iOS Devices

Earlier today, reports out of China claimed factory worker Sun Danyong had jumped to his death following a Foxconn search of his apartment.  He had been carrying 4th generation iPhone prototypes and had lost one of the 16 he was carrying.  While this event is a tragedy, there no doubt will be many questions surrounding his death.  Apple has been steadily moving its MacBook manufacturing away from Foxconn and to Quanta of late.

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told CNET:

"We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death.  We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect."

Foxconn, for its part, also issued a statement of apology to the employee’s family.  In so doing, they’ve laid out some additional details.  According to the rough translation, the employee mailled the 16 iPhones to Apple, but Apple only recieved 15 of them.  There is also some investigations into the employee interrogations, detentions and "beatings". Machine translated:

It is reported that Foxconn pay-Yong Sun Dan mailed to Apple’s 16 short of a prototype iphone, Foxconn doubt that Apple have let the possibility of leaks.  Yong Sun Dan Foxconn in suicide during the investigation, sources said Yong Sun Dan was in an unlawful search of the investigation, detention and beatings. 

Before anyone goes conspiracy theorist, let’s wait for the results of the investigations…then go conspiracy theorist.

Below is Motorola’s new Android phone.  But, it kinda looks like everyone’s favorite Apple phone – one you’d mistakingly buy on the streets of Shenzen.  Although, it does have a slide out keyboard which (has to be said) we’ve wished for on a few occasions.

It is strange that 4-5 years ago, Motorola was helping Apple enter the mobile phone business with the ROKR.  How things have changed.

Photo via Phandroid

Update: Disregard. This is from 2003 and is pen-based.  Shame on us.  Though Apple may have been granted this patent, a product like this has probably already been scrapped 5 years ago.

MacNN grabbed the screenshots from a patent application today. It looks like another tablet but much different than other Tablet drawings from Apple patents.   More pics below.

A young Foxconn employee in China has committed suicide after a prototype model of a fourth-generation iPhone he was looking after went missing.

Digital Beat explains 25 year-old Sun Danyong had taken a job looking after product communications for long-time Apple manufacturer, Foxconn. Based in Shenzen, his job involved transporting iPhone prototypes from Foxconn to Apple.

Based on numerous Chinese reports, Digital Beat claims Sun was looking after 16 prototypes, hot off the Foxconn assembly line. He found one of these prototype fourth-gen iPhones was missing, and reported it as such on July 13.
 

Two days later three Foxconn employees searched his flat (apparently illegally), with some reports claiming Sun was detained and potentially bullied during the investigation.

The poor engineer then threw himself off his balcony a little after 3am on Thursday July 16.

Apple is well-known for maintaining tight secrecy when it comes to new product announcements, playing a close game with bloggers and mainstream press alike.

Sun’s tragic suicide underlines the extreme secrecy Apple’s Far East manufacturers also adopt when it comes to unreleased or in development Apple products.

In case you hadn’t already been convinced that the new iPod Touches will have a camera, Wired is throwing their hat into the ring.  The information was reported initially by HardMac (MacBidouille) and again by iLounge with a mockup.  Then we saw some new iPod touch cases with camera holes in them.

Digitimes also reported that new Apple devices would have cameras of 3 and 5 megapixel varieties along the way.

Wired today reports the same cameras but also reports the iPod will have a built in mic:

A well-connected source tells us those rumors are on the money, and that Apple’s factories in China are already manufacturing iPod Touch models with integrated cameras and microphones. An Apple spokesman declined to comment when reached by phone.

If iPod Touches with cameras and microphones go on sale “in two to three months,” as our source expects them to (and which corresponds with our expected timeframe), they will transform the entertainment-oriented iPod Touch line into a voice communications tool wherever WiFi is available.

Of course, you know my thoughts on Apple re-entering the camera space.  I’m also a big fan of using the iPod touch as a mobile phone and dumping AT&T which doesn’t work in my town anyway.  Is there anyone out there that doesn’t believe there will be an iPhone with a camera come September?

Somehow we don’t think this is going to get a lot of use.  However, there are those Macintosh users who work where there can only be Blackberries or  who love physical keyboards.  To those people (it is plural right?), Blackberry will have some new software for you this summer.  Sign up to get notified when you can start downloading.

Here are some key features the initial release will include:

• Sync your iTunes® playlists, calendars, contacts, notes and tasks
• Add/Remove applications
• Update your device when new software becomes available
• Backup and restore your device data with such features like automatically scheduled backups and optional encryption (security is #1 as always…)
• Manage multiple devices

And it will support Mac® OS 10.5.5 and above.

Today Skype went public with its 2.8 software for Mac.  While many of us have been using 2.8Beta for months now, this is the first chance mainstream users will be able to use Skype 2.8.  The feature list is fairly impressive:

Hint: Don’t enable Mood messages!  Download it here

The NYTimes today asks a pretty interesting question.  If Japanese mobile devices, which are years ahead of their overseas counterparts, are so advanced why aren’t they a success in Europe, the US or even in China and Korea? 

Japanese developers are jealous of the runaway global popularity of the Apple iPhone and App Store, which have pushed the American and European cellphone industry away from its obsession with hardware specifications to software. “This is the kind of phone I wanted to make,” Mr. Natsuno [developer of the i-Mode network] said, playing with his own iPhone 3G.

The forum Mr. Natsuno convened to address Galápagos syndrome has come up with a series of recommendations: Japan’s handset makers must focus more on software and must be more aggressive in hiring foreign talent, and the country’s cellphone carriers must also set their sights overseas.

The real issue seems to be making great, universal software.

The Wall Steet Journal (paywall) notes that Apple and RIM are making disporportionately high profits on their smartphones while the rest of the industry is in a race to the bottom (sound like NetBook vs. Laptop market?).  Interestingly, Nokia is having significant issues with Smartphone marketshare but is still ahead on the profit curve.

Apple and RIM accounted for only 3% of all cellphones sold in the world last year but 35% of operating profits, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff.  The disparity will become even starker this year when, he estimates, the two will take 5% of the market in unit terms but 58% of total operating profits.

The iPhone, which is exclusive to AT&T and whose users are the heaviest Web surfers, draws the fattest subsidy, at about $400 a phone, Mr. Modoff calculates. BlackBerries draw subsidies averaging $200 from U.S. operators. Basic cellphones get a $100 subsidy.

Seems a lot of people have been having issues with AT&T lately.  Is their service poor enough for Apple to make a move?  How poor would it have to be?  Would another US telco be able to step up?  My take.

 Update: According to FakeSteve, Apple Employees are only using Verizon iPhones.

some guy at TechCrunch says the iPhone is great but AT&T is a "big, steaming pile" of poop. I have to agree. If anything, we hate those morons at AT&T more than you do. Do you have any idea how awful it is to be yoked to a pack of bozos like that? Truth is, nobody around here runs their iPhone on AT&T. Most of us are on Verizon — we’re doing a trial before the official announcement, which should come later this year or early next. Oops. Did I just say that out loud? In case you’re wondering what it’s like on Verizon — it’s spectacular.

 All kidding aside, would it surprise anyone if Steve Jobs had a Verizon iPhone?

If you head over to Surfin Safari, Webkit’s blog of new features, you’ll find some neat new HTML5 3-D tricks that Safari 4 (including the latest Webkit builds and Mobile Safari on the iPhone) can do without breaking a CPU sweat.  We had our doubts (and still do to a degree) but this is the kind of animation that makes Flash seem a little less … "necessary". 

In a non-scientific test, running Morphing Power Cubes, the browser used 5% of the CPU.  Flash usually starts at around 30% just to be activated.  These examples also run incredibly smooth on the iPhone and iPod touch. 

Other interesting examples (Make sure you are using a recent Webkit build or Safari in Snow Leopard): Poster Circle, Perspective, Transform Style…and our favorite: Morphing Power Cubes

 Here’s another fun one.  ChromeExperiments hosts many more (thanks commenter).

For those who want to automatically update their whereabouts using the iPhone’s GPS, there is now a utility that can run on an external server to log your movements.    Tyler Hall, a Yahoo programmer by day, has developed some code called Sosumi that pulls the Locate My iPhone information on a regular basis (5 minutes in this case) and can update a service like Yahoo’s Fire Eagle.  The code also allows you to send warnings and messages to the iPhone using the MobileMe commands.

While this is definitely cool and would be even cooler with an Apple sanctioned API, there are the obvious security issues.  In fact, this application’s existence means that one must only have your MobileMe username and password and some intermediate coding skills to track your iPhone’s (and your) position.  Though frankly, if you have that information, you can simply log into MobileMe and do repeated "Find My iPhones" until you find your beautiful stalkee.

What better way to do some recon missions on the suburban neighborhood than with your new iPhone 3GS attached to an RC Plane?

This is just the first baby steps. The next step will be flying the RC with it (using Qik as remote camera?). After that, use the iPhone as the brains and make your own drone army.  Yeah, we said it.

via Networkworld

Today, Fring (App Store Link) issued an update to its application that allows push notifications to be sent for incoming calls (as well as other IMs).  This means that you can now get alerted to Skype or SIP calls even when the application isn’t open, you are on a call or the iPhone/iPod touch is asleep.  Therefore, your iPod touch or Phone can act more like a true VoIP phone.  Fring itself is a solid IM/Voice client, though a little rough around the edges.

 Another nail in the telco’s coffin?  We can only hope.

SAI’s chart of the day is from Nielsen’s Q2 2009 Mobile Insights Survey.  They surveyed new iPhone owners to find out what they were upgrading from.  Looks like a lot of former RAZR owners are rocken new iPhones. 

Although they aren’t labelled, Nokia, LG, older iPhones and Blackberries were at around 9%.

Perth, on the Southwestern coast of Australia, is often called the remotest city in the world.  There isn’t much between Perth and most of Australia’s population on the East Coast and it is quite a swim to the next-nearest big cities in South Africa. 

Perth is a thriving, modern city of 1.6 million, however, and therefore needs one of those shiny Apple Stores.  Now, it appears, it will get one.  Apple is hiring Apple Store employees for work in "Perth-Australia in the 6000 postal code".  Central Perth.

Up until now, PRA Imaging and Team Digital have been servicing the Apple population.

Apple today made WWDC sessions available on iTunes for a $299 price.  You must be at least a free ADC Online Member or Registered iPhone Developer to activate WWDC 2009 session videos.

Purchase session videos from the Worldwide Developers Conference 2009 and watch Apple engineers deliver in-depth technical information about the technologies that power iPhone OS and Mac OS X.  If you are an ADC Premier Member or if you held a WWDC 2009 E-ticket you should have received a communication with instructions on how to access session videos from WWDC 2009 for free.

Quoth the Bri’ish Roadie:

I’ll be honest with you folks, the only thing that mattered to me tonight was the presence of one Steve Jobs. I’m a confirmed Apple devotee and I really cannot imagine doing the job I do now (or even having got into this line of work) without my Macbook Pro (and all the Powerbooks that went before it). Creating these tools and putting them into the hands of folks like me was the vision of this man.

I spot Steve chatting with Dave Holmes outside the dressing room and suddenly feel like a star-struck teenager. In order to get the gall up to speak to the guy, I down a double espresso. The mixture of caffeine buzz and feeling like a cheesy little fanboy means that all I can manage to say to him is "Thank you so much". I realise that I’m quite simply making a tit of myself and so excuse myself as fast as I appeared.

With that, I suddenly have sympathy for every nervous and excitable kid that shakes hands with the band at a meet and greet.

As Macrumors notes, this is the first siting of Jobs outside the Cupertino office and assuming the roadie wasn’t having an LSD-induced hallucination, it would appear that Jobs is in "recognizable condition"…which is good news for us all.

Way to ease the liver back into the scene with something lite.

Every time we think AT&T are the biggest douchebags on the planet, we get a reminder that someone, somewhere is worse off.  Trading Markets is reporting that iPhones designed to stay in the country are now rolling off the assembly line in Shenzen, China.  They’ve been neutered of their ability to use Wifi.

Two production lines in the Foxconn Shenzhen plant are producing 90-coded mobile phones, device that looks like iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, said one source. The mysterious products might be the very model designed for Chinese users, according to another source, noting that the massively-produced device has no Wi-Fi functions, just like the A1324 model, the Chinese version of 3G iPhone being sent to the China Telecommunication Technology Labs (CTTL) for a test.

This sort of correlates to an earlier Commercial Times report saying that special iPhones for China were being manufactured.

iPhones sold in Egypt and a few other Middle Eastern nations have their GPS disabled by software only.  Locals are able to circumvent the GPS unlock by jailbreaking.  By physically removing the Wifi, China is insuring that iPhones won’t be able to use Wifi via a hack, nor will their users be able to fully enjoy all the powers of the iPhone.

We don’t remember exactly when this happened (was it in the prior version of SL?) but it looks like System Profiler/Power has every little bit of information you ever wanted to know about your battery including how many charges you’ve put on it.