News - page 2110

AT&T is now offering information about their 4G HSPA+ coverage in the U.S. The cities and areas that have completed the backhaul upgrades to support this are:

●Bay Area, CA
●Greater Los Angeles, CA
●Northern, CA
●Chicago, IL
●Boston, MA
●Baltimore, MD
●Charlotte, NC
●Buffalo, NY
●Providence, RI
●Houston, TX
●Dallas, TX
●Puerto Rico

If your area has HSPA+, but not the backhaul upgrade then you will not be able to experience the new 4G network speeds. However, AT&T’s network completely supports HSPA+ and they will eventually have the backhaul upgraded everywhere else.

You can check out AT&T’s coverage map that includes 4G coverage by visiting www.att.com/network and clicking on the coverage tab. Hovering your mouse over the map will reveal the 4G HSPA+ cities and locations listed above.

Have you noticed the difference? Tell us about it by leaving a comment.

[via iClarified]

For people like me, and the other 28 million living with cancer, people like Steve Jobs are incredible role models. When I was undergoing chemotherapy three years ago, I was often tempted to think “why me?” But then I asked myself, “Why Steve Jobs? Why Lance Armstrong?” And I reflected on the remarkable things that they went on to achieve after their treatment. Their inspirational example helped me more than I can say.

Steve Jobs chooses not to talk about his cancer. He prefers to focus on his work. We should respect his choice.

It looks like Apple’s all set to launch new MacBooks next week, but the launch day is — a Thursday?

What’s up with that? Apple’s big product launches are almost always on Tuesdays. (It allows reporters on the East Coast to fly into California on a workday instead of the weekend).

So why would Apple launch new MacBooks on Thursday February 24?

It’s new MacBook Pros next Thursday February 24, according to MacRumors, citing a “reliable” source.

We’ve since heard reliable confirmation that this information is accurate and that the expected release date is next Thursday, February 24th. The move would be a bit unusual for Apple to launch new machines on a Thursday. So, if you are about to buy a new MacBook Pro, wait until next week.

MacBooks were last updated a year ago with Intel Core i5 and i7 chips. The new machines are likely to get Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors, which are faster and a lot less power hungry. Rumors that the machines will have cases made  of Liquidmetal are unlikely, but they will probably will be lighter, thinner and have higher-resolution screens. A big price drop is predicted too.

Apple’s said to be releasing five new models, which will include two new 13-inch versions, two new 15-inch versions and one new 17-inch version.

Years ago, the Sun tabloid newspaper kidnapped a donkey and kept it in a Spanish hotel room for a story. Yesterday, Gizmodo hired a plane to take aerial photos of Steve Jobs’ demolished mansion.

Demolition began Monday of the abandoned mansion. Jobs won a long legal battle to have the old pile torn down. He wants to build a smaller, greener place on the property.

More demolition pictures below:

And here are some really beautiful pictures of the Jackling House before it was demolished, courtesy of photographer Jonathan Haeber, who sneaked in one night.

Is Apple looking to build an HDTV? If the pidgin English grammar and bizarre, otherworldly syntax of this job listing are to be believed, then yes!

In this position, you will be part of pride developing innovative designs, which are implemented in products used by millions of people. The position primarily involves high-density offline power supply’s development for Apple’s next generation Macintosh platforms spanning from notebook computers, desktop computers, servers, standalone displays and TV.

Why Apple would get into the high-definition television business when they can turn any television into an Apple TV just by plugging in a $99 box is beyond me, but we’re sure just the whiff of this news gave Gene Munster— who has long believed in the unicorn of a real AppleTV — a pelvic scimitar.

[via 9to5Mac, who originally spotted this]

Apple’s still destroying the competition when it comes to revenue from its iOS App Store, according to the latest study of mobile app marketplaces by IHS.

Even though the App Store is almost a $2 billion a year enterprise, though, the juggernaut seems to be slowing down compared to the competition. While the iOS App Store experienced 131.9% year-over-year growth, Google’s Androd Market grew at an astonishing 861.5% rate. Nokia’s Ovi store grew 719.4% last year, and even the BlackBerry APp World grew 360.3%.

All signs point to the App Store starting to reach a saturation point where growth will occur at a more level pace. Even so, the report is good news for Apple, as even at current growth rates, IHS says that the iPhone maker will take home at least half of all app sales right on through 2014.

[via MacStories]

Apple’s MagSafe adapter has been standard in its MacBook line for years, but the inability to transfer data through the connector has prevented Apple from using the technology to replace the iPod Dock Connector.

A new patent, though, for a Magnetic Connector with Optical Signal Path might change that. Then again, it might not, since it describes a way for data to be transmitted across a MacBook’s MagSafe port, with no mention of iOS devices. It’s easy to see how this patent could possibly be used to drive a MagSafe iPod Dock Connector, though.

All of the rumors we’d heard before now suggested that the next MacBook Pro — which will definitely boast Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge architecture, and may leverage Apple’s newly-signed deal for LiquidMetal — wouldn’t come until March, but now Slide to Mac is claiming that the new MacBook Pros will come next week.

According to SlideToMac, the new models will show up sometime at the latter end of next week… possibly on a Thursday or Friday. They say that Apple will release five new models, which will include two new 13-inch versions, two new 15-inch versions and one new 17-inch version.

First Rhapsody lashed out at Apple over the new App Store requirement mandating a 30% cut off-the-top of all in-app subscriptions and purchases, and now Last.fm co-founder Richard Jone is joining the cry, saying that “Apple [has] just f*cked over online music subs for the iPhone.”

They are labeled geniuses, they surround themselves with the coolest gadgets pushed by a tech giant who’s CEO has become a Silicon Valley rockstar. But does working at an Apple retail location match all the hype? An anonymous Apple retail worker gives a magazine interview, where he says “sometimes the company can feel like a cult.”

“They give us a little paper pamphlet, and it says things like — and I’m paraphrasing here — ‘Apple is our soul, our people are our soul,’ the employee tells Popular Mechanics. “There was this one training session in which they started telling us how to work on our personality, and separating people into those with an external focus and an internal focus. It was just weird.”

Steve Jobs is sitting next to President Obama. He’s wearing a black turtleneck!

This is an official White House photo. Here it is zoomed in:

Sony’s been making some noises lately suggesting that if their new Music Unlimited service takes off, they might ditch iTunes once and for all. Lest there be any doubt, though, that this is a fanciful fever dream that depends upon the digital equivalent of a pig sprouting wings and leaping majestically into the sky, Sony Network Entertainment COO Brandon Layden says that Sony won’t be ditching iTunes after all.

At a meeting held at the home of John Doerr of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Apple CEO Steve Jobs met with President Barack Obama last night alongside other Silicon Valley executives, the White House has confirmed.

Unlike his peers at Yahoo!!, Netflix, Twitter, Google and Facebook, though, Jobs remained out of sight of reporters throughout the meeting, and was seen neither entering or exiting the meeting.

We’re all used to it now but when the iPhone first debuted, a common criticism leveled against it was battery life. Apple’s always been aggressive with power management across its iOS devices, but compared to the feature phones that were nearly ubiquitous at the time, the iPhone is a hog, and users buying one had to switch from charging their phones once every few days to charging it one or more times per day.

Apple’s only improved the battery life of the iPhone since then, but as our gadgets become ever more power hungry, there’s always going to be an increasing demand upon lithium-ion tech. In a new patent, Cupertino seems to have identified a new way to improve battery life, and while it’s hardly as esoteric as Apple’s more wild-eyed patents, it’s plenty exciting for those who want a longer lasting iPhone or MacBook.

Apple once again may be the focus of federal regulators. The Cupertino, Calif. company’s recent decision to require publishers to offer subscriptions through the App Store — providing a 30 percent cut for the tech giant — has prompted an initial antitrust investigation by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Although publishers seeking to sell magazine, newspaper and music subscriptions to owners of iOS devices can pitch services on outside websites, the new rules require companies offer iTunes as an alternative at the best available price. Traditionally, publishers offer tiered pricing based on where products and services are sold.

Anyone who has used the new MacBook Air can attest to what a tiny miracle it is. Spec-wise, it doesn’t look like much at all, but even the 1.4GHz 11-incher surprises by bleeding the edge of OS X performance in nearly all the ways that count for the average users through the accomplishment of its standard SSD drive. Consumers are thrilled, and so is Apple, with Tim Cook recently saying that Apple saw the new Air as “the future” of the MacBook line.

Looks like NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang agrees, but if anything, he’s even more excited about the Air than Cook is, claiming it’s not just the future of the MacBook line, but the future of laptop design across all platforms.

Earlier this week, ABC 13 Action News in Houston, Texas reported that an unnamed West University woman was robbed in front of her house. An iPad owned by the woman was used to locate the robbery suspect.

The woman was robbed at gunpoint while placing her child into her car. The robbery suspect took her jewelry and iPhone.

Both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported that a smaller iPhone nano was in development, but now the New York Times says a shrunken iPhone is NOT on the cards.

Apple is developing a budget iPhone, the NYT says, but the device will not be any smaller than current models. Instead, it will scrimp on internal components, like memory, as we exclusively reported on Monday (More Detail On Apple’s iPhone Nano).

Keeping the iPhone nano’s screen size the same as current models makes perfect sense. Developers won’t have to code apps for different screen sizes, like they do on other platforms.

The Times did corroborate our report earlier this week, also reported in the WSJ, that Apple is planning a major overhaul of MobileMe. MobileMe will put a lot more media and files in the cloud, allowing users to stream and sync to all their devices without using cables.

The budget iPhone will make more use of voice commands, the NYT says.

In an interview with Peter Kafka over at All Things D about the launch of their new Music Unlimited streaming music service, Sony’s Tim Schaaf — who worked at Apple for fourteen years as a senior executive in charge of Quicktime, and was intimately involved in the company’s media products — allowed himself to be drawn into comment about his former employer, specifically in regards to Apple’s new in-app subscription and purchasing policies.

“It seems a little aggressive,” Schaaf said about Apple’s new policies, which threaten to kick from the App Store any app developer who fails to offer their app’s products and subscriptions through Apple’s in-app purchase mechanism, or offers them more cheaply elsewhere.

“Sounds like a good thing for Android,” Schaaf concluded, referring to Google’s less prohibitive terms as part of their competing One Pass in-app purchase and subscription service, and implying that developers would begin to flee the App Store if his former employer did not buckle.

Ouch. Do you agree with Schaaf’s assessment?

I know, it may seem like blasphemy to some of our readers (does it? Feel free to weigh in), but some Mac owners have (gasp) Android phones. For them, then, the release yesterday of TeamViewer for Android will let them access their Macs from their Droid-like phone of choice, for free — just as iPhone and iPad users have been able to do for about a year or so now.

Just install the desktop client on your Mac, pop the app on a suitable phone and you’re pretty much good to go. TeamViewer works with Windows (and Linux) boxes too; though if you’re a Windows user with an Android phone, the Cult of Mac logo is probably starting to burn your retinas right about now.

Apple was the only big name in mobile that didn’t show up at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week… but it didn’t stop the iPhone 4 from winning the show’s Best Mobile Device Award.

According to the judges, the iPhone 4 won because “it has a great screen, sharp design, fantastic materials, and phenomenal ecosystem for app developers. In a tight race, the iPhone 4 built on the success of its predecessors to set the pace for smartphones.”

Ouch. That’s got to hurt: beaten by a company that didn’t even show up. All was not totally bleak for the Android and Windows Phone 7 device manufacturers in attendance, though: one of their own in HTC won the Device Manufacturer of the Year Award. Personally, though, we think that should probably have gone to Apple too.

Here’s the cover of the March 2011 edition of Wired magazine, which just showed up in the mail:

1 million workers

90 million iPhones

17 suicides

This is where your gadgets come from. Should you care?

Yes, you should care. We do. Kudos to Wired for shining a much-needed spotlight on this important issue.

On Monday, we reported how Apple is working on a streaming-only iPhone. The smaller, lighter device will have limited storage. Media and data will be streamed to the device over the network, like the second-generation Apple TV.

In November, we reported that the iPhone 5 will use a Near Field Communications chip (NFC) to enable an ambitious remote computing system. Wave the NFC-equipped iPhone near any compatible Mac, and the user’s entire Home directory will be loaded onto the guest machine — files, photos, music and even the same desktop background. It will be as though the user is sitting in front of their home computer. Apple has even patented the system.

How are the two related?

It’s unlikely that Apple will use Liquidmetal for the new MacBooks that are expected any day now, but it sure would be sweet. Check out how svelte the machines would be if Apple used the extra-stiff material.

Mockup by designer Dario Crisafulli.

Via SagiaMente.

Who wants one?