iPhone News Updated

Apple iPhone, Media Pad Coming From Verizon Wireless?

Talks between Apple and Verizon have been in the press for several days now, but recent reporting suggests the two may be discussing a pared-down version of the Apple iPhone and an Amazon Kindle–like “media pad,” for release as earlier as this summer. But does Apple need the hassle of CDMA?

Verizon Wireless is negotiating to offer two new Apple devices, one of which could be available as soon as this summer, Business Week is reporting.

The first is a smaller, less expensive version of the iPhone — perhaps the “junior iPhone” first described by Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu, on April 8.

The second device is a media pad — something larger than a phone but smaller than a netbook, and somewhat resembling the Amazon Kindle — for watching videos, listening to music and placing VoIP (voice over IP) calls.

The move to Verizon — the largest carrier in the U.S., and so a coup for Apple — would be a hit for AT&T, which has been said to be angling to extend its exclusive contract with Apple. AT&T’s relationship with Apple was what enabled the carrier to post a 13 percent increase in wireless profits for the first quarter of 2009.

Verizon originally passed up the opportunity to offer the iPhone, after it was unable to agree with Apple on the terms of splitting revenue and data fees.

Additionally, Verizon has its own applications store, but Apple has so far negotiated to be the sole provider of wireless applications for the iPhone — an excellent move, clearly, as the Apple App Store recently offered its one-billionth download.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, isn’t expecting an iPhone from Verizon anytime soon.

“I think it’s unlikely at this point, though it’s likely that in the future Apple and Verizon are going to provide what the market wants,” Gottheil told eWEEK.

“The CDMA technology isn’t something Apple needs to address in the near term. Though Apple’s growth, and the growth of the iPhone in the U.S., are definitely constrained by [Apple’s] failure to support one of the largest wireless providers.”

Gottheil’s comments suggest the media pad is the better bet, should the reported talks come to fruition.

“The media book is definitely more likely,” said Gottheil. “It would have to use Verizon’s current 3G network, and Verizon is working on implementing a 4G network. But it’s possible [they could roll it out] with an eye toward upgrading to 4G later.”

“Apple is a very aggressive negotiator, and it uses the public to help it,” Gottheil added. “There are certainly interests at [the highest levels of] Verizon and Apple to create things together.”

[Thanks: http://www.eweek.com]

Score the best deals on iPhone e-books

I love reading books on my iPhone, but I don’t love e-book prices. I mean, digital content requires no printing, binding, shipping, storage, or heavy lifting–so why does Amazon charge the same price for the Kindle edition of “The Kite Runner” as for the paperback?

That’s a debate for another day (though let me go on record saying I’d buy a lot more e-books if they were priced in the $1 to $4 range). For now, let’s look at ways you can read on the cheap–or, at least, the cheaper–on your iPhone.

• Look for freebies Stanza, one of my favorite e-book viewers (just acquired by Amazon, incidentally), connects you with thousands of freebies. For example, check out the Random House Free Library, which currently stocks 10 mainstream e-books. (Best bet: Charlie Huston’s superb crime-noir series, which starts with “Caught Stealing.”) Meanwhile, there’s Google Book Search, a browser-based solution that connects you to a whopping 1.5 million public-domain books. Point Safari to http://books.google.com/m.
• Look for deals E-bookseller Fictionwise already discounts its e-books, but you can stretch your dollar even further by setting up a “Micropay” account (i.e., a debit account). Most books come with a Micropay rebate, meaning you get 10 percent to 15 percent of the purchase price added back to your account. But sometimes Fictionwise runs rebate specials, as it’s doing right now with J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series: Buy any/all of the books and you get back 100 percent. You can read Fictionwise e-books using eReader or Stanza. (Just make sure to choose titles that are available in the Secure eReader format.)
• Try before you buy Amazon’s Kindle app lets you read free of charge the entire first chapter of any book in the Kindle Store. That’s a great way to see if you like a book before plunking down your $10. However, you can’t browse the store from within the app: You have to queue up your sample chapters from your browser. Not so with Shortcovers, an e-book viewer with a built-in bookstore that offers sample chapters for many titles (but only forewords for others).
• Shop around Prices sometimes vary from one bookseller to another. For example, I went looking for Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” (just for comparison purposes, mind you!). Amazon’s price: $6.04. Shortcovers: $6.34. Fictionwise: $9.89 after Micropay rebate. (That wasn’t always the breakdown: sometimes Fictionwise had the lowest price.) Even if you save just a buck or two by shopping around, it adds up over time. And there’s no law against using multiple e-book apps on your iPhone if necessary.
• Buy e-book collections Classics2Go serves up 35 e-books for 99 cents, while the featured-in-iPhone-commercials Classics offers 20 for the same price. Of course, these are public-domain works like “Gulliver’s Travels” and “Pride and Prejudice”–stuff you promised yourself you’d read someday, right? It’s never been easier–or cheaper.

Read any good e-books lately? Scored any good deals? Give me your thoughts on e-books and what you think is a fair pricing model. Hey, maybe I’m just being cheap.

[Thanks: http://reviews.cnet.com]