Looking for an open parking spot? There's an Android app for that. No, there's no iPhone app, only an Android one; sorry, for once Android has a leg up on the iPhone.
Indeed, it's called Open Spot, and it could prove really useful to folks in parking spot limited locales. It's a Google Labs app, which means it's experimental, so keep that in mind.
Users of the app let folks know when they are leaving a spot. Google marks the open spots on the map with red pins for newly opened spots, orange pin for spots that have been open for more than five minutes and yellow pins after ten minutes. After 20 minutes, the spot is removed from the map. Those living in San Francisco might think 20 minutes is a little generous, and Google acknowledges it on their Open Spot FAQ page.
For those who are competitive, or just like a pat on the back for their good deed, you can earn "karma points" for broadcasting your open spots. Your karma points are displayed in the app (as shown above).
The app only went live Friday, and Google already has taken into account the fact that some folks might have a perverse sense of humor and mark spots open that are not. The Open Spot team has already named them: griefers.
We're watching for behavior that looks like a griefer spoofing parking spots. We have a couple of mechanisms available to make sure someone can't leave a bunch of fake parking spots. If we see this happening we will take steps to fix it.
As with anything like this, to be truly useful, it needs to have a lot of users. So grab the app and start pointing out your "open spot."
Looking for an open parking spot? There's an Android app for that. No, there's no iPhone app, only an Android one; sorry, for once Android has a leg up on the iPhone.
Indeed, it's called Open Spot, and it could prove really useful to folks in parking spot limited locales. It's a Google Labs app, which means it's experimental, so keep that in mind.
Users of the app let folks know when they are leaving a spot. Google marks the open spots on the map with red pins for newly opened spots, orange pin for spots that have been open for more than five minutes and yellow pins after ten minutes. After 20 minutes, the spot is removed from the map. Those living in San Francisco might think 20 minutes is a little generous, and Google acknowledges it on their Open Spot FAQ page.
For those who are competitive, or just like a pat on the back for their good deed, you can earn "karma points" for broadcasting your open spots. Your karma points are displayed in the app (as shown above).
The app only went live Friday, and Google already has taken into account the fact that some folks might have a perverse sense of humor and mark spots open that are not. The Open Spot team has already named them: griefers.
We're watching for behavior that looks like a griefer spoofing parking spots. We have a couple of mechanisms available to make sure someone can't leave a bunch of fake parking spots. If we see this happening we will take steps to fix it.
As with anything like this, to be truly useful, it needs to have a lot of users. So grab the app and start pointing out your "open spot."
Martin Cooper, the inventor of the cell phone, ditched his iPhone for a Motorola Droid in March. Though he's still using that device, in an interview with CNN over the state of the cell phone industry, it was his last sentence of the interview that was the real bonus for Android lovers.
Cooper noted how he gave his iPhone to his grandson. As he said, "Kids are really caught up in that." The final sentence was the zinger (emphasis ours): "But I think that the Android phones are catching up now, and the latest version of the Android phones are every bit as good, if not better, than the iPhone."
The Droid was a huge success for Motorola, and for Android. It's still being sold, and is fact expected to get a Froyo update very soon, as early as July 13th, it is rumored.
Other tidbits from the interview:
They knew the cell phone would become popular, but they never imagined it would happen so fast. "Well, we knew that someday everybody would have a (cell) phone, but it was hard to imagine that that would happen in my lifetime. And now we've got almost five billion phones in the world. Wow."
Publicly demonstrated in April of 1973, the first commercial phone, the "DynaTac," didn't go on sale until 1983. It sold for $3,900.
Cooper never imagined all the features that have been added into cell phones (GPS, camera, etc.) and he's not sure it's a good thing. "I must tell you as much as we were dreamers, we never imagined that all these things could be combined into one, and I'm really not so sure that it's a great thing. Phones have gotten so complicated, so hard to use, that you wonder if this is designed for real people or for engineers."
Cooper, now 81, is the founder of ArrayComm, a company which works to improve cellular networks, smart antenna and wireless communication. He and his wife also invented the Jitterbug, which is a simplified cell phone designed for seniors.
What's the bad thing about Apple's new iPhone 4 video chat feature, FaceTime? Well, aside from the fact that it can only be used via wi-fi, it also needs to be done iPhone 4 to iPhone 4. Both of those restrictions are not an issue with the new version of Fring for the iPhone.
The new version of Fring will allow device-agnostic video chats, which means now Fring users can video chat with any Skype or Fring user, regardless of device, and even to PCs. Additionally, it works over 3G, though certainly not as well (OK, with lags and jitters).
At any rate, given the new version of Fring, we can now have video chats between Android and iPhone users, arguing about which device platform is best.
Apple's FaceTime is an openn standard, Apple says, though it remains to be seen if any others will adopt it. It's also a fact that while the impression that many have gotten is that Apple invented video chats via cell phones, that's not the case.
It's a long and storied tradition: not just Apple products catching fire in one way or another, but of portable devices in general. Now we have the first iPhone 4 incident, with the new iDevice igniting while hooked up to a PC with a USB cable.
From the image acquired by BGR (above) it's clear that the device isn't going to be repaired. It also appears the owner was using the official Apple USB cable that shipped with the device. The customer took the device into an AT&T store in hopes of replacement.
According to BGR's AT&T source, an Apple Store indicated that it appears there was a defective iPhone 4 USB port involved. The source added that the customer's hand was slightly burned.
Interestingly, a commenter at the BGR post said he plugged in his iPhone 4, and a few minutes later saw his first ever "excess temperature" warning, and the iPhone entered safe mode as well.
Later, when he plugged it in to charge overnight, he saw it heat up significantly. It's unclear if this is a pattern yet, but it's something to think about.
Google announced on Friday that it has seen its Internet Content Provider (ICP license renewed by Beijing. In late June, the company made changes to its Chinese search page, no longer automatically redirecting users to Hong Kong (and uncensored search results) in a move to appease Chinese authorities.
Google had added the redirection feature to its Chinese site in March, after saying it no longer wanted to censor results in China. The change, however, really stemmed from a hacking incident against the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
On Friday, Google told Reuters that "China has renewed our license. We are very pleased that the government has renewed our ICP license and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China."
China, of course, is the largest market in the world. However, in that region, Google doesn't own the search market. Rather, its the Chinese search engine Baidu that is the China search market leader.
For now, the tension between the Chinese government and Google seems to have eased. Is this the end of the story? It's likely not, as although Google does not redirect Chinese visitors automatically any longer, there is still an easy way (a link) to its Hong Kong servers. We'll see what the next chapter holds.
Want to get your hands on Verizon's (until the Fascinate, at least) most powerful Android device, and willing to work through a puzzle to do it? There's no app for that, but there is a Twitter feed and a scavenger hunt.
Twenty-one Droid X devices have been scattered throughout the U.S. by Verizon and Motorola. Typical of a scavenger hunt, the early clues are cryptic, and will eventually resolve to actual GPS locations.
Right now, it's clear there's one in Tennessee and near the Mall of America (Bloomington, MN). There are a bunch of other relatively value clues as well, including the fact that there's one in San Francisco close to (arguably) the "crookedest street in the world."
The contest runs through July 15th (day of launch) at 11:59:59 EDT. To be clear, if you read the rules, you're not searching for a phone, but a certificate for a free phone.
Also, the final clue is a set of GPS coordinates, as we said. If no one grabs the prize within 4 hours of the posting, that prize will be randomly awarded to someone in the vicinity. So you could win if you just happen to be standing around in the right location.
Here are the full rules:
OFFICIAL RULES. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A Purchase Will Not Increase Your Chances of Winning.
1. Sweepstakes Period: The Verizon Wireless Droid Scavener Hunt (the "Promotion") begins 12:00:01 Eastern Time ("ET") on July 7, 2010 and ends 11:59:59 ET on July 15, 2010 (the "Promotion Period").
2. Eligibility: Open to legal residents of the 48 Contiguous United States and the District of Columbia, 18 years of age and older as of July 7, 2010. Employees of Verizon Wireless (the "Sponsor"), McGarry Bowen, Marketing Werks, Don Jagoda Associates, Inc., their respective parents, subsidiaries, divisions, affiliates, suppliers, distributors and advertising, promotional and judging agencies (collectively "Sponsor and its Parties") and the immediate family members (spouses, parents, children, and siblings and their spouses) and household members of each, are not eligible to participate or win.
3. How to Participate in the Promotion and Claim a Prize: During the Promotion Period, there will be a Scavenger Hunt, where 21 Certificates for a free Droid Phone will be hidden across the country. Clues as to where the 21 Droid Certificates ("Certificates") will be hidden will be tweeted on a regular basis from @DroidLanding. To view the tweets, visit http://www.twitter.com/droidlanding. Dates and times of Certificate placement will vary, but the final clue of each GPS location for each Certificate will be tweeted at the time it is hidden. Participants will have 4 hours from the time of the posting of the final clue to find the Certificate and once it is found, follow the instructions on the Certificate to claim their prizes, subject to verification. In the event two (2) or more participants find a Certificate at the exact same time, Sponsor representative will conduct a random drawing from among all those that found the Certificate to determine the winner. Prizes unclaimed within 4 hours from the time of the posting of the final clue will be randomly awarded (in Sponsor representative's sole discretion) to an eligible person in the vicinity of the hidden Certificate. By participating, you understand, and will agree in writing, that if you find a Certificate or are randomly awarded an unclaimed prize, Sponsor's representatives will be on site to videotape and/or photograph and record the event, in their sole discretion. Therefore, if you find a Certificate, you hereby grant the Sponsor, its affiliates, subsidiaries, assigns, licensees, and legal representatives the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to use, reproduce, edit, market, store, distribute, have distributed, reproduce, re-arrange, change (including blurring any trademarked items on clothing), add to or delete from, translate, adapt, or otherwise revise and/or alter the video footage, photographs, or material developed ("Footage"), publicly and privately display, communicate, publicly and privately perform, transmit, have transmitted, create derivative works based upon, and promote the Footage, for editorial, commercial or promotional purposes, in their sole discretion.
Sponsor and its Parties reserve the right at their sole discretion to disqualify any individual that acts in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner, or with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any other person. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Promotion may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages from any such person to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Sponsor and its Parties and their respective officers, directors, shareholders, employees and agents, and any and all Internet servers and access provider(s) (collectively, the "Releasees") are not responsible for: any incorrect or inaccurate information; human error; technical malfunctions; failures, omission, interruption, deletion, or defect of any telephone network, computer online or e-mail systems, computer equipment, servers, providers, or software, including any injury or damage to participant's or any other person's computer relating to or resulting from participation or inability to participate in this Promotion; inability to retrieve any clues from Twitter; theft, tampering, destruction, or unauthorized access to, or alteration of clues; data processing that is processed late or incorrectly or is incomplete or lost due to telephone, computer or electronic malfunction or traffic congestion on telephone lines or the Internet or any website; or for any other errors or problems of any kind relating to or in connection with the Promotion, whether computer, network, technical, printing, typographical, human or otherwise or any combination thereof, including, without limitation, any errors or problems which may occur in connection with the administration of the Promotion, the Scavenger Hunt clues or in any Promotion-related materials. Material(s) provided by Sponsor on Twitter are only to be used solely for the purposes of this Promotion and cannot be used for any other purpose or use. By entering the Promotion, entrants affirm that they have read and accepted these Official Rules.
4. Prizes and Approximate Retail Value ("ARV"): Prizes (21): A Verizon Wireless Droid Phone ARV $569.99 each. Service not included with phone. The total ARV of all prizes to be awarded in the Promotion is $11,969.79. Limit one (1) prize per person/household.
5. General Rules: No substitution or transfer of prize permitted except at the sole discretion of the Sponsor who reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value in the event the prize is unavailable. All applicable federal, state and local taxes are the sole responsibility of winner. Prize is awarded "as is" with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied by Sponsor. By participating in the Promotion, participants agree to be bound by these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor. The Sponsor reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to cancel, modify or suspend the Promotion if it is not capable of running as planned, including, but not limited to, infection by computer virus, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures (where clues could not be posted) or any other problems beyond the control of the Sponsor (including cancellation of Scavenger Hunt) and award the applicable prizes that were claimed/awarded prior to cancellation and the remainder of prizes will go un-awarded. Prize winners and all entrants, as a condition of participation in the Promotion, agree to release and hold harmless Sponsor and its Parties and each of their respective affiliates, officers, directors, agents, and employees will have no liability or responsibility for any claim arising in connection with participation in the Promotion or any prize awarded. Prize winners assume all liability for any injury or damage caused, or claimed to be caused, by participation in the Promotion, the receipt, ownership or use of prize awarded or any typographical or other error in these Official Rules or the announcement of offering of the prizes. Void where prohibited and subject to all federal, state and local laws. Acceptance of prize constitutes permission to use the winner's name and likeness for promotional purposes without further compensation except where prohibited by law. Sponsor is not responsible for any typographical or other error in the tweeting of the Promotion materials or the offering or announcement of the prizes. As a condition of participating in the Promotion, participant agrees that: 1) under no circumstance will participant be permitted to obtain awards for, and hereby waives all rights to, punitive, incidental, consequential or any other damages, other than for out-of-pocket expenses; 2) all causes of action arising out of or connected with the Promotion or the prize awarded, shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action; and 3) any and all claims, judgments, and award shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, but in no event attorneys' fees. You hereby represent and warrant that you have read these Official Rules and are fully familiar with its contents.
6. Winners List: For a list of winners, available from July 20, 2010 to August 20, 2010, and for the official rules visit www.droiddoes.com.
Steve Jobs famously said that "Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone." This Ann Arbor, Michigan woman didn't buy an Android phone for porn, but got it anyway, and preloaded to boot.
The reason that Rhonda Lee ended up with porn on her phone is that the HTC EVO 4G she bought wan't new. She bought it from a third-party (read: not corporate) Sprint store, and they said it was new, but that was obviously not the case.
There were five video clips on the phone, some as long as 12 minutes. Worse, Lee ended up discovering the clips when she was showing the device, which has been sold out for a great deal of its "lifespan," to co-workers.
Lee tried to return it to the third party store, but employees first denied that the phone had been used. Later, they 'fessed up and said it had been returned by another customer. Meanwhile, Lee is still looking for an apology from Sprint (realistically, it's unclear why as this is obviously not a corporate store), the Sprint corporate offices told her she could get a replacement phone at one of their stores.
This isn't the first such case we've heard of, about some electronic device being passed off as new, and coming loaded with some sort of dross from the prior owner (not necessarily porn, by the way). Not only is this a cautionary tale for buyers, it's one for people who might sell or donate their used electronics: make sure you wipe them of any data before you do so.
Of course, this isn't the type of porn Steve Jobs was referring to. The Apple CEO was speaking about complaints about the draconian App Store approval policies, which he said prevent porn and other such content from reaching the iPhone or other iDevice.
However, that totally ignores the fact that just as with the HTC EVO 4G, an enterprising person can easily load porn movies on it. Let's also not forget that the iPhone can readily surf to porn sites, if necessary. Heck, the porn industry will even support HTML5 soon, which is ideal for the iPad or iPhone since they don't support Adobe's flash, and never will.
comScore has released its latest report on smartphone market share for the three months of March through May. Unsurprisingly, the trend continues from previous months: Android is rapidly climbing among smartphone platforms.
It should be noted, however, that these numbers obviously don't include the iPhone 4, which did not launch until late June.
Android continued to climb, and while it still "only" has 13 percent of smartphone market share, what's more important is that rise is from 9 percent in the last report. That rise, therefore, comes to 44.4 percent over a three month period.
Meanwhile, during that time, all the other smartphone platforms took dives. RIM still has a 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers (a drop of 0.4 percent), while Apple had a 24.4 percent share (a drop of 1 percent). Microsoft saw a drop of 1.9 percent to 13.2, while Palm dropped rounded out the top five out with a 4.8 percent share, a drop of 0.6 percent.
In terms of manufacturer share, Samsung is now at the top, with 22.4 percent market share. LG is second at 21.5 percent, followed by Motorola at 21.2 percent. In the last report, the top three were Motorola (22.3 percent), LG (21.7 percent) and Samsung (21.4 percent). RIM and Nokia swapped places, with RIM now 4 and Nokia 5. Remember, this is U.S. smartphone market share, not overall global cell phone market share.
In total, 49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending covered in the report. That is up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February report.
We've been touting the T-Mobile Vibrant as the first Samsung Galaxy S device to hit a U.S. carrier, given its July 21st launch date. On Thursday, AT&T announced that it will be launching their Captivate on July 18th, which would beat the Vibrant by a few days. Ah, but maybe T-Mobile heard about this: there are rumors, but no official confirmation, that the Vibrant will launch July 15th.
The new Vibrant (above) date is unconfirmed, as the last date given on Samsung's Twitter feed still says July 21. it does, however, sound likely given the AT&T date.
Both the Vibrant and Captivate will ship with 16GB of internal storage. That is unlike Verizon's Fascinate and the Sprint Epic 4G, which will have 2GB and 1GB respectively. However, the latter devices will have LED flash, and the T-Mobile and AT&T versions will not.
These four devices will all have the Samsung Hummingbird CPU and Super AMOLED screens. While people should stop using the term "iPhone killer," they are obviously very competitive in terms of hardware.
Additionally, the Spring Epic 4G will support WiMax, and have a forward-facing camera that the others are missing. All will receive Froyo in the future.
Finally, the Captivate will not allow side-loading, as AT&T has said before is basically a way to make developers "be accountable for the apps they submit." Side-loading is the installation of non-Market builds on an Android device. You need to change a default setting on the phone, but AT&T feels that is not enough protection.
Sounds a little App Store-ish, doesn't it?
Let's also not forget that the Captivate will be saddled with AT&T's overburdened network. Sagging under the weight of the iPhone, it will be interesting to see how it handles the Samsung Captivate.
The $200 Spyder III Pro Arctic is the world's most powerful portable laser. It's so powerful, in fact, that it can cause blindness, damage skin, even set things on fire. It can also damage a trademark, as a cease-and-desist order from Lucasfilm attests.
Lucasfilm has sent a C-and-D letter to Wicked Lasers, creator the of Spyder III Pro Arctic. While Wicked Lasers has never referred to the device as a "lightsaber," it's pretty obvious from the promotional images on their site that it looks a heck of a lot like the Star Wars Jedi Knight weapon of choice.
CNN has some of the text from the LucasFilm letter to Wicked Lasers. In it, the company notes that blogs and other media have referred to the device as a "real-life lightsaber," so despite what Wicked Lasers may say, the perception is still there:
"It is apparent from the design of the Pro Arctic Laser that it was intended to resemble the hilts of our lightsaber swords, which are protected by copyright [...]
"These references (by media) make it clear that the public is being led to believe that the Pro Arctic Laser is an official lightsaber device and/or copied from our design."
Wicked Lasers' response:
"Most people feel it's kind of ridiculous ... We would never use any comparison like that to 'Star Wars' or a lightsaber or anything like that.
Lucasfilm shouldn't be saying something like that. They're a big company that needs to protect their trademarks. Maybe they're having to look like they're protecting their trademark in case they need to [protect it again] later."
Orders of the device increased after all the initial media coverage, so Wicked Lasers added safety features, such as a safety lock to prevent accidentally turning on the laser, and an extra lens which reduces its power by 80 percent until it is removed. Also, every laser is shipped with safety goggles. The letter was actually sent a couple of weeks ago, but the company has not stopped shipping the devices.
Even a standard laser pointer is not a toy. For example, although some feel it's fun to point them at passing aircraft and cars, its clear from this FAQ that it's definitely not fun for those affected.
Particularly on iOS, where they have seen themselves frozen out of the App Store at times (Google Voice comes to mind), Google has pushed the idea of web apps. They can be modified without an app store or market, and the results made public with a flick of a switch. On Wednesday, a switch was flicked with regards to the mobile YouTube site (http://m.youtube.com/) and a new mobile YouTube site hit the Internet.
As you can expect, the new site is HTML5, and thus can be viewed on an iOS device, as well as on browsers on newer platforms such as Android. YouTube product manager Andrey Doronichev during a briefing Wednesday morning at YouTube's headquarters, emphasized that the idea was to bring the desktop experience, as much as possible, to mobile browsers.
Additionally, the video quality of the new mobile site, as demonstrated, was far better than the iPhone app. As Doronichev explained that the native iOS app is built by Apple, with YouTube not having anything to do with its code. Additionally, he explained that the iPhone app still uses a video streaming format that was developed for EDGE, not 3G, which also affects quality.
In fact, Doronichev pulled out two iPhones to do an Apples to Apples (pun intended) demo. he showed the native YouTube application against the new YouTube mobile site, and the quality difference was readily apparent.
As Google always says about its web apps, they can be updated much faster. Our issue with web apps such as Google Voice on the iPhone is that there are limitations with regards to such apps: they can't access native contacts, for one, so the Google Voice web app on the iPhone is more cumbersome to use.
Something like a YouTube video web app, one can see, has the much better chance of being fully formed with regards to full functionality with a desktop.
Watch a video on the new functionality. Interestingly, the video starts by using an iPhone, and then switches to a Nexus One.
We already knew that Froyo (Android 2.2) offered some awesome performance improvements. How does it compare against the iPhone 4, Apple's lefty-hating smartphone? It blows it away.
Ars did a recent review of Froyo, and now has taken the time to compare the iPhone 4 with the Nexus One running Froyo in terms of two JavaScript benchmarks, SunSpider and V8.
As you can see above, in SunSpider (lower is better), Froyo scored 5,795.2 vs. 10,902.1, close to a 2 to 1 difference.. In V8 (higher is better), Froyo scored 287 vs. 67, a more than 4 to 1 advantage.
Granted, this tests are focused on JavaScript, and are synthetic tests to boot. What matters to most people is that both phones are capable devices (except, in the case of an iPhone 4, if you want to make a call using your left hand and no case). It also uses top of the line hardware on the Android side, the Nexus One (which is the only Android device to get Froyo so far, so there wasn't really a choice).
However, while the Nexus One running Froyo is pretty much still top of the line hardware, once the Samsung Galaxy S devices hit, with their Hummingbird CPU, might we see a still bigger difference between the two?
The phone wars will continue to be very interesting, especially with Android devices getting new hardware all the time, while the iPhone will wait a year for a refresh (except, perhaps, for a Verizon iPhone?).
A few days ago we reported that the creator of the hilarious iPhone 4 vs. EVO 4G video (as well as its rebuttal) was about to lose his job at Best Buy. Well, they've relented, but he hasn't: he's outta there.
The Best Buy employee was 25-year-old Brian Maupin. He had been suspended while Best Buy HR reviewed the case. While the two videos below are the ones that have gone viral, they didn't mention Best Buy at all. Instead, Best Buy says it was some other videos that mentioned the company that they cared about, and those have been taken down. So, all is forgiven, right?
However, Maupin said that originally Best Buy did take offense at his NSFW humor, as they felt it disparaged their customers. Of course, neither video mentioned Best Buy, and perhaps, with the glare of public opinion on them, they have decided it was best to back away.
Best Buy said Maupin can return as of this coming Friday, but he's not so keen on the idea. He said:
"I'm not planning on returning to work — immediately, anyway. Honestly, I don't know how I could return considering some of the things that were said to me and not have a lot of awkwardness on the job. I'm looking at possible jobs in graphic art — nothing definite yet, but I'm searching," he tells us.
Here both parties' official statements, with Best Buy's first:
Best Buy:
We have completed our investigation into the videos created and posted by Brian Maupin, the aspiring film-maker and Best Buy employee. This is an important situation for us because it involved balancing our social media guidelines with a commitment to creating a supportive environment for our employees. It's important to note that our investigation involved three videos that were posted in late June because they were openly disparaging of our employees, our customers and our vendor partners. Our investigation is over, and these videos are no longer on the web. Contrary to rumors, Brian has not been fired, and is scheduled to return to his job at Best Buy this Friday.
Maupin:
Right now I'm planning on taking a leave of absence so I may survey my current career plans and the future. I'm not sure if it would be comfortable returning to Best Buy considering the circumstances, but I will definitely consider all options.
Originally, Maupin said a firing might be a good career move, as he could focus on graphic design and animation. He's certainly talented enough, based on his work.
Here's the original and the rebuttal. Remember, NSFW.
AppBrain, which we've written about before, is a great place to search online for Android apps, and then select them to install to your device. In the past, however, you'd have to install the AppBrain App Market application, then "sync" your device with it. You would then see a list of apps to install manually. With the release of their Fast Web Installer, however, the apps are now pushed to your device.
This is something that's expected to come later from Google. It was shown at Google I/O; it's the ability to select an app from the Android Market and have it sent to your device OTA. However, we now don't have to wait for the feature to come in the next Android release (or whenever).
This only works with free apps, but it is really cool, once you download the app and enable its functionality. How do you get it set up?
First, of course, you'll need an AppBrain account.
Next, install the "AppBrain App Market" app on your phone. Once that's done, open the app, go to "Manage my apps" and click the "Sync with AppBrain" button.
Download and install the "Fast Web Installer." Run it so you can enable its ability to install apps on your device.
Go to AppBrain, pick a free app, and click on the Install button. You'll see an app start downloading to your device, as shown in the notification bar.
Unfortunately, uninstalling an app is not automatic. There you still need to do the sync with AppBrain and manual uninstall process.
As you might imagine, this app needs to run in the background. Therefore, if you have a task killer that auto kills, you need to make sure the Fast Web Installer is excluded.
Particularly on iOS, where they have seen themselves frozen out of the App Store at times (Google Voice comes to mind), Google has pushed the idea of web apps. They can be modified without an app store or market, and the results made public with a flick of a switch. On Wednesday, a switch was flicked with regards to the mobile YouTube site (http://m.youtube.com/) and a new mobile YouTube site hit the Internet.
As you can expect, the new site is HTML5, and thus can be viewed on an iOS device, as well as on browsers on newer platforms such as Android. YouTube product manager Andrey Doronichev during a briefing Wednesday morning at YouTube's headquarters, emphasized that the idea was to bring the desktop experience, as much as possible, to mobile browsers.
Additionally, the video quality of the new mobile site, as demonstrated, was far better than the iPhone app. As Doronichev explained that the native iOS app is built by Apple, with YouTube not having anything to do with its code. Additionally, he explained that the iPhone app still uses a video streaming format that was developed for EDGE, not 3G, which also affects quality.
In fact, Doronichev pulled out two iPhones to do an Apples to Apples (pun intended) demo. he showed the native YouTube application against the new YouTube mobile site, and the quality difference was readily apparent.
As Google always says about its web apps, they can be updated much faster. Our issue with web apps such as Google Voice on the iPhone is that there are limitations with regards to such apps: they can't access native contacts, for one, so the Google Voice web app on the iPhone is more cumbersome to use.
Something like a YouTube video web app, one can see, has the much better chance of being fully formed with regards to full functionality with a desktop.
Watch a video on the new functionality. Interestingly, the video starts by using an iPhone, and then switches to a Nexus One.
As we surmised, the issues folks were seeing in terms of uploads on the AT&T wireless network were not a newly instituted upload cap, but rather a problem on their network. In this case, AT&T made sure to point the finger at a bug in Alcatel-Lucent's 3G base station hardware that slowed uploads for any device that supports HSUPA. Unfortunately, however, AT&T noted that a fix isn't here yet.
The issue is reducing upload speeds from the normally expected about 1Mbps to around 100kbps or less, a factor of 10. However, it appears to be regional in nature, not affecting the entire country. Here's what AT&T said:
"AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent jointly identified a software defect — triggered under certain conditions – that impacted uplink performance for Laptop Connect and smartphone customers using 3G HSUPA-capable wireless devices in markets with Alcatel-Lucent equipment. This impacts less than two percent of our wireless customer base. While Alcatel-Lucent develops the appropriate software fix, we are providing normal 3G uplink speeds and consistent performance for affected customers with HSUPA-capable devices."
Based on the number of complaints it's unclear that only two percent of customers are being affected. At any rate, even if it is an Alcatel-Lucent problem, it's still going to cast a bad light on AT&T, and the iPhone 4, too (a large number of complaints came from iPhone 4 users, who probably feel snakebit right about now).
It's official: the T-Mobile Charm has been confirmed by Motorola in a press release. The device first leaked about a week and a half ago, but we also knew it would be free in an upcoming back-to-school promotion.
The Charm, which is squarish with a QWERTY keyboard (non-slide-out!), reminds folks of a BlackBerry (somewhat). Not much in the way of hardware specs has been revealed, but it seems to be a low-to-mid-range device, with Android 2.1, MotoBlur, a 2.8" screen, and a 3 megapixel camera. It definitely falls into what some might call the "cute" range, as well.
The form factor provides the first Android device with a built-in (non-slider) keyboard and a QVGA display (320 x 240 resolution). It will be interesting to see how Android apps, which have been focused on the tall, portrait displays of Android devices until now, run on this device. Click the above image to see a larger one.
Neither date nor pricing was announced, but it will be exclusive to T-Mobile, and will launch sometime this summer.
The iTunes hacking that took place over the July 4th weekend was short-lived, as the developer Thuat Nguyen and his apps were booted soon thereafter. Now, however, it appears Apple is looking for some folks to police fraud in the iTunes store.
Reportedly, only a small percentage of iTunes accounts were compromised: less than 0.0003 percent, in fact. Still, Apple is working to make sure it won't happen again.
In addition to adding CCV code verification more often, Apple is looking for fraud prevention specialists. One was this (since removed) Fraud Prevention Specialist (below).
This person would "cancel fraudulent orders" and "research and resolve fraud escalations from various sources." That would have been great in the earlier incident, although it was a holiday weekend, anyway.
While that req has been removed (already hired, we hope), there's another in Apple's job postings that (at the time of this writing) is still there.
Even if this incident affected only a small percentage of users, if you're one of those users, its 100 percent for you. One key: make sure you use a strong password. Another key: don't use the same password everywhere. Finally, be careful about possible phishing attacks, which could be used to grab your password(s).
The iTunes hacking that took place over the July 4th weekend was short-lived, as the developer Thuat Nguyen and his apps were booted soon thereafter. Now, however, it appears Apple is looking for some folks to police fraud in the iTunes store.
Reportedly, only a small percentage of iTunes accounts were compromised: less than 0.0003 percent, in fact. Still, Apple is working to make sure it won't happen again.
In addition to adding CCV code verification more often, Apple is looking for fraud prevention specialists. One was this (since removed) Fraud Prevention Specialist (below).
This person would "cancel fraudulent orders" and "research and resolve fraud escalations from various sources." That would have been great in the earlier incident, although it was a holiday weekend, anyway.
While that req has been removed (already hired, we hope), there's another in Apple's job postings that (at the time of this writing) is still there.
It should be noted that these are coincidental, though timely. The remaining req was posted prior to the incident, in mid-June.
Even if this incident affected only a small percentage of users, if you're one of those users, its 100 percent for you. One key: make sure you use a strong password. Another key: don't use the same password everywhere. Finally, be careful about possible phishing attacks, which could be used to grab your password(s).
Best Buy Connect has gone live. The retailer's mobile broadband service, which was recently previewed in its Sunday fliers is now official, and offers contract-free and contract service plans, as well as (ugh) data caps.
To be clear, this is mobile broadband, not cellular service, and is tied to the laptops Best Buy sells with WWAN modems.
Monthly prices are $39.99 for 500MB and 5GB of 3G data service, with or without a contract. There is also a 250MB option for $29.99, but only without a contract. Why bother with a contract, then? Subsidies, just as with cellular service. A service contract is offered for one year and two years, and the length of the contract is tied to subsidies on new laptops: the longer the contract, the bigger the subsidy.
For example, you'll get a subsidy of $275 off a compatible laptop of your choice with a two-year contrct. Of course, the data caps are an annoyance, but it's pretty much standard nowadays.
A U.S. soldier who has been linked to a Wikileaks video showing a helicopter attack in Iraq has been charged. Pfc. Bradley Manning, 22, now faces two charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
In May, Manning was detained in Kuwait after a former hacker turned him in. The video, which whistleblower site Wikileaks titled "Collateral Murder," was first posted in April. Taken by cameras on U.S. Apache helicopters, it shows several civilians being killed in a U.S. air strike in July 2007. Among the dead were two Reuters news agency employees, Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40.
In a statement, authorities said that the first charge against Manning include is for violating army regulations by "transferring classified data onto his personal computer and adding unauthorised software to a classified computer system." The second charge is for "communicating, transmitting and delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source."
Although charged, Manning must still face an Article 32 investigation. That investigation is similar to a civilian grand jury hearing, and will determine whether Manning will face trial by court-martial.
Apple's CS reps have their talking points, but those talking points apparently don't cover what to say if someone asks you if the upcoming software fix will resolve the iPhone 4's reception issues. The answer that AppleCare gives if you call, is no: the update will not fix the issues.
As most people know, at issue is the iPhone 4's external antenna system. Particularly if you hold the device in your left hand and bridge the gap between antennas (shown), and you lose signal strength, data transfer speed, and sometimes even drop calls.
The software update that Apple noted was coming in the next few weeks will only correct the way signal bars are displayed on the phone. This way, apparently, you will accurately know just how much signal strength is lost when you hold the phone.
Gizmodo called AppleCare three times on Tuesday, and got the same answers:
When you hold the iPhone 4 in a "certain way," as we noted above, your human body creates an antenna interference problem
Possible solutions include holding the phone differently, or some sort of case (including Apple's $30 bumpers) which will prevent your skin from bridging the gap.
AppleCare also confirmed that the software update will not fix the antenna problem
We've suggested that Apple start shipping free bumpers inside iPhone 4 boxes. After all, the darn things cost $30.
It's unclear if Apple will say anything in response to this information, or simply tell AppleCare reps to stop answering as above.
The assumption, or rather, hope was that software could somehow fix the issue. After all, anyone who remembers the iPhone 3G signal issues also remember how iPhone OS 2.1 "fixed" (to some extent) the issues on that phone.
Assuming this information is correct, it looks like, for once, Apple has released a seriously flawed product. Now if they would just admit it, and fix it the right way ... it's bad enough that AT&T's network cannot satisfactorily handle the traffic generated by the iPhone and other devices, but having to deal with something like this is the straw that breaks the camel's back.
The Associated Press, which as early as two years ago objected to sites and blogs using their content, even with accreditation (which would be called "fair use" by many), has been skewered by the site Woot, which was recently acquired by Amazon.com. Despite its opinion about its own content, the AP took some of the content from Woot CEO Matt Rutledge's blog post about the sale. Here's your bill, says Woot.
Woot is a "one day, one deal" website. A sale launches at midnight, and lasts until it sells out, or until the next midnight. Here's what Woot says about AP's SNAFU:
Hey, The Associated Press! Great to see you! And thanks so much for noticing our little blog post the other day. But, well… we wanted to talk for a second.
The AP, we can't thank you enough for looking our way. You see, when we showed off our good news on Wednesday afternoon, we expected we'd get a little bit of attention. But when we found your little newsy thing you do, we couldn't help but notice something important. And that something is this: you printed our web content in your article! The web content that came from our blog! Why, isn't that the very thing you've previously told nu-media bloggers they're not supposed to do?
So, The AP, here we are. Just to be fair about this, we've used your very own pricing scheme to calculate how much you owe us. By looking through the link above, and comparing your post with our original letter, we've figured you owe us roughly $17.50 for the content you borrowed from our blog post, which, by the way, we worked very very hard to create. But, hey. We're all friends here. And invoicing is such a hassle in today's paperless society, are we right? How about this: instead of cutting us a check for the web content you liberated from our site, all you'll need to do is show us your email receipt from today's two pack of Sennheiser MX400 In-Ear Headphones, and we'll call it even.
The snarkiness here is about AP's stance on blogs or sites using its content. Even if it were to fall under "fair use," AP has asked sites to remove content, or else pay for them. They've become less "aggressive" since the initial incident, however.
To be clear, we bought those headsets, so we ought to be safe. On the other hand, this is just another example of something not isolated to AP: "Do as I say, not as I do."
The wireless carrier also known as the whipping boy of the industry, AT&T, is experience data upload issues around the country, based on a large MacRumors thread in their forums. It appears to be some issue, and not capped upload speeds, which conspiracy theorists first surmised.
The most vocal users are iPhone 4 customers, who already are probably sensitive to any perceived new issues with their devices. Data uploads appear to be in the range of 100kbps in the affected areas, way slower that the 1Mbps people expect on AT&T's network on the iPhone 4. It appears to be regional in nature, although the list of affected areas at MacRumors is quite long. In the SF Bay Area, however, which is not among those listed as affected, we are seeing speeds of around of around 1.2Mbps on an iPhone; in a different location we saw 850kbps on a Nexus One.
A possible explanation would be HSUPA maintenance work on the AT&T network. That is the network protocol which allows faster upload speeds. Of course, hard to say without official AT&T comment, but we'd say probably not a conspiracy, unless it's against certain areas of the country. The current list of regions:
NYC, Central Jersey, Orlando, Seattle, South Jersey/Philly, Columbus, Cleveland, West Houston, Phoenix, Northern Colorado, St. Paul/Minesota, Suffolk County/Long Island, Quad Cities, South Jersey, Denver, Detroit Metro, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Fairfax, Minneapolis, Washington D.C., Des Moines
It's another blow against AT&T's already dismal reputation, however. We wonder if soon we'll be seeing Verizon commercials playing off this event.
While HTC is not strictly an Android shop, they have to thanking Android for these sales numbers. After all, Windows Mobile market share continues to drop (although the HTC HD2 was a surprise WM hit).
In April, HTC said they expected to take in $1.6 billion in second quarter 2010 revenue. On Tuesday, the company announced that they surpassed those estimates, with $1.88 billion in revenue, instead. That is a 63 percent gain in revenue year-over-year.
Meanwhile, profits were $268 million. That is HTC's highest reported quarterly profit since it reported a $309 million profit in Q4 2007. However, that was before Taiwanese companies started to treat employee bonuses as expenses.
While WM continues to drop, Android continues to rise. Google recently said 160,000 Android phones were lighting up daily, and a large portion of those are HTC devices. Some of the HTC Android phones which are current hits include the Droid Incredible, the EVO 4G, and the Nexus One.
Speed readers, beware. A recent study seems to show that reading an e-book takes longer than reading a printed version.
The study was done by the Nielsen Norman Group (a advocacy group focused on human-centered products), which is unaffiliated with Nielsen, the market research firm. The study compared a PC, a Kindle 2, an iPad using iBooks, and a printed book.
It should be noted that the study group was very small, with only 24 test subjects (3 others were excluded because of "measurement flaws" and 5 others were pilot subjects). Subjects were given a literacy test to ensure a level playing field prior to the study, and the author of the material, a different short story on each platform, was Ernest Hemingway.
Subjects were given a brief comprehension questionnaire after each reading. NNG said subjects performed well on the tests (getting nearly all answers correct), so they didn't analyze the data further. The purpose of the quiz, they said, was to make sure the subjects took the reading seriously, as they would if they expected a quiz.
The results showed that on average, the stories took 17 minutes and 20 seconds to read. Compared to a printed book, the iPad readers were 6.2 percent slower; Kindle readers were 10.7 percent slower, but NNG said these e-book reader differences were not statistically significant. For some reason, however, NNG did not provide the data for reading at a PC.
What NNG did provide was information on the "experience" of reading at a PC. Based on a scale of 1-7, the scores were iPad 5.8, Kindle 5.7, and the printed book 5.6. Subjects hated reading on the PC, which was down at 3.6.
Interestingly, users still feel that reading a printed book is more relaxing than using electronic devices. One of the reasons for hating the PC: users said it reminded them too much of work.
What conclusions came out of the study? Well, NNG said that in terms of dedicated e-book readers, they can't say which is faster (Nook fans are probably annoyed at its exclusion from the study). They did say the printed book still "rules," but in reality a larger test group would seem to be required to get a definitive conclusion.
The future may change things, as e-book readers, including the more general iPad, continue to improve. One thing is certain: the market for e-books themselves is rising steadily, and that is where the money really is, the "consumables" of the market.
Yelp 2.0 for Android arrived on our Nexus One over the weekend (along with Froyo, of course), and it brought with it a host of changes. They include check-ins, and monocle (augmented reality). Some are complaining that 2.0 brought force closes, as well, but not on our device.
Monocle is, as we said, augmented reality. Activate it from the Yelp home screen (shown), and it uses your GPS, compass and camera. You'll see a "radar screen" which shows the approximate location of businesses Yelp recognizes around you. Pan around and the radar pans, too. You'll also get overlays on the image of businesses with Yelp ratings, as well as open or closed status.
Just as with FourSquare, you can now "check in." You know how check-ins work, we're sure. When you're at a place, you "check in" using an app, so friends can know where you are. Stalkers can to, but that's another story.
It's great to see Android apps getting love. Of course, we'd also love to see full reviews possible from the Yelp app, too, but none of the platforms, not offer that yet. Perhaps iPad, someday. Yelp's reason for restricting full reviews is simple: they don't want text-message speak laden reviews. You can imagine what you'd get from a smartphone. TTYL.
App store analytics firm Distimo has released its latest report. The June report covers the Apple App Store for iPad, the Apple App Store for iPhone, BlackBerry App World (Worldwide), Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, for May 2010.
The following highlights were noted:
More than 50% of applications are priced below or equal to $2.00 in all stores, with the exception of BlackBerry App World (which does not allow apps to be priced below $2.99) and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
The average price of all paid applications and the 100 most popular paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPad ($4.65) is higher than that in the Apple App Store for iPhone ($4.01). However, the average price of the 100 top grossing applications is higher on the Apple App Store for iPhone.
Nine out of the ten most popular free applications and eight out of ten most popular paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPhone are (unsurprisingly) games.
Both Apple's iBooks application and Amazon.com's Kindle application are ranked among the 10 most popular free applications in the Apple App Store for iPad. Apple's application is ranked number one however, and Amazon's application is ranked number ten. It should be noted that once you activate the iPad, it sort of pushes the iBook app at you.
Also no surprise: five out of the top ten free applications in Windows Marketplace for Mobile are published by Microsoft Corporation.
Google Android Market has the largest share of free applications (57 percent) and Windows Marketplace for Mobile has the smallest (22 percent).
That last point is rather startling, and might make some believe that the Android Market is no place to be if you want to make money. However, Distimo notes that while the Android Market is available in some 46 countries, paid apps can only be downloaded in 13 of those countries. Meanwhile, only developers from 9 countries can distribute them in the Android Market.
On the other hand, we all love the price point free, now don't we? The top free app on the iPad is, as mentioned earlier, iBooks, while on the iPhone it is the game Angry Birds Lite. On BlackBerry it is Pandora; on Android it is Google Maps (followed by Pandora).
On Palm webOS the top free app is Facebook, followed by Pandora. On Nokla's OVI store, the top free apps it the game ZumZum. Meanwhile, on WinMo, it's Microsoft MyPhone.
We've heard of renting a husband to do home repair and the like, but renting a friend? That's apparently not as unknown as you might think, and RentAFriend.com, which claims to be the largest such site, has even reached 100,000 hits a month.
According to a Fox Detroit video report, the Rent a Friend site has 200,000 members. It's been in existence for only six months, but definitely got the best domain name for such a service.
Rent a Friend is very clear: it is neither a dating site nor an escort service. While taken at face value, it sounds a little desperate, there are some good suggested use cases on the site that actually make some sense. Examples include:
People who travel to a new city can hire a local to show them around town.
Someone might want to see a movie or go out to a restaurant but don't have anyone to go with. They could "Rent a Friend" to go along with them (we suppose that whether or not you pay for the ticket for your "friend" requires negotiation.
People who travel often for business that are looking to find local Friends to go out to dinner with, go to the bar with, or watch a sports game with.
There are other such examples that make a lot of sense. Rent a Friend says that most of the friends start at around $10 per hour. However, the site also adds that some will waive their fee (you can imagine if you had some primo tickets to a concert or something, and your BFF bailed on you, the Rent a Friend might opt for waiving their fee!).
Consider it social networking with a fee. Watch a video report:
It's not huge news, but it is a holiday weekend. It is however silly. Here we see that objects on the cover of Best Buy's catalog may be "larger than actual size." They also have features they don't really possess.
It's the cover of Best Buys' Mobile Buyers Guide, and it shows the huge HTC Aria (AT&T) and the petite HTC EVO 4G (Sprint). What?
No way is the Aria larger than the EVO 4G. On the other hand, neither does the Aria have 4G, as shown if you look carefully at its image. Obviously just a mistake, what's a larger mistake, if you look carefully, is that there's a 4G indicator on the phone's notification area.
Considering that AT&T is hard pressed to produce 3G in many areas, under the weight of the iPhone, and Sprint is the only carrier with 4G phones, one can only say "oops."
Yelp 2.0 for Android arrived on our Nexus One over the weekend (along with Froyo, of course), and it brought with it a host of changes. They include check-ins, and monocle (augmented reality). Some are complaining that 2.0 brought force closes, as well, but not on our device.
Monocle is, as we said, augmented reality. Activate it from the Yelp home screen (shown), and it uses your GPS, compass and camera. You'll see a "radar screen" which shows the approximate location of businesses Yelp recognizes around you. Pan around and the radar pans, too. You'll also get overlays on the image of businesses with Yelp ratings, as well as open or closed status.
Just as with FourSquare, you can now "check in." You know how check-ins work, we're sure. When you're at a place, you "check in" using an app, so friends can know where you are. Stalkers can to, but that's another story.
It's great to see Android apps getting love. Of course, we'd also love to see full reviews possible from the Yelp app, too, but none of the platforms, not offer that yet. Perhaps iPad, someday. Yelp's reason for restricting full reviews is simple: they don't want text-message speak laden reviews. You can imagine what you'd get from a smartphone. TTYL.
The squarish T-Mobile Motorola Charm, which was recently unearthed, appears to be the real deal. Not only that, according to this image of a display, it looks like the Android form in a new form factor will be free, no less.
The Charm (left) will be free for back-to-school. It will be joined by the Samsung 3, Samsung T, and Samsung Smile (L-R). We still don't know much about the Charm, but we'll probably hear more soon. The squarish shape is a reminder of the late (unlamented) KIN One. That could be a bad omen, but time will tell.
The Samsung i9000 Galaxy S hasn't even launched on U.S. carriers yet, and already rumors of a successor, the Galaxy S2, have surfaced. The Galaxy S will first hit a U.S. carrier on July 21st, as the T-T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant.
Of the other three of the big four, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint have all announced their own variants (Captivate, Fascinate, and EPIC 4G with a keyboard). Smaller carriers have announced variants, as well.
This time the rumor mill comes via Russia. The Samsung i9200 Galaxy S2 would have the following specs:
Samsung Galaxy i9200 specs should be:
4.3" 1280 x 720 Super AMOLED 2 display
2GHz CPU
1GB RAM
4GB ROM
32GB of onboard storage
up to 32GB microSD card slot
8 mpx camera with FullHD video recording
A-GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11n wi-fi
3.5mm audio jack
Accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity and ambient light sensors
It sounds like a wish list of stuff folks would love to see in an Android device. According to the site, this should launch in early 2011 with Android 3.0.
App store analytics firm Distimo has released its latest report. The June report covers the Apple App Store for iPad, the Apple App Store for iPhone, BlackBerry App World (Worldwide), Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, for May 2010.
The following highlights were noted:
More than 50% of applications are priced below or equal to $2.00 in all stores, with the exception of BlackBerry App World (which does not allow apps to be priced below $2.99) and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
The average price of all paid applications and the 100 most popular paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPad ($4.65) is higher than that in the Apple App Store for iPhone ($4.01). However, the average price of the 100 top grossing applications is higher on the Apple App Store for iPhone.
Nine out of the ten most popular free applications and eight out of ten most popular paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPhone are (unsurprisingly) games.
Both Apple's iBooks application and Amazon.com's Kindle application are ranked among the 10 most popular free applications in the Apple App Store for iPad. Apple's application is ranked number one however, and Amazon's application is ranked number ten. It should be noted that once you activate the iPad, it sort of pushes the iBook app at you.
Also no surprise: five out of the top ten free applications in Windows Marketplace for Mobile are published by Microsoft Corporation.
Google Android Market has the largest share of free applications (57 percent) and Windows Marketplace for Mobile has the smallest (22 percent).
That last point is rather startling, and might make some believe that the Android Market is no place to be if you want to make money. However, Distimo notes that while the Android Market is available in some 46 countries, paid apps can only be downloaded in 13 of those countries. Meanwhile, only developers from 9 countries can distribute them in the Android Market.
On the other hand, we all love the price point free, now don't we? The top free app on the iPad is, as mentioned earlier, iBooks, while on the iPhone it is the game Angry Birds Lite. On BlackBerry it is Pandora; on Android it is Google Maps (followed by Pandora).
On Palm webOS the top free app is Facebook, followed by Pandora. On Nokla's OVI store, the top free apps it the game ZumZum. Meanwhile, on WinMo, it's Microsoft MyPhone.
New research by Iowa State University points to too much television and video game time as doubling the risk of attention issues in children. The study is published in the July issue of Pediatrics.
The study is just the latest of many to point out the effects of excessive screen time on children, whether at it's a computer screen or the television. Both the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Canadian Pediatric Society recommend that parents limit a child's screen time to one or two hours daily. Many however, equate that with TV, but its more than that.
Researcher Edward Swing, a graduate student at Iowa State University, along with his colleagues assessed 1,323 children in the third, fourth and fifth grades over a 13-month time period. Swing said:
"Those who exceeded the AAP recommendation were about 1.6 times to 2.2 times more likely to have greater than average attention problems."
What's interesting is the study also included a one-time survey of 210 college students. The middle school students, he reported, were a slightly less likely than the college students to have attention problems.
In terms of the middle school participants, both parents and children reported on screen time. Meanwhile, teachers were asked to report attention issues. The college students self-reported on their attention issues.
While the recommendation of the AAP is one to two hours maximum screen time, the student showed that middle school students averaged 4.26 hours a day of screen time, while older students spent 4.82 hours daily.
The researchers attributed the issues to pacing on television and video games. Television, especially action shows, are fast-paced, as are many video games. Swing said:
"It is still not clear why screen media may increase attention problems, but many researchers speculate that it may be due to rapid-pacing, or the natural attention grabbing aspects that television and video games use."
Douglas Gentile, an associate professor of psychology at Iowa State University and co-author on the study, added:
"Brain science demonstrates that the brain becomes what the brain does. If we train the brain to require constant stimulation and constant flickering lights, changes in sound and camera angle, or immediate feedback, such as video games can provide, then when the child lands in the classroom where the teacher doesn't have a million-dollar-per-episode budget, it may be hard to get children to sustain their attention."
Researchers said they will continue to study the screen viewing, and its possible relationship to ADHD, and hope to identify which specific aspects of television or video games may be most related to attention problems.
We've heard of renting a husband to do home repair and the like, but renting a friend? That's apparently not as unknown as you might think, and RentAFriend.com, which claims to be the largest such site, has even reached 100,000 hits a month.
According to a Fox Detroit video report, the Rent a Friend site has 200,000 members. It's been in existence for only six months, but definitely got the best domain name for such a service.
Rent a Friend is very clear: it is neither a dating site nor an escort service. While taken at face value, it sounds a little desperate, there are some good suggested use cases on the site that actually make some sense. Examples include:
People who travel to a new city can hire a local to show them around town.
Someone might want to see a movie or go out to a restaurant but don't have anyone to go with. They could "Rent a Friend" to go along with them (we suppose that whether or not you pay for the ticket for your "friend" requires negotiation.
People who travel often for business that are looking to find local Friends to go out to dinner with, go to the bar with, or watch a sports game with.
There are other such examples that make a lot of sense. Rent a Friend says that most of the friends start at around $10 per hour. However, the site also adds that some will waive their fee (you can imagine if you had some primo tickets to a concert or something, and your BFF bailed on you, the Rent a Friend might opt for waiving their fee!).
Consider it social networking with a fee. Watch a video report:
It's not huge news, but it is a holiday weekend. It is however silly. Here we see that objects on the cover of Best Buy's catalog may be "larger than actual size."
It's the cover of Best Buys' Mobile Buyers Guide, and it shows the huge HTC Aria (AT&T) and the petite HTC EVO 4G (Sprint). What?
No way is the Aria larger than the EVO 4G. On the other hand, neither does the Aria have 4G, as shown if you look carefully at its image. Obviously just a mistake, what's a larger mistake, if you look carefully, is that there's a 4G indicator on the phone's notification area.
Considering that AT&T is hard pressed to produce 3G in many areas, under the weight of the iPhone, and Sprint is the only carrier with 4G phones, one can only say "oops."
Don't worry, Wikipedia lovers. It was out for quite some time, and Tweets that "Wikipedia is down" caused panic among summer school students using it against co-founder Jimmy Wales' advice. It looks, however, like the site is coming back up.
Although reports of iTunes being hacked circulated on Sunday, the fact that Wikipedia went down had nothing to do with hackers. Rather, it's that same old story: it's hard to run a data center without power.
Wikipedia first tweeted knowledge of the issue at around 5:30 PM PDT. Later, at around 7:30 PM PDT, the word went out that it was just a power outage.
Thanks for being patient, everyone. We've figured out the problem: power outage in our Florida data center. Slowly coming back online!
Wikipedia's last major outage was in March of this year. A European datacenter overheated, and Wikimedia was forced to use backup servers in Florida. Ironic, since in this case the issue is in Florida.
HP has completed its acquisition of Palm, and with that, its cleaning house in terms of layoffs. At the same time, however, is it trying to clean house in terms of old webOS devices?
We'd love to see new webOS devices, as we might even recommend them, but we're not going to recommend these over Android devices, except at these prices: free. To celebrate the opening of its HP Wireless Store, HP is giving away (with a two-year contract) Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus devices. That means AT&T and Verizon customers can get these aging devices (and their still nice OS) for free. Sprint customers, however, are out of luck.
HP is throwing in a free Renegade Mini Bluetooth headset, an Axiom leather case, and a car charger with purchase. You'll even get free shipping.
We have to admit, the price is right, but if you're looking for a smartphone platform with a rich number of applications, webOS is not it. Instead, if you want free, we'd recommend the HTC Aria (AT&T) or the LG Ally (Verizon Wireless). These aren't the best Android phones around, but at least they are free (at the links above, and at the time of this writing). They also offer a far larger choice in terms of available application support.
Reports that the App Store and a number of user accounts have been hacked surfaced on Sunday morning. It appeared at first that one particular developer had hacked into several users accounts, and used those accounts to "buy up" the ranking on several book apps on iTunes (see above).
As you can see, at the time of this writing starting at No. 8 and going for a long ways, there are many book apps all by the same developer (skipping No. 11). As of this writing, 42 of the top 50 books by revenue are from developer Thuat Nguyen, whose company website ("mycompany") leads to a parked site, http://www.home.com.
It appears that not only has this weird ranking been spotted, but there's been a rise in iTunes account hacking of late. It's unclear, but we'll bet that either folks had really lame passwords or got caught by a phishing attack. Our recommendation would be to remove your credit card information from your iTunes account and change your password, as well and make it strong, too.
That would mean decently long (at least eight characters), no names or words, and include special characters (like %, ^, &, etc.) and numbers, as well as characters, if possible (we find it immensely annoying when we find a site that refuses to accept special characters, by the way). Also, the worst possible thing to do is use the same password on every account, so don't do that, OK?
Meanwhile, not only is it a Sunday, it's also July 4th. That means it might take longer for Apple to resolve this than normal.
We've seen what Apple customer support has been told: do not give free bumpers to customers who complain about iPhone 4 reception issues. Still, if you complained early enough, you could have swung such a deal.
Such is the example of a small unnamed New York business who had five iPhone 4s all exhibiting the issue. Among the receivers of iPhone 4 "early deliveries" they noted an issue right away.
"Literally, we live in an area where we get five bars. You can almost see a line-of-site cell tower. But if you literally just touch the black line (in the bottom left of the iPhone 4), you lose a call."
Although Apple contends that it's all about signal bars, it's hard to discount those who say touch the iPhone 4 in that area (as shown above) will result in dropped calls.
It's also true that an in-depth test of the iPhone 4 showed that while all the phones tested showed some signal attenuation, the iPhone 4s was much more severe that the iPhone 3GS or the Nexus One.
The New York company, who wished to remain anonymous, contacted Apple CS. It was so early in the iPhone 4 delivery process, CS didn't know of the issue. Eventually the business as even told by a representative that they, too, experienced reception issues when gripping their own iPhone 4 on the left-hand side.
Eventually, the company was promised free bumpers. It's been noted by many, including Apple, that some sort of case will fix the issue. Of course, the company is only getting black (Model T-ish still, eh Apple?), and the bumpers have yet to arrive.
It just goes to show, while early adopters seemed to have gotten the shaft in terms of this issue, really early adopters managed to get free bumpers. Now, the leak CS stance is no free bumpers. The bumpers cost $30, by the way.
Apple has found a strange 'bedfellow' in its quest to push HTML5 over Adobe's Flash: the porn industry. It is particularly ironic since Apple CEO Steve Jobs has famously said in the past that "Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone."
Of course, Adobe's Flash technology remains unsupported on iOS, and that includes not just the iPhone and iPod touch, but the iPad as well. Given that, you had to imagine the porn industry would have to jump on the HTML5 bandwagon, as the iPad is (ahem) obviously a better size for viewing adult films.
According to a report, Ali Joone, the founder of Digital Playground, which is one of the porn bigshots in America, his company will abandon Flash as soon as desktop browsers fully support HTML5. He said:
""HTML 5 is the future. We are waiting for browsers to catch up. As soon as they are ready, we will move everything to HTML 5. It's the next passing of the torch."
Clearly, there's way too much Flash on the web for it to be killed off quickly. However, as the porn industry helped decide earlier standards wars (VHS over Beta and Blu-ray over HD-DVD), could this be the straw that breaks Adobe's back?
Apple has found a strange 'bedfellow' in its quest to push HTML5 over Adobe's Flash: the porn industry. It is particularly ironic since Apple CEO Steve Jobs has famously said in the past that "Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone."
Of course, Adobe's Flash technology remains unsupported on iOS, and that includes not just the iPhone and iPod touch, but the iPad as well. Given that, you had to imagine the porn industry would have to jump on the HTML5 bandwagon, as the iPad is (ahem) obviously a better size for viewing adult films.
According to a report, Ali Joone, the founder of Digital Playground, which is one of the porn bigshots in America, his company will abandon Flash as soon as desktop browsers fully support HTML5. He said:
""HTML 5 is the future. We are waiting for browsers to catch up. As soon as they are ready, we will move everything to HTML 5. It's the next passing of the torch."
Clearly, there's way too much Flash on the web for it to be killed off quickly. However, as the porn industry helped decide earlier standards wars (VHS over Beta and Blu-ray over HD-DVD), could this be the straw that breaks Adobe's back?
Apple has found a strange 'bedfellow' in its quest to push HTML5 over Adobe's Flash: the porn industry. It is particularly ironic since Apple CEO Steve Jobs has famously said in the past that "Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone."
Of course, Adobe's Flash technology remains unsupported on iOS, and that includes not just the iPhone and iPod touch, but the iPad as well. Given that, you had to imagine the porn industry would have to jump on the HTML5 bandwagon, as the iPad is (ahem) obviously a better size for viewing adult films.
According to a report, Ali Joone, the founder of Digital Playground, which is one of the porn bigshots in America, his company will abandon Flash as soon as desktop browsers fully support HTML5. He said:
""HTML 5 is the future. We are waiting for browsers to catch up. As soon as they are ready, we will move everything to HTML 5. It's the next passing of the torch."
Clearly, there's way too much Flash on the web for it to be killed off quickly. However, as the porn industry helped decide earlier standards wars (VHS over Beta and Blu-ray over HD-DVD), could this be the straw that breaks Adobe's back?
Recording 200 seconds of video during a movie showing should hardly, one might think, be considered a DMCA infringement. Despite this, Samantha Tumpach, 22, spent two days in jail in November of 2009 for recording a few minutes of The Twilight Saga: New Moon. She's now filed a lawsuit against the theater.
According to Tumpach and her lawsuit, at least one of the snippets was filmed in hopes of filming her"favorite actor taking his shirt off." Authorities found a host of pictures she took in the theater of her friends and sister, in addition to two clips of the motion picture New Moon. However, one clip was 114 seconds long, while the other was 85 seconds, hardly a bootleg copy.
It is true that some of these sorts of videos, of entire movies, however, make it to the Internet. These are dubbed "shakycam" videos, as taking them with a handheld camera results in a lot of "shake."
In this case, however, Tumpach in the complaint said that she pleaded with authorities, stating that she didn't know she was doing anything wrong and hadn't received any warnings. Officers called the MPAA to explain the situation, and based on the minimal footage, and the explanation, the MPAA recommended that the memory card from the digital camera be cleared and that police should only generate an incident report.
However, the suit alleges that theater manager Stephen Buckus demanded her arrest and a felony complaint, anyway. The reason, the suit says, was that Buckus hoped to gain a financial reward (the MPAA, and the National Association of Theater Owners offers $500 rewards to theater employees workers who nab film pirates).
The civil suit was filed last week in Illinois federal court against Muvico Theaters of Rosemont. Samantha Tumpach seeks more than $50,000, charging malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and defamation.
Tumpach could have faced up to three years in prison, but the felony charges were dropped a month after her arrest. The suit says that "she has suffered great public ridicule, embarrassment, humiliation, inconvenience, damages to her reputation and other damages."
A recent report showed adults are just as likely as teens to text message while driving. That may not be all that surprising, but a new report is: it shows that half of mothers text message while driving,
The survey, conducted by by BOHAN Advertising for its WhyMomsRule.com blog, show that among mothers with text messaging service on their cell phones, 49 percent admit to reading or writing text messages while driving. Not just that, the moms did so with their kids in the car.
The survey shows what's wrong with drivers: lack of common sense. Without legislation, or in fact, even with legislation, people think it's OK to text while driving. While statistics actually have shown disappointing results in terms of accident reduction in states which have instituted such laws, they have correlated that data with compliance. Many of these states (fro example, California, $20) have fines so low that people ignore them.
If authorities want compliance, they need to raise fines to the point that people will pay attention. It is sad to see in California, for example, that littering fines are so much higher.
42001.7. (a) Every person convicted of a violation of Section 23111 or 23112, or subdivision (a) of Section 23113, shall be punished by a mandatory fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) upon a first conviction, by a mandatory fine of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) upon a second conviction, and by a mandatory fine of not less than seven hundred fifty dollars ($750) nor more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) upon a third or subsequent conviction.
The survey was conducted among 585 mothers over age 18 with at least two children at home. It was conducted online in late May. The survey has a margin of error of 5 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.
It's down to one person's word against a corporation's, and we will probably never absolute proof in the matter. While Apple public relations said that the email exchange purported between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and an angry iPhone 4 customer was faked, BGR, which first reported the incident, is standing by the story, and submitted the full email headers for proof.
It is true that the entire exchange seemed rather un-Jobs-like in the first place, with Jobs saying the following in response to increasingly irate comments from the iPhone 4 buyer, called "Tom" as a pseudonym:
"No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down."
"You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength."
"You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it."
A huge error on the part of BGR, and one that made people question the authenticity of the story, was when the attributed the comment "Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it" to Steve Jobs. It was actually the customer's, though it was far more interesting if said by Jobs, of course. They corrected the error, once they discovered it.
AppleInsider later commented that "Tom" was really Jason Burford, who "shopped" the story to them, as well. In their follow-up, BGR confirmed Burford's name, and that they had never worked with him before. They admitted paying him, but they called it a "nominal fee of a couple of hundred dollars."
While Steve Jobs has often responded via email directly to customers, it's never been known if it was Jobs or someone monitoring his email inbox. So, as BGR said in the, it's unclear if those email responses were penned by Jobs. However, BGR stated, they definitely came from Jobs email address, because Burford gave BGR access to his Gmail account, and they confirmed the email headers themselves.
BGR itself is a reliable source. Thus, if BGR says they examined the email headers themselves, we believe them. While that doesn't prove it was Jobs himself emailing Burford, it does prove it came from Jobs' email address, which as BGR said, is all that should matter in regards to this story.
We ourselves believe there is little doubt in the matter, based on BGR's "testimony." While it's possible to fake email headers by copying, pasting, and editing them, these and the emails were directly in Burford's account. Here's part of what BGR said:
Well, I personally couldn't give a damn if this email was with Steve Jobs himself or not. What I care about is whether this was with Steve Jobs' email box, one that is obviously monitored by a bunch of employees at Apple, either in customer service or PR, or both. So, is it possible that Steve Jobs himself did not write those emails to Jason Burford? Without a doubt. Is it possible that these replies were fabricated, and didn't come from someone at Apple sending emails to Jason Burford from Steve Jobs' email address sjobs@apple.com? No. I believe 100% these emails are real, as I have been given access to Jason's Google Apps email client and verified those headers to be legitimate, undoctored, and kosher. The replies were all real, the timestamps were all matched up, and the thread was consistent. This was not faked in any way whatsoever. Then there is also the logical part of me that would say, "why?" Why would someone waste so much of their time to have their name involved in something so stupid when they are lying about it? To the extent of having their parent's company now dragged into this, who both probably had no idea of this email exchange?
Let's go over it one more time… someone who wanted to remain 100% anonymous and only asked to be paid a nominal fee of a couple hundred dollars lied and completely made up this entire thing? Someone who showed me in his AT&T call records more than two calls from Apple representatives (Texas phone numbers, confirmed to be Apple Customer Relations) on the exact dates he said they called trying to resolve the situation after he had emailed Steve Jobs? Someone who repeatedly emailed me and the BGR staff to correct the last line in my story since it wasn't accurate? Someone who has now had his name revealed to the public via a tasteless article from AppleInsider, and is now being called by reporters non-stop asking about this article and whether his exchange is true or not? They still wouldn't admit this was fake? No, you know why? Because it wasn't fake.
Steve Jobs might not have personally sent those messages, but there isn't any amount of spin Apple PR honcho Steve Dowling could throw on at this point because those email messages came from Steve Jobs' email box, and that's all I or Jason care about.
One further point: a Gizmodo reader, examining the headers, wrote them to say:
I just looked at the email header BGR published in support of their claim of authenticity in regards to the leaked Jobs emails. For what it's worth, I used to work for Apple a few years back, and I recognize one of the mail forwarding servers in the header from an email I was once cc'd on.
My job role had it that I was occasionally cc'd on threads that Steve had been on before. So I can confirm for sure that the server names in the header are legit. Whether they are copypasta (sic) from previous, authentic leaks is, again, up to anyone's imagination
As we said, if indeed (and we have no reason to doubt them) BGR examined the emails directly in Burford's Gmail account, we see no way this could have been faked.
Here are the headers. However, while the iPhone's reception problems have become a big issue, as they should be, Burford had it right: it's just a phone. There are plenty of good Android phones out there, without this problem (or at least, to the point of dropping calls), and Apple has suspended its restocking fee. While of course it may be hard to imagine, returning the iPhone 4 is an option.
Delivered-To: jj@burfordadvertising.com Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs118020far; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.119.26 with SMTP id r26mr9657517wfc.257.1277872043323; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from mail-out3.apple.com (mail-out3.apple.com [17.254.13.22]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id h16si9548774rvn.123.2010.06.29.21.27.22; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.22; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com Received: from relay14.apple.com (relay14.apple.com [17.128.113.52]) by mail-out3.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 676679AB7A09 for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) X-AuditID: 11807134-b7b53ae000005755-28-4c2ac7aa0aef Received: from elliott.apple.com (elliott.apple.com [17.151.62.13]) by relay14.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 35.55.22357.AA7CA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_8h2LEWuwqrtbxFRQqYCapQ)" Received: from [17.248.4.101] (wave-dhcp101.apple.com [17.248.4.101]) by elliott.apple.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0L4T00MEH8DKBM30@elliott.apple.com> for jj@burfordadvertising.com; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: No Fix References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> From: Steve Jobs X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (8A293) In-reply-to: <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> Message-id: <65CA06C0-6380-4629-AC6C-FFB8B641CB3D@apple.com> Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:26:39 -0700 To: Jason Burford X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
Delivered-To: jj@burfordadvertising.com Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs117138far; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.3.19 with SMTP id 19mr9139757wfc.200.1277869526323; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:26 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from mail-out4.apple.com (mail-out4.apple.com [17.254.13.23]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id e9si10331229rva.8.2010.06.29.20.45.25; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:26 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.23; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com Received: from relay16.apple.com (relay16.apple.com [17.128.113.55]) by mail-out4.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 695D3A161FF5 for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:25 -0700 (PDT) X-AuditID: 11807137-b7b43ae000004f8e-fe-4c2abdd50f50 Received: from earhart.apple.com (aldrin.apple.com [17.150.10.19]) by relay16.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 12.A8.20366.5DDBA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:25 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:21 -0700 From: Steve Jobs Subject: Re: No Fix In-reply-to: <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> To: Jason Burford Message-id: <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1081) Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_Fye2Er1bSzctPHA4XIDCAA)" References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
Delivered-To: jj@burfordadvertising.com Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs118020far; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.119.26 with SMTP id r26mr9657517wfc.257.1277872043323; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from mail-out3.apple.com (mail-out3.apple.com [17.254.13.22]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id h16si9548774rvn.123.2010.06.29.21.27.22; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.22; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com Received: from relay14.apple.com (relay14.apple.com [17.128.113.52]) by mail-out3.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 676679AB7A09 for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) X-AuditID: 11807134-b7b53ae000005755-28-4c2ac7aa0aef Received: from elliott.apple.com (elliott.apple.com [17.151.62.13]) by relay14.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 35.55.22357.AA7CA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_8h2LEWuwqrtbxFRQqYCapQ)" Received: from [17.248.4.101] (wave-dhcp101.apple.com [17.248.4.101]) by elliott.apple.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0L4T00MEH8DKBM30@elliott.apple.com> for jj@burfordadvertising.com; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: No Fix References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> From: Steve Jobs X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (8A293) In-reply-to: <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> Message-id: <65CA06C0-6380-4629-AC6C-FFB8B641CB3D@apple.com> Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:26:39 -0700 To: Jason Burford X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
It's down to one person's word against a corporation's, and we will probably never absolute proof in the matter. While Apple public relations said that the email exchange purported between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and an angry iPhone 4 customer was faked, BGR, which first reported the incident, is standing by the story, and submitted the full email headers for proof.
It is true that the entire exchange seemed rather un-Jobs-like in the first place, with Jobs saying the following in response to increasingly irate comments from the iPhone 4 buyer, called "Tom" as a pseudonym:
"No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down."
"You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength."
"You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it."
A huge error on the part of BGR, and one that made people question the authenticity of the story, was when the attributed the comment "Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it" to Steve Jobs. It was actually the customer's, though it was far more interesting if said by Jobs, of course. They corrected the error, once they discovered it.
AppleInsider later commented that "Tom" was really Jason Burford, who "shopped" the story to them, as well. In their follow-up, BGR confirmed Burford's name, and that they had never worked with him before. They admitted paying him, but they called it a "nominal fee of a couple of hundred dollars."
While Steve Jobs has often responded via email directly to customers, it's never been known if it was Jobs or someone monitoring his email inbox. So, as BGR said in the, it's unclear if those email responses were penned by Jobs. However, BGR stated, they definitely came from Jobs email address, because Burford gave BGR access to his Gmail account, and they confirmed the email headers themselves.
BGR itself is a reliable source. Thus, if BGR says they examined the email headers themselves, we believe them. While that doesn't prove it was Jobs himself emailing Burford, it does prove it came from Jobs' email address, which as BGR said, is all that should matter in regards to this story.
We ourselves believe there is little doubt in the matter, based on BGR's "testimony." While it's possible to fake email headers by copying, pasting, and editing them, these and the emails were directly in Burford's account. Here's part of what BGR said:
Well, I personally couldn't give a damn if this email was with Steve Jobs himself or not. What I care about is whether this was with Steve Jobs' email box, one that is obviously monitored by a bunch of employees at Apple, either in customer service or PR, or both. So, is it possible that Steve Jobs himself did not write those emails to Jason Burford? Without a doubt. Is it possible that these replies were fabricated, and didn't come from someone at Apple sending emails to Jason Burford from Steve Jobs' email address sjobs@apple.com? No. I believe 100% these emails are real, as I have been given access to Jason's Google Apps email client and verified those headers to be legitimate, undoctored, and kosher. The replies were all real, the timestamps were all matched up, and the thread was consistent. This was not faked in any way whatsoever. Then there is also the logical part of me that would say, "why?" Why would someone waste so much of their time to have their name involved in something so stupid when they are lying about it? To the extent of having their parent's company now dragged into this, who both probably had no idea of this email exchange?
Let's go over it one more time… someone who wanted to remain 100% anonymous and only asked to be paid a nominal fee of a couple hundred dollars lied and completely made up this entire thing? Someone who showed me in his AT&T call records more than two calls from Apple representatives (Texas phone numbers, confirmed to be Apple Customer Relations) on the exact dates he said they called trying to resolve the situation after he had emailed Steve Jobs? Someone who repeatedly emailed me and the BGR staff to correct the last line in my story since it wasn't accurate? Someone who has now had his name revealed to the public via a tasteless article from AppleInsider, and is now being called by reporters non-stop asking about this article and whether his exchange is true or not? They still wouldn't admit this was fake? No, you know why? Because it wasn't fake.
Steve Jobs might not have personally sent those messages, but there isn't any amount of spin Apple PR honcho Steve Dowling could throw on at this point because those email messages came from Steve Jobs' email box, and that's all I or Jason care about.
One further point: a Gizmodo reader, examining the headers, wrote them to say:
I just looked at the email header BGR published in support of their claim of authenticity in regards to the leaked Jobs emails. For what it's worth, I used to work for Apple a few years back, and I recognize one of the mail forwarding servers in the header from an email I was once cc'd on.
My job role had it that I was occasionally cc'd on threads that Steve had been on before. So I can confirm for sure that the server names in the header are legit. Whether they are copypasta (sic) from previous, authentic leaks is, again, up to anyone's imagination
As we said, if indeed (and we have no reason to doubt them) BGR examined the emails directly in Burford's Gmail account, we see no way this could have been faked.
Here are the headers. However, while the iPhone's reception problems have become a big issue, as they should be, Burford had it right: it's just a phone. There are plenty of good Android phones out there, without this problem (or at least, to the point of dropping calls), and Apple has suspended its restocking fee. While of course it may be hard to imagine, returning the iPhone 4 is an option.
Delivered-To: jj@burfordadvertising.com Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs118020far; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.119.26 with SMTP id r26mr9657517wfc.257.1277872043323; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from mail-out3.apple.com (mail-out3.apple.com [17.254.13.22]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id h16si9548774rvn.123.2010.06.29.21.27.22; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.22; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com Received: from relay14.apple.com (relay14.apple.com [17.128.113.52]) by mail-out3.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 676679AB7A09 for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) X-AuditID: 11807134-b7b53ae000005755-28-4c2ac7aa0aef Received: from elliott.apple.com (elliott.apple.com [17.151.62.13]) by relay14.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 35.55.22357.AA7CA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_8h2LEWuwqrtbxFRQqYCapQ)" Received: from [17.248.4.101] (wave-dhcp101.apple.com [17.248.4.101]) by elliott.apple.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0L4T00MEH8DKBM30@elliott.apple.com> for jj@burfordadvertising.com; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: No Fix References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> From: Steve Jobs X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (8A293) In-reply-to: <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> Message-id: <65CA06C0-6380-4629-AC6C-FFB8B641CB3D@apple.com> Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:26:39 -0700 To: Jason Burford X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
Delivered-To: jj@burfordadvertising.com Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs117138far; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.3.19 with SMTP id 19mr9139757wfc.200.1277869526323; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:26 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from mail-out4.apple.com (mail-out4.apple.com [17.254.13.23]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id e9si10331229rva.8.2010.06.29.20.45.25; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:26 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.23; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com Received: from relay16.apple.com (relay16.apple.com [17.128.113.55]) by mail-out4.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 695D3A161FF5 for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:25 -0700 (PDT) X-AuditID: 11807137-b7b43ae000004f8e-fe-4c2abdd50f50 Received: from earhart.apple.com (aldrin.apple.com [17.150.10.19]) by relay16.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 12.A8.20366.5DDBA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:25 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:21 -0700 From: Steve Jobs Subject: Re: No Fix In-reply-to: <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> To: Jason Burford Message-id: <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1081) Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_Fye2Er1bSzctPHA4XIDCAA)" References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
Delivered-To: jj@burfordadvertising.com Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs118020far; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.119.26 with SMTP id r26mr9657517wfc.257.1277872043323; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from mail-out3.apple.com (mail-out3.apple.com [17.254.13.22]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id h16si9548774rvn.123.2010.06.29.21.27.22; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.22; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com Received: from relay14.apple.com (relay14.apple.com [17.128.113.52]) by mail-out3.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 676679AB7A09 for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) X-AuditID: 11807134-b7b53ae000005755-28-4c2ac7aa0aef Received: from elliott.apple.com (elliott.apple.com [17.151.62.13]) by relay14.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 35.55.22357.AA7CA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_8h2LEWuwqrtbxFRQqYCapQ)" Received: from [17.248.4.101] (wave-dhcp101.apple.com [17.248.4.101]) by elliott.apple.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0L4T00MEH8DKBM30@elliott.apple.com> for jj@burfordadvertising.com; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: No Fix References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> From: Steve Jobs X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (8A293) In-reply-to: <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> Message-id: <65CA06C0-6380-4629-AC6C-FFB8B641CB3D@apple.com> Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:26:39 -0700 To: Jason Burford X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
It's down to one person's word against a corporation's, and we will probably never absolute proof in the matter. While Apple public relations said that the email exchange purported between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and an angry iPhone 4 customer was faked, BGR, which first reported the incident, is standing by the story, and submitted the full email headers for proof.
It is true that the entire exchange seemed rather un-Jobs-like in the first place, with Jobs saying the following in response to increasingly irate comments from the iPhone 4 buyer, called "Tom" as a pseudonym:
"No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down."
"You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength."
"You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it."
A huge error on the part of BGR, and one that made people question the authenticity of the story, was when the attributed the comment "Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it" to Steve Jobs. It was actually the customer's, though it was far more interesting if said by Jobs, of course. They corrected the error, once they discovered it.
AppleInsider later commented that "Tom" was really Jason Burford, who "shopped" the story to them, as well. In their follow-up, BGR confirmed Burford's name, and that they had never worked with him before. They admitted paying him, but they called it a "nominal fee of a couple of hundred dollars."
While Steve Jobs has often responded via email directly to customers, it's never been known if it was Jobs or someone monitoring his email inbox. So, as BGR said in the, it's unclear if those email responses were penned by Jobs. However, BGR stated, they definitely came from Jobs email address, because Burford gave BGR access to his Gmail account, and they confirmed the email headers themselves.
BGR itself is a reliable source. Thus, if BGR says they examined the email headers themselves, we believe them. While that doesn't prove it was Jobs himself emailing Burford, it does prove it came from Jobs' email address, which as BGR said, is all that should matter in regards to this story.
We ourselves believe there is little doubt in the matter, based on BGR's "testimony." While it's possible to fake email headers by copying, pasting, and editing them, these and the emails were directly in Burford's account. Here's part of what BGR said:
Well, I personally couldn't give a damn if this email was with Steve Jobs himself or not. What I care about is whether this was with Steve Jobs' email box, one that is obviously monitored by a bunch of employees at Apple, either in customer service or PR, or both. So, is it possible that Steve Jobs himself did not write those emails to Jason Burford? Without a doubt. Is it possible that these replies were fabricated, and didn't come from someone at Apple sending emails to Jason Burford from Steve Jobs' email address sjobs@apple.com? No. I believe 100% these emails are real, as I have been given access to Jason's Google Apps email client and verified those headers to be legitimate, undoctored, and kosher. The replies were all real, the timestamps were all matched up, and the thread was consistent. This was not faked in any way whatsoever. Then there is also the logical part of me that would say, "why?" Why would someone waste so much of their time to have their name involved in something so stupid when they are lying about it? To the extent of having their parent's company now dragged into this, who both probably had no idea of this email exchange?
Let's go over it one more time… someone who wanted to remain 100% anonymous and only asked to be paid a nominal fee of a couple hundred dollars lied and completely made up this entire thing? Someone who showed me in his AT&T call records more than two calls from Apple representatives (Texas phone numbers, confirmed to be Apple Customer Relations) on the exact dates he said they called trying to resolve the situation after he had emailed Steve Jobs? Someone who repeatedly emailed me and the BGR staff to correct the last line in my story since it wasn't accurate? Someone who has now had his name revealed to the public via a tasteless article from AppleInsider, and is now being called by reporters non-stop asking about this article and whether his exchange is true or not? They still wouldn't admit this was fake? No, you know why? Because it wasn't fake.
Steve Jobs might not have personally sent those messages, but there isn't any amount of spin Apple PR honcho Steve Dowling could throw on at this point because those email messages came from Steve Jobs' email box, and that's all I or Jason care about.
One further point: a Gizmodo reader, examining the headers, wrote them to say:
I just looked at the email header BGR published in support of their claim of authenticity in regards to the leaked Jobs emails. For what it's worth, I used to work for Apple a few years back, and I recognize one of the mail forwarding servers in the header from an email I was once cc'd on.
My job role had it that I was occasionally cc'd on threads that Steve had been on before. So I can confirm for sure that the server names in the header are legit. Whether they are copypasta (sic) from previous, authentic leaks is, again, up to anyone's imagination
As we said, if indeed (and we have no reason to doubt them) BGR examined the emails directly in Burford's Gmail account, we see no way this could have been faked.
Here are the headers. However, while the iPhone's reception problems have become a big issue, as they should be, Burford had it right: it's just a phone. There are plenty of good Android phones out there, without this problem (or at least, to the point of dropping calls), and Apple has suspended its restocking fee. While of course it may be hard to imagine, returning the iPhone 4 is an option.
Delivered-To: jj@burfordadvertising.com Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs118020far; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.119.26 with SMTP id r26mr9657517wfc.257.1277872043323; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from mail-out3.apple.com (mail-out3.apple.com [17.254.13.22]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id h16si9548774rvn.123.2010.06.29.21.27.22; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.22; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com Received: from relay14.apple.com (relay14.apple.com [17.128.113.52]) by mail-out3.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 676679AB7A09 for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) X-AuditID: 11807134-b7b53ae000005755-28-4c2ac7aa0aef Received: from elliott.apple.com (elliott.apple.com [17.151.62.13]) by relay14.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 35.55.22357.AA7CA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_8h2LEWuwqrtbxFRQqYCapQ)" Received: from [17.248.4.101] (wave-dhcp101.apple.com [17.248.4.101]) by elliott.apple.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0L4T00MEH8DKBM30@elliott.apple.com> for jj@burfordadvertising.com; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: No Fix References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> From: Steve Jobs X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (8A293) In-reply-to: <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> Message-id: <65CA06C0-6380-4629-AC6C-FFB8B641CB3D@apple.com> Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:26:39 -0700 To: Jason Burford X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
Delivered-To: jj@burfordadvertising.com Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs117138far; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.3.19 with SMTP id 19mr9139757wfc.200.1277869526323; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:26 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from mail-out4.apple.com (mail-out4.apple.com [17.254.13.23]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id e9si10331229rva.8.2010.06.29.20.45.25; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:26 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.23; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.23 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com Received: from relay16.apple.com (relay16.apple.com [17.128.113.55]) by mail-out4.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 695D3A161FF5 for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:25 -0700 (PDT) X-AuditID: 11807137-b7b43ae000004f8e-fe-4c2abdd50f50 Received: from earhart.apple.com (aldrin.apple.com [17.150.10.19]) by relay16.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 12.A8.20366.5DDBA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:25 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:45:21 -0700 From: Steve Jobs Subject: Re: No Fix In-reply-to: <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> To: Jason Burford Message-id: <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1081) Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_Fye2Er1bSzctPHA4XIDCAA)" References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
Delivered-To: jj@burfordadvertising.com Received: by 10.223.120.9 with SMTP id b9cs118020far; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:24 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.119.26 with SMTP id r26mr9657517wfc.257.1277872043323; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from mail-out3.apple.com (mail-out3.apple.com [17.254.13.22]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id h16si9548774rvn.123.2010.06.29.21.27.22; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:23 -0700 (PDT) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) client-ip=17.254.13.22; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: domain of sjobs@apple.com designates 17.254.13.22 as permitted sender) smtp.mail=sjobs@apple.com Received: from relay14.apple.com (relay14.apple.com [17.128.113.52]) by mail-out3.apple.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 676679AB7A09 for ; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) X-AuditID: 11807134-b7b53ae000005755-28-4c2ac7aa0aef Received: from elliott.apple.com (elliott.apple.com [17.151.62.13]) by relay14.apple.com (Apple SCV relay) with SMTP id 35.55.22357.AA7CA2C4; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_8h2LEWuwqrtbxFRQqYCapQ)" Received: from [17.248.4.101] (wave-dhcp101.apple.com [17.248.4.101]) by elliott.apple.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-7.04 (built Sep 26 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0L4T00MEH8DKBM30@elliott.apple.com> for jj@burfordadvertising.com; Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:27:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: No Fix References: <9C1F0280-6BD5-490E-AF89-50710B677139@burfordadvertising.com> <6E69753C-40F2-4327-9F0F-AA1BFAEAFF79@apple.com> <0AEDD93C-E272-4EE2-9069-C673A698189B@burfordadvertising.com> <561C74EC-C886-4AD9-B2DD-293F44453DB8@apple.com> <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> From: Steve Jobs X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (8A293) In-reply-to: <188F384D-126C-4FFC-8A15-D68BA80FCF17@burfordadvertising.com> Message-id: <65CA06C0-6380-4629-AC6C-FFB8B641CB3D@apple.com> Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:26:39 -0700 To: Jason Burford X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAAZE=
Apple has found a strange 'bedfellow' in its quest to push HTML5 over Adobe's Flash: the porn industry. It is particularly ironic since Apple CEO Steve Jobs has famously said in the past that "Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone."
Of course, Adobe's Flash technology remains unsupported on iOS, and that includes not just the iPhone and iPod touch, but the iPad as well. Given that, you had to imagine the porn industry would have to jump on the HTML5 bandwagon, as the iPad is (ahem) obviously a better size for viewing adult films.
According to a report, Ali Joone, the founder of Digital Playground, which is one of the porn bigshots in America, his company will abandon Flash as soon as desktop browsers fully support HTML5. He said:
""HTML 5 is the future. We are waiting for browsers to catch up. As soon as they are ready, we will move everything to HTML 5. It's the next passing of the torch."
Clearly, there's way too much Flash on the web for it to be killed off quickly. However, as the porn industry helped decide earlier standards wars (VHS over Beta and Blu-ray over HD-DVD), could this be the straw that breaks Adobe's back?
Finland's law which makes broadband a legal right for all citizens went into effect on Thursday. The legislation, passed late last year, guarantees not just access to broadband, but 1Mbps broadband as well.
Even better, by 2015, the government hopes to ensure a minimum connection speed of 100Mbps to its residents. Of course, Finland is a small country of about 5.3 million, and 96 percent are already connected, so the move is mostly symbolic. Despite that, Finland still becomes the first nation to take this sort of step.
It should be noted that this does not mean Finland is "giving" its citizens free broadband. Rather, the idea is to ensure that all have access to broadband. After all, witness the U.S., where satellite or just plain phone access are the only options in many rural areas.
It's always fun when one of our favorite shows skewers a tech company, like the current target of left-handers, Apple. The Simpsons did it in 2008, and Futurama did it last night, although for some strange reason, part of it didn't make it to the Web.
The episode, the latest in Futurama's (finally) new set of episodes, was "Attack of the Killer App." Although the episode also mocked Susan Boyle (with a boil called Susan), it also hit up Apple and the "eyePhone." In Futurama, the eyePhone is actually placed into your eye, and is manufactured by MomCorp.
It wasn't all about Apple, as the episode also contained references to Twitter ("Twitcher") as well as commentary on our e-waste ending up in third-world countries (which is a real problem). However, of course, Apple (or rather, MomCorp) and zombies wanting the eyePhone were central to the episode.
In fact, it was sort of reminiscent of the iPhone 4 vs. EVO YouTube video, in terms of the utter fanboyness of customers. This part was extremely similar, though unlike the YouTube video, SFW.
Clerk: Okay, it's $500. You have no choice of carrier. The battery can't hold a charge, and the reception isn't very...
Fry: Shut up and take my money!
Mac|Life, however, noticed that strangely the Comedy Central clip of the very end of the episode, titled "Fry and Leela's Humiliation," differed from the broadcast in the last few seconds, in which a set of zombies are shambling into the MomCorp store to the voice over of "Introducing the all new eyePhone 2.0," to which the crowds cheer (with fistfuls of money). Cut to Mom, who then says, "Dumb bastards."
Now why would they make that change? Comedy Central wouldn't have done that unless someone had complained, perhaps a large corporation with tons of lawyers and a fruit for a logo. Anyway, the original clip is embedded below.
Oh, we also had to throw in the e-waste delivery to, not a third-world country, but a third world: Third World of the Antares system. After all, e-waste is a real issue.
Hidden in Apple's Friday letter to iPhone 4 customers, in which they both apologize for the iPhone 4's reception issues and state that the issues are really just perception, based on faulty signal strength levels, is a little tidbit that shows they are taking things seriously (more or less): they have removed the restocking fee they normally take if you return an iPhone.
As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.
Normally Apple takes a 10 percent restocking fee for returned iPhones. That would amount to $19.90 for a returned 16GB iPhone 4, and $29.90 for a 32GB device.
Amazon.com WidgetsHowever, Apple's statement seemed to remove this restriction, and it's been confirmed with AppleCare reps that the restocking fee has been suspended, at least for now. It may be restored when and if the iPhone's antenna issues are corrected.
We say "if" because Apple's letter implied the issue was because the signal strength indicator on the iPhone 4 was faulty, and thus, when the phone was gripped, users were surprised by the drop in signal levels. It is, in fact, true that gripping a phone will reduce the signal level, big bags of water that we are. Thus, Apple seemingly said, it's all about "perception."
Apple said it would supply a software patch to fix the issue, in a few weeks. What they didn't say is how fixing a signal level indicator on the phone would fix the dropped calls that have happened to some users when the phone is gripped and the gap between antennas on the left hand side of the iPhone 4 is bridged.
We'll see what really happens. In terms of a return, however, one thing to keep in mind is that for online orders, the 30 days starts when the device ships, not when you receive the device.
While Android users still wait for an official Chase bank application, iPhone users can now deposit checks from their iPhones. This new feature is sort of an extension of the new ATM systems at Chase banks, where you deposit a check and the ATM scans it.
The updated Chase Mobile app not only allows the typical features that allow you to check your balance, etc. etc., but by taking a picture of the front and back of a check, you can deposit it directly into your Chase account. Additionally, this new QuickDeposit feature is free, although the bad part is you still can't get cash back from your iPhone.
An additional feature is Person-to-Person QuickPay. Similar to PayPal, it allows you to pay anyone directly from your Chase account, and you only need to know their e-mail address. The other person is not required to have a Chase account.
In particular, the QuickDeposit feature is a winner. Now if we can just get the iPhone to print money, and if Chase would extend this app to Android ...
We've heard (no pun intended) of hybrid and electric cars designed to make noise, so that blind pedestrians don't get run over by them, but how about a car designed for blind people to drive it? That's what Virginia Tech and the National Federation for the Blind (NFB) have come up with.
The plan is to demonstrate the vehicle, a modified Ford Escape hybrid, at the famous Daytona International Speedway track next year, as part of the pre-race activities at the 2011 Rolex 24 on January 29, 2011. Last summer, the team demonstrated a first-generation prototype, a modified dune buggy.
The NFB issued its Blind Driver Challenge in 2004. Virginia Tech accepted that challenge, and as Dr. Dennis Hong, Director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech, said:
"Three years ago we accepted the NFB Blind Driver Challenge to develop a vehicle that can be driven by a blind person. The challenge was not the development of an autonomous vehicle that could drive a blind person around, but rather the creation of nonvisual interfaces that would allow a blind person to actually make driving decisions. The first-generation prototype was demonstrated with a modified dune buggy at the NFB Youth Slam in the summer of 2009. We are pleased to work with NFB and Grand-Am to demonstrate the second-generation prototype at the Rolex 24 festivities."
How does it work? Well, here's what the NFB says (naturally, the cues to the driver are all non-visual):
Here's how the vehicle works: The steering wheel is hooked up to a distance monitor that gathers information from laser range finders. Voice software is used to direct the driver every second on exactly how far to turn the steering wheel. For example, the monitor will tell the driver "turn left three clicks." As the driver does that, the monitor makes three clicking noises. A vibrating vest provides cues to follow when accelerating and decelerating. The vest will vibrate in various spots--the back, abdominal area and the shoulders--to relay a variety of commands. When a driver needs to "Hit the brakes!" the entire vest will vibrate to a fare-thee-well!
That is the design of the prototype, however. The Escape will feature a sort of tactile dashboard map that can be read with a person's fingertips to tell them where they are going. Meanwhile, vibrating driver's gloves will replace the vest, and the laser sensor has been improved.
While some might see (no pun intended) the idea of a blind driver as frightening, one thing is certain: a blind driver using this type of system will be paying more attention than a teenager text messaging while driving.
For those of us with bad vision (really bad, in our case), the optometrist is an annual ritual. The researchers at the Camera Culture team at MIT's Media Lab have developed an Android application to make optometry nearly a self-diagnostic procedure.
What they have is an app that uses a set of lines and dots that a user manipulated while looking through a $2 "eye" which was created out of the technology of a holographic barcode scanning device previously developed by MIT. Before you ask, it's Android only.
What a patient does is to continue to adjust the image things comes into focus, and viola, you have a prescription. Unfortunately, the Nexus One shown doesn't also make the glasses or contacts, so you're stuck with that aspect.
Obviously, this is targeted for developing nations. Meanwhile, one has to ask why Apple never saw this coming. Ugh.
Only a few short days after coming back into stock on Sprint's website, the HTC EVO 4G is once again sold out. Meanwhile, it appears that the Best Buy has sold out its allotment of Verizon Motorola Droid X devices, as well.
The EVO 4G has been an immensely popular device since going on sale. Indeed, the web app we wrote about earlier, which scrapes Sprint's site to let you know when the EVO 4G was back in stock, did alert us on June 29th when the EVO 4G was back, but we didn't pull the trigger, though we nearly did.
Some of that is due to the upcoming devices we know about. One of those, of course, is the Motorola Droid X, which will be on Verizon, and much like the EVO 4G, is on the larger size, with a 4.3" screen. It's proving just as popular, however. Reports are, after calling several stores, that Best Buy has halted its pre-order campaign, as it has burned through its pre-order allotment.
It's unclear just what that means, in terms of numbers, but it's a continuing issue with Android phones: they sell out fast, and then customers have to wait and wait for new shipments. That shows Android is popular, but it also shows that Android manufacturers don't expect to have a mega-hit like the iPhone, and thus don't make as many.
That makes sense, as with so many form factors, you are not going to see a single device with those types of numbers, whereas with its Model T-ish approach, Apple can generate those numbers for an iPhone version.
Still, sold out models mean high interest, and that can only be a good thing for Android.
This is probably going to go over far worse than the "don't hold it that way" comment attributed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Apple has written an official letter to users, and the iPhone 4's problems are just a problem with the display of the signal strength, not an actual drop in signal strength. Uh huh.
Indeed, that's what Apple's open letter on Friday morning said. The problem is "not real" after all, but simply a matter of signal bars being displayed improperly on the screen. Here is the most pertinent part of their letter:
"Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place."
Of course. That explains users dropping calls and seeing data transfer slow down or even halt, right? Wait, what?
It's not just about the display of signal bars. An actual detailed examination of the issue, using real numbers and comparing it to the iPhone 3GS and Nexus One, shows it's not just signal bars, but actual signal being dropped. This does not sound like it will fix the issue.
Meanwhile, hardware antenna experts seem to believe it's an actual hardware issue, not a software one. One predicted the issue publicly before the device was released, saying that the external antenna design was bound to have issues when touched.
Apple claims the miscalculation in signal level was present "since the original iPhone." Given that, while it is true that the iPhone 3GS, for example, does exhibit actual (not bars) signal loss when gripped, why is it there are no disconnected calls?
This is likely to go over very poorly. Here is the full text of their letter.
Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4
Dear iPhone 4 Users,
The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple's history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.
To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.
At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?
We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.
Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don't know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.
To fix this, we are adopting AT&T's recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone's bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.
We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.
We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same— the iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.
As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.
If you want to be the first on your block in the U.S. to get a U.S-carrier-branded Samsung Galaxy S, then you will want to get the T-Mobile Vibrant. Since Radio Shack is the only place to pre-order the device, you might as well head over there, particularly with this offer.
Pre-order a Samsung Vibrant either online or in-store, and you will get a $50 Radio Shack gift card. Granted, it's Radio Shack, but still ... Order online and you have to cough up the whole $199 for the phone; order in-store and it's only $50, until the phone arrives.
You have to place the pre-order before July 18th; the Vibrant ships on July 21st.
Oh, and yes, in case you are wondering, we did notice they misspelled "receive." Did you?
Apple PR has responded to the email exchange earlier reported to be between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and an angry iPhone 4 customer. First reported by BGR, Apple public relations has said the conversation was faked.
Although BGR took the time to not just check the email headers of the messages, and also posted them as well, it is true that these sorts of things are easily faked.
In the original report, Tom, the customer (name has been changed by BGR), emails back and forth with Jobs, with Jobs giving him the following responses about the iPhone 4's antenna issues:
"No, you are getting all worked up over a few days of rumors. Calm down."
"You are most likely in an area with very low signal strength."
"You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it."
"Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it." (BGR later altered this to be a statement of Tom's, not Jobs)
What's most interesting is that AppleInsider says that the same email "story" was shopped to them two days earlier. While BGR used "Tom" as the name of the customer, AppleInsider had no qualms about saying that they believe "Tom" to be Jason Burford of Burford Advertising in Virginia, the same person who tried to sell them the story.
While AppleInsider related this information, they noted that, at least with thme, Burford did not ask for a specific amount of money for the emails. Meanwhile, BGR has not said if they paid anything to obtain the emails.
Many have watched the hilarious iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO video and laughed. They've also laughed at the rebuttal HTC EVO vs. iPhone 4 video. Ah, but clearly that does not include folks at Best Buy corporate HQ.
According to a report, the creator of those videos is about to be fired, specifically because of the videos. The first of the videos The shows an electronics store employee (and definitely not anything associated with Best Buy, but rather the obscure "Phone Mart") trying to convince an obvious iPhone fanatic to buy an HTC EVO 4G instead. It's NSFW, and it and the rebuttal are embedded below.
Brian Maupin, a 25-year-old based in Kansas City, Missouri created both. How did Best Buy track him down? He believes it is because of some other videos made under his Tiny Watch Productions group, which had a YouTube account featuring videos referencing him and Best Buy.
Best Buy asked him to resign, but he declined. Instead, they suspended him until HR can review the case. According to Maupin, ""They felt it disparaged a brand they carried (iPhone/Apple) as well as the store itself and were fearful of stockholders & customers being turned off to Best Buy Mobile."
No sense of humor, obviously, and hey, they carry the EVO 4G as well, including pre-orders for the white one, which no one else has (let's not talk about the still missing white iPhone, eh?).
Maupin doesn't expect to keep his Best Buy job, and that's probably a good bet, but he sees it as a good thing. After all, this publicity (which, by the way Best Buy, folks probably wouldn't have realized the creator of the video was associated with you at all if you hadn't started this) will just help him achieve his real goal: "I see it all as a blessing in disguise. I've wanted to start my career in graphic design/animation for so long, I see this as my kick in the pants to go get it."
Here's the original and the rebuttal. Remember, NSFW.
If there's one place Google wins in general, it's the cloud. Apple's been rumored to be looking into cloud services for its iDevices, and it looks like that's going to happen, although it was logical that it would.
BGR's "reliable Apple source" said that changes to iTunes would enable the cloud capabilities that have been asked about for some time. They would include:
Streaming content from Apple's servers to your devices
Streaming content from your computers to your devices
Wirelessly syncing content to your devices
Of course, with AT&T's data tiers, which are expected to hit other wireless carriers eventually, all of this will come at a cost: potentially large amounts of data lopped off your capped allotment.
It's another example of one company (Apple) wanting us to use more broadband, while another (and in fact, their BFF, AT&T) wants us to use less.
As far as timing, BGR only said soon. It's somewhat implied at the end of the article that it could come at Apple's fall event, but it's all still fuzzy. Those clouds are obscuring things, we think.
Hot on the heels of the Froyo release that Google let loose (in a staggered, slow manner) earlier this week is the news of an update on top of that one. The prior build was FRF85B; the new one, which is only being pushed to those with the FRF85B build already installed, is FRF91.
Unlike the Froyo build, this one is just a few changes under the hood as well as security updates. Of course, it's supremely annoying that many, many users have not seen the OTA of the FRF85B build yet, despite Google publicly announcing it.
While these sorts of things roll out slowly, it's not as though the Nexus One has been a mega hit, so it's hard to understand why it's taking so long. Of course, the fact that Froyo has been teased and previewed for so long makes users more anxious to get it.
People don't associate Microsoft with hardware developments, but here they are. And no, they didn't acquire it; it came from their own hardware division. It's InstaLoad, battery contacts that allow batteries to be inserted into a device in either direction.
That is correct, the Microsoft-patented technology allows you to place regular consumer batteries, meaning CR123, AA, AAA, C, and D in either direction. No more worrying about polarity, and trying to remember what direction that stupid flashlight needs in the middle of a blackout.
Microsoft said the technology is ready for licensing. As you might expect, DuraCell is one of the first companies interested.
How does it work? Well, the idea is simple, though as the technology took nearly two years to develop, the execution probably was not. There is a positive and a negative terminal on each contact, as opposed to one contact with a positive terminal and one with a negative one.
Microsoft said InstaLoad can work with any cylindrical battery, disposable or rechargeable. Interestingly, it will license the technology to companies, royalty-free.
An email conversation over the iPhone 4's dislike of left-handers grew contentious, then ended in what seemed to be truth. On the other hand, the email thread seems to expose some serious denial on the part of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
BGR reported on an unnamed reader they called "Tom." After posting his own YouTube video clearly demonstrating the issue (we've embedded several ourselves; two are below), he was contacted by Apple. It's unclear why, however, as Apple told him they don't believe this is an issue, and that it's all "rumor hysteria."
Rumor hysteria, when he and many others can demonstrate the issue time and time again? Oh, by the way, they also asked him not to post any more videos; it's unclear if there was a legal threat involved.
Given that response, Tom followed up the conversation by emailing the Apple engineer who originally spoke to him, as well as Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Most know that Jobs will occassionally respond directly to customer emails sent to him, though usually in a terse manner. Note: BGR checked the email headers and the information looked legit.
After noting the Customer Service talking points we wrote about earlier, Tom told Jobs that he's "lost all respect for Apple," and that "all our co-workers with Androids are just mocking us right now."
Tom also added that Apple is "coming off arrogant and rude." He added that for the first time he is ashamed to be a Mac fan.
How did Steve Jobs respond to this? He told Tom to calm down, and that the issues were just rumors. This is, of course, despite the aforementioned video evidence Tom produced.
Tom then told Jobs his response was "arrogance." He also said that Apple should "do the right thing," whatever that amounts to, and noted that he had been at dinner with 3 other iPhone 4 users and none could make calls. Of course, Jobs then responded that they were in a low signal area.
While that could be true because it's AT&T, after all, and we all know how troubled their service has been, Tom goes on to say that would only be the case if everywhere was a low signal area. Once again, that is sort of the case, because Apple is dependent on AT&T's stretched network, but still ... not to this extent.
Anyway, Jobs sent two more emails. The first, Tom did not repond to. It was:
You may be working from bad data. Not your fault. Stay tuned. We are working on it.
Sent from my iPhone
Bad data? It is clear they are working on it, or should be. The question is, what will the fix be, and will it be applied to early adopters of the iPhone 4.
His second email had a measure of truth to it.
Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.
Although many iPhone 4 fans, and clearly there are millions, based on the number of upgrades that took place, as opposed to new purchases, would disagree with Jobs, it is true: it's just a phone. There are plenty of other phones out there, many of which are as good or better than the iPhone 4 (ouch, we see the tomatoes being thrown already).
That said, however, that doesn't mean that it shouldn't work as it should. Indeed, that's the point: it's a phone, and although it's always been the case that iPhones have been mocked as needing another cell phone as an accessory, it's always worked (more or less) as one. Now? Not such much.
As promised, below are two versions of the same video, the first with annotation, the second real-time, showing the issue.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Apple and AT&T in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland over the iPhone 4. The lawsuit is (obviously) focused on the iPhone 4's reception issues when held. The allegations in the complaint (which is embedded below), include:
General Negligence (APPLE and AT&T)
Defect in Design, Manufacture, and Assembly (APPLE)
Breach of Express Warranty (APPLE)
Breach of Implied Warranty for Merchantability (APPLE and AT&T)
Breach of Implied Warranty of Fitness for a Particular Purpose (APPLE and AT&T)
Deceptive Trade Practices (APPLE and AT&T)
Intentional Misrepresentation (APPLE and AT&T)
Negligent Misrepresentation (APPLE and AT&T)
Fraud by Concealment (APPLE and AT&T)
Many of these lawsuits have come and gone during the iPhone's life (from Gen 1 to now). This one might have legs, however, unless Apple can come up with a software fix. While still unclear, antenna experts pointed to the design as possibly problematic weeks before the iPhone 4's release. Additionally, testing, although admittedly not by those a court would deem experts, seems to point to a definite flaw as well.
Things have gotten so bad for Apple that competitors have begun mocking the iPhone 4, which sees its issues when the bare phone is held in particular ways, especially in the left hand. Others, with high-profile and competitive devices about to launch, even highlight the issue in ads.
This lawsuit was filed by Ward & Ward, PLLC and Charles A. Gilman, LLC. on behalf of Kevin McCaffrey, Linda Wrinn and a number of other iPhone 4 users. It is separate from the one that appears the offing. In that case, law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff (KCR) has begun soliciting iPhone 4 customers over their experiences with the iPhone 4's reception issues.
KCR is the same firm that filed a class action lawsuit in 2009 against Facebook and social gaming company Zynga over"special offer" ads in Zynga's popular Facebook games.
As we earlier wrote, Starbucks was going to eliminate charges for its in-store wi-fi service, and that day has dawned. Effective today, July 1st, wi-fi in Starbucks will be free.
McDonald's, which has been pushing its own premium coffee and making serious inroads due to the recessing (and pricing), still has the edge in free wi-fi service, however. Starbucks free wi-fi service covers all company-owned locations in the United States and Canada. McDonald's has gone global with free wi-fi.
On the other hand, the ambiance in Starbucks is far better. Before today you could connect at Starbucks for $3.99 for two consecutive hours of access. Customers with registered Starbucks cards could get two consecutive free hours of access a day.
While some see this as Starbucks catching up to the industry, Starbucks is going to go still further. As part of the effort, Starbucks is working with Yahoo! to provide the "Starbucks Digital Network." This will include in-store access past paygates to site normally charging for access, including, for example, the Wall Street Journal. That service will debut in the fall.
For now, enjoy the free wi-fi, and make sure to drink some coffee. Let us know if you have issues logging on; it would be surprising if there were no glitches.
Hot on the heels of Nokia's droll tutorial on how to hold a cell phone, comes this official Verizon Motorola Droid X New York Times ad. Check out the copy below the image.
It says (if you can't read the ad copy):
And most importantly, it comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like
Indeed it is quite clear what "hot device that can't be used without a case by left-handers" they are poking fun at.
Mobile ad network AdMob released its final Mobile Metrics report on Wednesday. The company said that it will stop doing the reports while it thinks about how best to structure it in the future, but one has to wonder if it's more about not being able to gather data in iOS 4.
AdMob's report uses data collected from smartphones running apps with AdMob embedded in them. As such, it's a good indicator, or at least, it has been, of market share. The May 2010 AdMob report confirms something that's been said before: iOS continues to rule, but Google's Android platform is continuing to gain.
Since reaching its peak in November, 2009, iOS market share has slowly, but steadily, declined. Meanwhile, Android has steadily gone up. Currently, iOS devices own 40 percent of the ad impressions served on the AdMob network, while Android is at 26 percent.
More interesting data is that in May 2010, smartphones generated 46 percent of the traffic in the AdMob network, which was up from 22 percent 2 years ago. Meanwhile, 24 percent of the May traffic was via wi-fi (a good idea for those dealing with AT&T's data tiers).
AdMob's report notes something folks have known for some time: devices on these new platforms (Android, iOS, webOS) are much higher users of mobile apps and the web. For example, Symbian continues to hold a 44 percent global market percent, but only 24 percent of mobile data use in AdMob's report. Meanwhile, as said above, Apple and Google combined own 2/3 of the mobile dataa use in AdMob's report, but together (15, and 10) only 25 percent of the handset market.
Additionally, Android market share is mostly centered in the U.S. However, the No. 2 country for Android is also the largest one population-wise: China, at 13 percent. In third is the U.K., at 4 percent.
You can see an AdMob slideshow on its findings, embedded below.
Those who have been waiting for the HTC Droid Incredible devices to be shipped have waited so long, some have changed their orders to the Motorola Droid X. Verizon is sending out letters apologizing for an extra seven-day delay for those who ordered on or before June 28, and besides an apology, folks are a getting a gift card, to boot.
The $25 gift card will ease (somewhat) the annoying extra wait, but these delays on Android phones have become commonplace. It seems as though if you wait too long, and don't order immediately, you might be stuck in a cycle of waiting, and waiting, and waiting.
Thank you for your recent order of the DROID Incredible by HTC. Due to overwhelming demand for this innovative device, we are currently experiencing inventory delays. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and are working to resolve this issue.
If your order shipping date was June 28 or prior, you may experience an additional delay of up to 7 business days. We will send an update with tracking information once your device has been shipped. If you have already received your device, please disregard this notice.
Your satisfaction is important to us, so we're also sending you a $25 Verizon Wireless gift card which may be redeemed online or at any Verizon Wireless retail store as a way of saying "thank you" for your patience in this matter. No additional action on your part is required – we will send the gift card to the address you provided with your order in the next two weeks.
If you have further questions regarding your order, please contact Verizon Wireless customer service by dialing *611 from your mobile or calling 800-922-0204.
Sony has announced a recall of 535,000 Vaio laptop computers following reports of issues with overheating. Sony Vaio VPCF11 and VPCCW2 series computers are included in the recall. According to the company, it's software, not battery issues, at fault.
Sony has noted 39 cases of overheating among the laptops. Reportedly, the fault lies in the system's internal temperature management system. A BIOS change has been made to address the issue.
Customers are encouraged to either update their BIOS themselves ASAP, or to return the systems to Sony so the update can be applied. The update can be found here.
Updating the BIOS on modern computers is quite easy. Still, many may prefer to have a professional apply the update. The Sony statement also adds "If you have any questions or need additional assistance with the firmware update installation, call Sony technical support at (866) 496-7669 for assistance."
Every time a high-profile or at least, popular app is ported from the iPhone to Android, it shows developers are taking Google's platform seriously. It certainly isn't a game-changer, but the IMDB app is now available on Android.
The app, now in the Android Market, has the following features:
IMDb is the world's largest collection of movie, TV and celebrity information.
-Find Showtimes -Watch trailers -Browse photos -Get TV listings -Track DVD/Blu-ray releases -Explore popular charts – award winners, IMDb top 250, etc. -Search over 1.5 million movies and TV shows
This news comes right after the Kindle for Android was released. It's more good news for the Android platform.
The short-lived social networking phone KIN was sort of smartphone-ish, but not smart enough apparently to keep itself alive. Microsoft has canceled the existing product's launch later this year in Europe on news that sales weren't as strong as expected, and is folding the Kin team into the core Windows Phone 7 team.
Microsoft's statement:
"We have made the decision to focus exclusively on Windows Phone 7 and we will not ship KIN in Europe this fall as planned. Additionally, we are integrating our KIN team with the Windows Phone 7 team, incorporating valuable ideas and technologies from KIN into future Windows Phone releases. We will continue to work with Verizon in the U.S. to sell current KIN phones."
It's unclear how long Verizon will continue to sell KIN phones. After all, it sure seems like the product has been disKINtinued.
Apple continues to say that all cell phones lose some signal when held in your hand. This, in fact is true. It's the severity of that loss on the iPhone 4 that seems extreme. Now we have some numbers to bring to the argument, with a review that clearly details the issue.
While all the iPhone 4 reports normally is "bars", as opposed raw signal strength (RSSI) in dBm, and the Field Test mode ha been removed in iOS4, Anandtech basically jailbroke the iPhone 4 so they could get a numeric readout. The results were interesting.
They compared an iPhone 4, an iPhone 3GS using iOS 4, and an HTC Nexus One. They tested under the following conditions:
Cupping Tightly
Holding Naturally
On an Open Palm
Holding Naturally Inside Case
All of the phones showed signal attenuation when held. However, the key is probably the difference between the iPhone 3GS when held normally and the iPhone 4 when held normally. The iPhone 4 exhibits signal attenuation of 19.8 db, vs. 1.9 on the 3GS. That is a huge difference.
Additionally, in terms of the iPhone 4's signal bar display, which is all most consumers have to use, a phone will register from -51dBm, which is standing right under a tower, to -113dBm, which is where a phone will disconnect. Nearly 40% of possible range, from -51dBm to -91dBM is reported as 5 bars. This possibly shows why folks aren't reporting a drop in signal strength; they are seeing attenuation, but the bars don't show it.
It also shows why bars can't be trusted in terms of signal strength.
Finally, Anandtech some sort of non conductive coating on the antennas. The alternative, they noted, would be "bumpers for all," but Apple heavily touts its design and "bare metal" is the way they want to go; any such "bumper-fest" would be admitting a mistake.
Take a look at the full review; it's very interesting.
The iPhone 4's antenna problems are seemingly obvious to many consumers, although Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently said "There are no reception issues. Stay tuned." Is it then, a coincidence that Apple posted 3 new positions for "antenna engineers" on its jobs site on June 23rd, the same day that the antenna issues started flooding in?
It could be. While enGadget noticed the three iPad/iPhone antenna engineer positions posted on June 23rd, they somehow omitted the one that showed up below it when we did a search on "antenna engineer" at Apple's jobs site, ourselves (see above). That opening was posted in January. Still, does that make the other postings a coincidence? You be the judge.
The iPhone 4's antenna issues seem to be exacerbated by its external antenna system. Particularly when held in the left hand, with skin bridging the gap between two antennas (shown), users have seen not just dropped signal strength, but data transfer stoppages and even dropped calls.
Apple's official statement has been that all phones exhibit this issue when held in the hand. That is true, in fact, and can be shown by testing, but there have never been complaints about dropped calls because of holding a device.
Antenna experts have weighed in on the issue, including one who warned two weeks before the iPhone 4's launch that the antenna system would be problematic. At this point, many believe that a fix would not be possible via software.
Meanwhile, Apple's leaked "talking points" for its CS representatives make it clear they are sticking by their guns, and no bumpers, which seem to eliminate the issue (as would any case) will be given away free.
Maybe if they'd filled that January opening for an antenna engineer none of this would be happening. Readers, chime in.
It's no iPad, and it's not aimed at consumers, but it is the first Android tablet for Cisco. The company announced the new Cisco Cius during its annual customer conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
The Cisco Cius will only weigh about 1.15 pounds, and has a smaller screen than an iPad, only 7 inches. The device is definitely aimed at the Enterprise. It will be loaded with s suite of Cisco software products, including Cisco Quad, Show and Share, WebEx, Presence and Cisco TelePresence; it also supports Unified Communications Manager.
The Cius has wi-fi and 3G capability, along with Bluetooth and Micro-USB support. The battery is detachable, though Cisco says the Cius will run for eight hours "under normal usage."
Customer trials begin in the third quarter, but the device won't ship until early 2011. That's probably poor timing in terms of grabbing attention, as based on Apple's annual cycles for product refreshes the iPad might be seeing an update then.
Still, while the iPad is more consumer-focused, the Cius is definitely aimed at the Enterprise. With integration with Cisco products, it has a real chance for corporate adoption.
Here are the specs of the Cisco Cius:
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, 3G/4G data and Bluetooth 3.0 help employees stay connected on and off-campus
HD video (720p) with Cisco TelePresence solution interoperability for lifelike video communication with the simplicity of a phone call
Virtual desktop client enables highly secure access to cloud-based business applications
Android operating system, with access Android marketplace applications
Collaboration applications including Cisco Quad, Cisco Show and Share, WebEx, Presence, and IM
7" diagonal, high-resolution color screen with contact-based touch targets
HD Soundstation supports Bluetooth and USB peripherals, 10/100/1000 wired connectivity and a handset option
Detachable and serviceable 8-hour battery for a full day of work
Highly secure remote connections with Cisco AnyConnect Security VPN Client
HD audio with wideband support (tablet, HD Soundstation)
About the only thing anyone talks about nowadays with regards to the iPhone 4 is not how great it is, but how it discriminates against lefties. Seriously, Apple is sticking by its guns, and it's interesting to read what they have told their AppleCare reps to use as "the message."
BGR has received a report from an insider on the talking points AppleCare reps are supposed to use. One thing for sure: no free bumpers are to be given to anyone.
Keep all of the positioning statements in the BN handy – your tone when delivering this information is important.
The iPhone 4's wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. Our testing shows that iPhone 4's overall antenna performance is better than iPhone 3GS.
Gripping almost any mobile phone in certain places will reduce its reception. This is true of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and many other phones we have tested. It is a fact of life in the wireless world.
If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 3GS, avoid covering the bottom-right side with your hand.
If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 4, avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.
The use of a case or Bumper that is made out of rubber or plastic may improve wireless performance by keeping your hand from directly covering these areas.
Do not perform warranty service. Use the positioning above for any customer questions or concerns.
Don't forget YOU STILL NEED to probe and troubleshoot. If a customer calls about their reception while the phone is sitting on a table (not being held) it is not the metal band.
ONLY escalate if the issue exists when the phone is not held AND you cannot resolve it.
We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers – DON'T promise a free bumper to customers.
Interesting talking points, and certainly, we see no taking of blame here. We also see no indication of a software fix. Hmmm.
It was only a matter of time, and while it's still in the preparatory stage, it seems a law firm is looping itself into the iPhone 4 reception issue fiasco. Sacramento, CA law firm Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff (KCR) has begun soliciting iPhone 4 customers over their experiences with the iPhone 4's famous left-handed signal degradation.
On their site, KCR says:
KCR is currently investigating potential problems with the release of iPhone 4.
If you recently purchased the new iPhone and have experienced poor reception quality, dropped calls and weak signals, we would like to hear from you.
Please call us toll free at (888) 285-3333, click "live chat" above to immediately speak with a KCR representative, or email us for more details.
While there is evidence that other phones exhibit signal degradation when held, the iPhone 4's external antenna systems appears to exacerbate the issue. Numerous videos and complaints have arisen, including folks noting not just data slowdown (or shutdown) when holding the device, but dropped calls.
Steve Jobs has said there (in various responses) a) there is no issue, b) hold the phone differently, c) buy a case. At this point, there's no resolution, but there's also no lack of criticism over the latest iPhone revision.
KCR was also in the tech news late last year for its class action lawsuit filed against Facebook and social gaming company Zynga over"special offer" ads in Zynga's popular Facebook games.
Hulu ended months of speculation on Tuesday, unveiling its Hulu Plus subscription service, priced at $9.99 per month. The bad news: despite the fee, you'll still be cursed with ads.
Although Hulu.com will still offer free content, Hulu Plus will be an "incremental and complementary to the existing Hulu service." You'll be able to watch entire seasons of currently running shows, not just a trailing series of episodes. There will also be libraries of episodes for older shows, and all this will come streamed completely in HD (720p).
Hulu Plus will also be viewable on an expanded set of hardware. Not only will you be able to watch via your computer, you will also be able to view on the iPad / iPhone / iPod touch (over Wi-Fi or 3G).
That's not all. It will support Internet-enabled Samsung TVs at launch, and some Internet-enabled Samsung BD players, too. Sony TVs and BD players will come in the fall of 2010, along with Vizio TVs and BD players. Meanwhile, the ubiquitous PS will see support "soon," while the Xbox 360 will get it in "early 2011."
Hulu Plus will launch in July. However, they aren't going to go whole hog with subscriptions, but are instead accepting email addresses for invites to the "Hulu Plus Preview" here. The company also said that if you follow Hulu on Twitter or "Like" Hulu on Facebook, they will hand out invites in "waves" to a randomly selected set from each of those groups from "time to time over the coming months."
It is unclear when they will remove the "invitation" requirement, but hopefully it won't be as long as for services like Google Voice. However, his is another example of one company (Hulu) pushing consumers to use more broadband, while some companies (Comcast, AT&T Wireless) want us to use less. We find that really annoying (as well as a conundrum).
What do you readers think? Do you like the idea of Hulu Plus? Or do you find the possibility of being double-dipped with ads and a subscription fee annoying?
This time it's official. The Android 2.2 (Froyo) release is finally here, at least for Nexus One users, after several false alarms. This time, we know it's official, via a Google blog post on Monday afternoon.
Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive the Android 2.2 (codenamed Froyo) over-the-air software update on their phones. This update provides some great new features including support for making your handset a portable hotspot and support for Adobe Flash within the browser. For a complete list of everything we've included in Android 2.2, please see the Android 2.2 Platform Highlights.
In order to access the update, you will receive a message on your phone's notification bar. Just download the update, wait for it to install, and you should be all set. This update will be rolled out gradually to phones - and most users will receive the notification by the end of the week. We hope you enjoy these new features.
Google had previously stated the Nexus One (or so-called Google phone) would be the first to get Froyo. Additionally, the Nexus One doesn't have the custom skins or layers of other devices, like TouchWiz or Sense, which make porting more difficult.
The new build is FRF85B. Some of the highlights include built-in wi-fi hotspot support, ability to move apps to the SD card, unlock PIN (finally), and a reported 400+ percent performance boost.
As we had said earlier, if Google wanted to take some of the shine off of iOS 4 and the iPhone 4, Froyo would have been released before those, or close to the same time. Oh, wait! Perhaps Google should also create a YouTube video on how to hold a Nexus One, assuming Froyo doesn't degrade antenna performance, at all.
For those wondering, the creamy, yogurty Froyo will come to other devices. We've been promised some devices (such as the Evo 4G, Droid X, Droid) will get the update. The only question is when.
We haven't seen it on any of our T-Mobile or AT&T devices yet, but it is definitely coming for all (at least, all not on custom ROMs; they may have to resort to manual methods).
We have predicted in the past that Verizon would get the iPhone in early 2011. We based this on just how "generous" AT&T was with iPhone 4 upgrades. It seems we may have been on the mark.
Bloomberg is reporting that two unnamed sources (what other kind is there?) are telling them that Verizon Wireless will start selling iPhones in January, ending AT&T's exclusive hold on the device.
This would be a major plus for Apple, as well as Verizon. It's no secret while Apple's partnership with AT&T has been profitable for both companies, AT&T's 3G network has strained under the weight of the iPhone. It's unclear if Verizon will have better luck with the sheer weight of the iPhone's data load, but many believe it will.
As Verizon has the largest number of subscribers in the U.S. (AT&T is second), it's also believed that a move to Verizon will not just improve reliability on the device, but give Apple a huge subscriber base to expand to.
Of course, we've heard this Verizon iPhone rumor over and over again. This time, with the suspicious generosity of AT&T, as well as the fact that most believed AT&T's iPhone exclusivity ended this year, anyway, it seems real. What do you readers think?
Yesterday, Sprint began rolling out an update to the HTC EVO 4G, with disastrous results for some. Although some competed the update successfully, some bricked their devices when they accidentally applied the update twice.
In these cases, the EVO 4G would actually notify users of the same OTA update after they'd already applied it and rebooted. Here's what Sprint said:
While the vast majority of consumers successfully downloaded and installed the most recent HTC EVO 4G software update, we have received a handful of reports from customers having some issues with the update. In light of this, HTC and Sprint have decided to temporarily halt distribution of this software release until we can investigate further. We expect to be able to resume software updates shortly.
Considering how hard it is to order an EVO 4G right now, those with bricked devices will have a hard time getting a replacement. Those users are probably fuming about now.
Update: the update is back now. No word on what happened or what will happen to those owners with bricked devices, but you can assume they'll be taken care of.
Google, citing censorship as well as the hacking of Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, early started doing an end run around the issue by automatically redirecting Chinese users to its Hong Kong servers, where they could get uncensored results.
That didn't go over too well with the Chinese government, and with Google's Internet Content Provider license in China up for renewal on Wednesday, Google's now switching tactics.
The new idea, which will be phased in, Google said, over the next few days, would be to add a link for on its landing page for users that redirects to the Hong Kong site.
One could say that Google made a hasty decision before, and realizes, with its license up for renewal, that it need to reverse direction, to stay in the country with the most potential users in the world. It's unclear that China will like this solution any better than the prior one.
If they don't renew Google's license, Google will basically be booted out of the country. Obviously more updates to come.
Since we have been told we are holding the iPhone 4 wrong, Nokia has taken the time to show us the correct way to hold a Nokia smartphone. You mileage may, of course, vary, particularly if you are left-handed and using an iPhone instead of a Nokia phone.
The tutorial shows end users four "elegant" ways to hold a nokia.
There's the Thumb and Finger (upper left (UL), above), the Cup (UR), the Balance (LL), and the Four Edge Grip (LR). Of course, as Nokia states in their tutorial (emphasis ours):
We've found any of the four grips mentioned above to be both comfortable and as you can see, offer no signal degradation whatsoever. This isn't a feature you'll only find on high-end Nokia devices either. It's something that's been a part of pretty much every Nokia device ever made (perhaps with the exception of that teardrop 3G one, which was a bit ridiculous).
The key function on any Nokia device is its ability to make phone calls. After all, that's why we know them universally as mobile phones (or smart phones, feature phones or mobile computers – though the same grip styles work for those, too). One of the main things we've found about the 1 billion plus Nokia devices that are in use today is that when making a phone call, people generally tend to hold their phone like a ... well, like a phone. Providing a wide range of methods and grips for people to hold their phones, without interfering with the antennae, has been an essential feature of every device Nokia has built.
Of course, feel free to ignore all of the above because realistically, you're free to hold your Nokia device any way you like. And you won't suffer any signal loss. Cool, huh?
Clearly a dig at you-know-what, it is true that even in his review of the iPhone 4, the WSJ's Walt Mossberg said those with lower signal strength in their areas might want to opt for a second phone to carry around with their iPhone. That was before the issue with the antenna was known, simply based on the AT&T network.
We just complained about how Amazon.com hadn't released Kindle for Android yet, earlier, and viola, it's been announced by Amazon.com and its now in the Android Market. Of course, we won't take any credit for it, but it's sure a coincidence.
Seems like pent-up demand was there; the first time we tried to download the app it failed. We managed to get it downloaded and installed to our Nexus One on the second try.
Here's the bulleted list of features:
Search and browse more than 620,000 books, including 108 of 111 New York Times Bestsellers, plus tens of thousands of the most popular classics for free directly from their Android device. Bestsellers such as "Backlash" by Aaron Allston, "Big Girl" by Danielle Steel, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot, and "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown, and hundreds of thousands of other popular books are $9.99 or less in the Kindle Store
Read the first chapter of books for free before they decide to buy
Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books storedon Amazon's servers for free
Synchronize last page read between their Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, PC, Mac, BlackBerry and Android-powered phone
Customize background color, font color, and font size to help ease eyestrain
Read in portrait or landscape mode, tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages
Adjust screen brightness from within the app to make reading easier
It's pretty much the same app as on other platforms, but downloading one of my archived books didn't work too well; it failed twice before we gave up and decided to try it when connected to wi-fi later. Admittedly, we can probably blame it on AT&T.
Amazon.com has added audio and video multimedia functionality to its iOS apps for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The changes, announced on Monday, allow embedding of audio and video clips into e-books.
In case you're wondering about the use cases for such clips, a good example in the Amazon.com press release was given using the Kindle edition of London by Rick Steves.
"In the new Kindle Edition with audio/video of Rick Steves' London, the embedded walking tours allow customers to listen to Rick as they explore the sites of London. Rick's narration adds depth to the reader's experience, while listeners can follow the routes more easily with the text."
More from the press release:
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced a new update to Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch, which allows readers to enjoy the benefits of embedded video and audio clips in Kindle books. The first books to take advantage of this new technology, including Rick Steves' London by Rick Steves and Together We Cannot Fail by Terry Golway, are available in the Kindle Store at http://www.amazon.com/kindleaudiovideo.
"We are excited to add this functionality to Kindle for iPad and Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch," said Dorothy Nicholls, director, Amazon Kindle. "Readers will already find some Kindle Editions with audio/video clips in the Kindle Store today--from Rose's Heavenly Cakes with video tips on preparing the perfect cake to Bird Songs with audio clips that relate the songs and calls to the birds' appearances. This is just the beginning--we look forward to seeing what authors and publishers create for Kindle customers using the new functionality of the Kindle apps."
Ironically, this enhanced behavior won't appear on Amazon's own e-book reader, the Kindle, and thus gives the iPad, it's biggest rival, a major leg up. Still, as with anything like this, the money is made in the "consumables," meaning in this case, the e-books.
Amazon.com still has a huge advantage in the number of e-books it carries vs. Apple's iBook store. That, however, won't be there forever.
Meanwhile, where's that promised Android Kindle app, Amazon.com?
Market research firm iSuppli has done its typical teardown of a new iDevice, and come up with figures for the iPhone 4. According to iSuppli, a 16GB iPhone 4 costs $187.51 to manufacture (parts only).
That number compares with figures for the 16GB iPhone 3GS of $179, and for the 16GB iPhone 3G of $174. The first generation iPhone (8GB) cost $227 in parts to make.
Those figures do not include manufacturing labor (which we already know is quite low), marketing, advertising, or development. The 16GB iPhone 4 costs $199 with contract, while the 32GB iPhone 4 costs $299. Those are heavily subsidized by AT&T, of course.
Additionally, according to Kevin Keller, who oversaw the teardown for iSuppli, the materials costs on the iPhone 3GS have since dropped to $134 since the 2009 report, as prices of certain components have dropped. An 8GB iPhone 3GS model is still sold for $99.
In terms of specific parts, the so-called highly hyped "retina display" is the iPhone 4's most expensive single component, at $28.50; it "may" have been made by LG Display, iSuppli said.
The new gyroscope chip was supplied by STMicroelectronics at an estimated cost of $2.60. STMicroelectronics also supplied the 65 cent accelerometer. Apple's A4 processor, which is manufactured by Samsung, reportedly carries a cost of $10.75.
Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s in its first three days, the company announced on Monday. To compare, in the first three days of iPhone 3G and 3GS sales, Apple sold 1 million units of each.
Meanwhile, way back in 2007, it took 72 days to sell 1 million original iPhones. Apple's press release said:
Apple today announced that it has sold over 1.7 million of its iPhone 4 through Saturday, June 26, just three days after its launch on June 24. The new iPhone 4 features FaceTime, which makes video calling as easy as one tap, and Apple's new Retina display, the highest resolution display ever built into a phone, resulting in stunning text, images and video.
"This is the most successful product launch in Apple's history," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply."
Meanwhile, Apple's fiscal fourth quarter started Sunday. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, in a client note, said he saw several "catalysts" which should prove very positive for Apple's bottom line.
An estimated 200,000 iPhone 4s were pre-ordered after Apple pushed back the delivery date (you will recall when the delivery date shifted to mid-July)
The launch of the white iPhone 4 in the second half of July
The launch in 83 additional countries by the end of September
It does make you wonder how many units Apple could have sold if the still absent white iPhone 4 was around doesn't it?
All four of the major U.S. wireless carriers have variants of the Samsung Galaxy S coming in the future, after this morning's post-midnight announcement. T-Mobile had already been running a countdown timer to midnight for more info on its Samsung Vibrant, but the timing Sprint and Verizon's announcements was a surprise (though they already rumored to carry the Galaxy S).
T-Mobile's Samsung Vibrant was already spec'ed out by the carrier earlier. These Galaxy S variants will all have mostly the same specs, such as a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird CPU, a 5-megapixel camera with HD video recording (720p), a 4" Super AMOLED display, 802.11n, and Android 2.1 and Swype built-in. The Vibrant will hit retail on July 21st, for $199 with a two-year contract (no rebate mentioned), and Radio Shack will begin taking pre-orders on July 1st.
Meanwhile, Verizon's version will be called the Verizon Fascinate. The hardware and software specs are the same. What isn't mentioned by Verizon or Samsung is pricing or availability date. Odds are it will be the same $199 as T-Mobile's (with plan), however, with or without a rebate.
We mentioned all four major wireless carriers, but also in the mix besides the two above, AT&T (with its earlier announced Captivate) and Sprint (more on that later) is U.S. Cellular. Its press release with Samsung was pretty generic, and didn't mention any specific model name, so they may just go with Samsung Galaxy S and stick with a pretty stock software load. No pricing or availability was listed, but $199 is a good bet.
The Sprint variant is perhaps the most interesting. The Sprint Epic 4G (shown) joins the EVO 4G as the second 4G phone on Sprint's network. Unlike the above Galaxy S variants, this one has a slide-out keyboard, and a front-facing camera, to boot. Images of this phone have been leaked onto the web before, and it was rumored to be a Samsung Galaxy S Pro. Once again, no pricing or availability has been mentioned, but you can bet on the same $10 surcharge for 4G service (even if it's not in your area) and considering the hardware differences, it might have a different price, as well.
Samsung is planning an event Tuesday night in New York City, with the actual event starting at 6:30 PM. Here's hoping they will detail availability dates and pricing then for those missing that information above.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted earlier that "Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone," defending the right of Apple to keep such apps off the iPhone. He might want to enhance the FaceTime app to check for boobs while running, based on this Craiglist ad for iPhone 4 video sex operators.
Jobs famous comment about porn on Android came was he explained why the app submitted by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore had been rejected from the App Store. Jobs said via email,
"Fiore's app will be in the store shortly. That was a mistake. However, we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and (sic) Android phone."
Naturally, while making this statement Jobs completely ignored the fact that there's plenty of porn that can be viewed through Safari.
Meanwhile, folks who want video sex chat can buy an iPhone 4. After all, most Android phones don't yet have a front-facing camera, and as noted by Gizmodo, an enterprising firm has placed a Craigslist ad which offers a free iPhone 4 to video sex chat applicants in the New York City / Long Island area. Of course, telecommuting is just fine. What's interesting is that the firm, which wants to begin operations by Sept. 1st, says it is a non-profit organization (?).
There could be an issue for the firm, unless Apple fixes the reception issues that occur when the iPhone 4 is held in the left hand. While only 10 percent of the population are lefties, that means 90 percent are righties, and might (ahem) hold the iPhone 4 in the left hand to put the right to better use.
Ah, and and now you see why you iPad buyers should have waited for the iPad 2, with the front-facing camera? Of course, it's possible that Apple will simply boot FaceTime off the iPhone 4, since it shouldn't be able to make it into the App Store, should it?
Here's the text from the ad:
iPhone 4 FaceTime Video Sex Line Chat - free iPhone 4 (NYC/LI)
Date: 2010-06-27, 12:06PM EDT Reply to: job-dqsyj-1813619670@craigslist.org
Starting an online interactive pornography firm where woman will use the iphone 4 to video chat with potential customers on a pay as you go basis.
Hours are flexible, pay will increase as the business builds. Woman will receive a free iphone 4 to use as personal time when not working. Woman will talk to potential clients and chat with them and perform various acts as desired by clients. All information will be confidential.
Payment will be based on percentage of sales volume and performance. Potential launch date of the company is 9/1/2010 or based on feedback received.
Woman will receive, as before mentioned, a free cell phone and a very competitive salary.
Please send information and pictures - we would like to launch sooner than 9/1/2010.
Location: NYC/LI Telecommuting is ok. This is a part-time job. This is a contract job. This is at a non-profit organization. This is an internship job OK for recruiters to contact this job poster. Phone calls about this job are ok. Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
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