Apple iPhone may be one of the most popular smart-phones on the market. It may give its owners access to thousands of apps available in iTunes. But it’s certainly not a perfect device, nor is the company that has turned it into what it is today. Apple is known for being controlling and obsessed with its image. Who can blame it? After all, the company has made a fortune by leveraging its premium brand. When a company owns a premium brand, it does everything it can to protect it. Sometimes, it may even go overboard just to cover its behind. That seems to be the case with Apple these days. We knew from the past that Apple doesn’t hesitate to strike down dubious iPhone apps as well as those that were being promoted by its competitors (e.g. Google). But Apple now seems to have gone overboard by removing sexually explicit apps from iTunes.

Many sex apps have been removed from iTunes in the past few days, and while the company has allowed some back on, there are many developers who have been devastated by this move. It’s one thing to monitor apps for bad taste and hateful content. It’s another thing to shut down a major category of apps. Let’s face it. Sexual content are all over the place on the Internet. You don’t see your ISP filtering them out. Of course, Apple is trying to protect its brand and reduce its liabilities. It’s true that many kids own an iPhone today. If you are a parent, it’s your job to make sure your kids don’t access to sexy apps on your or their own phones. That doesn’t mean Apple should get rid of all these apps. Read the rest of this entry »

It has been an extremely busy week for Apple and Apple fans. As we get closer to iPhone 4′s release date, we are going to hear about more leaks, more lawsuits, and sensational claims that have no base in reality. This weeks is not going to be different. Apple and Nokia ended last week by playing the cat and mouse game between themselves. Nokia is planning to get a chunk of Apple’s profits from its top products. Apple is planning to ban Nokia imports to the U.S. I guess it’s an eye for an eye. Nokia may be right about its patents being infringed by other companies, but Apple has the best punch-line:

Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours

Not too many experts believe that this battle will end anytime soon. Apple is not going to give up its profits to Nokia easily, and Nokia is quite honestly a bit desperate here. Besides, Apple is not going to let a lawsuit ruin its iPhone 4 pre-launch party. After all, now’s the time for anyone who’s good at making up rumors to come out of the woodwork. And it’s now being done in an international level. As expected, there has been a leak in Korea that reveals iPhone 4.0 may be on target for June/July 2010. What will the new iPhone offer? Apparently, it’ll support video chats, come with a touch sensitive housing and two camera modules. Let’s not forget about the addition of an OLED iPhone screen either.

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We all know it’s about time Apple started working towards releasing iPhone 4G next year. We have seen enough iPhone and iPod launches that it’s become easy to predict how Apple works. But if you need some confirmation, Eldar Murtazin seems to have given it on Twitter. The editor in chief of Mobile Review had this to tweet yesterday:

So what will we get with iPhone 4 Gen anyway? Verizon may have given us some ideas with its attack ads on iPhone. It’s not too hard to predict that Apple will be addressing some of those issues. I suspect that Apple will be working hard to integrate its own map application into iPhone, so you can dream less about Google Maps Navigation (not sure if that’s possible). Read the rest of this entry »

iPhone may be an impressive device all by itself, but it’s even more impressive to see all the companies that are jumping on board and offering their innovative app using the iPhone platform. Even news organizations are realizing the potential for this market, which is why they are jumping in one by one. CNN is the latest news organization that has jumped into the iPhone app business. It has just released CNN Mobile that is designed to keep iPhone holders informed with the latest CNN news on the go. CNN Mobile comes with videos, push notification, local news, and everything else you need to stay informed. The people at CNN seem to be optimistic about the fortunes of this app:

This is a major event for CNN…The impact that mobile can have is increasing. This app is really going to be an important indicator of where CNN is going moving forward.

CNN Mobile is very easy to use and provides with an easy way to skim through the news and even upload your own video to iReport. You can also customize what you want to see and filter out the junk.

The Video tab provides you access to the latest live streams from CNN. So whether you are in an airport or just waiting for a cab, you can listen to the latest CNN news on the go. You can also save stories and videos and view them at a later time. But perhaps the most powerful feature in this app is CNN iReport. If you happen to be close to where an important incident occurs, you can capture your video and upload it to CNN, hoping that they will actually show it during their daily programming. Read the rest of this entry »

Financial issues? Economy in a melt-down mode? No problem. Not for Apple anyway. While Yahoo! and many other companies have had to tighten their budget and even cut their workforces, Apple again surpassed the expectations by the street folks though it will not reach its lofty goals next quarter.

Network World Explain:

Apple posted revenue of $7.9 billion and profit of $1.1 billion, compared to revenue of $6.2 billion and profit of $904 million for the same quarter a year ago.

Apple will probably feel the effect the economic crisis but it is so strong financially that I don’t believe they will be moved. I think the bigger question for Apple is all the rumors that Steve Jobs is saying goodbye (Steve, don’t leave us now. I am begging ya!).