Apple's iPhone sold out online in US, UK

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hPl5tXmZ1Mnir5niVAfB33KiTqLgD90KB56O3
Apple's iPhone sold out online in US, UK
By JORDAN ROBERTSON

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple Inc. said Monday its online stores in the U.S. and U.K. are sold out of the iPhone, a sign supplies are being winnowed ahead of the launch of the device's next generation featuring faster Internet surfing speeds.

The Cupertino-based company confirmed that the iPhone is out of stock online, but added that brick-and-mortar stores run by Apple and iPhone carriers including AT&T Inc. might still have units available. Apple has been known for clearing out its inventory of a certain product ahead of a major upgrade. Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment on reasons for the shortage and on Apple's plans for an update to the device, which is widely expected to be unveiled in June at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The paucity of iPhones for sale in some markets comes as Apple is hustling to meet its goal of selling 10 million of the hybrid iPod-cell phone-Internet surfing gadgets by the end of 2008. So far, Apple has sold 5.4 million iPhones, according to the latest data as of the end of March.

One way Apple's expanding the iPhone's reach is by inking deals with wireless carriers around the world, even breaking with its pattern of requiring exclusivity to sell in a certain country.

On Monday, four mobile providers in the Asia-Pacific region announced partnerships with Apple to bring the iPhone to their regions later this year. SingTel will sell the gadget in Singapore, Bharti Airtel Ltd. in India, Globe Telecom Inc. in the Philippines and Optus in Australia, the companies said in a brief joint statement, without giving details.

SingTel owns Optus and holds a 30.5 percent stake in Bharti and 44.5 percent in Globe. SingTel has about 2.3 million mobile subscribers in Singapore and around 7 million in Australia, according to data as of Dec. 31, 2007. Bharti currently has about 64 million subscribers, while Globe reported a 21.3 million mobile subscriber base for the quarter ended March 31.

Last week, the top mobile phone operator in Latin America, America Movil SAB, also announced plans to deliver the iPhone to its region. America Movil has 159.2 million subscribers in 16 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico.

In recent weeks Apple has also signed deals with Rogers Communications Inc. to sell the device in Canada; Milan-based Telecom Italia SpA to sell the iPhone in Italy; and Vodafone Group PLC, the world's biggest mobile company by sales, to sell it in a total of 10 countries, including Australia, India, Italy and Turkey. Until the spate of the latest deals, Apple adhered to its policy of exclusivity with one carrier in each country. The exclusive deals for the iPhone were with AT&T Inc. in the United States, O2 in Britain, T-Mobile in Germany and France Telecom's Orange wireless arm in France.Industry observers say some people may be holding off on buying an iPhone until the much-rumored next-generation of the device is launched, and the phone is officially rolled out in more countries.

It takes some technical gymnastics, but it's still possible to get the phone in some markets where Apple doesn't have arrangements with wireless carriers. Many of the phones sold so far have been bought legitimately in one country, modified to work on any cellular network, and resold in countries where Apple doesn't have agreements to sell the iPhone. The trend expands the iPhone's reach but deprives Apple of some of the subscriber fees that Apple splits with its carrier partners. Another knock against the iPhone's current design is that it works over so-called 2.5G networks instead of the faster 3G, or third-generation, cell phone networks, which are popular outside the U.S. The difference in performance is similar to a dial-up Internet connection versus a high-speed broadband connection.

Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, has said Apple went with the slower cellular technology because the chips for 3G networks were too bulky and power-hungry when the iPhone was being designed, and because the iPhone automatically switches to faster Wi-Fi networks when they're available. The next generation of iPhones is expected to work over 3G networks, which makes tasks like downloading videos easier. Apple is also planning a software update for this summer that makes the iPhone work better with corporate e-mail, a necessary upgrade to help the iPhone compete with Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry and Palm Inc.'s Treo smart phones.

Girding for a fight with Apple in the business-oriented smart-phone space, Research In Motion on Monday unveiled the Bold, its first BlackBerry model to work over 3G, helping its shares climb to an all-time high of $143.08. The stock closed Monday up $9.20, or 6.9 percent, at $141.97.

Apple shares closed up $4.71, or 2.6 percent, at $188.16.
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Optus set to sell the iPhone in Australia

May 13, 2008

Optus has announced that it will become the second mobile phone carrier in Australia to sell the iPhone.The two-sentence press release confirms speculation that the Singapore-owned telco will sell the Apple iPhone, several days after a similar announcement from Vodafone.It did not contain any dates or prices, saying more information would "be released at a later date".The release also said the iPhone would be sold in Singapore (by SingTel), in India (Bharti Airtel) and the Philippines (Globe).

Nathan Burley, an analyst with telecommunications and IT consultancy company Ovum, said last week's announcement by Vodafone had strengthened rumours that Optus had also signed an agreement with Apple."When the Vodafone agreement happened we didn't think it was exclusive in Australia," he said. Mr Burley added that while the iPhone may be sold unlocked, it will still tie consumers to one carrier.

"I don't expect it will be too different to what we see with a number of handset manufacturers today," he said."If you buy a handset on a contract you have a contract with that provider."Apple CEO Steve Jobs is expected make an announcement about the iPhone at Apple's worldwide developer's conference on June 9 in San Francisco.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/optus-to-sell-apples-iphone/2008/05/13/1210444380242.html

Hacking the iPhone

The wireless industry is being dragged kicking and screaming into the open-source future.
By Jon Healey
August 6, 2007
LA Times

For the past few weeks, exceptionally geeky gadget lovers have been celebrating a series of breakthroughs in the pursuit of one of their Holy Grails: opening the Apple iPhone to software applications not written or approved by Apple. Their dedication and success is a harbinger of things to come for the wireless industry, which is headed, kicking and screaming, into a long and fitful transition from central control to user liberation. That transition is being fueled by devices such as the iPhone, and by federal regulators, who imposed unprecedented requirements for openness last week on a new generation of wireless services.

The iPhone -- called the Jesus Phone by some, in light of its worshipful following -- shares many of the same handicaps that bedevil other U.S. cellular devices. It can be used on only one mobile network (AT&T's, or more specifically AT&T's second-tier data network). And while users can put song files, pictures and TV shows onto their iPhones, they can't install software (or ringtones, oddly enough -- at least not yet). That means no Skype, for example, or any other service that requires specially installed software.

But Apple did carve out a doggy-door into the iPhone. It invited developers to create web-based applications and services that the iPhone could run in its browser. Developers responded with an array of offerings, including online news readers, instant-messaging programs and even voice-over-IP services. The main drawback is that the programs and services work only while the iPhone is connected to a WiFi access point or AT&T's poky data network.

That's much more freedom to develop and customize than other phones allow, mainly because their Web browsers don't measure up to Apple's Safari. Yet it still wasn't enough for some critics, who complained that even Safari offered too limited a set of software-writing tools. Potential innovators would be handcuffed without being able to tap the phone's full computing power, the argument went.

That's why a loosely organized group of code-writers started hacking their way into the heart of the iPhone, trying to write applications that could be installed and operated on the phone the same way programs can be loaded onto a Mac. So far, they've developed several basic applications, starting with one that displayed a two-word message on the iPhone screen: "Hello world." (If that sounds pointless, bear in mind where the phrase has been used before.) Among the current crop of iPhone-able applications is an an open-source program to feed content onto the Web.

These hacks require more technical know-how than the vast majority of mobile-phone customers have. But if someone develops an application that the masses might find compelling, a version will surely follow that's simple enough for the masses to use. And as the number of iPhone users grows -- Apple's target is 10 million by the end of 2008 -- so, too, will the incentive for developers to try to fashion a killer app.

This pattern is familiar to anyone who watched the rise and fall of America Online. In the early days of ISPs, the alien complexity of computers and the 'Net led millions of users to crave the simplicity that AOL offered inside its "walled garden," or private network. But while AOL was keeping a tight lid on what was available on its network, entrepreneurs had complete freedom to develop sites and services on the public Internet. Eventually, AOL's users found more to like on the unrestricted Web than they could within the safety and comfort of AOL's walled garden.

Wireless network operators have revived the walled-garden model in an effort to wring more cash out of their customers. Verizon Wireless is probably the most extreme example; it disables features on its phones, blocks numerous third-party services and even tries to collect extra fees for transferring pictures from a cellphone to a PC. This approach might be sustainable as long as mobile phones are primarily phones, but the iPhone represents something different: an all-purpose device for staying connected. It's a mobile Internet terminal as much as it is a cellphone, and Internet users don't like to be fenced in by their ISPs.

The Federal Communications Commission acknowledged as much last week when it set the rules for auctioning a portion of the airwaves once reserved for UHF TV signals, technically known as the 700 MHz band. While police and firefighters will get first crack at a portion of those frequencies, most of the band is expected to be used to offer wireless high-speed Internet access service. The FCC had imposed few rules on wireless operators in the past, under the theory that competition in the market would yield better results than regulation. But in a contentious shift, the commission placed a new burden on a slice of the 700 MHz band frequencies large enough for a new national broadband network: it required the winning bidder(s) to open the network to compatible devices and applications from any source.

The goal, as stated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, is to spur innovation. Removing the network operator's ability to bless or reject devices could throw the market open to anyone with a novel idea or business model. The same may be true for application developers, such as Skype and Google, who have been pressing the FCC for this kind of open access (in Skype's case, not just in the 700 MHz band, but for mobile phone networks as well). At a congressional hearing last month, entrepreneur Jason Devitt laid out several examples of services currently missing from mobile phone networks that independent developers might be more capable or motivated to offer in an open-network environment, such as more location-based services.

Skeptics say that Martin undermined his own efforts by not imposing rules that would prevent the current mobile phone operators, such as Verizon and AT&T, from gobbling up the new licenses. Those companies have a huge incentive to outbid rivals who might compete with their lucrative high-speed Internet services, and they can price and package their services in the 700 MHz band in ways that render the new requirements meaningless (for starters, by subsidizing their own devices so heavily that no independent manufacturer could compete).

Still, as the iPhone and its hacks illustrate, the pressure for openness on the wireless networks is building, and moving to higher data speeds will only intensify it. Look at the meteoric rise of the original Napster, the iTunes Music Store and YouTube. A good idea, with or without the support of the affected industry, can rapidly build an audience of millions, and change paradigms . The new requirements on part of the 700 MHz band should make it easier for device-makers and applications developers to let the market judge the value of their ideas. And if they're really good, network operators would be better off letting these innovations increase the demand for their airwaves, rather than trying in vain to wall them off.

Jon Healey is a member of The Times' editorial board and author of the BitPlayer blog. Send us your thoughts at opinionla@latimes.com.

Touchy: company claims patent violation on iPhone’s keyboard

How to tell when a product is a success? When it starts generating numerous lawsuits. On top of the class action battery suit comes a second legal action against Apple, this time on charges of patent violation. A company called SP Technologies is seeking “reasonable royalties” for the iPhone’s usage of a virtual touch-screen keyboard.

At the center of the controversy is a patent which describes “method and medium for computer readable keyboard display incapable of user termination.” Of course, if patents were ponies, we’d never walk again—or something like that. SP claims that Apple knew of the patent, and thus willfully and deliberately violated the intellectual property.

I’m pretty sure that any number of companies are going to be digging through their patent reserves to see if they can find the barest hint of something in the iPhone that could potentially violate patents. I doubt this is the last lawsuit we’ll see.
http://iphone.macworld.com/2007/08/touchy_company_claims_patent_v_1.php

New CRM for Apple's iPhone

(PRWEB) July 24, 2007 -- EBSuite ( http://crm.ebsuite.com ) released its specially designed site for Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone users to access their EBSuite account easily via the new mobile interface.

George Triantifillo, Director of Security for S3 described the application as: "Its perfect" "I haven't used my computer since I got my iPhone. My staff and I just finished the security for the Tim McGraw show in Chicago and everything went really smooth, my appointments, tasks, and contacts are available instantly in the iPhone.."

EBSuite's CRM application has a new specially designed mobile iPhone access site. Our users can access all their CRM information via our new mobile interface. It is optimized for the iPhone's screen size to work in any direction (vertical or horizontal). Each CRM feature has been redesigned for easy access to information from iPhone's touch screen. EBSuite's CRM and iPhone is ideal to work from anywhere, any time: receive/send emails, files, call customers and complete tasks - in real-time.

MedeFile Personal Electronic Medical Records Now Accessible Anywhere, Anytime With iPhone

CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J., July 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MedeFile International, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: MDFI), a company specializing in portable electronic medical records management solutions, today announced that MedeFile members can now enjoy access to their actual personal medical
records, anywhere, anytime, on the newly released iPhone, a multimedia and Internet-enabled quad-band GSM EDGE-supported mobile phone designed and out MedeFile International, Inc. MedeFile has developed a proprietary system for gathering and digitizing medical records so that individuals can have a comprehensive record of all of their medical visits. MedeFile's primary product is the MedeFile system, a highly secure system for gathering and maintaining medical records. The MedeFile system is designed to gather all of its members' actual medical records and create a single, comprehensive medical record that is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.


Representing an advanced, yet easy-to-use, approach to portable,
electronic medical records management, MedeFile combines state-of-the-art
technology and the Internet to make medical data instantly accessible to
each MedeFile subscriber and his or her authorized healthcare providers
from anywhere in the world. In addition to accessing one's medical records
through MedeFile's secure Internet portal found at http://www.MedeFile.com,
members can carry their entire medical history and emergency information
wherever they go on a unique device called a MedeDrive -- a proprietary USB
drive designed to be carried on a keychain. The MedeDrive plugs into any
USB port of a Windows- based PC; and because MedeDrive automatically loads its own viewer, users do not require any special programs or software to
view data. MedeMobile provides on-the-go subscribers with the ability to
enjoy even greater flexibility and access to their personal health
information wherever and whenever they need it. For more information about MedeFile and the MedeFile system, visit http://www.medefile.com.

Apple has suggestions for longer iPhone battery life

Some new iPhone owners have been complaining about the somewhat short battery life of the iPhone and the biggest problem of all, it's not user replaceable though Apple is quite happy to replace it for you should it die for the low low price of $85. Now, it is trying something new that won't cost you several hours of wages, tips for longer iPhone battery life.

Most of the tips and suggestions are common sense things like turning off WiFi and Bluetooth when those features are not in use.

To preserve your battery life, do not expose the iPhone to extreme heat (isn't that in the manual?) meaning don't leave your iPhone in a car but don't worry if you do, because it won't be there long (someone will steal it).

Remove the iPhone from its case before charging as heat can build up in the case while it is charging the battery and the long term effect is that you will shorten the life of your battery. Just try not to scratch your iPhone while it is out of its case, okay?

According to Apple the iPhone's battery will still hold an 80%~85% charge after 400 or 500 charging cycles so this may not be such a big deal but certainly, anything you can do to prevent damaging the battery (or the iPhone) in any way should certainly be performed rigorously.