Vodafone India has already begun taking contract pre-registrations on the iPhone 3G, according to an announcement. The move is unusual in that the company has yet to disclose a final release date for the device, although rival Bharti Airtel is expected to release it on July 11th along with the initial wave of iPhone 3G deployments. Bharti has not formally announced any iPhone plans, including any registration campaigns.
Problematic for both companies is that the new phone will not have a 3G network to operate on. The Indian government has yet to finalize guidelines on an auction of 3G frequencies and licenses, meaning that iPhone owners will be forced to run on 2 or 2.5G technology for months or years. One major obstacle is said to be whether foreign companies will be eligible for bidding on 3G spectrum.
It is meanwhile rumored that in the UK and Ireland, O2’s pre-registration is set to begin on July 1st. The goal is to alleviate traffic due to Apple’s mandatory in-store activation policy, and as a result people will allegedly be able to visit an O2 store early, run through credit checks, and have a “paused” contract put in place. To get a phone working on launch day, shoppers will simply have to supply a registration code when picking up the device.
Several Apple patent applications have today been published by the US Patent and Trademark Office, focusing around wireless location technology. The first involves Bluetooth devices, and specifically a means of finding them when they are lost; a master device “pings” the lost slave, which in turn makes audible or visible signals to lure a person towards its hiding place. The master could also be used gauge the distance to the slave, narrowing its location down even further.
The application makes specific reference to a cellphone as the master, and the slave being a headset; in theory this would allow iPhone owners to locate missing earpieces, but the current model does not have such a function. The invention was first submitted to the USPTO in November of 2006.
Another published document describes a technology related to wireless range, in which users of a device would be warned that they are wandering out of range. Apple notes that while many devices will tell people that their signal is low, its invention would deliver an estimated time before signal is lost. The technology would again apply mainly to cellphones, but virtually any kind of wireless could be supported, including WiFi, PCM and even infrared. This patent was also originally filed for in 2006.
Apple has announced that in the first four days following the release of the beta iPhone SDK, over 100,000 downloads have been processed through the Apple Developer Connection, to which people must officially belong before they can use the software. “Developer reaction to the iPhone SDK has been incredible with more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days,” reads a statement by Apple’s senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, Philip Schiller. “Also, over one million people have watched the launch video on Apple.com, further demonstrating the incredible interest developers have in creating applications for the iPhone.”Apple has also let slip the names of some more companies planning iPhone software. These include Intuit, the makers of Quickbooks; NetSuite, who plan to upgrade SuitePhone; and Six Apart, who are developing a native iPhone application for TypePad. Apple has also revealed that PopCap is porting games such as Bejeweled, Zuma and Peggle to the iPhone platform, while Namco is bringing updated versions of Pac-Man and Galaga.
iAno, the new application you can try out on your favorite Apple gadget: mister aardvark’s virtual piano application entitled iAno. Compatible with the latest 1.1.3 firmware from Apple for both the iPhone and iPod Touch, it features a complete four octave keyboard with realistic sounds samples to tickle your musical fancy.
iAno features a complete four octave keyboard. Multi-touch. Up to 5 keys can be pressed at once allowing complex chords. Sounds like a real piano with realistic piano multi-samples. Animated piano keys react to your touch. Play along to all your MP3s. On-screen keyboard navigation allows you to easily move up and down by octaves or “part octaves” (ie. left-most key is a C or an F). To install iAno on your Apple device, make sure to enter the following URL repository to your Installer.app: “http://modmyifone/installer.xml”. The program should then appear under the “Toys” section of the installer.
The developer still has a couple of additions in store for iAno’s future updates, such as a navigation bar which extends the keyboard based on various octaves, a record and playback option, and much more. Watch it now:
As part of Kaleidoscope’s private eco-friendly venture, The Greener Grass, the Ohio-based organization has unveiled Current State, a system designed to help iPhone users monitor power usage in their house. The system consists of a series of pass-through plugs that sit between the power outlet and appliance plugs, taking readings of power usage, and sending them to a software front-end on the iPhone. Pricing and availability for the system were not mentioned. “Our goal is to connect people that are doing and thinking interesting, progressive things and figure out how our skills can mesh with theirs to create a better future for all of us,” says Finn McKenty, Brand Manager at Kaleidoscope. “Life is changing faster every day. This is a way for us to learn more about how and why it’s changing.” He continues, saying that Current State and The Greener Grass are designed to “help make fundamental changes in the way people live and view the world. We are meeting with leaders who make significant contributions to the world through their ideas and businesses. Most importantly, we’re sharing this information and developing valuable product ideas and designs in the process”
In the wake of yesterday’s 16GB upgrade announcement, Apple has released two new TV commercials for the iPhone. Both concentrate not on the device itself, but rather on popular websites that have been given customized iPhone interfaces. The first is dedicated to Facebook, and shows a person browsing news, profiles and pictures; it claims that the iPhone is perfect for people who cannot stop checking Facebook at their computer, since they can now check it anywhere. The second ad visits Kelley Blue Book, the famous guide to car prices. Here Apple suggests that the iPhone is a useful tool in talking to dealers, as it is possible to check on the going prices for vehicles where a salesman might otherwise have the upper hand.
Confirming earlier leaks, Rogers Wireless today began offering its sought-after Communicate Value Pack, the first bundle plan to offer true unlimited web browsing with the Canadian provider. An improvement even on AT&T’s $20 unlimited plan, the Rogers pack allows both unlimited browsing from the device itself as well as 2,500 outbound SMS text messages and 1,000 MMS sent picture or video messages. It also supplies caller ID, recent call history, and voicemail, according to Rogers.The plan adds $20 Canadian (same in US dollars) to the cost of any existing cellphone plan and is limited to ‘feature’ phones; PC cards as well as smartphones either running the BlackBerry or Windows Mobile operating systems are subject to different plans. A separate version of the pack with just the unlimited on-device web browsing is also available, though Rogers has not confirmed the accuracy of the $7 monthly fee leaked ahead of the debut. While the new feature is in part meant to help compete against Bell’s $7 HTC Touch plan, the now official unlimited data plan at Rogers provides an essential component for the potential release of the iPhone in Canada. Rogers has said it would carry the iPhone in Canada since early 2007 but has only gradually relaxed the costs of its cellphone data service, which at one point would have cost nearly $300 per month for just 512MB of data transfer and a fraction of the calling time of the base $60 iPhone plan from AT&T.
IGG Software today released iBank 3 Public Beta, a trial version of its financial management application for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. The software includes iBank for iPhone, a Web-based iPhone application that allows users to enter transactions from an iPhone on-the-go. The update powers a redesigned interface with Mac OS X Core Animation technology, and a new view allows users to ‘flip’ through transactions presented professionally designed category images. iBank 3 Public Beta requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later, and the full version will ship in February for $50.Users can create new interactive graphs with the latest revision of iBank, and double-clicking on a pie slice flips it over to reveal detailed information. The update supports direct transaction downloads from numerous different banks using OFX, and banks that don’t support OFX are accessible via an integrated Web browser. Using Leopard’s Image Kit technology, users can take pictures of receipts or other items and assign them to transactions. Additional new features include smart portfolios for managing investments, and a new loan management module for tracking loans.
The UK branch of European cellular provider Orange hopes to have music rental services on its handsets without copy protection in as little as half a year, the company’s music product director Brenda O’Connell says. Speaking at the MIDEM mobile conference, O’Connell explains that the digital rights management (DRM) that locks down tracks varies widely between computers and cellphones, making it all but impractical to have a unified but device-independent music service without removing DRM entirely.”We’re… very concerned about the fact that customers are really rejecting DRM,” the Orange official says. “We want to launch not only a la carte services but subscription-based services, rental models. DRM is what’s holding us back at this point.” O’Connell does not say how Orange would expect an unprotected rental service to work through conventional means, as the concept would expose any temporary files to illegal copying while they exist on the handset. One proposal, however, would see all content stored on Orange servers, allowing users to stream the music as often as they like while in range of a 3G wireless connection.
Omnifone’s MusicStation service uses a similar concept today but uses protect files on the customer’s phone as a form of local cache that permits listening to some music when the cellular link is switched off. Regardless of implementation, Orange content senior VP Herve Payan believes his firm should have all major labels onboard for the concept “in the next six months,” but that only about 100 handsets available in the world today would be technically capable of supporting such a service. None of these have been named so far. Separately, Payan also describes recent decisions with specific handset makers and notes that Orange agreed to unlimited data plans for Apple’s iPhone in part because of its automatic bridging between EDGE cellular data and Wi-Fi, which makes a data cap impractical. “It is very important to have not just an iPhone but unlimited data because the device goes from mobile to Wi-Fi without telling you – if you don’t have an unlimited data subscription the bill can be quite costly,” he says. The executive also notes that Orange is not averse to maintaining separate, copy-protected stores such as Nokia’s Music Store at the same time. The carrier is in talks with Nokia to ensure that the store is an option but is clearly separate from whatever Orange offers, Payan adds.
Canadian cell provider Rogers Wireless is set to institute a series of changes to its cellular data plans that should pave the way for devices such as the iPhone, according to increasingly corroborated reports. A tip indicates that the carrier will begin offering a reworking of the company’s $20 monthly Communicate Package that allows both unlimited Internet access from a given phone as well as up to 2500 SMS text messages, 1000 MMS picture or video messages, and calling extras such as voicemail and caller ID. A separate $7 plan will offer just the Internet use and 50 minutes of video calling with Rogers’ VISION service, while a $5 plan will offer just the data alone.The Rogers service is believed to mirror similar offerings from AT&T in the US, though offering far more messages than most AT&T plans. Like the American plan, the unlimited transfers would only apply to ‘feature’ phones rather than dedicated smartphones; BlackBerries and Windows Mobile devices would be exempt from the service and have their own separate rates. Rogers will track each phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) to automatically determine whether a device is allowed to use an unlimited plan, though whether this will apply to unlocked handsets is unknown. Tethering those devices that qualify for the unlimited plan to a computer for modem use is expected to incur an extra cost.
The move is believed to partly be a direct reaction to Bell’s $7 data plan, which offers unlimited Internet use for the HTC Touch, as well as to lowered data rates as a whole for competitors. However, the plan is also regarded by observers as a necessary prelude to the introduction of the iPhone to the country. Rogers is the only major provider in the country to operate a GSM phone network needed for the Apple device and has claimed to be bringing the iPhone to Canada since shortly after its unveiling in January 2007, though negotiations are not believed to have begun until after the phone’s US launch in late June. Current reports would have the Rogers data rate change take effect on February 5th but are not believed to be timed with any future Apple introductions.
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