June 2007: Monthly Archive

C|Net UK chats up the coming apocalypse sparked by iPhone shortages.

Sales representatives also said they are expecting big crowds for the launch, many of whom are likely to camp out overnight in front of stores to make sure they are one of the first to get the new phone. “If I were you, I’d probably try going to some little store in New Jersey that nobody knows about,” the Times Square representative said. Even Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, suggested to technology pundit Arianna Huffington that she go to an AT&T store where lines might be shorter than at Apple’s stores.

I’m scared. Someone hold my hand.

Some analysts are speculating that iPhone may have an unexpected benefit to other carrier as well. The logic being that everyone wants one, but not everyone can afford one or switch carriers. Ergo they will seek cheaper or available alternatives like the recently announced HTC Touch.

“Americans typically have never paid the full price that the cell phone even costs to manufacture,” Entner said. Despite this factor, Entner said, the iPhone is likely to enjoy success. He also expects to see a “ruboff effect” benefiting multiple companies offering music services.”The Apple phone is being positioned as the Rolls-Royces or Ferraris of all phones,” Entner said. Not everyone, of course, can afford such a pricey model. “You go to the Ferrari dealership and ogle the Ferrari,” Entner said, “but then you go buy a Pontiac.”

Via The Herald

Apple and AT&T have worked closely together on iPhone throughout its development and looming rollout. That much is certain. But the two companies may be working on some rather interesting service integration with iTunes and a special dashboard widget for OSX users. According to a source I spoke with from AT&T, the two companies are working to enable iPhone users to view and administer their AT&T account from within iTunes itself.

In this arragement iTunes would allow you to view your bill, minutes used, add-on features like ringtone downloads, etc., all right within iTunes. The company may also offer a simple dashboard widget which displays minutes used as monthly bill status. Interesting.

What’s this? iPhone supports Flash plugin? Just think of the possibilities! This means we’ll be able to watch xTube YouTube video right our iPhone. Or not. Keep a close eye on this story because it is completely unconfirmed by anything other than a product shot used in a TV ad.

Still, since iPhone is running OSX under the hood it’s totally conceivable that Flash is supported. We’ll see.

Via Engadget Mobile

The Boy Genius Report is on a roll with the iPhone news lately. They’ve secured a copy of the AT&T talking points memo for the upcoming iPhone release.

There’s a great overview article about development of 3rd party applications on the iPhone over at Macworld.co.uk. It covers many ideas put forth here in one convenient package — signed delivery via iTunes, widget development, and the desire of 3rd party software companies to develop for the iPhone.

That is, ready for the surge of iPhone news. We’re on board for the news bit, but any entries that are hype should be appropriately tagged as hype. “It’s going to be messy, and exciting, and hilarious. I, for one, am going to enjoy the ride.”

Gizmodo reports that AT&T is boosting the bandwidth available to internet users on its EDGE mobile data network. The operation, dubbed “Fine Edge,” has been a 6 week program and is scheduled to complete on June 15th. The previous minimum speed per tower was 40 kbps (that’s kilobits per seconds), the upgrade bumps it up to 80 kbps, with a maximum probable value of 200kbps. It’s still not quick, but hopefully enough that your average web page will take just a few seconds to render instead of half a minute.

Om Malik interviewed Randall Stephenson yesterday, he mentions the iPhone as it “reinforces with consumers that AT&T is the place to turn for the latest in wireless devices and services.”

According to a report by the Boy Genius Report, many details about the upcoming iPhone have been revealed:

• sync via iPhoto and iTunes
• won’t act as a mountable drive: BOOOOOOOOO
• no external SIM card slot
• battery nigh impossible to remove, just like the iPod
• no AOL / iChat IM, just SMS: BOOOOOOOOO
• Safari better than Pocket IE
• VPN client may be included
• screen is ridiculously great

There you have it, all the news that’s fit to report.