Leander Kahney - page 42

The beta 2 of iPhone OS 4 has just been posted to Apple’s Developers’ site. The build is 8A248C, and developers can get it here.

Apple has just reported record earnings for Q2 2010. Earnings and profits were the best ever for a non-holiday quarter, and sales of Macs and iPhones were up by a big margin. The only blip is iPod sales — down 1 percent year-on-year.

“We’re thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49 percent and profits up 90 percent,” said Steve Jobs in a statement. “We’ve launched our revolutionary new iPad and users are loving it, and we have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year.”

Highlights:

• Q2 2010 revenue = $13.50 billion
• Profit = $3.07 billion, or $3.33 per diluted share. (Last year, revenue = $9.08 billion and profit = $1.62 billion)
• Gross margin = 41.7 percent, up from 39.9 percent last year
• 2.94 million Macs sold (up 33 percent year-on-year)
• 8.75 million iPhones sold (up 131 percent year-on-year)
• 10.89 million iPods sold (down one percent year-on-year)

This week the TidBits website celebrates a special landmark: it’s the oldest purely digital technology publication on the Internet.

Started in 1990 by Adam and Tonya Engst, TidBits is celebrating its 20th anniversary of publishing “all the news that’s fit to byte.”

It started as a Hypercard stack and evolved into a text pub distributed through the web, email, AOL and Usenet, plus innumerable BBSes.

Today it’s stronger than ever, publishing a website, mailing list, iPhone app, Twitter feed, Kindle subscription, and podcast. Plus, it has a popular eBook publishing wing, TidBITS Publishing Inc., which has sold about 250,000 Take Control ebooks.

To celebrate, Adam has put together a testimonials page from more than 50 Mac industry leaders. Add your own comments to the page.

Apple sent Gizmodo a formal letter asking for its iPhone back (proving it was genuine) — and Gizmodo is returning it, along with a nice note asking Apple to go easy on the kid who lost it.

Gizmodo editorial director Brian Lam says Apple called him today asking for its iPhone back. He said he’d be happy to oblige, if he received a formal written request from Apple’s legal department.

He duly received the following:

It has come to our attention that Gizmodo is in possession of a device that belongs to Apple. This letter constitutes a formal request that you return the device to Apple. Please let me know where to pick up the unit.

Sincerely,
Bruce Sewell,
Senior Vice President & General Counsel
Apple Inc.

Lam wrote back putting him in contact with his colleague Jason Chen, who actually has the phone.

Happy to have you pick this thing up. Was burning a hole in our pockets. Just so you know, we didn’t know this was stolen when we bought it. Now that we definitely know it’s not some knockoff, and it really is Apple’s, I’m happy to see it returned to its rightful owner.

P.S. I hope you take it easy on the kid who lost it. I don’t think he loves anything more than Apple except, well, beer.

As well as mentioning that Gizmodo didn’t know the iPhone was stolen when they bought it, Lam also says the guy who sold them the iPhone had earlier tried to return Apple it to Apple. Apparently, he called customer service but go the runaround.

The “sorry Apple engineer” who lost a 4G iPhone at a Bay Area bar has been identified as Grey Powell, Gizmodo reports. Powell is a 27-year-old software engineer with a taste for the sauce (judging by his pictures, like this one above with a PBR). He left the test unit at the Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City several weeks ago.

“I underestimated how good German beer is,” he typed into the next-generation iPhone he was testing on the field, cleverly disguised as an iPhone 3GS. It was his last Facebook update from the secret iPhone. It was the last time he ever saw the iPhone, right before he abandoned it on bar stool, leaving to go home.”

Left on a stool, the iPhone was handed to a guy sitting next to Powell. The guy asked around to see if anyone had lost it, but when no one claimed it, he took it home.

When he woke up after the hazy night, the phone was dead. Bricked remotely, through MobileMe, the service Apple provides to track and wipe out lost iPhones. It was only then that he realized that there was something strange that iPhone. The exterior didn’t feel right and there was a camera on the front. After tinkering with it, he managed to open the fake 3GS.

However, Gizmodo does not explain how the iPhone came into their possession — which may be the most important part of the story. “Weeks later, Gizmodo got it,” is all that is said. Gizmodo publisher Nick Denton paid just $5,000 for the iPhone, he admitted to the AP. According to California law, the iPhone is stolen even it was accidentally left at a bar. The finder is legally obliged to return it to Apple. Instead, they sold it to Gizmodo, who at the time of purchase knew it was Apple’s property.

Via 9to5Mac.

This is pretty funny (except for the poor schlub at Apple who lost the iPhone, of course).

Posted to SFBay Craigslist:

So I did it again this last week, consumed way too much straight vodka within perhaps an hour. The party started at 7, I had to be removed by 10pm because I was biting/attacking/wanting/insulting people and in the process lost my employers iPhone 4G prototype model. It was lost at Fahrenheit Ultra Lounge & Restaurant downtown San Jose. The phone was hidden inside of an iPhone 3G case. The device has a front facing camera, 80GB of storage. The device, when found was probably running a newer version of iPhone OS but my employer bricked it remotely within a few hours. Pretty sure i’m going to lose my job over this so if you find the phone please email me. Thanks

Apple’s next iPhone seems to answer a lot of geeks’ prayers. It’s got a forward-facing camera, a flash unit, and a super high-resolution screen. Combine that with multitasking and and universal inbox in OS 4.0, and who could say no?

Well, plenty of people, it seems. There’s lots of haters out there put off by the iPhone’s boxy industrial design. Many prefer curves it seems.

Let’s put it to a poll. Will you be buying the new iPhone this summer?

Gizmodo publisher Nick Denton says the “sorry Apple engineer” who left the 4G iPhone at a bar may have been identified. He says he’s calling the poor bastard, and the story is likely to follow.

Earlier in the day Denton promised to reveal the full story of how Gizmodo acquired the next-gen iPhone. The story will is a “corker” (a good story), Denton tweeted earlier.

Minutes ago Denton tweeted the following:

iPhone update. We think we’ve identified the sorry Apple engineer who left the next-gen phone at the bar. Calling in a min.

Earlier Denton tweeted that Gizmodo had paid for the pre-production iPhone, raising the likelihood that Gizmodo is in possession of stolen goods. According to California law, the iPhone is stolen even it was accidentally left at a bar. The finder is legally obliged to return it to Apple. Instead, they sold it to Gizmodo, who at the time of purchase fully knew it was Apple’s property (how could they not?).

Techcrunch and a couple of other sites are saying the price was $10,000 – but no one is offering any evidence.

Apple still hasn’t officially responded to the story.

UPDATE: Denton paid just $5,000 for the iPhone, he told the AP. As Merlin Mann tweeted: “Denton inflates traffic for a gadget blog by buying a stolen phone that doesn’t work? It’s like Christmas Morning for why the web sucks.”

For the next three weeks we’re going to be publishing a series of posts called “My Close Encounters with Steve Jobs.” Written by David Bunnell, the founder of Macworld magazine, it’s a bunch of great stories about Jobs and the launch of the Mac. It’s a excellent, insightful read with a ton of previously unpublished stories and details. Starting Tuesday — Part 1: Meeting Steve.

From Too Big To Fale.

A clever Craigslist capitalist is selling these cool iPad stands for $10. Says the ad:

This is a nice elegant portable durable plastic iPad stand to use either when using a Bluetooth keyboard or when watching a video or photo slideshow in vertical or horizontal position. The stand can easily be packed to take with you, unlike cumbersome wire stands or docks. It puts the iPad at a great angle for viewing and has a nice contoured shape which will not scratch your iPad. The beautiful black color blends in with the iPad the best out of any stand we have seen for a sleek professional look.

Made in the USA!

$10. cash. and I have a few of them available.

But here’s where to get them for just $0.69:

Above: Mark Fiore’s “Learn to Speak Teabag” cartoon, which Apple considers too objectionable for the App Store.

Thanks to a stink in the press, Apple has called Pultizer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore and asked him to resubmit his rejected app, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Apple initially rejected Fiore’s political satire app because it ridiculed public figures, which is against the App Store rules.

It’s part of the Congressional record: the head of the NSA says the iPad is “wonderful.”

During hearings to determine whether he will take charge of U.S. Cyber Command, the head of the National Security Agency, Lieutenant General Keith Alexander, said:

“I am a technologist. I love computers. I have a new iPad,” Alexander told the committee of Senators. A few minutes later, Democratic Senator Mark Udall of Colorado couldn’t help but bring it up again. From the Congressional Quarterly transcript:

Udall: I’m tempted to get a critical review of the iPad, but perhaps we can do that–

Alexander: Wonderful.

Udall: Wonderful. I will put that on — for the record.

Via Forbes’ The Firewall.

Here’s a notable mockup of the iPhone 4G (or iPhone HD) from designer Anthony De Rosa. Says De Rosa:

It’s almost sure the Apple approach to the new iPhone will be as expected (or feared).
Same form factor, to avoid nasty surprises for accessories.
No moving parts, the phone is not a “transformer”.
No MagSafe, LED or other crazy ideas.
Maybe we’ve a dual cameras, but without flash. iPhone isn’t a photocamera.
Then it might look as the just-arrived iPad and will be the ideal cradle for the new iPhone OS 4.0.
We’ve an upgraded hardware, to appreciate the potential of multitasking, a 5Mpx camera, larger and brighter screen, new CPU derived by the A4.
The rest of all will do by “the apple” on the back of the shell.
After all is an Apple device.

Another of De Rosa’s renderings after the jump, plus a polished video showing the phone running the new iPhone 4.0 OS.

Via Redmond Pie. Thanks Taimur.

Jailbreak software for the iPhone 4.0 Beta is available for download. But be warned: it could brick your precious device.

The Dev Team has released an early beta of the redsn0w 0.9.5 jailbreak software for 3G iPhones. It’s for knowledgeable, developer types only, they warn:

Please note that this beta is not meant for the average end-user. There are many things “broken” with jailbroken apps in the 4.0beta1 environment right now […] This beta redsn0w allows the developers behind those jailbroken apps (like MobileTerminal.app!) to fix their software before the general public gets iphoneOS 4.0.
Because it’s meant for JB app developers, this beta redsn0w does not perform hactivation. You’ll need a properly-registered developer UDID with Apple to get past the activation screen. For similar reasons, there is no Windows version of this beta redsn0w (since apps are developed on MacOSX). Please don’t pirate Apple software.

More info here: iPhwn.

Via Gizmodo.

These fuzzy snaps from IntoMobile are supposedly spy shots of the upcoming 4G Verizon iPhone that Apple is launching in June. Hit the jump and you’ll see it looks like the next-gen iPhone has a unibody aluminum construction — just like the iPad.

The pictures look similar to the fantastic 4G iPhone mockup by our friend Graham Bower of MacPredictions.

We say fake. The pictures look fake grainy, and the tabletop setting screams staged. It just doesn’t look like a pic of a prototype. Plus, IntoMobile says the pix have been passed through Photoshop, according to the metadata. What do you guys think?

Via QuickPwn.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9NP-AeKX40&feature=player_embedded

If you can bear to watch a cat dragging its claws across an iPad’s screen, here’s some video of a pussy playing piano and with some virtual “yarn.” Sure to be the start of a blockbuster pussy-‘n’-iPads meme.

“We (are) working on integrating this technology into our latest apps,” says the Form Group.

Reader @Trott asks if this actually works. I just tried it out. Here’s the result:

Apple sold an impressive 1.4 million Macs in the first quarter of 2010, says research firm Gartner, recording very healthy 34% year-on-year growth. The PC market as a whole grew about 25% — the biggest first quarter volume ever, Gartner says. Apple is the fifth-largest PC maker in the U.S. with an 8% share of the PC market. Gartner attributes the massive Mac sales to “hype” around the iPad, but it’s more likely the ever-popular MacBooks and new iMacs, which were refreshed before the holidays.

“Apple created major attention with its media tablet, the iPad, which launched in April. The hype around the iPad certainly added positive sentiment to the company as PC shipments. Early estimates showed that Apple grew 34 percent in the U.S. market.”

Meanwhile, rival research firm IDC released significantly different estimates. According to IDC, Mac shipments were 1.13 million units, earning Apple a 6.4% market share. IDC also pegs Apple as the fifth-largest U.S. PC maker, but estimates Apple’s year-over-year growth is just 8.3 percent, and market share is 7.2%. Both Gartner and IDC warn that their numbers are preliminary and final numbers will be “available soon to clients.”

Here’s a nice story from Victor Keegan, the Guardian’s recently-retired technology editor, about how he created his own iPhone poetry app.

This month I finally left the Guardian after nearly 47 years. At the end of last week I had my 70th birthday and today my first iPhone app came out. Life is full of surprises.

More info about Keegan’s City Poems app can be found here on Facebook.

The weirdest thing about using Apple’s iPad Keyboard Dock is that you are constantly reaching for a mouse — a mouse that isn’t there, of course. The iPad doesn’t support mice. Instead, you should be tapping and swiping the screen.

Using the keyboard to work with the iPad takes you out of the multitouch mode and puts you back in mouse/keyboard mode. And while you can use the keyboard in a limited way to navigate the iPad, you can’t use many of the desktop shortcuts you’ve learned over the years, like Command-Tab to switch apps.

So using an iPad with a keyboard takes a little getting used to, but the $69 iPad Keyboard Dock is a very handy accessory, with a couple of caveats.

Of all the accessories for the iPad, a networked-attached storage device may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but a NAS may actually prove to be very handy.

A NAS allows you to store all your memory-hogging media cheaply and in one place. Instead of buying the more expensive 64GB iPad, which will soon get filled with movies, music and other media, get the 32GB model and invest $100 in Iomega’s iConnect Wireless Data Station.

The iConnect is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to get an iTunes share on your home or office network.

Steve Jobs has sent another of his off-the-cuff customer emails, this time about the not-so-fast chip in the new 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Some observers are complaining that the 13-inch MacBook still sports a rather lowly Core 2 Duo chip, which also powered the previous generation machine. Meanwhile, the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBooks got speedy Intel Core i5 and i7 processors.

One MacRumors reader sent Steve Jobs a note about it, who responded that Apple chose to offer better graphics and battery life rather than an increase in CPU performance.

The iPad is a total babe magnet, writer Jim Colgan has discovered.

Colgan took his new iPad on the streets of New York and got so much attention, he says it’s better than borrowing a puppy to talk to girls.

“If you’re looking for a dating aid, leave your friend’s dog alone and borrow an iPad,” he says.