9to5 Staff

 The Daily Mail’s report claiming Apple plans to launch an iPhone nano before the end of the year may have some truth – but the timing is awry, Lehman Brothers analyst Ben Reitzes warned last night.

The UK newspaper had claimed Apple plans to introduce a small version of the iPhone, quickly dubbed the ‘iPhone nano’. This gadget was reportedly to ship in time for Christmas and to be made available on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The analyst counters, “While we believe Apple is working on a lower-end iPhone form factor, we do not think one will come until Spring 2009."

This suggests Apple is working to deliver such a device, but isn’t planning one just yet, after all, the company has enough to do shipping the existing iPhone 3G to 50 more countries before the end of the year, the analyst writes.

Not only that, but it appears Apple hasn’t yet decided what "form factor" the device will take.

However, rumours of a smaller, less well-featured iPhone have persisted for a year at this point, leading many to believe it’s not a question of if, but when. Like Nokia, Apple will at some point have to diversify its range in order to widen its addressable market.

Equally, the Daily Mail’s sources may have confused the iPhone nano whispers with Apple’s secretive plan to upgrade its iPod range – specifically, the Mail report could be construed as suggesting plans to introduce multi-touch to the nano, though the utility of such a proposition remains to be seen.

 Is this the most expensive iPhone application ever?

IAmRich is the latest from developer, Armin Heinrich. It costs almost $1,000 (£599.99), and does absolutely nothing at all.

As noted by Alley Insider, the application simply displays a red virtual gem on the screen of the iPhone. And the developer’s description is moderately amusing, too.

"The red icon on your iPhone or iPod touch always reminds you (and others when you show it to them) that you were rich enough to afford this," the app’s information page says in iTunes. "It’s a work of art with no hidden function at all."

The developer also offers Calc Pro – a more advanced calculator for the iPhone.

Erm, we’re puzzled what to think? Is this what to expect from the world’s most advanced ecosystem? What are your thoughts?

Apple’s iPod has been a successful translation tool for US soldiers deployed abroad, following a year’s testing among troops in the 10th Mountain Division.

VCommunicator Mobile is a translation engine that uses an iPod in order to offer soldiers a fast and accurate way to access an extensive library of phrases.

The software displays graphics, showing either the phrase in Arabic, or a video of a soldier making the appropriate hand gesture. There are collections of phrases for specific situations, like checkpoint, raid or patrol.

Over 700 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been testing 260 iPods enabled with the technology for the last year, reports military magazine, Strategy World – and at a cost of $800,000 initial reports are positive. (Troops also get a solar recharger for the system if they’re based in remote areas, incidentally).

Language modules (which cost $2,000 each and take up 4GB of space) include Iraqi Arabic, Kurdish, Dari and Pushto. The army has been developing translation solutions such as this one since 2001, but all the others have required a laptop of a PDA. 

The first year’s testing has ascertained that soldiers quickly acquire a vocabulary of phrases, and reports in the field saw local residents react with interest to this use of an iPod – they had iPods themselves.

The success of the trial means soldiers from the US 1st Cavary Division will be using the solution on their next deployment.

“It’s very useful in situations where you may have only one to two interpreters on the ground, and about 80 to 90 Soldiers on the ground, so you may not have enough interpreters to go around in a particular situation,” said Ernie Bright, one of the developers of the Vcommunicator, who gave the demonstration of the tool. “The real beauty of it is that the technology has been designed so that anyone who hasn’t had any training on it, can use it.”

At least in one sense this particular military implementation makes communication easier in a conflict zone.

Tim Cook mentioned in the last earings call that Apple would double its iPhone footprint to 40 countires on August 22.  India is the biggest in terms of population – though the 3G features won’t mean a great deal – there is no 3G on the populous sub-continent, such services aren’t expected to launch until next year.

The iPhone – which also goes on sale in the Czech Republic that day through O2 – will be available through Bharti Airtel in India. The company is already allowing customers to sign-up for information on the device.

“iPhone has been the iconic technology revelation of this year," said Sanjay Kapoor, president of Mobile Services at Bharti Airtel. “Airtel has been at the forefront of innovation and customer delight in the Indian telecom sector. Introducing iPhone 3G to India further underscores our commitment to enrich the communication experience of all Airtel users.”

Vodafone India is also preparing to launch the device, but has declined to say when, but likely in the same time-frame.

Introduction of the device in India is likely to propel Apple’s market share. Mobile telephony is highly advanced in India, which has a population of 1,147,995,898 (July 2008 estimate from CIA World Factbook), with 63 per cent of the population aged between 15-64-years and a GDP of $2.989 trillion.

Preparing for launch in the Czech Republic, O2 chairman Salvador Anglada, said: "As the only 3G network operator on the Czech market, and because O2 has the country’s most extensive wireless network for WiFi internet connectivity, we are giving our customers an exclusive opportunity to enjoy all the benefits that iPhone 3G offers.

And one more thing – the iPhone will also go on sale in Estonia on August 22.

 This is Part 1 of Aurora, a concept video created by Adaptive Path in partnership with Mozilla Labs that attempts to create a plausible vision of how technology, the browser, and the Web might evolve in the future by depicting that experience in a variety of real-world contexts.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/1450211 w=400&h=225]
Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo.

The release of Aurora is part of the launch of Mozilla Labs’ browser concept series, an ongoing initiative to encourage designers and developers to contribute their own visions of the future of the browser and the Web. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be releasing more video segments, as well as background material showing just what went into imagining the future of the Web and translating that into a video.

Engadget reports on a company called Obscura Digital who demoed an amazing, multi-touch, holographic display, similar to the famous Minority Report interface. I think this technology is awesome, and can’t wait to see it appear in the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros, and iPhone 4G!

On second thought, maybe I should expect these in the MacBooks of 2020 and in iPhone 33G…

On third thought… who knows?

Michael is a teen blogger for 9 to 5, and has his own site, Mac Soda.

Each week, fellow teen blogger Luther Cherry will be covering the best free iPhone apps of the App Store. I will be covering the apps I feel are a complete rip-off.

This week’s rip-off app is LionClock Plus. It has three functions: time how long you work, multiply it by your hourly rate, and allow payment through PayPal. Two of these functions, clock and calculator, come with the phone, and PayPal is a free application. I can do what this application can do for free. The suckers who buy this app are paying 80 dollars. That is the same as buying Super Monkey Ball, Crash Bandicott, Aqua Forest, Texas Hold’ Em, Trism, Scrabble, Band, Comic Touch, Picoli, and NetShare, with a few bucks to spare, making it one of the biggest ripoff apps on the App Store. Well, behind I am Rich.

Michael is a teen blogger for 9to5 Mac, and has his own blog, Mac Soda.

Apple’s adventures in music retail continue to bear fruit, with the company now consolidating its position as the leading US music retailer – and not just on a per-month basis, but for the first half of the year, new figures reveal.

While Apple’s competitors continue to try to chip away at the iTunes market lead, NPD MusicWatch reports iTunes to have been the leading US music retailer all the way through from January to June of this year, pushing former leader, Wal-Mart, into second place. Amazon’s making a dent, too, with its new MP3 retail service propelling the company into fourth from fifth place in the music retailers top five.

"We expect Apple will consolidate its lead in the retail music market, as CD sales continue to slow,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for The NPD Group. “Amazon’s CD buyers tend to be older, so they haven’t abandoned the CD format to the extent seen in the average music buyer. Plus Amazon’s successful introduction of its digital download store will help the company improve its position in the future.”

The research also reveals online CD sales to have seen less erosion than sales at high street shops.

Fresh research from the Yankee Group reports a growing corporate marketshare for Apple, with the analysts observing the Mac to be "gaining significant momentum among corporate users."

The research, published yesterday and penned by analyst, Laura DiDio, states: "Don’t look now but Apple Mac hardware and the accompanying OS X 10.x operating system software are gaining significant momentum among corporate users."

The report cites a new Yankee Group web-based survey of 750 global IT administrators and C-level executives. This survey found nearly four out of five businesses -approximately 80 per cent – have Macs and OS X installed in their networks. 

"Although the Apple Mac hardware and OS X operating systems still represent a small niche, adoption and acceptance of Mac hardware and operating system software are growing at a steady and sustained pace not seen since the late 1980s," DiDio observes.

As explained, survey responses indicate that use of Apple products in a corporate environment is much more pervasive and complex than previously thought. Nearly one-quarter, or close to 25 per cent, of the survey respondents have a significant number – greater than 30 or 50 – of Apple Macs and Mac OS X present in their corporate networks, the analyst said.

Cool technologies such as Safari, iChat, FileVault, Time Machine and new bundled applications within Mac OS X 10.5 are also boosting enterprise adoption, the analyst said.

Comparing the two – new iPhone software appears faster, more responsive, better contact handling and won’t take an age to back-up before sync, see the two compared.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec63VkJejiI&hl=en&fs=1]

According to Ars, Steve Jobs sent out a letter to Apple employees detailing the failure of the MobileMe(ss) launch.   Earlier Apple took the extraordinary step of Blogging the MobileMe situation.  Hindsight being 20/20, Jobs noted that the launch could have been delayed and didn’t need to happen alongside the iPhone 2.0/App Store launch.  Jobs also mentioned that the push updates could have been rolled out service by service…i.e. calender, email, etc..

Makes sense…so why was there a rush?

To help with Apple’s very ambitious service plans, Apple also announced that Eddy Cue will now lead all Internet-related services at Apple including iTunes, the App Store, and now MobileMe.  Cue will report directly to Steve Jobs which makes him a pretty big cog at 1 Infinite Loop.  No Bio on the exec page yet though….

According to Ars, Jobs said:

"The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services," Jobs says. "And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year."

As of now all things mobile me are running smoothly.

Update: We found a picture of the email – not much more to see….

Looks like Apple is making an attempt to squash some of those bugs that have plagued a few of y’all out there.  The 250mb update has no specific clues on exact fixes but is intended as a "bug fixes" release only.

No word yet if this release will have any affect on the fledgling Jailbreak 2.0s out there. 

How did the updates go for you?  Does your iPhone sync still take 10 minutes?

Update: Yeah the backup part of the synch seems to be marginally quicker.  IT makes it to 50% in a few seconds then slows.  Also, apps feel slightly snappier but that isn’t verified..

Apple.Pro, a Taiwan-based site, came up with some purported, blurry MacBook shells a few weeks ago that got everyone hella excited.  Today, they have a few more that are a little clearer.   It fits with the Aluminum with Glass trackpads…

More Pictures you know where…

Via engadget

The Street, which is about .01% correct in picking Apple information has a doozy today that is obviously inclined to drop the stock price.  Today, they predict that Apple is planning a massive recall on batteries.  They go on to say "Additionally, it is rumored that AT&T will be awarded another year to be the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the U.S. and that Apple will be refreshing its notebook line in time for the back-to-school season." 

Bullshit.

This sounds a bit like their 2007 prediction in which they announced that Steve Jobs is going to take a leave of absense from the company and Eric Schmidt would be taking over.  Or this one where Steve Jobs is getting sent up the river on options charges.  Stock drops temporarily… a lot of money changes hands. 

Doug Kass is the face behind these predictions.  Anyone think this will come true?  Will the stock drop?  Will Kass’s constituants make a boatload of money?

How obvious does market manipulation have to get before someone calls them out?

SEC?  Anyone home?

Oh, and the flip side is that Apple is selling iPhones like iPancakes.  MacBooks will be released in late September (after school starts) and the AT&T rumor speculated by USA Today goes against their earlier statement that AT&T inked a 5 year deal with Apple.  Likely, neither are true.

If you want advice on Apple stock, perhaps trying Cramerwatch.org’s monkey (the primate has a better record than the Street’s founder, Jim Cramer) would be a better choice.

 If you’re like me, you weren’t seen on line at the Apple store or AT&T store. You might have wanted to be on that line, but you weren’t. If you’re like me, you’re waiting for a 32GB iPhone. The question is, when will we see one?  I don’t understand why there is no 32GB model yet. If I want a phone that does everything, I think it should have adequate space for all my data. The point is to have everything on one device. I don’t want to have to carry around an extra iPod!

Another thing that really annoys me is the battery life. The forbidden topic. It angers us all. Seriously. 5 hours on 3G? We all know that’s worse than the first iPhone, and we also know the first iPhone battery sucked. My mom needs to bring her charger everywhere she goes…not the average American, or should I say Apple dream.

While I am on the topic of what I despise about the iPhone right now, I might as well talk about the fact that some of these apps are overpriced. Really. I don’t even think some of these 9.99 apps are worth what they cost. I have already downloaded some free apps, because I’m so cheap…no not really. It’s just us teens don’t really get money as much as we used to, unless we babysit. But anyway the free apps I downloaded were amazing, and probably should have cost money. It’s funny. The high-priced apps aren’t worth what they’re asking for, yet the free apps are so cool they should cost something.

Another thing. What is with the camera, and why can’t we MMS? What if I want to send a quick pic to someone? What am I going to have to do? Email it? Let’s get one thing straight. As teens, we don’t email anymore. Everything is texted or Instant Messaged. We hardly even call each other. Texting has totally taken the place of that. If I am going to shell out over 2,000.00 for this phone in the coming two years, I want to at least be able to send pics with my phone. I thought that was one of the basics, that every phone should support. I guess I was wrong. The same with the camera. You can surf the web at supposedly “blazing” speeds, yet you can’t take videos or better quality pictures. Why can’t they start with the basics, and add on after that? I have to admit, the pictures look great on the phone, but once you sync it to your Mac, or  PC (I hope not), they don’t look so great. I guess I’m going a little too far— but one would expect a good quality camera, with such a “revolutionary” phone.

I’m not here to start a mutiny or revolt against Apple, but these are definitely some things you should think about. I just sometimes wish hard for the perfect product. I don’t want to have to wait until I get so old I can’t remember how to work the DVD player (if they’re still of use), to get the ultimate phone…or something near perfect. The iPhone has great potential, and is nearly there. Maybe just a few more years before it has everything a regular phone has….tisk tisk Apple…

 This Week’s Free App is none other than a classic device, servicing us for years. The Remote. Remote is Apple’s top-selling (or should I say downloaded) free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Remote is just what it sounds like. A remote. Just not for the TV. Remote works with iTunes or your Apple TV, to control your music library. I have to say, it’s pretty cool. I can sit on the sofa, or walk to the kitchen, and select what song I want to hear next, in the other room! Don’t get too excited…you need a respectable Wi-Fi network, to actually use it. Wi-Fi also needs to be turned on, on your iphone or iPod. The only cons:

1. There can be a lag depending on how far away or strong your connection is, which is kind of obvious

2. There is no Cover Flow option

3. You can’t listen to the music playing, on your iPhone or iPod Touch

4. It’s not a full functioning “remote”. It lacks compatibility with all other content on the Apple TV

Bottom line: Remote is just what Apple needed to make iTunes and Apple TV complete. We may have to wait, as usual, to get new updates that will fix some of the problems. Don’t fret. Remote rocks, and works just fine. Another reason to try and love it: It’s free.

Today’s burning question: are Microsoft and Nokia hatching a plan to derail the iPhone’s momentum? And, if a claimed cooperative relationship between the two firms turns out to be true, are reports claiming an imminent iPhone nano reflective of an Apple strategy to deal with this new threat?

We have to grant we’re wandering the hinterlands of rumour and conjecture here, but this morning we learn Microsoft may be working with Nokia to cook up some kind of Zune phone…

As reported, the new plan from market-leading Microsoft involves Nokia building the hardware and Microsoft pimping the device(s) up with Zune-branded entertainment. Electric Pig reports the partners plan an "all-out assault" on Apple and its iPhone. 

We’d like to observe that Nokia is set to launch its Comes With Music service later this year, which suggests it may not really need a Zune connection for song sales….

We’ll see how this all plays out, but if there should be any truth at all in these rumours, then is Apple planning to accelerate plans for an iPhone nano in order to consolidate and widen its share of the market before Microsoft’s increasingly desperate-looking counter-attack begins?

Before the flaming begins, this is conjecture and speculation that’s inspired by unconfirmed rumour…

Good news for gamers this week, as Mike Morhaime, co-founder and President of Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed development of upcoming versions of Diablo and StarCraft are advancing fast.

Morhaime was speaking during Activision Blizzard’s first quarter earnings call last week, where confirmed that Diablo III StarCraft II to be "heavily" into development.

He also let gamers know that Diablo’s 1 and 2 have accounted for 18.5 million sales so far between them, but remained cagey on the release date for either title, saying: "We do not currently have a release date for either StarCraft II or Diablo III, but we can say that they are heavily in development on both games and we are committed to making sure these games meet and exceed the high expectations of our players."

Good news for gamers on the Mac has become more frequent of late, though Id Software’s John Carmack recently explained, "The truth is Steve Jobs doesn’t care about games," Carmack told Eurogamer. "This is going to be one of those things that I say something in an interview and it gets fed back to him and I’m on his shithead list for a while on that, until he needs me to do something else there. But I think that that’s my general opinion. He’s not a gamer." 

There’s no shortage of enterprise implementations for the iPhone as a third wave of iPhone-focused solutions begin to emerge into the business markets.

News latest comes from Lab49, which today announced it has begun developing applications for the device for the financial services industries, focused on buyers and sellers within those markets.

The company confirmed it has seen "sizable and growing demand" for developing financial applications on the iPhone, and notes that hedge funds seem to be adopting Apple technology fastest of all within the sector.

If, like me, you aren’t in these industries, then what kinds of implementations are being discussed? Simple: applications include: real-time information and data visualization; mobile workflow management; and monitoring and management of real-time trading applications and high-performance infrastructures.

First fruit of the new development wave is "Lab49 Capital", an iPhone application that shows real-time portfolio management on the device. It’s nice because it helps portfolio managers track the performance of their assets in real time, and "slice and dice" positions, P&L and changes in the portfolio across multiple dimensions such as strategy, industry, country and manager.

"The new iPhone platform presents significant opportunities to buy-side and sell-side firms," said Marc Jacobs, director at Lab49. "The extension of financial applications to workforces across multiple floors, buildings, geographies, and client sites; faster response times to complex financial, legal and technical events; and quicker time to market, all make for a new wave of applications that can actually be applied throughout the financial enterprise."

We’ve come a long way from Gordon Gekko’s phone haven’t we?

Demand for the iPhone 3G is exceeding Apple’s expectations by a significant margin, and the company has now forced its manufacturing partner, Foxconn, to produce the device at the highest-possible rate.

Citing yet another of those shadowy "sources" that seem to wander about online, TechCrunch alleges Foxconn to have ramped-up its production to 800,000 units per week. The report notes this to be "above current full capacity", and warns there may be some quality control issues ahead.

Apple sold just 6 million of its first generation iPhones, but right now Foxconn is producing the mobiles at a rate of 40 million per year – and Apple was originally expected to ship just 25 million of these devices.

The iPhone is available in 23 countries today, with plans to triple availability this year.

"We’ve heard that Foxconn was initially told to expect sales of up to 40 million units in the first year, but that those numbers are being revised upwards sharply," TechCrunch reports.

Strategy Analytics recently pointed out that Apple’s global handset shipments fell sharply between Q1 and Q2 this year, from 1.7 million units in the first quarter of 2008 to 0.7 million in the second quarter.That was as purchasing slowed down in advance of the release of the iPhone 3G. That gave Apple a worldwide marketshare stood of just 0.2% in that quarter. 

Strategy Analytics expects Apple’s handset market share to rebound to 1.1 per cent in the third quarter – however, should TechCrunch sources be correct and Apple achieves sales of 40 million in a year, this equates to ten million in a quarter, and gives Apple a much higher slice of global handset shipments. And a commanding slice of the smartphone market….