In a recent interview with a German daily, dead retired man walking Bill Gates chatted up the iPhone a bit, and either did a very good job of concealing his displeasure with its success in the American market, or genuinely doesn't give a flip about it. The key takeaway from the interview seems to be that Microsoft will not be launching an iPhone competitor, instead focusing its efforts on improving Windows Mobile and leaving the manufacturing of desirable hardware to its licensees. As the::unwired mentions, this seems to put a few more nails in the coffin of the long-rumored Zune phone, though we suppose it's remotely possible that Billy somehow doesn't see the Zune phone as a direct competitor to the iPhone. Given the way Windows Mobile has stagnated the past couple years, though, we're totally cool with these guys keeping everybody focused on developing a revolutionary new platform and staying out of the hardware biz -- for now, anyway.

[Via the::unwired]

Android, HSUPA, unlocking -- Engadget hit up AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega with all the tough questions. Go read up, why don't you?

Ryan scored an interview with one of the Men Behind The Machine, and we'll give you a little sneak preview: he answers questions (sorta) about iPhone unlocking and third-party apps. Need we say more? Check it out!

When your company burns through some $400 million worth of other people's money and goes up in a puff of smoke, you're bound to get some inquiries from curious lookers-on. Ousted shortly before Amp'd's historic freefall, Peter Adderton was good enough to sit down with PaidContent's Rafat Ali to answer a few questions about just what the hell happened. Naturally, the guy appears to do a brilliant job of deflecting the blame from himself, saying that Amp'd had too many hands in the cookie jar (vested parties, that is) trying to control the direction of the company; furthermore, since the MVNO required so much cash (apparently) to do its thing, the people that needed to be in the office running things were instead out in the field begging for more dollars. He talks a little bit about the crazy billing issues, too -- you know, people not paying their bill for months without getting cut off -- and says that there was a big issue with people simply never being billed in the first place, too. Business school 101, Peter: gotta make money to keep the ship afloat, dude. Click the link for the full interview.

Who better to field questions about the iPhone than the guy from Apple's own guided tour video, right? Pioneer Press' Julio Ojeda-Zapata had a chance to chat with him on a couple occasions (turns out he's Bob Borchers, Apple's senior director of worldwide product marketing for the iPhone) and he was able to squeeze answers to a couple pressing matters out of him -- things like "WTF is with the recessed headphone jack?" and "can the iPhone be upgrade to 3G, please?" The answers are all pretty predictable ("we had to" and "it's a hardware issue" for these two, respectively) but it's a good read nonetheless. We especially like the bit promising "a lot of improved functionality that will be rolled out on a regular basis."

USA Today wasn't the only publication to get some alone time with Steve Jobs and Randall Stephenson yesterday, Wall Street Journal has an interview of its own up this morning, with Jobs at his most candid -- which really isn't saying a lot. Most pressing on the mind of hundreds of uber-fans across the country is the kind of supply Apple will have available today. Steve didn't spill any numbers, but he confesses that "We're building a fair number of them, but we may not [meet demand]... We've taken our best guess but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it ain't enough." Let's just hope it's not the riots in the streets brand of not enough. Mr. Jobs and Mr. Stephenson also touched on some other interesting topics, with Steve talking with a particular bent toward corporate America, comparing the EDGE speed of the iPhone to a BlackBerry: "You know every (AT&T) BlackBerry gets its mail over EDGE." He also expects a slew of third party corporate apps, saying: "I think the majority of applications people are going to write for the iPhone are going to be things that corporations like." Steve and Randall also seem to be particular fans of WiFi-based VoIP, and while the iPhone certainly isn't supporting that out of the box, it seems like it could be a big thrust for Apple and AT&T going forward.

[Via InfoWorld]

Last time we sat down with you it was a few months before Helio had launched. A year later, how has it been? Where are things now?

Yeah, so when we had last talked, we had no members. It was just an idea. It has been an amazing ride so far. It is great to be here and be able to talk about Ocean for the first time. Something we have been working on since even before Helio was a company.

I remember you mentioning a year ago that you had a Sidekick competitor coming out.

We were coy for a long time. We were just so focused on building it and working really hard, with a lot of travel to and intense amount of work by our team, so it is great to be here and be able to talk about this.

While the whole Cobalt-that-never-was / Access buyout has all been sort of a blur over the past few years, the one thing that remained constant was the aging of Palm's current OS and the inability to sufficiently replace it. While we've seen ALP prototypes and more recently, Palm licensing Garnet source code from ACCESS, an interesting series of interviews over at PocketFactory asks developers to throw in their $.02 in regard to the debacle, and overall, responses weren't entirely shocking. The CEO of mobile game developer Astraware felt the need was still there to continue supporting Palm, if for nothing more than to take advantage of its relatively impressive installed user base, but it was no secret that he was more excited about a Linux-based possibility. Moreover, both the COO of iambic, Inc. and Stuart Dewar from Pimlico Software stressed that Palm's situation is nothing short of dire; with Windows Mobile 5 devices selling by the truckload (and not suffering OS battles all the while), it's giving developers less reason to focus their efforts on Palm applications. Additionally, building WinMo apps that could easily be ported to a Linux platform is becoming the most attractive option, which eventually leaves Palm trailing in the dust. Nevertheless, it's hard to deny to depth and breadth of Palm's marketshare, but be sure to hit the read link for the full skinny on just how developers feel about using their efforts to create Palm-friendly programs.

Those design nuts over at PSFK recently talked with Hosain Rahman of Jawbone fame. The new headset is turning heads with its design chops and technical noise-canceling merit, so it's interesting to hear the impetus behind the upcoming product: "The market was crap and the offering sub-standard." Hosain's Jawbone headset, designed by Yves Behar (who also designed the original Slingbox), was built to be an alternative to the cheap Asian imports. The Jawbone includes frills like medical grade plastic, since a headset touches the skin for so many hours a day, and of course that vibration sensor (to activate the noise cancellation) and dual microphones are a nice step up from the average headset. Hosain views himself in the "audio gateway" biz, which sounds like a good place to be, with consumers increasingly tethered to iPods, cellphones and VoIP sessions, and Bluetooth convergence of all three imminent. Peep a Jawbone shakycam unboxing vid after the break, or hit up the read link for the full interview.