World of Apple

Wild speculation is always fun, but it’s refreshing to see some cold hard experimentation results. These fine Swedes tested the iPhone 3G against the Nokia N73 and the Sony Ericsson P1 in their fancy reception test chamber and found that the iPhone had comparable reception to its competitors. The iPhone even gave the same reception results with wifi, gps and bluetooth turned on as it did with them turned off (the experimenters were concerned that there may be interference between the different signals). Now you can rest at ease that your phone’s signal is just as weak as everyone else’s.

There have been conflicting stories on whether or not foreign users within China can access the iTunes stores of their native countries with some claiming that the stores have been unavailable for days and others reporting no problems at all. Joe Mcdonald, Associated Press Business Writer, reports suspicions that the Chinese government has been blocking access due to the Monday release of Songs for Tibet:

Michael Wohl, executive director of the New York City-based group, said he believed the album was the reason for the iTunes interruption, though he had no proof. “We issued a release saying that over 40 (Olympic) athletes downloaded the album in an act of solidarity, and that’s what triggered it. Then everything got blocked,” Wohl said by phone.

“We are aware of the log-on problems but we have no comment at the moment,” said Huang Yuna, an Apple spokeswoman in Beijing. She declined to say how many customers were believed to be affected.

Computerword blogger Seth Weintraub notes that blockages may simply be caused by increased internet traffic due to the Olympic games.

If it is true that the problems are attributable to government intervention spurred by the release of Songs for Tibet, Apple may find itself in an awkward position of having to decide between business and politics. The Chinese iPhone market is a huge potential source of future profit for the company, yet if certain material is selectively removed to appease an oppressive government, Apple’s reputation in the court of public opinion could be substantially scarred. Both Seth Weintraub (link above) and TheDigitalLifestyle.tv have interesting perspectives on this issue.

There has been no official confirmation of this rumour, but MacDailyNews reports that deals have been reached with three Russian carriers: Mobile TeleSystems, VimpelCom and MegaFon. The ultimate source for this information is the ever-so-elusive “unidentified people familiar with the talks.”

iPhone Talks is also reporting on the unconfirmed story but is only mentioning Mobile TeleSystems who is taking their cue from Apple’s playbook by declining to confirm or deny.

Apple has posted three new iPhone commercials at their site: Lonely Planet, Cro Mag, and Vicinity. The first two ads demonstrate how easy it is to purchase, install, and operate third-party applications, and the third shows off integration of the Vicinity application with Google maps to locate and obtain directions to nearby cafes. I found the last one most effective in creating a child-like sense of wonder.

Some iPhone owners are reportedly locked out of third-party applications after their phones crashed on start-up.

Via AppleInsider, one of their readers received the following response from Jobs:

“This is a known iPhone bug that is being fixed in the next software update in September”

And while the latest firmware update (2.0.2) was supposed to correct the 3G performance issues, there are still some users claiming that it had absolutely no beneficial effect.

Apple needs to fix these problems soon or the hoped-for halo effect will turn into a sinkhole.

With some (possibly unheard) prompting from an MSNBC reporter, Apple has sent out text messages to iPhone users asking that they update to the latest firmware to resolve 3G connectivity bugs. Apple’s response to a reply text of “lol wut?” has not been recorded.

When Apple announced that it expected to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, some were doubtful, such as Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi who projected that Apple could easily come 20% short of its goal. However, the general outlook has changed dramatically. Earlier this month, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster projected that 4.4 million iPhones (up from his prior estimate of 4.1 million) are likely to be sold in the fiscal fourth quarter. Credit Suisse’s Bill Shope is also reconsidering his prior fourth quarter projection of 4.2 million iPhones. (via Tech Trader Daily) As far as total iPhone sales for the year, BusinessWeek reports,

Many analysts expect Apple (AAPL) to sell around 11 million iPhone 3Gs in 2008 and another 25 million in 2009. But perhaps the most optimistic forecast is from Piper Jaffray (PJC) analyst Gene Munster, who expects the company to sell 13 million this year and 45 million next year.

Further a source identified only as “someone familiar with the company’s plan” has told BusinessWeek that Apple is intending to manufacture between 40 million and 45 million iPhones in the next twelve months.

I don’t envy the MobileMe development team one bit for it is upon their shoulders to ensure that this epic win doesn’t turn into an epic fail.

The iPhone shows a lot of promise as a gaming platform and input device, but it’s obviously difficult to say whether it will take off on a whole. Now we see some kind of reassurance in the form of an announcement from a Cyan Worlds employee. Myst, an extremely popular and commercially successful game from the era of CRTs and CD-ROM drives is being ported to the iPhone! If I wasn’t missing the fourth disc, I’d play some Riven right now to celebrate. Reminisce about your days (or months) spent playing this game and how it was totally worth it in the comments.

Myst: Full of totally awesome ships, faux wood and marble stuff.

markm49uk at MacRumors found these excellent photos of the woman who assembled his phone. It appears these test shots were not deleted from his phone.

A comment on the MacRumors thread laments that “[o]nce this spreads into the blogosphere she will be fired.” I certainly hope not, but at the same time fear that iPhones will start to come with flashy marketing-designed photo shoots already in the picture gallery. [MacRumors via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Although fake fans were hired to stand in line in Poland, real fans showed up for the midnight iPhone 3G launch in India. However, Houston, there appears to be a problem.

From IBN Live:

The Apple iPhone 3G (third generation) was launched across India by telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.. . .

Aditya Malik whooped with excitement after he bought his iPhone. “I’m excited because I have got an Apple iPhone. I am not bothered about the price. Good things come at a price,” Malik said. “I have been waiting for a year to buy one. Last year I missed buying the iPhone 2G, which was launched June 5, as I left for the US on June 3. Now I am very happy to have got the latest one,” he said.. . .

Twenty-two-year-old Nishant Arya, a businessman, was equally happy though he has the earlier versions of the iPhone. “I already have five iPhones. This is the sixth. I bought it because my family wanted it. The earlier phones were 2G, this is 3G.“. . .

“More than 30,000 iPhones (2G) are running on the Airtel network alone,” Sanjay Kapoor. president of the mobility division of Airtel said.

[emphases added]

2G? Well gee, this is confusing. You see the 1G wasn’t any G, but the 3G is really the 2G, and the 4G (which is really the 3G) may not be 3G. Or perhaps the G1 isn’t the 1G, but the G2 is the 3G. Whew! For the few who don’t know what I am on about (such as apparently the entire country of India and the editorial staff of IBN Live), many Apple products are affectionately called by their generation number. For example there are first generation iPod nanos and second generation iPod nanos. Older iMacs are often distinguished as a G4 or G5 (meaning fourth generation and fifth generation respectively). However, worlds have collided now that cellular technology and Apple have been fused, and like the ottoman, no one knows what to do with the G.

Psst Aditya, I whooped too. Seriously. I did the Apple store employee happy dance.

UPDATE: A helpful reader noted that I was imprecise in my terminology, caving in to the popular use. The “generation” of the machines refer to the processors inside the machines rather than the actual machine line itself. I was trying to keep things as simple as possible in a subject that is already confusing the heck out of India.