Thursday November 22, 2007

- T-Mobile and the iPhone in Germany - Eric - 14:54:13

As reported by CNN

, Vodafone initiated a legal action to push T-Mobile to modify its marketing and pricing strategy for the iPhone. As a consequence, T-Mobile is forced to sell the iPhone as a SIM unlocked device to allow consumers to use it with other carriers, but at premium price: 999€. In other words, it breaks the exclusive agreement between T-Mobile and Apple. One can suspect that Vodafone being in trouble in UK, with a massive amount of its clients willing to stop their subscription plans to move to O2 and its iPhone offer, decided to fire back. According to our information, only the German law will allow Vodafone to act as such, it should not be possible in France or in UK.

As reported by Heise.de

, the new T-Mobile offer for the iPhone also includes SIM unlocking for consumers having already purchased the iPhone from T-Mobile. However, the iPhone is a really interesting device only with its associated services provided by the exclusive carrier. Vodafone might decide to complain about the premium price applied on the SIM unlocked iPhone.

- How to Get 10GB Storage Space with your .Mac Account - Lionel - 14:53:42

Some users might already know this trick, but it is always good to share it.

I am a new .Mac users since last summer. I was a bit frustrated by the fact that the 10GB storage space associated with my .Mac account are shared equally between Mail and iDisk, considering I am not using .Mac for my emails.
I just discovered an option to modify such balancing, especially for users willing to get more space for their iLife or backup.

First, log on http://www.mac.com, then click on "Account", then "Storage Setting", you will then get access to an interface allowing you to define storage space allocation between Mail and iDisk.

[translation by Linathael]

- New Security Flaw in Leopard - Lionel - 14:53:20

According to Intego

, a bug in Mac OS X Leopard Quarantine feature might allows users to launch malicious attachments in Mails.

The bug causing this has to do with the way Leopard manages quarantines. The first time a user opens an attachment, Mail opens the file directly without passing through the quarantine system. Subsequent openings of the same attachment cause Mail to no longer open the attachment directly, but rather open the file it has saved in the Mail Downloads folder.

Apple should quickly react and fix the exploit.


[translation by Linathael]

- Tomorrow is Black Friday US Apple Store - Lionel - 14:52:53

The US Apple store is getting ready for the Black Friday, while the similar campaign should not arrive in Europe before next week.
Let's hope that Apple will make interesting offers as last year.

[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone in France: Subscription Plans Unveiled: - Lionel - 14:52:27

Hereafter are the 4 different subscription plans associated with the iPhone.



In addition to 399€ for purchasing the iPhone, the first plan starts with a monthly fee of 49€, making the cost of the iPhone + Subscription over the 2 years contract at 1575€.
Web access is unlimited, and SIM unlocking would be only charged 100€ for the first 6 months, before becoming free as defined by the law. Last but not least, all subscribers will get 10 hours of free access to Orange hotspot Wi-Fi network (even 100 hours for the most expensive plan).

One can get additional information from Orange websites:
http://iphone.orange.fr/swf/Section5.swf
http://iphone.orange.fr/swf/Section8.swf
http://iphone.orange.fr/swf/Section13.swf
http://iphone.orange.fr/swf/Section16.swf
http://iphone.orange.fr/swf/Section16.swf

[translation by Linathael]

- The Ultimate iPod nano Clone: Should We Say Ultimate Counterfeited? - Lionel - 14:51:14

One of our sources sent us this advertisement distributed by one of the Chinese contractors located in Shenzhen, where most of the Apple-branded products are manufactured.



According to their information, this is simply an IPOD NANO III.
It does not only look like the iPod nano 3G, its specifications are also identical:
- iPod interface
- iPod connector
- Flash memory-based storage

Of course, this is not a fake, as this manufacturer is already distributing mobile digital players worldwide, being either iPod clones or not.
The second photo shows how even the packaging was copied from the original one, you simply need some Apple logo and it will be exactly the same than the original one.



This ultimate iPod nano clone should arrive for Christmas shopping season.


[translation by Linathael]