The most useful iphone accessories

By: Ron Mark
One of the most used accessories when it comes to an iphone is the well known Bluetooth set; with the help of this particular handset together with other skype accessories, one can actually enjoy a convenient and clear audio when it comes to the wireless connection that is provided by almost every service. You can actually have a clear audio while you are talking to your iphone thanks to the existence of these iphone accessories that are likely to transform every conversation into a crystal clear one when it comes to its audio features.

This type of headset is likely to feature a single button that will allow you to make and receive calls; this quite innovative design will draw everyone’s attention thanks to its present facilities. In nutshell, this new accessory is likely to offer a sort of user-friendly and convenient wireless connection. Probably, this accessory is one of the most used ones together with other skype accessories; one should not be concerned about its way of working because this type of accessory will work in a convenient and simple manner when it comes to almost every iphone.
This is to be regarded as a different device that is likely to make the wireless communication easier by sending the necessary data. By using this present device, every cell phone will be able to talk to its own headsets. The user can also pay attention to the fact that this accessory has a special design. This design is quite a minimalist one because there is no pinhole when it comes to placing the microphone. This type of device will also lack the required ear clip in order to gain the necessary stability. Actually, there was some complain about all this secured fitting because these ear buds can actually fall out of your ears.

But, in spite of the existence of this little loophole, this entire device is to be considered as impressively light and small. Another good feature of this device is the fact that it can be quite cheaper when compared to other iphone accessories. Its screen is likely to display the entire charge level when it comes to both the headset and the iphone and the voice quality is to be expected to be quite good too. One has also to pay attention to the fact that all these accessories are likely to be related to the main features of each iphone. Such a multitasked iphone is likely to require special accessories that can provide it with a smooth functioning.

These items are to be regarded as really essential ones because they can actually help you in order to do your work; this type of mobile phone has boosted the entire industry and it has also paved all the way when it comes to the wireless accessories. A huge market is expected to develop when it comes to providing the iphone users with all the necessary accessories; this industry is also expected to grow really fast in the near future. For the effective use of your personal iphone, you should consider buying several accessories such as the screen saver, adapter and charger. For its protection, you should choose to buy a silicon case or even a screen guard and all these accessories are likely to be available to every iphone seller.
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How To Back Up Your Phone Data Online

For the storage of appointments and contacts, many people today rely on cell phones. However, the dependence on one single device can be unsafe and tricky in case your phone gets lost or stolen.

In order to prevent the disaster of losing vital contact details, you should try to regularly back up your phone data. Most phones today come with the appropriate software allowing you to easily manage and back up these data. For example, in case you are using a SonyEricsson phone, the best PC software for your unit is Float’s Mobile Agent. However, the biggest disadvantage of using PC utilities for backing up your phone data is the fact that you need to regularly connect your cell phone to PC in order to obtain the updated version of your data.

Most conventional back up methods copy your phone data onto any kind of media, like an external hard disc, DVD, or a USB memory stick. As much as these methods may seem quick and cheap, they are not reliable enough. Very often, laptops and peripherals get stolen from people’s houses and offices.

Alternatively, you can try online phone backup services, which save your most critical phone data on a highly secure, off-site server on the Internet. This way, you can have your phone stolen, lost or destroyed, but at least your vital data such as contact list, calendar, pictures, videos or text messages will definitely survive. Additionally, even if your membership expires, many services will still keep your data online for a certain period of time in case you change your mind.

The procedure is rather simple. You first register with the username, which is usually your phone number, upon which you will be sent a randomly generated password via sms text message and email address. Next, you can log on to the servers 24/7 through the management system and start the back up process. You can also and edit your information, listen to the ring tones you have backed up, watch the videos etc. You are recommended to check the data you have synchronized periodically just to make sure that your backup is complete.

If you still don’t have backups of your critical phone data, sign up for an account with any of the online mobile phone backup services, back up your data and keep it regularly synchronized to save yourself from a potential disaster of getting your unit lost or stolen.
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Apple not ‘bricking’ hacked iPhones for revenge, they’re fixing iPhone’s OS

"Beautiful as it is, the iPhone isn't finished -- its OS is a hack, rushed out to meet Jobs' demanding product deadlines. Last week's update brought the iPhone closer to perfection, but it still isn't fully baked," Leander Kahney reports for Wired.

"The iPhone bricking problem has been a PR disaster for Apple, making the company look punitive and obsessed with control. But Erica Sadun, a technical writer and blogger at TUAW.com who contributed to an iPhone unlocking application, said Apple's update wasn't designed to disable hacked devices. Just the opposite: Sadun thinks Apple worked hard not to brick iPhones -- even hacked ones," Kahney reports.
"'It wasn't intentional at all,' she said. 'If they wanted to brick hacked iPhones, they could have done a much better job of it.' Sadun said the software update disabled some hacked phones because it was a 'troublesome update' -- it even caused problems with iPhones that hadn't been touched. 'They messed up,' she said," Kahney reports. "The new iPhone software appears to be a ground-up rewrite, unrecognizable under the hood to the older version, which Sadun said was 'very unfinished' and, in some places, 'a complete hack.'"

Kahney reports, "The new iPhone software closely resembles the software on the iPod touch. But it's hard to know what it looks like in detail because it's very secure. 'Everything is certified, everything is encrypted, everything requires a checksum,' Sadun said. 'Apple wants no one else on the platform. It's a pretty strong statement of that.'"

More details in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Another Irish Dude" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: For a "hack," the iPhone sure worked well-enough at the outset, but - we must say - the current iPhone software does work even better with more stable apps and a snappier UI.
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Sun Blew its "iPhone" Java Opportunity to AJAX

Today is US Independence day and I stopped at the Apple store to see the iPhone, and ask questions about the new MacBook Pro. I wanted to see the iPhone in person to learn what I should expect from mobile phone people interaction and feature sets. And I wanted to learn which MacBook Pro model I'll be upgrading to in the next few weeks.

iPhone is beautiful. It is smaller than I expected. Just a little larger than my current Samsung D807. iPhone has a nice feel and the touch keyboard worked very well for my big fingers. iPhone was suprisingly hot - temperature wise - but what mobile Apple device isn't! (The CPU in my PowerBook constantly wants to burn its way through my lap on its return to the molten core of Earth.)

Being a Java and Mac guy I looked for Java on iPhone. Java is no where to be found.

For years I've listened to Jonathan Schwartz, CEO at Sun Microsystems, talk about monetizing its Java investment because of the wide-spread availability of the Java runtime - today on 700 Million mobile phones.

Rumors have it that Apple sold 500,000 iPhones in the past week. While a $500 mobile phone won't be able to keep up that sales rate, I just don't see Blackberry and Windows Mobile-based products in their current state being able to make a long-term run against iPhone. iPhone will be a significant part of the high-end mobile phone marketplace.

So where does that leave Java and Sun? Unfortunately, nowhere. There is no Java on iPhone. iPhone is a gated community and Java is on the outside.

Add to this my experience of developing Java applications - like TestMaker - on Mac OS X and I have to wonder where is Java 6? Unfortunately, an unstable developer-only dont-run-this-in-production release of Java is available. The real Java 6 is months away from release and depends on upgrading the entire operating system. Mac OS X is now the getto for Java 6.

Sun might blame both of these problems on Apple, but I see these as evidence that Sun is blowing its Java opportunity. There is no Java on iPhone, and only a very old alpha-quality release of JDK 6 for my Mac laptop.

I love Apple and Java. I wish Sun would do more to get Java on iPhone and Java 6 on Mac OS X.
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Report: Access Gained to iPhone 1.1.1 Files

By Rob Beschizza
Hackers have gained access to the upgraded iPhone's file system. This feat, if reliably repeatable, marks a major step toward cracking Apple's 1.1.1 update. The Unofficial Apple Weblog is liveblogging its attempts to apply the method, which involves using symbolic links (Unix's equivalent to shortcuts) to confuse the iPhone during upgrade.

Here's the basic outline of the proposed hack:

1. Using ssh: cd /var/root

2. mv Media backup

3. ln -s / Media

4. Upgrade to 1.1.1

5. Upse iphuc to access the changes and hopefully get execute access.

As of 10:30 a.m., however, Erica Sadun is reporting problems getting her SIM card (a "proper" AT&T one) recognized.

UPDATE: She's in! Erica reports gaining full access. Bear in mind that this doesn't unlock the iPhone, allow third-party apps or any other end-user useful thing — but it does lay bare the system for close inspection and manipulation.
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BlackBerry communicates growing rivalry with Apple iPhone

Elizabeth Judge and Marcus Leroux
BlackBerry yesterday threw down the gauntlet to Apple’s iPhone, outlining an aggressive push into the Californian group’s core consumer market after doubling profits and sales.

After sewing up the corporate market for wireless e-mail devices, Research in Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry, is forging into the high-end individual market.

Second-quarter results from the company, released to Wall Street late on Thursday, revealed its success. For the first time in the North American market, new subscriptions to the service from individuals outstripped those from companies.

The group said that individual consumer subscribers now account for about 30 per cent of its subscription base, which has broken through the 10 million subscriber mark and sent posttax profits in the three months to September 30 to $287.7 million (£140.8 million) – up from $140.2 million a year ago on sales that more than doubled to $1.37 billion, up from $658.5 million a year ago.

Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of RIM, said: “This outperformance was driven by the strong product cycle we are in the midst of as well as the diversification of our base across multiple geographies and market segments.”

The move to shed its reputation as a work-only tool and appeal to what it has dubbed the “prosumer” market of affluent, style-conscious consumers, was helped by the release of more BlackBerry models, including the Pearl, which is modelled like a traditional mobile handset, and the Curve.

The Ontario-based group has further tailored its products to the consumer by launching them in an array of colours and adding services such as music players, memory cards and cameras. They have long been standard on mobile phones but BlackBerry had regarded them as gimmicks.

The BlackBerry has been given a further boost by photographs of celebrities including Victoria Beckham and Britney Spears using them.

However, the strongest sign of its intentions came with the introduction of new software, BlackBerry Unite, which allows up to five people to share pictures, music and documents. The software will be available free to subscribers.

Ben Wood, of CCS Insight, the telecoms research group, described Unite as the “boldset step so far towards making the BlackBerry a consumer product”.

In addition, rumours have been sweeping the internet that RIM is preparing to launch a BlackBerry with a touch-screen – a key feature of Apple’s iPhone.

The move into this area pitches RIM in direct competition with “converged” device makers including the iPhone – a combined mobile handset, iPod music player and web browser.

RIM could also seek to exploit the alleged weaknesses of the iPhone. Critics in the UK, where it was recently unveiled ahead of a launch next month, complained that it does not offer 3G speeds, making its e-mail and internet capabilities less efficient.

In a further blow for Apple, analysts at Goldman Sachs said RIM has also hinted at relationships with Google and major music companies.
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From iPhone to iBrick?

Since Apple released the iPhone 1.1.1 update last Thursday, some adventurous iPhone users have been treating it with the suspicion usually only seen in gun-shy Windows users contemplating one of Microsoft's more far-reaching Service Pack updates.

That's because iPhone 1.1.1--in addition to providing security fixes and such useful new features as support for the WiFi iTunes Store--also nukes any third-party programs you've installed on an iPhone. And if you've used any of the various hacks available to unlock an iPhone for use with wireless carriers besides AT&T, the 1.1.1 update can nuke the iPhone itself, "bricking" it into an inert, unusable lump of metal and plastic.

That possibility is stressed in the intimidating "Important Information" screen iTunes presents at the start of the update:
IF YOU HAVE MODIFIED YOUR IPHONE'S SOFTWARE, APPLYING THIS SOFTWARE UPDATE MAY RESULT IN YOUR IPHONE BECOMING PERMANENTLY INOPERABLE.

Sure enough, one reader wrote to say that the iPhone he'd modified with third-party software "crashed and could not be recovered" after he installed the 1.1.1 update. (The iPhone I reviewed, which had also been hacked to run additional programs, survived the update fine.) That reader did note that Apple warns against putting third-party applications on iPhones, saying "I learned my lesson here." But he still wasn't happy about the outcome.

The 1.1.1 update also blocks a program, Ambrosia Software's iToner, that merely lets you make ringtones from music you already own and add them to an iPhone--instead of paying 99 cents each for them at the iTunes Store. Ambrosia President Andrew Welch--one of the most prolific Mac developers around, as well as one of the smartest observers of the Apple ecosystem--complained about Apple's conduct in an interview:
We're not putting anything but data on the iPhone, and we're doing it in the right way, and we're putting it in the user area of the iPhone. Apple is intentionally making sure that products like ours don't work.

Apple's defenders say that the iPhone is clearly marketed as a closed platform. If you don't like that, you can buy any other phone. If you insist on tinkering with an iPhone, you have to be prepared to own the consequences of your actions. Further, Apple can't be expected to test its own updates against every random hack out there, not least those that tinker with the deepest guts of the iPhone to let it use other wireless carriers' SIM cards.

True enough. But business isn't a matter of balancing rights and obligations as if you're in court. If the best thing a customer can say about a company is "they were within their rights to do this with me," you don't have a healthy relationship. This isn't Niccolo Machiavelli's politics; in a market populated by customers who can shop around, it is better to be loved than feared.

And the problems with the 1.1.1 update go beyond unfortunate, unavoidable interactions with unauthorized hacks. How else can you explain Apple going out of its way to break a program that just adds ringtones to an iPhone? That is classic cell-phone-industry control freakery. I might expect that from Verizon, but not from the "think different" company.

Apple works against its own long-term interest with this kind of conduct.

In the short term, it encourages users (such as Macworld columnist Rob Griffiths and my colleague Mike Musgrove) to opt out of its updates--which leaves them without important security updates and leaves Apple without the opportunity to sell them more songs through the WiFi iTunes Store.

In the long term, Apple is wasting its employees' time fighting an unwinnable battle. Apple's attempts to lock out third-party developers have about the same odds of success as the movie industry's campaign against DVD-unlocking software. Wouldn't Apple rather keep its programmers occupied with features and tools that customers actually want?

The iPhone's closed nature concerned me when I first reviewed it, and it bothers me even more now. This device is a breakthrough in many ways, but in others it's starting to look no better than any other cell phone. Apple should do better than this.
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Use your iPhone to pay for parking

Parking in Chicago just got a little easier. Now you can pay for a spot at the meter using your iPhone.
Actually, it works with any phone, but think of how cool you'll look saving quarters on your iPhone.
The Chicago Tribune reports the limited pilot program uses a service called Park Magic, and requires a credit or debit card to get started.
Those who participate will get a pager-sized in-car device that drivers leave on the dashboard. It blinks green if time remains and red if your time is expired.

The Tribune reports the cost is $15 and the initial charge will be applied as a credit to a parking account. To pay for parking, drivers call a toll free number and provide a "parking zone," which is listed on each of the city's 33,000 meters.

So, callers ... do you see yourself using something like this? Personally, I don't drive downtown much at all, but I'd love the chance to not have to worry about how much time is on the meter.
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Apple In Business: Riding The iPhone Wave

By Elena Malykhina
Apple's iPod made its way into business environments as employees realized that, in addition to all those MP3 files, they had 60 Gbytes of portable storage to take into the office. Then came the iPhone and its growing array of browser-based business applications. Is Apple's grassroots popularity translating into more business sales?

Apple officials won't answer that question directly, but the anecdotal evidence suggests that Apple is riding the "prosumer" wave for all it's worth. "We're seeing a lot of growth in business use," Apple's COO Tim Cook said at a press event in August. "Mac is growing, and a lot of that is business."

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, CEO Steve Jobs noted that Apple has more than 950,000 registered developers, up from 750,000 last year. With the new, fast Intel(INTC)-based processors, Apple's innovative design, the stability and security of the Mac OS X operating system, and software like iChat videoconferencing and the latest iWork productivity suite, businesses have many reasons to switch to the Mac, says an Apple spokesman. Apple's roster of customers includes Google(GOOG) and several other large business users.

Apple doesn't distinguish between sales to consumers and businesses, but Gartner reports that $897 million of Apple's revenue in the United States in the second quarter of this year came from the professional market, compared to $610 million from consumers. The revenue is for destop and notebook computers only, and excludes software and consumer electronics devices such as the iPod. Within the professional segment, 50% to 70% of Apple's revenue comes from the education sector, 20% to 30% from small and midsize businesses, 5% to 10% from the government, and 5% to 9% from enterprise customers, according to Gartner's estimates for the past four quarters.

Microsoft(MSFT)'s doing its part to help. Microsoft on Sept. 25 said it will ship a Macintosh version of its new Office productivity suite in January. Office 2008 for Mac will come with Word 2008, Excel 2008, PowerPoint 2008, and Entourage 2008, a contact and scheduling application.

Entourage 2008 will make it easier to adjust out-of-office settings, which previously had to be accessed through Apple's Safari Web browser in Outlook Web Access. Office 2008 will be the first to use the Aqua toolkit, making it a native Mac OS X application rather than a port of an older technology. That means the user interface will be more conformant to Mac standards. Users of Mac Office 2004 will be able to upgrade to Office 2008 for $239.95. The full retail version is priced at $399.95.

Several vendors also rolled out storage products for Macs at the Apple Expo 2007 in Paris. Iomega(IOM) introduced the UltraMax Pro Desktop Hard Drive for Apple's professional line of computers. The $600 drive comes with 1.5 Tbytes of storage. LaCie unveiled a two-disk RAID (redundant array of independent disks) system, a collection of drives that comes in 1, 1.5, and 2 Tbyte capacities. Western Digital introduced My Book Studio Edition external hard drives, with capacities from 320 Gbyte to 1 Tbyte.

Apple last year switched to using Intel chips in Macs, promising a complete transition to Intel by the end of this year. Previously, Apple used IBM's PowerPC processors. The switch gives Macs higher performance, according to Apple. It has also "instilled confidence" among IT managers in Apple, says Michael Fey, a software developer at PAR Government Systems, a provider of system design and IT services to the U.S. government. "Intel is the market leader for processors," he says. "Now Apple users can take advantage of their proven performance."
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The iPhone: What We Know, What We Don't Know

By: Wireless News Desk
Apple has released quite a few tidbits about developing web applications for the iPhone, however, this information is not complete. The iPhoneWebDev community has discovered many missing answers to help you better create rich AJAX-based web applications for iPhone. This session will discuss what we know, what we don't know, and a little about creating native iPhone applications that can also access the internet.
Speaker Bio:
Christopher Allen is an long-time entrepreneur, advisor and technologist, whose many ventures center on tools and facilitation of online communities. As the founder of Consensus Development, Christopher helped develop SSL, the world's dominant internet security protocol, and was co-author of the IETF TLS internet-draft. More recently Christopher has been an angel investor of numerous technology startups, founder of an multiplayer online game company, and current authors his blog "Life With Alacrity" on the topics including collaboration, security, privacy, social software and internet tools. He is the founder of the www.iPhoneWebDev.com, which is the largest iPhone developer support community.
The world’s leading Rich Internet Applications & Web 2.0 event is expected to attract more than 1,000 i-technology developers. AJAXWorld grew from a single track, one-day seminar, less than a year ago, into a four-day international conference & expo with more than 150 sessions delivered in ten simultaneous tracks, by more than 150 faculty members.

Track 01: Rich Internet Applications
Track 02: Web 2.0 Enterprise Mashups
Track 03: Enterprise AJAX
Track 04: RIA Frameworks & Toolkits
Track 05: Security in RIA Applications
Track 06: Hot Topics
Track 07: iPhone AJAX Applications
Track 08: Advanced AJAX
Track 09: Platform Choices / Real-World AJAX
Track 10: OpenLaszlo Diamond Track
The conference now includes the world famous AJAXWorld University's AJAX Developer Bootcamp, OpenLaszlo Track and Adobe Flex 3 Developer Bootcamp. This year’s AJAXWorld Expo Floor is expected to display bleeding edge RIA technologies from more than 75 leading AJAX vendors.
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Apple Sued Over iPhone Bricking

Posted by Zonk
An anonymous reader writes
"The week's debate over the iPhone 1.1.1 has finally resulted in legal action. InfoWeek reports that on Friday, California resident Timothy Smith sued Apple in a class-action case in Santa Clara County Superior court. The suit was filed by Damian Fernandez, the lawyer who's been soliciting plaintiffs all week for a case against Apple. The suit doesn't ask for a specific dollar amount, but seeks an injunction against Apple, which prevents it from sell the iPhone with any software lock. It also asks that Apple be enjoined from denying warranty service to users of unlocked iPhone, and from requiring iPhone users to get their phone service through AT&T."
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Apple's iPhone: A 100-day Report Card

This weekend marks the first 100 days of the iPhone era and the world, as we know it, will never be the same.

OK, so maybe that's a little dramatic. But it certainly is changing the market, it's dominating many discussions and it's going to be here for a long time ahead. So what have we learned in the first 100 days? We've learned that Apple really does want to control every aspect of its technology, hardware and software, hackers be damned. We've learned that aggressive pricing tactics can bite back. And we've learned that Apple's competitors are more than three months behind -- and counting -- in coming to market with anything competitive to the iPhone.

Despite the feature-rich nature of the iPhone, with multi-touch technology, iPod integration, Web-anywhere features, it's been a lightning rod for criticism for everything from its lack of support for Adobe Flash to a recent software update that turned hacked iPhones into pretty paperweights. Forgetting for a moment the passionate debate over whether the iPhone should be an open device, whether the price cuts were too steep too fast, or whether AT&T is a lousy service provider, here's a 100-day report card that grades various aspects of the device itself after more than three months of use:

Call quality - It works! In three months, used mostly in the New York area but also up and down the East Coast, I experienced only one dropped call. Voices are clear. Visual voice mail works perfectly when the phone is shut off. A Nokia bluetooth headset was a nice addition, but the ear buds with the built-in microphone work well, too. Grade: A.

Web browsing - No Flash support is a drag, but you learn to live without it when you're on the go. Other than that, the iPhone-customized Safari browser is fast and compensates fairly well for a slow EDGE network. It is helped greatly by the multi-touch aspect of the screen -- which will be graded separately -- and bookmarking is easy and convenient. Grade: A minus.

Keyboard - The more you use it, the more you like it. Here is where Blackberry and Treo users generally turn their noses up at the iPhone, but the simple fact is, the pop-up, touch-screen keyboard is simple. And for those folks who don't know, or like to use, abbreviations for SMS text messaging, the keyboard is perfect for texting complete sentences very, very easily. Grade: A

Email - Very disappointing. Apple sets a very high bar for quality and usability, and in many other aspects of the iPhone it does great. But it slips when it comes to email. Sometimes the "push mail" feature will seem to go to sleep. Or just stop checking for new email. This is easily enough resolved by manually hitting the "Update" button, but if you're waiting for a stock or news alert, for example, sometimes you'll miss it or get it late. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's happened a half-dozen times in three months and that's too often for many people. It should do better. Grade: C+

Business Applications - Apple doesn't support most third-party business applications for the iPhone, at least not natively, so you've got to live with what it provides itself. The notepad application, Google maps, alarm clock and the calendar are fine. They work, and are useful. But it leaves you wanting more, like easier search functionality and voice recording. Grade: B

Entertainment Features Nobody else is even close to what Apple provides with its iPod functionality, both audio and video. But its camera only takes still photos, not video (although the still photos are decent quality and integrate well with Email.) The YouTube button is pretty neat, and works, but it would be nicer if Apple simply integrated Flash with its iPhone Safari browser so you could access it that way. Grade: A minus

Multi-touch If Apple ever decides to put multi-touch functionality into its Macintosh systems, it would have potential to destroy the competition. For now, though, we do get to use it on the iPhone and it's a tremendous feature. It simply changes your approach to accessing information. "Point, click and scroll" becomes just "scroll and touch." Expanding your view to the word, phrase or aspect on which you need to focus is a big help. Grade: A

Reliability and Battery Life It boots quickly and works reliably, so that's refreshing for anyone coming from a Windows world. But on battery life? Eh. The iPhone is capable of getting between eight and 10 hours of battery life, but if you use bluetooth or Wi-Fi a lot, or if you have to make lengthy phone calls, it can cut the battery life down to five or six hours. If you're on the go for an entire day, your schedule might outlast your battery life. That needs to be improved. Grade: B minus

Overall Should the iPhone be graded on a curve, measured against the rest of the smart phones in the market? Should it be graded on its own, since it really is a one-of-a-kind product? After 100 days, it's clear that there's really nothing else like it in the market. There will be knock-offs and copycats, (in some geographies, there already are.) Bottom line: It's a great product, it appears to be worth the hype, but there's certainly room for improvement. Overall Grade: B+
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Apple iPhone Bricking Update Disables Bluetooth Headset Indicator

Posted by Stephen Wellman
Earlier today my colleague Alex Wolfe blogged that the number of complaints for the software updates on the iPhone were beginning to lighten. Now, however, it looks as though software update 1.1.1 is breaking the Bluetooth headset indicator on the iPhone for many users.

Here's a look at the Bluetooth indicator issue affecting many iPhone users:
As we continue to report on general troubleshooting issues (not unlock or hack-related) for iPhone firmware/software update 1.1.1, this release has broken the Bluetooth Headset indicator that appeared in firmware/software versions 1.0.2 and prior for some users.

Craig Crossman of the Computer America radio show initially identified this issue for iPhone Atlas, and Apple subsequently confirmed it.
While it looks like Apple is both aware of the problem and working on it, this issue highlights, once more, just how little Apple seemed to care about its customers with this firmware and software update.

By keeping the iPhone locked and pushing out software updates that render the device useless for thousands of customers, one has to wonder how Apple will continue to grow its user base in the wireless market. I am sure many people out there who had previously considered buying an iPhone have now decided against it, or they have decided to buy the iPod Touch instead.

What do you think? Have any of you encountered any issues with the Bluetooth headset indicator on your iPhone after the update with 1.1.1.? And does Apple owe its customers another apology for this latest iPhone fiasco?
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AT&T's iPhone Cannibal?

By Dave Mock
For those who thought AT&T (NYSE: T) was all about the iPhone, check out its latest product for the holidays: the Tilt.

Manufactured by Taiwan's HTC, the Tilt packs more features than the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone, including true broadband data access, a full keyboard, and GPS location capability. You may have heard of HTC before: The company has launched similar feature-packed phones around the world aimed squarely at the iPhone audience.

The Tilt is the latest Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows Mobile-based smartphone that appeals to business users and consumers alike. In addition to sporting camera and media services, the device has the capability of supporting Research In Motion's (Nasdaq: RIMM) Blackberry Connect software, essentially turning it into one of those addictive mobile email terminals.

So why would AT&T launch a device that attempts to upstage arguably the hottest consumer electronic product in decades? Just as I argued that Verizon Wireless' -- a joint venture between Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) -- latest "iPhone-killer," the Voyager, won't bury the iPhone, neither will the HTC device. But some customers will be lured away from the iPhone to the Tilt, either thanks to the lower price or nicer feature set.

As far as AT&T is concerned, though, that's just fine. In fact, the company would probably prefer that subscribers choose the Tilt; it comes with many more features that AT&T can charge extra for and not have to share a percentage with Steve Jobs.

Even with all the splashy news about killer devices, I feel the iPhone is still in a league of its own. The powerful brand and buzz behind the product leaves competitors really only nibbling away tiny portions of its dominant mindshare. In the same way many consumers thoughtlessly drop $1.25 for a Coca-Cola rather than pay a quarter for a generic soda, I believe consumers have been won over to the iconic Apple brand.

And just as it has done with iPods, Apple will certainly follow with more phones, priced appropriately, to push more consumers to its brand of products. This will help grow its ecosystem not eat it away, just as the Tilt will drive the adoption and use of more AT&T services.
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What a Future IPhone With WiMax Might Look Like

By Bryan Gardiner
Imagine an iPhone from Apple that makes VOIP calls, gets faster-than-Wi-Fi internet access, and boasts weeks of battery life. Best of all, it's not tied to a pokey Edge network.

Taiwan's DigiTimes reports the rumor that Apple will base future iPhone versions on Intel's upcoming Moorestown processors -- low-power, high-performance systems-on-a-chip aimed at smartphones and mobile handsets.

The rumors sparked a lot of excitement on Mac gossip sites and forums about better battery life and increased software compatibility with Apple's Macs.

What many ignored, however, is the fact that Intel's Moorestown processors will also be an integrated WiMax platform. Intel has already announced that its Moorestown platform will feature a CPU, fast 3-D graphics, HD video decoding, Wi-Fi and WiMax on a single chip.

"The iPhone is the perfect device for (Moorestown)," says analyst Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies. "I mean, (the iPhone) is really a mobile internet device with a phone tacked on for good measure."

WiMax is an emerging standard for 4-G wireless data networks that promises maximum download speeds of 70 mbps -- more than six times the speed of 802.11b Wi-Fi's 11 mbps. In practice though, WiMax speeds will likely not reach the theoretical maximum, but will probably match that of Wi-Fi.

After years in the lab, WiMax is about to go mainstream, according to Intel. In 2008, the first devices from the likes of Nokia, Lenovo, Toshiba and others will debut. At the same time, Sprint Nextel and Clearwire are working on nationwide WiMax networks, which should be completed by 2010. Intel is on task to begin Moorestown production in 2009.

The Santa Clara, California-based chipmaker has been a strong proponent of WiMax over the years. WiMax will theoretically compete with Wi-Fi and let service providers build ultra-fast networks using radio antennas. A WiMax-enabled iPhone could even signal the end of the traditional carrier-pricing models, because high-speed internet network connectivity would become virtually ubiquitous.

Intel is a powerful ally of the WiMax technology. After all, Intel's Centrino chip set is a major reason Wi-Fi is now nearly universal, and the company is hoping Moorestown will do the same for WiMax.

Apple's adoption of Moorestown could also provide a big boost. The research firm iSuppli predicts Apple will sell close to 22 million iPhones in 2009.

Whether Apple uses Moorestown processors for the iPhone, iSuppli says WiMax will find its way into devices like the Blackberry and other smartphones.

"You have to remember Apple isn't the only device maker that could be implementing WiMax," says Kay. "Everybody's seen this timeline. It's certainly no secret that a lot of companies are going down this road."

However, Apple’s position on WiMax remains unknown. Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

Tina Teng, iSuppli's mobile communications analyst, says Intel is a force to be reckoned with, but there could be stiff competition from other 4-G wireless technologies. Other semiconductor vendors are supporting a technology known as LTE, an ongoing project to improve the existing 3-G UMTS mobile phone standard.

Which brings up another potential problem: As Chris Hazelton, senior analyst for mobile devices at IDC, notes, there might also be sticky exclusivity deals with AT&T that could hamper Apple's WiMax iPhone ambitions -- if indeed it has any.

AT&T itself is currently working on building out its own 3-G high-speed downlink packet access, HSDPA, network and has already said it's not interested in joining the likes of Sprint and Clearwire in WiMax build-outs.

In that sense, the real key to Apple's WiMax decision may come down to whether there's a decent infrastructure for iPhone customers to use in the first place.
Link

Orange sees Christmas without iPhone in France

By Paris Bureau
PARIS (MarketWatch) -- France Telecom's (FTE:32.59, +0.36, +1.1%) Orange
brand is contemplating the prospect of not being able to launch Apple Corp.'s (AAPL:
161.45, +5.21, +3.3%) iPhone in France in time for Christmas due to
tensions between the two companies, French daily Les Echos reports Friday.
"The risk we're evaluating this week is that Apple crosses France off," Les Echos quotes a source at Orange as saying.
The difficulties stem from a French law that would require the iPhone to be sold both with and without contracts, undermining its exclusivity for Orange and Apple's demand of up to 30% of voice and data revenues, Les Echos reports.
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The iPhone Update Woes Are Not Unique

Posted by Eric Zeman
As any long-time Apple user knows, Jobs and Co. offer frequent updates to the base Apple operating system, iPod software, iTunes software and other patches, plugs, and fixes. Not all of them have gone smoothly. So why all the bad press just for the iPhone?

All you have to do is pay attention to any user forum or Mac site such as MacRumors.com to know that nearly every software upgrade has caused a problem for someone. The OS updates, such as updating from 10.4.9 to 10.4.10, seem to cause more problems than others. Users report various problems from the benign to the severe.

I have experienced a couple of hiccups myself over the last few years. After one firmware update, my G5's fan began to whir at high speed constantly. It wasn't long before Apple issued another patch and the whirring went away. Each of the problems was fixable, though. Before the iPhone, these user issues caused little fuss in the press.

"Bricking" a $600 device, whether by design or by accident, seems to be an altogether different issue. (Nevermind that my G5 system cost way more than $600.)

Apparently Apple is supposed to be perfect. Everything is supposed to work flawlessly for everyone all the time. C'mon. Get real. Microsoft isn't held to those standards. How many people attempted to update their Microsoft-based systems and were met with the blue screen of death? You can't tell me it hasn't happened.

But the iPhone is a lightning rod of sorts. Whether you love it or hate it, are an Apple fanboy or an Apple hater, people can't seem to stop talking about it (including us).

Are legitimate users of the iPhone--who never hacked it--having issues with their 1.1.1 software upgrades? Sure. And it sucks. But it's nothing new.
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iPhone iWant

The new era in mobile phones bring to us its prime dweller.The iPhone is the latest and greatest invention for the next 5 years.iPhone combines three products, a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop.The star of the show with this mobile is certainly its capacitive touchscreen technology display.The touchscreen functionality works far better than I would have imagined. It seems to be accurate enough, but will pose a problem for people with particularly wide fingertips. The display cannot be used with a stylus, and must be relatively clean in order to function well. While touchscreen equipped mobile phones and PDAs have been around for years, the iPhone marks the first time a major manufacturer has created a device that not only relies almost exclusively on its touch screen for accessing and controlling phone features, but actually requires the user to use their finger instead of a stylus.It is really sad how some users will always attack a revolutionary product just because it is made by apple when the real reason that they attack it because they are too drugged on Microsoft products and the new Windows Mobile system.Overall the phone is sa-weet! Better camera than most phones, advanced picture viewing technology, visual voicemail, etc. I could go on for hours...however, the phone doesnt really meet the needs of business people.The iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting users control everything with just their fingers.In both hardware and software, the iPhone is a truly new creation. In the technology industry, we tend to call these "1.0 products," and many savvy consumers choose to wait until a second version arrives, presumably with the original version's bugs worked out.I'm not saying wait for version 2.0. You don't need new hardware to love the phone; version 1.1 should do it.The iPhone by Apple is an evolution to the mobile communicator.Combining cellphone,email, internet and other information services with a top-notch music and video player, the iPhone positions itself as all things to the person that needs all that.The iPhone aims to enhance usability by adding more capability to a cell phone and wrapping it up with an intuitive touch screen interface.Fun new interface for navigating multimedia. Huge screen looks amazing. Terrific Web browser.Syncs well with PCs and Macs.YouTube function is great.Small, functional and useable: that's what gadgeteers are striving for. But sometimes it must be like trying to squeeze Pavarotti into a leotard, a mission impossible if ever there was one.Functions flow seamlessly into each other.Built-in speaker for voice calling and music.The iPhone is the smartest smart phone out there.It works just like the commercials.It is that smooth and usable.
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Famous Cell Phone Apple iphone

Apple iphone is a black device that is nearly featureless on the front except the dock and a couple of other buttons. On the bottom is what appears to be a standard dock. The most remarkable feature of the iPhone is the display, which I hear is breathtaking as it emerges from behind what appears to be black plastic. The whole front, with exception to a couple of millimeters along the edges of the iPhone, is touch sensitive and allows the customer to select from objects on the screen, such as the phone's keyboard. This feature was widely described for the nebulous full screen iPod and will instead be found in the iPhone. It was the patents that were acquired for the iPhone that started that speculation.

Apple iphone will come with a very large feature set. The first thing that attracted my attention was the fact that it will be running a version of Apple's very popular and easy-to-use Mac OS X. The iPhone is able to multi-task so you can read your email while a file is downloading from the Internet.

Apple iphone's the large hi-res color screen, which can be used in portrait or landscape mode (the mode changes with the orientation of the phone), covers most of the phone's front and the interface is entirely finger-touch-based. This frees the iPhone from a set of fixed buttons and allows it to morph into one or another device by presenting a different user interface for each function or application. Apple iphone's multi-touch capability lets you use multiple fingers to zoom in and out of pictures, scroll menus, dial numbers, and more.

The mobile market is flooded with multi-purpose wireless phones known as smart phones. Among the major players are Motorola, Samsung and Research In Motion with its ever popular Blackberry. Smart phones let you make standard phone calls and access images, audio files, videos, email, office files and contact lists as well as the Internet.
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Apple getting a seedy image

How tragic. What was once thought of as America's sweetheart of the cell-phone industry, a fresh, charming piece of technology with a bright and exciting future, is starting to become more famous for making headline-grabbing stumbles and sprawls.

Horrifyingly, iPhone has become the Lindsay Lohan of technology.

I blame the parents, of course.

And the latest flap has been the worst one of them all. Apple released a major update to the iPhone's firmware last week.

Firmware 1.1.1 adds an iTunes Store application as well as some security fixes and minor user-interface tweaks.

And if you've used a tool to unlock your iPhone so you could access T-Mobile and other outside phone networks, it will probably render the phone inoperable and maybe even unrecoverable.

Yes, it's that last thing that's grabbing the headlines. And not just in the nerd press, either.

"Apple disables users' iPhones," I heard on the local nightly newscast, "and the company says they won't fix them!"

As for the nerd press, online commentators are reacting the way a cat does when it's taken a nap in your clean laundry and suddenly finds itself tumbling around in the dryer. They are not calm and measured. Well, that's just rubbish. I'm almost willing to dismiss it purely on a humanist level.

In addition to my basic faith in humanity, there's the fact that unlike other phones, SIM-unlocking an iPhone is a very messy trick. The tools used are hacks, not consumer solutions, and the risks are severe and unavoidable.

It's not like riding in an airplane. It's like jumping out of one.

Apple couldn't have protected these phones without a great deal of time and effort that was better spent improving the iPhone itself.

Apple did warn the iPhone community about the dangers of SIM-unlocking. Apple issued its warning when these tools first became available, and it even inserted a big warning -- in capital letters, no less -- in the firmware installer itself.

What we have here isn't a case of Apple being evil. It's a demonstration of what can happen when hacker tools are sold as consumer solutions.

Folks still have a right to be very upset at Apple, though. The update trashed some phones that hadn't been modified at all, its users claim. Worse, it removes all unauthorized third-party applications and makes it impossible for them to ever run again.

This hits me where it hurts. I count on my iPhone eBook reader to keep info and documents from my desktop at hand. Plus, I've finally gotten to the point in "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" text adventure where I need to get the Babel Fish.

It's amazing that the iPhone developer community has come so far without any help whatsoever from Apple. The company released no sample code, no tech docs, no software development kit. But the iPhone is based on a popular OS, and Unix programmers took the ball and ran with it.

By September, there was a friendly, consumer-level app that downloaded, installed and ran commercial-quality software.

So the iPhone was gaining new and wonderful features every week.

These apps technically broke the rules of Apple's user agreement, but unlike the SIM hack, it broke nothing on the device itself.

With the new firmware installed, all software must be "signed" by Apple or else it's a no-go. So if I upgrade my iPhone's firmware from 1.02 to 1.1.1, I'll gain an app that enables me to buy music directly from the iTunes store, but I'll lose all the other apps I've installed over the past month.

It's a bad trade. I ain't updating.

Back to poor Lindsay iPhone. The reputations of the iPhone -- and Apple -- have taken a real hit, even though these issues don't affect the average iPhone consumer. As with the real Lindsay, it can all be fixed if Apple just learns how to communicate better.

There are reasons why the firmware update created so much havoc for so many phones, and it mostly isn't the company's fault.

Why isn't Apple explaining this clearly? And while ideally, I want to have full control of my hardware, all I truly need are beautiful, reliable tools that help me get through the day. If the best apps are only available signed, sealed, and delivered from the iTunes Store, fine. But when, kind sirs, will that be happening?

So here's the state that Apple has created via its silence: The iPhone is a $399 phone that can be crippled via a software update, and in some cases, if you take it in for warranty service, Apple won't fix it.

This expensive device can't run any "real" apps that didn't come pre-installed, and Apple has announced no plans to give the iPhone the same ability found in every Treo, Blackberry and Nokia that costs half as much.

Please, Apple. Fix this before the court orders the iPhone to be fitted with an ankle bracelet.

Andy Ihnatko writes on technical and computer issues for the Sun-Times.

BUSY SIGNAL | The iPhone started out with all the good will in the world, but missteps peeling away company's image

ANDY IHNATKO

Caption helper: The iPhone's big library of useful (and Apple-

unapproved) third-party software disappears with the latest Apple

firmware update.
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Apple iPhone Sales Have Stabilized With 56% Month over Month Growth, Says Piper Jaffray Analyst

Apple iPhone sales have stabilized with 56% month over month growth, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. At the end of September, Piper Jaffray spent 12 hours counting iPhone, iPod and Mac sales in Apple stores across the country and compared it to their results of checks in July and August.
Here\'s what Piper Jaffray found:

*iPhone demand has stabilized at +56% m/m since the price cut on Sept. 5.
* Mac sales have slowed down -39% m/m after strong education sales in Aug. and the first part of Sept.
* iPod ASP will likely rise with the popularity of the iPod touch.

Also, Piper Jaffray thinks that during the month of September 10% of iPhones sold were purchased with the intention to sell them unlocked so they could be used on other networks, such as TMobile. However, on 9/27, Apple released software that rendered most of those phones inoperable.
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iPhone red carpet: the accessory race begins with Proporta

We're used to the likes of GEAR4 daringly designing iPod accessories before the new models were even confirmed, so the steady trickle of iPhone accessories for the UK that has begun is no surprise. After all, the device has been around for months.

Proporta is leading the way with a slew of new cases for the superphone ready for pre-order. First up is the iPhone Alu-Leather case (£26.95) in flip and book form with a 'screen saver' which lines the case with aircraft grade aluminium to protect the touchscreen from scratches and knocks. The Alu-Sheepskin Case is a more colourful pink or brown option. Non-leather alternatives include the Classic Case (£12.95) which is cheaper and more cow-friendly, and there are two new additions, the Alu-Crystal and the Crystal Holster, more details of which are over the jump.

The Alu-Crystal Case (£14.95) gives the iPhone a little extra bulk but no extra weight thanks to a combination of plastic and aluminium which provides a very tough exterior. The Crystal Holster (£11.95) is also protective but adds a detachable belt clip which doubles as a stand for viewing videos hands-free. And there's a ratchet to let you rotate the screen (handy for the accelerator feature which spins photos around) whilst attached to your hip.

There's more to come nearer to D-Day (November 9th, in case you've been asleep), so stay tuned.
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Travel Accessories for the iPod and iPhone

James A. Martin
An Apple iPod or iPhone is an essential travel accessory in its own right. Not only can you listen to music and watch videos, but you can also store your business contacts on either device or use your iPod to back up files.

But as feature-packed as Apple's devices are, you'll probably still want to accessorize them. Here's a look at some cool add-ons for the airplane, car, hotel room--or anywhere you travel.
Getting Power on the Plane

The Inflight Power Recharger ($35 to $50), about the size of a small tape measure, converts the audio output from an airplane's passenger seat headphone jack into power that can recharge your iPod, iPhone, RIM BlackBerry, and any other handheld devices that support USB connections.

Here's how it works: At your airplane seat, find a music channel with up-tempo tunes; turn the volume all the way up; plug your gadget into the recharger and the recharger into the airplane seat audio output jack. You don't have to be in an airline seat to use the recharger, however. With two AAA batteries the Inflight Power Recharger can juice up your device without an airplane audio jack.

I tested the Inflight Power Recharger with my video iPod on two recent cross-country flights. The device extended my iPod's playback time by about 30 minutes--but it took nearly 2 hours to get that charge. And it was awkward to have my iPod and the recharger in my lap, dangling from the airplane seat audio jack.
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UPDATE: Investors Eye iPhone Start-Upgrades

By Ben Charny
SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- Shape Services GmbH, a German cell-phone software vendor, is buying a leading supplier of games and other new features for Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone.

"The step will make our positioning in the iPhone software market stronger," Shape Services' Chief Executive Igor Berezovsky wrote in an email to Dow Jones Newswires.

The deal for New York-based iPhone Applications List highlights how investors are now eyeing iPhone-related businesses created in the three months since Apple's combination cell phone, media player and Web surfing device first went on sale.

The acquisition also illustrates the lucrative potential of the growing number of companies now making iPhone paraphernalia, said Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Marketing.

Under the right conditions, the iPhone's ecosystem of third-party companies and software developers could equal the one surrounding Apple's iPod lineup of media players, Sterling said. There's an estimated $1 billion in sales annually of iPod add-ons.

"The iPhone could generate that same kind of ecosystem, and as part of that, you'll see more merger and acquisition activity," Sterling said.

There's anecdotal evidence suggesting the investment community's interest in iPhone-related companies is relatively strong now. iPhone Application List founder Steve Schopp said Shape, based in Stuttgart, Germany, was one of three potential buyers that approached him.

Schopp settled on Shape because, he said, he could continue to operate the business, which offers access to more than 350 iPhone features through the device's Web browser. The main Web site gets about 20,000 visits a day, Schopp said.

Shape is an eight-year-old company largely known for its IM+ product lineup, which allows for using the top five instant messengers from one single cell- phone interface.

The company, which couldn't be reached for comment, recently released products for the iPhone.
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Intel Inside iPhone

By Bryan Gardiner
Digitimes is reporting that Jobs and company may be seriously considering using a new Intel-based processor for future iterations of the iPhone. While the Cupertino company currently uses an ARM-based processor and a custom mainboard, part makers are now suggesting that Intel's new mobile internet device architecture, dubbed Moorestown, may in fact be a perfect fit for the iPhone…and presumably the iPod touch as well.
Intel revealed a Moorestown-based MID product with functions similar to Apple's iPhone at the recent Intel Developer Forum (IDF) [in] San Francisco. The Moorestown platform is expected to launch in 2009 and Apple is considering developing an iPhone based on it, stated the sources.

Because Moorestown will be based on Intel's much-hyped 45nn manufacturing process, that could mean your future iPhone will see an exponential boost in power-efficiency (both in active and idle modes) and performance. Good news considering Moorestown will also likely support 3G (HSDPA), Wi-Fi, and WiMax.

Electronista also notes that the processor change would also bring the iPhone's software closer in step with that of the company's Mac computer range.
While ARM was technically designed by Intel, [it] has never been software compatible with Intel's more widespread x86 core, and was ultimately spun away from the semiconductor firm to be used and modified by third parties like Marvell. A Moorestown-based iPhone would ease development for Apple by allowing mobile editions of Mac OS X to share some new features from the full OS editions without rewriting or recompiling instructions.

I'm sure Intel wouldn't mind getting in on the projected 21.1 million iPhones units iSuppli is predicting Apple will move 2009. For God's sake, just don't ask Steve if he'll be slapping an Intel Inside logo on the phone.
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Those Stuck With iPhone Bricks Should Blame Apple, Not AT&T

by Stephen Wellman
Among the Apple fans, bloggers, and general tech geeks there seem to be two sides to the iPhone bricking debacle: Those who blame Apple and those who blame AT&T. So who is the guilty party?
What would have driven Apple to brick iPhones? Some may say that an unlocked iPhone running on a T-Mobile network means significant losses in revenue, but I think that argument is a bit flimsy.

Historically speaking, Apple is a hardware company, and it's in the business of selling as many computers, iPods, Apple TVs and iPhones as possible. Wouldn't an unlocked iPhone allow the company to sell more hardware? And if so, couldn't it be said that this hardware company would benefit the most from hardware sales?

An unlocked iPhone means more hardware sales because T-Mobile customers and people from all over the world could pick one up at an Apple store, bring it home, and put it on any GSM carrier.
Well, that's a pretty good argument in Apple's favor. Here is Reisinger's attack on AT&T:
Perhaps the most convincing evidence that AT&T may be wielding more influence over Apple than originally thought is Apple's own admission that hacking the iPhone would not be supported or reprimanded. Then, just a few weeks later, the upgrade is released, and the very action of hacking that most Apple folks were claiming was fine turned out to break rules.

But it goes far beyond remarks made by Apple representatives. If we take an objective look at the Apple TV, I think it's safe to say the device is one of the most hackable and customizable devices Apple has ever released. In a matter of days after its release, the Apple TV was being modified into an entirely new product.
While Apple is certainly more open on the desktop, would Reisinger care to argue that the iPod is an open device? I personally wouldn't make that argument.

As far as I am concerned, Apple sees the iPhone as an iPod with a phone, not as a mini-Mac. From that perspective, I can see why Apple wants to keep the iPhone locked down. The iTunes + iPod ecosystem is locked down, so why wouldn't the iPhone component of it also be locked?

I am sure AT&T was happy to have the iPhone locked. That factors into the old-school carrier playbook. But, I think Reisinger is trying to argue guilt by association on this one. In my estimation Apple, not AT&T, is the guilty party here and I think every person out there with a hacked iPhone that has been rendered into a useless brick should blame Apple.

If you want to push Reisinger's argument back on itself, you can point out how much AT&T is trying to recruit developers to its mobile ecosystem. Here is a look at this issue from The New York Times Bits blog:
AT&T has a very extensive Web site devoted to encouraging developers to write programs for its phones on half a dozen platforms. It does discuss the iPhone, but it points out that Apple only allows limited applications that work through the Safari browser.

So why would AT&T be worried about network problems caused by an iPhone and not from these other phones? Michael Coe, an AT&T spokesman, wouldn't say.
AT&T is even working with smartphone makers like Palm to get more developers making more applications for devices that run on its network. So why would a carrier that's trying to open its gates to developers want to lock down the iPhone? Wouldn't that carrier also encourage Apple to make the iPhone open to developers too?

And look at this juicy little quote from Steve Jobs back in January, when he announced the iPhone:
"You don't want your phone to be an open platform," meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the provider’s network, says Jobs. "You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up."
Sorry, Apple fans, this looks to me like Apple, not AT&T, is the force that's keeping the iPhone locked. I am sure some Apple fans will likely try to spin this argument the other way, but if they think they can do it, they are welcome to make their arguments below in the comments section of this blog post.
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Will Verizon Slay the iPhone?

By Dave Mock
I imagine the 62 million subscribers of Verizon Wireless -- a joint venture between Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone -- will sleep a little more soundly tonight. Surely they've fighting the urge for months now to succumb to the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone, joining Darth Jobs and exclusive provider AT&T (NYSE: T) on the Dark Side. Now they need only wait until November to fork over an inordinate amount of money to Verizon for its own version of latest feature-rich media phone, the LG Voyager.

While the beans were spilled on gadget blogs days ago, Verizon Wireless formally launched four of its "must have" phones for the holiday season, including the supposedly iPhone-killing Voyager. The high-end lineup explains why Verizon happily paid Broadcom a license fee of $6 per phone to make sure those models with Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) chips inside didn't stay locked up in customs.

While Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) has already tried to upstage the release of the iPhone, consumers have been waiting for other carriers to take their best shots against the hit multimedia device. Verizon finally fired its salvo today, and in an interview, Verizon Wireless's chief marketing officer Mike Lanman even flatly stated that the Voyager " ... will kill the iPhone."

Yeah, right. Show Mr. Lanman to the padded room, please. Either Lanman is clinically delusional, or he has no reservations about making sensational statements that he knows have a snowball's chance of becoming reality. The Voyager will kill the iPhone as dead as the Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Zune has buried the iPod.

Granted, the Voyager is a really slick device. It has certain features -- such as a QWERTY keyboard and truly broadband wireless access -- that top the iPhone. It even plays mobile television via Verizon's VCast service. But even though I'd expect the device to be a hit, it will definitely not kill the iPhone's popularity.

It will, however, help spruce up Verizon's current image as a reliable yet boring provider of wireless services. From its lack of the coolest Nokia phones in the 1990s to its miss of Motorola's (NYSE: MOT) hit RAZR a few years ago, Verizon has become synonymous with a bland product lineup. The improved offerings should go a long way toward snagging even more subscribers, while driving its industry-leading churn even lower.
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Disconnecting iPhone from Your Computer

Unless iPhone is syncing with your computer, you can disconnect iPhone from your
computer at any time.
When iPhone is syncing with your computer, iPhone shows “Sync in progress.” If you
disconnect iPhone before it’s done syncing, some data may not have been transferred.
When iPhone is done syncing, iTunes shows “iPhone sync is complete.”
To cancel a sync so you can disconnect iPhone, drag the slider on iPhone. If you get a call during a sync, the sync is canceled automatically and you can unplug iPhone to
answer the call. Connect iPhone after the call to finish syncing.

Preventing iPhone from Syncing Automatically

You may want to prevent iPhone from syncing automatically if you prefer to add items
to iPhone manually or when you connect iPhone to some other computer than the
main computer you sync iPhone with.
Set iTunes not to sync automatically when you connect iPhone
Connect iPhone to your computer and in iTunes click the Summary tab. Then deselect
“Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected.” This also prevents iTunes from
opening automatically when you connect iPhone. You can still start a sync manually.
Set iTunes to prevent automatic syncing for all iPhones
In iTunes choose iTunes > Preferences (on a Mac) or Edit > Preferences (on a PC),
then deselect “Disable automatic syncing for all iPhones.”
If this checkbox is selected, iPhone won’t sync automatically, even if “Automatically
sync” is selected in the Summary pane.
Prevent iPhone from syncing automatically one time, without changing
any settings
Open iTunes. Then as you connect iPhone to your computer, press and hold Command-
Option (if you’re using a Mac) or Shift-Control (if you’re using a PC) until you see iPhone
in the iTunes Source pane.
Start a sync manually
Click the Summary tab, then click Sync in the lower-right corner of the window.
Or, if you’ve changed any sync settings, click Apply.

Syncing iPhone with Your Computer

When you connect iPhone to your computer, iTunes syncs iPhone with the information
and media on your computer, according to your iPhone settings in iTunes. By default,
iTunes does this automatically.

You can set iTunes to sync any or all of the following:

Contacts—names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and so on

Calendars—appointments and events

Email account settings

Webpage bookmarks

Music and audiobooks

Movies

TV shows

Podcasts

Photos

Because music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and photos are managed on your
computer, these items are synced one-way, from your computer to iPhone. Email
account settings also are only synced from your computer to iPhone. This allows you to customize your email account on iPhone without affecting the email account settings on your computer. Contacts and calendars are synced both ways between your
computer and iPhone. New entries or changes you make on iPhone get synced to your
computer, and vice versa.
If you like, you can set iPhone to sync with only a portion of what’s on your computer.
For example, you might want to sync only a group of contacts from your address book,
or only unwatched movies. You can adjust sync settings whenever iPhone is connected
to your computer.

Important:
You can connect and sync only with one iPhone at a time. If you’re using a
PC, you should be logged in to your own user account on the computer before
connecting iPhone. If you connect more than one iPhone to the same user account,
use the same sync settings for each.

Setting Up Syncing
You use iTunes on your computer to set up which items are synced with iPhone.

Set up syncing
1 Connect iPhone to your computer, and open iTunes (if it doesn’t open automatically).
2 Select iPhone in the iTunes Source pane.
3 Configure the sync settings in each of the panes.
4 Click Apply in the lower-right corner of the screen.
The following sections provide an overview of each of the iPhone configuration panes
in iTunes. For more information, see iTunes Help (in iTunes, choose Help > iTunes Help).

Summary Pane
Select “Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected” to have iTunes sync iPhone
automatically whenever you connect iPhone to your computer. Deselect this option if
you want to sync only by clicking the Sync button in iTunes. For more information
about preventing automatic syncing, see page 9.
Select “Only sync checked items” if you want to sync only checked items in your iTunes library.

Info Pane
The Info pane lets you configure the sync settings for your contacts, calendars, email
accounts, and web browser.
Contacts
You can sync contacts from Mac OS X Address Book and Yahoo! Address Book on a
Mac, or from Yahoo! Address Book, Windows Address Book (Outlook Express), or
Microsoft Outlook on a PC. On a Mac, any other address books you’ve set to sync with
Address Book, such as Microsoft Entourage, will also be synced with iPhone. If you sync with Yahoo! Address Book, you only need to click Configure when you change your
Yahoo! ID or password after you’ve set up syncing. Click Configure and enter your new
login information.
Note:
Syncing won’t delete any contact in Yahoo! Address Book that contains a
Messenger ID, even if you’ve deleted the contact from your address book on iPhone or
your computer. To delete a contact with a Messenger ID, log in to your online Yahoo!
account and delete the contact using Yahoo! Address Book.
Calendars
You can sync calendars from iCal on a Mac, or from Microsoft Outlook on a PC.
On a Mac, when you sync iCal calendars with iPhone, any other calendars you’ve set to
sync with iCal, such as your events and tasks in Microsoft Entourage, will also be synced
with iPhone.
Mail Accounts
You can sync email account settings from Mail on a Mac, or Microsoft Outlook or
Outlook Express on a PC. Account settings are only transferred from your computer to
iPhone. Changes you make to an email account on iPhone do not affect the account on
your computer.
Note:
The password for your Yahoo! email account is not saved on your computer.
So if you sync a Yahoo! email account, you must enter the password on iPhone.
From the Home screen choose Settings > Mail, choose your Yahoo! account, then enter
your password in the password field.
Web Browser
You can sync bookmarks from Safari on a Mac, or Safari or Microsoft Internet Explorer
on a PC.
Advanced
These options let you replace the information on iPhone with the information on your
computer during the next sync.
Music, Podcasts, and Video Panes
Use these panes to specify the media you want to sync. You can sync all music,
podcasts, and videos, or select the playlists and specific podcasts and videos you want
on iPhone. Audiobooks and music videos are synced along with music.
Photos Pane
You can sync iPhone with photos in iPhoto 4.0.3 or later on a Mac, or with Adobe
Photoshop Album 2.0 or later or Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 or later on a PC.
Or you can sync with any folder on your computer that contains images.

Activating and Setting Up iPhone

What You Need
To use iPhone, you need:

A new two-year wireless service plan with AT&T

A Mac or a PC with a USB 2.0 port and one of the following operating systems:

Mac OS X version10.4.10 or later

Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later

Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate edition

iTunes 7.3 or later, available at www.itunes.com

An iTunes Store account

An Internet connection
You must be at least 18 years old to open a new AT&T wireless account. You will need a major credit card to open a new iTunes Store account.

Activating iPhone

Before you can use any of iPhone’s features, you must activate iPhone by signing up for an AT&T service plan and registering iPhone with the network. If you already have an AT&T (Cingular) wireless account, you can choose to upgrade your account to work with iPhone, or you can keep using your old phone and add a new line for iPhone.
(Some accounts may not be upgradable.) You can transfer your current phone number
to iPhone, or get a new one.
For more information about iPhone, including videos about how to activate and use
iPhone, go to:
www.apple.com/iphone

To activate iPhone:
1 Download and install iTunes 7.3 (or later) from www.itunes.com.
2 Connect iPhone to a USB 2.0 port on your Mac or PC using the dock and cable that
came with iPhone. (Don’t connect iPhone to the USB port on your keyboard—it does
not have enough power.) iTunes opens automatically.
3 Follow the onscreen instructions in iTunes to activate iPhone and sync iPhone with
your contacts, calendars, email accounts, and bookmarks on your computer.
A single checkmark in “Set Up Your iPhone” syncs all these items automatically. Or you can use iTunes to customize the information you sync, and to sync your music, photos, podcasts, TV shows, and movies to iPhone. See the following section.
Important:
AT&T will send you a welcome text message a few minutes after activation
is complete, letting you know that you can receive calls. If you are migrating your
current phone number to iPhone, activation is usually completed in less than 20
minutes, but it may take several hours depending on your previous carrier.

Advocating the Usage of Mobile Phones

by Henry Kruz
For all those who are interested, consider this piece of news which says that mobile phones in UK have outnumbered the landline connection. The British telecom regulator Ofcom has reported that the more household in UK have a mobile phone than the landline connection. The landline connections are estimated to be 90% in comparison to the mobile phone connection that are 93%. Further, one third of the total calls of UK are made from the mobile phones. Also, the report conveys that the total 41% of the total UK's mobile phone users not only use camera phones but they extensively use mobile phones to capture moments in the form of the photographs. Thus the mobile phones have also stepped into the shoes of the camera as well. 21% of the mobile phone users play games, 13% use it for accessing the Internet and 10% for listening to the stereo FM radio.

However, the above report further lead on to information that says that phone bills have become lower from the last year, despite of all of these add ons that have been observed in relation to the mobile phones this year. To quote the statistics, the average expenditure on telecommunications by any British household was £92.65/month in 2006 that is fairly less as compared to £94.03/month in 2005. The above trend indicates the decline of phone bills and the rise of additional services that works in favour of the ordinary consumers.

So, the lucrativeness of mobile phones as an effective tool of telecommunications perfectly comes into the picture and certainly they are better in every way. So you can think of upgrading your phone if you haven't done so for a long time. And in a consumer friendly market like UK, getting a high end mobile phone is a complete no problem, thanks to the perky mobile phone deals that are made available by the mobile phone dealers. And you can look up for your favourite deal on the World Wide Web. So, find the deal and get the best of it online.
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iPhone sparks touch-screen revolution

Robert Jaques
More than 100 million handsets with touch screens will be shipped in 2008, according to new research.

A study from ABI Research said that increasing numbers of handsets with touch screens have started to appear in the market following the lead set by Apple's iPhone.

Other devices include the LG Prada, the HTC Touch, the Samsung Ultra-Smart F700 and the Sony Ericsson P990, M600, and W950 handsets.

Touch screens and touch pads are gaining popularity and becoming more common on handsets, while helping to make the handsets more intuitive, pleasant and efficient to use, the report stated.

ABI Research industry analyst Shailendra Pandey said: "Handsets with intuitive user interfaces allow quick and easy access to various applications and services and can result in higher revenues for mobile operators by generating greater usage of value-added services.

"Mobile operators are therefore keen to promote and market handsets with good user interfaces on their networks."

The study noted that many smartphones and high-end handsets with attractive features have been commercial failures simply because their user interfaces have been too complex and difficult for convenient use.

ABI expects that more than 500 million handsets shipped in 2012 will sport a touch-based user interface.

"A good handset user interface is important not just to meet and exceed user expectations, but to support fast and flexible design changes, operator customisation and late software distribution, while maintaining low demands on the hardware," said Pandey.
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AT&T Welcomes Programmers for All Phones Except the iPhone

By Saul Hansell
I’m still trying to understand why Apple would go to such extremes to keep people from writing programs that run on the iPhone. I’ve been writing about Apple’s software update that seems to have deliberately disabled third-party applications that users have installed.

In particular, Apple’s explanations don’t make sense to me. This is what Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said to Newsweek in January:

“You don’t want your phone to be an open platform,” meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the provider’s network, says Jobs. “You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.”

That sounds reasonable until you realize that there are many millions of phones that run operating systems from Palm, Microsoft and others for which third-party applications are created all the time, and networks don’t seem to be crashing as a result.

I spoke to Mark Bercow, the senior vice president of business development at Palm. It’s his job to encourage developers to create programs for Palm’s Treo smart phones. He said Palm’s operating system imposes very modest limits on what developers can do. They can’t restructure the databases on the phone — such as the address book — that are used by many different applications. And they can’t change the inner workings of how the phone connects to the telephone network. But otherwise, programs are free to make calls and use as much data communications bandwidth as they like. Indeed, some developers have made video streaming applications, a particularly big bandwidth hog. (Of course, the cellular companies are free to charge whatever they wish for bandwidth use.)

Mr. Bercow said he had not heard of Palm ever trying to block any developer’s program because of anything it did to a wireless network. He added that Palm and wireless carriers — including AT&T, the new name for Cingular — work together to encourage developers to create applications for their phones.

“The notion of carriers getting in the way seems a little odd,” he said. “The trend is toward openness.” Palm says that two-thirds of Treo owners have purchased a third-party application, and 10 percent of them have 10 or more third-party apps.

AT&T has a very extensive Web site devoted to encouraging developers to write programs for its phones on half a dozen platforms. It does discuss the iPhone, but it points out that Apple only allows limited applications that work through the Safari browser.

So why would AT&T be worried about network problems caused by an iPhone and not from these other phones? Michael Coe, an AT&T spokesman, wouldn’t say.

“The company that decides which third-party apps go on the iPhone is Apple,” he said. I pressed him for one example of a concern that might be a reason for Apple to limit third-party applications.

“It seems to me that you are trying to pit us against Apple,” he said. “We are not going to get into an Apple vs. AT&T discussion.”

What’s especially odd here is that Apple has indicated that it will eventually allow third-party developers. This is what Steve Jobs told Walt Mossberg at the D conference:

This is a very important trade-off between security and openness. We want both. We’ve got good ideas, and sometime later this year, we can open it up to third-party apps, and keep security.

And hackers who have explored the workings of the phone say it uses the frameworks and structures that Apple uses on its other platforms to enable development; it just hasn’t been documented. So if Apple is going to allow applications later, is there any reason — other than vindictiveness or obsessive interest in control — that it would want to cut off those developed by the pioneers who figured things out ahead of the official launch?
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Trouble in iPhone paradise

Just like the day you discover that your gorgeous new wife leaves used tea bags in the sink and that she never really liked baseball in the first place, iPhone owners are waking up to reality. Sometimes, there's a price to be paid for jumping into a love affair without taking a minute to think about it.
September was the tipping point for many. It's been just over three months since Apple started selling iPhones, and although the company has sold over a million units, it also angered many owners with the steep iPhone price cut early in the month, and closed the quarter by turning iPhones with unauthorized software into either pretty paperweights or clean-swept devices.

We've spent plenty of time talking about the price cut, which very few people outside Apple could have foreseen coming so quickly. But no iPhone owner should have gone into a relationship with their precious device without the knowledge that unapproved applications and cellular networks were sore points.

Apple made it very clear from the start that AT&T was going to be the exclusive carrier for the iPhone, and two weeks before the iPhone went on sale, CEO Steve Jobs let everyone know that because of security and reliability concerns, native third-party applications weren't in the cards for iPhone 1.0.

"We have been trying to come up with a solution to expand the capabilities of the iPhone by letting developers write great apps for it, yet keep the iPhone reliable and secure," Jobs told developers at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. That solution was Web-based applications, which is sort of like being told that you can't buy a DVD because HBO shows that movie every month or so, and it was met with tepid applause by Apple's developers.

So, the warning signs were there. Yet some people always think they can get the other person to change, or that they can get away with something verboten on the sly as long as nobody's getting hurt. Several efforts immediately sprang up to "jailbreak" the iPhone, opening it up to application developers and unlocking it from AT&T's network to run around the world.

Apple moved fairly quickly to scuttle those efforts. I don't have much sympathy for unlockers; the two companies probably have a signed agreement that nobody gets to use the iPhone anywhere else but on AT&T's network. Apple is under no obligation to sell you an unlocked iPhone simply because you don't like AT&T. That was part of the deal, and happens often, although momentum is building to make locked phones a relic of the past.

Third-party applications, however, are very different. This is the sort of behavior that doesn't really hurt anybody, right? It's just taking a good thing and making it way better, don't you think?

That's where the control issues surface. Apple thinks that the iPhone is a sacred device, and that attempts to mess with its carefully designed software will only lead to problems. I think the company could have a point here. The iPhone's OS X is essentially a new operating system; sure, it has a lot of Mac OS X at its core, but it's a very different implementation. Apple could be very rightly concerned about widespread application development that's not up to certain standards leading to stability or security problems.

But this is the problem with the iPhone (and now the iPod Touch): is it a computer or not? Those who want the freedom to put outside applications on their iPhones think it's a little computer that should be able to run the same kinds of applications that they can on their Macs, or at the very least applications created for other smart phones.

Apple isn't ready for that yet. It's not even willing to take an "out of sight, out of mind" approach, like TiVo did with those who added unauthorized software to their TiVos. Instead, it's taking a cue from Sony, which moved quickly to scuttle PSP hacks only to watch the behavior continue unabated.

I have to side with the developers on this one: a closed device is not going to revolutionize the smart phone market. There are too many open devices out there already and Apple simply doesn't have the manpower to create all the potentially useful applications that could drive iPhone sales. Also, these development efforts are going to happen anyway; if Apple decides it's going to remove third-party applications with each software update, people will quickly learn to simply stop applying the updates and deprive themselves of new features for the iPhone as well as the extremely important bug fixes and security updates that Apple needs to keep the iPhone stable.

Come on, folks, don't you remember why you got together in the first place? Apple, you need to keep a happy core of early adopters who will spread the Gospel According To Steve far and wide. And iPhone owners, surely you recall how you felt when you first held your iPhone in your hand. I still have yet to hear any iPhone-related complaints about the look-and-feel of the software and the hardware.

Healthy partnerships need to involve compromise. The iPhone early adopters have to let Apple keep their iPhones locked to AT&T. (For now, at least, there's no way that marriage is going the distance.). And Apple needs to give a little and let iPhone owners make mature decisions about what software they can run by taking a lighter hand to application development.

I know you two kids can work this out. Sure, Apple's known for having a bit of a control thing, and iPhone owners are perhaps a bit more needy than the average cell phone owner. But there's lots of good here.

And if not, I know a good divorce lawyer in Redwood City, Calif.
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Hackers Post Techniques for Reversing iPhone Update

Owners of hacked iPhones have begun posting instructions on how to roll back a recent Apple firmware upgrade that rendered their mobile phones unusable.

The instructions were available Monday on the iPhone Dev Wiki, a Web site devoted to iPhone software hacks and tools.

Since the iPhone's launch, enthusiasts have been developing ways to allow the devices to run unauthorized software and to unlock them so that they can be run on any mobile network. Late last week, however, Apple cracked down on these efforts by releasing a software upgrade that made hacked iPhones unusable.

Since that release, however, hackers have been working on techniques that reverse the effects of this upgrade.

These latest instructions allow users to roll back their firmware upgrades and use some functions like the phone's iPod and Wi-Fi capabilities, but they do not necessarily restore the phone's ability to make calls, according to the iPhone Dev Wiki. That's because hackers have not yet found a way to roll back the firmware used by the iPhone's baseband chip, which is used to make calls.

"So far all attempts to downgrade the baseband have been unsuccessful," the Wiki said. "There have been several reports of successful baseband downgrades online, but these haven't been confirmed. "

Another major area of research has been into techniques that can unlock iPhones that are running the latest 1.1.1 firmware.

But because Apple has now done a much better job of encrypting its iPhone firmware, this will be a much harder job than it was the first time around, said Tom Ferris, a security researcher who works on hacking the iPhone.

That's what everybody's working on right now is trying to get into the firmware," he said. "Just like Steve Jobs said, it's a cat and mouse game."
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iPhone Users now Fear Security Patches, say Analysts

Apple Inc.'s decision last week to bundle an iPhone-crippling firmware upgrade with 10 security patches for the device was a mistake, analysts said Monday.

Thursday's iPhone Update 1.1.1 included not only new features and functionality -- including access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store -- but plugged holes in the device's built-in Safari browser, e-mail software and Bluetooth implementation.

But it was the news that the update "bricked," or disabled, iPhones modified to work with networks other than AT&T that caught the attention of security analysts like Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security Inc.

"With the iPhone update, Apple is now producing a fear of taking their patches," Storms said. "If they release a functionality update and security fixes at the same time in the future, some users will think twice about applying it. They'll ask themselves 'What will it break this time?' and 'Will it backfire on me?'

"Apple would rather have [iPhone] users secure, and users would rather be secure," Storms continued. "But when the update appeared, it was almost certain that some huge percentage of devices for which the patches were intended would be broken. That, I think, was more important than the security updates themselves."

Vendors should separate functionality and security updates, added another analyst, Garter Inc.'s John Pescatore. "There should definitely be a separation between security and functionality," he said. "Users shouldn't be forced to accept new functionality to get security fixes." The problem with mixing the two for enterprise users, he said, is that it forces them to make a choice between spending additional time testing new features before deploying patches, or foregoing the fixes.

Storms seconded that thought. "Enterprises would really prefer to see them separated; The fewer the number of variables the better," he said, referring to troubleshooting possible problems after installing an update.

But vendors don't necessarily follow Storms' and Pescatore's advice. Other companies, Microsoft Corp. especially, have blended new features with patches. "In big updates, like Windows XP SP2, Microsoft has mixed security and functionality," said Pescatore. "Even in its monthly [security] updates, it has included things that weren't security patches."

He pointed to the June 2006 upgrade to Windows XP's Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy technology, which was updated via the same Windows Update mechanism normally used for patching.

"The reason why companies bundle functionality and security updates is that users hate having to go through the pain of updating," said Pescatore. "Customers like fewer updates." What users dislike, he added, is when a vendor hides security fixes in a larger update. Microsoft's been guilty of that in the past when it's issued fixes but not disclosed the underlying vulnerabilities, perhaps in an attempt to keep the bug count artificially low.

"It's kind of a gamesmanship thing," Pescatore said.

That lack of full disclosure is exactly what got Apple into hot water last week, argued Storms. "In general, bundled updates are a good service for consumers, but the downside is if you don't explicitly tell them what you're updating. That's what happened last week, when everyone was blogging about the [iPhone] update and whether it 'bricked' the phone. There was no single source of information."

Pescatore didn't see it quite the same way: Users had a pretty clear idea of what would happen to their iPhones the day Apple released the update. Instead, he pointed out another similarity between Apple and Microsoft on the problematic patching policy front.

"Apple was saying that if you hack the iPhone to work with other carriers, when you do download the update, you'll disable the phone. That's not much different than what Microsoft says with WGA [Windows Genuine Advantage] It's Apple saying we want to see if it's modified and then we may cause you some problems. It's definitely similar."
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