Software developers round the globe are probably sitting on cloud nine right now.  How many of them?  Somewhere in the ballpark of 100,000 according to my sources, as Apple iPhone’s new SDK development kit has been officially downloaded over 100,000 times since its release last week.  Wow.

Following in the same basic idea Facebook of letting all of you develop your own applications, Apple hopes that a whole slew of new, exciting, handy and helpful little apps start making their way around the planet.  Knowing it’s popularity, I don’t see how it won’t happen.

So, we know it’s good for a few reasons, but the bad news is, and this is very bad for a lot of reasons, there is also quite a few things that are “crippling” this SDK.  According to the article I just read,

“Third-party applications can’t run in the background which means they can’t multitask. Apple written application can run in the background. ‘The Apple SDK, as many have come to find, has arguably crippled much of the functionality that set the iPhone apart when first released. Even simple features like the ability to run a program in the background have been crippled in the Apple SDK…’ “

Bottom line is, there are some tweaks that need-a-tweakin’ if this thing is going to appease the masses.  They made some pretty drastic changes after the initial launch, don’t be surprised if they do it again.

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Bonjour, je suis iPhone.  Yep, it’s true, the iPhone is French now.  Well, French too.  And British, and German, and American and soon to be a whole lot of other nationalities.  At any rate, it is officially official that the Apple iPhone has made its way over the sea, over the confusing political differences and into the loving arms of Parisians.

According to the article I just read on my good ol’ RSS feeder, “Orange, the mobile phone and Internet branch of France Telecom, has the exclusive rights to sell the Apple handset in the country that gave us Paris. Twelve outlets in France are offering the device for 749 euros today, before the full launch scheduled for tomorrow.” 

My question to you, all of you is this:  Will the iPhone have the impact there that it did here?  Will it spawn copycats?  Will it push other mobile phone designers to push their own limits?  What will the global impact of an American sensation be?  I’d love your feedback on this one, and I’d love to hear how all of YOU think the iPhone will help change global mobile warriors.  Global Mobile.  Cool.

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Happy Monday friends.  Hopefully your belly is still recovering from the overload of turkey, pie, potatoes, pie, and more pie. Hopefully also your wallet is not empty from Black Friday and all the amazing spending people seem to do.

That said, if you’re a people in Europe right now, you might be gearing up to spend even more money as the Apple iPhone is now, yes, unlocked in Europe too.  Hold onto your hats as things could once again get interesting overseas when it comes to the controversial, at times, iPhone.

According to the article I just read, T-Mobile will be selling the unlocked Apple iPhone for a whopping 999 Euros (roughly $1477) while being usable on any service provider the user sees fit.  Here’s the kicker, the locked, T-Mobile version of the iPhone, sold with a 2 year contract TO T-Mobile will only set you back 399 Euros, ($590 American buckaroos).  Needles to say, that’s a STEEP price to pay for the unlocked version, is it not?

At any rate, any overseas readers of this blog, sound off, what do you think about the price hike?  What would you do?

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Man, right when you think a technology is cool, something happens and before you can even blink twice, it’s exploited and some bad person somewhere has figured out a way to turn it against you.  We’ve talked about it before with the BlueSpamming, BlueSnarfing and the likes, and now, I just found out that the altogether hip, altogether now Apple iPhone isn’t immune to stuff just like this.

I just read an article that packs a pretty serious security warning for all you Apple fans out there drooling over your touchscreens…Apparently, a feature that allows you to simply tap a phone number on a displayed web site, called a Web Dialer, is totally open to some pretty scary stuff.  The article mentions that, “hackers can exploit this feature by redirecting calls to expensive 900 numbers or mount personal attacks by spying on the numbers dialed.”  Yikes.  So while you think you’re dialing the number of a pizza joint, what’s really going down is you’re dialing some crazy Escort Service in Budapest and being charged for it.  Not only that, they can learn who you call, when you call them, and knowing the lengths these morons go to, a whole lot more information you’d never want out.  Not fun.

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are a few more fun things they could do to you (not to make you even sicker about this)

• “redirecting phone calls placed by the user to different phone numbers of the attacker’s choosing;
• tracking phone calls placed by the user;
• manipulating the phone to place a call without the user accepting the confirmation dialog;
• placing the phone into an infinite loop of attempting calls — the only escape is to turn off the phone; and
• preventing the phone from dialing.”

Wow.  Head over, bone up on your anti-escort service-protection, and take appropriate steps to disable this service for now.  Trust me, your phone bill and your spouse will thank you.

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So the iPhone is officially out.  I’m sure you’ve seen the news, the videos and photos of people lined up for days just to get their hands on one.  All that excitement, all that hullabaloo and all those claims that Apple and the iPhone will completely take over the wireless industry.  Wow, that, my friends, is quite a claim.

So, is it possible?  COULD Apple and the iPhone take over the wireless industry?  The article I just read over at LiveDigitally.com thinks not, and I agree, and though it’s possible I just don’t see it happening in the near future.  As the article points out, first and foremost there are just way too many handsets sold worldwide each year made by Other manufacturers.  They go on to mention things like turnover rates of phones and the OS that is on them, even down to the claim that style and experience matters less in the mobile phone world than it does in the portable music player/computer world.  Bottom line, they think that for the iPhone to even have a prayer at taking over the wireless world, Apple would have to consistently design and re-design the iPhone for it to always be ahead of the game.

The point I think they are missing, a point that’s most obvious to me is this:  At this time, the Apple iPhone is ONLY available on the  AT&T/Cingular network.  That leaves a gaping hole for all those who use Verizon, T-Mobile or any of the other, smaller networks.  I am a Verizon user myself, and while I was visually impressed by what I saw with the iPhone, first off, I didn’t want to shell out that kind of dough (another reason it might have trouble), and second off, I was irked that I couldn’t get the phone even if I wanted to.  I’m sure a great deal of Verizon users share the same sentiments.

Sound off:  Do YOU Think the iPhone could be Apple’s first step to taking over the wireless world?  Why?  Why Not?  What would it take for them to achieve this??

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Could it be that the new Apple iPhone actually allows you to charge both the phone AND Bluetooth Headsets on the same dock?! Now, I’m not making fun of Apple here, but in my experience with the company, anytime an additional functionality is needed, it usually means whipping out the checkbook yet again. If it’s true that they’re actually tossing in headset charging to the dock, I will be both excited and pleasantly surprised.

The photo above is one I found over at Engadget and all I can really gather so far from it is that 1) it is Apple White…2) That’s it. So, whether or not it WILL or will NOT charge the headsets remains to be seen. Regardless, for all you non iPhone users, I suggest when the MoGo Headset comes out, you get one, or three for you and friends; it really will set the bar for new design in Bluetooth Headset.

Head over, check it out, then let us know if you think it will, or will not support Bluetooth Headset charging. Sound off!

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