High Hopes for iPhone in China, At Least For Unicom Chairman

When the iPhone finally made its debut in China, early reports were that things weren't going all that well. Some estimates were as low as 5,000 phones sold in the first weekend. Not a great start for the largest cell phone market in the world.

But fear not, according to Chang Xiaobing, Chairman of China Unicom, the carrier selling the iPhone in China, the future is bright. In a Bloomberg article, Chang admits the first month of sales weren't as good as they could be, but he never really outlined any strategy or reasoning for his optimism.

Considering the iPhone carries a $1,000 pricetag in China, has been stripped of wifi, and has seen an estimated one million plus grey market sales, there's not a lot to point to the iPhone as a runaway hit in China. Not yet.

TDL Live This Week: (11/9 - 11/16)

First the bad news: No TDL Live next week. Now the good news: There was a TDL Live this week! If you missed the live show, here's your chance to get caught up. We cover the Droid launch, Apple's app store milestone, 10.6.2 release and more (like the new A-Team movie):

Above & Beyond Air Combat for the iPhone Video Review

It can be tricky to find ways to bring something unique to accelerometer-based iPhone flying games. Sometimes though, less is more. That's the case with Above & Beyond Air Combat. By a lot of app standards today, the game's graphics are average, but that can't stop quick, fun gameplay.

Consisting of two different modes, the "air combat" in the game is a bit slow and laborious. Speeding through canyons, racing for the best time is simple, fast fun. Is it $2.99 fun? Maybe not considering some of the cheaper game options.

(iTunes Link)

Take a look:

TDL Live This Week: (10/12 - 10/18)

On the Apple news scale, we'll give this week a six out of ten. Definitely middle of the pack material. On this week's TDL Live, we talk about the latest from Psystar, Microsoft's danger(ous) problems, game ratings, app store pricing and more. Oh, and original TDL Live co-host Adam Ford drops by.

Get your workday started the right way: With half an hour of tech news!

What's in Store For The Future of QuickTime?

Image: TheLogoFactory.comWhen you're as big as Apple, with hit products like the iPhone and iPod, inevitably, some smaller, less sexier projects are going to fall through the cracks. But does QuickTime (the technology, not the player) deserve to be in this category?

Once upon a time, QuickTime led the horse race for online video playback, not to mention bringing video to the desktop in the first place. And, more people use QuickTime today than ever before thanks to it being the underlying engine for iTunes. However, QuickTime has certainly fallen far behind Flash as a delivery method for online video. Is Apple content to let Flash be king? It might simply be a matter of having to many other major projects right now.

Beyond use as a simple video plug-in, (and in theory, Flash and QT should be equal here as more and more video is h.264/mp4 and therefore playable by both) QuickTime has had several interactive hooks/calls that could create a more immersive, interactive experience. Unfortunately, compared to Flash, the effort and difficulty (and end-user numbers) have all tilted strongly to Flash.

It would make sense that the format that powers the largest online music retailer in the world would dominate online streaming and video playback. Perhaps with the iPhone 3Gs and Snow Leopard out the door, some time can be spent on this key Apple technology. That is, if a tablet doesn't get in the way.

What do you think? Should Apple be content using QuickTime as the engine for iTunes, or should they give Flash a run for its money? Or, do new standards make the whole argument moot?