Briefly: Sony boss calls Jobs "greedy," Vodafone on iPhone, more...

Sony exec: Apple's Jobs "greedy"

Although he is the head of a multinational company with influence in virtually every aspect of home electronics and media, Sony head Sir Howard Stringer was reportedly undeterred from accusing Apple's leader Steve Jobs of only caring about his and Apple's wealth at a recent Allen & Co. media conference.

Speaking as part of a panel which counted Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Google co-founder Sergey Brin among its ranks, Stringer is said to have characterized Jobs as a "greedy" hypocrite who would accuse music labels of only being interested in money while wanting to funnel money only to himself. The introduction of the iPhone was part of this approach, Stringer argued.

InterActiveCorp head Barry Diller allegedly brought the discussion to a halt to draw attention to the bold statement but only received a 'diplomatic' response from the Sony executive, who retreated from the statement.

Vodafone eager for 3G iPhone

Ending his company's largely silent approach to speculation over the choice of an iPhone carrier for Europe, Vodafone chief Arun Sarin on Thursday said that the iPhone's wireless Internet speed was an important factor in deciding whether or not to pick up the phone for its networks.

Including some form of cellular Internet faster than EDGE, such as Europe's UMTS or the international HSDPA standard, was important to pleasing a European audience, according to Sarun. 3G wireless is typically much more popular in the region and is known to be in the works for an eventual refresh of the iPhone.

"It's clearly a good, software-driven device, but we're concerned about wideband area coverage so that 3G or HSDPA connectivity with the iPhone is something that we look forward to," Sarun said.

The cellular provider head would not be drawn into confirming or denying that Vodafone would be selected for iPhone service in some European countries, but noted that nearly every major player in the continent was 'having a conversation' with Apple about possible deals.

Apple to host Tech Talks for iPhone devlopers

Roughly a week after the unofficial iPhoneDevCamp took place in San Francisco, Apple itself has announced a series of iPhone Tech Talks to take place in major US cities.

The month of August will see Apple host one-day events in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco that mix official seminars and demos with a loosely structured 3-hour programming session. Basic site compatibility, Web 2.0 apps, and handling content will form the heart of company-run discussions, the company said.

Anyone with a free ADC online membership or better is welcome to attend simply by signing up through the Tech Talk page and needs only to bring the bare essentials to the events, which begin with a Los Angeles gathering on August 2nd.

"Bring your notebook, your code, and your iPhone," Apple said.