Headlines: 4 Mar 10
Filed under: 3G, 3GS, 4th Generation iPhone, App Store, Apple Corporate, Wi-Fi
The Register: Apple Yanks Wi-Fi Detectors from iTunes
“Wi-Fi hotspot detecting applications are the latest on Apple’s list of verboten apps, and even developers are being left in the dark as to why.
Wi-Fi detection is something of a niche: there were never more than a handful of such applications in iTunes. But now even those have vanished as Apple decided they were using a ‘private framework,’ and has pulled them off the shelves without explanation or apology.”
Fortune: World’s Most Admired Companies
“Which companies have the best reputations? Apple tops the list for the third year in a row.
With 250 million iPods, 43 million iPhones, and 32 million iPod touches sold to date, plus the promise of a game-changing iPad, Apple won this year’s vote by the highest margin ever for a No. 1. Two more years as champ and Apple will match GE for most appearances in the top spot.
What makes Apple so admired? Product, product, product.”
Home Simpson’s iPhone
The 10-second gag from the Jan 31 Simpsons episode.
Headlines: 29 Jan 10
Filed under: 3G, App Store, Apple Corporate, Steve Jobs, VoIP, Wi-Fi, iPad
“The iPad 3G wasn’t pictured at the event but is in Apple’s gallery. The difference is obviously the black patch on the back which also comes over the top of the device until it hits the screen. The plastic allows for better 3G (and GPS?) signals to reach the internal antennas.”
Apple’s iPad Promo Materials Misleading on Adobe Flash Support
“When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad on Wednesday, his live demonstrations with the device clearly showed the Safari browser was not capable of playing Adobe Flash. However, promotional images on Apple’s Web site show that same content loading just fine.”
iPhone Users Can Now Make Internet-Based Calls
“Apple this week allowed new versions of several Voice over Internet Protocol services to begin working on the iPhone, according to those services. Previously, iPhone users needed a wireless Internet connection to make such calls, but the change will allow calls from anywhere that receives a strong enough 3G cellular signal.”
AT&T Wireless Says No Changes to Data Price Plans, but Will Encourage Reduced Network Usage; 3G Comes to Vermont
AT&T dismissed speculation that the carrier is planning to change the way it prices data plans for its wireless customers, but said it will give customers incentives to limit their use of its wireless network for browsing the Internet or downloading apps, reports the Wall Street Journal.
There has been speculation that the company might charge wireless customers based on how much data a customer uses rather than the unlimited plans that are popular today.
The Journal added that AT&T is “considering making more Wi-Fi hot spots free for its mobile customers, where they can access the Internet on a faster network than the cellphone network. It is also running trials of femtocells, boxes that use a home Internet connection and act as mini cellular towers. The purpose is to take significant amounts of traffic off of AT&T’s wireless network.”
Elsewhere, the website of the Burlington Free Press reports that AT&T has finally brought 3G service to almost all of Vermont.
The 3G deployment, which began in 2006, says AT&T, couldn’t come soon enough for Matt Lash of South Burlington, who switched from Verizon to AT&T in order get an iPhone. “The Internet speeds are just a snail’s pace,” he said. “I’m paying for a $30 data plan that I can’t even use. It’s just ridiculous.”
AdMob Brings Interactive Video Ads to the iPhone
Filed under: 3G Network, Apps, Wi-Fi, advertising
Video ads are becoming commonplace on the desktop web so it’s not surprising that they have now migrated to the mobile web found on smartphones like the iPhone.
San Mateo-based Ad Mob, which was recently purchased by Google for $750 million, yesterday unveiled its “Interactive Video Ad Unit for iPhone.” The video ads can either play when a user launches an app or when a user chooses to view them.
In either case, the video ads come with what AdMob calls “action buttons.” In addition to stopping and starting the ads, action buttons also allow you to purchase an advertised app, get further information about a product, share video content with friends, or connect to social networking sites — all from within the video ad’s player.
AdMob says that for each video ad, the company creates multiple bitrate encodings of the video files and then dynamically stream the most appropriate file size based on the devices’ EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi connection.
Analyst Details iPhone’s Meteoric Rise as Mobile Trailblazer
Filed under: 3G, 3G Network, 3GS, AT&T, App Store, Apps, Bandwidth, Smartphone Market, Wi-Fi, iPod Touch
It was clear when the iPhone was first released in 2007 — and then when the App Store launched last July — that Apple’s smartphone was a game-changer.
At the Web 2.0 Summit yesterday, Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker put some numbers on the iPhone’s astonishing popularity and success.
The chart below shows the growth of data traffic on AT&T’s mobile network. It is 50 times higher than it was three years ago.
The chart (the arrows are courtesy of TechCrunch) gives some credence to AT&T’s claims that its less-than-stellar performance as the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. wireless carrier is due in part to being broadsided by the phone’s remarkable popularity.
The adoption of the iPhone and iPod Touch is outstripping the early adoption of the desktop Internet, as represented by AOL and Netscape in Meeker’s chart below. It also outstrips the early growth of NTT Docomo’s imode, which was the most successful example of the first generation of mobile Web adoption in Japan.
The chart overlays the first 20 quarters of user growth for each product. Only eight quarters after launch, the iPhone and iPod Touch has more than twice as many users (57 million) as imode (25 million), notes TechCrunch, five times as many as Netscape (11 million), and eight times as many as AOL (7 million) at a comparable points in their histories.
The iPhone and iTouch are also the fastest-growing consumer electronics products of all time. Their adoption ramp is even steeper than videogame consoles including the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and Sony PSP. The original iPod and Blackberry aren’t even in the same ballpark.
Trade Group Announces Specifications for Direct Connections Between Wi-Fi-Capable Devices
The Wi-Fi Alliance, a consortium of companies whose members include Apple, has announced what it calls “groundbreaking specifications” that will make it simpler and easier for Wi-Fi devices like cell phones, cameras, printers and laptop computers to connect to one another.
Under the specification, which will be introduced in mid-2010, devices won’t need to join a traditional home, office of hotspot network to connect to one another but instead will be able to connect to one another directly.
“The specification, previously code-named ‘Wi-Fi peer-to-peer,’ can be implemented in any Wi-Fi device, from mobile phones, cameras, printers, and notebook computers, to human interface devices such as keyboards and headphones,” said the trade group in a press release. “Significantly, devices that have been certified to the new specification will also be able to create connections with hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED legacy devices already in use. Devices will be able to make a one-to-one connection, or a group of several devices can connect simultaneously.”
The specification targets both consumer electronics and enterprise applications, provides management features for enterprise environments, and includes WPA2 security, the Wi-Fi Alliance said.
Devices that support the specification will be able to discover one another and advertise available services. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct devices will support typical Wi-Fi ranges and the same data rates as can be achieved with an infrastructure connection, so devices can connect from across a home or office and conduct bandwidth-hungry tasks with ease.
