News - page 2153

We’ve already seen two of the major streaming music subscription services openly revolt in response to Apple’s newly prohibitive in-app purchase guidelines, demanding a 30% cut on all subscriptions, products and services offered through any iOS app. Now smaller devs are starting to pipe up too.

Arc90 — the developers of Readability, a cross-platform Javascript plug-in that enhances online content by simplifying it down to its barest and most readable elements — were developing an iOS subscription app leveraging Instapaper’s technology that would allow them to give 70% of their income to the content producers being read through their service. It was an innovative and practically revolutionary plan to reward authors for their work while enhancing the user’s reading experience by stripping out advertisements, and you can read more about Arc90’s plans for the app in our exclusive interview.

Unfortunately, it now seems that Readability will not be coming to iOS: according to Apple’s tightened restrictions, the Readability app was rejected by Apple for utilizing a subscription system that doesn’t use Apple’s In App Purchase API.

Apple, in other words, wants their 30% cut…. and Arc90 is hopping mad about it, having posted a scathing open letter about the matter on their official blog, in which they accuse Apple of greed and turning their backs on the developers who made iOS such a rich, dynamic and innovative platform to begin with.

The Arc90 blog is being hammered right now, so we’ve posted a copy of their letter after the jump.

The incredible indie sensation Minecraft has sold over 1.3 million copies since it was first released halfway through last year, and it’s still only in beta. Expect the amount of copies sold to quickly grow as high as one of Minecraft‘s physics-defying, voxel-based fantasy structures in 2011, though, because dev Mojang has just announced that Minecraft will be coming to iOS in 2011.

This one’s for the sharps: an official pack of playing cards featuring OS 7 icons instead of faces and suits is now available on eBay. It’s a real Apple product, originally sold only to Apple employees from the Apple campus store.

Current bid is a respectable £51.00, although my guess is that before bidding ends, you’ll be out a bad Blackjack streak in Vegas’ worth of chips to acquire this lovely retro deck. I’m tempted to bid myself: this would be the perfect deck to add insult to injury to the inamorata in my ongoing, fifteen-game Cribbage winning streak.

[via MacStories]

Wireless carriers in the United Kingdom are drastically lowering their subsidized prices on the original iPad, strongly suggesting that they are clearing inventory in anticipation of the imminent launch of the iPad 2.

In November of last year, Cult of Mac reported that the iPhone 5 would gain a near-field communications chip, which would enable an ambitious remote computing scheme that would effectively allow you to take your desktop Mac’s settings and files “on the road” with you, syncing it with another Mac just by waving your iPhone in front of the screen.

Now Apple has been awarded a software patent for a new OS X feature that could be an integral part of their future remote computing plans: it describes a way for users to secure vital files in a virtual ‘safe deposit box’ which would then encrypt them and possibly even upload them to the cloud.

Remember the WALDok? It sounded like the unholy cybernetic offspring of WALL-E and Iron Man’s creepy hypercephalic floating robot head nemesis, MODOK, but the WALDok was actually a Kickstarter project for a gorgeously compact speaker dock for the iPod nano capable of outputting some truly impressive sound while simultaneously juicing you up.

The only problems with the WALDok? First, it was iPod nano only… a design decision which seemed to unnecessarily specify the WALDok into obscurity. Second, as a Kickstarter project, it hadn’t yet made enough money in $59 pledges to guarantee that it would ever be made.

Luckily, over the weekend, both problems resolved themselves. Designer Hern Kim not only redesigned the WALDok to accommodate other iPod models, but also surpassed the $30,000 pledge total thanks to some publicity from Gizmodo and Wired, meaning that the WALDok will soon be a very real product. $59 pledged at this point is as good as a pre-order. Hooray!

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, over twenty tablets made their debut running Google’s tablet-centric flavor of Android, Honeycomb… but if early indications are anything to go by — namely, the Motorola Xoom 3G’s entry-level price of $799 — it looks like none of these tablets will be competitive with the iPad. If the so-called “Apple Tax” is real, why can’t the competition beat the iPad in price?

Wired’s Brian X. Chen has an excellent overview of the many reasons that other tablet makers are just not able to compete with the iPad’s price tag. There’s a lot of factors at play here, but essentially, what it all comes down to is that Apple doesn’t have to pay a cut of every iPad to nearly as many parties as Motorola, say, has to pay for the Xoom.

Apple’s A4 chip design is owned by them, so they don’t have to pay licensing fees. They sell the iPad primarily through their online store or their 300 retail locations, which means other retailers don’t take as much of a cut. They don’t have to license an operating system. Furthermore, Apple can subsidize each iPad in small part thanks to the cut they make on every sale made through iTunes, including the App Store, their music and video stores and the iBookstore.

All together, it looks like the reason competing manufacturers can’t make a tablet with the same features and price as the iPad is because it’s impossible for anyone but Apple to do so at this point. Apple’s the only device manufacturer out there in control of its own manifest destiny from hardware through software, from physical retail presence down to digital delivery. Forget the Apple Tax: the sub-$500 tablet is a product only Apple is in a position to make.

Light Peak is likely on its way to Apple’s 2011 Mac line up, and might debut in Thursday’s MacBook Pro refresh… but what about Apple’s iOS products? MacRumors postulates that Light Peak is also coming to the iPad 2. We seriously doubt it, though.

The new MacBook Pros are due on Thursday according to pervasive Internet scuttlebutt, and at the very least, a jump to Intel’s new Sandy Bridge architecture is a sure thing… but another state-of-the-art Intel technology might be coming to them as well, with Mactrast reporting that the February 24th MBP refresh might include the adoption of Intel’s Light Peak technology.

Apple has delayed shipping MacBook Pros on its online store for 3-5 business days… delaying the earliest day you can have a MacBook Pro shipped to you to well-ahead of the rumored Thursday launch of the next-gen MacBook Pros. Given how religious Apple’s Tim Cook is about supply, this has all the markings of an official MacBook Pro refresh.

Before the Mac, before the Apple II, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak made their first product: a digital Blue Box for hacking into telephone systems. In this clip from the 1998 documentary Silicon Valley: A 100 Year Renaissance, Jobs describes how the capability of this device so impressed two young teenagers that they began to realize the power of ideas and the potential of technology to control vast amounts of information.

If we hadn’t made blue boxes, there would have been no Apple.

They also realized the importance of good product packaging – nice wooden shipping case!

Apple appears to have re-introduced the full version of field test mode in iOS 4.3 Beta 3, which will allow you to quickly check the quality of your cellular signal by simply dialing: *3001#12345#* and pressing Call on your iPhone.

Under iOS 4.0 the field test vanished much to everyone’s dismay during Antennagate last year only to have a much simplified version reappear in iOS 4.1 that looked like this:

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.