Saturday, March 15, 2008

Northern iPhone woes: Canada is just too cold for iPhone?


Lots of folks are wondering why exactly the iPhone wasn’t released in Canada yet. Some think that it’s because of the iPhone trademark uncertainty, others blame Rogers’ data plan rates, yet others just don’t consider Canada to be an important market for Apple.

But the answer may be much more simple than conspiracy theory buffs expect it to be: the iPhone simply was not designed to operate in cold temperatures.

This winter brought the coldest weather in recorded Canadian history, with temperatures staying stable at below -20° C (-4° f) for weeks. In the meantime, Apple clearly states that the operating temperature for iPhone is 0° to 35° C (32° to 95° F), while the “nonoperating temperature” is -20° to 45° C (-4° to 113° F).

canadian winter
Montreal, Canada. March 14, 2007. Photo taken from iPhone.

This writer witnessed first hand what using the iPhone in “nonoperating temperature” means — while walking home last night and attempting to use the iPhone at around -22 ° C (-7 ° F), the multitouch screen function simply stopped responding. It was possible to tap on applications in order to open them, but the scrolling feature became completely unavailable (meaning that switching between springboard screens became impossible, as well as browsing, games, and many other programs that require multitouch input). Yet again, after getting back home everything started functioning as normal.

While we can’t say with certainty that this is the one issue that’s stopping iPhone from coming to Canada, just by simple calculations it turns out that Canadians would need to operate their iPhone in “nonoperating temperatures” for about 4 months a year (that’s not counting the folks that live in the Northern part of Canada, for whom winter lasts about 6 months a year) — thus opening a door to potential lawsuits, among other things.

It remains to be seen whether Apple will release another, more frost-resistant iPhone version especially for the Canadian market, but it’s clear that the current one simply doesn’t cut it for Canadian weather — when the latter gets bad.

Apple Canada PR did not provide a comment to this story at the time of posting, but we’ll let you know if they get back to us.

[Thanks: http://www.iphoneworld.ca]

iPhone Usage in the Cold Gives Risk of Finger-Related Injury


Although not iPhone specific, the many, many different controlling gestures you use on your iPhone could cause an injury called ‘RSI’, some medical experts say.

RSI, or repetitive strain injury (Wiki) is caused by hitting things with the tips of your fingers, while they’re cold. This causes blood to stop flowing so much and can cause damage to the entire arm if used under these conditions a little too much.

Tim Hutchful of the British Chiropractic Association says that, “People who use gadgets like the iPhone for hours in cold conditions are more prone to strain injuries as they are exercising less flexible tissue.”

xrayiphone.jpg

Apple declined to comment on this, but this is still just one of those every-day medical worries. It’s not recommended to keep cold hands and use an iPhone, but it’s human nature to simply keep warm in the cold, isn’t it?

Thanks: Metro.co.uk

Apple iPhone SDK: Has Apple really unlocked the toolbox?


A development kit for the iPhone is not going to make the hackers shut up shop, writes Claudine Beaumont

  • EU paves way for rival to Google
  • Last week, Apple finally unveiled details of the software development kit that will allow people to write applications for the iPhone and the iPod touch.

    iPhone
    Still a target: iPhone's SDK is unlikey to deter hackers

    The kit, known as an SDK, is already available for developers to work with, and iPhone users will get their first chance to download these Apple-sanctioned applications when the iPhone 2.0 software is released in June.

    Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, must hope that providing a development platform for iPhone fans will prevent people from hacking their devices and installing applications on to the phone by nefarious means. Part of the reason the iPhone has been so avidly hacked is that it runs a stripped-back version of Apple's powerful OS X operating system, and tech geeks have been desperate to unleash what they see as the phone's latent computing potential. There's also been an appreciation, even among the most ardent Apple fans, that the iPhone lacks features considered standard on other handsets, such as instant-messaging capabilities, the ability to collect and read RSS feeds, and currency conversion tools.

    The SDK will - in theory - give developers a rich set of tools to develop software that makes the best of the iPhone's most innovative features, such as its touch screen, and the three-way accelerometer that can sense when you flip the phone between portrait and landscape formats.

    In practice, however, Apple will be in total control of apps. Programs will be distributed through the iTunes music store, and must be approved by Apple before they can be sold.

    The iPhone will remain a tightly controlled platform. It's a far cry from the "homebrew" community of program-makers who create software for hacked iPhones - one of whom has even come up with a tool that allows people to play old Nintendo NES games on their iPhones.

    Apple has softened the blow slightly by allowing developers to set their own prices for their programs, and to keep 70 per cent of the sales revenue, with the remainder going towards running the App Store area of iTunes. But many technology fans, as well as amateur and professional developers, are disappointed by the shackles on the platform. It's like giving a child the keys to a sweet shop and then telling them they can't touch anything.

    "Apple is betting its future in the smartphone market on a control-freak business model," says Information Week's Mitch Wagner. "Developers might decide that Apple's business model is too much hassle and give their business to competitors instead. And Apple needs third-party developers to ensure the ongoing success of the iPhone."

    One of the key problems is the lack of clarity about what Apple will and won't allow on iPhones. It has already said it won't distribute programs that can be considered pornographic, malicious, illegal, or which would hog bandwidth. But what about programs that compete directly with parts of Apple's business? Would Amazon be able to build an application for the iPhone that makes it easy for people to buy DRM-free music from its store? Will the Last.fm streaming service be welcome? It's not entirely clear, and Apple is being as tight-lipped as ever about such issues.

    "The Apple SDK, as many have come to find, has arguably crippled much of the functionality that set the iPhone apart when first released," says blogger Jonathan Zdziarski, in response to the news this week that applications developed for the iPhone won't be able to run in the background while you use other features. If you receive a phone call halfway through an instant-messaging chat, the IM session will be automatically closed.

    It will be impossible to judge the shrewdness of Apple's decision to limit the scope of the SDK until the new iPhone software is launched in June. But what is clear is that with new, open-source mobile phone platforms such as the Google-backed Android gaining a head of steam and showing early promise, Apple will have to ensure its development program fosters creativity rather than stifles it.

    Otherwise, people will just keep on hacking their iPhones to get their phone, their way. You might not realise it, but Microsoft and Apple have a very close working relationship, particularly when it comes to developing the Microsoft Office suite for the Mac computing platform.

    Microsoft has just released Office 2008 for Mac, and to celebrate, we have several copies of the software to give away, as well as a new MacBook laptop computer.

    Office 2008 for Mac provides a rich creative environment for all your word processing, presentation and email-based tasks. The user interface is simple and streamlined, with a clean, simple look and feel that makes it really easy to use. Microsoft has added a host of clever new features, including Document Elements, a one-click gallery that helps users to build professional-looking documents simply, while Entourage, Office for Mac's email program, now has a new My Day feature to help you organise and manage your time more effectively.

    For your chance to win a copy of Office 2008 for Mac and a new MacBook, answer this question: Who is the chairman of Microsoft?

    Send your entry, along with your name, address and contact details to competition.digitallife@telegraph.co.uk. The closing date for entries is 9am on Friday, March 21. Winners will be chosen at random from correct entries. The first person selected will win an Apple MacBook and a copy of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. Five runners-up will each receive one copy of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac. For full terms and conditions, see telegraph.co.uk/digitallife

    iPhone doesn’t like the cold


    It appears that iPhone doesn’t cope too well with cold. According to a blog post, when the weather reaches approximately -17C(0 F) iPhone touch screen doesn’t function anymore, and you can’t even make a phone call. But why would anyone keep their iPhone out in the cold anyway, for extended periods of time?

    iphonefrozen.jpg

    Interestingly Apple has a solution for such cases.

    Thanks: ComputerWorld.Blog

    Canada’s iPhone Delayed due to Trademark Dispute


    Apple is currently in a dispute with Comwave Telecom Inc. about trademark rights to the name “iPhone”. In the meantime, Apple has filed its opposition to the CIPO, or the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.

    While the dispute is being settled, this could delay the iPhone from going into northern territory for an undetermined amount of time. Although previously rumored last week that it was going to be retailed by Holt Renfrew, as covered by iPhone World here, it didn’t quite happen.

    iphone canada

    The main thing keeping the iPhone away from Canada is the fact that there are no carriers willing to support the iPhone due to Apple’s required contractual agreements. Rogers Wireless, the only Canadian carrier that supports GSM (the iPhone’s main method of communication), is still a no-go, atleast until Apple secures its rights to the “iPhone” in Canada.

    Comwave’s President, Yuval Barzakay, said that sharing the term would not be possible, because of how much Apple puts into it’s marketing, in comparison. “The force they put into marketing would quickly make the brand Apple’s and not ours,” he said. “It’s a case of hijacking the brand. If I asked people on the street who owns the iPhone trademark in Canada, they’d all say Apple. And their product isn’t even in the market. So co-existence is not possible.” he continued.

    The dispute between Comwave Telecom and Apple is similiar to the Apple vs Cisco case we covered a while ago, where the two companies had to share the “iPhone”, though it looked like Cisco had somewhat lost due to pressure from Apple.

    As for who rightfully deserves the right to use this trademark, there are only two ways to claim a trademark. One is to establish use in that country, or the other, is to register the intention for use. But either way, it’s first come first serve. This means that it depends on if Comwave can prove that it’s been using the iPhone brand since June 2004, which is 3 months before Apple filed for it’s trademark.

    “Our position is Apple has one of two choices: they can either walk away from the trademark and let us keep the iPhone name here in Canada, or they can buy the brand from us,” says Barzakay.

    We’ll continue to cover the iPhone’s official release in Canada as news supports it.

    Thanks: CBC

    Revisiting Apple's iPhone strategy


    In the post I wrote about Rich Miner of Google saying that the Android mobile software stack will gain more users than the iPhone, several people commented. The general consensus is that Apple is the BMW of the personal computer industry and is the standard for innovation that its competitors, with far more market share, follow. Android is a non-factor.

    The challenge for Apple is to keep coming up with proprietary products that fuel its business model, which is based on innovation and R&D around both hardware and software. Since Steve Jobs returned to Apple, the company has had a series of hit products that don't dominate markets (with the exception of the iPod) but appeal to an elite and influential minority. Even Apple's advertising makes the marketing from competitors look tedious and uninspired.

    Apple's tightly bound software and hardware provides unique differentiation in a world of mostly undifferentiated PCs and mobile devices. RIM's Blackberry also has had success by controlling its entire product.

    Microsoft has made progress with its Windows Vista operating system, and its OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have created slicker PCs and laptops to run the software, but the Macintosh is still considered a superior product overall.

    Jobs is clearly making the right choice for now not to license the Mac, iPhone, or iTunes software to hardware makers. Getting into a battle for OEMs with Microsoft, Google, Symbian, RIM, and Palm, etc. is a losing strategy at this juncture. The best mobile operating system and user experience doesn't necessarily win the deals, even with Steve Jobs as the chief negotiator. Microsoft is extremely capable in working with OEMs and developers, which is a key factor in building out a platform.

    On other hand, it would be interesting to see what developers could do if Apple open sourced the iPhone software. The mobile Web experience is the new center of attention and R&D spending in the tech industry. Google's Android will be a good test case. If Android were to become successful, due to its openness and developer community, Apple would feel the heat. An army of smart developers with Google behind it could create a next-generation mobile Web operating system and application platform that challenges Apple far more than the current set of incumbents.

    But Jobs is uniquely talented and a master of total product design. Handset manufacturers come up with dozens of phone designs per year, but haven't been able to duplicate the user experience of the iPhone. You could say the Nokia N95, the HTC Touch, and other smartphones have similar capabilities, but they don't match the slickness, pinching, and other capabilities of the Apple device despite its flaws (no 3G network and inaccessible battery, for example). The iPhone is also part of a family of personal devices that will become even more integrated.

    Throwing open-source Android into the mix could give mobile device makers a better platform to take on the iPhone, but they will be mostly competing with each other for market share.

    The iPhone will continue to be the BMW or Lexus of mobile devices, with modest share and lots of profit and envy from other mobile device makers. However, Apple could stumble, failing to keep up the rapid pace of innovation, but I wouldn't count on it as long as Jobs is in the house.

    What if Apple really opened up the iPhone?


    Will Android beat iPhone?

    Speaking yesterday at the Emerging Communications Conference at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, Rich Miner, Google group manager for mobile platforms, predicted that sales of Android-based devices will outpace those of the iPhone.

    In other words, the iPhone will be unlike the iPod-iTunes combo when it comes to dominating a market.

    Could there be an HTC iPhone?

    Miner uses the Microsoft licensing and open-source models to make his case. "When you have devices out there from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and so on, there's a much larger potential market on Android than for the iPhone," Miner said.

    In other words, having a mostly closed device (except to the iPhone hackers)--with one manufacturer and one carrier per country, as well as applications tied to the Mac OS--is not a formula for creating massive demand. Apple will sell in the tens of millions in a market for smart communications devices that is in the billions.

    It's the same dilemma Apple has faced over the years. Should the Mac OS be licensed to any reasonably qualified manufacturer? Clearly, Steve Jobs has proven that he can create a great PC business with 5 percent market share.

    The Open Handset Alliance contingent of Google's Android is really going after the business of Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Symbian with its open-source mobile-software stack and applications platform, which makes Miner's remarks about the iPhone unsurprising.

    Any one of the big players can beat the iPhone in market share, if Apple continues with its proprietary approach.

    What if Apple does free the iPhone software and touch technology? Would it become the dominant mobile-device operating system and application platform? Talk among yourselves.

    [Thanks: http://www.news.com/]

    Apple Denying iPhone Developers In Droves


    It appears that not anyone can sign up and become a registered developer for the iPhone. Apple is sending out rejection letters via e-mail. Twitterers are firing up their tweets in protest and anger.

    According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog, people interested in developing for the iPhone are being rejected by the thousands.

    Erica Sadun writes, "If you've applied for Apple's iPhone Developer program, check e-mail for your rejection letter. The twitterati are reporting widespread disappointment and anger as thousands of iPhone developer hopefuls have received a 'Thank you but no thank you' message in their in-box. The e-mails are arriving with the subject of 'iPhone Developer Program Enrollment Status'."

    Have any of you received such notice? A number people have responded to Sadun's piece with comments. More than a few were among those rejected by Apple.

    One commenter said, "Denied! That sucks!!! What is or was the criteria? Since the application did not ask you anything important like what are you planning on working on... Are people who are getting accepted top-level ADC members?"

    So what does it take, Steve? Do you need to be an official company to develop applications for the iPhone? Do you need to already be an ADC member? Can individuals apply? What are the criteria which you are using to judge these developers? Are you too worried about hackers?

    It might be fair to make those criteria public so people who won't qualify don't register in the first place. After all, over 100,000 people have downloaded the SDK.

    As my colleague Mitch Wagner pointed out earlier this week, the SDK could indeed be the iPhone's Achilles' heel. The negative press generated by rejecting developers will only further tarnish Apple's image and anger developers even more than they already are.

    Update:

    Erica Sadun collected some more information about the rejections. She said:

    Corporations have been rejected and so have individuals. Premiere members, Select members, Online members, all rejected. To be clear, these rejections are not for the general iPhone SDK download program but for the paid $99 developer/AppStore access program. I have not been able to confirm any acceptances into this latter program.

    Out-of-country developers are reporting slightly different rejections. One anonymous developer received this message: "At this time, the iPhone Developer Program is only available in the U.S., and will expand to other countries during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time."

    So it appears companies aren't immune to being rejected. I ask again, Apple, what are the criteria you are judging by?

    [Thanks: http://www.informationweek.com]

    Does the iPhone 2.0 have what it takes for the enterprise


    There are lingering doubts about security and Apple's readiness to deal with large corporations

    More than a week after Apple Inc. introduced iPhone 2.0 beta software with Exchange e-mail and powerful security tools, there are lingering questions over whether it can gain wide acceptance inside corporations for mission-critical needs.

    An IT official at a major U.S. bank today said that the case for iPhone 2.0 internal deployment looks "less optimistic" than when the announcement was first made on March 6. That comment came after the bank's IT officials got a thorough review of the 2.0 beta from Apple officials earlier this week, partly to see if federal security requirements imposed on banks can be satisfied, said the official, who asked not be named, citing bank policies.

    The bank's review of 2.0 software is not complete, and the official would not elaborate.

    Industry analysts agreed that iPhone 2.0 is filled with important features needed by corporate users. But some corporations, such as financial services firms and hospitals, have more demanding requirements, including federal rules for protecting data.

    At its announcement, Apple said Nike Inc. and The Walt Disney Co., among others, would be adding more iPhone users with the 2.0 release in late June. But the announced users so far do not face some of the tight regulatory scrutiny of banks particularly, some analysts said.

    "I'd call it [iPhone 2.0] enterprise light," said Nathan Dyer, an analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc. in Boston, during a conference call with reporters and IT managers. "In financial and health care sectors, you're not going to see a huge uptick. It's certainly not for everyone."

    Clearly, some analysts disagree, including Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research LLC, who said that when the CEO of a company buys an iPhone and wants to use it at work, "it becomes a de facto enterprise business tool." He added that the security in the iPhone "is certainly going to be good enough for most enterprises."

    Apple officials would not respond to queries on this topic, referring a reporter to a webcast of the iPhone 2.0 announcement.

    The announcement includes many important security features, but there might be some small gaps that would pose problems for the toughest customers, some analysts said. Included with Exchange ActiveSync will be the ability to remotely wipe data off an iPhone that is lost or stolen. A Cisco IPsec VPN will also provide encrypted access to private corporate networks.

    But there is still the possibility, unlikely as it may be, that a user could drop an iPhone with data on its screen that can be intercepted by anyone. For that concern, IT managers could presumably set a function that requires re-authentication even after a very short lapse in time when the device is not used. However, it is not clear how that issue would be addressed, and Apple has not provided complete answers, analysts said.

    Further, Kevin Coleman, a vice president of operations at Bluefire Security Technologies in Baltimore, questioned whether the device can wipe off data automatically after a certain amount of failed brute force authorization attempts.

    Coleman also said that despite the VPN and over-the-air encryption, apparently there is still not encryption or a firewall capability on the device itself. Dyer said Yankee analysts have been told that the Cisco PIX (Private Internet Exchange) firewall will be used, although it is not clear if that firewall will satisfy all users.

    Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates, said today that the biggest security concern is how Apple plans to provide true data encryption of all data on the device. "Is it currently good enough?" he asked. "What if you download a patient file or a financial statement to the device and store it locally?"

    Password protection on the device is fine, but Gold added, "that is usually insufficient for regulated industries" such as banks, hospitals and utilities. "Mission-critical security is something that no enterprise wants to compromise on," he said.

    In response, Gartenberg said data encryption on the iPhone is "not much of a concern" because data can't be loaded onto it via a tiny SD card, as with many phones, simply because there is no SD card slot.

    Gold and Dyer said the iPhone 2.0, as announced, still does not appear to have the same level of security as a BlackBerry, Windows Mobile or Symbian device. They said that the iPhone SDK will allow for third parties to build beefed-up security, but it could take some time to see what security applications are most effective.

    "My advice to most enterprises would be to wait for better protection on the device before moving to endorse this as an enterprise-ready, mission-critical device," Gold said.

    Beyond security, Dyer said there are many other factors that will limit enterprise adoption, including Apple's reliance on a single carrier, AT&T Inc., for cellular service. While the iPhone works on AT&T in the U.S. and several European carriers in Europe, Windows Mobile devices function on 170 operators' networks, and BlackBerry devices work on 300 operators' networks in 120 countries.

    "Granted, it is the early days for iPhone, but it takes years to cultivate these carrier relationships, so you question if Apple is willing to put out that effort," Dyer said.

    The inexperience with multiple carriers is an indication of a broader concern Apple faces with the iPhone in the enterprise, he added. Simply put, Apple doesn't have broad experience in IT shops. It also doesn't have a full set of explanations or examples of its ability to improve productivity and to provide a return on investment in order to be used by hundreds or thousands of users within a company, he said.

    "It's still not seen as a legitimate solution by IT, which faces a steep learning curve in supporting it," Dyer added. "The lack of a cost of ownership story means it is a tough sell, in the near term, when compared to other platforms."

    But Gartenberg had the last word on that issue, noting that the iPhone 2.0 will probably be bought by enlightened consumers who bring them to work and will want to use them for work tasks and then get paid back through an expense account rather than relying on IT to distribute them.

    "They'll be asking, does it fit into the enterprise infrastructure? And the answer is, yes it does," he said.

    [Thanks: http://www.computerworld.com/]

    Friday, March 14, 2008

    IPhone Dev Team 'Pwns' Apple's SDK


    PwnedThe folks who brought you the free iPhone unlocking AnySIM 1.1 ultility back in October are working hard on a new pet project appropriately titled "Pwnage."

    According to the the iPhone Dev Team, these new tools will eventually allow developers to bypass Apple's official distribution channel for native applications. Additionally, those who decide to 'pwn' their own iPhones will be able to upload all the dirty (non-Apple approved) apps they desire.

    "Well, Apple has had their turn, impressive work on SDK! And now it's ours…" reads a post on the iPhone Dev Team's web site.

    According to the team, Pwnage is made possible by an exploit found in the lower levels of the iPhone and iPod Touch that can be used to allow unsigned code. "This opens the door to unlimited possibilities," the team notes. "Once your iPhone/iTouch has been 'pwned,' you can do things like installing custom made .ipsw files - straight from iTunes!"

    With Apple reportedly giving the cold shoulder to developers who've applied for entry in the iPhone SDK beta program, it'll be interesting to see how many of them turn to the dark side.

    If you're interested, the team has provided additional technical details about Pwnage on their site. Both tools are undergoing "intensive developing" and will be ready for public consumption soon.

    [Source: http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/03/iphone-dev-team.html]

    Google takes swipe at Apple's iPhone


    Android-based phones will have a bigger market than the iPhone and appeal more to developers, a Google executive said


    Google has taken a dig at Apple's iPhone, saying the device has a much smaller market than phones which run Android, the mobile phone operating system Google helped develop.

    The search giant said that despite selling 4 million units within the first 7 months of its release, the iPhone was ultimately a more limited device than phones which ran on the Google-backed platform, because the potential for developers to build new applications using Android was greater.

    Rich Miner, group manager for mobile platforms at Google, was quoted by IT Week as saying: "Once you have devices out there from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and so on, there's a much larger potential market on Android than for the iPhone."

    Mr Miner told a conference in Silicon Valley that whereas the iPhone had "a single manufacturer" and was "targeted at a particular demographic", developers could expect a much wider uptake of applications they developed for Android-based phones, the first of which are expected to be released later this year.

    Mr Miner's remarks at the Emerging Communications Conference come as some of the technology industry's largest companies try to position themselves effectively as playgrounds for developers, releasing software which enables third parties to write programs for well-known products that can be downloaded and used by consumers.

    Google, which is leading an initiative that promotes 'open' handsets, said earlier this year that the Android 'software development kit' (SDK) has been downloaded more than 750,000 times since it was made available in November.

    Apple, meanwhile, said this week that a similar software kit which will enable developers to write applications for its iPhone, had been downloaded 100,000 times since it was released earlier this month. Nokia, the world's largest handset manufacturer, has also said it wants to third party developers to be able to write and release applications for its devices.

    "It's great that people are finally building tools so all of these third-party applications can be built and get out there, (but) there are things I saw people doing with the first version of the Android SDK that it seems like you can't do with the iPhone - at least at the moment," Mr Miner said.

    Google announced last year it was leading an initative called the Open Handset Alliance, which aims to promote 'open standards' in the mobile industry. At the heart of the project, backed by operators such as T-Mobile and the handset makers Motorola and HTC, is the Android operating system, which Google says will improve the experience of using the web on a mobile phone.

    Apple responded this month by releasing its own software kit that will enable developers to write anything from games to financial applications for the iPhone. Owners will in turn be able to download and install the applications on their devices.

    Apple's kit costs $99, and the company has said it will keep 30 per cent of the sale price of each application developers create, though many are expected to be free.

    This week David Pogue, the influential technology critic of the New York Times, wrote of Apple's announcement: "I can’t tell you how huge this is going to be. There will be thousands of iPhone programs, covering every possible interest.You’re witnessing the birth of a third major computer platform: Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone."

    [Source: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3554119.ece]

    Was the iPhone SDK Deliberately Delayed?


    David Chartier over at Infinite Loop suggests that Apple may have held back on delivering the iPhone SDK on time as a tactic to generate buzz. His argument focuses on the idea that unveiling the SDK more than a year after the first official word of the helped keep the iPhone in the headlines during the period between MacWorld Expo in January, and the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

    I don’t buy that. I think it was late because it wasn’t quite ready for the light of day before the last day in February. And while there was a considerable amount of attention when word of the SDK first emerged in October, as first reported by none other than yours truly and Olga Kharif, it wasn’t the SDK by itself that generated the headlines this time around.

    When Fox Business News called me to be on their morning show on March 6 (video below), what they really wanted to talk about was the growing competitive dynamic between Apple and Research In Motion.

    Nor do I don’t think that it’s accurate to say that that the existence of the SDK is “a victory in forcing Apple to bend to requests from users and developers,” as Chartier suggests. I think, that there was a plan to have an iPhone SDK for about as long as there was a plan to have an iPhone. That they weren’t released at the same time has more to do with the complexity involved with launching an entirely new handheld platform from scratch than about generating marketing buzz.

    TrackBack URL for this entry: http://blogs.businessweek.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/9631.1464413108

    Apple and 'Wrong Way' Corrigan


    Commentary: IPhone will be major game platform, but business model is tricky

    AAPL
    126.61, -1.33, -1.0%)
    , with its new initiatives for the iPhone, reminds me of this guy.

    The company released a software developers' kit, or SDK, for the iPhone and has set up a distribution system for all the cool little programs that the company expects to be created for the little machine.
    This sounds good on the surface and the community is certainly enthusiastic about it, but when you dig deeper, you find that almost all of these applications are going to be games. Yes, there are some real programs, but when you start to read the forums and listen to the podcasts, everyone in unison is saying the same thing: The iPhone and its sibling the iPod touch are potentially great game platforms.
    A new game platform could come along and everyone would flock there. Nintendo does the best job of preventing this by doing as much in-house as possible.
    At first I was thinking this idea is crazy, until I realized that Nintendo in particular has made a fortune with its little Game Boy and Game Boy Advanced and DS. If you compare the NDS in particular to the iPhone, the iPhone has more potential. It's about the same size, networks like a computer and includes a phone, as well as a bigger, more-spectacular screen.
    Of course, the screen is a touch screen that has infinite possibilities for handheld games. Nintendo's DS has shown that people love this capability.
    Apple's small devices are bound to become major game machines, to the point where it will impinge on Nintendo's business. So why am I down on the idea? It's the business model that concerns me.
    Nintendo and all of the game-centric companies work on the so-called razor-blade concept of making money. You release a device at cost or at a loss, and make all your profits from selling blades -- the games.
    How does this model work with Apple? The company is not going to develop the games as Nintendo does, but instead is going to let third parties do all the work. Perhaps this will sell more-expensive phones as a novel way of making money in the game business, but nobody has ever made this backwards methodology work.
    The problem is you do not have control of the games. A new platform could come along and everyone would flock there. Nintendo does the best job of preventing this by doing as much in-house as possible. There are third-party games for the Nintendo platforms (many from Capcom), but the games that define the devices are Nintendo's.
    If you think that Apple might consider getting into the game-design business, don't hold your breath. It never has shown any inclination to even embrace games, and I'm not even sure that Apple is aware of the fact that the hot applications for the iPhone will be games.
    The only thing that saves the company might be the fact that all the applications will be sold through a special iTunes-like Apple store, where it can rake off a piece of the action and manage overall quality control.
    There is also some indication that Apple wants to prevent various porn applications from emerging on the platform.
    The bad news is that at least one hack of the SDK limitations already has emerged, and it is quite likely that a secondary channel for unapproved programs could emerge and bypass the Apple-store system.
    The recent announcement that the powerful VC firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers will put up $100 million for iPhone-app development will assure there are bypass mechanisms as the platform becomes more powerful. That is not good news for Apple.
    I hate to throw a wet blanket on this party, but until I see real and positive financial results from this idea I'm not going to be to enthusiastic about the stock. When my kids demand I buy them an iPhone, I'll rethink my position.

    [Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/iphone-game-platform-business-model/story.aspx?guid=%7B81D55A49-DE7B-4C86-B9BF-2BDAD6D67D82%7D]

    Thursday, March 13, 2008

    Apple WWDC to mark the iPhone SDK’s new developer halo


    Apple WWDC to mark the iPhone SDK’s new developer haloNow that Leopard and the iPhone have shipped, Apple is dividing its annual developer conference into 3 tracks: iPhone, Macintosh and IT, which means fitting the first two into the enterprise. No doubt, developers that are new to Apple will be there for some serious learning on the Mac platform.

    In fact, I can see a new “halo” for the Macintosh coming from the thousands of programmers who will embrace the Mac OS X platform in order to write iPhone/iPod Touch applications.

    The Apple Worldwide Developer Conference will be held at the Moscone West venue on June 9 through 13. I noticed in the press release and on the company’s Developer Connection website, that Apple isn’t bothering to call the conference by anything other than WWDC. It’s no longer an acronym, it’s just “WWDC,” and you’d better know what that means.

    The iPhone SDK, announced last week, certainly will be the big news at the conference and the iPhone track is the first track presented to persons entering the WWDC site.

    Whether you are new to mobile application development or a seasoned pro having developed software for other mobile platforms, you’ll gain valuable insight into what it takes to create amazing applications for iPhone.

    Take a poll at the bottom of the story: Will the iPhone SDK have an impact on your company’s acceptance of Macs (and iPhones).

    No doubt, we will see many programmers at WWDC who are complete newbies to the Mac and to its Xcode 3 development environment. This was evident in the comments of the programmers marching onstage to demo applications at the iPhone SDK launch event in Cupertino.

    Some of the coders at the event said they weren’t Mac users or Mac programmers. Now, the development platform for the iPhone requires a Mac — so everything was new to them. But all of the teams (or teams of one), made impressive programs in less than a week.

    Chuck Dietrich, Salesforce.com vice president, said that the company had more than 70,000 ISVs developing on the platform. “They are going to love building the next generation of mobile applications on the iPhone.”

    But here’s why that makes the iPhone a new halo for the Macintosh: since the development tools for the iPhone SDK only run on a Mac, programmers must buy Macs. Apple said that the iPhone SDK was downloaded 100,000 times in a week, obviously by current Mac users. Everyone else, meaning most of the developers in the world, must now buy a Mac before starting to code for the iPhone.

    However, the great irony here is that the iPhone SDK uses Xcode, the very same toolset for developing Mac applications. This isn’t a surprise since the iPhone runs a mobile version of OS X, with similar APIs, kernel, Core Services and Cocoa interface tools.

    Could this exposure to the Mac spark a wave of Mac programs, especially in vertical enterprise apps? Why not?

    Really, WWDC is centered around the enterprise, with two tracks explicitly targeting IT managers and in-house developers. Integration is the big push behind the IT track with iPhone acting as the carrot to bring along support for the Mac platform and perhaps Leopard Server.

    • See how to use built-in and optimized web technologies such as Perl, Python, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, PHP, and MySQL, deliver standards-based in-house applications to Safari on Mac OS X, Windows, and iPhone OS.

    • Benefit from demonstrations on deploying Xsan 2 to accelerate user productivity and improve collaboration by sharing workgroup data with an unlimited number of networked computers over the Ethernet network using file-sharing protocols, such as AFP, SMB/CIFS, and NFS.

    • Explore how Leopard Server Technologies such as System Imaging Utility, NetInstall, and NetBoot ease centralized IT system image creation, management and deployment.

    • Gain best-practices for deploying Leopard Server technologies to streamline system and user management, access and authentication, and application deployment for mobile users running Mac OS X and iPhone OS.

    Of course, WebKit will also be very big at the conference. This was most evident in the pitch for the Mac track.

    Web developers and users are right at home on Mac OS X Leopard. Learn about the critical tools for debugging CSS and JavaScript both inside and outside the browser. Put tomorrow’s technologies in motion today with standard HTML 5 solutions for client-side storage, audio, video, and vector animation — all inside Safari’s open-source WebKit engine.

    Here’s a halo-related question for readers in the enterprise and SMB IT departments:

    Will the iPhone SDK make a difference in your company’s support for the Mac?

    View Results

    Hello BlackBerry, Meet the iPhone


    Before you start reading this, a word of warning: this column is about the iPhone. If you’re one of those people who are sick and tired of hearing about the iPhone, then scroll on while you still can.

    Then again, if you’re one of those people, you’ve got much bigger problems than this column. Maybe you’d better take six months off to explore the Serengeti.

    That’s because last week, Apple announced iPhone 2.0. It’s not a new phone model (although that will be coming this year, too)—it’s new software for the existing phone. And in my considered opinion, it will be an even bigger deal than the iPhone itself.

    The new software, slated for the end of June, will have two parts. First, it will tap into Microsoft Exchange, the e-mail distribution system used by hundreds of thousands of corporations. You’ll get “push” e-mail, meaning that messages appear in real time on your iPhone. And when anybody changes your calendar or address book on your computer at work, your iPhone will be automatically, wirelessly updated, wherever you happen to be.

    All of this is already on the BlackBerry, which is Apple’s obvious target here. Without an actual keyboard, the iPhone won’t kill off the BlackBerry entirely (although I do like the way the on-screen keyboard forces iPhone people to be super-concise). But it will carve away a certain chunk of the BlackBerry’s market.

    The big knife is Part 2 of iPhone 2.0. That’s the SDK—the Software Development Kit—which Apple has released in beta-test form. The idea here is that any programmer can now write software for the iPhone. Not illicit, hacky apps like people have been writing so far, but authorized, tested, legitimate software, much of it free, that can tap into all the features of the iPhone.

    There’s a video of Steve Jobs’s announcement.

    About two-thirds of the way into it, you can see demos of five iPhone programs that software companies came up with when given two weeks with the SDK. There was an AIM chat program, a sales-force automation tool, and so on, all good-looking and natural-feeling on the touch screen. And there was an Electronic Arts game that exploits the iPhone’s accelerometers, which detect how you’re tilting the iPhone in any dimension; in this game, you navigate the 3-D world by tipping the iPhone forward, back, left, right, up or down.

    I can’t tell you how huge this is going to be. There will be thousands of iPhone programs, covering every possible interest. The iPhone will be valuable for far more than simple communications tasks; it will be the first widespread pocket desktop computer. You’re witnessing the birth of a third major computer platform: Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone.

    Sure, there are add-on programs for the Treo, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile. But they’ll never achieve the ubiquity or popularity of iPhone apps, because Apple will preinstall the iPhone Apps Store right on every phone. That’s an online catalog of iPhone programs, which you can browse, download and install wirelessly, wherever you happen to be. That’s several thousand fewer barriers and steps than you’d encounter on the other smartphone platforms. That, and the fact that the iPhone is already the second most popular smartphone (after the BlackBerry), spells good things for the success of this initiative.

    Software companies and programmers can charge anything they like for their programs—Apple keeps 30 percent of each sale—but I expect many or most of the apps will be free.

    The one thing that raised my eyebrows, though, is that Apple intends to be the exclusive source of all iPhone apps. You won’t be able to get iPhone add-ons from the usual shareware sites like Downloads.com, Shareware.com or VersionTracker.com, or even from the developers’ own Web sites. (Or, rather, you will, but you probably won’t be able to do that effortless wireless finding-and-installing thing.) Once again, Apple is doing things its own way, tradition be damned.

    On the plus side, this arrangement means that Apple is responsible for approving the quality and safety of each program you install. It also means that it’s easy to find some program you’ve read about, since there’s only one place to look. And I’m guessing that Apple will make paying for the for-fee programs effortless, like clicking BUY SONG on the iTunes store—even fewer barriers to entry.

    All of this, of course, will have the side effect of enriching Apple; Apple’s shrewd that way. But aside from the usual Apple-bashers online, nobody will mind. The release of iPhone 2.0 is over three months away, but I’ll stick my neck out and make a prediction: it will be a gigantic success, spreading the iPhone’s popularity both upward, into the corporate market, and downward, into the hands of the masses. iPhone 2.0 will turn this phone into an engineering tool, a game console, a free-calls Skype phone, a business tool, a dating service, an e-book reader, a chat room, a database, an Etch-a-Sketch…and that’s on Day One.

    In short, it’s not going to be a pleasant summer for people who are sick of hearing about the iPhone.

    [Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/technology/personaltech/13pogue-email.html?em&ex=1205553600&en=59413bc0dda325c7&ei=5087%0A]

    Gameloft CEO offers insight on iPhone game development


    The mobile game industry got a shot in the arm last week with Apple’s introduction of the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK). Game developers far and wide are clamoring to make games for the device — everything from classic arcade retreads to totally unique games designed from the ground up for the iPhone’s unique interface. Recently mobile game giant Gameloft’s president and CEO, Michel Guillemot, offered Macworld some insight about how the iPhone fits into his company’s plans going forward.

    Macworld (MW): So what do you think of the iPhone SDK? Is it everything that Gameloft hoped for?

    Michel Guillemot (MG): The SDK really opens the door to infinite opportunities for developers to create anything and everything they could possibly want, limited only by imagination. From the big developers with ample funds to the smaller home grown developers, Apple has really opened this up to allow anyone with a creative mind to contribute. That sort of open forum really encourages and inspires innovation, so I think you will see some really clever and fresh applications in the second half of the year.

    As for the SDK itself, the features were everything we hoped it would be. The emulator allows you to debug quite easily, the performance tuning tools allow you to sharpen the game, the interface builder lets you create interfaces smoothly and the other features such as the touch screen, accelerometer and geolocalisation enables greater richness and creativity for the games.

    MW: Gameloft is in a rare position as one of the few companies that creates games for the iPod — Apple hasn’t opened that platform as it has the iPhone. How will Gameloft’s experience developing iPod games come into play with iPhone development?

    MG: We were one of the first mobile game companies on board with Apple for iPod games. To date, we have 6 games available for iPod. Five out of 6 which are all original home grown IPs. The games will be much richer than iPod games and even more so than the cell phones games on the market.

    MW: How does the iPhone as a platform compare to the other mobile platforms for which Gameloft has developed?

    MG: As a gaming platform, iPhone is certainly one of the top players and really blows the classic handsets out of the water. For starters, the iPhone’s outstanding capabilities such as its, 3.5 inch wide screen, touch screen feature, 3D processor , size capability (10 to 20 times larger than classic phone games) and the accelerometer, means that creating games for the device will be a completely new undertaking. The richness and quality in graphics will be very competitive to console, the touch screen feature allows for a different kind of interactivity and the accelerometer enables you to pilot the game horizontally or vertically. With these key features you will have a very different gaming experience unlike anything that exists on current phones on the market.

    The iPhone sets a new benchmark for an all in one integrated mobile phone and makes gaming more accessible to non-gamers or casual gamers in a very non threatening way.

    MW: What can you tell us about Gameloft’s iPhone plans specifically?

    MG: We are developing 15 titles for the iPhone which should launch by the end of 2008. We’ll roll out a few titles in June/July and the remaining throughout the rest of the year. We can’t really go much more into specific titles yet, but we are fully committed to the iPhone as we believe it will really shape the market in terms of mobile games.

    MW: Apple will take 30 percent of the revenue for iPhone applications sold through the App Store. Is this a fair deal?

    MG: It is very much a fair deal and a smart business model on many levels. First of all the publisher can set the price point and there is no extra hidden fee involved. The business model in which the handset manufacturer takes care of hosting, merchandising, billing, delivery, etc. is new to the mobile mix and a great new way to approach this business because it allows the developer to focus on creating great games. We believe that Apple is positioned to be successful with this model because they have had ample experience running a delivery platform for music, video and iPod via iTunes.

    The 70/30 revenue share is very fair and as a developer it allows you to invest that 70 percent into creating great games and marketing them accordingly. It is a clever business model because Apple gets enough money to manage their site and the developer gets enough to continue doing what it does best — creating games. This business model is well balanced for all parties involved, Apple, developer and consumer.

    MW: Do you have any idea on what you’ll charge for iPhone games?

    MG: We are not sure on this yet, but it will be affordable and fair.

    MW: Is your plan to release original intellectual property (IP) for the iPhone, or will you be developing games based on existing IP available on other platforms?

    MG: We’ll do both. We’re developing completely brand new IPs that will be specific to the iPhone and cater to all of the device’s great features. Since these original creations take time, however, we’re expanding some of our best known and top selling IPs, which have sold millions each, to the iPhone as well. These games will be unique and tailor-made for the iPhone, even if they already exist on other handsets.


    [Source: http://www.macworld.com/article/132509/2008/03/gameloft.html]

    Apple's Control Of IPhone Software Targeted By Rogue Program


    SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- The iPhone Dev Team, a group of independent software developers, say they are close to unleashing a new product that undoes the tight control Apple Inc. (AAPL) plans to have over the flow of the software to its iPhone.

    The developer team is working on a feature it's calling Pwnage, which lets iPhones download and run other software programs that haven't gone through any official, Apple-controlled software distribution channels.

    "You can do things like installing custom-made files, straight from (Apple's) iTunes," according to comments attributed to one of the iPhone Dev Team's developers, who goes by the name MuscleNerd, posted on the team's Web site, iphone-dev.org. "The tools are undergoing intensive developing and soon will be ready for public consumption."

    Pwnage is the latest example of how disruptive software developers have been to Apple's best-laid plans for its iPhone, a key product for Apple. Once distributed, the Pwnage feature means Apple may no longer be able to count on taking a 30% share of every iPhone software program sold, as it said it would. Meanwhile, the Pwnage software also weakens the steps Apple is taking to rein in a developer community regarding iPhone software sales, which are expected to blossom into hundreds of millions of dollars, if not $1 billion a year, in annual sales.

    As outlined by Apple about 10 days ago, starting sometime in June Apple plans to begin distributing iPhone software made by outside developers. But it first will inspect iPhone software programs from third parties, then distribute them either through Apple's iTunes Web store, or directly to the phone via an Apple- controlled "Apps Store."

    Meanwhile, Pwnage may also weigh on Apple's plans to sell more iPhones to businesses, steps it announced two weeks ago when it said every iPhone will soon be able to access Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Outlook email. But Apple also plans to make business software providers like SAP AG (SAP) or Oracle Corp. (ORCL) distribute their iPhone software through official Apple channels, a move that rankled an industry not used to having to deal with an intermediary. It remains to be seen, though, if enterprises would see the new Pwnage software as a decent workaround to the issue.

    An Apple spokeswoman did not comment for this story, citing company policy not to talk about products in development at other companies. A representative for iPhone Dev Team, which rarely grants interviews, did not return several emails seeking comment.

    The iPhone, a combination phone and digital media player with a touch-screen interface, was introduced last June, and has since become Apple's fastest selling device. As of two weeks ago, Apple was the No. 2 seller of smart phones, with a 28% share, behind No. 1-ranked Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry wireless email device and cell phone.

    Shortly after the iPhone was released, Apple promised to open the iPhone so developers could create and distribute software programs for the device. From the start, Apple has allowed developers to create Web-based features for the iPhone to use.

    But lots of developers didn't wait for official channels. Within a few days of the iPhone's release, they came up with their first substantial, market-changing development: software to unlock the iPhone so it will work on any GSM-based cellphone network, rather than just AT&T Inc.'s (T), which at the time was the only iPhone service provider.

    Even though Apple wiped out those programs with an iPhone software update of its own, unlocking software still exists and its sales have thrived. Nearly 25% of all the iPhones sold, according to various estimates, are now unlocked, thus depriving Apple and its carrier partners the fees they would normally have collected from phone service revenue.

    The popularity of the unlocking software is also putting more pressure on Apple to do away with its strategy of picking a single carrier per country to exclusively sell the device.

    -By Ben Charny, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-8230; ben.charny@dowjones.com

    Wednesday, March 12, 2008

    Steve Jobs rescues freetards from BBC iPlayer wilderness (for now)


    Enterprising Linux hackers have built a new way to download BBC iPlayer programmes that lets online viewers store shows indefinitely - and it's all thanks to Steve Jobs.

    Last week, Auntie launched the streaming version of iPlayer for the Jesus Phone and iPod Touch. It's meant transcoding shows to the H.264 format used by Apple's QuickTime player - and a whole raft of other players on all platforms - because Steve Jobs doesn't think Adobe Flash video is good enough to appear on his magnificent tool.

    The BBC has "secured" this non-DRM'd stream using the awesome power of browser user agent strings, which are trivial to manipulate. Consequently, penguin fanciers have quickly cobbled together hacks that will grab the whole show as a 512Kb/s video download.

    Such files have the advantage that they won't go pop after 30 days because of the Windows Media timebombing that third-party TV production firms have negotiated as a condition of shows being downloadable via the official iPlayer desktop client. Hobbyists have aped the process of grabbing DRM-free downloads on Windows and Mac OS X too.

    In a statement, a BBC spokeswoman said: "This is not unusual or surprising. We are working with our partners to ensure that our content is delivered to users in a secure way.

    "We have made it clear that BBC iPlayer on iPhone and iTouch is currently in beta, which enables us to pick up on such issues and find a solution before we roll the service out in full in due course."

    The BBC says an official Mac download client will be available this year, and a Linux one "within two years".


    [Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/12/iplayer_linux_stream_download_hack/]

    BBC Offers iPhone Version of iPlayer, Accessible to Linux Users Too


    smallfries writes

    "After a long battle with Linux users in the UK, the BBC was forced into releasing a flash version of the iPlayer streaming service to fulfill their obligations to license-fee payers. After claiming that development of Linux and Mac versions of the iPlayer would take two years, Auntie Beeb has rushed to support the iPhone. iPhone users 'can be trusted' because their platform is locked down ... so the beeb opened a non-DRM hole in the iPlayer to support them. This was guarded by the extreme security of User Agent strings! Long story shut, Linux and Mac users have made their own non-DRM, non-microsoft platform from firebug and wget. UK users can now watch (and keep) their favorite BBC shows."


    [Source: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/12/2012239]

    Apple's iPhone SDK Off to The Races


    Downloads for the beta software development kits have already topped 100,000.

    You can expect to see plenty of new third-party applications for Apple's iPhone.

    At least that seems a reasonable conclusion based on today's announcement that over 100,000 developers have downloaded the free software development kit (SDK) Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) unveiled last week.

    Several big name software firms issued statements of support for the SDK, which is currently available in beta or test form. The finished version, which will include the launch of the online Apps Store (the only Apple-authorized distribution method for iPhone software), isn't due out until June.

    Separately, there has already been a successful independent effort to unlock the software and allow both "official" and unofficial software to run on the iPhone, according to the gadget Website Gizmodo.

    For more mainstream users, business software makers Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) and NetSuite (NYSE: N) along with blogging tools provider Six Apart, said they planned to develop for the iPhone using the SDK. Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and Epocrates (a maker of decision support tools on mobile devices for healthcare) announced their support at last week's event.

    Also today, several game companies, including PopCap, Rocket Mobile and THQ Wireless, said they're developing for the iPhone, joining Electronics Arts and Sega, which announced last week.

    The new developer announcements also follow last week's news that high profile Silicon Valley venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has launched a $100 million "iFund" dedicated to funding iPhone-related software and services.

    "The iPhone SDK gives us the tools we need to create powerful iPhone applications and is an important part of our overall mobile strategy," said Rick Jensen, senior vice president of Intuit's small business group. "We’re excited that the iPhone expands the ways our customers can solve key financial tasks wherever they might be."

    Other developers chimed in with similar optimism that the iPhone will allow professionals to get more done on the go.

    "NetSuite is excited at the opportunity to give every iPhone customer access to their critical business data anytime, anywhere," said Luke Braud, vice president of software development at NetSuite.

    Chris Alden, CEO of Six Apart, said his company is using the SDK to build on the iPhone-optimized blog service it already offers. "We're taking it to the next level with our native iPhone application for TypePad that's already in development," he said.

    [Source: http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3733786/Apples+iPhone+SDK+Off+to+The+Races.htm]

    iPhone invitation triggers huge response from developers


    Developers swarm to iPhone: Less than a week after Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs offered outsiders a chance to make games and other business applications for the iPhone, the response has been remarkable.

    More than 100,000 program developers have downloaded an iPhone software kit Apple made publicly available to them on March 6, the Cupertino company announced today.

    By adding game and business applications to its phone, the company hopes to broaden the device's appeal and better compete with the Blackberry. AOL, Electronic Arts, Epocrates,salesforce.com and Sega already have used the kit to create iPhone applications.

    View YouTube via TiVo: Eager to give its customers access to multiple home-entertainment sources, San Jose-based TiVo said today it will let subscribers view online videos via Google's YouTube.

    TiVo, the pioneer of DVRs that let viewers skip commercials, will let subscribers log into their accounts with YouTube video-sharing site through their set-top boxes. The service will be available this year to customers with TiVo Series3 DVRs.

    Seagate eyes broader market: Seeking to boost sales of its storage devices beyond personal computers, Seagate Technology - which is based in the Cayman Islands, but operates out of Scotts Valley - said today it is creating a division to focus on consumer electronics.

    The unit will serve clients who design video-game consoles, digital video recorders and media players.

    "The home storage market is expected to grow tenfold in the next five years and represents an increasingly significant opportunity for Seagate," said the company's Chief Executive, Bill Watkins.

    IBM gobbles local software firm: Redwood City-based Encentuate, which makes software that lets people access various applications and documents with one password, has been bought by International Business Machines, IBM announced today. The deal - the terms of which weren't disclosed - is part of an ongoing effort by IBM to snap up software companies so it can better compete with Microsoft.

    Speaking of Microsoft: That company's founder Bill Gates urged Congress today to lift caps on visas for skilled foreign workers in order to spur technological innovation in this country.

    "We live in an economy that depends on the ability of innovative companies to attract and retain the very best talent, regardless of nationality or citizenship," Gates said in testimony submitted to the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology today.

    "The U.S. immigration system makes attracting and retaining high-skilled immigrants exceptionally challenging for U.S. firms."

    Gates also repeated calls for the federal government to spend more on basic scientific research and improve math and science achievement in high school. He and several committee members said they were concerned about the lack of interest of U.S. students in technical fields.

    Silicon Valley tech stocks:

    Up: Applied Materials, EBay, Electronic Arts, Google, Oracle, Sun Microsystems. Down: AMD, Apple, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Intel Intuit.

    The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index: Down 11.89 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,243.87.

    The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average: Down 46.57 points, or 0.38 percent, to 12,110.24.

    And the Standard & Poor's 500 index: Down 11.88 points, or 0.90 percent, to 1,308.77.


    [Source: http://origin.mercurynews.com/businessupdate/ci_8548171?nclick_check=1]

    iPhone Firmware 2.0 Already Hacked. Apple, Give Up Control!


    The iPhone Dev Team did it again. Using the iPhone SDK, they were able to hack into the included 2.0 version of the firmware and unlock it. It is completely jailbroken. And it ain't even public yet. Since the iPhone hacking community already has Apple by the, uh, stem, why doesn't Apple just give up and let them develop for the iPhone as they wish? Because, Steve Jobs, you've lost.

    Seriously, Steve Jobs. You are never going to maintain control of the iPhone. Ever. You lost control of it on June 29, 2007. It belongs to the public now. As the continued ingenuity of the iPhone Dev Team has shown time and again, no matter how you attempt to lock down the iPhone, they are going to crack it back open. So why bother?

    This means that anyone who might have been worried that they couldn't skirt Apple's controls three months from now when the firmware upgrade is made public no longer has anything to fear. Sure, Apple may rebuild it, install new deadbolts, and tack a chain across the firmware's doorjam. But none of that will matter. The collective power of the hacking community will just kick it all down with its size 14 boot.

    Something else to consider. The SDK has been downloaded 100,000 times already. "Developer reaction to the iPhone SDK has been incredible with more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

    "The iPhone SDK gives us the toolswe need to create powerful iPhone applications and is an important part of our overall mobile strategy," said Rick Jensen, senior vice president, Small Business Group atIntuit (NSDQ: INTU). "We're excited that the iPhone expands the ways our customers can solve key financial tasks wherever they might be."

    While Intuit and companies like it will probably follow the official avenues for created and disseminating iPhone applications. The fun stuff will be available from hackers.

    Steve, give up. You've lost.

    Thank you for providing a nifty hardware platform. Thank you for giving the hackers and developers the SDK, which they can use to innovate and develop for. Now it's time to let the hackers develop what they want, how they want, and let users put applications on their iPhones using Installer.app, as they already have been for months.

    Because that's how it is going to work anyway.



    [Source: http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/03/iphone_firmware.html]

    I Game, Therefore iPhone?


    Ever wondered just how well the iPhone stacks up against other dedicated handhelds like Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS? How's this for tantalizing: The iPhone is theoretically even more sophisticated than Sony's PlayStation Portable, says Doom and Quake creator John Carmack, who calls it "an extremely nice platform to work with" according to the San Jose Mercury News.

    doom3_iphone.jpg

    Could we be looking at an iPhone version of id Software's Doom 3 somewhere in the handheld's future? id is considering porting some of its titles to the platform, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

    Apple recently introduced its iPhone Software Development Kit and showed off an iPhone-specific version of its upcoming cross-platform Spore, a tectonically hyped "god" game from The Sims creator Will Wright. Sega likewise demoed a copy of its popular tilt-o-matic "Super Monkey Ball" arcade game, which uses the iPhone's internal accelerometer. Everyone seems pretty excited about the iPhone's potential as a serious mobile game device.

    The way the media puts it, developers are lining up left and right to catch the train. My only question is, why didn't Apple have this ready to rock and roll when the iPhone debuted last June? When the iPhone shipped with nary a game in site, I'll admit to being stunned Apple and perennial tech evangelist Steve Jobs spaced such an obvious opportunity. Sure, you can argue in hindsight that Apple planned to support mobile gaming all along, but given the towering success of mobile gaming in the U.S. market, why wait six months to a year, leaving impatient iPhone owners to scrounge on their own for workarounds?

    Research firm M:Metrics estimates Americans will spend over $600 million on games for mobile phones in 2008. On the other hand, however, only 3 percent of phone owners in the U.S. download a game to their phone each month. Now figure in the development costs to create versions of games that work on all the disparate models available. Depending on its iterative longevity, i.e. how many times Apple plans to bump the iPhones specs in a given multi-year period, the iPhone could be a far more lucrative and stable island in an ocean of ephemeral and effectively forgettable phone models from mainstream manufacturers.

    As speculated, the iPhone will probably do all its gaming business via iTunes, making it easy to find, track, and organize games without the odd, amateurish proprietary tools or workarounds associated with one-off cell phones.

    I've never touched an iPhone. I'm not even curious in a gadgety way about Apple's super-device. It's completely redundant in terms of everything I need or would use a PDA for, personally. But if it turns into a serious -- and by serious I mean more than just "Peggle-playing" -- game platform, I may have to pick one up after all. Apple expect to have an install base of 13 million by the end of 2008. If the games are unmissable, factor in buys from non-customers like me and I don't see why the iPhone can't go screen-to-screen with the PSP, and maybe eventually even the DS.

    "Compared to Apple, the other things that go on in mobile development, that's all amateur hour," adds id Software's John Carmack.

    QFP, i.e. "quoted for potential," anyway.


    [Source: http://blogs.pcworld.com/gameon/archives/006629.html]

    Apple IPhone Kit Downloaded by 100,000 Developers


    By Ville Heiskanen

    March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc., striving to lure customers away from the BlackBerry e-mail device, said more than 100,000 developers have downloaded the kit to make programs for its iPhone since last week.

    Apple introduced the development kit March 6 for the iPhone, which combines an e-mail-equipped handset with the best-selling iPod media player. Electronic Arts Inc. and Salesforce.com Inc. have demonstrated applications, Cupertino, California-based Apple said today in a statement.

    Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who plans to sell 10 million iPhones this year, has opened the handset to developers to help broaden the device's appeal with features such as games and business applications. Apple is embellishing the phone to compete with Research In Motion Ltd., whose BlackBerry dominates the U.S. market for e-mail handsets, with a 41 percent share.

    Jobs had sold 4 million iPhones as of Jan. 15, giving the device second place in the U.S. market for so-called smart phones.

    Apple fell $1.35 to $126 at 9:42 a.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares had declined 36 percent this year before today.

    Developers Complain about iPhone SDK


    While Apple Computer may have finally released its iPhone software development kit (SDK) earlier this month, developers who'd been waiting to get their hands on it are already whining about the numerous restrictions and problems encountered by them.

    Yes, Apple head honcho, Steve Jobs, has attempted an explanation, a rather stiff one: "You don't want your phone to be an open platform with anyone writing applications for it, and potentially gumming up the provider's network."

    But that doesn't undermine or offer a solution for the several problems the developers are facing (at least saying they are facing).

    To enumerate:

    Some developers say they can't begin to download the SDK from dsauthweb.corp.apple.com before getting started on it. Others are complaining that the set-up package just doesn't install on their systems.

    The list isn't over yet. VoIP services aren't allowed via cell networks though they're allowed over WiFi. SIM unlocking may be forbidden; but elsewhere in China and other parts of the world, thousands are doing it unabashedly. Further, only published APIs can be used; and only in the way Apple dictates. Applications cannot write data anywhere except in their designated areas. The "iPhone Human Interface Guidelines" poses a major problem: supposedly a public document, only a registered iPhone developer can see it.

    There's more to come. Just one application can run at a time; in case developers need to leave a particular application, it quits by itself. Third-party applications -- not even instant messaging applications -- can run in the background.

    Further, Apple's own admission -- the beta version of the SDK isn't yet ready to go on 64-bit systems. Programming can be done only in AJAX and not in COCOA. There are other problems like with the user interface. Also, data synchronization is limited only to iCal, Mail, and Safari as of now.

    So with all these problems, and with hackers already having released hacks before the release of the iPhone SDK, we wonder whether they'll now devote their restless energies to releasing programs to break all these barriers.


    [Source: http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Developers_Complain_about_iPhone_SDK/551-87584-580.html]

    V-Moda Vibe Duo Earbuds / Headset (iPhone Compatible)


    V-Moda Vibe Duo Earbuds / Headset (iPhone Compatible) - Black

    The ultimate in mobility, sound and comfort has arrived with V-Moda's Vibe Duo Nero. The final word in sound accessories for your iPhone, Vibe Duo Nero's minimalist design integrates a discreet microphone with a call-control button that blends seamlessly with the durable black fabric cable and is remarkably lightweight. Now you can take calls and control your music, all in a great-sounding headphone that weighs only 13 grams. The ergonomic design is complemented by the comfortable and stable fit of soft silicone fittings, making this headphone/headset optimal for any active lifestyle. V-Moda's highly-regarded V-Masque dynamic driver provides unparalleled clarity and high-definition sound for optimum communication capabilities or the ultimate music listening experience.

    V-MODA's "Sculpted Sound Curve"

    Designed to mimic the warm, sweet sound of hi-fi stereo speakers, the Vibe Duo Nero's sound curve remains amazingly straight with no bass roll-off which delivers a smooth and detailed bass response. A sensitivity dip in the 500hz to 2kHz range accentuates the bass slightly and reproduces a warm soundstage. The gentle dropoff in the high ranges was carefully designed to avoid harsh or "clinical"-sounding highs, making the Vibes suitable as in-ear monitors.



    Precision engineering allows your portable audio player or cell phone
    to deliver surprisingly stunning sound


    The Power of V-MASQUE and BLISS Technologies

    V-MASQUE is the speaker technology designed to reproduce V-MODA's sculpted sound curve. It involves using micro-sized metal alloy housings with dynamic neodymium speaker drivers to produce intense clarity and a warm, rich sound. Many other high-end headphones use balanced armature drivers, which can produce clarity well when inserted deeply--and for many people, uncomfortably--into the ear. Yet even in the best-case scenarios headphones using balanced-armature drivers can often lack warmth, producing a "mechanical"-sounding midrange and highs that feel flat and cold. The sound signature of the Vibe series is specifically designed for juicy lows and a sweet midrange yet maintains very precise highs.

    Vibe's amazing hi-definition sound makes every element of your music crystal clear and present on a 3-D soundstage. The unique V-MASQUE dynamic driver and "beat port" airflow system recreates the sensation of a LIVE music experience. The "beat port" airflow system works by allowing the airflow to move throughout the housing naturally thanks to precision-cut holes in the driver and the housing. This airflow creates an organic output that is far different than other high-end in-ear monitors that can sound distant and mechanical. The Vibe simulates an experience of listening to live music thanks to the circulation that takes place inside the headphone.



    Your Duo Nero comes with a black leather carrying case, cable manager,
    and three sizes of silicone fittings in two colors
    for the perfect fit and style


    BLISS is the acronym for "Bass-Level-Isolating Soft Silicon". Passive noise isolation by itself is not unordinary for in-ear headphones, yet extreme attention to detail is critical because of the fitting's effect in both comfort and sound. The exact thickness of the silicon can make all the difference in the world. Many of the "softest" silicon fittings on some brands proved to be too thick in V-MODA's user test panel. BLISS is made to not only be extremely comfortable in the ear canal, but also to be the easiest earphone to put in and take out quickly. This way one can rock quickly in a matter of seconds, then take an intermission before another encore.

    The shape of the fitting is also extremely crucial to prevent them from popping out too easily by providing a proper seal. One of the interesting things V-MODA discovered is that the smaller the fitting, the better the fit for some users since the smaller fitting fits slightly deeper to prevent fall-out. However, many people commonly try only "larger" fittings thinking they may be tighter when the opposite is true. This is why V-MODA puts the small fittings on by default in the packaging, but users should try a few different sizes to decide for themselves optimal sound and comfort.

    The design behind BLISS is also an ideology of how far deep the fittings should lie in the ear and the level of noise isolation. In V-MODA's user test groups, many users found that other high-end headphones required a fit too deep and too intrusive to get the best sound and comfort. BLISS fittings are "just right" for everyday use and the amount of noise isolation they provide.

    The Perfect Complement to Your iPhone

    The Vibe Duo Nero was designed with durability and versatility in mind. Its slim, 3.5mm jack works seamlessly with the iPhone. Its discreet, high-gain mic ensures you'll be heard loud and clear in any situation, without any heavy electronics dragging you down. The call button allows users to take calls and control the music functions of the iPhone with hands-free convenience. Now there's no longer a need to switch between your iPhone headset and your "good" headphones: the Vibe Duo Nero does it all in a lightweight, great-sounding headphone with a style that's sure to turn heads.


    Product Description
    Marrying luxurious style and supreme audio clarity, the Vibe Duo noise-isolating headset lets you take calls and carry on conversations with hands-free convenience. V-MODA's Vibe Duo headset is the ultimate in mobility, audio-enthusiast sound, and comfort. Featuring compatibility with iPhone and amazing high-definition sound, Vibe Duo's minimalist all-metal design integrates a discrete microphone that blends seamlessly with a durable black fabric cable while remarkably lightweight. The microphone's convenient call/music control button can easily switch between chatting on the phone and listening to your music library. The ergonomic design is complemented by the comfortable and stable fit of soft silicone fittings, making this headset/earphone well suited for any active lifestyle. V-MODA's V-MASQUE dynamic driver provides unparalleled clarity and high-definition sound for optimum communication capabilities and the ultimate music listening experience. Suitable for intense activity or calm relaxation V-MASQUE dynamic driver for high definition clarity and 3-D soundstage Noise-isolating (BLISS) technology to reduce ambient noises and enable deep bass Solid alloy composition creates sculpted sound curve fashioned for discerning music enthusiasts Handmade premium metal craftsmanship and sophisticated design accentuates the modern individual Frequency response - 12Hz-22kHz Speaker driver - V-MASQUE dynamic technology, 9mm neodymium rare-earth magnet Cable length - 32/81.3 cm plug to y-connector; 13.5/34.3cm even-length earphone cables Cable diameter - 0.09/2.2 mm (optimal for sport) Plug - 24k gold-plated, 3.5mm (1/8) dual standard stereo/iPhone compatible plug Weight - 13 grams