The Case of the Missing iPhone Prototype

27/4/2010

We spotted a print-out of some guy with a phoney (pun intended) looking iPhone in his hand on some YouTube screen in the office yesterday.  We didn’t think much about it at the time thinking it’s just another hoax, even though the story seemed to go on for pages and pages.  Now it turns out that the chap was Jason Chen of Gizmodo fame.  The gadget blog ran a story on the next generation iPhone with the phone in the picture being a prototype.

The story is all too common – especially if you liken it to British politics.  The phone was on the person of Apple software engineer Gray Powell, who subsequently left it in a bar in California.  It doesn’t make sense to us here – you have a prototype of the world’s best selling phone, and you go to a bar – you’re fully aware of this; you take it out of your bag and start playing around with it – you’re still fully aware; you may show it to a few people – still aware; you get chatting to the others about how life it great at Apple – still aware.  And then you forget and walk out?  We smell a rancid fish here, but we’d rather not comment further.

Anyway, police invited themselves to Mr Chen’s home while he and his wife were out to dinner and helped themselves to some of Mr Chen’s items.  Now the legal squabbling has started with Gizmodo COO, Gaby Darbyshire, expecting the prompt return of all items taken as it’s unlawful for a search warrant to be used to confiscate the property of a journalist.

Apple's Brick: A Radical New Laptop?

7/10/2008

Courtesy of BusinessWeek

When they're not hand-wringing over the recent drop in Apple's share price, Mac enthusiasts have been transfixed lately by the mystery product, code-named "brick," that's due for release later this month.

Some bloggers and pundits have suggested it might be a new iteration of Apple TV or an updated Mac Mini. But according to a report on 9to5Mac.com, "brick" refers not to what it is, but how it's made.

The Web site, which cites an anonymous source, says the code name has to do with a manufacturing process for Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro lines of laptops. Apple (AAPL) will build the notebook out of a single piece of carved-out aluminum—a brick.

Whatever it signifies, the new computer may be precisely what Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer meant when he referred to a "new product transition that I can't talk about yet" during Apple's most recent earnings conference call in July. The transition is among the reasons Apple said it expects to make lower gross profit margins (BusinessWeek.com, 7/22/08) during the next several quarters.

But if the new product does prove to be a notebook made from a block of aluminum, how much pressure are Apple's margins likely to undergo? More to the point, would Apple's brick be a brick?

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Nokia Unveils New Music Service

3/10/2008

Courtesy of BBC News

Nokia has announced details of its Comes with Music service, which will allow 12 months of unlimited music downloads on pay-as-you-go phones.
From 16 October, the bundle will be sold for £129.95 exclusively from the Carphone Warehouse.

The service boasts more than two million tracks, available first on Nokia's 5310 XpressMusic handset and on more models later.

Nokia has announced details of its Comes with Music service, which will allow 12 months of unlimited music downloads on pay-as-you-go phones. From 16 October, the bundle will be sold for £129.95 exclusively from the Carphone Warehouse.

The service boasts more than two million tracks, available first on Nokia's 5310 XpressMusic handset and on more models later. Also unveiled was a new 5800 handset that will support the service in 2009. Major music label EMI has announced that it is taking part in the service. That means that all of the major labels are on board, and Nokia announced it was also partnering with several independent labels.

The deal allows 12 months of unlimited free downloads, but users can keep the music they have downloaded indefinitely. The music available via the service is not free of digital rights management software which limits what people can do with it. The music is wrapped in the Windows DRM software and can only be used on a Windows PC and one of the Nokia phones that supports Comes With Music.

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