March 2008: Monthly Archive

Thursday brings the SDK. You know, the one that needs no other identifier. The one that the entire tech-verse has been chomping at the bit for since roughly 0.001 seconds after Steve Jobs slipped the iPhone from his pocket at Macworld 2007.

But that’s all we know: SDK Event March 6th.

We don’t know whether the SDK will be ready to code that very same day, who’ll be given access to it, how they’ll test for it, what type of approval process Apple will require, how apps will be distributed, how they’ll be priced, and most importantly for the end user: whether or not “OMG teh iPhone can has WoW!!11”

However, that doesn’t stop us from guessing!

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As highlighted earlier, when O2 launches the iPhone on March 14, it will be with only a wee 1GB of data (vs. unlimited in other territories) and nay visual voicemail (standard elsewhere — indeed cited as a rationale for carrier cooperation read: lock-in).

Now MacNN brings us “justification” from O2 Ireland CEO, Danuta Gray:

“You can’t compare it with other products. Comparing it with a standard handset is just not like-for-like. I have music on it, videos on it, DVDs, photo albums, camera. To me it’s just an amazing device and I think the type of price here compared with this type of functionality is where the value should be judged.”

And while this certainly does make the iPhone sound like a right nifty bit of tech, and perhaps explains the general cost of the device globally, it does nothing to explain why the Irish version should offer less in the way of data and features compared to, say, the iPhone in all other parts of the world (including O2’s own offering in the UK).

Care to take another try then?

Do you remember when you had a choice between VHS and Betamax (Beta)? If you do, you’re at least a Generation X’er (and maybe older, sorry). VHS won the war; a bigger, more cumbersome tape format beat out the (arguably) superior, more svelte Beta tape. The defeat of Sony’s Beta format is legendary and has become a marketing study, but we could be seeing the same kind of thing (but different) with web apps vs. native apps on handheld devices.

Michael Mace has published an article on his blog, Mobile Opportunity, which reads like an obituary for native mobile apps — all very interesting in light of the much-anticipated and heralded release of an iPhone SDK and 3rd party apps.

At issue is that due to rising costs and diminishing returns, software developers are fleeing the good ship “Native Apps” like it was the Titanic. The relatively “worse” technology is using the Web to deliver apps (VHS) has a better business model, the relatively “better” tech is writing Native apps (Beta), but Mace argues that the business model is basically dead.

If Mace is right, what does the future hold for native apps on the iPhone?

Reading my news and RSS feeds on the go is important to me. Most people I know use Google Reader, and it is a fantastic desktop web application. However, I find the mobile version really lacking in features and functionality; this is where Bloglines (http://i.bloglines.com) comes in.

Bloglines really takes advantage of Apple’s HIG’s and gives a very integrated environment for your news. Keep in mind that this version of Bloglines is is still in beta…

(Ed Note - We’ve already welcomed Rene Ritchie to the fold, now we welcome Chad Garrett! Chad will be bringing us a software review each week — with any luck at all he’ll be able to move to reviews of real, honest-to-god, Apple-approved native applications very soon! Welcome Chad!)

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In the grand tradition of surveilling Apple’s every patent filing for the tiniest hint about just which earth-denting device Steve Jobs will whip out next, Apple Insider (via Trademork) brings word on: methods to auto-detect game compatibility (to make sure you don’t accidentally buy a Nano game for your iPhone?), an automatic online backup, data storage, and update service for already-purchased games (Software Update meets .Mac?), as well as a game rental and/or subscription service (expanding the iTunes Movie Rentals model?).

For those of us playing along at home, this all comes hot on the heels of a trademark application that hopes to push Apple’s brand into the larger gaming space, including hand-helds and consoles, and an earlier patent application that covers interface for multi-touch gaming.

With all this, and the SDK dropping this Thursday, could John Carmack’s Quake Engine for Mobile OS X be far behind?

Engadget has put together a veritable jolly roger of an update to iPhone firmware 1.1.4 jailbreaking and SIM unlocking.

These methods include the usual scurvy gang of iNdependence 1.4 beta 5 for OS X, Zibri’s cross-platform Ziphone 2.5, and a new, and potentially mega-infringing stow-away: iTunes (looks to be purely proof-of-concept at the moment).

As always, jailbreaking and unlocking are not for the faint of heart, so explore at your own risk, lest your precious iPhone end up on the receiving end of a one way trip to Davey Jones’ locker…

Based on O2’s last quarter earnings report, the iPhone is not only O2’s fastest selling device, is not only setting new records for customer satisfaction, but helped contribute towards a 9.5% increase for the last quarter 2007.

In addition to Apple’s debut mobile device having the lowest return rate among O2’s lineup, it also drove a whopping 30% more revenue per user than the carrier’s average, and helped add 483,000 customers and 276,000 new contracts (roughly 60% of which were nicked from the competition).

Impressive, innit?

But is it enough to help shore up what some see as Apple’s diminished leverage with international carriers, especially with companies like China Mobile which boast hundreds of thousands of unlocked units already on their networks? We’ll see…