Sep

22

adapter2-sm.jpgApple has ordered a recall of its ultracompact USB power adapters.
The adapters, originally packaged with the Iphone 3G, apparently contain flimsy metal prongs that are susceptible to snapping.
According to Apple, the broken prongs could “remain in a power outlet, creating a risk of electric shock”.
The flawed adapters were reportedly sold in the U.S., Japan, Canada, Mexico and South America. Club Cupertino recommended that customers in the affected countries stop using their adapters “immediately” and exchange them for new ones. The company also confirmed reports of “detached” prongs but emphasised that they had caused no known injuries.

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Apple Support article

Sep

17

Apple’s iPhone 3G has won a public vote to find the year’s best gadget, beating strong competition from three games consoles, a budget laptop and a balloon-shaped iPod speaker system.

The latest version of the mobile that combines a phone with a music and video player was chosen by readers of Stuff magazine in its annual Gadget of the Year awards.

The magazine described the iPhone 3G as “a faster, cleverer version of an already remarkable phone”. The phone’s first incarnation, launched in Britain last year, won the coolest gadget prize at last year’s ceremony.

Other nominees included Sony’s PlayStation 3, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii Fit and the B&W Zeppelin iPod speakers.

Stuff’s Editor Fraser Macdonald said the nominated products were judged on their performance, design and value, as well as “that elusive cool factor”.

“Having our readers vote for a number of the awards has been fascinating,” he said. “They are the ones out there on the street buying gadgets and so they are a great barometer.”

The magazine’s own gadget of the year prize, chosen by its editorial staff, went to the Asus Eee Pc, a no-frills laptop that costs less than 300 pounds.

The judges said it had made more of an impact than any other device and marked the start of a “laptop for everyone” era.

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Sep

17

Anyone expecting the Google mobile operating system to change the market as Apple’s iPhone has over the past year will probably be disappointed - for now.

Industry insiders who have worked on Google’s Android system say it will struggle in the near term to match the consumer enthusiasm generated by the iPhone, which redefined the touch-screen phone market and greatly improved mobile Web surfing.

Instead, Google sees Android as an open source platform for designing mobile devices and says it will encourage innovation by allowing outside software developers to tinker with the system and create better mobile programs and services.

But these things take time, and the first phone using Android, code-named the Google “Dream” phone, is unlikely to wow consumers. The device is made by HTC of Taiwan. Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile unit reportedly intends to introduce it in New York on Tuesday.

“I’m not sure the consumer experience is significantly better than that of the iPhone,” said Rajeev Chand, a wireless analyst at the investment bank Rutberg, who has tried out an early version of Android. “When the iPhone came out, the experience was several orders of magnitude better than anything that was out there.”

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Sep

15

Google is everywhere, with its ubiquitous Web search engine, Google Maps for navigation, Google Docs online office suite, Google Checkout shopping and most recently, Google Chrome Web browser. Next up: Google’s Android operating system for mobile phones, likely to debut in the weeks ahead.

googles-android.jpg

The first mobile device built around Android will be carried by T-Mobile in a still-unnamed handset designed by Taiwanese smartphone powerhouse HTC. The Android phone will go up against Apple’s iPhone, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and a host of devices powered by Nokia’s Symbian and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating systems. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

While every market Google has entered is highly competitive, none may be more so than the mobile phone market, specifically the market for smartphones, which can handle e-mail and Web surfing.

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Symbian-based phones s led in worldwide market share for smartphone mobile operating systems, with 57.1 percent of sales in the second quarter of this year, according to Gartner Research.

That likely reflects Nokia’s status as the world’s largest cell-phone maker. Next in line were Research In Motion, 17.4 percent; Windows Mobile, 12 percent; Linux, 7.3 percent; Apple’s Mac SO X, 2.8 percent; and Palm, 2.3 percent. Another 1.1 percent included Sharp Sidekick devices based on the Danger platform.

In the United States, Research In Motion’s mobile operating system dominates the smartphone market, with 41 percent, according to a February 2008 report by Canalys consulting, with Apple capturing 28 percent, Windows Mobile, 21 percent, and Palm, 9 percent.

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Sep

15

Given Apple’s super-secretive ways, it’s quite a shock to find a company engineer disclosing something about the iPhone’s future innards on a public social networking site.

Wei-han Lien, the senior manager of Apple’s chip team, dished out the morsel on LinkedIn, saying he’s busy at work crafting an ARM processor for the next-generation iPhone.

While it’s a minor revelation, Lien’s statement would confirm what many have expected ever since Apple acquired chip start-up PA Semiconductor in April for close to $300 million.

PA Semi had assembled an all-star cast of chip engineers, including Lien, and Apple confirmed that it bought the company for that talent. In a June interview with The Times’ John Markoff, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs went one step further, saying the PA Semi team would work on designing brand-new processors for future iPhones and iPods. The only question was which kind of processors.

The current iPhone includes ARM processors, which are very common in the mobile device industry. ARM Holdings is a British firm that licenses out its processor designs to other companies, who tweak the chips to suit their needs. While Apple refuses to confirm it, the company uses ARM processors made by Samsung in the iPhone, according to numerous analysts.

By developing its own ARM variant, Apple could create a processor that meets the specific needs of the iPhone and iPod, building support for functions such as the touch screen or scroll wheel into silicon and possibly savings on costs by reducing the number of processors needed in each device. In addition, Apple’ will be able to maintain tighter controls on who knows what about its future products by disposing of an outside chip supplier.

“They could put software accelerators on there or maybe do something like a graphics engine,” said Fred Weber, the former chief technology officer of Advanced Micro Devices and current chief executive of memory specialist Metaram.

Such a move, however, comes with challenges.

“You are taking on that internal risk of making sure this design goes well,” said chip analyst Linley Gwennap of the Linley Group. “Even with a good team, there’s always a risk that things will be late and delay the release of something like a new iPhone. By outsourcing that part, you have the opportunity of going to another company if the first cannot deliver what you need.”

The construction of a bespoke mobile chip sees Apple returning to its historical roots. For years, Apple relied on more specialized processors from I.B.M. and Motorola rather than using the more common Intel processors adopted by the major computer makers. It eventually abandoned that strategy in 2005 and moved over to Intel chips, leaving Apple’s software as the only major difference between its machines and rivals’.

The engineers at PA Semi specialized in crafting processors with strong performance and very low power consumption. Before shifting to Intel chips, Apple flirted with the idea of placing the PA Semi processors, which were similar in architecture to the I.B.M. and Motorola chips, into its laptops and desktops. PA Semi officials were, in fact, shocked when they learned in the press of Apple’s decision to go with Intel. Apple’s choice crippled PA Semi’s business overnight and forced it to go after new markets such as networking and storage gear.

While hunting for new customers, PA Semi also managed to attract the attention of military equipment suppliers who were intrigued by the low-power qualities of PA Semi’s chips. (They consume less than 20 watts apiece.)

People familiar with the Defense Department’s intentions say that PA Semi chips are set to go into missiles, computers in fighter jets and surveillance equipment.

“By all accounts, the PA Semi chip is meritorious,” said Will Strauss, an analyst with Forward Concepts. “There really was nothing else quite like it.”

When Apple bought PA Semi, it had no intention of morphing into a military supplier. The Defense Department, however, received push-back from suppliers who had already committed to long-term designs based on the microprocessor. These equipment makers urged the Pentagon to pressure Apple into continuing to supply PA Semi’s chips for several years, according to people familiar with the negotiations, who declined to comment on the record because of Pentagon restrictions. Apple eventually caved.

“We are extremely confident and pleased with the direction of PA Semi’s silicon availability,” said Bret Farnum, a vice president at Extreme Engineering Solutions, which makes specialized computing systems, some of which go to military suppliers. “We have many customers that are going to continue to deploy it for the next four to five years.”

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