iPhone News Updated

Sawasdee iPhone 3G!

Well, it official. The iPhone 3G is legitimately coming to Thailand. In a recent interview, I had stated that I had some doubts that the iPhone would come to Thailand so soon, citing that they did not have any confirmed deals for content, which is what really rakes in the money in the whole iPhone money machine. But soon after that interview, there were some events which hinted towards a Thailand launch. It now looks like the baby brother in Thailand’s trio of major phone operators, True Move, who is often over looked or forgotten, has sealed the deal with Apple. Commenting on the question of what happened to their rumored deal, AIS has stated that the deal with TrueMove is nonexclusive, leaving the door open for speculation that AIS is still in negotiations with Apple.

Why TrueMove ?

Read the rest of this entry »

OrbLive Update Enables 3G & EDGE Live TV Streaming on iPhone, on App Store

Orb today updated their OrbLive client for iPhone and iPod touch. Today’s update enables the ability to watch Live TV (streamed from a host PC) to iPhone over 3G and EDGE connections.

Previously, Apple has blocked such uses of the 3G network, forcing people to use Wi-Fi for such connections. For example, VoIP providers are required to force their applications to use Wi-Fi before submitting them to Apple for approval. In addition, the first release of OrbLive for iPhone also had this restriction.

Because of Orb’s approval, it may have a chilling effect on Apple’s ability to restrain others, such as Slingbox, from following suit. If Apple were to permit OrbLive to stream TV live, and block Slingbox, that would be a clear, illegal, anti-competitive business practice. Apple maintains monopoly control over what applications are published and distributed to iPhone, a legally suspect process which we have covered previously.

It may also be possible that the update was approved by mistake. Apple previously approved NetShare, an internet sharing application, which permitted iPhone to sling its internet connection to notebooks and other Wi-Fi connected devices. However, hours after being posted on the App Store, and thousands of purchases, Apple quickly removed the application. Months later, Apple informed NetShare’s developers that the application would not be permitted on the App Store.

The impact of this application is questionable, if thousands of users began streaming Live TV 24/7, it could have a crippling effect on some AT&T markets. AT&T continues to suffer capacity and local-loop bandwidth issues in some areas of their 3G network, largely due to the expanded bandwidth usage of iPhone and iPhone 3G.

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