Archive for ‘iPhone’
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I have the iPhone but had to Jailbreak because I am not nor will I go to AT&T. The exclusivity of AT&T or any carrier for that matter is just a bad idea. Apple sold around 14 Million iPhones already with this exclusivity, but think about how many they would sell if they would open up to all the carriers.
According to CNET this may all changed before the end of the year.
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Well, it’s almost certainly not a signal that Apple is opening the door to emulators of all sorts on the iPhone, but the newly (and finally) approved Commodore 64 emulator is still a fairly notable first for the platform — representing not only the first officially-available emulator, but perhaps the first app that actually runs code (even if it is a couple of decades old). In this case, that first bit apparently wasn’t too big a point of contention for Apple, considering that the app had all the necessary licensing rights lined up, but the second issue was, and ran right up against a clause in the iPhone 2.0 SDK that prevented apps from containing their own executable runtimes. As it happens, the key to bridging that divide around that was none other than iPhone 3.0, which contains a new feature for in-app purchases that the C64 emulator will take advantage of to let folks purchase additional games, rather than load arbitrary game code downloads. Interestingly, while this newly-approved version of the emulator also no longer exposes a BASIC interpreter, Manomio has added a note to the app that it “should be resolved in a future update,” although it’s not quite clear if that’s just wishful thinking or not. In the meantime, you can grab the app right now with five bundled games for $4.99.
Found on Engadget…
AT&T is throwing iPhone users a bone by offering MMS as of September 25, but is that enough to quiet a growing chorus of angry customers upset by what they see as shoddy service? Even though many people are pouring on the hate for AT&T, the still love the iPhone, according to reports. So if the cellular network is the problem, here’s a suggestion for Apple that’s guaranteed to keep at least some U.S. customers happy: Cancel iPhone exclusivity with AT&T.
Find Here…
This suggestion is nothing new, but the need for multiple iPhone carriers in the U.S. is taking on greater urgency as frustration with AT&T grows. The same day that AT&T announced MMS availability, a story appeared in The New York Times , which was basically one big complaint-fest from AT&T iPhone customers. Dropped calls, spotty service, and slow data connections made up the majority of the complaints in the Times story, and comments from iPhone customers on blogs and other sites around the Web echoed the Times report. Discussing the iPhone situation with the Times, AT&T’s chief technology officer, John Donovan said, “It’s been a challenging year for us.” Challenging? More like a “P.R. nightmare” as one analyst told the Times.
With a second — or even third — carrier, iPhone customers would be able to choose their own network, and the current load on AT&T’s infrastructure would be reduced. This could improve service for iPhone customers who stick with AT&T, as well as those who migrate to other networks. Multiple carriers would not be an ideal situation for AT&T, of course, since the company could lose a big chunk of revenue if there was a mass exodus of iPhone customers to other carriers. But with a reportedly questionable service record and a little over two years of iPhone exclusivity, perhaps AT&T has had long enough to prove its worthiness as the only iPhone carrier in the U.S?
The problems with AT&T and the iPhone were apparent earlier this year during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. There were howls of derision coming from the WWDC audience when it was revealed that many international carriers would support two new features in iPhone OS 3.0 — MMS and tethering — when the new operating system launched, but AT&T would not.
MMS will finally make an appearance later this month on AT&T, but the carrier is reportedly delaying support for the iPhone’s tethering feature even though other AT&T handsets have this capability already.
An Open Marriage Would Be Profitable…for Apple
Besides customer choice and potential service improvements, another incentive for Apple to go with multiple U.S. networks can be found in a recent research note from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, according to a Barron’s report. Munster says the iPhone enjoys a much higher market share in countries where the iPhone is available on multiple cellular networks. In other words, more carriers equal more iPhone owners. Since Apple knows exactly how many iPhones the company has sold throughout the world, Munster’s conclusion likely doesn’t come as a shock to Cupertino. But if that’s the case, my only question is, “What’s the holdup, Apple?”
AT&T has spent years raking in huge customer fees from the iPhone, and according to a wide variety of reports, U.S. iPhone owners aren’t happy with the service they get in return. Apple needs to open the field up for the iPhone before angry customers march on — or send MMSes to — Washington asking for a government-style intervention to bring about iPhone carrier plurality for all.
In what could very well be another nail in the coffin for your local video rental store, Netflix is continuing to search for new and faster ways of delivering the films and entertainment that we love.
In a recent interview with Reuters, as chronicled on CNET, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says that he hopes to introduce video-streaming service to the iPhone. Although we’ve heard this claim before, it’s a considerably more serious tone from the Netflix chief, as the company seems poised to not only roll out new plans to bring its service to the iPhone, but also to Sony’s PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii.
But, as Hastings points out, there is no immediate timetable for this development. And for this very reason, it’s difficult for some (including myself) to get overly excited about the news.
For the sake of full disclosure, I will admit to being a Netflix subscriber. Moreover, I am a Netflix fanatic. So having this carrot dangled in font of me with no clear time frame as to when I can actually sink my teeth into it makes it impossible to give any substantial consideration to this “prospect” without growing incredibly restless in anticipation.
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Hastings told Reuters that his hope is that Netflix’s streaming service will eventually “be on all the game consoles, all the Blu-ray players, (and) all the Internet TVs.” But as Hastings pointed out, his company has signed a deal with Microsoft to deliver Netflix streaming exclusively to the Xbox 360 in the video game space.
Netflix getting all cozy with Microsoft is yet another reason to doubt that we’ll see Netflix streamed to the iPhone in any modest period of time. So no matter what rumblings you may have heard about an exciting new Netflix app coming soon to the iPhone, unfortunately, that just isn’t the case for now.
Quote:
Despite rumors indicating that a Netflix app is already on its way to the App Store, Hastings would not give a timetable: “(With) movie watching, we are not focused on mobile yet, but (instead) on the TV, on Blu-ray, and on the video game consoles. We will get to mobile eventually, including the iPhone.” While Netflix is likely to offer such a service on the iPhone and iPod Touch “over time,” he said there is little chance of Netflix video streaming becoming available in the App Store “in the short term.”
Although Hastings says he doesn’t believe that the recent and forthcoming wave of video store closures at Blockbuster will help his company, I can’t really see it any other way. To me, Hastings sounds like a corporate chief who is yet to wholly trust the mobile realm for entertainment. In a world where Dan Brown’s new book “The Lost Symbol” is actually selling better on the Kindle than in hardcover on Amazon.com, anyone who fails to jump as quickly as possible on the mobile bandwagon will soon find themselves in the competition’s dust.
Full Story Found Here…
Over at Salon Dot Com there is a great article regarding spectrum to be allocated to the iPhone for data use. They would have to give it up to AT&T according to the FCC.
“The FCC reports that on AT&T’s network, wireless data consumption has risen 5000 percent in the last three years, largely because of the iPhone.”
