Steve Jobs health takes a turn for the worse?

RadarOnline:

Has confirmed Jobs, 55, has been attending the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, California, where Swayze sought radical chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer before his death in September, 2009.

The skeletal-looking Apple boss was photographed outside the clinic in images set to be published in the next edition of The National Enquirer.

NY Magazine adds:

But the National Enquirer, who broke the news, talked to critical-care physician Dr. Samuel Jacobson, who said, “Judging from the photos, he is close to terminal. I would say he has six weeks.” We sincerely hope he’s wrong and wish Jobs all the best.

Steve Jobs did go on medical leave again in January, so that does lend some truth to these reports. If true, hopefully he can pull through this next round and Dr. Samuel Jacobson is incorrect in his assessment.

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Speculation, Steve Jobs

Details on the Verizon iPhone antenna death grip fix

AntennaSys believes the new Verizon iPhone utilizes a new design to avoid the old, “non-existent”, I have no bars when I hold the phone in my left hand issue.

Spencer Webb from AntennaSys:

The SIM slot is gone, since it’s not a GSM phone.  That frees up a bunch of real estate on the PC Board.  Did Apple move the WiFi antenna (and probably also the GPS antenna) to the PC Board, under the rear glass?  I think so.

In their FCC filing, Apple describes the WiFi antenna as a “PIFA”.  This stands for Planar Inverted-F Antenna.  I would never describe the “frame” antenna using those terms.  So, this seems to support the theory.

Spencer also believes that with the extra space on the antenna band, from moving the WiFi and GPS antenna to the board, the band could now support two GSM antennas, to utilize ”antenna diversity”.

From the Wiki on antenna diversity:

Any one of several wireless diversity schemes that use two or more antennas to improve the quality and reliability of a wireless link.

This would allow the phone to switch between the two antennas, depending on which one has a stronger signal…the side that isn’t touching your greasy palms.

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Antenna Issue, iPhone 4, Speculation, Verizon

iOS 4.2.1 GM released to developers

New iOS 4.2.1 GM release means there definitely was a last min show stopper bug somewhere in the software.  It’s logical to assume Apple will not release iOS 4.2 to the public and rather delay the release to iOS 4.2.1 sometime next week. I’ve noticed running the 4.2 GM that my phone seems to slow down significatly at random times. Not as bad a 3G running iOS 4.0, but it has been a bit annoying. Hopefully iOS 4.2.1 fixes that.

We’ll update the blog if anything interesting pops up.

(Thanks to @daveizzle for the tip)

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iOS 4.2, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Speculation

iOS 4.2 release changes some built in app process names

Nothing big, just something I noticed. The Contacts and Maps apps are now called Contacts~iphone and Maps~iphone.

iOS 4.1                                         iOS 4.2

At first I thought it was due to the fact iOS 4.2 is the first unified release with the iPad, but why would apps like MobileMail not have the ~iphone extension? Also, not sure why it’s necessary at all since each iOS package is specific for each device. I can’t think of any better explanation, so I’m sticking with my first thought, even though I’m not sure why.

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iOS 4.2, iPad, iPhone, Speculation

Sorry WSJ, the iPhone is not coming to Verizon in January

As I’m sure you’ve read on 20 or so other Apple blogs by now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting on rumors of a Verizon iPhone:

Apple Inc. plans to begin mass producing a new iPhone by the end of 2010 that would allow Verizon Wireless to sell the smartphone early next year, said people briefed by Apple.

The new iPhone would be similar in design to the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T Inc. but would be based on an alternative wireless technology called CDMA used by Verizon, these people said. The phone, for which Qualcomm Inc. is providing a key chip, is expected to be released in the first quarter of next year, according to the same people.

Quoting myself form an August 11th post responding to John Gruber’s CDMA iPhone article:

I offer a third argument, Verizon and Apple themselves. I ignored this before because I was so caught up with technical side of it, but I think this is the strongest reason for no Verizon iPhone. We know how stubborn Apple has been with the iPhone control already, letting AT&T know who is running the show. The issue here is Verizon is just as stubborn and powerful. Great example of this is Verizon, not the handset manufactures, owns the Droid name. Gruber joked today on The Talk Show: Episode 3, that a Verizon iPhone deal could fall apart because Apple says no to the Verizon logo on the back of the iPhone…it’s funny because it could be true. Also, don’t forget that Verizon has publicly bashed the iPhone with their Droid Does campaign and have very strong ties to Google (net neutrality anyone?). Remember this is the “the summer of Droid”.

As I wrote in August, I do believe a CDMA iPhone is coming, but not on Verizon. I’ll believe it when I see it.

UPDATE John Gruber brought up the point that the WSJ wasn’t saying the iPhone was coming to Verizon, just that they are making a CDMA iPhone…although I got the feeling they specifically meant a Verizon iPhone.

Now Jonathan S. Geller (aka Boy Genius) just tweeted:

Heard that WSJ will be clarifying that Verizon will indeed launch the iPhone, not just that it will be CDMA-compatible

Guess my feeling was right and still think WSJ is wrong.

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iPhone, Speculation, Verizon

Official Google Voice app already approved?

TechCrunch:

The App Store review office at 1 Infinite Loop has officially frozen over: we’ve gotten word that the official Google Voice application is on its way to the iPhone in the next few weeks. In fact, we’ve heard from a source close to Google that it’s already been approved — Google just needs to revamp the application to work with the iPhone 4 and iOS’s multitasking capabilities.

You remember the shit storm surrounding the official and third party Google Voice app rejections, with the FCC questioning all the players; Apple, AT&T, and Google. It seemed like all hope was lost…that was until Apple recently changed the app store rules and the third party GV apps started to appear in the app store again. Since then we’ve all been waiting to see when/if the official Google Voice app would be approved, and now it looks like it has!

(via iPhoneInCanada)

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Apple vs ?, at&t, Google, iPhone apps, Speculation