Tap Tap Tap Blog: “Unfortunately, Apple decided to reject it. This doesn’t come as a complete surprise since it wasn’t our first time being rejected for that very feature. Their exact reason for the rejection is the following:”
Darn. I’ve been trying to convince my wife she needs this application. I thought I could sale her on the update because using the volume keys to snap a picture makes taking a picture more like using a camera. It’s a nice feature.
Mashable/Apple: “Evidence continues to mount to support expectations that Apple’s iPhone 4 will finally launch on Verizon this coming January. The latest: Sources close to Apple’s hardware suppliers say that Apple has ordered millions of CDMA chipsets from Qualcomm. CDMA is the wireless technology used by Verizon.”
I guess we’ll find out some time in 2011, but the article says Apple should receive CDMA chipsets in December in time for a January 2011 ship date. That doesn’t jibe. I can’t see them shipping mass quantities of iPhones in January if they receive chips in December. That’s not enough lead time in my humble opinion. But, hey, maybe their manufacturing is super efficient and ready to roll out large quantities of phones? Also, why CDMA? That seems like the wrong technology? I could buy an LTE based phone, or a CDMA/LTE phone, but a straight CDMA phone seems off.
Mashable: “When did Steve Jobs first know that the iPhone 4 might have issues with its now infamous antenna design? According to a report out this morning, in the “early design phase†– an accusation that’s likely to add to the growing criticism currently surrounding the device.”
I’m a fanboi, I admit it, but, from everything I’ve ever heard about Steve Jobs it would be hard to imagine he’d allow something like this slip by him, if he knew about it. He’s involved down to the pixel on a lot of decisions.
I’m not sure he knew.
Oh, and if you want to get rid of your iPhone 4, I’ll take it off your hands. Send me a note: rob.fahrni@gmail.com and I’ll give you a couple of bucks for your “horrible” piece of hardware, and you can go purchase a KIN.
TapTapTap Blog: “How do you launch an iPhone app that’s not a game and have it succeed? It’s definitely not easy, given the current atmosphere of the App Store. But we recently did with our app, Camera+, and it’s gone on to be our most successful launch to date, earning over a quarter million dollars in its first month.“
Hats off! Emphasis above is mine. WOW, that’s quite a month.
Dead Zones [hat tip Chris Ledoux]: “Contrary to what many Apple “Fanboys” want you to believe, Verizon will not be getting the iPhone any time soon. After speaking with various anonymous wireless industry experts over the last few weeks we have compiled our top 10 reasons why the rumor is false:”
Go read the bullet list, it’s quite good, and a number of the reasons make complete sense, others not so much, but overall it’s good. Especially the bullet point about the network, which is probably the single biggest reason Apple wouldn’t venture into a deal with Verizon.
What about the network? Well the short of it is Verizon is based on CDMA while AT&T is GSM based. If you’re a Verizon customer and you travel outside the US, your phone essentially becomes a big brick in your pocket, and you can’t use data and voice at the same time on CDMA. That’s it in a nutshell.
Once Verizon rolls out their new LTE based network it’s a whole new ball game.
Business Week: “Verizon Wireless, based in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, will begin offering the iPhone on its network in January, ending the exclusivity AT&T has held since the device’s introduction in 2007, two people familiar with the plans said this week.”
I’ll be interested in two things: 1) How many folks will convert from AT&T to Verizon on day one, 2) How well will Verizon’s network hold up under the new strain?
Ansca Mobile Blog: “In the past few days, thousands of developers have been dissecting the application bundles of top-selling App Store games. What they found was that many top-selling apps embed Lua, such as the top-5 selling app Diner Dash (which has an entire folder of uncompiled Lua script files, i.e. the raw source, inside the application bundle) and the international #1 selling app Angry Birds (which also contains multiple .lua files) just to name a few. Even Tapulous’ #1-selling family of Tap Tap Revenge apps — perhaps the most well-known apps in the history of the iPhone App Store and featured onstage by Steve Jobs himself at the OS 4.0 launch — embed Lua.”
If you’re a developer looking for a nice cross platform scripting language, Lua may do the trick.
Even Adobe’s heaving hitting Lightroom is partially Lua, that’s saying something.
If you’re a Mac, or iPhone, or iPad developer, check out Gus Mueller’s wrapper around Lua, LuaCore.
Apple: “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.”
I chose to share this particular paragraph from the letter because it gets to the point. If you don’t like your iPhone 4 stop your griping and just return it. I’m sure someone, like myself, would love to purchase your bright, shiny, refurbished iPhone for a discounted price. Your loss is my gain.
While this has been a PR nightmare for Apple, they’ll be fine. It’s not like people are going to stop buying iPhones. Who complains the most? People with iPhones. Do they stop buying them? NOPE.
It’s fun to watch the Android crowd talk about how stupid the iPhone crowd is, it really is. But, the iPhone is still the better consumer device. It’s the one everyone can use, including my grandmother. Android is now firmly in second place, and gaining ground, but it has a bit of a battle ahead of it. The competition between Apple and Android OS are great for us, the consumer, it gives us alternatives.
SFGate: “June 29 (Bloomberg) — Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.’s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.”
Again, more good stuff for the smart phone market. There are a bazillion screaming Verizon customers clamoring for iPhones. It’ll be a good start to 2011 for Apple, and Verizon, if the rumor is true.
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to goof around with my cousin’s Droid Incredible by HTC. Oh my! It’s a beautiful phone, I love the sense UI. The iPhone definitely has big competition and since you can get this phone on Verizon it makes purchasing it quite easy for those looking for something close enough to an iPhone.
I’m very tempted by it and I have an iPhone app for heavens sake!
Bravo HTC for upping the ante. This is good for the smart phone market, no matter how you slice it.