If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Apple computers have enjoyed an excellent second quarter of 2008, with sales growing faster than any other manufacturer.
Gartner is reporting that Apple’s sales grew 38 per cent over the period and the company now has 8.5 per cent of the US market. HP consolidated its position as market leader with over 11 per cent sales growth, giving it a market share of 31.9 per cent. Overall the decaying economic situation has proved something of a boon to PC manufacturers.

View: The full story @ vnunet

CUPERTINO, California—July 14, 2008—Apple® today announced it sold its one millionth iPhone™ 3G on Sunday, just three days after its launch on Friday, July 11. iPhone 3G is now available in 21 countries—Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US—and will go on sale in France on July 17.

“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

The new iPhone 3G combines all the revolutionary features of iPhone plus 3G networking that is twice as fast*, built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs over 800 third party applications available through the new App Store. In the US, the new iPhone 3G is priced at just $199 for the 8GB model, and $299 for the 16GB model**. 

*Based on 3G and EDGE testing. Actual speeds vary by site conditions.
**Requires new two-year AT&T rate plan for qualified customers, sold separately.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Source: apple.com

First the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg jumped the gun, publishing his online review of Apple’s new iPhone 3G on Tuesday night, more than a day before his usual Thursday column appears.

Then, about an hour later, the New York Times responded in kind, posting their own review, by David Pogue, on the NYTimes.com front page. Like Mossberg’s, Pogue’s review is datelined Wednesday, July 9.

About the same time (we’ve lost track of the sequence), America’s third national paper, USA Today, followed suit, posting a review by Edward C. Baig.

And so Apple (AAPL) fans eager to hear if the new iPhone is worth buying get their answer — or rather three answers — well before they have to decide whether or not to stand in line.

More @ Fortune

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off of the iPhone 18 months ago, the wireless establishment offered a smug response. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a Nokia executive sniffed that Apple’s new gadget merely validated his company’s strategy, and voiced his surprise to journalists that the iPhone didn’t use the latest 3G networks for fast data connections. “Overall, it’s very exciting for us,” he said, implying the mighty Nokia had nothing to worry about.

A year and a half later, as the iPhone 3G arrives, Apple’s (AAPL) rivals look a lot more flummoxed. The little gadget has catalyzed the wireless industry, boosting earnings for Apple and U.S. partner AT&T (T), and inspiring an avalanche of copycat touchscreen devices. Samsung has the Instinct, a chunkier, less elegant knockoff. Research in Motion (RIMM) is readying the BlackBerry Thunder. LG has the Dare and Nokia (NOK) the dubiously codenamed “Tube” phone. Each claims to best the iPhone in some feature or other – a better camera, say, or touch-feedback.

Read More @ Fortune

Adobe’s Flash animation/video player, missing from the 3G iPhone that Apple unveiled last week, could still make its way to Apple’s phone sooner or later, via the iPhone’s third-party apps program. If Apple lets it get there.

During Adobe’s Q2 earnings call Monday, chief Shantanu Narayen said that Adobe had tackled some of the technical challenges to getting Flash to work on the iPhone:

We have a version that’s working on the emulation. This is still on the computer and you know, we have to continue to move it from a test environment onto the device and continue to make it work. So we are pleased with the internal progress that we’ve made to date.

Sounds promising. But once the technical work is done, Adobe (ADBE) still has a big business hurdle ahead: Convincing Apple (AAPL) to let Flash onto the iPhone. Apple boss Steve Jobs has been critical of Flash for the iPhone in the past, suggesting that the mobile version of Flash isn’t powerful enough for the iPhone, and that the Mac version is too bloated for mobile gadgets.

The easiest solution, which Adobe could do on its own, is to make a standalone Flash player, which people could use to watch Flash video files or animations by themselves. To get that into the market, Adobe would just need to submit it for inclusion into the iPhone apps store.

But that wouldn’t be anything like the way Flash works on a computer, where it (mostly) seamlessly displays animations, videos, user interfaces, and advertising into the design of a Web site — because it has been integrated into a Web browser.

Adobe could independently achieve that on the iPhone, in theory, by commissioning/building its own Web browser with built-in Flash software — even one using the same Webkit guts as Safari. But assuming this is possible, it would also be very cumbersome. And there’s no guarantee that Apple would allow a Safari competitor into the apps store.

The most elegant solution: Figuring out a deal with Apple to include Flash as a plugin of sorts for the iPhone’s Safari browser. But that would require a much different business relationship than Apple has with the other companies making software for the iPhone apps platform. And even if Adobe aces Flash for the iPhone and makes it the most efficient version of its plugin ever, the business part of the process could hold things up for a while longer.

Will we ever see Flash on the iPhone? For Adobe’s sake, we hope so: We think there’s a bright future for the iPhone platform, and if Flash isn’t a part of it, Adobe is missing out. We admit that the Flash plugin on our Mac isn’t the most polished software we’ve ever used. But there’s certainly some parts of the Web — Hulu, for example — that rely on Flash, and that we’d love to use on the iPhone.

Source: AlleyInsider

5th Avenue, NYC on original iPhone Launch day

The iPhone 3G will launch on July 11th, and we’ve consolidated a few tidbits about launch day. In the meanwhile, readers are organizing regional meetups for launch day.
- iPhone will launch in 20 countries on July 11th: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US. (France and Belgium launches have been delayed)
- In the U.S., the iPhone 3G will be sold at Apple Retail or AT&T stores.
- iPhone 3G sales time is rumored to be 6PM on Friday, July 11th
- If all countries launch the new iPhone at the same local time (6pm), then New Zealand will be the first country where customers will have 3G iPhones in hand. This corresponds to 2am Eastern time on July 11th.
- Both Gizmodo and Engadget have posted FAQs which address the basic questions about the iPhone 3G.
- Reports of required in-store activation in the U.S. remain, but one unconfirmed tidbit we’ve heard is that customers with existing iPhones will be shunted to a separate line and will simply need provide the new IMEI number (printed on the outside of the box) from their iPhone 3G. Activation will reportedly then be completed at home after switching your sim card to the new phone and plugging into iTunes. If true, this would speed up sales for those upgrading their existing phones and also leave the iPhone 3G’s packaging intact (to the relief of many).
We expect more confirmed details to emerge in the weeks leading up to the launch.

Source: MacRumors

Apple took us into a dramatically lit back-room to check out the new iPhone 3G. Here’s what you need to know:

• We did a quick data test — at our location we went from 104Kbps on the EDGE iPhone to 215Kbps on the 3G model. 2x ain’t bad, yo.
• The enable/disable 3G setting is real, and buried a few menus deep. There is no automatic switching, Apple just assumes you’ll leave 3G on, and that the iPhone has the juice to support that usage.
• It’s tri-band 3G, as we reported the other day. This same phone will ship worldwide.
• WiFi is still 802.11b/g, no support for n yet.
• Yes, that GPS is A-GPS, just as we mentioned.
• Geotagging photos is a thumbs-up. We were deep indoors though, so native GPS wasn’t working and we couldn’t get a clear idea of satellite acquisition time.
• The screen looks exactly the same — maybe a tiny bit brighter, but the unit was new, so it’d be negligible.
• The camera is identical to the first — 2 megapixels. No front-facing camera (of course).
• It’s certainly thicker feeling, but they rocked it Treo-style and really tapered those edges, so it just doesn’t feel that different. But because of that curved back, it’ll dance around on your table a little more than your completely-flat original iPhone.
• The plastic back didn’t feel too cheap. In fact, it felt pretty solid. It’s very glossy, so it’ll pick up fingerprints just as well as the glass up front (yay).
• It comes with a ridiculously, absurdly small power adapter. It basically looks like a tiny square with a USB port on one side, and power prongs on the other. It will power any other iDevice (iPod touch, 1st gen iPhone, etc.), and sell separately for those that want a smaller adapter.
• The dock (now sold separately) and adapter (if you want an extra) will both go for something like $29, although that price is not yet confirmed.
• No mention was made of copy/paste, MMS, etc.
• It doesn’t look like this thing is going to fit in your old dock. The new dock does look smaller and more sculpted to the new iPhone’s curves.
• The headphone jack is flush, as mentioned. It’s still 3.5mm, so if you don’t like the out of box phones (which won’t stay in our ears), bring your own, no problem — and no adapter needed!
• Yes, original iPhones are totally gone, you won’t be seeing those made anymore. Long live the aluminum back!

It looks like they took an amazing device and made it significantly better. If the battery life is as good as they claim, we think this will steamroll the competition in the enterprise space. And even if it doesn’t, at $199 it’s going to be extremely hard for people to resist.

Source: http://www.engadget.com

July 11 the 3G iPhone will reach the snatching hands of the crazed public. The new iPhone supports new features such as 3G wireless (surprise!), GPS mapping, enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, and the new App Store. Keeping in line with the original iPhone, you get the same major features: widescreen iPod, and desktop-class web browser. It also includes smart sensors that help save battery life by adjusting the backlight based on ambient light.
The 3G iPhone is presented with the lines: "Twice as fast. Half the price." The price will start at $199.

Link: Apple 3G iPhone Features

A researcher has created a proof-of-concept site that graphically demonstrates the risk Windows users face when using Apple’s Safari browser. Microsoft’s security team already warned that a "blended threat" was so serious that Windows users should curtail their use of Safari until a security patch is available. This blog post from researcher Liu Die Yu makes it clear the warning was by no means overstated.
Clicking on this link with Safari using default settings automatically downloads a booby-trapped file onto a Windows user’s desktop with no prompting. The next time the user opens Internet Explorer, the force-fed file automatically causes the notepad.exe application to launch and open a non-existent file. Of course, miscreants could choose far more nefarious code.
When informed that its browser downloads files with no prompting, Apple said it may get around to changing this behavior at some point. In other words, this is no big deal from a security perspective, so let’s all move on. This demo suggests otherwise.

View: The full story @ The Register

We have a very trusted source inside the mobile phone industry, and we have confirmation of the new iPhone 3G tech specs and announce date.
This is what we can confirm:
* 16GB memory available on launch date, 32GB will follow later in the year.
* iPhone will have different color covers.
* 5 megapixel camera
* One-touch photo geotagging. This also confirms built-in GPS support.
iPhone will be announced on June 9, but it won’t be available the same day. It will be sold on different dates on each country and largely depends on the phone carriers.

Via: Appleweblog