Announcing its second quarter financial results today, Apple confirmed the obvious by saying a "significant" number of iPhones are being purchased from its outlets with the express intention of unlocking them. That trend, coupled with higher-than-expected demand, has resulted in inventory shortages, the company claimed.
Comment Prophets predict the mobile phone will kill the fixed line and the internet will kill newspapers.
What usually happens is the old systems shuffle up to make space. Nothing dies. Television didn't kill cinema, cinema didn't kill theatres. The internet means newspapers carry less advertising and some things, like stock prices, disappear from the pages, but they remain the favourite reading in bed on a Sunday. Very little goes the way of the LP record and the typewriter.
Asus has posted a Software Development Kit (SDK) for the Eee PC, the better to help coders write new programs to run on the elfin laptop's Xandros Linux distribution.
Microsoft executives will be a little red-faced today after an Xbox 360 on display at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco contracted the infamous ‘Red Ring of Death’ disease.
A teen hacker known for his deftness with iPhones has figured out how to unlock models running the latest firmware versions by cracking a protection that has frustrated hackers for weeks.
Google invited developers to its London office for one of three workshops - the others being in Munich and Tel Aviv to spread the word and teach developers how to write for their new OS. Another event will be held in Boston on February 23rd (check at the blog for an announcement). Here's what they told us. The mantra for Android is that it’s "a complete and modern embedded OS, with a cutting edge mobile user experience, a world class software stack for building apps and open platform for developers users and industry". That of course breaks into lots of different specifics some of which are more solid than others. Computer people coming to mobile have a very different view of phone architecture to phone people adding features. Phone people see the phone functions - the GSM chipset, Bluetooth, DVB-H, for example, as a foundation, with drivers on top. Then there's an abstraction layer, an operating system, a user interface framework and the applications on top.
Analysis Nokia may be strengthening its ties with major internet brands to boost its Ovi web services portal, but for a company of this scale, there must also be an agenda to set its own standards in the evolving mobile internet market on which it has staked its future. The Finnish giant's latest software acquisition, of Norwegian Linux player Trolltech, gives it a strong vehicle to launch its own bid to dominate mobile open source standards, an area where Google and Intel have already made aggressive moves. This sees the handset giant making its strongest commitment yet to Linux in its Series 60 smartphone market, and setting Trolltech's Qt platform against other would-be dominant mobile web systems like Google Android and Intel Mobilin.
Remember AOL and the "walled garden"? Today, when you meet what used to be the world's number one, and rather standoffish, consumer internet service provider they are talking about working with others and not re-inventing the wheel.
On the face of it, rendering a simple smiley on a screen seems pretty straightforward. So Microsoft's excited revelation that the yet-to-launch Internet Explorer (IE) 8 has passed the Acid2 test might seem like a lot of fuss about nothing.
The reality is that - assuming Microsoft's claim is genuine - it is quite an achievement.
Mind the Gap SaturdayMind the Gap Saturday is a feature every Saturday where Blognation China tells its readership the differences - the gap - in the tech, mobile and enterprise worlds between China and the Western World.
You thought Blogging was addictive, bad, or <fill in the blank here>? Get a load of microblogging. If blogging chained you to your Mac or PC, microblogging will chain you to your humble mobile phone.
Klausner Technologies has filed suit against Apple, and AT&T, for infringing its patent for providing a visual representation of incoming messages, a claim that has convinced AOL and Vonage to pay up in the past.
A new application from Forum Nokia allows developers, and anyone else, to see just how much power their phone is using, and compare consumption when running different applications.
The complicated world of open source licensing has become a bit more complicated, as the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced details of the final version of its Affero General Public License GPL (AGPL).
You've got your shiny new iPhone, so the last thing you want is to read any more about it, luckily we can now offer a Web App which will remove all references to Apple's slate and replace them with a term of your preference: at least while you're surfing El Reg.
Some folk accuse iPhone owners of possessing far more money than sense, but if you've got it, flaunt it, I always say. And if you really want to show off how considerably richer you are than the rest of us, what better than a gold-plated Apple handset?
Mmobile operator 3 finally released full details of its new Skype handset at an event in London today. Early adopters can expect free calls, but no guarantees of reliability.
The Greenphone, launched with much publicity at LinuxWorld 2006, has been discontinued as Trolltech reckons the Neo 1973 can fulfil the role of a development platform, and therefore Greenphone has served its purpose.
In all the hoopla surrounding Apple's announcement of its revamped line of iPods on Wednesday, many users might have missed the company's update to iTunes, which includes a fix for a serious security flaw.
Reg Technology Panel We’ve got another lively, heated debate for your viewing pleasure. This time it’s on Enterprise Mobility and the issues and challenges that you’re facing on this complex topic.
It’s all based on the findings of our recent survey on Enterprise Mobility, which more than three thousand of you completed. Our man on the couch, Tim Phillips, is this time joined by Freeform Dynamics analyst Jon Collins and Rob Turner from Orange. Throughout the twenty minute program the three delve into the findings, discuss key points such as the future of mobile access, and seek to establish solutions to the issues that are keeping you awake at night.
Clicking here will launch our Enterprise Mobility webcast player where you can view the whole debate in all its glory, or alternatively select a chapter that takes your interest.
You can now use Yahoo! Mail to swap text messages with mobile phones. If you're living in the right country.
With the popular web-based mail client approaching its tenth anniversary, Yahoo! has unveiled a shiny new version that trades texts with any cell phone in the U.S., Canada, India, and the Philippines.
We send our apologies to the UK.
The new Yahoo! Mail was announced early this morning on the company's official blog, Yodel Anecdotal. Yes, Yodel Anecdotal. Company VP John Kremer told the world that he now has a better way to communicate with his kids.
"My kids, like most, love text messaging. But while their nimble fingers can easily navigate cell phone keypads at lightening speeds, I definitely prefer a full keyboard, and am much more inclined to use email than text messaging," Kremer wrote. "[The new Yahoo! Mail client is] sure to come in handy for people like me who want to keep in touch with text-crazy friends and family."
Texts are free when sent through certain wireless carriers, but others will charge a fee. You'll have to check Yahoo!'s help pages to find out which carriers want money for messages and which don't.
The texting tool is certainly the most glamorous addition to the new Yahoo! Mail, but there are other new features worth trying - even if you live outside those four text-friendly markets.
Most notably, the face-lifted client includes built-in IM, previously available in beta. "The all-new Yahoo! Mail also lets users send and receive instant messages in real-time to their friends who are logged into Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger or Windows Live Messenger, without ever leaving the e-mail experience," Kremer continued. "You can even switch between emailing, instant messaging, and text messaging as your friends come online or go mobile." You can choose your means of communication simply by selecting a name from your contact list.
What's more, you can now drag and drop messages from folder to folder. And you'll find a beefed-up search engine, which lets you search by sender name, folder, date, attachment type, and more.
There's one other new feature, but it's only available in the U.S. The American client now has the power to recognize dates, addresses, and proper names, linking straight into Yahoo! Calendar, Yahoo! Maps, and Yahoo! Search.
According to a Yahoo! spokeswoman, the new client - which also offers new color themes - will be rolled out to 25 markets worldwide "in the coming weeks."
But you needn't upgrade if you don't want to. Yahoo! will continue to offer its old Mail interface to dial-up users and other people living behind the times. "Our goal is to provide the best email experience for everyone, whether that be familiar and comfortable or new and shiny," Kremer said.
According to research firm comScore Media Metrix, Yahoo! Mail is the world's most popular web-based client, with 254 million users. But Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail is just behind with 224 million.
Yahoo!'s client turns 10 in October. This spring, in anticipation of the milestone, the company decided to give unlimited free storage to each and every user. AOL, the world's third most-popular client, has followed suit, but Microsoft and Google have yet to pull the trigger. ®
IBM and Microsoft are both launching unified communications bundles - software which will allow management of email, VoIP calls, instant messaging, and video conferencing.
iPhone fans are set have their wish granted, with the news that a German firm has developed an application that brings Skype functionality to the device.
One of the complaints that users of the hybrid phone and MP3 player had was relating to its instant messaging functionality, or lack thereof. German firm Shape Media has stepped in to fill the gap.
The application, dubbed "IM+ for Skype", transforms the iPhone into a Skype handset. The web application, which works through the iPhone's Safari web browser, allows iPhones to use the Skype messaging service along with its Voice over IP (VoIP) network.
By logging on to skypeforiphone.com, users can access their Skype account, allowing them to make free Skype to Skype calls, and use their SkypeOut credits to make calls to landlines and mobile phones around the world. According to Shape Media, the application will work across different networks and does not require Wi-Fi to operate.
The application was designed for use with the iPhone's touchscreen, and has the added benefit of offering more cost-effective call charges than many carriers, for both landline and mobile calls - domestic and overseas.
Similar software has already been developed for platforms such as Windows Mobile, RIM's Blackberry, Palm and Symbian devices.
Nokia has launched a public beta of its user-generated content play Mosh, encouraging members to upload videos, pictures, and even applications for sharing with the Mosh community.
Most of Mosh will be familiar territory - users upload content which can be rated by other users, but everything is also accessible from a mobile phone. Members can download a mobile application to access the service from their phone, but right now that provides a pretty interface for links to various URLs which come up in the phone browser, but is clearly intended to be expanded over time.
Mosh isn't just for Nokia handsets, though obviously there is a leaning in that direction. The service is keen to stress its hardware-agnostic approach.
Most interesting is the way Mosh users are graded by popularity - uploading content and commenting on other people's content gains you popularity, while having content removed or rated badly knocks you back.
Content uploaded by the most popular users gets greater prominence on the website and phone interface, and the users get the warm feeling of knowing they are loved.
In common with the rest of Web 2.0, Mosh charges no fees and has no income. There are some vague comments about advertising at some point in the future, though with Nokia bankrolling the project there won't be any hurry to capitalise.
According to Juniper Research, social networking will be worth over $2.8bn by 2012, with over 600 million users. ®
The Forum Nokia Open C Challenge, which offers $20,000 in prizes for the best application developed using Nokia's Open C libraries for Series 60 programming, along with POSIX for the Symbian bits, is now open to registrations.
Find out how Trolltech has made it easy for developers to implement web content directly into their native applciations through the integration of the WebKit rendering engine.
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