MacRumors

Google subsidiary AdMob today announced the release of a revised iPhone OS SDK bringing new ad formats that will allow customized delivery to the iPad.

Our new SDK is unified across all devices running the iPhone OS, which means that developers can download one binary for development across all Apple iPhone OS devices - iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. AdMob's unified iPhone SDK makes it easier for developers to quickly integrate our code and start monetizing their applications.

The new SDK supports two ad formats in native iPad applications: text & tile ads and image ads. Both of these ad formats are available in the three IAB standard ad sizes: 300250, 72890, and 46860.

AdMob notes that it is already working with advertisers on the new platform, with Amazon rolling out a Kindle ad campaign tailored for the iPad. Publishers and advertisers can access the new SDK through their online AdMob accounts.

Despite the fact that today's release is limited to "text & tile" and image ads for the iPad, AdMob has also posted a demo showing how HTML5 tools will in the future enable more engaging user experiences in advertising on the iPad.

Boy Genius Report has received word that Verizon Wireless is testing new iPad models compatible with the carrier's CDMA-based cellular network.

According to a highly placed source of ours, Verizon Wireless is currently testing Apple iPad devices on their network. We have been told that the model they are testing is a CDMA-compatible device, and while our source mentioned LTE in some capacity (possibly another model), we haven't been able to independently confirm that part of it.

Verizon is set to roll out its LTE (4G) network in up to 30 markets, having been engaged in testing in Boston and Seattle since last August. Verizon's aggressive LTE rollout puts it ahead of AT&T, the current exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S.

Apple had been expected by many observers to launch the iPad in a partnership with Verizon, but the Apple CEO Steve Jobs surprised many at the device's January introduction by announcing that it would appear as an AT&T exclusive for 3G service in the U.S. Speculation centers around AT&T having outbid its competitors with its data plans for the iPad, offering unlimited data for $29.99 per month. AT&T just today announced, of course, that it is moving to a $25/month, 2 GB data plan for the iPad, although customers on the existing unlimited plan can remain on it as long as they keep their plan active.

Verizon has also been a popular target of rumors regarding the iPhone, with Pegatron being named by sources as the manufacturer for the CDMA-specific hardware. Recent rumors have suggested that a Verizon iPhone could appear as early as November, although many observers think that a 2011 launch is more likely.

With AT&T's announcement today that it is rolling out new data plans next week for the iPhone and other smart phones, many customers have been thinking about which data plan is right for them in light of the new download limits.

AT&T iPhone customers can view their data usage for the current billing period on the summary page for their account by logging in to the AT&T Wireless website. Such data is only an estimate, however, and AT&T notes that delays of up to five business days may be experienced before data activity shows up in the displayed total. Users can also dial *DATA# and receive a text message with their current billing period's usage.

From their AT&T Wireless account summary page, users can also click on the "View Past Data Usage" link to see a six-month history of their data usage to help gauge which new data plan they may want to select.

For existing customers who wish to keep their $30/month unlimited data plan, they can continue on the plan even if they upgrade to new hardware. If a customer elects to switch to one of the new plans, however, they will be unable to switch back to the unlimited plan at any point in the future. Customers on the grandfathered unlimited plan will also be unable to use AT&T's tethering feature, which comes as a $20/month add-on to the new $25/month 2 GB data plan.

All Things Digital has been editing together some video clips of the opening session sit-down between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the D8 Conference. While we've already highlighted many of the interesting comments that came out of the interview, the video clips offer exact quotes of his comments and demonstrate his passion and forcefulness outside the realm of his usual scripted keynote addresses at Apple events.

- Steve Jobs on the iPhone's Origin
- Steve Jobs on Apple's Relationship With Google
- Steve Jobs on iAds Restrictions
- Steve Jobs on the Gizmodo Story
- Steve Jobs on Television
- Steve Jobs on AT&T

AT&T's announcement of their new capped data plans has generated a lot of discussion amongst current and future iPhone owners. In short, AT&T eliminated their $30/month unlimited plan for new iPhone customers starting on June 7th. After that time, new iPhone (and other smartphone) customers have the option of $15/mo (200MB) and $25/mo (2GB) data plans. AT&T, however, has grandfathered in existing iPhone customers by allowing them to keep the $30/month unlimited plan if they desire.

But with the new iPhone just around the corner, several readers wondered if that guarantee would hold even if they chose to upgrade to the new iPhone. It seems like it will.

AT&T has replied on their Facebook page indicating that current customers may keep the $30/month unlimited plan even when they upgrade to a new iPhone:

The good news for current customers who love their unlimited plan is this: they are not required to switch, even when it's time to upgrade to a new phone. So you are welcome to keep your unlimited plan :)

Of course, by staying on the unlimited plan, customers won't be able to add on tethering service. See our previous coverage of the new pricing plans for further details.

Besides the new iPhone tethering option, AT&T also announced that they have changed the iPad 3G data plan for new customers after June 7th.

At present, AT&T offers a no-contract $29.99/month unlimited data plan specifically for iPad owners. If you activate your data plan before June 7th, you can still participate in this plan. After June 7th, however, AT&T will be replacing that plan with a $25/month 2GB limited plan. From the press release:

For new iPad customers, the $25 per month 2 GB plan will replace the existing $29.99 unlimited plan. iPad customers will continue to pre-pay for their wireless data plan and no contract is required. Existing iPad customers who have the $29.99 per month unlimited plan can keep that plan or switch to the new $25 per month plan with 2 GB of data.

So, if this is an issue for you, you still have time to be grandfathered into the unlimited data plan. Existing iPad customers can look at their current data usage via their iPad settings.

AT&T has announced details about iPhone tethering as well as new data plans for smartphone users.

Customers can pick the new data plan that best meets their needs either a $15 per month entry plan or a $25 per month plan with 10 times more data. Current smartphone customers are not required to switch to the new plans, but can choose to do so without a contract extension.

The new plans kick in on June 7th and each plan includes unlimited access to AT&T Wi-Fi Hotspots. The newly announced data plans seem to replace the current $30/month unlimited and include:

Data Plus - 200 MB of data for $15/month. Additional 200MB for another $15.
DataPro - 2GB of data for $25/month. Additional 1 GB of data for $10.
Tethering - Additional $20/month for DataPro customers.

iPhone users are specifically mentioned as being supported by the Tethering option, and support will be deployed with the release of iPhone OS 4.0.

The press release seems to indicate that Tethering will only be allowed with the DataPro plan. This would mean that existing iPhone customers would have to replace their current $30/month unlimited plan with the $25/month 2GB plan in order to qualify for the $20/month tethering plan. In other words, existing iPhone users who wish to take advantage of tethering would find their data rates increasing from $30/month to $45/month ($25 + $20) and find themselves limited to 2GB of data. AT&T indicates that if you don't want tethering, you may keep the current $30/month unlimited rate.

Meanwhile, it seems new iPhone customers (after June 7th) will not be given the option for a $30/month unlimited plan, while existing customers are grandfathered in. AT&T states that 98% of their smartphone customers use less than 2GB of data per month.

One of the tidbits picked up from Apple CEO Steve Jobs' appearance at the All Things Digital conference tonight was his confirmation that the iPad actually preceded the iPhone, beginning life as a multi-touch tablet project before Jobs realized that it would make an ideal interface for a mobile phone. As related by the Associated Press:

Jobs says he had the idea to ditch the keyboard for what he calls a multi-touch display in the early 2000s, although the company was working on a telephone at the time. That's when a prototype came to him that used the device's now-famous scrolling mechanism.

"I thought, 'My God we can build a phone out of this.'"

The revelation seems to be coming as a surprise to many observers, but those who have followed Apple's work for some time may remember that this piece of information has been shared before.

The first hint of it came in a January 2008 Wired article profiling the history of the iPhone, although little detail about the actual evolution of the iPhone from the iPad-like tablet was given.

Jobs had reason to be confident. Apple's hardware engineers had spent about a year working on touchscreen technology for a tablet PC and had convinced him that they could build a similar interface for a phone.

Two months later, The New York Times added some additional color to the tablet-iPhone relationship, revealing that the tablet had been internally codenamed "Safari Pad" and confirming that it had been repurposed for use in the iPhone.

Apple's multitouch technology began life not as a cellphone, but as a notepad-sized skunkworks project internally dubbed Safari Pad, run by Tim Bucher, then Apple's head of Macintosh hardware. To his credit, Mr. Jobs seized on the technology and morphed it into the iPhone.

In today's interview, Jobs noted that he directed his engineers to pursue the mobile phone angle for a multi-touch device over the tablet form factor because the mobile phone market was the more important one to tackle at the time. Once Apple built some momentum with iPhone OS through the iPhone and iPod touch, it was able to take the tablet concept back off the shelf and turn it into the iPad.

During the Q&A portion of this evening's All Things Digital interview, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was asked about how the balance of power in control of media content has been shifting. After noting that content providers such as movie studios and record labels are starting to see viewers as their real customers rather than theaters and record stores and that the shift is beginning to cause changes in how we consume media, Jobs addressed the need for consumers to be able to sync their content in cloud-based systems.

"You want to share your content that you bought amongst your various devices. You can do that today with a wire. You can't do that without a wire. We need to work harder on that. We need to do better. Anytime soon? We're working on it."

Apple has been rumored to be using its acquisition of streaming music service Lala Media late last year and possibly its new North Carolina data center to launch cloud-based services for music and other media. Despite yesterday's shutdown of Lala's former streaming service yesterday, however, music industry sources indicate that a launch of cloud-based iTunes services is not imminent.

During tonight's All Things D interview, Steve Jobs was questioned about AT&T service as well as the possibilities of multiple U.S. carriers. Not much new information was offered, though Jobs indicated a timeframe for service improvements.

On the possibility of multiple carriers in the U.S., Jobs remained tight-lipped:

Walt: Would there be advantages to having two [carriers] in the US?
Steve: There might be.
Walt: In the near future?
Steve: You know I can't comment on that.

And on the issue of service issues, Jobs said thing should improve by the end of the summer:

Q: Steve, we love our iPhones... but our concern is that we can't make a phone call on it. Is someone working on that?
A: Well, we're talking about it. You can bet we're doing everything we know how to do.
Q: Can we expect something soon?
A: I'm told that a lot of places are getting better certainly by the end of this summer.
Kara: And if they don't get better?
Steve: Then they won't.

One of the recent changes in Apple's iPhone SDK terms of service was limitation on collecting and sending analytics data. Many had speculated that Apple may be trying to limit competition from other ad networks, however, Steve Jobs is blaming analytics company Flurry for the change.

According to Jobs, it was a privacy issue:

Well we learned this really interesting thing. Some company called Flurry had data on devices that we were using on our campus -- new devices. They were getting this info by getting developers to put software in their apps that sent info back to this company! So we went through the roof. It's violating our privacy policies, and it's pissing us off! So we said we're only going to allow analytics that don't give our device info -- only for the purpose of advertising.

The incident that Jobs was referring to is likely a report from January in which Flurry pinpointed approximately 50 "tablet devices" that were being used on Apple campus.

Using Flurry Analytics, the company identified approximately 50 devices that match the characteristics of Apple's rumored tablet device. Because Flurry could reliably "place" these devices geographically on Apple's Cupertino campus, we have a fair level of confidence that we are observing a group of pre-release tablets in testing. Testing of this device increased dramatically in January, with observed signs of life as early as October of last year. Apple appears to be going through its cycle of testing and polish, which is expected from any hardware or software company as it nears launch.

During tonight's All Things D Interview with Steve Jobs, Walt Mossberg asked about Apple's intentions of getting into the search space and possibly competing with Google.

Jobs was insistent that they aren't going to search and that the Siri acquisition had nothing to do with search:

Steve: [Siri is] not a search company. They're an AI company. We have no plans to go into the search business. We don't care about it -- other people do it well.

We profiled Siri when it was acquired by Apple. Siri was focused on personal assistant technology that serves to help users accomplish tasks.

Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) represent the next generation interaction paradigm for the Internet. In today's paradigm, we follow links on search results. With a VPA, we interact by having a conversation. We tell the assistant what we want to do, and it applies multiple services and information sources to help accomplish our task. Like a real assistant, a VPA is personal; it uses information about an individual's preferences and interaction history to help solve specific tasks, and it gets better with experience.

During tonight's All Things D Interview, Steve Jobs indicated that he was not going to let the stolen/lost iPhone prototype incident "slide":

Steve: You know, when this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got advice from people who said 'you gotta just let it slide, you shouldn't go after a journalist just because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you.' And I thought deeply about this, and I concluded the worst thing that could happen is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit.

In April, Gizmodo purchased an iPhone prototype and posted several news stories about the device. There has been an ongoing investigation on the incident which resulted in a search warrant for Gizmodo editor Jason Chen.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is at the D8 Conference this evening, participating in an opening session involving a sit-down interview with All Things Digital's Kara Swisher. John Paczkowski is officially liveblogging tonight's interview while Engadget and CNET are also offering live coverage, and we'll be keeping track of any significant revelations coming out of the event. While Jobs is not expected to make any product announcements, the format will likely allow for some informal discussion and insight into Apple and Jobs that could prove interesting.

The opening session is just getting underway, with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch currently giving some opening remarks before turning things over to Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.

Jobs' Comments:
- On Apple's market capitalization passing Microsoft's: "It doesn't matter very much. It's not what's important. It's not what makes you come to work in the morning...It is a little surreal."

- On his return to Apple in the '90s: "Apple was about 90 days from going bankrupt. It was much worse than I thought back then. I expected all the good people had left, but I found many of them still there, and I asked them, "Why are you still here?" They said it was because they believed in Apple."

- On the Adobe Flash controversy: "Apple doesn't have the resources others have, and we have to choose which horses to ride. We try to ride those that are on the way up. If you choose wisely, you save yourself an enormous amount of work." Points to the move to 3.5-inch floppies, the discontinuation of floppy drives, removal of serial and parallel ports, adoption of USB, removal of optical drive in MacBook Air. "Sometimes people call us crazy."

"We didn't start off to have a war with Flash. We made a technical decision. But it wasn't until the iPad that Adobe raised a stink about it." Jobs' "Thoughts on Flash" was a response made only after Apple grew tired of Adobe trashing it in the press. "We have the courage of our convictions. We're going to take the heat because we want to make the best products in the world for our customers. If we succeed they'll buy them, and if we don't they won't. So far they're liking the iPad...we're selling one every three seconds."

- On email correspondences: Refers to exchange with Gawker's Ryan Tate..."He never identified himself as a journalist. I was up late and working and this guy starts sending me obnoxious emails... and I wanted to straighten this guy out. I'm just enough of a sucker... and he publishes it!"

- On the lost next-generation iPhone: "There's an ongoing investigation, but I can tell you what I do know. To make a wireless product, you have to test it. You can't just keep it in the lab. There's a debate about whether it was left in a bar or stolen out of his bag, but the person who found it tried to sell it. It's a great story...it's got theft, buying stolen property, extortion. Probably sex in there somewhere...someone should make a movie out of this.

- On Foxconn suicides: "We're all over this. We do one of the best jobs in any industry of understanding suppliers' working conditions. Foxconn is not a sweatshop, it's a factory. 13 suicides out of 400,000 workers this year is less than the U.S. rate of 11 per 100,000, but it's still troubling. We're trying to understand things right now and we have people over there."

- On the future of Apple and "platform wars" with Microsoft, Google, Facebook, etc.: "I don't see it. We never saw ourselves in a platform war with MSFT, and maybe that's why we lost. We think about the competition, but we're focused on building a better product."

- On WebKit, particularly for mobile devices: "Almost every modern browser is based on it...Nokia, Palm, Android, RIM. We've created a real competitor to Internet Explorer. It's #1 in mobile."

- On Google: "They decided to compete with us. We didn't go into the search business!" Not going to remove Google from the iPhone. "We want to create better products than them. If people like our products, we get to come to work for tomorrow. Just because we're competing doesn't mean we have to be rude."

- On acquisition of Siri: "It's an AI (artificial intelligence) company. We're not going into the search business."

- On AT&T's network: "iPhone is the first phone where we separated the carrier from the hardware. They worry about the network, while we worry about the phone. They're improving, but they do have some issues. Remember that they're handling way more traffic than all other competitors combined."

- On possible expansion to other U.S. carriers: "There might be advantages." When asked if it might happen in the near future, he responds, "You know I can't comment on that." And getting back to AT&T specifically, "We changed the business model for phones, and AT&T took a big chance with us."

- On tablets: "We did something similar to what we did with the iPhone. We started from scratch and threw out the existing paradigm of handwriting recognition." Acknowledges that tablet project actually came before phone, but realized that phone was more important.

- On the iPad's ability to save journalism: "The foundation of a free society is free press, and some of the newspapers are in real trouble. I don't want to see us descend into a nation of bloggers. I'm all for anything that can help newspapers with new ways of expressing themselves and getting paid. We need editorial oversight now more than ever." Jobs notes that iPad opens up way to offer much more than print or static webpages. But should charge less than print... "The biggest lesson Apple has learned is price it aggressively and go for volume."

- On Apple's entry into eBooks causing price increases: "The new structure allows pricing to be more sensitive to consumers and should allow prices to eventually go down."

- On whether tablets will replace PCs: Compares to vehicles..."When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks because that's what you needed on the farms. But cars eventually became more prevalent is people moved to cities. PCs will be like trucks...they are still going to be around, but there is a transformation coming, and it will make some people uneasy. Is it the iPad? Who knows? Will it be next year or five years from now?"

- On the iPad: "People laugh at me because I describe the iPad as magical. We've stripped away what's between you and the computer. We're just scratching the surface with the kinds of apps that can be built." Regarding the lack of a keyboard hindering content creation, "When I am going to write that 35-page analyst report I am going to want my bluetooth keyboard. That's one percent of the time. These machines will grow to be able to more things...time takes care of lots of these things. Productivity apps, video editing, etc."

- On flexible displays: "We don't have the technology and it's not on the horizon. A lot of people have tried and are continuing to try, but probably several years away still."

- On control of the App Store ecosystem: "We have two platforms we support. One is completely open and uncontrolled and that is HTML 5. We support HTML 5. We have the best support for HTML 5 of anyone in the world. Then there's the curated App Store platform. We've got a few rules (function as advertised, can't crash, can't use undocumented APIs), but we approve 95% of apps within a week...thousands per week."

Regarding rejected political cartoon content, Jobs notes, "We had a rule that said you can't defame people. By definition, they defame people. We didn't think of that. That was an unintended consequence. We had actually changed the rule several months earlier, but made a mistake. We're doing the best we can and fixing mistakes as fast as we can. But sometimes people lie and run to the press. We take it on the chin and don't call them out."

- On Jobs' typical workday: "I have one of the best jobs in the world. I get to come in and work with some of the most brilliant people in the world. We play in the best sandbox. We're structured like a start-up. We're the biggest start-up on the planet. And we all meet once a week to discuss our business...and there's tremendous teamwork at the top and that filters down to the other employees.

- On the next ten years: "You know, when this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got advice from people who said 'you gotta just let it slide, you shouldn't go after a journalist just because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you.' And I thought deeply about this, and I concluded the worst thing that could happen is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can't do that. I'd rather quit."

"The company is a little more experienced and a little more beat up, but Apple is still the same company it was 5 or 10 years ago in terms of values. We're still trying to build the best products. Nothing makes my day more than getting a random email from someone talking about how cool the iPad is. That's what keeps me going. That's what kept me going back then, and now, and will keep me going in the future."

- On entering the ad business: "We want to help our developers make money. We're not going to make much money on this. People's behavior on phones is very different than on computers...less searching and more apps. So you put ads in the apps to help developers make money. Sure, someone else could do it, but they're not. We can build it right into the OS."

- On user privacy: "We take privacy very seriously." Points to location-based apps having to call up iPhone OS panel to request permission to access data. "That's one of the reasons we have the curated app store. A lot of the people in the Valley think we're old fashioned about this. But we take it seriously."

Q&A
- On whether he would change anything about his 2005 Stanford commencement speech: "Probably I would just turn up the volume on it. The last few years have reminded me that life is fragile."

- On ad analytics controversy: "Some company called Flurry had data on devices that we were using on our campus -- new devices. They were getting this info by getting developers to put software in their apps that sent info back to this company! So we went through the roof. It's violating our privacy policies, and it's pissing us off! So we said we're only going to allow analytics that don't give our device info -- only for the purpose of advertising." When pressed about legitimate uses of analytics data on device usage, Jobs noted that Apple would be willing to sit down with analytics firms, "but it's not today".

- On balance shifts in content: "The way we market movies is changing. It used to be TV advertising with trailers, but now it's the Web. Content providers used to think their customers were movie theaters, record stores, etc. But they need to recognize that it's the viewer and you need to let them watch whenever, wherever they want. It's starting to happen in television, and even now in film."

- On content syncing to the cloud: "We need to better on letting people share content amongst their own various devices." When pressed on a timeline, Jobs noted, "We're working on it."

- On iPhone dropped calls: "Credible people tell me that things get worse before they get better as the carriers switch things around to make improvements. If you believe that, things should get a lot better soon. Should be better by end of summer. We'll see."

- On HDCP/content protection: "The content providers are afraid of a Napster repeat, and they set the rules. Apple tries to persuade, but if they can't convince providers, they have to either accept the limitations or go without the content."

- On vision for social gaming on iPhone OS: "Clearly iPhone plus iPod touch have created a new class of gaming. It's a subset of casual gaming. But it's surprising how good some of them are. They're almost as good as console gaming in terms of graphics. Console games the software is $30 or $40 a game. It's cheaper on iPhone, so the market has exploded."

- On the future of television: "Subsidized set-top boxes have squashed innovation because no one wants to pay for separate boxes...ask TiVo, Roku, us, Google in a few months. The set-top box needs to be torn up and redesigned to get people things they way they want them. And there's no go-to-market strategy for that. With the iPhone, and now the iPad, we could partner with carriers, but television is very balkanized...everything is local.

==End of Session==

When the first images of the next generation iPhone were released in April, the first reaction of many readers was that it must be a iPhone counterfeit or clone from China. As more details emerged, it became clear that the leaked phone was definitely an Apple prototype and ultimately returned to Apple.

Based on the numerous leaks, the real Chinese counterfeiters have had time to ramp up their efforts and create this 4th generation iPhone clone. This one's officially called "GPS-PHONE" accoding to PCOnline.com.cn and offers a number of features including a front facing camera, a TV antenna, mini USB interface, and camera flash.

The device even comes with its own iPhone-like interface and supports installation of Java apps.

For reference, images of the actual iPhone prototype can be found here.

Parts for the next-generation iPhone continue to surface as the device's expected introduction at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week approaches. The latest part to make an appearance on Taiwanese site Apple.pro is the device's battery, and while it appears that no additional info can be gleaned from the new images beyond that disclosed in reports based on prototypes that surfaced in the hands of Gizmodo and a Vietnamese mobile phone dealer, it does appear to offer another example of Apple's supply chain leaking out parts for an unreleased product.

As first disclosed by Gizmodo, the new images show that the next-generation iPhone's battery carries a capacity of 5.25 watt-hours, a nearly 16.5% increase from the 4.51 watt-hour battery in the iPhone 3GS. The Vietnamese leaked prototype, however, carried a 5.00 watt-hour battery.

The site has also posted a photo of the forthcoming iPhone's dock connector and cable, which differ somewhat in appearance from the design used in the iPhone 3G and 3GS.