It seems that as of late last night, the BBC iPlayer for iPhone seems to be starting with certain programmes such as Whistleblower working. Not all the programs work, but it seems that they are starting to populate with Quicktime Format versions of the shows.
Check it out here on your iPhone www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
It seems that the BBC could be prepping their iPlayer for the iPhone. As one of our readers has just pointed out, if you go to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer on your iPhone then you will see to the right of the featured programmes, a small pink triangle that says ” Beta BBC iPlayer for iPhone”.
If you try and click on any programmes, then it says that it is unavailable but makes no mention as to requiring Flash as it did before.
This could be something that will be turning on in the very near future.
If you bookmark the page with a WebClip, the you get a neat BBC iPlayer icon too.
So there has been a few things happening over the past few days, so here is a full round up:
Steve Jobs has been talking about the iPhone at the Apple Shareholders Meeting Yesterday.
Apple held a shareholder conference earlier this Tueday, at which Steve Jobs talked about several of the things about the iPhone that have been on people’s minds, like the Software Development Kit, Flash for the iPhone, and more.
As far as the SDK goes, Steve said that “You’ll see a lot of apps out there this summer”, referring to native applications created based on the Software Developers Kit Apple has been promising. This could be interpreted to mean either that the SDK will be out soon and it will take developers a long time to write the apps, or that they won’t have the SDK out until then. He also said that the SDK would help open the market for native gaming opportunities on the iPhone.
Another interesting moment was when he was asked a question about a native blogging application on the iPhone. In addressing it, he suggested that “if Apple does not address it,” that the person who asked should learn Cocoa and write the iPhone blogger application himself.
He also said that Adobe Flash won’t be coming to the iPhone anytime soon, but his reasoning for it isn’t what you might expect. Steve said that Flash Lite, Adobe’s current version of Flash for mobile devices, isn’t up to par with Apple’s expectations for a full internet experience. The full version of flash that runs on your desktop computers is closer, but it’s intended for large machines and would perform poorly on the iPhone. From personal experience, I’ve noticed my CPU usage on the MacBook Pro flare up when I visit particularly Flash-rich sites.
Which might go some way to explain why Flash is not on the iPhone. Interesting to see that he says that will be alot of apps out there this summer - interesting. Also, there have been reports of the usual 3G kind.
A spokesman from Taiwanese electronic company, Citigroup, stated that their sources confirmed a 3G iPhone will be released 2nd quarter of 2008. Steve Jobs reportedly stated that the 3G chips draw to much power, though the statement was critiqued by many analysts and Steve Wozniak. AT&T has announced that they are expand their 3G network, and it should be in nearly 350 US markets by the end of this year. A 3G chip has long be rumored, though past comments by Steve Jobs and aT&T spokesm an have hinted towards an 08 release.
Also of note, today Apple held their shareholder meeting. Steve confirmed they are on track to sell their predicted 10 million iPhones this year, and added he hopes to provide service in China and India. Steve added his disappointment that iTunes was unable to have 1000 movies available for download, blaming the movie studios for the delay.
Apple are also advertsing for a developer to work on the iPhone Camera with Apps and stuff:
Apple recently posted a new job opening on their website for the position of iPhone Photo and Camera Apps Developer. The description says that the position would involve “taking the iPhone Camera and Photos experience to the next level.”
The job requirements include experience with the necessary operating system skills and experience with manipulating images and camera metadata like EXIF tags.
Currently the iPhone’s photo-taking capabilities are fairly basic, taking photos for contacts or of quick events. This job opening might be a sign that Apple is looking to expand it’s functionality, if not with new hardware, than at least on the software level.
So sounds like more exciting stuff could come with the Camera - maybe video, send to YouTube etc, all the things we have all been saying we wanted for a long time now.
Also, this might interest a few of you:
Good news, everyone! We reported a while ago that someone had created a native MMS application for the iPhone that would allow iPhone owners to send MMS messages to other people, but it still couldn’t receive MMS messages. Thankfully that has changed. The SwirlyMMS has been updated to enable iPhone users to both send and receive MMS.
In order for the app to work correctly, you’ll need to make sure that you have your settings configured correctly for your region and carrier. You can get instructions on how to do that here.
Also, it hasn’t been mentioned, but we think you might need to add MMS to your iPhone plan for this to work correctly.
You can find SwirlyMMS in the Installer.app under the “network” cata
All the above from iPhoneAlley.com
MacRumors is reporting that the iPhone will launch on O2 in Ireland on the 14th March, but without Visual Voicemail and Free Data bundle!
Underscoring comments by Apple COO, Tim Cook, that they are working to expand the iPhone into new geographic areas, wireless carrier O2 announced that they would be introducing the iPhone in Ireland on March 14th, 2008.
The iPhone will be made available through both O2 retail stores as well as branches of Carphone Warehouse. The 8GB model will cost 399 euro and the 16GB at 499 euro. Tariffs start at 45 euro per month. Visual voicemail is not yet supported.45 euro/mo: 175 minutes, 100 texts, 1GB data65 euro/mo: 350 minutes, 150 texts, 1GB data100 euro/mo: 700 minutes, 250 texts, 1GB data.
More information available at o2online.ie.
Apple is quietly working up systems that will enable users to receive and listen to digital radio using an iPhone.
This news is buried in a report detailing a move away from DAB radio on the part of digital radio pioneer, GCap Media.
GCap Media boss Fru Hazlitt has announced plans to sell the company’s 63 per cent stake in Digital One, the national commercial radio digital broadcasting platform.
Complaining that while 10 per cent of UK radio listeners use a digital radio most are simply listening to shows already also available on FM frequencies, Hazlett said: “If you put that against a background of the cost structure of DAB, it cannot be an economically viable platform.”
As well as closing down national digital stations TheJazz and Planet Rock, GCap is selling Xfm analogue licences in Scotland, South Wales and Manchester, retaining only Xfm London, a Guardian report states.
For Mac and iPhone users, though, the nugget within the report is buried near the end, where Hazlitt describes the greatest growth opportunities for the company’s radio stations to be on FM and broadband. “She also announced a new tie-up with Apple enabling people to listen to digital radio on their iPhone,” the report adds.
Source: MacWorld UK
Across the pond, Telefonica O2’s Chief Operating Officer Vivek Dev has stated that the iPhone is presently generating “unheard-of levels of mobile Internet usage.” The traffic is reportedly high enough to strain O2’s network, something that may become worse as the company switches to flat data fees (voice and SMS plans went under recent revisions).
As a partial means of aiding the situation, O2 has announced a partnership with NEC and Ubiquisys that should allow for the release of femtocell devices by early 2009. Femtocells extend and improve the coverage of 3G broadband signals within indoor areas. Such a release might help to redirect some data traffic onto DSL lines, where O2 has excess capacity.
Though not currently a 3G device, a 3G version of the iPhone is expected by the end of 2008.
Source: iPhoneAlley
It seems that O2 have upped the anti on the other providers for those that have iPhones by making the monthly packages better for the monthly fee, according to AppleInsider.
In an effort to spur more sales of Apple’s iPhone while simplifying its pricing structures, European wireless provider O2 announced Tuesday a ‘radical shake-up’ of its monthly tariffs that will see most of its iPhone customers awarded with three times as many wireless minutes without a fare increase.
Beginning February 1st, iPhone customers on a £35 per month contract will
get 600 minutes instead of 200 and “more than double” the plan’s current 200 text message allotment. Meanwhile, the £45 per month plan will see its offerings upgraded to those of the existing £55 package, which includes 1200 minutes and 500 text messages.As a result, O2 said it plans to completely dissolve its existing £55 plan, replacing it with a “super-tier” £75 offering that will include 3000 minutes and 500 text messages per month. The £269 cost of the iPhone, as well as the 18-month contract requirement will remain unchanged.
Customers who were on the £55 tariff will have the option to either save £10 per month or take the new £75 tariff. O2 said it plans to transition all its iPhone customers to the new tariffs in February, allowing them to benefit from the rate reductions by mid-March.
Thus far, sales of the iPhone in the UK — like that of Germany and France — have underperformed. According to a published report earlier this month, O2 managed to sell 190,000 of the touch-screen handsets in the two months following its launch on November 9th. That figure, however, is said to have fallen short of a “conservative” 200,000 internal unit estimate by the carrier.
While O2 has not published any official figures on iPhone sales, it did say the device has help triple its retail store traffic. The spike is believed to have provided a surge in the carrier’s sales for the end of 2007 regardless of how many customers eventually chose the iPhone over an alternative.
O2 is expected to capitalize on the revised iPhone plans beginning next month, as the rate reductions are likely to finally sway some fence sitters towards the Apple handheld.
Apple’s iPhone has lived up to expectations as the most-talked about handset ever released, with O2 revealing that its successful bid to sell the device exclusively in the UK had triggered a three-fold increase in the number of people visiting its stores over the past two months,” Nic Fildes reports for The Independent.
“The iconic mobile phone has generated substantial interest among O2 consumers. Just having the device on the shelves has tempted three times as many customers into its 450 stores in the UK than in the same period a year earlier, said a company spokesman,” Fildes reports.
“Even though many of those customers may have decided against spending £269 to buy the handset, some may have been tempted to replace their phone with a newer model anyway after seeing the functionality of Apple’s handset,” Fildes reports. “Customers that at least flirted with the idea of buying an iPhone and subscribing to a £35-a-month contract are likely to be high-spending contract customers, a key target market for mobile phone companies looking to whittle down the number of low-paying prepay customers they support.”
Source: MacDailyNews
Saless of Apple’s much-hyped iPhone in the UK have fallen just short of the expectations of O2, the mobile operator that is the exclusive network for the handset.
O2 said shortly before the iPhone’s UK launch on November 9 that it expected handset sales of 200,000 in the first two months, but people familiar with the situation said the actual figure for the first eight weeks was about 190,000.
Some analysts, who had regarded the original 200,000 prediction as a conservative estimate, added that Apple may have to cut the iPhone price in the UK if it wants to maintain sales momentum.
The iPhone’s headline price is £269 but customers must also take out an 18-month contract starting at £35 per month, which means the minimum outlay is £899.
O2 declined to comment on iPhone sales figures, but said it was “delighted with the response to the iPhone, which has seen unprecedented levels of customer satisfaction”. It also confirmed the iPhone was its fastest-selling handset ever “by a significant margin”.
In November, Matthew Key, incoming chief executive of O2 Europe, said he expected about 200,000 iPhones to be sold in the UK in the first two months. As well as O2 and Apple, the iPhone is sold by Carphone Warehouse.
However, Gartner, the research firm, said in November that 350,000 to 400,000 iPhones could be sold in the first eight weeks.
Carphone and Apple yesterday declined to comment on iPhone sales figures.
iPhone sales had been strong in the run up to Christmas, but had subsequently tapered off, according to people familiar with the situation.
Source: FT.com
Well it seems that the leaked video a few weeks ago is indeed true. The Keynote from Steve Jobs at MacWorld demoed some of the feature such as Locate Me on Google Maps, the ability to send multiple SMS texts and widgets on your home screen with multiple home screens.
The updates have not filtered through to iTunes yet - but we will be trying for the next few hours so we will let you know.
It looks like UK iPhone sales have been disappointing on the lead up to Christmas and that Steve Jobs may make a comment about the number of iPhone sales in Europe and not on a country by country basis - the Sunday Mail is reporting
Apple has banned UK retailers of its heavily hyped iPhone from reporting sales figures amid evidence that British consumers have shunned the device.
In a Christmas season that saw sales of mobile phones soar by number but crash by value, the £269 unit disappointed.
But the California-based designer of the phone has told network O2 and retailer Carphone Warehouse not to tell investors the figures, according to industry insiders.> iPhone review
> Take the iPhone quiz
(Average score: 7/10)Apple president Steve Jobs is likely to announce pan-European sales of the device on Tuesday at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, but no breakdown will be given for individual countries, interpreted by some as a sign of market problems.
A senior industry source said: ‘The iPhone has not been a huge product for either O2 or Carphone. Particularly in the current market, no one wants to buy an expensive phone with a very expensive 18-month contract.’
Shops visited by Financial Mail last week all agreed that sales had not been strong after the launch week. In one London shop, assistants pointedly steered our reporter away from the iPhone display and towards an Armani-branded Samsung phone. ‘This is better, and the phone is free with the contract,’ the salesman said.
Another industry figure said: ‘If you have only looked at London shops, you are not getting the whole picture, which is much worse. How many Northern Rock employees do you think are splashing out on flash phones right now?’
Source: MacWorld.co.uk
MacScoop is reporting that the upcoming Firmware 1.1.3 for the iPhone will be unveiled at MacWorld and that the version that has been leaked may not be the final version, with some features possibly still hidden.
Apple will release an iPhone software update during MacWorld Expo 2008, well informed sources confirmed MacScoop. But it appears that the unpolished iPhone sofware version recently leaked on the Internet doesn’t include all the features of the final release.
The reports we obtained claim that the software update will add copy-paste, which is one of the most requested features by iPhone users, and will provide a few other user interface improvements. Additionally, the update should provide better stability and performance for the device which sometimes suffers from UI glitches and application hangs in its current version.
Sources also confirmed recent reports claiming that a soon to be released iPhone software update will offer very improved Google Maps with localization and hybrid view, mass SMS sending and multi-page editable home screen. It is not out of question that other, non revealed yet features, appear with this update, our sources said.
Thanks to Kevin for sending this in:
I was in an Aberdeen ASDA store the other day and spotted the iPhone for sale in the mobile section! No price or details, just what is in the pic I will send after I send this message (yes, sending from iPhone and composed the message first without attaching the image, Argh!).
Are the sales of iPhone’s expanding to other retailers or is this a simple stock display error?
Unfortunately, I was on a hurry and did not get a chance to speak to anyone in the store.
From the look of the picture, it shows a cardboard cut out of the iPhone, but if ASDA are going to start selling the iPhone, then this would make for a big change in Apple UK’s retail strategy. There again, this could just be a over enthusiastic sales person hoping for the best.
Well its looking more likely that the 1.1.3 firmware sneak preview that GearLive have shown us could be the real thing. They have posted an 8-minute video of all the features including the “wiggle” of the icons (also noted is that if you want to delete any bookmarks, a small round circle appears at the top left corner of the icon - this only appears on the bookmarks and not on the installed applications already on the iPhone!), Multiple SMS texting, adding a bookmark to the home screen & creating a new home screen and the google maps triangulation GPS feature.
Check out the video here.
Click here to view on your iPhone.
It seems that the 1.1.3 sneak preview that we saw yesterday might be real. Gizmodo have posted a video showing the replacing of the icons on the home screen. Again, we should wait for the official release. but it would be great to know that if these are real, then we are starting to get more for our money!
Check out the video here.
Some more interesting news about the 1.1.3 from Gizmodo:
We had some doubts, but now we can tell you we are sure: the new firmware 1.1.3 is real. Or as Nate puts it: “if it is a hoax, they did a buttload of work.” The fact is that it installs normally and it works perfectly. For those not familiar, Natetrue is one of the most respected and veteran iPhone hackers and the author of the popular app iBrickr.
Nate goes on to say that “it installs on the phone no-questions-asked and for that you need to have Apple’s private key, which i can confirm that the iphone hacker community does not have—as much as we would love to have it.” Indeed, Apple’s private encrypted key, used to authenticate all accesses to the iPhone most-private guts, hasn’t been uncovered yet by anyone in the world.
In other words, no firmware upgrades can be installed without the knowledge of this key. Furthermore, the idea that someone would have access to this key and spend months to create a fully functional firmware update, with key new features and without any documentation whatsoever seems just absolutely silly.
Effects on unlocks and Third-party applications
The update breaks AnySim’s unlocks. Logically, you can’t unlock this update using AnySim and there’s no alternative to iTunes for activation. If you want to activate, it will only work using iTunes and a standard AT&T account. Nate says, “that is the only way we have been able to activate so far.” Nate tried to upgrade an AnySim 1.2u iPhone and it failed. Even while he was able to force it to boot, the phone refused to activate even with a normal AT&T SIM card. “I suspect it’s due to the fact that the baseband could not be upgraded to the 1.1.3 ‘required’ version”, he says.Your favorite third-party apps will be gone too, with no possibility of return for now. The update fixes the bugs which allowed “the jailbreak method we were using for 1.1.2, locking us out again, as expected.
New features and future releases
The list of new features are confirmed too: all are correct, but he couldn’t confirm if they are the only ones or not.Many of you would be wondering how this could have happened, knowing the extremely tight security around the iPhone firmware updates. We don’t know, but apparently the leak has occurred because “someone wanted to help the unlock effort.” The source of the leak is completely anonymous, even to the people who have had access to the upgrade.
Why the update hasn’t hit Torrent yet? The code could be watermarked to catch any leaks “so for now it’s screenshots and videos.” Also, distributing it won’t make much sense at this point: according to Nate the iPhone 1.1.3 Firmware update could hit as soon as next week.
Some interesting points on the above. We will be hunting for more news and will bring it to you when we get it.