iOS Devices

Microsoft just announced the next major version of Office for the Mac.  It will be released in 16 months (!!) and have a (believe when you see it) almost Windows feature compatible version of OUTLOOK for Mac as a Cocoa app, which will replace Entourage.

“We’ll bring forward all the functionality from the Entourage Web Services Edition, including public folders, managed folders, and category syncing, but with Outlook we’re going even further and building a whole new application,” said Microsoft Mac Business Unit general manager Eric Wilfrid

To Entourage, Microsoft’s crippled Outlook for Mac, we have to say: it has been real.

Entourage has long been criticized for its large database, which is difficult to back up and can cause serious downtime if it gets corrupted. Wilfrid said that the new Outlook will use a new, modern database instead of the one used by Entourage

Frankly, by December 2010, we might not all be driving flyng cars, but many more people will have moved on to the cloud or to other Office applications (iWork?).  That is a long time to wait for a Cocoa version of Office.

 In a separate announcement, Wilfrid said Microsoft was simplifying its current Office 2008 offerings, going from three different editions down to two. The existing Home and Student edition will remain.

Replacing the $399 Standard Edition and $499 Special Media Edition is the new $399 Business Edition, which will include the Web Services Edition of Entourage and Microsoft Document Connection for Mac. Microsoft Office 2008 Business Edition also includes additional templates and clip art, and more than eight hours of Lynda.com training videos.

Frankly MMS is a dinosaur of a technology and won’t be around in 5 years.  It also enables Telcos to charge you for something that should be free.  You can accomplish everything MMS does on mobile email so long as your recipient has email on their phone.  Sure, not everyone does now, but they will…soon.

That being said, Apple and AT&T are being sued because the iPhone has yet to get MMS in the US – though it has been touted as a feature by both Apple and AT&T.  AT&T has promised this feature (and tethering) by late summer.  We are pretty Meh on the whole issue but were pretty sure a lot of you feel strongly about this.  Here’s the long version:

A class action started in a Louisiana district court alleging that Apple and AT&T touted the iPhone as supporting MMS (multimedia messaging service) but have not as yet provided the service. The plaintiffs allege that Apple "advertised heavily that the new version of iPhone, the 3G, as well as the even newer version the 3G-S would allow MMS. Apple’s print and video advertisements in and on television, the internet, the radio, newspapers and direct mailers all touted the availability of MMS." AT&T advertised the same functionality, the filing says.

But since the launch, in the USA, such functionality is not yet available. The court filing says the AT&T Answer Center page said: "Customers who are sent a MMS message and own a non-MMS capable device will receive a text message instead of an actual MMS message." But, the filing alleges: "AT&T is not a carrier which offers MMS! Of course, AT&T is the only carrier in the United States used by the iPhone. In other words, AT&T’s towers do not support MMS." Apple, says the filings, has revealed that AT&T has never upgraded its towers so as to support MMS functionality. "The only excuse offered by AT&T and Apple is a mouseprint disclaimer on the website, in barely readable font, which reads ‘MMS Support from AT&T coming in late summer’". The class action suit alleges the Louisana suit will consist of at least 10,000 individuals. The action is brought both under the Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices Act and other Louisiana civil codes.

Apple has the highest profit margin of any player in the smartphone industry – even though it doesn’t yield the highest revenue, this chart shows.

LG, Samsung, Nokia, and RIMM beat Apple to the revenue punch, but they don’t yield the same margins – closest player is RIMM with 20.7 per cent margin.

Interestingly, the cell phone handset industry yielded over $65 billion in the last 6 months. Of that, 9.7% was pocketed by the companies. It was recently announced that Apple received 32% of the total handset market’s profits, equivalent to a whopping $2,038,000,000 – all through iPhone sales.

Thanks to: iSmashPhone.

Games may be exploding on Apple’s handheld devices, with Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst, Michael Pachter, predicting the iPod touch will grab 10-15 per cent of all handheld game sales in the near future, but as Apple closes in on the purported release of the much-speculated upon 10-inch iTablet, there’s yet more signals that the Amazon Kindle’s days as pre-eminent e-Book reader are coming to an end.

We’ve already reported on the flurry of activity taking place within the education market to offer eBooks for the iPhone and iPod touch in that sector, but now it seems companies are hustling to offer bespoke solutions which should see a new wave of newspapers and magazines offering their material to users of these Apple devices, and profitable solutions, too. And don’t neglect that eBooks are the second-biggest category on the App Store.

First out the block to offer such a turnstile solution (not forgetting that outfits in the music sector, including iLike and The Orchard already offer App-creation solutions for musical acts) comes PixelMags. That company has announced plans to offer publishers a platform on the Apple iTunes App Store to publish magazines, newspapers, books, catalogues and brochures.

The Apple developer will allow publishers to easily digitise publications with custom-made Apps for no set up or monthly fees and publish them on the App store says PixelMags. Better still, it’s the first dedicated iPhone App platform to be accredited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, all downloads will count towards circulation figures.

Adventure games have always been popular, and there’s yet more of these looming for your Apple handheld device. Melbourne-based developer, Tin Man Games, today announced plans to release a library of fantasy adventure gamebooks for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The library will initially consist of three original adventures, the first being Siege of the Necromancer, and readers will be able to grow their collection as new books are released. There’s no need for dice – all you need to do is shake your iPhone/touch to get that random factor when playing through an adventure.

Earlier this week, Coursesmart announced plans to bring 7,000 educational titles to the Apple mobile platforms, opening up further Apple opportunities in the education sector.

We think the new App Store gold rush will be eBooks, and we think that rush will become a deluge when Apple introduces its larger-screened iTablet. Kindle may face a problem…

Update: What? Oh there are already 10 applications that do this?  Well we like this one better, so nya!

We don’t report every product news announcement that crosses our desk, but sometimes what we see catches our imagination, and today it’s Edovia who scoops the prize, with TouchPad 1.0 ($3.99) – and we’re interested because the app is a remote trackpad and keyboard package that lets you control any Mac remotely.

That’s right, you can use your iPhone or your iPod touch to remotely control you computer across a WiFi network. And because the software’s designed to emulate what you do with a normal touchpad, it’s going to be familiar to use, the developers promise.

We can imagine this will be an elegant solution for anyone using a Mac as a media centre, for schools, teachers and in other situations we can’t imagine…but what we like is the idea itself.

To the feature highlights:

* Super-easy setup
* Modifier keys (Ctrl, Option/Alt, Cmd, Shift)
* Tab, Esc keys included
* 1 finger, 2 finger and 3 finger gestures
* Vertical, horizontal scrolling
* Swipe left or right with 3 fingers (Back and Forward)
* Horizontal and vertical orientation supported
* Pad still works while keyboard is visible
* Easy to use Connection Manager

Requirements:
* Supports OS X 10.5 (Leopard), OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
* Windows and Linux NOT supported
* Connects through a WiFi connection and Bonjour
* Screen Sharing or VNC server required
* English keyboards supported
* iPhone, iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPod touch (1st & 2nd gen)
Buy it!

While we think we know the on/off iPhone deal is heading toward the on position (though problems still remain), a report sheds light on what those problems might be.

It’s widely-believed China Unicom wants a slice of App Store/iTunes revenue in addition to refusing to grant Apple a slice of per-user iPhone revenue. And while the allegation may be untrue (it’s founded on speculation, after all), at least one report lends weight to the notion, kinda…

Chinese company, NetDragon, has moved to deny reports that it is engaged in talks with Apple for the operation of the App Store in China. The company says it has not entered into any agreements with Apple or any associated company for operation of the store, and is not talking to any involved parties on the matter.

An earlier SinoCast report claimed NetDragon to have agreed to run Apple’s App Store in China once the iPhone ships in September.

NetDragon already operates China’s largest cracked iPhone platform, offering applications, film and TV shows and a range of cracked iPhone management software solutions.

What’s interesting about this report is that it implies business insiders in the world’s most populous nation are chatting about the possibility. While there can be smoke without fire, this is an interesting example of either speculation leading the debate, or a window as to just how complex Apple – and by inference, any Apple competitor with an App Store to run – is finding it to be to enter the Chinese market.

While it waits to get into China, Apple developer relations team members are reportedly approaching local software developers to encourage them to build applications for the iPhone. These in-development apps are being tested on iPod touch devices now, and will be in among the first tranche of local Chinese-made applications to debut on the App Store once it does open for business.

Of course, the question remains: will Apple run the App Store, or, facing layers of Chinese legal complexity, will it license store operation to another local firm?

Whatever the situation, negotiations have entered a critical phase as Apple and China Unicom rush to a September launch. A senior team of Apple execs, led by Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing, visited China last week.
 

Looks like Apple just punched up another $1.46 Billion in revenue.  The International Business Times is reporting that Apple has come to an agreement with China Unicom to sell 5,000,000 iPhones in China. 

According to the source, the deal would put the Chinese version of the iPhone at an average $293 price point and would not include subsidies to Apple which are common in other countries.  They speculate that Apple is still getting over $100/ea in profit from this sale.

"The price of the 8G standard iPhone is set at about 2,400 yuan and the 16G may be sold at 4,800 yuan," said Yu Zaonan, general manager of the customer development department of China Unicom in Guangzhou.

The first batch of iPhones will appear in China Unicom 3G stalls at Carrefour and some large retail outlets run by China Unicom in September, said Zhou Youmeng, vice general manager of China Unicom.

This is the Jesus Tablet.  We believe this is the best one we’ve seen yet…you?

Via Gizmodo.

We got a kick out of this one. Hope you do too.

Apple has solved its Chinese puzzle, sealing some deal with carrier, China Unicom, under which the latter firm will begin selling iPhones in China next month, the latest information shows.

Zhou Youmeng, deputy general manger for the China Unicom Guangdong branch, confirmed this news in chat with SinoCast Daily Business Beat yesterday, the report suggests.

The iPhone will be made available in China Unicom outlets in the Carrefour Guangdong stores and “some self-run outlets”, apparently. China Unicom has purchased as many as five million WCDMA network-based iPhones fron Apple.

Key here is that in order to get into the Chinese market, Apple has given up the revenue-sharing deal it had until now insisted on, a compromise China Unicom demanded in order it should ship the product in the huge population country. The report adds Apple usually gets 20-30 per cent of revenue generated from iPhone users.

“The fact is that Apple get fat profits from iPhone sales, even if it does not share revenue with its new collaborator," said a source close to the original equipment manufacturer,” the report continues.

However, for all this certainty it appears some sticking points remain in finalising the deal, with a China Unicom spokesman warning that “there are uncertainties” before final agreement is reached.

That uncertainty leads us to warn that this mooted Sptember launch may be delayed, even while Dell prepares to enter the territory imminently.

Despite the stop/start nature of these Apple/China Unicom announcements so far, we do note that a senior team of Apple execs, led by Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing, visited China last week.

In a post titled Apple Recruits eBay Data Center Executive Olivier Sanche, Can Apple Change Data Centers the way they changed cell phone and media players?, Dave Ohara from the Green Data Center Blog reports that a key eBay data center executive is shifting over to Apple, perhaps to oversee the construction of its new North Carolina facility.

“There is no other person I can think of who could better prepare Apple for Greening the Data Center,” Dave writes. “Olivier is one of the few data center managers who uses a Mac, and he craves the moment he can drop the blackberry and switch to the iPhone.”

Dave continues:

Good Luck, Olivier.  I am placing my bets Apple will change the data center industry the way they changed cell phones and media players with the iPhone and iPod.  It is not just the environmental issues, there are huge opportunities to leverage the data center servers with client devices – iPod, iPhone, and Macs.  Photos, Music, and Video and the associated media industry is Apple’s strength.  Google focuses on Search.  Microsoft focuses on Windows, Office, and competing against Google.  Apple focuses on consumers.

Who do you think is going to change the data center industry the most Google, Microsoft, or Apple?

Or maybe what individuals will change the data center industry?  Keep your eye on Olivier.

We’ve gotten word that Hulu and Apple are working on a product for the iPhone/iPod touch and possibly an Apple tablet.  While making a Hulu port for iPhone would be fairly straightforward, with Apple’s iTunes selling TV shows through iTunes and AT&T not wanting to break its network any further, it becomes more complex.  Here’s what out tipster has told us:

• The service would be ad-based just like the desktop/browser versions
• The service will utilize Apple’s new variable bitrate HTTP streaming protocol.  The quality will be good but not as good as iTunes versions
• It was originally hoped for release in September but rights issues have pushed the release back into late 2009/early 2010.
• The Hulu app only works on Wifi but it may "in the future" be allowed to run on carrier networks.
• AT&T will offer competing services on the iPhone.  They will coexist.
• There will be ties to iTunes store links.  For instance, if you are watching an episode of Lost, you’ll be able to buy prior seasons from iTunes with one click.
• Hulu is poised for international expansion in 2010.  The iPhone version will expand with the full version
• The app won’t be free

A court in patent-friendly Eastern Texas has issued an injunction stating Microsoft will have to stop selling and demonstrating Microsoft Word within 60 days.  At issue are the rights to XML in reading and writing XML, DOCX, and DOCM files.  Presumably, this affects Mac Office 2008 customers as well.

The judge ruled that Microsoft Word’s XML systems violate patents by Toronto-based i4i Inc and specifically their 1998 XML patent #5,787,449.  MS will have to pay i4i about $290 million in damages.

Realistically speaking, Microsoft will have to cough up some cash and/or file appeals to get this thing sorted out, something they have developed a real knack for over the years.

Research In Motion has tacitly confirmed it thinks the web browsing experience on BlackBerry smartphones fails to match that offered on an iPhone – and customers will have to wait until next year before the Canadian firm catches up, an analyst said today.

TD Newcrest analyst, Chris Umiastowski, has released a video, Evaluation of BlackBerry and iPhone, in which he quotes RIM saying they expect the BlackBerry Browser to be on par with Apple’s browser by next summer…

The seventeen minute video also shows the iPhone to be beating BlackBerry in almost every category from a non enterprise perspective, bar text entry and email, but warns RIM could catch up by next year.

(Assuming Apple hasn’t overtaken itself by then, which, let’s face it, it usually does).

The analyst points out that RIM’s non-enterprise user base has grown to account for 80 per cent of the installed base since the iPhone switched on consumers to smartphones. And RIM’s up against the iPhone in the non-enterprise sector.

“It is becoming quite clear to us that RIM has a lot of catching-up to do in the non-enterprise space,” Umiastowski said.

He looks at video capture, pointing to RIM’s lower resolution video capture to note, “this was probably standard on mobile phone video, but Apple has raised the bar once again.”

There’s lots of information in the original video, but we suggest you contact the analysis firm to ask for more, or try this link.

Via: Rimarkable.
 

It looks like Apple’s lawyers might be in court for anti-competitive iTunes/iPod ecosystem related fun and one of the star witnesses in the plaintiff’s stable is none other than DVD Jon.  Yes, the very same guy who decoded the DVD encryption and also builds an application that circumvents Apple’s iTunes hardware restrictions.  He also put an ad for his software on Apple’s flagship San Francisco store.

Johansen today posted the Subpoena to his site.

It is interesting because this is a 2005 case (SLATTERY v. APPLE COMPUTER, INC) in which:

Plaintiff Thomas Slattery’s lawsuit claims Apple configured the iPod so that it will play only iTunes files and not digital music files from competing vendors of online music. Apple has also encoded its iTunes files so they will only play on the iPod and not any other digital music player, the complaint says.

The suit says another company, RealNetwork, reverse engineered Apple’s iTunes format and began selling iPod-compatible music files for 45 cents each, compared with the iTunes price of 99 cents each. Apple quickly changed its software code so that the RealNetwork files would no longer play on the iPod, Slattery says.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks certification as a class action.

…interesting because Palm is currently having similar complaints about Apple.

The published letter to DVD Jon below:

Apple Antitrust Subpoena http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=18466587&access_key=key-1p5ul7t325wjhkbybz3c&page=1&version=1&viewMode=

Gizmodo got their hands on a ZuneHD release sign from Best Buy.  It looks like the iPod touch competitor will be avaialble mid-September.  We’re still waiting to hear from Apple on their new toys.

Here’s a looong interview on CNet with a Zune developer and his thoughts about Zune’s battler with iPod.

http://www.cnet.com/av/video/flv/universalPlayer/universalSmall.swf

Last week Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of Marketing, sent out an email to Daring Fireball correcting the blog on a few facts related to a story about a app getting rejected from the App Store.  Now Steve Frank (developer of the popular Coda/Transmit software), who has gone on his own seperate but parallel rants about the iPhone App Store, has also gotten and email from Phil Schiller:

to summarize, he said: “we’re listening to your feedback”. Not all of my suggested solutions were viable, he said, but they were taking it all in as they continue to evolve the app store.

He went on to say that the rumors of widespread e-book app rejection I’d heard were false — that specifically one e-book app had been rejected because it facilitated iPhone-to-iPhone sharing of (potentially copyrighted) books. But that otherwise, there was no sweeping ban on e-book readers.

Since Phil is listening to his feedback, Steve is considering putting down his new Android phone and coming back to the Apple side after his week-long boycott. 

It is interesting that Apple is choosing this medium of communication rather than using the typical PR channels and/or a developer relations-type approach.  Steve Jobs often directly responds to emails as well so maybe this is the preferred means of communications..  This particular email seems to have worked on Frank.

(via TechCrunck)

The much-awaited TomTom for iPhone solution may finally reach stores next month, as the company plans a special media event on September 22, a report claims.

As noted by MacRumors, Dutch site Bright.nl disclosed TomTom to have distributed press invites for the media event in a recent Twitter post.

The invitations, distributed to local journalists, say: “TomTom will reveal the future of navigation to you" on Tuesday, the 22nd of September (from 10:30 am until 2 pm) … Save the date!”

As we revealed last week, UK retailer Handtec prematurely leaked the local £99 price of the TomTom for iPhone system.

The system includes a windscreen mount, iPhone charger, amplified speakers, a hands-free kit and a GPS dongle. It also features a navigation application for iPhone; an Apple version of TomTom’s award-winning turn-by-turn navigation software, including IQ Routes and latest maps from Tele Atlas.

Some may recall the heady days of early this year, when colleague Cleve Nettles revealed a job ad from TomTom, seeking an iPhone/Mac OS developer. This caused us to speculate at a TomTom for iPhone solution then. And judging from the interest surrounding the product, we think the Dutch firm may have a winner on its hands on the product’s release.

If there’s any TomTom PR people out there, we’d like to take a look at your solution.

Sling has submitted a refresh of its popular iPhone application(iTunes Link) with some nice extras.  Both native DISH support and Widescreen 16:9 (full iPhone) viewing are on the version 1.1 list but something that will get tounges wagging is also being submitted.  Sling 1.1 is gearing up to work over 3G networks …as long as that network isn’t AT&T in the US.  It isn’t certain whether you’ll be able to take your AT&T-locked iPhone overseas to get your Daily Show fix, but with AT&T’s absurd international roaming rates, who’d want to even test this?

(ahem FCC? Anyone home? Think AT&T had anything to do with this App Store decision?)

Since when has Josef Albers been on Microsoft’s Logo Design team?   As we tweeted last week, Microsoft is rolling out a new logo for their stores (below).   It almost says to us "there is a light at the end of the tunnel".  Almost.