Apple CEO Steve Jobs has confirmed that the iPhone 3G has a kill switch that can remotely remove software from the devices.
 
Jobs told The Wall Street Journal that Apple needs the capability in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program — such as an application that steals user’s personal data — to be distributed to iPhones through its App Store.

“Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull,” Jobs said.

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In less than a year, the iPhone has won the hearts of users, who speak of the combination cellphone, Internet device and music player with reverence.

Indeed, the iPhone, which maker Apple Inc. says has captured 28% of the U.S. smart-phone market, seems to be loved by everyone — everyone, that is, except those who work in corporate information-technology departments.
Chevron’s CIO discusses information overload, consumer tech at work and IT project management. Plus, planning corporate gatherings is getting a lot easier — and a lot less expensive.
• See the complete Technology report.Designed with the consumer in mind, the iPhone is less secure than business-oriented smart phones such as those from Nokia Corp. or Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry, according to IT professionals. But that isn’t stopping people from using the device for work-related tasks such as checking email, managing sales contacts and getting information about prospective clients. In fact, market researcher Nielsen Co. estimates that one-quarter of iPhone owners over the age of 18 pass their phone bills on to their employer, suggesting significant use of the device for business.

Many IT groups have banned the iPhone from their workplaces, complaining that there is no way to force employees to protect their iPhones with passwords and that they can’t erase sensitive corporate data from remote locations if the device is stolen or lost. Additionally, they say the iPhone doesn’t support the software many businesses use and that it only works on one cellular carrier’s network.

But keeping the iPhone out of the office may be a losing battle. As a result, some technology experts say the iPhone could usher in a change in the way businesses adopt new technologies.

Shifting Landscape

Whereas software vendors and other tech suppliers traditionally pitched their products to high-ranking executives and IT managers, some are now paying closer attention to the technologies workers actually use. Some vendors say that if employees make clear that they are going to embrace a particular device — with or without their IT department’s approval — then they will develop compatible products for it. Otherwise, they risk losing business to rivals.

“It’s clear to us that power is shifting to the users” and away from IT departments, says Mike de la Cruz, a vice president at business-software maker SAP AG. “So we’ve changed our strategy to focus on the users.”

SAP, of Germany, says it is developing a version of its customer-management software for the iPhone that will let salespeople access information about leads and customers, partly because its own salespeople prefer the iPhone. International Business Machines Corp. of Armonk, N.Y., is developing a version of its Lotus email and collaboration software for iPhone users, and salesforce.com Inc., of San Francisco, and Sun Microsystems Inc., of Santa Clara, Calif., are among other companies tailoring software for Apple’s device.

Some vendors are designing applications aimed at making the iPhone more business-friendly. Sybase Inc., for example, released an iPhone version of its software for forwarding corporate email and other data to mobile devices. Sybase’s software is installed and managed centrally, so it gives IT departments some measure of control over what end users are doing. Overwhelming demand from managers and executives at customer companies led Sybase to create the iPhone-tailored software, according to Senthil Krishnapillai, a director of project management at the Dublin, Calif., company.

Apple and its iPhone partner, AT&T Inc., are trying to make the iPhone more business-friendly, too. In January, AT&T began to allow iPhone purchases by corporate-account holders. Previously, the telephone company would bill iPhone charges only to individuals, and they would have to seek reimbursement from their companies. “We saw business customers clamoring for the iPhone” and wanted to make it easier for them to use the device, says an AT&T spokesperson.

Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., said earlier this month that it plans to release new iPhone software in June that will allow IT departments to integrate the device with Microsoft Corp.’s email, calendar and contact-management software. The new software also will allow iPhones to connect to a corporate network in a secure fashion and give IT staffs the ability to erase data on a lost or stolen iPhone from a remote location.

Simon Yates, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., says these moves address the biggest concerns that IT departments have about the iPhone. Another research company, Gartner Inc., said the announced changes would make the iPhone appropriate for business use.

Harboring Doubts

Despite the steps to make the iPhone more business-friendly, some chief information officers continue to harbor doubts. David O’Berry, who heads IT for the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services, says his organization uses email software from Novell Inc., not Microsoft, so Apple’s changes won’t help him. In addition, even though Apple intends to set up a private section of its new App Store — the service through which people download applications for their iPhones — for business, Mr. O’Berry and other chief information officers don’t like the fact that they would have to go through Apple to distribute in-house software to employees. That means giving Apple access to their computer code, which some are reluctant to do.

Most people who use their iPhones for work don’t think about these technical challenges. What they see is a device capable of connecting to wireless Internet networks, with a full-fledged Web browser and a large screen that gives them access to the same Internet pages they can get on their personal computers and gives them the ability to play music and movies.

Michael King, a Gartner analyst, says that while other phones have browsers with similar features, their smaller screen sizes give them limited utility. He expects bigger screens to become more commonplace on smart phones soon.

When Mark Russell, vice president of sales and marketing at U-Line Corp., had to replace a damaged Nokia smart phone, he bought an iPhone. The phone’s “cool” factor was its main appeal, but he found that its Web browser allowed him to more easily locate distributors and get directions to meetings. He says that because he is an executive, his Milwaukee company agreed to support the device, using software from Visto Corp. that allows him to access email on the iPhone.

Source:online.wsj

Apple’s iPhone scored another round of praise and publicity after unveiling a program that will let other companies create applications for the popular device.But the excitement didn’t make its way to the mobile music market. Although those hoping to add mobile games, corporate e-mail accounts and other content to their iPhone are thrilled, music services see little opportunity to use the groundbreaking device as a means of advancing the enjoyment or acquisition of music from mobile phones.

Apple released a beta software development kit (SDK) that gives programmers various tools to develop applications that not only run on the iPhone and iPod Touch, but also take advantage of several key capabilities — such as the touch-screen and motion sensor.

In June, Apple will issue the AppStore, an update to iTunes that will enable users to buy and download these third-party applications much like they already do music and video.

This allows developers to create mobile entertainment applications without having to negotiate with AT&T — the only carrier officially compatible with the iPhone in the United States. On the surface, this is great news for developers long frustrated with the difficult process of partnering with wireless operators.

Why? The 30 percent cut Apple proposes to take from each application sold via the AppStore is better (for developers) than the average 40 percent cut wireless operators take. And the SDK process is fairly straightforward compared with the often arduous process of negotiating carrier contracts.

“They’ve grossly simplified it,” says Paul Reddick, CEO of Handmark, which distributes mobile applications for smart phones. “It just seems like a pretty open environment.”

But ultimately, Apple decides which applications it will sell, and that spells bad news for music-related services hoping to find a home on the iPhone.

“It’s an open question at this point how amenable Apple will be to offering products or applications that could conceivably interfere with its own iTunes revenue stream,” NPD Group’s Ross Rubin says.

Amazon will be ‘interesting test case’
An iPhone version of Rhapsody or Napster is almost certainly out of the question, as both require software and digital rights management not compatible with Apple products.

In more of a gray area are online streaming services like Last.fm, Pandora and imeem. None has downloading capabilities outside of linking to such third-party services as iTunes, and as such Apple may see them as services that drive sales rather than cannibalize them.

“The real interesting test case will be Amazon,” Rubin says. “Here’s a music vendor selling songs that are clearly compatible with the iPhone. Unlike with Rhapsody or Napster, there’s no DRM you need to make work.”

The same goes for eMusic. But both are considered iTunes challengers, and Apple could easily decline to make their applications available in the AppStore.

None of the companies mentioned were available to comment on this story.

Also discouraging is that, at least in the beta version of the SDK, developers won’t have access to any iTunes functionality.

This severely restricts the ability for such iTunes plug-in applications as iLike, Last.fm, Qloud or OnTour to create iPhone-compatible widgets that might expand basic iTunes functions.

But they can still write Web applications that users can access through iPhone’s Safari browser, which does not require Apple’s SDK or approval. A few already have surfaced, such as the SeeqPod full-song streaming search engine.

The problem is that those applications won’t have access to the iPhone’s functionality to the same extent as those written with the SDK.

Additionally, such applications would be at a tremendous competitive disadvantage compared with those that can be bought directly over the phone because a) they lose the awareness bump of appearing in the AppStore, and b) they could be rendered inoperable or disrupt the phone if Apple issues an incompatible software update.

Yet developers are keen to get their applications on the device in any way possible, regardless of the risks, simply because of the quality of services it allows.

Even though the iPhone owns less than 1 percent of the overall phone market, it disproportionately owns the majority of the multimedia activity taking place on mobile phones. Apple claims 71 percent of all mobile Internet browsing activity with the iPhone simply because it’s easier to surf the Web on it than on other devices.

Source:msnbc.msn

 In wireless world, living without a mobile like living on a desert island

Last Fourth of July at the beach, Leah Wilson lost her “lifeline.”

Wilson, a 22-year-old graduate student, had clipped her blue flip phone around her bikini bottom — for safekeeping. Then, she left her towel, her other belongings, to let her hair down at Pacific Beach in San Diego. But between playing sports on the beach — and drinking — Wilson’s cell phone went missing.

“My whole life crashed,” she said. “The only number I knew by heart was my mom’s.”
Many of us are so reliant on our cell phones that when they’re lost, we quickly feel lost without them.

Major mobile carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless say they don’t track how many people lose their cell phones a year. But losing these small devices happens “a lot,” and when they go missing, it’s a huge disruption to our lives, according to Avi Greengart, mobile analyst at market research firm Current Analysis.

Cast away from society
A Pew Internet & American Life Project report released this month found that Americans for the first time picked cell phones as the technology they can least go without. In today’s wireless world, living without a cell phone is like living on a desert island. And losing one is like being suddenly cast away from society.

“Without it, there’s a disconnection with life,” said Marian Salzman, a cultural trendspotter and partner at Porter Novelli, a public relations powerhouse in New York.
Time running out for the watch?
 
People who’re out of their elements — drinking at a bar, rushing to leave a cab or traveling in a foreign country — are particularly prone to losing their cell phones — and its impacts.

Joe Huttner, a Haverford College junior, procured a prepaid cell phone for his time studying in Argentina, as did others in the program.

But the foreign language and environment disoriented students, some of whom lost their phones, Huttner said.

Getting a new prepaid phone meant getting a new number — so none of their study-abroad pals could contact each other, he said.

“If you didn’t have a class with them, you lost them as a friend,” said 21-year-old Huttner, who was fortunate enough to hold onto his. “That was a bummer.”

Lose new friends, keep the old
Losing your cell phone might mean losing acquaintances — but old friends can usually find you.

It’s all the more difficult, though, if you’re looking to establish new friends like Wilson was.   Before you lose it …
 
Back up what you can
Losing your cell phone can mean losing your contacts, ringtones and text messages. So what mobile information can you safeguard? To find out, click here.
  
She had just moved to San Diego to attend graduate school at National University. During her first month, Wilson had collected plenty of phone numbers, particularly on the Fourth of July. She never recovered them.

“It’s already hard moving away without friends and family — and then having to do it again,” Wilson said.

But reconnecting with close friends was made easy thanks to MySpace and Facebook, where “lost my phone” groups can reel in castaways.

Two weeks after Wilson got a new cell phone and things started to look up, they went amiss again. While trying on a pair of shoes, she set down her wallet, keys — and her new phone.
It was at the store’s front counter that Wilson realized she was empty handed. It turned out her cell phone was stolen — and the thief only spared her keys and wallet case.

“The second time all I could do is cry,” Wilson said.

Source:msnbc.msn

Consider this scenario. You’ve just received an iPhone for Christmas and it’s the first time you leave the house with it. You’re excited to show it off to your friends – or anyone for that matter. You’ve heard and see that the phone is so compact that it can fit in your pocket. So, that’s where you put it before heading out the door.
You arrive at your friend’s house and leap out of the car to greet her. But then, tragedy strikes – your phone falls out of your jacket pocket! No worries, right? After all, you bought a case right away to protect your phone in just these circumstances. Wrong. It just so happens the case you bought leaves the top of the iPhone exposed and, unfortunately that’s exactly where the phone lands as it plummets from your hip.
Yep, this is exactly what happened to me. Thankfully, the fall didn’t cause any damage to the phone itself but I was crushed (no pun intended) to see that I had two new crevices at the top of my brand new iPhone. It’s because of this experience that I won’t consider a case that doesn’t cover all edges of my iPhone.

Agent 18 offers the Eco iPhone Shield that does the trick. I liked this case because unlike other cases I’ve used, it doesn’t add much bulk to the phone – I can still easily slip it into my pocket.

An outcry of criticism rocked Cupertino yesterday as optimistic iPhone application developers complained the company had done exactly what it said it would - rejecting thousands from its new iPhone Developer Program.Reports claim thousands of developers both small and large have applied to join the scheme, but the vast majority have been rejected, generating this hail of criticism.

The reports ignore Apple’s earlier promise that it would accept only a limited number of developers for its iPhone Developer Program at this point.

“During the beta iPhone SDK program, a limited number of developers will be accepted into Apple’s new iPhone Developer Program and offered the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing,” the company said in a March 6 press release.

Source 9to5 Mac

If you’ve applied for Apple’s iPhone Developer program, check email for your rejection letter. The twitterati are reporting widespread disappointment and anger as thousands of iPhone developer hopefuls have received a “Thank you but no thank you” message in their inbox. The emails are arriving with the subject of iPhone Developer Program Enrollment Status.Did you get accepted? Do you know anyone who did? Let us know in the comments. Some readers are reporting acceptance — if you’ve been accepted please send us some more details — but they appear to be confusing the iPhone online developer SDK download with the “iPhone developer program,” which you can learn more about at Apple’s site. What we are talking about here is the $99 signup for the developer program, which includes a signing certificate to allow applications to run on physical iPhones and not just in the Aspen simulator. Just because you have downloaded the Xcode SDK components does not make you an iPhone dev Jedi — if you haven’t paid your $99, or you haven’t been invited to pay it, you have no lightsaber.

Corporations have been rejected and so have individuals. Premiere members, Select members, Online members, all rejected. To be clear, these rejections are not for the general iPhone SDK download program but for the paid $99 developer/AppStore access program. I have not been able to confirm any acceptances into this latter program.

Out of country developers are reporting slightly different rejections. One anonymous developer received this message: “At this time, the iPhone Developer Program is only available in the US, and will expand to other countries during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time.”

An absolutely LOL moment from Daniel Jalkut, which I quote in full: “In other news, it looks like the Jailbreak Developer Program still has open slots, and people are getting approved as I type.”

TUAW reader UO perfectly summarizes the dilemma: “I got a rejection this morning too. What if I never get accepted? Spending that much time (until June?) working on code I may never be able to ship is an unacceptable risk right now.”

Dear Registered iPhone Developer, Thank you for expressing interest in the iPhone Developer Program. We have received your enrollment request. As this time, the iPhone Developer Program is available to a limited number of developers and we plan to expand during the beta period. We will contact you again regarding your enrollment status at the appropriate time. Thank you for applying. Best regards, iPhone Developer Program

And just one more reminder: this is less about ‘rejection’ than it is about developers being unable to commit resources when Apple won’t give a firm go-ahead. Feel free to think about it as a “limbogram” rather than an outright rejection.

Unconfirmed insider reports are trickling in. One blue & green anonymous tipster tells us that Apple has yet to set up its certificate management system and cannot issue developer certs until this is finished and put in place. While this doesn’t explain why Apple sent out its letters worded the way they were, it might explain why TUAW cannot find a single developer who has documentedly been accepted into the system.

Apple on Wednesday reported more than 100,000 downloads of the iPhone software development kit in the first four days following its launch last week.
Introduced March 6, the SDK provides developers with the same set of application programming interfaces and tools that Apple engineers use to create native applications for the smartphone and iPod Touch. Both use the same mobile version of Mac OS X.”Developer reaction to the iPhone SDK has been incredible with more than 100,000 downloads in the first four days,” Philip Schiller, senior VP for worldwide product marketing for Apple, said in a statement.

In addition, Schiller noted more than a million people had watched the launch video on the company site, a reflection of the “incredible interest developers have in creating applications for the iPhone.”

Apple on Wednesday also previewed its new App Store, which will be the only way independent software developers will be able to distribute their work to iPhone users. Developers can set their own price, but Apple gets 30% of sales revenues. Corporate developers will be able to build their own custom apps and distribute them only to company employees.

During the SDK launch at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Apple partners AOL, Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS), Epocrates, Salesforce.com, and Sega demonstrated applications they built in two weeks with the toolset.

On Wednesday, Apple trotted out a number of other companies working on iPhone applications, including personal financial software maker Intuit (NSDQ: INTU), online business software provider NetSuite, game developers Namco Networks, PopCap, and THQ Wireless; and messaging software maker Rocket Mobile.

The SDK is available in beta through Apple’s developer Web site. The toolset is available at no charge and is being distributed first in the U.S. The developer program will be expanded to other countries later in the year.

In June, Apple plans to distribute version 2.0 of the iPhone OS, which will be available to users at no charge. The upgrade will include support for applications built with the SDK. Apple also plans to make available at the same time for a “nominal fee” a similar upgrade for the iPod Touch.

Source:informationweek

T303c GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz for China

This June, Apple will release a major update to its iPhone software, including new features for businesses and broad support for third-party software. We examine exactly what this new update will mean to you.Discussion PolicyDiscussion Policy CLOSEComments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain “signatures” by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

Apple is readying significant enhancements to the software in its iPhone handset for later this year. The company takes cues from both the business and consumer worlds, finally letting third-party developers in on the action to bring games, utilities, and other apps to the phone.These impending changes promise to radically transform the daily experience for iPhone users. Based on what we’ve seen of Apple’s Microsoft Exchange integration and our first-hand look at the new development kit, here’s what you can expect to see when the upgrade becomes available in June.

Within a few minutes after the initial wave of iPhone hysteria ran its course, business users began debating whether the iPhone was really ready to take on the corporate enterprise. The general consensus: it wasn’t, owing to incomplete networking and security tools, and an inability to support the nearly ubiquitous Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol that keeps handsets connected to the central server. But the phone’s widespread appeal kept interest alive in the business world, and Apple has responded bybuilding Exchange ActiveSync directly into the phone, and revamping the iPhone’s native e-mail and calendar apps. In addition, the company has added Cisco IPsec VPN support.

What does all this mean to you? If you’re an IT professional, it could mean a lot. (At present,IT types are ambivalent about whether to trust the iPhone on their networks.) But even if you’re not a network admin, or your company doesn’t want to support iPhones, the update could still make your iPhone more functional at work: It makes it easy to configure your own corporate e-mail.

Apple recently demonstrated the phone’s upcoming Exchange ActiveSync features, and even in its beta form the software looks simple enough for moderately savvy end users to set up without necessarily needing to call up their company’s IT department. Like existing iPhones, the updated devices will display a selection of e-mail services to choose from. If a user selects Microsoft Exchange from that list–as opposed to, say, Gmail or Yahoo–the interface will present a standard Exchange settings menu.

From there, all you’d have to do is copy your login info and settings from your desktop or laptop’s Outlook preferences and you’d be ready to receive push e-mail from the server, schedule and accept meetings, and browse the company’s shared contact list as you would from the computer at your desk.

The basic Exchange features will be accessible to pretty much anybody with access to an Exchange server. However, some advanced features, such as the ability to remotely wipe the company’s data off a misplaced handset or to use VPN, would clearly require your IT department’s involvement.

VPN is particularly noteworthy: If your job involves a lot of work from the road, using sales leads, templates, or other data stored on a corporate server, you need VPN access. With Cisco IPsec VPN on the iPhone, getting to that data could prove a whole lot easier.

Currently, the iPhone’s L2TP and PPTP VPN software requires users to get a lot of hands-on assistance from their corporate help desk to get a remote connection to their company’s network (that is, if they’re willing and able to do so). The popular Cisco VPN software should streamline VPN connections, requiring little more than a passcode from the end user once the device is configured. Setting up your VPN connection with IPsec will still require some help from your IT person, but it will make their job a lot easier.

Apps Galore

For most users, business data support may not be the biggest thing coming out of Apple’s new software update. In fact, the biggest news may not even come from Apple itself.Apple has released its own software development kit (SDK) into the wild, giving programmers the tools they need to write native software–rather than just Web apps–to run directly on the iPhone.

The iPhone 2.0 update will include aniTunes App Store utility. Tap it, and you’ll see a library of downloadable titles. Apple CEO Steve Jobs indicated that, while the purpose of the App Store will be to sell software for the iPhone, many of these apps will likely be free. Of course, that depends entirely on what developers decide to do. To get a better idea of what kinds of apps you’ll be likely to see come June, we downloaded the SDK ourselves and took a look at the tools Apple is offering.

The iPhone SDK will give developers access to most aspects of the device, from the touch screen to the camera to the accelerometer that is responsible for sensing when you tilt the device. Sample code available on Apple’s iPhone Dev Center site includes examples of how to do many of these things. What’s clear from these examples–and from the developer demos at yesterday’s briefing–is that games will be a major factor on the second-gen iPhone platform.

With the SDK, game developers will be able to tap into the iPhone’s accelerometer and discover new ways to control the on-screen action. By tilting the device in various directions, or with combinations of tilts and screen taps, you’ll be able to navigate heads-up displays, virtual environments, and anything else game makers can dream up. We may even see games that take advantage of the phone’s geolocation capabilities in new, innovative ways.

Meanwhile, with the Wi-Fi hardware readily accessible, new apps will be able to do everything from conventional Web surfing and messaging to device-to-device data and media sharing. And most of these development tools will have benefits for iPod Touch users also. So while Apple never implemented a Zune-like squirting feature for music–letting users send songs from one device to another for temporary sharing–such a feature could easily come from a third-party developer (if Apple doesn’t kill it first).

Ultimately, the iPhone may very well shape up to be a major platform in its own right if programmers take to the SDK en masse. And if the App Store fills up quickly with cool tools and games, yesterday’s announcement may prove to be a major one, even for those who have no interest in creating their own software.