iLounge brings word that, according to their sources (all familiar with the situation and plans, of course), the upcoming SDK will sport the following “features”:
Locked down via iTunes. All apps will be distributed exclusively via Apple’s iTunes store in a manner similar to today’s iPod games.
Approved by Apple. Apple (no doubt via a single Steve Jobs thumbs up or down) will elevate any given app to the heavens of iTunes, or drop them to the lions of perpetual delay or refusal. No unapproved apps will be released or releasable.
No docks for you. 3rd party apps will not be able to call on the connector, removing hardware keyboards and other dock-dependent offerings from the table.
Radio/camera open. BT is unknown, but 3rd party devs should be able to access most if not all core features of OS X mobile, including Wi-Fi, phone, etc.
Also, the same sources agree with previous ‘net chatter that the March Event will only see a beta release of the SDK, not the full fledged version, along with increased enterprise support.
Before you hit play, there’s a cuss in the video you might want to know about if your office frowns upon this kind of thing. So what happens when the iPhone’s stopwatch hits 1000 hours? It keeps going fine, but you no longer can see the seconds go by.
Apple and education, an historically great market that goes great with Macs. Well now, if Abilene Christian University (ACU) is any precursor, Mobile OS X is about to follow in it’s big desktop brother’s shoes.
According to Phil Schubert, ACU executive vice president, “an Apple iPhone or iPod touch will become a central part of Abilene Christian University’s innovative learning experience this fall when all freshmen are provided one of these converged media devices.”
ACU will be providing not only the devices, but cutting-edge webapps “that ensure these tools will become critical to the students’ learning experience.”
Whether this is a one-off, or the beginning of a trend, and if there’s any synergy with Apple’s ongoing iTunes University program (where university material is provided free of charge via Apple’s iTunes media store) remains to be seen. (But we certainly hope so!)
UPDATE: Not to be outdone, Oklahoma Christian University has seen ACU’s free iPhone or iPod Touch, and raised a free MacBook for new students (and faculty), or trade-in for PC toting older students. (Via Engadget)
iPhone Custom is now offering to coat your iPhone in high quality TiAIN for $299.
And while $299 might sound expensive (same price as a brand new iPod Touch 8GB!), the end result looks impressive enough to tempt higher-end customers and early adapters, longing for a return of the jealous stares they got when flashing their iPhone on Day One.
Purchasing is simple: just eject your SIM, place your iPhone in a pre-labelled shipper, and send it off to iPhone Custom for your choice of black or gold glossy logo and bezel.
The process is also available for iPod Touch and 3G iPod Nano.
Wu believes it “more likely” that iPhone’s corporate support will come as a result of internal development rather than licensing technologies like Microsoft’s ActiveSync and/or RIM’s Blackberry Connect, but only time and El Jobso will tell for sure.
Given that Apple pre-announced “enterprise” for the event, and their past job listing (no longer online) for a “motivated, highly-technical Exchange test/sync engineer with excellent problem solving and communication skills,” this could be a very safe bet.
Either way, it looks like crackberry addicts and active exchangers alike may soon have iPhone pushers joining them in desperate need of instant email fixes. (Which, of course, is seen as very necessary to increasing the iPhone’s penetration of corporate accounts.)
Put down your pint of Guinness and drop your Blarney stone. Apple struck a deal with O2 Ireland to bring iPhone to the land of shamrocks and bar fights. That confirmation comes straight from the horses mouth, depending on which end is speaking, in the form of an official announcement on O2’s website which lists iPhone’s availability on March 14. So there you have it.
Now how about making a nice pot of corned beef and cabbage for wee little Kent?
As posted (and updated) earlier, O2 has officially launched the iPhone in Ireland, making it the fifth country (after the US, UK, Germany, and France) to enjoy the revolutionary phone and breakthrough internet device… ish…
Apple Insider reports that Irish iPhone plans, unlike all previous iPhone plans DO NOT come with unlimited data or visual voicemail (a feature often touted by Steve Jobs as being a prime example of carrier cooperation and hence, the benefit of exclusivity).
There seems to be two options here:
We’ve heard before that Edge (2.5G data) coverage isn’t strong in Europe (which more quickly embraced the faster 3G data model), so could this be a (potentially temporary) situation that O2 will rectify over time? If so, we could be looking forward to service improvements and price drops like we saw with O2 in the UK.
Or is this a sign that Apple is no longer pressuring carriers to offer affordable, unlimited data plans or features like visual voice mail as part of the iPhone package? If so, this could be the beginning of a far more sweeping and important story. It’s long been rumored that extremely high data rates have kept the iPhone out of countries like Canada, so if Apple is bending to carrier demands on these issues, it could allow the iPhone to spread wider, but at the cost of the concessions Apple was previously able to leverage. (And which analysts said could change the wireless industry)
What do you think? Is this just a temporary road bump on the way to Irish iPhone bliss, or a sign of changing times in carrier-land? And if so, would you prefer to see the iPhone in more countries, even if you get less data and fewer features? Or do you want Apple to hold the line on unlimited plans and visual voicemail-style innovations?
In the always entertaining game of analyst hot potato, Apple Insider brings word from global equity research analyst Nicolas Gaudois who writes that his checks agree with their Apple analyst, Ben Reitzesa’s checks, that a 3G HSDPA “will be released by mid-year”.
According to Gaudois, current iPhone chip supplier Infineon, in anticipation of the switch, is ramping down production of 2.5G Edge basebands.
Everyone, everywhere seems to agree that Apple will need to drop a 3G iPhone this year in order to make good on the 10 million unit sales prediction (by end of 2008) most recently reaffirmed by COO Tim Cook, so this isn’t exactly Nostradamus-level prognostication, but the Apple rumor-mill has gotten better as of late (fatty Nano and MacBook Air being prime example).
So, will we see a 3G iPhone sporting Infineon by the summer? Does Intel’s mobile platform fit in anywhere?
As with the UK, the device will sell via O2 Retail and Carphone Warehouse, cashing in at €399 (incl. VAT) for the 8GB or €499 (incl. VAT) for the 16GB, with rate plans starting at €45.
With O2 expanding its exclusivity into Ireland, and T-Mobile set to expand theirs into Austria, what’s next? Orange in Belgium? AT&T somehow getting into Canada? What’s your guess for iPhone’s next move?
UPDATE: Looks like the 1.1.4 firmware confirms carrier listings for O2 in Ireland and T-Mobile in Austria (Macity via Ars Technica).
The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
