Hasta La Gadget!

Take this for whatever it’s worth (which isn’t a whole heck of a lot without any official confirmation from any of the parties involved), but the New York Post has it that the Justice Department’s inquiry into Apple‘s iTunes practices may in fact be growing. ‘Course, it’s not exactly surprising to hear that authorities are now investigating every nook and cranny of Apple’s tactics thanks to Steve Jobs’ public thrashing of Flash and his sly insistence that the world shun Adobe while hugging HTML5, but we’ve still yet to hear from the DoJ and Apple about what exactly is going on within Cupertino. At any rate, the Post notes that a number of “sources” have confirmed that the inquiry is growing, most notably to include “how the iPhone and iPad maker does business with media outfits in areas beyond music.” We’d heard whispers that things may be getting just a bit too dictator-ish in the developers Ts and Cs, and now it seems that the DoJ is “asking questions about the terms that Apple lays out for computer programmers who want to develop apps for the iPad.” It’ll be interesting to see how all of this plays out, but we can bet devs (and end-users, frankly) are hoping and praying for less restrictions in the future.

DoJ’s inquiry at Apple purportedly expanding beyond iTunes practices originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 07:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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My, talk about a breath of fresh air. Canadian wireless subscribers have long since dealt with inhumane three-year contracts on mainstays like Rogers and Bell, signing over their cellular soul on a whim in order to get a marginally subsidized phone and a guaranteed bill for 36 months. We’ve heard for awhile now that Mobilicity was jonesing to change things up in the Great White North, and change it has. Shortly after receiving an all-important green light from the CRTC, the company has gone live with mobile service in Toronto, with a number of other large Canadian cities to follow in the months ahead. What’s most unique about the service, however, is that every single plan it sells is unlimited in nature, and there’s nary a contract to be found — you simply pick the phone you want, the plan you want, and then you pay upfront. It’s most akin to the various prepaid options here in the States (Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, etc.), but still — it’s a lovely alternative to have if you’re a Canuck. Unlimited calling and texting can be had for just $35 per month, while $65 per month nets you unlimited everything (including global texting, US long distance calling and data usage). The phone selection ain’t half bad either, with the only major “gotcha” being that extra roaming fees can apply if you use your mobile outside of metro Toronto (or in the future, away from the carrier’s specific coverage cities). Hit up the source link to get the facts straight from the horse’s moose’s mouth.

[Thanks, Endi]

Mobilicity launches service in Toronto: all plans unlimited, no contracts to speak of originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 May 2010 04:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Backing away from a previous position, are we Nintendo? Just a month after Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime claimed that the iPhone OS (you know, that operating system used on the iPod touch, iPhone family and the iPad) wasn’t a “viable profit platform for game development,” along comes the company’s president to say that, in fact, Apple is the primary “enemy of the future.” That’s according to Times Online, who says that the Big N’s CEO (Satoru Iwata) feels that the battle with Sony is a “victory already won,” and who clearly believes that the next wave of gaming won’t be of the traditional sit-on-your-coach-and-slam-buttons variety. ‘Course, the PSP never has been able to hang with the DS family, but even the Wii has a ways to go before it catches the mighty PlayStation 2 in terms of global sales. Going forward, the company is purportedly looking to revive the element of “surprise” in Nintendo products, but it might be best served by simply catching up to the competition and supporting this wild concept known as “HD gaming” over “HDMI.”

Nintendo CEO: battle with Sony is over, Apple is the ‘enemy of the future’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 May 2010 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Late last month, rumors began to swirl that Nokia‘s fearless leader may be closer than ever to grabbing hold of his golden parachute, and with the frustrations surrounding the company’s inability to keep pace with other smartphone producers, it’s certainly a believable whisper. Today, those sharks are still looking for answers, and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo attempted to give some during today’s address to shareholders. One choice quote came right off the top, with OPK stating the following:

“By combining services with devices, Nokia is in a stronger position to grow and create more value for our shareholders. We still have plenty of work to do, but we have built a solid foundation. We believe in our strategy.”

He then went on to list some of the many, many fruitful things that the company has delivered over the past few months (sadly not elaborating on the business shift), noting that Ovi Mail now has eight million registered users, Life Tools would be headed to China “soon,” and that his company shipped some 432 million devices globally last year — more than its top three rivals combined. Of course, it’s not the sum that investors are worried about, it’s the apparent inability to seriously chase the Apples, HTCs, LGs and Samsungs of the world in the smartphone space. To that end, Kallasvuo asserted that in 2010, the company will “introduce a new generation of devices that is expected to help close the gap with the competition in high-end smartphones,” and he continued by claiming that Nokia’s approach “has been to concentrate on fewer, competitive products that bring the features of Symbian-based smartphones to more and more people around the world.” The head-honcho certainly understands the rough position his outfit is in, confessing that Nokia is “working hard to reclaim leadership in high-end smartphones and mobile computers,” and also informing the world that the company’s next “mobile computer” will be humming along on MeeGo. Best of luck out there, OPK — it’s certainly going to take more than a snazzy Symbian^3 marketing campaign to regain the attention of these Android and iPhone OS loyalists.

Update: The full speech has now been posted [PDF], and unfortunately, there really aren’t any juicy tidbits to extract. Typical corporate speak from top to bottom.

Continue reading Nokia ‘combining services with devices,’ says the board approves

Nokia ‘combining services with devices,’ says the board approves originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 May 2010 10:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm gave us a heads-up back in late February that its upcoming earnings report wouldn’t exactly be cause for celebration, and today the news has become official: the outfit recorded a net loss of $22 million during its fiscal Q3, which still looks rosy compared to the $98 million loss it suffered this quarter a year ago. All told, the firm shipped 960,000 smartphones in the period, which represents a 23 percent uptick from Q2 2010 and a nearly 300 percent increase compared to this quarter in 2009. Unfortunately, sell-through wasn’t exactly stellar, with just 408,000 units changing hands — that’s a 29 percent decline from last quarter and a 15 percent drop year-over-year. We get the impression that it’s waiting for carriers to get down to replenishment levels, but it’s hard to say when that’ll happen. Jon Rubinstein, Palm’s chairman and CEO, was obviously not thrilled about the news, but he’s mirroring statements made to employees just over a fortnight ago with this quote:

“Our recent underperformance has been very disappointing, but the potential for Palm remains strong. The work we’re doing to improve sales is having an impact, we’re making great progress on future products, and we’re looking forward to upcoming launches with new carrier partners. Most importantly, we have built a unique and highly differentiated platform in webOS, which will provide us with a considerable – and growing – advantage as we move forward.”

We’re listening into the earnings call right now, and so far we’ve heard a few choice quotes. Jon mentioned that Palm has “aggressive roadmaps on the software front that we’re working on,” and that there were “no changes to our planned carrier launches.” We’ll let you know if he introduces the Pixi 2 or anything.

Update: The call’s over. PreCentral points out a choice quote from Rubinstein:

We had an arrangement with Sprint that when we launched with Sprint that they would invest in marketing and carry the product and for that they would get an exclusive for a period of time. That really determined when we could do our launch at Verizon. I agree with your premise that if we could have launched at Verizon earlier, prior to Droid, that we would have gotten the attention that the Droid got and since I believe that we have a better product, I think we would have even done better.

In other words, Palm — regardless of Verizon’s positioning — feels like the Pre Plus could’ve been a legitimate contender as a halo phone for the carrier had it been able to launch sooner, though that opportunity has obviously long since passed. We’re not so sure we agree that the Droid and the Pre Plus play in quite the same space, but if nothing else, we like the chutzpah — now it’s time to deliver some new hardware.

Palm posts $22m Q3 loss, says it liked its chances against Droid had Verizon launch been sooner originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 17:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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