This is a no brainer Apple’s next version of the iPhone probably due out at Macworld in 2008 will sport a GPS chip closely matching the iRFstarIII from SiRF Technology. The StarIII is best known for its capability to receive signals from 20 different satellites simultaneously, and a super fast First Fix Time. The only draw back is the requirement for higher power consumption.

read it here myiphone

Apple’s partnership with US telecom giant AT&T on eagerly-awaited iPhone devices set to ship next month promises to be an industry-changing blissful union or a history-making horrid divorce.

Industry insiders see AT&T as a clear winner from the union as Apple’s iPod-driven cache’ gives Internet-age youthfulness to a company as old as the telephone itself.

read it here theage.com.au

May 24, 2007 (Computerworld)—Apple Inc.’s iPhone, which won’t be available for sale until next month, has a “wow” factor so powerful that users in a recent survey were awed by it without actually touching it.

Strategy Analytics Inc. in Boston today said it found that 90% of handset owners in its recent study gave the iPhone higher ratings than their own handsets.

read it here computerworld

PiperJaffray analyst Gene Munster rejected rumors that Apple will tout its iPhone at the conference, which opens June 11 in San Francisco. Instead, Apple will launch the new cellular phone in late June. At WWDC, Munster wrote in a note to investors, CEO Steve Jobs and crew will flesh out the remaining undisclosed features of Leopard, announce updated or new MacBook Pro models, and perhaps unveil a revamped iMac desktop lineup. “We believe the Street would react positively to such product announcements,” he said.

read it here infoworld

Sony will transform its popular PlayStation Portable (PSP) into a mobile phone and internet appliance.

BT and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) Wednesday morning announced a deal to transform the PSP by adding wireless broadband communications functions, including high quality handheld video calls, voice calls and messaging.


read it here pcworld

The Wing is available for US$299 (A$364) with a two-year contract, and offers extended battery life, a 2-megapixel camera, and Bluetooth connectivity.

Taking a page from Apple’s iPhone, T-Mobile Tuesday unveiled a Wi-Fi equipped mobile phone. Developed by Taiwan’s High Tech Computer Corp, the T-Mobile Wing is also the first US phone to run Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6 operating system.

read it here itnews.com.au

A recent survey by the Channel Checkers research firm shows that demand for Apple’s upcoming iPhone may exceed the available supply when the device is released next month.

In a survey of 36 storers, 64% of outlets questioned replied that they had a waiting list while the remaining 36% would sell the iPhone on a first come, first serve basis.

read it here powerpage.org/

Many investors rely on the “buy on the rumor, sell on the news” strategy, but that isn’t likely to pay off with Apple, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. The company’s stock typically rises after big events, and two are scheduled for June: Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, and the iPhone launch.

“Using the closing price the day before events as a base, shares of AAPL have risen an average of 1 percent the day of an event, and rise 3 percent in the week after the event,” he said. “Using the closing price the week before events as a base, shares of AAPL have risen 6 percent on average between the week before and the week after an event.”

read it here macobserver

A few months ago I did a Skype phone shootout involving two cordless Skype phones.
I concluded that, for a host of reasons, the Linksys CIT300 was the better of the two phones.

However, a few of our readers were upset that I had failed to mention neither of the phones were compatible with Mac OS X.  The newest Linksys cordless phone, the iPhone CIT400, does not require a computer at all and is my favorite cordless Skype phone yet. Here’s why.

read it here arstechnica

The Channel Checkers ran a recent survey asking Cingular [AT&T] wireless stores “when they expected to get the iPhone in their shops, if they had a waiting list and how many names were on it.”

The Channel Checkers reports, “The expected arrival date for the iPhone at Cingular stores ranged from June 15th to July generally… Our second question about wait lists resulted in 64% of stores reporting a waiting list (We called 36 stores for this survey). The remaining 36% said sales were on a ‘first come first serve’ basis.

read it here macdailynews

USA Today reports in the intense competition in the mobile phone industry. With 78% of U.S. household with a mobile phone, customer growth now relies on customer acquisition from other providers.

In this ongoing battle, the iPhone is a key player:
“I’m glad we have (the iPhone) in our bag,” he says. “Others will try to match it, but for a period of time, they’re going to be playing catch-up.”

read it here macrumors

According to The Boy Genius, the answer to that question is yes! It is showing off some internal AT&T screen shots that indicate the iPhone will be available to prepaid customers. The beauty of the prepaid model is that you can enjoy all the positive aspects of the iPhone without being locked into a multiyear contract.

read it here informationweek

Ary Daquiwag submits: The much anticipated Apple (AAPL) iPhone will soon be released in the US market. With the US FCC’s (Federal Communications Commission) recent approval of the iPhone as a certified technological gadget for communication, this event could entail an increase in the potential projected demand for the product. However, with the iPhone’s release in the market, plausible significant effects might be incurred by Apple as far as the sales, demand and profit of its other products (i.e., iPods).

read it here of course seekingalpha

Tomi T Ahonen, self-proclaimed “world’s leading 3G strategy consultant,” unabashedly declares:

Much like the Western calendar marks time from before and after Jesus Christ, and how the computer world changed totally by the Macintosh—remembering that Windows is Microsoft’s copy of the Mac operating system—I am certain that the mobile telecoms world will count its time in two Eras. The Era BI: time Before the iPhone, and the ERA AI: time After the iPhone.

read more predictions here gizmodo

May 20, 2007—You wouldn’t want to be an Apple R&D employee right now.
Steve Jobs, already forced to tweak the debut of the much-anticipated iPhone from its expected June 11 launch date to a “late June” debut, is believed to be cracking the whip and having the super-phone tested and re-tested to make sure it arrives without any bugs

read it here nypost

The Cingular brand is being replaced overnight with AT&T branding in stores and kiosks and in point-of-sale materials in 1,800 company-owned outlets.

Can Ma Bell be far behind now that AT&T is launching another major branding campaign? Probably not.
The much-beloved and sometimes-maligned grand old lady of the telecommunications industry is being replaced by AT&T’s cool new icon—Apple’s iPhone. The telecom giant is launching another rebranding campaign designed to get consumers to warm to the new, new AT&T and forget its former Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless units.

read it here informationweek

Imagine this?

You are publishing for a tech website. You just posted your first article of the day, claiming that the iPhone launch will be delayed. You went for a coffee and a donut, to celebrate your first work accomplished. While finishing the last drops of beverage, you get a phone call from an angry Apple lawyer.

He is shouting at you, that Apple Inc Stock is dropping faster, than that rare done pita souvlaki you ate last holidays in Crete, because of the article you just published. You type AAPL in Google.com and you get the same warm holiday feeling again. You remove the article and book a Last Minute flight to, you guessed it? Crete.

Sitting in an Internet cafe in (Plakias) the next day, you discover that you just vanished four billion dollars in market cap of Apple’s stock price in six minutes.

That amount is the same as;

* The cost of the Hubble Telescope
* The cost of a brand new nuclear powered aircraft carrier, with its airplanes.
* Microsoft lost on the Xbox in 2005
* The Worldwide Anti-Virus software revenues of 2006
* India is lending from the worldbank for infrastructure
* Yearly military operations in Afganistan is costing the US
* The total worldwide Tsunami aid
* Mobutu Sese Soko stole in Zaire
* 25,000 U.S. cotton farmers get a year in subsidies
* Is also less than a third of what people spend at McDonald’s.
* And most noticeable, the wealth in dollars that Sir Steve Jobs of Apple has in his bank account.

Just to put it in perspective!

Tip: Drink coffee before you start working.

Robin.

read here how it really happened techcrunch

Apple’s inaugural mobile handset, iPhone, will be available for sale at 2000 retail store fronts when it goes on sale for the first time next month, putting the device within reach of most US households.
That’s just one of the info morsels Bear Stearns analyst Andy Neff came bearing after a meeting with members of Apple’s executive team on Wednesday.

During the sit-down, Apple retail chief Ron Johnson and Director of Mac Product Marketing Tom Boger informed the analyst that those store fronts would consist exclusively of Apple and AT&T retail stores. (That breaks down to approximately 160 U.S.-based Apple outlets and roughly 1840 AT&T wireless boutiques.)

read it here appleinsider

OpenMoko is an Open Source project to create the world’s first free mobile phone operating system. The OpenMoko project is a community that anyone can join, and help to design their ideal phone.

The Neo1973 from FIC is the first of many phones that OpenMoko will run on.

The long term goal of OpenMoko is that phone software will no longer be tied to one phone. You can buy any compatible phone, and install any software over the whole range of phones. If you upgrade your phone, you don’t lose the software. Bugs fixed on one phone are fixed on all.




read it here openmoko.org

Advertising Age has confirmed with inside sources that Apple’s current ad agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, will be marketing the iPhone upon its release. The agency, which created the iPhone ad that was aired during the Oscars, has been Apple’s agency since 1997 and has handled all of the creative development for other devices like the iPod.

read it here arstechnica

AT&T CEO Stan Sigman has described Apple’s forthcoming iPhone as “the largest commercial product launch in the history of electronics” during a graduation speech at the West Texas A&M University. “This is you. AT&T and Apple will release the iPhone,” Sigman said.

read it here macnn

With the iPhone’s release slated for next month, we’re getting closer to having to decide if we’re going to buy one. For me, the answer is no, even if it does turn out to be revolutionary and extraordinary.

read it here macworld

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)—Regulators approved Apple Inc.’s iPhone for sale in the United States on Thursday paving the way for the much anticipated device to be sold by the wireless unit of AT&T in late June.
News of the Federal Communications Commission certification helped send Apple (Charts, Fortune 500) shares up nearly 2 percent to $109.44 on the Nasdaq Thursday.

“That’s the primary reason why the stock’s up today,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research, adding that it was welcome news despite there being little doubt the device would win approval.

read it here cnn

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nokia Oyj hopes Apple Inc.’s highly anticipated iPhone will boost consumer appetite for pricier mobile phones with features such as music and video, Nokia’s Chief Financial Officer said on Monday.

So-called smart phones allow users to surf the Web, take photos, enjoy music and video and sometimes games, in addition to making calls. Many are priced above $400, before subsidies by mobile carriers.

I just found out that Apple is offering an iCard for their .Mac users with a photo of the iPhone.

Today, we posted the 500th article on iphonetunes.net.

So, send me one!
Robin.

check it out mac