iOS Devices

Apple has refused to sell the Google’s much-anticipated Google Voice app through its App Store, while also removing existing apps which use the service, reports claim.

Google had sent Google Voice to Apple for approval for sale through the App Store, but it was rejected. Independent GV Mobile app developer, Sean Kovacs, also saw his app removed from the App Store, with Apple saying his software duplicates features the iPhone ships with.

Google built similar apps for BlackBerry and Android, while independent developers also ported the service to the iPhone, with apps including GV Mobile and VoiceCentral made available for a few months. These apps have now been withdrawn from the store.

A Google spokesperson told TechCrunch: “We work hard to bring Google applications to a number of mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Apple did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the Apple App Store. We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users for example, by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers.”

Speculation now suggests AT&T may have been behind the move to ban Google Voice. It’s thought the carrier may have felt threatened by the app, which among other features lets users send free SMS messages and make cheap calls using Google’s own number.

Adding insult to injury, independently-developed GV Mobile was apparently, “personally approved last April by Phil Schiller”, Apple’s top marketing guy.

Apple has seemingly reached (or is at least closing in on) a key three-year deal with China Unicom which will see the iPhone launch in China.

China Unicom has secured the rights to distribute the iPhone in the populous country, following months of negotiation between Apple and incumbent mobile telcos in the area, as reported earlier this morning by the state-run official Shanghai Securities News.

Following these revelations, however, the carrier later this morning told Reuters that no formal deal had yet been reached. "Discussions are still ongoing, we have not reached any formal agreement," said Sophia Tso, a spokeswoman for China Unicom.

"We have made progress but there are still some problems to be resolved," a Unicom spokesman separately told The Age.

Despite lack of a formal agreement at this time, the substance of the deal as disclosed earlier this morning is thought to be sound. As previously reported, the three year deal sees the telecoms firm guaranteeing annual iPhone sales of between one and two million units, though local reports suggest Apple has ultimately been unsuccessful in its attempt to persuade China Unicom to offer a revenue sharing deal.
 

Instead, the carrier has agreed to purchase iPhones at a cost of 3,000 yuan each (approximately $439). The deal also sees the carrier guarantee Apple annual revenue of 5 billion yuan (approximately $732 million) each year.

iPhones sold in China are expected to lack WiFI support in order to stay in line with local regulations. These models of iPhone are already in production, reports claim.

China’s dominant mobile carrier, China Mobile, was also in talks with Apple to sell the iPhone in China, but Shanghai Securities News said those talks broke down.

In March, China Unicom accidentally published a dedicated iPhone page on its website. The network had originally been expected to launch the iPhone in China in May.

Interestingly, China Mobile in February 2008 apparently reported it was aware of 400,000 iPhones already in use on its network, these models were purchased in Europe and the US, unlocked and returned to China.

We’ve got modem firmware 05.11.04, Carrier=AT&T 4.5 like before but you can Copy/Paste small videos (thanks Justin) and now you can see how much tethering you’ve done (below) – even if you can’t currently enable tethering on iPhone 3.1 just yet (hacked or not)

Management practices at Apple’s manufacturing partner, Foxconn, remain in the spotlight as yet more news reports emerge explaining the tragic death of 25-year old engineer, Sun Danyong.

The latest batch of reports claim the hapless engineer’s family have now received compensation of c.$44,000 for the death of their son, while his girlfriend was given an Apple MacBook.

Sun was responsible for shipping prototypes from Foxconn’s development labs to Apple, and his problems really began when he discovered one of the 16 prototypes he was handling had disappeared.

He reported this, but later complained to friends he had been beaten and humiliated by Foxconn security, even warning his girlfriend to leave town and not make contact with him, according to a text message she later posted online.

Then, on the morning of July 16, Sun appears to have jumped from the 12th floor of an apartment building to his death, which Foxconn called suicide.

Apple said of the loss of the young engineer, “We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death. We require that our suppliers treat all workers with dignity and respect.”

Sun’s fall has led to a wave of criticism of Foxconn’s treatment of its labour force, which was first examined in a report in the Daily Mail several years ago.

Labor rights groups say the worker’s death should compel Apple to improve conditions at its supplier factories in China and prevent worker abuse.

New York-based pressure group, China Labor Watch, blamed the death on, “Foxconn’s inhumane and militant management system, which lacks fundamental respect for human rights.”

Foxconn counters that it offers extensive accomodation and facilities for its staff and has been engaged in honestly seeking answers as to what happened to the missing proto-iPhone. Foxconn manager, James Lee also observed products had gone missing while in Sun’s possession in the past.

Meanwhile the security officer accused of mistreating Sun (who has since been reported to the Chinese police for investigation) once again denied any beatings, saying only he had “become a little angry” and grabbed Sun’s shoulder.

However, the hand of Foxconn’s control is illustrated by a report in the New York Times, which says one its journalists was speaking to Sun’s family when a security guard and two men in Foxconn T-shirts approached the journalist’s translator to threaten to beat them up if they kept asking questions. Foxconn says this guard was not on their staff, but could have been a police operative.
 

Informationweek reports on how Jonathan Zdziarski breaks Apple’s security measures pretty swiftly, in a series of Youtube videos.  While hackers will need physical access to the iPhone (thereby making them crooks), he does cut through the security that protects deleted voice mail, e-mail, and other data.  Note that he is a security researcher and has skills that the garden variety pickpocket probably hasn’t yet learned from iPhone Hacking for Dummies.

(He apparently used the iPhone in portrait mode to make the videos.)

When the Pre was launched a few months ago, we joked that Palm had stolen some of Apple’s packaging people as well as some engineering talent.  Not to fear, though.  Apple, not content to patent everything about the iPhone, and even the way it can be charged and changed as it sits on shelves, has also patented the unique and revolutionaly packaging.

If you use AVG Anti-Virus on Windows (or on a Windows VM), you might want to disable it until they send out a patch for their latest update.  According to a rapidly filling Apple Support thread, the latest update flags iTunes.dll and iTunesRegistry.dll as "Trojan horse Small.BOG".  There isn’t a listing for "Trojan horse Small.BOG" on AVG’s website so the flag is somewhat strange.

Another work around is  to add "C:\Program Files (x86)\ipod" as an exception under Resident Shield>Manage Exceptions>Add Path.

Oh, right, you use Mac and haven’t had anti-virus software in years? Via Slashdot

From the Toys section:

With activation of new voice and data plans, AT&T Wireless has refurbished models of the Apple iPhone 3G 8GB Smartphone in Black for $49 with free shipping.  That’s the lowest price we’ve ever seen for a factory-packaged iPhone.  16GB iPhones are available for $50 more.  This deal is only available in the AT&T online store while supplies last.

The LA Times has the story.  We’ve talked about our love of Augmented reality apps before, but according to the Mark Milian, the iPhone will only be allowing access to the necessary APIs to build these types of apps in iPhone OS3.1 which they anticipate for September…right about the time some new iPods should hit the scene.

The NY Subway app above (via Macrumors) is a clever (but somewhat unnecessary) use of the technology to find the nearest subway terminal. 

Purely speculation here:

As Gizmodo points out, the new final Cut Pro Studio allows direct burning to BluRay Disc.  Problem is, Apple doesn’t sell any Blu-Ray hardware…yet.  Steve Jobs famously called Blu-Ray "a bag of hurt" because of all of the licensing restrictions, etc. that went along with putting BluRay into Macs.

You could always, of course, buy a Blu-Ray external disk and use Roxio Toast Software($63-73)+BluRay Plugin to burn, export  and watch BluRay discs.  However, this is the first time Apple’s own software has referenced Blu-Ray (besides that iTunes/Gracenote mention that made everyone pee their pants a little).

Apple being Apple, they will likely offer a built-in hardware solution, if only in high end Pro machines during the next iteration.  Their industrial/pro customers don’t want to source third party hardware that isn’t supported under the same warranties that Apple provides.  That is unless "someone" thinks they are just too painful to see in Macs.

iPhone exclusivity will end – the only question is which network you want to run your Apple mobile on.

There’s big battle between mobile networks in the UK, and network coverage is key to this. It’s why so many people involved in running the UK’s many outdoor music festivals turn to Vodafone or Orange because both networks are thought to offer more effective coverage.

There’s nothing worse than SMS messages arriving 12 hours late, or dropped calls when you’re trying to get a band into Glastonbury festival. Just because it’s a festival doesn’t mean you’re not organised.

This is why AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson set tongues wagging last night when he revealed that “there will be a day when you are not exclusive with the iPhone.”

Stephenson was speaking at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference following AT&T’s publication of its financial results this week.

It’s believed AT&T’s deal for iPhone exclusivity in the US is up for review next year. The CEO seems happy with the arrangement so far, saying AT&T’s deal with Apple is working "really, really well.” However, he does concede that network quality is the biggest reason people switch to different carriers. (Or jailbreak their phones).

iPhone exclusivity also means AT&T attracted 1.4 million new subscribers in its just gone quarter, and shifted 2.4 million iPhones – over a third to new customers. However, the company also concedes the subsidy required for the iPhone does impact overall profitability,but sees it as a trade-off for growing market share. In any case, iPhone users use and pay for more for data than those using any other smartphone.

That’s why Verizon is probably in talks with Apple to offer the (a CDMA version of) iPhone on its network. And it’s not just Verizon.

In the UK, The Guardian this morning informs that Vodafone is wooing Cupertino in an attempt to win the device for its network.

Andy Halford, chief financial officer of Vodafone said the network – which sells the device in 11 countries now – would be keen to offer it in more territories: "It’s a good product and we would love to have it in the portfolio in more countries," he said.

This follows weeks of speculation that Orange and T-Mobile also want in on the deal. T-Mobile even buys iPhones abroad in order to sell them to O2 defectors.

With a million iPhones sold in the UK at this point, and the need to be tied to O2 one of the biggest stumbling blocks for some potential iPhone users, it makes some sense for Apple to consider widening the addressable market in hitherto “exclusive” areas.

An iPhone could even become useful at big outdoor music festivals if the network it was on had better rural coverage, and you owned one of the truly impressive FreeLoader Solar Chargers, of course. (The Freeloader being the best portable solar charger we’ve looked at so far, BTW).

In any case, given the pending DOJ antitrust investigation into iPhone exclusivity, Apple may have to completely abandon the exclusive arrangements it reached when negotiating its initial agreements to launch the iPhone in various countries.

Just look at Canada to see the preparations being made by other carriers there….

With 5.2 million iPhones sold in Apple’s last quarter – and that period including partial international roll-out of the iPhone 3GS – we thought it might be worth noting this weekend marks the fifth anniversary of the announcement of a previous and now forgotten phone, the ROKR with iTunes.

Yes, dear reader, it was five years ago this weekend (July 26, to be exact) when Motorola and Apple shocked the world (well, impacted it a little tiny bit) with news the two firms planned to introduce a “next-generation” iTunes-capable mobile phone.

“We can’t think of a more natural partnership than this one with Apple, the brand synonymous with easy-to-use, legal music downloading, and Motorola, the innovator in mobile technology,” said an enthusiastic Ed Zander, Chairman and CEO, Motorola. “Being able to transfer songs you’ve purchased from iTunes to Motorola mobile handsets expands the market reach for both of us and drives new revenue for customers, delivering an amazing music experience to millions of wireless users.”
 

We wonder if he spent a lot of time with Palm’s new boss, former Apple man, Jon Rubinstein, who clearly thinks the same thing about the Palm Pre.

And what a wicked web is woven: even while Apple was quietly developing prototype Apple phones … (we once heard tell of an earlier Apple phone that rumour claims was close to launch two years before the introduction of the original iPhone, before it was pulled – though this information could be completely apocryphal/false/rumour/speculation, OK?).

Despite activity (and whether that apocryphal story of the device Apple may even have been proud not to release is true or not, there’s no way the iPhone happened in a trice) in the Apple r&d labs, Apple boss Steve Jobs waxed lyrical on his motions with Motorola.

“We are thrilled to be working with Motorola to enable millions of music lovers to transfer any of their favorite songs from iTunes on their PC or Mac to Motorola’s next-generation mobile phones,” he said.

Jobs was clearly thinking, reaching for the next apple in the tree, “The mobile phone market – with 1.5 billion subscribers expected worldwide by the end of 2004 – is a phenomenal opportunity to get iTunes in the hands of even more music lovers around the world and we think Motorola is the ideal partner to kick this off.”

“Ideal partner”? Well, as we all know – and there’s no sense investing the time in an in-depth story – the ROKR came out in September 2005, didn’t do well, and was quietly disappeared. The device’s 100 (count them) song capacity was, erm, somewhat limited. And it looked rubbish.

Fast forward to now and with the subsequent release of the iPhone, poor old former PowerPC partner Motorola is the mobile maker shedding the most market share as customers switch to iPhone (and we don’t believe that’s just ROKR iTunes owners upgrading to something cooler).

So, raise a glass and shed a little tiny tear this Sunday as you remember the birth of Apple’s public ambitions on the mobile phone market (which it already had, by the way, in a big way, really, ask Fake Steve, real Steve just won’t say).

And perhaps you should raise a glass too to Jonathan Ive, who hated his mobile phones so much he was just itching to “reinvent the category”. He did OK, didn’t he?

Well, you have to give them credit for having some cojones.  Palm today announced that, a week after Apple cut off 3rd party access to the iTunes store, the Pre can now, again, sync with the software.  Humorously, they call the fix "Resolves an issue" like Apple wasn’t actively trying to block the Pre from using iTunes.  The ball is now in Apple’s court. 

A third party, the EFF, has been rattling its saber about this issue as well.

You can now use Google Latitude on your iPhone, though it is just a webapp.  Interesting information form Google on why they didn’t build a "traditional" app:

We worked closely with Apple to bring Latitude to the iPhone in a way Apple thought would be best for iPhone users. After we developed a Latitude application for the iPhone, Apple requested we release Latitude as a web application in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone, which uses Google to serve maps tiles.

Google, like Apple, continues to push for improvements in web browser functionality. Now that iPhone 3.0 allows Safari to access location, building the Latitude web app was a natural next step. In the future, we will continue to work closely with Apple to deliver useful applications — some of which will be native apps on the iPhone, such as Earth and YouTube, and some of which will be web apps, like Gmail and Latitude.

Unfortunately, since there is no mechanism for applications to run in the background on iPhone (which applies to browser-based web apps as well), we’re not able to provide continuous background location updates in the same way that we can for Latitude users on Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Window Mobile. Nevertheless, your location is updated every time you fire up the app and then continuously updated while the app is running in the foreground. And, of course, you can check in on where your friends are, so we think there’s plenty of fun to be had with Latitude. Learn more about updating and sharing your location from your iPhone.

What gives with Apple not wanting an App for this?  Do they have something similar coming down the pipe?  If so it would be great if it could be a). integrated with the Maps app somehow and b). runs in the background.  We’ll see what develops.

Interestingly, it doesn’t work with the Mobile Safari in iPhone OS 3.1B. 

Ted Patrick, Adobe’s Senior Manager of Developer Communities has said that he expect to see Flash support the major capabilites (GPS, Accelerometrs, Multitouch) of modern mobile devices.   The comments were made today at an Adobe event for analysts.  Adobe’s CTO, Kevin Rollins added that a full featured version of Flash for mobile phones will be available in beta by the end of this year/early next year.  

The demonstrations were all on Android handsets which are running on processors significantly slower than those in Apple’s iPhone 3GS.

The mobile Flash demonstrations shown today by Adobe were all on Android devices, still no world on Flash for the iPhone. ("It’s up to Apple," was the line again today.) A bevy of beautiful, touchable, turnable, location-aware Flash apps on Android could create a pretty compelling competitor to the contents of the iPhone app store.

So, there’s all these stories in the ether claiming the future iPod touch – perhaps even the iPod nano – will host cameras… video cameras capable of still photography, to be a little more accurate.

Now, we’re not ones to comment on rumour or speculation. Well, that may not be entirely true, but fortunately, Flip’s head of marketing, Simon Fleming-Wood, is prepared to put up some arguments.

Back in the olden days of just very recently, Fleming-Wood waxed sanguine at Apple’s iPod Flip threat. Speaking to a US newspaper, he poo-poohed the threat of a video camera equipped iPhone 3GS, saying these devices weren’t sufficiently focused on video.

Pondering the iPod touch video threat he came up with one of those classic statements so many Apple-watchers have seen smaller companies make before the computer company eats them. “For Apple to join this market and help make video ubiquitous like still photography, it’ll be great for everybody.”

Right. And lets add the capacity to export video directly to YouTube or Mobile Me or via email using the iPod touch’s built-in WiFI, built-in video editing features and the rest of Apple’s present advantage (Flip simply exports to a computer via USB), and we’re thinking it may be good for consumers, but a little tricky for Flip.

We’re not sounding any death knells though – Flip have built a great business and are increasingly popular. We humans are naturally pretty loyal, once converted. And there’s no doubt Flip have plans to compete, once all those pictures of iPod touch cases with camera holes actually have Apple devices to wrap themselves around.

But Apple has PA Semi. Final Cut Pro. iMovie. iPhoto. And billions of banked dollars ($31.1 billion at the end of the just-gone quarter).

Chris Chute of research firm IDC notes Flip may have to flop. "They’re (Apple) adding functionality to a media player, and the devices are sold at similar places," he points out.

So there we are then.  They were nice while they lasted.

Just a thought.

Cult of Mac gathered some more iPod cases with camera holes in them.  Why would all of these case manufactures be "guessing" about iPods with cameras and putting them in the same place?  They aren’t.

The only question now is: How good the cameras will be?  Will we see 5 megapixel cameras?  Will we see quality optics and CCDs?  Will the iPod kill the point and click and the Flip in one blow?

Interestingly, the camera hole location in the iPod touch indicates that it will be a different camera mechanism than the iPhone 3GS.  This could mean those 5 megapixel claims from Digitimes could prove correct.

Silicon Alley Insider has another interesting chart illustrating what many probably have suspected.  iPod sales aren’t really tapering off, they are just being distributed to iPod touch and iPhones. 

If you look at the iPhone as an iPod (which it is – remember Jobs said it was the best iPod Apple has ever made), Apple’s "Pocket Products" are on a steady upward trajectory.  People are just opting for iPods with higher capabilities and Apple is artificially classifying these products differently.

Additionally, the new iPhone/Touch iPods are higher priced, higher margin devices that have further revenue potential with not only music like other iPods but also Apps.  That is good for Apple.

As Engadget notes, Navigon has released North American (1.12 GB iTunes link) to go with its European version of its Turn-By-Turn GPS navigation software.  The software is one of the first of its kind (with G-Maps  and Sygic Mobile maps – thanks commenters) to have a one-time charge ($70) rather than a monthly fee levied by AT&T’s software, and others. 

Readers should note that TomTom’s hardware/software solution should be available on the iPhone (and iPod touch?) by the end of summer.  Interestingly, you can also get a full, stand-alone TomTom One for $48 which makes these software only versions seem more than a little pricey (hint: wait a few months for price wars to begin).  We have to admit, however, that this one looks great.  Video below.