It was made known today that Adobe Flash would be coming to the iPhone soon. This was made clear by the Sr. Director of Adobe Systems, however, it is up to Apple when Flash will actually appear on the device. 

We’ve also learned that Flash for the iPhone will be a closed platform and that once Apple decides it’s go time, we will see a Flash player for the mobile phone very soon. This will mean that websites designed in Flash will be available for viewing on the iPhone. This has been one of the biggest complaint’s regarding what the device lacks.

However, since most mobile phones do not have very speedy processors, Flash may seriously bog down the iPhone’s performance. But, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it handles with some of the more Flash-intensive sites out there.

[via iPhone Atlas]

As more and more people get comfortable with the idea of the App Store, it seems we’re getting more useful apps popping up. And now Softalk has heeded the call with their Spreadsheet app.

This app has several features that should be useful for those that need to get their database on in a jiffy. Features include a scrollable and zoomable cell grid, functions, formulas, cell formatting, different cell types, copy and paste between single cells or cell ranges, row and column insertion and deletion, auto range selection and the ability to export to other spreadsheet applications on your desktop. Whew!

If you’re not exhausted by that list of features, you can download Spreadsheet from Softalk now in the App Store for $7.99.

[via MacRumors]

There’s always speculation about where the iPhone 3G will pop up next, but it seems like there’s some real solid backing for this latest rumor. The iPhone may very well be available for Verizon EVDO service in 2009.

Over at 9 to 5 Mac, several reasons are offered up about why this Verizon/Apple pairing shouldn’t be a surprise:

Apple has been scouting out EVDO and CDMA Engineers for months in their online iPhone job postings (here, here, here and here). Yes, some of these skills overlap with UTMS and CDMA can also refer to the broad swath of 3G Technologies…but come on…don’t put “EVDO” on the job description if it ain’t true.. (BTW, WiMax is also littered throughout Apple’s Job postings…interesting/digress)

No matter how big AT&T is and how much range they cover, leaving out Verizon and to a lesser extent Sprint, will be eliminating a broad swath of the US wireless market. If Apple is serious about competing with Blackberry, Symbian and Android, they will have to broaden their carrier footprint. One carrier does not a platform make. Apple will need a way to grow its market after AT&T is saturated.

LTE technology won’t be mature until well into 2010. Apple can’t afford to wait that long to broaden its carrier footprint

Who is happy with Rogers in Canada (*crickets*)? EVDO opens up to new carriers there as well.

Verizon wireless is a partnership between Verizon communications and Vodafone. Vodafone, you’ll recall, has contracts with Apple for iPhones in around 15 markets around the world. Apple has a working relationship with Vodafone (and Tmobile obviously).

Apple has just started going “Open” in a few markets, including Hong Kong. This will likely increase the number of unlocked 3G iPhones on the world market (South Africa is also open). While this won’t benefit Verizon directly, it certainly shows that Apple is considering being more “carrier agnostic.”

Tim Cook, famously said that Apple wasn’t married to the one carrier/country model. As Apple expands, it is going more and more open.

Verizon’s iPhone Cheat sheet was weak and their arguments about Stevo getting old were silly. They’d rather play ball with Apple than try to defend itself against it.

Apple originally wanted to go with Verizon for the iPhone. Some of the original disagreements included “not carrying the iPhone at Best Buy and hardware reliability” - see quote below. AT&T was a second choice. When Verizon balked, Apple went to AT&T…Think Verizon is happy about that decision (no) or willing to reconsider Apple’s overtures (yes)? 

Rumor has it the announcement for the Apple going over to Verizon would be revealed at Macworld 2009. Very interesting, to say the least.

[via 9 to 5 Mac]

Now that the iPhone 3G has been out for awhile, things are slowing down a bit here on iPhone Buzz, but that’s not to say we haven’t been bringing the latest news stories to you.

At the beginning of the week, we found out that the home activation available for the first-generation iPhone would be reinstated, at least in part, for iPhone 3G purchases. And then, we got the details of the new purchasing system Apple has put in place so you can buy the iPhone 3G from your home, input all of your information and simply go to your local Apple retail store to pick it up and have it activated.

We also learned that the iPhone 3G could reach sales of 5 million in Q4, which is exciting news. And an unlocked version of the phone is now available in Hong Kong, though at a significantly higher price than if purchased through a carrier. To continue Apple’s plan for rolling out the iPhone 3G across the world, Russia will be getting the device on October 3rd.

iPhone Firmware version 2.2 entered Beta 1 for developers only this week and while details were a bit sketchy at first, we eventually learned that MobileSafari would be getting a bit of a facelift. App Store rejections letters are also apparently under the NDA developers sign to upload their apps to the store. Whether this was also a stipulation or a recent addendum in response to the frequent posting of these letters on online forums is unknown.

And last but not least we had a comparison of the iPhone 3G and the recently announced T-Mobile G1. Even though I would have loved to pick a clear cut winner, I found the playing field uneven, especially when you consider that Apple is bringing their own hardware and software to the table and the T-Mobile G1 features hardware and software from different makers.

Lots of international news for Apple and the iPhone 3G today. Now, Reuters is reporting that Russia will get the iPhone beginning on October 3rd. And it seems they have high hopes for the device’s sales.

Estimates now indicate that 150,000 units of the iPhone 3G will sell by the end of the year in Russia. And it seems the start of the sale will begin during the wee morning hours of October 3rd at all carriers.

The major carriers that will carry the iPhone 3G in Russia include Vimpelcom, MTS and MegaFon. You can currently pre-order the phone so you can be sure to get it on the day of release. The iPhone is swiftly spreading across the world, which just goes to show Apple is keeping to their initial plans for rolling out the device.

[via MacRumors]

The iPhone 3G is now available for sale in Hong Kong. Funnily enough, there wasn’t any fanfare, but one interesting thing is that the phone will be unlocked.  

 
The unlocked prices are, as you might have expected, rather high with the 8GB iPhone 3G selling for $5,400 HK, which is about $692 and the 16GB costs $6,200 HK, which is about $794. Users can activate their phones with any wireless carrier and Apple is allowing it so long as a SIM card is installed before you try to sync it with iTunes 8.

Interesting stuff, really. And to think just today China Mobile decided to sell an iPhone 3G without, well 3G, or even WiFi because China would prefer a local 3G protocol like the TD-SCDMA instead of HSPA.

[via MacNN]

Remember yesterday when we reported that the latest iPhone firmware 2.2 beta was released for developers? We didn’t know much about it then but as more details become available, we have now learned the MobileSafari interface will be getting an upgrade.

In fact, it looks quite similar but just has a few tweaks to it. The magnifying glass and refresh button have been removed from the top bar and are now replaced with the URL bar and Google search field.

This makes it look much more like the desktop version of Safari. Also, when you refresh a page now it will show a small icon within the URL bar. It’s not earth-shattering but definitely an improvement, I think. Are you excited for this upgrade?

[via iPhoneAtlas]

Word travels fast and Apple has already seeded the beta of the iPhone firmware version 2.2 today. But that’s not all. Apparently, the firmware includes a beta of the iPhone SDK build 9M2611 as well.

We still have no idea what the newest firmware would contain in comparison to the current version. Firmware 2.1 did address several bugs and issues that have plagued several iPhone 3G users since the device’s launch, so it is not clear what 2.2 would bring to the table.

One possibility is the once promised background push notification that would make it so you could receive IMs even when browsing the web, checking email, etc. But, a recent email sent out by Steve Jobs (supposedly) may indicate otherwise. Of the background push, Jobs writes:

We’re running a bit late. We want to get it 100% right the first time.

Steve

This might just be another one of those wait and see sort of things.

[via MacRumors]