Do you remember my post "Google is the real telco disruptor" from july?

Well, it seems that the story could become even more interesting with another player entering the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction that many didn't have on their list: Apple might also bid for that "bech front property" spectrum, suggests a BusinessWeek article called "Apple Eyes the Wireless Auction".

Taking into account this possible development many pieces of the puzzle would fall into their place. Why is the iPod touch such a cool device, an iPhone without phone? Why did Apple cut the price for the iPhone so soon and drastically?

In Germany the association eco, alliance of 330 big internet companies, hailed already last week the new device by saying "Wifi iPod makes mobile internet a mass market" in a press release. They are fed up with the slow acceptation of mobile internet service on Germany because the incumbent mobile operators keep 3G data prices high and accept only walled gardens on their devices.

"T Zones, Web-n-walk und Vodafone Live all try to keep away the user from the free and open internet", says eco director Harald A. Summa. "Exactly this policy of closed networks has so far prevented the breaktrough of the mobile internet to a mass market. The success of iTunes and Youtube shows that the users know much better than the operators what they really want." The new iPod touch offers direct Wifi access to iTunes and Youtube, circumventing the closed networks of the mobile operators.

So, let's just imagine that the iPhone never planned to sell millions. Maybe it's real purpose is just to create buzz for the new iPods? The iPod touch has every feature that you like from the iPhone. It only misses the annoying part of the phone: A 60 dollar per month cell phone contract. New iPods could work without that contract, using the 700 MHz spectrum, suggests the article in BusinessWeek:

Signals at the 700Mhz spectrum, for example, could provide far faster Internet access than today's cellular or even Wi-Fi networks, and the signals can easily pass through buildings and work glitch-free, even in lousy weather.

Still, even the possibility of an Apple bid is intriguing. For starters, it would mean Apple would no longer need to rely on a phone company to deliver songs, TV shows, and other digital fare purchased at its iTunes Music Store. As it is, the major complaint of iPhone shoppers isn't with the phone, but with the pokey Net access from Apple's exclusive U.S. partner, AT&T (T).

If it owned its own spectrum, Apple could provide the network service itself, possibly for far less than the $1,440 iPhone owners must now fork out over the course of the cheapest two-year contract. For example, Apple could hold down costs by letting users choose a Net telephony program such as Skype rather than develop its own voice software, say analysts.

Apple might even be able to give away network service for free, and make its money off services such as iTunes and possibly by selling subscribers advertising space.

Indeed, cutting out the carrier would probably be in sync with Steve Jobs' view of the world. Before striking the iPhone deal with AT&T, he publicly dissed phone companies as little more than "orifices"—good only for providing dumb pipes to deliver more innovative companies' more innovative services.

"Apple is the most anti-carrier company there is," says the former Apple executive. "They're probably already frustrated with AT&T. If they put a few billion behind this, they could build a kick-ass network." Indeed, on Sept. 5, Apple announced a new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store so consumers can buy songs at wireless hotspots, something they can't do on AT&T's network. And Jobs made a point of noting Wi-Fi is faster not only than the so-called 2.5G EDGE network, but also than 3G cellular networks.

A very convincing argumentation that matches perfectly with what eco said. That's also the reason why I had to copy such a long passage of the original article. (Sorry for that!) Hopefully it's not only intentionally leaked hot air to lift Apple's stock price.

Labels: Apple, Broadband, free phone calls, Google, iPhone, iPod, Mobile, Skype, T-Mobile, Vodafone, VoIP

                                      

Does anybody know whether you can download podcasts wirelessly from iTunes to the new iPod touch?

I cannot find an answer to that.

I guess this new wireless device could fulfil all my musical needs. But Steve Jobs shouldn't think that I would buy music over Wifi from his iTunes store! That's a new feature of the iPod touch which has been celebrated in all the news.

But the best iTunes feature are the free podcasts, like Dance Department, winner of the category Best Podcast at the 2007 Miami Winter Music Conference. Every week another world famous DJ is on the decks, no annoying advertising or cheap talk. Just one interesting interview, the best dance tracks of the week and a 30 minutes high class DJ set plus one "educating classic".

But I am fed up with downloading podcasts to the laptop and syncing to the iPod. I would like to download them directly over Wifi and delete them when the memory is full.

This leads me to the next question: Does the new iPod generation finally have a delete button?

Labels: Apple, Devices, iPod, Media

                                      

I like my 5th generation iPod very much. It let's me listen to music and news and it shows videos. I still don't have it too long and so I am still very enthusiastic. This makes me subscribe to many podcasts. I love it to be independent from time schemes they have in radio and television. I can listen to the music I like and see the tv program I want when I have time to do it. That's podcasting, but only when it works well.

But there is a problem:

Until you find the podcasts that you really like, you have to subscribe to many of them and to suffer from very bad ones. This experience doesn't count only for audio podcasts. Even video podcasts can be quite boring although they are obviously made by professionals.

So I am always carrying around 30 GB of podcasts on my iPod and try to get track of them. What is so stupid about Apple's iPod is that is has no delete button. If I don't like the podcast that I am hearing while driving in public transport I would like delete it directly from the iPod. Having come home I would have enough free space to download new podcasts on my mobile device. My problem is that I already have more than 30 GB of podcasts stored on my laptop. So I always have to decide which one I want to keep on my iPod.

This is so annyoing: I have to connect the iPod to iTunes and see it's list of content. Than I have to remember which podcast I didn't like and which one I wanted to keep. I have to remember which one I have already heared and which not. This is because iTunes and the iPod do not synchronize this. My iTunes doesn't care which podcast I already listened to on the iPod.

One workaround or a hack for this problem could be the "rate your songs" feature. Normally you can awarding from one to five stars to the songs that you are hearing on your iPod while listenig to them. I could use this feature the other way round: Songs or podcasts with five stars are so bad that they have to be deleted the next time I connect to iTunes.

But the "rate your songs" feature doesn't work on my iPod. It works fine on my friend Christian's iPod nano, but not on mine. We both don't understand why and already tried it several times.

Hello Apple! It's time for a firmware update.

Labels: Apple, Devices, iPod