Posts by ukpm

Apple slips Antennagate victims $15 each. The lawyers get $16m

Value of the cheque

That cheque, or check as it's a U.S. court settlement, would be worth a lot more than $15 if kept, un-cashed, for future Apple collectors.

Apple 'hasn't really run out of iPhone 5s AT ALL'

Nonsense

I'm sorry, but this article was a waste of pixels.

Sky makes iPad trolley for square-eyed shoppers

Apples in a supermarket — whatever next?

A dog driving a bus.

Carrier-sold iPad 2 Sim locks snag unwary buyers

Agreed

Agreed... the fastest way to sort this out is in an Apple store. Worth a trip!

Carrier lock

I thought I'd quiz my Orange contract manager whilst on the phone earlier today about this lock issue on the iPad 2. He confirmed that iPads sold under contract sales would normally be locked regardless of the supply price or method, but that devices supplied by Orange on a SIM only plan i.e. supply only of the iPad should not be locked. If a SIM only device is locked then it's an activation issue that you'll need to take up with the retailer in your case, or Orange if you bought directly.

As a point of interest, all GSM iPads and iPhones are supplied to carriers and customers UNLOCKED. The carrier lock is applied during the activation process, where iTunes actually looks up a database to find how the device was provisioned. In theory, if you could activate a new iPad or iPhone without contacting the official servers, you would side-step the application of these locks. However, I don't believe the certificates for the iTunes activation system have been cracked - yet.

Mistake

This is an error with the activation server. He should bring his iPad and purchase receipt to an Apple retail store, if there's one nearby. They will correct the error on the database and reactivate it. Alternatively if you restore the iPad using iTunes with the alternative SIM installed, it will we be reactivated again, but without the carrier lock.

This happens with SIM-free iPhones as well, if they have been activated by Apple in-store and the customer subsequently inserts a SIM from another carrier. They must connect the iPhone to iTunes to continue. The base of the problem is the iPhone cannot connect to the activation server without iTunes; it must communicate with the server to determine the status of the provider lock. This is something that really needs to change.

Report: Apple snagged Google Maps rival

Map tile license

Apple have stated before that they have special arrangements for licensing the map tile technology from Google - it should be noted that Apple, not Google, built the maps application for the iPhone.

From Apple's language in describing the license, it's reasonable to infer that the license allows restricted, perpetual use of map tiles within the iPhone app, but is not licensed for general use by Apple. As such they may be seeking to have their own solution that doesn't require negotiation with Google every time they build a new or update an existing application using maps.