iOS Devices

The WSJ today reports that the big announcement that Cisco’s been hyping all week is actually a faster router.  While that may not be as exciting a s a new tablet device (or it may be depending on your tastes), it will hopefully have some effect on Apple customers.  The WSJ profiled AT&T and specifically their wireless (read:iPhone) customers who are the major catalyst for new broadband:

AT&T, meanwhile, said the 100-gigabit backbone Internet network would support growing wireless and wired data and traffic “for years to come.” In particular, AT&T has dealt with the explosive growth in wireless data, primarily driven by the Apple Inc. iPhone, among other smart phones.  The router “allows us to serve volumes of traffic that we need to serve,” said Keith Cambron, CEO of AT&T Labs.

AT&T has stated that they are working hard on bringing up their wireless speeds but first must upgrade their backhaul.  That’s where the Cisco CSR-3 would come in handy, delivering much more data over the same lines.AT&T have also stated that they don’t anticipate much additional traffic from Apple’s iPad – something we’ll start to understand at the end of April.

Apple today released the iPad/iPhone OS 3.2 Beta 4 SDK.  The build 10M2144 is 2.5GB and can be downloaded from developer.apple.com/iphone.

The EFF today posts the “iPhone Developer Program License Agreement“.  Normally, they wouldn’t be allowed to reproduce the document because of the terms of Apple’s SDK but since NASA created an app, they used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy for publishing.  They note that it is more restrictive than before and parts of it may not be enfodceable.

They note their concerns below:

Ban on Public Statements: As mentioned above, Section 10.4 prohibits developers, including government agencies such as NASA, from making any “public statements” about the terms of the Agreement. This is particularly strange, since the Agreement itself is not “Apple Confidential Information” as defined in Section 10.1. So the terms are not confidential, but developers are contractually forbidden from speaking “publicly” about them.

App Store Only: Section 7.2 makes it clear that any applications developed using Apple’s SDK may only be publicly distributed through the App Store, and that Apple can reject an app for any reason, even if it meets all the formal requirements disclosed by Apple. So if you use the SDK and your app is rejected by Apple, you’re prohibited from distributing it through competing app stores like Cydia or Rock Your Phone.

Ban on Reverse Engineering: Section 2.6 prohibits any reverse engineering (including the kinds of reverse engineering for interoperability that courts have recognized as a fair use under copyright law), as well as anything that would “enable others” to reverse engineer, the SDK or iPhone OS.

No Tinkering with Any Apple Products: Section 3.2(e) is the “ban on jailbreaking” provision that received some attention when it was introduced last year. Surprisingly, however, it appears to prohibit developers from tinkering with any Apple software or technology, not just the iPhone, or “enabling others to do so.” For example, this could mean that iPhone app developers are forbidden from making iPods interoperate with open source software, for example.

Kill Your App Any Time: Section 8 makes it clear that Apple can “revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time.” Steve Jobs has confirmed that Apple can remotely disable apps, even after they have been installed by users. This contract provision would appear to allow that.

We Never Owe You More than Fifty Bucks: Section 14 states that, no matter what, Apple will never be liable to any developer for more than $50 in damages. That’s pretty remarkable, considering that Apple holds a developer’s reputational and commercial value in its hands

In a post today, John Gruber says that the little iPhone widget-type apps that shipped on the original iPhone

AT&T’s foray into Android phones seems almost like it is a marketing campaign for Apple’s iPhone. It certainly doesn’t seem to be very friendly to Google, anyway.

Last week, it was announced that AT&T was replacing the market-leading, Google search on the Google Android powered Motorola Backflip with Yahoo’s search. WHAT?

That’s like selling In-N-Out Burgers except taking out the meat and replacing it with hospital-quality “Beef-like” patties. That alone borders on sabotage!?

But AT&T wasn’t done having their way with this poor Motorla Backflip.

read more

CBS Interactive today released the 2010 March Madness application ($9.99 app store).  Big difference over last year?  3G streaming of games!  It is just a shame that the iPad won’t be out until April.  Press Release from CBS below…

CBS SPORTS MOBILE ANNOUNCES NCAA

Also, TUAW noticed a NYTimes Best Seller list button at the bottom.

During Apple’s iPad commercial last night, we caught a glimpse of iBookstore pricing. The prices seem to fall below hardcover books, audiobook, paperback prices and even Kindles’s pricing. For instance, Ted Kennedy’s memoir, True Compass costs $23 for the hardcover, $19.25 for the B&W Kindle version and $14.95 for the iPad version.  Other books show similar price lines.  

Also, Apple looks to store documents on the iPad in a “My Documents” folder in iWork touch.  This was touched on briefly after the launch event but it is interesting that Apple chose this nomenclature.  This, perhaps to make it easier on the PC people to understand the storage architecture?  You can see that and some more of the interface from the screenshot below:

And finally, for you conspiracy theorist/Art Bell types, we have a smudge/iR sensor/CIA hidden camera three seconds in:

Thanks to everyone who sent these in!

Apple ‘s latest patents detailed by Patenly Apple, show an app that acts as a universal remote control.  Obviously, somewhere in between the iPhone and the A/V equipment needs to be some sort of iPhone –> IR converter such as the recent RedEye Mini.  The patents also show home automation features like multi-room “Fireplaces and lamps”

Perhaps most interesting however: The iPhone-IR converter may actually be the AppleTV, which has both networking (to communicate with the iPhone) and IR (to use the Apple Remote).

These patents also show the Apple TV running applications beyond the current FrontRow interface, such as “email, web browsers, programming guide applications or game networks”.  

As these patents show, it is clear that Apple has big plans in the home with Apple TV and the iPhone.  It’s only a matter of time before we start to see some of this functionality in shipping products.

Also available on Apple’s Website.  The song is There Goes My Love by The Blue Van. We’ve embedded a slow motion version with snarky comments below[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0f4KRobss8&w=700&h=420]

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

How about a nice thick wooden case for that upcoming iPad?  While it does double the width of the iPad and make it significantly more unwieldy, it does look nice.  This is certainly a “case” of form over function.  Har. 

To each, their own.  $79.99 at Versaudio

via Gizmodo

If you are of the jailbreaking persuasion, a interesting little app called infiniboard just popped up on Cydia that allows you to scroll your iPhone apps pages vertically.  The developer, chpwn, was also involved in the popular Proswitcher application.  Might we see something like this in iPhone OS 4?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Souf0HUy56k&w=700&h=420]

via Geekword

Update: It looks like this may be a generic cost for all pay as you go phones.

We’ve seen enough Apple iPhone patents with front facing cameras to know Apple has been working on video chatting and calling for awhile.  

Add to that, the latest 3.2 SDKs have all kinds of video chat buttons floating around. 

That’s what makes this little tidbit from O2 so interesting:

O2 are offering free video calls in their new iPhone plans as you can see in the screenshot below.  Free!

AT&T will probably charge $1/minute.

O2 via FSM via Redmond Pie

There must be something about knowing the exact date of a launch. AAPL closed at an all time high today of almost 219, which puts Apple’s market cap near $199Billion dollars. http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/main.swf

Not content with answering tech questions from Americans, Steve Jobs this week answered a question from all the way over in Sweden.  

The question was a good one, and one we’ve had on our minds as well: 

I’ll keep it short.