Hey, look what I found: iPhone Photography, a lovely little gallery of artistic, interesting photos made with iPhones.
I asked the site’s creator, Caleb Kimbrough, to explain what it was all about.
Here’s what he said.
Corporate IT support for the iPhone is on the rise, according to a report Monday at Tech Republic, though many CIOs and IT directors remain wary of the Apple smartphone’s security vulnerabilities.
Using an interesting (if not altogether scientific) polling strategy pioneered by Silicon.com, Tech Republic finds 42% of corporate IT departments are now willing to support the iPhone in its 3rd iteration, which is quite a swing from the near-universal skepticism with which corporate IT greeted the device upon its initial launch two years ago.
Results of the poll ought to be taken with a grain of salt, as the numbers themselves are based on the responses of just 12 individuals, but the comments included with the report are interesting nonetheless, and say as much about the way some corporations think as they do about Apple’s gadget itself.
Some corporate leaders, such as Mike Wagner, CIO of Stone & Youngberg in San Francisco seem to just get it. “The iPhone is one of the most innovative and revolutionary end-user products developed in the last 5 years,” Wagner said, adding “The support and training requirements for the iPhone are orders of magnitude less than the mobile OSes offered by competing vendors.” Wagner also noted “the general excitement and enthusiasm from the end users” in his company with iPhones, linking it directly to “a corresponding decrease in the perception that IT is a wet blanket that is an impediment to the use of consumer-friendly products.”
Still, the majority of corporate IT geeks don’t consider supporting the iPhone because, as Lisa Moorehead, Director of IT for MA Dept of Public Utilities put it, ““iPhones are not supported because they are considered personal gadgets.”
It’s interesting to note that among the CIOs and IT directors who report not supporting the iPhone, several quoted in the report placed the point of failure at service problems and bad coverage from AT&T.
Perhaps the most telling comment of all, however, came from Chuck Elliott, IT Director for Emory University School of Medicine, who reported “we are finding more and more of our users are buying and using the device without assistance from IT.”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b58MqoW2ziw
Getting a step closer to completely paperless banking, some customers of USAA will be able to deposit checks using their iPhones.
An updated version of the bank’s mobile app out this week accepts checks that have been photographed with the iPhone.
In the demo above, a bank exec first enters the amount of the check, then lines it up on a desk to take a picture, flips it over to take a shot of the signature. After checking that the images lined up properly and hitting “submit,” the check is in the bank’s system.
“We’re essentially taking an image of the check, and once you hit the send button, that image is going into our deposit-taking system as any other check would,” Wayne Peacock, a USAA executive vice president, told the New York Times.
The check doesn’t have to be mailed or deposited afterward, customers are advised to void or file it. To avoid fraud trouble, only customers with credit and some kind of insurance are eligible — an estimated 60 percent of the bank’s customers. Since USAA‘s customer base is largely military personnel, for those overseas it might just be the ticket.
The last time I deposited a check, the ATM scanned it directly, but as long as you don’t need to get cash out or do something else this is a nice time saver, especially if you’re a straight shooter.
UPDATE: Rogers denies there’s an 8GB iPhone 3GS. It’s a formatting error, a spokesman told Gizmodo and Electronista. “There is no 8GB 3G s iPhone,” the spokesman emailed. “There is a formatting error on our website. It is being corrected asap.” Too bad. There was the Boy Genius memo though, which hasn’t yet been strenuously denied by Rogers.
The existence of an 8GB model of Apple’s hot iPhone 3GS looks more likely if you take a gander at this webpage from Rogers Wireless of Canada.
There it is in full public view in a comparison chart — the iPhone 3GS is available in 32GB, 16GB and — now — 8GB.
The lower-capacity 3GS was rumored last week when photos of a Rogers’ internal memo were published by Boy Genius Report. The memo said the company would sell through all of its older iPhone 3G stock before offering the new 8GB 3GS.
Whether the new phone will be offered outside Canada isn’t clear, but seems likely. It’s also likely to be lower-priced, perhaps replacing the current 8GB iPhone 3G, which is sold by AT&T for $99 with a contract.
Entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, the dog loving, Tesla driving, indefatigable self-promoter, is forsaking Apple products in his fury at some of the company’s recent actions, like banning the Google Voice app — The Case Against Apple-in Five Parts.
While he has a couple of points, he’s wrong about the rest. In fact, the things that Calacanis rags on are the things that make Apple and the iPhone great, and he’s misguided not to embrace them. Here’s why:
It’s Friday and it’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.
APP OF THE WEEK
CrunchFu: Effective and surprisingly fun fitness aid. Kind of like Nike+ for crunches. 4/5 $2.99 https://tr.im/vUFR
Doodle Jump: Infectious (if somewhat irritating) and simple tile-based ‘jump survival’ game. Updated often. 4/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/20Dko
Flyloop: Sweet and surprisingly frantic high-score game. Draw lines & loops to ‘snare’/combine butterflies. 4/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/22g9j
CameraBag: Trendy camera effects (Lomo, Holga, 1970s, 1960s, etc.) and 1200px per edge output. Good quality. 4/5 $1.99 https://tr.im/vCb5
Electrogravitron: Excellent multitouch/accelerometer game where you shepherd blue dots into defined zones. 4/5 $0.99 https://tr.im/vLsv
Lots of decent apps this week, including the infuriatingly addictive Doodle Jump, the hippyesque Flyloop (catch those butterflies, man), Electrogravitron—only second to Eliss in multitouch gaming terms—and CameraBag, which remains one of my favorite iPhone image-manipulation apps.
App of the week is CrunchFu, though, for providing a means for cheapskate iPhone owners to get fit and have some fun at the same time. It takes the same basic principle as Nike+, turning exercise into an online videogame. League tables and online battles ensure you stay engrossed rather than giving up. And if you’re no fan of crunches, GymFu offers similar apps for squats, pull-ups and push-ups.
Follow iPhoneTiny on Twitter, or visit iPhoneTiny.com
Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller took the time to craft a lengthy, detailed statement of the company’s position with respect to criticism leveled Wednesday by this site and others, over the App Store review process Matchstick Software’s Ninjawords application endured on its way to appearing as a 17+ rated selection on the iTunes App Store in mid-July.
As it had been initially reported on Tuesday evening at Daring Fireball, Apple “required” Ninjawords — an iPhone dictionary app that delivers Wiktionary.org content to iPhone and iPod Touch users — to censor certain vulgar content in order to gain approval as a title in the App Store, and yet the company still gave the app a 17+ rating, which requires purchasers to provide proof of age before they can purchase apps so rated.
In a response published Thursday to Daring Fireball author John Gruber, Schiller clarified certain facts and the chain of events that led up to Ninjawords finally appearing on the App Store after having first been rejected by Apple review staff. As Gruber acknowledged Thursday, in actuality, Apple reviewers merely suggested that Matchstick Software developers wait to re-submit their application until Apple had in place Parental Controls (ie: 17+ ratings) on the App Store and in no way suggested that content on the app had to be censored in order to gain Apple’s approval for sale.
Because Parental Controls were not yet available at the time Matchstick wanted to take its product to market, the developers acted of their own accord to censor the app’s content, hoping it would thereby pass Apple’s review process.
As Gruber wrote, “it really came down to bad timing around the launch of parental controls.”
Matchstick spokesman Phil Crosby told Gruber via email, “17+ ratings were not available when we launched, which means at that time, it was simply not possible for our dictionary to be on the App Store without being censored. Given the options of censoring or sitting on the side lines while our competitors ate our lunch, we chose to launch.”
All in all, one can take it as a good sign that Apple cares enough about public perception of the App Store and its often-criticized review policies for Schiller to explain the company’s position so clearly as he did to Gruber.
It’s even better to know that Apple finds — as Schiller put it — “Wiktionary.org is an open, ever-changing resource and filtering the content does not seem reasonable or necessary.”
An iPod Touch plus a mobile WiFi router is better and cheaper than an iPhone, says Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrell.
Sorrell just got the MiFi — a mobile, battery-powered WiFi hotspot that can share a high-speed cell connection with several devices via WiFi. It’s sold in the U.S. by Verizon for $100. (Requires a two-year contract and a monthly plan costing $40 or $60 — 250MB or 5GB of data, respectively.)
The MiFi is fast and reliable, he says, and can be used with an iPod Touch to make Skype calls and play music streaming from Spotify’s fantastic music library.
“The real point is that if you have a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot in your pocket, it is going to be cheaper than an iPhone contract pretty much anywhere, and can not only enable your iPod Touch to have an always on connection, but let you make Skype calls and stream music without having to worry about the usual iPhone size limits, as you’re on Wi-Fi. You can also share the connection with five machines in total, including a netbook, for true on the go video calls and (gasp) Spotify.”
Setup was a little tricky and he’s not been using the setup long, but Sorrel thinks the combo could be all he needs. He’ll be testing his new setup in coming weeks and promises to report back.
Just one day after earning congratulations for pulling the developer’s license of a prolific producer of useless (and possibly copyright-infringing) applications, propriety demands Apple receive a major Bronx cheer for the way the company treated Matchstick software and their Ninjawords iPhone Dictionary application.
The degree of censorship and hassle Apple forced Matchstick developers to endure in order to get their nifty $2 app listed on the App Store, as reported Tuesday at Daring Fireball, is simply unconscionable.
In recent weeks, Cult of Mac has reported a number of stories showing many holes in the tattered shroud of respectability with which Apple attempts to proclaim the innocence and purity of all things that might ever appear on the iPhone. The tale behind Ninjawords’ (iTunes link) tribulations would seem to set Apple’s high-water mark for institutional hypocrisy to date.
As Daring Fireball author John Gruber put it so well: Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day.
For Shame.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giBNazD-Lm4
Apple launched a new pair of iPhone 3GS ads to highlight features common to newer and older devices.
Continuing the “there’s an app for that” meme, the rather underwhelming one above about sharing shows how you can exchange photos using Mover and contact info with Bump. (The other ad focuses on travel apps for jet-setting iPhone owners).
With gazillions of apps available, the ad uses two that do a lot of the same things –Â allowing users to share contact info, photos and files.
Both Mover and Bump are offered gratis on iTunes and earned three out of a five possible stars in customer ratings. (I downloaded Bump following the hype when it was the billionth app downloaded in the iTunes store, but haven’t had much occasion to use it.)
Which is better, or do you use both?
If you were building a better app ad, what would you have mentioned instead?
A ringtone company that professes to hate ringtones has introduced three new sets of ringers for the iPhone that address cellphone etiquette.
Available now for $10 each, the three new collections from San Francisco-based iRingPro are designed to make your ringing iPhone less shrill, annoying and intrusive.
“We hate ringtones,” said founder Joel Hladecek in a statement. “Which must sound odd coming from a company that makes them. But then I think that’s why iRingPro ringers are more sophisticated – why they sound cooler and seem so much more adult than anything else out there.”
iRingPro’s ringtones come in two versions – long and short. While the short tones have a traditional gap between rings, the long version has a longer period of silence, making it more relaxed and allowing you time to check who’s calling before the next ring.
The ringtones also come in “Meeting Grade” or “Active Grade.” Designed for meetings, the Meeting Grade tones are quieter and softer. When you’re out and about, the Active Grade tones are more vigorous, making them audible from a pocket or handbag, or over traffic noise.
Joining iRingPro’s well-received Zen Collection, the three new collections are:
Tek: A collection of sc-fi tones inspired by the futuristic gadgets of Hollywood. “Everybody looks to see what kind of technology you’re holding,” the company says.
Origin: A collection of “hand-made” sounds that invoke the origins of music. “Each time the phone rings, it sounds slightly different,” iRingPro says.
Zen 2: Designed for meetings or quiet settings. Free to registered owners of the original Zen Collection.
Each collection costs $9.95 and available now in iPhone and MP3 formats. You can preview each collection on iRingPro’s website.
Apple has revoked the iPhone developer’s license of one prolific mobile app developer, according to a report at MobileCrunch, but the company is still taking heat for inconsistencies in its App Store approval policies.
Kahlid Shaikh and his team of 26 engineers working under the name Perfect Acumen had over 900 apps approved and selling in the iTunes App Store until July 24, when Apple terminated Shaikh’s iPhone Developer Program License due to concerns over “numerous third party intellectual property complaints concerning over 100 of [his] Applications.”
The majority of Shaikh’s apps merely aggregated content found on the web and delivered it to iPhone users under titles such as “US Army News”, “Skin Care Updates” and “Economical Crisis Updates”, as well as other questionable content under titles such as “Top Sexy Ladies” and “Top Sexy Men”.
Shaikh admitted he is not concerned about creating particularly valuable apps, according to the MobileCrunch report. Instead, he said, he’s going for “less product value” and “more monetization.” Many of his apps had been sold for $4.99, generating revenue in the range of thousands of dollars per day for Perfect Acumen, according to the report.
Despite having finally grown exasperated with fielding copyright and intellectual property claims against Shaikh, and having acted to remove what some believe was a raft of useless apps from the App Store, Apple is taken to task by the author of the MobileCrunch report for inconsistencies in its App Store review process. The entire brouhaha here is seen as evidence that “Clearly, Apple doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing.”
It appears, in the eyes of some, Apple cannot win for losing, no matter what the company does with the App Store. Either its review process is too open or it’s too restrictive; the store has too many useless apps, bans products users want, or acts to cull sketchy apps — and the end result is “Apple Sucks” no matter what they do.
Apple’s is a difficult position for a company to be in. The company created an entirely new distribution model for an industry that didn’t even exist two years ago. It created opportunity and economic activity that has amounted to one of the few glimmering beacons of hope in what has been roundly described as one of the worst economic downturns in nearly a century. And yet some people seem unable to accept the fact that every single decision made at every step of the way has not resulted in clear skies, smooth sailing and endless joy for one and all.
Make no mistake: Apple is a huge company that can and will act with caprice to get and maintain whatever economic advantage it can in a ruthless marketplace. The FCC appears increasingly interested in the operational nuances among Apple, Google and AT&T, as the formerly moribund antitrust watchdogs of the federal government are starting to prick up their ears under the Obama administration.
However, when Apple acts to shed the likes of Shaikh and his questionable work product from the App Store the company ought to be praised for finally — if belatedly — doing the right thing.
Netflix’s fantastic streaming movie service is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch, according to a report in the trade mag Multichannel News.
Citing “an industry executive familiar with Netflix’s plans,” the trade mag says Netflix’s Watch Instantly service is headed to the iPhone, iPod Touch and the Nintendo Wii. However, because of bandwidth concerns, it will likely be available only over WiFi and not AT&T’s 3G network, MN says.
Either way, it’s great news.
I’m a subscriber and a big fan of Netflix’s service, which I find to be easier, more convenient and much, much cheaper than Apple’s iTunes. For about $20 a month, we get to stream a wide a wide variety of TV shows and movies from Netflix instead of paying a la carte for rentals or purchases from iTunes.
Indeed, Netflix’s Watch Instantly is the strongest of the online on-demand video services — the gold standard for content on demand.
The selection isn’t comprehensive, but I find it to be pretty good. There’s not the latest releases, but there’s a pretty deep and wide library of great movies, which is more than can be said for iTunes, which I find unbearably popcorn and shallow.
In addition, Netflix movies stream quickly, the quality is great, even on a big 42-inch HDTV, and we’ve never, ever encountered a problem — a rare and astonishing testament to the company’s technology. (We use the service through a Samsung Blu-Ray player which streams Netflix and Pandora).
The service is already available on a wide range of devices from Windows PCs and Macs, to the Xbox 360, TiVo and several Blu-Ray DVD players with support for streaming downloads.
Porno director Matt Morningwood, who shot the first adult scene on an iPhone 3GS, made the mistake of shooting in portrait mode, or “tallscreen.”
The vertical video format presented Matt with problems when it came to displaying the video at 16:9, but here’s how he figured out how to use iPhone video with Final Cut Pro.
Being somewhat old of years and gray of hair, I remember the good ol’ days of gaming, before all this new-fangled 3D nonsense. Entire games would be smaller in size than a thumbnail JPEG, controllers didn’t have 56,000 buttons, and games weren’t always sequels to sequels to sequels to [that’s enough of that—”Ed]
Clearly, I’m not the only one, because retro games are hot properties for all current gaming systems, and Apple handhelds are no exception. The App Store is peppered with clones and ‘tributes’ to ancient games, along with a slew of official remakes from the likes of Atari and Namco. Recently, though, Manomio—developers of Flashback for iPhone—went a stage further, aiming to bring an entire retro system to iPhone: the Commodore 64.
The build of C64 we played with was quite impressive. Although frameskipping was evident (which is no longer the case for C64 emulation on desktop Macs), the small selection of games sent over with the demo were perfectly playable. Surprisingly, the controls also worked nicely, which is quite a feat when you consider that the C64 was a distinctly ‘digital control’ platform, and that virtual joysticks don’t often work well on Apple handhelds.
Sadly, the public at large has yet to experience the app, because Apple unceremoneously rejected it, citing issues regarding its built-in BASIC (App Store apps aren’t allowed to launch executable code), and, presumably, ignoring the fact that Frotz—a Z-Machine interpreter—has been happily living on the App Store for ages, despite there being no practical distinction between it and C64.
Stu from Manomio was kind enough to offer his thoughts on this and other issues surrounding C64, along with talking about why Manomio developed the app in the first place, and why the organization considers it important to fully license content for the App Store (a position that, ironically, puts them at odds with at least several dozen rip-off apps already for sale for Apple handhelds).
Nick Mangold, a 6’4â€, 300-pound offensive lineman for the New York Jets, talked to uberfan Angel Navedo about, among other things, why he loves the iPod Touch but prefers a Blackberry to the iPhone.
The salient bits:
Do you consider yourself tech savvy?
Nick Mangold: I like to. I don’t know where I measure up to everyone else, but I like to believe I’m gadget and tech friendly. I’m a Blackberry guy.
AN: That hurts my feelings.
Nick Mangold: (Spots my iPhone) But I’m an iPod Touch guy! The iPod Touch is awesome. I think it’s a great device for games and messing around. But for dealing with emails and everything, I pick Blackberry—with the actual keyboard and everything—hands down. I can bang out a page-long email while I’m sitting, doing whatever. Touch screens, you know, I got fatter fingers. It’s not my thing.
AN: It definitely took some getting used to for me.
Nick Mangold: I’m just not a touch screen guy at all. I love it for playing games and stuff, but I keep them separate. If that requires me to carry two different things, I live with it.
The interview caught my eye after spending an afternoon thumbing on a number of keyboards in the quest to finally put my beloved first-gen smartphone out to pasture.
Not an Apple customer by kneejerk, the contract nonsense with the iPhone got me testing the Blackberry and a bunch of Nokias. And leaving empty handed, for the moment.
Any advice?
If you are accustom to waking with a blaring radio or the blinding light of early morning, the new wake-up light by Philips may be the perfect solution. The gadget, which includes an iPhone/iPod dock, promises a gradual wake-up routine by increasing the light gradually in your bedroom.
“Light falls on your eyes and positively affects your energy hormones, preparing your body to wake up,” according to Philips. For heavy sleepers, the light can reach 300 lux.
Replacing that obnoxious jolting alarm are natural sounds or tunes supplied by your iPod or iPhone. If you go with the built-in sounds, you can choose between “morning birds in the forest, a relaxing beep, the sounds of the African jungle or soft chimes in the wind,” according to the company. If you pick your favorite iPod or iPhone tunes, the sound level will increase over 90 seconds until reaching a preset maximum.
The Philips Wake-Up Light will cost $200 when it is released Aug. 22.
[Via Philips]
Apple on Friday afternoon released a firmware patch for the iPhone to fix a dangerous SMS security hole.
The 3.0.1 firmware update is available now through iTunes. The 300MB update is available for the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. It doesn’t appear to contain any other features or bug fixes except for the SMS patch, according to Apple’s security advisory.
As previously reported, noted security experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner revealed a major security exploit in the iPhone’s SMS system on Thursday at the 2009 Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas.
The exploit takes advantage of memory hole in the SMS system, allowing hackers root access to the device. Programs could theoretically be sent to any iPhone, through multiple SMS messages if necessary, and take over all functions, including the camera, phone and microphone. The only indication of the hack would be a SMS message containing a single square character.
Miller and Mulliner reportedly chose to reveal the exploit, which is applicable to all mobile platforms including iPhone OS, Android and Windows Mobile, at Black Hat after Apple had been unresponsive in the wake of their showing it to company officials earlier in July.
Looks like Apple woke up fast. The patch was issued in about 24 hours.
UPDATE: Google also patched its Android system on Friday, and Microsoft says it is investigating, according to BusinessWeek. To be fair, Microsoft was just informed of the vulnerability, while Apple was warned weeks ago, which may explain the speed of its patch.
Watch out the for sand and water, but bring your device to the fourth annual international meeting for iPhone and iPod fanatics in Riccione, Italy.
This Sunday, August 2, thousands of Apple fans are expected to stage playlist battles and contend for Apple-related prizes at the event organized by Italian site ipodmania.
How did it get started? Well, according to the press release in somewhat maccheronic inglisc:
“The iPod and the iPhone are a mania, there’s nothing to do, and we are subjugated by that insana disease, so we have decided to celebrate this obsession…”
Never mind that iPod/iPhone festivities at Aquafan, Europe’s biggest water park, will be a minefield for devices (everybody in the pool!), site founder Andrea Di Mambro says past editions drew thousands of fans from all over Italy, plus the UK, Germany, Spain and Russia.
A live concert from lounge virtuosi Montefiori Cocktail is also on, as well as tutorials from website staff on how to get the most out of your device.
If you happen to go, send us a report and pics.
Apple plans to release a security patch on Saturday to address a security issue for iPhone users that had some worried third party criminals could gain control over their phones remotely, the BBC reported on Friday.
Noted security experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner revealed a major security exploit in SMS technology Thursday at the 2009 Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas. The exploit sent shockwaves through the wireless world and caused owners of mobile phones no end of terror over the prospect that bad guys might gain control over their devices by sending a series of simple SMS messages, including one containing a single square character, which would be the only indication of the hack.
Miller and Mulliner reportedly chose to reveal the exploit, which is applicable to all mobile platforms including iPhone OS, Android and Windows Mobile, at Black Hat after Apple had been unresponsive in the wake of their showing it to company officials earlier in July.
It was not immediately clear whether the patch reported by the BBC would be available to all iPhone users or just to those in the UK. Calls to Apple PR were unreturned at press time, but we’ll update the story as more information becomes available.
Chinese regulators have approved a modified iPhone for the giant Chinese market, which uses the speedy GSM/WCDMA chipset but has no WiFi.
Why no WiFi? Hit the jump for an explanation (It’s partly business, partly snooping).
Picture via Aurum3
The comically wrong-headed announcement that Verizon would be launching VCast Apps, its response to Apple’s App Store, made me realize that pretty much everyone, including, major cell phone carriers, are confused about how and why the iPhone has been such a success. I could spend awhile talking about why an all-Verizon app store is a stupid idea (when you create apps for dozens of phones, all running different OSes and using different interfaces, you get the lowest common denominator; Verizon already has a pan-network app store; people love iPhone App Store because the software is good, not because of the basic concept), but instead I’ll devote a little while to analyzing the success of the iPhone and provide some basic definitions that are going to be critical to understanding the new mobile landscape in years to come.
Those terms? Products, Platforms, and Networks. To have a truly great experience, you need to excel in all three. Unfortunately, no one in the U.S. is doing that. Read on for more.
The long-standing tiff between Apple and the iPhone jailbreaking community reached new heights of absurdity in a recent filing Apple made with the US Copyright office, in which the company all but claimed granting iPhone jailbreakers an exemption from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act would invite terrorist attacks on the nation’s wireless network infrastructure.
In a written response (PDF) to questions from the Copyright Office, Apple claimed that jailbroken iPhones could be used by drug dealers to avoid authorities, by hackers to skirt carrier-enforced limitations or even by attackers to crash the software at cell phone towers. “Technological protection measures were designed into the iPhone precisely to prevent these kinds of pernicious activities,” said the Apple statement, which added, “if granted, the jailbreaking exemption would open the door to them — to potentially catastrophic effect.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), representing consumer interests and arguing in the case for the jailbreaking exemption, dismissed Apple’s claims. “This is all just a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt,” said Fred von Lohmann, an EFF senior staff attorney and the organization’s expert in intellectual property law.
Von Lohmann called Apple’s claims that jailbroken iPhones could bring down a carrier’s network a hypothetical game. “None of this has ever happened [with jailbroken iPhones],” he said. “You don’t see the independent iPhone stores filled with malicious software tools. Instead, they’re filled with the software that Apple has refused to offer in its App Store.”
The Copyright Office is expected to make its final ruling in the case by October.
[via PCWorld]
The iPhone has been an utter disaster in Russia, according to an interesting report penned Thursday by Svetlana Gladkova at Profy.
The Russian experience suggests that, despite howls of complaint by some consumers in markets where Apple has exclusive distribution agreements with a single or perhaps a pair of wireless carriers, where the device is sold unlocked and unsubsidized by carriers, its price simply puts it beyond the means of all but a tiny number in the current global economy.
Three major carriers sell the iPhone in Russia, having collectively agreed with Apple to sell 3.5 million units over a two year period. But they have managed to move barely 250 thousand phones in the first six months of availability, according to Gladkova, and market players there a feeling distinctly glum about prospects for meeting their goal.
Unlocked phones in Russia — where service contracts are not nearly so common as in markets such as the US and UK — sold initially for the dollar equivalent of $1000, though the market price has dipped currently to $700 – $800, which is still hardly affordable to a populace with per capita GDP of around $15,000.
Corruption also hampers legitimate iPhone sales in Russia, where some 400,000 black market devices made it into circulation before the official release, according to Gladkova, soaking up early demand and deflating the impact of continued heavy advertising by the country’s three service providers.
Now, carriers and their retail partners — local distributors on the hook for millions of dollars in ancillary distribution agreements — are playing hot potato with millions of unsold phones while the carriers scramble to rewrite their contracts with Apple.
The chaos in the Russian market makes things here in the West seem downright orderly, where, ironically, an 8GB iPhone 3G can be had for under $100.
Image – Russian exclusive SimaPhone by Denis Simachev
Apple took one more step toward fully integrating the iPhone platform into MobileMe Wednesday, making a free MobileMe iDisk application available for download on the iTunes App Store.
Members of Apple’s $99 per year cloud computing service will be able to use the iDisk app on their iPhone or iPod Touch to view files stored on an iDisk; access Public folders; easily share files from an iPhone using integrated email links; quickly access recently viewed files and view iPhone-supported file types-including iWork, Office, PDF, QuickTime and more. Files larger than 20MB may not be viewable.