The iPhone is barely 3 days old, and already mobile phone operators in Europe are scrambling to get the coveted "exclusive deal" with Apple. The article from The Times in the UK goes on and cites several operators reputedly negotiating with Apple; among them O2, Vodafone, Telefónica, Orange and T-Mobile are all contenders for the contract.
The iPhone is again reported not 3G-compatible in its current status, but it remains still unclear if the delayed introduction in Europe and Japan is only due to distribution rights negotiations or rather required by some technical/hardware upgrades to make it more suited for more advanced networks technologies in Europe and Japan. But with the moderate adoption of 3Gs in most European countries over the last year, one can imagine that Apple might not bother preparing a special version for Europe, in Japan it will be another story .
Now, how many of us will consider changing the mobile phone subscription and/or carrier only based on the availability of the iPhone? Let us know in the dedicated topic on our forum:
here.
PS: You will need to register via an almsot instant procedure to be able to post on our forum.Hitachi demonstrated reading from a 100 GB Blu Ray disc, comprising four layers of data. It is probably in reaction to the upcoming adoption of triple layer HD-DVD. The good news is that this technology seems close at hand: the device used to read is very close to the LG GBW-H10N that
we tested. A firmware modification was all it took to allow all four layers to be read.
From an article published in the
San Francisco Chronicle we learn a bit more about Apple iPhone development and how apple was dealing with its main partner over the last months.
Here's some other stuff we learned about the Apple iPhone at the Cingular presser with Glenn Lurie, Cingular's president of national distribution:
-- The phone can only be bought with a two-year contract. Existing Cingular subscribers will have to re-up for another two years to get one.
-- The exclusive agreement with Cingular is a "multi-year" deal, so don't expect to see this on any other carrier in the near future.
-- Who set the price for the iPhone? It was all Apple.
-- Apple owns distribution rights to the iPhone, so expect to see it only in Apple and Cingular stores and on their Web sites. No big-box retail plans for now.
-- The iPhone won't support third-party applications. Why? Ask Apple.
-- The phone will remain unlocked.
-- No word on HSDPA high-speed data service for the iPhone, although Lurie said Cingular's partnership with Apple extends to other devices in this line, alluding to the potential for a faster device. While it runs on EDGE data access, the device has been "optimized" to perform Web functions better.
-- Aside from the visual voice-mail feature, which was jointly produced, all iPhone features were developed by Apple.
-- Steve Jobs was the one who approached Cingular about extending the relationship to the iPhone after partnering on the Rokr phone.
-- The phone hardware won't be branded with the Cingular name at all, but Cingular or AT&T's name will appear on every screen on the phone.
-- When it finally appears in June, Cingular will be in the process of changing its name to AT&T following the completion of AT&T's purchase of BellSouth, which owned a stake in Cingular.
-- Over-the-air downloads? Not now. It's an iPod.
So in summary, while teaming up with Cingular, Apple remains the main player about its iPhone business plan and development. However, current limitations: impossible to get it available as a carrier-free mobile phone and the long-term exclusive deal with Cingular, might impact the availability and sales of the iPhone from the beginning on. Apple keeps its hands on the "iPod/iPhone/iTS" ecosystem.
The company Ex-cinder unveiled its new application, Magnet, during the MWSF.
Magnet allows you to customize your movies and share them with your friends. It makes video editing and composing easy, you can add special effects, removing elements in a video, or adding a tag, an object or an animation in a video. It can also be used on a photo.
It supports iPhoto, iMovie media, as well as iSight for capturing videos. It is powered by Quartz composer and rendered animations are in QuickTime format, allowing further modification in more advanced video editing solution such as Final Cur Pro. One can also export animations to your video iPod.
What is new in this application is the ease of use; allowing a beginner to quickly add special effects to his video, for sure it might also please kids...
It is a universal binary application, and a demo version is available from Ex-cinder website (24.53€ license) :
http://www.ex-cinder.com/magnet/magnet.html
The Spanish website
http://www.entremaqueros.net published a documented article describing installation of a Mac mini into a mini ATX format PC case.
Once installed into its new case, the Mac mini Core Duo is of course not as elegant as it was originally, but it gains a faster SuperDrive, a 3.5"HD, and other features.
Even if the article is in Spanish, numerous photos make it easily understandable:
http://www.entremaqueros.net/bitacoras/roshardware/archives/mac-mini-intel-atx-introduccion/
