Lonnie Lazar is a writer-musician-web designer-attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.
Apple, Inc. is expected to report strong second quarter earnings after US markets close on Monday and the company will do so without recognizing a single iPhone sale, according to a Bloomberg report. Instead of including sales of first generation iPhones that came at the end of the second quarter before the release of the wildly successful iPhone 3G, the company will report an increase in earnings on rising sales of Macintosh computers and iPod media players alone.
“The Mac is the primary reason we own Apple shares,” said Michael Obuchowski, a portfolio manager at New York-based Altanes Investments LLC, which began buying Apple shares in 2006. “For several quarters, we’ve seen an incredible acceleration in Apple’s PC business.”
There could be even more good news ahead for Apple shareholders, who will undoubtedly receive another boost next quarter, when Apple tells the story of its hugely successful iPhone 3G release, which has nearly completely sold out in the United States, Germany and other worldwide locations in its first 10 days on the market.
Software engineer Satoshi Nakajima, the lead architect of Microsoft’s Windows 95, picked up a Mac for the first time two years ago.
He was so impressed, he says he’ll never touch a PC again.
Satoshi loves Apple products so much, he started a company in April, Big Canvas, to develop for Apple’s iPhone platform full-time.
“We have chosen iPhone as the platform to release our first product (for) several reasons,” explains his company’s website. “We love Apple products… You need love to be creative.”
Based in Bellevue, WA — right next to Microsoft’s home turf of Redmond — Satoshi spent nearly 14 years at Microsoft, serving as the software architect of Windows 95 and 98. He also oversaw the development of Internet Explorer 3.0 and 4.0. While at Microsoft, he developed the third largest portfolio of intellectual property of any employee at the company, according to his bio.
Last week, Satoshi released his company’s first iPhone application, Photoshare, a free, social networking app for sharing pictures with the iPhone.
Photoshare is like Flickr for iPhone photographers. The downloadable Photoshare app allows users to upload pictures to Photoshare’s website, and then share those pictures publicly or privately — without any required registration or the need for a computer.
We spoke with Satoshi about the pleasures of writing software for the iPhone SDK and got some of his thoughts about Apple’s UI, its distribution model for iPhone apps and the future of handheld communications.
Perhaps AT&T employees in New York were so overwhelmed by the amount of business they did this week, they went time out of mind, or began speaking in tongues.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says because Apple “knocked it out of the park on the first weekend” supply chain shortages could force iPhone 3G customers to scramble to find a phone or delay their purchase into August, when beefed up orders should replenish supply.
Apple’s iPhone availability tool indicated yesterday just over 25% of the compnay’s 188 US retail stores had any models of the iPhone 3G in stock, with the most-hard-to-find 16GB model in black available in only 18 stores countrywide. Only 13 stores reported all three models on hand, while the apparently least-popular 16GB model in white could still be found in 46 stores.
AT&T company spokesman Wes Warnock said Tuesday their 1,200 retail stores are also nearly out of the iPhone. “As we’re able to start restocking our stores, we will do so as fast as we can.”
Intego has announced a free upgrade for users of its VirusBarrier X5 security software to eradicate malware from the iPhone and iPod touch. The company has been at the center of news regarding the rise of “trojan horse” malware targeting OS X since at least 2004, the subject of ongoing debate among computer security experts about the risks of malicious software and computer viruses infecting Apple systems.
Earlier this month reports of Apple’s having neglected its mobile platform in releasing security patches to fix exploits discovered in the OS X desktop caused some to wonder whether the opening of the AppStore might also open the door to software that could harm an iPhone or iPod touch. Apple has promised to use its gatekeeping role to screen malware from the AppStore, though, as Intego’s press release mentions, users “jailbreaking” (unlocking) an iPhone or iPod touch can install applications not pre-certified by Apple, increasing the risk of stumbling into harm’s way.
Thus far, the only harmful scripts or programs identified targeting OS X have required the inordinately reckless cooperation of users to open their systems and invite an attack, so the real risks are yet minimal. But as Macs begin to surpass double digits in desktop market share and Apple’s mobile OS continues to advance among handheld users, the prize for black-hat software developers grows ever larger. Perhaps Intego, makers of what MacWorld calls the “gold standard” of Macintosh anti-virus software, will one day rival Norton.
If you see someone whipping out an iPhone at the next table or across the room at your next social gathering, chances are you’re looking at a member of the modern leisure class. When the iPhone made its debut last summer, people camped out in front of Apple stores across the United States to be among the first to experience Apple’s groundbreaking communication device. When Apple updated the phone and released its next gen gadget in more than 20 countries last Friday, again Apple retail stores and cellular provider outlets around the world received hordes of customers clamoring for the new phone — and Apple sold a paper million of them in three days.
Five days into the launch, all models of the phone were sold out in 21 states in the US and people were still lined up, waiting upwards of three hours to buy a phone in markets where they were still available. Steve Jobs called public reception of the new iPhone “stunning.”
Who are these people? A technology analyst for Piper Jaffray, Gene Munster put out a report this week estimating numbers and interests of the early adopters of iPhone 3G based on a survey done with 280 people waiting in line to buy the phone in New York. Earlier this year, another trends analyst, M Metrics published a report saying iPhone users tend to do more entertaining things on their devices such as watch video and visit social networks than those who own other smartphones. AdMob similarly confirmed that, at the time, iPhone users were still a relatively small part of the overall mobile phone market in the US, though, according to Munster’s research the percentage of iPhone users is growing.
A look at what’s popular on Apple’s iTunes AppStore sheds more light on the pursuits of iPhone users: every single one of the top ten free and paid applications downloaded from the AppStore in its first week in business — more than 10 million, according to Apple — is a game or entertainment/social networking application. That is, except for the free Weather Bug coming in at #8, which, I’ll surmise people may be looking to for confirmation of their plan to spend the day at the beach or somewhere equally leisurely.
Apple has big plans to storm the beachead of Microsoft’s hold on the Enterprise market and sure enough, the Mac moved past Acer into 3rd place among PC makers in the US market during the 2nd quarter of this year. But Apple’s share of the desktop market remains below 10% and the iPhone’s initial integration efforts with Exchange have run into significant headwinds at the Enterprise level.
For now, it seems pretty obvious the iPhone is a darling of those with time to spare.
The backup/synch process for iPhones takes a really long time and may turn out to be worthless for restoring a bricked device, according to emerging reports.
Blogger Erica Sadun wrote the other day about her frustrations with Apple’s synch and backup protocols in the iPhone 2.0 firmware and wondered why on earth she has to wait for entire applications to backup every time she synchs her phone with iTunes, instead of having iTunes backup only changed Document and Library data.
Writer Rob Griffiths also complains, “I can connect my phone, let it run a full backup and sync, disconnect it, let it sit on the desk for three minutes, then connect it again”¦and get hit with another hour-long backup cycle.”
And what’s worst is the local backup may be useless for restoring an iPhone to its as-configured state after crashing due to application instability or glitches in the 2.0 firmware. If this is a real problem, Apple’s millions of iPhone customers juggling their tens of millions of AppStore downloads will be letting us know quite soon, but as Griffiths writes, “the current implementation of backup in iPhone 2.0 seems very broken.”
In case you missed Pete’s snippet from yesterday, the iPhone’s Mobile Safari web browser looks very capable of bringing the full web on to the iPhone, outranking some popular desktop browsers in critical standards support testing.
In tests devised by the Web Standards Project to help developers ensure their work can reach as wide an audience as possible, Mobile Safari blew IE7 out of the water on compliance with support for CSS and even scored higher than Firefox 3 in testing for components vital to “Web 2.0″³ functionality.
Looks like those faster 3G download speeds could be worth something after all.
Apple is extending the subscriptions of its current MobileMe customers for 30 days at no charge, according to an email sent by the company today.
“The .Mac to MobileMe transition was a lot rockier than we had hoped but everything is now up and running,” Apple spokesman, Bill Evans, told Macworld. “We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge.”
MobileMe customers should see the extension reflected in their accounts “within the next few weeks,” according to Apple’s email.
Enterprise customers remain largely unimpressed with Apple’s efforts to promote the iPhone as a tool for business. While hordes of consumers worldwide are willing to stand in line for hours to buy one of the touch screen gadgets, business customers are proving a more wary audience. The disconnect could be a crucial indicator to the company’s future direction.
The shortcomings of Apple’s first generation configuration tool for the iPhone bear all the hallmarks of Apple’s long-standing lack of understanding for the needs of enterprise customers, according to eWeek. Problems with security and application delivery call into question the company’s ability to create an effective solution in-house that can serve the needs of its largest customers. As it stands, the iPhone might be effectively integrated into small business environments, but the tools as currently structured lack the security and remote reach large deployments require.
Apple is rumored to be coming out already – possibly this week – with fixes for Exchange support, which has been declared by some a complete mess. A whole host of features Windows Mobile users are used to seem to be missing or inadequate, according to a review in Mobility Today, and even Apple itself has backed away from its original claim that “”Push happens automatically, instantly, and continuously” via MobileMe, which Apple promotes as “Exchange for the rest of us.”
Apple’s simultaneous worldwide release of new hardware, a major firmware update, a complete overhaul of its web services product and a significant effort toward enterprise configuration must be applauded as a swing for the fences. And the fact that everything has not gone smoothly should come as no surprise. As ever, it will be interesting to watch where the company goes from here.
One of the AppStore’s hottest downloads has more than 500 reviews and a 1.5 star average rating, which has to be bad news for someone.
We got a press release yesterday from uLocate Communications touting the succes of its GPS navigation app for the iPhone, WHERE, free software downloaded more than 125,000 times in its first weekend. A quick check on the WHERE product page in iTunes tells a different side of the story.
“Doesn’t work,” Worthless” and “Just keeps crashing” are the kinds of reviews that get a developer working on an update right away, though other users seem to be having no problems and love the application, with one fan reporting, “I feel that I’ve missed too much in life already because Where wasn’t available before.”
As we reported Monday, some developers are pointing the finger at Apple, claiming the 2.0 firmware is unstable and causing their apps to crash. Apple, of course, has little to say on the matter thus far and seems content to let the waves of elation and frustration that have accompanied the AppStore’s big splash settle out on their own.
The good news for users of software such as WHERE, is that at a cost of “free” deciding it’s not worth the hassle costs no more than a little wasted time, something Apple’s early adopters seem to have in abundance.
Apple filed suit against Florida-based computer maker Psystar on July 3rd, alleging copyright infringement, inducement of copyright infringement, trademark infringement and other legal claims. It seeks any profits earned by Psystar from sales of its Open Computer, triple damages for willful acts, a permanent injunction against the sale of the product and a recall of units already sold.
Despite a seemingly definitive ruling against Apple clone-makers in a landmark 1983 copyright decision, Psystar has lately continued selling what it calls “open source” computers with copies of OS X, while Psystar owners and managers admitted in public statements their knowledge of the existence of Apple’s software license agreement and its terms, according to the suit.
Legal experts speculate Psystar has almost no credible defense against the suit and believe this may truly be the end of Apple clones after the last major knock-off shop, Franklin Computers, closed its doors in the wake of the 1983 case.
Apple reports being sold out of all models of the iPhone 3G in 117 of its 188 retail outlets in the United States five days after bringing the product to market. The company updates a page on its website after 9pm in each time zone where you can check availability near you, but there have been reports the information is unreliable. Yesterday dozens of people waited in line to buy a phone at the Apple store in Kansas City based on notice the store was fully stocked, but apparently the store’s shipment never arrived and the manager had to begin placating angry customers by 1pm. If you live in many locations along the eastern seaboard, you might consider driving to New York, but there you will encounter the same long lines persisting in front of stores in other major markets such as San Francisco, Chicago and Atlanta.
The Apple website says, “Shipments of iPhone 3G arrive most days and availability is updated nightly,” for each of its stores, but advises to “get there early” because the phones are sold on a first come-first served basis. With wait times exceeding three hours and the sale/activation process continuing to take upwards of half an hour in the store, you’ll invest time as well as money getting a new iPhone anytime soon.
Veiosoft plans to release software on July 28 that will unleash more of the computing power inside Apple’s wireless handhelds. The $7 program distributed through the AppStore will allow any Mac, Windows or Linux machine to recognize an iPhone or iPod Touch as a volume when the handheld is registered to the same network, allowing transfer of data files between machines with drag and drop ease.
Using Finder and Bonjour, DataCase makes upload applications and server configuration unnecessary to move files between computers or take important data with you on your handheld. Macs integrate seamlessly with your handheld using Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) connectivity, while Windows and Linux computers are supported through HTTP and FTP.
The program supports up to 16 different volumes on the iPhone or iPod Touch, each configurable with read/write/browse permissions. Those concerned about the security implications of makng data so portable should be pleased to know files can me made invisible and alerts set to require authentication before allowing a connection over the network.
Many have felt the iPhone’s true innovation lies in portable computing and DataCase looks ready to begin delivering on that promise.
Thanks to blogger Cory Bohon at The Unofficial Apple Weblog, we bring you news that Mac Mix has some serious discounting available on bundles of Mac software. You can choose your own mix of titles from a set of 28 productivity, web tools, image & video, system enhancement and entertainment packages. Discounts range from 10% off any single title up to 75% off a bundle of twelve. The 500th purchaser will receive all 28 titles for free.
Apple reports over 10 million applications downloaded from the AppStore in its first weekend, according to a press release issued by the company today. There may be discord brewing between the company and developers of the applications being distributed in the AppStore, however, as blogger Bret Terpstra writes for The Unofficial Apple Weblog.
Many applications from the App Store are crashing frequently, according to Terpstra, and some veteran developers are pointing the finger at Apple, claiming crash logs indicate a “growing consensus that Apple has released a highly unstable “final” version of the 2.0 firmware.”
If it seems prices of the latest iPod and iPhone accessories are rising, you may have Apple’s licensing department to thank, according to a story in Popular Mechanics. Though the company is typically reticent to discuss the details of arrangements such as the one that allows some electronics manufacturers to place a “Made for iPod” designation on their products, managers and decision makers for both retailers and manufacturers indicate Apple’s licensing fees and specially made chips that allow gadgets to work with Apple gear can add 10% or more to the price consumers pay for an item.
Last year, Apple introduced a proprietary authentication chip that works like a silicon key to unlock streaming video functionality on iPhones and iPods and generally authorizes the devices to work with approved accessories. The “auth chip” meant third-party companies wanting to produce iPod-compatible gadgets first had to deal with Apple–the only company selling the chip. Previous-generation iPods could output video over a generic $2 iPod video cable, but new phones and iPods require officially licensed Apple cables–and these can cost up to $50, according to the report.
Apple’s contention is that its authentication technology and licensing protocols, which can entail auditors from Cupertino poring over a company’s books and records to ensure that Apple gets paid for every device sold, helps maintain high quality for products associated with the Apple brand. Some manufacturers complain, on the other hand, they must reduce the quality of their wares in order to pay Apple its share and still keep prices at levels that stimulate consumer demand.
Updated below – Apple CEO Steve Jobs pronounced the iPhone 3G’s worldwide reception “stunning,” according to AppleInsider.
Noting the 1 million phones sold in its “opening weekend” (as the lines between commerce and entertainment grow ever more blurred), Jobs trumpeted the fact that “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start.”
Of course, its availability in more than 20 countries helped iPhone 3G sales, whereas the original phone was first offered only in the United States, but consumers’ embrace of the new model is sure to heat up the smartphone market. The sales numbers are impressive by any measure, especially given widespread activation issues that slowed down the purchase process and caused much grumbling among opening weekend buyers.
Apple’s sales figures are the subject of some debate in the wake of the company’s press releases this morning, according to a post at Fortune‘s Apple blog. While sales at Apple retail outlets are counted at the register, sales to partner carriers such as AT&T are counted by the company when they leave the loading docks in Asia. “In other words, some of those 1 million iPhones recorded as sold by Apple (AAPL) may still be in transit,” says the Fortune report.
Also today, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster put sales at around half the 1 million reported by Apple and said he thinks it will take two weeks or more to hit the 1 million served mark.
Apple confessed to problems making the transition from .Mac web services to its highly anticipated MobileMe product, according to MacWorld, but the service may be up and running this morning after yesterday’s rocky rollout.
A statement posted earlier today to the Apple website read “”The MobileMe transition is underway but is taking longer than expected. Please refer to the official System Status to the right for current information on the availability of MobileMe services. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
But as you can see from the screenshots below, we finally have a log-in page and access to our me domain. The servers are running very slow at this writing. Stay tuned for updates; your mileage may vary.
Access to the account page behind the following secure screen
Was met with a Loading wheel that I gave up on after 5 minutes
But I was able to get to my Gallery
Though not my mail. I have confidence Apple engineers will work out the kinks.
It’s iPhone launch day in the US and early reports from severalsources indicate a scene of controlled chaos across the country as Apple Retail and AT&T employees work to satisfy the demands of people who must have a new phone today. It’s nothing like the mayhem that attended demand last summer when the first gen iPhone made its debut, but AT&T’s on-site activation requirement seems to be making the purchase of of a new iPhone much longer process than the 15 minutes touted earlier in the week as the time it would take to get in and out with a phone.
Steve Wozniak was quoted in MacWorld admitting gadget lust would keep him in line overnight down in San Jose to get a new phone this morning, but said,””A lot of the people I know just aren’t going to upgrade yet.”
The new iPhone OS 2.0 software has been unlocked and jailbroken, according to Gizmodo blogger Jesus Diaz.
After taking months to crack the code on last summer’s inaugural release, the iPhone Dev Team has opened the gates to unsigned software on the iPhone 3G before its US debut. The Pwnage tool that will allow unofficial carriers access to the phone and give users full read/write access to the filesystem to enable installation of unofficial, “jailbreak” applications is “imminent,” according to CNet, though no firm release date has been announced.
Touch-screen desktops may not arrive in time for holiday shopping, but an Apple patent filed last year and published Thursday makes clear the company’s direction for UI development, according to AppleInsider.
Filed near the public debut of the iPhone last June, the patent “makes clear that Apple is devising methods to control its entire Mac operating system through multi-touch rather than a mouse and keyboard,” writes blogger Aidan Malley, who adds the patent is more evidence Apple is “developing a tablet-like device in between the iPhone and full Macs that would require more advanced multi-touch controls.”
Can’t you just see the ads now, with music from Tommy? See me, feel me…I get excitement…
The iFixit guys did what they said they would do and are up with first-look photos and analysis of their dissection of the iPhone they bought this morning in Auckland, NZ. They report the only other American outfit there with them was a team from Engadget.
The photos posted on the iFixit page link to hi-res images for a better look inside the new phone. Some good news is the iPhone battery, while secreted away beneath a sealed case, is not soldered-on inside, which should reduce the cost of replacing one after it withers from surfing the web at 3G speeds.
The iPhone 2.0 firmware update is available from Apple, according to both The Unofficial Apple Weblog and MacRumors. Though a check at the page devoted to the AppStore in Apple’s iPod Touch section indicates the firmware is “coming soon,” MacRumors found this link to the firmware in Apple’s xml files.
WARNING: before you go clicking on that link and downloading the firmware to your iPod Touch or your first gen iPhone, note that the firmware will wipe your device on install. Apple posted the following notice:
“Normally if you choose to update, the iPhone or iPod touch software is updated but your settings and media are not affected. If your device currently has a software version prior to 2.0 (1.x) and you are updating to software version 2.0 or later, all data on your device will be erased in order to perform install the new software. In this case, iTunes will offer to create a one-time media backup of your device depending on what content is on your device and what content is stored in the iTunes Library you are connected to. You should ensure that you have enough free space on your Mac or PC to accommodate a backup that matches the capacity of your iPhone or iPod touch (4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, or 32 GB) if you proceed with the this backup.”
We recommend you wait a few more hours for the “official release” of the 2.0 firmware. As “Auntie TUAW” noted, it’s not a good idea to go poking around on Apple’s servers to download random files for installs. Keep checking the Official Release link for updates.
The AppStore went live this morning, included in the iTunes 7.7 release available through Software Update.
Though this is surely to change over time, only a handful of applications are available in the Applications pane of iTunes this morning. More than 500 titles are included in the initial launch, according to a piece in the New York Times, in which Steve Jobs is quoted, saying of the AppStore, “”We are not trying to be business partners [with developers].” Instead, he said, the goal is to “sell more iPhones.”
Twenty-five percent of the first 500 applications at the store will be free, according to Jobs. Of the commercial applications, 90 percent will be sold for $9.99 or less, he said in the Times article, adding that a third of the first wave of applications will be games.
As of this morning, if you already know of a game or application that is or should be in the AppStore, it may be available through a search by name.
Here’s another screenshot showing apps in the layout. It should also be noted that the AppStore is currently available only for your browsing pleasure. Until the iPhone 2.0 firmware is released (perhaps later today?), you won’t be able to download any applications to your iPhone or iPod Touch.
