Is it really happening? Is the world's most thickly settled nation
finally getting the iPhone in earnest? If a bold (albeit
woolly) report from China's own national news agency is to be
believed, China Unicom has just
locked down a deal that'll grant it exclusive rights to sell
Apple's heralded smartphone in mainland China for three whole
years. Unfortunately, most of the nitty-gritty details are absent,
but we are led to believe that this will be the first-ever iPhone
sold with any branding at all outside of logos splashed on at
Cupertino. The "Wo" icon you see just below the speaker
signifies that this here device is
ready to rock on the carrier's 3G network, though we still
can't say with any amount of certainty if said image is fully
legitimate. We're also waiting to hear whether it'll be the iPhone
3G or 3GS (or both) that's sold, and we're particular curious as to
whether or not these handsets will
include WiFi modules.
In related news, it does sound as if China Unicom bent over
backwards a bit to make this all come together, with the article
stating that it
signed on to move between one and two million units per year
regardless of how many consumers actually show up to buy one. If
you'll recall, an eerily similar agreement has Russian operators in
a world of financial hurt, but we get the feeling the reception
in China will be quite a bit warmer. At any rate, it's noted that
Unicom will be snapping up the devices from Apple at a cost of
around 3,000 Chinese yuan apiece ($439), with end users being asked
to pay an undisclosed lesser amount on contract. If all goes well,
the units could hit Chinese shops as early as September, though
only time will tell how everything shakes out. Oh, and considering
that Apple can
hardly keep up with iPhone 3GS demand as it is, we suspect
it'll want to wait a few months anyway before stressing its supply
channels further.
Update: A China Unicom spokeswoman has now been
quoted as
saying that "we have made progress but there are still some
problems to be resolved." Really? Another round of this?
China Unicom finally bringing iPhone to world's most populous country?
Google Voice iPhone app rejected, current GV apps lose connection with iTunes
Perhaps the big G spoke too soon when it said its new
Google Voice service was coming to iPhone. First, GV Mobile
developer Sean Kovacs relays a phone call he had with Apple where
he was notified of his app being removed from the iTunes store for
duplicating built-in iPhone features -- an app that was originally
and purportedly approved by Phil Schiller himself. Next out the
door was GVdialer, and if you thought that was all bad, now comes
word that Google's official Voice app was flat-out rejected by
Cupertino. Now it's hard to say with certainty who's to blame for
these app rejections, but a good many fingers are pointing to the
cellular carriers -- and given
AT&T's previous statements about the SlingPlayer app, it's
hard to argue with that. For its part, the company hinted at
finding a workaround via web apps, much like they did when Apple
gave
Latitude a cold shoulder -- but doesn't that
feel just a little 2007?
Read - Official Google Voice App Blocked from App Store
Read - GV Mobile is getting pulled from App Store
Read
- Sean Kovac's Twitter status on Schiller
Windows 95 on iPhone: the worst Parallels installation you've ever seen
Give a guy an iPhone, a jailbreak, and an open-source,
cross-platform x86 emulator, and it's just a matter of time before
hilarity ensues. In this case, said hilarity involves getting
Windows 95 to boot on an iPhone 3G, a
process that takes 5-10 minutes worth of pure boot time only to
yield an environment useless for... well, actual use. In the video,
we see the hack demonstrated both on an actual iPhone and within
the Mac-based emulator, which we reckon is just about the most
terrifying Parallels / VMware replacement we've ever encountered.
Apparently, XP emulation and 3GS tests
are up next -- the 3GS should perform marginally better on account
of its faster core and more capacious RAM -- but that still won't
cure the sting of being
handily beaten to the milestone by the N95, will it? Follow the
break for video of the mind-twisting Microsoft-on-Apple-on-Apple
emulation in action.
[Via: Engadgetmobile ]
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Windows Marketplace taking app submissions on July 27, coming to WinMo 6.0 and 6.1 later this year
Windows Mobile devs should start dotting their I's and crossing
their T's, because Microsoft's going to be ready to take a good,
hard look at their latest and greatest apps come the 27th of this
month when the company finally swings open the doors to the
submission processes for inclusion in the Windows
Marketplace. The announcement has been made at Microsoft's
Worldwide Partner Conference this week as it gears up for an
onslaught of devices running WinMo 6.5 at retail later this year,
though the retail channel might not be where much of the action
lies; unlike the Apple App Store, the Android Market, Palm's App
Catalog and others, Microsoft is putting major emphasis on a
segment of Windows Marketplace it's calling the Business Center
where corporate-focused apps and utilities will have a place to
live. Boring, yes -- but probably also very profitable in the
business fleet market segment where WinMo tends to thrive.
Though the company had previously indicated that Windows
Marketplace would be a 6.5 exclusive, we've got great news for
legacy device owners who don't expect to get an upgrade: Microsoft
has also announced today that the Marketplace will be coming to
WinMo 6.0 and 6.1 before the year's out. Considering that 6.5 won't
be hitting the street until fall, that's not too bad of a wait; now
all it needs is a
rich catalog of great software to go along with the great
hardware some of its partners are producing, right?
[Via: Engadgetmobile ]
[Tag: ]
Google: we're cool with Exchange on Google-branded Android phones
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2009/07/android-eats-exchange-nom-rm-eng.jpg" />
Okay, this gets a bit confusing, so bear with us. Back when HTC
first unveiled the Magic, the company said that any Android device
with a customized build -- and that includes adding support for
Microsoft Exchange --
has to drop the "with Google" logo as per Google's rules.
Indeed, that notion seemed to be validated by the all the
international Android phones that had Exchange but no branding.
Cut to present day and the T-Mobile's myTouch 3G, which
looks to have both the
"with Google" backing and
Exchange support, contrary to previous assertions. Did the
search engine giant soften its policy? We spoke with a company
representative who told us, surprisingly, that it has "never been
Google's policy" to deprive its branded devices of Exchange
support, and that if another phone maker wants to add it and keep
that logo plastered on the phone, that's A-OK. In all honesty, we
never really put too much stock into the Google logo on the phone,
but if it's really just been one huge misunderstanding that's
prevented our G1 from having Exchange, well, we're gonna be quite
nonplussed for many weeks to come.
[Via: Engadgetmobile ]
[Tag: ]
iPhone 3GS prototype scooped up at airport, now on eBay
Seriously folks, what's up with these
prototype iPhones falling out of nondescript white vans and
ending up on eBay in the shadiest of manners? Just months after we
saw an
original iPhone prototype (ancient OS included) pop up on The
'Bay, now we've got one of the world's first iPhone 3GSs on there
as well. According to the highly ranked eBay seller, the "guy" he
"got it from" actually stumbled upon it at an airport, and rather
than doing the nonsensical thing of hitting up lost and found, he
decided to make the most of the sudden opportunity. According to
the new owner, an Apple Genius has confirmed that it is an iPhone 3GS, but
due to its prototype nature, they can't help him get past the
"Connect to iTunes" screen. In other words, it's an incredibly rare
brick. If that sounds like just the thing to complete your
collection, you can visit the road to overpaying through the read
link below.
[Via: Engadgetmobile ]
[Tag: ]