The website of Alex Kinch, live from London
Posts tagged iPhone
iPhones arrive on Orange next Tuesday
Nov 2nd
Apple’s iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 3G will be available to Orange UK customers from next Tuesday, 10th November 2009.
According to the companies site, you’ll need to shell out at least £29.36 on a 24 month contract or £44.04 over 18 months to get the 3G ‘free’, whilst the 3GS 16GB is only available for no extra cost by subscribing at a minimum to the £44.04 over 24 months or £73.40 on an 18 month contract packages. The iPhone 3GS 32GB is ‘free’ on an eye-watering 24-month £73.40/month contract.
All contract packages come with ‘unlimited’ mobile internet and Wi-Fi access – which, if you’re Orange, means 750meg/month. Yes, the same cap for WiFi or 3G/GPRS data. Brilliant.
All in all there’s a total of 27 combinations of package, handset, contract length and minutes/texts available. Meanwhile, over on the pay as you go side, there’s a similar bedazzling – and possibly confusing – array of 15 different options, with handset prices ranging from £343 for the iPhone 3G through to £539 for the 3Gs 32GB version.
Bemoko brings the Doha Tribeca Film Festival to mobile phones
Oct 29th
UK-based mobile web experts, bemoko Ltd, have used the bemokoLive mobile development platform to create the mobile website for this year’s Doha Tribeca Film Festival (DTFF) which begins today.
Optimised to work with any mobile phone, the Doha Tribeca Film Festival mobile website will be live for the duration of the event and for 12 months afterwards. Mat Diss, founder of bemoko said: “;From the mobile website you can watch trailers for films on your phone, find out where and when films are being screened and create your own personalised festival agenda. Content is taken from the DTFF blog, twitter stream and flickr feeds, enabling visitors to keep up to date with all the latest news and reviews, wherever they are.”
The site was created using bemokoLive, a unique development platform that lets web designers create mobile sites quickly and easily using standard XHTML. Because bemokoLive recognises the characteristics of a phone visiting a web site, the site will display on any mobile phone regardless of operating system or screen size. This removes the need to write mobile sites for each type of phone, meaning mobile websites can be live for a fraction of the time and cost of traditional methods of creating sites for mobile.
As VIP guests at DTFF will be receiving iPod Touch devices which link to the mobile website, bemoko has used the powerful features of the bemokoLive platform to easily create a feature-rich version of the mobile site for iPhone and iPod touch users without having to write the entire site again for the iPhone. Special features for the iPhone version of the site include ‘Apple style’ sliding page transitions, film trailer carousels and touch sensitive maps with pinch zoom and touch scrolling.
DTFF Executive Director Amanda Palmer said, “The website is a great tool for visitors to take part in cultural exchanges of ideas and to engage with groundbreaking filmmakers. To be able to do this from any mobile phone is a huge advantage to our many visitors who will come from all over the World.”
Mat Diss continued: “The Doha Tribeca Film Festival has recognised the power of the mobile Internet as a tool that should be accessible to everyone, regardless of which make or model of phone they have. bemokoLive means that visitors can experience a multimedia experience on their phone that compliments the event.”
-ends-
About Doha Tribeca Film Festival
From October 29 to November 1, 2009, filmmakers and shakers from around the world will be welcomed to the stunning festival hub, at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA). In this launch year, DTFF is curating a program slate of 30 feature films, highlighting internationally acclaimed Arab films, plus the best of Hollywood, Bollywood, family films, documentaries, animation and world cinema.
DTFF is a unique partnership between Qatar Museum Authority (QMA) and New York’s Tribeca Film Festival. On QMA’s side is Chair, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, QMA’s CEO Abdulla Al Najjar and DTFF Executive Director Amanda Palmer. On Tribeca’s side, are the festival founders, acclaimed Hollywood producer Jane Rosenthal, entrepreneur Craig Hatkoff, and actor, Robert De Niro.
Visit http://dtff.bemoko.com
‘Half a billion vs 50m’: Ideaworks Labs blows open the wider smartphone market for mobile application developers
Oct 27th
Currently it is prohibitively expensive for independent developers to create and port mobile applications across a wide range of handsets. Developers therefore target only a few devices, seriously limiting their opportunity for revenue. Today, most choose Apple’s iPhone as it has a high market share, a solid SDK and an attractive business model, provided the developer can ensure that their product does not get lost in the daunting catalogue size. However the market for mobile applications is much bigger than just the iPhone. What developers need is a cost-effective way of creating applications for the wide array of operating systems (OSes) and devices.
To solve this problem, Ideaworks Labs is now licensing its cross-platform Airplay SDK, enabling indie developers to deploy applications across hundreds of smartphones and featurephones at an affordable licensing cost. Airplay SDK 4.0 allows them to compile their application once to native CPU instructions, then deploy with a single click to all iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile and BREW devices. Airplay takes care of the vagaries of the various underlying OSes so that developers need not be steeped in detail; it also deals with handset differences such as screen size and input type, again simplifying the task for the developer.
Indie developers can now multiply their addressable market by over 10 times, from 50m Apple devices to the installed base of over half a billion smartphones and featurephones globally, as Airplay SDK slashes the costs of porting and testing almost to zero. By reducing such costs, more budget can be poured into development of better user experiences and sharper marketing, again increasing the developer’s revenue opportunity.
“Airplay SDK has been a bit of an industry secret for some time”, explains Alex Caccia, CEO Ideaworks Labs, “as we’ve licensed it to some of the largest mobile games publishers worldwide. With the addition of native support for Android, a sophisticated UI framework, GPS, HTTP and more, Airplay SDK 4.0 is now an extremely powerful development solution for all types of rich mobile applications. We’re hugely excited to be able to offer Airplay SDK 4.0 at an affordable price to all developers, and look forward to seeing great applications from the iPhone and other app stores making more money for their creators by migrating to Android, Symbian, BREW and other platforms.
“Airplay SDK helps solve the fragmentation problem for developers by focusing on the core commonality between all devices – ARM® CPUs”, said Ian Drew, EVP of Marketing at ARM. “We invested in Ideaworks Labs earlier this year to help them prepare for launching Airplay SDK 4.0, and are greatly excited by the prospect of opening up huge numbers of ARM technology-based devices to apps developers for the first time”.
José Carlos López, Technical Director at Virtway Software, said “Several months ago we made the decision to adopt Airplay SDK for the development of a next-generation social networking application for ICYOU, initially targeted at iPhone. We were amazed to see that, with a single click and without even recompiling the application, we were able to generate an Android build that runs beautifully on multiple devices. For zero additional cost, we can now target all Android devices, and that will certainly open up a huge additional market for our application
“;We chose the Airplay SDK for our first iPhone title ‘Backbreaker’ due to its support for standard C++ libraries, which enabled us to easily port our animation engine ‘morpheme’ to the platform”;, added Torsten Reil, CEO at NaturalMotion. “;This also allowed us to use assets straight from the PS3/360 version for the game, which played a major factor in the commercial success (#1 app) of the title.”;
Developers with annual revenues of less than $50,000 can use Airplay SDK for iPhone development absolutely free, or deploy to all platforms at a cost of $99 per seat per year. Those with an annual turnover between $50,000 and $1m pay $999 per seat per year, and receive an increased level of support. For organisations earning over $1m annually, a per-application fee is payable, available on request.
All developers can register and download a full free evaluation of Airplay SDK 4.0 by visiting www.airplaysdk.com.
David Hasselhoff Launches New iPhone App, Gives Hoffalicious Advice
Oct 27th
Following his hit TV series Meet The Hasselhoffs, one of the world’s most popular television icons is set to make headlines again with the launch of his own iPhone app.
David Hasselhoff, who is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as “The Most Watched TV Star in the World”, promises to answer all of life’s questions with his official iPhone app Ask The Hoff (iTunes Store), which is now available in the iTunes App Store.
The app was created by Hasselhoff’s company Hoffstuff Productions and Never Odd Or Even LLP, a UK-based mobile development agency.
According to the app, scientists have downloaded Hoff’s brain into the iPhone. After the user asks a question and shakes the phone, an animated version of the Hoff replies with one of a number of pre-recorded responses, voiced by Hasselhoff himself.
“I know there are moments when everyone faces major decisions in life and need advice from an expert,”said Hasselhoff, “so as the proud owner of not one but two iPhones (I like to be able to make two phone calls at once!), I’m very pleased to announce the launch of my very own iPhone app.”
“It’s silly and it’s fun, but it’s the only way to make important decisions at home and at work,” commented Paul Smith, creative partner at Never Odd Or Even LLP. “This iPhone app gives iPhone and iPod owners the chance to receive guidance from their favourite bouffant haired Trans Am driving lifeguard.”
Over 50 million iPhones have been sold worldwide since its launch in 2007. Both Orange and Vodafone recently announced they will be selling the iPhone in the UK alongside current suppliers O2, further increasing the handset’s market share in the UK.
Ask The Hoff is available worldwide in the iTunes App Store for 59p/99¢.
iPhone OS 3.1 – what’s new and improved
Sep 10th
You can’t have failed to hear that Apple had a little get-together last night – unless, of course, you don’t use Twitter, don’t watch the news or have spent the past 14 hours or so with a tin foil hat on your head.
New iPods – and the second coming of Jesus first public appearance of Steve Jobs in months aside, the event also saw the official launch of iPhone OS 3.1. So what’s new, and is it worth an upgrade?
The main featured additions seem to involve Apple’s clever ‘Genius’ recommendation system. Already a feature in later versions of iTunes, Genius on iPhone OS 3.1 will recommend you apps based on your appstore purchase/download history and, in conjunction with iTunes 9, turn your music library into mixes.
Also on the list for 3.1 is ringtones – and lots of them – over 30,000 in fact. Priced at $1.29 a pop, you can browse, preview and download them on a new ‘Ringtones’ section of iTunes 9.
Meanwhile there’s a whole heap of bug fixes and little changes over OS 3.0. Apple claim 3.1 brings improved syncing for iTunes and iPhoto content, better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when you’ve got Bluetooth switched on, anti-phishing warnings in Safari, improved Exchange calendar syncing, Bluetooth headset voice control for the 3Gs, and a few other bits and bobs along the way.
OS 3.1 is available now, and more details are on the Apple site here.
This article first appeared on Mobile Industry Review.
TVGuide.co.uk is UK’s most popular iPhone app
Jun 11th
Just two weeks after launch telly schedule application TVGuide.co.uk has hit the top spot as the UK’s most-downloaded iPhone application with over 60,000 downloads.
According to the company the application was averaging 1,000 downloads a day in the first week. Within nine days, it had reached 45,000 downloads and was ranked sixth for all free apps. Two weeks later it is now number one for all free apps and over 60,000 people have downloaded it.
Designed and built by Apple iPhone games and applications development company, AcrossAir, the TVGuide.co.uk app currently has a rating of four out of five stars. Most reviews on iTunes praise the user-friendly format and the fact that it is free, compared to rival apps which are more complicated and sometimes paid-for.
TVGuide.co.uk CEO, Ravi Damani: “We are delighted at the success of our application. We are confident consumers will continue to appreciate the simplicity of its design and ease of use.”
O2 announce UK iPhone prices and tariffs
Jun 9th
O2 will be bringing the new iPhone S to the UK from 19th June – and this morning they’ve unveiled a range of packages and prices for the new range.
Following Apple’s announcement yesterday of the new handset at their Wordwide Developers Conference (WWDC), we were told the US prices (without contract) would be $199 for the 16GB version and $299. The existing iPhone 3G would drop to $99.
Pay as you go customers on O2 will be able to grab the original iPhone 3G for £342.50, the 16GB iPhone S for £440.40 and the 32GB model for the eye-watering £538.30.
If you’re prepared to stump up £73.41 a month on an 18-month contract or £44.05 a month on a 24-month contract you can get the iPhone S 16GB for nowt, but to get the 32GB model free you’ll be tied into two years at £73.41.
Now the rub. If you’re an existing customer – perhaps you bought your iPhone 3G last year when it first came out – you won’t just be able to upgrade device. O2 will be holding their customers to the full contract length – so if you want to upgrade to the S you’ll either have to pay to get out of your existing contract or take out a new one in parallel. Alternatively you could opt to pay for an S on Pay-as-you-go – but that’s possibly a little expensive.
Full contract details below.
Apple unveil new iPhone S; lower price of iPhone 3G
Jun 8th
Well the rumours were almost correct – Apple have indeed unveiled a new range of iPhones – called the iPhone ‘S’ (for speed, apparently). Plus the existing iPhone 3G is down to $99 with immediate effect. However, there were a few more surprises..
The new version 3.0 of the firmware will also bring internet tethering and MMS to all iPhone users. But what about the new models?
As mentioned earlier on, the ‘S’ stands for speed – Apple claim overall speed improvements will be around 2-3x the current model. Whilst they declined to discuss exact processor specifications, the new iPhones will feature OpenGL ES, and the radio modules are ready for 7.2Mbit/s HSDPA – which is obviously operator dependent.
Aside from speed improvements, the S sports a 3 megapixel camera, video support at 30 frames per second, and a new rather nifty voice control feature. Let’s hope it works better than RIM’s BlackBerry voice control – which seems to be very easily accessible in your pocket or handbag (how many times have you heard ‘Say a command’ in a robotic American accent come sauntering out of random places?).
As predicted, the Iphone S (as we now know it) will come in 16GB and 32GB models, and in a choice of colours – as long as it’s either black or white. In addition, battery life is dramatically improved – figures quoted by Apple are ten hours of video playback, 30 hours of audio playback, nine hours of Wi-Fi usage, and a standby of up to 300 hours. Talk time is a rather respectable up to five hours on 3G or up to 12 hours on 2G.
So when can you get yours hands on an iPhone 3G S – and more importantly, how much will it set you back? June 19th is the date you need to mark in your diary if you’re in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK. US prices are $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB version. Not in any of those countries? Expect the new son-of-jesus-phone range by 9th August.
UPDATE: O2 UK prices are here.
Apple to announce four new iPhones today
Jun 8th
Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off today in San Francisco – with four new iPhones rumoured to be today’s big announcement.
The most consistent recurring rumours seem to throw light on four different models – possibly of a smaller form factor than the existing handset. There’ll be two 16GB models and two 32GB models – available in either black or white finish.
How about price? There’s been talk of a new $99 ‘iPhone Lite’, but most sources seem to think these models will merely replace the existing version at the same price point. It appears O2 will keep their exclusive deal, and bring the handsets to here in mid-July.
And who’ll be making this announcement? The money seems to be on Steve Jobs – previously ‘semi-retired’ on health grounds – and a return to the media spotlight that’d give most religious figures resurrections a run for their money.
More on this news as it happens..
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