iPhone News: Apple portable device?, MS downplays iPhone sales, Intel official apology

Latest iPhone News: Friday 25th October 2008

Rumour: Apple portable device

This one is firmly in the pen of speculation, despite rumours that Apple has been working on a "netbook" device for some time.

According to "an unnamed search engine", it has received visits from an unknown Apple device with a display resolution between that of an iPhone and a MacBook.

Thing is, it's very easy to spoof, or even make up, a device's identity, at least as far as web servers are concerned, so this has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Steve Jobs has said that Apple will not enter such a netbook market in its current state, saying that the iPhone and iPod Touch are the company's portable Internet devices.

(Via Into Mobile)

Microsoft exec plays down iPhone sales figures

Entertainment and Devices Division head Robbie Bach says that the iPhone sales figures aren't particularly impressive if they don't translate over the long term.

He continued to suggest that Windows Mobile, which dumps itself on a wide variety of handsets and kludges them, is a much better option because it gives the consumer choice.

Yes, it allows users to choose which handset will annoy them the most, because it had potential but the lousy operating system let it down. Alternatively, they could go for a device which has had the manufacturer's own extensions tacked on in an effort to make the Windows Mobile OS more bearable to use.

Choice is great, but so is a device that works well.

(Via Electronista)

Intel mobility chief public apology over inappropriate iPhone comments

What a surprise -- a company representative has said something derogatory about another company's product and has been reprimanded.

This time, it's Intel, whose mobility chief Anand Chandrasekher has blogged an apology for comments made about the iPhone's inability to display Flash and Java on web pages because of its choice of processor.

"Apple's iPhone offering is an extremely innovative product that enables new and exciting market opportunities. The statements made in Taiwan were inappropriate, and Intel representatives should not have been commenting on specific customer designs."

Steve Jobs has repeatedly said that Flash has no place on the iPhone at present, because it's a resource hog. Intel's out-of-line rep suggested that only on an x86 processor (like the Atom) could a true mobile experience be had, because Adobe has well-tuned Flash for that platform.

Hmm, if by well-tuned you mean "eating up the processor" then I'd agree. Though many have moaned at the iPhone's lack of Flash support, I personally haven't felt that my web browsing experience has been crippled by the lack of it.

As far as I'm concerned, Flash can be a resource hog (admittedly often more to do with sloppy coding than the platform itself) on any system. I don't want my iPhone's battery life reduced to an hour or two between charges just so I can use a few Flashy features.

In any case, Chandrasekher admitted that "Intel's low-power Atom processor does not yet match the battery life characteristics of the ARM processor in a phone form factor." Oof!

(Via Reg Hardware)

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