Last week we covered the analyst accounts that Apple’s iPhone was more profitable than Nokia’s handsets. Since Apple makes high margin on one premium phone, while Nokia has a range of featurephones and smartphones, including low-to-no margin ones, it didn’t seem too unlikely. Joe Wilcox, however, broke out his abacus and begged to differ, saying no they weren’t, and everyone was stupid for thinking they were. John Gruber then tapped Calculator on his iPhone, looked at GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) and non-GAAP numbers, and said the estimates were within reason. Wilcox updated his original post, decrying the use of non-GAAP numbers, and re-asserting his original conclusion.

Who’s side are we on? Why, the audiences’ of course, with popcorn, hotdogs, and spicy drink in hand. It’s not like either Apple or Nokia give us a cut of the winning profits, and though we love our iPhones a lot, we’ll take a blog v.s blogfight any time.

[via TUAW]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Was iPhone More Profitable Than Nokia Handsets Last Quarter? — Blog vs. Blog!

While previous rumors had Apple announcing iPhone video tomorrow at WWDC 2009, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has just put up his predictions and, at least in code name form, they’re going with “iPhone 3GS” — though they don’t offer what the “S” stands for…

In the past, Daring Fireball’s predictions have at times seemed closer akin to inside information, so it’s worth paying attention to. In terms of specs, Gruber is sticking with what he previously predicted:

significantly faster processors, twice the RAM, and twice the storage. I expected prices to remain the same as the current lineup: $199/299 for 16/32 GB, respectively. The video camera is going to be a major selling point. [...] battery life: 15-20 percent longer than the iPhone 3G.

As to the oft rumored iPhone nano/mini, while he does see Apple eventually doing a distinct iPhone nano model, much like the iPod nano, for now:

I would wager heavily on [the iPhone 3G 8GB becoming the $99 iPhone] — that the new iPhone 3GS models will not replace the 3G, but rather assume the flagship position while the year-old 3G slides down to the second spot in the product lineup.

On the subject of the equally oft rumored iTablet, Gruber thinks it’s real, but not yet ready to be announced.

In less than a day, we’ll all know for sure!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

WWDC Tomorrow: iPhone 3GS?

Daring Fireball has posted a bitingly satirical look at Apple’s iPhone App Store review process which, like the best of comedy, is firmly rooted in both tragedy and truth. That Apple hasn’t posted clear guidelines for developers is frustrating enough. That they apparently haven’t imposed them on their own internal staff raises the flabbergast bar to dizzying new heights.

With 35,000+ apps and a billion downloads Apple is well on their way towards building that next great platform. Until they fix the app approval process, however, that building is a house of cards.

Enough of the choir preaching. Here’s Gruber bringing the painful funny:

MONDAY MAY 18: The dude who wrote that game with the iPhone icon seems very upset. Says that the iPhone image is used to explain that the user must tilt the device in order to play the game, and so how can he show this visually without using an image of an iPhone. And he has a list of other apps already in the Store which use similar graphics. I reply with the exact same message as last week, word for word. Spend the rest of the day playing Flight Control.

Read the entire Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer via Daring Fireball…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Daring Satire: Excerpts From the Diary of an App Store Reviewer

Business Insider rumormongers that Apple might be considering some limited form of multi-tasking, perhaps as early as iPhone 3.0, which would allow 3rd party apps to run as background tasks. They point to two possible models:

1. Apple might allow users to select two apps that can run in the background.
2. Apple might selectively allow some apps to run in the background. We assume that developers could apply for permission to run in the background, and that Apple might approve or deny them based on the resources they need and how well they behave with the operating system’s stability.

Daring Fireball steps up to throw a combo of water and fuel on that particular fire:

I heard something very similar from a decent (but second-hand) source back in January during Macworld Expo. What I heard then was that Apple was working on a vastly improved dock for your most-frequently used apps, and that there’d be one special icon position where you could put a third-party app to enable it to run in the background.

Gruber also rightly points out that the iPhone 3G’s 128MB of RAM is likely the constraining factor to current generation multitasking and that won’t change with the iPhone 3.0 firmware. If reports of at least 512MB of RAM in a 3rd generation iPhone are to be believed, however, this could be a much more compelling and powerful feature.

A dock that slides up like a slot-limited version of Google’s Android app shelf maybe? And one that grants background permission to anything placed inside it? Yes please.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple to Allow Limited Background Multi-Tasking for Apps in iPhone 3.0?

Someone told Daring Fireball that Apple not only asked Google to remove the multi-touch from the Android/HTC T-Mobile G1 smartphone, but also to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack.

The first part was reported earlier and makes the kind of sense that only tricky mega-corp coopetion can make (iPhone eyeballs are more valuable to Google than the G1’s multi-touch at this point). The second part… not so much. Specifically, Daring Fireball’s source mentioned Apple’s use of the remote buttons on the headset to control media playback as the reason for Google avoiding the jack entirely on the G1. (Note: while this sounds familiar, a Google search didn’t turn up any links for Apple patenting anything associated with such processes, so if anyone can point us towards that info, please let us know in the comments).

Other smartphones have long used the 3.5mm headphone jack, and since the G1 is hardly a media powerhouse (it doesn’t even include a built-in video app), there’s little reason to believe HTC couldn’t have included a non-remote, standard 3.5mm jack.

(Aside: Our editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, has managed to confirm that both the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and Pearl both make use of some type of headset based media control, so there we go…)

Chris Ziegler over at Engadget Mobile weighs in, calling the entire Apple/Google story from VentureBeat FUD, and the sourcing on the 3.5mm piece sketchy, and while admittedly an unnamed Android source, absent corroboration, doesn’t pass the traditional media test, here’s the other thing:

HTC seems to love the ExtUSB in lieu of 3.5mm headset jack. It’s not just the G1, but an increasing array of their smartphones that are — and will be according to the 2009 HTC roadmap that was leaked — abandoning 3.5mm for the ExtUSB.

So, we’re not sold on this story yet, how about you? Does it seem likely Apple talked Google out of a 3.5mm jack, or that HTC just plain doesn’t like them and never considered it?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

On Apple, Android, and 3.5mm Headset Jacks

I must admit, I’ve stopped using NetNewsWire on my iPhone because I’ve just found it unmanageable. What was an awesome fire hose on my Mac just threatened to drown me on the much smaller machine. Enter Daring Fireball’s John Gruber with some awesome tips on making NetNewsWire on the iPhone far more functional:

What I want in an iPhone feed reader isn’t just a little bit different than what I want in a Mac feed reader, it’s a lot different. So what I did last week was start over from scratch on the iPhone. Rather than going through my full list of feeds and turning some off, I turned them all off, then went through and re-enabled about 20 feeds — the ones I like best, with the highest signal-to-noise ratios, and which would be most enjoyable in those I’m bored, give me something to read moments.

Now NetNewsWire is both snappier for him and more relevant to a mobile experience.

I tried it and I’m loving it. If you give it a try, let me know how it works for you!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Daring Fireball: For iPhone RSS Less is More

UPDATE:

The New York Times gets clarification from Opera (via Daring Fireball):

“We stopped the work because of the prohibitive license,” to Mr. von Tetzchner wrote in an e-mail.

Turns out it was an internal project.

ORIGINAL POST:

So we, along with half the interwebs, picked up a paraphrased comment by Opera’s president that pretty much indicated Apple had rejected popular mobile browser Opera Mini from the App Store.

Well, John Gruber over at Daring Fireball did some digging and found out that it just ain’t so:

My understanding, based on information from informed sources who do not wish to be identified because they were not authorized by their employers is that Opera has developed an iPhone version of Opera Mini, they haven’t even submitted it to Apple, let alone had it be rejected.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

UPDATED: Opera Mini on the iPhone Rumor Smasher: Not Denied, Not Even Submitted?!

On Monday, TiPb Senior Editor Dieter Bohn debuted his new bi-weekly feature, TiPb of the Avalanche, by asking about the iPhone App Store and the “Long Tail” business model.

Looks like he’s not alone. PCalc developer James Thomson (via Daring Fireball) recounted his struggles with Apple’s new policy of listing Apps by original release dates, ignoring update dates, and forcing older Apps to the frozen hinterlands of the last few pages in a list growing well past 5500. Under the old model:

Sales started to slow down over time, but with each of the 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 updates they went back up into the stratosphere as PCalc moved to the front page of the Utilities section again.

And now?

As it stands, the App Store is too crowded to find anything if you don’t know exactly what you are looking for by name.

So while, according to Apple Insider, the App Store may still be climbing faster than iTunes Music did, GigaOm is pishing the posh on the iPhone bump in general.

During Apple’s Q4 conference call, Steve Jobs said that the App Store would reach 200 million downloads today spanning over 5500 Apps in 62 countries. How will Apple’s (continuing?) tweaks on App Store organization help or hinder developers moving forward? And will they, as Dieter is suggesting, have to start putting as much time, money, and effort into marketing as they do coding? Or are there no easy answers?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

“Long Tail” Redux: App Store Boom a Bust for Store Apps?

RIM calls it “ClickThrough” and introduced their version with the Blackberry Storm. While we here at TiPb were initially dubious, Crackberry.com was apparently right about the Storm as the Big Sites loved it quite a bit. Still, we never saw Apple adopting it, and it’s scroll-click metaphor, to the iPhone, but it looks like they may have already put a similar concept to use in the new MacBooks set to be announced today. Daring Fireball has the spoiler alert:

The new trackpad is similar to the Air’s, in that it is bigger and supports additional multi-touch gestures. But unlike the Air’s, the MacBook Pro’s new trackpad is made of glass, and is a button itself. You just press and it clicks. This is not like the current software option where you can enable “Tap to Click” in the trackpad preferences, but instead a glass trackpad that acts as a physical button, with a click you can feel. Sounds odd, but I hear it’s very cool in practice.

TiPb will be live meta-blogging the Spotlight Turns to MacBook’s event today, which starts at 1pm EDT/10 am PDT. See you here!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

MacBooks To Have Blackberry Storm-style “Touch Click” Pad?

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, in an attempt to get to the bottom of the PodcasterGate’s latest controversy, namely Apple reportedly slapping “NDA” (Non-Disclosure Agreement) on the rejection notices and discussion there off, confidentially polled developers and came to the following conclusion:

My conclusion is that as [redacted] up as this entire situation is, both with the App Store rejections for “duplication of functionality” and NDA frustrations, it does not seem as though Apple has changed its policy regarding whether rejection notices are confidential.

Indeed, some Mac (but not iPhone) developers reported all their communications from Apple, going way back, bore non-disclosure language. This latest wrinkle does indeed appear to be inconsistent legal notices from different Apple developer reps, rather than any substantive change in response to PodcasterGate.

Still, resentment levels among iPhone developers are still soaring, and due to the NDA, the public displeasure ain’t nothing compared to what’s building internally.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Rejection Redux: NDA May Not Be News