iPhone Winterboarder

Well, the rumor mill was partly right. For weeks, there was speculation that Wal-Mart Stores would sell a $99 Apple iPhone.
There really is a $99 iPhone, but it’s not at Wal-Mart. And Wal-Mart really is selling an iPhone, but it’s not $99.

The $99 iPhone is available only from AT&T, and the phone is — as car dealers delicately put it — pre-owned.

As long as the supply lasts, or until December 31, AT&T is offering refurbished 8 GB iPhone 3Gs for $99 with a two-year contract (or to people who qualify for an upgrade). The 8 GB G3 usually sells new for $200. Don’t rush to a stores though — the refurbished phones can only be ordered online or by phone.

By refurbished, AT&T means someone else owned it first and returned it. The phone may show some wear, but it carries a 90-day warranty. New iPhones have a one-year warranty, according to an AT&T salesman I spoke to at the phone order center. AT&T spokespeople approached by phone and e-mail had not responded by the time this was posted.

Meanwhile, new iPhones are available at Wal-Mart, at a whopping discount of — wait for it — $2 off.

As I’ve said before, getting the iPhone into Wal-Mart doesn’t seem like such big a deal. It may put it in front of some buyers who have only seen them on TV before, but I’m not sure that translates into tremendous sales.

Putting the iPhone in Wal-Mart is culturally significant, though. It shows how fast general acceptance of mobile computing is moving. In little more than a year, the elite smartphone with the most advanced technology has become conventional enough for the most mass-market of all retailers.

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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) said Friday it will begin selling Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 3G starting Sunday, but not at the dramatic discount some had expected.
The retailer said it would sell the eight-gigabyte iPhone 3G for $197 and the 16 GB model for $297. Prices are for phones with a new two-year service agreement with AT&T (T) or with a qualified upgrade, the retailer said in a brief statement on its Web site.
The prices Wal-Mart announced Friday are in line with iPhone 3G prices elsewhere, which should put to rest rumors the retailer known for selling low-cost items would also be dramatically discounting the iPhone. Some prominent Apple bloggers suggested Wal-Mart would sell the iPhone 3G for as low as $99.
Wal-Mart did leave room for further discounts by promising to match lower iPhone 3G prices available elsewhere. Best Buy Co. Inc. (BBY), the only other U.S. retailer to sell the phone, currently offers the iPhone 3G for just $10 less than Wal-Mart.
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman added the iPhone 3G will be available starting Sunday at 2,493 of Wal-Mart’s 3,200 locations, but provided no additional information on the roll-out.
The phones are now available in Apple stores, Best Buy and AT&T. Wireless operators in more than 70 countries also sell the iPhone 3G.
The Wal-Mart deal could significantly increase the number of iPhones sold in the U.S., Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a research note written before the deal was announced. In the note, Munster suggests an Apple/Wal-Mart relationship would boost expected overall iPhone sales by 10% next year to nearly 50 million. Munster didn’t respond to a comment inquiry Friday.
The news begs a question: Why did the two companies wait to start selling the iPhone 3G Sunday? Had Wal-Mart begun offering the iPhone 3G a few days earlier, the companies could have benefited from the holiday season gift-buying rush. Wal-Mart wasn’t commenting beyond its official statement, which doesn’t address the question, and spokespeople for Apple and AT&T didn’t immediately respond to comment inquiries.

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A French competition watchdog is trying to suspend a deal between Apple and  No. 1 mobile operator Orange run by France Telecom. which will distribute the Iphone exclusively in France, an executive told a French newspaper.

Executive Director Jean-Yves Larrouturou told La Tribune that suspension of the deal with will not impact France Telecom’s end-of-year financial figures.

But he said the decision challenges the group’s investment plans, which were based on an exclusivity deal of three years with a possible two-year extension.

The Competition Council’s decision announced on Wednesday wants to allow customers to buy the Iphone with a contract from rival service providers SFR and Bouygues Telecom in time for the Christmas.

France Telecom has said it intended to appeal against the decision as it placed France in a different position than Britain, Germany and Spain, where Apple has also struck exclusivity deals.

The council said that this five-year exclusive deal with Apple was “clearly excessive” and risked “serious and immediate damage to competition on the mobile market and to consumers”.

Wasn’t this the same exclusivity distribution methods Apple was complaining about Microsoft and IBM back in the day?  It seems being a hypocrit pays big nowadays.  I’m just curious why we are not hearing about antitrust suits against Apple like it happened with Microsoft.
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 A humanitarian effort to fight world hunger, protect endangered species and counter global warming has been sidelined indefinitely because of a legal challenge filed by Apple Inc.

The online game Glupod had been scheduled to debut November 29 – in time for the Christmas season. Instead, Glupod has been put on hold indefinitely because of Apple’s claim that the use of “pod” in the game’s name violates a number of Apple trademark registrations.

In development for more than two years, Glupod is the first online video game that would allow players to turn in-game winnings into food for starving people in developing countries, help for endangered species and to help global warming.

“We’re extremely disappointed Apple has chosen to take such a hard-line attitude against an effort that has the potential to do so much good,” said Ioannis Tsiokos, managing director of Something Inc., the company that developed Glupod. “No one’s going to confuse Glupod with an iPod.”

Tsiokos and a small band of colleagues at Something, Inc. who work online from Greece, India, the United States and the United Kingdom have collaborated to get Glupod ready for launch. The game would fight poverty and help environmental causes in the real world by turning game prizes into real-life help for social and environmental causes.

Apple always complains about the evil empire of Microsoft but it’s their actions speak louder than words.  While Microsoft opens up it’s source code to developers and Bill Gates runs The Gates Foundation, Apple is doing the same thing they complain about and on top of that keeps the consumer prisoner to their distribution sources.  If it’s not from Apple it must be illegal and you gotta go through App-Store just to make your Iphone fart.

About Something Inc.

Something Inc was founded on January 20, 2006, on the Caribbean island of Nevis. Today, it is a small company dedicated to making a big difference. Its main development office is in India, while employees also work from Greece, the United States and the United Kingdom. For more information or to request press material, contact Ioannis Tsiokos or visit http://www.glupod.com.

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          Winterboarder is a theme repository for the Cydia installer that many people with jailbroken Iphones greatly enjoy. After the purchase of my apple Iphone I quickly came to the realisation that I cannot customise my phone without paying the apple people an arm and a leg for crappy wallpapers or ring tones. When it comes to colors for the user interface, icons for apps, batteries, lock screens, forget about it. I started googleing for how is possible to do it and came across this program QuickPwn that modifies some files in your Iphone so apps can be installed without going through App Store or Itunes. The program that I use is Cydia which I find very well made and useful. Thanks Saurik!!

         Saurik, the maker of Cydia also made an app called Winterboard which enables people to manage themes and customize their Iphone the way they see fit. Well I searched and installed a lot of themes, buttons, wallpapers but the available content for winterboard is lacking.  There are just a few well made complete themes is a sea of half ass content made by people that have no artistic inclination whatsoever.  Since I’m a graphic designer the decision to make my own came fairly easy, but I hit a wall since I have no clue when it comes to making themes and hosting a repository to distribute them.  It took about 2 months to familiarize myself with this and how to use Debian.  God I hate linux so much, …you gotta be a genius just to install flash player.

         I’ve decided to make my themes so that when you install one, they will be aesthetically pleasing and have the same color scheme as much as possible.  This is really hard to get since most of the apps you have in the Iphone use some graphics independent from the phone user interface.  If your app doesn’t look like the rest of the phone that means I didn’t add it to the theme folder because it’s impossible to do them all. There are thousands of apps available for Iphone and IPodTouch and if someone need one added to the theme let me know.

          For the people that didn’t jailbreak their phone yet I’ve made a “how to” section that deals with jail breaking your phone, installing Cydia, Winterboard and using Winterboard. I hope you will free your phone from apples clutches enjoy my themes.

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