MacRumors.com

Verizon reported its quarterly earnings before the markets opened for trading today, showing increased revenue and subscribers, but decreased profit as the company worked to complete integration of former wireless competitor Alltel amid uncertain economic conditions. As noted by Digital Daily Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg claimed in the company's earnings conference call that bringing the iPhone to Verizon is entirely Apple's call and that the carrier would be happy to have it on its network.

During a conference call to discuss Verizon's third quarter earnings, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said bringing the iPhone to Verizon is entirely Apple's call. "This is a decision that is exclusively in Apple's court," he said. "Obviously we would be interested if they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner. And so we will leave it with them on that score. . . We want to broaden the base of choice for customers, and hopefully along the way, Apple, as well as others, will decide to jump on the bandwagon."

Verizon has recently begun targeting both the iPhone and AT&T in recent advertising campaigns, leading to speculation that the carrier does not foresee an introduction of the iPhone on its network and is thus willing to burn bridges with Apple in the new ads.

Offering the iPhone on Verizon's current network would require hardware modifications, given the difference in technology standards used by Verizon compared to all other carriers Apple has partnered with to offer the iPhone. Seidenberg previously noted that the iPhone would be more likely to come to Verizon next year when the company begins rolling out its 4G LTE wireless network, which will utilize the same standards as AT&T and other global wireless companies. Verizon expects to roll out LTE to 25-30 markets by the end of 2010, with full deployment expected to take until 2013.

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NASA, the U.S. space agency, has released an iPhone application [App Store, Free] that enables users to stay on top of the latest NASA news. The application offers access to up-to-the-minutes news, videos, and photos from NASA missions. Users can also track the orbital locations of various NASA spacecraft in real-time.

The NASA software makes extensive use of built-in iPhone features and usability to offer compelling yet concise information in a clear and intuitive way. Receive and share dynamic NASA mission updates, out-of-this-world images, and intriguing video links. Follow the path and progress of space exploration in real time while tracking the global orbits of your favorite spacecraft, all in the palm of your hand.

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TomTom's GPS car kit appeared in Apple's U.S. online store a few days ago priced at the expected $119.95, and while it was initially listed as "currently unavailable", the shipping window has now been updated to reflect scheduled ship time of 2-3 weeks.

The car kit appeared in Apple's European online stores several weeks ago, and while shipping was initially scheduled for 1-2 weeks in those countries, availability has subsequently slipped to 4-6 weeks. Several European customers have, however, been able to obtain the kit in person at Apple retail stores.

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Earlier this week, Verizon began an advertising campaign for the forthcoming Motorola Droid, pitting the smartphone against Apple's iPhone. At the time, Boy Genius Report offered a brief report of its hands-on impressions of the device, calling it "the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive."

Detailed specs on the Droid, however, were unavailable until product pages for the device apparently appeared prematurely on Motorola's site yesterday. According to the pages, the Droid offers the following notable features:

- 3.7-inch, 854 x 480 touch screen with a pixel density of 267 pixels per inch (ppi), compared to the 3.5-inch, 480 x 320 screen at 163 ppi on the iPhone 3GS.
- Overall device dimensions of 2.4 x 4.5 x 0.5 in, only marginally thicker than the iPhone's 2.4 x 4.5 x 0.48 in. The Droid weighs in at 6 ounces, slightly heftier than the iPhone 3GS at 4.8 ounces.
- 5-megapixel digital camera with image stabilization, autofocus, and dual LED flash, compared to the 3-megapixel autofocus camera found on the iPhone 3GS.
- WebKit-based browser compatible with HTML5 and with support for Flash 10 planned for 2010.
- 16 GB microSD card included, with support for up to 32 GB cards.

Boy Genius Report has also promised a full preview of the Droid for sometime today.

Update: Boy Genius Report has posted its Droid preview, which is full of details regarding the user experience. Overall, BGR is very impressed with the device.

The Motorola CLIQ was a pretty big disappointment for me personally, but oh man does the Droid make up for it. Sure, there's a little hype sprinkled in because this is the first Android 2.0 device I've had the pleasure of using, but once you move past the initial "wow" factor, the Droid really delivers.

BGR hesitates to pit the Droid directly against the iPhone, noting that the only true competitor for the iPhone is the next iPhone, but the Droid will certainly stand out in a growing smartphone segment with room for a number of significant players.

So will the Motorola Droid be successful? Absolutely, we think. It will eat in to BlackBerry sales, Windows Mobile sales, and positively murder any lingering Palm Pre sales. It's that good. Did you notice how Verizon still hasn't announced the BlackBerry Storm2?

We really enjoyed using the Motorola Droid and think you're going to love it. It's not as straight forward as an iPhone and a little more involved than a BlackBerry, but if you're up for the challenge, so is the Droid.

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According to AppShopper, Apple's App Store has surpassed 100,000 approved iPhone and iPod touch applications. The mark is an unofficial milestone, however, as the count of currently available applications stands at only approximately 92,000. The difference results from the removal of applications from the App Store by either Apple or the applications' developers.

Apple's most recent official announcement of App Store application count occurred in late September, when the store surpassed two billion downloads with 85,000 available apps. The 85,000-app figure was repeated at Apple's earnings conference call earlier this week.

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AT&T today released its earnings report for the third quarter of 2009, and among the highlights was the activation of 3.2 million iPhones, the highest quarterly total in history. The number tops the 2.4 million iPhones activated in the third quarter of 2008 after the release of the iPhone 3G.

Also of note, iPhones accounted for an astounding 74% of total AT&T postpaid activations of "integrated devices" offering either a physical or virtual keyboard in addition to voice capabilities during the quarter. Nearly 40% of iPhone activations were from customers new to AT&T, a figure consistent with previous quarterly performances.

- Strongest Integrated Device Quarter To Date. Postpaid 3G integrated wireless devices added to AT&T's network in the third quarter totaled 4.3 million, the largest quarterly increase in the company's history. Over the past year, the number of postpaid integrated devices on AT&T's network more than doubled, and at the end of the third quarter, 41.7 percent of AT&T's 63.4 million postpaid subscribers had integrated devices. The average ARPU for integrated devices on AT&T's network continues to be 1.8 times that of the company's nonintegrated-device base.

- Record iPhone Activations. AT&T's third-quarter integrated device growth included 3.2 million iPhone activations, also the company's largest quarterly total to date, with nearly 40 percent of the activations for customers who were new to AT&T.

Overall, AT&T experienced a net gain of two million wireless subscribers, the highest such third-quarter additions in company history, and also reduced customer churn levels to record lows.

Apple reported earlier this week as part of a stellar earnings announcement that it had sold a total of 7.4 million iPhones during the quarter.

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Nokia today announced that it is filing a lawsuit against Apple claiming that the iPhone infringes on ten Nokia-held patents related to cellular and Wi-Fi technologies.

The ten patents in suit relate to technologies fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards. The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.

Nokia notes that it has entered into licensing agreements for the intellectual property with approximately 40 other companies, but Apple has refused to agree to "appropriate terms".

"The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for," said Ilkka Rahnasto, Vice President, Legal & Intellectual Property at Nokia. "Apple is also expected to follow this principle. By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia's intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation."

No further details regarding the exact patents in question or Nokia's desired outcome have been released.

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Wolfram Alpha, the online computational knowledge engine that launched in May, now has an app available in the App Store. According to its App Store description, the app "plugs directly into Wolfram|Alpha's supercomputing cloud to deliver the unrivaled power of the Wolfram|Alpha knowledge engine to the mobile environment."

While the app still requires an internet connection to work, it includes a special keyboard to make the entry of special characters for mathematical and other functions easy. An early review by CNET describes that the app makes all output, which are provided as GIF images even when the service is accessed through Safari, show well on the iPhone's screen and that queries can be bookmarked and published via Twitter.



The app's price is what garners quite a bit of attention - it costs $49.99 [App Store] while the Wolfram Alpha site is free to use when accessed through a web browser, including Safari on the iPhone, and is most likely targeted at power users who need frequent access to the service for complex computations.

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Financial news channel CNBC has launched CNBC Real-Time [App Store, Free], a new iPhone application offering comprehensive news and data on the financial markets, including real-time stock quotes before, during, and after trading hours.

Only CNBC delivers Live, Real-Time Stock Quotes before, during and after stock market hours direct from the NYSE and NASDAQ, company specific news, videos, profiles, returns and key metrics. Plus CNBC's exclusive breaking business news allows you to stay on top of the markets no matter where you are. All this plus interactive charts, US and World indexes (Dow Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ and more), commodities, currencies, pre-markets, and video-on-demand. You can even create your own stocks watchlists.

Push notifications included in the application allow CNBC to deliver breaking financial news directly to users' devices as it occurs. The application also offers access to over 150 news clips published each day from CNBC's television coverage.

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EA's Rock Band [App Store, $9.99] has appeared in the App Store, less than two weeks after word of the release was made public.

Rock Band offers a similar feel to the original console versions of the game, with some obvious differences due to the screen size and multi-touch interface of the iPhone. Players can to choose from guitar, bass, drum, or vocal tracks for each song, and player errors result in interruptions in music playback, providing integrated audio feedback on performance.

The game includes twenty songs in the basic package, with additional songs available for download via In App Purchase of two-track packs priced at $0.99. Also included is a local multiplayer mode via Bluetooth accommodating up to four players, Facebook integration, and a choice of single-song game modes or "World Tour" career mode.

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Adobe's John Nack notes that the company's free Photoshop.com Mobile iPhone application [App Store] has seen over one million downloads since its launch ten days ago. The application has dominated the App Store's lists of free applications over the entire time, holding down the #1 spot not only in the Photography category but also the overall rankings.

Wow--on behalf of the team, thanks again for the warm reception! Here's the official blurb:

"Adobe today announced that its Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone application has been downloaded over 1 million times from Apple's App Store, a milestone reached in less than one week of availability. Additionally, the application has held the No. 1 position for all "Top Free" applications as well as the "Top Free" application in the Photography category for 10 consecutive days. Thousands of iTunes reviews have provided Adobe with positive feedback, insight and suggestions that will be considered for future versions of the application."

There is no word yet on when the application will become available in other countries beyond the U.S. and Canada.

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Just weeks after attacking AT&T's 3G network and indirectly the iPhone with a "There's a map for that" ad campaign, Verizon has rolled out a new campaign for a yet-to-be-introduced device from Motorola known as the "Droid", focusing on what it perceives as deficiencies in the iPhone. The new television commercial, introduced yesterday, features iPhone-like fonts and music listing things the iPhone "doesn't do" and ends with a teaser asking users to sign up at DroidDoes.com for more information.


While no official information on the device has been made available, Boy Genius Report publishes a brief hands-on preview of the Droid and calls it "the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive." Google reportedly played a major role in the design of the Droid, "almost dictating every move Motorola made when designing and making the phone."

The Droid runs Android 2.0 with reportedly excellent performance, and offers both a large capacitive touchscreen and a slide-out physical keyboard. The report also notes that it is the thinnest slider phone in memory, only slightly thicker than the iPhone, and that the device will come with a cradle/charging station that turns it into a "multimedia station" while docked.


As The New York Times notes, Verizon's increasingly aggressive commercials focusing on the iPhone make it hard to believe that the company will begin offering the iPhone any time in the near future, despite the fact that Apple and Verizon have reportedly been in discussions about bringing the iPhone to Verizon when AT&T's exclusivity arrangement apparently expires next year.

This nasty name-calling does not bode well for the prospects of the iPhone coming to Verizon in 2010, talks for which were said to have begun earlier this year.

Steve Jobs, Apple's chief, has a notoriously long memory, and Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive of Verizon, must know this. So it seems the companies are settling in to their status as long-term rivals.

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