Ed Sutherland - page 61

We wrap up another week with three MacBook offers as our top daily deals. First up is a MacBook Pro sporting the new Core i& processor, running at 2.66GHz and with a 15-inch screen. Three years of AppleCare is bundled with the hardware for $2,499. Next is a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro running at 2.4GHz and with a 13.3-inch screen for $1,049. Our finally top deal is a series of MacBook Pros, starting at $1,699 for a 2.5GHz machine with a 15.4-inch screen.

Along the way, we check out some Mac Pro Xeon workstations starting at $2,549 for a quad-core 2.93GHz machine. Various hardware and software bargains are also on tap. As always, details on these and many more items are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Apple’s fortunes just keep improving — literally. The Cupertino, Calif. maker of iconic consumer electronics reached 56 in Fortune magazine’s Fortune 500 list, rising 15 spots in the annual ranking of corporate success. Apple’s $36.5 billion in revenue for 2009 put it just behind 10th-place HP ($114.5 billion) and 38th-place Dell ($52.9 billion.)

The 26th-most-profitable company on the list, Apple’s $5.7 billion 2009 profit put it ahead of entertainment giant Walt Disney and McDonald’s. However, rivals Microsoft and Google continued to beat Apple’s profits.

Today, we check out a new bevy of MacBook Pros, including a 13-inch, 2.4GHz unit for $1,125. We’ll also take a look at the latest batch of App Store price drops, including “Cartoon Rescue,” a game for the iPhone and iPod touch. We wrap up our top trio of deals with a portable solar cell phone charger that includes a 650mAh lithium-ion battery, iPhone connections and USB.

Along the way, we take a peak at the Logitech Squeezebox Radio System, software for the iPhone and Mac, as well as more hardware gadget bargains. As always, for details, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page which starts right after the jump.

The 3G version of the iPad will be released internationally in May, according to emails purported to come from Steve Jobs, CEO of the Cupertino, Calif. company.

In response to one developer’s email about whether both U.S. and International 3G iPads would be delayed until the end of April, Jobs succinctly answered “yes.” In another email, Jobs actually apologized to an international user about the delay for shipping both the WiFi and 3G versions of the tablet device.: “Both models will be released at the end of May. Sorry for the delay,” Jobs reportedly replied.

Can online stores become more friendly, more like brick-and-mortar retailers that take personal note of customers? That’s the goal of a new Apple patent application aiming to blend Internet sales and social networking.

The patent, filed in mid-December of 2009 and revealed this week, titled “Enhancing Online Social Atmosphere,” describes online shopping as frequently “sterile and isolating” and not the optimum method for encouraging consumers to loosen their pursestrings. The Cupertino, Calif. company hopes to employ social networking to increase the “linger” factor and make shoppers more sensitive to the buying habits of others.

Signs increasingly point to June as the timeframe Apple will announce its new iPhone. A Canadian mobile phone company announced Thursday it will receive Apple’s fourth-generation handset this summer. Wednesday, a report suggested the new iPhone would arrive around June 22, to coincide with the annual WWDC.

Along with news SaskTel’s one million users will have a 3G network up and running by July 1, President and CEO Robert Watson also said “The good news is that (Apple) is coming out with a new version of the iPhone in the June time-frame and they’re going to put us on that,” according to reports.

We’ve reached midweek and we start with two deals on MacBook Pros, plus a peak inside the latest batch of freebies from the App Store. First up, is a MacBook Pro bundle that includes three-year AppleCare service, starting at $1,358. Next a some refurbished unibody MacBook Pros, starting at $929 for a 2.26GHz model. Finally, with the weather so changing and you’re not sure if it is going to rain, snow or haul off and shake the ground, a mobile weather station might come in handy. The App Store has something close — iWeather Lookup — and it is free.

Along the way, we’ll check out a new deal on iPhone 3Gs, the latest freebie from iTunes and some software to keep your PDF files safe. As always, details on these and many other bargains are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Two analysts Wednesday told investors Apple’s stock price could hit up to $300 over the next year, a mark helped by high-flying expectations for sales of the iPhone, Mac and iPad. Apple is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings report early next week on April 20.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster expects Apple shares to touch the $299 point within a year, upping his early projection of $287. Munster bases his new stock price on a slip-of-the-tongue by Apple, when the Cupertino, Calif. company announced it had shipped more than 50 million iPhones. That figure may mean Apple sold 7.8 million iPhones during the March quarter, higher than Munster’s expectation for 7.5 million iPhones sold during the first quarter of 2010.

Yesterday’s news of updated MacBooks indicates Apple has placed a wager, putting its new iPad device up against a growing pack of low-cost PC netbooks. But will the Cupertino, Calif. company win this bet?

“Apple is betting [the] iPad’s form factor, engineering, design and rich interactive content experience, with Apple’s brand, can create and lead a new portable computing metaphor where Apple has first mover advantage (product, install base, content/apps momentum,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky told investors Wednesday.

A new survey shines more light on just who is buying Apple’s iPad. The survey, by Morgan Stanley, found 4.6 percent of Americans asked said they were “extremely interested” in buying an iPad, with 16.4 percent “somewhat interested” in the tablet device.

The survey of 2,500 U.S. consumers indicates 4-5 million iPads could sell in the U.S. over the first year, or 7-9 million globally, analyst Katy Huberty told investors Wednesday.

The less-expensive versions of the iPad (16GB and 32GB) have become the Zhu Zhu Pets of the tech world. Remember the news footage of parents going from store to store, only to find shelves bare of the mechanical hamsters? The same thing is happening to Apple fans searching for something other than the 64GB iPad.

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz surveyed 15 stores this week, finding 11 stores had the 64GB iPads compared to just four stores able to sell a 16GB or 32GB version of the popular tablet device.

To help you handicap next week’s earnings report set for April 20, we’ve compiled analyst expectations for iPhone sales during the second quarter of 2010. The range is from a high of 7.85 million from independent Apple analyst Turley Muller, who blogs at Financial Alchemist, to a low of 6.0 million from Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner. Even if Apple’s results are on the low side, it would mean a 58 percent increase over the same period in 2009.

If Muller is correct — and he’s often right on target — Apple could announce a 107 percent jump in handset sales. You be the judge.

Woe be Verizon. After chasing AT&T for a share of the iPhone piggy bank, a report recently emerged claiming the carrier could sell a CDMA version this summer. That word was quickly pounced upon by doubting analysts. Now another expert suggests even if Verizon could sell iPhones, the handset would be a drain on revenue. The iPhone would be a “mixed blessing” Bank of America analyst David Lynch told investors Monday.

“While clearly accretive to market share in our view, it is not accretive to earnings, even assuming steady pricing, until 2013,” Barden writes. In other words, although the iPhone would boost Verizon’s market share, it wouldn’t see any money from the deal until another three years.

We start off another week with a deal on MacBook Pro laptops. The laptops run at 2.4GHz using a Core 2 Duo processor. The machines have a 15-inch screen. Also on the top deal list for today is the Decloner, software that finds and eliminates duplicate files on your Mac. Finally, we offer a universal GPS car mount.

Along the way, we check out a number of storage options, as well as other bargains. As always, details on these and many more devices are available on the CoM “Daily Deals” pge, which starts right after the jump.

Apple’s upcoming iPhone OS 4 removes any mention of Google from the iPhone’s search feature, the latest step by the Cupertino, Calif. company to erase any connection with the Mountain View, Calif. Internet giant.

Already part of iPhone OS 3.2 used by the iPad, the elimination of the word “Google” from the iPhone’s Safari Web browser is part of iPhone OS 4, currently in beta stage. The current iPhone 3.1.3 includes a “Google” button in the bottom right corner of the handset’s touchscreen keyboard. The beta software will likely be made public this summer.

We already know Apple has a lock on consumers, particularly teens. However, the world of the corporate cubicle has been dominated by Microsoft and the Blackberry. That picture may be changing, according to a new survey finding corporate interest in the iPhone increasing.

Apple share of the corporate smartphone market reached 27 percent in February, up from 22 percent in November, according to ChangeWave Research. The three chief reasons: demand by employees, more corporate applications available on the “cloud” via the iPhone, and improved security.

When it comes to teen and electronics, there’s seemingly only one company on the playing field: Apple. “Apple’s dominance in the (consumer electronics) and online music markets is going seemingly unchecked,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told investors Monday.

At the head of that urge to own anything with the Apple logo is the iPhone. Nearly a third – 31 percent – of teens the financial analyst surveyed said they plan to buy an iPhone in the next half year. That’s up from 22 percent last fall and almost double the 16 percent found a year ago.

We wrap up another week of deals with a couple hardware bargains and some price cuts on apps for the new iPad. First up is a quad-core 2.66GHz Mac Pro Tower with 8GB of RAM and a 24-inch LCD monitor for $3,499. Next is a number of iPad apps sporting lower prices, including UNO HD, a version of the addictive game for Apple’s new tablet. We wrap up our top trio with a deal on an 8GB iPod nano for $129.

Along the way, we’ll also check out some cases for your iPod touch, some email software and some speakers. As always, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page which starts right after the jump.

Remember the heady days when digital music sales were a runaway train; a bull in a china shop eating the lunch of traditional music – and many other mixed metaphors? The salad days may be nearing an end – or at least the all-you-can-eat period. Apple could be to blame, say critics.

For the first time since 2003, sales of digital music declined nearly 1 percent for the first quarter, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Although Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browsers are increasingly competitive, they soon will have one technical issue in common: one out-of-control Web page won’t force you to shut your entire application. The feature is known as the “split process model,” but mortals have a more-easily grasped image: the sandbox.

As part of updating the open source WebKit to “WebKit2,” Apple’s Safari (along with Google Chrome, the Android Web browser and Palm’s WebOS) will essentially provide a separate process for each tab.

Along with the introduction of multi-tasking for iPhone apps, performance upgrades and mobile advertising, the iPhone OS 4.0 event Thursday also offered some insight for Wall Street. CEO Steve Jobs said iPhone sales had passed the 50 million unit mark, which translates to around 7.5 million Apple handsets shipped in the March quarter.

The figure had the Street rushing to compare Jobs’ statement with other Apple projections. High on that list was Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who had expected Apple to sell 7.5 million iPhones during the period. Munster’s right-on call for iPhone sales came on the heels of a wide miss on first-day iPad sales. The analyst, you’ll recall, told investors up to 700,000 iPads may have sold April 3. A day later, Apple announced 300,000 of the tablet devices were sold the first day.

We start the day with a deal on a leather case for your iPad. There are also some bargains on iMacs, starting with a 3.06GHz 21.5-inch model with LED-backlit screen for $999. To mark Apple’s introduction of 4.0 of the iPhone OS, we have some deals on iPhones, including an 8GB iPhone 3G for $49.

Along the way, we’ll check out the latest crop of App Store price drops, including a 99-cent deal for “PANDORUM,” the survival-horror game for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Details on these and many other items are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page, which starts right after the jump.

Carrier T-Mobile has announced a bounty of sorts for iPhone switchers. The carrier will pay up to $350 when you trade in your iPhone for a HD2 from HTC. If your turn in a working iPhone, you could get $100 credit toward the Windows Mobile handset, according to a report Thursday.

To obtain the bounty, iPhones must be in working condition and the screen intact. T-Mobile retail locations are participating through May 19.

Although Apple said it sold 300,000 iPads just on April 3, that figure has more than doubled as of Thursday morning. More than 600,000 iPads have gone online, according to a running tally begun earlier this week by advertising network Chitka.

California, unsurprisingly, has the most dense iPad per population ratio in the country, with one tablet device per 1,441 citizens of the West Coast state. At the other end of the spectrum is Wyoming with one iPad per 8,247 citizens of the big sky state.

Just days after Apple began sales of the initial iPad, the Cupertino, Calif. company is readying a smaller, less-expensive version for 2011, a report suggested Thursday. The unit would be 5- to 7-inches and carry a $400 price tag, according to a Taiwan tech publication.

The mini iPad would focus on consumers needing a smaller device and tasks not requiring much text input, Digitimes said, citing the publication’s research analyst. The analyst made the claims based on “talks with upstream component sources,” according to the Digitimes Web site.