Does Apple Really Want To Be An Internet Censor?

I am sure that the folks in Cupertino thought the whole idea of the App Store for the iPhone would be a great idea, and in fact it has proven to be a great money maker. At the same time though it has also turned out to be one of their biggest headaches that just doesn’t seem to want to go away. While some developers have been making money hand over fist others have been dealing with long approval wait periods or just having their applications pulled. Often those being pulled are being left in limbo as to why and what needs to be done to get back on the marketplace.

The most recent incident of an application being pulled though is raising the specter of Apple censorship; or at least applying their own moral judgment of whether an application can be listed. Such is the case of Infurious Comics and their Comic Reader that was meant for easier distribution and reading of Web comics on the iPhone. They got in hot water with Apple because the application comes with a free issue of Infurious’ Web comic Murderdrome an admittedly dark and bloody comic.

The big problem I have with this whole thing is that I am torn on how to re-act to this kerfuffle because on one hand Apple is totally within their legal right to have pulled the application. As the company states right in the iPhone SDK:

Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgment may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.

Apple is going to have a really hard time with this because of the ambiguity of the statement. Who is going to decide what is obscene or offensive? Does Apple in its role as a hardware and software provider have the right to dictate what a third party creates for sale with their software to be played back through their hardware which they have sold. I am sure that one could say that as the provider of the store by which these applications are sold they have the right to set the conditions of any sale.

That said though, the only reason that the Comic Reader application was pulled was because of the free comic that came with it. so in all reality, Infurious Comics could put the application back for sale but without the comic and it should be acceptable. However, this is where we come to the second part of the problem – the distribution of the comics produced by Infurious of which I imagine Murderdrome would be one of many. From what I have gathered, once the Comic Reader is installed, the user would be able to buy more comics from the iTunes store but this would then raise the possibility of the comic being banned from there as well.

During all this Apple is also having to deal with people who are not happy about the idea that the company has built in a kill switch into the iPhone software that would allow them to remotely remove software on the iPhone for whatever reason they deem fit. Now you tie in this possibility of becoming a censor of material available via iTunes and Apple could be facing some serious backlash from its customers. Especially considering as pointed out by Philip Elmer-DeWitt in his post Apple 2.0 on Fortune that iTunes already carries movies that would technically hit this censorship wall the same way that Infurious has:

By Wednesday morning, the post had drawn dozens of responses — all sharply critical of Apple — and PJ Holden’s cause had been picked up by half-dozen sympathetic bloggers (see Techmeme).

Murderdrome’s most energetic defense was posted by blogger Mike Cane, who rattled off (with live links) several equally violent works of fiction published without fuss or warning on the iTunes store, including South Park,Reservoir Dogs and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

I can understand why Infurious ran afoul of Apple this way and why in some ways Apple is totally within its right to do what they have done, considering the language of their SDK, but are they really ready for the reaction? On top of that, if they do stand by this action without finding a workable solution to the problem are they setting themselves up to become an Internet censorship board? All I know is that this isn’t a position that I would want to find myself in.

Breaking News: Google Announces Android Market, Tackles Apple

Today Google (NSDQ: GOOG) announced its competitor to the iPhone Apps Store, the Android Market. The market will be a place where content developers can publish applications for Android phones, and Android users can go to discover and download them to their devices. Booyah!

I have been waiting for news such as this. Today, the Android Developers Blog posted an update that provides details about its version of the Android Apps Store, called the Android Market.

I'll let Google do the talking:

[The] Android Market [is]an open content distribution system that will help end users find, purchase, download and install various types of content on their Android-powered devices. The concept is simple: leverage Google's expertise in infrastructure, search and relevance to connect users with content created by developers like you.

Developers will be able to make their content available on an open service hosted by Google that features a feedback and rating system similar to YouTube. We chose the term "market" rather than "store" because we feel that developers should have an open and unobstructed environment to make their content available. Similar to YouTube, content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it. We also intend to provide developers with a useful dashboard and analytics to help drive their business and ultimately improve their offerings.

I also wanted to share some early details to help with planning your efforts so that you can be ready as our partners release the first Android-powered handsets. Developers can expect the first handsets to be enabled with a beta version of Android Market. Some decisions are still being made, but at a minimum you can expect support for free (unpaid) applications. Soon after launch an update will be provided that supports download of paid content and more features such as versioning, multiple device profile support, analytics, etc.

Wow. Too cool. This will really energize developers and end users alike to get behind Android. The momentum is really building now!

New iPhone business apps: designing for usefulness

When Apple launched its new App Store earlier this summer, the assumption was that scads of businesses would develop applications for their iPhone-toting customers. Although there are more than 60 apps in the App Store's Business category, virtually no big-name companies have bothered to cough up one of their own. Since Apple plans to make at least 40 million iPhones in the next year, many of which will no doubt end up being used in the workplace, what's the holdup?

Nick Halsey, vice president of marketing at business intelligence (BI) vendor Jaspersoft, says it's simply not worth the bother. "Our business users are using Safari to deliver JasperReports to them on their iPhone. While the effort to write the 100 lines of Java code to build an iPhone app is minimal, it's just not needed."

Halsey says Jaspersoft would be willing to create an iPhone app in response to customer demand, but there hasn't actually been any yet. However, he says it's likely that someone from within the user community will choose to make and submit an app on his own "as a fun project."

Chuck Dietrich, VP of Salesforce Mobile, says his company, Salesforce.com, has a different take on the usefulness of iPhone apps. Realizing that mobile professionals won't want to take the time to haul out a laptop and boot it up simply to look up a customer's order history, Salesforce Mobile provides the same information-and more-with less hassle.

Before launching its app, the company prioritized feedback and ideas from the user community to develop one that includes more than 60 percent of the features customers want most. While users can still access client information via the iPhone's native browser, Salesforce Mobile is a targeted app designed specifically for the mobile professional. "[It] allows iPhone users to access Salesforce CRM applications and more than 70,000 Force.com custom applications right from their iPhone," says Dietrich.

Dietrich sees iPhone apps as part of the natural evolution of mobile devices in the workplace. "From a historic standpoint, the mobile revolution began in the'90s with the mass adoption of mobile phones as a primary means of communication.

Soon, mobile e-mail became a way of life in the enterprise. As consumers and professionals became more familiar with mobile devices, and as mobile devices became more like mobile laptops, end users increasingly desired and expected to be able to do everything from the mobile devices that they could do from their desks."

BI firm Oracle also couldn't pass up an opportunity to design an app specifically for the iPhone. Oracle Business Indicators lets users access their company's business performance information and manipulate the data based on what's most convenient for them.

Lenley Hensarling, general vice president of application development at Oracle, says, "It's not meant to replace a dashboard and analytical apps that have a whole bunch of drilldowns, but rather to give you handy access to core sets of metrics. We wanted to make usage and availability ubiquitous, and let users tailor the information to exactly what they want to see."

Indicators also makes use of the iPhone's native tools. "Since we support [the iPhone's] alerting mechanisms, you don't have to go hunting for information. You'll get alerted when data crosses a threshold that you or someone else has set."

Although Apple is famously picky about who gets access to the iPhone Software Developer Kit (SDK), Hensarling says developing an iPhone app was easy as pie. "The cool thing is that you're actually developing in Cocoa and the Mac OS environment, so in terms of the development environment, it's very mature and complete." He says they also never felt constrained during the development process because rather than try to shoehorn an app made for the desktop onto the iPhone, the team instead built Oracle Business Indicators from the ground up.

Salesforce's Dietrich agrees that building an iPhone app is a smooth process. "Thanks to the iPhone's robust development environment, we were able to develop, test and deliver Salesforce Mobile for the iPhone, all in less than three months," he notes. In fact, the process was so painless, the company plans to develop additional apps in the coming months." Salesforce.com and Apple will continue to work closely to iterate and expand the breadth of functionality of Salesforce Mobile for the iPhone to expand the ways that enterprises can use Salesforce CRM and Force.com applications to improve the way they work."

Still, Jaspersoft's Halsey remains unconvinced. He says there is a greater demand for Web apps that can be accessed anywhere, regardless of device or browser. He points to the growing trend toward cloud computing as evidence. "What's more interesting to us in the enterprise, and where we see customer demand, is for Web 2.0 tools for reporting and analysis as well as for collaborating on making BI tools better," says Halsey.

Who is That Mysterious iPhone Gal?

How fast is the world shrinking? It used to be sufficiently mind-boggling just that the Apple iPhone is designed in Sunnyvale, Ca., made in China and shipped back out to gadget-lovers around the world.

The woman at work (Photo from Macrumors.com)

Now, the image of a cute factory worker seems to have set a new standard.

Last week, a British user of the MacRumors.com forum wrote that a surprising photo showed up on the home screen of a brand new iPhone after it had been activated on iTunes—a young Asian woman in pink and white striped uniform, smiling and making a “V” sign at the camera.

“It would appear that someone on the production line was having a bit of fun — has anyone else found this?,” wrote the author, known as markm49uk, who posted the “home screen” image along with two others of the same woman found on the new iPhone.

Within days, the photos, and the woman behind them, had gone viral and global. An English-language Web site — iphonegirl.net — was quickly registered in the United States to highlight photos of the mystery woman and other accidental iPhone photos. Then the news spread to China, where netizens began to track her down. Many feared that she would be fired for striking a playful pose on the job.

Her employer would be Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that makes iPhones for Apple in Shenzhen. Yesterday, the China Daily reported that the company had labeled the incident a “beautiful mistake” and gave assurances that the mystery worker’s job is safe.

“She is an assembly worker in the mobile phone testing department and she is still working there. But she has requested us not to make her name public and we will respect her decision,” Liu Kun, a Foxconn spokesman, told the China Daily. Mr. Liu said the woman was a migrant worker from Hunan province but declined to give further details.

Don’t expect to find more smiles from southern China on future iPhones. Mr. Liu said that from now on, all iPhone’s cameras will be tested and any similar photos will be deleted. “Apple and Foxconn staff have started a joint probe into the incident,” he added — somewhat ominously, to our ears.

Apple ready to rumble on September 9?

Several blogs (see Techmeme) are reporting that Apple will roll out new products on September 9. As previously rumored, starting with missive from Digg's Kevin Rose, Apple may be revamping the iPod Nano and tweaking the iPod Touch with new software, as well delivering iTunes 8.0 with a recommendation engine and selective price cuts.

Per usual with the cone of silence that encapsulates Steve Jobs and the Apple troops surrounding new product announcements, it's uncertain what will actually be unveiled next month.

However, from various sources CNET News is hearing that Apple is gearing up its engine for something the week of September 8, so the September 9 date is likely more accurate than the rumors so far of what will be delivered to the Mac and iPod devotees. Stay tuned as the build up to the next appearance of Steve Jobs and the unveiling of Apple's latest wares continues.

Phone companies latest iPhone slowdown culprit

A new report blames slow iPhone 3G speeds on carriers

A recent survey by Wired magazine has pointed to mobile carriers as the reason for the iPhone 3G slowdown.

The magazine asked some 2,600 iPhone 3G users around the world to contribute 3G performance numbers from their localities.

The results, claims Wired, suggest that the sluggish 3G speeds have more to do with the local 3G networks than any shortcomings in the hardware.

3G performance has by far been the biggest complaint from users ever since the iPhone 3G was launched in early July. The model was the first to run with a 3G connection, eschewing the EDGE network hardware employed by the previous model.

So far, nobody has been able to pinpoint the exact reason for the slowdown. One analyst firm has suggested that the problems were due to bad hardware from Infineon. Other pundits suggested a firmware issue which they say Apple attempted to fix with the last update.

According to Wired, however, the carriers are the ones to blame, not Apple.

"In our view, this data is a strong indicator that performance of the mobile carrier's network is affecting the iPhone 3G more than the handset itself," read the report.

"Altogether, this furthers our thesis that it's highly unlikely that Apple is going to wave a magic wand and say, '3G problems, be gone,' with a software update."

The survey also found that the fastest 3G speeds were being reported on T-Mobile's networks in Europe, while Australian carriers Optus and Virgin reported the slowest 3G speeds.

The United States reported the most instances of no 3G connection available, not surprising given that 3G networks are relatively new in the US and unavailable in many of the more remote parts of the country.

15 Tools to Help You Develop Faster Web Pages

Response times, availability, and stability are vital factors to
bear in mind when creating and maintaining a web application. If you’re
concerned about your web pages’ speed or want to make sure you’re in
tip-top shape before starting or launching a project, here’s a few useful, free tools to help you create and sustain high-performance web applications.

I’ve tried to include a wide variety of tools that are easy to use,
and have tried to keep them as OS and technology-independent as
possible so that everyone can find a tool or two.

1. YSlow for Firebug

YSlow grades a website’s performance based on the best practices for high performance web sites
on the Yahoo! Developer Network. Each rule is given a letter grade (A
through F) stating how you rank on certain aspects of front-end
performance. It’s a simple tool for finding things you can work on such
as reducing the number of HTTP request a web page makes, and
compressing external JavaScript and CSS files. A worthwhile read is the
Ajax performance analysis post on IBM developerWorks that outlines practical ways of using YSlow in your web applications.

2. Firebug

Firebug is an essential browser-based web development tool
for debugging, testing, and analyzing web pages. It has a powerful set
of utilities to help you understand and dissect what’s going on. One of
the many notable features is the Net (network”) tab where you can
inspect HTML, CSS, XHR, JS components.

3. Fiddler 2

Fiddler 2 is a browser-based HTTP debugging tool that helps
you analyze incoming and outgoing traffic. It’s highly customizable and
has countless of reporting and debugging features. Be sure to read the “Fiddler PowerToy - Part 2: HTTP Performance”
guide on the MSDN which discusses functional uses of Fiddler including
how to improve “first-visit” performance (i.e. unprimed cache),
analyzing HTTP response headers, creating custom flags for potential
performance problems and more.

4. Cuzillion

Cuzillion is a cool tool to help you see how page
components interact with each other. The goal here is to help you
quickly rapidly check, test, and modify web pages before you finalize
the structure. It can give you clues on potential trouble-spots or
points of improvements. Cuzillion was created by Steve Saunders,
the ex-Chief Performance at Yahoo!, a leading engineer for the
development of Yahoo’s performance best practices, and creator of YSlow.

5. mon.itor.us

monitor.us is a free web-based service that grants you a
suite of tools for monitoring performance, availability, and traffic
statistics. You can establish your website’s response time and set up
alerts for when a service becomes unavailable. You can also set-up
weekly, automated benchmarks to see if changes you’ve made impact speed
and performance either positively or negatively.

6. IBM Page Detailer

The IBM Page Detailer is a straightforward tool for letting
you visualize web components as they’re being downloaded. It latches
onto your browser, so all you have to do is navigate to the desired
site with the IBM Page Detailer open. Clicking on a web page component
opens a window with the relevant details associated with it. Whenever
an event occurs (such as a script being executed), the tool opens a
window with information about the processes.

7. Httperf

Httperf is an open-source tool for measuring HTTP server
performance running on Linux. It’s an effective tool for benchmarking
and creating workload simulations to see if you can handle high-level
traffic and still maintain stability. You can also use it to figure out
the maximum capacity of your server, gradually increasing the number of
requests you make to test its threshold.

8. Pylot

Pylot is an open-source performance and scalability testing
tool. It uses HTTP load tests so that you can plan, benchmark, analyze
and tweak performance. Pylot requires that you have Python installed on
the server - but you don’t need to know the language, you use XML to
create your testing scenarios.

9. PushToTest TestMaker

PushToTest TestMaker is a free, open-source platform for
testing scalability and performance of applications. It has an
intuitive graphical user interface with visual reporting and analytical
tools. It has a Resource Monitor feature to help you see CPU, memory,
and network utilization during testing. The reporting features let you
generate graphs or export data into a spreadsheet application for
record-keeping or further statistics analysis.

10. Wbox HTTP testing tool

Wbox is a simple, free HTTP testing software released under
the GPL (v2). It supports Linux, Windows, and MacOS X systems. It works
by making sequential requests at desired intervals for stress-testing.
It has an HTTP compression command so that you can analyze data about
your server’s file compression. If you’ve just set up a virtual domain,
Wbox HTTP testing tool also comes with a command for you to test if
everything’s in order before deployment.

11. WebLOAD

WebLOAD is an open-source, professional grade stress/load
testing suite for web applications. WebLOAD allows testers to perform
scripts for load testing using JavaScript. It can gather live data for
monitoring, recording, and analysis purposes, using client-side data to
analyze performance. It’s not just a performance tool – it comes with
authoring and debugging features built in.

12. DBMonster

DBMonster is an open-source application to help you tune
database structures and table indexes, as well as conduct tests to
determine performance under high database load. It’ll help you see how
well your database/s will scale by using automated generation of test
data. It supports many databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle,
MSSQL and (probably) any database that supports the JDBC driver.

13. OctaGate SiteTimer

The OctaGate SiteTimer is a simple utility for determining
the time it takes to download everything on a web page. It gives you a
visualization of the duration of each state during the download process
(initial request, connection, start of download, and end of download).

14. Web Page Analyzer

The Web Page Analyzer is an extremely simple, web-based
test to help you gain information on web page performance. It gives you
data about the total number of HTTP requests, total page weight, your
objects’ sizes, and more. It tries to estimate the download time of
your web page on different internet connections and it also enumerates
each page object for you. At the end, it provides you with an analysis
and recommendation of the web page tested – use your own judgment in
interpreting the information.

15. Site-Perf.com

Site-Perf.com is a free web-based service that gives you
information about your site’s loading speed. With Site-Perf.com’s tool,
you get real-time capturing of data. It can help you spot bottlenecks,
find page errors, gather server data, and more - all without having to
install an application or register for an account.

More Tools and Related Resources

• Apache JMeter
  

  a Java-based desktop application for performance testing Apache servers.
  

• The Grinder
  

  an open-source load testing framework that intends to make automated tests simpler.
  

• OpenWebLoad
  

  yet another excellent open-source load testing tool for web applications.
  

• “Optimizing Page Load Time”
  

  an article on improving page load time.
  

• “What the 80/20 Rule Tells Us about Reducing HTTP Requests”
  

  a blog post on the YUI blog explaining the precedence of front-end performance for optimal response times.
  

If you have a favorite web performance tool that wasn’t on the list,
share it in the comments. Would also like to hear your experiences,
tips, suggestions, and resources you use.

And if you’re interested in analyzing the effectiveness of a web page design, be sure to check out 7 Incredibly Useful Tools for Evaluating a Web Design.

Inside the iPhone 3G dropped call complaints

Experts and analysts of all stripes are trying to explain what's wrong with the iPhone 3G, but their answers are frequently supported by bad science, outlandish claims, and pure speculation. Here's what's wrong in the reports, and why a simple firmware update is likely to solve the current issues.

What's the problem?

While nobody has formally studied the problem, lots of iPhone 3G users are complaining that they can't find 3G service, can't maintain 3G service in areas where other 3G phones can, witness wildly fluctuating signal strength bars on the phone, or conversely can't use 3G because it consumes battery life too rapidly. 

Many articles on the subject are referencing Apple's support forums, where some discussions have gotten so long that forum moderators have had to lock the original thread and create a new overflow discussion.

Clearly, there are real problems. How widespread and common those problems are is more difficult to pinpoint. Apple said it sold a million iPhone 3G units on its opening weekend, and Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster reported that each of the company's US retail stores are now selling an average of 95 iPhone 3G sales per day. He expects the company to sell 4.47 million this quarter. That indicates that well over two million iPhone 3G units have already been sold to users. 

Even if the 3G issues were only affecting one percent of the phones sold, that would leave twenty thousand users with problems. If only a tenth of those users posted comments online, that would easily account for the two thousand messages on Apple's discussion boards.

Blame the provider?

In the US, AT&T has been fingered in the iPhone 3G's reception problems due to the telco's relatively new and limited service coverage of its 3G network. Even in urban areas where AT&T's service maps indicate there should be 3G service, the iPhone 3G frequently fails to find it or maintain a strong enough signal to complete a call. 

Compared to Sprint and Verizon Wireless, which both have wider 3G service coverage in their more mature 3G EVDO networks, AT&T is building out its 3G network using UMTS, a worldwide standard. AT&T is also forced to use different radio frequencies than other UMTS providers, which results in less technical maturity for AT&T's 3G network than those overseas. 

AT&T primarily uses the 1900MHz band in the US, but is working to expand its use of its 850MHz band, a lower frequency that allows radio signals to spread farther and penetrate walls easier. Europe uses the even higher 2100MHz band for 3G, but there is also more dense network coverage there. 

While AT&T's network is still experiencing some growing pains, the iPhone 3G's reception issues are also being reported in other countries too, even in Europe where 3G UMTS networks have been built out for some time. In those locations, the iPhone's dual band 3G radio uses the standard UMTS frequencies, making it hard to blame AT&T for more than just its limited coverage.

Dropped calls by provider

An article on the iPhone 3G by BusinessWeek cited unnamed sources to report, "the problem is affecting 2% to 3% of iPhone traffic, the people say. That compares with a dropped-call rate of around 1% for all traffic for AT&T." A source for the dropped call rate at AT&T wasn't given. 

Studies on dropped calls are difficult because users don't report their dropped calls, and providers would be challenged to know whether phones on their networks ended a call on purpose or not. Further, calls may be dropped for a number of reasons, from poor service coverage or intermittent signal interference to phone set problems to users walking into a elevator or bank vault. 

A study on dropped calls published by mindWireless in February 2007 ranked US providers on dropped calls by analyzing 80 million calls on 130,000 wireless accounts over a the first six months of 2006. It defined a dropped call as any two calls placed to the same destination within two minutes, without a call in the middle. This would not identify dropped calls where the user did not call their party back immediately, or where they were called back by the dropped party. It also excluded voicemail calls.

The company reported that Sprint had a dropped call rate of 5.4%, AT&T Wireless 5.7%, Verizon 8.0%, Cingular 11.3%, T-Mobile as 13.8, and Nextel at 14.6% (not including push to talk calls). AT&T Wireless was bought by Cingular in 2004, but the company was still in the process of merging its networks when the study was underway; that merger combined the GSM towers operated by both, strengthening Cingular's signal. Over the next year, Cingular subsequently rebranded itself as AT&T. Sprint has also since merged with Nextel, although those two companies operated incompatible networks (CDMA and iDEN) that couldn't help each other in terms of signal. 

Those numbers indicate that the reported "2 to 3%" dropped call rate on the iPhone 3G, as well as the 1% drop rate for "all traffic on AT&T" are not likely to be anywhere close to reality. They are also not the product of any scientific study, since the iPhone 3G as only been out for a month and during that time the firmware has been updated.

Incidentally, Sprint and AT&T began fighting over the ad line "fewest dropped calls" last year, and AT&T was separately sued by subscribers over its claim as false advertising. AT&T no longer makes that claim, but now advertises "more bars in more places." That promise hasn't solved iPhone 3G reception issues however.

Blame the components?

Nomura analyst Richard Windsor kicked off the iPhone 3G panic when he published a research note suggesting that the iPhone's problems were due to a faulty industrial design using Infineon chips, and suggested that Apple might have to recall the faulty units.

The problem is that Windsor isn't a technical expert; he's a financial analyst. More problematically, this isn't the first time he's described a speculative hardware problem and sounded a false alarm for a possible recall based upon erroneous guesswork. Last year, he claimed that the original iPhone was plagued a faulty design for a film on its screen that used "a chemical deposition to provide touch sensitivity based on heat." 

Windsor wrote that the design had failed in earlier attempts to make it work after just a few months, and suggested Apple might have to accommodate a massive recall after iPhones suddenly stopped working in the first three to six months. That never happened, but more importantly the iPhone also never used a heat sensitive film. It has always used an entirely different multitouch technology based on sensing capacitance that lays under the iPhone's glass screen, not on top of it. 

The chips used in the iPhone 3G are similarly not unique nor the likely subject of a massive recall. Guenther Gaugler of Infineon told BusinessWeek, "Our 3G chips are, for example, used in Samsung handsets and we are not aware of such problems there."

Blame the production?

Some have blamed Apple's phone manufacturing instead. NyTeknik ("New Technology"), a Swedish publication, said that problems associated with the iPhone 3G may be due to problems in high production manufacturing, and notes that similar "normal childhood illnesses" have affected phones from Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson and Nokia. 

Testing each iPhone during manufacturing would cost more than its actual components cost, according to Claes Beckman, a professor of microwave technology at the University of Calcutta. The site performed its own testing on an iPhone 3G and found results for nominal sensitivity of 3G radio signals that were below the minimums set by the ETSI standards body. However, it also noted the iPhone 3G design has passed the CE mark, which means that it originally met the ETSI standards in testing. This led the group to believe that the problems cropped up in manufacturing after production accelerated. 

Users reporting problems with their iPhones have been asked by Apple to provide their "build week," represented in the fourth and fifth digits of the unit's serial number. This could mean that Apple is tracking problems with phones manufactured between specific dates; the company has been swapping out phones for users with complaints.

The number of faulty devices may fluctuate slightly during manufacturing, but there is yet no clear suggestion that problems have accelerated with new production. Some users report having exchanged out several new iPhones without seeing any difference in exchanged models between different build weeks.

Blame the firmware?

The two sources cited by BusinessWeek indicated confidence that Apple would be able to address reception issues in the upcoming iPhone 2.1 software update, expected next month in September. Earlier in the month, Apple released 2.0.1, a bug fix that also included updates to the iPhone 3G's baseband firmware. That update had some impact on the signal strength display that users were seeing, but no details were provided on what the release actually fixed. 

Earlier this year, Apple released a 1.1.4 update which also addressed a problem with dropped calls that some users were experiencing at the time on the original GSM iPhone. It too was only described as being a bug fix without offering any specifics. The iPhone 3G's UMTS technology is more computationally complex than the original iPhone's GSM radio. While its chipsets are also used in phones by other makers, the firmware Apple is using to drive the its hardware is unique and has plenty of room for maturity and optimization. 

The good news is that Apple is selling millions of iPhone 3G units all of the same design; other manufacturers, such as Motorola, Samsung, HTC, and others not only sell fewer smartphones than Apple but also offer a range of different models, ensuring that each model gets less focus. All of Apple's attention is going into optimizing the iPhone 3G. RIM, which sold twice as many smartphones as Apple last fall, and Nokia, which sold just over 8 times as many, similarly split their development resources across a wide number of different models. 

Credit iPhone 2.1?

When it arrives, the iPhone 2.1 software is expected to combine firmware optimizations with higher level software updates, including tools to enable developers to work with more accurate GPS data for turn-by-turn directions, as well as the notifications system for third party apps that Apple described at WWDC. The notification feature was reported missing from the fourth iPhone 2.1 beta released to certain iPhone developers just days ago.

Features are frequently added or removed during beta build testing, but the removal of the notifications system from the 2.1 build may relate to an effort to deliver its anticipated low level firmware updates as soon as possible and perhaps sooner than planned, leaving the notification service to be distributed as part of a separate release. 

Apple has not publicly connected the notification system with the iPhone 2.1 release; it delivered the details of both under a non disclosure agreement intended to prevent speculation and panic as changes occur in its deployment schedule.

StealthSIM 3G SE: Unlock your iPhone 3G

Remember the days of owning a first generation iPhone, but having it come with 1.1.2 firmware? That time period was pretty painful for the folks who could only activate and jailbreak their iPhones and use them as “iPhone Touches”. But, as with anything eventually an unlock came out through a “SIM solution”. One that worked out well for a lot of people out there was the StealthSIM.

How to Unlock your iPhone 3G: StealthSIM SE Edition

Anyways, fast forward to the iPhone 3G. The makers of the StealthSIM have now created theStealthSIM SE, a new method to unlock your iPhone 3G. It works just like the old StealthSIM. It is a thin wafer circuit that goes over your SIM card, and will allow you to use your iPhone 3G on ANY GSM network. These new StealthSIMs are thinner than the last bunch. I am getting a sample coming in the mail and will have a full review up soon.

Why is Unlocking Important? Who Needs This?

If you’re using your iPhone 3G on Rogers and Fido at the present moment, you don’t need this. However, if you’re going to be doing a lot of travelling and want to use your iPhone, this could save you a lot of money. Instead of paying the excessive Rogers roaming charges overseas, this StealthSIM SE will enable you to use local GSM carrier SIM cards.

So if you’re hitting up Hong Kong for the weekend, you can just buy a local SIM and use that. Easy as pie and you won’t have to deal with the wait for a software unlock and risk of damaging your iPhone.

The StealthSIM SE currently it retails for $99 and may come as pricey to some of you. However if you desperately need your iPhone 3G unlocked, this easy and painless solution could be priceless in the long run! Click here to visit the StealthSIM SE website.