Now, the Syrian government, which has been coming under increasing political pressure from around the world has banned the import of iPhones to the country.

In a statement reportedly issued by the Syrian Finance Ministry, and reported by the BBC, the authorities “warn anyone against using the iPhone in Syria.”

Currently, other types of smartphone are not affected by the ban but problems arise when states find they cannot readily contorl the flow and freedom of information on the Internet in their country.  North Korea is even going so far as to build a country-wide Intranet service instead.

Since March the UN believes that 4000 people have been killed in Syria though this is difficult to confirm because the world’s media are banned from the country.  The information about the ban in iPhones came from Syrian opposition sources who confirmed the ban to the German Press Agency (DPA).

It is unsurprising that a state such as Syria, with it’s current problems, would try and stop the free flow of information between its citizens that are opposed to the state.  It is very unlikely however that such a move would be successful.  People find ways of getting prohibited goods across borders in countries such as this as their borders are usually so difficult for the state to police.  While people may not use their iPhones blatantly and in public areas, we can be sure that they will continue to be used by protestors.

This move doesn’t prevent the free flow of information in other ways.  Almost all mobile phones these days are capable of accessing services such as Facebook and Twitter and the Syrian government would have to shut off all access to the Internet or all the mobile phone networks to get their way.  An action such as this would cause significant damage to the Syrian economy at a time when the country is already under enormous financial pressure and facing international sanctions.

The attempts by the state to control information getting out of the country also seem to be failing.  It will be interesting to see what tactics the Syrian government try next.  Will they ban other brands or types of smartphone or will they try to curtail Internet access or block websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

The protestors want President Assad to stand down and for the government to be disbanded so that free and fair elections can be held instead.  The political struggles in Syria and in particular the capital city Damascus have been some of the most bloody and violent of any seen in the middle-east this year.  Despite the best efforts of the state however, and presumably with some help from outside, the anti-government protestors are refusing to stand down and give in.

Do you have family or friends in Syria or are you from Syria?  What is your opinion of the country banning the iPhone?

Over the years these tastes have changed with Furby’s, Cabbage Patch Dolls and programmable robotics taking the top spots for children’s wish lists from Santa Claus.

This year though it would seem that Santa’s elves might have to seek alternative employment in a Chinese Foxconn factory.  New research released by Nielsen into what electronic devices children want has shown that the top three slots on children’s 2011 Christmas wish lists are dominated by Apple.

In the research they say that 44% of children aged between 6 and 12 want an iPad, 30% want a iPod Touch and a huge 27% want an iPhone.  I say huge as most people would hardly think of a child between the ages of 6 and 12 as the target demographic for a mobile telephone.

After this a computer sits in fourth spot and a non-iPad tablet (presumably Android) sits in fifth place.  In fact the list is completely dominated by technology that includes games consoles, portable and static, televisions, non-iPhone smartphones, blue-ray players and eBook readers.

There can be little doubt that tablets have captivated the minds of the young, because of the new and exciting ways they allow people to interact with the technology, be that zooming in on photographs or flinging birds at pigs.  It can also be argued however that the devices offer solitary play opportunities for children and don’t encourage them to build interactions with other children in the way that most people consider healthy.

The research also shows what children aged 13 and over are interested in buying over the next six months.  Again the iPad sits as the most desirable item with 24% of the vote and a computer bringing up second place with 18%.  Again this list is entirely dominated by technology though it is interesting to note that smartphones of all description, including the iPhone which held the number 3 spot for younger kids, are much further down the list in the teenagers age group with the iPhone sitting in seventh place and other smartphones and non-smartphone mobiles sitting in 8th and 17th place respectively.

At the end of the day it is parents who will make the final decisions, so we will no doubt expect stockings to be full of dolls, coloured goo and lego with perhaps a solitary computing or gaming device taking the top gift spot.  Children want what children want but this doesn’t ever mean that they will get their own way.

What have your children asked you for this Christmas?  Are you own family experiences a mirror of the Nielsen research or are your children after a bow and arrow set and a colouring book?

While built-into the company’s own Windows Phone operating system, iOS is the next smartphone operating system to get this great piece of software and for a limited time it’s completely free.

The app isn’t just about storing notes on your mobile, just as with OneNote on Windows Phone it will upload your notes to Microsoft’s cloud storage service SkyDrive (you’ll need a Windows Live ID) so that you can share your notes with your PC and open notes created on the desktop when on the move.  Microsoft say of the new product.  OneNote users will also be able to view and edit their notes in the OneNote cloud app, that can be accessed through Microsoft’s Office Live service, or SkyDrive.

Microsoft OneNote Mobile is an easy-to-use note-taking application for capturing all of your ideas and to-dos on the go, brought to you by Microsoft Office.  With OneNote Mobile, create searchable notes with text, pictures, bullets, and checkboxes. Then keep your notes in sync using free Windows Live SkyDrive cloud storage to access, edit and manage them from virtually anywhere, from your PC or almost any web browser.

OneNote was first introduced in Office 2003 but wasn’t really popularly used until touch screen computers became commonplace.  Now with Office 2010 running on many tablet PCs, it’s considered a stable of the Office system.  The extension of the software into the iPhone will only help professionals who need access to notes, and the ability to create notes on the move that they can then use and work with on their PC.

What is curious about this however is the release of OneNote for the iPhone at a time when the program itself still isn’t part of the Office 2011 suite for the Mac.  Microsoft have not commented on this but it would most likely be down to the current lack of touchscreen support in Mac OS.  Now that Apple are addressing this we can expect to see the next generation iMacs and MacBooks coming with touch screens.  Thus the next version of Office Mac, due sometime around 2013, should include OneNote.

With this omission it remains to be seen how useful people will consider OneNote on the iPhone.  Many iPhone users, probably most in fact, still use a PC and this will help uptake.  The lack of OneNote support on the Mac could damage the apps chances of picking up serious traction on Apple’s smartphone platform though.

There is also no word currently on a version of OneNote for the iPad or for Google’s Android operating system.  We can be reasonably certain that the former is already in development.  The future of OneNote, and indeed other Microsoft Office services, on Android is less certain however.  Microsoft haven’t made any announcement as regards this and could decide to avoid Android development altogether.

On the flipside, Microsoft have a long history of developing Office products for the Mac, and so this was only to be expected.  Microsoft have also announced that they will be bringing their new Lync communications platform to the iPhone later this year.

The app needs iOS 4.2 or higher to run and can be downloaded from the iTunes store.  There is no word yet on how long Microsoft will be making OneNote for the iPhone free to download, though it will probably be for 30 days or less.  If you are interested in trying OneNote on your iPhone or iPod Touch I wouldn’t leave it too long before you add it to your download basket.

There are various workarounds for this problem, but most are hit and miss. There is no one size fits all solution to this problem, but there is one series of changes that works for many Linux users. It builds up to the installation of a program called “ideviceinstaller,” and it works for about 90% of users. If you are frustrated with your iPod/iPad/iPhone and really just want to back things up, it’s probably worth a try.

First, download all the little helpers that you might need along the way. Open up a terminal window and type in the following list:

sudo apt-get install libtool automake autoconf libplist-dev libplist++-dev libplist++1 libzip-dev libclutter-1.0-dev libclutter-gtk-0.10-dev libusbmuxd-dev libglib2.0-dev libgnutls-dev git-core swig intltool build-essential python-dev

That should update your system with almost everything you might need to start installing the programs necessary to get your devices identifying and syncing up with your computer. Next you need to download and install the latest version of a program called “libimobiledevice” which will enable ideviceinstaller to work properly when you install it later. Unlike the last piece of text you inserted into the terminal, take these one line at a time, and make sure your system has finished the process before stepping forward to the next. Again in the terminal:

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://www.libimobiledevice.org/downloads/libimobiledevice-1.0.1.tar.bz2
tar xvjf libimobiledevice-1.0.1.tar.bz2
cd ~/Downloads/libimobiledevice-1.0.1
./configure
make
sudo make install

You now have almost everything that you need to get ideviceinstaller working properly. But before we install the final auxiliary program, install ideviceinstaller onto your system. To do so, type the following into your terminal:

git clone git://git.sukimashita.com/ideviceinstaller.git
cd ideviceinstaller/
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

Now it’s time for one last installation. The program “sbmanager” is the final component necessary for everything to run smoothly. In the terminal, type:

git clone git://git.sukimashita.com/sbmanager.git
cd sbmanager
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

With any luck, your system should now be ready to take whatever your Apple hand helds can throw at it. Close out of your terminal, plug in your devices, and see if it works.

Here are a few of the most important tasks you can do with the program. To run any of them, simply open your terminal window while your devices are plugged it.

idevicebackup backup ~/backup Creates a backup file of your device
idevicebackup restore ~/backup Restores your device to its previous backup state
ideviceinstaller -a [name of application, without brackets]
Creates an archival copy of an app
ideviceinstaller -r [name of application, without brackets]
Restores an app to its previous archived state
ideviceinstaller -l Displays a list of all apps on your Apple device

While most users will be set to go after following these steps, be prepared to spend some time fixing any errors along the way. The most common is that libimobiledevice.so.1 does not exist. To fix this, type the following in your terminal:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libimobiledevice.so.1.0.1 /usr/lib/libimobiledevice.so.1

That should fix 90% of the problems you may encounter in running this how-to. Have fun and good luck!

The report on Yahoo! News says that the teenager, who lives in the south-eastern province of Anhui apparently met a broker on the Internet who arranged everything for him, and then travelled to Chenzhou province in central China where his kidney was removed in a hospital.

His mother was reportedly devastated by the news saying…

“When my son came home he had a laptop computer and an Apple phone.  Where did all that money come from? Only when he could bear it no longer did he tell us.  He said, Mum, I sold my kidney.  When I heard it I felt like the sky was crashing down on our family.”

His mother then alerted the police though they were unable to locate the broker.  The hospital in question was discovered not to be authorised to perform transplants and claimed they had no official record of the surgery taking place.

This news is utterly chilling, not just because some tech products these days are attracting this type of devotion from teenagers and children, but that unscrupulous people are willing to exploit them for financial gain in such an appaling way.  The police certainly must find this ‘broker’ and bring him to justice.

It raises all manner of ethical and moral questions that should be addressed, not just by national governments, hospitals, medical professionals and the legal establishment, but also by the technology companies.  Is there something in the way these products are being advertised that drove this particular teenager into his actions?

Naturally this is the same argument that’s been used against gamers who may or may not later go on to commit violent acts.  All reasonable people recognise there is not a link.  It will be important though not to brush this incident aside, but rather to see if any lessons can be learnt to prevent it ever happening again.

Apple’s anti-piracy technology is based on a simple but ingenious idea. In movie theaters, they distribute special infrared waves for hearing aid devices. Apple’s new technology will enable the iPhone to detect those infrared signals and the iPhone will sense that you are in a movie theater. Now if you will try to record a scene from Kung Fu Panda 2 with your iPhone this weekend, it will automatically sense that you are in a movie theater trying to record, and will shut off the camera automatically. Another possibility with the same technology can be that the movie/snap you capture will be watermarked with the name of the movie.

The same will be true with music concerts, if you try to take a picture of Lady Gaga, the whole picture could be watermarked with LadyGaga, but for that concert the management will have to bombard infrared waves on the audience.

This technology may have other implications as well, such as in museums and historical places. Here the authorities can set up infrared signals for each place, so that when you point your iPhone towards that, it will catch those signals and then show the detailed info about that on your iPhone screen, replacing the human guide or tour guide headphones.

It may take some time to completely implement this technology, and it may take even longer for us to see the practical implications of this technology. But none the less, even though this technology is simple and ingenious, it will have far reaching effects. Whether people like it or not, the millions of artists worldwide will love it since they lose money from piracy on a daily basis.
At the end of the day, anti-piracy laws will more than likely be something that we become accustomed to with time. However, these new laws will no doubt make big waves at first as people begin to think that their personal freedoms are being limited when they can no longer do what they want to do with the hardware that they have purchased. Fortunately or unfortunately, companies are in the business of making money, and taking the hard line with piracy will benefit their bottom line.

Martin’s Take: This patent is about remote controlling functionality on Apple devices. Turning off features on the phone while the guy with his Android phone can still take a picture of his loved one on the concert, may be seen positively by the industry, but certainly not by consumers.

I have not found any limitations to that feature online. Can the technology turn off the complete phone? What if the phone is turned off then and someone needs to call in an emergency?

This new technology is one step closer to 1984 in my opinion, with company’s being able to control what you can do with your electronic devices, and what you cannot.

According to a report by the New York Times, Apple are not planning to produce a smaller iPhone as many have suggested, but they are looking at a budget model.

The reason for the former is that a smaller phone would, sources say, probably be no cheaper to manufacture than the full size phone while at the same time would be harder to use.  It could also force app developers to rewrite their apps for the handset.

However the source for the paper does say that it makes sense for the company to have several different form-factors at a single time.  This would make the company more competitive with Google and its Android operating system and it would help to head off any threat from Nokia, the world’s largest phone manufacturer, when it begins to release Windows Phones later this year.

An Apple engineer said that such a phone could be made with cheaper components, essentially reusing older components from previous handsets and taking advantage of technology advancements over the last few years.  Such a device he says, would not be any smaller that the current iPhone.

Apple being Apple we’ll not know what they have planned until they get up on stage and announce it, and we look forward to that.

In other plans, the company is also planning to make its MobileMe service free and more flexible.  Currently at $100 a year its failed to catch on with consumers, especially when rival services from Google and Microsoft are free.  The aim is to provide better functionality including wireless sync.  “The goal is that your photos and other media content will eventually just sync across all your Apple devices without people having to do anything” a source said.

In the end though I had to make a choice, and there was one story that stands head and shoulders above the rest.  Yup!  It’s finally happened, you can turn your iPhone in a classic Star Trek communicator!

This $2 app makes me want to buy an iPhone, seriously.  You activate the app by flicking your iPhone up in the way James T. Kirk did when facing down the Gorn or the Klingons.  Then you can access your contacts and make calls with a voice interface complete with authentic Star Trek SFX.

Quite why it has taken this long for an authentic Star Trek communicator app to come about for a mobile phone amazes me, especially given that the original communicator from the 60′s was the inspiration for the first clamshell mobiles.  This is one app that’s just gotta be had.

That aside, you can find out the very latest news regards the ongoing events in Egypt at the BBC News website.

The program can perform a variety of tasks, its major features are the following:

• Transfer music, movies and photos to apple devices
• Backup music, movies and photos to computer
• Share iPod music and movies with friends
• Recover iTunes Library in case computer crashed

The software program requires that a version of iTunes is installed on the computer system, and that an Apple device such as an iPod, iPad or iPhone is connected as well. If the pre-requisites are met it will display information about the connected device on the start screen.

All it takes to transfer data from the Apple device to the computer is to select the data that you want transferred, for instance all music or photos, and click the transfer button. The program will automatically do the transferring and syncing with iTunes for you. Files can also be transferred from the computer’s iTunes library to an Apple device in a similar way.

One interesting option is the ability to share music, photos or videos with another Apple device. Just connect the two devices to the computer and you are able to share data between them directly. That’s handy for families with multiple iPods, iPhones or Ipads for instance, dorms, work places or other locations.

SyncPod For Windows Features

• Transfer music from apple device to computer – Transfer iPods (iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod touch, iPod shuffle), iPhones (iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS)as well as the latest iPad music files to computer.
• Transfer pictures from harddisk to device – Move your best photos and pictures from computer to your iPod or iPhone device and you can DIY your own screen saver.
• Backup movies from device to computer – Backup iPods (iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod touch, iPod shuffle), iPhones (iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS)as well as the latest iPad movies and videos to computer or harddisk.
• Transfer photos and pictures from device to computer – Transfer your iPhone photos to your computer in case you want to save space for your portable devices.
• Sync media files from computer to device – Transfer your harddisk movies or songs to your iPod, iPhone or iPad within few clicks.
• Share iPod Music and Movies – Share iPod, iPhone or iPad music or movies with friends freely by transferring your iPod, iPhone or iPad files to computer; it will copy them to your friends’ iPod or iPhone all by itself.
• Easy iTunes(iTunes 10) Library Transfer – Helps you transfer music, movies, TV shows and photos from your old PC to your new one, or from your old iPod to your new device when you just got a new one.
• Time saver and free upgrade – Transfer everything from your device to computer in a flash!
• Recover iTunes Library – Perfect solution to transfer your music, movies and photos back to iTunes in case your computer crashed.
• Support latest iTunes 10 – A lifelong technical support will be provided for every customer; also the automatically searching for upgrade always provides customers with latest version.

SyncPod For Windows Giveaway

We have 30 licenses to give away. Just let us know which Apple device you own for a chance to win a license.

Tom is a business man who works in die casting and case hardened steel manufacturing. He needs to travel around the world on a regular basis to meet with clients, deal with situations that arise in his product lines, and to prospect for new business. His technology needs could be either simple or complex depending on his personal temperament. If he is a die hard old fashioned kind of guy, chances are that at the least he will need a phone to stay in contact with his home office and his clients. To go along with the phone, he will of course need a charger and since he is traveling abroad, he will most likely need a travel adapter for outlets. Tom could settle for buying cheap and easily available adapters from each country he needs one in, or, on the other hand, he could plan ahead and get a universal adapter complete with voltage regulator and all the necessary plugs for any country he might visit. In terms of email and printing documents, since he is an old fashioned guy, he uses the computers at the hotel business center and prints things out there or from shops like FedEx or Kinkos. So much for Tom.

Peter, on the other hand, is a thoroughly modern businessman who deals in technology. As such, it is important for him to have all the latest gadgets and gizmos so that his clients don’t make the mistake of thinking that he has anything but the very best of technology. As such, he has an iPhone 4 and of course a universal adapter. furthermore, he is traveling with the latest Vaio laptop complete with all the peripherals for it. He carries an inkless portable printer, a DVD burner, an external 2GB hard drive, and a laser pointer so that when he is making Powerpoint presentations, he is able to easily highlight the selected areas he wants to emphasize. Did I forget to mention he has a portable prjector so that he can project his screen onto any light colored wall? Does he need a truck to carry all this gear? Nope. It all fits in a normal sized briefcase and weighs less than five kilos in total. Is it cheap? No, but that’s not really the point. Peter is out to impress with his technology.

Mike, on the other hand, is a backpacker who is filling his gap year with a trip around the world. He is traveling light and fast, but that doesn’t mean he is technologyless. He carries a Samsung Galaxy WiFi phone which allows him to check Facebook, answer email, and make calls from anywhere on the planet. He has a few extra things with him such as his iPod and a digital camera. He carries just one travel adaptor with him in addtion to a 2 GB flash drive which he uses in cyber cafes. While not a techno-minimalist, he is certainly not traveling heavy and for most of his needs he can either use his phone with a local sim card or he can go to a cyber cafe.

Louise is a completely different story. She is traveling with an Acer Aspire One netbook, a portable 500 MB hardrive from Sanyo for storing her favorite films and songs, plus a heavy duty Olympus professional digital camera. In addition, she carries a number of devices that she needs to fulfill her role as a professional travel blogger. These include her PDA, a hefty Blackberry. Also she has a CD/DVD burner which she uses to burn disks for clients and friends she meets along the way and wants to share her photos with. Because she is often traveling outside of places where electricity is readily available, she carries a solar powered backpack charger with which she can not only carry her gear, but also charge it as long as there is a decent amount of sunshine. Add to this a multi function water filter, power cords, and of course her electric travel toothbrush and you might begin to understand why Louise is carrying more weight than backpacker Mike! Of course, all of her technology gear comes in at less than ten kilos and that includes her travel speakers which hook into her iPod or netbook and provide Dolby Surround Sound .

Every day, travel technology is changing from Google Maps to Google Streetview to the latest phones which allow you to use GPS anywhere on the planet. There really are no restrictions on what you can or should do while you are on your journeys whether they are for business or pleasure.

So, what do you need to travel with? It really depends on how far you intend to travel and what you intend to do. There is no one size fits all solution but if you look at the gear lists of the travelers above, it should give you a pretty good idea of what is essential for you.

In a press release today, the company said…

iOS 4.2 makes the iPad a completely new product, just in time for the holiday season," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "Once again, the iPad with iOS 4.2 will define the target that other tablets will aspire to, but very few, if any, will ever be able to hit."

iPad users can now run their favorite apps and switch between them instantly, while preserving iPad’s legendary battery life. Users can organize their apps with drag-and-drop simplicity using Folders, and Mail now features a Unified Inbox, fast inbox switching and a threaded message view.

Game Center allows iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users to challenge and play friends or be matched automatically with new opponents, showcase their scores and achievements, and discover new games their friends are playing.

AirPlay is a new feature for streaming music, video and photos wirelessly from iPad, iPhone and iPod touch to Apple TV®, transforming Apple TV into a great accessory for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. iOS users also will be able to use AirPort Express® and AirPlay to stream wirelessly to any stereo or powered speakers, or directly to AirPlay-enabled speakers coming to market in the months ahead.

AirPrint is a next-generation Wi-Fi print architecture that dramatically simplifies printing by completely eliminating printer drivers. A selection of AirPrint enabled printers including the HP Photosmart, HP LaserJet Pro and HP Officejet will be the first to support printing direct from iOS devices. iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can simply tap to print their documents or photos wirelessly to any printer that supports AirPrint.

Despite the multi-tasking, probably the biggest addition in terms of actual usefulness is AirPrint which finally gives the iPad printing abilities, something that many commentators have said is the tablet’s biggest flaw.

Game Centre is clearly Apple’s response to Windows Phone 7 and its integration with Xbox Live, though there’s more than enough room in the market for these products to happy co-exist.  Indeed there are so many games available for the iPhone now that it would be a huge oversight not ot introduce a games centre.

The update is available to download now through iTunes (version 10.1) and is a free update for all the devices mentioned at the beginning of this article.  This must surely make it a must-have release.

Figures from IDC and published by Engadget show that the league table now stands as…

1. Nokia
2. Samsung
3. LG
4. Apple
5. RIM

…and given their recent and ongoing troubles, we can expect to see Nokia lose the top spot very soon.

According to IDC, Apple is now shipping 14.1 million handsets every quarter worldwide.  Further down the list, Sony Ericsson is apparently struggling but the company’s phones have lost their appeal in recent years.  It’s the first time Sony Ericsson has not been included in the list since 2004.

Full details of the top five companies with market share and manufacturing information can be found below, click on the image to view it full-size.

Apple have had their eye on overtaking RIM for some time, and this figure confirms a recent boast made by Apple supremo Steve Jobs.  Market leader Nokia still accounts for 32.4% of the market, though this has slipped from last year’s 36.5%

Originally scheduled for launch on the 24th June and later delayed until the end of 2010, we now understand that it will be Spring 2011 at the earliest before this handset sees the white, sorry light of day.

In an official statement, Apple said “We’re sorry to disappoint customers waiting for the white iPhone yet again, but we’ve decided to delay its release until this spring.”  This could make things almost as bad as the long and drawn-out wait for the black Nintendo Wii, which was talked about by the company before the console even launched but which was dogged by production problems as Nintendo had huge trouble simply meeting demand for the white console as it was.

Some issues with the handset are relatively trivial, but reflect well on Apple’s attention to detail and perfectionist approach to their hardware.  Most notable with these was the white finish of the phone ‘not quite’ matching the white on the front and back of the handset.  Other reports say that the white glass is interfering with the camera’s ability to take good shots.

Whatever the reason(s), it’s a shame for all iPhone fans as the white iPhone 4 handset is undeniably pretty and would get the sweaty masses excited about this phone all over again.

It’s exciting too, finally a smartphone OS for people who bemoan the lack of buttons on their handsets and a budgeting department that Ridley Scott would be jealous of.  Microsoft have $1 billion to throw at this product launch worldwide, and this is on top of whatever handset manufacturers and mobile operators will add to the mix.  You can be certain that you’ll be hearing a lot more about this mobile OS over the next few months.

Everything’s in place too, the new Windows Phone website has launched and the new version of the Zune software, which will be used to synchronise the devices with your PC has also been made available today.

What happens now will depend very much on the quality of the advertisements that Microsoft produce.  Apple received a pasting with their negative anti-Windows adverts around the time that Windows 7 launched.  People don’t like negative advertising, but equally they don’t respond to adverts that don’t speak to them.  With Windows Phone 7 Microsoft have to make certain that they do this.

If you’re as excited about this new smartphone OS as I am you’ll be getting on regardless, but if you’re an average phone user who hasn’t yet made the jump to a smartphone you’ll be harder to impress.  You might be pushed towards it as handsets with buttons become increasingly harder to buy, but if Microsoft get it right, this could tempt you to at least try a device in a store when you’ve not wanted to try the app-centric iOS or Android in the past.

Whatever happens it’s clear that both iOS and Android are here to stay.  They both have a large market share and they both have legions of fans.  I don’t believe that WP7 is tempting enough to lure anyone away.

Give it time though and if Microsoft have got the advertising right you’ll pass by a mobile phone shop in a couple of months and might wander in to try one.  If they get it wrong, good luck to them.

The error caused the times on phones to revert back two hours instead of just one.  This resulted in one disgruntled iPhone user being awoken at 3am instead of 5am, and a great many more complaints from users on Twitter.

In his blog the disgruntled user said…

I am tired and I am grumpy. And it’s my iPhone’s fault! Yes, folks, as if losing an hour’s sleep due to daylight savings isn’t bad enough, how about losing another hour just for good measure? It seems that Apple have borked something with the alarm clock and despite the clock on my iPhone being correctly set, the alarm I had scheduled for 5:55am went off at 4:55am this morning, which is basically 3:55am until my body clock adjusts. Unfortunately my tired brain didn’t spot the critical flaw in the Matrix and now I’m seriously hacked off. But the plot thickens upon further investigation…

It’s not the first time a device has been hit by a daylight savings bug.  Microsoft’s Zune players once famously failed to operate for a full 24 hours as they didn’t recognise the date as a valid day.  Microsoft couldn’t have issued a patch in time as when the clocks ticked over to midnight again, everything started working properly.

It’s far too early for Apple to issue a comment or to say if the same bug will hit other countries when they switch from summer time in a few weeks, after all, when the bug hit people in Cupertino were just getting ready for bed.  We can be dertain though that a patch will be issued, but perhaps not before the bug has had a chance to strike again.

It’s not known whether this is local to New Zealand but if you have an iPhone and use its alarm when daylight savings time changes next, you might want to go back to your trusty old clock radio for the night.

In the interview, Schmidt described Microsoft’s search engine as their main competitor, describing it as a “well-run, highly competitive search engine.”

He said that Microsoft need to be watched and implied that they had perhaps been written-off prematurely by the media, especially where Bing is concerned.

The Bing search engine now also powers Yahoo! search and Bing recently overtook Yahoo to take second place in the search engine rankings.  This isn’t bad for a search engine that comes from a family of search engines that had awful reputations, and that’s achieved this in less than 18 months.

It was also clear that Google’s smartphone and tablet operating system, Android, is a secondary concern and that Apple, as a result, isn’t the main competitive focus of the company.

This is not really a surprise as search and advertising provide Google with almost all of its revenue.  The free Android OS must be a drain on resources and is really only a way to help market the Google name and maintain consumer goodwill towards the company.

You can view the entire interview on the Wall Street Journal’s website.

In research conducted by NeoWin they have discovered that iPhone 4 signal performance actually increases slightly with the bumpers on.

None of this should come as any great surprise as a Human hand can be used as a conductor and as a medium that can both disrupt and absorb radio and electrical signals.  Placing a non-conductive material between a person’s hand and the phone would negate any negative effects cause by this.

The benefits are marginal as I’ve said but they do highlight that sometimes a case of any description can help improve the signal quality of a phone, in addition to protecting it and prolonging its life.  This is something that mobile handset manufacturers seem to be letting slip during the design and development process for new handsets, as the pressure is on to make them ever thinner and lighter.

Research such as this, however unscientific it may have been and however handset manufacturers may refute it, is an excellent example of how they can and should look again at the development of new handsets to try and negate signal drop out and other problems, through simple changes and amendments to a mobile phone’s design.  It’s very likely that comsumers would happily accept a phone that was a little bit thicker in exchange for this type of performance improvement.

A message posted by MuscleNerd on Twitter said…

Jailbreaking, the process of unlocking the iPhone, has received a great deal of attention due to the fact that doing so allows users to install non-approved software on the device.

Apple has publicly said that such a process would present security risks for users and have tried to bar jailbroken devices from updates and support.  This is a Battle that’s set to run and run.

The interesting thing to note about this however is will it go the way of the corporation or the consumer?  Clearly there is a growing Apple use-base out there who don’t want to be tied exclusively within the Apple eco-system.  You only have to look at the growing ranges of software to help you sync your iPod or iPhone with your PC or Mac without needing to have iTunes installed.

There’s no official release yet for the jailbreaking patch for iOS 4.1, but iPhone and iPod Touch users who upgrade can no doubt expect something to be made available soon.  Please bear in mind however that unlocking a device in this manner could invalidate any warranty or guarantee on your device.

Source : Engadget

I say it’s unusual though you have to take into account here that neither of these products are cheap, but neither will be the development for the operating system.

The update is being distributed via iTunes with users being alerted that it is available.  It fixes very little by the way of bugs but does add some interesting new features including the new game centre for multi-player gaming, the abaility to take HDR pictures, rent TV shows from the iTunes store and work with HD video on YouTube.

The update is available for the iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPhone 4 and for the 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch.

Version 4.2 of iOS is expected to be launched in November.

The patent, which is intended to be able to disable stolen handsets was submitted on Friday and is called “systems and methods for identifying unauthorized users of an electronic device”.  It outlines a way to identify Jailbroken iPhones or iPads or ones that have been reported as stolen (Apple are obviously making the assumption that any stolen phone will need to be unlocked before it’s disabled by the carrier network).

It details many different methods for identifying the devices and the person with that device.  These include recording the users voice, taking photos or detecting the heartbeat of the user.  It also details how GPS could be used to track the handset.

The patent also details methods by which the genuine user of the phone could be notified of this through email or services such as Facebook.

Functions would be restricted, it says, including contacts, calendars, browsers and any and all functionality that either contains personal information or could run up a bill for the user.

While the patent is clearly aimed at averting the huge crime-wave surrounding the iPhone, it’s also a good way for Apple to identify Jailbroken devices and this raises the question that if you’ve paid for it, and own it, why shouldn’t you be alowed to do what you like with it?

If this all seems a little machiavellian to you then you’re probably not alone.

Source : Slashdot