News - page 2092

Apple’s supply of iPad 2s is clearly constrained, and it doesn’t look like that’s likely to change anytime soon. In fact, Apple’s ability to build more iPad 2s is expected to become even more constrained as at least two of the company’s core component suppliers in the region have temporarily shut down operations to assess damages caused by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

The two component suppliers in question appear to be the Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company, who provide resin to Apple for iOS device circuit boards, as well as Toshiba, which provides Apple with its flash supplies.

The end result is it looks like Apple’s going to have an even harder time making new iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch’s for the rest of this quarter, and possibly well into next quarter. If true, that might make the iPhone 5 launch even more problematic and line-crazy than the iPad 2’s was.

There’s bigger difference between the 3G and WiFi versions of the iPad 2 than just their modems. According to iLounge, the iPad 2 WiFi and iPad 2 3G have differences when it comes to microphone quality… with the more expensive iPad 2 3G losing out to the WiFi-only model.

Although the microphone hardware between versions is the same, the mic level quality on the iPad 2 seems to be affected by its slightly different placement. On the WiFi iPad 2, sound quality is better due to the fact that the microphone opening is centered and bored through an aluminum surface; the mic opening on the 3G models, on the other hand, houses the microphone opening in plastic.

The result? The iPad 2 WiFi has cleaner audio through the microphone than the 3G version, which iLounge found to be slightly muffled and echo-prone as a result. It’s not a big deal if you’re willing to pop-in some in-line mic earbuds, but it’s still a difference worth being aware of.

A flashlight app for the iPhones reported half a million downloads following the devastating earthquake in Japan.

Flashlight 4, the handiwork of identical twins Chris and Ryan McGarty, is a free app that turns the flash from the camera into a flashlight.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has put pen to paper during his medical leave to write Apple employees in Japan, and if any CEO has ever written a classier and more modest promise of total and complete support to those in the turmoil of a great national tragedy, I’ve yet to read it.

Although we’ve known for some time Amazon will open an Android App Store (a developer site is already available), it wasn’t clear when the service would launch. However, an unintended sneak peak has given rise to speculation the App Store is almost ready to go live.

A German website Wednesday found 50 Android applications listed at an Amazon URL, which quickly disappeared. Among the titles listed were Zenonia, Raging Thunder II, SetCPU, The Moron Test and SwiftKey. Many of the app prices bested Google’s Android Market and some even were exclusive to the Internet bookseller.

An app from a Christian Ministry is “designed to be a useful resource for men, women, parents, students, and ministry leaders” over what it calls “homosexual strugglers.”

Wall Street analysts are blaming a relatively-unknown for Apple stock dipping 4.6 percent Wednesday. Following yesterday’s downgrade of Apple by JMP Securities on concerns over a slowdown at supplier Foxconn, another Apple-watcher replied any link with Apple’s health is a coincidence.

“Apple’s contribution to Han Hai (which uses the trade name Foxconn) is limited,” Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner told investors Wednesday. “The correlation between Apple and Hon Hai’s revenue therefore appears to be a product of coincidence more than causality,” the analyst wrote.

This is great. Japanese games giant Capcom has slashed the price of Street Fighter IV for iOS to just one dollar (59p in the UK) until March 22nd. Sega is doing something similar for Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2.

Every penny from those sales will be donated to relief funds for the victims of the Japanese tsunami and earthquake. Street Fighter has already knocked Tiny Wings off the top of the UK Top 25 list as a result.

Capcom says: “We can never thank you enough for all the support each one of you are giving to us. People from all over the world, please unite with us to help people in the disaster-struck area.”

You heard ’em, kids. Grab your bargains now, and send a dollar to help people who need it.

Thanks to its 21 built-in magnets, the iPad’s Smart Cover makes a great fridge magnet.

Just clip it to the fridge. It’s pretty sturdy. It clings to the fridge surprisingly strongly. There’s little danger of it coming loose, even when swiping your finger across the screen.

It’s another reason to invest in a $40-$70 Smart Cover when you get an iPad 2.

Via 9to5Mac.

The picture above is an edited version of a photo that I made while I removed my iPad 2 from its box to create a gallery of photos for Cult of Mac recently. The arrow, which I added to the original picture, points to an anomaly the most obvious out of a handful of them on the display of my iPad 2. I purchased the iPad 2 last Friday on launch day.

Once that gallery went live I started receiving comments from readers stating that it looked like I was encountering a back lighting issue on my iPad 2. I honestly wasn’t sure what was going on because to my eyes the anomaly had a yellowish tint to it. I thought it was just the adhesive problem that plagued some iPhone 4 users last year. That problem actually disappeared on its own as the adhesive dried and dissipated.

Unfortunately that isn’t the case for me, since according to the Genius at the Genius Bar this afternoon the problem is with the backlighting after all and it isn’t a problem that will go away.

I made an interesting discovery today. I took my original Apple iPad case ($40), you know the black one, that the original iPad was inserted into making it kind of like a book or folio. It turns out that my iPad 2 with black leather Smart Cover (see my in-depth review) fits perfectly and tightly inside.

Wow I thought this a great opportunity to recycle something I didn’t know what I was going to do with after upgrading to the iPad 2.  So hit the read link to find out how you can recycle your old iPad cover yet retain the unique Smart Cover and all its magic.

Is it fair to compare the progress of international deal-making among government policymakers to the innovation cycle of a technology company headed by a man known as the company despot?

If you’re unable to get your paws on a new iPad 2 even at an Apple flagship store, you may be fighting organized grey-market forces. The New York Post reports today on a group of scammers who use strength in numbers to buy iPads from the Fifth Avenue Apple store in New York:

“The illicit, highly orchestrated scheme was in full gear yesterday, with a ringleader doling out massive wads of $100 bills to about five cohorts. The sidekicks then went up and down a line of about 200 Asians outside the store and around the corner, handing out the money.

“The scammers in line then went inside and bought iPad 2’s — wiping out the store within minutes.”

The slabs of scarcity are then sold on the street for up to $2000, or immediately sent to Asia for resale.

When it comes to iPhone photography, some folks are Hipstamatics while others are Instagrammers. For the latter bunch there’s now a new app for iPad called Instagallery (iTunes link) that lets users do all kinds of fun stuff with the Instagram API.

Users can view all Instagram photos as a gallery on the iPad, see popular photos, or sign in to to see photos from those people they follow. They can view their own photos, “like” photos, read and add comments, see what users their friends follow, and more.

Instagallery was developed by InfinitApps, costs $1.99 and is available in the iTunes App Store.

Adobe’s Photoshop Express application for iOS has been recently updated to version 2.0, and introduces a brand new camera pack available through an in-app purchase. The camera pack costs $3.99, and for that you get three great features that promise to deliver professional results and better photos, including noise reduction, a self timer, and an auto review mode.

Find out more about these features after the break!

While it may be difficult for Apple Store employees to keep their cool while rabid iPad fans are camped outside waiting for the latest shipment of the next-generation tablet, the Cupertino, Calif. company is telling their retail locations to keep calm and hold onto the new shipments for a day.

The request is part of a new tactic Apple reportedly has undertaken after assessing the first weekend of iPad 2 sales where the new product quickly flew off the shelf. The goal is to provide Apple Stores a chance to “calmly and accurately” handle new supplies – even if it requires telling customers a “little white lie.”

The latest MacUpdate Bundle is just an insanely good deal. For $50, you get Parallels, 1Password, App Tamer, Divvy, TechTool Pro 5, Civilization IV, DVDRemaster Pro 7, and a handful of others. This is actually one of the best bundles I’ve seen in a while: the Windows VM machine Parallels and the incredible password manager 1Password are indispensable on my Mac, while App Tamer helps stretch my MacBook Air’s battery to iPad-like levels, and Civilization IV remains the best iteration of Sid Meier’s classic strategy game. Get get get!

The iPad 2 didn’t get a Retina Display this generation like the iPhone 4… but there’s more to the quality of a display than just pixel density. Now Dr. Raymond Soneir of DisplayMate Technologies has performed tests on the many other characteristics of the iPad 2’s display, putting it in a shoot-out against that of the iPhone 4.

The results? Outside of pixel density, the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 have almost identical performance. That’s a good thing on the hardware side… but a bad thing when it comes to software.

Phil Schiller has promised us that the white iPhone 4 is going to be coming this spring after long delays, but previous reports have suggested that it might be a GSM-only affair, leaving Verizon customers with no options but to buy the black iPhone 4.

iTunes 10.2 begs to differ, though. Within the resource files of the latest version of iTunes, you can find icons for the white iPhone 4 in both CDMA and GSM flavors, as differentiated from one another by their different antenna banding.

That’s no guarantee of a CDMA white iPhone 4, of course, but it certainly implies that Verizon customers will be able to get their hands on one in the coming months… just a couple months ahead of the launch of the iPhone 5.

If you want to gauge future auto output, you could check how many cars are coming off Detroit’s production lines. A similar check has prompted one analyst firm to reduce its revenue estimates for Apple. A “notable” drop in production at iPhone manufacturer Foxconn could result in fewer products available to consumers.

After hitting 84 percent year-over-year growth in December, the manufacturer grew just 37 percent in January and 26 percent in February, according to JMP Securities. Growth is “tracking well below” 70 percent sales growth for the March quarter, and 50 percent in June, analyst Alex Guana told investors Wednesday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueGl0qL-oLo

“It comes with a camera in the front, one in the back, and one in your neighbor’s shower.”

Another great free plug for Apple’s hot-selling device.

Rarely consumed with a desperate rush to issue any new music of their own, electropop pioneers Kraftwerk have come up with a better idea: get the fans to do the work for them.

So the Kraftwerk app lets you inside the Kling Klang Studio, in a manner of speaking, giving you access to some cheerfully bleep-tastic musical buttons in exchange for nine of your fine American dollars.

Given that the App Store is awash with sequencers, loopers, samplers and other electronic music apps, many of which offer quite a lot more in terms of functionality, this one might be left to the fans only. But for those who value the looking-cool as much as the making-sounds, perhaps it’ll be nine bucks well spent.

An game app created by psychologists says it can help users extinguish their smoking habits.

Called Nicot, the $4.99 app is the result of a study by the Canada Research Chair in Clinical Cyberpsychology and the University of Quebec in Outaouais.

Researchers there say they found that virtually crushing butts in the game boosted quitting success rates by 15%. If the would-be ex-smokers also used pharmacological aids (patches, gum and the like) and attended a  follow-up clinic, those rates were boosted to 50%.

Increased data usage — particularly music downloads — fueled a 3.7 percent jump in fourth-quarter net profit for China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless carrier announced Wednesday. The news comes as Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly is ‘very interested’ in creating an iPhone that works on the nation’s home-grown 4G standard.

China Mobile earned 32.4 billion yuan during the quarter ended Dec. 31, higher than the 31.8 billion yuan analysts had expected. In the wake of the report, chairman Wang Jianzhou announced plans to increase handset subsidies by 15 percent in order to attract more data users. Data service revenue comprised 31 percent of the carrier’s operating revenue in 2010. Data “was an essential driver of total revenue growth,” Wang said.

One of the drawbacks of the cheaper, WiFi-only iPad 2 is that it doesn’t have GPS — so it can’t run any of those beautiful fullscreen navigation apps.

GPS is limited to the more expensive 3G iPad models. But if you own a GPS-enabled iPhone, you’re in luck. The WiFi-only iPad 2 inherits GPS functionality when it’s tethered to an iPhone.