Tuesday September 18, 2007

- iTunes 7.4.2 Available - Eric - 14:08:40

A new version of iTunes is available for download:

iTunes 7.4.2 addresses an issue with creating ringtones using iTunes Plus song purchases and includes bug fixes to improve stability and performance.

This new version erase ringtones created independently of iTunes and stored in iPhones. Those created by iToner remain untouched.
It will also most likely block other third-party application or hacks, but they should soon be updated

- Firmware 1.1.1 for UK iPhone - Lionel - 13:48:23

As we announced it yesterday, the UK iPhone is based on Firmware 1.1.1.
It will most likely block all SIM unlocking applications, while bringing a multilingual interface, support for iTunes Wi-Fi Store, a new icon for the calculator...
The new iPhone firmware should be available from Apple Support website within couple of hours or days.

[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone plan revealed for the UK - UPDATED - moose - 11:21:53

The Apple special event in London has started without the usual preliminary fuss and Jobs immediately announced the details on the availability of iPhone in the UK:
- Carrier: O2
- Models: the same as the US iPhone (meaning 2G/EDGE, NO 3G).
- Price: the 8GB one will retail for £269 including VAT.
- Contracts: Unlimited data with £35, 45, 55 plans.
- Visual Voicemail will be active.
- Supports number transfer from your current provider to O2.

More details as they come out...

[UPDATE]
What we all feared has come true: there IS a DAILY bandwidth limit for data usage...
Quote from Matthew Key, O2 CEO for O2 UK: "There is a limit: 1,400 internet pages per day would break the deal as part of fair usage agreement."

What the heck does "1400 internet pages a day" mean? Like 1400 hits? My opinion is they came up with a daily MB limit and "converted" it in a number of web pages based on some arbitrary page weight... so that people would go "1400 pages a day is quite a lot" instead of "WTF? only XXXMB per day???".

- Toshiba and SanDisk Brought to Court - Lionel - 11:20:06

Source : cdrinfo

After SanDisk on Friday, Toshiba announced it had been subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice for a suit that alleged price-fixing of flash memory. The filing involves 23 other companies, so we should not be surprised to see the name of other NAND chips manufacturers to appear in a near future (among them Samsung, Hynix, etc.).
If this action can demonstrate the illegal agreement between manufacturers to artificially define high price for flash memory, the 25 companies involved could have to pay huge amount of money, and many of them might not survive.


[translation by Linathael]

- New iMacs: Dust between the Glass Plate and the LCD Panel - Lionel - 11:18:59

Our Italian friends from Setteb.it reports a problem with a new iMac: dust accumulated in the space between the glossy glass plate and the LCD panel. Of course one can remove the dust by disassembling the plate, but it is far from being easy and can not be performed by all customers. The dust had a texture similar to metal dust. They think that the dust could have been stored in the iMac and was then further distributed when the computer was turned on.

[translation by Linathael]

- Forbes: We Love Apple... Not - Lionel - 11:17:14

From couple of months, Forbes is quite heavily criticizing Apple and its charismatic CEO. A recent article entitled "Steve Jobs tried to design - and dictate - the future of television. Here's how he failed" exposed why the Apple TV is a "hobby" for not saying a "failure". The Apple TV is renamed iFlop, as they claim that sales are much lower than expected by Apple, a fact we already reported about weeks ago (here). Forbes article is most likely biased because Apple refused to unveil data or answer question about the Apple TV and other related topics.

When looking at facts, the Apple TV is a good product but not fully developed to be able to lead the market. It is too much dependent on other devices, and it can not deliver HD video (at least 720p). To be competitive and fully operational, Apple should allow the Apple TV to be a terminal from which customers could order/rent music and video. Of course, the success of the Apple TV outside USA is very low due to the already existing boxes offered by ISPs in Europe and already delivering full HD TV channels and video-on-demand services.

[translation by Linathael]

- O2 Store Is Down - Lionel - 11:15:47

To fully confirm the rumor, the O2 Store is down, probably to be updated during Apple Event. See you there in a couple of minutes to summarize announcements.

[translation by Linathael]

- Apple Tried Unsuccessfully to Prevent Linux Users to Enjoy iPods - Lionel - 10:14:57

As reported by Will in his Blog, Apple tried (on purpose or not) to lock the use of iPod to iTunes, preventing Linux application developed to handle the iPod to communicate with the new iPods models recently released:

Who does this affect?
This affects Linux users - there's no iTunes for Linux, so popular Linux iPod management tools like gtkpod and Rhythmbox will not work with the new range of iPods. Windows users who just plain don't like iTunes and prefer an alternative like Winamp, Ephpod or many of the other iPod management applications out there.

How?
The iPod keeps track of the songs and playlists in your iPod with a database file - the iTunesDB, found in the iPod_Control/iTunes/ hidden folder on the iPod. Back in the early days of the iPod, the format of this file was quickly reverse-engineered by people who wanted to use iPods without iTunes. This was more important back then because iTunes only existed on the Mac, so Windows users were stuck with Real Player (which was just awful), and Linux users had exactly nothing. The format of this file has evolved over the years as the iPod added support for video, podcasts, album artwork, smart playlists etcetera. The basic structure of the file has always remained the same, so these changes were easy enough for us to work out and keep up to date with. With the release of the new range of iPods - the new Nano, the iPod Classic and the iPod Touch, we were expecting more of the same - a few tweaks here and there and everything would be fine. No so. At the very start of the database, a couple of what appear to be SHA1 hashes have been inserted which appear to lock the iTunes database to one particular iPod and prevent any modification of the database file. If you try to do either of these, the hashes will not match and the iPod will report that it contains "0 songs" when the iTunesDB would otherwise be perfectly adequate.

As reported by our German friends from www.opensourcemac.de, Linux users decided to dig into the code, and already identified the protection and the way to bypass it to give Linux users the opportunity to use an iPod without iTunes. Maybe Apple should simply try to release a Linux version of iTunes instead of preventing customers to buy iPods because they prefer Linux as OS on their computer.

[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone in Europe: Let's Meet at 11h00 CET [update] - Lionel - 10:11:23

Today at 11h00 CET, Apple will hold a Special Event in London Regent Street Apple Store to officially launch the iPhone in UK, and most likely announce the name of all European carriers engaged in a partnership with Cupertino around this device. This event being UK-specific, we will not provide a live coverage, however we will post a summary of the announcement as soon as we obtained information.

Last information we have collected indicate that O2 won the battle with Vodafone by agreeing to share 40% of iPhone-driven revenues with Apple! If T-Mobile will hold a press conference tomorrow to fully unveil its iPhone-dedicated offers, it remains unknown when Orange will provide similar information. However, we know that Orange did not face strong competitors (SFR or Bouygues) when battling for exclusive partnership with Apple.
The interesting rumor is the number of countries to be covered by each carrier. O2 is reported to be serving UK only, while T-Mobile is currently expected to offer the iPhone in Germany and in Austria, while potentially extending the service to Netherlands, Hungary and Croatia. Via Orange network, France, but although Switzerland, Poland and Netherlands too could be offered the iPhone. It would be for both T-Mobile and Orange a market representing over 100 million customers

[update]
According to French sources, the iPhone should be priced 300 euros in Europe + variable subscription costs depending on the voice offer selected. If announcement is today, the iPhone might not be available before mid-November, at least in France.

[translation by Linathael]