Business

AT&T must be sending Apple a huge fat ham or some nice flowers or whatever companies give other companies. Because AT&T released first quarter earnings yesterday and “net income rose by 22% over last year’s first quarter and income per share was 57 cents compared to 1Q2007’s 45 cents”.

This is, no doubt, partially due to the success (and the exclusivity) of the iPhone on AT&T’s network. If the rumors are true, and Apple approached Verizon before AT&T and was shot down, At&T should maybe start preparing that gift basket to Verizon as well.

In an article on Seeking Alpha: “A key piece of its wireless success has been thanks to the “must-have” technology of the iPhone, which continues to benefit from consumer willingness to spend aggressively when they believe a product worthy of the added cost.”

With the supposed release of the 3G iPhone 2.0 this summer, this can only mean better returns for the communications giant.

[Via Seeking Alpha]

Wherever I turn, Apple has a lawsuit against them. I guess it is inevitable. Someone wants to propher from Apple’s success.

This time it’s a patent lawsuit by a Massachusetts man named Romek Figa. He claims to have patented a caller ID system infringed by the iPhone.

His patent, which was granted in 1990 and references two-line LCD screens and external caller ID equipment, describes a way to associate incoming numbers with stored contact names, and he is surpringly looking to halt sales of the iPhone and have Apple give a great amount of money and license his patent. Apple says “NO.”

Statements reveal that a few other companies have agreed to license the patent, such as Nokia, Motorola, and Samsung, but Apple refuses. Aparently, this guy directly sent Steve Jobs a letter demanding some sort of response. Probably not advice I would have given Figa, but more power to him.

It’s a sad state when normal consumer electronics are rendered as tools only meant to be handled by technicians when it comes to the most minute of Hardware upgrades such as changing the battery (but then again we’d be depriving people of money). Although you can pay to have the privilege of Apple gracing your iPhone with a new battery, those with a sense of danger (or have the misconception that their wallets are deeper than they really are) and actually have a scrap of knowledge of busting open small, delicate devices can indulge in a cheap battery replacement kit for the iPhone.

I can only think of a few good reasons why this would be a good idea for the same reason you dislike mango juice with your filet mignon. A word of caution to those insane enough to try this: your warranty will be violated and you must know how to use a solder gun and no they do not function like a stun gun. But for the curious, you can reference iFixit for a take apart guide and battery installation.

The battery itself… more...

I just ran out of space on my 8GB iPhone today. I was adding the soundtrack to “Across the Universe” when iTunes notified me that I had to get rid of some of my photos if I wanted to have a complete library on my phone. I knew it would happen one day. Sigh. What I didn’t expect was that it would occur at the exact moment 16GB iPhones started to show up. Perfect timing Apple. I congratulate your precise sales plan. You know me too well. I am assuming they also know their other customers. Apple knows that some people want more space on their Touch-Screen iPods; and that some previous owners may realize that 8 or 16GB is simply not enough and may decide to upgrade. I am jokingly considering upgrading my phone to a 16GB, which is still $100 cheaper than the initial price of the 8GB iPhone. How ironic.

I have heard that there may be yet another price drop, so it would be wise to hold off on the upgrade. I am fine with 8GB, but it looks like I will be living with a fraction of… more...

In an ongoing attempt to cash out from the hordes of consumers offering up their wallets for iPod compatible accessories, 3rd parties have created every known addon to man and then released it about a couple dozen times. While you can buy cases, dock holders and even a bed for your iPod, we’ve yet to see this thrown at the iPhone with a raging desire for more opportunities to rebrand consumer goods with the almighty “Made For iPhone Label”.

DLO on the other hand disregarded everything and fused a pair of speakers to the iPhone in an abnormal fashion ruining an already good design. For $50 you can probably increase the iPhone’s loudness but to have the audacity of labeling these egg shaped oddities with the word “portable” makes about as much sense as using a lawn mower for flight. The possibility is there but should never be done lest someone in the marketing and design department decided that instead of bailing from a failing job created a horrible “Made For A Device That Starts With A Lowercase i” product to extract some sort of imaginary revenge.

more...

USAToday takes a close look behind the driving force of the iPhone’s pseudo GPS function and the technology needed to accurately pinpoint a user.

Before using the less accurate method of Cellular Triangulation, the iPhone if on Wi-Fi uses data from SkynetSkyhook. Skyhook works by tracking Wi-Fi access points and mapping them out to pin point a location

Via: Mac Rumors

After their recent and bold statement at CES about considering a filter placed on their Internet services, AT&T is imposing a 5GB cap for data on mobile devices.

The cap although low is not meant to trap customers into paying outrageous fees or into void their contract but to warn customers that they’re overloading AT&T’s servers and that by paying more of an even more unlimited plan might be in order.

However, the cost of data plans should drop down to $30 which is the same charge for the BlackBerry Personal plan. Also, text messaging will be broken from data bundles allowing even more savings. These changes should supposedly happen in a few weeks.

Via: Electronista

The iPhone went on sale a little over a month ago in France right after being made available in Germany and the UK. The numbers fall short compared to US sales: only 70,000 sold in the first month.

To put this in perspective, Apple sold over 100,00 units during launch weekend. It took 5 days during the French launch to sell 30,000 iPhones and then the rest of the month to round off 40,000 more for a total of 70,000.

The numbers are surprising but also says a lot about the target audience in the US and Europe. Advanced technologies already prevalent in European phones not found in the iPhone hamper sales.

Via: TUAW

In compliance with French law, Orange allows consumers to unlock iPhones after the first 6 months of their contract have expired. To take advantage of those who want an Orange free iPhone, the carrier is allowing customers to unlock the handset early which 20% of buyers have opted for.

The price for a locked handset is 399 Euros for a 2 year contract while a contract free iPhone will cost 549 Euros. An unlocked handset will cost 649 Euros.

Via: Macrumors

We all know visual voicemail. Most of us use it quite often, and of those that do not a big percentage have unlocked phones. Could visual voicemail be an idea from someone else other than Apple or ATT? Klausner Technologies seems to think so, because they are suing both companies for a total of $360 million for copyright infringement. Klausner Technologies holds patents for retrieving messages from a menu which displays the caller, their number, and other such info. Sound familiar? What is worse is that they have successfully sued both AOL and Vonage over the same patents.

Basically, it looks as if Klausner Technologies will get a pretty large settlement. How this will affect both Apple and ATT has yet to be determined.

What are your thoughts on the suit?

[via Gizmodo]