iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, October 2, 2008
News Category: Mix

Apple has announced that it will release the financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter on October 21. Of particular note in the release will be sales information for the iPhone 3G’s first quarter on the market. Alongside its earnings statement, Apple will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results which will begin at 2:00 p.m. PDT, October 21.

The developers of Handbrake, a popular open-source DVD to MPEG-4 converter, are offering a pre-release build of the latest version, 0.9.3, on the app’s website. The new version, which is offered as a “snapshot” build and will therefore likely still contain bugs and present other issues, adds the ability to convert many different formats of video — not just DVDs like prior versions — to MP4, MKV, AVI or OGM files. Handbrake 0.9.3 (pre-release) is available as a free download for Macs running OS X 10.5 or later, PCs running Windows 2000, XP, or Vista, and Linux.

Nokia president and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo praised Apple for its contribution to the wireless industry in a recent on-stage interview, saying the company had done the industry “a big favor.” “We have a new, credible competitor in this business. You know I need to take my hat off,” Kallasvuo said of how the iPhone has raised consumer expectations for mobile phones, adding, “Of course we need to be able to respond to any competitor and we will.” Prior to the iPhone’s original launch, Nokia board member Daniel Hesse claimed that the iPhone would “look pedestrian” compared to advanced mobiles available in Europe and Asia; the company later launched an advertising campaign knocking the iPhone’s then closed-system nature.

At a recent appearance, Adobe’s Senior Director of Engineering Paul Betlem confirmed that the company is actively developing a Flash Player for the iPhone. Betlem said that while the player was in development, the release of the software will depend on Apple, and whether the iPhone maker decides to let the player onto the platform. The iPhone’s lack of Flash has been a point of contention since the device’s launch in June 2007, with Apple CEO Steve Jobs saying that Adobe’s Flash Lite software was underpowered, while the full-powered player “performs too slow to be useful” on the iPhone.