O2 the exclusive iPhone carrier in UK revealed its business tariffs for the iPhone and said that the company was very happy with the positive results from the corporate users during beta testing of the new product. O2 UK’s head of business sales, Ben Dowd, told Silicon.com the company has undertaken beta testing of the 3G device with 15 corporate customers – including Citigroup, Logica and McDonald’s. “The feedback has been very positive,” he said. The beta testers found it usable, like it and wanted to know more about the device. Dowd further said, “That sort of feedback in addition to the positive feedback that Apple got from about 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies is very good. Absolutely this can be used in the business world.” More than 130,000 people have registered online with O2 to get more information about iPhone 3G release. O2 says that this gives us a gauge for level of interest and it is very high. Starting 11th July iPhone 3G will be available in 22 countries including UK, it will be interesting to see how many iPhones Apple sells on first weekend.

Apple has published an article on how to replace an original iPhone with an iPhone 3G using the same carrier. If you follow these steps to backup your original iPhone first, and then restore the backup to your iPhone 3G, your saved SMS messages, email accounts, photos, notes, and other personal settings will be present on your iPhone 3G. Basically the step are purchase a new iPhone 3G, make sure that you have the latest iTunes software, connect the original iPhone and backup, connect the new iPhone 3G and restore from backup, after restoring the new iPhone 3G will restart and then verify that your saved SMS messages, email accounts, photos, notes and other personal settings are present on your iPhone 3G. To get detailed information for the process and for trouble shooting visit Apple’s article here.

Samsung Electronics informed its customers that it would start reducing NAND Flash memory supply as Apple has placed a large batch of orders. A source told DigiTimes that Samsung recently informed them it has secured orders for 50 million 8Gb NAND flash chips by Apple for July mainly for use in Apple’s iPhone. Apple had ordered 25 million 8Gb NAND flash chips from Samsung for month of June. This means that Apple has doubled their NAND flash order for July. Earlier this year iSuppli reported that Apple has slashed its 2008 NAND memory order forecast significantly. That time I argued that the number of iPod sold have increased more than 20% every year. This means that Apple’s need for NAND also increased by at least 20% even without adding iPhone or increase in iPod’s memory capacity. I further added that every market research firm should analyze their previous years prediction and sales data to see where they have been off the mark and this might help them analyze the coming year better. Well iSuppli’s report that Apple has reduced its NAND flash order forecast has been proved wrong as Apple has doubled it NAND flash order in just one month. I hope that market research firms like iSuppli start doing more thorough work before they publish a report.
[Via DigiTimes]

Although, almost a week is left before the iPhone will be available, a line of around 10 people has started forming near the Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York City. The Apple store security and employees have confirmed that the line was for the iPhone 3G. Chairs and other apparel make it clear the early visitors are there for the seven-day wait. I won’t mind standing in line for few hours for the new iPhone 3G, but 7 days is just too much for me.

Earlier, this year Acer like most other computer manufacturers announced their entry in mini-notebook market with Aspire One. Three models of Aspire One are now available in Europe A110L, A150L and A150X. The A110L comes with Intel Atom Processor, 945GSE chipset, 1GB RAM, 8.9” LCD screen (1,024x600), 8GB Flash memory, WiFi b/g, Ethernet, memory card slot and three USB2.0 ports. The mini notebook measures 9.8” x 6.7” x 1.14” and weighs 2 pounds. This Linpus Linux lite based laptop has a 2,200mAH 3-cell battery. The other two models uses 120GB hard drive in place of flash memory. The A150L has Linpus Linux as OS and the A150X uses Windows XP. All the models are available in blue or white color. The A110L is priced Euro 299 ($469), the A150L is priced Euro 359 ($565) and the A150X is priced Euro 399 ($625).

Japan’s largest mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo’s President Ryuji Yamada said to Bloomberg TV, “it’s common sense that Apple wants to sell as many iPhones worldwide as possible and to customize it would be difficult, our stance on the iPhone remains flexible.”  Yamada took over as company’s president last month. Previously, it was believed that even though DoCoMo was in talk with Apple for iPhone launch in Japan their negotiations failed because DoCoMo wanted Apple to add their trademark applications like the i-mode (web browser) on the iPhone and Apple didn’t oblige. DoCoMo’s market share has been shrinking for past 12 months and their stocks have fallen 12 percent in the same period. Softbank the third largest mobile operator in Japan has won iPhone’s contract and will start selling iPhone 3G starting July 11th. It is estimated that they will gain more than 1 million iPhone customers in first year. Now we know why the new president of DoCoMo will be flexible to get the iPhone.
[Via Bloomberg]

Asus has officially announced the new 8.9” Eee PC 904. The system will come with 1024x600 screen, 900Mhz Celeron M processor, 1GB RAM, 80GB hard drive and Windows XP.  Asus won’t use the new Intel Atom processor for the 904 mini-notebook. The main difference between the Eee PC 904 and Eee PC 901 is larger keyboard like the one used on Eee 1000. The 904 will go for £269 ($535) in UK. It will ship in mid July.

Apple has emailed the iPhone developers letting them know the last date for submission of their application to the App Store for inclusion on the App Store launch day. The email states:
“Have you application be among the first available when the App Store goes live. To ensure your application can be considered for exciting launch of the App Store, submit your application by 12 PM PDT, on July 7, 2008. We will continue to accept applications after this time, however your application may not be available until after launch of the App Store.”
It look like Apple will launch the App Store the same day it ships the iPhone 3G on July 11, 2008.
[Via World of Apple]

The Japanese hard drive maker Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is planning to have a 3.5-inch hard drive on market that has 5TB capacity. The highest capacity hard drive available today is 1TB, if Hitachi achieves its goal of 5TB in 2010, they would effectively increase the hard drive capacity by 5X in just two years. To achieve this the company will use a new write head technology called perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistance or CPP-GMR. This would pushes data density above 1TB per square inch delivering hard drives many times larger than those available today. Hitachi’s Yoshihiro Shiroishi said, “By 2010, just two disks will suffice to provide the same storage capacity as the human brain.” Now my only question is who calculated that Human Brain has just 10TB storage capacity.

For past decade there has been lot of talk about the improvements that Nano technology can bring in future. One of the fields that can benefit a lot from Nano tech is a computer. Researchers have already show that Nano tech can improve memory reliability, speed and decrease the over all size of the system. According to the latest research done by scientist at University of Pennsylvania nanowire based information storage device can improve the storage capacity while decreasing the size of the device. Researchers have created a type of nanowire using two phase-change materials that is capable of storing three bit values rather than the usual two. For example memory is stored in binary form as “0” and “1” in devices now, but the new nanowire based system is non-binary and can store “0”, “1”, and “2” resulting in higher capacity storage device. The nanowire designed by UPenn has a core-shell and a cylindrical shell like a coaxial cable, the core is made of germanium, antimony and tellurium and the cylindrical shell is made of germanium and telluride. This allows the nanowire to be in three different states depending on electrical resistances, resulting in storage of three bit per wire. Ritesh Agarwal an assistant professor at UPenn says that manufacturing of these nanowire based devices will also be easier as it can be done via “bottom-up” approaches – using the natural tendency of tiny structures to self assemble into larger structures.
[Via Physorg]

iShare announced the result of their latest smartphone survey in Japan. When the company asked which upcoming smartphone the users were interested in, 57.9% respondents named iPhone. Willcom’s D4 came in second with 35.8% votes, followed by Willcom 03 with 33.1% vote. BlackBerry came in sixth with just 8.8% respondents showing interest in the upcoming RIM device. When the respondents were asked what design property they look for in a phone, 68.6% percent said lightness, followed by compactness at 38.1% and slimness at 37.2%. Only 13% of the respondents used data communications on their mobile phone and the number one reason given by the respondents for the small percentage was “monthly network access fees”. In a survey done last month by iShare for all the users planning to buy a mobile phone in Japan, only 9% were planning to go for the iPhone. Just imagine how low the interest numbers are for other smartphones (Blackberry will be less than 1 percent) compared to regular mobile phones in Japan.

TGdaily is reporting that NVIDIA is planning price cuts for its new GTX 260 and 280 graphics cards on Monday. The price cuts are a direct result of the pressure put by the aggressive pricing and good reviews of the AMD’s ATI Radeon 4800 GPU. When TGdaily contacted NVIDIA for more information about the price cuts, NVIDIA’s spokesperson said, “we’re working with our partners on adjusting the prices for the GTX 280 and 260. The changes are being implemented over the next few days and will take effect sometime next week. Please obtain final retail pricing from the partners, because they set them for their products.” The price of the GTX 260, which is $399, will be dropped to $359 and the GTX280 will see a drop from $649 to $559. With discounts available via the vendors the price of GTX 280 should come down to around $500. Even though AMD wasn’t able to match the performance of the new NVIDIA GTX cards, their aggressive pricing of 4800 series has ultimately benefited the customers.

The US Patent Office today published around 34 patent applications filed by Apple. All the patents revealed are related to multitouch technology and touchscreen hardware. The patent applications cover hardware necessary for multitouch touchscreen, designs to make devices more visually appealing, techniques to distinguishing whether flesh or other forms of inputs like fingernail or stylus are touching a screen and a unique capacitive touch sensor design by Apple. Most of the patents cover the ongoing research for refining the multitouch experience by avoiding unintentional contact and advancing the hardware technology. The patent applications also cover different devices that can use the new multitouch technology. This is a definite indication that iPhone won’t remain the only device with multitouch screen in Apple’s product line and very soon we will see other devices using the technology. MacNN has posted more detailed information about the 34-touchscreen patent applications.

Most of the countries around the world are now taking climate change seriously. India today released its first action plan for climate change before the G8 meeting in Japan where climate change will be the main topic of discussion. Even though India is the second largest country by population in the world, it contributes less than 5 percent of world’s carbon emission. China in comparison produces 17 percent. But both India and China emit far less carbon dioxide compared to US. The eight missions of the plan are solar energy, energy efficiency, creating a sustainable habitat, conserving water, preserving the Himalayan ecosystem, creating a green India, creating sustainable agriculture and establishing a platform of “strategic knowledge for climate change.” Among the eight missions India’s main focus will be on solar energy as it is a renewable energy with almost zero carbon footprint. To get more information about the India’s Action Plan for Climate Change read the PDF.

Yesterday, Sony released their latest PS3 firmware update 2.40 that added many new features to the console. But the new release has caused larger number of issues for customers who updated their systems. As a result, Sony has pulled down the update. Sony’s spokesman also confirmed that the company has pulled the firmware off its servers while it investigates the problem. The main problem reported by many PS3 owners was that their systems were loading to the initial Playstation wave screen and simply hanging there after applying the update. No icons and no controller functions just the wave across the middle of the screen. Some users also reported that they would get black screen when they inserted a game disk into the system. Now firmware 2.36 is available as the most recent update till Sony isolates and solve the issue.

iCall is the first VoIP application that will be released when iPhone software 2.0 is released later this month. The application lets users switch between VoIP and normal GSM calls anywhere in North America effectively using the WiFi at places like Starbucks to make call. iCall will enable making and receiving calls over WiFi, transferring inbound calls from a regular cell call to WiFi instantly and seamlessly, address book access and customization of voicemail. It is believed that the company has Apple blessing for this application and it will debut at the App Store soon. Check the video out it shows the application working.

RBC analyst Mike Abramsky said in his research note that consumers are showing unprecedented demand for Apple’s 3G iPhone, according to new data from RBC’s Technology Adoption Panel. Based on the data 56% of consumers planning to buy a new smartphone in next 90 days will go for iPhone, up from 36% in March. Around 25% of people who may buy a smartphone sometime in future will go for iPhone. Purchase interest for Apple’s smartphone was highest at 56% followed by RIM 23%, Palm 3%, HTC 2%, Nokia 2%, Samsung 2%, Motorola 1% and others 11%. The top reasons consumers gave for their interest in iPhone 3G were lower price (67%), 3G (63%), GPS (47%), Exchange support (35%) and third party apps (20%). According to RBC this is the largest interest ahead of any consumer phone launch recorded by RBC’s panel since 2003, even surpassing the iPhone launch last year.
[Via Silicon Alley Insider]

BGR has posted list of all the new smartphones coming to AT&T in second half of 2008. BlackBerry Curve 8320 and BlackBerry Bold (in Q3) will be the two RIM phones joining the AT&T lineup. On the Windows Mobile side we will see the third edition of Samsung BlackJack, which will have Windows Mobile 6.1, 528MHz ARM11 processor, 3-megapixel camera and aGPS. The second phone with Windows Mobile 6.1 will be Pantech Duo sporting 528MHz ARM11 processor, HSDPA, and GPS. The last in Windows Mobile 6.1 lineup will be HTC Tilt II that will replace the Tilt. The phone will have Qualcomm 528MHz processor, aGPS, HSDPA and 256MB ROM/ 128MB memory. AT&T will launch all three phones in fourth quarter. AT&T will also do a software upgrade for its current Windows Mobile 6 phones to Windows Mobile 6.1 in July.

The Register has posted a rumor, based on reports from mobile operators that Apple is already working on a slide-out keyboard version of the iPhone for corporate customers. If Apple releases this version it will be next year and won’t be aimed at the consumer market. According to the Register actual prototypes have been sent to senior executives at some operators. The new silde-out keyboard has some issues, which are not yet resolved and it will take more the 6 months to ship the final product to the market. Apple has started the work on iPhone with keyboard because it is one of the biggest demands by corporate customers.

Brain Caulfield of Forbes reported today that one of the Intel’s top executive revealed that Apple is not going to use Intel’s chip in the iPhone anytime soon. ?"'Apple chose not to take that road map at their next generation of platform,' said Patrick Gelsinger, general manager of Intel's digital enterprise group. 'That was disappointing,'" Caulfield reports. "Despite the setback, Intel has a plan to use its long history inside desktop computers to its advantage, even as the action shifts from the PC to wireless gizmos like Apple's iPhone..."
It was largely believed that Apple would use the next generation Intel Atom processors in its iPhone. But Two months back Apple bought chip designer P.A. Semi for $278 million in cash to help it design power efficient processors for its next generation iPhone and portable media players. Steve Jobs in his recent interview with New York Times said that Apple bought P.A. Semi to design its own chips for future mobile devices. Now it is almost certain that either Apple will keep using ARM processor for the iPhone or will design its own processor, but it won’t switch to Intel’s Atom processor.

Net Applications’ Operating System stats for June 2008 shows that both Mac OS X and Safari web browser hit a new all time high market share in June. Mac OS X now has 7.94% market share for operating systems visiting Net Applications’ network of 40,000 websites worldwide. Apple’s Safari had 6.31% share of the browsers visiting Net Applications’ network of websites. Mac OS X and Safari have almost doubled their market share compared to May 2006. In both the OS and browser market, Apple’s gains have been Microsoft’s loses. In Past two years Microsoft has lost 5% of OS market share and 11% of browser market share.

Nikon today released complete details about the upcoming D700 digital SLR. The camera packs a full frame 12.1-megapixel FX format sensor, EXPEED image processor, 51-point auto focus, live view shooting and 3” LCD screen. The camera starts up in 0.12 seconds and has a shutter-lag of 0.40 milliseconds. It can shoot 5fps at full 12.1 megapixel and has ISO up to 6400. The 1,005-pixel RGB light sensor adjusts auto exposure, auto white balance, autofocus and auto scene recognition. The D700 uses compact flash card for storage and includes HDMI for direct output. Nikon will start shipping the D700 DSLR in July end for an estimated selling price of $2999.95 body only.

AT&T today officially announced its pricing structure and launch time for iPhone 3G. AT&T will start selling iPhone 3G at 8am on July 11th 2008. New AT&T customer and customers who are eligible for an upgrade will be able to buy the 8GB iPhone for $199 or the 16GB iPhone for $299. If you are an early upgrader (not eligible for upgrade), $200 will be added to the iPhone 3G costs. A two-year contract will be required to get the iPhone. iPhone 3G without contract will be priced $599 (8GB) and $699 (16GB). Individual plans will be priced $69.99 for 450 minutes, 89.99 for 900 minutes, 109.99 for 1350 minutes and $129.99 for unlimited plan. The family plan will start at $129.99 for 700 minutes and go all the way up to $359 for 6000 minutes. All the plans will include unlimited data and visual voicemail. Text messaging plans will start at $5 for 200 messages and go up to $20 for unlimited messages. Family plan customers will pay $30 for unlimited messages. To get more information about iPhone activation or pricing visit AT&T’s iPhone website. Apple has also posted a guided tour video and a what’s new video for iPhone 3G on its website.

RealNetwork’s Rhapsody music service, known for its music subscription service has launched a new MP3 store. The new service sells MP3 songs without digital rights management. Though Apple’s iTunes store was the first major online music store that started selling DRM free songs from EMI. The other three big music labels have not support iTunes DRM store in an effort to bring down Apple’s dominance in online music market. Real Joins a list of DRM free online MP3 stores that include Amazon, Wal-Mart and Napster. In an effort to create a music ecosystem around its music service, Real has formed partnerships with iLike, Yahoo and MTV networks. Verizon has also signed a deal with Real that will allow Verizon V-cast service users download music easily to their PCs as soon as they buy it on their phones. To attract users to its new service, the company is giving away $10 credits to the first 100,000 people who sign up for an account. To get $10 worth of free music you can sign up here. I don’t know whether the new Rhapsody MP3 store will decrease iTunes Market share or not (as other DRM free music stores haven’t affected iTunes market share till now), but it is a definite indication that subscription music services have largely been a failure.

ComScore, a market research firm that provides Internet traffic analysis for online advertisers, reported today that 1.3 million Americans conducted 6.9 million iPhone related searches in April. The  “iPhone” was the most popular term with 1.5 million searches, followed by “iPhone 2.0” and “iPhone 3G”. 88.4 percent searches were done on Google, followed by Yahoo with 7 percent and MSN with less than 3 percent. Apple got 17.5 percent traffic from the searches, Youtube and various blogs got 9 percent traffic and NetShelter Technology Media, a company that owns several iPhone-specific sites got 8.5 percent traffic. "Search is frequently a harbinger of purchase intent,” said Dan Lackner, Senior VP of ComScore. “The increase in volume of iPhone searches demonstrates just how heavy that interest has been for the next generation of Apple's popular phone -- even when its existence was still just a rumor." It would be interesting to see the number of searches done for iPhone related terms in June and July, I bet it will be more than double.

Apple today released Mac OS X 10.5.4 Leopard, which is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard. The update fixes and enhances the stability, compatibility and security of the OS. The main applications included in the update are Adobe Creative Suite 3, Airport, iCal, Safari, Spaces and Expose. Apple has patches more than 25 flaws with the latest update, including 13 security fixes. You can download and install the latest update from Apple downloads or via Software Update feature of Mac OS X. Apple has also released security and Safari 3.1.2 updates for Mac OS X Tiger.