News - page 2182

Always faddish in their production of knock-offs and crap gadgets, the black market electronic shops of the Far East have lately been disgorging a surplus of cases that sandwich in a SIM slot and a cellular radio, thus allowing you to make phone calls on your jailbroken iPod Touch. They’re clever hacks, to be sure, but it appears that Cupertino itself has already thought of just that approach to transforming an iPod Touch into an iPhone… and if Apple can think of it, you can bet that they’ve patented it.

In fact, earlier this year, Apple filed a patent application for an “accessory transceiver” that would bring mobile calling and data to the iPod Touch. You know, just like the Peel 520. Or the tPhone. Or any of the other iTouch-to-iPhone cases we’ve written about since August.

An agreement allowing newspapers and magazines to parlay the iPad into new print subscriptions may be one or two months away, according to a Monday report. The pact with publishers could be timed to coincide with Apple unveiling a new iPad in early 2011.

Apple has “accelerated its efforts to persuade publishers to join the company’s first foray into selling newspaper and magazine subscriptions for the iPad,” the Wall Street Journal reports. The Cupertino, Calif. company has already discussed its plans with Time Inc., Condé Nast, News Corp. and Hearst’s publishing divisions, the paper reports, citing insiders. Hearst may have already agreed with the proposal. Apple reportedly said “at least one” company is willing to sell subscriptions through its iTunes service, the report adds.

Recall the old joke about being slightly pregnant? Shift the premise to Apple’s tablet and you have the latest opinion on whether the iPad will hurt Mac sales. After previously thought to hurt PC notebook sales most, an analyst tells investors Monday morning the iPad is “slightly cannibalizing” demand for low-end MacBooks.

Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu slightly reduced his expectations for September Mac sales to 3.8 million, down from 3.9 million. He points to suppliers indicating the tablet is “slightly cannibalizing” the most inexpensive MacBooks. At the same time, the analyst increased his forecast for iPad quarterly sales to 5.7 million, up from 3.6 million. The rosier picture is due to the kinks being worked out of iPad screen supplies.

Like a time travel scenario where you meet your own grandfather as a child, enthusiasts working with the Einstein Newton Emulator project have ported the Prodigal PDA to the iPhone.  The current implementation is only available as source code and runs a bit slow, but is an actual working version of NewtonOS complete with handwriting recognition and familiar input gestures.

Most of us don’t need VoiceOver, the accessibility feature that’s built into the operating system of each and every iPhone.

But for one blind iPhone owner, it has been a life-changer.

Your choice of smartphone may tell more about you than you realize. Various sources are reporting on a Nielsen Mobile Insights survey about mobile phone usage; among other findings: iPhone users prefer chicken, while Android owners love ribs.

[coupons.com] examined its mobile coupon usage from the different platforms and came up with some staggering results. Did you know that women’s body wash coupons were routinely used by iPhone owners while men’s body wash was often purchased by Android owners?

If that doesn’t floor you, you should know that iPhone owners buy baby products 42 times more than Android users. Google OS users are more apt to use pain-relief coupons though, probably because of the headaches of using Android’s multimedia player. [intomobile]

According to the Wall Street Journal additional details from the survey reveal that a higher proportion of 18- to 24-year-olds use Androids than iPhones, BlackBerry users tend to use their phones more for business purposes than entertainment, and iPhone users tend to be more affluent and better educated.

I’m not sure whether this is more useful as flame-bait or marketing demographics, but it’s fun!

[via Digg]

According to a story on Network World a cease and desist letter was sent by Apple to Newsday about their popular and viral iPad app commercial that I wrote about last week.

The commercial demonstrated one way the iPad could not possibly replace a newspaper — using it as a fly swatter. If you use the iPad to swat flies according to the commercial the iPad screen will shatter. Allegedly Apple wasn’t to happy about that ad.

Network World received the e-mail below, but wasn’t able to confirm its authenticity:

“Newsday got a cease and desist letter threatening all of our apps, if we did not remove the commercial immediately. They took exception to the fact that the (iPad) glass shattered into large jagged pieces … Your instincts are correct.”

The e-mail above leaves me feeling a bit disturbed, since we all know how controlling Apple has been over iTunes App Store content. However, I highly doubt that Apple would resort to these tactics just to get a commercial pulled.

Something doesn’t feel right about this and I’ve contacted Apple for comment. I’ll post their response or refusal to respond here later.

In the mean time you can try to catch a glimpse of this commercial, while you still can, via YouTube. The original video that I linked to last week has been pulled from YouTube.

[via Network World]

Google Voice apps have had a chaotic history appearing in and then disappearing from the iTunes App Store. The “official” excuse was duplicity of iPhone features, but now it looks like Apple is putting all these excuses aside by allowing, Andrea Amann’s, GV Connect app into the App Store.

The Commodore 64 emulator application for iPhone was pulled from the App Store by Apple in September 2009 for leaving its BASIC interpreter intact and accessible via a backdoor hack. This week, the app has returned after some rework by its creator, Manomio — with BASIC included.

At least he was polite, but it’s obviously not customers for whom Steve Jobs has little regard — it’s journalists.

When Long Island University senior Chelsea Kate Isaacs, 22, emailed Jobs Thursday asking why Apple’s PR department wasn’t responding to her questions about about the use of iPads in academic settings, she claimed she wasn’t expecting a response, according to a report at Valleywag.

But she got one, several in fact, and in the end Jobs said, simply, “Please leave us alone.”

Ms. Isaacs should have emailed us about why Apple PR doesn’t respond to questions like hers; there’s a whole staff here with lots of experience in that area.

[Gawker]

Since I can’t live without a number pad and therefore stick with Apple’s wired keyboard, I can’t avail myself of this gorgeous black walnut keyboard tray by the Combine Collective in any of its three varieties, which takes the wireless keyboard for granted. What a shame. I really wish I could: this is just an utterly gorgeous way to keep all of your Mac desktop accessories consolidated, especially for the price of just $79.

It was common knowledge that Apple’s new AppleTV was running some sort of variation of iOS under the hood, especially since it uses the iPhone 4 and iPad’s A4 CPU for silicon horsepower, but TUAW has confirmed it: the AppleTV is an iOS device, and therefore jailbreakable using existing techniques… although since there’s no local storage, I would imagine any AppleTV jailbreaking would mostly focus on improving functionality by beefing HD output up to 1080p.

Calloo! Callay! It’s a frabjuous day for Mac Pro and mini owners looking to match the new iMac’s biggest and most beautiful display.

After months of waiting, Apple has finally made its new 27-inch LED Cinema Display available for purchase, featuring a 2560 x 1440 resolution, a 178-degree viewing angle, a universal MagSafe connector for charging MacBooks, a built-in iSight, microphone and 49-watt speaker system, as well as three USB 2.0 ports.

You can pick it up now for $999 from Apple’s online store, with delivery slated within one to two weeks.

Samsung is attempting to break into the growing tablet market with a full-court press against the Apple iPad. The Android-based Galaxy Tab device will be available on all four U.S. carriers: Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T, which already offers 3G service for the iPad. Although pricing and availability are still not settled, two carriers said the Samsung device could be available either in weeks or months.

AT&T announced it would sell the Galaxy at its retail stores and from its website “in the coming months.” Along with offering 3G service for the iPad, AT&T is currently the exclusive provider for the iPhone.

A second-generation iPad with video-chat could appear in early 2011, according to a report. Suppliers are preparing to ship “ultra-thin glass-based touch panels” to Apple at the start of the year’s first fiscal quarter.

The updated iPad will remain with a 9.7-inch screen, but include Apple’s FaceTime video-chat feature which uses Wi-Fi connections, according to Taiwan-based industry publication DigiTimes. In addition, Apple is in “advanced testing stages” of an iPad with an front-facing camera used by FaceTime, according to anonymous sources sited by AppleInsider. FaceTime is already available on the iPhone 4 and latest iPod touch.

Talk of the iPad cannibalizing the netbook, notebook, or entire PC industry, has long been around. However, now comes two more voices – this time from both the analyst world and the CEO suites. The iPad has “cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50 percent,” Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn told interviewers earlier this week.

The statement, while dramatic on its own, appears bolstered by a Wall Street analyst who reported Thursday U.S. notebook growth fell 4 percent in August, the first time that product has seen negative growth. Noting the steep decline matches the iPad’s introduction, Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty blames “tablet cannibalization” partially for the drop in notebook growth.

Now that Apple has made iBooks available on all iOS devices users can read their purchased eBooks on a number of different devices. But what if you have a couple large RTF, DOC, TXT, or LIT files of your own that you want to view in iBooks you’re out of luck. In this tutorial we’re going to show you how to get digital and convert your documents into eBooks so that you can enjoy reading them on your iPad, iPhone or new iPod Touch.

This $13 skin from Petapixel makes your iPhone 4 look like a Leica camera, inspired by a DIY sticker project Joey Celis devised for his iPhone.

While it would protect your phone from scratches, as far as camouflage goes, does it make sense to cover your expensive iPhone to make like look an even more expensive, easy-to-steal gadget?

Love it or lose it?

Britain’s best-selling Sunday National Newspaper The News of the World is the latest publication to announce plans for a subscription-based iPad app.

Dates for the iPad app haven’t been announced but are expected to be in synch with the relaunch of the website in October.

iPad users will have to pay £1.19 a week (about $1.85) to view the celebrity highs and lows, that’s slightly more than the £1 newsstand cost but less than a snail-mail subscription, which currently costs £134.00 a year or £2.57 a week.
The website will also be behind a paywall, charging readers £1 for a day’s access or £1.99 per month.

The rogue tabloid — currently embroiled in the celebrity phone hacking scandal — is the third title in under six months in the News International stable to launch digital subscriptions, following the Times and Sunday Times.

“News International is leading the industry by delivering on its commitment to develop new ways of making the business of news an economically exciting proposition,” Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, told Reuters.

Case and battery manufacturer Mophie has just launched the Juice Pack Powerstation — a one stop iOS charging station.

It’s 3,600mAh capacity  means it is more than capable of fully recharging either iPad or iPhone (including iPhone 4), which will bring the possibility of going days without touching a power point.

The Powerstation has a pair of USB ports, one used to charge your device and the other for charging the battery itself. At 2.86 x 4.31 x 0.65 inches, and weighing somewhere around a pound, it is not the most portable of devices. You would be hard pressed to find a pocket big enough to lug this around in, but that said it will comfortably fit in most bags.

The Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation for iOS devices is available now direct from the Mophie site for $99.95. Full review as soon as we get our hands on one.

Much as I love Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series of tongue-in-cheek horror films, and much as I have tried to emulate my virtues after that of its protagonist Deadite slayer Ash Williams, I have never found any of the myriad efforts to translate Army of Darkness‘ appeal to the video game form to be worth anything besides a derisive snort.

So I feel a little foolish getting so excited by word coming from Backflip Studios that they will be releasing a game based on Army of Darkness to the App Store early in 2011.

There’s almost no details so far, except that it will be a tower defense game, which is a surprising but remarkably appropriate choice, and you can expect several hours of Bruce Campbell’s snarling, macho and downright hysterical catch phrases as you blow hole after hole through the medieval dead with your trusty boomstick. Don’t bone this up, Backflip!

Having for many years a George Costanza wallet wreaking all sorts of lumbar havok upon my coccyx and spine, I now favor svelteness of pocket: anything that isn’t my iPhone, a small wad of bills, a couple cards and my keys is simply too much.

I think I’m in love with this ingenious, minimalist iPhone 4 case by TRTL BOT: it seems like it was made just for me, fusing a standard attenuation-reducing iPhone 4 case with a slim pocket for up to three cards and a small fold of cash.

Speaking of small folds of cash, it only costs $30, and if you’re still on an iPhone 3G or 3GS, TRTL BOT sells a similar case for $5 less. Go get one: Jerry Seinfeld would approve.

With National Novel Writing Month coming up this November, it would already be a good a time as any to plug our third entry in our Mac Essentials list, the incredible novelist’s tool Scrivener… but the imminent arrival of version 2.0, a new blog update explaining the new version’s added features and a last chance to get Scrivener at its old, cheaper price make it a no brainer.

What to expect in Scrivener 2.0? The lengthy list of new features is too big to fully cover, but in the upcoming version, you can expect to find significant improvements to the corkboard mode, including freehand movement of note cards; a revised text editor that includes a Pages-style format ribbon and a page layout view, as well as an Ommwriter-style image background in full screen mode; multiple project notes; editable QuickReference panels; document collections; custom templates and icons; the ability to sync with Simplenote and ePub support to read your new masterpiece on the iPhone, iPad or just self-publish it.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. As a major new version, Scrivener 2.0 is getting a price bump to $45. Anyone who bought Scrivener 1.0 since August 15th gets the upgrade for free, while older customers must pay a $25 upgrade free.

The good news is that until Friday, September 17th, you can still buy Scrivener at its old price of $39.95… and since you will have bought it after August 15th, that’ll make you eligible for a free upgrade to 2.0 when it lands in October, giving you an entire month to get comfortable with the new features before NaNoWriMo.

Could an App Store-like arrangement rescue newspapers seeking to use the iPad to prop up dwindling print revenue? That’s the question as a new rumor floats across the radar, suggesting Apple will provide newspapers access to demographic data in exchange for a cut of digital subscription sales.

Apple has agreed to allow subscribers share their personal data with newspapers, demographic information that can be a treasure for publications looking to lure advertisers. Previously, Apple had balked at sharing such data, wanting to provide only sales volume.

There’s an interesting change in the way iOS 4.2 handles orientation lock on the iPad… one that indicates a curious design backpedal on the part of Cupertino.

Previously, orientation lock on the iPad was handled with a physical hardware switch on the side of the device, but in iOS 4.2, it has been repurposed as a physical “Mute” button, with the orientation lock achieved the same way it is on the iPhone 4 or iPod Touch under iOS 4: through the multitasking tray.

It’s a minor but significant change that, I suspect, portends the elimination of the mute/screen orientation button on the second-generation iPad. For famously minimal and streamlined Apple, a physical mute button doesn’t make a lot of sense on an iOS device that isn’t a phone.

[via MacRumors]