2008: Yearly Archive

It seems like only yesterday Apple’s servers were overwhelmed by the unbridled lust of developers, feverishly downloading the newly released iPhone SDK, going offline and back again like cheap Christmas tree lights. Today Apple is reporting that over 100,000 SDK downloads have been made in a span of just four days. That’s amazing considering that traffic bottleneck prevented downloading to occur for hours at a time, and Apple’s iPhone developer page was broken for nearly two days.

Makes you wonder how much higher that figure would be if everything had gone smoothly out of the gate. 500,000 perhaps?

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Longtime Windows pundit Paul Thurrott has always had an interesting relationship with Apple. He has a MacBook, uses iPods, and link baits Apple fanboys every chance he gets.

But the times, they may be a changing! Look no further than the Windows Weekly Podcast, where Thurrott had this to say about Microsoft’s own Windows Mobile platform efforts when compared to the iPhone (transcribed):

“I have one very callous thing to say myself about the Windows Mobile guys, which is s**w them because, no offense, but seriously, you guys have had - I was there for the first version of WindowsCE, Pegasus I think it was called, and I have watched as they’ve mismanaged this smartphone market from day one. It has… it has always lagged behind, it’s not always been Microsoft’s fault - I understand part of it is just the nature of the business - but you know, Apple revolutionized the smartphone business not just with the hardware and the software but also with the way that they’re now presenting this stuff to users and updating the system over time, providing new functionality. This is something that doesn’t happen with other smartphones and it’s the type of thing where I can go to a Microsoft event and they can announce a new version of Windows Mobile, and that thing, I won’t see it in a store for another, you know, at the time, 18 months. That’s ridiculous. That’s ridiculous. Yeah, s**w ‘em. If a Windows Mobile device was better than an iPhone I would use it, but you would have to show me that device.”

Wow. Guess even Balmer hath no fury as a Windows pundit scorn…

While his original iPhone 1.0 review was mixed (or honest, as he claims, in the face of too many softball reviews from others), it slowly improved with firmware 1.3, and now with the beta of 2.0… Well, we’ll let iThurrott speak for himself:

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Gizmodo raises the Jolly Roger this morning with news that the scurvy Pwned Project DevTeam has forced the iPhone SDK beta firmware to walk the plank:

• Jailbreak? Aye.
• Unlock? Aye Aye.
• Unsigned Apps? JAR!

Old Install.app applications will need to be updated to the new APIs, but by using a firmware patch rather than hack, DevTeam believes this Jailbreak will be hard for Apple to counter. Prepare to be boarded!

Has the DevTeam got Apple’s treasure for good this time or is Cap’n Jobs already coming around, cannons primed? The cat and mouse game continues!

UPDATE: Ars Technica explains:

The new exploit works by taking advantage of the boot loading process on the iPhone, using the AppleImage2NorAccess extension to load a custom firmware to the device in the same way that the standard restore process works. After the patched firmware has been written to the device and restarted, any unsigned app can be loaded and run.

Catch the video after the break!

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Image from Engadget Mobile

A lot of people have been poring over screenshots from the iPhone Software Roadmap event — our own Chad Garrett saw evidence that there might be Task/ToDo functionality built into iCal. The other shot that’s been making the rounds is the one above, where you can clearly see a magnifying glass at the top of the “scrolling strip” in the contacts app. The current speculation is that it will finally allow us to “Type to find” a contact rather than have to scroll through the list. That’s what I want, but Pocketnow has just posted up an editorial with this little tidbit:

However, none of the internet communities made mention of how this may be a function of the integration of Microsoft function; rather, these sites just mention it as an Apple update. [...] However, thinking back to the contacts search, perhaps this is a Microsoft innovation related to server searching ability for contacts and emails.

AHA! We know that Apple already told us we’d be able to search through an Exchange server’s Global Address list, and I wondered how exactly it would work. On Windows Mobile a search just automatically scans through both your local and the Exchange list — with luck it will do the same on the iPhone. It’s possible, though, that all we’ll get is a separate search of Exchange with that icon. Windows Mobile uses very similar databases as Exchange so a common search is likely much easier to implement than it would be on the iPhone.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but that search icon might not give us the contact search functionality we’ve been jonesing for.

Apple and RIM are on a collision course as the two companies go toe to toe vying for enterprise messaging market share. RIM has long held the corporate high ground with its dominant BlackBerry Enterprise Server technology and ubiquitous handsets. But Apple is sending iPhone to business school, adopting Microsoft Exchange support that is certain to give Apple the competitive advantage it needs to challenge RIM’s BlackBerry industrial complex.

This puts Apple in a unique position. Until now the company has narrowly focused its product strategy at consumers, not business. Apple and enterprise go together like Dairy Queen and Lactose intolerance, but iPhone has achieved the kind of sweeping success and brand awareness that makes it marketable to business customers, given the right pedigree of tools.

The combination of iPhone’s consumer appeal and business smarts could produce a perfect storm for Apple. Will it be enough to topple RIM?

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Ive’s name be praised, for Apple Inc. has won eight (count’em - 8!) design awards at CeBIT 2008, including the universe-denting iPhone and its miniscule Bluetooth headset companion.

Also taking home the prize were Apple’s iPods Nano, Classic, and Touch, USB and Bluetooth Keyboards, and the all new, aluminum and glass iMac.

From his early days auditing calligraphy classes to the aforementioned iPhone, Steve Jobs has obsessed over design and been lauded for his almost zen-like, consumer-lust-inducing taste. Glad that’s working out for him!

I still remember the keynote of keynotes: MacWorld 2007. Towards the end of the iPhone presentation, Steve Jobs showed the Apple iPhone Bluetooth headset. My jaw dropped. Small, light, perfect! I only held off on my purchase due to the slightly inflated price of $129. So in November of 2007 when Apple had their one-day sale event, I picked one up for $99. Here are my thoughts after 3+ months of usage.

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We already told you that Apple threw a brick-stuffed glove down on RIM’s foot with their Enterprise plans during the iPhone Software Roadmap event. So it’s only natural that it would be the topic du-jour for the next CrackBerry.com Podcast (iTunes link).

They invited yours-truly on to talk about the SDK and Apple’s enterprise plans and it’s a pretty comprehensive chat. Fun too — even though I led us down a couple of somewhat unnecessary forays into Windows Mobile (hey, I still use and love that too).

Anyhow, if you’re jonesing to hear what BlackBerry fans are thinking about the iPhone, it’s definitely worth a listen. Also worth noting: if you’re wanting to get all the Smartphone Experts podcasts (TreoCentral, CrackBerry.com, WMExperts, and Phone different) in a single feed, we have that up on iTunes now as well.

Podcast Episode 003 - RIM's New Enterprise Challenge | CrackBerry.com

Analysts Rob Sanderson and Shaw Wu step up to the line for two rounds of bare-knuckle Apple vs. RIM enterprise assessments. Brought to us by the always excellent team at Apple Insider, both analysts start us off with the “tale of the (architecture) tape:

RIM is the incumbent favorite and it’s triple-tiered NOC (network operations center) architecture, while more complex, expensive, and subject to a single-point external (and for many, extra-national) RIM server in Canada, provides a better “push” technology and allows for many more features like load balancing, packet checking, and PIN based device communication. It also hits up a wider range of services (thus far), including Lotus and Groupwise.

Apple, the feisty southpaw from Cupertino, has best-of-breed interface and user experience, and simpler. Microsoft licensed ActiveSync architecture which the analysts hope Apple can work with, despite it not thus far getting as much market traction, and suffering from potential scalability and port/IP security issues. Simpler and cheaper, combined with the iPhone’s lusty end-user appeal, could just be the one-two counter Apple needs.

So, where do we stand some four months before opening round? Will Apple deliver the superman punch at the bell or will they get knocked down early?

Probably neither. RIM’s certainly the odds-on favorite in enterprise, but Apple’s cachet and brand make them hard to peg as underdogs. Only one thing’s for certain — mobile fight fans should be in for one heck of a brawl.

When the iPhone and iPod Touch first shipped, many eager big business users and university students snapped up the “breakthrough internet devices” only to find that, because the iPhone and iPod Touch didn’t support the 802.1x protocol, they couldn’t connect to some very large Wi-Fi networks.

Posts piled up on Apple’s Discussion Boards, feature requests and bug reports flooded in (I know I sent one!), and, as of the SDK Roadmap event on Thursday, Apple has listened! 802.1x has been announced for firmware 2.0!

But what is it and why’s is it so important?

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