FaceTime Not Available In The Middle East After All, Even On The iPod Touch
October 19, 2010
There is something very strange going on with Apple and some features of its latest iDevices around the world. As you might remember, many iPhone 4 owners in the Middle East recently had the unpleasant surprise of discovering that their new phone didn't allow them to use FaceTime.
So far, Apple has refused to comment on the issue, besides posting a listing of where the restrictions occur. We are still very much in the dark as to their motivations. More recently, after getting reports of the new iPod touch being able to use FaceTime, we speculated that Apple was indeed the culprit and not local governments. Unfortunately we are back in the dark again as we just found out that these reports were bogus. As we first thought, FaceTime is not available on the new iPod touch in these countries. The devices that were tested had actually been imported.
So what's going on? Reportedly, Apple has implemented these restriction directly in the firmware, through a system file that can control how certain features behave depending on the device's origin. For example, devices sold in Saudi Arabia are banned from using FaceTime. Chinese iPhones are locked on the Chinese Google maps, and so on and so forth.
So clearly, Apple has its hand in all this. Nevertheless, we still don't know on whose behalf they're acting.
