iPhone clock again suffers from daylight savings time

The iOS device suffer from another alarm bug backlash. Numerous iPhone users complained that instead of going one-hour forward the device went back one-hour instead.

On the morning of March 13, 2011, many iPhone users discovered that their devices were two-hour behind schedule. My Gadget News reports:

…..today was the first time the issue actually trended on Twitter. On Sunday morning it seemed everyone was full of complaints about the unexplained two-hour mix-up.

If your iPhone is set back, then restart the device. You can also switch to “airplane mode” and then regular mode.

This is not the first time, the iPhone had been affected by alarm bug. In November 2010, after switching from daylight saving time, iPhone users in Europe woke from sleep late as the alarm of the device did not go off on time. The iPhone bug again reactivated in the first two days of the New Year. This time, the non-repeating alarm of the iOS devices did not go off in the first two days.

U.S regulators declared jailbreaking and unlocking iPhone legal

On July 26, 2010, U.S. Government declared that jailbreaking of iPhone is legal.

The regulators said that there is no reason to allow Apple to use the copyright law to protect its business model.

This is a big win for app producers who develop softwares for jailbreaking iPhones or provide jailbreaking software for iPhone users. Earlier, such app producers had to live under constant fear of being sued by Apple.

Though Apple could also sue iPhone users or force users not to jailbreak iPhone for it breaches the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) it never sued anyone till date.

This exemption would severely hurt Apple and other handset makers who use their proprietary software. It is a big loss for Apple for it heavily depends on its closed business system.

On the consumers’ side, jailbreaking an iPhone would violate Apple the contract signed by the user. Which means, by jailbreaking, the iPhone user would lose his/her warranty. Another most important thing is if you are not a tech savvy person, you should not try jailbreak iPhone because it would affect the OS and would eventually render your phone useless and Apple would not repair your phone for you breached the contract.

The regulator now also allowed users to unlock their iPhones. Other exemptions that have been passed by the regulators are- allow the cracking of the digital rights management controls of video games to look for security flaws, allowing the breaking of DVD encryption by educators, students and documentary movie makers to use clips for educational purpose and commentary, allow visually-challenged people to circumvent locks on e-books to enable read-aloud features and bypass “broken or irreplaceable dongles.”

Will Apple bring in its iPod users to use iPhone?

(This entry was originally posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009)

Apple is preparing with its next generation iPhone and people are thinking that with its next generation iPhone, Apple might try to shift its iPod users to iPhone. Analysts and business people are saying that Apple would address its iPhone market just like its iPod market. The company would provide iPhones that are smaller and comes with different sets of functions.

Tony Sacconaghi, an analyst said in his research note that the market of portable music system is shrinking because people are not finding the device very charming as there are smart phones around the corner that can fulfill the need of listening to music. Currently, the smart phone market is very limited and Apple is ruling the roster. The current Apple iPhone comes with an expensive “voice and data service plan.” Under this system, the users would have to pay more than $70 per month to use the phone. This has barred many interested buyers from buying this device. If the new iPhone comes without any data plan then Apple would be able to attract a large amount of buyers. Sacconaghi believes that with the new model iPhone, Apple not only become the top company in the smart phone industry but it will also add $7 billion revenue plus $4 billion “gross profits” per year.

Sacconaghi believes that there would be two versions of this low priced Apple iPhone- the iPhone Nano which will have a larger multi-touch screen and the iPhone Touch would be more like the iPod Touch.

Related articles:

Washington Post

All Things Digital

BlackBerry Storm vs Apple iPhone: Who will be the Winner?

iPhone arrived almost one and a half year ago in the market and it really took the world by storm. Until now, no mobile phone handset could also are any serious challenge to the popularity of iPhone. Now, BlackBerry has the goal of storming the world with its BlackBerry Storm. The battle is going to be fought in the UK. It seems that many people are already entirely waiting for BlackBerry Storm. So, I am eager to see if any serious battle starts between BlackBerry and Apple during the holiday season.

Times Online wrote:

More than 100,000 British customers have pre-ordered the BlackBerry Storm, which is seen as the first genuine rival to Apple’s iconic device thanks to its innovative clickable touchscreen. This can be pressed down like a button on a keyboard, unlike other touchscreen handsets on which users tap the unresponsive glass.

The handset is due to get a royal seal of approval today when the Queen visits the headquarters of Vodafone, which has an exclusive deal with RIM, the maker of the BlackBerry, to sell the device. A Vodafone spokesman said the Queen would be able to try out the Storm during her tour of the complex.

Well, you up to that meet that iPhone is still the market leader and I don’t thing that BlackBerry Storm can offer a serious challenge. It is call and even I like to design and the color but still it has some catching up to two in order to kill iPhone. BlackBerry developers did their best but still it is thicker than iPhone.

Sony Xperia X1: The iPhone Killer?

It seems that whenever a new multimedia and inexpensive mobile phone handset come to the market, from people like to feel that it may kill the iPhone. So, I was not surprised to see the title: Will be the iPhone killer? I am quoting from the report:

A sleek steel body, a blackberry-like QWERTY keyboard, 3-inch VGA screen, multiple-panels, and loads of other features, that’s Sony Xperia X1, the new mobile phone from Sony Ericsson, its answer to the likes of iPhone and Nokia N96. But priced at Rs45,500 or roughly half a lakh, will this product find takers? Anil Sethi, President, Sony Ericsson India argues that it’ll, because of the value proposition it offers. He says, “If we look at the general market in India, it is reasonably priced. It’s a high price segment model. But after all, we are targeting the needs of the higher segment.”

I really don’t think that it can’t compete with iPhone. Afghans, you have to remember that it is Indian market and the rules of the game is a bit different. Sony has a strong physical presence in Indian market while appeal of Israel’s still could not understand the potential of this market. So, what is your verdict on this?

iPhone: Not Available Everywhere

You want to buy an iPhone? The first thing you should do is find a store near you. However, only two kinds of stores will seel iPhones- AT&T and Apple stores. Do you know any of them? Then you should talk to them from now on. iPhone is going to come to market on 29 June but there is a surely a rush now.

Read More

Only AT&T, Apple stores selling iPhone June 29

Omnifone's MusicStation vs Apple’s iPhone

iPhone is now the biggest buzz in the tech world and iPhone is going to remain in the media headlines for the next few months at least. Apple is hoping that iPhone will become very popular very quickly and most probably many people will be interested to buy iPhone in the coming weeks. Some companies have targeted iPhone and yesterday I wrote about HTC’s mobile phone that has been termed as a rival of iPhone.

Today, I found a lot of news items about Omnifone's MusicStation. It seems that many Omnifone's MusicStation may become a rival of Apple’s iPhone. Actually, it will become a rival of iTune. Of course, iPhone is strongly related to iTune as all the iPhone owners will have to open an iTune account.

Washington Post reported:

Omnifone Ltd. launched on Thursday its MusicStation service that allows mobile phone users to download as many music tracks as they want for ,2.99 (US$3.97) per week. The company previewed MusicStation in February at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona.

The Swedish mobile phone subsidiary of Norwegian telco Telenor ASA is the first to offer the MusicStation service. More than 30 operators in Europe, Asia and South Africa have signed up to offer the service.

I found a news in the website of Omnifone. I am giving the news here:

Omnifone, the UK based mobile music company announces MusicStation, the revolutionary all-you-can-eat (AYCE) full-track mobile music service, goes live today, allowing mobile phone users to gain unlimited access to full music tracks

on industry-standard mobiles for a small weekly fee.

"MusicStation’s launch today heralds the beginning of the next generation of mobile music. Hundreds of millions of mobile phone subscribers worldwide will soon gain the ultimate music freedom - the ability to download and play unlimited amounts of music, wherever they are, through a fantastic easy-to-use digital music experience, which works on almost any phone," said Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone.

He added, “Consumers will have the ability to legally access, download and enjoy an unlimited amount of music, from an international and localised music catalogue, supported by the whole music industry, all for a small weekly fee. MusicStation users can download music, wherever they are, at any time and with no charge for data."

MusicStation goes live

The first MusicStation handsets arrived in stores today with Scandinavian operator Telenor becoming the first of many operators to make MusicStation available to its subscribers. Following this first launch in Sweden, an extensive series of additional rollouts in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa are imminent and due for announcement in the coming days and weeks. In each case, Omnifone will announce the launch only on the day handsets arrive in retail outlets.

As well as Sweden, Omnifone confirms it has now entered into partnerships with 30 mobile operators with networks in the following territories: Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK.

Telenor CEO Johan Lindgren, said, “We are proud to win the race to be the first operator in the world to rollout MusicStation to our subscribers. Telenor has always focused on delivering cutting edge services to its subscribers and with MusicStation we can deliver a truly next generation music experience, giving our consumers the freedom to download an unlimited amount of music, wherever they are, for a small weekly fee.”

International MusicStation licensing arrangements announced with Universal Music Group, SONY BMG, EMI Music, Warner Music International and many major independent labels such as Beggars Group, Vital:PIAS Digital and leading global mobile distributor VidZone Digital Media

Omnifone today announces signed international licensing deals with all four major music labels; Universal Music Group, SONY BMG, EMI Music and Warner Music International, who are making their international and local digital music catalogues available to MusicStation users.

Rob Wells, Senior Vice President, Digital, Universal Music Group International, said, “It’s hard to imagine a more compelling music experience on mobile than MusicStation. It works on almost any phone, giving consumers the freedom to choose whatever device they want. It allows downloads wherever those consumers are, providing the freedom to access music whenever they want. And it gives users unlimited access to our and other labels’ catalogues, all for a fixed weekly fee that includes data. We welcome its rollout today and look forward to the other rollouts that are due.”

Matthew Crosswaite, Vice President of Business Development at EMI Music said, "We want to make sure that fans can always access music by EMI's artists quickly and easily, wherever they happen to be. The MusicStation subscription service gives consumers a new way of doing that, and we are very pleased to be working with Omnifone to reach millions of subscribers around the world through their mobile phone."

Pete Downton, Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, Warner Music International, said, "As we monetise our content across the myriad of ever-developing ways that people enjoy music, mobile technology continues to present us with important opportunities. MusicStation's easy-to-use subscription service will offer consumers a compelling way to discover and explore our artists' music anytime, anywhere. Beginning with its launch in Sweden, this service is an exciting, innovative development."

Omnifone confirms it has also secured a wide selection of independent and localised content in many key territories from independent labels and distributors including Beggars Group, Vital:PIAS Digital and VidZone Digital Media.

Simon Wheeler, Director of Digital, Beggars Group stated, “We are delighted MusicStation sees the importance of securing a vast catalogue of local and independent content, to ensure that users have the widest possible selection available, at the touch of a button, wherever they are.”

“Providing our Vital:PIAS Digital’s catalogue of high quality independent music, regionalised for each MusicStation rollout, means that we can provide millions of mobile users with the tracks they want, whatever the genre,” said Adrian Pope, Head of Vital:PIAS Digital. “MusicStation provides a new and exciting way for consumers to legally access, discover and enjoy music.“

Omnifone has partnered with Musiwave to quickly bring MusicStation to market and onto music mobiles across the world. “Musiwave is proud to collaborate with Omnifone in bringing music to MusicStation mobiles world-wide,” said Guillaume Decugis, Vice President and General Manager, Musiwave. “MusicStation complements our existing music services with a differentiated mobile music subscription service that works over the air and links with our music platform.”

Omnifone today announces further consumer launches imminent in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa

Omnifone confirms further rollouts throughout Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa will be announced in the next few weeks as MusicStation devices appear in retail outlets across all three regions.

Rob Lewis, CEO of Omnifone said, “We expect to be able to offer MusicStation to one hundred million phone subscribers this year. We believe that by providing consumers with the ultimate music freedom of unlimited access to music, wherever a user is, on whatever phone they buy, MusicStation is delivering the most compelling consumer proposition in digital music today.”

Robin Bloor, international IT analyst with Bloor Research stated, after reviewing the MusicStation product, "By focusing on Europe and Asia, and the key operators in these territories, Omnifone is staying focused on the markets which are expected to be the largest for digital music in the next few years.”

*Subscribers will pay a small weekly fee of 2.99 euros (or the localised equivalent) to access a comprehensive global catalogue of music drawn from all the major record labels and independents, fully localised to the local market. The price point in Sweden will be 25SEK per week.

HTC Touch vs Apple iPhone

High Tech Computer Corp (HTC) is a Taiwanese company. It is not exactly a high profile name in the cell phone industry but it surely can produce nice mobile phones. It also can produce portable devices. It works with big companies like Dell and Microsoft. Now HTC officials are becoming serious about fighting with Apple iPhone. They feel that they have already something to compete against iPhone. They call it HTC Touch.

Reuters reported:

Taiwan smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) (2498.TW: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it will launch one of its own-brand touch-screen phones in the United States by the end of the year, as it seeks to compete with Apple's (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iPhone.

The company's second-half U.S. launch for its newly released HTC Touch phone follows a recent release for the model in Britain, said Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou.

The model, a so-called smartphone with cellphone and personal digital assistant (PDA) capabilities, will use touch-screen technology similar to that of the iPhone, set for release in the United States later this month.

I did some research about HTC Touch and found that Wikipedia actually has an entry about HTC Touch but the page contains nothing more than 2-3 sentences. Therefore, I went to the official website of HTC Touch. The website has some good information about HTC Touch. You can visit the product page and read the specifications.

I don’t think that HTC Touch will give Apple iPhone a run for its money simply because hardly anyone knows about HTC Touch. On the other hand, Apple iPhone is now the most widely talked about gadget in Internet.

Will iPhone Ignite a New Browser War?

iPhone is expected to become a popular mobile phone set right away and Apple is expecting that millions of iPhones will be sold in the next one year. In fact, Apple is expecting that they would be able to sell 10 million iPhones annually. I will not be surprised if Apple can do so.

As you already know that the browser of iPhone will be Safari, the browser developed by Apple. So, in the mobile –phone segment, Safari will be able to grow its user base significantly overnight. A radical shift in the mobile phone industry is going these days. More and more users are getting connected to Internet with their mobile phones. So, the market is getting larger. So, many users who never used or even saw Safari will get familiar with the browser.

Apple has recently introduced Safari for users of Windows Operating system. Thus, many iPhone users will first get familiar with Safari in their mobile phone and some of them may actually use Safari in their desktop computers too. This can help Apple to increase its market share in the browser market.

IT News wrote:

According to Jobs, there are 18 million Safari users. Safari accounts for a 5 per cent share of the browser market while Internet Explorer has 78 per cent, Firefox has 15 per cent, and other browsers like Opera and The Omni Group's OmniWeb compose the remaining 2 per cent.

Ethan Schoonover, a conference attendee and developer who blogs at kinkless.com, said he expected that the addition of Windows support would help Safari make inroads in enterprise environments where many IT managers remain wary of open source projects like Firefox.

But it seems likely that sales of iPhones will boost Safari's adoption more than the browser's newfound corporate appeal. If Apple sells 10 million iPhones in a year as projected, Safari's installed base will rise by over 50%, not including Windows users who decide to install it on their PCs.

However, not everyone shares the enthusiasm of Steve Jobs. Mitch Wagner feels that Windows Users Don't Care About Safari. He feels that most Windows users are happy with IE, Firefox and Opera and they would not want to even try Safari unless Safari provides something extraordinary for the users.

He wrote:

Moreover, Apple boasts that Safari renders Web pages significantly faster than either IE7 or Firefox 2.

But still: The features Apple brags about with Safari, or very similar features, are available either standard or with browser extensions in Firefox.

And, as for performance ... I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it just doesn't matter much. We're not living in the days when a 28.8-Kbps modem was standard; most of us have high-speed Internet connections at home and in the office. I don't really care about page-rendering speed, and I don't hear about other people caring either. (People do care about throughput for multimedia files, of course, but that's a whole different matter.)

I'm not predicting a rush for people to adopt Safari on Windows.

I agree with Mitch Wagner partially. There are many news users in Internet all the time. If they hear good things about Safari from others then some of them will try Safari anyway. If Safari can give good speed in surfing then many people like me will surely go for it. Right now, I use Opera as it is faster than IE and Firefox (at least, I have seen this matter in my own surfing experience). If I find that Safari is faster than even Opera, I would not mind using it.

So, let us go back to the original question- Will iPHones ignite a browser war? I think it will. Until now, Safari was totally limited to Mac users. Now, Safari is going spread among Windows users and iPhone users. It will increase the market share of Safari and on the other hand, it will make Safari more familiar to us.

iphone

iPhone watch: iPhone Interface in JavaScript and OneTrip

It is still very early days for iPhone. In fact, we have not seen iPhone coming into market yet. However, developers are stilling idly. The blog of Wired has mentioned two such web applications that can be used with iPhone.

The first one is Digg iPhone API Interface in JavaScript and it gives you an alternative version of Digg interface. It looks cool and it is very easy to navigate. It has become very popular in Digg and has got more than 1500 votes so far.

OneTrip has been developed by Neven Mrgan and it will help you to keep track of your grocery expenses.

I am sure that there will be many more web applications compatible to iPhone in the coming days. Do, you know about any application? Have you created any application? If so then leave your webpage or blog link and I will cover it.

iPhone: Should Nokia be Worried?

I just saw in Technorati that iPhone is one of the hot tags now. That means that many bloggers are writing about. Yes, they are writing as iPhone can bring some traffic for them in the next few weeks. A few months ago, we saw much eagerness among people about Windows Vista but it seems that there is even a stronger interest about iPhone. So, it is natural that iPhone will attract many customers in the next few months and Apple will become an important player in the mobile phone market.

Right now, Nokia is the market leader in the mobile phone market world wide. Nokia is planning that within a few years, 1 out of every 2 mobile phone sets will be made from Nokia. Apple has already showed with its iPod what it can do. Microsoft tried very hard to break the dominance of iPod in the portable music device market but had failed so far. Now, should we see similar fate for Nokia phones?

Most probably not. First of all, the iPod buzz is mainly related in the USA. On the other hand, Nokia is doing well in Asia. China and India are now very important market for Nokia. I don’t see any possibility of iPhone challenging Nokia in these two giant markets. Secondly, Nokia is famous for its cheap phone sets. iPhone will be very expensive for most people in Asia and Africa.

So, there is no reason for Nokia to get worried about iPhone at this moment.

High Demand for iPhone

I have no doubt that there will be a very high demand initially for iPhone in the market. At last, Apple is going to have a product that will be for everyone. I mean the market size of mobile phone is higher than everything right now. There are more mobile phones than computers in the world. The best thing about iPhone is that most people in American know about it. So, Apple will not need to make it familiar about it.

When a phone company introduces a new phone set then it has to work extremely hard to make people familiar about it. There has been so much media buzz about iPhone in the last few months that most people with access to Internet perhaps know about iPhone by this time.

So, we can expect that millions of iPhones will be sold in 2007. However, if Apple wants to keep the euphoria alive then it has to add new features to iPhone on a regular basis.

What about you? Are going to buy an iPhone?

Tips: How to Get an iPhone?

iPhone is going to be launched very soon and millions of people are eagerly expecting for it. It is natural that in the opening days, many people will want to own an iPhone and the initial demand will be very high. So, you better rush from now on. Already some people are on the waiting list in some shops.

CNET wrote:

Not one Apple store contacted offered would-be iPhone buyers the chance to get on a waiting list, but some AT&T stores and retailers did. The catch: not all stores that sell AT&T phones expect to be selling the iPhone on June 29, and some that will expressed concern about receiving sufficient quantities of the highly anticipated device.

An AT&T-owned store in Times Square in midtown Manhattan, for instance, said that about 100 people had been placed on a waiting list. When asked whether being on that list guarantees priority for buying an iPhone, a store employee replied, "It depends how accessible you make yourself. I'm going to call you. If you're here, you'll get it."

CNET has given a number of tips for getting an iPhone. So, you should visit this article:

The great iPhone hunt of 2007

Then you can read the tips regarding getting an iPhone.

iPhone and Web 2.0 Applications

Just 2 weeks before the launch of iPhone. Apple is expecting that iPhone will have even a bigger influence in the tech market than iPod. So, Apple boss Steve Jobs is trying to promote it in the best way. He is also trying to make sure that this device gets all the good things. Now, it seems that iPhone will have some of the hot Web 2.0 applications.

PDA Street wrote:

At Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) yesterday, Steve Jobs announced third-party developers would be able to build applications for the iPhone, due for release on June 29th, but only through Web 2.0 Internet standards.

This means their won't be a software developer kit (SDK) to enable developers to write applications that'll run directly in the iPhone's operating system, a modified version of Mac OS X. Rather, the Web 2.0 applications written for the iPhone will operate through the iPhone's Safari web browser.

"There's no SDK needed; if you know how to write applications for modern Web standards, you can go live [on the iPhone] on June 29," according to Jobs.

So, let us see how much freedom the developers get while developing new applications for iPhone.

Are you excited with iPhone? Will you buy one?