Ed Sutherland - page 72

We start the week with deals for taking images and then storing your important data. When digital cameras appeared, we thought it could sound the death knell for single-lens reflex units that were a step up from single point-and-shoot devices. However, we now see a resurgence in SLRs, reborn for the digital age. One example is Nikon. We take a look at the Nikon D3000 which couples the ease of digital with the flexibility of the company’s famous Nikkor lenses. As digital content grows, we find even 200GB hard drives bursting at the seams. An increasingly common solution is external hard drives. Whether you just want to store your family pics or archive an avalanche of important financial documents, we check out two drives from both ends of that spectrum: the ‘disaster-proof’ 2TB ioSafe Solo and the convenient home Western Digital My Book.

For details on these and many more items, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

Google’s Nexus One, the Internet giant’s first entry into the self-branded cell phone arena, costs $174.15 to build, making it just slightly more expensive that its rival from Apple, the iPhone, according to a Monday report. The figure from iSuppli also indicates the build price of the Google handset is just $5 under the subsidized $179 customers pay for the device when agreeing to a two-year T-Mobile contract.

The Nexus One retails for $529 if purchased unlocked and without a carrier’s contract.

A France Telecom executive Monday suggested Apple’s tablet would be released “in days.” Stephane Richard told also told a radio interviewer the device would include a Webcam.

Richard, deputy CEO of France Telecom, owner of mobile carrier Orange, made the comments in response to questions from journalist Jean-Pierre Elkabbach. When the interviewer asked Richard about a report in the French weekly Le Point that Apple would launch the tablet in a “couple days”, the executive replied “oui,” or yes.

Sometimes you can overdose on all of the iProducts that parade across the screen hoping to capture our attention. Like the iPhone cases made from wood, titanium and everything in between, it can be difficult to find an iProduct that’s original. We wrap up the week with a couple whimsical examples of items that struck our fancy – and maybe yours.

We’ve done iPod docks that double as alarm clocks. Pretty much, you are tempted to hit the ‘snooze’ alarm and go on to the next gadget. But Memorex at least gives its take an intriguing name. Another product that caught our attention is the iBoo Dock for the iPod. The dock and speakers are encased in something akin to a mix of ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost’ and a chocolate drop.

Along the way, we look at other deals, including a 16GB iPod nano for $119 and Airport Extreme router and apps for your iPhone. As always, details on all these and many more bargains can be found after the jump.

If you are one of the many iPhone owners frustrated by the camera’s inability to capture images in low-light situations, Apple may have heard your complaints. The Cupertino, Calif. company has ordered “tens of millions” of LED camera flashes, according to a Friday report.

“The electronics maker is seeking allotments of LED camera flash components in the tens of millions for delivery during the 2010 calendar year,” writes AppleInsider, citing people familiar with Apple’s intentions. Amsterdam-based Philips Lumileds Lighting is said to have won the contract.

If it walks like an App Store and quacks like an App Store, it’ll succeed like an App Store, right? Well, that’s certainly Intel’s hope as it unveils AppUp, a site promoting applications built around the Atom processor for the growing number of netbooks.

The beta version was introduced Thursday, during the first day of CES in Las Vegas. AppUp is a ‘white label’ version of Apple’s App Store, which recently celebrated topping 3 billion downloads for the iPhone and iPod touch. Although Intel introduced AppUp, we’re likely to see customized versions from Dell, Acer, Samsung and other makers of netbooks powered by Intel’s Atom processor.

Apple has gained initial approval to build a ‘prototype’ retail location which puts education and customers ahead of products, according to Friday reports. The concept could replace Apple’s first store in Palo Alto, Calif. with a transparent design complete with trees growing indoors.

“Fully half the function of the store serves to provide education and service to business as well as customer patrons in addition to product sales,” according to the proposal approved unanimously by the city’s architectural review board.

On the first day of CES, we start off with three prime deals on Apple hardware. The Apple Store has a number of 20-22″ iMacs, starting at $849 for a 20-inch 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo. A step up the ladder are MacBook Pros, starting at $999 from Apple. We cap of the hardware trio with an 8GB iPhone 3G for $49 from AT&T.

Along the way, we check out other deals on iMacs, plus a blast from the past: an iBook G4 for $350. Finally, we wrap up by looking at new software, including the ‘Gunman’ app for the iPhone and iPod touch.

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

Canada’s Cignius Thursday unveiled a free iPhone app to control its NAO Symphony and NAO Symphony Noir Music Stations. The products let you wirelessly stream music from your iPod, controlled by your iPhone or iPod touch.

“We all know the iPhone and iPod touch are some of the most elegant music players on the planet, but getting that music to play on home speakers can be cumbersome,” Cignias CEO Shawn Saleem said.

Can AT&T survive the end of its exclusive iPhone contract? Probably. But one analyst believes the carrier won’t come away from its arrangement with Apple unbruised. “With its iPhone exclusivity likely to end in 2010, we believe performance could weaken,” Jefferies analyst Jonathan Schildkraut said Thursday.

The analyst put a “Hold” on AT&T shares with a $30 target. AT&T rival Verizon was given a “Buy” rating. Verizon shares could gain if it sells the iPhone later this year.

The carrier, hurting from a dust-up with iPhone owners over talk of reigning in increasing data usage, used the CES in Las Vegas to repair the relationship while also unveiling its after the iPhone plans.

Apple appears to be moving closer to a cloud-based iTunes, now offering 30-second sound clips via its browser-based iTunes Preview. The new feature may be a result of the Cupertino, Calif. company’s $85 million acquisition of Lala.

The new feature, noticed this week, allows people to listen to a sample of songs available through the Web-based service silently introduced in November. Itunes Preview lets customers view song titles without requiring they open Apple’s iTunes application.

We’ve reached mid-week and the annual gadget nirvana, CES, is set to open in Las Vegas. While you won’t see Google’s “Superphone” or Apple’s much-discussed tablet among today’s list of deals, there are many other chances for striking gold – or platinum, or just a really cool-looking case for your iPhone. We start the day off with a deal on a Curtis iMod iPod player with a 7-inch screen for just $40. Next up: an 80 percent discount on iPod touch cases. We round out the top trio of products with a new batch of freebies from Apple’s App Store, including the NYT crosswords.

For details on these and many other bargains, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

Can Microsoft’s combative CEO needle his nemesis once more by stealing Apple’s thunder during the CES? That’s the question many are asking following reports Steve Ballmer will introduce a tablet during a keynote speech for the gadget get-together in Las Vegas.

The HP-made device “will be touted as a multimedia whiz with e-reader and multi-touch functions,” the New York Times reported late Tuesday. For months, rumor has swirled around Apple prepping a tablet to possibly launch later this month and begin sales in March. The chatter has reached such a crescendo that a fellow NYT columnist called the rumored product from Cupertino, the “Jesus tablet.”

Verizon Wireless, which has belittled the iPhone in ads for the carrier’s Droid smartphone, will be one of multiple carriers for Apple’s long-awaited tablet device, an analyst announced. “Verizon and others,” said Broadpoint AmTech’s Brian Marshall.

“Definitely Verizon. I’ve been told that’s a certainty,” he added, referring to unnamed sources.

While most eyes are on CES and attention focused toward Apple’s expected tablet, analysts predict 2010 will also be a gangbuster year for the iPhone. Apple should sell 36 million iPhones, a 40 percent increase over 2009. In what was described as a conservative projection, Piper Jaffray announced 15.8 million iPhones will be sold this year – by AT&T, alone.

Apple sold 11.3 million iPhones during calendar year 2009, according to the financial analysis firm.

The folks at ioSafe could adopt another oft-quoted tagline when talking about their new Solo SSD external hard drive: ‘When your data absolutely, positively has to still be there.’ The new storage device is said to withstand forces likely better than many humans could.

If the original Solo’s ability to endure a half hour of 1,550-degree fire and a month in 30-feet of fresh or salt water wasn’t enough, the Auburn, Calif. company has upped their game, introducing crush-proof (2.5 tons), fall-proof (20 feet onto a pile of rubble) and shock-proof (1000g) protection for your important data.

We offer some Mac deals for your listening enjoyment, including Logitech’s AudioStation iPod Speaker System for $68. The unit with iPod dock, wireless remote and AM/FM clock radio pumps out 80 watts of your favorite tunes. If you’ve already tired of the new cases from over Christmas, slip on this Pro Flexi graphic skin case (20 styles) for your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS. Finally, maybe you’re stuck in a snow drift and nowhere to go? Try the all-in-one FM transmitter for iPhones and iPods from HHI.

As always, all the details on these and many more bargains can be found on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

A potential deal to bring the iPhone to Verizon’s CDMA network later this year may have hit a snag over pricing, one analyst said Tuesday. An iPhone that works on CDMA networks could appear by the middle of 2010, according to UBS.

“We believe a CDMA iPhone is also in the works,” analyst Maynard J. Um told investors. However, “Verizon Wireless and Apple may currently be apart on pricing,” he wrote. Apple receives an average of $700 per iPhone from AT&T, while Verizon pays $450 for the Droid, made by Motorola, estimates say.

Apple announced Tuesday its App Store reached the 3 billion download mark, or one billion downloads since September. The Cupertino, Calif. company passed 2 billion downloads for the iPhone and iPod touch just three months ago.

The new figure means 10.1 million apps per day were downloaded over the last 99 days, reports said. That improves on 6.9 million downloads per day set between April and July, 2009.

“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months — this is like nothing we’ve seen before,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. Jobs called the App Store “unlike anything else available on other mobile devices” with “no signs of the competition catching up soon.”

In July, on the App Store’s one-year anniversary, Apple announced more than 1.5 billion downloads. In late 2009, the service had more than 100,000 apps available for iPhone and iPod touch users.

The App Store’s success caught many insiders off-guard, including early investors. Apple would have been happy for only a fraction of the 2 billion downloads reported in October.

The App Store could host 300,000 applications in 2010, tripling the current number, analyst predict.

[Via Barrons and AppleInsider]

As Google prepares to introduce its Nexus One smartphone, user interest in Android-based phones approaches that of Apple’s iPhone, a new consumer survey finds. However, unlike Apple’s monolithic brand identity with the iPhone, Android seems hobbled by its own success.

Although 28 percent of people who plan to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days want an Apple iPhone, 21 percent “prefer to have the Android OS on their new phone,” said the ChangeWave survey conducted in December. In September, Android was picked by just 6 percent of those surveyed.

We start off the New Year and a fresh decade with a batch of Apple deals. The Apple Store has a refurbished 120GB iPod Classic for $189. If scanning the dial for some interesting police calls is your cup of tea, you can bring the excitement with you through the 5-0 Radio app for your iPhone or iPod touch. We round out the top trio with a bundle of Belkin accessories for your iPhone or iPod, including power adapter, headphone splitter and car FM transmitter.

Along the way, we check out the “Let’s Golf” app, 24 hours of classical music and a travel battery pack and charger from Kensington.

For details on these and many more bargains, check out the CoM “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

Apple has acquired the “i-phone” trademark from a company in China, apparently clearing the way for the Cupertino, Calif. company to register its iPhone as a cell phone. Hanwang Technology said it had agreed to transfer the trademark to Apple, but refused to provide details, reports said Monday.

When Apple applied to trademark the iPhone in China in 2002, it did so only under “hardware and software” because Hanwang trademarked its own “i-phone” handset under the phone category. The company, also known as Hanvon, eventually discontinued the phone.

Are you tired of putting down your iPhone to pick up the remote for changing TV channels? A new product set to unveil at CES may put an end to that tiresome routine. With the aid of a $50 bit of hardware and a free app you can use your iPhone or iPod touch as a universal remote.

The L5 Remote (measures 1.25 x .85 inches) , available in February, attaches to the iPhone or iPod touch dock connection.

The remote works with a free app available from the App Store. The app allows you to customize your remote, moving buttons for your home entertainment devices.

The gadget doesn’t require batteries, Wi-Fi or external power and has a 30-foot range. Although the Loop links to the L5 Technology website, the pages detailing the remote seem to be password-protected.

[Via The Loop]

There are more than 13 million online mentions of “Apple tablet,” according to Google. With tankers of ink emptied writing about the fabled device and a supposed Jan. 26 announcement looming, a New York Times columnist takes aim at all the hoopla.

“There hasn’t been this much hype about a tablet since Moses came down from the mountain,” writes media reporter David Carr. Carr (who calls the rumored Apple device the “Jesus tablet”) was just one of more than two dozen mentions in the Times in December 2009, alone, according to Fortune.

This could be your last chance to buy a Mac for another year. Sure, it’s just one day, but can you wait that long when there are deals awaitin’? If you are one of the few souls left on the planet without an iPod touch, Apple has a 16GB version for $199. Maybe you’ve longed for one of the new large-screen iMacs, but the price left a sour taste in your mouth? The Mother Ship has 3.06GHz C2D 27-inch iMacs for $1,449. If laptops are more your style, but you like the oomph of a 3.06GHz machine, there’s a deal on MacBook Pros for $2,699.

Maybe your wallet is hiding and your credit card is still smoking from all the use during the holidays. Well, there are always App freebies and we have a new batch of them. For details, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.