Originally, the deal had AT&T as the exclusive carrier of the iPhone until 2008. From that point, Apple would be allowed to start selling the smartphone on other carriers. However, the companies met last August and decided to extend that partnership through the end of this year. This was not the end of it all as the AT&T Chief Executive is now in talks with Apple to keep that deal alive until 2011.

Apple has sold more than 17 million iPhones since its debut less than two years ago, and the carrier added 4.3 million iPhone subscribers in the second half of 2008. 40% of whom were new to AT&T. Last month, AT&T announced plans to sell iPhone 3Gs without a two-year contract for $599 and $699, a move that Apple quickly duplicated at its own stores. Suggestions of a $300 iPhone subsidy are also afloat, if AT&T was willing to go that far, Apple stands to clean up by negotiating contracts with other carriers.

[via CNET]

A year ago, Apple CEO Steve Jobs and iPhone software head Scott Forstall publicly described the parameters of the iPhone software development process. Since then, the iPhone and iPod Touch have become truly personal devices to the point that now, the future of the iPhones’ success lies in the hands of outside developers. With applications now the focus for marketing to consumers and business, industry competitors have noticed like the BlackBerry App World.

Apple waited for the right time to open the App doors to outside developers. There have been a few hick-ups for Apple, such as misguided nondisclosure agreement to confusing policies on App Store requirements. This includes agreements  for developers to not disclosing tips or tricks with fellow engineers. Developers can however focus on the positive. “If you would have asked me a year ago if I saw myself making $250,000 selling a fart app, I would have said, ‘you’re nuts’,” said Joel Comm, CEO of Infomedia and iPhone zeitgeist application iFart Mobile. The direction of the app world for Apple is in the hands of the creative developer. So what have you made lately?

[via CNET]

Melinda Gates, together with Bill, manage the Gates Foundation, which admits that little could be accomplished without its wealth.  However the philanthropy’s true power lies in its willingness to apply the merciless principles of the business world to charity.

Around the house however and through a rare insight to the personal Mrs Gates she admits, “there are very few things that are on the banned list in our household,” Gates told Vogue. “But iPods and iPhones are two things we don’t get for our kids.” Gates acknowledges the inevitable lure of forbidden fruit. “Every now and then, I look at my friends and say, ‘Ooh, I wouldn’t mind having that iPhone.’” Will she bite the Apple?

[via Style.com]

While Meizu had very little mind of their own when making this device, and it is very apparent when looking at the device. Before totally writing it off though, it is at least worth glancing at the spec sheet, with features such as: Wifi, TV out, capacitive touch screen, quad band GSM, 3 megapixel camera, and Bluetooth 2.0.

The device will be made available in August. While the device will never go on sale here, it is supported, as it has that 4th GSM band. No price has been set. Really though, does anybody that has even heard of Meizu not have an iPhone already though?

[Via VR-Zone]

RIM – which has recently revealed healthy 2007 performance figures – has been successful primarily due to the “simply inept” offerings of rivals, primarily using the Windows Mobile OS.  Wolf suggests Microsoft’s smartphone software is unnecessarily difficult and off-putting to home users.  Palm, meanwhile, is hampered by the absence of a strong OS or of a well-performing device, with Wolf describing the Centro – one million of which have been sold – as a “cushion” to soften the blow until Palm’s new range emerges, a range the company has already admitted will be delayed until the Summer.

And the argument for the iPhone will only get stronger once Firmware 2.0 is released in June; then, Wolf highlights, the enterprise functionality and security RIM has so-far led with will be available on the far more appealing Apple handset, at which point not only the whims of home users will affect the BlackBerry bottom line.

[via Electronista]

Click through for the full list of specs and a demoed video on steroid.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=vz_MviiyQx4[/youtube]

[thanks for sending the video and images over - mobiles.shop.tm]

Detailed Product Description
Dual SIM Mobile Phone with 3.2″ Large Touch Screen Hi-phone.

Basic Specification:

1-Network supported: GSM850/900/1800/1900( 850/1900 optional )

2-Form: Candy bar

3-Main display 3.2″ touch flow with multi-touch function

4-Talk time: 120-180 mins

5-Standby time 200-250 hours

6-Shell color: Black

7-Dimensions: 110x55x12mm

8-Weight: 107g

9-Battery: 1200mAH Li-ion battery,

10- Dual SIM card, Single Standby.

11- Slides to unlock the screen.

Basis function

1-Sound :64 Polyphonies

2-Phone book: 250

3-Message : SMS/MMS

4-Language: English,Russian,Arabic,Vietnamese,French,Portuguese,Spanish,German etc.

5-Alert clock, Memo, Calendar, Calculator, World time , Area code.

Data application

1-Stereo Bluetooth 2.0

2-JAVA

3-Browser: WAP/GPRS

4-Data cable Supported

5-Memory card up to 2G

6-Flash disk

Multi-media entertainment

1-MP3/MP4 player with motional control ;

2-Camera 1.3 MP;

3-with Fm;

4-Photo display Zoom in and Zoom out

Package contents

1-Li-ion battery;

2-Charger;

3-512MB T-Flash card;

4-Silica case;

5-USB Data cable;

6-English manual

Check out the full gallery of XPERIA X1 vs iPhone photos after the cut!

In terms of pure hardware and cellular connectivity, the X1 does rather outshine the iPhone. Sony Ericsson have packed an ARM-based Qualcomm chipset running at 520MHz into their handset; now while Apple chose a CPU capable of 667MHz, so far it’s throttled back to around 500MHz to save power. If they’re roughly equal on raw grunt, it’s high-speed data access where the XPERIA X1 shines: both have WiFI, but the Sony Ericsson’s HSDPA/HSUPA easily outguns the iPhone’s EDGE connection. The X1′s WVGA 800 x 480 display is physically smaller, at 3-inches, than the iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen, but the Apple phone only manages 320 x 480 resolution.

Apple do beat the X1 on internal memory, though; out of the box the XPERIA only has 400MB, expanded via microSD card, whereas the iPhone is available in 8GB or 16GB sizes (though the memory cannot be added to via a memory card). GPS on the X1 is another point in Sony Ericsson’s favour, as is the hardware keyboard (although it does make the XPERIA 5mm thicker than the iPhone: 110 x 53 x 16.7mm for the X1, 115 x 61 x 11.6mm for the iPhone.

What will likely make the biggest difference is the software environment. Time – and sales – have shown that Apple’s intuitive and attractive mobile OS X is enough to persuade users to look beyond the shortcomings of EDGE; it’s a reputation for usability Windows Mobile would love to have. Sony Ericsson are obviously hoping that their XPERIA Panel Interface – a group of finger-friendly shortcut tiles and menus – will gloss over WM’s shortcomings, leaving us to revel in all those third-party apps (that don’t require handset hacking to install) and true push-email, but we’ll have to wait for Vincent’s hands-on video to see just how much they’ve achieved that.

[Via XPERIA X1 vs iPhone: spend now or save? - PHONE Magazine]

A few comparing pics of Meizu Mini One and Apple iPhone. The Mini One will have a 533Mhz Samsung processor, 128MB of DDR SDRAM, TFT touchscreen, 720×480 resolution, 3-megapixel back camera, 0.3-megapixel front camera, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, DMB TV Tuner, GPS, video output, AVI/MPEG4/WMV support, and a 4GB to 16GB size.

[Via dailymobile.se]

“Once you have devices out there from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and so on, there’s a much larger potential market on Android than for the iPhone. [Apple is] a single manufacturer, it’s targeted at a particular demographic, and it falls far short of the 1 billion mobile phones sold every year worldwide” Rich Miner, Google

“There are things I saw people doing with the first version of the Android SDK that it seems like you can’t do with the iPhone at least at the moment” Rich Miner, Google

Strong words, you could say, from a company yet to ship a single handset to a consumer; last month, Google revealed that the Android SDK had been downloaded 750,000 times since its November launch. Apple’s iPhone SDK was downloaded 100,000 times in its first four days of availability.

According to Miner, of the four main handset manufacturers signed up to Android – Motorola, LG, Samsung and HTC – one is expected to reach the market with a device before the others; industry sources suggest that will be a smartphone variant from HTC.

Still, after roundly critiquing the iPhone’s sales, sales potential and the capacity of its SDK, Miner saved some love for last:

“It’s not a competitive thing — it’s great that people are finally building tools so all of these third-party applications can be built and get out there. If I were a developer] I’d certainly be looking at the iPhone, and if you believe there will be lots of Android phones out there, as we do, I’d be developing for both platforms” Rich Miner, Google

[Via Google: We’ll far outsell iPhone; our SDK lets you do more - PHONE Magazine]

The T32 is 15.5mm thick, with smaller screen at 3.1-inch (compared to iPhone 3.5-inch)
It comes with two camera (2mega-pixel) front and back. Just like the iPhone, it is not a 3G handset. Other features the T32 offers are Wi-Fi and A2DP Bluetooth 1.2.

So if you love the iPhone look, but have to stick with WM for whatever reason is, you might want to get this real good imitation a try.
The Chinese wholeseller Adrian Co.Ltd does not reveal any pricing information, however you can contact them for pricing.

[via reghardware]

“There is more than $115 million US Dollars at stake for Apple in China.  [T]he competitors at the table are deadly serious.  And they should be.  They have turf to protect.  Nokia, for one, sold more than 50 million mobile handsets in China during the first 3 quarters of 2007.  Research in Motion (RIM) is another key player.  RIM recently signed a deal with China Mobile to distribute their Blackberry 8700 smart-phone.  RIM has bet big on the China market” Dan Butterfield, PhoneMag

As it stands, speculation about the 3G iPhone may have pushed full disclosure about any deal being brokered between Apple and China Mobile deep into NDA territory.  While that has a benefit in other areas currently selling the original iPhone, it leaves Apple’s competitors (and sellers of unlocked iPhones, which are flourishing) in China relatively free reign.  And delay gives Wang Jianzhou further space to press for a deal better weighted in China Mobile’s favour.

“Research in Motion (RIM) and Microsoft, to be sure, will not be singing Apple praises.  You can also list a few handset manufacturers (Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, HTC, LG and Meizu) who have their China market-share to protect.  The biggest spoiler in the crowd might be Nokia.  Nokia sells more phones than anyone in the China.  It’s hard to imagine that Nokia will stay silent while China Mobile and Apple play their hand” Dan Butterfield, PhoneMag

Hit the cut for details on how the iPhone trumps the Blackberry.

Consumer Reports gave the iPhone an overall 64, with the Blackberry Curve stooping behind at a respectable 61. Notable features that are better on the iPhone are 8.25 hours of talk time versus the Blackberry Curve’s 6.25 hour talk time, ease of syncing, and best choice for media. The Blackberry Curve did beat the iPhone solely in having real time push email, but Consumer Reports also marked the iPhone a win over the Blackberry Curve because of the iPhone’s easier and stronger email client. The iPhone wins again this round, what else can the iPhone stoop up to?

[Via Electronista]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzETYbGEqgo[/youtube]

[Via Applephoneinfo.de]

The iPhone’s high numbers in internet usage are probably somewhat related to the ease of use of Safari, and the fact that everybody shows off how ridiculously nice the iPhone is doing everything imaginable.

[Via Valleywag]

Looks like Macmall will be the best place to pick up some deals on Black Friday, though we’re still waiting to see what the Apple store has to offer, it most likely won’t top the 22% Macmall is giving.