iPhone Firmware 1.1.3 100% Confirmed, Breaks Unlock Apps

Here's a video of the iPhone Firmware 1.1.3, with confirmation that the leak is real from Natetrue, famed iPhone hacker. Like before, the update breaks unlocks and third-party apps, patching previous vulnerabilities at the same time. The video shows how to move icons around in the Springboard, wobbling to indicate they can be dragged and dropped around, which is kind of an Apple-meets-Nintendo touch:



We had some doubts, but now we can tell you we are sure: the new firmware 1.1.3 is real. Or as Nate puts it: "if it is a hoax, they did a buttload of work." The fact is that it installs normally and it works perfectly. For those not familiar, Natetrue is one of the most respected and veteran iPhone hackers and the author of the popular app iBrickr.

Nate goes on to say that "it installs on the phone no-questions-asked and for that you need to have Apple's private key, which i can confirm that the iphone hacker community does not have—as much as we would love to have it." Indeed, Apple's private encrypted key, used to authenticate all accesses to the iPhone most-private guts, hasn't been uncovered yet by anyone in the world.

In other words, no firmware upgrades can be installed without the knowledge of this key. Furthermore, the idea that someone would have access to this key and spend months to create a fully functional firmware update, with key new features and without any documentation whatsoever seems just absolutely silly.

Effects on unlocks and Third-party applications

The update breaks AnySim's unlocks. Logically, you can't unlock this update using AnySim and there's no alternative to iTunes for activation. If you want to activate, it will only work using iTunes and a standard AT&T account. Nate says, "that is the only way we have been able to activate so far." Nate tried to upgrade an AnySim 1.2u iPhone and it failed. Even while he was able to force it to boot, the phone refused to activate even with a normal AT&T SIM card. "I suspect it's due to the fact that the baseband could not be upgraded to the 1.1.3 'required' version", he says.

Other updates remain untested, like iPhone Sim Free or any of the hardware-based ones, like TurboSIM. In theory, these should work just fine, but jailbreak and activation would be absolutely impossible for the time being. We would have to wait until the update gets released in the open to try new alternative activation methods.

Your favorite third-party apps will be gone too, with no possibility of return for now. The update fixes the bugs which allowed "the jailbreak method we were using for 1.1.2, locking us out again, as expected."

Other effects

Like previous firmware upgrades, whatever is in the user partition remains unchanged. Only the Apple-owned part is affected by 1.1.3. So for those of you who claim that this is a fake because it says "Nate" in the network instead of "AT&T," that's the reason. He changed the network name in 1.1.2 using a program by Erica Sadun, of TUAW, called Make It Mine.

New features and future releases

The list of new features are confirmed too: all are correct, but he couldn't confirm if they are the only ones or not.
Many of you would be wondering how this could have happened, knowing the extremely tight security around the iPhone firmware updates. We don't know, but apparently the leak has occurred because "someone wanted to help the unlock effort." The source of the leak is completely anonymous, even to the people who have had access to the upgrade.

Why the update hasn't hit Torrent yet? The code could be watermarked to catch any leaks "so for now it's screenshots and videos." Also, distributing it won't make much sense at this point: according to Nate the iPhone 1.1.3 Firmware update could hit as soon as next week.


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For Nokia, Excess is a Vertu

Its luxury division is booming as a high-end cell phone becomes the latest status symbol for the world's richest people

And you thought you were a big spender, splashing out a few hundred on that Apple (AAPL) iPhone or LG (TK) Prada cell phone this holiday season.

For the very rich, a high-end cell phone means something else entirely. They're plunking down thousands —even millions—for handsets loaded with gold, gems, and other over-the-top extras.

The biggest purveyor of cell-phone bling is Vertu. This British subsidiary of mobile phone giant Nokia (NOK) makes phones costing from $6,500 to $72,500. Even the lower-priced models boast fine materials such as Italian leather and 18-carat gold, while top-of-the-line units are studded with hundreds of diamonds and other precious stones. And every phone has access to a concierge service that can help you, say, charter a private jet to the Bahamas.

That Warm Luxury Feeling

The market for such luxury is bigger than you might think. Parent company Nokia doesn't disclose sales figures, but Neil Mawston, associate director at the British telecom consultancy Strategy Analytics, reckons Vertu sells about 200,000 handsets a year at an average $8,000 each. That works out to a cool $1.6 billion, nearly 3% of Nokia's $58 billion revenues.

And, says Mawston, "Vertu is Nokia's version of Ferrari. It creates a warm luxury feeling for the rest of the phone line."

Vertu's president, Alberto Torres, says sales are on track to rise 120% this year. That follows 140% growth in 2006 fueled by booming sales in Russia, China, and the Middle East. "From what we've seen, the creation of a multibillion-dollar market in luxury phones over the next few years is very possible," Torres says.

Sales Up Everywhere

The success of Vertu contrasts with Nokia's strategy of bringing low-cost phones to the masses in emerging markets (BusinessWeek.com, 8/10/07) such as India and Brazil. Surprisingly, these countries are now some of Vertu's most important markets as the mega-rich across the developing world seek the trappings of their newfound wealth.

According to Vertu's Torres, sales in Russia already outstrip those of any country in Western Europe, while the Mideast market should clock triple-digit growth until 2010. Demand is strong in more developed countries, too, with U.S. sales up 200% last year. And Vertu plans to enter the tech-savvy Japanese market in the second half of 2008.

Now some luxurious extras on Vertu handsets are starting to migrate to less expensive Nokia models. In December the Finnish company unveiled two versions of its 8800 series, priced at almost $1,500—that include leather casings and sapphire-encrusted keypads.

Diamonds Are Forever, Until You Upgrade

"Nokia can use what has worked well at Vertu and take it to a wider audience," says Steven Hartley, senior analyst at London telecom consultancy Ovum. "Vertu will remain an aspirational brand, but its ethos will filter down into more mainstream phones." The relationship between Nokia and Vertu could help the Finnish company fend off rivals that are increasingly targeting superrich customers.

Already companies such as Switzerland's GoldVish and Russia's Gresso offer handsets with diamond finishings and solid gold cases that run into the thousands of dollars. The prize for the most expensive phone, though, goes to Russian data-protection company Ancort, whose platinum-covered, diamond-studded Crypto smart phone sells for $1.3 million.

Luxury watchmakers such as Tag Heuer (LVMH.PA) have announced plans to enter the luxury mobile phone market, too. And British custom-phone manufacturer Amosu has thrown its hat in the ring with a diamond-encrusted version of the iPhone that retails for $40,000.

"As Vertu makes more and more money, other vendors will start to look at this market more seriously," says Strategy Analytic's Mawston. For now, however, the combination of Nokia technology and strong customer demand gives Vertu a clear edge in this fast-growing luxury business.

Via Business Week

Google Phone In Spring 2008?

Google, apparently has taken substantial amount of floor space at the upcoming Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain, leading some to speculate that the company might actually be ready to launch its Android based phones

While there is certainly an outside chance of the Google Phone launch, the more realistic and plausible scenario will be Google showing off a few prototype handsets. HTC, is the only handset maker that has publicly said that a device will be available in late 2008.

So why the big presence in Barcelona? Well Google has to win the hearts and minds of the mobile world, find partners and show the seriousness of its mobile efforts.

Via GigaOm

Best "iPhone Killer". Who?

So, there are many iPhone competitors at the market of mobile phones. Thus, we wish to ask the Internet users " iPhone Killer " in your opinion, can make a real competition at the market of mobile phones? Express your opinion!

# Samsung F700

First iPhone Killer - Samsung F700 is an ultra smart HSDPA capable 3.5G mobile phone. The Samsung F700 phone is an elegantly designed mobile phone which includes best range of multimedia features with download speeds of up to 7.2Mbps. The handset supports GPRS, UMTS (3G) and EDGE minus WiFi. The Samsung F700 mobile phone is built with a touch screen with Drag and drop facility and QWERTY key pad. Samsung F700 handset comes with a 5 MP digital camera with auto focus and flash. It also includes a secondary camera to make video calls. You can watch videos, listen to songs, share your photographs and send and receive email with a Samsung F700 handset.

Samsung F700 Hands-On Video:

# LG PRADA

Second iPhone Killer - LG Prada. LG teams up with the fashion house Prada to bring you a beautiful mobile gizmo, the LG Prada KE850. The LG KE850 Prada is a glamorous creation meant to carve a niche for itself with its sensuous black looks. You will be enamored with the exclusive Prada- style 3 inch touch screen display of the LG KE850. The LG Prada is a luxuriously designed handset with a smooth and glossy leather casing. The LG Prada is a perfect gizmo for the music-lovers with its multi-formatted audio player and a decent memory size. The LG Prada KE 850 also packs up different features like a 2 megapixel camera, an MPEG4 video recorder and a document viewer.

LG Prada Phone Video Test:

# Nokia Aeon

Third iPhone Killer - Nokia Aeon. The concept phone will feature a full surface touch screen display that replaces the traditional keypad. Its unique design gives this concept phone an extremely sleek and sexy look. Nokia should use some perfected material that doesn't leave fingerprints on Aeon's touch screen display; otherwise, you will probably spend half your time wiping it.

Nokia Aeon Video:

# Neonode N2

Fourth iPhone Killer - Neonode N2. It's the patented screen technology that enables the unique design of Neonode N2 and makes it so easy to use. You do everything on-screen simple and convenient. Neonode N2 is also an open platform, which means that you can download all the additional applications and features you want your device to have. With Neonode WRR you can also record and fill your Neonode N2 with music from radio channels on the web. It's the patented screen technology that enables the unique design of Neonode N2 and makes it so easy to use. You do everything on-screen simple and convenient. Neonode N2 is also an open platform, which means that you can download all the additional applications and features you want your device to have. With Neonode WRR you can also record and fill your Neonode N2 with music from radio channels on the web.

Neonode N2 Hands-On Video:

# Neo1973

Fifth iPhone Killer - Neo1973. The device, getting thrown together courtesy of the OpenMoko project with the goal of open-sourcing both the phone and the platform, will drop first in $200 "Hacker's Lunchbox" trim (for the aforementioned hackers) late this month featuring a seemingly bombproof plastic box to hold your GPLed bundle of joy and its dev tools.

Neo1973 Video:

# Asus Aura

Sixth iPhone Killer - Asus Aura. The Asus Aura phone will be featured a sliding QWERTY keyboard, a movable navigation module with navigation buttons, a 3.9 touchscreen display, a 2MP camera, GSM, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity. It has some things that the Apple iPhone doesn't, such as HSDPA and UMTS. Sadly, the Asus Aura is just a concept.

# FIC-GTA001

Seventh iPhone Killer - FIC-GTA001. Linux-based, GPS-equipped, quad-band GSM/GPRS phone direct, worldwide, for 350USD or less, in Q1, 2007. First International Computing's (FIC's) "Neo1973" or FIC-GTA001, is the first phone based on the open-source "OpenMoKo" platform.

# BenQ-Siemens Black Box

Eighth iPhone Killer - BenQ-Siemens Black Box. The interesting concept phone from BenQ Siemens. Similar to a concept phone call BenQ Siemens Ruby , the Black Box uses a touch screen as its keypad. Depends on the functions you are using, the touch screen change the control layout immediately.

# Meizu M8

Ninth iPhone Killer - Meizu M8. In terms of raw specs, the M8 is said to sport standard GSM, TD-SCDMA for 3G data, a 3.3-inch widescreen (720x480) display, Bluetooth, and an ARM11 CPU. What's more, they've upped the ante in the camera department, beating Apple's picture-taker by one whole megapixel. The 3MP cam on board is also capable of recording video at 30fps (at the device's full 720 x 480 resolution).

Meizu M8 Video from CeBit 2007:

What your choice?

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Exclusive: Apple to adopt Intel's ultra-mobile PC platform

Kasper Jade

Published: 10:00 AM EST

Apple Inc. will form a closer bond with once-rival Intel Corp. early next year when it begins building a new breed of ultra-mobile processors from the chipmaker into a fresh generation of handheld devices, AppleInsider has learned.

The two firms have been rubbing the sticks ever since the Spring of 2005, when Apple agreed to use Intel's desktop and mobile class processors to further the development of its Mac product line, leaving behind an ailing relationship with PowerPC chip supplier IBM.

In the months that followed, Intel went on to form an internal 'Apple Group' comprised of engineering and sales staff who serve to aid Apple's engineers in Intel-related product development, while pitching to the computer maker new technologies from its own internal skunkwork operations. 

By last March, the two industry heavyweights were admittedly on to something when Deborah Conrad, vice president and director of Team Apple at Intel, told a group of CNet reporters that Apple's way of looking at the world was making Intel "think different" about its own business.

"That's really what's interesting about Apple, is they look at our technology in a very Apple way," she said, adding that when it came to the prospect of future gadgets other than the iPod, her team got "very, very excited."

The pair's first foray into this extended venture appears to have been the Apple TV wireless set-top-box, which employed a down clocked Intel Pentium M "Crofton" chip at its core. But what's on tap next promises to push the envelope in a completely different direction -- ultra-mobile PCs.

People familiar with the matter tell AppleInsider that Apple will soon emerge as one of the largest supporters of Intel's "Menlow" Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform -- the same platform the Santa Clara-based chipmaker has been harping about for the past several months.

More specifically, those same people say, Apple has taken a liking to the upcoming 45-nanometer (nm) "Silverthorne" chip, agreeing to use it in not one but multiple products currently situated on its 2008 calendar year product roadmap. 

Introduced at this year's Spring Intel Developer Forum (IDF) with availability slated for early 2008, Silverthorne is aimed specifically at cell phones, ultra-mobile PCs and other MIDs. The chip is expected to be as fast as the second-generation of Pentium M processors, but use only between half a watt and 2 watts of electrical power -- about one tenth as much as a typical notebook chip.

For his part, Intel chief executive Paul Otellini has gone on record in placing the advancements due with Silverthorne in the same light as those delivered by the original Pentium microprocessor way back when.

"The importance of the new Silverthorne chip is only comparable with the 8088 processor or Pentium,” he told the German-language Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in a June interview. Otellini added that his firm plans to deploy a whole "product family" of 45 nm Silverthorne chips in the near future aimed at capturing the "top 10 to 20 percent of the cellphone market.”

While those people familiar with Apple's product roadmap did not specify in which products the company planned to utilize the Silverthorne processors, two seemingly apparent contenders appear to be the second-generation 3G iPhone and the much rumored Newton successor / ultra-portable slate computer.



That's because, in addition to its extremely favorable power envelope, Silverthorne can fit onto a scant 74mm by 143mm motherboard -- paving the way for lighter, sleeker industrial designs. What's more, Intel in September announced plans to offer ultra-mobile PC builders such as Apple the option to build WiFi, 3G, and WiMAX technologies into their Menlow-based chip packages, such as Silverthorne.

While embedded support for these features threatens Apple's ongoing relationship with several component makers like South Korea-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) supplier Samsung -- whose chips power both the iPhone and new iPod touch -- it presents several cost- and space-saving opportunities for iPhone-like gadgets going forward.

Speaking at the Spring IDF, Otellini said Silverthorne focuses more on cost-efficiency than any of his company's recent designs, which should help Intel boost margins while simultaneously making ultra-mobile computing more affordable worldwide.



"Silverthorne is the most cost efficient processor since the 286," he said, wielding a 300mm wafer containing a whopping of 2500 of the 45nm processors. "But it is about 100 times faster."

Otellini promised that the average price of a Silverthorne-based product would be approximately $100, which in itself suggests numerous inexpensive devices for Apple. However, several pricier products are also expected to sport the technology alongside added features.

It remains unclear whether Apple will be ready to divulge details of its own Silverthrone-based products at next month's Macworld Expo, or if those announcements will be reserved until a later date to coincide with general availability of the Intel chip.

Nevertheless, Apple's decision to adopt the Menlow platform further suggests a longer-term strategy that would indeed see the electronics maker step up to that platform's successor, Moorestown, in 2009 or 2010.


Intel shows off iPhone-like concept device running on Moorestown platform | Image courtesy of DailyTech.

At the most recent Fall IDF, Intel executives flaunted an unnamed Moorestown processor, describing it as the 'chip the iPhone would have wanted.' Similar to Silverthorne, the 45nm design bundles an integrated memory controller, video encode/decode engine and graphics processor all on a single SoC.

During an ensuing demonstration, executives whipped out an iPhone-like ultra-mobile PC in apparent homage to Apple, explaining that the Moorestown-based device could run constantly for 24 hours between charges.

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Nokia to W3C - "Ogg Is Proprietary, DRM Good"

Nokia has filed a submission with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) objecting to the use of Ogg Theora as the baseline video standard for the Web. Ogg is an open encoding scheme (On2, the company that developed it, gave it and a free, perpetual unlimited license to its patents to the nonprofit Xiph foundation), but Nokia called it "proprietary" and argued for the inclusion of standards that can be used in conjunction with DRM, because "from our viewpoint, any DRM-incompatible video related mechanism is a non-starter with the content industry (Hollywood). There is in our opinion no need to make DRM support mandatory, though."

DRM -- Digital Rights Management, or Digital Restrictions Management -- is technology that prevents you from using some files by taking over part of your computer so that it won't obey your requests. DRM is always proprietary. Before a DRM is released, it is infected with "Hook IP" -- a patent or trade secret that is introduced to the technology so that the only way you can implement the DRM is by licensing the Hook IP. Anyone who licenses the Hook IP is forced to promise to make their DRM behave as intended, preventing uses and taking over computers and devices. Without Hook IP, a company could implement the DRM but leave out the restrictions, shipping products that allow all the uses their competitors' products deny. Hook IP gives the DRM maker something to sue over if this happens.



So DRM is by definition proprietary. If it's not proprietary, it can't be DRM.

And, of course, Ogg Theora is not proprietary. It does have some patents covering it, but those patents have been surrendered, to all intents and purposes.

Most importantly, the W3C is probably the purest anti-proprietary standards body on the planet, having already rejected any kind of licensing conditions or fees for its standards, setting the bar for anyone who wants to add to the Web: such additions have to be as free as the Web itself.

Nokia intervention here is nothing short of bizarre. Ogg is not proprietary, DRM is, and DRM-free may be a "non-starter" for Hollywood today, but that was true of music two years ago and today, most of the labels are lining up to release their catalogs without DRM. The Web, and Web-based video, are bigger than Hollywood. The Web is not a place for proprietary technology or systems that take over your computer. For Nokia (and Apple, who also lobbied hard for DRM inclusion) to get the Web this badly wrong, this many years into the game, is really sad: if you haven't figured out that the Web is open by 2007, you just haven't been paying attention.

Some Slashdot commenters have pointed out that they have technical problems with Ogg Theora. That's a valid discussion to have -- if the W3C is going to pick a video codec, its technical merits should be discussed. But remember, that's not what Nokia is objecting to: they are arguing that Ogg is proprietary (it isn't) and that DRM should be part of a Web standard (it shouldn't).

PDF link to Nokia's W3C submission

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Pownce Mobile Now Live!

Pownce now has a full featured Mobile site for use with mobile devices. Looks great on the iPhone!

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MS targeting iPhone Safari in next Win Mobile?

The next version of Microsoft's mobile OS beyond Windows Mobile 6.1 will be the first to directly tackle advancements brought about by the iPhone, according to statements the company has made at the recent Mobius conference and echoed by Engadget. The unnamed update will effectively port a desktop version of Internet Explorer to the handset environment to render web pages in a largely accurate manner similar to that of Apple's mobile Safari browser. Programs for managing music, photos, and other content will also be made easier to use than current incarnations.

A longer-term update will bring more dramatic changes, Microsoft says. The software developer hopes to make the interface much easier to use with fingers compared to today's OS, which includes numerous small elements that are often difficult to activate without a stylus. It would also include a global search feature similar to those found in Windows Vista or Mac OS X as well as a correlation feature that offers context-sensitive information such as e-mail addresses depending on current actions.



The web browser update may depend heavily on technology pioneered in the company's Deepfish project, which adds a whole-page view of a site and maintains the original layout rather than attempt to fit the contents to the smaller view window common to cellphones.



Microsoft has not issued a schedule for when it expects any of the updates to appear, though the firm is expected to release Windows Mobile 6.1 by early 2008 and typically does not issue frequent updates to the software.

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Verizon Embraces Google's Android

In yet another sudden shift, Verizon Wireless plans to support Google's (GOOG) new software platform for cell phones and other mobile devices. Verizon Wireless had been one of several large cellular carriers withholding support from the Android initiative Google launched in early November.

But given the stunning U-turn Verizon Wireless made Nov. 27, announcing plans to allow a broader range of devices and services on its network, Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam says it now makes sense to get behind Android. "We're planning on using Android," McAdam tells BusinessWeek. "Android is an enabler of what we do."

McAdam's Open-Access Campaign

Though skeptics see ulterior motives and question just how easy Verizon will make it for rival products to get on its network, the surprise embrace of an open-access model and of the Android software culminates a dramatic yearlong evolution in the company's thinking. The effort, championed by McAdam, involved meetings with the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and late-night bull sessions with the top two executives at Verizon Communications (VZ), which owns Verizon Wireless in partnership with Vodafone (VOD).

All the while, McAdam kept focus by carrying a crumpled piece of paper in his pocket with seven bullet points defining what an open-access policy would mean to Verizon Wireless. "The paper is all wrinkled and it's got coffee stains," he says.

McAdam was more amenable to shifting gears thanks to time spent during the 1990s in Europe and Asia, where the wireless industry is more of a free-for-all. As vice-president for international operations at AirTouch Communications, now a part of Verizon Wireless, McAdam says he was impressed that European and Asian mobile carriers backed technologies that allow subscribers to switch to rivals with ease.

By contrast, Verizon Wireless has created the most profitable U.S. cellular business by tightly restricting the devices and applications allowed to run on its network. But over the past year, the company's leadership came to conclude that it was time for a radical shift. Such a move, they reckoned, might help Verizon Wireless keep growing while holding down costs.

Combating Market Saturation

When Verizon Wireless was founded in 2000, it ran 27 call centers to provide customer service. The company cut back to as few as 17 centers at one point, but the count is now back to 25, each with about a thousand employees. The company's 2,300 stores, staffed by 20,000 employees, are also costly. While workers in those stores used to spend nearly the entire day signing up new customers, now only a tenth of their time is consumed by new subscribers. Instead, the bulk of their energy goes to helping current subscribers with questions and problems. McAdam & Co. decided the business model was not sustainable. "If we get to 150 million customers, boy, that's a lot of overhead," says McAdam.

In an open-access model, though, Verizon Wireless won't offer the same level of customer service as it does for the roughly 50 phone models featured in its handset lineup. Though the company will insist on testing all phones developed to run on its network in the open-access program, Verizon plans only to ensure the wireless connection is working for customers who buy those devices. "They have to talk to their handset provider or their application provider if they have particular issues," McAdam says.

What's more, the open-access approach may enable Verizon to tap into niche markets that haven't been worth targeting. Verizon Wireless subsidizes the cost of all the handsets it sells directly to customers. Thanks to the costly process of developing phones with the likes of Samsung and LG, then testing each for hundreds of factors such as how hot the screen gets, only devices with mass appeal get the nod. "I can't go to 100" handsets in the lineup, says McAdam. "If a particular product can't generate 100,000 [purchases], it's not worth doing."

But with "outside" devices developed under Verizon's new policy, handset makers will bear most of the development costs. And because users won't be buying such devices from Verizon, the company won't be subsidizing those purchases. As a result, Verizon's network may come to support hundreds of devices, many customized for non-mass-market needs the company doesn't serve. "This allows them to add customers onto their network without having to spend as much to get them," says Todd Rosenbluth, an industry analyst for Standard & Poor's (which, like BusinessWeek, is a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP)).

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Google updates Mobile Maps service to include your location

Google announced the release of version 2 of its Google Maps application for mobile phones. New in v2.0 is a beta version of Google's "My Location" technology, which uses cell tower ID information to provide users with their approximate location, helping them determine where they are, what's around them, and how to get there.

Location information makes mobile mapping and search faster and more convenient, but the most common source of location information to date -- GPS technology -- is supported on fewer than 15 percent of the mobile phones expected to be sold in 2007. With Google's new My Location technology, users who don't have GPS-enabled mobile phones will now be able to take advantage of the added speed and convenience afforded by location information. The My Location technology also complements GPS-enabled devices, as it delivers a location estimate faster than GPS, provides coverage inside buildings (where GPS signals can be unreliable), and doesn't drain phone batteries as quickly as GPS.

The My Location technology takes information broadcast from cell towers and sifts it through Google-developed algorithms to approximate a user's current location on the map. This approximation is anonymous, as Google does not gather any personally identifiable information or associate any location data with personally identifiable information as part of the My Location feature. The feature can also be easily disabled by anyone who prefers not to use it.

Phones with a GPS facility will display the location as a small blue dot on the screen. Where cell-id is used, then a larger pale blue zone is highlighted which shows the approximate coverage area of that cellsite.

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Sony Ericsson V640i Review

The Sony Ericsson V640i is a Vodafone exclusive mid-range 3G candybar music phone. Available in Havana Gold or Quick Black, the V640i boasts similar features to other mid-range 3G Sony Ericsson phones, such as the K530i and W660i.

The V640i gets a few extra bonus points over other mid-range 3G mobile. There's HSDPA - up to 4 times faster Internet downloads than 3G, 4 GB memory card support and there's Sony Ericsson's new Media Manager software. The V640i is also quad-band - get better coverage in USA, Australia, Canada and many South American countries.

The camera isn't a full-feature job, there's no flash or autofocus and the screen resolution is just 176 x 220 pixels (same as other mid-range phones). A 240 x 320 screen resolution would have been better, although the price would likely be increased a little.

Design

Sony Ericsson 3G candybar phones are much alike. Similar weights, similar dimensions, keyboard layouts and features. The V630i follows the same format. Made of plastic, video camera on the front (top right), volume and camera buttons on the right, connector on the bottom, and memory card slot on the left.

Keypad: The keys are oblong, big enough, and have decent spacing. The circular navigation keys are a good size - the confirmation key is big.

The memory card slot supports up to a 4 GB Memory Stick Micro (M2) card - you can get one of them for about £30 at Amazon.co.uk.

The loudspeaker is the circle beneath the camera lens on the back. Sounds OK.

Music Player

Walkman Player 2.0. The music player supports MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC file formats. View album covers, titles, browse by artists, tracks, playlists, visualization, play mode, skins, stereo widening, equalizer, loop and shuffle.

The V640i has trackID - the music recognition service, PlayNow and numerous quick links to Vodafone Live's music download service (I call them the 'money links').

Media Manager

Organise music, photos, video clips and podcasts on your PC, then transfer them to your phone. An improvement over Disc2phone software. If you lose your CD, download Media Manager from the Sony Ericsson Web site. Or download it right now to have a look.

HSDPA = Fast Internet Downloads

HSDPA stands for High-speed download packet access. The V640i press release states "... can download a track in 14 seconds". Vodafone lead the way in HSDPA mobile broadband services. Current theoretical peak speeds are "up to 3.2 Mbps". You're more likely to get speeds up to 1.4 Mbps (that's what the Vodafone Web site says) - at least 4 times faster than 3G (384 Kbps).

3G is an 'always-on' connection. Much like your home broadband connection, voice and data can be transmitted simultaneously. Yep, use data and voice at the same time - download the latest music tracks whilst you're on the phone chatting to granny Gertrude.

The V640i also has EDGE support (2.75G). At the time of writing (November 2007), EDGE isn't very widespread. EDGE is also quite slow - ask an Apple iPhone user about it. Hahahahahahahahah...

Web browsing

Speed wise, the Sony Ericsson V640i is very good. The browser is fine. Combined with fast download speeds, the V640i is fine for downloading music from online services and getting snippets of information.

Google Maps, eBay, Accuweather

The V640i has a few goodies pre-installed.

* Google Maps - useful. If you want GPS, the V640i supports the GPS enabler HGE-100 headset. Just plug the GPS headset into the V640i connector.

* eBay - a great place to buy hot mobile phones.

* Accuweather - Get weather reports for any city.

2 MP Camera

The V640i is a music-focussed phone. The camera is basic. There's no autofocus, flash, macro mode or mirror. The images are OK (very subjective - you might think they're crappy or you might think they're the best thing since Sooty).

They don't look great compared to top-end camera phones - K850i for example. Pretty obvious.

Identical options to other mid-range 3G Sony Ericsson phones. Shoot mode, picture size, night mode, self-timer, effects, white balance, shutter sound, picture quality, save settings and a few more. 2 megapixels is 1600 x 1200 pixels. Video capture is 176 x 144 (QCIF).

Other Fun V640i Features

FM radio with RDS, Video, Music and Photo DJ, 3G video calling (there's a front-facing video call camera), Blueooth, USB, USB mass storage, and a very good 9 hours 2G talk-time.

Summary

The V640i is a Vodafone exclusive handset. The V640i is great for music playing - 4 GB memory card support is good. HSDPA and quad-band earns the V640i more bonus marks. You can buy the V640i on contract, not sure about on PAYG or SIM free.

FEATURES

• 103 x 47 x 15 mm, 97 g


• Talk time (9 hours), Standby time (300 hours)


• 2-inch 176 x 220 pixel, 262k colour screen


• 32 MB phone memory, Memory Stick Micro M2 (up to 4 GB)



• Quad-band (850, 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz)


• EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, Bluetooth, USB


• 2 MP camera, video capture


• SMS, MMS, Email


• Video calling, video call camera


• Media player, TrackID, PlayNow, RDS FM radio



• Media manager


• Access NetFront Web browser, RSS feeds


• Sound recorder, voice dialling, voice control


• Organizer tools

In The Box

Sony Ericsson V640i, battery, charger, USB cable, headset, 256 MB memory card, software CD, user guide.

Buy the Sony Ericsson V640i

Cheap Sony Ericsson V640i contract deals, offers, free gifts and promotions.

• Vodafone

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Evolution of Nokia Phones

All Nokia Cell Phones from 1982 to 2007



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France's Orange comments on iPhone sales goal, unlocking costs

France Telecom mobile arm Orange said it expects to sell nearly 100,000 of Apple Inc.'s iPhones by the end of year and has also vowed to move the unlocked version of the touch-screen handset at costs well below its German counterpart, T-Mobile.

Didier Lombard, chief executive of Orange, made the comments Tuesday during an interview with Europe 1 radio. He said his firm's sales target "is a little under 100,000" units sold between Wednesday evening -- when the Apple handset will make its debut in France -- and December 31st.

With just over 30 days to reach the self-imposed milestone, Orange will need to move a bit more than 3,000 iPhones per day through a combination of sales from its online and direct retail stores.

During the interview Tuesday, Lombard also said Orange would offer an unlocked iPhone in France at a price "significantly lower" than the 999 euros ($1,485) proposed by Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile in Germany, but failed to elaborate further.

French law is clear in that it requires cellphone operators to make available phones that are unlocked, and thus Orange and Apple have stated that they will comply with the mandate by offering a version of the handset to French consumers that will not be tied to Orange's network.

Less clear, however, is German law regarding the same matter. Therefore, Apple and T-Mobile launched the iPhone in the region earlier this month without plans for an unlocked version. Local T-Mobile rival Vodafone immediately challenged the terms of the German iPhone deal, winning a temporary injunction last week that has since forced sales of unlocked iPhones. However, Apple and T-Mobile set a steep price of 999 euros on that option ahead of an appeal, more than twice the cost of the standard version.

Full service plan details for Orange's 399 euro iPhone offerings will be published on Wednesday morning, though Lombard on Tuesday offered some early hints at those rates. He said that a 24-month contract would start at 49 euros a month and include two hours of communications and 50 SMS text messages.

Customers who opt for the minimum 12-month contract, however, will pay about 4.50 euros more per month for the same service.

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Mobile Web Bad, Mobile Data Good?

Mobile Web: So Close Yet So Far, a story in The New York Times gives US mobile web usage a B-minus grade. According to Rethink Research mobile web accounts for “12 percent of average revenue per user in 2007, far below the expected 50 percent” while Yankee Group says “only 13 percent of cellphone users in North America use their phones to surf the Web.” Terrible phones, puny network speeds and WAP browsers - no surprise that in a society where people lug laptops even on vacation, mobile web as outlined by NYT isn’t doing well.

In sharp contrast, mobile data seems to be doing well for the US carriers. Here is what they have raked in from wireless data: $8.6 billion (2005), $15.8 billion (2006) and $17.7 billion for first three quarters of 2007. Assuming that the non-messaging data revenues are in the 50-60% (of the data revenues) range for the US carriers, that is pretty hefty growth.

A large push, one would guess is coming from the growing popularity of 3G cards, especially among the web worker/mobile worker crowd. There is anecdotal evidence things will change quite rapidly when we have mobile handsets with real browsers showing up in the sales isles. One such device is already showing its impact. I caught up with Omar Hamoui, Founder & CEO of AdMob, a mobile advertising start-up last week, and he said that over past 30 days the total share of traffic coming to their network from iPhone doubled from 0.4% to 0.8%. Google Maps usage went up after introduction of iPhone. Next year a whole slew of devices are coming to market situation will most certainly change.

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Mobile Phone Radiation & Health

The sped up feature of day-to-day life and increasing demand for perfection in maximum possible spheres of life along with the ultimate desire of comfort and ease has lead us to the heights of development in contemporary times. All these factors are not only the driving forces of economic development round the globe but also the speedometers of standard of living in a particular region, country or area. The only thing that deploys the essence of this development is the unavailability of sustainable growth. On one hand where we’re touching the skies of mega and cellular technology, we’re losing list of essentials, i.e. health.

Setting cellular technology the theme of discussion let’s have an overview of it. One of the major examples of cellular technology, i.e. the mobile phone system is in question for a long time. Both the technology concerns and the social scientists had agreed to differ. And it’s still a vexed question. Cellular phone services being the easiest and fastest modes of communication have billions have billions of subscribers round the world. Even in developing countries where a major part of population is striving hard to satisfy basic needs, i.e. food and clothing, use of mobile phone have become a necessity for them.

Mobile phones use cellular technology whereby the regions are covered by radio waves using a base station antenna as a transmitter and the handset as receiver. Cellular technology is the better option in a sense that it provides better coverage, increased capacity and reduced power usage. Both the digital GSM and the CDMA systems share this base. The point that’s been raised more by the social scientists and health concerns is the effect of radio waves on health. These radio waves are emitted by both handsets and base stations.

With reference to the handsets, the effect of radio waves emitted by the cell phone communication, especially with specific reference to human health, can be categorized as, thermal, non thermal and genotoxical. Thermal effect is one whereby the electromagnetic field of radio waves induces polar molecules that generates dielectric heat letting the live tissues die. For instance some part of head, while receiving the message through radio waves if happens to experience increased temperature can have damaged nerve fibers.

Next to the thermal effect is non-thermal effect, in which keeping the temperature generated by radio waves constant we discuss only the electric current that passes through the cell membrane, while transceiving messages, and finally the genotoxical effect, which has been included in the discussion in 2006. Researches by Greek scientists, Panagopoulos DJ, Chavdoula ED, Nezis IP, and Margaritis LH (2007 Jan) claimed that there’s a casual relationship between cell phone radiation and DNA damage. Later a European study REFLEX had come up with some evidences proving the claim, but all the cases were found to have an exposure to mobile phone quite more than normal.

Besides thermal, non-thermal, and genotoxial effects, there had been a long debate on ‘mobile phone radiations and cancer’. A list of studies supporting the claim and rest opposing has also been observed in this context.

The other face of picture shows the effect of radio waves emitted by base stations. This is another sensitive issue as these waves are emitted continuously, and the increasing number of towers to expand the coverage with a relatively larger bandwidth. The recent reports claim harmful effects of radio waves on peoples’ health living near by the base stations (WHO database). Besides such kind of effect there may be some occasional hazards that may be caused by the ignorance or due to the demand of extreme perfection. For instance during maintenance, the base stations are not turned of, as it may present the network as an inefficient one. This sort of mismanagements would certainly have hazardous effects on the health of people come under the range of waves.

Categorizing hazards may sort out the level of harmful effects generally but being specific to the use of mobile phones it may explore more avenues. The increased use of mobile phones due to technological progress and decreased prices as a result of low cost of production, contribute to the GDPs, but an alarming situation, ignored most of the time is children’s vulnerability to mobile phone radiations. Being an age group, which is in the process of physical and mental growth, they need extra care, but stringent work schedules of parent and the availability of mobile phones for their use may affect their mental and physical growth in any of the above-mentioned way.

Over and above the facts unveiled earlier, there’s no regulation of services in the cellular networks. The problem may persist in a very low proportion in developed countries but the developing countries though being the biggest markets for cellular networks, are not provided the health safety measures, i.e. the use of cell phone in best possible way. Another alarm may persist in the form availability of low quality handsets in these countries, which are either not passed by any regulatory authority or if so, the authenticity of authority might have been questionable.

The debate is all about the hazardous effects of cell phones on human health, but saying that cell phones are hazardous in totality won’t be fair enough. There’s nothing 100% in the world, and there’s always a room for improvement, and betterment, so is the case for cellular phone technology. We can’t leave it as well, but a fair better option is to keep a regulation and check on usage. Cell phone communication does include the emission of radio waves, which are absorbed by the bodies in one way or other, but it’s a hazard only for people with high exposure to the radio waves, i.e. extensive use.

In order to have healthy masses it’s crucial to have regulation of all cellular activities, along with insistence on sustainable growth in the sector. The precautionary principle as recommended by WHO can also be a good measure, but as the sped up life can’t exclude cellular technology from its sphere, further research on hand-off and blue tooth can be innovative and more sustainable measures.

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Orange iPhone data plans revealed

MacScoop has found the iPhone subscription plans for France by searching Orange’s iPhone website, and found unlinked pages that showed the pricing plans.

49€/mo Plan:
- 2 hours + 2 (late evening or week-end) hours of voice calls:
- 50 SMS
- 10 hours of Orange Wifi
- Unlimited VoiceMail, E-Mail and data

59€/mo Plan:
- 3 hours + 3 (late evening or week-end) hours of voice calls:
- 100 SMS
- 10 hours of Orange Wifi
- Unlimited VoiceMail, E-Mail and EDGE data

79€/mo Plan:
- 5 hours + 5 (late evening or week-end) hours of voice calls:
- 150 SMS
- 10 hours of Orange Wifi
- Unlimited VoiceMail, E-Mail and EDGE data

119€/mo Plan:
- 8 hours + 8 hours of voice calls:
- 1000 SMS
- 100 hours of Orange Wifi
- Unlimited VoiceMail, E-Mail and EDGE data

Although all the plans advertise Unlimited EDGE data, Orange warns that their will be an unofficial fair use limit of 500MB. Also, it should be noted that the low end iPhone plans all include only 10 hours of Orange’s international Wifi and only the top plan for 119€/mo includes 100 hours of their Wifi. All of these limitations, and time restrictions limit this plan, an don’t make it as desirable as it could be.

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Survey: iPhone too expensive for UK market

Apple’s decision to price the iPhone for UK residents at £269 may have reflected a serious misjudgment of the local cellphone market, according to a new survey of Christmas buyers conducted by the analyst group GfK NOP. Of the respondents, 46 percent simply refuse to consider the phone at its existing price; just over a quarter at 26 percent are interested in the phone but cannot justify the cost, the researchers say. This leaves only 2 percent actively considering the iPhone for the holidays; 5 percent are willing to consider other phones while 8 percent actively dislike the device. About 12 percent of the surveyed population does not even know the iPhone exists, GfK NOP says.



Much of this hesitation can be attributed to British cellphone culture, which unlike the US frequently subsidizes even premium phones below the £200 ($412) mark. In some cases, smartphones such as the Nokia N95 are available for free with better calling plans. The high cost of Apple’s first cellphone stands out as a central issue for most prospective UK buyers, says GfK NOP’s Richard Jameson.

“This is a highly competitive market and the mobile phone manufacturers have very strong brand loyalty,” he adds. “Apple needs more than cutting–edge design to penetrate this market and will have to work much harder in the UK than it did in the US.”

In spite of the poor standing among actual buyers, however, the iPhone is still associated most with special features on phones than other brands. The handset defines music phones for 78 percent of all respondents to the survey, while 65 percent think of it first when considering e-mail or web browsing.

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PS3 Phone Features Microsoft Operating System & Plays Nintendo Games

That’s right folks, wrap your minds around this — a phone that features Playstation buttons, has a Microsoft Windows operating system, and plays Nintendo games. Confused yet? How about the fact that the phone was made in “Koera” — No, that’s not a typo, that’s what is printed on the phone.

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T-Mobile Selling Unlocked iPhones in Germany

To be in compliance with a court ruling, Deutsche Telekom announced today that they will immediately start selling an unlocked iPhone without contract for 999 euro (US $1,477). The iPhone will still be sold, as before, with 2 year contract for 399 euro ($US $590).

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IPhone Must Be Offered Without Contract Restrictions, German Court Rules

PARIS, Nov. 20 — Last month, French law forced Apple to promise that consumers could buy a version of its iPhone in this country without having to be locked into a long-term contract with Orange, the only mobile phone operator offering the new device.

Now, the same issue is tripping up Apple’s plans to sell the music-playing cellphone in Germany, the largest European telephone market. Last week, the Vodafone Group won the first round of a legal case against T-Mobile over its exclusive deal to sell the iPhone there.

A German court ruled that T-Mobile must offer the iPhone to everyone, even without the 24-month contract that it had required for buyers of the phone, which went on sale in Germany for 399 euros ($591) on Nov. 9. T-Mobile is appealing the ruling.

Vodafone of Britain had tried to secure its own pan-European exclusive deal with Apple for the iPhone. A spokesman, Simon Gordon, said the company was not trying to block the sale of the device but rather trying to level the playing field in Germany. Vodafone operates Vodafone Germany, the No. 2 German carrier. T-Mobile, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, is the industry leader there, with 34 million customers.

Various European countries have laws that protect consumers from being forced to buy something else as a condition of buying a product. Britain does not have the same kind of restrictions, allowing O2, a mobile network operator owned by Telefónica of Spain, to sell the iPhone there with an 18-month exclusive contract.

Although Apple has announced sales plans for only the three largest European markets, restrictions on whether carriers can tie or subsidize phones also exist in several other Continental countries, including Belgium, Italy and Finland.

T-Mobile’s position is that tying a mobile phone to a contract with one provider is rare but not new in Germany, while Vodafone argues that all mobile phones sold there should be available for use with any provider. T-Mobile insisted that iPhone sales would continue uninterrupted, but warned that it reserved the right to seek damages from Vodafone.

The iPhone is scheduled to go on sale next week in France. The exclusive French carrier, Orange, a subsidiary of France Télécom, has not disclosed any details of the purchase, like the minimum length of the contract for locked models, or the cost of the unlocked model. An Orange spokeswoman, Béatrice Mandine, did not return phone calls seeking comment on Tuesday.

The iPhone competes directly with models from Nokia and Sony Ericsson, which have the widest offerings in phones that combine digital music players and cellphones, according to an analysis released this month by the consulting firm M:Metrics. The consultancy also said that the demand for premium phones and features was stronger in Europe than in the United States.

A year ago, a French court ruled against Sony’s requirement that songs sold in its online music store be played only on Sony devices. Apple faces a similar court challenge in France over its iTunes songs, which are tied to the iPod. The iPod’s music- and video-playing features are built into the iPhone.

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Google closer to mobile airwaves bid, sources say

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc. is considering bidding alone on coveted airwaves to launch a U.S. wireless network, as a deadline nears to declare bidding plans, sources familiar with the situation said.

One source underscored that Google had made no decision as of Friday on whether it would bid with partners or on its own in the auction of 700-megahertz spectrum due to begin Jan. 24.

Bidding could pit Google against top wireless carriers AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, owned jointly by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc.

Going it alone at the government auction of airwaves would not rule out later signing up partners if Google were to win the necessary spectrum to create a network, the source said.

Google executives discussed the auction last week with Federal Communications Commission officials, including FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, sources familiar with the meeting said.

At the talks, executives for the Web search leader gave the impression of “inching more towards” a bid, one source said.

Another said it is “within the realm of possibility” that partners could be brought on later if Google wins. Google has talked to a number of prospective partners, not just carriers.

Google is “making all the necessary preparations to become an applicant to bid in the auction” ahead of a Dec. 3 deadline for applying to participate, a spokesman said in a statement.

“From the company's perspective, the overriding factor is how to foster more openness in networks. That is certainly the driving factor in our thinking about bidding on the spectrum.”

The 700-MHz band airwaves, which are being returned by broadcasters as they move from analog to digital signals early in 2009, can go long distances and penetrate thick walls. The auction is seen as a last chance for a new wireless player.

Google is considering funding a bid not only from its growing cash pile but by working with Wall Street. Outside financing would reduce its need for partners, one source said.

Google has said it would be prepared to bid at least $4.6 billion for the biggest chunk of spectrum if regulators agreed to policies to promote open use of such networks.

Google won half of what it asked: The FCC imposed a condition on a large portion of the spectrum that would require the winning bidder to open up networks to allow consumers to use any device or applications that works on those frequencies.

But the FCC did not require open access to network capacity to be resold to independent mobile service providers on a wholesale basis, another Google request.

Under the auction terms, if no one meets the $4.6 billion minimum bid, the auction for the open-access portion of the spectrum would be rerun without the open-access conditions.

One strategy Google is considering is to bid on a chunk of airwaves known as “D Block” that would be shared with public safety providers, as well as the more flexible, open-access piece of “C Block” spectrum.

One source said Google has met with Cyren Call, a company charged with managing public safety agency use of spectrum.

Google unveiled this month plans to offer software for building Internet-ready cell phones in an alliance of network operators and device and software makers. The first phones to result from it are due out in mid-2008, partners say.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Blair Levin said Google is likely to apply to participate in the FCC auction and pay a required deposit later in December. Such moves would not guarantee it will submit a bid, but Levin thinks the company will do so.

Even if Google does bid, Levin said, it may not be designed to actually win the auction, but rather to make sure the FCC's minimum is met and the open-access provision stays in place.

John Hodulik, telecoms analyst with brokerage UBS in New York, said Google's entry into the highly competitive market will hurt the four big incumbents: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel Corp and Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA.

But it could also prove painful for Google. He estimated it would cost an $8 billion to $10 billion more to build another nationwide wireless network, not to mention heavy capital spending to keep up with constant evolutions in the market.

Hodulik said such cost considerations could hugely depress Google's highly valued stock, which trades about 33 times what analysts, on average, expect it to earn next year. Google shares closed on Friday up $3.98, or 0.6 per cent, at $633.63.

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Google Maps Mobile updates

Google Maps has added some new ways for you to find your way using your mobile device. You’ve now got contacts integration and GPS functionality on Windows Mobile, for version 2003 or higher (download it here). There’s also GPS-Enabled Google Maps for the rest of us to use, as well as an optimized version for your Treo and your Blackberry (found here as well).



And some stuff that’s been rolled out on the web version of Google Maps and Earth that’s now available on its mobile implementation: real-time traffic conditions, favorite places and routes, and additional details for businesses marked on your maps. Google’s working so hard to keep the updates going for various handsets. Will it lose some of these options if it rolls out its own mobile network?

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The 1st Google Android Phone video, by Sergey Brin founder

The official and original version of the Google Android Phone, presented by Google founder, Sergey Brin



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Sony Expecting 'Great Deal of Momentum' with PS3

Sony has commented on its October performance and hyped the growth of the PlayStation brand for the month. Going forward, they're expecting a sizable sales spike for PS3.



Although it would appear that Nintendo has decided not to bother discussing October's NPD results (letting the data speak for itself), Microsoft has already issued its response and now Sony has chimed in.

"October 2007 was a strong month for the PlayStation brand, according to NPD data. Overall the PlayStation brand showed a 39% increase in total retail dollars generated year-over-year in the US with total sales of $353.4 million for the month. Overall, SCEA's console business remains strong with combined sales of PS3 and PS2 for the month of October at $258.5 million in revenue," commented SCEA in a release, according to Wired.

And while the PS3 sold just 121K units for October, the price cut hadn't taken effect yet. According to CEO Howard Stringer, PS3 sales have recently zoomed to 100,000 per week. "SCEA expects a great deal of momentum moving forward this holiday and beyond with the availability of new PS3 hardware and pricing. Based on internal data, the company is already seeing a great spike in sales with a 192% lift for the PS3 over the past two weeks," SCEA continued.

The company also commented on the growth of its portable: "The PSP sold 286K units at retail for the month of October. Overall sales of the PSP are up 120% year over year due to the popularity of the slimmer and lighter PSP , which includes video-out capabilities for $169. And with 24 first and third-party software titles being released this holiday season, such as SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Tactical Strike and Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of The Lions, as well as new spots for the wildly popular "Dude, get your own" campaign, the PSP will undoubtedly continue to gain momentum through the coming months."

Finally regarding the aging PS2, SCEA noted: "Seven years into its life cycle the PS2 remains the best-selling gaming platform ever released, selling 183K units for the month of October. The release of games such as BUZZ! The Mega Quiz, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and the just released limited-edition PS2 bundled with SingStar Pop will continue to make the console a perfect choice for families interested in social games and will be hugely popular this holiday season."


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Viral Web 2.0 Video from Nokia!

Nokia wrote a song about Web 2.0. Listen...



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Apple vs. Google in open source mobility

So the battle is joined (sort of).

In this corner we have Google, the challenger, with its open source hardware specification for a mobile platform.

And in this corner we have Apple, the champion, with real hardware, and a software development kit, but an iffy record in supporting open source.

Who will win? Will either?

Open Handset Alliance logoAt this point my money is on Apple. Real hardware beats imaginary hardware every time in my book. (I can’t use that thing to the left.)

Google, and its partners, need to get their orders into China or, preferably, Taiwan (the turnaround is faster there) right now. Only upon delivery can the competition really start.

What history tells me is to bet on Google. In many ways it is replicating the strategy Microsoft used over 20 years ago to take the PC market from Apple’s Macintosh.

This was not due to some genius on Bill Gates’ part, as some Microsoft acolytes may claim. It was due to the fact he let anyone sell DOS, and promised everyone they would get Windows, while Apple kept its secrets proprietary.

I was younger then, and time moved more slowly for me, so I remember it well. Comdexes came and went, Apple’s coterie of fans grew as fast as Apple could make Macs and they could find cash to buy them, while Microsoft spread promises.

I was there when Microsoft finally delivered Windows 1.0, at a 1986 Comdex roast hosted by John Dvorak himself. Gates hand-signed a copy for me. I keep it on a shelf here at home.

But that software did not do the job, and neither did its successor. It was not until several years later, with Windows 3.0, that Microsoft finally had something that met some of its promises.

Yet despite being behind by over a half-decade, Microsoft kept its market share. Why? Because it had what might later be called an open source strategy. It let anyone license its software, on easy terms, and everyone did. While Apple kept its Macintosh technology strictly proprietary.

There are indications, with the release of the SDK, that Steve Jobs may have learned this lesson. Besides, China can now supply whatever quantities of iPhones the market demands, and cheap. He doesn’t have to make them all himself. He doesn’t really have to charge a premium price for them.

So will Google Microsoft Apple, or will Apple bite back?

Who will win the open source mobility wars?

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Google’s Grand Mobile Ambitions

The Wall Street Journal’s report about Google’s big mobile plans is one that covers all bases, and leaves you where you started from: scratching your head. The Journal says Google may or may not buy a carrier; invest in a carrier; partner with a carrier, and/or may bid for spectrum. Aka, anything is possible. Most of this speculation has been already done the rounds. One new thing WSJ reports that is of interest:

Google, meanwhile, already is running a test version of an advanced wireless network at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, gaining operating experience that could come in handy if it wins the spectrum and decides to run a full-scale national mobile carrier, according to people familiar with the matter.

They are using this network, under license from FCC, to test prototype devices that use Android mobile OS. That network is interesting for sure, but to go from a tiny network to owning-and-operating a humongous nationwide consumer-centric wireless network needs a big leap of faith,especially for Google investors. But then last week, A-Fraud returning to Yankee Stadium was as likely as waking up to armageddon.

Other notable facts from the WSJ story:

* Google has invested in femtocell maker Ubiquisys
* Google has discussed possibly investing in Clearwire Corp.

So what do you think: will Google buy a carrier, bid for spectrum or do nothing?



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The SNL iPhone sketch that never aired

The tipster who filled us in on the real story behind the hacked iPhone that appeared on Saturday Night Live also linked us to this video which never aired that night, cut for another sketch that ran long. In fact, it may be the last in the series ever produced given the recent writers strike. And it's a shame, because while it's certainly funny, the clip is also educational, tutoring us geeks in advanced punch 'n run techniques. Do we smell a new chapter in Jason Chen's iPhone book? We certainly hope so.

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10 PS3 tricks Sony doesn't tell you

Got a PlayStation 3? For those of you that have picked up Sony's shiny black plaything, we've put together a Digital Home top ten of tips that you won't find in the user manual.

1) Play games from any country

Harbouring a desire to play Super Gaiden Ninja XI? Now you can. In fact, you can handily play any PS3 game from any country. On holiday in the States and spot the latest release at a bargain dollar-to-pound price? Help yourself. So far, at least, PS3 games aren't being region coded. That said PS2 and PS1 games are so you can't play a US title on a Euro console.

And let's not forget that Blu-ray movies are region-coded so the barriers aren't completely down yet.
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2) The secret video reset

One of the most annoying aspects of the PS3 are its video settings. Take it up to the bedroom portable or round to a friend's house and there's a good chance that you won't be able to see anything onscreen because your 'new' TV is running at a different resolution or using a different cable connection. And - because you can't see anything - you can't change it. Until now. Shut down your PS3 then restart by pressing and holding the power button. This will reset your PS3 to its most basic 480p graphics mode so you'll be able to see enough to choose RGB SCART, component, HDMI or whatever from here.

3) See how much charge is on your pad

There's no indication of how much charge is left on the pad itself. Instead it appears on screen during games. Press and hold the PS button on any joypad. An indicator will appear, showing your pad's charge as a small battery. A full battery pic means a fully-charged pad. Neat.

4) Download game saves

Chances are someone out there has already beaten that boss for you and saved their game afterwards. Why not take advantage of it? Google 'PS3 game saves'. There are hundreds of finished and half finished game saves scattered all over the internet. Download the save you want - it'll come in a 'PS3' folder that you can lift onto a USB stick and put into your PS3. Go to the Game menu, choose your stick and the game save you downloaded should be right there. Press Triangle to copy it to your hard drive.

5) Make free video phone calls

You will need a USB headset (like the one you use for PS2 Socom) and an EyeToy camera. Plug in both via USB then go to your Friends menu. Choose a friend you've signed up earlier and press Triangle. Choose Start New Chat and type a message. Something like 'Videochat?' should do the trick. Now, providing they're in front of their powered-up PS3 (perhaps you could text them to tell them to be in position?) then they'll see your message and be given the option to accept your videochat.

Now, provided they too have a camera and headset, two windows will open, one showing you (so you can make sure you're looking your best), the other displaying your mate. Best of all you can hit Triangle again and invite more people to join your chat - up to a maximum of six. And the cost? Not a bean above your usual broadband connection charges.

6) Browse multiple Internet windows

Open the browser (go to Network) and surf to a page you want. Now open up the menu with a press of Triangle and choose 'Open In New Window'. Enter another URL and then do the same again. Keep going until you've got six windows open. Now press L3 (done by clicking down the left stick). You're now in multi-page mode. Move the left stick to flick through the web pages as though they were bits of paper, then click L3 again to zoom in.

7) Upgrade your hard drive

We took the drive out of our PS3 and found it to be a Seagate Momentus 5400rpm 60Gb 2.5inch SATA drive. We swapped ours out effortlessly for a Seagate Momentus 120Gb 2.5inch SATA drive and it worked perfectly. Remove the cover flap on the bottom of your PS3 with a fingernail. Undo the blue screw and slide the drive over to the right and out of your PS3. Undo the four screws on the 'caddy' and remove the old drive.

Put your new drive in the caddy (it should be exactly the same size, of course) and re-do the four screws. Slot it back in and slide to the left to make the connections. Re-do the blue screw, pop the cover back on and restart your PS3. Say 'yes' to the message on screen and voila - new super-size hard-drive. (Go to Settings, System Settings, System Information to check).

8) Share your bought downloads

You can download anything you've bought from the store to five PlayStation 3's. This is useful if you've got more than one PS3 (of course) and also if you've wiped your hard-drive and don't fancy paying for the same download twice...

However, you can also choose to share your download with your mates. The PlayStation Store logs how many times each download has been downloaded by each user. On your mate's PS3 Create New User and log onto the store with your ID. You'll now be able to go to your download and see that you've already downloaded whatever it was that you paid for. You can now download it again, using another of your downloads and giving it to your mate for free. Or a small optional charge...

9) Force a PS3 to show your files

Put your photos in a folder called 'PICTURE' or your videos in a folder called 'VIDEO' or simply *force* your PS3 to look at your files on your stick regardless of what you called them or where you put them. Insert your stick and go to the menu option you want (Photos, Music, whatever). Press Triangle to bring up a menu and choose Display All. This will show every file on the stick. It even works for a plugged-in iPod, though the multi-folder structure you'll reveal is a bit baffling. Still, your songs are in there if you've got the patience to find them.

10) Change your album art

When you import a music CD your PS3 automatically pulls down the album art and stores it with the tracks. Occasionally it gets it wrong, however, or it may simply not be able to find the art of your hipper, less commercial tracks. This is easily fixed however. Download a pic of the art you need as a jpg on your PC and put it onto a stick (in a folder called PICTURE, ideally). Copy it to your Photo menu (press Triangle). Now go to Music and select the album folder with the offending art. Press Triangle and select Information. Go to the Photo menu and select your new picture. Bingo.

Words by: Dan Griffiths

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5 Open Questions About the Google Phone aka Android

OK, so the Google Phone is not really a phone, but instead a software stack that allows people to do cool things such as build applications and power devices that have never before been imagined. Yes, it also cleans dorm rooms and finds dates. Following the press conference call, however, here are five points about Android that remain… unclear.

1. Google (GOOG) says it’s open source, letting you download it and do whatever — except that carriers can create their own locked-down versions of the software with Android. That doesn’t seem very open to me.
2. Google says it is happy to share revenues from advertising with the carriers. Which is good news for the carriers, but if you are a Google shareholder, you want to know how much is going to be kicked back to the carriers, and if this will have a material impact on Google’s financials.
3. The first Android device won’t hit the market till the second half of 2008, and that, too, from one handset maker, HTC. Now as a developer, why would you opt for this platform when you have other options? (Apparently the browser inside the device will support desktop browser-compatible apps, which is a good thing.)
4. None of the handset partners are betting the farm on Android, but are instead hedging their bets. HTC will continue to do Windows Mobile (MSFT), an OS that makes them a lot of money. (A little arm-twisting from Redmond can go a long way). Motorola (MOT), on the other hand, is a founding member of LiMo Foundation, a rival group that has the backing of carriers looking to Linux Mobile as an OS option. So which effort are they going to put their resources towards?
5. With the exception of admitting that it is Linux-based and can work with Qwerty, non-Qwerty and different types of screen sizes, no real details are available on the tech specs of Android. For that we’ll have to wait. Andy Rubin did point out that it will need a 200-MHz ARM processor at the very least, so for some time it is going to be a smartphone-focused OS environment.

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BBC skid Nokia N95 versus iPhone

Apple's much-hyped iPhone has finally hit shelves in the UK.

Staff cheered as throngs of excited customers made their way into Apple's flagship store in London.

A small number of Apple fans keen to get hold of the handset had started queuing at stores overnight and numbers swelled to around 300 for the launch.

First out of the store with the £269 internet enabled device was 20-year-old north London student Tom Jasinski who said "It was worth the wait".

"I got here 26 hours ago," he told PA. "It is a great piece of hardware. It is a great thing and I love it."

The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones described the scene in London as "mayhem".

He said before the doors opened at the store, Apple staff were walking up and down the lines of people "whipping them into a frenzy".

The internet enabled handset has also gone on sale at more than 1,300 other stores around the UK with each customer limited to two handsets each.

The first European handsets were sold at the T-Mobile store in Cologne, Germany just after midnight on Friday morning.

T-Mobile's parent company Deutsche Telekom said it had sold over 10,000 iPhones in Germany by late afternoon.

"It was love at first sight," one 50-year-old man told Reuters news agency.

The iPhone will go on sale in France on 29 November and Asia in 2008.

Lock-down

Although the wait is over for some fans, there are concerns that consumers are only able to use the phone with the 02 mobile network.


GEEK TEST
Phone test

N95 versus iPhone

The phones can be unlocked for use on other networks but this voids the warranty and could break the device if software updates from Apple are installed.

As many as 250,000 users in the US have unlocked the device using free and paid-for software to make the phone work on different networks, and to load third-party software not supported by Apple.

Critics have pointed out that the device, while boasting an innovative user interface which makes it simple to use, lacks technology found in rival phones.

The iPhone only works on slower 2G networks, limiting its usefulness as a mobile web browser, but it does also connect to wi-fi hotspots.

In the UK, iPhone owners can connect to the net for free at thousands of The Cloud's hotspots.

Greg Joswiak, head of marketing for the iPhone, denied that the phone had sacrificed function over form by choosing 2G.

"We wanted to make sure that we had a very small device and good battery life. You can't do that today with 3G.

Talk time

"It's just too power hungry, which is why most 3G phones have nowhere near eight hours of talktime."


GEEK TEST
iPhone shopper queuing outside The Apple Store in London

Fans queuing

One of the iPhone's big rivals, the Nokia N95, has four hours of talk time on a 2G network, while Apple's device has up to eight hours, according to technical specifications provided by both firms.

Customers have to pay in advance for the iPhone and cannot get it free on a mobile contract.

The Apple phones costs £269 and the minimum monthly contract with O2 is £35.

Jonathan Arber, an analyst with Ovum, said: "In the long term it will be interesting to see how consumers will react to having to pay for this device.

"Obviously in the UK most consumers are used to getting their devices for free."

Mr Arber also pointed out that the UK mobile market is predominantly made up of pre-pay users.


I don't like be imposed upon as to which network I want to switch to
iPhone unlocker Daryl

"That's a huge section of the market that is not going to be purchasing an iPhone. In the contract segment there are a lot of people who are not going to pay £35 a month.

"But for a large group of people the iPhone is certainly an attractive proposition."

According to analysts M:Metrics 10% of 16,000 mobile phone users surveyed in the UK expressed strong interest in buying the iPhone.

Fifty per cent of the survey sample with a strong interest had not paid for their current phone and almost half were on a pre-pay contract.

'Love experience'

Apple has sold 1.4 million iPhones since it went on sale in the US and O2 and T-Mobile are expecting strong sales.
Graham Gilbert, 22, a student from Manchester, is the first person to buy the new Apple iPhone, at the Apple store on Regent St, central London
Graham Gilbert was the first to buy the iPhone at the London store
Mr Joswiak said: "People love their experience with the iPhone. They don't love the experience with other phones. That is why our sales are through the roof."

"We assume that the device will find a very good reception on the market," said Rene Bresgen, a spokesman for Deutsche Telekom, owners of T-Mobile in Germany.

More than a 1,000 O2 shops, Carphone Warehouse stores and Apple shops are expected to sell the device.

Some iPhone owners in the UK have not been content to wait for the official release and have bought the device in the US and unlocked it for use on any network.

One owner, called Daryl, told BBC News he had bought 14 phones in the US for himself and friends and unlocked them.

He said he had unlocked his original phone because he didn't want to be tied to one network.

"I like the current network I am on and I'd like to stay with that network. I don't like be imposed upon as to which network I want to switch to.

"Also the actual O2 network doesn't have very good coverage where I live; Orange has good coverage where I live, that's why I chose them first, and why I want to stay with them."

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