Apple has just updated their ITunes Connect app submission service to allow developers to schedule pricing changes as well as set specific launch dates for their apps, according to an Twitter by user amcdev.
The latter’s a big change: up until now, companies have had no say as to when their apps will go live. Even high profile app releases are promoted with vague release dates which can ultimately prove to be so much wishful thinking. The feature additions to iTunes Connect should give both developers and customers a like some much wanted scheduling dependability when it comes to the release new titles.
As for the ability to schedule sales? Expect a lot more 24 hour sales on the App Store, especially over the next few weeks as developers test the functionality out.
If you need a screen protector for your iPhone, prepare to go to Best Buy to pick one up: Apple will no longer be selling screen protectors — including protective cases and screen films — in either its online store or retail outlets starting in May
Apple has devs to the grindstone for a new social networking app called iGroups.
Patently Apple reports that docs out today from the US Patent Office describe a new service that would work on your iPhone and probably MobileMe, too.
Let’s say you’re attending SXSW: iGroups would keep you in touch with your co-workers and friends by allowing you to share your location plus info and comment on events as they happen, greatly facilitating which parties or events are worth attending or already over.
To accomplish this, iGroups reportedly employs a sophisticated cryptographic key generation system to ensure security and privacy.
The patent also states that if one of group devices lacks true positioning technology, Apple’s MobileMe service would provide “virtual GPS” capability to that user so they can still know the whereabouts of other group members.
Would you welcome a geo-location social networking app from Apple, or prefer to stick to Gowalla or Foursquare?
Or do you plan to shun the “Where’s Waldo?” world altogether?
The iPhone 3GS. Creative Commons-licensed photo by Fr3d: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fr3d/2660915827/
If Palm has problems now, wait until this summer, one analyst predicts. Not only will Apple likely have introduced a new iPhone, but there is BlackBerry-maker RIM, as well as the growing strength of Android-powered handsets.
UBS analyst Maynard Um predicts Apple will unveil a new iPhone in June. Although Palm has a deal to promote its Pri, Pixi and Plus through AT&T, Um believes Palm will be down to a one-carrier strategy as AT&T focuses its marketing muscle on promoting the new Apple handset. Indeed, we saw the first signs of that pulling away when the Dallas-based carrier announced it would delay launching the Palm Pre and Pixi from April to June or July. In another sign the upcoming iPhone may be drawing AT&T’s eye off Palm’s new handset’s, the carrier will “sharply reduce its marketing budget” for the handsets’ launch, according to Cannacord Adams analyst Peter Misek earlier this week.
In addition, amid talk Palm might be better to sell itself to Apple or Google, Um told investors Palm must “drive greater scale” (analyst-speak for sell more handsets) at a time when AT&T is focused on the iPhone into August and Verizon is busy with its Android-based offerings.
Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum said Palm could license its webOS to other manufacturers, rather than hawk its own line of handsets. A BNET writer tweaked that suggestion, promoting Palm as the perfect take-over prospect in the increasingly competitive battle between Apple and Google.
Publishers are balking at a new requirement by Amazon for three-year contracts aimed at thwarting the current rush toward Apple’s rival iBookstore and iPad.
Apple has said it will permit publishers to charge between $13 to $15 for best-selling titles, a premium over Amazon, which keeps titles for its Kindle e-reader at a flat $9.99. A number of larger publishers have sided with Apple’s so-called “Agency” pricing model, concerned the Amazon flat-pricing will undervalue printed books in the eyes of consumers.
Will the Mac break first? CC License pic by mcbarnicle on Flickr
Next week sees the opening of the CanSecWest digital security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.
It’s also going to be host to the annual Pwn2Own contest, where a variety of computers are offered up as prizes to the first individual who can crack their way into them.
This is the fourth year of Pwn2Own and the total prize money has ballooned to US$100,000. Nice work if you can get it.
This year the browser targets are: Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7, Mozilla Firefox 3 on Windows 7, Google Chrome 4 on Windows 7, and Apple Safari 4 on MacOS X Snow Leopard.
There’s also a separate part of the contest aimed at mobile devices, which this year will be: an Apple iPhone 3GS, a RIM Blackberry Bold 9700, a Nokia device running Symbian S60 (probably the E62), and a Motorola phone running Android (probably a Droid).
There are some interesting omissions from the target list this year: no Ubuntu desktops? No Opera Mobile?
In 2009, the a MacBook Air was the first device to be won. Wonder how Snow Leopard will fare this year?
Fake Steve creator Dan Lyons just signed a deal to bring Steve Jobs to another small screen near you.
The half-hour series called “iCon” is billed by the presser as “a savage satire centering on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed.”
Making sure the barbs prick will be the job of Larry Charles, director of “Borat” and “Religulous.” The single-camera show to be aired on cable channel Epix may borrow something in style from his work as writer and producer of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Charles said, “We are attempting to do nothing less than a modern ‘Citizen Kane.’ A scabrous satire of Silicon Valley and its most famous citizen.”
Palm seems in dire straights. Cannaccord Adams has cut its estimates following word AT&T may delay launch of the Palm Pre and Pixi from April to June or July. Now other analysts are suggesting Palm’s 400 handset patents could spark a bidding war between Apple and Google.
Cannacord analyst Peter Misek said Tuesday he’d “recently learned” AT&T would delay launching the two Palm handsets due to what he said was a “long list of technical issues” with the smartphones. Additionally, the carrier plans to “sharply reduce its marketing budget for the launch.” Along with weak sales, technical issues have started impacting Palm’s relationship with carriers, Misek said.
Apple has redesigned its iWork.com Website for the iPad and iPhone, allowing documents to be viewed on touchscreen devices. The company also unveiled new ways to share documents, allowing documents to become public.
The updated interface now allows documents to be scrolled using a finger, an action that has become common for iPhone users and upcoming users of Apple’s iPad tablet device. In a statement, the Cupertino, Calif. based company said the “new interface and improved scrolling help you find your shared documents faster.”
Londoners stuck in the tube now have a handy iPhone app to request ticket refunds. Tube Refund, which costs $0.99, zaps off the request for riders whose journey is delayed over 15 minutes.
Depending on where you go and what time of day, a one-way tube ticket can cost from £1.80 to £4.00 ($2.75 – $6 circa) and a weekly pass £44 ($67) so the app could quickly pay for itself.
This is a great idea — though according to the London Underground rules, refunds only apply for delays “within our control” that last over 15 minutes.
Given that it’s the oldest underground railway in the world, it’s hard to know how much time riders spend in darkened tunnels is due to reasons beyond control of transport authorities.
Apple's 27-inch iMac may account for higher Mac sales. (@Gizmodo)
The global PC market can thank Apple’s iMac for being the main reason desktop computer sales have pulled out of a two-year nosedive, an analyst said Wednesday. The popular Apple all-in-one computer accounted for 25 percent of all desktop growth in 2010.
Although notebooks and netbooks account for more than 90 percent of global PC growth, desktops now appear “like they’ve stopped eroding and can resume at least some low single-digit recovery after two years of decline, driven by emerging markets, corporate workhorse use and power gamers,” Caris & Company analyst Robert Cihra writes.
At least two media sites are following Apple’s no-Flash policy when it comes to the iPad. The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio have produced versions of their Web sites with front pages that do not require Adobe’s Flash, reports say. However, possibly more interesting is how publishers view the iPad experience differently than the iPhone. The iPad, it seems, has jumped that evolutionary hurdle from strictly a computing device to more akin TV.
Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s head of digital operations, told MediaMemo‘s Peter Kafka iPhone apps are a ‘very intentional experience’ where people actively search for information. That possibly is why pages on the NPR Web site deeper than the front page are customized for the iPhone.
Pilot Edward Smith, second right, pilot of a small plane that crashed Monday evening on Hilton Head Island, SC. (AP Photo/Russ Bynum)
Robert Gary Jones was enjoying a jog along on the beach with his iPod when a single-engine plane making an emergency landing hit him from behind, killing him instantly.
The 38-year-old father of two was on a business trip in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina when a Lancair IV-P aircraft lost its propeller and was “basically gliding” Monday evening before hitting Jones, coroner Ed Allen told AP.
“There’s no noise,” said aviation expert Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the National Transportation Safety Board. “So the jogger, with his ear buds in, and the plane without an engine, you’re basically a stealth aircraft. Who would expect to look up?”
Pilot Edward I. Smith and his passenger walked away from the crash landing near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa.
According to the Lancair web site, the airplane model that killed Jones is a four-seater that can reach speeds of up to 345 mph and is sold in kit that can “be easily built in one’s home shop,” with a final price tag estimated at $320,000 – $470,000.
Jones’ death is uncommon, but not unheard of: last year a Philadelphia jogger using an iPod died when a tree fell on her.
Hard to say whether volume control might have saved him, but it’s worth thinking about.
Knox Bronson got in touch to tell us about a little video he’d made.
It’s called Pixels at an Exhibition, and it documents the creative efforts of people who took part in the iPhone photography exhibition at the Giorgi Gallery in Berkeley, California, in December last year.
Toktumi CEO Peter Sisson demonstrates his Line2 app, which adds a second phone number to the iPhone. The app is now available for the iPod touch, turning the device into a sophisticated softphone.
Apple seems to be changing its tune on VoIP apps for the iPod touch. Less than a week after it was submitted, Toktumi’s Line2 VoIP app has been approved by Apple. The $14.95 a month app turns the iPod touch into a fully-featured telephone.
“Interesting was how quickly it was approved – less than a week from submission!” says Toktumi’s founder and CEO, Peter Sisson. “I think its an important development.”
Already available for the iPhone, Toktumi‘s Line2 app joins Skype and Truphone For iPod on the touch, but boasts more features, Sisson says. As well as unlimited U.S. and Canada calling and low international rates, the app has a host of “professional-grade” features, such as call waiting, conferencing, call transfer and visual voicemail.
“It turns the iPod touch into a serious telephone,”Sisson says. “It’s a real telephone. You use it over Wi-Fi and you’re spending $15 a month and that’s it.”
In January, Apple approved an update of the Line2 app on the iPhone to make and receive phone calls over a 3G or WiFi. The approval was in stark contrast to Apple’s earlier stance on VoIP apps, which seemed hostile. Apple’s position was highlighted by the spat over Google Voice, which Apple still hasn’t approved for the App Store.
On the iPhone, the Line2 iPhone app provides with an additional number. It’s pitched at business users as a way of separating business and personal calls.
It also provides a host of advanced, business-oriented call control features like caller-specific call forwarding, after-hours settings, voicemail by email and an auto-attendant (“Press 1 for…”). And it can be used to avoid roaming charges when travelling overseas.
Avaliable as a free 30-day trial, Line2 is $14.95 a month, pay-as-you-go. Here’s the iTunes Link.
Hit the jump for a couple of videos showing how it works.
In a bit of irony, Apple reportedly is hesitating to sign longterm deals with flash memory suppliers because of high prices which some blame on Apple’s heavy use of the chips in a growing array of devices. Although demand is weak for the flash memory in some areas, prices remain high due to chip makers desire to please large customers.
The reason why prices can be so high with a weaker demand is the “major suppliers are limiting their supply to the market,” reports trade publication Digitimes. The tight supply could drive flash memory prices even higher and mean suppliers “may not be able to satisfy customer demand in the second quarter,” Digitimes added Tuesday.
Excitement over the iPad’s introduction continues to accelerate production of new App Store entries more than six weeks after Apple unveiled its tablet device. Indeed, the number of new iPhone OS apps produced rose 185 percent since the iPad became public January 27.
“Over six weeks since Apple announced the iPad, Flurry continues to measure a significant increase in iPhone OS new application starts within the system,” Flurry Analytics’ Peter Farago writes. The company said a large number of the new applications are “custom version of existing applications tailored for the iPad.”
A new app called Silent Bodyguard features a panic button that sends an SOS distress signal with GPS coordinates to potential rescuers without alerting onlookers.
Van Zandt says the app may prove useful in situations where a person is trapped or in grave danger but can’t place a call or create a text message. In Silent Bodyguard, users program in contacts for SMS alerts, calls or email addresses to reach in case of emergency.
Silent bodyguard is the brainchild of Los Angeles mom Jo Perry whose daughters came a little too close to becoming crime statistics for comfort. Her youngest daughter was the classmate of a girl abducted and killed while on an errand and her oldest daughter attends the same University as the graduate student recently murdered in a lab.
Perry, who co-developed the app with Justin Leader, points out that once activated, the SOS messages will continue to be sent out every 60 seconds, updating location. Even if it goes out once, four emergency contacts will know that the user is in some kind of trouble. The alarms keep going out until turned off.
The idea is that you can communicate distress when you can’t make a call or a text. Perry keeps hers in a pocket, not her purse, just in case.
“The app is simple, but because we designed it to be silent and for “stealth” activation, it’s not the usual on-off button people are used to, ” Perry told CoM in an email. “That’s why people don’t always “get it” at first. The home screen is designed to look like a photo viewer, not an alarm. Again, to make it easy to use when a person feels threatened in the presence of people who might be hostile. Joggers, college students, realtors, etc. can find themselves in scary situations with people around whom they can’t just dial a friend and say, “I’m scared.”
We do like the idea, but wonder what you’re supposed to do when the first thing the perp grabs is your iPhone…
While most Apple watchers have been concentrating on the iPad, something unexpected happened: sales of Macs and iPods rose higher than financial experts expected. The new retail numbers makes one analyst believe Wall Street is in for a surprise for the March quarter.
According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster’s interpretation of retail sales figures supplied by research firm NPD, Mac sales are up 39 percent compared to the same period a year ago, far above the prevailing Wall Street expectations of a 22 percent nosedive. Likewise, iPod sales, according to the NPD data, increased by 7 percent through February, up from a 17 percent drop financial experts were expecting.
As a result, Munster believes Apple will sell 2.8 million to 2.9 million Macs for the second quarter, a tad higher than Wall Street’s expected 2.7 million second quarter results. The analyst also foresees 9 to 10 million iPods sold during the period, up from the Street’s prediction of 9 million.
The rosy picture comes with some provisos, though. First, it should have been easy for Apple to beat expectations, given 2009 got off to such a sluggish start. Another point that Munster makes is that while unit sales are up, the average selling price is lower. The average price of a Mac is down 10 percent compared to the 7 percent Munster had expected. Although the analyst had expected the average selling price of iPods to be higher, the actual ASP inched up just 3 percent, compared to the 15 percent the analyst had expected.
Inside Steve Jobs’ abandoned mansion. @Photo Jonathan Haeber, Bearings. Photo: onathan Haeber, Bearings.
A judge upheld a ruling to let Steve Jobs raze a crumbling mansion in Woodside, California, though a preservation group may appeal the decision, again.
The saga of the sagging 30-room Jackling mansion is a long one. Jobs bought it in 1984 and lived there for about a decade, then rented it until 2000. Built in 1925 for copper magnate Daniel C. Jackling, it sat empty, overgrown until Jobs was granted a demolition request in 2004. (For a good look on just how run down, check out Jonathan Haeber’s amazing photos).
A local preservation group called Friends of the Jackling House went to court and kept the bulldozers at bay. In May 2009, Jobs submitted more documentation to bolster his argument that razing the house was more feasible than restoring it.
This week a supreme court judge upheld the council’s decision, so Jobs can apply for another demolition permit.
Earlier this month, Apple had already come clean that many of the iPad’s accessories would not actually be available for purchase simultaneous with the April 3rd release of the tablet itself. At that time, the ship date for accessories like the iPad keyboard dock and spare iPad power adapter was placed in mid-April. Now they’ve been pushed back even further, to sometime in May.
Those aren’t the only accessories to slip. The official iPad Case has also slipped: instead of being available along with the iPad on April 3rd, it’s now slated to a mid-April shipping date.
These aren’t huge delays, but it does show pretty clearly that Apple is having some supply chain problems. It also bodes poorly for Europeans like me who were looking to pick up an iPad keyboard dock at launch: it looks like these accessories might be in scant supply for awhile, with all the spare units going to supply the American market.
There’s more than one company to experiment with iPhone payment schemes lately, and while the likes of Square looks pretty good, I think there’s something beautifully simple about the way PayPal’s iPhone app handles transactions: you just open the app, type in the amount of money and bump your iPhone against the iPhone of the person you want to pay. There’s no dongle required.
It’s about as simple a solution to paying someone using my iPhone as I can think of. The only problem is that it requires you to entrust your financial dealings to the consistently crummy PayPal service. Although I must admit, the embedded video is so endearingly corny, I’m having a hard time hating PayPal too much this morning.
Of all the eccentric Mac-lover accessories out there, these clocks might be some of the most phoned-in I’ve ever seen: they’re basically just old Apple keyboards clawed out of an electronics dump with their keys shaken loose and stuffed with cheap horological guts.
Even so, I’m sort of tempted by the iMac Bondi Blue Clock: it seems like just yesterday when I was bringing one back home for the first time. Oh, how time passes for an Apple fan.
What do the crafters at Geekware do with all of the keys they’ve got left over after they make a clock? No surprise there, really: they try to convince you they’re jewelry. Again, I’m guilty here of thinking these Apple key cufflinks are absolutely ridiculous and yet kind of wanting to own a pair.
