Rogers Released Data Pricing For The iPhone

Rogers Communications Inc. finally released their data pricing plans for the iPhone.

According to Rogers voice and data plans will start at $60 per month when the device arrives in Canada, July 11. All iPhone plans are based on a three-year contract.

Rogers Wireless and its sister service Fido are offering four pricing levels. The cheapest plan, for $60, includes 150 minutes of voice calling (unlimited Evenings and weekends) with 400 megabytes of data; 75 sent text messages with unlimited incoming text messages and visual voicemail messages.

Three other plans are available: a $75 package that includes 300 minutes of phone calls with 750 MB data and 100 sent text messages; a $100 package that includes 600 minutes of phone calls with 1 GB of data and 200 sent text messages, and $115 per month for 800 minutes of phone calls, with 2 GB of data and 300 sent text messages.

Also iPhone consumers will have have a free access to Rogers and Fido Wi-Fi hotspots, as well as an identical plan from Fido.

Rogers Wireless will also offer two voice value packs for popular wireless features: a $15 monthly value pack including Caller ID, Who Called, Caller Ring Trax, 2,500 Sent Text Messages and 2,500 Call Forwarding Minutes; and a $20 monthly value pack including Caller ID, Who Called, Caller Ring Trax, 10,000 Sent Text Messages and 6:00 p.m. Early Evening Calling and 2,500 Call Forwarding Minutes.

Rogers Communications (TSX: RCI; NYSE: RG) is a diversified Canadian communications and media company engaged in four primary lines of business. Rogers Wireless is Canada's largest wireless voice and data communications services provider and the country's only carrier operating on the world standard GSM/GPRS/EDGE technology platform. Rogers Cable is Canada's largest cable television provider offering cable television, high-speed Internet access, voice over cable telephony services and video retailing.

Scott Stevenson on "Thinking Like a Cocoa Programmer"

Scott Stevenson over at the Theocacao blog (and no, don't ask me how to pronounce it) has a great little piece on Thinking Like a Cocoa Programmer. If you're new to the Mac / iPhone development scene, this is well worth a few minutes of your time.  Even if you're not new to the platform, it's well worth a few minutes of your time.

O2 Announces New 3G iPhone Prices and Tariffs

UK Apple partner O2 stated recently that the 3G iPhone, which is set to be available for consumers soon, will be available on current L2 business tariffs as a monthly add on, which will add an extra £8.50 to the bills of current users.

O2 also stated that the older 8G iPhone will be available for free on many of the business tariffs when customers choose a 24 or 36 month contract. The average cost of the 16GB version of the iPhone is expected to range between completely free and £135, depending on the tariff chosen. Customers who choose the free version of the 16GB iPhone will need to be prepared to pay £75 per month on their tariff.

O2 is a leading provider of mobile and broadband services to consumers and businesses in the UK. The company is the leader in non-voice services, including text, media messaging, games, music and video, as well as data connections via GPRS, HSDPA, 3G and WLAN.

O2 UK is part of the Telefónica O2 Europe group which comprises integrated fixed/mobile businesses in the UK, Ireland, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - all of which use 'O2' as their consumer brand. In addition, O2 has established the Tesco Mobile joint venture business in the UK and Ireland, as well as, the Tchibo Mobilfunk joint venture in Germany. O2 is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telefónica S.A.

Reference:

http://www.o2.co.uk/iphone

Orange To Sell iPhone 3G For €149 In France

France Telecom's Orange said it will launch Apple's iPhone 3G in France on July 17th with prices starting at €149 ($233) for the 8GB model. The 16GB iPhone will cost €199 ($312).

Both handsets require that subscribers sign up to one of its existing “Orange for iPhone” plans, or its Origami Star (from 3 hours), First or Jet plans.

Orange also added that with other plans (excluding time-cutoff and pay-as-you-go) the 8GB iPhone will sell for €199 and the 16GB for €249. For example, customers can get the 8GB model for €199 with a one-hour Origami Star plan that costs €32 and offers up to 500MB of monthly internet access.

As part of the carrier's "Change your mobile" promotion, those who have bought an iPhone prior to June 12th with will be able to get the 3G iPhone for €99 with a €100 refund valid until October 31st 2008. Of course this offer implies a 24 month contract too. Business clients will also be eligible for the "Change your mobile" offer.

"Orange for iPhone" plans (below) start at €49 per month for a plan that includes 2 hours of normal talk time, 2 hours of late evening and weekend minutes, and 50 SMS text messages. The most expensive plan is priced at €149 and includes 12 hours of normal talk time, 12 hours of nights and weekends, and 1000 SMS messages. All "Orange for iPhone" plans include Visual Voicemail and up to 500MB of monthly data usage.

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world's leading telecommunications operators.

France Telecom serves more than 172 million customers in five continents as of March 31, 2008, of which two thirds are Orange customers. The group had consolidated sales of €52.9 billionin 2007 (€13 billion as of March 31, 2008). As of March 31, 2008 the group had 111.9 million mobile customers and 12 million broadband internet (ADSL) customers.

References:
http://www.orange.com/en_EN/press/press_releases/cp080626uk.html
http://www.orange.com/en_EN/press/press_releases/att00005101/CP_iPhone3G_eng.pdf

OrionGadgets Stylus Pen For Apple iPhone

As handwriting recognition is coming with the upcoming iPhone v2.0 firmware, Apple iPhone owners can now use the new OrionGadgets iPhone Stylus Pen (black).

The iPhone Stylus features a soft touch tip that will not scratch your iPhone’s touch screen, but provide users another input device to avoid fingerprint smudges. OrionGadgets iPhone Stylus was designed for ease of use and peace of mind; whether you’re using it to tap on the touch screen or to write on it, the iPhone Stylus guarantees precise touch and control.

The pen is made from durable material, the iPhone Stylus comes in black only. It is available now for $10 USD.

iPhone v2.0 firmware is due to be released in early July by Apple Inc.

OrionGadgets.com is a manufactured and a retailer tailored to individual consumers as well as small to medium-sized businesses. OrionGadgets is located in Brooklyn, NY.

References:

http://news.oriongadgets.com/2008/06/24/press-release-oriongadgets
-iphone-stylus-adds-handwriting-capabilities-to-apple-iphone/

iPhone 3G Costs Only $100 To Manufacture

It is to wonder why the new iPhone 3G is going to be so cheap in comparison to the first-gen device. Analysts suspect that the newer iPhone really only costs around $100 to manufacture.

Portelligent estimates that with this lower manufacturing cost that Apple stands to make around $90 per phone on hardware alone. While that is significantly lower than the estimated $229 profit earned on the original iPhone, the extra money from AT&T that they are likely making in addition to the number of new users that will be attracted by the lower price will no doubt make up for the difference.

According to David Carey, president of Portelligent “Gen2 iPhone pricing is aggressive enough that it made me think Apple’s really taking the gloves off on this one. They are probably not as worried about iPhone hardware profits as they are about getting a piece of the action on service revenues and getting more Macs in homes and offices all around the globe.”

Now it is clear Apple inc. works for the mass and revenues should came from the worldwide sales. According to that point companies’ new strategy could last for a long time.

Reference:

http://www.isuppli.com/news/

http://www.teardown.com/

New Application iDimLight For iPhone

New application iDimLight lets you manually choose dim time for iPhone backlight. It is much better than the autolock to have always the screen visibile, wifi and connections active, avoiding overheat of the iPhone and saving battery without locking the phone.

iDimLight will not dim your SpringBoard if you have a vWallpaper as your background. It also doesn’t work in a few of the stock applications like SMS, Camera or if you are watching a video in YouTube.

When you start the application, a popup opens and asks you to enter the number of seconds before you like the back light to be dimmed. You can enter any number of seconds you like. If you’d like to disable the app again, just start the app and enter -1. After you have entered the seconds, the app will ask you to restart SB.

If you want this new app you will need to have Ericas Utilities (in Utilities category) installed.

iDimLight is available in the Installer.app through the Bigboss packaging source.

References:

http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/2008/06/17/idimlight-10/

Two New EzSkin For The iPhone 3G

EzGear has announced the forthcoming release of two new ezSkin cases for the iPhone 3G. The two new cases are the Landau and Plus.

The Landau is your basic case which provides all-around protection (with screen protector) without limiting access to any of your ports or buttons.

The Plus is a more rugged case which covers the entire non-screen surface of the phone. ezButtons are built into the case, which are essentially areas which have extra silicon padding. This allows you to press on specific areas of the case and have the desired button be activated. Your iPhone’s screen will be protected by a standard static screen protector.

Both cases will be available in Frost White, Onyx Black and Cool Blue. The ezSkin Plus is expected to run $19.99, while the Landau will be $5 less. Both are set to ship on July 8, 2008.

Reference:

http://www.ezgear.com/iPhone/iPhone.htm

New Apps: Shutdown, Lock And iReboot For iPhone

Installer.app has developed new utilities to ease your life in case your iPhone’s Shutdown button has suddenly broken.

The first app. is Shutdown that switches off iPhone. It is useful if your sleep button is broken.

Other app is Lock, which locks your iPhone. It does the same as pressing sleep button on the top of the iPhone. Yet again if your sleep button doesn’t work this app is especially useful.

Shutdown and Lock is available from iClarified sources (http://installer.iclarified.com) found in iClarified category.

The las one is iReboot. Allows you to Reboot, Shutdown and Restart your iPhone. Shutdown will turn your iPhone completely off. Restart will respring your iPhone back to the lock screen.

iReboot is found from iSpazio (repo.ispazio.net) sources.

References:

http://iphonegap.com/2008/06/17/shutdown-lock-great-utilities-from-famous-iclarified/

Adobe Has a Version of Flash Working For The iPhone

Adobe announced at its Q2 conference call that they already have a version of Flash working for the iPhone and running on emulation software.

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

But will Apple allow Flash for the iPhone? Steve Jobs has claimed in the past that the mobile version of Flash - presumably what Adobe would be porting over to the iPhone - isn’t powerful enough for use on the nimble and elegant iPhone.

The push to break away from Flash reliance indicates that Apple isn't keen on seeing iPhone Flash development succeed.That leaves Adobe all alone to tackle the iPhone Flash dilemma.

References:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/06/17/adobe-still-hanging-on
-to-flash-on-iphone-thread

IPhone Only For €1 – Worldwide Companies’ Price list

T-Mobile Monday announced it will sell the iPhone 3G for as little as €1 next month to German, Dutch and Austrian customers who sign up for one of its more expensive service plans. People who sign a 24-month contract and opt for one of T-Mobile’s two priciest plans can have Apple's 8GB iPhone 3G for just €1, approximately $1.55 at Monday’s exchange rate, according to information released by the German telecommunications company.

The €1 price must be combined with either a €69 or €89 monthly plan ($107 and $138, respectively in U.S. dollars).The brawnier 16GB iPhone 3G will also be available at reduced prices for customers who select the more expensive plans. That model will cost €39.95 ($62) or €19.95 ($31) when paired with the €69 and €89 plans, respectively.People inking lower-priced contracts may also be eligible for iPhone 3G discounts. Although the 8GB iPhone will cost €169.95 ($263) when the buyer signs up for the lowest-priced €29 ($45) plan, the price for the phone falls to €59.95 ($93) if it’s linked to a €49 ($76) monthly plan.

T-Mobile, the wireless arm of Deutsche Telekom AG, is not the first mobile service provider to spell out a sliding scale for the iPhone 3G. O2, the carrier that has exclusive rights to sell the iPhone in the U.K., posted its prices last week. Consumers who sign an 18-month contract and choose either the £45 or £75 monthly plans ($86 or $148, respectively) will receive an 8GB iPhone 3G free of charge. Users who agree to the lower-priced £30 or £35 plans ($59 or $69), on the other hand, will be charged £99 ($195) for the same model. In the U.S., where AT&T has a lock on selling iPhone service, all customers, no matter which voice plan they select, will pay the same $199 for the 8GB iPhone 3G.

When Apple unveiled the iPhone 3G last week, it said the new faster phone would be available July 11 in 22 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S. However, Orange, the mobile division of France Telecom, has posted a notice on its Web site that it will begin selling the iPhone 3G on July 17.

Reference:

http://www.t-mobile.de/unternehmen/presse/pressemitteilungen/1,12219,20864-_,00.html

http://www.francetelecom.com/en_EN/press/press_releases/cp080609uk.html

A New Program - Marincer Calc For iPhone

As we know the upcoming iPhone 2.0 software is providing more document viewing capabilities in the form of readers for PowerPoint, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, but Apple still isn't providing a way to edit docs on the run.

Mariner Software announced that they are porting Mariner Calc, the Excel-spreadsheet editor for the Mac, over to the iPhone platform.

Company president Mike Wray said that their application will offer support for multiple spreadsheets per document, charts, and objects. It's also said that it will support a maximum of 1,000,000 rows and 32,000 columns per document. It is possible that it will be integrated with Mariner Calc on the Mac in some way.

According to Michael Wray, president of Mariner Software, the program is 80 to 90 percent complete. Wray told Macworld that the iPhone version of Mariner Calc will also “tie in to” new versions of the company’s Mac version of Mariner Calc - which will itself use Excel format as the native file format - and the Mariner Write word processor.

The app will be available shortly after the launch of App store. Pricing has not yet been revealed.

References:

http://www.macworld.com/article/133967/2008/06/marinercalciphone.html

Super Monkey Ball – Funny Game Created For The IPhone

During Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, Apple showed off some of the applications that have been developed using the iPhone Software Development Kit. Apple's Scott Forstall and Sega's Ethan Einhorn showed off Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone.

Initially previewed at the SDK launch, Super Monkey Ball now includes over 100 levels. In playing through the last world, Sega demonstrated how they used the iPhone's accelerometer to control the movement of the character.

Reference:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/

Telefonica To Bring iPhone In Latin America And The Czech Republic

The Spanish company Telefonica has announced it will distribute the iPhone to 16 countries in Latin America and the Czech Republic after striking a deal with Apple. These new countries are: The Czech Republic, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

“We are happy to announce that we will be offering iPhone to our customers. Customers will benefit from the full potential of the high-tech phone as we are the only operator with a fast 3G network,"- Salvador Anglada, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer Telefónica O2 Czech Republic.

“The 16 countries where we will distribute the iPhone have a market potential of 500 million people, making us one of the global leaders in the distribution of these revolutionary handsets,” Telefonica’s Chairman Cesar Alierta said.

Telefónica is one of the leading a private company in the global telecommunications market, with headquarters in Spain; it is listed on the main international stock exchanges. With a presence in 23 countries, Telefónica's revenue represents an average of 1.5% of the GDP of the economies of the countries where it operates. Over 63% of its earnings (more than 52.9 billion euros in 2007) come from outside Spain. In 2006, the company offered a return of 31.2% to its 1.7 million shareholders.

Telefónica employs over 233,000 persons and provides access to more than 218 customers: 160 million mobile phones accesses. 42 million landline telephones accesses. 9.6 million broadband accesses. 1.4 million pay-per-view accesses. In 2006, the operator invested over 4.3 billion euros in R+D+i.

FlickrExport For iPhone By Connected Flow

Connected Flow is developing an iPhone version of FlickrExport. This will be a new great application for those who use the FlickrExport plug-ins for Aperture and iPhoto, and who use an iPhone.

This upcoming app, from Connected Flow, gives iPhone users opportunity to take photos on their iPhone Camera and send them straight to their Flickr photostream. This program will undoubtedly be quite popular with iPhone users.

It will allow iPhone owners to both take photos with iPhone’s camera from within FlickrExport and instantly transfer them to Flickr, and also transfer any photos that are already in the library (although only one at a time). Users will also be able to apply titles, descriptions, tags, privacy settings, geographical information, and more, to their images - all from the iPhone.

With the Aperture and iPhoto versions, it is intended that people can use it to upload a large number of photos all at once. Conversely, with the iPhone version, only one picture can be uploaded at once.

Using WiFi, photos took about five seconds to upload, while EDGE took about 20 seconds for one shot. A price for the app has yet to be revealed.

References:

http://www.macworld.com/article/133883/2008/06/flickrexport_iphone.html

Ah.... WWDC still

This is making for a long week. I'm a little disappointed in many of the iPhone sessions. I guess, with the amount of hours I've logged messing with the iPhone SDK, there's been only a few nuggets of truly new information, and the questions I do need answered, I'm having a hard time getting anyone to answer. Very frustrating. I understand why the sessions are like this and don't blame them, but it's still frustrating.

In some ways, it doesn't "feel" like a Mac developer gathering this year with all the press, and the huge influx of people new to the platform. In the long run, this is all good for the platform, but there are growing pains to be suffered. But as long as Steve Jobs doesn't turn into this, I guess I can live with it...

I did get a chance to see a presentation by Dr. Michael "Wave" Johnson of Pixar today at lunchtime. It was one hell of an entertaining talk, but it was more than just entertaining - he was saying a lot of things that a lot of people in that room needed to hear (and a lot of people in the software industry in general need to hear). It's really too bad the session was under NDA, because I think everybody who codes or wants to code should see it. If you ever get a chance to see him speak, go out of your way to do so: You won't be disappointed.

They are doing some really cool in-house development at Pixar. I don't think I'd ever be tempted to become an employee of a big corporation again but there are a few places that I would have to give serious consideration to if they ever were to come calling (as unlikely as that is). That team at Pixar is definitely one such place. Though I probably would end up staying self-employed, I would be sorely tempted. It sure looks like a great place to work and Dr. Michael looks like a hell of a person to work for. 

I've complained a few times lately about being busy, but I haven't given much detail because I haven't been able to. Well, apparently, the wraps are off one of the projects that's been eating up my time. This is a big thing for me in a number of ways. First, it will be my first published book; everything I've had published so far has been much shorter in length. It's also great because I get to work with Dave Mark, who's a great writer and all around great guy, and I'm tremendously proud to be working on this project with him. We have a very aggressive deadline, so if you don't see many posts from me in the next two months, you'll know why.

The other big project I've got on my plate has to stay under wraps for a while longer, but I'll just say that it's of similar magnitude and importance to me. I wish I could say more, but I can't. I promise that I'll share as soon as I'm at liberty.

More WWDC

Man, I wish I could share some of the stuff from Yesterday. The keynote was, of course, public, and you can go watch it here. But the keynote was all about iPhone, but there actually was a lot of news on the Mac OS X front.  Apple has made a small part of the new "Snow Leopard" functionality public here, but I can tell you that the release only scratches the surface. We live in interesting times and I think they're doing the right thing with the approach they are taking - it's very long-term, and its unusal for a big company to do that.

There are an awful lot of new-to-the-platform folks here this year, mostly pulled in by the iPhone SDK, and a lot of them complete newbies to Cocoa and Mac. Apple seems to have known that this would be the case: any of the iPhone sessions today have been very basic, hardly the level of detail I was hoping for. Even the class intended for experienced Cocoa programmers was, I thought, a tad on the simplistic side. While I did get a few good tidbits, there was not much new for me. There are some more advanced sessions later in the week that I'm excited about, though.

If you are a Mac developer, or want to be one, you really should try and find a way to get out to San Francisco for this event. It's expensive, but worth every penny if you can swing it. Plus, where else you can you replenish your stock of Apple t-shirts?

Ubisoft To Develop Games For iPhone And iPod Touch

Ubisoft, an international developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products and game series such as Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and Prince of Persia, is also very interested in developing games for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Pauline Jacquey, Executive Producer of Ubisoft’s “Games for Everyone” said: “We don't want to keep it too narrow. At the minute, we’re only showing DS and Wii games, but we’ll be working on all other platforms. We’ll be making games not only on PC, PS3 and 360, but on iPhone and iPod touch as well.”

Ubisoft Entertainment S.A, an educational software and video game publishing and distribution company, was created by the five Guillemot brothers, in 1986. Later, Ubisoft created distribution subsidiaries in key world markets: United Kingdom, Germany and the U.S.

The Ubisoft group quickly established its leadership on Microsoft’s Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, successfully launching four titles, including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™, and climbing to the top of the charts.

References:

http://www.casualgaming.biz/news/27507/INTERVIEW-softly-spoken

New 3G IPhone Only For 199$

The iPhone will soon be $200 cheaper and come with satellite navigation and faster Internet access, but it will be pricier to own because monthly service charges are rising. Apple Inc. revealed Monday that it has scrapped its premium pricing plan for the iPhone and unveiled an upgraded model that works over faster wireless networks, addressing key criticisms about the device that have hurt the company's foray into the cell phone industry.

The iPhone's lowest price - for an 8-gigabyte version with the major new features - will fall to $199 when new models go on sale July 11, the Cupertino-based company revealed Monday. A 16 gigabyte model is to sell for $299.The new iPhones are designed to work over so-called 3G, or third-generation, wireless networks and have global-positioning technology built in. They'll roll out initially in 22 countries. Apple has inked deals for wireless carriers in a total of 70 countries to carry the new iPhone.

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs showed off the new models of the iPhone and about a dozen new applications for the device at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

The 1.73 million iPhones Apple sold in the first three month this year gave it a 5.3 percent share of the worldwide smart-phone market, according to research firm Gartner. Apple has been adding overseas markets gradually with carrier deals.

More Stevenote

You're probably aware of Steve's announcements today, I won't repeat them here, but it was pretty cool. I was in the fifth row, not too far from Al Gore and George Lucas. RDF was in full force, but it's an exciting time for iPhone development. Unfortunately, ther rest of the week is under NDA, and I'm guessing that the SDK NDA will last until the July 11 ship date, so it's going to be a little bit longer before I can cover some of the stuff I want to.

Steve-Note

I'm in line for Steve's keynote at WWDC. We're currently on the first floor of Moscone West, which is better than sitting on the sidewalk outside Moscone, which is what we were doing form 4:20 this morning until 7:00 when they let us in.

Still almost three hours until the actual keynote starts, but pretty cool to actually be here.

iPhone For Japanese

The shortest iPhone-related press release ever comes courtesy of Japan’s Softbank Mobile Corporation. “SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Japan later this year.”

SOFTBANK MOBILE Corp. was founded on April 1, 1994. The Capital was over 177,251.2165 million yen. Today company’s annual Revenue is about 1,562,000 million yen. The chairman and CEO is Masayoshi Son. Number of Employees is approximately 3,800.

Reference:

http://www.softbankmobile.co.jp/en/news/press/pdf/20080604e.pdf

"Never Miss a Thing" - RemindYou For iPhone

RemindYou is another lockscreen app that displays your upcoming events on your wallpaper. This is particularly useful if you have a busy schedule or if you forget important things.

RemindYou is a native iPhone application published for “jailbroken” phones. To use RemindYou, you must first jailbreak your phone using your method of choice. Once complete, you may install RemindYou using Installer.app or by manual download.

RemindYou updates your iPhone's lock screen every 15 minutes. If you install new wallpaper or enter an appointment directly into iCal, you will need to use the "Apply Changes" button in the RemindYou app to make it appear sooner.

New application comes with a 14 day trial and then costs $19.95 USD.

P.S. By the help of RemindYou you will never miss another meeting, conference call, or soccer game because of a dismissed alarm or information overload.

References:

http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/2008/06/04/remindyou-102/

Well, Duh...

If you read the excellent Daring Fireball, or one of the many other Apple-centric blogs, you are probably well aware of how often mainstream media says really boneheaded things about Apple and their products, since it is an oft-blogged topic in the Mac blogging realm. Well, this doozy came today from Newsweek (this quote is on the second page) and nobody seems to have picked up on it:

What we know for sure though is that sales of the iPhone are fading fast and Apple will have to do something very soon to get those phones moving. 

While it is absolutely true that sales of the iPhone have dropped off tremendously, it's not lack of demand, but rather the fact that you can't buy the friggin' things right now, and everybody knows a new version is coming out. Nobody in their right mind buys a new Apple product right before MacWorld or WWDC, especially if the product they want to buy is rumored to be getting a new version. 

Given the rumors of 3G, GPS, redesigned iPhones that will give you a back rub while you talk on the phone with people in the future, it shouldn't be a surprise that nobody's buying the existing models right now. But even if you wanted to buy one now, most Apple Stores, including the online Apple Store, simply don't have them available . 

HTTP PUT and NSMutableURLRequest

I've been struggling with a problem with NSMutableURLRequest for an article I'm writing about writing Cocoa clients for RESTful web services. Whenever I use HTTP PUT requests, the form parameters do not appear to be getting passed to the server in the request body. If I did two requests, exactly the same, using PUT and POST, the parameters came up in the POST request, but not the PUT request.

I wrote up a sample Ruby on Rails server and Xcode project to demonstrate the problem and submitted it as "PUT parameters not being passed in body when using NSMutableURLRequest". After being told by Apple that this wasn't happening, I re-tested, thinking perhaps that 10.5.3 release had fixed it. Nope! 

Well, I spent several years working at a large software company fixing reported defects. so I knew that merely re-submitting the same post was unlikely to yield a different result.  Defects are generally not closed lightly, and certainly not arbitrarily, so I dug out wireshark and did a little digging.

It turns out, the PUT parameters are being passed in the body. My description of the problem was not technically correct, even though the code I submitted clearly showed a problem with PUT requests. I took the captured requests for a  PUT and a POST request and noticed a difference: the PUT requests had no content-type header. This is clearly a bug, but it's not the bug I described. I'm going to submit a new defect today, but since I've found a simple workaround for the problem, I thought I'd post it. Here it is:

When using NSMutableURLRequest to do an HTTP PUT request, add the following line of code (req is the NSMutableURLRequest):

[req setValue:@"application/x-www-form-urlencoded" forHTTPHeaderField:@"Content-Type"];

That's all there is to it. If you add this line of code, your PUT requests will work just fine.

ifbyphone Released New App For iPhone

The ifbyphone released new iPhone application that will enable users to send recorded messages without using calling minutes.

The ifbyphone telephone application platform, which will be available July 1, will deliver broadcasts either immediately or at a scheduled time set by the user. It will work with any iPhone running the v2 software. In addition, the Voice Broadcast feature will also work with the iPod touch.

Applications for Ifbyphone's Voice Broadcast technology include traveling managers who need to send a voice memo out to their staff while being away, or for parents who want to reach the entire family all at once.

Voice Broadcast will work by selecting a group of recipients from the iPhone’s Address Book, then entering the delivery date and time. The Voice Broadcast application lets you record a message, which is then sent at the appointed time. Because the message is being sent as data, it doesn’t impact the number of minutes you’ve selected in your calling plan.

The application will be free to download, though Ifbyphone requires an active subscription in order to use.

Ifbyphone is a hosted voice application and platform company with a simplified approach to the deployment of stand-alone and web-integrated voice services for small and medium sized businesses (SMB).

Ifbyphone makes it easier for customers to connect with you from online and off. All of Ifbyphone's applications are accessible via a click on a Web site, an inbound call to a toll free number, an outbound call or with the help of a programmable API.

References:

http://public.ifbyphone.com/

T-minus Three Days

I leave for sunny California in three days. And though I lived in the bay area for almost seven years, I'm not going to visit, I'm going to WWDC. 

I'm killing myself trying to clear my plate before I leave, and I have a very busy schedule. I've spent much of the last two weeks trying to wrap my head around Core Audio, with mixed success, and I think I'm trying for some kind of record for number of bugs reports filed with Apple since the SDK came out! I'm concerned that some of the Apple engineers are going to hurt me if they see my name tag. :)

Anyway, if either of the people who read this blog are going to be at WWDC, say hi if you see me.

TeliaSonera brings iPhone to Nordic & Baltic Markets

Now IPhone sales probably would increase and those who used to wait for the product now enjoy the availability.

TeliaSonera announced that it would be bringing the iPhone to Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia this year. Official agreement between TeliaSonera and Apple was signed at May 27.

TeliaSonera provides telecommunication services in the Nordic and Baltic countries, in Spain and the emerging markets of Eurasia, including Russia and Turkey. In 2007, their number of subscriptions reached approximately 115 million in the majority-owned operations and associated companies, operating income, excluding non-recurring items, was SEK 27.5 billion and the number of employees 31,292. TeliaSonera is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

The Chargepod - Now Avaliable At $39.95

Callpod, Inc. has reduced the starting price of the Chargepod, the product that simultaneously charges: iPod, iPhone, Zune, Treo, BlackBerry, Sony PSP,Nintendo DS, Most Cell Phones, PDA & Portable Gaming Devices. Now, the Chargepod a 6-in-1 device is available at $39.95 and the bundle pack at $79.95.

1. The Chargepod carries a street price of $39.95 which includes the Chargepod base unit, a carrying case and wall plug (100-240V AC, 50-60 Hz). Each additional adapter, like say, for the iPhone, is $9.95.

2. Callpod offers a bundle pack for $79.95, which includes the Chargepod base unit, AC wall plug, car charger, carrying case and the following six popular adapters: Apple iPod/Phone, Motorola, Blackberry, Nokia, Palm Treo and Sony PSP devices.

The Chargepod, allows users to charge most mobile electronic devices with a single power cord from almost anywhere including at home, in the car or at the office.

Callpod, is an emerging technology company that has created and patented unique audio conferencing and content sharing technologies for wireless consumer electronic devices and cellular telephones. It is a strategic solution provider as well as reference and ASIC designer for manufacturers of cellular, consumer electronics and wireless devices.

References:

http://www.examiner.com/p-172770~Callpod_s_Chargepod_R____Versatile_6_in_1_
Charger_Now_Starts_at__39_95.html

Web Services Core

I've been doing a lot of work with Web Services Core lately. Although I honestly hate to criticize Apple, I must say they've really dropped the ball with their Web Services support. SOAP web services have moved forward quite a bit, but Web Services Core seems to be frozen at circa 2003 functionality, and WSMakeStubs is even worse.

The first, and more minor problem I've hit recently, is that WSMakeStubs doesn't provide an easy mechanism for supporting HTTP authentication. That's not too big of a deal since it can be worked around with a few tweaks to the generated code. Web Services Core does provide a way to support this, but it's not necessarily something that would be obvious to somebody new to the platform.

The show-stopper, however, for many web services is that there is absolutely no mechanism for specifying attributes for an XML attribute that's passed inside your SOAP envelope. So, if a web service requires some piece of information to be passed in using an attribute, you're pretty much screwed.

There is a way to make Web Services Core do this, but it's such a hack, that you'd probably be better off rolling your own client libraries. It involves writing your own serializer and overriding the XML serialization for the CFTypes you use. It's an ugly hack, difficult to implement and even harder to explain. It's not the type of code you want to maintain if you're likely to have much turnover in your development staff.

I opened a bug report with Apple, but I'm not overly optimistic that they'll fix this, to be honest. They don't seem overly concerned with SOAP web services at the moment. 

This could be a big deal if you're an iPhone developer, though. You see, Apple appears to be trying to position the iPhone into the enterprise by adding Exchange support, and a lot of new iPhone developers that I've met come from a background of working in Corporate IT shops. Many of the web services used inside the corporate enterprise are written using Microsoft tools that support (and even encourage) using attributes in the XML tags in SOAP methods. In fact,a prime example of this is the Exchange WSDL itself. It has required attributes in at least one tag on every single exposed method. This means you currently can't write a Cocoa client for even a single exposed method from the Exchange WSDL using WSMakeStubs or Webs Services Core. You can write one, of course, but it's going to be a lot of work.

I'm honestly concerned about the impression this is going to leave on people coming to the iPhone from .Net, which has very robust Web Services libraries. Many of the new Cocoa developers I've talked to lately have experience with .Net. Of course, the long-time Cocoa developers are trying to convince these newcomers how wonderful Cocoa is, but things like this kind of get in the way of proving that point. 

New Palm OS emulator for iPhone

StyleTap is officially planning to introduce a version of StyleTap CrossPlatform for the Apple iPhone smartphone and the iPod touch. They plan to bring this capability to the iPhone in the near future, what’s more the iPhone runs the Palm OS better than most Palm devices, so this is a very interesting feature to add to the long list of things that the iPhone already excels at.

The project is still under development. They are still working on a number of issues, such as where and how it will be marketed and sold. You will be able to grab the software needed starting in July, when more information is released by StyleTap. They will also announce price points.

StyleTap personnel will also be attending the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA from June 9-13, and will be available to meet with mobile application developers who want to learn more about StyleTap for the Apple devices.