Archive for the 'Apple' Category

RIM reportedly wants to follow within the footsteps of Google and Apple and get itself a pleasant mobile ad network.

Google snatched AdMob, Apple bought Quattro, and RIM appears to had been in talks with Millennial Media a few potential acquisition. It is a company that serves ads on its own network of mobile websites and in addition brokers ad sales to a set of different mobile ad networks.

The talks haven’t become an acquisition announcement just yet due to disagreements on price. Apparently, RIM weren’t willing to pay what Millennial requested, having valued themselves by the hot AdMob and Quattro deals that Google and Apple made. RIM thought those were overpriced, and obviously didn’t would like to go an identical route.

The price Millennial was asking was $400-$500 million.

Why these companies need their own mobile ad networks is an effective question. Perhaps it’s faster to just buy an existing company than decide on in-house development, but at these prices, it doesn’t appear to be it’s also cheaper.

Either way, RIM may ultimately crumple to Millennial’s demands, or they could start looking for another potential target.

They needs to be eyeing Google’s and Apple’s projected mobile ad revenues and hoping they’d be capable to do well there too.

In the mean time, in keeping with IDC, their market share is 17.8%, down from 19.1% year-on-year, as they try to make substantial inroads into the patron market, dominated, at the least in mindhsare, by the aforementioned Apple and Google. Thus, an ad network may create a new and future-proof revenue stream for the Canadian company.

Via WSJ

The highly unlikely probability of a recall on all faulty iPhone 4 devices was the debate of everyone tech yesterday. Apple’s stocks fell in reaction to Consumer Reports’ non-recommendation of the iPhone 4, threads on Apple’s forums referencing the thing just gave the impression to vanish, and because the day progressed, more articles discussing a iPhone recall began surfacing.

We all comprehend it’s greater than likely unlikely to happen. Lately, Apple has been on the defense about any variety of iPhone issue, essentially telling customers that the failings are user-produced. Nothing could ever be wrong with Apple’s perfect product, in any case. Even analysts are crucially skeptical of a pending recall. Besides, full recalls are usually only triggered by valid safety concerns; bad antenna issues or proximity sensor faults are hardly safety concerns. But what if it really DID happen? What if Apple needed to eat its words and pony up the large bucks to re-buff its ever-so-slightly tarnished reputation?

According to Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi, a whole product recall of the iPhone 4 would cost as much as $250 per phone. Throw in an estimated 6 million units either sold or currently being shipped overseas, and Apple would rack up a bill as high as $1.5 billion.

That, needless to say, is barely if an entire recall was issued; the probabilities of even a partial recall (warranty exchange from defective units) are slim, but not being counted out either.

image courtesy Engadget

Let’s take a glance at some possible options or scenarios that can play out for Apple.

Full recall: We now know that at max the complete recall would cost $1.5 billion. However, with it only affecting certain units, not everyone would feel a necessity or want to send theirs back in exactly to attend for a replacement. in any case, only 25% of users are being affected, in accordance with reports. the real cost would thus likely be much below the max, regardless of an entire product recall.

Partial recall: this may be ideal for anyone who fears their iPhone unit is flawed as a result of antenna problems. This style would bring about even lower costs than the last scenario just played out, because iPhone owners either use a case, hold their iPhone a special way, or simply don’t have a recurring problem with their antenna. Sacconaghi mentioned that during-store hardware fixes of the units would cost $75 per phone, or roughly $500 million for Apple.

Free or discounted cases: Since Apple officially endorsed cases because the best strategy to ensure better antenna signal, it’d only be proper for the corporate to provide some variety of discount and even just throw in a case for the hassle. Apple’s bumpers likely cost the corporate $1 to make per unit, which might trim a likely iPhone recall right down to a $6 million cost at most. But you’ve to consider the millions of iPhone users that don’t use a case and don’t are looking to use a case, antenna problems be darned. What can Apple do in that sort of situation? Would Apple say, “tough luck”?

My impression is that if Apple were to announce some type of recall, they need to go somewhere within the middle without going terribly extreme on each side. It’s not too fun to confess defeat in front of millions of loyal customers that buy every product you’re making, however it’s also bad to utterly shroud yourself in secrecy and go hush-hush about future plans. going down the center would help the corporate save the main face. Not an excessive amount of, not too little. And either way, too late.

It’s hard to believe that Apple of all companies is faced with this form of dilemma.It’ll be interesting to determine the way it all plays out over a better couple months.

Should Apple recall the iPhone 4? And in that case, what type of recall can be best?

via AppleInsider

Oh look, it’s this story again.

And we may or might not have new developments.

It goes like this. Some those that had their iPhones replaced for different reasons claim that the replacement iPhones they got don’t have the infamous death grip issue.

But Apple still hasn’t uttered word one a couple of possible recall, or concerning the Consumer Reports fiasco. Hence the phrase “silent recall”.

It can be that, to bypass massive lines outside Apple stores and partner care centers, they’ve decided to have a cautious approach.

So, in case you have an argument along with your iPhone (but not the antenna flaw, as from Apple’s point of view that’s still only a design choice) that makes you’ve to exchange it, they’ll replace it with an iPhone that has a redesigned antenna and therefore won’t be dropping any further calls.

Or this may all just be wishful thinking.

Some people may so desperately want to believe that the antenna on their replacement iPhones is fixed, that they do.

Because people do report that they’re still facing the precise same problem.

Could all of this just mean that the recent iPhones a few of these individuals are getting employ the recent algorithm for calculating what number of bars of signal the telephone shows?

Has Apple really, at some point within the past, decided that the death grip is crucial enough to warrant a slight redesign of the telephone? I mean, in the event that they are handing out fixed handsets now, this needed to happen a decent while ago. It takes time to revamp this stuff, or even more time to ramp up production of a redesigned model.

Make of this what you like (or need). If it’s real, more details are certain to come very soon.

Via Gizmodo

Apple has just released a beta version of the iOS 4.1 SDK.

This SDK is intended for developers to play with to be certain their apps will work fine with the recent version of the OS.

And while it’s a beta, it gives us glimpses into the hot features that a better iteration of Apple’s mobile OS will bring.

The redesigned signal bars are there alright. They’re taller now.

And no, this doesn’t mean that the death grip is gone. it’s impossible to have a software fix for a hardware problem, so in case you were hoping for something like that, stop. “Magical” is something, but this trick will require actual magic.

Next up, the Apple Game Center gets a redesign too, and it now fits in with the general iOS UI design an awful lot less. this may change before the ultimate release of iOS 4.1, or it can stay an analogous. Only time will tell.

There also are some disturbing rumors for those anxious to jailbreak iOS 4.1 as soon as possible.

It feels like Apple may have a ‘gift’ for all of the jailbreakers obtainable, within the variety of a watermark to be able to appear on any iOS 4.1 jailbroken iPhone.

Rather nasty indeed, but don’t count out the hacking community just yet. they might discover a workaround and enable hiding the watermark, if it’s even real.

Anyway, in case you’re desperate to test drive the recent SDK, go here and download it. You’ll naturally wish to have an Apple developer account.

Via MacStories and MobileCrunch

The reception issues on iPhone 4, and advice on how “to carry it the correct way”, has become the joke of the week around internet.

Almost every competitor with  a grudge against iPhone needed to chime in with their very own version of “you can hold our device anyway you like and it still works” quip.

Looks like Apple is feeling the warmth, and now they decided to deal with  issue head on. Their conclusions?

Reception on iPhone 4 is only fine. Every phone gets weaker reception, when you hold it the certain way  But we had a wrong formula to calculate the variety of bars indicating signal strengths. we actually used this faulty formula for the last 2 years, in iPhone 3G and threeGs too. we are engaged on a brand new formula for a better firmware update. As soon because it’s out, the issues will depart and you’ll have the ability to hold your iPhone anyway you want… If there’s enough signal, that is…

Here’s the relevant a part of the clicking release:

Upon investigation, we were stunned in finding that the formula we use to calculate what number of bars of signal strength to display is completely wrong. Our formula, in lots of instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it’s going to for a given signal strength. as an example, we sometimes display 4 bars once we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars once they grip their iPhone in a definite way are obviously in a neighborhood with very weak signal strength, however they don’t understand it because we’re erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the 1st place.

To fix this, we’re adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating what number of bars to display for a given signal strength. the genuine signal strength remains a similar, but the iPhone’s bars will report it much more accurately, providing users a miles better indication of the reception they’re going to get in a given area. we are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a piece taller so that they shall be easier to work out.

It actually correlates quite well with the detailed analysis of iPhone 4 reception issues the AnandTech did.

But it still doesn’t address the the issue of the shortcoming of insulating coating on external antenna, that is the first cause of the difficulty, and why bumper cases fix the problem at the moment.

Let’s hope Apple at least quietly adds a thin insulator layer within the next iPhone 4 production runs.