What a week! Apple is swimming in more cash than they know what to do with, the Macworld/iWorld show is winding down in San Francisco and the EFF is working overtime to keep jailbreaking legal. What’s that? You didn’t hear about that? Why, you’ve come to the right place, then… step right up and have a heaping handful of the best and brightest news for this Friday, January 27, 2012.
The strange, twisted saga of webOS took another interesting turn today with the announcement that former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein (pictured above) has officially left the building at HP. According to The Verge, an HP spokesperson confirmed the departure with a simple "Jon has fulfilled his commitment and we wish him well,” apparently in reference to a commitment he was tied to when HP purchased Palm in 2010. Of course, it doesn’t help that the baby he has been nurturing since its introduction in 2008 -- that being webOS and its associated Pre, Pixi and TouchPad hardware -- has been put out to pasture by HP, with webOS kicked downstairs as a curious open source project whose future is still uncertain. Rubinstein granted Verge boss Joshua Topolsky an exclusive exit interview which is worth a read for any Palm fans still lurking about.
We can’t say we’re too shocked after seeing Cupertino’s record financial results earlier this week, but research firm Strategy Analytics today confirmed that Apple has narrowly passed Samsung as the world’s largest smartphone vendor for the last three months of 2011, with 37 million sold compared to Sammy’s 36.5 million. It’s a bit of a hollow victory, since Samsung still takes home the gold ribbon for the entire year, with 97.4 million smartphones versus Apple’s 93 million, but the better news for the industry is that global shipments are up 54 percent and a record 155 million smartphones were sold in the fourth quarter. Samsung’s market share for the year is 19.9 percent compared to Apple’s 19 percent, with Nokia in third place with 15.8 percent, having shipped 77.3 million devices during 2011.
Many of us take jailbreaking our iOS devices quite seriously, but did you know that an exception to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that made the practice legal is about to run out? According to AppleInsider, the exception granted by the DMCA in 2010 will lapse this year, and could potentially make it a crime for users to jailbreak and unlock their devices. Crazy, right? Thankfully, The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) wants to come to the rescue and is lobbying for users to speak out and make their voices heard by the DMCA with a new “Jailbreaking Is Not A Crime” website. "The DMCA is supposed to block copyright infringement, but it's been misused to threaten tinkerers and users who just want to make their devices more secure and more functional," explains EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. "The U.S. Copyright Office should hear from concerned Americans who want to run software of their choice on the gadgets of their choice." The EFF also seeks to expand the current exception to “specifically cover tablets and videogame systems,” so hit the website and throw your hat into the ring while you still can.
Yesterday, The New York Times published an exposé on factory conditions where Apple’s manufacturing is done in China -- and to say it didn’t paint a pretty picture is an understatement. Today, Apple CEO Tim Cook is firing back, with an email sent to Apple employees to set the record straight. According to 9to5Mac, who managed to get their hands on a copy of the email, Cook went on the offensive: “For the many hundreds of you who are based at our suppliers’ manufacturing sites around the world, or spend long stretches working there away from your families, I know you are as outraged by this as I am. For the people who aren’t as close to the supply chain, you have a right to know the facts.” Cook has good reason to be defensive about the accusations, since his former role as COO made him directly responsible for the manufacturing of Apple’s products for quite some time prior to being enlisted as Steve Jobs’ heir to the CEO throne last year.
It’s no secret that there are around a million iPhone users who have chosen to unlock their handsets and hang their shingle at fourth-place carrier T-Mobile, despite the fact that their device is incapable of using the company’s 3G and faux 4G radio bands. T-Mo has quietly supported such customers, but according to TmoNews, that support will be coming out of the closet this weekend. On January 30, T-Mobile “will begin offering additional support to customers using an Apple iPhone on our network.” Such support will include “common procedures, information about feature and specifications and other basic device questions.” T-Mobile has frequently been a safe haven for customers who prefer buying an unlocked device and paying month-to-month or even prepaid, and the carrier seems quite happy to embrace those lost souls into their own bosom.
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(Image courtesy of The Verge)
