Apple has taken MobileMe Mail out of beta and made it available to all me.com members.
The iPad-inspired three-column view is especially nifty. See the screenshot above.
The new web mail also includes a couple of features not available in the beta: mail forwarding from another account and improved junk mail filtering.
Here’s the full list of features:
Over at the EE Times, they have posted an interesting comparison between Apple’s A4 CPU and the Samsung S5PC10.
The end results are that they find that the CPUs are similar in design, Apple has taken a chip originally engineered to meet the demands of a broad range of OEMs and reduced the complexity and footprint to suit Apple products, thanks to their partnership with Intrinsity.
[via Engadget]
Apple put together a video love letter to itself where app developers from A-list firms talk about how delighted they are to work with the Cupertino company.
About halfway through the 5-minute or so video, the execs start talking about how much they don’t like working with other platforms. (Read: “Android?”)
“We’ve actually spent some time working with other platforms, it’s a night and day difference,” says Calvin Carter of Bottle Rocket apps who made the NPR app. “They are more difficult for the user, they don’t have the power or the tools available, they don’t have the distribution network. They don’t have the standards, both in hardware or software.”
“It is that handset fragmentation, if you will, that causes developers a lot of problems,” says Skarpi Hedinsson of ABC TV. “Because you’re now targeting individual devices.”
“It’s really evident in Apple’s APIs, in the developer’s tools, that you’re working with something really mature,” remarks Tom Conrad of Pandora. “Not something that was invented two years ago.”
Via Jordan Stark
The Atlantic has posted an article discussing the iPad’s appeal to Baby Boomers, and makes some good arguments as to why the newest iDevice may be a huge hit with this demographic:
1. It isn’t that hard to use.
Your mom is awful with a computer. That time you taught her how to use e-mail, you felt like you needed a fifth of Jack to quench your frustration. But downloading an app is much, much easier than installing a program in Windows. You just go to the app store, download it, and — voila! If she thought a Mac was easy to use, wait until she sees an iPad in action. Just pray she doesn’t discover Facebook.
Currently my Mom doesn’t see the need for an iPad at all – she’s yet to be convinced that an upcoming switch from dialup to cable modem will make a difference in how she uses her computer. But as the article notes, perhaps that may change…
Thanks to Digg for the tip.
Our favorite unibody vivisectionists over at iFixIt have done their usually thorough job tearing down the new Mac Mini.
A lot of the Mini’s biggest changes are already obvious: the transition to aluminum unibody and the ability to easily access the Mini’s internals with a single counter-clockwise twist, making it very easy to replace RAM. In fact, there aren’t really any big revelations, except one: running at just 10 watts idle, the new Mac Mini is one of the most energy-efficient computers around, and Apple’s most frugally power-sipping desktop yet.
Apple announced 600,000 pre-orders for iPhone 4 on Tuesday, a number “far higher” than the company anticipated.
In a short press release, the company said the unexpectedly-high demand caused many system malfunctions and apologized for any difficulties and frustration.
Yesterday Apple and its carrier partners took pre-orders for more than 600,000 of Apple’s new iPhone 4. It was the largest number of pre-orders Apple has ever taken in a single day and was far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions. Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration. We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock.
Earlier, AT&T said it had received 10-times the number of iPhone pre-orders than last year’s iPhone 3GS, and is suspending pre-orders.
“Given this unprecedented demand and our current expectations for our iPhone 4 inventory levels when the device is available June 24, we’re suspending preordering today in order to fulfill the orders we’ve already received,” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegal told the New York Times. “The availability of additional inventory will determine if we can resume taking preorders.”
Radio Shack has also suspended pre-orders, it said on Twitter.
SAI: AT&T: iPhone 4 Pre-Orders 10 TIMES Higher Than First Day Last Year
Just as Apple’s servers are finally accepting pre-orders of the iPhone 4 after being down most of the day, the device may be selling out.
AT&T sold its stock of the pre-order iPhone 4s this afternoon, and now Apple appears close to running out also. In certain parts of the country, the east coast especially, the online Apple Store has pushed shipping dates for the device back to the July 6-8 timeframe, according to reader reports.
The device appears to also have been sold out in the UK and Germany, according to MacRumors.
Let’s hope you were able to order or reserve one — delivery dates for latecomers have been pushed back to July 4 at the earliest.
Earlier today, AT&T said Tuesday was the busiest online sales day in the company’s history:
“Because of the incredible interest in iPhone 4, today was the busiest online sales day in AT&T history. As of Tuesday afternoon, customers who preorder iPhone 4 moving forward will receive their device on June 25 or later, depending on when the order is placed. We’ll email customers with confirmation once their order is placed, and again when it ships. In addition, we will have devices available on a first-come, first-serve basis in our stores beginning on June 24.”
Engadget: AT&T sold out of iPhone 4 pre-orders for launch day
Trying to distract attention from the iPhone 4 pre-order flustercuck, Apple has just released the Mac OS 10.6.4 update, whoch has been expected for weeks.
Weighing in at 315.5 MB, the update includes a bunch of minor fixes, including stability issues with Adobe’s Creative Suite 3, SMB file servers and DVD Player.
The Mac OS 10.6.4 update can be downloaded via the built-in Software Update application.
Here’s the full details:
Even though Apple’s and AT&T’s pre-ordering systems are crashing due to high demand, several people have reported success pre-ordering the iPhone 4 through the new Apple Store iPhone app.
However, that too is over-subscribed. Attempts to pre-order the iPhone through the app are returning the following message:
“Due to high demand, we are not currently accepting iPhone 4 reservations via the Apple Store app. To pre-order or reserve yours, please visit apple.com/iphone/pre-order.
But Apple and AT&T’s systems are still down, with attempts to reserve an iPhone resulting in error messages and timeouts.
Anyone had success using a different method? Radio Shack?
After a morning of spotty service, both Apple’s and AT&T’s iPhone processing systems have crashed, leaving customers unable to order the iPhone 4.
Instead, customers are lining up at retail stores belonging to Apple and AT&T. There are lines in New York, Louisiana and Japan.
We have been unable to preorder an iPhone despite dozens of tries and, and neither is anybody else, according to a surge of #ATTFAIL messages on Twitter.
Above is a line outside a New York AT&T store. “Check out this line of people waiting to pre-order iPhones at our local AT&T store. This isn’t even to take them home or anything — it’s for the right to wait in another line next Friday (to pick up the phone),” Business Insider notes.
Apple and AT&T’s systems have been choking all morning, returning error messages saying orders cannot be processed. This, of course, is good news/bad news for the companies.
From the way Apple protects its iTunes business to theirefforts to block Google from competing equally on the iOS mobile advertising marketplace, Cupertino’s been provoking a lot of anti-trust talk lately.
Now it looks like the first official investigation into Apple’s business practices is about to be underway, courtesy of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, who has completed negotiations with the Department of Justice to examine whether Apple’s limitations on software that can be submitted to the App Store unfairly harms competition.
The Cult of Mac team had a rollicking good time at BoxTone’s iNSpired party, checking out the machines and chatting to devs.
There were about 20 Apple machines on show, from the Apple I to the iMac. The best part, they were working machines — something the organizers probably regretted with a room full of people intent on playing with them while downing beer and inhaling scrumptious mini-sandwiches.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBQJ7eLx1Jo
We start with Wendell Sander, Apple employee no. 16, who fires up his Apple I for a memory dump using an iPod.
Apple has set up the most astounding wall we’ve ever seen. It is filled with 30 24-inch Apple Cinema displays that are synchronized and powered by 30 Apple Mac Pro workstations is a Matrix movie like waterfall that displays the top 50,000 apps in the iTunes App Store.
Steve Jobs rolled out Apple’s iPhone 4 Monday at the WWDC 2010 Keynote in San Francisco, calling his company’s “new baby” a device that “changes everything. Again.”
But does it?
When Apple introduced the original iPhone in 2007, it altered the entire mobile phone market by emerging into a near vacuum, creating need and desire in millions of consumers who had no idea they needed or desired what the iPhone had to offer.
Today, some believe the iPhone has become passe based solely on its relative ubiquity across the landscape it both created and has managed to dominate for three years.
Others believe competitors such as Google, Palm and Blackberry have in the meantime produced equally effective, if not superior products that will, over time, equalize the distribution of market share among Apple and its rivals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5S7R-h208
Here’s the promo video Steve Jobs just showed of during his WWDC keynote.
We’re 100% chugging the Kool-Aid on the iPhone 4 upgrade. What an amazing package:
We’ll be upgrading for sure, especially thanks to AT&T’s new upgrade plan.
What do you guys think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmZkrdhOjeQ
It’s hard to remember when one of Steve Jobs keynote speeches WWDC had a glitch, but the Demo Gods weren’t smiling on Jobs today. Thanks to network problems, Jobs had to ditch on a demo because of Wi-Fi trouble. But maybe it’s not some luckless Apple engineer’s fault: The same thing happened to Google during its developers conference last month at the same venue.
[polldaddy poll=3312803]
As many of you know, the Steve Jobs keynote speech at the WWDC is going on right now. If you’re following along with our updates and updates from other sites, go join us on our Facebook page in the discussion section and post your thoughts, reactions, and comments about what he reveals today.
First, become a fan of the page, then join the discussion!
Here’s the link directly to our discussion forum on our Facebook page: Steve Jobs at the WWDC
On the eve of WWDC, a speculative story on mp3newswire.net suggests some interesting possibilities for Apple in the video and media space given the explosive adoption of iDevices:
In 1959 5,749,000 television sets were sold in the US, bringing the cumulative total of sets sold since 1950 to 63,542,128 units. This number supported, through advertising, three national television networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS (a fourth, Dumont, folded in 1956) and numerous local independent stations. Television was big business by the start of the 1960’s.
Now here are another set of numbers. As of April this year Apple sold 75 million iPhone and iPod touch units, devices capable of delivering video via Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Add to that figure 2 million iPads and counting. By the end of the year Apple should have about 90 million smart mobile devices in the wild.
As an indirect response to Adobe’s own We campaign, Apple has unveiled a wonderful new sandbox playground advocating HTML5, which allows users to play around and do a number of things in their browsers that they might not even know HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript can do.
It’s a lot of fun as a playground, and certainly shows what HTML5 can do. The only problem? It’s only viewable on Safari: try to run it on any other HTML5-capable browser and you get a message prompting you to download Apple’s own browser.
Children are excellent arbiters of the truth, their reactions are honest and straightforward. In the case of the iPad, those reactions include excitement and awe.
Apple has noticed. After a group of students from Wesley Chapel, Florida was photographed trying out some iPads at their local Apple store, the images made their way to Apple. The company just sent 13 free iPads to some very lucky students, and may use the pictures in an upcoming ad campaign.
Kudos all around – a win for everybody here! Thanks to AppleInsider for the tip.
Despite offering tethering for laptops, AT&T will not allow you to tether your iPad to your iPhone.
An AT&T spokesperson told TechFlash “it won’t be possible to tether the iPhone to the iPad to share Internet access.”
Tethering your laptop to your iPhone — an option built into the upcoming iPhone 4.0 OS — will be possible via USB or Bluetooth. But the iPad’s Bluetooth profile for tethering is not enabled.
TechFlash: AT&T: No iPhone-iPad tethering
According to Apple Insider, Apple has started to cull programs on the App Store that offer Dashboard-like widgets to the user.
The most tangible evidence of the purge comes from Developer Russell Ivanovic, whose MyFrame app was removed by Apple for including widget support.
Going straight to Steve Jobs, Ivanovic received this reply: “”We are not allowing apps that create their own desktops. Sorry.”
Apple Insider speculates that this might be preparation work for Apple to introduce their own widgets in iPhone OS 4.0, although surely we’d have seen some evidence of that in beta form by now.
An equally valid reason Apple may be shutting dashboard apps down is because of their strict ban against interpretive code, which is essentially what a widget is.