As with any Apple event, Mac-heads and fanboys are eagerly awaiting what Apple has up its sleeve. The rumor mill is already working overtime concocting some scenarios that may or may not play out over the course of four days in San Francisco.
We thought we'd get in on the action and speculate a little bit ourselves. With that in mind, here are our top five likely, or not-so-likely, possibilities for Apple WWDC, which brings together more than 1,000 Apple engineers to talk shop."
1. Steve Jobs makes his triumphant return to the stage.
2. Apple unveils a new iPhone.
3. Mac OS X Snow Leopard makes its public debut.
4. Apple will launch a netbook.
5. Blockbuster and Apple team for on-demand video.
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It looks as though Apple might finally be able to crack the Chinese market with its iPhone. The rumor mill at one time had the company in talks with China Mobile, the country's leading carrier, but those negotiations apparently fell through over questions of money.
Also, Apple is rumored to be finally creating a new, CDMA version of its iPhone that could topple AT&T's exclusive carrier position in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the
Finally we now know why Apple is raking in the shekels: its profit margins on its new iPod
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Company CEO Scott Durchslag said Skype software for the iPhone has been the No. 1 request among their users. "We are delighted to deliver on this request and put Skype into the pockets of millions of people around the world who are carrying iPhone and iPod touch devices," he said. "Skype for iPhone will open up new ways for more than 400 million Skype users to stay connected and take their Skype conversations with them."
Durchslag characterized the convergence of technologies as a marriage of Skype's "simplicity, ease-of-use and quality" and Apple's "elegance of design and richness." Skype's voice over IP (VOIP) technology allows users to make phone calls over the Web. The application allows users to make free Skype-to-Skype calls from any Wi-Fi zone to other Skype users worldwide, as well as make calls to landlines and mobile phone at low rates.
The app uses Wi-Fi, 3G, GPRS or EDGE (whichever is available) to sign into Skype, update a contact list, maintain and update presence and also send and receive instant messages. Skype, which was snapped up by the online auction firm eBay for $2.6 billion in 2005, also made note of the application's capacity for personalization, pointing out users can update their Skype profile picture from within the Skype for iPhone app, either by choosing an existing image from a photo album on the device, or by using the iPhone's built-in camera to take a new photo.
Skype is also enabled on several of the iPhone's competitors' platforms, including Google's Android mobile platform and more than 100 Java-enabled mobile phones. In December, Skype announced beta clients for Windows Mobile-enabled devices, Skype Lite. Skype's plan to announce an application for the iPhone became the worst kept secret in the tech world after the blog GigaOM quoted a "very reliable" tipster as saying the application would debut quite soon.
In the week leading up to the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas, which starts Wednesday, Skype made another announcement signaling the company's interest in capturing a larger share of the business market. Skype released a beta version of Skype for SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), which allows peer-to-peer VOIP clients to interact with existing IP PBXs. The wide release of the service is scheduled for later this year.
On Tuesday afternoon, the company will hold a press conference at CTIA in order to " share more about its vision and strategy for gaining deeper penetration into the mobile sector" and says it will make several announcements that mark "concrete steps" towards that goal.
Originally posted on eWeek
The new Yahoo! Mobile is something of a homepage for handsets, giving users access to a number of Yahoo products, including search, Webmail, and instant messaging. The service also syndicates content like news , stocks, weather, sports, horoscopes, and RSS feeds.
The new Messenger App brings what Yahoo has deemed "the industry's leading messaging experience" to Apple's popular handset. The service stays logged in while signed onto other apps on the phone and brings over such Yahoo! Messenger features as emoticons, photos, and contact adding.
Originally posted to AppScout.
While Apple (AAPL) is the smartphone technology leader, it is not the sales leader. Importantly, it's still trailing BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIMM). This is a platform land grab, so sales and market share count.
During the three-month period ending in February, RIM shipped 7.8 million devices, or an average 2.6 million per month. During the three-month quarter ending in December, Apple shipped 4.4 million iPhones, or an average 1.5 million per month. The periods don't overlap beyond the crucial month of December, but it seems RIM could be outselling Apple by about 1 million devices per month.
This isn't because RIM is selling to corporations while Apple is selling to consumers: RIM says 70% of its new subscribers were "non-enterprise" last quarter, and consumers are now half of its total subscriber base. RIM and Apple are largely going after the same customers, meaning many BlackBerry buyers are choosing RIM over Apple.
How can Apple improve its position?
Although the Mac (or Linux) platform has never been affected to the extent of Windows by many of the current crops of Virus and Worm exploits it is not immune. ANY software system is infectable once it gains the attention of those responsible for creating malware.
The majority of malware production is for essentially commercial purposes (illegal true, but still for monetary gain) and once a platform acquires significant market share expect it to get proportionate attention from malware developers.
Although the article is older it has a very good timeline on the page that is up to date by year for Mac malware and further links to details.
http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2006/02/macosxleap.html
Once we have moved our new Sophos system into full production it will provide protection products for Windows, Mac and Linux and we will be able to provide product to staff via our home use licensing.
Lest Linux users start to feel too secure I have copied a section of a white paper from Sophos (dated 2006 but still valid) on the role of Linux systems in malware propagation and some of the difficulties in creating protection for Linux (or Unix) systems.
https://secure.sophos.com/sophos/docs/eng/papers/Sophos-LinuxThreats-wpus.pdf
While some corporations have worried about the ability to secure and manage iPhones used by their workers, Forrester Research Inc. says three major companies are successfully deploying thousands of the Apple Inc. devices.
The key benefit? The iPhones make workers happier and more productive, the research firm said in a report released today.
Full article here.
During these difficult economic times, schools are feeling the budget pinch as much as any other group. So Apple's decision to begin selling a 2.0GHz 20-inch iMac to educational institutions (PDF link) for US$899 couldn't come at a better time. The 20-inch model replaces the 17-inch polycarbonate iMac for education, which Apple was found to be still selling only a few weeks ago.
The iMac includes the same 1,066MHz system bus as the current consumer models, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, a 160GB SATA hard drive, 802.11n wireless networking, a gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, a slot-loading SuperDrive, and Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics processing.
The model is only available to educational institutions, not for individual students or faculty. For everyone else, the entry-level iMac is a 2.66GHz 20-inch model with 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive--it runs $1,149 for students, or $1,199 for the general public.
The new education model will be available soon.
