TamsIJungle

So far, Apple has refused to let developers run “alternative solutions” to applications found in their IOS ROM – things like GPSs, email clients and podcast catchers were kicked out of the iTunes App Store sooner rather than later in order to protect Apple and its partners (especially Google).

However, this partnership could now be breaking up (due to Android) – Florian Schimanke reports that Navigon is close to releasing a version of its Mobile Navigagtor for iPhone.

If his information is correct (it tends to be), this is not on Apple’s own intent but rather at T-Mobile’s behest – images of a navigation solution with T-Mobile branding have been floating across German web sites for quite some time.

Of course, the old Greek saying “Quod licet Jovi non licet bovi” applies: which means that Joe Developer without carrier backing will likely still get a kick in the butt when trying to compete with IOS applications.

As always: feedback greatly appreciated!

MobileCrunch reports that beta 4 of iPhone OS has been released – according to them, the following things were changed:

* MMS now working on more carriers without modified carrier bundles (Only one report – still working on confirming this.)
* General performance updates, far less crash prone than the past builds.
* The “Store” settings pane now functions, allowing you basic control over your iTunes account
* API Change: “SKErrorPaymentNowAllowed allowed and was replaced with SKErrorPaymentNotAllowed”

Week 2 of our Crazy Sunday raffle is over: this means that one price must be given away, and another one must be announced. Before we get down to the nitty-gritty, please allow me to thank you all for talking back!

Your comments are what keeps a news service like this one running. Tell us that you love us, or tell that you hate us (and why)…but show us that you are there! We love you all…seriously!

This week, you guys are entitled to a free pop at HanDBase! Data miners will love this app, as it helps you stay on top of your collected data sets!

Last week’s price (a license of SplashID, a password manager) goes back to the prize queue as it was not claimed by anyone.

With that, this post ends – just talk back and leave behind an email address in order to participate!

Verizon has shown extreme interest in Apple’s iPhone in the past – they even went so far as to ask leaving customers if they would have been retainable if an iPhone were offered to them.

This amount of admiration must obviously be commercialized. BusinessWeek claims the following:

…Verizon Wireless is in talks with Apple to distribute two new iPhone-like devices, BusinessWeek has learned. Apple has created prototypes of the devices, and discussions reaching back a half-year have involved Apple CEO Steve Jobs, …

One device is a smaller, less expensive calling device described by a person who has seen it as an “iPhone lite.” The other is a media pad that would let users listen to music, view photos, and watch high-definition videos, … One of these devices may be introduced as early as this summer, one person says.
…

Today’s issue of the Financial Times contained a similar report:

As of now, no further information is available. I am pretty sure that AT&T will try to fight this partnership with all it has – and could offer Apple a very interesting deal.

The boys with the A have little to loose either way: almost two years have passed since the introduction of the iPhone, thereby giving users ample opportunity to switch…

What do you think?

The plethora of chargers used by different manufacturers has attracted EU regulation for quite some time – it looks like the US CTIA will now follow suite:

…
The CTIA wireless association endorsed a plan to create a common format for all cellular phone chargers.

The plan, known as Universal Charging Solution, aims to have the majority of all new mobile phones use MicroUSB as a common charging interface. This would potentially lower the costs for end users because they could use the same charger for future handsets.
…

Even though I prefer the handling of MiniUSB to the somewhat difficult-to-unplug MicroUSB port, standardization definitely is helpful – imagine being able to travel with but one charger…

The quote below is part of a recent press release from Deutsche Telekom, which is the mother company of the infamous carrier known as T-Mobile:

…The sale of more than 1 million G1 handsets since the market launch in October 2008 alone, and a total of over 1.5 million 3G-capable handsets sold in the United States, clearly shows, however, that customers are demanding products and ser-vices based on these increased bandwidths and that the provision of these products and services is an important selling point in competition.
…

From my personal point of view, this shows but one thing: the recession has not killed the US cell phone market (as of this writing). New players like Palm can still sell quite a few boxen if marketed right…

Feedback, anyone?

Common sense tells us that carriers are opposed to all kinds of EU legislation which forces them to lower their prices – but this is not true in the case of the Austrian branch of Hutchison Whampoa.

Their never-lazy press team just sent out an email celebrating the change – the most interesting quotes have been translated below for your enjoyment:

…the average Three customer has voice-roamed 32 percent more since the last regulation…

…in the Past, Three has seen insane effects of affordable roaming. The ThreeLikeHome service boosted roaming use in participating networks insanely: in the first year, voice roaming increased by 427 percent, data roaming rose by 8900 percent (8900, no typo).

Of course, the latter figures can not be extrapolated directly due to the especially good conditions of the ThreeLikeHome bundle – but the basic message is clear: Customers want cheap roaming, and tend to roam a lot more as prices fall.

This one comes hot on the heels of Nintendo announcing the sale of half a million DSi’s in the first week after their US launch:

Apple sold 3.79 million iPhones during the quarter, and 11.01 million iPods – a figure that includes iPod touch devices, although also iPod Shuffles. Apple’s revenues for the quarter from iPhone handset sales, accessory sales and carrier payments topped $1.52 billion.

…

“The sum of iPhone plus iPod touch is now about 37 million units… The iPod touch is the runaway hit and it’s clearly being driven by the App Store.”

Just to keep the numbers in scale…

via PocketGamer

A recently-leaked slide from AT&T’s has circulated all over the internet in the last few hours – according to PreCentral, it was followed up with a series of in-store seminars training employees on perceived or real weaknesses of the Pre when compared to the iPhone 3G.

Leaving the points in the slide aside (most of them are pretty, um, eeker), one very significant bit of information remains: the Pre will face the iPhone 3G, and not some kind of successor.

If AT&T would already have further information on the immediacy of the iPhone 4G’s release, why for heavens sake would they train their employees to fight the Pre using the iPhone 3G rather than the newly-released model?

IMHO, this is good news for Palm: it means that their (untested) device gets to run against a (2 year old) device which may be well-tested, but definitely isn’t cutting edge anymore and furthermore lacks a keyboard.

An iPhone 4G would probably steal most of the hype from the Pre – but when it comes to facing the current 3G, I am pretty sure that the Pre has good chances if Palm doesn’t bork up on customer care and/or press relations.

Ideas, anyone?

The first round of Crazy Sunday has just ended on the six participating news services – and the winners have been determined and were furthermore contacted by email. But before we look at who lucked out, let’s look at this week’s price.

This week, people who tend to forget passwords must enter lest they burn in hell. The reason is our prize: you are in for a free license of SplashData’s password manager SplashID.

As usual: post a non-spam comment with your email address in the email field on any news story to participate. The Tamoggemon Content team wishes you all the best!

Paul Gudgel will probably find himself running into obstacles in the next weeks, as he has won a license of Meteor for iPhone or iPod touch. Asteroid heads all over the world are advised to purchase the product – our review is here.