the smartphone, and mainstreaming them by adding terrific user interfaces. If it offers a truly awesome experience, the iPhone HD could do for mobile video recording and sharing what the iPod did for music and the iPhone did for mobile apps.

Apple has wanted to rule the video world for years, but they’ve never fit all of the pieces together. They sell movies and TV shows through iTunes, but they haven’t changed the economics and politics of the video world the way the iTunes Store changed music. The AppleTV remains only a “hobby,” but Apple hasn’t discontinued it. They’re just trying to find the right timing and angles for a market-dominating move.

The iPhone HD would be another attempt to jump-start the digital video market and get it under Apple’s control. Apple will probably offer a slick, easy way to upload and share high-def videos, and their video recording and sharing abilities will strive to make Cisco’s little Flip cameras irrelevant. A powerful processor could enable full-scale video editing on the device. The high-res screen will be great to watch TV shows on through Netflix, CBS, or even a rumored upcoming Hulu app. The iPad is, in part, about video consumption; the new iPhone will be about video creation and communication.

I’m not convinced video calling has mass appeal no matter how well you do it, but that’s not going to stop Apple from trying. They have an unparalleled ability to make people want their latest feature, and I know I’m not as smart as their product designers.

Video calling has another missing piece, though, and that’s the network. The iPhone prototype that Gizmodo got is almost certainly an AT&T phone — it uses GSM MicroSIM cards, just like the iPad. Video calling is a network-intensive use, and it’s hard to see how AT&T would be happy with another major assault on their network.

That said, I still think the iPhone will remain an AT&T exclusive through 2010. I’m convinced that any rumored CDMA iPhone model is probably for China, not the U.S.

I think that in the last ten days of June, we’re going to be welcoming the video-centric iPhone HD, exclusively with AT&T. We’ll see if I’m wrong.

Resource:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/21/future-forecasting-iphone-hd-june/

The series is traditionally black with a chrome finish, but the new version will feature an all-white faceplate and leatherette backplate.

But the change is entirely cosmetic, with other features such as the 256MB of flash memory, 624MHz processor and 3.2MP camera remaining the same.

According to RIM, the new phone will be available in Australia from mid May onwards. Major carriers will be the only sellers of the product.

Resource:

http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/344045/white_blackberry_smartphone_hits_australia/

According to Sudeep Bharati, director, developer tools for Microsoft India’s Visual Studio Team, the company is working with manufacturers to come up with lower-end phones for the Indian market.

‘Windows Phone 7’ is Microsoft’s upcoming mobile operating system and series of phones that Microsoft hopes will revive its presence in the mobile market, which is dominated by Apple and BlackBerry in the US and by Nokia in developing countries. In India, this means generating phones that offer a cost-advantage to the competitively priced Nokia phones.

“We are working on phones with 2 chassis, one with a screen resolution of 800*480 and the other with a lower resolution of 480*320. Phones with chassis 1 will be available by the end of 2010,” says Bharati.

The lower-end models will have at least 128 MB RAM, a lower-end processor and a 5 megapixel camera, unlike the higher-end models that need to have 1Ghz CPU GPS chip and 1GB of RAM.

The company is still in talks with hardware manufacturers on the feasibility of the plan and the pricing of these phones.

The higher-end models are expected to be priced similar to the Nexus One, which is available for $529 in the US. It is expected that the lower-end phones would be priced lower than Rs20,000.

Google too had earlier mentioned plans to release a stripped- down version of Nexus One in India this year.

Microsoft has laid special emphasis on the graphical component of the phone as games will come with Xbox Live support, which will allow users to play a game on their mobile, save it, continue the same game on their PCs and finish it on their Xbox 360.

Bharati also said that he’s expecting developers to release Live games which can be played on all three platforms as a package.

The tools that developers can use to make these games – Visual Studio 2010, Expression Blend – were developed under him at the Hyderabad centre of Microsoft. “Developers can make their games compatible for all the platforms using the same code. They don’t have to write separate applications for each platform. Also, games can be written for the phone using Silverlight as well,” he added.

Silverlight, Microsoft’s competitor to Adobe’s Flash, has seen a lot of developments with version 4 to be released later this year. At Microsoft Tech Ed, which was organised in Bangalore last week, a few of the developers demonstrated a way to make a fully interactive 3D object using Silverlight. The 3D capabilities of Silverlight will come in handy when developing games as well.

Resource:

http://www.dnaindia.com/scitech/report_microsoft-s-special-india-plans_1374157

IPhone frenzy quickly spread on the Web Monday, after Gawker Media’s Gizmodo technology Web site posted photos of a similar-looking phone that it said someone found at a bar in Redwood City, north of San Jose. In response to suggestions that Gizmodo paid for the phone, Gawker chief Nick Denton tweeted, “Yes, we’re proud practitioners of checkbook journalism. Anything for the story.”

Late on Monday, Gizmodo provided a full account about how its source got ahold of the phone. It said an Apple software engineer mistakenly left it behind at the Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German beer garden in Redwood City, on March 18. The blog identified the man by name, and published what it said were photos of him as well as links to a page on the photo-sharing site Flickr that it said belonged to him.

A spokeswoman for Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment. In an email, Jason Chen, the Gizmodo editor who wrote the first entry describing the phone, said he received the phone a little less than a week ago. “We were not the people who found it originally,” he said.

Joshua Topolsky, editor-in-chief of Engadget, which is owned by AOL Inc., said that the site was contacted April 17 by people who claimed to have found the device in a bar. These people asked Engadget to pay for access to the device, but it declined to do so after consulting with its attorneys. “We believe it’s the same device,” said Mr. Topolsky.

The device could prove a hoax, but if the phone is an authentic prototype, it could take a bite out of marketing plans at Apple, which goes to great lengths to keep new products a surprise until Chief Executive Steve Jobs can unveil them.

Apple has been working on a new iPhone that is thinner and will have a faster processor than the current model, The Wall Street Journal previously reported, citing people familiar with the device. Apple watchers have expected the company to unveil it sometime in June.

The photos–and Gizmodo’s claim that it has the actual device–had fueled speculation about how an iPhone prototype could turn up at a bar given how carefully Apple controls who can take prototypes out of its offices. John Gruber, who runs a technology site called Daring Fireball, said in a blog entry that Apple considers the phone “stolen, not lost.”

Another theory that had been going around: Someone left it behind deliberately to create buzz.

Gizmodo reported that its device has features that would be new to the iPhone, such as a front-facing camera for video-chatting, a bigger lens, a flash on the back camera, an improved display and split buttons for volume control. The Web site released a video of its editor holding a device that was not functioning.

The screen was slightly smaller than that on the current 3GS model, Gizmodo said, but the phone included a 16% larger battery and is three grams heavier. Unlike past iPhones with curved corners, the Gizomodo find was completely flat in the back, with corners that are more squared off and surrounded by an aluminum border.

Gizmodo said it believes the phone, which was found in a protective case made to look like an iPhone 3GS, is authentic because it had behaved like an iPhone when connected to a computer and the person who found it said it was running the latest operating system that was just announced before “Apple remotely killed the phone.”

Resource:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703757504575194691720059102.html

You know the story by now. Some Apple guy leaves his iPhone prototype in a bar. Some guy finds it. A few weeks go by. He then leaks photos of the thing to both Engadget and Gizmodo. Then he sells Gizmodo access to it for $5,000.

It’s a good story, with a lot of ins, outs, and what have-yous, as Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski would say. But while a lot of attention has been focused on whether it was, like, cool, for Gizmodo to have paid for information, man, the real question is what would you have done if you’d been the one to find the prototype?

We’ve got an official poll with a few choices, but if you want to get more creative, let us know how you would have played it.

Would you have sold the device and risked possible legal action? Written Steve Jobs an e-mail telling him you had one of his new phones? Held out for more than $5,000?

What was the right move here?

Resource:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20002983-82.html

• Does the inclusion of the front camera mean that Apple will finally unveil a native iChat application for the iPhone? (Why yes. Yes it does.)
• Will it include video conferencing? (Of course, but only on the iPhone HD.)
• Will third-party VOIP apps (like Skype, Fring, iCall, Line2, etc.) also be allowed to stream video? (Probably, but it might take a while for their updated apps to get approved.)
• How will AT&T/Verizon handle the billing? (By charging a lot, that’s how.)
• Will video conferencing be included in the unlimited (*cough* 5GB) data plan? (You’re kidding, right?!)
• Will the crush of video data bring the creaky AT&T network to its knees? (Yes. Yes it will)
• How will the Verizon network prevail? (It will prevail)

Resource:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=6668

Apple apparently chose a rectangular “boxy” form factor with lots of hard lines to maximise volume and pack as much electronics as possible. Gizmodo promised to provide with more details in a future article.

Jason Chen, the reviewer, said that the back was entirely flat made either of glass or ceramic or shiny plastic but later said that Apple apparently opted for a black plastic back instead.

This reminded us of an article by John Gruber of Daring Fireball about a patent filed by Apple back in 2006 which covered high durability ceramic enclosures which ressemble glass but are far more resistant and stronger.

Shedding Aluminium will possibly to improve reception yet Gizmodo says that it feels much less plasticky than the iPhone 3GS. That said, either glass or ceramic have lower density than Aluminium

Gizmodo says that the new iPhone 4G design is back to basics and the shape actually reminds us of the iPod 5G. There’s also an aluminium border going all around the phone and interrupted only by the various holes for microphone, volume buttons, connectors etc.

The iphone 4G prototype dimensions are 4.50 by 2.31 by 0.37 inches while the old ones were 4.5 by 2.4 by 0.48 inches; so slightly thicker and wider.

Finally, the iPhone 4G is a tad heavier than the previous version as well at 140g vs 135g for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. Note though that this could well be a prototype rather than the final version of the iPhone 4G so things may change.

Resource:

http://www.itproportal.com/portal/news/article/2010/4/20/apple-iphone-4g-behind-new-design/

According to Engadget, the Android-powered Mini 5 just showed up in the FCC database with the WCDMA Band IV radios. Those radios only are used on one US network: T-Mobile’s (DT).

The Mini 5 is just a bit bigger than a big smartphone (HTC’s Evo will be 4.3 inches vs. the Mini’s 5 inches) but is being marketed more like a mini tablet — but one with significantly more screen size than the market leading iPod touch from Apple (AAPL). It is powered by the same Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon processor that powers HTC’s latest Android phones as well. Unfortunately for Dell, it’s been only show running an older version of the Android OS, version 1.6 (vs. 2.1 on the latest Android phones).

Perhaps most importantly however, the Mini 5 will launch with a big content partnership from Amazon (AMZN) which will provide the device with music, Video-on-Demand, eBooks and anything else Amazon sells.

The questions that remain are: When will this device be sold and for how much ?

• Dell (DELL) could sell this through the carriers (T-Mobile in this case) like most phones and some Netbooks are sold
• Google (GOOG) could sell it ad-hoc like it sells the Nexus One (also on T-Mobile) on its website?
• Dell could sell this like Apple sells the iPad — With specialized unlocked data-only plans (though the Mini 5 can make phone calls)
• Dell could just sell this outright on Dell.com and let customers find their own SIM / plan options.
• Any combination of the above.

The device itself is probably going to cost south of $500 (if it wants to have any chance vs. the iPad and iPod touch) and any carrier deals will just bring that down further.

The Mini 5 is a big deal for Dell, which is coming to the US with its first Android devices and first portable devices since it killed the Axiom and Dell DJ lines years ago. Dell also sells a smaller Mini 3 in Brazil and China.

The Dell Mini’ 5′s size might be a good differentiator vs. Apple and HP which both make significantly smaller phones and larger tablets.

Speaking of larger tablets, Dell is slated to have a 7-inch version of its Mini Tablet at the end of the year and a 10-inch variety at the beginning of 2011.

Resource:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/04/19/fcc-database-reveals-dells-mini-5-to-come-to-t-mobile/

The prototype version was found on the floor of a bar, we understood, although it was actually on a bar stool, according to tech site Gizmodo. It was apparently lost by a twenty-something Apple software engineer.

But it is indeed real, as now Gizmodo actually has the iPhone in its possession. Though Apple has remote wiped it, so there isn’t much they can do with it, save pry away at the hardware.

Gizmodo has “disassembled” it – it was disguised as a normal 3GS originally – and reported their findings.

These include the fact that the next iPhone will have a front facing video chat camera, as well as an improved camera on the back.

It has an “improved display”, with a higher resolution than the 3GS, but, oddly, a slightly smaller screen.

Aesthetically, it has a completely flat back, and is a more square edged unit. And it has a slightly larger battery, plus the phone uses a Micro-Sim like the iPad.

It’s quite the exclusive, and Gizmodo is absolutely convinced this is the real deal fourth version of the iPhone.

The site comments: “There is so much evidence stacked in its favour, that there’s very little possibility that it’s a fake. In fact, the possibility is almost none.”

Various parties have condemned Gizmodo’s actions on several fronts. Firstly, for naming the Apple employee involved, although the site says that this was done in an effort to help him keep his job, not get him fired (presumably because he’s now in the public eye, Apple would have to fire him in the public eye).

Secondly, many think Gizmodo could be in legal hot water for going ahead with this expose (presumably) without Apple’s permission.

Unless the handset isn’t the fourth-gen iPhone, of course. Either that, or as some computer conspiracy theorists have it, this whole episode has been set up by Apple as a publicity stunt.

We guess we’ll find out soon enough, when the official reaction from Apple comes.

Resource:

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2010/04/20/apple-iphone-4-details-confirmed-as-no-hoax/

For the people at Apple, it must be like a bad version of the guy walks into a bar joke.

The company is known as the most secretive in Silicon Valley, and leaks are rare. But after the phone prototype was left in a bar in the Silicon Valley town of Redwood City, photos of the device began appearing over the weekend in technology blogs, sparking a frenzy of hype among the Apple-obsessed.

Before long, pictures of the product appeared on Gizmodo, a technology news site, whose editors ripped it apart — as if it were an alien from another planet — to dissect its features. The Web site said late Monday that the phone belonged to an Apple engineer.

The phone’s authenticity was hotly debated, but most bloggers concluded it was real. And a person with knowledge of Apple’s hardware plans who was not authorized to speak on behalf of the company confirmed to The New York Times that it was real.

Apple declined to comment.

“It is very stunning,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, who has been following Apple for nearly three decades. “Apple has such tight control on new products, and they are kept under wraps diligently and religiously until the day of their release. If it is true, it is really a first.”

Some wondered whether the phone was planted by Apple’s formidable publicity machine.

“For the sake of the person who dropped it, I hope this is a devious marketing scheme,” said Paul Saffo, a veteran Silicon Valley forecaster. “But I think it is unlikely. There is no one else on the planet whose shoes I would less like to be in it at the moment.”

In a blog post on Monday detailing how it obtained the phone, Gizmodo said it was left by an iPhone software engineer at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German specialty store and beer garden in Redwood City.

The person who found the phone peddled it to Gizmodo, which bought it for $5,000, Nick Denton, chief executive of Gawker Media, which owns Gizmodo, said by instant message.

His company’s sites have had a longstanding practice of paying for scoops, and the windfall was tangible. Traffic spiked on Monday, and at midday more than one million visitors stopped by the site in one hour to see pictures of the coveted gadget.

By late in the day, reports began to surface on the Internet that Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, had called Gizmodo to get the device back. Mr. Denton declined to comment, saying any conversation between Mr. Jobs and Gizmodo would most likely have been off the record.

“We haven’t had any formal communication with Apple,” he said. Brian Lam, the editor in chief of Gizmodo, said his publication would “probably” return the device to Apple.

From the front, it looks similar to the current iPhone, but it has sharper edges and is a little thinner. The volume and power buttons are stylistically different, and the back of the phone appears to be a ceramic glass, which would enable better reception. That would address a persistent problem that has plagued the iPhone since its inception three years ago.

Late Monday night, Gizmodo said that it received a letter from Bruce Sewell, Apple’s senior vice president and general counsel, requesting the phone back. “It has come to our attention that Gizmodo is currently in possession of a device that belongs to Apple,” Mr. Sewell wrote in a letter that Gizmodo published.

“This letter constitutes a formal request that your return the device to Apple,” the letter said.

Resource:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/technology/companies/20apple.html?src=busln

According to Nokia, the cash prizes will be given for the best Puzzle or Brain Teaser application and the top Mobile Forms application in the competition’s Entertainment and Productivity categories. Optus will also be offering mobile and web advertising support to promote the winning apps on the Ovi Store.

In addition to the local incentives, Aussie developers have the opportunity to share in an even bigger prize pool. The top three global submissions in each application category will receive the following cash prizes:

1st Prize: USD$30,000
2nd Prize: USD$15,000
3rd Prize: USD$5,000

Above and beyond the category prizes, all application submissions – whether they are finalists or not – will be eligible to win special cash prizes that span across the four categories. These special prizes are based on the type of technology used to create the app, or other award criteria, as noted below:

Best application for the Nokia N900: USD$50,000

Best cross-platform application using Qt: USD$50,000

Best mobile computing application: USD$50,000, plus be included in a multi-million dollar global marketing campaign that will be used to help promote the winning app

Resource:

http://smarthouse.com.au/Phones/Industry/C9H5H4X5

That seems to be the message being sent by Cupertino this week in a very public iPhone app rejection fiasco. Word broke on Thursday that Apple had rejected a cartoon app created by Mark Fiore, a cartoonist who recently made history by becoming the first online-only journalist to win a Pulitzer. Fiore received the award for animations he’d published at the Web site of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Fiore’s iPhone app, however, was reportedly shot down by Apple because it “ridicule[d] public figures” — you know, as most satirical political cartoons tend to do. But the story didn’t end there: The general silliness of a ban on political satire, coupled with Fiore’s high-profile honor for that same genre of work, led to a public outcry over Apple’s actions.

And that public outcry has seemingly now led to Apple rethinking its ban.

Apple’s Pulitzer Rejection Reversal

Fiore, according to an interview published in The Wall Street Journal on Friday, received a call from Apple shortly after his story started receiving widespread attention online. The Apple representative, Fiore says, suggested he resubmit his app.

“I feel kind of guilty,” Fiore tells The Journal. “I’m getting preferential treatment because I got the Pulitzer.”

To be fair to Fiore, it’s probably more directly the public attention than the Pulitzer itself that caught Apple’s eye. But the honor, no doubt, illustrated the validity of satirical work in the eyes of the real world — the eyes, that is, outside of Apple’s carefully guarded walls.

Apple’s App Store and Political Cartoons

This wasn’t Apple’s first clash with politically charged App Store content. The Cupertino team put the kibosh on an app featuring the work of Mad Magazine cartoonist Tom Richmond last fall. Richmond’s app, entitled “Bobble Rep,” featured bobblehead-like caricatures of U.S. senators and representatives. Apple eventually reconsidered its rejection following a similar wave of online outrage.

Other authors have faced struggles, too, ranging from a guy who made a caricature-driven election game to a developer who created a cartoony countdown clock for the end of the Bush administration. But with the advent of the iPad and its focus on redefining the way we receive information, the concept of content-based censorship — particularly when the guidelines are so murky and inconsistent — is more troubling than ever.

“Suddenly Apple’s control freak approach threatens the development of the very technology it is supposed to be innovating, by placing restrictions and outright rejections upon the content that would be consumed via [its] devices,” Richmond writes on his blog. “Apps for publications and newspaper content won’t be very useful if [the iPad] only lets us see stuff that Apple and Steve Jobs thinks we should see.”

For now, it appears satire and politics will remain a wishy-washy, gray area within Apple’s app world. Not to fret, though: Bodily functions are still A-OK.

Resource:
Yahoo News

Apple has refused to confirm whether the device in the images is a prototype of its new device. Gadget fans are well known for creating “mock ups” of supposed Apple devices, and then seeding them around the internet.

There are rumours that the new iPhone will be unveiled in June, and will feature an eight megapixel camera with flash, more storage and a front-mounted camera. The iPhone 4.0 software update, which was revealed by Apple last week, will also add multi-touch capabilities to the device.

A return to the aluminium form factor would make sense for Apple. Its very first iPhone, launched in July 2007, had an aluminium back, as does its latest gadget, the iPad, which went on sale in the United States earlier this month. Shoppers in the UK will have to wait until late May to get their hands on the touch-screen, tablet style computer, after Apple pushed back the launch date, citing “overwhelming” demand.

In February, rival phone maker HTC unveiled a handset made from a single piece of aluminium, using a manufacturing technique similar to the one used by Apple to make its unibody Macs. The HTC Legend has been widely praised for its cutting edge design and ease of use, and for the software laid over the Google Android operating system that makes it easier for people to communicate across social-networking sites.

Resource:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7598828/Leaked-photos-show-iPhone-4G.html

Many observers expect Apple to release a new model in late spring or early summer. CEO Steve Jobs said recently that an updated mobile OS would be ready this summer–a perfect opportunity to release new iPhone hardware. Fueling speculation that a June launch is imminent is a report from Boy Genius Report that it has “confirmed with multiple AT&T sources that the carrier has now put a block on employees taking vacations in June.”

Engadget is fanning the flames with photographs it says contain images of the forthcoming phone. Here’s Engadget’s explanation on how the images surfaced:

Apparently the phone was found on the floor of a San Jose bar inside of an iPhone 3G case. Right now we don’t have a ton of info on the device in question, but we can tell you that it apparently has a front facing camera (!), 80GB of storage (weird, right?), and isn’t booting at this point (though it was previously, and running an OS that was decidedly new). It’s not clear if this is definitely a production model, or just a prototype that found its way into the world, but it’s certainly a compelling design, no matter how you look at it.

Perhaps bolstering Engadget’s report is a Twitpic posted in February that bears a striking resemblance to Engadget’s images. However, other blogs reported that the images were actually of a Japanese iPhone counterfeit. As “proof” of the validity its report, Engadget reposted a grainy, heavily redacted photo it posted with a January iPad prototype story it now says shows the forthcoming iPhone sitting next to the then-yet-to-be released iPad.

Additionally, a MacRumors reader posted these images–purportedly from a Chinese Web site–that appear similar to those posted earlier by Engadget, although some readers suggest these are really images of the what was described as a Japanese counterfeit.

Of course, one has to wonder whether a company that guards the secrecy of its unreleased products as fiercely as Apple would actually allow an employee to take a prototype out to mingle with pretzels and spilled beer.

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20002771-37.html

On Monday evening, Opera Software announced that Apple had approved Opera Mini, the first alternative Web browser for its iPhone. After 24 hours, the free app was downloaded to 1,023,380 Apple devices, the company reported.

To get approval from Apple, however, Opera Mini could not be a true browser because Apple’s developer agreement forbids alternative JavaScript engines, and possibly Web rendering engines, from being released for the iPhone. But as Daring Fireball’s John Gruber pointed out, Opera Mini doesn’t actually render Web pages; it renders a compressed markup language called OBML, making Opera Mini more like a PDF reader than a Web browser.

Nonetheless, Opera said that iPhone users now “have a choice, and, as the numbers show, they are eager to explore new and faster ways to surf the Web on the iPhone – especially during heavy Web traffic,” according to Lars Boilesen, chief executive of Opera.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362734,00.asp

This jailbreak will only work for iPhone 3G users on a Mac. It’s still in beta, so it’s very buggy. If you plan to jailbreak, know that your unlock will be compromised since Apple updated the baseband in the iPhone 4.0 beta firmware.

Resource:

http://www.iphonestalk.com/jailbreak-for-iphone-4-0-beta-1-available-now/

Fiore irked Apple’s censorious staffers with his cartoons making fun of the Balloon Boy hoax and the pair that famously crashed a White House party, according to Laura McGann at the Neiman Journalism Lab.

Fiore won a Pulitzer Monday for animations he made for the SFGate, the online home of the San Francisco Chronicle. But Fiore, who is a freelancer who runs a syndication business, was rejected by Apple in December for an app called NewToons that features his work.

According to a Dec. 21 e-mail reprinted by Neiman, Apple rejected his app because it “contains content that ridicules public figures and is in violation of Section 3.3.14 from the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which states: Applications may be rejected if they contain content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple’s reasonable judgment may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.”

Neither Fiore nor Apple responded to requests for comment.

The news of the rejection comes not long after Apple decided to purge its App store of content that included nudity, a retroactive ban that included apps from respected German publications such as Bild and Der Spiegel.

Fiore’s rejection may be especially disconcerting to news and media organizations, many of which are betting heavily on iPad apps as a way to get users to pay to read magazines and newspapers, and to get advertisers to pay print-ad prices for online content. (Online ads cost a small percentage of what ads in glossy magazines cost, in no small part because the net has almost infinite advertising space.)

Apple has built a little slab of Disneyland with its iPad, which is meant to be an experience unsullied by provocative or crude material. It’s beautiful and enticing — the company has already sold more than a half million of them in the first two weeks it’s been available — but it’s not the real world.

Publishers, including such august organizations such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Wired.com’s parent company Condé Nast, see a solution to their declining dead-tree ad sales in building a pay-to-play attraction in that park. But they need to understand that to do so, they have to play by Mickey Mouse’s rules.

The signs have been there from the start, as Wired.com’s Brian Chen pointed out in February. Apple banned an e-book reading application once because it figured out that iPhone users could use it to read a free version of the Kama Sutra. Then last week, Apple abruptly banned apps developed using programs that translate apps into multiple platforms.

Adding the news of Fiore’s ban to that, the publishing world is now officially on notice that the iPad is Apple’s, and unlike with their print and web editions, they don’t have the final say when it comes to their own content on an Apple device.

Screenshot: Mark Fiore cartoon lampooning the nation’s telecoms for helping the Bush Administration illegally spy on their customers.

Resource:

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/apple-bans-satire/

There are over 50 million Opera Mini users globally.

Opera Mini uses Opera’s servers to render and compress pages, thus increasing speed for the end user, and also working around Apple’s stringent rules.

The company says users of the iPhone over AT&T’s slower 2G Edge data will definitely feel the “uptake in speed.”

Whether all the downloads are just a curiosity or proof that iPhone/iPod Touch users are looking for choice within their hardware remains to be seen, but it seems pretty clear that Opera will be gaining a significant amount of users.

Resource:

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2010/04/15/opera_mini_tops_all_of_apple_s_top_app_charts

Looks like our guess was correct. On Tuesday, Skyfire, another mobile browser maker, blogged a post congratulating Opera for its success and stating Skyfire’s intention to speed up its own development for “iDevices” like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Of course, as a competitor, it is Skyfire CEO Jeff Glueck’s prerogative to point out that Skyfire supports Flash and plays back video with its mobile proxy browser where Opera Mini for iPhone doesn’t.

We’re always up for a good challenge, and we’d love to compare Safari, Opera Mini, and Skyfire side-by-side. We’re also curious if Skyfire manages to avoid some of Opera Mini’s proxy-related pitfalls, some of which we outline in this First Look video.

Alright, Skyfire, bring it on!

Resource:

http://download.cnet.com/8301-2007_4-20002426-12.html

MacBook Pro Software Update 1.3 “is recommended for all 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro mid-2010 models and contains improvements for graphics stability for high-performance video and gaming applications as well as various bug fixes,” according to Apple.

The update was posted on April 13, and requires Mac OS X 10.6.3.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362615,00.asp

Google (GOOG) is said to be planning a rival device to Apple’s (AAPL) iPad that will run its Android operating system. Assuming this is true, what does Google need to do to make its slate competitive with the iPad?

Size matters—A “Google Pad” should target the sweet spot of screen sizes, that of 5 to 8 in. Any larger and some will complain that the device is too heavy—as is already happening with the iPad—while smaller devices simply don’t offer enough benefit over current smartphones, some of which have displays of 4 in. or larger ). Google would have to subsequently adjust how Android and its apps run on larger displays. When I ran Android on a 7-in. touchscreen computer, it offered a less-than-ideal experience because the user interface is built for small screens.

Fix the Market—Other companies already offer Android-powered tablets, but those devices are hobbled by limitations that include not having access to the Android Market for software. Google wouldn’t similarly constrain its own product, but it still needs to make finding and installing software from the marketplace easier. One small tweak that would yield huge benefits is an “update all” function. Users don’t want to have to update software one app at a time.

Sync or swim—Unlike its competitors, Google doesn’t offer software to synchronize data between Android devices and computers. The sync software Google offers is the cloud; e-mail, contacts, calendars, and other data are all available through an over-the-air Web connection. But not all consumers are ready for true wireless data synchronization. Google could either bundle solutions like DoubleTwist for media and application synchronization or The Missing Sync for personal data.

Boost productivity—While most people don’t buy tablets to replace the productivity offered by a traditional computer, if it’s making one, Google should include its Google Docs software. Android supports document viewing, but not much in the way of editing aside from limited spreadsheet changes. A native Android application or enhanced Google Docs functionality in the browser for basic document editing would rival Apple’s iWork software for the iPad.

Court developers—Apple has already got the attention of third-party developers, so Google will have to offer an equally if not more compelling development environment in order to have blockbuster applications on hand at launch. Netflix is a fine example. Apple successfully convinced the company to build media-streaming software for the iPad, enabling consumers to watch video wherever a Web connection could be found.

As someone who switched from an iPhone to a Nexus One earlier this year—(though I bought an iPad, too), I find the Apple experience more refined than Google’s. But Android still has much to offer, namely the lack of developer lock-in, easy integration with Google programs, and a growing number of software titles. If the company addresses the five areas I’ve outlined above, a Google Pad could be a very worthy alternative to Apple’s iPad.

Resource:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2010/tc20100413_828372.htm

The Nokia C3 (pictured) is the vendor’s first Series 40 device to feature a QWERTY keyboard. It allows for Facebook, Twitter, and other network access directly from the home page. It also features Ovi Mail, Ovi Chat, Wi-Fi, a 2-megapixel camera, and a 2.4-inch screen. It will be available in a variety of colors.

The Nokia C6 runs full-blown Symbian, and features a 3.2-inch touch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It also includes a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash, Ovi Maps with free walk and drive navigation, and access to Nokia’s Ovi Store for browsing, buying, and downloading thousands of third-party apps, assuming it works.

Finally, the Nokia E5 is a business-focused smartphone in the vein of the E72. It features numerous productivity apps, Mail for Exchange, and Lotus Notes Traveler, plus access to the Ovi Store.

All three are due for release in the second and third quarters overseas; no word yet on U.S. versions. But Nokia seems to have finally figured out how to get carriers to subsidize its handsets; my money is on at least one of these appearing here.

Resource:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362564,00.asp

The package, which sees the cost of a 3GS 16GB handset tumble from £320 to £200, includes unlimited texts and 750 minutes of calls.

Tesco’s price crash comes just four months after it put the iPhone into stores – and the chain’s telecoms boss Lance Batchelor reckons the Apple gadget is just about to become even more affordable.

He says: “Tesco Mobile’s iPhone tariffs have been very popular – we’ve now made them even better.” Direct comparisons are difficult as rivals like O2, Orange and Vodafone don’t yet offer year-long iPhone contracts.

Vodafone has a two-year contract for a 3GS 16GB iPhone for £89 on a £35 monthly package with unlimited texts and 600 minutes of talk time. O2 offers unlimited texts and an 18-month deal for £35 a month, with 300 minutes of talking – but the handset is dear at £249.

Orange has an 18-month contract for £35 a month offering a handset for £189 but texts are limited to 500 a month and there’s 600 minutes of speech.

Basically, the longer and dearer the contract, the less the handset costs… unless you pick up a bargain from an auction site (£99, say) and use a SIM-only tariff.

Resource:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/money/2010/04/14/prepare-for-an-iphone-price-war-thanks-to-tesco-mobile-s-new-12-month-deal-115875-22184008/

Opera promises faster downloads, less data traffic (Adds background)

HELSINKI, April 13 (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has accepted distribution of Opera Software’s (OPERA.OL) Internet browser for its iPhone after a long review, opening a new and potentially lucrative market so far closely guarded by Apple.

There are numerous versions of Apple’s own browser on App Store, but Norway-based Opera is the first rival to get access to iPhone.

Opera applied on March 23 for its mobile browser to be distributed on iPhone, and it was available for downloading to consumers early on Tuesday, three weeks later. Usually the review process takes up to one week, developers say.

Analysts have said the decision was difficult for Apple — whose application store is the only way to distribute software for iPhone users — as its Internet browsing function is key behind the success of the iPhone.

Opera’s browser promises up to six times faster download speeds than Apple’s own browser and to cut data traffic by up to 90 percent.

Massive data traffic from iPhone mobile phones has caused problems for many operators’ networks

Resource:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE63C02620100413?type=marketsNews

We also have the first impressions of the lovely iPad and, for the most part, we like it. And the apps. And the accessories. It’s a win.

But it’s not all Apple news. Research In Motion finally released an official Twitter client for BlackBerrys. It’s an open beta test, and it seems pretty solid so far, though it could use a few more features.

On the green-tech front, we mentioned a new power strip concept from Fujitsu that keeps a log of your power usage on a PC so you can see what’s using energy, even when you’re not home.

Linux on the PS3 is hot again, as iPhone hacker GeoHot demoed a hacked PS3 running Linux. The latest PS3 firmware disallows this, but GeoHot’s hack re-enables it. No word yet on when a userland hack will be available

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20002196-1.html

Thursday, the company added more missing pieces when it introduced the fourth generation of the iPhone operating system at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. After a wait of almost three years, we finally get multitasking–though not for everyone–and other sorely needed features like home screen folders and a unified e-mail in-box. The update is available for developers now with the general release for the iPhone and iPod Touch coming this summer and the iPad in the fall.

It doesn’t deliver quite the changes that we got from the iPhone 3.0 release last year (at least for now), but rest assured that OS 4.0 is a major update that checks off more boxes from our standing iPhone wish list. Though OS 4.0 is set to bring 100 new features, CEO Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall, senior vice president of iPhone software, focused on the seven biggest changes, or “tent poles,” during the course of Thursday’s event.

Multitasking

In our review of the iPhone 3GS, multitasking led our list of common cell phone features that were lacking. Granted, that list was shorter than it had been with previous iPhone versions, but multitasking remained a major omission in light of Android and the Palm Web OS.

Apple, however, has a special talent for making us forget such things by packaging an existing feature in a flashy new way. As Jobs said, Apple isn’t about being first, but rather about “being the best.” We’ll have to get our hands on the update before we fully agree, but Apple appears to have hit the mark. During the demo, Jobs showed how you’ll be able to tap the Home button twice to get a pop-up menu of running apps at the bottom of the display. As you switch back and forth, you’ll return to the exact point you left, even if you’re in the middle of a game. There’s no task manager of any kind and Jobs dismissed competitor devices that have one. As he put it, “If you see a task manager, they blew it.”

Though the pop-up menu only shows four apps at a time (you may be able to swipe through a longer list), you’ll be able to run at least 12 apps simultaneously. Jobs did not say if that number is a hard limit, but we’ll confirm that one exists when we get to play with the OS ourselves. Forstall insisted that multitasking would not affect performance because Apple distilled background processes into seven API services. They include audio from apps like Pandora Radio (yay!), VoIP (for Skype calls), push notifications, and task completion. Multitasking also will support local notifications and related security setting enhancements.

There is bad news with multitasking, though. The feature is compatible only with the iPhone 3GS and the third generation of the iPod Touch. Owners of other iPhone and iPod Touch models still get other OS 4.0 benefits, but you’ll need to upgrade if you want the full package. Before you run to the store, however, keep in mind that OS 4.0 probably won’t appear until after the Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. At that event–we’re still waiting for firm dates–we should get new hardware, so make your upgrade decision then.

iPhone OS 4.0 features

Folders

Are you sick of scrolling through seven home screen pages to find your app? We certainly are, which is why we welcome the option for home screen folders. After a long press on the home screen (so the icons “jiggle”), you can take an app and drop it on top of another to create a folder. To see the contents of a folder or change the default name, just tap it for an expanded view. You can add as many folders as you like, but we’re unsure if there’s a limit to how many apps you can store in a single folder.

The process appears to be easy, though we wouldn’t say it offers a huge change from the equivalent steps on Android. It’s interesting, though, that with multitasking and the home screen folders, Apple is slowly chipping away at the advantages that Android currently holds. We love a good fight so we can’t wait to see how this develops.

E-mail

Though e-mail has always worked well on the iPhone, the experience has been a little disjointed with its various in-boxes and limited options for message sorting. Fortunately, the OS 4.0 update fixes some of those flaws. Not only will you get a unified e-mail in-box, but also the ability to add multiple Exchange accounts, organize e-mails by thread, quickly switch between accounts, and open attachments with a preferred app. We’re most excited about the unified in-box–sometimes it’s the little things–but we certainly wouldn’t kick the other features out of bed.

iBooks

iPhone owners will be able to get iBooks, the Apple’s e-book reader, on their devices. They’ll also be able to access Apple’s iBookstore to purchase new content. And if you have an iPhone and an iPad, you can read your book on both devices (with just one purchase) and sync your current page.

Enterprise

Though Forstall said 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies are using the iPhone, the device still doesn’t have quite the reach of the BlackBerry in IT departments. Yet, Apple continues to pursue that market with new features like enhanced data protection, mobile device management, wireless app distribution (nice), and multiple exchange accounts. Also new is support for Exchange 2010 and SSL VPN from Juniper and Cisco.

Game Center

Coming “later this year,” so perhaps not at the same time as the general OS 4.0 release, is Game Center. It will bring features like a social gaming network, the ability to invite friends to games, leaderboards, achievements, and the opportunity for “matchmaking” (setting up two people to play). We didn’t get an extensive demo of Game Center so Apple may still be tinkering with it.

iAds

Though Jobs and Forstall spent a lot of time on this feature, we’re not so enamored. Apple knows that iPhone users spend a lot of time in apps and it has recognized the revenue opportunities. iAds appears to be all about making you “want” to click on an ad by offering multimedia and interactive content. Jobs described it as combining “interaction” and “emotion” like we get in TV commercials. For example, if you have an ad about “Toy Story 3,” you’ll be able to see a preview and search local theaters for showtimes.

Though iAds will deliver new functionality to users, developers clearly are the primary target audience. Jobs even said that Apple wants to help developers make money by offering them a 60 percent share of any revenue. Yes, we understand that free apps aren’t really free, but the prospect of more ads cluttering our phone isn’t exciting. And you can be sure iAds will be available beyond the iPhone 3GS.

Other changes

Jobs and Forstall didn’t detail the 93 other new features of iPhone OS 4.0, but we did get a brief glimpse of other additions at the start of the presentation. Here are a few to ponder.

• Spell check
• Larger fonts for e-mail, texts, and alerts
• Persistent Wi-Fi
• Tap to focus video
• Customizable wallpapers for the home screen
• Search text messages
• Choose image size in mail messages
• Recent Web searches
• Create playlists
• 5x digital zoom in camera
• Bluetooth keyboards
• Gifting of apps
• iPod out
• Birthday calendar
• Wake on wireless
• File and delete mail search results
• Web search suggestions
• Rotate photos

What iPhone OS 4 means for the iPad

Version 4.0 of Apple’s iPhone OS is going to bring many welcome improvements to the iPad, including multitasking, app folders, and more capabilities for app developers to tinker with. Unfortunately, though iPhone 3GS and third-gen iPod Touch users can expect to run the new OS this summer, iPad owners will need to keep patient until fall.

On the upside, there are a few OS 4.0 capabilities included on the iPad currently that iPhone users will have to wait until summer to play with. Features such as iTunes playlist creation, home screen wallpaper, and iBooks will have iPhone users giving the iPad envious looks until their upgrade is available. Also, the iPad already offers apps that all can maintain your place after exiting the app. These include: Numbers, Keynote, Pages, and iBooks.

Another silver lining iPad owners can hold on to is the fact that OS 4.0 should come as a free upgrade. The iPad’s OS 3.2 documentation states that OS upgrades will be provided to users free of charge up to and including OS 4.0.

The collective groan from iPad users is mostly over having to wait for OS 4.0′s multitasking capability. Given the iPad’s aptitude for Web and e-mail browsing, it’s a shame that users can’t yet use these features simultaneously–a fact that Netbook proponents are quick to point out.

It might be easier to muster some patience if we only understood why Apple chose to stagger the roll-out to the iPad. No reason was cited at the OS 4.0 unveiling event. Given that Apple releases a new crop of iPods every fall like clockwork, it’s possible that the iPad update is being deliberately delayed to dovetail with an iPod announcement and Apple’s rumored cloud music service. It’s also possible, given the larger screen of the iPad, that porting over iPhone OS 4 simply requires more time.

Resource:

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-20001998-233.html

iPhone 4.0 will likely include full support for multi-tasking and allow for third-party applications alongside Apple’s applications, according to AppleInsider.

Apple doesn’t permit VARs to sell the iPhone, but Nick Gold, senior account executive for Baltimore, Md.-based Chesapeake Systems is nonetheless excited to see what iPhone 4.0 will include.

“Multitasking does seem to be the main focus that many people are looking for in the update,” Gold said. “The iPhone OS is currently capable of multi-tasking — it’s just that only Apple’s own applications like Safari and the iPod software can run in the background.”

Apple last updated the iPhone OS last March with iPhone 3.0. That update added cut, copy and paste, a feature that iPhone users had long been asking for. In some ways, multi-tasking has become the top feature users are asking for now, according to Gold.

“Multi-tasking is very useful to a lot of folks, but is probably not critical for all users,” Gold said. “Whenever Apple implements a major feature such as this, they always make sure to do it better than anyone else on the market.”

Gold likes Apple’s “one-two punch” of major product news — first with the iPad and now with the iPhone OS 4.0 update — and says it’s a smart strategy. “This approach brings even more attention to the company,” he said.

Apple earlier this week sent invitations to the media for the Thursday event at its Cupertino, Calif. campus, although they didn’t explicitly say that Apple would reveal iPhone OS 4.0. Instead, the invitations show an image of a number “4″ along with a brief statement that reads, “Get a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS.”

Resource:

http://www.crn.com/mobile/224201594

Apple will host an event at its Cupertino, Calif. headquarters on April 8 to demonstrate what it calls “the future of the iPhone OS.” The announcement could be an unveiling of iPhone OS 4.0, the next generation of the company’s smartphone operating system.

According to Reuters, Apple is casting the announcement as a “sneak peak” of upcoming smartphone software.

The announcement comes a few days after the April 3 release of the iPad, Apple’s tablet PC, which reportedly sold 300,000 units by midnight on that date. In an April 5 statement, the company suggested that more than one million apps for the iPad had already been downloaded, along with 250,000 e-books. Developers can build applications for the iPad with the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK (software development kit), which includes an iPhone Reference Library, Sample Code, iPad Programming Guide and Human Interface Guidelines.

Apple’s upcoming iPhone OS update also comes on the heels of updates to its “Snow Leopard” operating system. Termed Mac OS X 10.6.3, the newest tweaking to that platform includes boosted reliability of third-party USB devices and QuickTime X and printers; OpenGL-based application compatibility; and security updates.

Rumors have abounded about what an iPhone OS 4.0 could contain. On March 31, the blog AppleInsider suggested that Apple might include multitasking for third-party applications in the platform, citing unnamed sources supposedly close to the development. Competing smartphone platforms such as Google Android have been touting their multitasking ability as an advantage over the iPhone, something to which Apple may eventually feel compelled to respond.

“The technology, detailed by people familiar with Apple’s plans for the new firmware, will finally allow users to launch multiple apps in the background and quickly switch between them,” Apple Insider bloggers Kasper Jade and Prince McLean wrote. “Apple initially avoided an app model supporting multiple apps running at once to help preserve the battery life and simplify the user experience.”

Those sources also suggested that the iPhone OS 4.0 could take its design and functionality cues from the Mac Expose feature. “A key combination—reportedly hitting the Home button twice—will trigger an Expose-like interface that brings up a series of icons representing the currently running apps, allowing users to quickly select the one they want to switch to directly.” Once a selection is made, the phone then switches to that particular app.

However, Apple is notoriously tight-lipped about its upcoming products, as much evidenced by the ramp-up to the unveiling and release of the iPad, and so potential features for a new iPhone OS could change at any time. Apple has also previously followed a pattern of releasing a new iPhone iteration every summer—the original in June 2007, the 3G in July 2008, and the 3GS in July 2009.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apple-to-Announce-iPhone-OS-Future-749809/

Catching everyone off guard, Apple has sent out a teaser (it rarely does any other kind) to journalists proclaiming “Get a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS” and dated it for 8 April 10AM PT (5PM GMT).

Naturally enough the rumour mile has already hit breakneck speeds with Engadget claiming there will be three distinct flavours of new software (4.0, 4.1 and 4.0.1). Yes, this could hint at multiple new iPhone models – though more likely it refers to iPhone OS 4.0 on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Will we finally get multi-tasking? It’s tough to call since you’d think Apple would have unveiled that with the more powerful iPad if it was on the horizon. Let’s stay positive though. Furthermore, while we’re announcing our wishes we’ll list a few simple, common sense additions that should have been long sorted out by now:

• The ability to group apps into folders (eg games, music, travel, etc)
• Homescreens above and below, not just side-by-side
• A dynamic weather icon to match that of the calendar
• Homescreen access to the on/off settings for WiFi, 3G and data roaming
• Reordering browser tabs
• Caching webpages so back/forward navigation doesn’t result in reloading the entire page
• Safari integration with email, Maps integration with Safari (opening one doesn’t exit the other)
• Multiple Exchange account support
• Enabling the battery charge percentage indicator on models other than the 3GS

Surely not too hard? As for the likes of Flash support (via Flash 10.1) and LTE I’d suggest they are pipe dreams for now given the state of the relationship between Apple and Adobe in the former and the horrendous battery drain still evident in the latter.

That said, iPhone OS has stood relatively still for the last six months while Android in particular has come on leaps and bounds so – for possibly the first time – Apple really does need to pull something special out of the bag to reassert itself.

We’ll know by Thursday. Until then, fingers crossed…

Resource:

http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/

Apple said it would offer a “sneak peek” of the latest iPhone operating system on Thursday at an invitation-only event at company headquarters in Cupertino, California.

“Get a sneak peek into the future of iPhone OS,” the invitation said. It did not provide any further details.

Apple released the iPhone in 2007. It sold 8.7 million iPhones in the last quarter of its financial year, up 100 percent from a year ago.

The unveiling of the latest software for the iPhone comes on the heels of Apple’s launch on Saturday of its eagerly anticipated iPad tablet computer.

Apple unveiled the iPhone 3.0 operating system in March of last year.

Resource:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jhwCJaiPqTkqR-6tHXhdm7jKIG2A

This was not the conference to attend if you are an Apple Fan-Boy.

An Apple iPhone 3GS was fully compromised in 20 seconds by two hackers, the first time the mighty iPhone 2.0 has fallen to a crack. And the infamous Charlie Miller, who has successfully hacked into fully patched Macs for the last two years, this year wormed his way into fully patched and secure MacBook Pro to take home a cool $10,000. Another guy slammed into a fully-patched Windows 7 machine.

What were the main lessons learned from the conference and what can we do to protect ourselves? Tony Bradley of PC World blogged correctly, “Despite the common perception that the Mac OS X operating system is just inherently more secure than Windows, the reality is that the primary reason Macs aren’t attacked and compromised more often is that the platform with 92 percent market share promises malware developers a significantly higher return on investment than the platform with five percent market share,” he said.

Yes, I am sure the Apple folks are blowing up his inbox too but the point is made. Smart people can hack just as readily into Apple products too. They just don’t feel like it as often.

So what can we do? As Bradley points out, the hack above all used the weak point our computing experience, namely the Internet browser. In the Apple MacBook attack, a weakness in the Apple Safari browser was exploited. In the Windows 7 attack, the hacker used an exploit in Internet Explorer 8. Even the iPhone was hacked using … you guessed it … the mobile version of the Safari browser.

So what we need to do as consumers is keep our browsers up to date. The “safest” browser is a question that starts a fistfight in a nerd bar but whatever browser you use, keep it up to date. Don’t install browsers you are not going to use regularly. That just opens a security hole on your system. Many of us got Safari, for example, courtesy of Apple when we installed iTunes on our Windows machines. If you don’t plan to use Safari, remove it. If you plan to use it, patch it.

I usually recommend having two browsers on your system. If you use a Windows machine, that is Internet Explorer and something else. A year ago I would have recommended Mozilla Firefox. Today I would recommend Google’s Chrome to be your main browser and keep IE as your backup. (It is Google’s world and we’re just living in it.)

And pay attention. Patch your system regularly. On March 31, Microsoft released an emergency patch for Internet Explorer to patch a gaping hole that could allow a hacker to take over your computer. Did you get the patch? Did you install it? Did you reboot? Do you have Windows Updates set to install on schedule? Do you install the patches and reboot? Do you check for Apple updates?

You have to be vigilant these days and even then, don’t store anything on your connected computer you would not want swiped.

Resource:

http://www.newschief.com/article/20100404/NEWS/4045024/1009/LIVING?Title=The-Apple-iPhone-is-easily-hacked&tc=ar

Donovan told the Wall Street Journal that, even as the company worked to convince Apple that it was improving its network, AT&T engineers went to Apple to give Apple’s engineers a “crash course” in wireless networking. Apple modified how the iPhone communicates with towers to reduce the overhead for making connections or sending texts.

“They’re well past networking 101, 201 or 301,” Donovan told WSJ. Apple is now “in a Master’s class.”

Ars contacted both AT&T and Apple for further details about what was changed, but neither company offered any specific information. We do know, however, that the the iPhone—as well as smartphones that came after it—uses certain techniques for saving battery power that can bog down signaling channels on cell towers that aren’t configured to handle signaling loads dynamically. The last we heard about significant changes in the 3G networking capabilities of the iPhone OS was in late 2008, though it’s sure that Apple since tweaked the network stack whenever needed.

AT&T learned that hard way that iPhone users didn’t add network traffic in the same predictable patterns as users of other phones did. The company “is managing volumes that no one else has experienced,” Donovan said. The growing pains that AT&T experienced as the iPhone skyrocketed to the top of the smartphone market in the US have left a number of users frustrated, with many willing to jump to another carrier if it could offer service for the iPhone. Half of Ars readers using an iPhone said they would switch to Verizon if a rumored CDMA-compatible iPhone materialized soon.

Verizon CTO Anthony Melone bragged late last year that the company was more than ready to handle the onslaught that iPhone users would bring to the network. “We are prepared to support that traffic,” Melone told BusinessWeek.

That’s easy to say, AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom told Ars, “but the truth is no one knows what their network would look like if they had the iPhone.” “Of course, it’s true that others have been able to watch what we’ve done to handle a 5,000 percent surge in data traffic,” Bloom added. “But watching is quite different from doing.”

Bloom said that the upgrade to HSPA 7.2 and the added backhaul—”enough to also support our LTE buildout”—will keep AT&T ahead of the competition, which may be enough to keep iPhone users from looking at other carriers. “More and more people are going to get the benefits of 7.2 speeds this year on our network,” he said.

Resource:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/04/report-apple-has-tweaked-the-iphone-to-work-better-on-att.ars

Some of his predictions are more significant then others, the more obvious looking predictions state that he believes the iPhone 4G will feature 64GB of NAND flash storage, a 5 megapixel camera, an AMOLED screen and increased battery life, however the next prediction was something that I have not came across before.

Um believes that Apple’s next-generation iPhone may feature a rear touch panel, this will give the iPhone 4G touch capabilities on both sides, which could perhaps increase hand-held gaming functionality, application intuitiveness and much more.

Other predictions stated that the 4G will be capable of high definition video playback and high definition video capture, to do this the handset’s processing power will have to be superior to the 3GS’s.

Resource:

http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/04/01/apple-iphone-4g-expert-predicts-rear-touch-panel-and-more/

According to a report by the network’s news branch, the BBC Trust has decided to halt the planned April release of news and sports applications for the Apple handsets after newspaper publishers claimed that the apps gave the BBC an unfair advantage in the marketplace.

The Trust will reportedly review the plan and decide whether the apps would violate its public service agreement.

The row over the BBC’s iPhone applications comes as newspaper publishers seek to capitalize on Apple’s iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad platforms amidst slowing sales of print editions.

Major papers such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times have announced agreements with Apple to offer newspaper special subscription offers of their daily papers formatted for the iPad tablet.

The report also comes as the BBC is said to be cutting back on its own online operations. Media reports claimed that the company would be reducing its web operations by as much as one half.

Resource:

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2260500/bbc-puts-iphone-plans-ice

Fadell was the first man to sign on to iPod’s engineering team in 2001. 5 years later, he became the head of the iPod division and was a key figure in developing the iPhone.

Fadell decided to step down from his executive position at Apple in 2008. At the time, he said he wanted to remain as an adviser to Steve Jobs and provide work in a freelance capacity exclusively to Apple.

However, today’s move, which was first reported by the New York Times, severs all ties to the company he helped bloom into what it is today.

Apparently Fadell is big into green technology now and wants to focus his career at this point to that focus.

“My primary focus will be helping the environment by working with consumer green-tech companies,” he said to the New York Times. “I’m determined to tell my kids and grandkids amazing stories beyond my iPod and iPhone ones.”

Resource:

http://www.tgdaily.com/the-majors-apple/49174-father-of-ipod-iphone-leaves-apple

In case you haven’t heard, one of the tech world’s favorite on-again, off-again topics has been resurrected. Yep: It’s the seemingly immortal “iPhone on Verizon” buzz, back in the news yet again.

This time, a report in The Wall Street Journal is reigniting the Verizon-iPhone flame. The story, originally published on Monday, cites the always-popular “people briefed by the company” as saying Apple will produce a CDMA-ready version of its iPhone sometime this year. The new iPhone, the Journal suggests, will be aimed directly at Verizon.

Hang on, though: Before you roll out the nearest welcome mat, there are a few things you may want to consider.

iPhone on Verizon: A Skeptic’s Perspective

When a story quotes nameless people and provides no further evidence, it’s tough to evaluate the reliability of its information. Sure, it could be dead-on — but, as we’ve seen plenty of times in the past, it could also be complete hogwash.

Me, I like to treat these types of speculative stories with a healthy dose of skepticism. Until there’s any concrete reason to believe something, it’s ultimately all just hearsay.

In the case of the new Verizon-iPhone scuttlebutt, there are four ideas I’d raise for your critical contemplation. Any one of them could be right or wrong, but again, the point is that we really just don’t know.

1. The Verizon-iPhone History

   The simple reality is that we’ve heard the Verizon-iPhone rumor many times before. The talk swept through the blogosphere again and again in 2009 — in fact, we saw it surface as far back as 2008. That alone is a powerful reason to remain cautiously skeptical about any new “definitely true” gospel.

2. The Verizon-iPhone Technology

   Following an earlier set of Verizon-iPhone rumors last spring, the carrier’s CEO told reporters Apple wouldn’t likely want to bring the iPhone to the company until its 4G network was in place; the CDMA technology Verizon currently uses, he stated, was too dated and limited in scope for Apple’s interests.

   Verizon is still relatively early in the development of its 4G network. The carrier has said it doesn’t expect to reach even a 66-percent coverage level in America until sometime in 2012.

   Could Apple have altered its position on the Verizon CDMA issue? Sure; in fact, an updated version of the WSJ’s story suggests the company “changed its mind as it realized Verizon’s upgrade would take longer than expected.”

   Believe whichever side you will, but it’s one more potential obstacle to bear in mind when evaluating the latest Verizon-iPhone rumor.

3. Verizon-iPhone and the Exclusivity Issue

   Apple’s exclusivity contract with AT&T has long been shrouded in mystery. Recent reports have guessed that the deal expires sometime in 2010, but there’s never been any official confirmation.

   Assuming the deal is set to expire this year, though — a move that could clear the way for a happy Verizon-iPhone union — some believe the odds of it actually ending are still rather low. Just last month, multiple analysts suggested the launch of the iPad likely included an extension to Apple’s exclusivity arrangement with AT&T (or, as the satirical paparazzi put it, “Celebrity power-couple Apple and AT&T is anything but over”).

4. The Benefits of a Verizon-iPhone Rumor

   This last one may sound a bit on the paranoid side, but the truth with any “leaked info” is that there’s always someone who stands to benefit from the buzz. Consider the fact that since this latest Verizon-iPhone story broke, the stocks of both Verizon and Apple have shot upward, while the finances of Research in Motion, Palm, and AT&T have all taken a hit.

   Then there’s the competition side of the equation: Android-based phones are simply exploding right now, and the slew of newly released options is increasingly eating away at Apple’s mobile market share. A report released just this week finds Android creeping dangerously close to the iPhone’s American stronghold — and with slick new handsets like the HTC EVO 4G and Samsung Galaxy S on the way, sales of Android phones are only going to climb higher in the months to come.

   With the possibility of a shiny new iPhone on a slightly less evil-seeming carrier, consumers considering an Android phone might instead wait it out — meaning competitors’ sales would suffer at least through the start of summer.

   I’m not suggesting some kind of massive conspiracy theory here. All I’m saying is that one way or another, there are ample ways investors can benefit from a well-placed “leak.” As a cautious news consumer, this is crucial information to keep in mind.

   Remember: Apple-oriented rumors are a dime a dozen. Only time will tell whether this one proves to be true, but in the meantime, treat the talk for what it is. Until some convincing facts are tossed our way, it all amounts to little more than high-profile speculation.

Resource:
Yahoo News

Of course, if you’ve been reading the tea leaves, Apple’s move into mobile advertising is anything but surprising. In January, they bought mobile advertising company Quattro for a reported $275 million, after Google snatched AdMob out from under them months before.

More recently, we saw glimpses of Apple’s mobile advertising future in an “App Store Tip” they published that discouraged developers from creating apps that “use location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location.” Because that’s exactly what they want to do themselves, of course.

MP’s sources say that Steve Jobs has described iAd as “our next big thing” and “revolutionary,” naturally.

MediaPost’s version of how this will unfold seems a little odd. It’s reporting that iAd will make its debut April 7, which is only four days after iPads start making their way into the grubby hands of fanboys everywhere. Apple, a company that has hype down to a science, is surely cognizant that launching an iAd revolution on April 7 runs the risk of eclipsing the iPad revolution that potentially just got its legs days before. Such are your troubles when you deal in revolutions. Also, uh, iAd? Then again, we thought the name iPad was pretty dumb in December, too, so…

Regardless, it’s been clear for a while now that Apple seeks to take control of the mobile advertising the same way it did digital music. Google got search ads down pat, and now it’s sitting on a boatload of cash. Its acquisition of AdMob got them a good foothold in the mobile advertising game, but that sizable slice of the pie is still very much up for grabs. And you can be sure that Apple’s going to be grabbing for it, whether it’s with something called iAd or not.

Resource:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20001312-1.html

The growth of smartphones running Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating systems, coupled with users’ heavy application adoption, is driving smartphone traffic over wireless networks, which increased by about 193 percent between February 2009 and February 2010.

The finding comes from a March 25 AdMob report that looked to separate the network traffic between smartphones, feature phones and MIDs (mobile Internet devices) over the past year. The firm, which measures ad requests and impressions, not sales, found smartphones to account for 48 percent of AdMob’s worldwide traffic in February 2010, up from 35 percent a year earlier.

Feature phone traffic declined from 58 percent to 35 percent over the year, as more users switched to smartphones.

MID traffic, however, driven in large part by the Apple iPod touch, showed the strongest growth of the three form factors, increasing from approximately 7 percent in February 2009 to 17 percent a year later. While the Sony PSP and Nintendo DSi contributed, the iPod touch accounted for 93 percent of MID traffic.

“In absolute terms,” states the report, “mobile Internet device category traffic increased 403 percent.”

Breaking the numbers down by operating systems, Google’s Android was the fastest-growing in the AdMob network, with requests increasing from 2 percent to 24 percent over the year, thanks to the Motorola Droid, the HTC Dream, Hero and Magic and the Motorola Cliq — the five top Android devices on the network.

Nonetheless, Apple’s iPhone was the leading OS, with its requests increasing from 33 percent to 55 percent over the year, while over the same period Symbian device requests fell from 43 percent to 18 percent.

Worldwide in February 2010 alone, the iPhone OS accounted for 50 percent of smartphone requests, with Android at 24 percent, followed by Symbian with 18 percent and RIM with 4 percent. In the United States, however, Android is gaining ground on the iPhone more quickly.

While in November 2009, the iPhone was responsible for 55 percent of U.S. smartphone requests, to Android’s 27 percent, by January 2010, those numbers adjusted to 47 percent for Apple and 38 percent Android. And in February 2010, the percentages slid again toward a more even 44 percent for the iPhone OS and 42 percent for Android.

Apple, surely, has taken note of the Google OS on its heels, and analysts have suggested that Apple’s lawsuit against HTC has come at a time of pariculalry strong growth for Android, partly at the expense of the iPhone.

A March 1 report from Quantcast showed the iPhone claiming 63.7 percent of mobile Web consumption in North America in February, while Android held 15.2 percent. The figures, however, represented a 3.2 percent monthly decline for Apple, but an 8.3 percent jump for Android.

The good news for Apple, however, was that 11 percent of the smartphone users surveyed by AdMob in February said that they were interested in purchasing an Apple iPad.

“As more mobile Internet devices [such as the iPad] are introduced into the market, it will be interesting to see how traffic from the category grows, relative to smartphones and feature phones,” AdMob wrote on its blog, where the full report is available.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/iPhone-Dominates-but-Android-is-Fastest-Growing-OS-Report-374125/

Americans will get a 4G handset in the summer from HTC and operating over WiMAX, though even America’s WiMAX operator admits that LTE is technology of the future.

The handset is called the EVO, rather than “supersonic” as was rumoured, but the specs remain the same as it sports Android OS running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor, the EVO is also the first 4G telephone operable in America, for as long as Sprint continues to run its WiMAX network.

“The architecture of our network is designed to be able to add on LTE should we need to,” Bill Morrow, CEO of Sprint joint venture Clearwire told the CTIA trade show in Las Vegas. “We consider ourselves technology agnostic.”

Hardly a ringing endorsement for the WiMAX standard. Just to underline the options, Morrow spelled it out: “We can sunset one technology going forward if we need to in the future.”

The decision to go with WiMAX was all about speed – not speed of the network, but speed to market as Sprint’s CEO explained: “LTE will most likely be the larger of the two 4G standards, but for us, we couldn’t wait.”

Clearwire is probably right in that deploying LTE won’t be that much of a challenge – once one has licensed spectrum, hired locations and built base stations, the cost of the technology isn’t such a big deal. And Clearwire is still expanding its WiMAX network while noting that every base station built could be used for LTE if necessary.

At CTIA there’s much talk of interoperable handsets supporting both LTE and WiMAX, though Computerworld reports that AT&T was pretty dismissive of the idea, as well it might be. The rest of the world isn’t interested in interoperable 4G, and even America can’t offer the economies of scale needed to make that happen.

But at least WiMAX networks now have a handset – two if you count the last “world’s first WiMAX handset” which was launched by HTC back in 2008. That’s two more than the LTE networks which are limited to data services while the operators sort out the minor detail of how to carry phone calls over their 4G phone network.

Resource:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/25/wimax_lte_ctia/

With news breaking that Apple is selling the iPhone at full price without requiring customers to buy a contract, some are wondering what CEO Steve Jobs has up his sleeve. Is this a thinly veiled attempt to help users unlock their iPhones and bring them to T-Mobile?

Is it a shot over AT&T’s bow, saying Apple is done playing nice? Or is it a response to Google’s decision to offer Nexus One smartphones online, rather than in carrier stores? While all of those scenarios are possible, it’s most likely that Apple is simply trying to get rid of some of its iPhone supply before it prepares for a new version of the device later in the year.

In any case, the speculation over this move is running rampant. But perhaps it underscores something that too many people have overlooked: Apple can use the iPhone as a weapon.

Whether AT&T, Google and customers like it or not, the iPhone is an extremely important device in today’s mobile market. The product has single-handedly revitalized AT&T’s business, changed the mobile market and ensured that consumer desire will always in some way be determined by the products Apple puts out. That kind of power can have far-reaching effects. And it means that Apple could capitalize on its standing in the marketplace and use the iPhone to impose its will.

Let’s take a look at how Apple could the iPhone as a weapon against any and all stakeholders.

1. Pressure AT&T

   Apple holds the most power over AT&T. Unlike so many other carriers in the mobile market, AT&T is heavily invested in the iPhone. In fact, it’s one of the key reasons why the company has been so successful attracting and maintaining customers. Apple is well aware of that. If and when the company wants to finally break free from AT&T, Apple can use the iPhone to work out just about any deal it wants. Or it might even work out a sweetheart deal that would keep the iPhone exclusive to AT&T. And unfortunately for AT&T, there’s nothing it can do about it. Without the iPhone, it would be in trouble.

2. Take on developers

   Apple’s contentious relationship with developers could get worse if the company decides to use the iPhone as a weapon against them. The problem for developers is that Apple’s installed base is huge compared with those of the makers of other touch-screen devices. So, even though developers might not like the fact that Apple’s App Store policies are secretive and sometimes draconian, they don’t want to push the company too far for fear of losing that key revenue stream. At the same time, Apple knows that if it really wants to control developers, it can use that fear to do so. Developers are in a bad spot.

3. App Store mania

   Even though Apple has gone out of its way to limit content that it doesn’t want in the App Store, there’s more that can be done. If Apple really wants to, it can create specific rules for what can be allowed in its store and what cannot. Worried that they would lose App Store revenue, buttonholed developers would have no choice but to listen. Consumers would also need to live with those rules if they wanted to keep using the iPhone. The App Store is an extension of the iPhone’s power. Apple would have little trouble using it to dominate.

4. Take on other carriers

   Although Apple’s power is most forceful against AT&T, the company can still use the iPhone to take on other carriers. Thanks to the iPhone’s success, Apple can go to Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile to see what kind of deal either company would offer. If it finds something a little better than what it has at AT&T, we could see a drastic shift in the way Apple does business in the mobile market. Apple could opt to go multicarrier and give preferential treatment to, say, Verizon Wireless, and totally change how the iPhone is perceived in the market. And there would be nothing AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint could do about it.

5. Consumer desire?

   Although consumers have been calling on Apple to add new features to the iPhone, including multitasking, Jobs has done little to swiftly bring desired features to the device. Instead, he has waited until he’s good and ready to update the iPhone. That’s a problem. Thanks to the iPhone’s success, Apple has little reason to worry about complaints from consumers. Sure, it wants to satisfy consumer desire, but the company clearly feels that it can do that whenever it wants. After all, Apple controls the iPhone and decides what’s in it. What can consumers really do about it? The longer it has that control, the less Apple might listen.

6. Use patents on vendors

   If Apple is successful in its patent-infringement case against HTC, the entire mobile market could change. Apple’s lawsuit includes several charges, such as alleged infringement of both the iPhone’s screen-unlock functionality and the way users move around a Web page in a mobile browser. With a victory, Apple could bring a lawsuit to every other vendor in the market that it believes is violating its patent. That could help the company dominate the market even more. Watch out for that patent lawsuit. If Apple wins, it could be lights out for some of its competitors.

7. Eliminate conventional sales

   Apple has the power to drastically change the way vendors offer their phones. Currently, Google sells the Nexus One smartphone from its own Website. Carriers are concerned that Google’s retail model could prompt other vendors to follow suit. Well, what if Apple does? Such a move could send shockwaves through the industry and cause carriers to start worrying about bottom lines that rely heavily on in-store sales. If Apple and Google, arguably the market’s most influential companies, set a new retail standard in the market, carriers will need to start worrying.

8. Use it to the iPad’s advantage

   The iPhone can be used to the iPad’s advantage if Apple plays its cards right. The tablet industry could be a significantly profitable space for Apple. But that will only be true if the iPad enjoys the kind of success Apple has witnessed with its iPhone and iPod. The beauty of the iPad is that it runs Apple’s iPhone OS. With just a few changes here and there, Apple can improve the tablet’s operating system and surpass the competition. And since that OS is desired above all others, it should only help Apple sell iPads. The iPhone OS is just as much a weapon as the iPhone itself.

9. Mac OS X’s Trojan horse?

   Even though Apple has substantially lower operating system market share than Windows in the desktop market, the iPhone could help Apple attract more PC users to its side. In the tech industry, the halo effect is extremely important. Essentially, as users try products from a company and like what they see, they are more likely to buy other products from that company. Apple’s iPhone is extremely successful. In some cases, it has brought new customers to Apple’s side. If the company can find a way to capitalize on those converts and deliver them to Mac OS X, Microsoft could feel the effect. We simply can’t underestimate the iPhone’s importance to Mac OS X.

10. Pressure the entertainment industry

    The iPhone is also an iPod. Realizing that, it’s important to remember that the more iPhones Apple sells, the more power it wields against the music and movie industries. Time and again, the entertainment business has railed against Apple’s power and attempted to limit it as much as possible. But each time, it has failed. As Apple sells more iPhones, it can bring that burgeoning installed base (plus all the iTunes purchases iPhone owners make) and use it as leverage in its negotiations with record labels and film studios. And those companies will have little choice but to give in to some of Apple’s demands.

Simply put, the more iPhones Apple sells, the more troublesome it is to, well, just about everyone it’s up against.

Resource:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/10-Ways-Apple-Could-Use-the-iPhone-As-a-Weapon-790036/

However, the Bedometer isn’t a virtual bedpost you can notch with conquests. Or an app to gauge the springiness of your mattress.

Although it is sort of the latter, in that you put your iPhone down on the bed when having sex, and the app measures the intensity of your activity – the amount of bouncing around, to put it crudely – via the phone’s accelerometer.

Bedometer also times the length of the session, and then works out how many calories you’ve burned. Presumably there’s an option to add some calories back on if you’ve been using chocolate spread in your carnal activities.

The Sun, who uncovered this app, reports that it was the brainchild of a woman who was desperate to get her lazy boyfriend to shape up and exercise.

"The results have been amazing. My boyfriend can’t get enough of it," she told the paper. "Our initial tests show that a vigorous workout for 15 minutes burns almost 200 calories each."

It’s all very scientific, we’re sure. If you want to try out the Bedometer, it’ll cost you 59p (although surely 69p would have been the most appropriate price to pitch it at).

Resource:

http://www.techwatch.co.uk/2010/03/19/bedometer-iphone-app-counts-love-making-calories/

The patent, titled "Group Formation Using Anonymous Broadcast Information," which was filed with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, outlines details of a proposed location-aware mobile application delivered via token-based system that would enable iPhone and other mobile device users to discover each other and ultimately congregate when in the same physical space, such as a business meeting, tradeshow, wedding or concert.

"During private or public events, a typical individual may have many brief contacts with individuals for which they would like to have further correspondence post event," Apple said in its patent.

The Tokens would be received and stored locally on the users’ iPhone or mobile device with corresponding timestamps, which would enable a service to match or correlate the tokens with other tokens of users in the same geographic location. The service would then perform an analysis on the tokens and timestamps to hone in on the locations of other iPhone/mobile device users.

"Modern wireless devices can operate in an ad hoc mode, which allows wireless devices within range of each other to discover and communicate in peer-to-peer fashion without involving central access points," Apple said in its patent. "A group can be created based on results of the analysis. Users can be identified as members of the group and invited to join the group."

In its patent, Apple uses the example of users at a rock concert, in which various attendees set their Bluetooth-enabled devices to Token Exchange mode. The devices within transmission range begin exchanging and storing tokens. Then during or after the concert, the device holders upload their tokens to a trusted service that maintains a database of device data secured by authentication and encryption technologies. Device holders can then set up accounts through the service’s Website portal in order to post or relay personal information and secret data, including physical location, to other device holders with the aim of forming live groups.

However, the tentative ad hoc networks only exists while the users’ devices are within close proximity, as in a concert hall, hotel, or convention center. "There is no facility for regenerating the network at a later time to allow users to continue discussions or exchange content," Apple said.

With its tentative foray into location-aware mobile applications, Apple is attempting to play catch-up in the social networking arena, while putting itself on a competitive playing field with Facebook and microblogging site Twitter, the latter of which already enables users to specify exact geographic locations for their "tweets," which appear on the Twitter site or through other third party applications.

Resource:

http://www.crn.com/networking/224000222

The IdeaPad S 10-3t from Lenovo is one of the cheapest tablets ever launched in India. Lenovo netbook is available at a price of Rs. 30, 740 in India; it seems that the company is all set to make it tough for its other competitors such as, HP Slate and Notion Ink’s Adam.

Lenovo netbook IdeaPad S10-3t comes with a 10.1 inch screen that can be swirled by 180 degrees to form a tablet. The LED based 16:9 display is claimed to be built with its NaturalTouch fingertip touch technology, versus pressure touch technology. The device sports a stylish look on its back having a dual color pattern.

The Lenovo netbook keyboard is stylish and one-piece touchpad makes it a portable and reliable PC for those who look for latest trends in gadgets. The steel hinge of the screen also makes it durable and sturdy.

Another amazing feature of Lenovo netbook IdeaPad S10-3t is its 8 cell battery that has extremely good life. It gives 7 hours of ‘balanced’ mode and 9 hours of ‘super energy saver’ mode with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on. Hence, its difficult to win an argument with a battery life like that.

Other specifications of Lenovo netbook IdeaPad S10-3t include a DirectSharing that allows for easy synchronization of files with another laptop without internet connectivity. The instant-on OS, the Quick-Start 2.0 is installed with other software like Maplife 1 mapping software, Active Protection System to protect HDD from bumps and shocks and a VeriFace, the face recognition software.

Lenovo netbook IdeaPad S10-3t is powered by Intel Atom N450 Processor and 250 GB hard drive to offer rich audio experience Dolby headphone audio and stereo speakers.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t will be available across all Lenovo Exclusive Stores. It will be available in select Lenovo Multibrand Stores. The company also plans to extend the distribution to Large Format Retail Stores and other regional distributors.

Resource:

http://infocera.com/Lenovo_IdeaPad_S10-3t_in_India_at_price_Rs._30,740,_a_touch_tablet_netbook_8324.htm

This week it is expected that the merger between Orange and T-Mobile, forming the biggest mobile phone operator in the UK, will receive regulatory approval.

The European Commission has decided not to pass the enquiry back to the UK regulator, despite fears from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) that the merger will “significantly” reduce competition.

What convinced the commission to allow the merger to go ahead were assurances from Orange and T-Mobile to protect the future of 3, the UK’s smallest mobile phone network. The two companies agreed, last night, that they would extend a network-sharing deal with 3 to 16,000 mast sites across the UK.

In fact, it was concerns about the future of 3 that prompted the OFT to ask for control of the investigation earlier this month. The OFT was worried that reducing competition from five players to three in the UK mobile arena would irrevocably change the mobile landscape.

There will also be an agreement stated between Orange and T-Mobile that they will let go of 25 per cent of their combined 1800 MHz spectrum, the wavelength required for super-fast mobile broadband internet.

It is not known whether competitors Vodafone and O2 will challenge the merger, but it is understood that they have pushed for more of the valuable spectrum, granted in the 1990s, to be relinquished by the merger companies.

Amidst concerns that the merger could increase the cost of mobile phone contracts, consumer groups such as Which? had been in favour of a UK investigation.

At the same time, France Telecom, which owns Orange, and Deutsche Telecom for T-Mobile had been pushing for a Euroapean investigation rather than a UK one which they thought would be slower to reach a decision.

Resource :

http://www.mobilemarketingnews.co.uk/Orange_and_T-mobile_Merge_Soon_to_be_Approved_9222215148343.html

THE 2010 Mobile World Congress is going to be held in Barcelona in Spain from February 15-18. During the four days of the Mobile World Congress, more than 1,300 companies are displaying cutting-edge products and technology in the exhibition. There will also be an award ceremony and industry seminar which highlights the most innovative mobile solutions and initiatives globally.

During the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, from new smartphones, apps and operating systems to a whole new generation of mobile phone technology, will be available to display. Some of these are either unveiled or for display at the MWC 2010 are Opera Mini for iPhone and Opera Mobile for Android, Alcatel phones, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series demonstration, Puma phone by Sagem, Synaptics Fuse, HTC Desire, HTC Legend and HTC HD Mini, ELSE Mobile First ELSE, Dell Mini 3, RIM’s new WebKit-based web browser for BlackBerrys, etc.

In 2009, Mobile World Congress hosted approximately 47,000 mobile professionals from 182 countries. More than 50% of these were C-Level executives, and 9,000 of them represented mobile network operators from around the world. In addition, more than 2,400 members of the press reported from the event, representing more than 1,500 media groups from 76 countries.

Resource: http://www.merinews.com/article/mobile-world-congress-2010-continues-in-bercelona/15798406.shtml

You can stay touch with all those abbreviations using your iphone, when you are away from computer. Meebo has released new iphone application for that.

You can find this application for download from apple application store. In internet market many of paid IM application are available like Beejive, and IM+. But this Meebo application is absolutely free of cost. You can freely download from apple application store. Its good because of Meebo is web-based instant messaging application work with all of the IM services. For these reasons IM users are waiting for this application for iphone.

Meebo application is very fast during all the critical IM features like chat logs, push notification, broad compatibility etc. Meebo application works with yahoo messenger, AIM, ICQ, facebook chat, msn messenger and many others too. Meebo is from open source library.

Meebo application features – Meebo for Iphone

• Full chat history
  • Looking for a link or phone number someone sent you over IM ?
  • View and search your complete chat history anytime, anywhere.
• Synchronization with meebo
  • Take your chats seamlessly from your desktop to your iPhone or iPod touch.
  • Synchronized IM sessions, smart notifications and location control from meebo.com
• Push notification
  • IM messages show up just like text messages when you enable push notifications.
  • You’ll never miss an IM again.
• Landscape mode
  • Get a widescreen view and a larger keyboard by turning Meebo on its side.
  • Landscape mode for those of us with big thumbs and long messages.

Resource:
http://www.meebo.com/iphone/