Apple in collaboration with is releasing an Apple-shaped USB loaded with 14 Beatles stereo titles. Included in the USB are all the remastered visual elements of the CD’s originally containing the 14 Beatles songs. In addition, the USB will also be loaded with 13 mini-documentary films about the Beatles’ studio albums, replicated UK album art rate photos and other notes. More →
It looks like Amazon should not worry about the upcoming Barnes & Noble’s Nook ebook reader but with the iPhone instead. According to a report by analytics research company Flurry, book apps for the iPhone have overtaken previous most downloaded category – game apps. More →
The road to application approval hasn’t always been smooth, with apps approved and then pulled, or outright banned on rather shaky grounds, but that hasn’t stopped Apple powering to 100,000 approved apps in the iTunes App Store.
The web site Appshopper.com has counted 102,485 approved applications and 93,659 available.
That’s a mind-boggling number, and unfortunately says nothing about the quality of those applications. Bear in mind that there are many variations on the same theme, and some (a lot) of them are complete and utter rubbish. More →
Wind back a few years and no-one would have named Apple as being influential in the gaming sphere. Mind you, no-one would have betted on them having a world class mobile phone, either.
Now, research from DFC Intelligence suggests that it’s Apple that could help to drive the mobile game market to $11.7bn annual sales by 2014.
Though they suggest that the likes of Nintendo and Sony will still lead the market, they say that these companies have peaked, while Apple’s platforms will be responsible for the bulk of market growth over the next five years. More →
Great news for those who favour competition in the mobile marketplace — Vodafone UK will sell the iPhone alongside Orange and, of course, O2.
Again, the details are sketchy. All we’re told is that the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S will be available in the UK and Ireland “in early 2010″. That’s possibly a few months later than Orange will be releasing it, though we don’t have any juicy details yet.
Vodafone has had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the iPhone, with successive CEOs either praising or dismissing the handset. Nevertheless, you can be sure Vodafone is pleased to get a share of iPhone action in the UK’s competitive mobile space.
So, come early next year we could see a real price and deals war going on in the UK. About time, too.
Will we hear a similar announcement from T-Mobile in the next few days? It’s possible.
Some countries that had the “privilege” of getting the iPhone early on, such as the US and UK, have been shackled to one telecoms company since the outset.
While AT&T may still have Apple fans tied up, there is at least some hope for UK users who either object on principle to exclusive deals (common though they are), or don’t like the O2 network because of its reliability or customer screwing tactics. More →
I wish Apple would stop trying to keep its exclusive mobile network partners happy and just open up the iPhone to any network, then it wouldn’t have to pander to their tightfisted demands.
In fact, Apple shouldn’t have to pander to the network operators as it is, particularly after the rather derogatory labels Steve Jobs has applied to them in the past, yet their demands still seem to cause apps to get blocked, at to detriment of paying customers.
The latest app is one that British iPhone users would no doubt relish. The 0870 application quickly finds alternative geographically fixed phone numbers for the pesky non-geographical 08** numbers that companies frequently use and cost an absolute fortune to call from cellphones. More →
Apple’s recent lies about the rejection of the Google Voice iPhone app give us insights into their deception development process. Since this isn’t the first time they’ve been caught in a lie, the process must be pretty refined by now.
The Joy of Tech offers a flowchart of that process.
