John Brownlee - page 247

With the iPad’s debut, we’re all looking forward to iPhone OS 3.2, but since we can’t expect that until the iPad starts shipping in March, we’ll have to make do with the latest software update to hit iTunes. So cram your 30-pin white connector umbilical into the omphalos of your iPhone, my friends, because iPhone OS 3.1.3 is here.

It’s a small update. Here’s what has been improved:

• Improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS

• Resolves issue where third-party apps would not launch in some instances

• Fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard

Those first two changes may be tiny, but they are nice. Better battery life accuracy is always helpful, and that second fix looks like it might be focused on the issue where App Store apps sometimes wouldn’t launch until you downloaded a new app and installed it.

Needless to say, if you’ve jailbroken your phone, you go and see what the Dev-Team has to say about upgrading, although it looks like they’ve almost got it all sussed out.

Although that $499 entry-level iPad is pretty much affordably by everyone, Apple will still be making a rather sizable profit on each one, if a bill-of-materials (BOM) breakdown conducted by BroadPoint AmTech analyst Marshall is to be trusted.

According to the BOM, the low-end $499 iPad only costs $270 to make, with the 9.7-inch touch-sensitive display being the most expensive element at around $100, with the 16GB SSD and aluminum case each costing only about $25.

As the storage jumps, so do Apple’s profits: the 32GB and 64GB iPads only see their costs rise another $25.50 and $76.50, respectively, but their suggested prices go up $100 and $200.

Apple’s most profitable BOM item? The 3G radio: it only costs them $16, but Apple’s charging over $130 for it. I personally wonder if some of that mark-up might be shared with AT&T to compensate them for assumed profit losses related to the month-by-month, cancel-anytime iPad 3G deal, but either way, Apple’s charging a premium for the functionality.

It’s all an estimate, of course — no one will know the iPad’s true cost until it’s actually vivisected after launch — but Apple knows how to put together a high-quality product that is both extremely profitable and an extremely good value. I wouldn’t be surprised if these numbers were exactly right.

Apple tends to focus its energies to making news and product announcements on its websites, but they’ve been experimenting a bit lately with integrating their PR machine with social media… mostly by putting up official iPad videos on their own YouTube channel, as well as pushing word of new Quicktime trailers through Twitter.

But 9to5Mac just noticed something interesting that may hint at Apple’s future plans for the popular Twitter micro-blogging service. Over a year ago, someone took over the twitter.com/Apple username… but now, in the wake of the iPad announcement (in which the iPad out-tweeted Obama’s state of the union address), it looks like that squatter’s been evicted.

Even better? You can’t sign up as Apple. This isn’t just a case of an account name being deleted: Twitter is clearly reserving the Apple account for Cupertino.

Of course, this could just be on Twitter’s own initiative, but it makes sense: Apple surely knows that Twitter is an amazing marketing and branding tool, and they’re presence on the site can only amplify the buzz about their company.

Rumors abound that Apple has halted its production of 27-inch iMacs until they can finally get to the bottom of the yellowing, flickering display issues, but if you’ve already got a gorgeous 27-incher, Apple has just released a second firmware update which will hopefully get to the bottom of any issues you’re having.

The update notes are, as usual, sparse:

Updates the display firmware on 27-inch iMac systems to address issues that may cause intermittent display flickering.

This is following on the heels of a late December update that changed the graphics firmware on the iMac’s ATI Radeon HD 4670 and 4850 GPU, which didn’t seem to do much to solve the widely-reported display issues plaguing Apple’s most gorgeous desktop to date.

Hopefully this one will do better: the update is only 294KB and can be downloaded now through Apple Support.

There’s little to fault the Apple iPad for, at least as far as the price is concerned. The entry level $499 price is low enough that even those with their reservations about the iPad can pretty much afford to pick one up.

Or can they? According to an analysis by CBS MoneyWatch, the true cost of an iPad over four years is much higher than Apple is claiming.

Engadget has confirmed the reports of “extremely trusted sources” that the iPad’s iPhone OS 3.2 contains support for a host of long anticipated features, including video calling, file downloads and even SMS messaging.
According to their sources, the current beta of iPhone OS 3.2 includes hooks to accept and decline video conferencing, as well as flip a video-feed (for a front-mounted camera) and run the video call in either full screen mode or in a small window.

More than that, iPhone OS 3.2 currently hints at file downloads and local storage in the browser, which means you can finally slurp down a link to, say, an MP3 or eBook and use it in iTunes or iBooks. It also has hooks for iPad-specific SMS messaging.

This is preliminary code, and none of this functionality works right now, but at the very least, it implies some future developments in both the iPad and iPhone. It’s the video conferencing stuff that’s really interesting though: the iPad contains no camera, so either Apple’s already programming video conferencing support for the iPad 2G, the next iPhone is finally going to get a secondary forward mounted camera… or both.

Of all the criticism being leveled at the iPad — no multitasking, poor text input, lack of 23rd century Federation replicator technology — I’ve yet to hear anyone complain about the attractive $499 entry-level price. But just in case you aren’t convinced that the iPad is ridiculously, absurdly cheap for its feature set, behold, the inevitable infographic, put together by Darren Beckett.

There’s criticisms to be leveled at the Infographic — it ignores, for example, comparisons to various Android and Intel Atom based tablets in favor of attacking e-readers — but it still gets the point across: the iPad beats the competition, spec for spec, at the cost of a very slight price premium. In fact, in direct comparison, only the Barnes & Noble Nook seems to be appropriately priced in comparison.

For what it does, the iPad is simply the cheapest tablet out there. Don’t expect a mere infographic to finally put to rest the inexorably critical mutterings of the so-called “Apple Tax,” though.

A lot of commentators on the iPad noticed the similarity between Delicious Library and the iBooks virtual bookshelves for the display of e-book titles. So did Delicious Monsters Wil Shipley.

Talking to the Washington Post, Shipley seemed upset… but also seemed to understand.

But the thing about iBooks is, it’s a book-reader. So, of course they looked around, found the best interface for displaying books (Delicious Library’s shelves), and said: yup, this is what we’re doing…

Shipley then notes that he actually understands why Apple couldn’t write him a check: it would have been taken as a legal admission that Apple copied his design, and since Delicious Library’s UI isn’t copyrighted or patented, it actually would open up culpability, not close it.

As inevitable as the dawn follows the night, a LEGO simulacrum will follow the announcement of the latest Apple product announcement. Here, then, in dimpled, rainbow colored blocks, the necessary LEGO iPad, courtesy of Flickr user Brickjournal and his plastic brick ingenuity.

Although it’s hardly as killer a feature as carrier unlock, one of the main reasons I still jailbreak my iPhone is so I can cram five icons into the dock… so when the iPad was first demonstrated, and showed only four available icons in the dock, I actually winced.

No need to fear, though, because this time, Apple has us all covered: a reader wrote into TUAW and pointed out that the iPad SDK allows up to six icons in the dock.

You might assume the iPad supports this behavior because of the larger screen, but the iPhone crams five icons into the dock just fine. I’ve always assumed, in fact, that the iPhone only allows four icons so that each dock’s icons is symmetrical with the columns of icons above.

I wonder two things: will the iPad, then, allow up to six icons per row, to make everything symmetrical with the dock? Finally, will the next iPhone update expand the dock similarly? Fingers crossed on both accounts.

Following up yesterday’s revelation that the iPad SDK contains photo capturing ability, despite the lack of onboard camera, comes this juicy little screenshot, showing the iPad displaying an iPhone-esque “Touch to return a call” bar across the top of the screen.

Since there’s no chance the iPad is going to operate as an enormous mobile phone (I wonder who the exclusive carrier of the iPad in Brobdingnag would even be?) I think this pretty much confirms what I guessed: the iPad SDK has some residual iPhone features still loitering shiftlessly about, and everything will probably be polished up before the iPad’s release. About your business then.

[via Engadget]

See that New York Times article displayed on the iPad in the official Apple demo image to the right?

It’s called 31 Places to Go in 2010: you should click on it and check it out. When you’re done, come back and tell me what’s wrong with the iPad demo image.

Yup. Exactly so. The iPad doesn’t do Flash, but yet the New York Times’ piece contains a slideshow powered by Adobe’s plugin.

This doesn’t mean the iPad secretly runs Flash: Apple’s clearly trying to move the web away from it as a standard plugin, not just because it threatens the App Store but, as Apple themselves noted on Wednesday, the Flash plugin was responsible for more crashes reported to Apple across all of OS X than any other source.

It looks like Apple just fudged the truth a little in their iPad promo images. That’s worth a scolding cluck or two, but there’s no doubt in my mind that sites like the New York Times are already hard at work making sure all of their content works on the iPad without Flash. Not so much a fib, then, as a look at the future.

[via Apple Insider]

With every new Apple product announcement, the press releases for third party accessories inevitably start rolling in. Here’s one of them, courtesy of bag maker Tom Bihn: a couple of iPad bags!

Neither’s particularly radical. The Cache costs 30 bucks is basically just a laptop sleeve rezised to fit the iPad’s dimensions.

The other is the Ristretto, a vertical messenger bag, which costs $120, and comes in olive, plum, black and cocoa.

Nothing too exciting here: these are just quickly redesigned iPad-specific versions of existing products. But, hey! At least you can get them shipped to you now in as little as one business day… unlike the iPad itself.

Yesterday, I speculated that the reason Apple didn’t put a camera in the iPad was to help you look thin, but as many commenters mentioned, another possibility is that Apple had another supply chain breakdown, like the one that robbed the iPod Touch of its camera in June.

Maybe that’s right. Techcrunch spotted that the iPad SDK has reference in the Contacts app to taking photos with a built-in camera.

There’s a few interpretations here. This could just be a legacy feature, having to do with the fact that the iPad runs on the iPhone OS. It could also have to do with the iPad’s ability to connect to external cameras through an accessory. Or maybe the camera was pulled at the last minute, just like the iPod Touch’s.

My guess is it’s a legacy goof. What do you think?

Although I was underwhelmed with the iPad overall — a natural reaction, I think, given how much my gig reporting on iPad rumors over the last couple months engorged my expectations — one thing I think the iPad did with its combo of a long battery life, great display and iBooks e-reading app was punch a steaming hole right through the chest of Amazon.

But I may have spoken too soon… at least as far as it concerns international iPad customers like myself. iBooks and eBooks aren’t even mentioned on the Australian iPad listing page. Other countries’ iPad pages feature similar omissions.

Now, obviously, this is simply an issue of getting deals inked with international publishers, but still, it’s troubling, and gives Amazon the leg up in at least one regard: after all, at least the Kindle’s e-reading functionality is now global, although it took them a couple years. I only hope we’re not looking at a similar 2 year delay for the iPad to do international e-books.

[via Gizmodo]

In yesterday’s purgative disgorging of iPad news, it was easy to miss some of the details about Apple’s iPad accessories… and what they cost. Here’s a quick run down of four of them.

The first accessory was the iPad Keyboard Dock, priced at $69. Although it also functions as a charging and syncing dock with stereo out, though the addition physical keyboard is what is likely to make this the most popular iPad accessory: it will theoretically allow the iPad to be used like a netbook… but in some ways, it feels like an omission of defeat by Apple: “Yeah, we want you to be able to work on this thing… but we just couldn’t figure out a good software data entry solution. Sorry.”

The iPad Case, costing $39, seems like a similar admission of data entry failure: you’re just not going to get as good a look at the screen when typing on the virtual keyboard if it’s flush with a surface. The soft, rubbery case solves this problem with the addition of a triangular kickstand. This will also likely make watching movies when the iPad is on a surface in front of you a lot more pleasant.

It’s mostly been assumed that the iPhone SDK’s omission of terms enabling VoIP over 3G was prompted by Apple bowing not just to AT&T’s bandwidth concerns, but by concerns that 3G VoIP would make calls and minute moot.

It now looks like that assumption may have been unfair: Apple has just updated the terms of the iPhone SDK to allow VoIP calls over 3G. iCall is the first company to be jubilantly crowing that their free VoIP app has implemented 3G VoIP, but others (hopefully Skype!) should be soon to follow.

That’s not to say that VoIP 3G will work universally — T-Mobile in Germany, to my irritation, doesn’t allow VoIP over 3G — but it’s nice to finally see this functionality hit the iPhone after a couple years wait.

[via 9to5Mac]

Although John Gruber over at Daring Fireball predicted it a couple weeks ago, I think most of us were shocked when it turned out that Apple’s newly announced iPad tablet didn’t have a forward mounted camera.

After all, why not? With an entry-level price and a $29.95 unlimited 3G coverage plan, the iPad seems like it would afford a perfect solution for mobile video calling. Hell, even if it didn’t have those things, surely it would be just as good as, say, a MacBook in letting people play around in Photo Booth. Right?

No. I think Apple knew what they were doing here. Unless it’s mounted in the iPad keyboard dock accessory, the iPad is going to be predominantly used in a below eye-level position. What that means is that a forward fronted web cam would need to point upwards at a slant to capture a human face.

So what, our lithe and muscular long-necked readers ask? Two words: double chin. Or three words, if you prefer: double triple chins.

We’ve told you everything we know about the iPad so far. But when will you be able to buy it?

Well, the official page is here, and according to Apple, here are the release dates:

The WiFi version will be shipping in late March.

The 3G version will be shipping domestically in April.

International carriers will unveil contract plans in June.

You can sign up to be notified when one is on order here.

One little details Apple just mentioned at the iPad Media Event is the technology they are using in the display.

Viewing angle on a lap based media device like this is an issue, obviously… for example, if you have a loved one watching a movie next to you on your iPad when on the couch.

Apple just announced that while their display is LED (and not OLED, which makes sense — for $499, that price is just a pipe dream, given the price of OLED panels right now) they use IPS technology to maximize viewing angle.

That stands for in-plane switching. Here’s the Wikipedia article about how it all works. But it’s a good thing.

Although the iPad is clearly aimed at taking down netbooks and e-readers, make no mistake: it’s also taking a secondary aim at your television.

Now let’s just see an iTunes movie store revamp to capitalize on the off-angle viewing excellence of the LED + IPS display.

[image via Gizmodo]

Typing on a capacitive touchscreen like the iPad when it’s completely flush with the table isn’t the most ergonomic of solutions, and the screen is certainly not in a position we’re used to looking at while typing, so Steve Jobs has just announced the iPad Dock.

“When you really need to do a lot of typing, this is the way to go. If you’ve got to write War and Peace, just plug your iPad in,” said Jobs.

He hasn’t announced a price, but providing this is cheap enough, this could do wonders to replace my netbook as my road writing warrior machine.

The question is: will the iPad support a mouse as well?

[image via GDGT]

Despite the rumblings that both Apple and AT&T were ready to see the end of each other’s exclusivity deal, Jobs just announced that the iPad will be an AT&T exclusive.

Two great plans: for up to 250MB transfer every month, it’s only $14.99 a month.

Wasnt unlimited? AT&T will cover you for $29.99.

The big news! No frickin’ contract. Cancel anytime. Does this mean no subsidies?

Also, you get free use of AT&T WiFi hotspots, like the iPhone.

The network card uses new GSM micro sims, according to Jobs.

International contracts will be available in June. Sorry, rest of the world! The USA gets it first.

[image via GDGT]

Oh, suck it, Amazon.

In demonstrating the iPad’s new slick iBooks e-book reading application, it was explicitly stated that the iPad uses the free, open e-book standard, ePub format.

This is a surprisingly rare but welcome move for Apple in embracing a non-proprietary media format.

ePub doesn’t mean no DRM, but it does mean you’ll be able, if only through third party Apps, to transfer your own books from other devices.

Jeff Bezos has got to be nursing a migraine right now.

[image via Gizmodo]

After showing all of the cool new App demos, Jobs took the stage and quipped:

“Isn’t it awesome? And these guys only had two, two and a half weeks to work on this thing. Imagine what they’re going to do in the next few months.”

This may be reading into things, but that may well mean the iPad won’t be out for a few months… i.e. not the March 1st release being rumored right now.

[image via Gizmodo]

I’m on the hardware beat of CoM’s iPad coverage, so while the App Store devs take the stage, I wanted to just a quick aside on why I think the iPad is a terrible name for the Tablet, as spontaneously ill-considered as my opinion might be.

In an earlier post, I swore that if Apple was creatively bereft enough to call their tablet the iPad, I’d eat an extremity… but not that one. Either way, I’m reneging on my promise, since I like my digits.

But I wanted to point out quickly why I think this is such a terrible product name. I’m from Boston originally. We have an interesting way of pronouncing our a’s.

Call up a friend with a Boston accent and ask them to say “iPad.” They might just pronounce it pretty similarly to “iPod.” We’re weird that way. Or as Jake von Slatt just said to me: “Here in Boston, we’d say ‘Do you haave the big iPohd or the little iPohd?'”

Even if the pronunciation is different for everyone, though, iPad still seems a bad choice. A one letter difference makes for a lot of possible confusion.

iSlate had its problems — I equate a slate with something monochrome, fragile, easy shatterable — but it was a lot better than iPad.

What do you guys think?