The iPhone-originality or chic monotony?

Kristen Maloney
With the constant release of new technology, it becomes difficult to distinguish the "want" worthy electronics from the "lust" worthy electronics. No item currently draws the same kind of lust as Apple's iPhone; however, there are many aspects the buyer needs to consider before dropping $400 on this phone.

The iPhone features a touch screen, creating a convenient alternative to the usual buttons provided on most phones; however, this is not the first phone that has featured the touch screen. Phones such as the Motorola Ming and the HTC Touch have had this same feature as well.

The iPhone also contains a digital music player, which can hold up to eight gigabytes of music, while other phones with media players, like the Motorola Razr V3i and the Slvr L7, have a 100-song limit. Although the eight gigabytes is a more reasonable amount of space, the iPhone cannot download music wirelessly without the presence of Wi-Fi, while phones such as the Samsung Upstage and the LG VX8300 conveniently boast this feature.

Another feature of the iPhone is integrated support for Google Maps as well as the Safari browser. The iPhone also has the convenient feature of visual voice mail, which allows the user to choose from a list and go immediately to the voice mail that he would like to hear.

The camera is probably the most disappointing aspect of the iPhone. The phone's two-megapixel camera is above average as far as camera phones go; however, it still fails to exceed the five-megapixel cameras of the Nokia N95, and Sony Ericsson K850. One might expect a better camera for one of the most expensive phones on the market.

A great original feature of the iPhone is it's sensors. The sensors allow the display size to adjust automatically when the iPhone is flipped on its side. The proximity sensor will also turn off the display automatically when the phone is lifted to the ear for a phone call.

As of right now, the iPhone is only offered through AT&T for $300 and $400 with a two-year contract, depending on the memory size. The iPhone has already dropped $400 from its original price; however, many interested parties are deciding if the features are not only worth the initial price of the phone itself, but also worth the rather large monthly bill that accompanies this phone.
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Second iPhone Bricking Lawsuit Seeks Billions

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Filed on the same day as a different iPhone bricking lawsuit, a second lawsuit seeks $1.6 billion in damages, plus punitive and other damages that could push the total to over $2 billion.

Prior to the 1.1.1 software update, Apple released a press release that said, in part:

Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.

The Paul Holman-Lucy Rivello lawsuit alleges violations of the federal antitrust laws and California unfair business practices laws.

It also points to the 1.1.1 update as a form of digital bullying and that the warning of “irreparable damage” to an iPhone by unlocking was a lie.

In fact, the suit says that “Apple had been busy engineering its software update so that it would disable any Third Party Apps and the SIM card unlocks. On information and belief, the update also was designed to cause damage to the iPhone in the event that any use of non-Apple/AT&T products was detected.”

Besides the financial portions of the suit, it also wants the court to void any agreement between Apple and AT&T judged unlawful and to bar the companies from any similar agreements in the future.

We Say: While I seriously doubt they will get billions, if it will force Apple and AT&T to allow unlocking of the iPhone, it would be worth it. Note that unlike other phones, if you want to travel to say, Europe, you’re SOL — AT&T will not issue you an unlock code.
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iPhone Unbricked, But Apple Still Locked

The penultimate chapter in Apple's sad iBricking saga has begun, with news that "good" hacker Erica Sadun has led a team that's come up with a way to have your iPhone cake and eat it, too. Their "jailbreak" procedure lets users unlock their phone and download third-party apps, without getting bricked. (The final chapter will be written if, and only if, Apple opens the iPhone. Don't hold your breath.)

Meanwhile, the smartest comment on the whole saga comes from the 654th person to post a comment to my original blog post of a week ago, entitled "Apple Users Talking Class-Action Lawsuit Over iPhone Locking."

I can't give the person full credit, since he or she identified themselves only as "Guest." Here's what they wrote:
"How soon Apple forgets. Jobs and Wozniak came to prominence only because the Apple-II they designed back in the mid-'70s was an open platform. The entire PC industry that followed the Apple II came to exist only because the IBM (NYSE: IBM) PC was an open platform.

So, now Grandpa Jobs wants a closed iPhone, and he has his company spending considerable resources fending off the hackers who open it up in a futile battle. In offense/defense, the offense has always had the advantage as it only needs to find a single remaining weakness to exploit, whereas the defense has to protect from all possible vulnerabilities.

Soon enough, Jobs will throw in the towel and so will AT&T (NYSE: T). The iPhone will be open and, amusingly, it will sell much more than it does now, precisely because it will be open. But that, too, will be in the short term. For the same reason that Apple lost to the PC world, namely, price and open architecture, the iPhone will lose to the open architecture world of the mighty competition (Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Motorola (NYSE: MOT), Ericsson, LG, etc.) which already is coming up with iPhone look-alikes that have much more functionality and are open architectures. And soon the iPhone will be of historical only interest.

And those who write sanctimonious prose here about the virtues of 'using the iPhone the way Apple intended it and worshiping at the altar of the EULA' will be the fools that have been left holding the bag and no money in their pockets."
Nokia is already touting its openness as an alternative to Apple's control-freak business model. And Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has introduced a bunch of iPhone lookalikes, made by LG.
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Google 'ready to take on Apple iPhone next year'

Google's share price last week broke through the $600 (£300) ceiling and looks set to rise even higher, with a strong set of results expected this week and the company poised to enter lucrative new markets.

Not content with dominating the internet, the search giant is now believed to be planning to take the mobile communications market by storm. Analysts at Lehman Brothers predict that when it unveils its third-quarter results on Thursday, Google's revenues will rise 8.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter to $2.98bn with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) of $1.8bn. For the full year 2007, Lehman predicts a 58 per cent year-on-year increase in turnover to $11.56bn with Ebitda of $7.03bn, representing a year-on-year rise of over 52 per cent. The investment bank has raised its target price for Google shares to $714.

Lehman analyst Douglas Anmuth believes that Google will launch a mobile phone in February next year that will be similar to the recently launched Apple iPhone in that it will have "an oversized screen perhaps around 3in diagonal and with touch display" plus WiFi capability. Google's main differentiator will be on price – its phone is expected to sell at a fraction of the $400 iPhone.

According to Mr Anmuth, the device will be a simple "plain vanilla" smartphone that can be manufactured for $120-$160. But he adds: "We believe a Google phone could be marketed at a price point below $100, and potentially even be free."

The incentive for Google to offer a free phone is the online advertising revenue the company could generate with an internet-enabled mobile device. Lehman Brothers also thinks it probable that Google will follow in Apple's steps by adopting a revenue-sharing model with the carriers, and predicts that Orange will be the most likely mobile operator partner for Google in Europe.

In the US, Lehman sees Sprint and T-Mobile as more suitable partners than AT&T and Verizon. It is thought Google might bid for a slice of the spectrum in the US next year. The Taiwan-based HTC is believed to have already built a prototype mobile phone for Google.

According to Lehman, Google is building a Linux-based mobile operating system which is likely to include Google applications such as a search facility, maps, Gmail, Google Talk and Calendar.

But not all analysts agree that Google is committed to making its own mobile phone handsets. US-based investment bank Piper Jaffray says: "Google is likely developing a mobile operating system, but it is unlikely that it will begin manufacturing phone hardware."

According to Piper Jaffray, Google's mobile phone operating system will compete directly with Microsoft's Windows Mobile system, and could be unveiled before the end of this month.

Google has been making acquisitions that point to a mobile phone strategy. In 2005, it acquired Android, a software development company specialising in mobile operating systems that highlight the location of the user.

But Google still has a challenge ahead in the internet video space, where it is currently facing considerable criticism from the advertising industry concerning some of the content being displayed on the YouTube social networking website. According to Marketing magazine, some of the UK's biggest digital planning and buying specialists have rounded on Google's plans to charge for ads on the site.

Advertisers are reported to be wary of placing their brands against content that may include clips from criminal gangs or other unsavoury sources. A Google spokesman said the company is responding to concerns by allowing users to flag content they feel may be inappropriate.
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