TiPb scored the above eyes-on way back at Macworld 2009, and now TUAW brings word that SlingMedia’s Player for the iPhone has finally been submitted to the App Store. Of course, no one but the magic 8-ball knows how long it will take for — or even if — Apple to approve it, but this is SlingPlayer, folks, so we’re taking even the tiny little steps as they come.
Any super-keeners revving up their SlingBox’s in anticipation? Or do you doubt Apple (or the carriers?) will actually let it into the App Store and onto the iPhone?
Apple Insider is reporting that some US-based Apple Stores are, following a similar to move by AT&T, starting to sell unsubsidized and off-contract iPhones. Pricing is $599 for the 8GB model and $699 for the 16GB, but in this case there seems to be no restriction on the quantities purchased.
While Apple Insider suggests these units could be unlocked, we’re not aware of any official policy or method in place to do so — unless they’re referring to Jailbreaking and running the yellowsn0w software.
Speculation as to why Apple and AT&T are now more fully embracing the off-contract model, of course, centers around their desire to clear inventory prior to an anticipated (by the Internet) hardware revision sometime this summer, perhaps introduced at WWDC in June as the iPhone 3G was last year.
Anyone rushing out to get their off-contract iPhone 3G while supplies last?
an application to watch TV from the iPhone. The download is free but after that you have to pay a subscription. One day is 0,89€, one week is 1,97€ (first week free), one month is 7,44€ (first month free).
So is this another case of a carrier leading where Apple will one day soon follow? They have announced new live streaming capabilities in 3.0…
One of my favorite quotes from the West Wing went something like “no amount of law enforcement money or manpower can equal a criminal being stupid”. Today’s case in point, via the New York Post, a man mugged a woman for her iPhone, used it to take a picture of himself, used her email on her iPhone to send his picture to his own email account:
“I checked my e-mail and saw something in my outbox,” she wrote on the Japanese-language blog. “I knew I didn’t send anything. “I opened the attachment, and there he was with his black and red knitted [Spider-Man] hat. The same hat I described to the police officers.” She sent the photos off to cops who combed through mug shots and quickly zeroed in…
So there we have it. iPhone 1. Crime 0.
(And this is before Apple’s rumored iPhone 3.0 “Find My iPhone” Feature!)
Of course, we mentioned that on Sprint, lacking simultaneous voice and data, even a million times zero is still zero. Less flippantly, however, when Safari 4 Beta shipped for the desktop with its new ultra-fast Nitro (formerly SquirrelFish) rendering engine, we figured it would only be a matter of time before that scaled down to the iPhone’s version of Safari (based on the same WebKit foundations as desktop Safari, as is the Palm Pre browser and Android Chrome Lite).
Wayne Pan has braved the NDA waters and published JavaScript benchmarks for iPhone OS 3.0, and they are impressive — with results ranging between 3× and 10× faster than iPhone OS 2.2. And I’ll confirm that MobileSafari on iPhone OS 3.0 passes my simple “could be Nitro” recursion depth test.
From what we’ve seen of 3.0, it seems that way to us as well. Along with HTML5, CSS, 2D and 3D animation, anti-phishing, AutoFill, etc., it will be interesting to see what Apple and the WebKit team can pull of by the time iPhone 3.0 launches this summer…
While it may not be the holy grail, it’s definitely one of the most prized treasures of thus-far undelivered iPhone apps: Skype. Well, GigaOM says maybe not for much longer:
A tipster — a very reliable one — tells me that Skype is almost ready to launch that iPhone version, perhaps as soon as next week. CTIA Wireless, a large mobile industry trade event, kicks off in Las Vegas next Wednesday, so perhaps the announcement will be made there. I am working on getting more details, as well as screenshots of the service.
Dieter will be live and in-person at CTIA, eyes peeled and iPhone at the ready, just in case. Meanwhile, we have to wonder what the carrier reaction will be. We know consumers want it, right?
Last year, Steve Jobs’ Keynote at WWDC gave us an update on iPhone 2.0, the introduction of MobileMe, and the unveiling of the iPhone 3G. What will they have for us this year? More iPhone 3.0 no doubt. iPhone gen 3 maybe? Snow Leopard? One more thing…?
As usual, WWDC will be held at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco, and will again consist of iPhone, Mac, and IT streams. Of the iPhone stream, Apple says:
iPhone OS is the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, offering you a revolutionary platform for designing innovative mobile applications. Learn every aspect of iPhone development — from the powerful tools and frameworks to enhancing your application with the unique features of iPhone OS.
Techcrunch ran one of their big, blazing headlines today reporting “Apple’s iPhone App Refund Policies Could Bankrupt Developers”. They cited Apple’s contract which allows for Apple to charge developers 100% of a refund, even though devs only get 70% of the payment to begin with. Under that model, developers would get hit for 30% extra each time an App Store purchase was refunded. Not nice, for certain. But apparently also not (yet?) the case.
TiPb contacted several developers to find out what was going on. While some were aware of the potential for a 100% refund charge back, none had experienced it. Uniformly, they reported very few refunds, and when they did occur, charge backs only for the same 70% cut Apple had originally passed along to them.
For now, at least, Apple is eating whatever processing, administration, and other charges that occur out of their own, 30% cut.
In general, all the developers we spoke with hadn’t seen many returns and didn’t seem to consider this a huge problem right now. This might be because the process of getting a refund is not easy to begin with. If that changes, as recently discussed on Twitter, it could become a greater concern.
As to Techcrunch’s other charge, that a refunded app becomes unusable, we’ve been unable to find an occurrence of that in the real world. If you’ve had a refund on any apps, let us know if it goes dead, keeps working but won’t upgrade, or stays the same.
We’ve all heard the horror stories about the iPhone and international traveling. Whether it was data related or voice related, iPhone users have been slapped upside the head with huge bills.
Well now AT&T customers can rest a bit easier — you can now access all of AT&T’s international features online when you log into your account. So if you plan on traveling internationally any time soon be sure to head on over to your plan features and make the appropriate changes. While this will not save you tons of money, at least it will save you a phone call to AT&T’s customer service. That’s a good thing, right?
