iPhone News Updated

Why Is There No Sprint iPhone?

In two days at Sprint headquarters this week, there was one thing Sprint employees absolutely, positively did not want to talk about: any rumors of a Sprint iPhone.

Sprint’s product chief Farid Adib didn’t smile about the Sprint iPhone chatter, the way various Sprint execs did when journalists brought up the idea of changes in Sprint’s 4G network. In fact, everyone in Overland Park looked a bit weary and a bit irritated about the topic.

But analysts keep wishing, hoping, and asking about the product, because at a basic consumer level, the lack of an iPhone on Sprint doesn’t make sense. Sprint uses the same 3G network technology as Verizon, on the same frequency bands, although Sprint made it clear its phones are tuned and optimized differently. Still, Apple wouldn’t need to build new hardware for Sprint, unlike with T-Mobile USA, which uses a frequency band not available on any current iPhone.

In other words, this looks like a business decision rather than a technology issue. Most people, including many Wall Street analysts, are saying: why the heck not? It wouldn’t require new hardware, and it would open the iPhone up to millions more people. Here are some theories as to why it hasn’t happened yet.

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Alfred: The iPhone app that knows what you want before you do

Alfred is a new iPhone app that uses artificial intelligence to predict what type of restaurant or bar you want, even if you have no idea.

One of the best things about smartphones is their ability to help you get things done. The more useful apps you add to your device, the better the gadget becomes. But a new iPhone app from Clever Sense uses artificial intelligence technology to take service apps to a  whole new level of awesome.

Dubbed “Alfred,” the app is marketed as a “personal concierge” that can predict what you’re looking for, even if you aren’t sure yourself. It does so by analyzing the vast amounts of data already available online. And it improves its results by “learning” what you like and don’t like from the choices it gives you, similar to the way the Music Genome Project that powers Pandora radio learns which types of songs you prefer and plays those.

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