But how many of those are iPhones and how many are iPods Touch?
As always, we miss the official data from Apple… and that alone tells the story.

The same day, AdMob, the mobile advertisement platform, released their own OS 3 adoption rate statistics showing a rather less optimistic big picture of the market. The facts suggest that most iPhone users are installing the OS 3.0 as soon as they find the time to follow the process, while iPod Touch users are upgrading only when they are strictly required in order to continue using their device or their favorite Apps.

AdMob’s results indicated that 44 percent of iPhone ad requests were from devices running iPhone OS 3.0.  That’s actually quite a lot considering the OS was launched only three days prior to those statistics.  The alarming number is that only 1 percent of iPod touch ad requests were from devices running 3.0.

Speaking of other sources, Tapbots (developer of the popular iPhone app Convertbot), has just released their own iPhone OS 3.0 adoption rate statistics based on their users, confirming a vast difference between iPhone and iPod touch iPhone OS 3.0 adoption.  According to their statistics, nearly 80 percent of their iPhone users are already running iPhone OS 3.0.  In comparison, about 50 percent of their iPod touch users are running the new OS.

Statistics reported from the iPhone SDK Developers Google Group vary, some say that between 70% and 90% of their users upgraded to 3.0 which happened within about a week. Others report around 50-60% within the first week, constantly rising.

Clearly, iPod Touch users are feeling like “b-series” users to Apple, having Apple ask them to pay $9.95 is working as an upgrade deterrent for iPod Touch users. A positive note for developers is that users that use many Apps are more likely to download the new OS, especially as more and more will drop iPhone OS 2.2.1 support. Many new apps in the App Store already require iPhone OS 3.0, and as time passes this will only become even more common.  In the end, it may force many iPod touch users to have to upgrade.

I’m a happy owner of an iPod Touch first generation, and I’m keeping 2.2.1 for testing purposes given these figures. With OS 3.1 already in the works, will iPod Touch users choice be to wait?

What will you do?… just login to comment :)

Rumors about a new iPod Touch to be introduced in a special event in September have been around for a while. The new device should feature a camera, probably a smaller one like the iPhone 3G.

Since the main focus of the iPod Touch marketing are games, the device will probably also feature a faster CPU and possibly the new graphics chip that also powers the iPhone 3G S.

Analytics firm Pinch Media says it’s seen the device string for the new iPod multiple times since April. The usage pattern repeats the one seen for the iPhone 3GS and directly suggests that Apple is testing compatibility with the new iPod touch to guard against any show-stopping flaws before the device goes live.

Determining when this new iPod touch will be released is difficult. The iPhone 3GS was seen in October 2008 but wasn’t released until eight months later — but the iPod touch normally borrows components from the iPhone that preceded it and therefore needs less testing prior to release. The iPod touch has always been updated in a special music-themed event held in September.

So, if you’re thinking to get an iPod Touch 2G now, my recommendation would be to wait a couple of months :)

The new iPhone OS release is coming unusually soon after 3.0. In the past Apple has preferred to address bugs in minor patches rather than more significant revisions that often contain noteworthy new features. So far, nothing contained in iPhone OS 3.1 is believed to have added significant features. Perhaps it’s a move to encourage the adoption among iPod Touch users, which are moving to the new OS more slowly then initially anticipated?

Most apps will provide voice-guide and 3D on-screen navigation with automatic rerouting incase users miss a turn.

GPS device maker TomTom is being developed with the help of Apple engineers. It will be sold alongside a TomTom car kit accessory, which enhances the iPhone’s GPS signal through its dock connector thanks to third-party accessory support built into the iPhone SDK 3.0. The kit also charges the iPhone, includes a built-in loud speaker for spoken turn-by-turn directions, and comes equipped with a microphone for hands-free calling. TomTom hasn’t announced the pricing for either the software or the car kit.

The AT&T Navigator is already available in the U.S. App Store, and is compatible with the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3G S running iPhone OS 3.0. A monthly subscription fee  ($9.95) will cover automatic map updates that will be downloaded to the iPhone and real-time traffic updates.

Navigon released its own MobileNavigator with European maps. The software is priced £54.99 and features built-in 2D and 3D maps of Europe, allowing it to function without a wireless connection.

UPDATE: Steve Jobs returns to work after near 6-month leave, working at Apple a few days a week, from home otherwise. Source: Reuters

For those who didn’t notice, Apple’s latest press release about the iPhone 3GS initial sales success reported a quote from Steve Jobs.

“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning. With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.” – Steve Jobs

This and the fact Jobs has been seen on Apple’s campus last week made me wonder if he’s coming back to work anytime soon, to present Apple’s worldwide events with his great keynotes, and to complete the work on the mysterious, tablet-PC-sized iPhone OS powered device said to be his main focus at Apple’s lately. Recent updates and rumors would confirm this to be a likely scenario, but what has really been happening to him and Apple lately?

Apple’s secrecy policy gives all journalists and fans a hard time to foresee Apple’s next moves. Even people working in the company are kept unaware of what’s going on in other departments, and –according to AppleInsider– are often given misleading details in order to track down people disclosing Apple’s secrets to the press and to rumors sites.

Steve Jobs has acknowledged that he did undergo a liver transplant at Methodist University Hospital and that he has come out of surgery in good condition. The executive finally gave permission to the Tennessee hospital to publish the news after several unconfirmed rumors surfaced all around the web.

Apparently, Jobs was the patient with the greatest likelihood of developing an end-stage liver disease among those with a blood type matching the next available donor liver; as such, he was a prime candidate for the operation and is now believed to have come out of his surgery with an “excellent prognosis” and a strong recovery.

The operation suggest that, like the majority patients who recovered from the form of pancreatic cancer he had in 2004, the cancer had metastasized in his liver, creating the “hormonal imbalance” that ultimately forced Jobs to take leave of his normal office for the past six months.

Methodist University Hospital is one of the ten largest locations offering liver transplants in the US and Jobs specifically chose the hospital due to its strong reputation for patient survival rates.

Some governance experts cited by the New York Times — in a profile of the company’s unparalleled aura of secrecy — reports that given the fact that Jobs required major surgery such as a liver transplant “now makes one of Apple’s assertions from January — that Mr. Jobs was suffering only from a hormonal imbalance — seem like a deliberate mistruth, unless Mr. Jobs’s health condition suddenly deteriorated. [...] Of course, no one knows enough to say definitively.”

In a report published this past weekend, the Wall Street Journal said that although Jobs is returning to Apple this month, he’s likely to work part-time initially, a move that may ease him into a reduced role at the company while Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook assumes greater responsibilities.

Although Cook hasn’t been awarded the title of chief executive, he’s been handed control of Apple for extended periods of time on two separate occasions. The first of which was a two-month stint back in 2004 when Jobs took leave to recover from successful surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his pancreas.

Since resuming control of the company in January, Cook has been entrusted with responsibilities once reserved only for Steve Jobs, such as handling negotiations with exclusive U.S. iPhone service provider AT&T, the Journal reported Tuesday.

It is worth noticing “we” (Apple’s users, followers and fans) are likely in good hands with Cook. He was brought to Apple by Jobs in 1998, a time when Apple was in terrible shape, having lost more than $1 billion in fiscal 1997 as it gained notoriety for insufficient manufacturing practices, with bloated inventories that forced it to take costly write-downs on unsold computers and parts.

By the end of the company’s fiscal 1999, Cook had worked Apple’s inventory down to two days’ worth, or about $20 million, compared to 31 days, or $437 million, two years earlier.

That same fiscal year, Apple grew its gross margins by 9% and the company earned a $600 million profit despite slumping sales. That started the positive trend that Apple is still living today, with a continuos growth and exciting new products being released regularly since the introduction the first iMac.

Many rejoiced when in iPhone OS 3 beta the tethering appeared as a standard feature, only to remain disappointed when it was removed again in beta 5, to never reappear in the iPhone OS 3 Golden Master and final versions.

A new hack is now available to enable this feature without the need of going through the jailbreak procedure. You can easily find many sources now that report the procedure with a simple Google Search.

The new iPhone speed bump is supported by a new CPU (ARM Cortex A8) running 200MHz faster then its predecessor, and is also supported by a more powerful graphics chip: the PowerVR SGX and a much more generous amount of memory. The Ram was doubled from the already noteworthy 128MB of the original iPhone and iPhone 3G to 256MB.

Other changes, according to the iFixit staff, that filmed their own iPhone 3G S tear-down with the video camera on a second iPhone 3G S are reported below. Here is an overview of hardware specifications comparison between the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G and the new iPhone 3G S…

While the iPhone 3G apparently relied on an Infineon chip for its UMTS/HDSPA connectivity and video acceleration, the new model lacks such a chip. The Infineon iPhone 3G chipset was pointed to as the probable cause for the iPhone 3G connectivity issues. Apple has not acknowledged any problems, however, in the new iPhone 3GS no Infineon chip was discovered.

The extended battery life of the new iPhone 3GS is also worth noticing. The battery is is about 6% larger than the iPhone 3G’s battery.

Nearly all of the handset’s components have been relocated to the front side of the main logic board, including the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Flash memory chips. An additional antenna connection near the dock connector was discovered. iPhone’s camera quality is much improved from the iPhone 3G. For example, close-up shots are now possible down to about 5 cm, and the brightness adjusted well when picking a focus area. Meanwhile, a test comparing the time it takes the Google Earth application to load reveals the new iPhone 3G S to be “bit faster than Apple’s claim of 2X speed improvement” over the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3G’s oleophobic screen “does seem to clean slightly easier than the 3G’s normal screen,” according to the report.

“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning. With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.” – Steve Jobs

While benchmarks have shown that Apple’s iPhone 3GS is so fast that it outpaces Palm’s self-proclaimed fastest smartphone, the Pre, also sales of the new iPhone model are breaking speed records: Apple said Monday that it sold over one million iPhone 3GS models during the first three days the handset was on the market.

The new iPhone OS 3.0 was downloaded by six million customers in the first five days since its release.

Back in 2007, the first million iPhones were sold in 74 days, or approximately two and a half months, while last year’s iPhone 3G launch saw a million devices sold in just the first three days. Considering that sales figures reported Monday do not include sales of the newly-priced $99 8GB iPhone 3G, it’s likely this past weekend represented the Apple’s most successful product launch.

Sounds great, but does Rhodes add any additional hurdles that would not be encountered if we used iPhone SDK?

The iPhone SDK is Apple’s native development environment. There are still some areas of the SDK that are cloudy, like those nice undocumented features you are not allowed to use. There are functions and APIs that became obsolete with the release of the iPhone OS 3.0 SDK while a lot of new stuff is being built in over time.

However it’s all official so you get some guarantees: your software will be backward compatible with older phones as long as you build it on top of APIs available to iPhone OS 2.2.1 and the new OS 3.0, and you can easily upgrade your calls from OS 2 to OS 3 because everything is well documented, at least compared to the competitors’ development environments.

Rhodes is a new framework. It is built by a small company (compared to Apple) which hasn’t a 100% guaranteed future in the years to come (hey Rhomobile, we do wish you all the best!) and it will probably see the same issues in framework versioning as Rails. When a new version of the framework comes out there may be significant changes to the core features to require a partial rewrite of the app to update it to the new structure.

It may also become necessary to keep up-to-date with new Rhodes framework releases if Rhomobile won’t update older versions to keep it compatible with the new iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile releases.

There are a ton of variables when dealing with multiple platforms that you don’t have when dealing with iPhone SDK only. However, the effort of updating the app in 6 to 12 months is likely in the iPhone market as well — as this year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference has taught us.

With Rhodes you get the added value of updating your code perhaps once every year and deliver to all instead of having the need to update once every year or so for each platform.

Rhodes is also likely to add support for more platforms as they become available: ie. there are rumors for a new Blackberry smartphone that will be nearer to current Android phones and the iPhone in terms of screen size and resolution.

The only real limitation with Rhodes is that it has issues in dealing with multimedia (audio and video). It works fine with still images and databases. It should be even better suited then the iPhone SDK to work with websites since it relies on web technologies.

Another important fact to keep in mind, as pointed out by one of our readers, is that you are limited by the browser capabilities each mobile platform makes available (ie. Windows Mobile 2003 may not be able to use some AJAX facilities).

The other show stopper for you may be the licensing model. Rhodes is free for open-source apps but Rhomobile asks for a percentage (around 5%) of the actual earnings for all commercial apps. The percentage is not calculated on the public App Store price: it’s calculated on your actual income, taking into account Apple’s commissions on the sales.

Apple is working to keep attention on the iPhone’s software, without any mention of the make or specification of its internals. The iPhone 3G S focuses on hardware performance improvements with a faster general purpose ARM and PowerVR graphics processor cores and increase in its internal RAM from 128MB to 256MB. Even if Apple has kept the internal specifications of the iPhone hidden, they won’t be secret for long once the device goes on sale.

For marketing reasons Apple focuses on the unique software capabilities of the iPhone, including its ability to run the 50,000 titles on the App Store, which are more important sale points than the hardware specifications.

“iPhone 3G S is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet and we think people will love the incredible new features including autofocus camera, video recording and the freedom of voice control,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “And with a breakthrough price of $99, we are thrilled to get iPhone 3G into the hands of even more users who want them.” Apple also achieved a longer battery life even with the added horsepower, so you can watch more videos, listen to more music, browse the Internet and use your favorite iPhone Native Apps longer.

During its presentation at WWDC Monday, Apple highlighted new pricing for the iPhone 3G and the upcoming iPhone 3G S model but apparently existing iPhone 3G customers will have to pay a $200 premium to upgrade to the latest model if they want one right away. iPhone 3G S is priced $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model: current users who bought their iPhone 3G shortly after its launch last year will have to wait a year from their iPhone 3G purchase date to qualify for the new price.

Here is the Apple Guided Tour for the new iPhone.