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London — Mar 07, `08 — The BBC has launched a version of its iPlayer video on demand service for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

It is the first time the service has been available on portable devices.

The iPhone and iPod touch are able to stream shows from the iPlayer website over wi-fi networks. The iPhone cannot stream BBC video over the cell network. A BBC developer said that the corporation was currently working on other versions of the iPlayer for “many more” devices.

The software currently comes in two versions - a program which allows users to download programmes to their Windows PC and a streaming version on the web available to all users.

The version for iPhone and iPod touch users will allow streaming over a wi-fi connection. However, the EDGE mobile network used by the iPhone is too slow for streaming video. More at BBC.

CUPERTINO, California —Apple on Thursday, March 06, previewed its iPhone 2.0 software, scheduled for release this June, and announced the immediate availability of a beta release of the software to selected developers and enterprise customers.

The iPhone 2.0 beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks.

The iPhone SDK provides developers with a rich set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and tools to create innovative applications for iPhone and iPod touch. Starting today, anyone can download the beta iPhone SDK for free and run the iPhone Simulator on their Mac. Apple today also introduced its new iPhone Developer Program, giving developers everything they need to create native applications, and the new App Store, a breakthrough way for developers to wirelessly deliver their applications to iPhone and iPod touch users.

With the iPhone SDK, third party developers will be able to build native applications for the iPhone with a rich set of APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa Touch technologies. The iPhone SDK will allow developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhone’s groundbreaking Multi-Touch user interface, animation technology, large storage, built-in three-axis accelerometer and geographical location technology to deliver truly innovative mobile applications.

Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft and is building it right into the iPhone, so that iPhone will connect out-of-the-box to Microsoft Exchange Servers 2003 and 2007 for secure over-the-air push email, contacts, calendars and global address lists. Built-in Exchange ActiveSync support also enables security features such as remote wipe, password policies and auto-discovery.

The iPhone 2.0 software supports Cisco IPsec VPN to ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption available for transmission of sensitive corporate data, as well as the ability to authenticate using digital certificates or password-based, multi-factor authentication. The addition of WPA2 Enterprise with 802.1x authentication enables enterprise customers to deploy iPhone and iPod touch with the latest standards for protection of Wi-Fi networks.

Pricing & Availability
Apple plans to release the final iPhone 2.0 software, including the iPhone SDK and new enterprise features, as a free software update for all iPhone customers by the end of June. Third party applications created for the iPhone will also run on the iPod touch, and iPod touch users will be required to purchase a software update to run these applications. The free beta iPhone SDK is available immediately worldwide and can be downloaded at developer.apple.com/iphone/program.  More at Apple.

Cupertino, Calif — Feb 05, `08 — Apple today added new models of the iPhone and iPod touch which have double the memory, doubling the amount of music, photos and videos that customers can carry with them wherever they go. The iPhone now comes in a new 16GB model for $499, joining the 8GB model for $399. iPod touch now comes in a 32GB model for $499, joining the 16GB model for $399 and the 8GB model for $299.

Both iPhone and iPod touch feature Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface and pioneering software that allows users to find and enjoy all their music, videos, photos and more with just a touch of their finger. All iPhone and iPod touch models include the latest software enhancements announced last month including the ability to automatically find your location using the new Maps application; create Web Clips for your favorite websites; customize your home screen and watch movies from the new iTunes Movie Rentals. Both iPhone and iPod touch feature the world’s most advanced mobile web browser in the world with Safari and mobile applications including Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes.

Pricing & Availability The new 16GB iPhone is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $499 through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and AT&T retail and online stores. The 32GB iPod touch is available worldwide immediately for a suggested retail price of $499. More at Apple.

“One place. One password.
Do you have to visit one site for a bill and another for your balance? Sign in with a single password and bring your checking, savings and credit card accounts together all in one place — plus your bill reminders! Get an instant view of where you’re at financially plus what’s coming up — anytime, from any computer or device with a Web connection.

With totally, wholly, completely Web-based Quicken Online you can quickly and easily see your most up-to-date account info automatically when you sign in — no matter whether you’re using Internet Explorer, Safari, or Firefox, or other popular Web browsers. Quicken Online is even compatible with Web-enabled mobile phones like the iPhone for true on-the-go access.”

Says Intuit about Quicken Online, which launches on January 8.

Dec 18, `07 — Intuit is looking to boost Quicken personal finance software sales by offering it as a service for $3 a month that can run on iPhone, Reuters reports.

Intuit has designed the product to appeal to younger consumers, people who may have used online banking for most of their adult lives, but do not use software to track those transactions. “Our first mission is to make sure we are solving the needs of people who are not currently using a personal finance solution,” Intuit senior vice president Rick Jensen told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. More at Reuters.

On Wednesday, Dec 12, Google Mobile released new iPhone interface for Picasa. After you go to Picasa on your iPhone and log in, you can quickly see all your albums that you’ve uploaded to Picasa Web.

If you click on any of the albums, you can get a full view of your picture with comments from your friends. Or you can click on Slideshow, sit back and watch the pictures scroll. You can also search for photos in your album or through community photos. Finally, you can view your friends’ albums through favorites.

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch go to http://picasaweb.google.com and check it out. More at Google Mobile Blog.

Dec 07, ‘07 — iPhone Dev Team has released the code for anySIM iPhone unlocking tool on Google Code today.

In their words, “You may know anySIM, the most popular and free unlock solution for Apple’s iPhone. Because of the public request and to archive a constant code quality, we now opensourced it!

The source will go online at firday, the 7th of december. Anybody is welcome to contribute patchs to the software on the proper way. You will be able to submit potential changes to the tree via svn by than. We are looking forward to your contribution!

Feel free to join IRC as well at irc.osx86.hu”

More at iPhone Dev Team

Mountain View, CA –Marketwire–Dec 06, ‘07 — JAJAH today released version 2.0 of its calling application for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch. In addition to saving on international calls, users will have an iPhone style dial pad, iPhone address book and full calling functionally with the device.

Hand-in-hand with JAJAH’s developer community, the enhanced application enables users to make ultra-low cost international calls directly from the iPhone and iPod touch. The application combines the best of both worlds: The reliability and quality of a standard landline or cell phone while profiting from the cost savings of Internet telephony.

Apple users have modified the application on top of the JAJAH platform to make it look exactly like any other phone call on an iPhone device! There is no need to install an application so users globally can use the service without any jailbreaks. This new JAJAH Web app is available from today at http://iphone.jajah.com

Users can access the application at jajah.com/iphone. To place an international call, users simply use the Web apps dial pad or click a name in their address book and JAJAH connects the call right away. To sign up for the JAJAH iPhone service, visit Jajah.

Dec 05, ‘07 — Mobile phone company Orange has said 20% of customers who have bought iPhones from it in France have opted for unlocked ones, NOT the half, as earlier reported, BBC News correcting the story now.

Orange sold the popular Apple product for €399 euros ($585) with a two-year contract, or €749 euros without one. Elsewhere, mobile companies only sell iPhones to customers who take out network contracts with them.

Orange sold 30,000 iPhones in the first five days, 20% of which were unlocked so they could be used on any network. Orange says that 48% of people buying the phones were new customers for the network. More at BBC News.

Dec 05, ‘07 — Today, Google announced the release of a new iPhone application that integrates its multiple services into a single interface, making it easy for iPhone users to find, use and switch between Google search, Gmail, Calendar, Reader, and more.

To use the application, iPhone users simply point their web browser to Google.com.

To accomplish this, Google is taking advantage of browser technologies (like AJAX) that made Gmail and Google Maps possible on the desktop. In supporting these advances in web technology, the iPhone’s Safari browser not only delivers an excellent mobile Internet experience; it enabled our product and engineering teams to create an optimal Google experience on a mobile device.

Google’s overall goal is to provide users with access to information, wherever they are. This commitment is device-independent, and we are working to develop new mobile technologies that are faster, easier to use, and available on more devices.

A recent example is My Location, a Google Maps for mobile feature that shows users their location directly on the map with or without GPS. To see the full range of mobile products and services available from Google, visit mobile.google.com.

More at Google, Google Mobile.

Dec 05, ‘07 — Orange has said half of customers who have bought iPhones from it in France have opted for unlocked ones, BBC reports.

Orange sold the popular Apple product for €399 euros ($585) with a two-year contract, or €749 euros without one. Elsewhere, mobile companies only sell iPhones to customers who take out network contracts with them.

Orange sold 30,000 iPhones in the first five days, 52% of which were unlocked so they could be used on any network.

On Tuesday, a German court overturned an injunction that had forced T-Mobile to sell unlocked phones. In the two weeks that the injunction was in place, T-Mobile sold unlocked iPhones for €999 euros, compared with €399 euros for a phone with a two-year contract.

More at BBCNews.

Paris, France — Dec 05, 07 — Just 5 days after the full commercial launch, Orange has already sold 30,000 iPhones, thus confirming the strong appeal of this new type of mobile, available since 29 November in 680 Orange points of sale in France.

* 48% of iPhone sales lead to a new Orange line subscription
* 80% of customers sign up for a dedicated “Orange for iPhone” plan at the same time

“This is a very good score, especially as one in two iPhone purchases is accompanied by a new Orange line subscription”, said Louis-Pierre Wenes, Executive Director in charge of France operations. “This confirms that the iPhone will make an active contribution to the acquisition of new customers”, he added. More at FranceTelecom.

Boston — Dec 04, ‘07 — SAP said on Tuesday that new software for sales-force automation that it is hailing as one of the most user-friendly products to date would be compatible with iPhone, reports Reuters.

SAP, the world’s biggest maker of business management software, will include the program as part of new sales-force automation software that it is launching this month.

SAP is breaking with precedent by introducing versions of the new software that are compatible with the iPhone ahead of ones for mobile devices that businesses traditionally use. These include Research in Motion’s Blackberry, Palm’s Treo and devices that run on Windows Mobile from Microsoft.

The iPhone software, part of a new sales-force automation suite from SAP, uses a Web-based interface with drag-and-drop tools similar to ones available on Google. More at Reuters.

HAMBURG, Germany — Dec 04, ‘07 — Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile can sell iPhones with a T-Mobile contract and may continue to offer the device with a locked SIM card, a German court ruled on Tuesday, reversing a lower court’s decision that said an unlocked version must be sold in Europe’s biggest economy.

Rival Vodafone had obtained a temporary court injunction preventing T-Mobile from locking the iPhone’s SIM card — thus preventing it from being used on other networks — and offering it only in combination with a T-Mobile contract.

T-Mobile had appealed that injunction, which led to the new ruling, and the wireless operator unveiled an unlocked version of the phone priced at $1,465 (€999), more than twice the $585 (€399) price of a phone sold in combination with a two-year T-Mobile contract.

Egham, UK — Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users in the third quarter of 2007 reached 289 million units, a 15 per cent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner, Inc. The top five vendors increased their market shares and accounted for 81.6 per cent of the global market share.

“Even though relatively few models were introduced this quarter, overall sales exceeded expectations. Mobile phone sales were mainly driven by strong performances in Asia/Pacific and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices research at Gartner, based in Egham, UK. “The third quarter also saw Samsung gain the No. 2 position taking advantage of Motorola’s continued weak performance.”

Nokia’s mobile phone sales to end users totaled 110.2 million units reaching a market share of 38.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2007. This quarter, Nokia not only exhibited the highest year-on-year market share increase, but also raised operating margins thanks to effective cost management and global distribution strategy.

Samsung’s sales to end users reached 41.8 million units and saw the vendor gain the No. 2 position as it better managed its channel inventory. Sales of its Ultra Edition II series continued to gain momentum in key markets such as Western Europe, where Samsung reached 21 per cent market share, its strongest performance in the region.

Motorola’s sales into the channel remained weak and, with limited surplus stock, sales to end users were not enough to maintain its No. 2 position. Motorola’s market share dropped 7.6 percentage points from the third quarter of 2006, relegating the vendor to the No. 3 position.

Sony Ericsson’s positive performance continued in the third quarter of 2007 as sales reached 25.4 million units. As Sony Ericsson built up sales volume and presence in some regions, such as Latin America, it also saw a slight increase in inventory among distributors.

LG sold 20.5 million units in the third quarter of 2007 and reached a market share of 7.1 per cent. LG faced stronger competition in markets such as India, where the code division multiple access (CDMA) market has become challenging as operators closed deals with new entrants such as ZTE. More at Gartner.

Related:

Makers of Mechanical -Not So Electronic- Mobile Phones, Motorola Replaces CEO

Nov 29, ‘07 — Staff at the UK’s biggest mobile phone retailer, Carphone Warehouse, have been caught misleading customers about Apple’s popular iPhone handset, undercover researchers from BBC One’s Watchdog found staff made false claims about what would happen if a phone was stolen and had not been insured.

This was in the hope customers would take out the store’s own insurance. The firm said there could be “some element of confusion among an isolated number of sales consultants”.

The findings come just a year after Carphone Warehouse was fined £245,000 by the Financial Services Authority for breaking the rules on selling insurance.

Viewers complained to Watchdog that they had been told if they lost their iPhone, they would have to buy an entirely new 18 month contract - at a minimum cost of £630, which is obviously not true.

Staff at the stores receive commission on all insurance and phones they sell. More at BBCNews.

Nov 29, ‘07 — Apple will introduce a 3G version of the iPhone next year, Crayton Harrison of Bloomberg is reporting on AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson’s comments at a meeting of the Churchill Club in Santa Clara, California

He furtherwrites, “”You’ll have it next year,” Stephenson said in response to a question about when the 3G iPhone would debut. He said he didn’t know how much more the new version will cost than the existing model, which sells for $399. Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs “will dictate what the price of the phone is,” he said

Jobs said in September that the iPhone’s battery life would be too short if it supported faster networks. The handset has eight hours of battery life, and 3G chips are “real power hogs,” he said at a news conference in London. “We’ve got to see the battery lives for 3G get back up into the five-plus-hour range,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll see that late next year.”" More at Bloomberg.

Paris — Nov 28, ‘07 — Apple’s much-hyped iPhone went on sale in France on Wednesday at 12 select stores here, including mobile carrier Orange’s new boutique on Paris’ most famous avenue, the Champs-Elysees.

Didier Lombard, head of Orange parent France Telecom, said he hopes to sell as many as 100,000 of the handset by the end of the year, despite its high price tag. It goes on sale nationwide on Thursday.

Europe has presented two challenges to Apple’s strategy of offering iPhones through a single mobile operator for each region.

French consumer law requires Orange to sell handsets that are “unlocked” and able to work on any carrier, which Orange will do. And Germany’s Deutsche Telekom is selling an unlocked phone via its T-Mobile unit after a Hamburg court ordered it to, in response to a challenge from rival Vodafone Group PLC.

Orange will offer the unlocked iPhone for €649 euros ($956) to which the user will have to add €100 euros if another operator is used, the head of Orange France told Le Figaro newspaper.

In Germany where the iPhone was launched three weeks ago T-Mobile offers the device without a contract for €999 euros.

Orange confirmed it had agreed to share revenue from iPhone subscriptions with Apple in return for its exclusivity agreement but declined to comment on analysts estimates that Apple’s cut could be around 25 percent.

AT&T sells the 8-gigabyte iPhone for $399 in the United States, having slashed the price by a third about 10 weeks after its debut. Consumers in Britain, where the iPhone is sold by exclusively by O2 — pay about $556.

STOCKHOLM — Nov 28, ‘07 — Nokia could experience delays or holdups in its smartphone strategy if rival Apple goes on the defensive to protect its intellectual property rights regarding the touch-screen iPhone, says Steve Goldstein of Marketwatch.

He further writes, “”I think Apple will likely view Nokia as infringing on its user interface patents,” said London-based Nomura analyst Richard Windsor Wednesday. “But I don’t see this being the same scale of (the) legal battle Nokia has with Qualcomm IWindsor said. He said Nokia is likely working on an overhaul of its s60 platform, to be ready in the second half of 2008, a move that will feature touch.

He said Apple claims to have filed at least 200 patents relating to the touch screen user interface on the iPhone and is likely to protect them. He said Apple and Nokia would be more likely to end up in an agreement in 2009 rather than slugging it out in the courts.” More at MarketWatch.

Nov 26, ‘07 — Electronista is claiming that some developers are gaining early access to Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch software developer kit, citing “reliable sources”.

Last month Steve Jobs announced in an open letter that an iPhone/iPod touch SDK would be released in February 2008.

Eelctronista further writes, “A handful of companies are said to be getting rough versions of the tools to help code more advanced applications than would be possible with the current web-only solution. Exact details of what the kit allows are unknown, though it is confirmed that it produces native programs and somewhat resembles Google’s OpenSocial in that it mediates between the programmer and the iPhone operating system.

Although treated as a welcome development, the SDK will not be the same as writing a Mac OS X application and has its clear limits, people familiar with the matter say.

The group of companies has only received its development tools within the past two weeks and is allegedly unable to provide a timetable for when finished software will be ready, though it should be well ahead of the community at large, which only receives the SDK in February.” More at Eletronista.

Helsinki, Finland - Fancy a dose of culture in the Finnish city of Oulu? All you need is a mobile phone. Says Reuters.

Get theatre tickets digitally, download a smart video trailer of how the play was directed, order and pay for snacks for the interval and, after a culture-packed night, order a taxi home — all by just swiping a cellphone over smart tags placed on the menus or around the foyer of the theatre.

The Oulu City Theatre in northern Finland, 373 miles (600 kilometers) north of Helsinki, says it is the world’s first cultural institution to use the hippest handset technology, expected to turn mobile phones into wallets.

NFC (near-field communication) technology is activated by waving phones over wireless readers, or smart tags, and is widely used in public transport access cards.

The theatre is running a pilot, involving technology from Finnish mobile phone-maker Nokia and telecommunications operator TeliaSonera, until the year-end and will extend its usage more widely if it proves successful. More at Reuters.

Nov 21, ‘07 — Apple has been forced to release a version of the iPhone in Germany that is not locked into a specific network or contract, scuppering its exclusive deal with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile.

Following a preliminary injunction, T-Mobile said that it would sell an unlocked phone for $1465 ( €999 ) until a final decision is reached. It will continue to offer iPhones locked into a two-year contract for $585 ( €399 ). Its announcement comes after rival Vodafone went to a German court to challenge T-Mobile’s exclusive tie-up with the iPhone in Germany.

Vodafone Deutschland won the injunction barring T-Mobile from offering the iPhone exclusively with a so-called SIM lock that stops users from switching the device to any other operator’s network, and with a minimum two year contract.

There is no indication that the case could be replicated in the UK. A Vodafone spokesman said: “This is particular to Germany. The regulatory situation is very different from the UK, so we won’t be doing it here.”

The case is due to come before the courts in around two weeks time, when Vodafone will push for Apple to sell unlocked iPhones at the same, or a similar price as the phone locked into the T-Mobile contract.

Apple has offered the iPhone exclusively to one operator in each of the countries that it has launched, in a bid to secure a percentage of phone usage revenues from the mobile operators.

Taipei — Nov 21, ‘07 — Digitimes is reporting on “3Q07 North America” a report from Strategy Analytics. “Handsets from Motorola and LG Electronics (LGE), collectively accounted for seven of the top-ten best selling consumer handsets in the US in the third quarter of 2007, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.”

Digitimes further writes, “3G devices accounted for 55% of the top selling device volumes. That share will continue to grow during the fourth quarter,” states Chris Ambrosio, a director in the Wireless Practice at Strategy Analytics. “While the iPhone gets the headlines, the “Sync” from Samsung and the “Chocolate” from LG quietly stole the show in the category of iconic, 3G feature phones. Samsung, in particular, is well-positioned to dominate 3G sales during the critical fourth quarter holiday season.” More at Digitimes.

Ok let me repeat, “3G devices accounted for 55% of the top selling device volumes”, and still Apple’s so called revolutionary iPhone is NOT 3G, though rumors of 3G iPhone making rounds on the internet for a while.

Nov 20, ‘07 — It sounds like Apple is updating the iPhone and adding what iPhone shoud’ve come out with in first place, 3G. Unwired View is reporting / speculating on Vodafone getting exclusive right to 3G iPhone in the spring of ‘08, citing Italian site Morse.it

“Italian site Morse.it reports that Vodafone has signed an agreement with Apple for the exclusive distribution rights to 3G iPhone UMTS. The UMTS iPhone 3G will be launched next spring, simultaneously in all countries where Vodafone operates.

The new 3G UMTS iPhone should be announced after Christmas, or early next year (Macworld Expo?), so as not to negatively impact Christmas sales of the current generation iPhone.”

Unwired View further cites an article from theRegister.co.uk and another article from Morse.it from the past week corroborating the story. More here.

Dusseldorf, Germany — Nov 19, ‘07 — The German unit of Vodafone said Monday it had won a court order requiring its rival, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, to sell the Apple iPhone in Germany without a mandatory calling plan.

The restraining order was issued by a regional court in Hamburg Monday. Vodafone is questioning Deutsche Telekom’s iPhone sales practices, the spokesman said. Deutsche Telekom is marketing the iPhone exclusively in Germany.

Specifically, Vodafone is questioning the iPhone’s exclusive use in T-Mobile’s network and the use of the device being limited to certain fees within T- Mobile’s subscription offerings.

Vodafone Germany chief executive Friedrich Joussen said in Dusseldorf Vodafone did not want to halt iPhone sales. ‘We want it to be available to buyers without a mandatory calling plan,’ he said. ‘If I had wanted to halt sales, I could have, but I didn’t.’ Joussen said he expected a substantive ruling within two weeks.

A spokesman for T-Mobile Monday confirmed the restraining order has been issued, adding that the company is examining the issue. So far, it is too early to comment on possible consequences for the company, he said.

Nov 19, ‘07 — According to XianLi, a senior member at Hackintosh forum, the iPhone spies on you. The evidence in the code shows that the Stocks and Weather applications send your IMEI number—the unique number that identifies your iPhone and which is tied to your personal information—to Apple, along with the kind of app you were using to access the data.

If this is confirmed I can see some privacy lawsuits would be knocking Apple’s door.

Excerpts from Giz:
“While there’s no evidence that Apple actually uses this information for any purpose, good or evil, the code shows that every time you try to access a detailed information on whatever stock, the information will be sent embedded in the URL. This could be combined with IP location and the information in Apple or its partner’s databases to know what are you accessing, when and from where, all over the world. This could be a powerful data mining source for Apple and, if true, a breach on your privacy.

More importantly, there’s no op-out and Apple covers its back with the iPhone’s license, as readers have pointed already in the comments.”

Here is what some of the Hackintosh forum members say about this:

A Comment from “brand1130″:
“This is how they know exactly how many iphnoes have been unlocked. total # of IMEIs minus the number of IMEI’s that have contacted the stocks/weather pages and were never activated

The bad thing about this is they konw exactly which IMEIs have been unlocked or at least bypassed activation. Hopefully, they can’t do anything further with it.”
Another comment from a senior member, “NotFound”:
“Apple is evil and monopolist.
1. They seal the batteries. You have to pay them $50 to $75 to replace the problematic batteries after warranty.
2. They use non-standard headset plugs. Technically, standard plug interface is enough in doing what iPods and iPhones should do with it.
3. They steal development ideas from 3rd party developers. For example, they stole widget from Konfabulator. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.
4. They rob the open source community and barely contribute. For example, Apache, Virtual Desktop and so on.
5. They don’t donate. While Bill Gates became the most generous donor on Earth many years ago, we barely heard Apple or its executives being on the news for the same reason.
6. Commercials, way too many commercials. If you notice, Steve Jobs and his team keeps advertising iTunes Store etc. They even put a iTunes Store icon on the SpringBoard. They charge for everything. All they talk about is money. Only money.”

More at Hackintosh, Giz.