Author Archives: alexander

[iPhone] iPhone in Austria is no success story

english

The german News service Heise.de reports, that only 8,000 iPhone are registered in Austria. Not even all of these have been sold by T-Mobile, but have been imported from other countries and unlocked (eds note: well, we all know this is the fun part of the iPhone, don’t we?).

The main reason for the reserved treatment of the iPhone seems to be the bad coverage of EDGE in Austria, while 3G/UMTS is covered in 75% of the whole austrian territory.

» Heise.de: Erst 8.000 iPhone in Österreich (german)

[iPhone] Apple teams up with Vodafone in 10 countries

english

The german News service Heise.de today reports, that Vodafone will offer the Apple iPhone in 10 countries: Australia, New Zealand (Aotearoa), South Africa, India, Egyt, Greece, Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal and Turkey. Exact time tables are unknown, but carrier contracts will be offered in these countries in the course of this year 2008. Neither Apple nor Vodafone mentioned, if this is an exclusive offer or if there will be other carriers to sell the iPhone in these countries aswell. There is no information if Vodafone is to offer the rumored 3G/UMTS iPhone.

» Heise.de: Vodafone kommt beim iPhone zum Zuge (german)

[iPhone] Apple about to produce UMTS / 3G Modell in Q2/2008

english

Rumors and more rumors about the new version of our beloved iPhone. But now something really seems to be fishy. Golem.de reports that german news magazin Wirtschaftswoche talked to some Infineon insiders. They said, Apple does not order any old chips from them, but is clearing its own stocks. The new 3G model will be presented in June or July. Sale will begin in autumn 2008. Moreover a GPS module will be included in the 3G/UMTS iPhone.

» Article in the Wirtschaftswoche (german only)

[OSX86] Parody of Apple and Windows Commercial

see here and wonder, who’s that attractive woman…

and here:

[Windows] Safari available as recommended iTunes update

english

Pay attention guys when updating iTunes on your Microsoft Windows machines. iTunes will list Safari as a recommended update to your iTunes installation, although you never installed Safari before – and of course: you’d better not install it, since Paypal is about to block it anyway. More details to be found on Golem.de (german only).

» Golem.de: Apple verteilt Safari weiterhin über iTunes-Update
» Incomplete-News: Paypal about to block Safari Users

deutsch

Vorsicht beim Update von iTunes auf Windows Maschinen. iTunes zeigt neuerdings Safari als ein empfohlenes Update für iTunes an – auch wenn man noch nie vorher Safari installiert hatte, weil man weiß, dass Paypal ohnehin drauf und dran ist, Safari-Browser den Zugang zu Paypal zu blockieren. Weitere Details hat Golem.de.

» Golem.de: Apple verteilt Safari weiterhin über iTunes-Update
» Incomplete-News: Paypal about to block Safari Users

[iPhone] IPhone Sales in Europe Low, Price Cut in UK and Germany

english

The british Times reports: European carriers seem not to be able to sell all of the ordered amounts of iPhones. They originally expected to sell 500,000 -600,000 devices. But T-Mobile (Germany), O2 (UK) and Orange (France) only managed to sell about 330,000 devices. Like T-Mobile, who recuced the price for the iPhone to 99€, O2 reduced the entry prices for the iPhone last week (from £270 to £170 [from about $535 to $337 / or from about €337 to €212]).

Orange is expected to cut the prices during the next days. The price cuts look like clearance sales and match the fact, that sales have slowed significantly. Rumors say, the sales slowed down, because Apple is about to begin to produce the 3G series of the iPhone in may.

There are also rumors, that Apple will stop just marketing the iPhone with one carrier only per country in early 2009.

» Times Online: iPhone sellers braced for hit on unsold handsets
» Incomplete-News: T-Mobile offers iPhone in Germany for 99€

deutsch

Die britisch Times berichtet, dass Europäische Provider Schwierigkeiten haben, die geordeten Lagerbestände an iPhones zu verkaufen. Ursprüngliche Schätzungen gingen von einem Verkauf von 500.000 – 600.000 Geräten aus, aber T-Mobile (D), O2 (UK) und Orange (Frankreich) konnten insgesamt nur rund 330.000 Geräte loswerden. Ähnlich wie T-Mobile, die den iPhone Preis bereits auf 99€ reduziert haben, hat nun O2 in der vergangenen Woche nachgezogen und den Preis reduziert (von £270 auf £170 [von etwa €337 auf €212]). Es wird erwartet, das Orange die Preise ebenfalls in den nächsten Tagen senken wird.

Die Preissenkungen machen den Eindruck, als seien es Räumungsverkäufe. Dies wiederum passt zu dem Umstand, dass die iPhone Verkäufe insgesamt deutlich zurückgegangen sind. Gerüchten zufolge liegt dies daran, dass Apple schon im Mai beginnen wird, die UMTS/3G Variante des iPhone zu produzieren.

Weiteren Gerüchten zufolge, hat Apple Pläne die Provider-Bindung für den iPhone Verkauf ab Anfang 2009 aufzugeben.

» Times Online: iPhone sellers braced for hit on unsold handsets
» Incomplete-News: T-Mobile offers iPhone in Germany for 99€

[MacOS] Paypal about to block Safari Users

english

According to a white paper by Paypal, Safari lacks certain specific anti-phishing protections and EV SSL (Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer) certificates. Paypal will in the first place just tell the users, that they are using those unsafe browsers. Later on Paypal will take steps to refuse access to Paypal at all, when users are still using those browsers. The main problem is, Safari is not safe from fishing attacks. According to MacNN Safari is the only browser to lag behind in comparison to other browsers like Firefox 2, Opera or Internet Explorer 7.

By the way: this article is written on the Mac version of Firefox

[Berlin] iTunes Konzerte in Berlin im Radialsystem V

deutsch only

Die Konzertreihe (26.04. – 10.05.2008), die im vergangen Jahr in London stattfand, kommt nun nach Berlin. Karten kann man jedoch nicht kaufen, sondern nur gewinnen oder ersteigern und aber dafür immer gleich zwei Stück. Es gibt für jeden Tag 500 Plätze. Stattfinden wird das Konzert im Radialsystem V in Friedrichshain (Holzmarktstr. 33, 10243 Bln).

Um an den iTunesLive Verlosungen teilnehmen zu können, scheint ein iTunes Store Account Pflicht zu sein, da man seine iTunes Store eMail Adresse hinterlegen muss. Naja…

Wie man an die Stehplatz-Tickets kommt?

Wer wird spielen?

Datum Artist Artist
Sa, 26.04. Nneka Madita
So, 27.04. Janine Janson Danielle De Neise
Mo, 28.04. Patrice Zascha Moktan
Di, 29.04. Lars Danielsson & Leszek Mozdzer (?) Hanan
Mi, 30.04. Ich und Ich Tina Dico
Do, 01.05. Morcheeba MGMT
Fr, 02.05. The Hooosiers Special Guests (N.N.)
Sa, 03.05. Special Guests (N.N.) Get well Soon
So, 04.05. The Subways Jenniffer Rostock
Mo, 05.05. Katie Melua (?) Clueso
Di, 06.05. Klee Nevio (?)
Mi, 07.05. Revolverheld (?) Radioplot
Do, 08.05. Hot Chip Calvin Harris
Fr, 09.05. Madsen Kilians
Sa, 10.05. Sunrise Avenue aVid (?)

? = unsicher, ob. Keine Gewährleistung und nicht mit Steinen nach uns werfen, wenn irgendwer doch nicht spielt und Ihr Euch extra nen iTunes Konto angelegt habt…

[iPhone] Pwnage for Windows (WinPwn) beta released

english

The time of waiting is almost over. CMW just released a beta of WinPwn. Eventually the Microsoft Windows users can soon pwn their iPhones safely. However we need to point out in contrast to the Pwnage Mac version the Windows version is still beta and thus does not support firmware 2.0 (1.2) yet. It requires to have an iPhone loaded with firmware 1.1.4 to get WinPwn started and you need to have a specific iTunesMobileDevice.dll installed in your WinPwn folder.
By now following issues have been reported:
  • restore may fail and iPhone will be stuck in boot loop
  • issues with mail.app
  • issues with EDGE (symbol disappears and displays erratically)

Anyway this is a beta version – it is recommended to be used at most for jailbreak and installing the installer.app only. We we recommend to not use it at all just now. Rumors tell that WinPwn beta 2 will be released tonight.

» WinPwn’s download page

[e-Biz] The never ending Psystar Story

As denoted yesterday, the Psystar topic seems to be a little fishy. First: obviously they use the EFI v8 emulation developed by Netkas. For comprehensible reasons Netkas is not amused about Psystar and decided to edit his EULA to bar commercial use of PC EFI – well… we don’t expect Psystar to respect Netkas’ EULA, but not Apple’s EULA?! Psystar just don’t respect any EULA – quite simple. In the end, they don’t seem to care anyway – no matter if it’s Netkas’ EULAs or Apple’s EULAs. We all know Netkas can’t be bribed, but nevertheless Psystar should think about helping the community in return…

The second thing fishy is, Psystar had three different postal address in the last four days. Yes, three addresses. Users living in Miami could not locate the company under even one of these. There are rumors, that this company doesnot exist at all and is hoax. ‘Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of “Where Will The Little Green Mac Clone Be Next?”‘ (Guardian). And in the meantime: Apple just doesn’t react at all to the whole story…

» Netkas prohibits commercial use of PC EFI v1 – v8
» Guardian.co.uk: Psystar on the move again