Published: 04:00 PM EST
Resellers both near and afar are reporting signs that Apple's current line of iPod digital music players are on their way out the door, just as one prominent Wall Street analyst restates his claim that a $199 iPod touch is likely to be among the new models that will fill the void.
Stateside, people familiar with the inventory management systems of mass merchandizer Target say all current iPod models have recently seen their status shift from "Active" to "Discontinued" when scanned with handheld PDA scanners used by employees.
Those handhelds, however, aren't capable of displaying set dates for new
planogram refreshes, as that information is said to be available only through the retailer's web-based intranet systems.
Separately, big-box retailer Argos in the UK is preparing to clear out its remaining iPod inventory in anticipation of new models in the coming weeks. A person familiar with the plans says the company recently took receipt of new point-of-sale displays promoting "price cuts" that should hit the retail floor during the last week of August or first week of September.
The displays include a "giant wall graphic" which is the "biggest poster" displayed by the retailer, that person said.
These initial signs of inventory ramp down come amid calls from some of the more prominent Wall Street analysts regarding the steps that will be necessary for Apple to maintain its current momentum in the digital media player business.
In a note to clients last week, Lehman Brothers analyst Ben Reitzes noted that availability of the 16GB iPod touch at speciality electronics retailer Best Buy has trailed all other members of the iPod family for several weeks.
"We continue to believe Apple will need to reposition the iPod touch line in conjunction with its anticipated new product announcement in early to mid-September now that the iPhone acquisition price is lower," he said.
On Tuesday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster issued his own note to clients where he voiced a similar view to that of Reitzes, adding that he expects iPod refreshes across the board with a sub-$200 iPod touch to boot.
"Specifically, we believe Apple will increase the capacity of the iPod shuffles as well as the iPod nanos (but maintain current price points); redesigned form factors for the shuffles and nanos are unlikely," the analyst wrote. "We believe the iPod touch may be redesigned and may enter the $199 price point, in line with the iPhone."
Published: 05:05 PM EST Apple confirmed that the iPhone 2.0.2 update does indeed include changes to address issues related to 3G reception. USAToday cited company spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock as saying, "The software update improves communication with 3G networks." The newspaper referenced reports of complaints from iPhone users and cited speculation about possible hardware issues with Infineon chips used in the iPhone, a possibility Infineon itself earlier discounted as unlikely, noting that other phone makers use the same components without any issues. The report also cited Jupitermedia's vice president for mobile strategy Michael Gartenberg, who said the reports of iPhone 3G problems may be overblown. "We've seen these isolated reports about people having connectivity issues with 3G and Edge, and frankly I have those issues on a variety of phones. Cellphone coverage is tricky." The 2.0.2 update apparently addresses complex issues that control how quickly the iPhone 3G will drop a weak 3G signal in order to use a stronger EDGE signal when it is available. In the US, much of AT&T's cellular network is built out using cell towers optimized to deliver "2.75 G" GSM/EDGE service. Sources familiar with the matter say 3G networks require closer tower spacing to provide the same level of coverage with the more modern 3G UMTS. There is nothing Apple can do in software to fill in spotty coverage in AT&T's 3G network, but software updates can adjust how the phone hardware works to allow it find and maintain a link with a less than optimal 3G signal. Independent tests have suggested that at least some versions of the iPhone 3G are too quick to drop a marginal 3G signal that other UMTS phones can use without problems. A CNet report on iPhone 3G issues cited Andrew Seybold, an independent industry analyst, as saying, "My belief is that because AT&T's network is not built out to every cell site, people are getting frustrated because they're finding places where the 3G signal isn't available or is weak." The dizzying array of complexity exposed in the iPhone's Field Test mode (below), entered by dialing *3001#12345#* and exited by hitting the home key, illustrates that signal reception is not a simple matter.  Change you can retrieve 3G in For some users, adjustments in how the iPhone 3G's low level radios are configured may provide a usable improvement in 3G reception, while for users in other areas with more signal problems, it may result in futile attempts to cling to a terrible 3G signal that reduces the overall call quality and may be more likely to result in a dropped call. In Japan and parts of Europe, EDGE network upgrades were skipped entirely and providers simply jumped from 2G to full 3G networks. This may impact how much improvement iPhone 3G users see there, as the challenges of finding a strong 3G signal and the firmware's decisions on when to drop down to a 2G signal will simply be different. In the US, AT&T users' experiences with the update may also fluctuate due to the quality and coverage of the 3G network in their area. Steve Jobs separately emailed one user with a tersely worded intent to fix unrelated problems in the iPhone's higher level software that concern instability and crashing in third party apps, writing, "This is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September ." |
Published: 06:50 PM EST A lawsuit filed on Tuesday by an Alabama woman alleges that Apple has touted doubled Internet speeds with iPhone 3G when a rash of connection problems have made those speeds seemingly impossible to reach. In the 10-page complaint, Jessica Smith of Birmingham asserts that Apple's marketing campaign is a breach of express warranty as it promises Internet access "twice as fast" as with the original where the practical experience has fallen well short of the mark. Always referring to the device as the "Defective iPhone 3G," Smith and her legal team assert that e-mail, text, and most other downloads were considerably slower than what Apple promised. This in no small part stemmed from the reliability of the connection: the device would connect to 3G less than a quarter of the time to 3G even in areas AT however, Apple has confirmed that its recent iPhone 2.0.2 update addresses some of the problems. |
Published: 09:00 AM EST MobileMe isn't just for iPhone users. It also expands upon the simple web apps delivered as part of .Mac using a cohesive Mac OS X inspired interface that behaves more like a desktop app than a web page, providing easy access to data from anywhere you have Internet access. Here's a look at how web apps have developed, how Apple's new online apps work, and the future potential of MobileMe's tightly integrated mobile, web, and desktop apps. Inside MobileMe series segments Inside MobileMe: Secrets of the Cloud and Mobile Push (Friday) Inside MobileMe: Mac and PC cloud sync and mobile push (Saturday) Inside MobileMe: Apple's Push vs Exchange, BlackBerry, Google (Monday) Inside MobileMe: iPhone Mail (Tuesday) Inside MobileMe: iPhone's Exchange alternative for contacts and calendar�(Wednesday) Inside MobileMe: Web 3 and Web Client-Server Apps (Today) Before Web Apps: The Document Driven Web In the era before web apps, the web was a relatively simple system of hyperlinked documents written in HTML. Click a link on a page and your browser would load a new page based on the referenced URL address. The web was brilliantly simple. However, that simplicity resulted in a number of problems if you wanted to do more than just look at a series of hyper-connected documents. In order to exchange sophisticated transactions with a simple 'fill in the blanks on a form page and submit it,' you'd end up having to reload virtual pages repeatedly. This is particularly problematic for something like web mail, where the user waits for updates while interactively sending new messages. Just over a decade ago, the concept of web email was entirely new. Unlike an actual desktop email application, handling email over the web meant loading a new web page, entering your email content, and reloading the page every time you wanted to see updates.  Web 2.0: the arrival of Ajax In the mid 90s, Microsoft helped to pioneer technologies to improve upon the tedious loading of a series of web pages to do transactional web applications. The company was particularly interested in enhancing web-based email, as it was working to develop both its new mail server (Exchange) and its web browser (Internet Explorer) as critical elements of its overall Internet strategy. The company first developed IFrames for allowing one page to be embedded in another (like picture-in-picture on TV), so the IFrame region could be independently refreshed and redrawn without reloading the entire page. It later developed XMLHttpRequest, a method for using a web browser scripting language (often JavaScript) to package up XML data to send to the remote web server. The server then responds with new data which the script can use to interactively update part of the page, rather than reloading and redrawing an entire new page from the server. Because the user does not have to wait for the server to respond before continuing to use the web page, this type of interactivity is referred to as Asynchronous JavaScript with XML, or AJAX. Microsoft introduced this concept to support richer functionality in Outlook Web Access, a web app it first bundled with Exchange Server 2000. It delivered Ajax functionally via an ActiveX control in IE 5; since then, the mechanism has been copied by Mozilla, Safari, Opera, and most other web browsers, making it a de facto standard for adding richer desktop-like behavior to web apps.  Web 3: HTML5 and Web Client-Server While Ajax's frequent server updates provide richer interactivity than static web pages, they are rarely capable of being used offline and have other limitations that marginalize them in the minds of many users, who commonly view web email as being a distant runner-up to using a desktop email client. To work around these limitations, Microsoft's own OWA makes heavy use of proprietary extensions to Internet Explorer; few of these have been cloned in Firefox or Safari, nor can they really be because they are not documented standards. That leaves many OWA features tied exclusively to the IE browser; in other browsers it presents a simpler interface. To foster real interoperability among the next generation of rich web applications, Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Opera have been working on a new HTML5 standard that codifies how features should work so that all browsers can operate the same, and so web developers can make use of more sophisticated interactions on the web, knowing how their apps will behave across all browsers. There are already web standards in place to define presentation, such as CSS; HTML5 focuses more on behavior, targeting features such as drag and drop, offline editing, local storage, and media playback. Just as Microsoft was motivated to rapidly develop Ajax in the 90s in order to enhance its email presentation on the web, Apple is leading the development of HTML5 to put its rich media client apps on the web, starting with the iLife-connected Web Gallery in .Mac, and broadening to the suite of apps in MobileMe, which will continue to develop in the coming months.  JSON Lives Apple is building its MobileMe "Web Client-Server" apps using the SproutCore JavaScript application framework, which was designed around the concept of making web apps that are more than just a thin layer of Ajax lubricating interactivity on the web. A Web Client-Server app is loaded by the browser's JavaScript interpreter and runs as a self-contained application, making Ajax-like calls to the server while offering an even richer and deeper level of local user interaction, delivering a more immediate response to the user and offering the potential for client-side storage and offline operation. Web Client-Server apps are entirely HTML pages driven by JavaScript code and presented via CSS. Rather than using the relatively heavyweight XML, they typically use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a lighter, simpler object representation that not only carries a data payload like XML, but is also executable by the JavaScript interpreter. This makes JSON faster in both data exchange with the server and in processing on the client side compared to XML. With that power comes accountability. Being able to inject executable code into a system from malicious sources is a primary security problem. For that reason, web apps that transmit data using JSON have to authenticate with the server and regularly perform security handshakes to ensure that the data being sent back and forth is indeed coming from and going to a trusted source. On
Published: 12:00 PM EST The first smartphone based on Google's Android mobile platform could hit the U.S. market as early as October, according to new reports, but a video of the handset leaked on the Internet reveals a device which lacks the elegance that's already drawn millions to Apple's iPhone. People briefed on the search giant's plans tell the New York Times that the HTC-manufacturered handset, know amongst Internet circles as the "Dream," will go on sale by the holidays -- possibly even earlier depending on how long it takes the Federal Communications Commission to weigh in with approval. It's expected to be the only Android phone available in the U.S. this year and will be sold exclusively through T-Mobile, the nation�s No. 4 wireless carrier. A video (below) of the supposed device making the rounds on the Internet is said to match the one seen by the Times' sources, confirming its authenticity. Like the iPhone, the Dream has a full touch-screen and will be able to run a slew of applications written by third-party developers for the open-source Android operating system. Conversely, it will also feature a physical "full five-row keyboard" that's exposed by sliding the display component upwards, mimicking the functionality of T-Mobile's Sidekick handset. While the Dream is "apparently a hot item to show off in Google's cafeterias these days," those familiar with the device describe it as "big and bulky," and nowhere near as sleek as iPhone that's forever altered the landscape of the mobile industry. The Android software itself is similarly not up to par with standards set by Apple, leaving it feeling "less-elegant, less-user-friendly" just months before its slated to be unleashed into the wild. Still, the Dream is just one of "several devices" Google is testing with its new mobile software, offering hope that other smartphone makers will be able to compensate for the inadequacies of the initial HTC handset when they begin rolling out their Android phones sometime next year. The more pressing issue appears to be whether Google is adequately prepared to provide its ring of developers with the support and expertise they need to go head-to-head with an already thriving fleet of software makers that have hitched onto Apple's mobile platform. Some early Android supporters have already expressed frustration with the company for favoring a small subset of developers with advance releases of Android's Software Developer Kit, exposing them to newer features and bug fixes ahead of the general community. Meanwhile, those carriers and hardware manufacturers that do have access to the latest Android codebase haven't experienced a clear path to success either. Among their complaints have been language translation problems with software and an overall lack of support from Google, whose emphasis on the anticipated launch of the Dream through T-Mobile has crowded out other carrier's attempts to get help launching their own array of Android devices. |
Published: 07:45 PM EST Although Apple is just coming to grips with iPhone 3G demand among the device's first batch of carriers, the next phase of new carriers should already have the stock it needs to handle its own introductions, AppleInsider has been told. Those familiar with the launch plans cite Singapore as an example of Apple's likely ability to cope with the early sales rush when the next group of carriers begins offering iPhone 3G on August 22nd. SingTel is now understood to have registered over 50,000 interested users ahead of its nationwide rollout for the handset, suggesting a high level of demand in a city state whose total population is just nearing 4.6 million. However, people aware of the plans say the telecom provider has already been taking shipments of the phones and has enough supply to match this number of potential customers when the doors open to iPhone sales in one week's time. The large berth of iPhones reflects how well Apple will stock at least some carriers with its fast-selling device and is a stark contrast to the problems encountered with pre-order campaigns for the original July 11th launch. O2's advance ordering system, although biased towards existing customers, suffered a near-total shutdown within minutes and ultimately sold out within hours. Customers locked out of this system were asked to wait in line with others for retail iPhones. These and many other retailers worldwide quickly sold out and ultimately forced Apple to devise solutions at its own stores to cope with demand, going so far as to extend store hours on a semi-permanent basis and issue rainchecks to prevent day-long queues. Whether or not this future round of carriers will truly match demand more easily than O2, AT&T, and others is unknown and may be affected by the prices themselves. Many of these remain unpublished and, in some cases, won't be available until just before the official debut in a respective time zone. Singapore and others are expected to give the iPhone away for free for customers of certain plans, according to AppleInsider's sources. Apple, however, has expressed little concern over its long-term supply and told investors in July that it was " very confident" that it was ramping up production quickly enough to handle additional countries' iPhone 3G demand without a significant impact on those already cleared to sell the touchscreen device. |
Published: 04:20 AM EST A new test version of Apple's next iPhone firmware update has disabled a key service that will allow background data for native apps, with no clear sign of when it will return. While beta 4 of the iPhone 2.1 update comes with Apple's typically unspecific references to bug fixes, it explicitly withdraws support for the push notification service that will send Internet data to third-party apps even while they are shut down. The feature has been present from beta 1 onwards and is still poised to supply directional GPS data as part of its upgrades. Apple provides little explanation for the removal and says only that the notification code has been pulled for "further development" inside the company -- with no mention of whether it will reappear in a future beta. Taking the service out of the beta version puts non-Apple developers at a temporary loss, making it impractical for them to further development of new apps and updates that will depend on live, always-on data until the feature is returned to these handsets. The final version of iPhone 2.1 is nonetheless planned for an appearance sometime in September. |
Published: 09:45 AM EST Experts and analysts of all stripes are trying to explain what's wrong with the iPhone 3G, but their answers are frequently supported by bad science, outlandish claims, and pure speculation. Here's what's wrong in the reports, and why a simple firmware update is likely to solve the current issues. What's the problem? While nobody has formally studied the problem, lots of iPhone 3G users are complaining that they can't find 3G service, can't maintain 3G service in areas where other 3G phones can, witness wildly fluctuating signal strength bars on the phone, or conversely can't use 3G because it consumes battery life too rapidly. Many articles on the subject are referencing Apple's support forums, where some discussions have gotten so long that forum moderators have had to lock the original thread and create a new overflow discussion. Clearly, there are real problems. How widespread and common those problems are is more difficult to pinpoint. Apple said it sold a million iPhone 3G units on its opening weekend, and Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster reported that each of the company's US retail stores are now selling an average of 95 iPhone 3G sales per day. He expects the company to sell 4.47 million this quarter. That indicates that well over two million iPhone 3G units have already been sold to users. Even if the 3G issues were only affecting one percent of the phones sold, that would leave twenty thousand users with problems. If only a tenth of those users posted comments online, that would easily account for the two thousand messages on Apple's discussion boards. Blame the provider? In the US, AT&T has been fingered in the iPhone 3G's reception problems due to the telco's relatively new and limited service coverage of its 3G network. Even in urban areas where AT&T's service maps indicate there should be 3G service, the iPhone 3G frequently fails to find it or maintain a strong enough signal to complete a call. Compared to Sprint and Verizon Wireless, which both have wider 3G service coverage in their more mature 3G EVDO networks, AT&T is building out its 3G network using UMTS, a worldwide standard. AT&T is also forced to use different radio frequencies than other UMTS providers, which results in less technical maturity for AT&T's 3G network than those overseas. AT&T primarily uses the 1900MHz band in the US, but is working to expand its use of its 850MHz band, a lower frequency that allows radio signals to spread farther and penetrate walls easier. Europe uses the even higher 2100MHz band for 3G, but there is also more dense network coverage there. While AT&T's network is still experiencing some growing pains, the iPhone 3G's reception issues are also being reported in other countries too, even in Europe where 3G UMTS networks have been built out for some time. In those locations, the iPhone's dual band 3G radio uses the standard UMTS frequencies, making it hard to blame AT&T for more than just its limited coverage. Dropped calls by provider An article on the iPhone 3G by BusinessWeek cited unnamed sources to report, "the problem is affecting 2% to 3% of iPhone traffic, the people say. That compares with a dropped-call rate of around 1% for all traffic for AT&T." A source for the dropped call rate at AT&T wasn't given. Studies on dropped calls are difficult because users don't report their dropped calls, and providers would be challenged to know whether phones on their networks ended a call on purpose or not. Further, calls may be dropped for a number of reasons, from poor service coverage or intermittent signal interference to phone set problems to users walking into a elevator or bank vault.
Published: 11:00 AM EST Apple's Enterprise Sales Group has been quietly installing thousands of iMacs, Mac minis, Mac Pros, and Xserves in hotels and cruise ships in a new push to bring the media rich experience of Apple's retail stores to the hospitality industry, where hoteliers are seeking to deliver personalized, unique experiences that will impress guests and bring them back for more. Ten thousand Macs in front of luxury customers In June, Fontainebleau Resorts announced plans to install 24" iMacs in all 1,400 rooms of its Miami Beach property now undergoing a $500 million renovation, as well as the 3,889 rooms of its new $2.9 billion, 63-story luxury resort in Las Vegas opening next year. The UK City Inn Group unveiled similar services for its hotels in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, and London, noting on its website, "you get what you should always expect: iMac computers, free wi-fi and Sky in every bedroom." Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines began installing Mac minis in its floating hotels three years ago, starting with two of its 3,600 passenger "Freedom Class" ships. That includes the "Freedom of the Seas," the world's largest passenger ship ever built. Royal Caribbean is also building an IT infrastructure from Apple's hardware on its Solstice Class ships for Celebrity Cruises, as well as two of its own new $1.24 billion Oasis Class ships, which will accommodate at least 5,400 passengers each and assume the title of the world's largest passenger ships when completed a year from now. Those massive infrastructure deployments, involving up to 16,150 Ethernet drops per ship, a 10 gigabit network backbone, thousands of client Macs and racks of Xserves, are adopting Apple's hardware for the same reasons the luxury hotels on land are: Mac hardware and software offers a differentiating end user polish while being easy to manage. Not a hard sell Hotels have actually asked for Apple's help in bringing iTunes-style simplicity to their luxury accommodations. Many hoteliers are "struggling to reach the digital demographic" and "to differentiate themselves," explained Bradley Walker of Nanonation in a seminar on Macs in the hospitality industry. "You've been to the Apple Store," Walker said. "If you could recreate that in a hotel, that would be a very attractive place to stay." Nanonation is working with Apple to bring its technology to cruise ships, casinos, convention centers, and both large and boutique hotels. The initial applications have involved digital signage and display walls, which typically provide large format, one-to-many information services. Nanonation has also begun leveraging the unique software features of Mac OS X to build interactive solutions for lobby or pool side concierge service as well. Installations in public locations can remind a guest of a spa appointment, allow them to order drinks, or make a service or restaurant reservation. Personalized services for the iPod touch and iPhone are also in development. "We're really excited about what Apple's done with the enterprise SDK," Walker added. Scratching the Surface Last summer, Microsoft floated its Surface product concept as a way to deliver attention-grabbing interactive kiosk services in hotels and retail stores. Some appeared in AT&T retail stores this spring, and earlier this week, Surface installations were announced for five Sheraton hotels in the US. However, the 30" Surface form factor (a YouTube parody of the Surface advertisement called it the "big ass table") uses an expensive combination of video projectors and scanners to deliver its kiosk services, making it too expensive (around $10,000) to install outside of a few public areas. Apple is working to install its computers everywhere in the hospitality industry. In addition to freestanding iMacs in rooms, the smaller Mac mini is being promoted for installation in public kiosks and for use with standard flat screen televisions as a sophisticated set top box. The Mac Pro is used to drive larger display walls and digital signage, using Quartz Compositor to create programatically designed visuals that interact with feeds from external data sources and respond to input devices or music. The iPhone and iPod touch are also being used to deliver personalized customer-facing services. Differentiated by Apple In addition to public kiosk information services, Nanonation has also worked with Apple to develop its customizable Nanopoint software to enable hotel properties to tailor in-room virtual concierge services built around an iMac in every room. For example, the systems can provide walking directions to attractions, details on local nightlife, weather reports based on updated feeds, and offer local services such as spa appointments. While most competing systems are based around a web browser, Nanopoint on the Mac moves away from the browser to deliver a richer media experience. Leveraging Mac OS X's graphics compositing tools, the software can present video with interactive controls and animated elements to deliver an impressive experience. Hotels typically just provide guests with a remote control to flick through cable channels and sometimes a custom video on demand service, but digital and HD TV tuners frequently take a moment to present each channel. Apple's server technologies can support HD content with fast channel changing and an elegant presentation with video previews (below top), integrating episodic TV with video on demand as well as customized music services that remember guests' preferences and present player controls right on the screen, composited over full motion video with drop shadows and reflections. Nanonation also demonstrated Chat services between hotel guests (below bottom), such as those traveling together or attending the same convention or other event.   On
Published: 05:15 PM EST In a quick turnaround from 2.0.1, Apple on Monday evening released version 2.0.2 firmware for iPhone and iPod touch. The 248.7MB update is available only through iTunes and comes just two weeks after version 2.0.1. In traditional Apple form, no specific issues are identified in the current release notes, which only indicate "bug fixes" for the mobile operating system. Past claims by alleged insiders and users have suggested that the update may fix connectivity problems causing dropped calls and unintended switches from 3G to the 2G EDGE network. AppleInsider will update if this or other new features are confirmed with the release. Notes on the release follow: * No new settings appear to have been included. * Some users report faster browsing, though this may be due to cleared cache. * Typing lag may be reduced. * Apps don't require updates; NetShare still works. * Transition from music list to Coverflow has changed. |
Published: 07:30 PM EST Those looking to buy an iPhone in Turkey will have a second choice besides Vodafone. Simultaneously, two Russian carriers have allegedly been tapped to carry the device. Turkcell to carry iPhone 3G Turkey's largest locally-owned carrier, Turkcell, announced on Monday that it would carry iPhone 3G for its subscribers and has posted a registration page for customers that want more information regarding the device. In characteristic fashion for advance iPhone announcements, Turkcell hasn't disclosed its phone plans or launch date, and says only that it will release the iPhone "later this year." Turkey isn't part of the 21 countries so far selected as part of iPhone 3G's second wave on August 22nd. Earlier this year, Turkey was already highlighted as a future recipient as part of a multi-nation Vodafone deal. Russian carriers nearing iPhone deal? Apple may soon end the absence of iPhones in one of its largest unserved countries, according to one claim. Russian business paper Vedomosti on Monday cited unnamed sources asserting that the country's second- and third-largest carriers, VimpelCom and MegaFon, were in talks with Apple to offer the iPhone. Bulk ordering requirements from the American carrier, however, are said to be complicating the matter. Carriers are allegedly being asked to purchase between 1 million and 1.5 million iPhones each -- enough that the top three carriers would have to sell as many as 4.5 million devices over the life of the contract. That's as much as 12 percent of all Russian phone sales and nearly one third of the money involved, according to one local analyst. By contrast, no one phone owns more than 2 percent of the market in Russia. Apple hasn't commented on the claim, though company chief Steve Jobs in June said he hoped to have iPhone agreements in place for both China and Russia by the end of 2008. |
Published: 09:45 PM EST Apple has offered an additional two month free extension for all MobileMe subscribers with active accounts as of August 19, 2008, on top of the original 30-day extension granted a month ago, shortly after the MobileMe launch. In an email to subscribers, Apple said "We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe's launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around." "The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was rockier than we had hoped." Apple notes on its MobileMe website. "While we are making a lot of improvements, the MobileMe service is still not up to our standards. We are extending subscriptions 60-days free of charge to express appreciation for our members� patience as we continue to improve the service." The 60-day extension also applies to any purchased upgrades, such as additional storage or a Family Pack upgrade. |
Published: 09:00 AM EST Alongside the public release of iPhone Software v2.0.2 on Monday, Apple also provided its Mac OS X developers with a new private build of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update, AppleInsider has been told. Those familiar with the software say the new seed, labeled Mac OS X 10.5.5 build 9F17, introduces five new fixes, bringing the total number of code corrections expected as part of the release to 120. Specifically, Apple is said to have addressed issues with iCal Invitations and read-only local calendars, Back to My Mac, Mail syncing, and CoreAnimation. As was the case with build 9F13, released last Wednesday, the new pre-release seed is reported to contain no known issues. Apple also made no changes to a list of two dozen core focus areas, which continue to include components such as AirPort, graphics drivers, iCal, iChat, networking, screen sharing, and Time Machine. Mac OS X 10.5.5 is expected for release sometime in the coming weeks. |
Published: 10:00 AM EST The Internet is running out of addresses. To get around this problem and a host of others not addressed in the existing Internet Protocol (IPv4), a new revision has been in development for years, called IPv6. Uptake has been slow; it requires upgrading all the routers and devices that make up the Internet. Apple has a few tricks up its sleeve for pushing IPv6 adoption, and many Mac users are already chin deep in the technology without even knowing it. Here's why, and what it means for users on every platform. Not Enough Numbers The primary problem with today's IPv4 is that its 32-bit addressing scheme (those IP numbers that look like 192.168.0.1) can only accommodate four billion (4,294,967,296) uniquely addressed devices, minus all the specially reserved numbers. IP addresses aren't handed out per device as needed; they're allocated in sequential blocks to companies. For example, Apple owns the entire 17.x.x.x "Class A" subnet, which gives the company 16 million addresses to use. HP owns two: 15.x.x.x and 16.x.x.x., while Xerox owns 13.x.x.x; AT and IBM 9.x.x.x; Many blocks are reserved for special purposes, including 10.x.x.x. By the time Microsoft got in line for IP addresses, it only got a class B subnet of 65,536 addresses from 207.46.0.0 - 207.46.255.255. The world's IPv4 numbers run out at 255.255.255.255. The only two options: create a new addressing scheme with more numbers (which IPv6 does, using ten billion billion billion times as many possible numbers as IPv4), or simply hide most devices from public addressing on the Internet, which is what today's NAT (Network Address Translation) does. The problem with NAT NAT allows a router to set up a dummy network of addresses, usually using the reserved 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x subnets. These reserved numbers aren't valid on the wide open Internet. In consumer settings, the router typically uses one public outside address and then does address translation for all outside traffic between that public IP number and all of the devices inside. The 192.168.x.x subnet allows for over 65,000 devices to be hidden in your home behind a single address assigned to you by your ISP. NAT dramatically limits the number of public addresses each site needs, but it creates its own problems. The point of an addressing system is to allow devices to find each other. With NAT, and particularly with multiple layers of NAT, it becomes difficult for one device to find another and start a conversation, say to initiate a web conference, trade files, or stream music. The inside address is no good for outside hosts, and the public IP address is often subject to change. Additionally, each hidden system on the inside needs some way to map the ports it uses to the ports of the outside, public address. If the NAT forwards public port 80 web traffic to one internal machine acting as a web server, it can't also forward traffic on port 80 to another machine. This causes problems for any service that wants to use specific ports, including video conferencing, torrent downloads, media streaming, file transfers, screen sharing, and so on, blocking multiple machines hidden behind NAT from being accessible at once over the same customary port.  NAT as a refuge for the insecure NAT has also become an important part of the external security diapers that are used to protect Microsoft's Windows. Without a layer of NAT in the router's firewall, a Windows PC would expose all number of unsecured ports to public tampering. A remotely addressable Windows PC on the Internet will almost instantly become infected by malicious probes looking for its wide-open back doors. Neither NAT nor an external firewall is really required when a computing system is property secured. The security crisis resulting from putting Microsoft's software, which was only ever originally designed to operate within an "assumed to be secure" LAN environment, on the open Internet has resulted in people thinking that PCs shouldn't be publicly addressable for their own good. This is unfortunate, because there are a lot of good reasons for wanting to be able to talk to your own devices over the Internet. Finding and setting up connections with other devices hiding behind the existing layers of NAT can require some tricky technology. That's the task of Apple's Back To My Mac: allowing mobile systems anywhere on the Internet to talk to home systems to handle file sharing, screen sharing, or other tasks. The promise of IPv6 IPv6's 128-bit addressing not only brings a virtually unlimited number of available IP addresses for everyone to use (billions of numbers for each person on Earth), but also introduces solutions that solve many of the other problems in today's Internet Protocol, including the barriers erected by layers of NAT. One big feature is security: all IPv6 traffic can be encrypted via a built-in component of the protocol. There's no need to wrap the old FTP protocol with a layer of encryption or use SSH, no need to turn on SSL to secure the web, no need to encrypt each email or each IM conversation and each video conference. Everything can be encrypted at the network layer in IPv6 using IPSec. This can be automatic and invisible to applications; existing, higher level security protocols such as SSL or TLS require applications to be specifically designed to support them. With IPv6, apps get network encryption "for free." Rather than relying on Windows' NAT diapers for "security through obscurity," IPv6 makes every device on the Internet routable and securely contactable. If IPv6 is beginning to sound a lot like Back to My Mac, Bonjour, and related technologies Apple is already using, then it might be interesting to note that Apple is already using IPv6. While most vendors have released IPv6 support for their operating systems, having that support doesn't make it useful without a killer application that demonstrates its usefulness. Microsoft delivered a technology preview of IPv6 support in Windows 2000. In 2002 Windows XP SP1 got official, optional support for it. Apple enabled IPv6 by default in Mac OS X 10.3 Panther in 2003, and it is now enabled by default in Windows Vista, too. However, a real barrier to wide adoption of IPv6 lies with the routers everyone uses; if they are unable to accommodate IPv6 traffic, they will prevent users inside from accessing IPv6 traffic outside, even if their OS supports it. Many commercial routers are just now adding support for IPv6, and many consumer routers don't support it at all. A killer app for IPv6 The advantages of IPv6 are both obvious and largely invisible. Most users won't even notice the move to IPv6, as DNS handles the IP addressing details in the background. The paradox is that while the Internet desperately needs IPv6, few see any reason to rush toward it. There's no obvious killer application of IPv6 to offset the considerable expense of upgrading all of the critical routers and other equipment that makes up the Internet. Routers typically run BSD or Linux; Microsoft's software dominance on the desktop isn't even relevant in the world of routers. However, Apple's AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule devices are in widespread use among consumers. Earlier this year, NPD reported that Apple now has greater than ten percent market share among retail sales of WiFi N routers. Apple's WiFi N routers support acting as an IPv6 node or tunneling through the IPv4 Internet to access IPv6 services (below). They also include an IPv6 firewall supporting incoming IPSec authentication and Teredo tunnels (used to get through NAT on the other end). Apple's nearly silent support for IPv6 is interesting in itself, but what's more interesting is that Apple also has two killer apps in hand for promoting IPv6, the market power to engage uptake, and a strong business model for benefitting from IPv6 adoption.  On
Published: 12:00 PM EST Customer satisfaction in the personal computer industry suffered another series of declines last quarter, though one standout was Apple, Inc., which defied the trend by recording its largest gain ever, according to a new consumer satisfaction survey. The American Customer Satisfaction Index second quarter report, released Tuesday from the University of Michigan�s National Quality Research Center, said Apple's score of 85 was not only a company best, but also "a new all-time high for the industry." By comparison, the Mac maker's rivals combined for the second consecutive drop in overall customer satisfaction with the PC industry, which saw scores fall a full percentage point to a rating of 74, surrendering all gains made since 2005. Apple's 8 percent leap puts 10 points between the company and its nearest rival, one of the largest gaps between first and second in any industry measured by ACSI. "It�s hard not to be impressed with Apple," said Professor Claes Fornell, head of the ACSI. "This is product extension at its best where the new products, iPod and iPhone, are helping bring new customers to existing computer products. The fact that Apple is not dependent on the Windows Vista operating system hasn�t hurt either." The industry aggregate decline was largely a result of customer dissatisfaction with Windows-based machines, namely those from Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, and Compaq, Fornell added. Each saw a 4 percent falloff in satisfaction, dropping their respective scores to 73, 72, and 70. One exception was Dell, which saw its score inch up a point to 75. Meanwhile, customer satisfaction with the e-business category of websites surged 6 percent to an all-time high of 79.3, largely a result of achievements on the part of Google. After slipping behind Yahoo! for the first time last year, the search giant surged an unparalleled 10 percent to leave all rivals in its wake, according to the ACSI. Google's score 86 also set a new standard for e-businesses and opened a formidable nine-point gap between its nearest competitor, Yahoo!, which fell 3 percent to score a 77. |
Published: 04:00 PM EST The iPhone's share of the worldwide browser market has increased nearly twofold following the release of the iPhone 3G last month, leading researchers at PacificCrest to suggest that September quarter sales of the device may be tracking 1.5 million units ahead of expectations. In a report to clients Tuesday, analyst Andy Hargreaves cited data from Net Applications that shows the iPhone's share of the global browser market to have accelerated to 0.31 percent from 0.16 percent since the July 11th launch of the iPhone 3G. Should the trend continue through the remainder of the quarter (ending September 30th), it would suggest upside of approximately 1.5 million units to his previous estimate of 3.5 million iPhone sales. "iPhone�s share of Internet browsing is now four times that of Windows Mobile and nearly 40 percent of Linux�s share," Hargreaves wrote. "Over the long term, we expect iPhone�s advantages to drive strong hardware revenue growth, while providing new opportunities to monetize the user base through value-added services." More specifically, the analyst said the iPhone's share of the browser market has grown nearly 100 percent in the four countries that had access to the original iPhone. Meanwhile, the 17 countries that did not have the original iPhone have seen browser share increases range from 50 percent to 1,100 percent. "iPhone 3G has generated its most impressive increase in browsing in Japan, where its share has grown to 0.12 percent from 0.01 percent over the past six weeks," he wrote. In support of his latest estimates, Hargreaves noted a strong correlation between growth in iPhone browser share and unit sales over the past year. For instance, Apple sold 2.3 million iPhones in the previous December quarter and saw its browser share increase by 0.05 percent.  With the iPhone's share having risen another 0.15 percent in just six weeks following the release of the 3G model, current estimates of 3.5 million unit sales therefore seem overly conservative, or about 1.5 million units shy. "Notably, Apple will be launching iPhone in 20 new countries on Aug. 22 and will be distributing through Best Buy starting on Sept. 7, which could drive further upside to our [September] quarter estimate," the analyst added. Hargreaves, who maintains an Outperform rating and $235 price target on shares of Apple, estimates that each incremental 1 million iPhone units will generate and additional $0.28 in free cash flow per share. |
Published: 06:10 PM EST After instances where first-generation iPod nanos' power has triggered minor but device-killing fires, Apple has agreed to replace for free any more of the music players that suffer the same problem. The Cupertino, Calif.-based electronics maker has released a statement to the press confirming the issue and solution while also attempting to minimize the scope of the problem. "Apple has determined that in very rare cases, batteries in first-generation iPod nanos sold between Sept. 2005 and Dec. 2006 can overheat, causing failure and deformation of the iPod nano," the company explains. "Apple has received very few reports of such incidents (less than 0.001 percent of first-generation iPod nano units), which have been traced back to a single battery supplier. There have been no reports of serious injuries or property damage, and no reports of incidents for any other iPod nano model. "Any first-generation iPod nano customers who have experienced their battery overheating should contact AppleCare for a replacement. Any other customers who have concerns about their first-generation iPod nano battery should also contact AppleCare." The release comes at the end of a Japanese government investigation into reports of some original iPod nanos melting and even popping open due to excess heat, particularly when the device is plugged into a computer for recharging. Customers from other nations also say they have witnessed their iPods' self-destruction.  An American's iPod nano after a fire. | Image credits: The Consumerist. While unlikely to be directly connected, the problem is reminiscent of a similar issue with Sony notebook batteries that prompted a worldwide battery recall after it was determined that a manufacturing flaw made them overly susceptible to fires; since then, Sony has toughened up its designs to prevent such incidents in the future. It's not known if the issue extends to additional iPod nanos or other portable media players. |
Published: 06:10 PM EST iPhone owners suddenly locked out of their third-party apps by a crash bug on startup will have a solution next month, Apple chief Steve Jobs has revealed. An AppleInsider reader has received one of Steve Jobs' characteristically brief and rare personal responses, assuring them that his company is aware of the problem and has a solution. "This is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September," reads the one-line message from the Apple co-founder. The email provides an end date to problems that have become increasingly apparent in Apple's support forums and elsewhere. Many report the iPhone 2.0 firmware suddenly
Published: 08:00 AM EST Apple on Thursday announced that movies from several major film studios are now available on the iTunes Store in Australia and in New Zealand. In total, more than 700 films are available for rent or purchase from studios that include 20th Century Fox, The Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Sony Pictures Television International and Lionsgate. Among the titles are several new releases that can be purchase on the same day as their DVD release, including favorites such as "National Treasure 2," "Jumper," "27 Dresses," "Cloverfield," "Vantage Point" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World�s End." "Movie fans in Australia and New Zealand can choose from a great selection of over 700 films for purchase and rent on the iTunes Store," said Eddy Cue, Apple�s vice president of Internet Services. "iTunes provides an incredibly easy and fun way for people to discover and enjoy movies, and has quickly become the world�s most popular online movie store with customers renting and purchasing over 50,000 movies everyday." With iTunes Movie Rentals, once a movie is rented, it starts downloading from the iTunes Store directly to iTunes or Apple TV, and users with a fast Internet connection can start viewing the movie in seconds. Customers have up to 30 days to start watching it, and once a movie has been started customers have 48 hours to finish it�or watch it multiple times. iTunes Movie Rentals also feature over 100 titles available in high definition. Pricing in Australia starts at A$9.99 for catalog title purchases, A$17.99 for recent releases and A$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are A$3.99 for library title rentals and A$5.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one dollar more. iTunes movies in New Zealand start at NZ$9.99 for catalog title purchases, NZ$17.99 for recent releases and NZ$24.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are NZ$4.99 for library title rentals and NZ$6.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one dollar more. |
Published: 09:00 AM EST Apple last night pushed out another pre-release build of its upcoming Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update for the Leopard operating system, tacking on several more bug fixes to a list that swelled into triple digits a week earlier. The new build, 9F13, arrives less than a week after Mac maker equipped developers with build 9F9 and warned of a problem with some images that could cause its Aperture photography post production software to unexpectedly quit. Wednesday's release, however, is the first since the company launched the Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update beta program three weeks ago to arrive without the presence of known issues, people familiar with the software say. Apple is reported to have made no changes to a list of two dozen core system components where developers have been asked to center the majority of their evaluation efforts. Instead, the focus of build 9F13 gears towards maintenance and stability, harnessing ten more bug fixes aimed at strengthening the Leopard experience, bringing the total number of code corrections expected as part of Mac OS X 10.5.5 to an eye-catching 115. Among the more notable tweaks are improvements to Power Management and Energy Saver settings for Mac notebooks, as well as a fix for MobileMe's DMNotification that has been causing the MobileMe preference pane to crash for some subscribers. Also addressed in the latest build were problems with Mail Sync and Preferences syncing, multiple TCP connections and Application Firewall, and the BSD Kernel and HFS+ file system. When Mac OS X 10.5.5 makes its debut in the coming weeks, Leopard users can also look forward to improvements to Safari's handling of PDF documents, fixes to Address Book's syncing of newly created contacts, improved Mail message storage, and tweaks to iCal Invitations and email invitations. In its raw form, Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update currently weighs in at around 330MB. |
Published: 12:00 PM EST Former Apple general counsel Nancy Heinen has accepted a series of sanctions and agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle backdating charges filed against her, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday. Heinen, who was charged at the federal level by the Commission last year, also agreed to be barred from serving as an officer or director of any public company for five years, and be suspended from appearing or practicing as an attorney before the Commission for three years. In its April 2007 complaint, the Commission charged the former top Apple legal aid with fraudulently backdating two large options grants to senior company executives and altering records to conceal the fraud. As a result, the complaint alleged that Apple was forced to underreport its expenses by nearly $40 million. In the first instance, Apple granted 4.8 million options to six members of its Executive Team (including Heinen) in February 2001. Because the options were in-the-money when granted (i.e. could be exercised to purchase Apple shares at a below market price), Apple was required to report a compensation charge in its publicly-filed financial statements. The Commission alleges that, in order to avoid reporting this expense, Heinen caused Apple to backdate options to January 17, 2001, when Apple's share price was substantially lower. It also charged the former executive with having directed her staff to prepare documents falsely indicating that Apple's Board had approved the Executive Team grant on January 17. "As a result, Apple failed to record approximately $18.9 million in compensation expenses associated with the option grant," the Commission said. Separately, the Commission also alleged improprieties in connection with a December 2001 grant of 7.5 million options to chief executive Steve Jobs. Although the options were in-the-money at that time, Heinen � as with the Executive Team grant � caused Apple to backdate the grant to October 19, 2001, when Apple's share price was lower, according to court documents. As a result, the Commission said Heinen's actions caused Apple to improperly fail to record $20.3 million in compensation expense associated with the in-the-money options grant. The Commission further alleges that Heinen then signed fictitious Board minutes stating that Apple's Board had approved the grant to Jobs on October 19 at a "Special Meeting of the Board of Directors" � a meeting that, in fact, never occurred. Heinen consented to settlement offered by the SEC without admitting or denying the allegations, however. Of the 2.2 million she agreed to pay, $1,575,000 was a direct disgorgement representing the in-the-money portion of the proceeds she received from exercising backdated options, and $400,219.78 was the interest on that sum to date. The court order she agreed to also imposed a civil penalty of $200,000.  Apple's former General Counsel, Nancy Heinen, and former Chief Financial Officer, Fred Anderson. Last April, former Apple chief financial officer Fred Anderson settled a similar case with the SEC by agreeing to a fine of $150,000 and the repayment of about $3.5 million in illegal options gains. Like Heinen, Anderson agreed to the deal without admitting any wrongdoing. In a statement that followed the settlement, he largely shifted the blame for his involvement in the backdating scandal back to Jobs. |
Published: 01:00 PM EST A small percentage of iPhone 3G users who say their phones are plagued by poor 3G network reception may soon see their connectivity problems rectified by a software update, a new report claims. Although there has been no admission by Apple or its broadband chip suppliers that any such issues exist with the 3G technology included in the new iPhone, a report by Nomura analyst Richard Windsor earlier this week set off a chain reaction of media reports filled with speculation on the matter. For instance, a report by Sweden's engineering magazine Ny Teknik, covered by the Associated Press last night, cited 'unnamed experts' as saying the 'most likely cause' was a defective adjustments between the iPhone 3G's antenna and an amplifier that captures very weak signals from the antenna. For his part, Windsor speculated that an "immature" chipset solution from Infineon could be to blame for the sporadic issues experienced by users across multiple continents. Yet another theory from iSuppli analyst Francis Sideco fingered any of a number of parts, "from the phone's antenna and amplifier and the radio frequency transceiver to the baseband that processes the digital signal and sends it to the speaker or screen." The most recent report on the problem arrived Thursday courtesy of BusinessWeek's Peter Burrows, who cited "two well-placed sources" as saying the reception issues are tied to the iPhone's Infineon chip and will be addressed via an upcoming software update -- likely iPhone Software v2.1 -- rather than through a more disruptive step, such as a product recall. The problem is said to to be affecting between 2 percent to 3 percent of iPhone traffic, which compares with a dropped-call rate of around 1 percent for all traffic on AT&T's U.S. network. "This is a problem, but it's not a catastrophe," one of Burrows' sources is quoted as saying. Another source said: "Apple programmed the Infineon chip to demand a more powerful 3G signal than the iPhone really requires. So if too many people try to make a call or go on the Internet in a given area, some of the devices will decide there's insufficient power and switch to the slower network�even if there is enough 3G bandwidth available." BusinessWeek added that the problems have been isolated to high density areas such as Boston, the San Francisco Bay area, and several locales overseas. The reason the problems are just now manifesting is due to the increasing number of activations with each additional day the iPhone 3G is on the market, the report claims. "Two sources say Apple will likely issue a software update by the end of September�if not by the end of this month�to resolve the issues," Burrows wrote. "Apple and Infineon are currently testing the fix, which will be included in a broader update of the iPhone's software." |
Published: 06:55 PM EST With Intel's Developer Forum just days away, an apparently leaked presentation for the event indicates where the chipmaker's processors are headed over the course of the next four years. The slides obtained by French tech site CanardPlus start off by recapping the imminent launch of Nehalem, which is now officially labeled Core i7 and is the first big break from Intel's traditional architecture. As is increasingly well-known in tech circles, i7 will switch to a new point-to-point bus architecture and return the Pentium 4's Hyperthreading feature, which can sometimes mimic a second core by running more than one code thread at the same time. The technology is already set to be discussed in-depth at the Developer Forum and will launch in the fall with new Core and Xeon desktop processors. It's here, however, that the presentation veers into largely unfamiliar territory. Apart from planning a chip die shrink to 32 nanometers for i7 due later in 2009, known as Westmere, Intel's next big change in architecture is now set to take place in 2010 with a technology known as Sandy Bridge. While lightly discussed in the past, Sandy Bridge is now said to focus heavily on vector math -- an important component to certain 3D and movie operations and once the strongest selling point of PowerPC-based Macs. The processor design will introduce support for new programming features known as Advanced Vector Extensions, or AVX, which will not only be much more complex with 256 bits of data versus 128 for today's SSE equivalents but will support as many as three or four calculations in one instruction depending on the task at hand. The overhaul of Intel's chip design will also be built with the capability to handle at least eight cores on a single chip and will have much less Level 2 memory cache than today, at just 512KB per core, in return for 16MB of Level 3 to be distributed among all the cores. This architecture will be shrunk sometime in 2011 when it's known as Ivy Bridge, according to Intel.  For future processors, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company has less detail but vows a breakthrough at least as significant as Sandy Bridge. Nicknamed Haswell, it will have "revolutionary" power management, an all-new approach to caching, and the option of dedicated vector coprocessors in a package separate from the main processor. It will also be the first Intel chip to support Fused Multiply-Add instructions that, as the name suggests, include math with both additions and multiplications in a lone instruction. Intel isn't expected to confirm at least some of these details for either Sandy Bridge or Haswell ahead of the Developer Forum, which starts August 19th in San Francisco. With both processor generations not due for at least another two years, though, the presentations made at the event will, for now, be the best look at where mainstream computers will be in the future. |
Published: 07:45 PM EST The developer of desktop software that lets users listen to their iTunes libraries from any broadband Internet connection now has a similar tool for the iPhone and iPod touch that eliminates storage limits. Called SimplifyMedia (
Published: 07:45 AM EST Although Google is positioning its new Android platform as freeing cellphone software developers, the search engine giant's attempt to favor certain developers, technical issues, and shaky commercial appeal are reportedly driving would-be partners to iPhone. Google has been accused by at least some developers of making assumptions about the appeal of Android to programming teams, who with the open-source platform can write virtually any app for Android-based devices by getting direct access to code that governs even basic hardware functions. The issue is largely known to have come to a head in mid-July, when Google unintentionally revealed that it has been favoring the winners of a developers' contest with advance releases of Android's Software Developer Kit, exposing them to newer features and bug fixes ahead of the general community. Those outside the privileged circle, both then and now, have expressed frustration that the company is in effect cherry-picking the teams it wants to succeed on launch day. Without this equal treatment, Google is not only perceived as driving developers away but of violating the open-source mantra it took on by creating a mobile operating system, shutting out many who could contribute to the development process. Some of these have since switched or expressed a desire to switch to iPhone development in retaliation for the seeming bias on Google's part. "The idea with open source software is to allow early adopters access to the buggier pieces of code so they can help fix them or let people who want to wait for a solid release the ability to do that," says developer Casey Borders. "The key is choice, and Google has taken away that choice and is developing Android like every other piece of closed software." Even carriers and hardware manufacturers are believed to be encountering technical problems regardless of their access to code. Cellular provider China Mobile, which hopes to have Android devices in its home country, was recently described as having language translation problems with software, while Google's emphasis on an anticipated T-Mobile USA debut may have crowded out Sprint's attempts to get help for its own launch. For those without the early access, the most recent software kit for Android was last released in early March, or over five months before press time. In stark contrast is Apple, which has imposed tighter restrictions on what apps can be developed but has given third-parties frequent, equal access to updated versions of its own iPhone SDK -- in some cases, seeding new releases just days apart and opening up new features at the same time. And for some developers, the incentive to write iPhone software may simply be material: Apple, even in its relative inexperience with phones, is seen as more of a veteran in the mobile space than Google. The latter has yet to see Android on a shipping product and doesn't have the practical experience of producing devices like the iPod to develop a strong user base and sell more third-party apps. "At the end of the day, developers want to make money," says analyst Rob Enderle, who himself was recently hired by Dell to ease its return into portable devices. "So they're going to develop on a platform and put resources on a platform that will make them money." Recognizing this, Google has been showcasing Android builds with an integrated software store, much like Apple's App Store, which would centralize downloads and give developers more publicity than if they offered software by themselves. Apple's insistence on control at most stages of development has kept many Android developers onboard and in some cases may goad developers to write apps for both Android and iPhone handsets, freeing them to experiment with the new platform while clinging to the one that promises them financial success. Without catering to those most eager to write for Android, however, Google is thought by at least one developer as potentially sabotaging its carefully-managed launch by alienating those outside a special group. "Developers are the driving force behind Android applications, so without them it would be very hard for Android to have a stance in the market," says developer Mike Nowak. |
Published: 08:00 AM EST A three-alarm fire burned for more than three hours late Tuesday night at Apple's Cupertino headquarters before firefighters were able to fully extinguish the blaze. The Santa Clara County Fire Department said it received reports of smoke billowing out of 20605 Valley Green Drive at around 10:00 p.m. More than 60 firefighters arrived on the scene ( video), including those from neighboring San Jose Fire Department. The building, also known as Valley Green Six, was at one time believed to house a number of hardware-based research and development projects. However, it's now said that the building is used strictly as an IT data center. Hal Rooney, deputy chief for Santa Clara County Fire, said the fire may have started under an air conditioning unit on the second floor. Local television station KNTV reported that maintenance crews had been working on the air conditioning systems in the building earlier in the day. The fire is believed to have scorched the roof and parts of the second floor before it was fully contained and extinguished at around 12:30 a.m. early Wednesday moring. A Santa Clara County Fire Department dispatcher later told the AP that although the fire was not very big, "there is going to be a lot of smoke damage." No one was injured during the incident.  Firefighters arrive on the scene at Apple's Cupertino campus | Photo credit: Jessica Spacekat |
Published: 09:00 AM EST MobileMe's Exchange Server-style push updates for contacts and calendar events on the iPhone is entirely new from the previous .Mac. Here's how MobileMe relates to Exchange, how contacts and calendars work, and what's still missing in Apple's service related to calendar and contact management. Inside MobileMe series segments Inside MobileMe: Secrets of the Cloud and Mobile Push (Friday) Inside MobileMe: Mac and PC cloud sync and mobile push (Saturday) Inside MobileMe: Apple's Push vs Exchange, BlackBerry, Google (Monday) Inside MobileMe: iPhone Mail (Tuesday) Inside MobileMe: iPhone's Exchange alternative for contacts and calendar�(Today) Exchange for the rest of us Shortly after the launch of MobileMe, Apple admitted that it may have oversold its new service as being an alternative to Exchange. After all, there is no mechanism for instant push from desktop apps to the cloud; Exchange is an always-on groupware server. Apple even pulled its "Exchange for the rest of us" line from its MobileMe marketing. However, the iPhone's calendar and contacts do currently perform push updates in both directions. Make a change on your iPhone, and you should see the update immediately on your Mac desktop and from the MobileMe web apps.� For iPhone and iPod touch users, that means MobileMe remains an "Exchange for the rest of us." As we noted in the segment on pricing comparisons, MobileMe offers a ground breaking level of service at a very competitive price, significantly lower than hosted Exchange Server plans that deliver far less storage space and don't provide WebDAV file and web hosting at all, nor MobileMe's other data synchronization features between linked computers. � In terms of reliability, while MobileMe is still less than a month old the new service now seems responsive and usable, although we'd warn users not to expect more from the service than they would from other consumer-oriented online services such as those from Google, Yahoo, or Hotmail. There's still additional features we'd like to see implemented, and Apple intends to invest in regular updates to ensure that the program is "a service we are all proud of by the end of this year." If Apple is able to reach that goal over the next five months, it will certainly accomplish more than just delivering "an Exchange for the rest of us."� The long road to Exchange In comparison, Microsoft's Exchange Server began limited internal testing in 1993, and was only launched publicly in the middle of 1996. It would have been a real stretch to describe it as a reliable product anyone could be proud of until at least four and a half years later with the year end release of Exchange Server 2000.� In the last eight years since, Exchange has seen two major updates, and has now achieved a reputation of being difficult to match in features and broad support. It typically competes against IBM's Lotus (Notes) Domino Server on the high end and Kerio MailServer among smaller businesses looking for a more affordable solution with similar features.� Where there are many other mail-only servers, the options for comprehensive messaging servers that supply calendaring and contact updates (particularly those that push to mobile devices) are harder to find. That makes Apple's consumer-oriented MobileMe a pioneering new service for the industry, not just Apple. The company still has "a lot to learn" as Steve Jobs recently admitted in response to the high-profile launch problems that dogged its release, but it is well ahead of the game in delivering a service that works for consumers, is easy to setup and use, and is priced affordably. Contacts and calendar events are specialized emails Exchange Server pioneered the market for standardized corporate groupware alongside Lotus Notes, which was acquired by IBM in 1995. Exchange intended to adopt the ISO's ITU X-400 standard specification for email messaging servers, but just as Microsoft was bringing it to market, the ISO's IT-related standards bureaucracy was broadsided by rapid new innovation among Internet Engineering Task Force groups.� The practical IETF working group protocols beat the grandiose technology definitions outlined by ISO committees, leaving Exchange built around a dead-end architecture. Microsoft was forced to tack on an Internet Mail Connector to provide messaging interoperability with other standard mail transport servers on the Internet. While Internet standards quickly emerged on how to pass email between internet servers and to simple email client programs (including POP and IMAP), there were no functional standards that developed around how to pass around calendar and contact information.� Microsoft invented its own Messaging API, which treated contacts and calendar events as specialized email messages. The contacts and calendar folders in Exchange are simply mailboxes of emails that contain data that are interpreted by Outlook and represented as address book or calendar items. As with most other internal standards originated by Microsoft, the implementation was not intended to be widely interoperable. Instead, the MAPI specification rapidly changed in concert with every new release of Exchange and Outlook, making it difficult for third parties to offer fully compatible replacements to either Exchange or Outlook.� Microsoft began taking steps away from MAPI when it released Entourage for the Mac as a non-MAPI client to Exchange. It uses standard IMAP to talk to Exchange, which allowed Microsoft to retain the same model of contacts and calendar items as specialized emails while abandoning its oddball message passing system. To talk to mobile devices, Exchange similarly communicates by using semi-standard web updates through Exchange's Outlook Web Access web app rather than trying to spray MAPI commands over the open Internet. This type of connection is referred to as Exchange ActiveSync or EAS.� Apple and Exchange Server support In order to make Macs more friendly with enterprise environments using Exchange, Apple has been adding Exchange support features to its desktop Mac OS X apps. Mail has long been able to automate the configuration of an IMAP connection to Exchange (provided the administrators enable IMAP on the server), and Address Book gained the ability to sync local contacts with Exchange via Outlook Web Access (below). Apple has not released support for iCal to directly sync with Exchange, but third party utilities do support bidirectional calendar sync for iCal. Mac OS X Snow Leopard is expected to provide complete, native support for syncing desktop data with Exchange using the same EAS technology Apple licensed for use with the iPhone.  Apple had been leaving Mac desktop Exchange support up to Microsoft with Entourage, but that product is regarded as a poor substitute to Outlook and has not made satisfactory progress in catching up over the last several years. Handling the Mac's Exchange support itself mirror's Apples strategy of supporting Microsoft's Office filetypes in iWork. Rather than being left at the mercy of third party developers, Apple now owns its own implementation of EAS sync with Exchange. MobileMe uses its own sync technology between Mac OS X desktop apps and the cloud, and uses a unique mechanism for pushing updates down to client computers. The mobile push messaging system for the iPhone is also custom to Apple, although it results in similar functionality to EAS. On
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