iOS Devices

 iPods, iPhones, laptops and other digital devices could be seized by customs officials worldwide under a new top-secret copyright policing deal being worked out between the G8 nations, reports claim.

Nations including Canada, the US and various European states (including the UK, which sits on the G8) are secretly agreeing a new pan-global state police deal in which information held on iPods and other devices could be subject to investigation by customs officials tasked with a new role, as copyright police.

Dubbed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), signatory nations will form an international coalition against copyright infringement.

The deal’s up for discussion at the next G8 meeting in Tokyo in July, It creates rules and regulations to govern private copying and copyright laws, and posits the founding of an international regulator, “that would turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police,” reports Ottawa Citizen, the National Post and other Canadian media outlets.

These copyright police would be given the job of checking laptops, iPods, iPhones and other personal devices for content that “infringes” on copyright laws, “including ripped CDs and DVDs”. To make this Stalinist proposition even more annoying, front line security staff will be empowered to decide what content infringes on copyright laws. And also makes any content copied from DVD or a digital video recorder open to scrutiny by officials.

It’s likely these lunatic new proposals are being drawn up in secret in order to outflank any outcry by privacy advocates or any true intellectual discussion as to whether such protectionism should be applied in favour of content creation firms.

Officials will be able to levy fines or seize goods even in the absence of any complaints by rights holders. And searches will be allowed even without a lawyer present. And ISPs will be forced to hand over personal information on any alleged copyright infringers – no actual proof will be required. And, to make it even more Orwellian, ACTA will be unaccountable to any existing trade organisation, effectively meaning the RIAA and other such bodies will run a public/private international police force with the right to search, fine and confiscate property without any accountability. Local Canadian privacy advocates point out that governments have been privately negotiating these new proposals without consultation, and that the proposals revealed yesterday only surfaced due to the application of freedom of information type laws.

The European Commission has now published a "fact sheet" concerning this legislation, while not disclosing the measures confirmed by major Canadian media as being under discussion, you can read this document online here.

Apple’s searching for a Product Design Engineer for the iPhone – and the ad suggests GPS support’s just around the corner for the device.

That’s logical, as we already know the latest iPhone Software 2.0 pre-release build offers location-aware services that let you tag images with your location as you take images, if you like. And while the Skyhook system’s impressively effective, it’s no great leap to think GPS is on the road-map.

Apple’s recruitment advertisment says: “As a member of a cross-functional design team at Apple, you will help to create the next generation of the world’s finest handheld devices. You will conceive, design, and bring into production products that will re-define the music experience. You will work closely with many different cross functional teams including Industrial Design, Packaging, Safety, Hardware Engineering, EMC, and Marketing.”

The applicant needs the highest qualifications and extensive experience, along with 3D CAD design skills, handheld/portable device experience, and must be able to integrate wireless antenna into the product. “Integration of wireless antenna (GSM, GPS, Wifi) into mechanical enclosures a big plus,” the ad declares.

Oh yes, it’s also helpful if the applicant possesses Mandarin or Japanese language skills. And be prepared to travel. Still – at least this product designer will know where they are as they test those GPS-enabled ‘Phones.

 Griffin Technology has introduced the world’s first FM transmitter for the iPhone, a variant of its iTrip device.

That’s sure to be a popular gadget, and also suggests more such peripherals will emerge for the device in future, as iPhone generates its own surrounding ecosystem of third-party add-ons, just like iPod.

iTrip AutoPilot plugs directly into the 12V power port in your car while connecting to your iPhone or iPod through the dock connector. Built-in software scans the FM frequencies to find the best one to play music through, and the system supports RDS, meaning you can see what track’s playing on your car radio display.

The device costs £59.99 in the UK, $99.99 in the US.

 We like this idea. Yet another slice of curious software for a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch, SynchStep analyses the pace at which you walk or run in order to choose songs from your music collection which match your pace.

What this means is every step you take is marked by a beat – a drum slap, bass pluck, riff or chord. The developers built the software to help music fans who have grown tired of making the same musical choices, as the software will select the song in your library that most matches your gait.

SynchStep will select and play a song once it has analysed your pace, which takes a few seconds.

“Unlike other music players, SynchStep connects the music in your head to the music in your body. You don’t have a lot of control over what comes on; it’s liberating,” the developer said.

SynchStep was originally available as a hand-made, custom built MP3-player sporting a display-less experimental interface. The device only used an on-off switch and it was given to people age 10 to 65 to play with. Manufacturing the device cost too much, so the developer simply ported the solution to the iPhone and iTouch.

The software’s available for free, along with full instructions on how to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod touch in order to install SynchStep.

 Apple will introduce the iPhone at WWDC on June 9, the latest report claims.

Meanwhile, Apple’s set to work with Korea Telecom and NTT DoCoMo to launch the device in Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia and China; and Apple’s existing iPhone partners in the UK, France and Germany seem set to keep their exclusive status, even while the company makes deals with multiple carriers in other territories.

June 9 launch

Straight to the big deal, though, with Gizmodo this morning citing the usual shadowy “sources” to definitively claim the next generation 3G iPhone will be announced during the WWDC keynote – and will be available worldwide directly after launch, staggered across June/July (we suspect).

“In Spain, for example, the 3G iPhone will be available for sale at the June 18 grand opening of Telefonica’s megastore in Madrid,” the report explains.

Even better, “the 3G iPhone will no longer be available at a fixed price point—at least in some countries,” the Gizmodo gasps.

Apple and Asia

CNN Money reveals the Telecoms Korea news service claimed late last week that Apple plans a special joint release of the next-generation device with two carriers whose names are synonymous with 3G: Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and Korea Telecom Freetel. That covers Japan and Korea, with the latter firm also offering mobile phone services in China,  though not necessarily the iPhone.

T-Mobile keeps Germany

Finally, T-Mobile Chief Executive Hamid Akhavan said today that the carrier will stay the only one in Germany to offer the next-generation 3G iPhone according to Reuters. "If and when there is a 3G iPhone we expect to have it exclusively in Germany as well," he said.

 It’s a fairly slow day today, so while you wait we thought we’d offer another re-run, here it is, the ever-popular ‘Apple Keynote Bloopers!!”

Laugh as Apple CEO Steve Jobs throws his non-functioning digital camera at a hapless Apple employee, share the pain as Phil Schiller waits and waits and waits for a game demo to start…

Anyway, you get the drift, enjoy. 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsKKQNZG3rE&hl=en]

 The iPhone is coming to Spain under exclusive arrangement with Telefonica Movistar, the network confirmed privately this month.

Apple has been widely-expected to ink a distribution deal with a Spanish mobile phone network to bring the iPhone to the country, and it appears Movistar has won the toss.

The company’s José Santos Esteras confirmed the news speaking at the Professional Communications Congress, PROCOM, earlier this month. He revealed the network to have secured an exclusive distribution deal for the iPhone in Spain, though competing firms this is only a limited contract, offering exclusivity for just a few months.

We’ve been predicting this network would snag the distribution contract for a few months now, but it’s nice to confirm it.

Thanks to the SevenClick blog for the info.

There’s been a flurry of iPhone distribution announcements from a variety of mobile phone networks in recent weeks. We were beginning to lose track of which nations have been declared with some kind of iPhone presence, so we thought it may be of some use to provide a list of announcements made so far:

• Argentina, Claro
• Australia, Optus & Vodafone
• Austria, One & T-Mobile
• Belgium, Mobistar
• Brazil, Claro
• Canada, Rogers
• Chile, Claro…
• Colombia, Comcel
• Czech Republic, Vodafone
• Dominican Republic, Claro & Orange
• Ecuador, Porta
• Egypt, Mobinil & Vodafone
• El Salvador, Claro
• France, Orange
• Germany, T-Mobile
• Greece, Vodafone
• Guatemala, Claro
• Honduras, Claro
• India, Bharti Airtel & Vodafone
• Ireland, O2
• Italy, Telecom Italia & Vodafone
• Jamaica, Claro & MiPhone
• Jordan, Orange
• Mexico, Telcel
• New Zealand, Vodafone
• Nicaragua, Claro
• Paraguay, Claro
• Peru, Claro
• Philippines, Globe Telecom
• Poland, Orange
• Portugal, Optimus & Vodafone
• Puerto Rico, Claro
• Romania, Orange
• Singapore, SingTel Mobile
• Slovakia, Orange
• South Africa, Vodacom
• Switzerland, Orange, Swisscom
• Turkey, Vodafone
• UK, O2
• Uruguay, Claro
• USA, AT&T

 UPDATE

Spain, Telfonica Movistar

UPDATE 2

TeliaSonera AB: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia

As you can see, there’s still some major holes in coverage, principally in Russia, Japan and China. We can’t believe Apple will waste too much time entering these countries.

UPDATE 3

Holland and the Netherlands, Royal KPN NV.

UPDATE 4

Hong Kong, Macau, Hutchison Telecommunications International.

Have we missed any? Let us know in the comments below:

 Here’s an interesting one for all you jailbroken iPhone users out there: the developers behind Soulseek have introduced iSisk, a file-sharing client for jailbroken iPhones.

Now, as we all know, Soulseek was developed by former Napster programmer, Nir Arbel. And while it isn’t as widely-used as other file-sharing applications, meaning its kind of a place where people go to steal music from independent labels and artists (you know, the people who don’t have the kind of legal funds of the RIAA, the indies who were prepared to reach a deal with Napster 1).

Returning to iSisk, application developer Errrick created the software because he “saw the capabilities this little gadget had and then thought, ‘why didn’t someone already do something like this?” At least, that’s what he told TorrentFreak.

iSlsk lets iPhone users search for and download files directly on their phone. The software also imports downloaded files to the iPod music database so that they can be played with native iPhone controls.

Now, given that WiFi hotspots are available worldwide, will major labels begin serving cease and desist orders against providers such as McDonalds when people choose to use their public network for sharing files? 

Oh – here’s a video of it in action:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HHdMTwDSZc&rel=0&border=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&hl=en]

France Telecom’s Orange mobile phone unit today announced a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to a dozen additional countries.

The network will offer Apple’s device in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange’s African markets later this year.

Once again, this news quadruple confirms Apple to be moving away from its original strategy of offering iPhone through exclusive launch partners, as Swisscom this week also confirmed plans to offer iPhone in Switzerland. Vodafone will also offer iPhone in Portugal and Egypt.

Intel Germany World’s managing director Hannes Schwaderer just revealed what a lot of people have been predicting.  A larger iPod Touch and iPhone is on the way and powered by the intel Atom Processors.  According to ZDNet Germany, Schwaderer said the devices will sport a Nokia N810-like 720×480 resolution.  If all of the other rumors are true, this will be one nice little media playing device.

Will we see this device at WWDC?  We hope so!

Update: Intel is backpedalling like crazy from the German’s remarks which means that Apple is (rightfully) furious or the head of Intel Germany doesn’t know what products their processors are going into.

Swisscom has officially confirmed it plans to introduce the iPhone in Switzerland.

There’s been a deal of speculation claiming the network will offer the Apple device in the country, and this has now been confirmed with Swisscom’s publication of an iPhone page on its website.

The page is lean of further information, of course, simply asking Swiss customers to drop an email into the firm in order to register their interest in the device.

The official confirmation follows a string of rumours this week which claimed the company would make such a move. A report from Swiss newspaper Le Matin claimed company sources who said the product would be made available from Swisscom, describing the device as offering 3G support, GPS and video-conferencing. This followed an unsubstantiated rumour to the effect that the bext-generation iPhone would be available in three colours with a maximum capacity of 32GB. 

Yet more rumour and speculation from Switzerland this time claims iPhone users could soon enjoy live television shows and TV screenings of sporting events on their device, at least, that’s what leading Swiss newspaper Le Matin says.

Citing “a source at Swisscom’, this report claims Swisscom will offer the new 3G iPhone. Somewhat circumstantially, it also claims the network to be a long-standing partner of Vodafone, which itself announced ten-country iPhone launch plans last week.

Introduction of 3G support may open the door to a wave of additional high bandwidth features for iPhone users, such as video conferencing, GPS and – new to us – support for live TV, Le Matin notes. (Speculation or sources, we’ll know for sure in June).  Also, they mention that the processor will be faster this time around.

“Who could indeed resist a football match live on its 3G,” the report ends. Google Translate version is here.

(We apologise to Swiss readers for the cuckoo image – sort of)

HBO and Apple have confirmed that TV shows from the broadcaster are now available from the iTunes Store – and HBO has managed to encourage Apple to be a little more flexible on price.

US iTunes users can purchase HBO shows including, “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “Deadwood” and “Rome”, “Flight of the Concords” and “The Wire.”

What’s interesting is the price: “Sex and the City,” “The Wire” and “Flight of the Conchords” cost $1.99 per episode, while “The Sopranos,” “Deadwood” and “Rome” cost $2.99 per episode. Until now, Apple has only been prepared to offer TV shows at $1.99 each. It’s thought HBO has been able to achieve a slight liberalisation of Apple’s price controls, though as yet we don’t know if other studios plan to emulate HBO with introduction of $2.99 titles.

“We’re thrilled to bring this incredible lineup of programming from HBO to the iTunes Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. 

In an aside note, “Sex and the City: The Movie” premieres in the US on May 30, marking this HBO is offering all 94 episodes from the entire six seasons of the show.

A report claims Apple’s Swiss iPhone partner has set its usage tariffs – and perhaps also confirmed the new iPhone will be available in silver, black and white – but also said it is only reporting speculation.

Swisscom will be one of the first carriers of the 3G iPhone, the report claims. The source apparantly reveals the 16GB will cost 659 Swiss Francs, while a 32GB model will cost 799 Swiss Francs, according to a local Swiss report.

The 16 GB model “will only be delivered in silver, while the 32 GB in silver, black and white type,” claims a rough Google Translation of the page.

Instead of offering a fixed rate tariff with bundled call times, the network will charge iPhone users 40 Swiss Francs per month, in addition, users will pat 45 centimes per hour of use when calling other Swisscom mobiles or fixed lines; while calls to other mobile networks will set the Swiss back 45 centimes per minute. SMS messages will cost 20 centimes each, while data transfers will cost 50 centimes per megabyte.

The report notes the device will be available for purchase at all 118 Swisscome shops, and Apple’s in-development own-brand retail stores in Zurich and Geneva. The next-gen iPhone will ship in June, the report claims.

Naturally, we can’t underwrite the veracity of the report, but it’s worthy information for the rumour-mill.

digg_url = ‘http://9to5mac.com/iphone_three_colours’;

Appleinsider just outted what could be a huge AT&T webpage mistake.  Apparantly there is a thing called an "iPhone Black" ——–>

Last month Ryan Block of Engadget said they had it on good authority that the new iPhone would be black on the back. 

Is 3G the new Black?

Is this it?  Is it a day early, a week early or a month early?  We’ll know soon.

 More iPhone bemusement: O2 is once again offering the 16GB iPhone for sale through its online store, following last week’s O2  announcement, “Please note: 8GB and 16GB iPhone are no longer available.”

The iPhone drought intensified when Apple this weekend withdrew both models from sale through its online store, with a later Computerworld report explaining the product is sold out, “company-wide”.

The on-off nature of present-day iPhone availability is sure to increase expectation that Apple may bring forward the release of the next generation of its device, which has been expected to debut in June.

For those of you with Jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touches, an amazing little app hit your installer this weekend.  Raging Thunder is a car game that allows you to steer by (intuitively) leaning your device back and forth.  The game is quick to learn and the graphics are certainly impressive.  Have a look…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEHaTINrW40]

While by no means conclusive evidence of GPS capabilities in the iPhone camera software, the latest builds of the SDK are littered with GPS references.  Whether these are just templates (you can see other camera manufactures included as well) or needed by the 3G iPhone camera software is unknown. 

GPS camera software is used to put location (landmark) metadata into the photo files.  Applications like Flickr, and Google earth use this data to arrange photographs (and videos) spatially based on this information.  For instance, if you snapped a picture in Paris, you could later organize you pictures – perhaps in iPhoto? – by Country/city.  Cool!

We’ll leave the speculation to you.  More screengrabs below.    One month to go…