Gadgets

Verizon Told Steve Jobs No Thanks

Looks like Verizon passed on the iPhone from apple a couple years ago, saying Apple wanted to much, including a percentage of the monthly cell phone fees, say-so over where it could be sold, and even say-so on whether a iPhone would be repaired or replaced, kind of taking Verizon out of the loop and surely making it harder for anyone to support the phone. I can hear the phone calls now, “What do you mean I have to call Apple now, can’t you all fix it?”

Among other things, Apple wanted a percentage of the monthly cell phone fees, say over how and where iPhones could be sold and control of the relationship with iPhone customers, said Jim Gerace, a Verizon Wireless vice president. “We said no. We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn’t reach a deal that was mutually beneficial.”

Verizon’s decision to pull the plug on talks sent Apple into the waiting arms of Cingular, which will be the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone. The multifunction device is expected to ship in June and cost about $500.

The problem? While Apple and Verizon stores would have it, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other Verizon distributors could have been left out. “That would have put our own distribution partners at a disadvantage” to Apple and Verizon stores, Gerace said.

Customer care was another hitch: If an iPhone went haywire, Apple wanted sole discretion over whether to replace or repair the phone. “They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat on hardware and service support,” Gerace says. Source: Verizon rejected Apple iPhone deal

This is one of those items I will probably never have, I have never liked phones, and certainly don’t want to spend over $100 dollars on one, let alone $500, plus monthly fees that will likely be jacked up some because of Cingular having to give part of the monthly cell phone plans. I’m not an Apple hater by any means, love the iPods, looking forward to trying out a Mac pretty soon, but I’m certainly not an Apple fan boy either. The only way I will ever try one out is if it shows up in a box at my door one day, so, I probably will only see one if someone I know gets one. I don’t think I will see one for a long time.

Demo of Zune Sending Songs Using Wireless

Gizmodo has made a video demonstrating one Zune sending an MP3 to another Zune using the wireless sharing feature. It seems pretty fast and easy to do, also, the receiving Zune defaults to no on the accept screen, so that should keep accidentally accepting things from others really hard to do.

Here are some other videos from Gizmodo.

Zune Interface Walk Through

Engadget has done a great video walk through of the Zune MP3 Player from Microsoft. He goes through all the features and you can watch his screen, it’s almost like being there! Well, not quite, but it’s a great video. We’ve added 12 or so other Zune videos as well, check out the Zune play list. Even better, check em out in wide screen.

Apple iPhone Videos

Here I have added links to may new iPhone videos and other iPhone news information.

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Cisco Only Wanted Openess and Clarity from Apple

Apparently, Apple doesn’t care about others trademarks, just their own. According to a blog post from Cisco, they did not want money from Apple for using the iPhone trademark, nor did they want royalties on the iPhone, or even an exchange of services, they wanted to work together, now and in the future, they hoped their products could interoperate and hoped to facilitate collaboration with Apple. But Apple said, this is the iPhone without striking a deal with the trademark holders, hence the lawsuit.

Cisco owns the iPhone trademark. We have since 2000, when we bought a company called Infogear Technology, which had developed a product that combined web access and telephone. Infogear?s registrations for the mark date to 1996, before iMacs and iPods were even glimmers in Apple’s eye. We shipped and/or supported that iPhone product for years. We have been shipping new, updated iPhone products since last spring, and had a formal launch late last year. Apple knows this; they approached us about the iPhone trademark as far back as 2001, and have approached us several times over the past year.

Fundamentally we wanted an open approach. We hoped our products could interoperate in the future. In our view, the network provides the basis to make this happen?it provides the foundation of innovation that allows converged devices to deliver the services that consumers want. Our goal was to take that to the next level by facilitating collaboration with Apple. And we wanted to make sure to differentiate the brands in a way that could work for both companies and not confuse people, since our products combine both web access and voice telephony. That’s it. Openness and clarity. Source: UPDATE on Cisco’s iPhone Trademark – Commentary from Mark Chandler, Cisco’s SVP and General Counsel, on Apple’s infringement of Cisco’s iPhone trademark.

He goes on to say, Apple discussed the patents pending on their new technologies, so he knows they value intellectual property, and he asked, if someone created a product and called it the iPod but said it was different because it used a different video format, how would Apple react? I think Apple will have to give in, especially since the Cisco iPhone had been registered for the trademark in 1996, about ten years ago. How long has the iPod been around?

Cisco Sues Apple Over iPhone

Cisco Systems filed suit against Apple Wednesday over their trademark iPhone. The lawsuit came one day after the Apple iPhone was announced and was filed in California.

San Jose-based Cisco, the world?s largest network-equipment maker, has owned the trademark on the name ?iPhone? since 2000, when it acquired InfoGear Technology Corp., which originally registered the name.

And three weeks ago, Cisco?s Linksys division put the trademark to use, releasing an Internet phone called ?iPhone? that uses the increasingly popular Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

But on Tuesday, Jobs unveiled Apple?s own iPhone, a ?game-changing? touch-screen-controlled cell phone device that plays music, surfs the Web and delivers voicemail and e-mail. Source: Cisco Systems sues Apple over iPhone

Cisco had posted earlier that they had been negotiating with Apple for years and that they had just sent over what they thought could be the last changes needed to make a deal between them, but apparently that is not the case.

Microsoft Zune Video Reviews and More

This is a text excerpt, this post is about some Zune videos we just posted.

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Cisco’s Response to the Apple iPhone

Cisco has released a small statement about Apple’s release of the iPhone. It doesn’t give any specifics, but it does say they expect a signed agreement anyday from Apple to the terms they gave them to be able to use the iPhone name.

Given Apple’s numerous requests for permission to use Cisco’s iPhone trademark over the past several years and our extensive discussions with them recently, it is our belief that with their announcement today, Apple intends to agree to the final document and public statement that were distributed to them last night and that addressed a few remaining items. We expect to receive a signed agreement today. Source: Cisco

Wonder how much it is going to cost Apple?

Apple Inc. iPhone Announced at CES

Steve Jobs had his keynote from Macworld 2007 this morning, and he announced that they would be releasing the iPhone, a combo video iPod and smartphone, I’m not sure if they came to some agreement with Cisco about the name or not. It looks really great, they invented a new user interface called Multi Touch, which allows finger touch control dialing and typing, without the small keyboard of the smart phones. It runs on OS X, and they are running the Safari web browser, it has a 3.5-inch screen, with the highest resolution screen they’ve ever shipped, 160ppi, 2 megapixel camera, and it only has one button, the Home button.

We’ve been pushing the state of the art in every facet of this design. We’ve got the multi-touch screen, miniaturization, OS X in a mobile device, precision enclosures, three advanced sensors, desktop class applications, and the widescreen video iPod. We filed for over 200 patents for all the inventions in iPhone and we intend to protect them.”

“When’s it going to be available? We’re shipping them in June — we’re announcing it today because we have to go get FCC approval… we thought it’d be better to introduce this today rather than let the FCC introduce this.
Europe in the 4th quarter of this year, Asia in 2008. “We’ve chosen Cingular.” Source: Engadget

It looks really cool, visual voicemail, that looks like email, you only have to listen to the ones you want, contacts, you scroll through the music with your finger, but it is $599. I will have to see one and hold one first I think, it sounds like it could be worth it, as you are actually combining your iPod and smart phone, but if you already have one or both, sigh. I’ll probably end up with one anyway.

Oh, and they dropped the Computer from their name, so now they are Apple Inc.

More pics after the break.
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Windows Vista Digital Cable Tuners

Here is one cool looking Windows Vista device, a Windows Vista Digital Cable Tuner. Robert McLaws has posted some pictures of the unboxing of his, and will be detailing the device, it’s abilities and it’s limitations.

Last year at CES, Microsoft announced that with Vista Media Center, home users would be able to record high-definition television. Through OpenCable Receivers (OCURs) sold through system OEMs, you?d be able to plug a CableCARD into a box attached to your computer and record pristine digital cable, even in HD. AnandTech had a great article on them, even posting some pictures of an early prototype.

Well, I?ve been able to experience this system first-hand over the last six months, and this is one of the many Vista-related technologies that I?m really excited about. The OCUR name is gone, in favor of ?Digital Cable Tuners?, or DCTs. The reason for the change was to bring the terminology in line with the existing analog products on the market for the last decade. Source: Exclusive: Windows Vista Digital Cable Tuners

He is also planning on interviewing some people from ATI about the inner workings of this device.