T-Mobile wideband LTE now in 16 US markets; VoLTE now covers 100 million people
Amidst a plethora of swearing and shaming of its competing cellular carriers, T-Mobile CEO John Legere took the stage tonight…
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T-Mobile encourages customers to switch with new phone buyback program, ETF credit
T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced today the company’s plan for Uncarrier 4.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Starting…
T-Mobile announces Jump, an anytime upgrade club for $10 a month
Just as several rumors suggested, T-Mobile has announced a new anytime upgrade plan at its press event today. ‘Jump’ will…
iPhone heading to EVDO/Verizon for 2009?
We’ve fielded a couple of tips (some more sketchy than others) about EVDO iPhones floating around Cupertino in the past, but today’s tipster seems a little bit more sure of himself. Besides having some Verizon insider credentials, he seems to know way too much about Verizon-Apple politics. According to him, Apple will be announcing iPhones for Verizon Wireless in 2009, perhaps as early Macworld 2009. Negotiations between Apple and Verizon are ongoing but they expect to hammer out agreements by the end of the year.
This isn’t a huge surprise for a number of reasons:
British iPhone on O2 Announcement Next Week
It looks all but certain that Apple will announce its first European iPhone carrier next week. And some bad news for y’all across the pond (or Channel as it were), it is not going to be carried by Vodafone who is currently launching an iTunes competitor (and whose CTO recently publicly dissed the iPhone). It will most likely be carried by O2 only.
It remains to be seen what effect, if any, the recent iPhone hacking will have on the selection of iPhone carriers. Apple will probably have to secure its iPhone OS from these hacks if it expects to keep exclusivity contracts with the vendors going.
European iPhones Coming. Rocking the 16GB 3G Specs
MacBidouille, an excellent French-language Macintosh site, has posted what they say is a leaked advertisement for the Tmobile iPhone in Germany. Of note, the specs indicate 3G speeds and a 16GB capacity. These specs are in line with our reports from August from our Orange (France Telecom) sources. They also stated that the Germans and British would get the iPhones slightly before the French were ready to roll it out.
While this image could easily be a fake (they at one point call it an iPod in the advertisement), the specs are likely to be realistic as the next iteration of iPhone will likely match the iPodtouch‘s 16GB capacity. Additionally, with 3G phones all but ubiquitous in Europe, it would be an embarrassment for Apple to release a EDGE-only phone. The price point also make sense when one takes into account the Euro/Dollar exchange rate and the absurd VAT Tax rates that add close to 20% of the cost…
Apple Expo Paris to be Launchpad for European iPhones, TV Shows
Update – we just got some new intel from Orange
Bet you forgot about ol’ Apple Expo Paris didn’t you? Well, from September 25-29th, 2007, Paris will be LE place to be for Apple aficionados the world over. The Fall event is held at a perfect time for a European iPhone announcements in front of the home crowd – a month ahead of the release.
Additionally, the Eurocentric crowd will likely get their own version of country-specific television shows on iTunes and an expanding iTunes Movies coverage.
Jonny Evans over at Macworld.co.uk has announced that both Vodafone and O2 would be carrying the iPhone in the UK – something we voiced a few months back. The release date has been speculated to be
iPhone version 1.1.1 vs. Hacked Version
Apple, as expected released the iPhone 1.1.1 software update today. Initial reactions are that it breaks the anySIM hack and Installer.app so this is a one way street. We know it is tempting to hit the red button and download and install but hold on just one second while we let you take a gander at the pluses and minuses.
Listed on the 1.1.1 updates page is the following:
- iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store;
- Louder speakerphone and receiver volume
- Home Button double-click shortcut to phone favorites of music controls
- Space bar double-tap shortcut to intelligently insert period and space
- Mail attachments are viewable in portrait and landscape
- Stocks and cities in Stocks and Weather can be re-ordered
- Apple Bluetooth Headset battery status in the Status Bar
- Support for TV Out
- Preference to turn off EDGE/GPRS when roaming internationally
- New Passcode lock time intervals
- Adjustable alert volume
Not bad for a incremental update but nothing earth shattering. We think Apple could have called this 1.0.3 but when you juxtapose (triple word score) these features with what you get in the 1.0.2 HACK version you may want to pause..at least until everything becomes clearer..
AT&T (or Tmobile) bringing the iPhone to Canada?
We know Rogers in Canada is a bit of a slacker on the iPhone front from our reader comments. However, they are the only GSM/EDGE provider in Canada and if you have a hacked iPhone they are your only choice. If Apple, for whatever reason, doesn’t want to deal with Rogers, they may have one of two already-established partners in Canada soon. AT&T and Tmobile are both rumored to be partners with Niagara Networks Inc. who are currently bidding on Canadian spectrum.
Either firm may be backing an auction application lodged earlier this month by unknown entity Niagara Networks Inc., which has no current operations in Canada. The company surprised industry observers two weeks ago when it appeared on an Industry Canada list of applicants for the spectrum auction beginning on May 27. Niagara Networks has applied to bid on all the spectrum being auctioned, requiring a letter of credit for $881 million.
Douglas Evashkow, president of Niagara Networks, told CBCNews.ca at the time that he was unable to disclose who was funding his company because of confidentiality agreements.
Obviously with a name like "Niagra" (as in "Falls" – which have both US and Canadian varieties), AT&T would be the easy guess of wireless partner.
More iPhone countries to be announced at March 6th event?
The timing seems right for more iPhone countries to be announced at the iPhone SDK event next week. Earlier we reported on Italy, Spain and Switzerland getting on board around the time of the SDK launch. Recent rumors have also included Rogers in Canada, O2 in Ireland and Tmobile in Austria and possibly in the Netherlands.
Update: Ireland (O2) and Austria (Tmobile) by extension are officially on.
Adding fuel to the fire, Morgan Stanley is reporting that El Jobso has been getting some serious private jet time in over the past quarter – indicating he’s been doing some global traveling and possibly sealing some deals.
Starbucks drops Tmobile and goes with AT&T AND free 2 hours of browsing, iPhone access?
Big news day today – especially for us coffee addicts. Starbucks has announced that it was dropping its T mobile wifi access points around the world and going with AT&T. The new deal will give free wireless access to Starbucks card holders and AT&T broadband users and charge about half of what T mobile charged for WiFi access. $3.99/visit or $20/month.
Now this deal has Apple written all over it for a number of reasons – not just because taking your MacBook to Starbucks will be a whole lot cheaper. Starbucks and AT&T are also iPhone partners. Starbucks sells it’s music to iPhone and iPod Touch users through its Wifi Music store (now run by AT&T). AT&T is obviously the carrier for the iPhone.
Why doesn't the MacBook Air have 3G?
One thing that stood out from all of the reviews was Ed Baig’s comment that Steve Jobs wanted to put 3G access into the Air but ran out of room.
Air does not come with the built-in ability to connect to a speedy wireless data network run by various cellular carriers. Jobs told me last week that Apple considered it but that adding the capability would take up room and restrict consumers to a particular carrier. Through a USB modem, he says, you can still subscribe to wireless broadband with your favorite carrier.
I hate to badmouth Mr. Baig and Mr. Jobs but there is no other way to put it. BS!…
iPhone SDK details emerge from iPod touch update?
The iPhone SDK is due next month and there is a lot of speculation on exactly how it will all work. Stevo has said he is fond of the Nokia model and we’ve heard comparisons to the Tmobile Sidekick’s delivery system.
We know that Apple has stockholder interests to protect and will likely take a cut of the cheddar on apps that it delivers. How picky Apple is about what type of apps get on the platform is another story entirely. We already know that, for whatever reason, Apple isn’t fond of putting iChat-type of Instant Messaging on the platform. Whether this is to encourage the lucative SMS services or to save AT&T some terrabytes on bandwidth is not really certain. The question is whether they will extend this blockage to the SDK.
For instance we know that a lot of VOIP providers would like to be on the iPhone. Will Apple let this fly? Doubtful.
Other services like Sling, which could be a competitor to AppleTV might also be in the doghouse.
Some pieces of the puzzle might be starting to come together on the technical details of the system Apple will employ to deliver these developer applications. The five new apps for the iPod touch were delivered by a system that is likely the basis for the upcoming mobile application delivery model.
Mossberg comes out (yet again) against the US mobile cartel
http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/452319854
You have to admire Walt Mossberg for taking his position as grand exalted leader amongst technology journalists directly to the US telecoms. He is single handedly trying to break the hold on consumers that the Sprint/Tmobile/AT&T/Verizon Cartel has on the US Mobile industry. To his credit, he has gotten Verizon to promise that in Q3 2008, that it will accept any device on its platform – as long as it meets a very simple set of requirements (like no VoIP?). If he were running for Office, we’d vote for him.
Fake Steve on Fake Google Phone
Popular Steve Jobs satirist FakeSteve posted a nice piece on the percieved threat of the Google Open Handset Alliance on Apple and its iPhone franchise. Google’s stock is up and all of the alliance members are getting plenty of publicity. But in the end what have we really got?
- No devices for a year (!!) which is forever in technology terms. The 6 months wait for the iPhone was eternity.
- An SDK – which is based on Linux. Let’s reserve judgment until next week. No news yet.
- Device manufacturers like HTC will build the equipment. However, in hardware terms, since it is an open platform, they are already going to be building the same hardware anyway. Its like Dell saying we are going to build Linux compliant computers now. They already do and have for years. They just usually install Windows on them. It is a low risk for HTC because, if the OHA fails, they just sell the devices with WM6. In fact, it would not surprise us to see the same devices running WM6 and OHA – just like Palm sells similar devices running PAlmOS and WM6. Also – Rubin mentioned the low end processor for the OHA phone would be a 200Mhz ARM processor. Something that has been out for a few years already. IT was introduced in an iPaq about 4 years ago.
Google Announcement liveblog
EDIT – the call is over – you can treat this as notes – not much really to see – we’ll check back next week when we see the SDK!
Ed Shaig – welcome who is here:
Eric Schmidt: Overview
3 blliion users. Getting Google on there.
Want to create a new experience with android platform.
Not a Gphone. There is no suuch thing – there will be many devices. (Obviously reading this from a script)
Major platform change
Consumers have access to desktop type applications and new applications we can’t even imagine
