Apple lied to FCC, Google Voice was rejected July 7th
by Justin Horn on Sep 18th, 2009 @ 12:14 pmThe FCC began an investigation into the Google Voice iPhone app rejection what seems like forever ago now. Part of Google’s response to the FCC was redacted at Google’s request, but now Google has announced on their blog that they have asked the FCC to remove the restriction:
Shortly afterward, several individuals and organizations submitted Freedom of Information Act requests with the FCC seeking access to this information. While we could have asked the FCC to oppose those requests, in light of Apple’s decision to make its own letter fully public and in the interest of transparency, we decided to drop our request for confidentiality. Today the FCC posted the full content of our letter to their website (PDF).
Google’s full response from the new underacted portions goes into more detail about the Google Voice rejection:
On July 7, Mr. Eustace and Mr. Schiller spoke over the phone. It was during this call that Mr. Schiller informed Mr. Eustace that Apple was rejecting the Google voice appliation for the reasons desribed above in 2(a).
2(a): Apple’s representatives informed Google that the Google Voice application was rejected because Apple believed the application duplicated the core dialer functionality of the iPhone. The Apple representatives indicated that the company did not want applications that could potentially replace such functionality.
I’m not sure if you remember Apple’s answer to the FCC question “Why did Apple reject the Google Voice application for iPhone”, if not here it is:
Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it.
Apple continued their response with the duplication argument that Google stated as the reason for rejection, but somebody is lying here and I’m betting it’s not Google. I believe Apple moved the app from the rejected pile to “app purgatory” after the FCC started poking around as a delay tactic. I also feel that if it were not for the FCC the app would have been permanently buried like Google Latitude, which was rejected for similar reasons. Whether it was rejected or not, the fact that they allow Skype in and not Google Voice should be a concern for the FCC.
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Apple vs ?, iPhone
Miami and 5 other cities getting 7.2 mbps by the end of 2009
by Justin Horn on Sep 10th, 2009 @ 9:54 am
While everyone else has been complaining about MMS missing on the iPhone, I’ve been complaining about having a HSPA 7.2mbps stuck at about 1.0! Looks like living in Miami is finally going to pay off as my wait is finally coming to an end. AT&T has just posted that they will have 7.2 in Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston by the end of the year:
AT&T plans to begin deployment of HSPA 7.2 in six major U.S. cities, including Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami, with initial service availability expected in these markets by the end of the year. All told, the company plans to deploy HSPA 7.2 in 25 of the nation’s 30 largest markets by the end of 2010, and to reach about 90 percent of its existing 3G network footprint with HSPA 7.2 by the end of 2011.
(via The iPhone blog)
HSPA
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iPhone OS 3.1… from beta 3 straight to release
by Chiyin on Sep 9th, 2009 @ 3:42 pm
Immediately after today’s event the iPhone OS 3.1 upgrade became available for download. Unlike previous updates of the firmware, 3.1 did not have a GM version release for developers, it went from beta 3 straight to the release version. For the 3.0 release Apple seeded developers with a GM version to test out their apps, something they didn’t do for 3.1, probably because the update mainly improved on first party apps like the App Store and iPod App.
Now lets see what have changed since beta 3…
- Beta 3 build number is 7C116a, the new version is 7C144
- Carrier version went from AT&T 4.5 to AT&T 5.0 (we are in the US)
- MMS support is no longer available. Probably because of the carrier file update
- App Store now shows the “Genius” button up on the “Featured” page along with “New” and “What’s Hot”
- … More to come
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Apples & Oranges, at&t, iPhone, iPhone 3.1
what can we expect from tomorrow’s event?
by Chiyin on Sep 8th, 2009 @ 11:11 am
Tomorrow is the highly anticipated Apple fall event… The invites sent out last week hint that it will be, as usual, an iPod event… But what can we expect? New iPod touch with camera? Discontinuation of the iPod Classic? How can Apple fill an entire event with just introduction of a new iPod? There has to be something else…
AppleInsider is predicting, besides the new iPods, an improvement of the App Store along with a new version of iTunes. They also mention the possibility of TV rentals on the mobile devices.
What do I think could make this event more exciting? Maybe introduction of the long awaited subscription based iTunes? They did recently approve the Spotify App across the pond… But then again Apple doesn’t approve apps that would “replicate” a function they offer as a first party, so that’s possibly ruled out… The tablet computer? I don’t think we will see this until next year, the invite pretty much says it all “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it”… So “rock and roll”… What could this mean? How about this, Steve Jobs saying “One more thing… The Beatles catalog is finally available on iTunes!” Now, that’s what I would call excitement, I’m getting giddy like a school girl just thinking about it… Yes, I’m a Beatles fan… Got a problem?
What do you think will happen?
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