References:
_flash_on_the_iphone.html
Steve Jobs: Adobe Flash Will Not Be Supported By iPhone Anytime Soon
Sunday, March 9, 2008
New iPhone And iPod Touch Models With Beefed-up Memories And Bumped-up Prices
Friday, February 8, 2008
Apple rolled out new iPhone and iPod Touch models with beefed-up memories and bumped-up prices.
A premium iPhone with 16 gigabytes of memory and a 499 dollar price tag is now the top of that line, ahead of a model with half the memory and a price of 399 dollars.
An iPod Touch with 32 gigabytes of memory costs 499 dollars, relegating the 399 dollar 16-gigabyte model to second position. Apple sells an eight-gigabyte iPod Touch for 299 dollars.
"For some users, there's never enough memory," said Apple vice president for iPod and iPhone marketing, Greg Joswiak.
Apple chief executive, Steve Jobs says the California Company has sold more than four million iPhones, touch-screen mobile devices combining telephone, video, music, and Internet connectivity.
IPod Touch models are essentially iPhones without the mobile telephone capabilities.
Apple's enhancement of memory capacities in its devices comes a month after the company added a movie rental service to its iTunes online entertainment store menu.
IPhone and iPod Touch models can download and present content from iTunes.
Hacker creativity drives Apple iPhone innovation
Monday, January 28, 2008
Since the iPhone was born, there’s been a rift in the user community between those who keep the iPhone the way Apple intended, only updating when Apple releases something new. On the flip side, there’s the “jailbreak” community, who has been opening up the iPhone to new applications and uses, though admittedly to the detriment of some user’s phones, for the same amount of time. Whether Apple admits to it or not, the iPhone “hackers” have been responsible for all the recent innovation to the iPhone.
That isn’t really limited to the iPhone. Apple is famous for working off the ideas established by open source programmers. For instance, Virtue Desktops, an open source free app that allowed users to have multiple desktop spaces available, was essentially copied and made better by Apple in the application Spaces for Leopard.
With the iPhone, there were tons of games and applications created by “hackers” who wanted users to have the full range of the iPhone platform without all the nuisances of Apple’s limitations. That looked like games, multiple home screens, rearrangeable icons, ringtones, and more.
Far be it from Apple or Steve Jobs to not jump on an opportunity to release the ideas of others in a more streamlined, secure format to the general public. In the wake of those hacks, look how closely Apple’s updates have paralleled the works of the hacking community. That isn’t to say Apple is wrong for doing so. It just goes to prove that open source platforms and “hacking” or creativity as some like to call it are a necessity, and the companies that follow that community’s lead will benefit.
All the users who never jailbroke their iPhones are holding their noses high because Apple came around with the innovations in a secure form, but without those revolutionaries, there is a very good chance the majority of users wouldn’t have the features in their iPhones they now do. So keep on jailbraking and pushing the limits, oh programmers and vigilantes.
Users Of The iPhone Can find Their Location By The Help Of Skyhook
Friday, January 25, 2008
The big idea came on a trip: Ted Morgan and Michael Shean used Wi-Fi signals in their travels so often to pick up e-mail; they saw a business opportunity in their future. What if they could figure out locations and directions via Wi-Fi signals instead of the more commonly used Global Positioning System (GPS)?
After discovering that it could work, they left their jobs at e-billing company eDocs and formed Skyhook Wireless in 2003. The Boston-based firm raised $16.8 million and signed up several partners to showcase the technology, including AOL (TWX) and mapping firm Navteq (NVT).
Last week, Skyhook was thrust to center stage courtesy of Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs. He not only demonstrated Skyhook at the Macworld conference here, but also gave a detailed and spirited explanation of how the technology works. "Isn't that cool?" Jobs said. "It's really cool."
Now, users of the iPhone and the iPod Touch (an iPod that can pick up Wi-Fi signals) can find their location and, in conjunction with mapping information from Google (GOOG), get instant directions. The feature is part of a software update that is free for the iPhone and $20 for current Touch owners.
The alliance and plug from Apple are "enormous for us," Skyhook CEO Morgan says. "It's a huge endorsement of the technology."
Morgan won't discuss terms but says Skyhook generally gets a royalty on each device sold, similar to how GPS tech companies work with device manufacturers.
USA TODAY caught up with Morgan and Shean during their Macworld visit. During their time together, they drove around the city to see if the iPhone really could tell if they were near the Golden Gate Bridge, at Fisherman's Wharf or cruising down zig-zaggy Lombard Street.
No wrong turns: Skyhook worked as advertised.
Morgan explained how the technology works: "Every Wi-Fi access point, whether public or private, sends out a signal every second or so, like a lighthouse. We pick up those signals and use our technology to calculate your exact location."
To get the system up and running, Skyhook sent teams of drivers around the USA and Canada to map out hot spots; it now has 70% of North America covered. Skyhook vehicles now are cruising Europe and Asia to add to the database.
Skyhook isn't the only company touting GPS alternatives.
Google introduced its free "My Location" technology in late November, picking up its information from cell phone towers. Google's offering works on a handful of Motorola (MOT) and Sony Ericsson (SNE) phones, smart phones from BlackBerry (RIMM) and "most" Windows (MSFT) Mobile devices, Google says. Apple uses both Skyhook and Google technology on the iPhone. It looks for Wi-Fi signals first, and if there are none, it switches to Google's cell-tower information.
Apple Announces iTunes Movie Rentals for Apple TV, iPhone And iPod
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Steve Jobs just announced movie rentals via iTunes at this year's Macworld expo. Apple will be partnering with studios such as Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Sony, Disney, and more. According to Jobs, the service will feature not only great first run titles, but a library of past favorites as well.
New releases will cost $3.99 (USD), while older flicks will come at a cheaper $2.99. Once a film is rented, the viewer will have up to 30 days to watch the film he or she rented. So, if you rent a film only to find out that something has come up and you won't be able to sit down with your popcorn and soda to view it, no worries. Once you start viewing, however, you'll have 24 hours to finish watching (similar to most cable or satellite television movie rental services).
Another great convenience of the service is the ability to watch your rental on any one or multiple devices. Watch the film on Apple TV; watch it on your iPhone or iPod. It's all good. The best part? If you don't finish your movie on Sunday night, you can stop it, transfer it to your iPhone and watch it on the train on your way to work (as long as it falls within the 24 hour rental period).
According to Jobs, the service is FAST too, reportedly after selecting a rental - video will begin streaming in 30 seconds or less. Not bad.
iTunes video rentals will be available as of today through a soon-to-be-released iTunes update.
iPhone 'fails to live up to hype' in Britain
Monday, January 21, 2008
The long-awaited iPhone has failed to match the hype with sales of Apple’s ground breaking gadget falling short of expectations.
Mobile network giant O2, which is the only network provider in the UK for the handset, sold 190,000 for the first eight weeks from the iPhone’s launch in November - 10,000 short of the figures it predicted, according to the Financial Times.
02 had anticipated selling 200,000 iPhones in the first two months, but analysts predicted the sales would be far higher after pre-launch hype led to expectations that the £269 phone would quickly become a best seller like its iconic iPod predecessors.
But the high price tag and restrictions on using the phone on just a single network is thought to have put many consumers off buying the ground-breaking touch sensitive mobile phone.
Customers buying the phone were required to take out an 18 month contract at £35 a month, facing an outlay of £899.
Apple also released software updates in a bid to prevent people from having their iPhones "chipped", which allowed them to use the phone on other networks.
O2 has insisted that the iPhone has attracted "unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction" and said the iPhone was its fastest ever selling handset.
It also said that the device had triggered a three-fold increase in the number of people visiting its stores in the past two months.
Consumer technology analysts Gartner, however, had predicted in November that sales of the iPhone could reach up to 400,000 in the first two months.
The first weekend of iPhone sales sparked fears that uptake would be disappointing after UK stores failed to attract the long queues seen outside retailers in the United States when the phone was launched there earlier in the summer.
Apple chief Steve Jobs this week revealed that the company has sold more than 4 million iPhones worldwide - an average of 20,000 iPhones a day.
Speaking at Apple’s technology showcase MacWorld Expo, he also announced new software, including an upgraded location detection feature, in a bid to attract more customers.
Apple and O2 have both declined to comment on iPhone sales figures in the UK.
The O2 figures come as Carphone Warehouse, which has also been selling the iPhone in its stores, reported disappointing sales figures over the Christmas period.
It reported an 11 per cent rise in connections of all mobile phones compared to the anticipated 15 per cent.
iPhone as a Business Adventure
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Here we have another surprise from Apple. On Wednesday, Steve Jobs announced that the company was cutting the price of the 8GB model by 33%, which makes a whopping $200. Thus, Apple's miracle device 10 weeks after its launch costs only $399.
Customers are angry and so are company's investors. How can this move be explained? The first idea that comes to mind is that Apple is not able to meet the forecasts and has taken more aggressive marketing action.
However, I see a different picture here. I strongly believe that in business succeed not the best products but those products which are accompanied by the the biggest buzz and hype. In our complicated world, marketing is something almost a mystical thing. Little marketing details can make dramatic difference. Let's notice a couple of things.
Have you noticed how many blogs, websites and shows are devoted to iPhone? I can't remember any other product with such a huge buzz as Apple's iPhone. I must say that Steve Jobs did the most marvelous job in this respect.
The deal was made with AT&T only. Boom, the phone is locked for any other carrier. Want an iPhone? You are welcome to grab one, come and subscribe to AT&T. Want to use the device with other carriers? No problem, do some hardware tweaking and the phone is unlocked. Don't want to deal with soldering? Oh, there are already at least a couple of different alternatives to unlock the phone at the software level. Had it be possible to use the phone with other carriers, that lucky guy would not have got a brand new car for his unlocking software and gazillion of bloggers would not have been able to write nice posts about this fact. How many blog posts, news articles and rumour has arisen about unlocking iPhone? Countless!!!
The phone doesn't have support for Java. Is it good or bad? After all Java game development industry is estimated to be a billion-dollar industry. But let's sacrifice ability to use Java software on iPhone to the hype and buzzword and as a side effect to stability of the device.
No, no and again no. We are still not able to sell as many iPhones as we would love to. What do we do next? Yes sure, let's cut the price by $200. Wait, you can buy many different cell phones under $200 and this guy is reducing the price by $200. What about those people who have paid original price? Good news for them, if they have not opened the phone they can take advantage of the Apple's refund policy.
But how did the investors react? They did exactly as expected. Apple's share prices dropped by more than 5% just overnight. That's bad but the action (price cut) leads the company to even more aggressive marketing campaign. At the same moment Apple introduces an array of new digital products.
All in all, I see that Apple is playing a risky but well thought out marketing game. Where will it lead? Oh, we only have to wait and see.
More iPhone When You iPling
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
"Our innovative approach, using Web 2.0-based standards, lets developers create amazing new applications while keeping the iPhone secure and reliable." says Steve Jobs.
That's true, soooo true. Past couple of weeks many iPhone targeted web 2.0 applications emerged. It's sad that quantity is not always a key factor. To me quality over quantity is more important. But there is one cool web 2.0 application for iPhone. It's called iPling. Not sure who invented that word but as the creators define iPling is the act of opening up by sharing my thoughts with other iPling users, so they know the things I like and the mood I'm in.
In other words, iPling is a location based social expansion service. You can use iPling to search for those whose share your musical tastes, hobbies, likes and dislikes, etc. I'd say that iPling seamlessly integrates into your life (huh, what a phrase). You want to be discoverable, right? So you just create your quick profiles or as the creators of iPling call them "iPling circles". Basically, the profiles describe what you are looking for. Done with that? So good. Now you can start discovering new peopl and be discovered by others.
A good thing about iPling that it is anonymous. In other words, when you enter an iPling relationship you do not reveal much about yourself, well except the common interests that you and the other iPlinger have.
Don't want any more missed encounters? With iPling you won't miss the next opportunity. Join and enjoy!
This post has been featured on BLOGVASION.COM
