Ed Sutherland - page 49

It’s becoming a trend with iPhone 4 pre-sales: huge demand equals overwhelmed sites. It was no different in Korea, where consumers deluged carrier KT’s website. Before the site went down ,the carrier (and its 2900 retail locations) Wednesday pre-sold 130,000 iPhone 4s in 13 hours – or 10,000 Apple handsets per hour.

The 130,000 figure pales in comparison to the 600,000 first-day U.S. pre-orders, but is a dramatic increase over initial demand of Apple’s previous handset, the iPhone 3GS. When the 3GS launched in 2009, KT accepted 14,500 pre-orders on that first day.

Recall last week’s reports of hard-to-find iPhone 4s? Well, both Apple’s handset and tablet may soon be seen in a store near you as production begins to ramp up to meet demand, analysts said Wednesday.

It’s likely Apple will sell 14 million iPhone 4 handsets during the current September quarter, with 15 million more by the end of 2010, according to Rodman and Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar. While its unclear what has allowed production to increase, in the case of the iPad, it appears one of Apple’s suppliers gets the credit.

We start off with two deals for your iPhone: The iTunes App Store has cut Gameloft’s NFL 2011 for the iPhone and iPod touch to $0.99 – a $4 price drop. Next is another $1 iPhone 4 case – this time from a rubber skin from TPU. We wrap up our spotlight deals with another Expercom iMac bundle – get a 3.2GHz Core i3 iMac with 27-inch screen and 8GB of memory – plus three years of AppleCare for $1,879.

Along the way, we’ll check out more iPhone accessories, Mac software and storage options for your favorite Apple devices. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Psst. Wanna cheap iPad without going to Hong Kong? Well, have I got a deal for you — just don’t look too closely. That line probably wouldn’t sell too many fake iPads in China, but knockoffs of Apple’s tablet device have been spotted in that country for as low as $110.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a Beijing market known for selling tourists fakes of well-known brands has turned its attention to the iPad. Labelled “iPads” and carrying the Apple logo, the knock-offs are a Frankenstein Monster-like mix of Cupertino, Calif. design and Google innards.

Might Google do to television what the Internet giant has already done for publishing – linking to video content and bypassing the content creators? That seems to be the fear of some television executives who are voicing objections to an Android-based set-top box.

Although Google wants to combine web data with TV episodes and online video, content owners are “skeptical that Google can provide a business model that would compensate for potentially cannibalizing TV owners’ existing broadcast business,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

HBO’s CEO says it will begin streaming its premium TV content to iPads within a few months. The service, HBO Go, will be extended to mobile devices in a bid to outmaneuver Netflix, which already offers an iPad app.

In a Bloomberg interview, HBO CEO Reed Hastings said within six months, it will extend its current HBO Go service to mobile devices. Currently, subscribers to the premium TV channel can view original programming on their computers. In July, video rental service Netflix began offering a similar iPad app.

We start out the day with three hardware deals. First up is a bevy of iMacs from the Apple Store, including a 21.5-inch desktop powered by a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo for $1,099. (You might want to hurry, as these units seem to be going fast.) Also in the spotlight: more 16GB iPhone 3GS handsets from AT&T for $99. Finally, give your iPod Bluetooth connectivity with this $20 kit.

Along the way, we’ll check out new iPhone apps, along with cases for the iPhone 4. As usual, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Another analyst is reporting Android sales are on fire. Shipments of Android phones will grow by 561 percent in 2010 and take nearly 25 percent of the smartphone market. Additionally, Apple iPhone shipments will overtake RIM smartphones later this year, according to Digitimes Research.

In the second-half of 2010, Apple will have 15.6 percent of the smartphone market, passing RIM’s 15 percent. For the full year, however, the BlackBerry-maker will lead the Cupertino, Calif. company 16.4 percent to 15.2 percent, according to the research firm.

Remember the spat between Apple and Adobe over Steve Jobs’ decision to drop Flash from the iPhone, iPad and other mobile devices made by the Cupertino, Calif. company? The argument was positioned as a fight over who would control the Internet. “We’ve moved on,” Adobe’s CEO now tells interviewers.

Talking with the London Telegraph, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen says his company is sooo over Apple. “We’d rather work with partners who are interested in working with us,” the Adobe chief tells the telegraph.co.uk website.

Apple’s flagship product, the iPhone 4, will arrive in China in early September, according to one report. The new handset will allegedly be sold by Apple’s partner in the Asian giant, China Unicom. The iPad will also arrive in the country sometimes afterward, although specifics are unknown.

MarketWatch, citing a China media group, reports China Unicom has acknowledged the iPhone 4 and the iPad will ship to the nation soon. However, the two products won’t be introduced into the China market simultaneously.

We start the week with several deals for the Mac fan. First up is a freebie game from the App Store, “Hungry Shark Part 1” for the iPhone. Next up, MacConnection has a new batch of MacBook Pro laptops, starting at $1,099 for a 2.4GHz unit. We wrap-up the featured deals with a 22-inch iMac from the Apple Store for $929.

Along the way, we’ll check out other Mac deals, including a bargain on an 8GB iPod touch, an iPod charger kit and various iPhone, iPad and iPod software.

As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Recall all the fuss made when smartphones, such as the BlackBerry and the Droid were lumped in with the iPhone 4 by Apple to prove all phones had reception problems? Although the Cupertino, Calif. company eventually removed the pages from its site, Apple is getting some unexpected support – From Droid 2-manufacturer Motorola.

TechCrunch cites “a good number of reports” from users of the Droid 2 (sold by Verizon) about lost signals, even without touching the phone. The report also points to an Engadget review that demonstrated “endless fluctuating bar counts” and other problems.

Apple’s legendary reputation of being full of control-freaks raised its head over the weekend. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, some companies complain it could take more than two months to create and display a spot on Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform.

“Apple has kept tight control on the creative aspects of ad-making, something advertisers aren’t used to,” the newspaper reported Sunday, citing ad execs. One source told the Journal, Apple’s involvement could extend building an ad two weeks longer than usual.

We’ve been hearing from analysts how the iPad will destroy the netbook market. Now we see the end result: from one of the companies that began the trend toward inexpensive laptops, Asustek Computer. The maker of the Eee PC expects to ship 1.4 million Eee PC netbooks in the third-quarter – fewer than planned, according to a Monday report.

“Because of decreased shipments of motherboards, notebooks and netbooks, Asustek’s financial performance for the second quarter declined on quarter,” Asustek Computer president CEO Jerry Shen announced August 13.

We close out another week of dealing with a mix of bargains for Mac lovers. We start with the latest batch of iPad freebies from the App Store, including “Al’s Comedy Club.” For hardware, we have a deal on a 160GB iPod classic for $176. For MacBook and MacBook Pro (13-inch screens) owners, there is a deal on AppleCare.

Along the way, we’ll also check out deals on more iPhone software, Apple gadgets, and skins for iPhone. As usual, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Apple is named in a patent-infringement lawsuit which alleges the Cupertino, Calif. company’s iOS devices violate technology claims regarding virtual private networking.

VirnetX is asking for a court trial and unspecified damages, claiming the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch violate two U.S. patents: No. 6,502,135 – “Agile Network Protocol for Secure Communications with Assured System Availability” and No. 7,490,151 – “Establishment of a Secure Communication Link Based on a Domain Name Service (DNS) Request.”

Google’s Android has topped Apple’s iOS in worldwide smartphone operating system sales during the fiscal second quarter, analysts announced Thursday. The lapping of the iPhone maker came as smartphones saw a 50 percent jump in second-quarter sales.

Android jumped to 17.2 percent of the worldwide smartphone operating system market, selling 10.6 million units, up from 1.8 percent a year ago with 755.2 thousands units sold. Apple’s iOS, by contrast, showed a smaller increase of market share, up just 1.2 percent from the same period last year, when it stood at 13 percent of the global smartphone operating system market.

In the U.S., the Android platform displaced the RIM OS to become the No. 1 smartphone operating system in the United States, Gartner announced.

“A non-exclusive strategy that produces products selling across many communications service providers, and the backing of so many device manufacturers, which are bringing more attractive devices to market at several different price points, were among the factors that yielded [Android’s] growth this quarter,” Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner, said.

The Apple Store ‘geniuses’ are not just there to sell you an iPad or tweak or iPod. No, according to a retail executive, Apple’s retail staff “look into the heart, not the pocket book” of customers. Ron Johnson, senior vice-president of retail for the Cupertino, Calif. firm, views the growing number of brick-and-more stores in almost mystical terms.

Speaking with Retail Week, Johnson said Apple’s Regent Street location “is our highest traffic store in the world.” Apple’s new Covent Garden store in London is much more than a store. “We’ve created a place for people to be,” Johnson said.

We start with a couple deals on iPods. First up is a 4GB iPod Shuffle for just $57. Next is an 8GB iPod nano for $99. At the other end of the spectrum is a Mac Pro Workstation powered by 12-core Xeon processors running at 2.93GHz for $6,469.

Along the way, we check out price drops on iPhone and iPad apps, plus various software and hardware deals. As usual, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Half of U.S. retail stores can’t keep the iPhone on their shelves – but that’s an improvement, one analyst said Thursday. Additionally, the ‘antennagate’ mess of a few weeks ago had little or no effect on demand.

Seven weeks after the iPhone 4 was launched, barely half – 16 of 30 stores – had the new handset available. To try to keep up with the continuing demand, Apple is shipping the handset out every day, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

We start another day of deals with something for everyone. Today’s featured bargains include a leather case to protect your iPad, a 1.33Ghz iBook G4 for $269 and Apple’s on-going Back-to-School hardware sale, which offers a free iPod touch when you buy a computer.

Along the way, we’ll also check out new iPhone and Mac software, hardware deals and gadgets that caught our eye. As always, details on these and many more items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Are notebook PC makers feeling the pinch from Apple’s line of portable computers? A trio of Taiwan-based notebook manufacturers announced July orders fell by up to 25 percent.

Quanta, which had a goal of 10-20 percent growth for the third quarter, announced July notebook shipment fell 25 percent to 3.6 million units compared to June. Compal said shipments dropped 20 percent to between 3.2 million and 3.3 million units for the same period. Wistron announced June shipments were off 13.7 percent.

Apple next-generation iPad is rumored to appear later this year or early 2011. Along with a smaller form-factor, the new tablet may include some technology already unveiled for the iPhone 4, such as 3-axis gyroscope.

Apparently, an iPad prototype included a gyroscope, but Apple decided to use that technology in its new iPhone handset. That’s the word from a company that tore apart an iPad and poked around inside.

Apple now admits some early iPod nano devices can overheat. The admission comes five years after Japanese iPod owners reported the units became unusable after overheating, and in some cases caused fires and minor injuries.

In a statement, Apple announced there were “very rare cases of overheating” caused by recharging batteries in iPod nanos sold between September 2005 and December 2006.

We start off the day with two hardware deals from Expercomm. First is a Mac Pro Quad desktop running at 2.8GHz. The unit is bundled with three years of AppleCare for $2,799. For mobile users, there is a MacBook Pro with a 15-inch screen and running a 2.86GHz Core 2 Duo. The bundle also includes a three-year AppleCare all for $1,979. We finish our highlighted deals with the latest crop of App Store price drops for the iPhone and iPod touch. This group includes a price cut on the popular “Monopoly” board game.

Along the way, we check out another iPad stand, another Dock, an 8-pack of iPhone skins, as well as several deals on iPhone and Mac software. As always, details on these and many more items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.