Memex 1.1

From Slashdot.

The EFF is publicly disclosing a version of Apple’s iPhone developer program license agreement. The highlights: you can’t disclose the agreement itself (the EFF managed to get it via the Freedom of Information Act thanks to NASA’s recent app), Apple reserves the right to kill your app at any time with no reason, and Apple’s liability in any circumstance is limited to 50 bucks. There’s also this gem: “You will not, through use of the Apple Software, services or otherwise create any Application or other program that would disable, hack, or otherwise interfere with the Security Solution, or any security, digital signing, digital rights management, verification or authentication mechanisms implemented in or by the iPhone operating system software, iPod Touch operating system software, this Apple Software, any services or other Apple software or technology, or enable others to do so.” The entire agreement (PDF) is up at the EFF’s site."

Screened on US TV during the Oscars last night.

Meet my new mobile office. Because I move around a lot, I’ve been using a (supposedly) 3G dongle from the 3 network, which is the only device I’ve used in years which makes me long for the good ol’days of 300 baud acoustic couplers. The other day it occurred to me that my cheapo T-mobile Android Pulse phone might make a good modem, and — lo! — thanks to PDAnet, it does. It’s a very elegant solution which doesn’t require any root hacking on the phone. Just download the App from the Android market and install it. Download the client from here and install on your Mac (and, in my case, also on my Dell Hackintosh). There are clients for BlackBerry, Palm, iPhone and Windows Mobile too. Hook up the phone via the USB cable, launch the App on both machines, click ‘Connect’ and away you go. The interesting thing for me is how quick and efficient it is compared to the 3 dongle. (Memo to self: cancel that £10/month direct debit.)

In addition to tethered USB mode, PDAnet can also handle bluetooth connections. But only on Android 2.0. Sigh. There’s always a catch somewhere. Still…

Interesting Mashable report.

Mobile ad network JiWire just released the stats from its latest public Wi-Fi study and found that 56% of connections are from mobile devices like the iPhone, the iPod touch, Android smartphones and Sony’s PSP handheld gaming console.

JiWire serves ads through public Wi-Fi spots in places like airports, coffee shops and hotels. Last year it published another interesting stat: Just shy of 98% of mobile devices that connect to public Wi-Fi are made by Apple. The iPod touch and iPhone took 55.95% and 41.7%, respectively.

Those numbers have slipped slightly since then, with Google Android devices passing Sony’s PSP to take the third-place spot on the list.

Rather than take on Google directly, Apple has sued HTC, the manufacturer which makes most of the handsets currently running the Android operating system. But to the detached observer, it’s clear what the real target is. Here’s GMSV’s take on it:

Although not named in Apple’s suits accusing HTC of multiple violations of iPhone-related patents, Google made a point Tuesday of publicly declaring its support for the company that makes many of the most popular Android-based smartphones, including the Google-branded Nexus One. “We are not a party to this lawsuit,” a spokesman told TechCrunch. “However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.” Unless Google can come up with a reason to turn loose its own legal hounds in a counterattack against Apple, however, that support, whatever form it takes, will be coming from the sidelines. In an effort clearly aimed at halting the Android advance, Apple avoided tangling with the search sovereign mano a mano and instead hit the HTC flank, opening the possibility of winning a U.S. International Trade Commission injunction sealing the border against any HTC phones found to be infringing.

Judging by HTC’s latest statement regarding the action, it may already have gotten some advice from Google on framing its position in the court of public opinion. In advising stockholders that it doesn’t expect the Apple suits to have any short-term material impact or affect Q1 guidance, HTC flew the freedom-of-choice banner, saying, “HTC believes that consumer choice is a key component to success in the smartphone industry and this is best achieved through multiple suppliers providing a variety of mobile experiences. HTC has focused on offering its customers a uniquely-HTC experience through HTC Sense and its broad portfolio of smartphones.”

Where things go from here is anyone’s guess — ITC action, countersuits and amended complaints, out of court settlement, royalties, IP sharing, full review of the patents themselves. But as a first-strike FUD missile, Apple’s litigation seems to be doing its job right now.

What it suggests to me is that Android is beginning to bite, in the sense that Apple thinks it may turn out to pose a strategic threat to the iPhone/iPad market.

I’ve long thought that publishing on the Web won’t provide a sustainable business model for magazines, for two reasons: (a) the paywall problem; and (b) the fact that the Web can’t provide the ‘immersive’ reading experience that high-end magazines require. (Some interesting research by the Economist suggests that, in may of their markets, subscribers ‘make an appointment’ with themselves to set aside time every week to read the magazine.) One possible inference is that classy publications stand a better chance of flourishing in an online world if they’re Apps rather than sites. Taking this route addresses the paywall problem (Apple collects the dosh via iTunes store); and it may enable designers to create reading experiences that are more immersive than web browsing. This report suggests that Conde Nast, at least, is beginning to think this way too.

Condé Nast’s plans for the iPad tablet computer from Apple are getting firmer.

The first magazines for which it will create iPad versions are Wired, GQ, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Glamour, the company plans to announce in an internal memorandum on Monday.

GQ will have a tablet version of its April issue ready. Vanity Fair and Wired will follow with their June issues, and The New Yorker and Glamour will have issues in the summer (the company has not yet determined the exact timing for those).

The company already sells an iPhone application for GQ. That has sold more than 15,000 copies of the January issue and almost 7,000 of the December issue.

Condé Nast plans to test different prices, types of advertising and approaches to digitizing the magazines for several months before wrapping up the experiment in the fall. “We need to know a little bit more about what kind of a product we can make, how consumers will respond to it, what the distribution system will be,” said Thomas J. Wallace, editorial director of Condé Nast.

The magazines were chosen for their range, he said. “They are representative of the company, right? GQ is men. Glamour is women. Vanity Fair is a dual audience. The New Yorker is unique with its periodicity, and therefore it’s also more news- or text-heavy, and it’s a slightly older audience,” Mr. Wallace said. And Wired has already been working on a reader project with Adobe, the software company that provides publishing tools to much of the magazine industry.

Other than Wired, the digital magazines will be developed internally. “We’re taking a two-track approach partly because we want to learn everything that we can,” said Sarah Chubb, president of Condé Nast Digital.

During the test phase, the company will sell the digital magazines through iTunes. Wired will also be available in non-iTunes formats. While that means Condé Nast will not have access to consumer data — a valuable tool for its marketing — Ms. Chubb said there were other ways to get that information.

Of course, the implication that — once again — Apple will be in pole position to profit from the marketing data that comes from iPad APP sales.

According to today’s NYTimes,

SAN FRANCISCO — A handful of presumptive biographers have, over the years, tried to tell the remarkable story of Steven P. Jobs: the youthful visionary who, after being ousted from Apple, the company he helped to found, triumphantly returned to lead a new era of high-tech innovation.

But those efforts lacked one important ingredient: cooperation from Mr. Jobs himself.

Now Apple’s chief executive is set to collaborate on an authorized biography, to be written by Walter Isaacson, the former managing editor of Time magazine, according to two people briefed on the project.

The book, which is in the early planning stages, would cover the entire life of Mr. Jobs, from his youth in the area now known as Silicon Valley through his years at Apple, these people said.

Mr. Jobs, who will turn 55 on Feb. 24, has invited Mr. Isaacson to tour his childhood home, one person with knowledge of the discussion said.

Hmmm… Wonder if Mr Isaacson has checked his blood-pressure recently. He’ll need a stable reference point for the coming months.

Hmmm… This from Good Morning Silicon Valley.

Thought you were done hearing rumors about the tablet Apple is secretly developing? No such luck. Less than a week after the iPad was unveiled, there is already talk that a larger, more versatile sibling is in the works. Mind you, it’s just talk — a thinly sourced tidbit relayed by TechCrunch with the requisite grain of salt and appropriate hedging. But the gist of it is that Apple is well along on a second tablet with Intel inside, a screen possibly as large as 15.4 inches, and, instead of the iPhone OS, a version of Mac OS X, making for a more open device. MG Siegler suggests we keep an eye on Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June to see if Apple offers a peek at the upcoming OS X 10.7. Should the new version include some significant multitouch features, he says, that would bolster prospects for a more Mac-like tablet.

Actually, they could just rip the screen off my MacBook Air and use that.

Well, it will if this can be believed.

Mission Repair, a company that fixes broken Apple products, apparently got their hands on some iPad parts. Their pictures showed off the internal frame, which curiously enough has a small hole on the top of the frame.

When the Mission Repair team took a camera out of a MacBook and placed it inside the iPad’s top hole, it fight right in. You can see a comparison of the MacBook camera and the iPad slot in the image above.