A recent update to the iTunes Terms and Conditions adds an interesting clause regarding free trials for in-app subscriptions in the iOS App Store. Ever since the launch of the App Store in 2007, users have been clamoring for some kind of demoing system for paid apps. It looks like Apple may be slowly making strides towards that reality.
Publishers “may offer a free trial period” via in-app subscriptions in an iOS app, according to Apple.
If you haven’t ordered a new iPad yet, better get going: my guess is before the weekend is out, we’ll see shipping times of 4 weeks or more for all models.
Apple’s new Thunderbolt ports are already the fastest connection ports on the market, but if Intel has their way they’ll be even faster in the near future. In order to boost the performance of Thunderbolt, Intel is working to support PCI-Express 3.0 protocols which will significantly boost data transfer rates.
Before Apple unveiled the new iPad on Wednesday, no one was quite positive what Apple would announce. It seemed pretty sure that the iPad 3 (as it was being called then) would have a Retina Display, but would it have an A5X processor or an A6 processor? 3G or LTE? 512MB of RAM or 1GB of RAM. Would it be thinner or thicker? And what would it be called: the iPad 3 or iPad HD? (Everyone got the name wrong: it’s just called the “new iPad” now.)
One thing few people had any doubt about was that Siri would be making her way to iPad this year… which is why Siri’s absence on the new iPad counted as probably the biggest disappointment of the entire event.
Why would Apple leave Siri out of the new iPad?
Watchdog group SumOfUs has launched a new petition asking Apple to prove that workers at Foxconn factories in China weren’t subject to illegal overtime to make the iPad 3.
Specifically, they’re looking for Apple to turn over individual worker hours from November 2011-February 2012 to prove they’re not violating China’s labor laws which prohibit more than 36 hours of overtime per month.
Cult of Mac talked to SumOfUs founder Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman about what the group hopes to achieve with this latest petition, launched the morning of the iPad event as of this writing reached 41,500 of its 50,000 signature goal.
In their rush to announce the new iPad on Wednesday, Apple hurried through the details of their new Apple TV and didn’t talk much about the new ability to stream your movies straight from iCloud to your Apple TV or iOS device. What’s awesome about the new feature is that it works for movies that you didn’t even buy from iTunes: iTunes Digital Copies.
Now that you’ve placed your order for your new iPad, it’s time to prepare your old one for the upgrade. When you transfer all of your data on launch day, you’re not going to want to eat up storage space with apps, photos, and music that you never use.
Here’s how to prepare your old iPad for an upgrade to the new one — the right way.
America’s first jailbreak convention is scheduled to take place on September 29th, 2012 at the South San Francisco Conference Center in California. The guys behind JailbreakCon, formerly known as MyGreatFest, have also announced the convention’s star-studded speaker lineup.
The creator of Cydia, the jailbreak equivalent to Apple’s App Store, will be headlining the event again. The convention kicked off in London, U.K. last year to warm reception from the rest of the jailbreak community. Expect even better things from JailbreakCon 2012!
Episode 3 of The CultCast just landed in iTunes friends, and there’s no doubt it is entertainment of the highest caliber!
In this episode, we talk all things “new” iPad. Find out which new features are our favorites, which ones surprised and delighted us, and which we are baffled are not included. Plus, should you upgrade from the iPad 2? All that and more if you can believe it. More!
You can download episode 3 right now in iTunes or subscribe and we’ll deliver a fresh new episode delivered to you every Thursday night. One click, it’s that easy!
Seriously, guys, if you haven’t already, it’s time to pre-order a new iPad, as multiple models are starting to slip from a guaranteed March 16th delivery date to “shipping on March 19th.” For example, the 16GB WiFi-only model, seen above. And when they say “shipping on March 19th”, they mean shipping all the way from China, which could take up to week. So get your order in now, or prepare to camp on launch day.
Earlier this year, OnLive debuted its OnLine Desktop app for the iPad. The app offers users a virtual desktop environment that includes Windows 7, Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, and Internet Explorer (which allows iPad users to watch Flash-based web content). The service comes in both free and paid versions that include 2GB of cloud storage and OnLive plans to expand the service with more advanced plans for both end users and for businesses.
While users and reviewers have been largely happy with OnLive Desktop, it seems that Microsoft isn’t. After being mum on OnLive’s decision to release the app and service, Microsoft announced this week that it views OnLive as violating its license agreements and essentially pirating Windows.
At issue is the draconian puzzle that is Microsoft’s licensing system and how the company charges for virtual desktops.
With the U.S. Department of Justice gearing up to slap Apple with an antitrust lawsuit, the Cupertino company has spoken out over claims it has teamed up with publishers to raise the price of e-books, and downplayed the threat from Amazon’s Kindle. It argues that it gave publishers the opportunity to set their own prices, and that it cannot be blamed for e-book price hikes.
Are you a Brit who ordered a new iPad on Wednesday? Check your email: Apple might have just welched on their deal with you to get it delivered by March 16th.
BBC executives are said to be planning a new ‘”download-to-own” service that will allow U.K. viewers to purchase TV shows online at around £1.89 ($3) an episode. The BBC is hoping that the scheme, dubbed “Project Barcelona,” will be able to rival iTunes.
Every time a new Apple device comes out, there’s a general commotion as analysts try to break it down atomically into its base elements, weigh the dust and figure out how much it all cost Apple to build, thus extrapolating how many oodles of money Cupertino’s raking in with each gadget sold.
For the new iPad, the initial estimates are in, and surprise! Despite improving the iPad’s battery, display, wireless internet speeds and GPU, Cupertino’s making a healthy profit on each iPad sold.
The new iPad arrives in the U.S. and ten other countries exactly one week today on March 16, and the first shipments have already started leaving the Foxconn factories in Chengdu, China. It’s unlikely, however, that they’ll arrive early.
China Telecom has become the second Chinese carrier to offer the iPhone 4S today, ending the exclusivity enjoyed by China Unicom for the last 18 months. The company announced back in February that it would begin selling Apple’s popular smartphone from March 9, and it has taken over 200,000 pre-orders in just the last week.
If you live in the U.K. and you haven’t pre-ordered your new iPad yet, you’ll need to prepare yourself for a lengthy wait. You will no longer get the new tablet on launch day, March 16, with shipping times slipping to 2-3 weeks for all models.
You can now pre-order a new iPad from RadioShack with the purchase of a $50 gift card. Like Apple’s online store, pre-orders are guaranteed to deliver when the device goes on sale Friday, March 16th. As the first retailer besides Apple to offer the new iPad, RadioShack will also be offering AppleCare+ for iPad alongside Target, Apple, and carrier partners.
Developers of iOS apps spent last night absorbing all the news from Apple, and trying to figure out how they might be able to make the most of the new iPad’s features.
We asked some friendly devs for their observations. One predicted big things for iPad gaming, but we got some other interesting viewpoints too.
Here’s a round-up of some of the comments we got back from the developer community. If you make apps and want to have your say, get in touch – or let loose in the comments.
I’ve always wanted my own butler that I can order around and have him go fetch me a delicious Chipotle burrito whenever I want. Problem is, I don’t have half a billion dollars to pay for one, so I’ll never be cool like Batman and have a elderly british fellow named Alfred to satisfy my every need. Siri is the closest I’ll ever come to having a true personal assistant, except she doesn’t come equipment with Michael Caine’s impeccable British accent. But is Siri better than Alfred?
Do you know what was the most tweeted about thing yesterday? No, it wasn’t Peyton Manning. It was the iPad 3, the new iPad. Twitter just released the chart shown above to show just how bonkers the Twittersphere went during the iPad keynote.
Sure, it wasn’t on par with the death of Michael Jackson, but it was a pretty big deal. There are a couple of peaks that stand out:
A common complaint that I heard earlier this week at the CITE conference in San Francisco was that Apple wasn’t a “real” enterprise vendor. IT professionals have whined and moaned about the fact that Apple doesn’t behave like most enterprise vendors for years (as a long time Mac and Apple IT professional myself, I’ve probably muttered under my breath about Apple’s approach to the enterprise many more times than most of the CITE attendees). What’s changed, however, is that CIOs and other IT leaders can no longer simply say “no” anytime Apple or an Apple product is mentioned.
This week, Apple even reiterated the point by dropping Apple Configurator, a completely new free tool for managing iOS devices in business. It’s a tool that offers new workflows when it comes to how businesses work with iPads (and to a lesser extent iPhones) and Apple released without telling its mobile management partners or its enterprise customers.
To all those IT folks bitching and complaining that Apple doesn’t publish 18-month roadmaps and doesn’t reach out to every enterprise months in advance of a product upgrade or cancelation, I have to say this: deal with it.
A new version of social networking app Path is now available in the App Store for iPhone users. Path 2.1 features several new features and improvements, including a Shazam-like ‘Music Match’ tool for identifying music playing around you.
The app’s camera features have also been improved with focus and exposure options and a new setting called “Pow!” for creating comic book-style pics. Nike+ integration has been added to let you journal your runs in Path.
The new iPad isn’t just faster than ever, it has four times as many pixels, a power-hungry new mobile broadband technology, twice the RAM, and more.
All of these things add up to the new iPad being the best iPad yet, but it comes at a cost: they’re all more battery hungry than their predecessors. How, then, did Apple manage to get 10 hours of battery life — the same as before — out of the new iPad, while keeping it roughly the same weight and thickness?
Easy… and by easy, we mean “insanely difficult.” They increased the battery capacity by 70%… then densely packed it to fit the iPad 3’s case.