New Features:
Language Compatibility: Iphone has gone multi-lingual on this version.
Voice Dialing: The much awaited Voice dialing is now available, also if you want an icon for Speed dial, its available also, without having to jailbreak.
You can sing along now, yes lyrics is possible with your music.
Chapter Option, another update in this 1.1.3 version is, if you press and hold the icon’s a couple of seconds until the icons start wiggling, you then move around and customize your icon settings. Multiple SMS messaging option now available, However cut and paste feature is not confirmed which many feel a necessary function, maybe on the iphone 1.1.4 firmware update or something. Google Maps has some added features in this release to help you locate yourself using GPS triangulation technology.
Your iphone 1.1.3 update also has an Hybrid version of Google maps.This first got reported in Andrews blog on December 30th 07 and it was not confirmed until recently.

RIM also added 1.45 million subscribers in the quarter, versus the predicted 10.5 million. It said more than three million of its devices were shipped in the quarter. RIM forecasted revenue between $1.6-billion and $1.67-billion and an earnings per share of between 59-cents and 63-cents for the coming third quarter. It also expects to add about 1.65 million new subscribers.

The company has also continued its aggresive push into the retail market during the quarter. The BlackBerry has always been a symbol for many executives, politicians, lawyers and other professionals. Today RIM is taking on the challenge to penetrate the retail consumer market in the same manner.

At the moment, Resarch In Motion says more than 30 per cent of its subscribers are non-enterprise. The number of RIM-subscribers would rapidly grow if the BlackBerry became common to the Average Joe, as it is in the business environment.

“RIM’s second quarter results were exceptionally strong on all metrics including revenue, subscriber account additions and net income,” RIM co-chief executive officer Jim Balsillie said in a statement. “This growth is fuelled by the depth of the BlackBerry product portfolio and the continued diversification of our business across market segments and geographies.”

Mr. Balsillie said the company is also working to enter China’s markets, where currently its service is available, but not its handsets.

RIM’s share price has more than trippled since September 2006 as strong demand for its devices continues to hold and grow. Analyst and investor views on the company and its prospects has also reinforced a surge in their stock prices.

Way to go, RIM! They have well-established an innovative company with natural, reliable growth. Great model chages, and agressive rollouts. Looks like RIM isn’t handing out its market share for dinner to anyone – not to Microsoft’s VM-devices, not to Apple’s iPhone.

Vonage’s share dipped to 93-cents, its lowest value since the company went public in May 2006.

Reminder this was just two days after Vonage was ordered to pay Sprint Nextel $69.5-million in damages, after a jury found that Vonage willfully infringed on six Sprint telecommunications patents.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit directed the trial court to reconsider the verdict on one of the three patents, and it vacated the damages and royalty awards. They were vacated because the lower court did not specify which portion of the damages were corresponding to which patent. The appeals court found that the district court improperly created the third patent – wireless access to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service.

As of now, the injunctions are pending on resolution of Vonage’s appeal. Unless Vonage now obtains an emergency stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, the injunction will go into effect within a month.

Vonage said it does not expect the decision to have an adverse effect on its business, because it has deployed workarounds for the two patents in question for some time.

Sure I do support the use of patents to encourage technological innovations, but I do find it unfortunate that monopolistic companies use these patents in a way to drive out competition in the marketplace. Can the patent system be furthered enhanced to prevent such uncompetitive behaviour?

There’s a huge problem with this system. If nothing is done about it, we will see fewer innovation, no competition, and higher prices for basic services.

Waterloo-based RIM’s shares rose $2.10, or 2.42 percent, to $88.90 in Toronto. Meanwhile in the U.S., the stock climbed $2.18 (USD), or 2.66 percent, to $84. Microsoft shares also seemed to be advantageous to the rumours, who rose 24 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $28.83.

The takeover chatter also made its way into the currency market, helping send the Canadian dollar up by a third of a cent. The Canadian dollar traded at 94.65 cents from Tuesday’s close of 94.30.

My bet: just a rumour. A very good one though. Currency trading is not at its best right now, so investors are extra quick to react to any speculations (not that they usually aren’t anyway). Logically, the rumour sounds a bit too -umm… illogical? For those of you who have been living on the moon: Microsoft already has a handheld product.

Then again, the rumour can’t be totally invalidated either. And if true, partly-living in Waterloo, I can say the takeover would not please the area residents, Blackberry users, or ambitious Canadian entrepreneurs. There are more than 20 RIM buildings in Waterloo, employing many in the software and hardware industry – including many neighbouring university students from the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University.

RIM holds the image of a distinguished and innovative brand, which is partly the reason for its Blackberry users’ loyalty. The buildings in Waterloo provide ambitious young university students with a entrepreneurial passion while passing the buildings everyday. Perhaps that’s the reason RIM CEO, Mike Lazaridis, chose RIM to be based in Waterloo – not California. Research in Motion spells out a Canadian success story. It would be a shame if this really happened. Sorry about the emotion, but once again, my bet: just a rumour.

The iPhone unlock is still a bit complicated, and requires both soldering and software skills. It is estimated to take about two hours to perform the hack. The details are publicly posted on Hotz’s personal blog. There is, supposedly, another iPhone unlock method for those who do not wish to physically (open, solder, etc.) unlock their iPhones. The details of this unlock can be found on iPhoneSimFree.com.

With the iPhone unlocked, and the process publicly available, there will most definitely be a form of arbitrage in Apple’s iPhone market. The industry will involve the purchase of U.S. iPhones, unlocking them, and sending them for use in Canada, and other countries worldwide. I will be eagerly watching to see how Apple responds to this challenge…

“That’s the big thing”, said Hotz, “That’s exactly, like, what I don’t want. I don’t want people making money off this.”

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s eight annual report on the state of the industry, found that 70 percent of Canadian households subscribed to the Internet in 2006, a six percent increase from 2005, and 60 percent use high speed internet, up from 51 per cent in 2005.

Although Canadians have more choice to both television and radio media than ever before, they are watching and listening less. More and more Canadians are using relatively new technology for everything from research, to watching and listening to radio and TV shows. The report revealed that 22 percent of Canadians listened to radio over the Internet in 2006 and six percent watched television. Internet advertisers benefited with revenues totalling $1-billion in 2006, as opposed to $562-million the previous year.

I guess this is one of the challenges conventional broadcasting media must face in the short future. With the rapidly moving technology today, the radio and television industries have crossed maturity and are in decline. The CRTC report also revealed that 58 percent of Canadians used a cellphone to access the Internet 2006, 14 percent had an MP3 player and 4 percent used a BlackBerry.

The three founders of ConnectU, Zuckerberg’s classmates, claim that they were working together on ConnectU while Zuckerberg repeatedly stalled and eventually created Facebook using their ideas. The charges against Zuckerberg include fraud, copyright infringement, and misappropriation of trade secrets. The lawsuit also asks the court to give control of Facebook (and its assets) to ConnectU’s founders.

Facebook did hit the web 3 months before ConnectU. The lawsuit claims that by beating ConnectU to the market, Facebook gained a “huge advantage”.

Haha… Sorry I can’t help but laugh on this one.

Sure the BlackBerry will have some new toys, but it sure won’t be the only dual-mode device out this year. It’s also coming out only weeks after the much-hyped and anticipated release of Apple’s iPhone, which can handle phone calls, e-mail, web browsing, music, and videos (not to mention its superb looks and design). Clearly RIM is not to keen on letting Apple bully the market. with its iPhone. But are RIM cheifs too confident, and making empty promises to its shareholders? We’ll have to wait and see.

Facebook shows no sign of slowing down, and Zuckerberg shows no signs of exiting. Most recently, Yahoo bid $1-billion for the site. The offer was turned down. The company also recently hired its cheif marketing officer – Chamath Palihapitiya (raised in Canada, holds an engineering degree from the University of Waterloo). Facebook seems to be attempting to meet its growing demand by itself. Many took these as signs of the company’s intentions of going public.

Whether Facebook’s growth is sustainable remains to be seen. Many other fast-growing social networks (Friendster, Hi5, etc.) have cooled down, and left the scene. Facebook is trying other methods to make itself more useful. Their usefulness will now be put to the test. If Facebook does not hit the stock market in a Google-like fashion, don’t be surprised to see Zuckerberg and his investors on the streets mourning the day they turned down Yahoo’s $1-billion takeover bid.