All of the usual unnamed insiders say that Apple has had a hard time lining up TV programs, digital newspapers and other content before the launch as media titans weigh the advantages of jumping on the iPad bandwagon against the potential threat to current revenue streams.
Talks are still on, according to these Cupertino deep throats, to secure discounted TV shows. iPad users would get $0.99 downloads instead of the $1.99 and $2.99 they pay now at the iTunes store. Deals with newspapers, magazines and book publishers have all been put on the back burner for now.
If the numbers insiders cited in the story are correct — hundreds of thousands of iPads have been pre-ordered and Apple could sell more iPads in the first three months than iPhones in the first trimester after debut– the content owners could soon be the ones scrambling.
What, if any, content do you consider essential for the iPad?
Apple has devs to the grindstone for a new social networking app called iGroups.
Patently Apple reports that docs out today from the US Patent Office describe a new service that would work on your iPhone and probably MobileMe, too.
Let’s say you’re attending SXSW: iGroups would keep you in touch with your co-workers and friends by allowing you to share your location plus info and comment on events as they happen, greatly facilitating which parties or events are worth attending or already over.
To accomplish this, iGroups reportedly employs a sophisticated cryptographic key generation system to ensure security and privacy.
The patent also states that if one of group devices lacks true positioning technology, Apple’s MobileMe service would provide “virtual GPS” capability to that user so they can still know the whereabouts of other group members.
Would you welcome a geo-location social networking app from Apple, or prefer to stick to Gowalla or Foursquare?
Or do you plan to shun the “Where’s Waldo?” world altogether?
Fake Steve creator Dan Lyons just signed a deal to bring Steve Jobs to another small screen near you.
The half-hour series called “iCon” is billed by the presser as “a savage satire centering on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed.”
Making sure the barbs prick will be the job of Larry Charles, director of “Borat” and “Religulous.” The single-camera show to be aired on cable channel Epix may borrow something in style from his work as writer and producer of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Charles said, “We are attempting to do nothing less than a modern ‘Citizen Kane.’ A scabrous satire of Silicon Valley and its most famous citizen.”
Londoners stuck in the tube now have a handy iPhone app to request ticket refunds. Tube Refund, which costs $0.99, zaps off the request for riders whose journey is delayed over 15 minutes.
Depending on where you go and what time of day, a one-way tube ticket can cost from £1.80 to £4.00 ($2.75 – $6 circa) and a weekly pass £44 ($67) so the app could quickly pay for itself.
This is a great idea — though according to the London Underground rules, refunds only apply for delays “within our control” that last over 15 minutes.
Given that it’s the oldest underground railway in the world, it’s hard to know how much time riders spend in darkened tunnels is due to reasons beyond control of transport authorities.
Traditional publishers may be feeling the heat to develop iPad apps and versions of their pubs, but online publishing execs are adopting a wait-and-let’s-see 2.0 attitude.
The Association of Online publishers polled its 1,500 members, finding them optimistic for 2010 — but not about e-readers or iPads. Half of the respondents predicted strong growth of 10%+, mainly from display ads and an uptick in video, with a number of smaller revenue streams adding to the bottom line.
When asked about the impact of e-readers and tablets in 2010, that sunny outlook was a bit scarce.
—Mail Online MD James Bromley: “These are still really really embryonic devices that are great and fantastic, and I want to be at the top of the queue to buy one and play with it. But we’re talking about a very, very narrow subsection of society that will have these in 2010. This is the time that we learn about these devices – ‘11, ‘12, ‘13 is when these might become slightly more mainstream.”
—Conde Nast Digital UK manager Emanuela Pignataro: “E-readers will be the novelty of 2010. I don’t think it is a short-term adoption – it will take years.”
—Thomson Reuters consumer GM Tim Faircliff: “I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
—Incisive Media digital manager John Barnes: “The issue with tablets is, they’re not really servicing the needs of color, with graphics and diagrams – it’s a bit like version one of the iPod.”
Pilot Edward Smith, second right, pilot of a small plane that crashed Monday evening on Hilton Head Island, SC. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
Robert Gary Jones was enjoying a jog along on the beach with his iPod when a single-engine plane making an emergency landing hit him from behind, killing him instantly.
The 38-year-old father of two was on a business trip in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina when a Lancair IV-P aircraft lost its propeller and was “basically gliding” Monday evening before hitting Jones, coroner Ed Allen told AP.
“There’s no noise,” said aviation expert Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the National Transportation Safety Board. “So the jogger, with his ear buds in, and the plane without an engine, you’re basically a stealth aircraft. Who would expect to look up?”
Pilot Edward I. Smith and his passenger walked away from the crash landing near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa.
According to the Lancair web site, the airplane model that killed Jones is a four-seater that can reach speeds of up to 345 mph and is sold in kit that can “be easily built in one’s home shop,” with a final price tag estimated at $320,000 – $470,000.
Jones’ death is uncommon, but not unheard of: last year a Philadelphia jogger using an iPod died when a tree fell on her.
Hard to say whether volume control might have saved him, but it’s worth thinking about.
A new app called Silent Bodyguard features a panic button that sends an SOS distress signal with GPS coordinates to potential rescuers without alerting onlookers.
Van Zandt says the app may prove useful in situations where a person is trapped or in grave danger but can’t place a call or create a text message. In Silent Bodyguard, users program in contacts for SMS alerts, calls or email addresses to reach in case of emergency.
Silent bodyguard is the brainchild of Los Angeles mom Jo Perry whose daughters came a little too close to becoming crime statistics for comfort. Her youngest daughter was the classmate of a girl abducted and killed while on an errand and her oldest daughter attends the same University as the graduate student recently murdered in a lab.
Perry, who co-developed the app with Justin Leader, points out that once activated, the SOS messages will continue to be sent out every 60 seconds, updating location. Even if it goes out once, four emergency contacts will know that the user is in some kind of trouble. The alarms keep going out until turned off.
The idea is that you can communicate distress when you can’t make a call or a text. Perry keeps hers in a pocket, not her purse, just in case.
“The app is simple, but because we designed it to be silent and for “stealth” activation, it’s not the usual on-off button people are used to, ” Perry told CoM in an email. “That’s why people don’t always “get it” at first. The home screen is designed to look like a photo viewer, not an alarm. Again, to make it easy to use when a person feels threatened in the presence of people who might be hostile. Joggers, college students, realtors, etc. can find themselves in scary situations with people around whom they can’t just dial a friend and say, “I’m scared.”
We do like the idea, but wonder what you’re supposed to do when the first thing the perp grabs is your iPhone…
Inside Steve Jobs’ abandoned mansion. @Photo Jonathan Haeber, Bearings.
A judge upheld a ruling to let Steve Jobs raze a crumbling mansion in Woodside, California, though a preservation group may appeal the decision, again.
The saga of the sagging 30-room Jackling mansion is a long one. Jobs bought it in 1984 and lived there for about a decade, then rented it until 2000. Built in 1925 for copper magnate Daniel C. Jackling, it sat empty, overgrown until Jobs was granted a demolition request in 2004. (For a good look on just how run down, check out Jonathan Haeber’s amazing photos).
A local preservation group called Friends of the Jackling House went to court and kept the bulldozers at bay. In May 2009, Jobs submitted more documentation to bolster his argument that razing the house was more feasible than restoring it.
This week a supreme court judge upheld the council’s decision, so Jobs can apply for another demolition permit.
See the world through Apple-tinted lenses? @Cliff & Dick Huston
If there’s a good thing about the recession, it seems to be bringing some fine Apple memorabilia out of storerooms and closets.
Cliff and Dick Huston — ex-Apple engineers, for the record employees 27 and 25 — have decided to part with a treasure trove of Cupertino collectibles by auctioning them on eBay.
Gary Katz, patron saint of kids and parents stuck indoors with his iPhone theater in a box, has now developed a download version. (The mail-order version cost $20.)
For just $12 you get high-quality images and a choice of walls, ceilings, roofs and curtains and plus extras for a touch of customization.
It comes with instructions, you provide the laser printer, safety scissors, glue and shoebox. In about an hour, it’s showtime!
Though a few early adopters have noted that the confirmation emails for pre-ordered iPads are slow, it looks like the in-store pick up option should be fun with some kind of launch fete in the works.
The Apple store went down at 11:01AM GMT. We’ll post an update when it’s back online. If our crystal ball readings from the past are reliable, when it goes back on line, you could be the first to pre-order an iPad.
In the mean time, wild speculation abounds — since it looks like Apple stores worldwide are all down and only US customers can order iPads — add yours in the comments.
Steve Jobs may be one of the most admired CEOs in the tech industry even if he’s not the richest.
Jobs ranked 136 — down from up 43 spots since last year — in the annual Forbes list of billionaires, far behind Bill Gates (no. 2), Larry Ellison (6), Google founder Sergey Brin (24), Steve Ballmer (33) and Michael Dell who came in at no. 37.
Here’s how they explained his ranking:
“Following months of rumor and speculation, cultish king of the iGeeks presented the highly anticipated iPad in January; ten-inch, multi-touch computer intended to fill gap between smartphone and laptop. Delighted: nerds everywhere. Scared to death: newspaper and magazine publishers. Also unveiled new iBookstore and iBooks application in direct challenge to Amazon’s Kindle; several book publishers have committed to content agreements. Apple shares up 100% in past 12 months. Reed College dropout founded Apple in 1976. Revolutionized music industry with iTunes, iPod. Best investment: bought Pixar from George Lucas in 1986 for $10 million. Created string of hits (Finding Nemo, Toy Story); sold to Disney in 2006 for $7.4 billion in stock. Today is Disney’s largest shareholder; stake worth $4.2 billion.”
There’s been a tremendous amount of peek-a-boo over racy apps in the iTunes store lately. Following a purge of apps with names like Epic Boobs — which once squeezed their way past censors — some of them were re-instated.
Most of the offending apps, however, were produced by small shops. The hotties available on the iTunes store from big franchises — like Playboy and Sports Illustrated — were left untouched.
In this now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t fest, Apple, however, seems to have ignored an implicit gentleman’s agreement with German publisher Springer.
Springer owns tabloid Bild whose “Shake the Bild Girl” app undresses women with a shake of the device, leaving them naked, like the babes featured in the print edition.
Apple now wants them to remove the Teutonic ta-tas from the app — leaving the women in bikinis — raising the ire of the publisher. Springer reportedly sold 100,000 downloads of the app which costs €1.59 a month ($2.15, circa), also available with a PDF edition of the print tab for €3.99 ($5,40) a month.
“Today they censor nipples, tomorrow editorial content,” Bild Digital CEO Donata Hopfen told local media.
Take my iPod, please? CC-licensed, thanks to Sifter on Flickr.
This is the man-bites-dog of gadget crime: a mugger stuck a gun in the face of a 15-year-old demanding cash but just said no when offered an iPod instead.
It happened in Sydney, Australia, where police believe the attacker was another teen.
“[The boy] offered him an iPod but the attacker didn’t want that,” Green Valley Local Area Command duty officer, Inspector Siobhan Busetto told the Sydney Morning Herald. The attacker ran away, leaving the teen unharmed and still in possession of his mp3 player. Reports didn’t specify the iPod model involved in the scuffle.
For years, iPods have been at the center of countless robberies — and a few murdercases – attesting to their cult status and steal-a-bility.
Is this a fluke or a sign that market penetration has been reached?
Perhaps the mugger was waiting for the iPad?
All gratuitous speculation welcome in the comments.
Design collective Quirky just launched this earbud detangler that looks like a pocket protector for the aughts.
Cute, colorful and just $5, Wrapster is made out of bendable rubber. It keeps your wires uncrossed when you’re wearing an iPod and stores them when you’re not.
Perhaps if nerds start wearing what look like 4-inch safety scissors in their front pockets, those annoying co-workers who waste their time with questions like “How do I clear cookies from Firefox?” will start running for cover.
The Italian priest who launched prayer app iBreviary has now slashed the price from $0.99 to gratis.
Given the popularity of the app, Don Paolo Padrini decided to give the current version away for free. (Profits from the app previously went to refurbishing a parish shelter.)
Available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin and an Ambrosian Rite version (for mobile Milanese), this virtual breviary, or book of hours, gives the morning prayer, evening prayer and night prayer or complines for the day. It is the first app of its kind to obtain approval from the Vatican.
As a paid app, it was in the top 100 of its category (reference) beating out similar mobile prayer helpers like iPieta and iMissal.
What’s next? Don Padrini tells us his developers are hard at work on an iPad version they hope will be ready to launch when the new device hits stores in March.
Pulling a stunt worthy of Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible,” thieves cut a hole in the roof of a Best Buy then dropped down 16-feet to snatch up 20 Apple laptops. Then they climbed back up, escaping with $26,000 of merchandise without ever touching the floor.
Touching ground would have set off the store’s burglar alarm. And the two or three person crew were too clever to get caught on tape: they cut the roof hole in a spot where security cameras are blocked by ad banners.
The cinematic caper took place in South Brunswick, New Jersey leaving police to marvel at their handiwork:
“(This was a) high level of sophistication,” said Detective James Ryan, a police department spokesman told NJ.com “They never set off any motion sensors. They never touched the floor. They rappelled in and rappelled out.”
