Posts Tagged “apple”
Mar
18
2010
 
Defiant HTC breaks silence over Apple lawsuitPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Mobile handset maker HTC has denied stealing intellectual property relating Read Full Story…
Mar
18
2010
HTC ‘disagrees’ with Apple patent theft claimPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Response short on denials, righteous indignationHTC has said it “disagrees” with Apple’s claim that it has ripped off the iPhone maker’s intellectual property – currently the subject of a legal battle between the two companies.…
Web threats: Why conventional protection doesn’t work Read Full Story…
As Android crowds the iPhoneThe market for mobile apps – be they for smartphones, less-capable “feature phones,” or carry-alongs such as Apple’s iPad – will swell to $17.5bn by 2012.…
Offloading malware protection to the cloud Read Full Story…
• It’s been a while since we talked about Spotify, which has been putting a lot of energy into gearing up to launch in America. With co-founder Daniel Ek talking at South by South West yesterday, people thought the company might launch itself in the states – but no such luck. Ek • Has Google’s Nexus One phone been a flop or not? Flurry, a mobile analytics company, estimates that sales are at around 135,000 since launch – just a smidgen of the numbers shifted by other handsets like the iPhone and Droid over the same period. Ryan Block, formerly of Engadget and now with GDGT, says that’s not failure – after all, Google is only selling it online and not giving it the huge push other handsets get. Still seems like the company wouldn’t want to put in so much effort for so little payoff. One thing we do know for certain, though: Google has had its attempt to trademark the Nexus One name rejected, though it’s got nothing to do with Philip K Dick. • And… it’s almost a year since Microsoft took the great leap forward and introduced Internet Explorer 8. Now the company is forging ahead with IE9. You can see some demos and read more about what it can do in these guides. Some stuff in there about HTML5 support, CSS3 and SVG. One note – perhaps unsurprising – is that it will not support Windows XP. You can follow our links and commentary each day through Twitter (@guardiantech, @gdngames or our personal accounts) or by watching our Delicious feed.
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Mar
16
2010
Apple v Google: the gloves are starting to come offPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
When Apple decided to sue Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC, it was hard to see it as anything other than a broadside at Google. After all, HTC makes Nexus One handset, and Steve Jobs has previously told staff that he’s angry because “We did not enter the search business… they entered the phone business”. The ever-growing conflict between the two is something I mentioned on Monday, and plenty of people have weighed in on the subject, including former Sun Microsystems boss Jonathan Schwartz, who said that any company launching a software patent lawsuit was basically undertaking an “act of desperation”. But most of the action so far has been from Apple’s side – the accusations about its rivals (including Nokia, which has in turn accused the iPhone maker of “legal alchemy”); the offended and aggrieved statements by Jobs and so on. So where’s Google in this fight? Is it just staying quiet? Step forward Tim Bray, the Canadian technologist best known for his work on XML. Bray – who has written eloquently on software patents before and who left Sun himself last month – announced over the weekend that he was joining Google’s Android team. Oh yeah, then he immediately poured fuel onto the fire with an extremely strong broadside about why he dislikes Apple’s approach:
Strong words, and proof that Googlers are prepared to fire back from time to time. It will be interesting to see how long Bray is allowed to speak his mind like this (staff commenting, even obliquely, on lawsuits is something most corporate lawyers dislike intensely) but it’s refreshing to see somebody on either side speaking openly and on the record.
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Mar
15
2010
Windows Phone 7: free tools, captive MarketplacePosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Microsoft apes AppleMix10 Microsoft aims to lure Windows Phone 7 developers with free tools. That’s the good news. The less-good news is that Redmond plans to lock down the platform à la Apple’s App Store.…
The power of collaboration within unified communications Read Full Story…
Mar
15
2010
Ex-Sun man Bray takes on paranoid Android role at GooglePosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Disses Apple iPhone’s ‘Disney-fied walled garden’XML co-inventor and languages expert Tim Bray has taken a job at Google just a month after he left
Web threats: Why conventional protection doesn’t work Read Full Story…
Mar
15
2010
Ex-Sun director Bray joins Google’s Android teamPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
The former Sun Microsystems’ employee Tim Bray has left the company to join Android’s opposition to Apple’s iPhone
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Mar
14
2010
Google forced to delay British launch of Nexus phonePosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Setbacks with the internet group’s first handset will see competing products arrive on the market first Google’s attempt to break into the mobile phone market has hit serious problems in Britain with the launch of its flagship Nexus One device understood to have been delayed until the middle of next month. The setback means that by the time Google’s first own-branded foray into the market this side of the Atlantic is available to consumers, its local network partner Vodafone will have launched a competing product, which analysts say is better, called the HTC Legend. While Google has been working with the industry on the Android mobile phone software for several years, the Nexus One, made by Taiwan’s HTC, is the first handset over which the search engine group has had complete control. But launching a new phone has proved more difficult than Google expected. It was released in the US in January, but Google’s decision to sell it solely through its website immediately came in for criticism as buyers struggled to get help with technical problems, and Google, which has traditionally relied on email for consumer contact, was forced to introduce telephone helplinessupport and the problems it has experienced in the US has given it reason to pause over the phone’s launch outside the US, to make sure it has its customer service operations in place. Last week Goldman Sachs slashed its estimate for Nexus One sales this year from 3.5m units to 1m worldwide. In the UK, Google will not only sell the phone at full price to any customer who wants to put their existing sim card into it, but it has also teamed up with Vodafone, which will offer the device free to anyone willing to sign a £35 monthly contract. But the delay in the launch of the Nexus One, which under Google’s original plan would have been available earlier this month, means that it will come after the launch of rival Android devices that analysts reckon are at least as good, if not better. Vodafone, for instance, will be offering the HTC Legend in April which has the same operating system as the Nexus One but is more stylish: being built from a single piece of milled aluminium. Orange and T-Mobile, meanwhile, will both be stocking the HTC Desire – which is exactly the same as the Nexus One, but has an optical trackpad instead of a trackball – from next month. The delay also means the Google device will be available in the UK only weeks before another hotly anticipated gadget, Apple’s iPad. Several of the UK’s mobile phone companies are finalising deals with Apple to sell the tablet computer to British consumers. Unlike its last mobile device, the iPhone, which was offered through just one exclusive partner for the first two years, the iPad is expected to be available through multiple network operators from the start. Apple will ship two versions of the iPad in the UK, one that can access the internet using short-range wi-fi networks and one that can also access 3G mobile phone networks. But Apple needs to sign deals with at least one UK mobile network, because the iPad makes use of micro-sims, meaning that buyers cannot just put the sim card from their existing handsets into it. In fact, it will be the first device launched in the UK that uses micro-sims. Apple said earlier this month that the device will go on sale in the UK towards the end of April but the mobile phone companies believe that the 3G version of the iPad will not be available until May. Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone all expect to be selling the iPad to customers and they are all locked in talks with the Californian company. Apple, however, has made it plain that it does not want iPad users to be tied to long-term contracts with any mobile phone operator. Instead it wants users to be able to pay for mobile network access on a pay-as-you-go basis.
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Mar
11
2010
Jesus Phone to exhibit holy gift of bilocationPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Jobsian prophets predict multitasking for iPhone 4.0Apple will add multitasking to the Jesus Phone this summer with the release of the divine handset’s version 4.0 software update, according to a report citing anonymous people who have accurately predicted Jobsian behavior in the past .…
Offloading malware protection to the cloud Read Full Story…
The first rule of iPhone Club is…In the 1999 movie Fight Club, Brad Pitt famously tells a huddle of pugilistic aspirants: “The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.”…
The power of collaboration within unified communications Read Full Story…
Samsung’s iPhone pitch comes to lifeSamsung has been showing its first Bada phone, able to download applications from Samsung’s version of iTunes and nowhere else. But will Bada really challenge Apple and the iPhone?…
The power of collaboration within unified communications Read Full Story…
• Despite the squillions of iPhone apps out there, Apple has worked very hard to keep details of its contract with developers under wraps. No longer: the Electronic Frontier Foundation used Nasa’s iPhone app as an avenue to file a Freedom of Information request to get a public copy of the contract (PDF). And the organisation isn’t happy with what it sees: including a ban on public statements, certain reverse-engeineering restrictions and Apple’s lack of liability in case of something going wrong. • Google is testing a TV search service, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. It suggests that there’s a pilot scheme for an embedded set-top search service linked to a US satellite TV provider – not the first time that Google has shown television ambitions (here are two examples in the UK). But still worth watching. • Also in Google, meanwhile, ZDNet brings news of this Goldman Sachs note reducing expectations of sales of the Nexus One – drastically. It now thinks the company will sell 1m handsets in 2010, down from a previous estimation of 3.5m. Why? “Possibly due to limited marketing and customer service challenges” – or, in other words, the decision to sell it online-only. You can follow our links and commentary each day through Twitter (@guardiantech, @gdngames or our personal accounts) or by watching our Delicious feed.
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Mar
09
2010
Steve Jobs says ‘No’ to iPhone-to-iPad tetherPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
(One) word from the mountaintopSteve Jobs has spoken: Apple’s “magical and revolutionary” iPad will not allow iPhone-to-iPad 3G tethering.…
Offloading malware protection to the cloud Read Full Story…
The Apple iPad will go on sale in the UK at the end of next month, just a few weeks after its US launch on April 3 Read Full Story…
Mar
05
2010
US judge puts freeze on Apple-Nokia patent kerfufflePosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Let the feds sort itA US federal judge has sent Apple and Nokia lawyers to their respective corners until the feds get their chance to sort through the competing patent infringement claims.…
What is your recession sales strategy? Read Full Story…
Mar
05
2010
Apple iPad to go on sale on 3 April in US and ‘late April’ in UKPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Apple yet to provide details on UK or international release dates, selling prices or associated mobile network companies Apple’s touchscreen iPad tablet computer will go on sale on 3 April in the US, but no specific date – beyond “late April” – has been given for its release in the UK and other international locations. The company declined to set either the selling price for its models abroad, or to name any of the mobile network companies that will be providing connectivity for the more expensive iPad systems, which have 3G data sims built in. US customers will be able to pre-order the iPad, which Steve Jobs described as a “magical and revolutionary product”, from Friday 12 March, either online or in Apple’s retail stores. The devices come in two basic forms – with Wi-Fi wireless connectivity, and with both Wi-Fi and 3G mobile connectivity. However, only the Wi-Fi versions will go on sale on 3 April; Apple said only that the 3G versions will be on sale in “late April”. All the versions of the iPad will go on sale in the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland at the same time. The iPad has excited huge interest because it expands the interface of the iPhone, Apple’s hugely successful mobile phone, into a usable “slate” computer with a 9-inch screen. A number of content publishers have thought that it could be a completely new medium for sales of various products – including electronic versions of books, magazines, newspapers, music and films – that they will be able to charge for by selling them through Apple’s iTunes store, which has been a source of revenue for music, film, TV, audiobook and notably “app” creators. In the US, the basic iPad model with Wi-Fi and 16 gigabytes of storage will cost $499. Apple says that it “lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more”. The device is 0.5 inches thick and weighs 1.5 pounds – “thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook” and Apple says it can run for up to 10 hours on a single battery charge. (Tests on other products suggest the figure may typically be only half that.) In the past few weeks there had been mounting speculation that there were production problems at Apple’s factories in China. Apple had no comment on that, but the staged release to the international market compared to the US – which makes half of Apple’s sales – suggests it is husbanding its resources. The announcement notably does not offer any pricing for the UK, nor any details about which mobile carriers Apple might sign up with. O2, Orange and Vodafone already offer its iPhone, but none of them are mentioned in Apple’s announcement. Nor is pricing – which could be key to how well it sells. Since the announcement of the iPad in January, the pound has slipped against the dollar in international exchange markets, which has led to speculation that Apple is waiting until the last minute to announce the price in order to minimise any losses on exchange-rate volatility. Macworld magazine, which calculated in February that the low-end iPad selling for $499 in the US might have a starting price of £388 in the UK, recalculated on Friday that the downturn in sterling would now mean a minimum starting price of £400.
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Mar
05
2010
Picking facts from speculation on iPad launch prices and datesPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Why the collapse in online advertising might be leading you to read pretty much anything about Apple’s new gizmo Hey, have you heard? Apple’s iPad is having production problems! And it’s not having production problems! Also, it’s going to cost £389! Or possibly less, or more. And in the UK the 3G version is going to be exclusively on Vodafone. As well as being on Orange and O2. Also, it’s going to be released in the UK two weeks after the US, where it’s being released on March 26, or actually 29th, except it’s being released at the same time. And it’s going to cost.. OK, enough breathless murmery. Let’s clear the air. There is an astonishing amount of speculation going on about Apple’s iPad. Very little of it seems well-founded – or even grounded in logic. The facts about the iPad: Apple hasn’t given a precise launch date; “60 days” was the best Steve Jobs had on 27 January. It’s not given one for the UK either. It hasn’t said how much the various models will cost in the UK. It hasn’t said whether the 3G mobile-connected models will be available in the UK (though it’s expected) and it hasn’t said which network(s) it will be going with. Which is about par for the course for some Apple products. And of course is enough for ever so many “news” stories. Let’s start with some of the things where people are prepared to put their names to the claims. The Register reports that Vijay Rakesh, an analyst at ThinkEquity analyst, told investors in an advisory note on Thursday that checks with manufacturers suggested “some minor delays” in ramping up production for the tablet. They can only make 200,000 to 250,000 iPads per month at present; production may not hit 800,000 to 1m units per month until at least April. “We believe this is just a minor hiccup in a longer-term entirely new revenue stream and product road map for [Apple],” Rakesh wrote. Earlier this week another US analyst, Peter Misek at Canaccord claimed that “unspecified production problems” will hold initial availability to about 300,000 units – and said Apple may keep the iPad to the US only or delay the launch into April. This was then contradicted by DigiTimes – usually the fount of unspecified vague insights into the Taiwanese and Chinese computer manufacturing insights which turn out to be bang on 50% of the time, and completely off the other 50% – which was told by Foxconn Electronics that everything’s on schedule and that it should be able to ship between 600,000 and 700,000 iPads this month. Apple said.. nothing. Conclusion: they all could be right. The iPad was announced in January, and if Foxconn has been making 200,000 for a couple of months, it’s got a nice stockpile sitting waiting for a container ship. Meanwhile Foxconn could be ramping up production towards that 800K figure. So we conclude: forecasts of a US-only launch unlikely to come true. And “delays into April”? Remember that at the launch (scroll to 7.22pm) Steve Jobs announced that they Wi-Fi only models would go on sale in 60 days, the 3G models in 90 days because they “require approval from carriers”. 90 days from the iPad launch takes you… into April. OK. Assume that it is going to launch in the UK at about the same time as in the US. Two questions: how much will it cost? And which networks will the 3G version be available on? The cost question is interesting. Apple has told us it won’t announce the UK price until it launches at the “end of March”. We’ve done our own calculation (helped by Macworld) which gives us a starting price guess of £424 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only (Macworld suggests £388), ranging up to £705 for the Wi-Fi/3G 64GB model (Macworld: £693). And which operators? No clues. Obviously, we speak to our contacts there; but so far they’ve had little to offer. So what then are we to make of the sudden flurry of emails recently from really small sites (and I do mean really small) which claim to know the launch date and/or chosen carrier? Here’s an example I received recently: “We just got word on Vodafone being the official launch partner of the iPad in the UK, direct from Vodafone. Details in the below blog post. This is from the same guy who provided details that O2 would be the Palm Pre’s UK carrier well before announcement.” And a link to the site. But we’re not going to link it here. I’ll explain why in a moment. Then there was the email from another site which said it had the price for the low-end iPad: “We are pretty confident regarding the pricing, the tip came from a source who works closely with Apple UK, obviously we can’t say much more about this. “We are 99% sure that the base model will be £389, regarding the other prices of the 32GB and 64GB models, our source said that these are likely to be the prices, although he did mention that the prices on the last two aren’t set in stone as yet.” (I should point out that the other site didn’t approach me; I contacted it to ask how sure they were of their sources.) Hmm, so have we missed a trick? Are we getting blown out of the water by dedicated bloggers running niche sites who have contacts in just the right places? Perhaps. But consider another possibility. I spoke to someone who has very good contacts in the mobile phone industry. The reply: “My source at Voda says nothing signed yet but is checking, also it’s kinda weird but [the person quoted in the Vodafone story] left a year ago.” So why the certainty in that story? My contact noted: “There are going to be more and more stories like this as the collapse in online advertising has pushed sites into e-commerce and they need the links from [the Guardian] to push them up the [search] rankings. There are quite a few mobile phone so-called bloggers already in the UK who are actually little more than affiliate channels for the mobile phone operators. That’s often how they get their stories. Watch the links when you click through, it’s often quite instructive. There is, for instance, a very well respected UK mobile phone blogger who gets a lot of very good Orange scoops. Of course he does, my mates at Orange point out, the other half of his business is a retailer for Orange so he finds out about new phones at the same time as the rest of the channel. Is that journalism? Who knows these days.” We conclude: the maths suggests that the iPad will very likely come in around the £389-£399 mark (we like the Macworld number better than ours, which by being above £400 isn’t a marketing-friendly price sticker). Networks? Whichever ones can handle the micro-sims that the iPad uses. Given that Apple is still with only one network in the US, but in the UK has signed up three (O2, Orange and Vodafone; Tesco is a virtual MNO), it’s hard to know whether it will try to be a kingmaker again or prefer to spread the love like butter among them all. Rationally, being on all three (while making them think it’s exclusive until it’s announced) would be better for sales – people could just add an iPad plan to their existing contracts. OK? We hope that puts your minds at rest about prices and operators. As for launch dates… well, Apple traditionally goes with Tuesdays or Fridays. Strictly, 60 days from the iPad announcement puts you on Sunday 28 March, so take your pick: Monday 29th, or Friday 26th? Or might it get pushed further along? As for the 3G version, if there’s a 90-day delay, then you’re not going to see it until April 27 (on the 90-days-from-iPad-ground-zero principle). So even that US analyst could be right. And remind us what you’d be buying an iPad for? We’re interested to hear.
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Mar
04
2010
Brits blame Apple, Nokia, RIM et al for smartphone woesPosted by CompareMobiles.com in Mobile News
Yet most problems appear network relatedSmartphone owners are a vocal lot, willing to vent spleen to all and sundry when their handsets don’t work as well as they expect them to.…
What is your recession sales strategy? Read Full Story… |
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