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Apple gears up to stem hacking of iPhones 

Wicamp

I'am sure you all must be wondering what's wi in the Wicamp, I'll walk you through the Wicamp, that happened yesterday. Wicamp - actually meaning We-camp, and also Wi- Wipro Innovation Camp was an unconference where most of the minds congregated to discuss, share, understand about Innovation.

Mobile market is slowly getting heated by the competition.  Recent forecast by Pundits

Unlocking your iPhone so that you can install third party applications can be fun. Using the Installer.app application on the iPhone and its default repository you can install utilities, games, and other applications. By adding additional repositories to the Installer, it is possible to gain access to a much greater quantity of software.

Occasionally, if you’re not careful you can end up installing malicious software from a bad repository. This happened to a number of iPhone owners a few days ago.

The launch of Apple Inc's latest operating system, Leopard, was its best ever, a research group said on Monday.

When comparing the first full month of sales of Apple Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard" (November 2007) to the first full month of sales for Mac OS 10.4 "Tiger" (May 2005), dollar volume for Leopard was up 32.8 percent and unit volume up 20.5 percent, NPD Group Inc said in a statement.

Apple, maker of the Macintosh computer, the iPod digital music player and the iPhone smartphone, started selling Leopard on Oct. 25, after a four-month delay due to the company's work on the iPhone.

Technology and entertainment topped Google Inc's searches in 2007, with the iPhone grabbing the No. 1 slot on a list of the fastest-rising search terms in the United States, the company said on Tuesday.

"iPhone, of course, is a word very few people typed in a search box in 2006," said Marissa Mayer of Google, an Internet search engine. "It didn't exist."

Apple rolled out the iPhone, which is a mobile phone, music and video player and Internet browser device, in the United States last summer.

Four social networking sites made the top 10, including Webkinz, which grabbed the No. 2 slot. Webkinz is a stuffed animal that customers can register and play with online. Celebrity news Web site TMZ ranked third, while transformer toys took the No. 4 slot.

Transformers are the wildly popular toys that shift their shapes, for example from cars to alien robots, and they got a big boost from the 2007 hit movie "Transformers."

"There's a lot of interest in the celebrity culture, television and movies," said Mayer. YouTube, the video-sharing Web site, grabbed the No. 5 spot while Club Penguin, a networking site for children, came in No. 6. Social networking site MySpace took the No. 7 slot. Heroes, Facebook and Anna Nicole Smith rounded out the top 10.

Google also released a list of fastest-rising global search terms and the iPhone topped that list too.

The most eagerly awaited gadget of the year, Apple's iPhone, goes on sale in Britain and Germany this week to test European appetite for the mobile phone that thousands queued for in the U.S. in June.

Consumer electronics company Apple, mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse and mobile operator O2 will open stores around 1800 GMT on Friday in Britain for just four hours for a hoped-for stampede for the touch-screen phone.

In Germany it will be sold by Deutsche Telekom's mobile phone division T-Mobile. It will go on sale in one Telekom shop in Cologne just after midnight on Friday morning and will then roll out across the country.

Hundreds of extra staff have been taken on, and companies are hoping Apple's combined iPod music player, Web browser and camera will catch the public imagination in time for Christmas.

O2 UK, owned by Spanish telecoms group Telefonica, secured the exclusive network deal for the phone in Britain and expects the device to be its fastest-selling handset yet, with around 200,000 selling by the three outlets by Christmas and the New Year.

Carphone Warehouse, Europe's top independent mobile phone retailer, said last week that it could sell up to 10,000 in the first day. T-Mobile has not given any sales forecasts.

Not all analysts are convinced.

Most handsets in Europe are subsidised in return for customers signing up to contracts lasting perhaps 18 months or two years, but iPhones will cost 269 pounds ($560) in Britain on top of an 18-month contract costing a minimum of 35 pounds per month.

In Germany it will cost 399 euros ($580) with a two-year minimum monthly fee of 49 euros. Apple slashed the iPhone price in the United States by $200 to $399 in September.

Unlike many other phones, it will run on enhanced second generation (2G) networks, rather than the faster 3G system, though it will automatically switch onto speedy local wireless, or wifi, networks where these are available.

Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said the unsubsidised price could put some people off in Britain, but she still expected it to be one of the most wanted consumer electronic products this Christmas.

"The 200,000 number O2 referred to as a target market is quite safe," she said. "We think 350,000 iPhones could be sold in the first two months."

Analyst Thomas Friedrich from UniCredit's German unit HVB said he did not expect it to be as popular as it has been in the United States and said it would be more geared towards those willing to pay for a luxury item in Germany.

Milanesi said she thought the iPhone would spur other manufacturers to improve their user interface, and on Monday a new competitor emerged.

Google, the world's leading Internet company, said on Monday it would offer a software system to make the Internet work as smoothly on mobile phones as it does on computers. Google-based phones are due to appear in the latter half of next year.

Apple alternatives rival the iPhone
International News Service in English

Munich (dpa) - There's never been as much to-do about a mobile phone as surrounds the iPhone. If you believe the hype, Apple's iPhone must be the end-all be-all of mobile telecommunication.

In truth, the iPhone, which goes on sale on November 9 under exclusive contract with T-Mobile, has its weaknesses. Moreover, there mobile phones that have long been available in Germany are just as good, if not better.

Apple has announced that the newest version of its Macintosh operating system would go on sale on October 26, hitting the market after a four-month delay due to the company's work on the iPhone.

The new version of Apple's OS X software, called Leopard, will cost $129 for a single user and $199 for a family pack that can be installed on up to five computers in one household.

New features include a file back-up feature called "Time Machine," improvements to e-mail and instant messaging, the ability to preview documents or files without launching a separate program, and quick access to other computers on a home or office network.

Leopard marks the sixth version of OS X in as many years, a feat the company is quick to contrast with Microsoft Corp, which went more than five years between new versions of its Windows operating system.

Microsoft's Windows Vista became broadly available early this year and comes in several versions that cost between $100 and $260, according to the company's Web site.

"This is going to be great for Mac momentum, which has already been strong for the past few years. This is just one more thing on top of that," Apple's vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, told Reuters in an interview.

In its fiscal third quarter that ended June 30, Apple sold nearly 1.8 million Mac computers, up 33 percent from a year earlier, a growth rate about triple that of the broader PC market.

Back in April, Apple delayed the release of Leopard to October from its original June target, citing the need to divert software development resources to the iPhone, which was launched in late June.

Apple shares rose nearly 1.6 percent to $169.58 on the Nasdaq.

The company, which also makes the popular iPod digital media player, said its online store is now accepting pre-orders for Leopard.

Apple said Tuesday it started receiving orders for its new operating system called Leopard, which will go on sale on Oct. 26 and cost $129 for a single user license.

The maker of the Macintosh computer and iPod digital player also said the Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack, which is a license for five users from a single household, will retail at $199.

Leopard is expected to boast new features including a file back-up feature called "Time Machine" and improvements to its e-mail and instant messaging software. Another feature allows users to move from their standard desktop view to an archival view showing every change made to a particular file.

A Sun Microsystems' executive has criticised Apple over its failure to include Java on its popular iPhone device.

"I think it's a mistake. I think it would provide a lot more flexibility in applications being developed," for the iPhone, said Bob Brewin, Sun Distinguished Engineer and vice president for software, at the AJAXWorld conference in California.

JavaScript runs on the phone and someone will put Java on the iPhone, Brewin said. But by not having it now, iPhone users and Java developers are being short-changed, according to Brewin.

Apple Inc. calls it the iPod nano—but the latest version of the company’s compact music player introduced last week is virtually a completely new design, reusing almost no components and sporting a bevy of fresh suppliers compared to the previous model, according to a dissection conducted by iSuppli Corp.'s Teardown Analysis service.

Component suppliers making their nano product line debut in the latest version include Micron Technology Inc., Dialog Semiconductor GmbH and Intersil Corp., while Synaptics Inc. returns to the platform after an absence.

"The changes in components have resulted in significant cost reductions in the nano design, allowing Apple to offer a product that is less expensive to build and that has enhanced features compared to its predecessor,” said Andrew Rassweiler, senior analyst and teardown services manager for iSuppli.

Dropping the BOM
iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis team has dissected the low-priced version of the new nano and has determined the product carries a Bill of Materials (BOM) cost of $58.85 for the 4Gbyte version and $82.85 for the 8Gbyte version. iSuppli’s estimate of the new nanos’ BOMs is strictly limited to costs for components and other materials used to construct the product. The estimate does not include costs for manufacturing, software, intellectual property, accessories and packaging. The BOM figures also do not include research and development costs, since such data cannot be derived from a teardown and component analysis.

The BOM of the new 4Gbyte nano is 18.5 percent lower than the $72.24 direct materials cost of the previous version of the nano released in late 2006. The new product has the lowest BOM of any member of the nano line analyzed by iSuppli.

Raising the margin
The retail price of the 4Gbyte version is $149, compared to a hardware BOM of $58.85. For the 8Gbyte version, the retail price is $199, compared to a hardware BOM of $82.85. Apple’s products traditionally have been sold at retail pricing that is about twice the level of their hardware BOM costs, based on iSuppli’s teardown extensive analysis of devices including the iPhone, the iPod shuffle and previous members of the iPod nano line. This represents a high level compared to most electronic products. For the new nanos, Apple has exceeded even its usual lofty standards.

Out with the old, and in with the nano
The arrival of new nano semiconductor suppliers, Micron, Dialog and Intersil—and the return of Synaptics has been accompanied by the departure of previous part providers, NXP Semiconductors and Cypress Semiconductor Corp. in the latest version of the product. Such wholesale supplier swaps are not unusual for Apple, which frequently switches its component partners. With Apple, it seems, no supplier is safe, and no slot is a given.

Micron a big winner in the new nano
US semiconductor supplier Micron was the most notable addition to the nano. This represents the first time that iSuppli’s Teardown Analysis Service has identified a Micron part in an iPod.

In the nano torn down by iSuppli, Micron was the maker of the high-density NAND flash memory that serves as media storage, worth $24 in the 4Gbyte version of the product and $48 in the 8Gbyte version. This gave Micron the largest single portion of value in the nano of any supplier at 40.8 percent for the 4Gbyte version and 57.9 percent for the 8Gbyte.

Apple’s primary suppliers of NAND flash historically have been Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (which has been the dominant seller), Japan’s Toshiba Corp. and Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor Inc. Micron is last in share position as a supplier to Apple for NAND flash, and only began shipping small quantities during the last year. While this is a major win for Micron, Samsung remains the world’s largest maker of NAND-type flash and is likely to continue to be used as a supplier by Apple, iSuppli believes.

Samsung: Kicking apps and taking names
One of the biggest and most important slots on the nano is the combined core video processor/microprocessor chip in the system, supplied by Samsung. Costing $8.60, the Samsung core IC processor accounts for 14.6 percent of the 4Gbyte version's BOM, and 10.4 percent of the 8Gbyte's BOM.

This is the second time around for Samsung’s core processing IC in the nano line; in the version of the nano released in late 2006, Samsung supplied the core processing IC as well. Samsung also contributed 32Mbytes of Mobile SDRAM, worth $2.72, or 4.6 percent of the 4Gbyte BOM and 3.3 percent of the 8Gbyte BOM.

Big sales for little nanos
iSuppli tentatively forecasts that total iPod nano shipments will reach about 23 million units in 2007 and 27.9 million during 2008.

“Consumers will be interested in buying the nanos due to their enhanced features, mainly video capability and a high-quality display,” said Chris Crotty, senior analyst, consumer electronics for iSuppli.