Apple

According to a recent survey of the "coolest brands in the UK", iPhone scored the 2nd place, was Apple was 3rd.

The top 20 in the annual poll has been dominated by brands from the world of technology, with iPhone the runner-up and Apple in third place. YouTube, Google and Nintendo came fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively. Playstation, Sony and Facebook also made the top 20.

MacRumors notes that:

The 2007 list (PDF) had the iPod in the #2 spot. The iPod is nowhere to be found on this year's list. Meanwhile, Apple has jumped up from #7 in 2007 to #3 this year.

What a great column Engadget editor-at-large Ryan Block wrote today about Apple's overshitty way of treating developers (and indirectly users). The column is spot on. Obviously, I don't expect Apple to reply directly. You know what? I don't even expect Apple to change anything at all. The only thing I expect is the fall of Apple's supremacy in the new-generation-mobile-device-business(aka Android is coming!!!).

The full column can be read here but I wanted to give you a little test of it.

So it seems to me, you have two possible courses of action to clean up this mess, Apple: one, the bare minimum of courtesy and respect for its developers, and the other, full-on-righteous. If absolutely nothing else, you need to post some very clear, very easily interpreted guidelines as to what will and will not fly in the App Store. No more mystery, no more concern as to whether the investment associated with developing a program will be for naught if some faceless App Store approval technician semi-arbitrarily decides to hit reject. Just lay it out for all to bear and follow. Sure, there will be a lot of hating going on when Apple says in explicit terms that Mozilla has zero hope of ever getting Firefox on the iPhone, but at least the crippling uncertainty is removed from the equation. You shouldn't have to be one of the hallowed few approved by the iFund to be certain before you start work on your app that it will be approved.

Now, if you want to do the right thing -- the thing that may ultimately keep you out of some grumpy developer's class-action lawsuit, the thing that will take away Android's biggest consumer appeal right now -- you'll will simply stop filtering apps based on content, and only look for the kind of code Steve specifically promised to protect users against in the first place: grossly buggy and broken, malicious, or otherwise evil. I'm not exactly convinced of the latter's likelihood, but closed market or open, at a certain point this whole thing becomes about consistency and reliability, and right now you've got neither to wave in your defense, Apple.

In the meantime, groups like the iPhone Dev Team will continue to carry the torch for jailbreaking, hacking, and unauthorized app development. Hell, jailbroken development will even likely gain steam as increasing numbers of users can't find enough apps of any real utility on the official App Store. Even big companies like Sling Media have taken to working around the walled-garden. So here's to doing good by all the good people willing to invest in your platform, and to the simple kind of change that Apple, as a company, can make today if only you think a little harder about tomorrow -- and everyone living in it with an iPhone or iPod touch.

Great job, Ryan!

Apple released today the iPhone configuration utility 1.0.1 for Mac OS X. If you don't know what that means, don't worry, most people don't and most people don't even care about it...

iPhone Configuration Utility lets you easily create, maintain, and sign configuration profiles, track and install provisioning profiles and authorized applications, and capture device information including console logs..

Configuration profiles are XML files that contain device security policies, VPN configuration information, Wi-Fi settings, APN settings, Exchange account settings, mail settings, and certificates that permit iPhone and iPod touch to work with your enterprise systems. For instructions on how to use iPhone Configuration Utility, see the iPhone and iPod touch Enterprise Deployment Guide, available for downloading at:

Enterprise Deployment Guide

There's been quite a bit of noise over the weekend about the possible return of the iPhone home activation. This process was available with first gen iPhones and let you buy your iPhone in store or online and activate ot from the comfort of your home, using iTunes.

Well, it's not really what we expected but a similar process will be in place soon and will not activate your iPhone per say, but it will help streamline the activation process. How this will work?

Prior to purchasing your iPhone, you will go online and you will enter your mobile contract details, social security number and billing information if you are a new subscriber. From there, you will head to the Apple Store (maybe AT&T?) and purchase your phone. A rep will load your information and actiavte the phone from there.

[via BGR]