Ken Ray
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Filed under: iPhone
Virgin Mobile Canada: Fifth Canadian outlet for iPhone
The iPhone is getting yet another carrier in the great white north. Virgin Mobile Canada has announced that it'll start selling the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS in the coming months. When exactly? How much? Can I get a Richard Branson ringtone? Actually, I can make my own ringtones, but what about the rest of it? We'll have to wait to find out. All the company said in its incredibly short notice was that it'll sell the phones online and in its brick-and-mortar stores at some point. Well, that and that its gotten some love from J.D. Power and Associates for its prepaid and postpaid wireless services.
The phones are already on sale north of the border through Rogers Wireless, its subsidiary Fido, Bell Canada, and Telus. While a Canadian friend tells me Virgin Mobile Canada has a reputation for inexpensive phones with prepaid service, Canadian mobile news site MobileSyrup expects Virgin to charge roughly the same prices with the same three-year contracts as Canada's other iPhone carriers.
Thanks EZ Mac Mike for the tip!
[via iLounge, MobileSyrup]
Mac Tablet Files: Rumored delay for the rumored device
DigiTimes stories are fun. They just are. Sometimes they provide insight into the components side of tech. Other times they make me wish I hadn't given up my dreams of writing fiction.Today, unnamed sources from unspecified component manufacturers say Apple is postponing the launch of its amazing wonder tablet, moving the date from next March to the second half of 2010. According to the shadowy sources, Apple has decided to switch some components, and now plans to produce a tablet using a 9.7" OLED panel from LG Display. The panels would be provided under Apple's five-year, US$500 million display deal with LG Display revealed at the beginning of the year.
The nameless talkers say construction of the devices will be done by three companies, and that there will be two, distinct units, the previously mentioned 9.7" OLED screened unit, and a 10.6" TFT LCD screened version. OLED's are very expensive compared to LCD displays, a cost that will be passed on to consumers. Sources figure the OLED tablet will have a retail price of about US$2,000, though that could come down with subsidies from telecom partners. The LCD unit with its 0.9" larger display is expected to be priced between US$800 and US$1,000.
There are advantages to OLED versus LCD displays, but would consumers pony up twice the money for an untried device when they can get a bigger screen at a lower cost?
Thanks to Paul for the tip.
[via DigiTimes]
Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, iPod touch
Apple seeks game guru for app development
While some say Apple never wanted the iPhone to be a gaming device, the company knows which way the wind is blowing and wants to get involved. Apple is looking to hire a game and media software engineer for its iPhone and iPod touch team, which could mean it wants to make games of its own.The job description doesn't say "games" specifically, focusing instead on "interactive multimedia experiences." However, the ad is looking for someone with "3-4 years of video game development experience," someone who has "shipped at least one AAA title," and someone who is a "passionate gamer."
id Software co-founder John Carmack says higher-ups in Apple aren't overjoyed with the growing status of the iPhone and iPod touch as gaming devices. But there's big money in games. Research firm DFC Intelligence sees profits for dedicated game-device makers like Sony and Nintendo shrinking 27% over the next five years, while expecting revenue from games for Apple's handhelds to rise from $46 million last year, to $2.8 billion dollars by 2014. That's a lot of money flowing through Apple, though most of that will go to developers. With over 100,000 apps available in the App Store, only four available today are made by Apple, and only one of those - Texas Hold'em (iTunes link) is a game.
[via Apple Insider]
Filed under: Apple Financial, iPhone
iPhone leads Apple past Nokia to #1 in mobile phone profits
Apple doesn't make the most mobile phones but, as of the third quarter of 2009, the Cupertino company does make the most money from them. Research firm Strategy Analytics says Apple is now the world's most profitable mobile phone maker, kicking Nokia from the top spot between July and September.Apple's phones only command about 2.5% of the world's cellphone market, though the iPhone's cool factor and the company's premium pricing let it rake in about $1.6 billion in operating profit from the iPhone in the third quarter of 2009, besting cellphone stalwart Nokia and its $1.1 billion in operating profit for the same period.
Alex Spektor, an analyst with Strategy Analytics, says, "With strong volumes, high wholesale prices and tight cost controls, the PC vendor has successfully broken into the mobile phone market in just two years."
What did Nokia do wrong? Reverse what Apple did right. Nokia seems to have slipped thanks in part to lower margins from the weak economy and a less-than-stellar presence in the United States, though Spektor thinks there is time to turn the Finnish ship around. He suggests the company focus more on the U.S. and less on traditional 'non-smart' phones, which don't make as much money per unit as the likes of the iPhone or the Blackberry.
While Nokia may not make the most money, at this point it still makes the most handsets. Nokia's worldwide market share for mobile phones sits at 37.9%. At least for now.
[via The Mac Observer, Electronista]
Filed under: Enterprise, iPhone
Deutsche Bank says IT warms to iPhone
Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore says corporate IT is warming up to the iPhone. In a research note published yesterday das analyst says, "There is growing evidence that the iPhone is making inroads into the Enterprise."Whitmore thinks Apple will sell 2 million iPhones to big business by the end of the year, some through reimbursements to employees and some through IT department purchases. If those numbers hold, the iPhone will own about 7% of the Enterprise smartphone market in 2009, up from the 2% it controlled in 2008.
What's up with the shift? Whitmore notes four reasons:
- User satisfaction - highlighted by the recent J.D. Power surveys of both consumer and business smartphone users
- Enterprise applications
- The iPhone's level of innovation
- The virtual keyboard - according to Whitmore, the thought that business users have to have a physical keyboard on a smartphone has turned out to be a 'fallacy.'
However, businesspeople might not agree that they don't need a physical keyboard if their first virtual keyboard isn't on an iPhone. UK researcher Canalys has taken a look at touchscreens and future smartphone purchases. The firm finds the ground shifting the touchscreen's way. Of the 3,000 survey respondents in the UK, Germany, and France, 38% say their next phone will have a finger-oriented touchscreen, while 16% say theirs will have a stylus-operated touchscreen.
But a lot of people who have virtual keyboard-only phones miss the physical keys. According to Canalys, 53% of people who own a touchscreen phone say they won't buy another one, though they may have bought the wrong one for them to start. A majority of iPhone and HTC users say they'll keep the virtual keys on their next phones, while less than a third of Sony Ericsson touchscreen phone owners say their next phone won't have buttons.
[via Fortune, The Register]
Filed under: Snow Leopard
Apple seeds new Snow Leopard 10.6.2 beta to developers
The betas of the next Snow Leopard update continue at a fast and furious pace. Apple has reportedly begun seeding a new build of Mac OS X 10.6.2 to developers, just one week after the previous beta.The new potential release focuses on graphics issues, specifically relating to drivers, QuartzCore, and ColorSync, as well as hitting issues with the Dock. Apple has identified no outstanding issues with the build, though the company is asking developers to pay special attention to graphics drivers, TrackPad preferences, and virtual machines.
The company says 148 components have been addressed in 10.6.2 betas so far, including issues in Dictionary, Expose, File Sync, Front Row, iPhoto, MobileMe, Parental Controls, QuickTime, Screen Sharing, Spotlight, Time Machine, and USB.
[via MacNN, Apple Insider]
Filed under: iMac
Apple posts DIY info for new iMac memory installation
If you're looking to do a DIY memory upgrade on your brand-spanking new iMac, Apple's more than happy to tell you how. The Cupertino company has posted info in the Support section of its website telling people who aren't afraid to pop the hood on the new 21.5" and 27" iMacs what kind of memory modules the new machines use and how to install or replace memory modules themselves.While it's not the public's first look inside the machines, Apple lets the world know that the iMac (Late 2009) has four SDRAM slots, where to find them, and what types of modules will and won't fit happily inside.
Would-be do it yourselfers can search Apple's site for support document HT3918. Godspeed – and Godcaution – to you.
[via Softpedia]
Filed under: iPhone
Telus to start iPhone sales on November 5
Rogers Wireless has a little over one week left of its Canadian iPhone exclusivity. Wireless carrier Telus announced today that it'll start sales of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS on Thursday, November 5, 2009. While the Telus network has been CDMA-only, the carrier is not selling a modified phone. Rather, the company is launching its iPhone-compatible HSPA network, which it's marketing to consumers as 3G+.
Prices on the new network match what many expected from Bell, which is also starting Canadian iPhone sales soon. Telus will sell an 8GB iPhone 3G for $99 (Cdn$), a 16GB iPhone 3GS for $199.99, or a 32GB iPhone 3GS for $299.99 with three-year contracts. Minus the monthly plans the 8GB iPhone 3G will run buyers $599.99, the 16GB iPhone 3GS will run $699.99, and the 32GB iPhone 3GS will run buyers $799.99.
[via Telus]
Filed under: iPhone
Orange to start UK iPhone sales on November 10
Update: Orange has announced pricing for the iPhone, in a dizzying matrix of subscription & pay-as-you-go plans (Monkey, Dolphin, Canary, Racoon & Camel? Really?) matched with varying purchase costs. All plans include free unlimited WiFi access; wireless data is 250MB/mo on the PAYG plans and 'unlimited' (meaning 750MB/mo) on the subscription plans. Tethering is only available on the subscription plans.The wait for a new carrier for the iPhone in the UK appears to be nearly over. The Times Online out of the UK says Orange will add Apple's thrice-super phone to its stable on November 10, one day after O2's exclusivity for the device ends.
Orange announced in late September that it would be carrying the iPhone, though it only said then that it would have the phone later in the year. At least 200,000 people may want to circle the date on their calendars, since at least that many have reportedly pre-registered to buy the phone on the new carrier, despite not knowing how much the phone will cost nor how much the monthly plans will run them.
November 10 may be a bittersweet day for Vodafone. While it has announced its own deal to sell the iPhone in the UK starting in 2010, pent up demand from people who want the device but don't want O2 as a carrier may be lost to the new Orange option. Vodafone reports interim results on November 10, though it'll likely face as many questions about the phone it doesn't yet have as it will about its own numbers.
O2 will still carry the iPhone, though it's also got its mind on the Palm Pre, which it began offering as a UK-exclusive last week.
[via TimesOnline]
Filed under: Gaming, iPhone, iPod touch
Destroy the Death Star from the comfort of your iPhone
Wanna blow up the Death Star? There's an app for that! At least there should be soon.
StarWars.com has word of the upcoming iPhone and iPod Touch game "Star Wars: Trench Run," letting players do the cool stuff Luke Skywalker did in Episode IV (minus the whining), namely: blow up the Death Star.
Developers say "Trench Run" uses simple motion controls, relying on a player's command of the iPhone's accelerometer to avoid walls, other ships, gun turrets, and inexplicable solid beams laid across the trench (video). Manage all of that and they can take their shot at the Death Star's exhaust port and send the Empire reeling. Why did they never cover that port, anyway (YouTube)? If blowing up a space station the size of a small moon isn't a player's cup of tea, they can engage in dogfights with TIE fighters over the Death Star instead.
The game's pitch promises music, sound effects, and clips from the movie for immersive gameplay, varying degrees of difficulty (from Easy to Jedi), and Leader Boards to let pilots see how they rank with other would-be Jedi from around the world.
As exciting as blowing up the Death Star may be, the game screams for in-app purchases. Can pilots buy "Battle of Hoth" expansions down the road? And fly against the second Death Star? Can we?!? I mean... can they?!? Please?
Until then, "Star Wars: Trench Run" has a price set of $4.99. No word on when the game will hit the App Store but it needs to happen soon. The Death Star must be stopped!
[via starwars.com]
StarWars.com has word of the upcoming iPhone and iPod Touch game "Star Wars: Trench Run," letting players do the cool stuff Luke Skywalker did in Episode IV (minus the whining), namely: blow up the Death Star.
Developers say "Trench Run" uses simple motion controls, relying on a player's command of the iPhone's accelerometer to avoid walls, other ships, gun turrets, and inexplicable solid beams laid across the trench (video). Manage all of that and they can take their shot at the Death Star's exhaust port and send the Empire reeling. Why did they never cover that port, anyway (YouTube)? If blowing up a space station the size of a small moon isn't a player's cup of tea, they can engage in dogfights with TIE fighters over the Death Star instead.
The game's pitch promises music, sound effects, and clips from the movie for immersive gameplay, varying degrees of difficulty (from Easy to Jedi), and Leader Boards to let pilots see how they rank with other would-be Jedi from around the world.
As exciting as blowing up the Death Star may be, the game screams for in-app purchases. Can pilots buy "Battle of Hoth" expansions down the road? And fly against the second Death Star? Can we?!? I mean... can they?!? Please?
Until then, "Star Wars: Trench Run" has a price set of $4.99. No word on when the game will hit the App Store but it needs to happen soon. The Death Star must be stopped!
[via starwars.com]
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