Daily Rumours: OS 10.6?

Coming out of left field for a week's worth of rumour mongering, yes, it's Mac OS 10.6, code named Ocelot. Or was it Puma? Never mind. TUAWs is saying that it heard from sources that talked to Steve Job's secretaries long lost brother that 10.6 will be getting its first seed at WWDC. New features are rumoured to be minimal, with the focus being on security and stability.

Well, right there we know that this rumour can't be true, as new OSes are always feature driven.

Anyway. I don't make em up, I simply tell you that other's are....

On the rumour meter, this one is plausible, but unexpected. Apple was having a tough time a year ago building an iPhone and releasing an OS; what with iPhone 2.0 around the corner, one wonders if they've managed to hire on a few extra developers. If so, then there is a good chance that this one is true. 

Daily Reading: iPhone Rumour again

Today's daily reading: speculation by the Toronto Star that Rogers is planning an iPhone launch sometime in summer. 

The most telling quote: "An Apple spokesman declined to comment." Why do people even bother trying to get a comment out of Apple anymore?

Me? If it goes through, I hope it's a non-exclusive deal. We've got the spectrum auction coming to completion in the next little while, and a good chance that there will be at least some competition in the marketplace, which will mean that Roger might be a little more willing to concede some points. Or better yet, have the iPhone carried by someone who is not Rogers.

How shall we take this, then?

The Australian forums are buzzing that resellers have started to get the lowdown on the iPhone roll-out in that country. It's still in rumour stage right now, but it's a solid rumour.

I suspect the shape of it might be right (timing), but the details are probably pretty skewed. Like the no lock in. I mean, come on.

Anyway. If this is true, and the iPhone does go to Australia, it blows my "no iPhone in Canada because of population" theory out of the water.

Which leaves us with two options: Blame Rogers or Blame the Trademark dispute. I feel like doing the former. Not for any rational reason, but just because I can. Boo. Rogers, booooo.

Is T-Mobile behind Niagara Networks

Okay. 

So I've mentioned before that there's rumours of T-Mobile making a bid for some of that sweet Canadian Spectrum. Trouble is, the auction rules state that the company doing the bidding has to be Canadian. 

We've also mentioned that Niagara Networks Inc. has come out of the blue to bid on a huge swatch of that spectrum.

CBC has put two and two together, and come up with a question: Is there a bigger Telecom backing Niagara? They mention both T-Mobile and AT&T as possible backers, but the official word is "No comment."

My money is on T-Mobile, just because that's the way I read the T-leaves. But I could be completely wrong. 

Any way you shake it, a new player in the Canadian market would hopefully generate a bit of competition, and rates might come down. 

The fact that both T-Mobile and AT&T have iPhone contracts in their respective countries has no bearing on my interest in this story. Honest. 

What I think'd be even more interesting would be if Apple were found to be backing a play for some spectrum. That would go a long way to helping me with my current theory that Apple doesn't really care about the Canadian Market. 

A closer look at the iPhone video

So, a lot of the folks over at ehMac are looking at the fact that the iPhone demoed in this video has French Canadian built in as a language preference as not having much weight. They don't see it as an imminent release of the iPhone.

So I went and watched the video all the way though (rather than stopping at the point where French Canadian pops up), and noticed that not the guy who does the video goes thumbing through the Region Format Menu, which has date and time options for different countries.

Here are the countries listed, followed by whether they have the iPhone:

Zimbabwe No

UK Yes 

US Yes 

Us Virgin Islands No

South Africa No

Singapore No

Philippines No

Pakistan No

New Zealand No

Malta No

Ireland Yes

India No

Hong Kong SAR China No

Canada No

Botswana No

Belgium No

Australia No

A couple things to note:

Germany and France, both of which have the iPhone, are not on the list.

A whole whack of countries that don't have the iPhone are. 

Is this setting up for a planned roll out? Is this just a standard list of countries that the Mac supports, or is this just someone pulling our leg, yet again, with a fake video?

Well, if you open up the International Pane and select formats, you'll note that the short list of Regions is as listed above. However, if you look next to it, there is a check button that say "show all regions" that allows you to see about a billion other countries and regions. Is it in the video? Survey says, no. So, what does that mean? One option is that this is a fake, a video or a website designed to look like what it might look like. Of course, the video doesn't show the top of the screen, so there is a chance that the "show all regions" is at the top, and this really is 2.0 software.

But, again, it is the standard list from the International Preference Panel. Does the fact that Zimbabwe is listed mean that the iPhone is heading for the streets of Harare? Or is this just a standard format menu for all mac devices? Either one is acceptable, but neither one really sells me on the fact that the iPhone is coming to Canada. 

Rogers may decide to negotiate with Apple, knowing that there may be competition coming down the pipes, but I suspect they'll wait and see what happens with the spectrum auction before caving under.

Still, that would be a coup for a new cell phone provider: We're new, and we've got the iPhone, with data plans starting at a really low price. Now that's the way to enter the market with a bang....

Dare we dream?

Hot off the presses from the Boy Genius, a rumour that T-Mobile might be coming to Canada. 

If that were true, would they come bearing a GSM network, lower data rates, and hope above hopes, the iPhone?

Kudos to Derrick over at ehmac.ca for noticing this first.