AT&T Has Started Removing Unlimited Plans For Jailbroken Tethering

9to5 Mac reports today that it has heard from some of its readers that AT&T is going ahead with plans that it announced earlier in the year to remove unlimited data plans from those of its customers who use jailbroken iPhones to tether off the back of their unlimited data plan. According to one of their readers, he or she was told by AT&T that from Thursday, August 11, anyone using MyWi or any other tethering on their iPhone, or using the phone as a modem, will have their unlimited data plan switched to a 2GB tethering plan, at a cost of $45 per month. The customer will have no say in this matter, and it will be done automatically. 9to5 Mac says that they have also had this independently confirmed to them by an AT&T spokesperson, although not the August 11 date. Here’s the text of that confirmation from AT&T in full, which makes things pretty clear:

Quote:

Earlier this year, we began sending letters, emails, and text messages to a small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren’t on our required tethering plan. Our goal here is fairness for all of our customers. (This impacts a only small percentage of our smartphone customer base.)
The letters outline three choices:
1) Stop tethering and keep their current plan (including grandfathered unlimited plan).
2) Proactively call AT&T or visit our stores and move to the required tethering plan.
3) Do nothing and we’ll go ahead and add the tethering plan on their behalf — after the dated noted in their customer notification.

FBI Launches Child ID App for Parents

The FBI announced today that it has launched a free iPhone app for parents called Child ID. This is the first app to be created by the FBI, and is designed to provide a means of electronically storing photos and vital information about your children so that they can immediately be shown to security or police officers in the unlikely event that a child should go missing. The app even has a special tab that enables you to email all the relevant information, including pictures of the child and physical identifiers such as height and weight details to authorities in just a few clicks, so that you don't waste precious seconds.

The FBI says that the app also contains tips on how to keep your children safe, as well as vital advice about what to do in the first few hours when a child goes missing.

On its website, the FBI asks specifically that people publicise the app as much as possible and tell their friends and family about it.

Analyst Says iPad To Dominate for the next Decade

BGR reports today that Needham analyst Charlie Wolf has said that he thinks that the iPad will dominate the consumer tablet market for the next decade. According to Wolf, he sees the iPad’s market share declining over the next 10 years to 60% in 2020, but that would still be a huge share of the tablet market, of course. Clearly, he thinks that the iPad’s rivals will not be able to come up with anything to touch it, even given nine more years to get it right. Wolf adds that he thinks any future tablets from Apple’s would-be competitors are more likely to steal market share from each other than from the iPad, so dominant is Apple’s tablet. Wolf says that he can see Apple shipping 35.61 million iPads in 2011, an increase of 137.4% from last year, and 85% of all tablets shipped. Going forward from that, he sees figures of 72.66 million units in 2013, and 140 million in 2020.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Coming to iOS

Hothead Games announced today that it's bringing an interactive version of the legendary Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch this fall. The app will be a truly authentic experience for the fans, enabling them to feel like they are holding the device that Douglas Adams described over 30 years ago. Users will be able to find out all about the importance of towels, vogons, Milliways, the Babel Fish, the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, how to survive in space, and much more.

Quote:

“We really focused on taking existing Guide entries and presenting them in a new, interactive way,” commented Joel DeYoung, Hothead Producer. “We have so much respect for the original that we had to stay true to the style of Douglas Adams, and deliver an app that feels familiar to fans, but updated for today’s devices.”

Skype 5.3 for Mac Adds OS X Lion support and HD Video Calling

Skype today announced the release of Skype 5.3 for Mac OS X , a significant update bringing full support for OS X Lion, as well as new support for HD video calling.

Skype 5.3 for Mac OS X is built to work with Apple's newest desktop operating system, Lion, in addition to being compatible with past versions of OS X going all the way back to Leopard.

With Skype 5.3 for Mac OS X, you'll also be able to send and receive HD quality video when talking to your friends and family. You'll need to use the Mac's built-in webcam or choose from a variety of webcams from our Skype Shop, such as the Logitech C910, to make video calls in crystal clear HD quality. To receive clear HD video calls on your Mac, we recommend an upload/download speed of 1.5Mbps.

Google+ for iOS Adds iPad and iPod Touch Support

Google today updated its Google+ app for iOS devices, most notably adding support for the iPad and iPod touch. The app had debuted nearly three weeks ago as an iPhone-only offering.

Unfortunately, while the app will now run on the iPad, the new version of Google+ is not yet a universal application. Consequently, it does not offer an iPad-optimized interface and is instead limited to displaying the iPhone interface at either 1x or 2x size.


What's New in Version 1.0.2.1966

- Huddle settings
- Aggregated circle add notifications
- iPod touch & iPad support
- Performance and stability improvements

Apple Is Releasing A Sub-$1000 iMac For Education And Volume Consumers

Apple is getting ready to launch a new iMac targeting the education and volume consumers. The new addition is reportedly coming later this month and would be sub-$1000, but the new model will have less power and less storage space than the current iMac line. The lower-end model will have a 21.5 inch display, a dual core Intel 3.1.Ghz processor, 2 GB of DDR3 RAM, 250 GB of hard drive storage space. The AMD Radon processor would have HD 6750M graphics with 256 Mb memory. Given the features, this new iMac is indeed lower-end than the current iMac line and although the pricing isn’t yet known, it is expected to be somewhere under $1000.

Another entry-level iMac that is priced at $1,199 has the same 21.5 inch display and AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor, a 2.5Ghz quad core processor, but 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive storage space and 512 Mb dedicated space for the AMD Radeon graphics processor. Since the new comer has lower performances, its price is also expected to be lower. Probably somewhere between under $1000, since Apple’s last iMac targeting education was priced at $899 and an improved model (more RAM but worse graphics) is currently priced at $929. This one is expected to be somewhere between the two, featuring the former’s processor and the latter’s video card.

Although the details have been made public, the new 21.5 inch iMac model is expected to quietly launch Tuesday, August 16, without a trumpeted announcement.

Facebook launches iPhone Messenger App

Facebook announced today via the Facebook Blog that it has launched a new iPhone app called Messenger, which is designed to simplify how you message your friends and small groups. According to Facebook, the new app ensures that it only takes one click to get to your messages or to send any messages, which are delivered via notifications or texts, so hopefully your friends will get them right away. You can use the app to message any of your friends, and they don’t have to be on Facebook, they only have to be in your phone contacts. Simply type their name to message them from the app, which is basically just an extension of Facebook Messages, and a way of organising all your messages, be they texts, chats, or emails, in one handy place on your mobile. The app also makes it easy to start a group conversation and message everyone at once.

Apple’s iOS 5 Beta Could Hint At Voice Commands

Just recently, Apple has launched the iOS 5 Beta version for developers. Apple’s latest operating system has been announced in June at WWDC and will be available this fall. The company’s surprising move allowed us to take a peak at the upcoming iOS 5 and see what it would bring us. A little microphone icon built into the QWERTY keyboard hints to a previously rumored voice recognition software than the new platform might include. Earlier this year, some reports pointed to a partnership between Apple and Nuance Communication, and the only product that was rumored to come out of this collaboration was Nuance’s Dragon Dictation, that allows users to convert spoken messages into typed texts and paste it into an email or text message. There was no hint of a voice command software.

On the other hand, Google has taken this technology a bit further with the Android smartphones, allowing users to perform voice commands such as “Call X’s Cell” and to dictate texts directly on the targeted place, without the need of pasting the message. When Apple presented its forthcoming iOS 5 back in June, it did not mention voice commands, but it wouldn’t be the first time the company adds features to software that weren’t initially announced. The presence of the little microphone icon could mean that iOS 5 would add voice actions, but it doesn’t precisely hints to the rumored feature. Nothing is certain until the official fall release.

But the fact that Apple bought Siri in 2010, a company that specializes in voice-driven technology, the presence of the microphone symbol as well as the partnership with Nuance Communication could hint to new features to be added on upcoming iPhones and iPads.

Microsoft Patents New Phone Concept

Microsoft is known for patenting anything that comes to mind, I'm sure they would've patented photosynthesis if they could, but the latest patent might be of interest to Android users. The new patent by Microsoft is this new mobile phone slider concept that allows your device's screen to slide out and flush with the keyboard. This new keyboard setup would allow full access to all the keys, rather than today's concept that might make the top keys hard to press.
This design might never come true, but this is sign that innovation isn't dead yet --Microsoft is still working on patenting that too.

Android Takes 20% of Tablet Market From iPad; The Real Reason Apple is Lawsuit Happy

Here's the wrinkle, the thrux of the matter, the real nitty gritty... Apple isn't suing Amazon, HTC, Samsung, and now Motorola because they genuinely believe their ideas are being copied. In fact, Apple's lawsuits have nothing to do with any of these companies. There is one singular pattern emerging from all this... there is only one common denominator: Android.

A new report from ABI Research indicates that in just 12 months time, Google's Android based tablets have taken a 20% chunk out of Apple's iPad marketshare. While it's true that no single manufacturer of a tablet has been able to mount any significant threat to the iPad... taken as a whole, the multiple Android manufacturers aren't just eroding Apple's marketshare in the tablet market, they are slicing through it aggressively. It's precisely because Android doesn't come from just one particular manufacturer that makes it such a monumental threat to Apple. It can attack from multiple angles.

It is very likely that Android's "meteoric" rise to dominance in the smartphone industry scared the crap out of Apple. Now, they are having a terrifying "deja vu" experience in the tablet industry, and see the exact same thing repeating itself with Android for tablets "ramping" up to crush the iPad.

Apple isn't confident that it can go after Google directly or beat it in the marketplace, so it has chosen instead to assault Android indirectly in the courts by going after the manufacturers that make Android products. This is a devious plan, and simply smacks of desperation.

In many ways, it is a very sad tale. Apple is actually a pretty amazing company and has always been a leader in innovation. I even consider myself to be a fan of Apple. They pioneered some of the greatest technological phases in human history, but for some reason they always choose to remain a "closed" system. This ultimately leads to their downfall, just like when Microsoft beat them in the past with PC's versus Macs. It may be true that for the longest time Macs were a better product than any PC (and it could be argued that they still are), but it is impossible to deny that when it comes to market proliferation, they got the "snot beat out of them." Windows based PCs control a vast majority of the world's home computer markets, and Mac OS computers hold maybe 15%.

History is repeating itself with Android vs. iOS, and unless Apple decides to become more "open-minded," their fate is already sealed; they will again be relegated to a "niche" market spot. Fighting their competitors by abusing the legal system will not stop it, and simply just smacks of "bad form."

Does anyone else see this same pattern? Isn't it obvious?

Samsung Plans to Appeal the Galaxy Tab 10.1 pan-European Ban on August 25

Last week the legal battles between Apple and Samsung took a turn for the worse in Europe. In all the European countries except the Netherlands, Apple won an injunction barring further sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. This news came out just before the newest report that Apple is now also suing Motorola over the Xoom, claiming they copied Apple's designs.

Although this was a blow to Samsung, they aren't going to take it lightly, and word is they plan to appeal the Regional Court of Düsseldorf's ruling on August 25th. Interestingly, if Samsung can win on the appeal, then "according to German law, if its [Apple's] case doesn't have enough merit in court, it will pay damages to Samsung for missed business."

Even though I really do not want to take sides for or against one company over another, the reality is that this legal onslaught from Apple is really bad for the legal system as a whole. If Apple continues to make headway against its competitors using "patent and IP wars" it will set legal precedence that will ultimately muck up the patent system even more. It will lead down a "slippery slope" to a legal quagmire that will ultimately stifle innovation.

Let's cross our fingers that the appeals process works out in Samsung's favor, or that at some point, Apple will simply come to their senses, and just work out a licensing deal. If not, the only "light at the end of the tunnel" may be anti-trust regulators investigating Apple for this whole legal tirade, but that is only a remote possibility.