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Unsurprisingly, CutYourSim Discontinues “Permanent Unlock” Service

Two weeks ago we reported about a company called CutYourSim that, alongside iPhone SIM cutters and adapters, began offering a $169 “permanent and universal” unlock service that would allow users to use any GSM iPhone – likely one purchased in United States – on virtually any carrier with no jailbreak required. The service offered by CutYourSim quickly made the rounds of the Internet as, in spite of CDMA model incompatibility, it simply required users to pay an activation fee without needing to jailbreak a device, or install additional software. Speculation arose quickly about the company having gained access to Apple’s (or a carrier’s) IMEI database – thus being able to “whitelist” devices on a network by adding a GSM phone’s IMEI number to the database. As you can guess, unauthorized access to the database was likely achieved thanks to a “source” within Apple or a carrier that had access and could quickly import devices to whitelist through the IMEI identifier.

After two weeks and an alleged explosion in sales, the service has been shut down. CutYourSim doesn’t provide a real explanation on their official website, but after speaking with the founder of the company Cult Of Mac reports CutYourSim doesn’t know what’s going on, either: Apple may or may not be behind the discontinuation of the service, but CutYourSim can’t (or perhaps, doesn’t want to) detail why their service stopped working.

Unfortunately, we were not able to complete the rest of the unlocks waiting in our queue due to our suppliers being unable to offer the service anymore,” CutYourSim told Cult of Mac. “Our suppliers have told us that there is a possibility that the service may return, but they do not know when, so we have decided to start processing refunds for any orders that we were not able to complete.”

“To tell you the truth, first our supplier told us there were server issues, then after that they just told us that they will not be offering the service anymore. We are not sure where the service comes from, or whether it’s a contact through AT&T or Apple. We do know that the service is performed in the UK, but that’s about it.

CutYourSim claims the service might come back online in a few days, but the fact that they’re already offering refunds to customers who paid and couldn’t get the unlock in time is telling. Clearly Apple wasn’t pleased with the effects of a service that somehow enabled users to have their device whitelisted for any GSM network, and either through a carrier or direct investigation within the company’s database managed to track down whoever was manually adding IMEIs to the database.

You can read more about CutYourSim’s discontinued service here, and even find alternatives with a bit of Google research – but as we said in our original post, we don’t recommend any of these services. They are destined to be blocked by Apple, or carriers.

iPad 2 Shortages Due To Display and Speaker Production Issues?

Following Apple’s Q2 2011 financial results and the number of iPad 2 sales in the quarter  lower than expected by Wall Street analysts at 4.6 million units, speculation has arisen as to whether or not Apple had to face shortages due to Japan’s earthquake and tsunami that affected production of key components for the tablet. While Apple COO Tim Cook assured that they’re making as many iPads as they can with no “supply or cost impact in fiscal Q2 in result of the tragedy”, a new report by IHS’ iSuppli sheds some light on the actual production issues that determined the shortage of iPad 2s in the first quarter of 2011.

The report notes how “quality concerns” over LCD screens might have affected Apple’s estimated number of iPads to ship during the quarter, together with “production shortages” with the redesigned speaker that Apple implemented in the second-generation device. iSuppli also mentions “lamination issues with one of the touch suppliers” and “shortfalls” in the end-unit production.

While Apple is now on track to significantly increase its production volume in the second quarter,” according to the Thursday’s iSuppli News Flash, “the company reportedly is still falling substantially short of its target production goal for April.”

As a result, iSupply has lowered its 2011 iPad shipment forecast to 39.7 million from the 43.7 million forecast in February.

At the earnings call, Tim Cook said demand for the iPad 2 was “staggering” and the company was “amazed” with the results. However, he also went on to say they were “heavily backlogged” at the end of the quarter, later calling the iPad 2’s production the “mother of all backlogs” with Apple working as fast they possibly could to get the device in the hands of consumers. Earlier reports of Apple willing to pay more to suppliers to ensure a steady flow of components and executives visiting Japan soon after the tragedy to sign pre-payment deals suggested the company was focused on avoiding possible delays and shortages, although iSuppli hints at LCD and speaker issues as the cause of lower shipments in the first quarter.

Twitterrific 4.1 for iPhone & iPad Unifies Mac, iOS Experience

Launching late last night, Twitterrific 4.1 is now available in the App Store for immediate consumption! I’d consider this a milestone update for the iOS version of Twitterrific, as it greatly improves usability on the iPhone and continues the march towards feature parity with the desktop app. I’d say now, Twitterrific has unified their ecosystem such as that replies for example are now handled similarly. This change is most noticeable on the iPhone, where users are no longer taken to the single tweet view to perform actions. Quite frankly, that change alone should address the main complaint many had when wanting to perform simple actions: what used to take three taps now only takes two. 4.1 is a significant update and brings much requested features into the spotlight.

Read more

iPad App Takes You Behind The Scenes of Portal 2

The Final Hours of Portal 2 is a new iPad app that combines a 15,000 word article with lots of audio, video and other interactive elements (some never before seen) to tell the story of the development and evolution of Portal 2 - perfect for those of you who (like me) love Portal. It’s written by Geoff Keighley, who also wrote “The Final Hours of Half-Life” which kick-started his career in game journalism, and like that first insight, he was again given extensive access to Valve’s offices and employees.

It really is more than just a 15,000-word essay on Portal 2, the interactive elements and multimedia in the app is really done well, definitely exceeding what the Wired app does in its iPad editions. Some of the most interesting elements include user polls, failed experiments by Valve, insights into a shelved Portal prequel and early versions of that memorable end-credits song by Jonathon Coulton.

The Final Hours of Portal 2 is on the App Store for $2 and whilst it is only on available on the iPad at this stage, Keighley is open to expanding it onto other platforms and devices if the iPad app does well and there is demand for it.

[Via MacNN]

 

Samsung Counter Sues Apple For Patent Infringement

In a counterclaim to Apple’s lawsuit filed earlier this week, Samsung said today in a statement that Apple’s iPhone and iPad infringe on 10 of Samsung’s patents and has called for Apple to stop infringing the patents and pay Samsung compensation. Filed in the Seoul Central District Court, the patents involved largely cover technologies surrounding power conservation during data transmission, improving the 3G data transmission and various wireless data communication technology. In a press statement, Samsung said it was

responding actively to the legal action taken against us in order to protect our intellectual property and to ensure our continued innovation and growth in the mobile communications business

The litigation between Apple and Samsung is set to be a heated one and Apple is going after Samsung hard, with Apple earlier this week saying to the press “this kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.” Meanwhile, Apple will continue to be Samsung’s second largest client for various electronic components, which go into the very products that Samsung is alleged to have copied, and last year it brought in $5.7 billion of revenue to Samsung.

Author of a book on Samsung and professor at the National University of Singapore, Chang Sea-jin, said to the Financial Times that such legal spats are common and are unlikely to threaten the business relationship between the two companies, he believes that “Apple is just sending a warning to Samsung that they are watching them.” It has also been suggested that Samsung has in the past actively persuaded Steve Jobs that the electronic components sector of Samsung would not in any way leak or reveal information about Apple’s future component needs to the Samsung mobile unit.

[Via Reuters]

 

OpenFeint Gets Bought For $104 Million By Japanese Mobile Social Network Gree

Japanese company Gree which runs a mobile gaming social network yesterday revealed that it had purchased OpenFeint, which runs a very similar social network, for $104 million. The deal follows the $403 million acquisition of Ngmoco by another Japanese firm, DeNa, last October. However unlike that deal, Gree and OpenFeint will not be merging their social networks into one service, opting instead to unify their codebase so that developers can choose to use either Gree, OpenFeint (or Mig33 which Gree also has a deal with) depending on the specific market which the game is targeted towards.

The appeal for such a service that OpenFeint delivers is that mobile game developers can easily utilise a mature network that offers users a more social experience with leaderboards and challenges whilst also helping developers by easily allowing cross-promotion through the network.  Gree has been a big success in Japan with over 25 million users and a market value of $3 billion, but OpenFeint has gone gangbusters on iOS and Android with over 75 million users and is implemented by over 5,000 games.

OpenFeint’s current CEO, Jason Citron, will remain in his position and said in an interview that the deal will accelerate OpenFeint’s expansion globally, which he believes is a “multibillion dollar opportunity” in conjunction with the increasing dominance of smartphones and tablets. “We are beginning of a new age,” Citron further added. “The economic opportunity here is so tremendous and gaming is the killer app.” Meanwhile, Yoshikazu Tanaka, founder and CEO of Gree said “At Gree, we are socializing the next evolution of games and, as the best-in-class US-based mobile social network, OpenFeint is the ideal partner for us to offer the best mobile social games to the largest global audience.”

[Via VentureBeat]

Is Apple “The Least Green?”

While it’s not obvious to consumers, the backend (those giant server farms) required to serve social networking websites, Google Documents, and soon iTunes media, facilities from giants like Twitter, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple have gone under the scrutiny of Greenpeace in a recent report which evaluates the companies’ transparency in energy usage, the decisions that go into choosing a location and how those facilities are powered, and willingness to correct and pursue green technologies. At the heart of the conversation is king coal, nuclear energy, and the argument of cheap energy sources vs. more expensive, albeit cleaner technologies.

The recent influx of mega utility-scale data centres intowestern North Carolina (Facebook, Google, Apple) was influencedby the attractive electricity prices offered by local utilities (DukeEnergy and Progress Energy), which had extra capacity of dirty coaland nuclear power following the departure of the region’s textileand furniture manufacturing.

Apple’sdecision to locate its iDataCenter in North Carolina, which has an electrical grid among the dirtiest in the country (61% coal, 31% nuclear), indicates a lack of a corporate commitment to cleanenergy supply for its cloud operations. The fact that the alternativelocation for Apple’s iDataCenter was Virginia46, where electricity isalso comes from very dirty sources, is an indication that, in additionto tax incentives, access to inexpensive energy, regardless of its source, is a key driver in Apple’s site selection.

That’s obviously true. Apple has been approved $46 million in tax breaks, with an 85% cut in property taxes and a 50% slash in real estate taxes. Apple has gotten a nice plot of land for dirt cheap, but just how much power will this datacenter suck up on the “dirty grid?”

Apple’s new $1bn US dollar‘iDataCenter’ in North Carolina is estimated to require as much 100MW of power, equivalent to about 80,000 US homes.

Apple could soon consume 200MW of power if they build a second datacenter in parallel with the first, taking advantage of the generous tax breaks. Thus far, Apple ranks the lowest in energy efficiency with over half (54.5%) of their total power consumption reliant on coal energy. Apple’s Clean Energy Index scores a paltry 6.7%, and while Apple has increased their efforts to pursue green technologies, the company hasn’t set any renewable energy or greenhouse gas targets to further a transition to renewable energy sources.

[Greenpeace Dirty Data Report via Huffington Post]

iBooks 1.2.2 Released

A few minutes ago Apple released a minor update to iBooks, its eBook reading application for iPhones and iPads available for free in the App Store. iBooks 1.2.2 includes “important stability and performance improvements” that should make the app more responsive as well as fix a series of issues reported by users in the previous versions of the app. The update addresses an issue with videos being played from enhanced books purchased from the iBookstore and fixes a problem with some books opening in a different font than expected. Last, books with several items in their table of contents should feel more responsive overall.

iBooks 1.2.2 can be downloaded here.

Apple’s Cloud Music Service Almost Ready to Launch?

According to Reuters, Apple “has completed work” on its rumored cloud-based music service that will allow users to store their music online, and access it anywhere using a computer or an iOS device connected to the Internet.

Apple Inc has completed work on an online music storage service and is set to launch it ahead of Google Inc, whose own music efforts have stalled, according to several people familiar with both companies’ plans. Apple’s plans will allow iTunes customers to store their songs on a remote server, and then access them from wherever they have an Internet connection, said two of these people who asked not to be named as the talks are still confidential.

Reuters also claims Apple hasn’t secured any deal with music labels yet, and industry sources said several labels are hoping to close these deals before the service’s launch. Similarly to Amazon’s recently launched Cloud Drive and Cloud Player, Apple could introduce a service that works on the web and mobile devices, and offers a way for users to “digitally lock” their own media in the cloud – quite possibly without even needing the blessing of music labels to do so. Amazon, for instance, was initially rumored to be in a lot of trouble with licensing deals after the Cloud Player launch, but as of today no major music label has sued the online retailer – which basically gives its users an online space to store their DRM-free songs. Amazon, however, is reportedly in talks with labels anyway to come up with a more “advanced” plan that meets the music industry’s expectations and requirements.

Apple, on the other hand, might launch a service that acts as a remote backup location for a user’s iTunes library, and it could be part of the rumored new MobileMe – a complete revamp of the suite of online sync tools that’s also expected to be free, and deeply integrated into future versions of iOS. A number of reports in the past months indicated Apple was building an online iTunes backup solution with built-in streaming capabilities, although others claimed the company was also focusing on a subscription-based model for streaming the entire iTunes Store catalogue – similarly to how music service Spotify requires a premium subscription to stream music you don’t own.

Last, Reuters reports:

Apple and Google are keen to offer services that give music fans more flexibility to access their media wherever they are rather than tying them to a particular computer or mobile device.

In late 2009, Apple bought Lala, a cloud-based music company, but closed it down in April 2010, leading to speculation that it would launch an Apple-branded cloud service.

Interestingly enough, a series of downtimes and errors in iTunes and the App Store during the past 2 days lead many to believe Apple moved its iTunes servers to the new data center in North Carolina, which was set to become fully operative in Spring 2011. Read more