Fast Company: “Meanwhile, the WSJ is also reporting Apple’s planning a revamp of MobileMe–its cloud-based ecosystem behind the iPhone and iPad–that will make it free, and more powerful. By pulling off this trick, the WSJ suggests the iDevices won’t need so much on-board memory, as they’ll simply be able to save, share and view content from the cloud (over 3G or Wi-Fi).”
If Apple gets this right I know a lot of people that will be very happy.
New York Times: “Well, not all the states. The people of North and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming — as if they needed a reminder that they live off the beaten path — had to watch the rest of the nation fawn over their must-have gadgets.”
I had no idea there were entire states not covered by AT&T.
CNN: “While the new iPhone will only work on Verizon’s network, the Qualcomm chip Apple is using in these new models is capable of connecting to Verizon’s network, as well as to carriers using the GSM standard, which is what AT&T and T-Mobile USA have.”
Yesterday I was goofing around and tweeted the iPhone V was going to be available on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile. Could it be?
The Daily Dish: “I guess, lastly, I’m not a geek. I use this technology and marvel at it without having the slightest clue how it really works. And since switching to Apple for everything a few years ago, the only problem I have had with the technology is AT&T and when I dropped my iPod in Cape Cod Bay and when I left my MacBook in a cab.”
Take that however you want.
Pocket Lint: “Well, according to our jacket wearing gent, Apple is having trouble getting its two suppliers in the Far East to match the white used in the manufacturing of the parts. The white home button colour doesn’t match the white front face plate colour, it turns out.”
TechCrunch: “In theory, I’m right there with you. The thought of a truly open mobile operating system is very appealing. The problem is that in practice, that’s just simply not the reality of the situation. Maybe if Google had their way, the system would be truly open. But they don’t. Sadly, they have to deal with a very big roadblock: the carriers.”
Leave it to the carriers to ruin a good thing. As others have said, this could be one big reason Verizon doesn’t have the iPhone.
Marco Arment:“Fans of the former types of smartphones and much of the tech press declared this smartphone useless or not capable enough because of its lack of a keyboard, its non-removable battery, its lack of expansion slots or ports, and other hardware features in which Apple chose differently from what most other manufacturers were doing.”
I was just talking to a co-worker about this the other day. Apple managed to wake up the smartphone market. Now we have such great choices; iPhone, Android, and Palm.
TechCrunch: “When AT&T’s monopoly on the iPhone ends in the U.S., it is not going to be pretty. With increasing evidence that Verizon is preparing to offer the iPhone 4 early next year, many people are waiting before buying one or upgrading. Many of those are existing AT&T customers who want the same phone on a better network. According to a new survey by market research firm Morpace, 34 percent of AT&T iPhone owners are waiting for the iPhone to be available on another carrier before upgrading, and a full 47 percent of current AT&T iPhone owners say they would consider switching to Verizon. So almost half of AT&T customers surveyed are not completely satisfied with AT&T’s network.”
If Verizon gets an iPhone, the jury is still out, this could be a really good thing for iPhone customers currently on AT&T. It may mean those that do not bail will have a much better network, especially if a whole bunch of them jump ship for Verizon. You know how polls are, you have to take them with a grain of salt, but this one does make for great “iPhone on Verizon” fodder.
You’d also need to take a look at the number of people that just upgraded to the iPhone 4. I’m fairly certain AT&T’s new, higher priced, penalty for canceling your contract will keep a lot of folks on their network for the next two years.
It’ll also be very interesting to see if the iPhone can make a dent in the Android juggernaut at Verizon. I’m not so confident it will. Android based phones are pretty darned nice and they come in all different shapes and sizes now, one to suit every need. Drop the iPhone in the mix and you may see some very aggressive pricing of Android phones on Verizon. Stir in an average person that wants a smart phone and you may see a lot more Android’s on the street. For some the iPhone has lost its’ luster, especially since you can get an Android phone that comes fairly close. Who knows, with the mystique surrounding the iPhone and Verizon customers clamoring for the device it may be a day one hit. Remember the “I don’t care” video, yeah, that phenomenon.
We’ll all have to wait and see.
Just make sure you get the one with the Bigger GB’s and the WiFi.
9to5Mac: “After being rejected, taptaptap stealthily revealed that the rejected function can be enabled via a simple Mobile Safari URL. Many thought the app wouldn’t last long after this was revealed and tonight, it’s gone.”
This is a real shame. The VolumeSnap feature actually makes the camera usable. It is very apparent to me Steve Jobs has never taken a picture with his iPhone, he probably has an assistant doing it, because he couldn’t possibly be happy with the UX. I believe it makes the process error prone and touch isn’t the best UI for a camera. Pressing a button on the upper right of a camera is. This is one case where pushing the envelope doesn’t really work, it puts the photographer in an awkward position.
But, we do have to play by the store rules if we want to ship product, and as a developer I still believe in the App Store. It our simple app on the same footing as the big boys and provides an instant distribution channel.
That said I still believe Camera+ is a MUCH better camera than the default camera, and VolumeSnap is a much needed feature.
Let’s hope Apple will listen to tap tap tap’s request for a new “feature.” From their rejection blog post.
“Title: Provide a way to allow hardware volume controls to be used for other purposes
Summary: We’d like to be able to use the hardware volume controls to be used for things besides controlling volume. In particular, for our app, Camera+, we’d like to allow the buttons to be used to control the camera shutter for taking photos. We’ve gotten many, many feature requests for this and would like Apple to reconsider its policy of not allowing the hardware controls to be repurposed and provide developers with an official, supported mechanism to do so.Apple Bug Reporter ID # 8288022”
tap tap tap blog: “Well, I’m really happy to say that the second month far exceeded our expectations and actually earned a bit more than the first month, coming in at a total of just over $254,000…”
Like I said in an earlier tweet linking to this post, I wish I had that problem.
Oh, I almost forgot, to turn on VolumeSnap, which was rejected by Apple yesterday, all you need to is type “camplus://enablevolumesnap†in Safari’s address bar on your iPhone, and KERPOW, it’s enabled!