News for Wednesday, 17 October 2007

According to Apple's "Hot News" page, the company will release in February 2008 an SDK that will allow 3rd parties to develop applications for both iPhone and iPod touch:

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February

Apparently, Apple will have some sort of certification in place, so that applications will have to be digitaly signed in order to be installed on an iPhone or an iPod touch:

Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction.

So, this is what everybody has been waiting for, let's hope the "certification" process won't be as expensive and demanding as with console games...

Source : Apple and our new Editor Team member Cheerful

Apple offers MacOS X.5 Leopard Server! You can order it now and it will be shipped to you free of charge on October 26th.
Cost:
$499: 10-client edition
$499: 10-client to Unlimited-client upgrade
$999: Unlimited-client edition
Check out the list of features. Just to list a couple:
- iCal Server: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/ical.html
- Wiki Server: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/wikis.html
- Podcast Producer: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/podcasts.html
- iChat Server: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/ichat.html
- many more
Additional information from Mac OS X Leopard Up-to-Date Program: http://www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate/

As expected from yesterday's rumor from Ars Technica, Apple changed the price of tracks available in the iTunes Plus catalog (DRM-free, 256kps encoding) from 1.29€ to 0.99€.
So, Amazon-driven competition seems to have forced Apple to align its price for DRM-free tracks. This is a good point as it will open the offer to all AAC compatible digital music player owners.

And hackers spending their time to remove DRMs might better concentrate on unlocking the power of iPhone hardware.

A new application has been released to jailbreak the iPod Touch 8 GB and 16GB; iJailBreak:

iJailBreak is an automated jailbreaker for your iPod Touch licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 written by 13-year-old AriX. The only user interaction required is for you to restart the iPod Touch. Works on Mac Intel OS X Tiger. PPC version is in the works.
iJailBreak is heavily dependent on Niacin and Dre's awesome tiff hack, you can find them at toc2rta.com. They really started the whole iPod Touch hacking scene. iJailBreak also makes heavy use of iPhuc, which you can find on Google Code.

It has been tested successfully, it allows you to enter data in iCal, the small bug left (on purpose) by Apple in the original firmware.
Additional information hereafter: http://ijailbreak.com/

anySIM, the free application to SIM unlock the iPhone is now available in version 1.1.
However, this version works only on virgin firmware 1.0.2 or 1.1.1-based iPhones. They are working on a "re-virginizer". So to make it cleat: DO NOT USE any SIM 1.1 IF YOU HAVE ALREADY UNLOCKED WITH ANYSIM 1.0.
Additional information hereafter: http://conceitedsoftware.com/iphone/site/anysim11.html

During the Taiwan IDF, Intel demonstrated a Quad Core notebook CPU, including 840 millions transistors and releasing 45W... almost twice the current TDP of the "hottest" Core 2 Duo Merom or Penryn.
Intel is already working on new systems to improve CPU cooling, and unveiled 2 new strategies. The first one is a notebook-dedicated compressor, a small cylinder of 2cm diameter and 10cm in length, aiming to provide components to install a small "fridge" in our notebooks. The second strategy is the waterproof tissue or material able to let air circulating through (a new Gore-Tex type?), installed underneath the keyboard it could help dissipating heat released by CPU, or improve fresh air input.
If the second system seems easy to implement, we wonder how Apple engineers would manage to stick such cylinder in a MacBook Pro, without modifying the case.

As announced yesterday, Orange will distribute the iPhone in France from November 29th. However, several information are still missing:
- First one is the offer: what will be the subscription plans bundled with the iPhone and their prices?
- It seems that subscription could include an almost unlimited data option, but also free access to Orange hotspot.
- Subscription price will most likely be high to compensate financial return paid by Orange to Apple on each subscription.
- Unlike in other countries where the iPhone will be available, consumer will only be able to purchase it from Orange physical and online Shops, and NOT from the French online Apple Store. This is most likely to avoid having too many consumers buying it from the Apple Store and using it with another carrier after SIM unlocking it. Things might change when the first physical Apple Store will open in Paris (underneath Le Louvre pyramid).
- If by the law the iPhone will have to be available as a SIM unlocked device 6 months after its introduction, its price of 399€ as in Germany will be most likely bundled to a 24 months subscription. However, it remains unclear if it will also be available on November 29th for consumers having already a subscription plan with Orange, as it is already the case for all other models recently introduced (of course with a premium price, as it will not be new consumers for the carrier). With the TGV, London regent Street Apple Store is not so far, and frustrated consumers could easily get the iPhone from UK, then SIM unlock it afterwards to make it working with any French carrier (without all features activated of course).
PS: Congratulation to all employees of Apple France, as they will finally receive their personal iPhone.

Apple released an update dedicated to the ATI Radeon X1900 XT card featuring 512MB VRAM.
As usual Apple does not provide information regarding improvement to be expected with this new ROM. Is it linked to Leopard?
To download the firmware update: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/atiradeonx1900xtfirmwareupdate.html

Online music and video markets are fast growing and evolving markets, as illustrated by today's news. News.Corps signed an agreement with Sony Music allowing MySpace website to freely use music and videos from Sony's catalog.
If Majors could collect substantial revenues with such agreements, it also does not help consumers or regulation authorities to identify to whom belong online music rights... without mentioning that Sony probably did not ask artists their agreement before signing.
It also illustrates how Majors are not willing to take care of the online distribution of their catalog, and try to adapt to the new rules by signing all type of agreements to try to maintain their margin instead of trying to define a new strategy for offering consumer a state-of-the-art online distribution offer. They know they will lose their strength on physical distributors, and do not intend to let online download services to define the rules, as Majors have been used to control the entire music business during years.