News tagged ‘Apple’

According to The Wall Street Journal, last week Chinese Telecommunication Equipment Certification Center approved Wi-Fi enabled iPhone to be put on sale soon in China. The problem is that on the accompanying picture it is clearly seen that the approved device is the iPhone 3G or 3GS, but certainly not the iPhone 4.

Apple’s smartphone went on sale last year, but it was Wi-Fi disabled because technology's standard was temporarily banned by the Chinese government. In May 2009 the ban was relaxed.

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Last week our site iPhoneRoot.com was contacted by Wall Street Journal journalist to comment on recent iPhone antenna and signal issues. We certainly shared our thoughts. After interesting conversation we agreed to perform a research of the latest iPhone iOS 4 firmware. As a result WSJ published two interesting articles covering iPhone, antennas, signals and bars. Take a look:

• Hidden Formulas Send Mixed Signals on Cellphones
• The Case of Apple and the Mysterious Bars

We will soon post detailed data from our research.

Apple released new video ads for iPhone 4. Let's watch. The first one is called "Smile":

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Few days ago Fring released new update for their iPhone app. Now it supports multitasking and, what is more important, 3G video calling via front facing video camera. With new Fring you can make video calls to anyone who has the same app installed on his device (and that must not be necessarily iPhone).

9to5mac already tested this new function and found that the quality of video leaves much to be desired, though over WiFi it's a bit clearer (that is why Apple didn't make 3G support for FaceTime). In some situations video call over 3G didn't have any audio streaming, so the interlocutor could not be heard.

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New app has been released in iTunes Store - it's called iChatr and it mimics Chatroulette. As it uses the front facing camera to create random video chat, the app is currently available only for iPhone 4 users.

So if you want to meet new person in your life, just use iChatr. The only problem is that developers for some reasons didn't make support for iPhone's speakers, so you'll need to use headphones.

You can download iChatr for free here. But be aware that one way video chat with older iPhone model will not work.

UPDATE: video test after the break.

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This Thursday Larry Page and Eric Shmidt (one of Google founders and its current CEO respectively) gave an interesting interview at the Allen & Co. conference.

According to Reuters, Page said that Jobs' opinion about animosity between Apple and Google that was caused by the latter (because it was Google that decided to compete with the iPhone by creating Android mobile platform) is "a little bit of rewriting history".

"We had been working on Android a very long time, with the notion of producing phones that are Internet enabled and have good browsers and all that, because that did not exist in the market place. I think that characterization of us entering after is not really reasonable."

Shmidt also added there are no "zero-sum games, which are battles to death", as the market is large enough for Google and Apple to thrive. Besides, Google still remains to be an important strategic partner for Apple by being the default search provider and powering Maps and Youtube application on all iOS devices.

Well-known blogger Jonny Evans from ComputerWorld posted yesterday an interesting article where he analyzed some of recent trends in Apple's success and made few conclusions about the company's next steps. Here is a short list of it:

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John Lewis from Electricpig.co.uk received new rumors from his suppliers about next-gen iPod touch. Here is a list of innovations that will be likely added to the new device:

• FaceTime support;
• 5-megapixel camera;
• front-facing camera;
• LED flash;
• Ability to capture video in HD;
• support for iOS4;
• gyroscope (to be precisely, he said the device "will also offer the same movement sensors as the iPhone 4").

As we see, new iPod touch will be pretty much the same as the new iPhone (but without phone functions, of course). The new device will be probably presented on the next Apple's music event in September.

In addition to white iPhone 4 pictures here are several photos of iPhone 4 with many different colorful bumpers:

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Today Apple finally unveiled its new Apple Store in Shanghai. Though it will be officially opened on July 10, 9to5mac and WePhone.com already received photos of the building and it looks just amazing. More photos of the curtains going down process are shown below.

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Today 9to5mac found on Quora an interesting discussion about the way of work at Apple. Level C executives from the company told that people who work in Apple have "almost religious level of commitment", and that they "truly feel they are changing the world with whatever they are doing".

Here are two more interesting excerpts:

"Probably the single greatest feeling working at Apple is getting to work on part of the product launch process. You plan and prep for months, then launch week you work like mad for 12-16 hours days and even pull all nighters to make sure your piece of the puzzle is ready for Apple’s big presentation. Then you gather with all the other employees in the cafe and watch it all unfold. It’s a great rush and your whole team feels it."

"If you have a project that Steve is not involved in, it will take months of meetings to move things forward. If Steve wants it done, it's done faster than anyone thinks is humanly possible. The best way to get any cross departmental work done was to say its for Steve and you'd probably have it the same day".

Though it is clear that work at Apple is really hard, above-mentioned words sound pretty attractive. If you're interested, maybe you should give a try?

Recently the head of Lenovo Liu Chuanzhi gave an interesting interview to Financial Times, where he said that Apple loses out in China:

"We are lucky that Steve Jobs has such a bad temper and doesn't care about China. If Apple were to spend the same effort on the Chinese consumer as we do, we would be in trouble".

Currently Lenovo holds about 30% of Chinese technology market, which is expected to be the #1 biggest market in a year. Apple, on the contrary, limits the number of products shipped to that country. There are only a few of its authorized resellers and stores situated in the largest cities of China.

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Four of the biggest iPhone and iPad game developers have discounted a selection of their games for the July 4th holiday. Hurry up. Here is the list:

Gameloft:

• The Settlers, $4.99 > $0.99
• Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., $4.99 > $0.99
• Rayman 2: The Great Escape, $4.99 > $0.99
• Driver, $4.99 > $0.99
• The Oregon Trail, $4.99 > $0.99
• Brain Challenge HD (iPad), $4.99 > $0.99
• Hero of Sparta HD (iPad), $4.99 > $0.99

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Several recent reports reveal that the antenna problem is not unique and can't be a serious reason not to buy the iPhone 4.

According to research group Consumer Reports the signal troubles are caused by human as in case with any other phone.

“Underplayed in the discussion is the fact that all phones are subject to interference from the human who is using them. And even if the alleged signal loss is real, there’s an absence of hard evidence that iPhone 4 reception is problematic compared to past iPhones; indeed there’s evidence of just the opposite”.

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Engadget reports about another hack made in the Book category of an iTunes App Store. 42 of the top 50 books now belong to a seller named Thuat Nguyen, whose company is written as “mycompany” and its site is www.home.com. Almost all of these books have been published in April and have little to no customer reviews or ratings. Though it is claimed that the books are available in English and Japanese language, people report they are actually appear to be in Vietnamese.

Engadget also claims that many people report about iTunes account hacking that became a reason of spending hundreds of dollars on above-mentioned books without any wish and permission of its owners. That cannot be a coincidence, so it is recommended that every Apple customer will check his purchase history in his Apple Account information.

Apple hasn’t yet commented on the situation.