iPhone users quickly tire of applications, according to a new study. The number of iPhone owners that use an app at least once a week fell from 40 percent after the first month to 5 percent by the sixth month, researchers said.
The study by Flurry Analytics also found the rate of user retention nearly identical for both Apple’s iPhone and phones running Google’s Android software. “We believe underlying reasons include the fact that Android handsets are capturing a more mainstream audience similar to the iPhone and that Android handsets have improved relative to the iPhone handset,” the analytics firm said.
The mysterious Mac Pro error that caused Apple’s highest-end desktops to start glowing, vibrating and rip fillings from users’ teeth every time an MP3 was played has spurred Apple to release the Mac Pro Audio Update 1.0.
Unfortunately, it’s only available for Mac Pro (Early 2009) computers running Mac OS X 10.6.2. That leaves out a swathe of other Mac Pro owners who are also reportedly suffering problems, but hopefully, Apple will solve their audio-related CPU overheating issues soon, before their Mac Pros turn into miniature fusion reactors.
Anyone having CPU overheating issues on their Mac Pro tried the fix? How’d it work out for you?
Although reports have appeared suggesting Apple is developing a “skunk works” focused on developing its own search engine, the Cupertiono, Calif. company has 100 million reasons to stand pat. The company receives $100 million each year from Google as part of a revenue-sharing agreement placing the Mountain View, Calif. firm’s search engine on iPhones, according to an anonymous source.
Apple is “getting over $100 million a year from Google in its revenue share deal, according to our source,” writes Silicon Alley Insider. Earlier this year, BusinessWeek reported Apple might throw Google overboard, using Microsoft’s Bing for the iPhone.
The revenue, while not significant in terms of its $15.6 billion reported in January, is still enough for the company not to expend resources to compete in what the source termed a market already with “too many options.”
As Apple and Google compete on more and more fronts, agreement is becoming ever more difficult. When Apple first introduced the iPhone, a pact to offer Google Maps took just two weeks to hammer out. But the same deal for the later iPhone 3G and 3GS required six months. Those talks were “full of acrimony” as Apple kept rebuffing Google attempts to gain more access to the map data, according to the anonymous source.
Amazon isn’t standing still in the new rivalry with Apple’s iPad for ebook consumers. Just a week after the Seattle-based maker of the Kindle announced it would buy a multitouch screen manufacturer and design a color e-book reader comes word Amazon will give free Kindles to its best “Amazon Prime” customers.
“A reliable source tells us Amazon wants to give a free Kindle to every Amazon Prime subscriber,” Tech Crunch’s Michael Arrington writes Friday. Amazon Prime is a $79 per year subscription program providing free two-day shipping on items purchased from the online retailer. Subscribers are frequent Amazon customers, including ebooks for the Kindle.
Remember the old ‘Lucy’ show where she steps up to the grocery store checkout and wins a prize for being the millionth customer? Fast-forward a half-century and you have Apple preparing to commemorate its 10 billionth iTunes sale since its 2003 inauguration. Instead of free groceries for life, the Cupertino, Calif. company plans to mark the event with a $10,000 iTunes card for the lucky customer.
“iTunes changed the way you buy music, making songs and albums available for download, day or night. Seven years later, we’re about to celebrate our biggest milestone for music, yet — 10 billion songs download,” Apple announced at its “10 Billion Song Countdown” website.
FastMac principal Michael Lowdermilk shows off the iV Light prototype iPhone cover/battery pack/flash attachment.
SAN FRANCISCO MACWORLD 2010 — It’s hard to miss the FastMac booth at Macworld. Just to the right of the Expo floor’s main entrance, the growing gadget and peripherals company has a prime space on the first aisle that was chock-a-block with visitors clogging the walkway to peer in at product demos and snap up the company’s awesome Apple-oriented t-shirts on the conference’s opening day Thursday.
We received an exclusive demo of a product FastMac is rightfully excited about — an updated version of its iV extended battery and portable charger that could soon mute some of the widespread criticism of the iPhone’s anemic battery life.
Many products in the extended battery class are clumsy and brickish. Despite their utility they often fall into disuse because they fundamentally alter the sleek and sexy feel of the so-called Jesus Phone. The new iV, which will apparently come in two flavors, the iV Light and an as-yet unnamed version, could make many power hungry iPhone users rethink the proposition.
With a new, super light-weight construction and supple rubber-like feel, the next-gen iVs will come with a full enclosure for 100% protection of the phone in a form factor that barely increases the weight and dimensions of the naked phone.
With a built-in LED light that calibrates with the iPhone’s camera, still and video captures in low-light situations should help elevate iPhone photography to new levels of quality and creativity.
The still-unnamed product, which should be available “soon,” according to FastMac principal Michael Lowdermilk, will incorporate a red LED which, in combination with a free remote control app, will turn an iPhone into a universal remote that can be used to change TV channels, stereo settings and a host of other useful and disruptive functions.
With no looking back, Macworld is clearly moving on in the post-Apple era and companies such as FastMac stand to gain increased attention with innovative products such as the iV — this is definitely a company to watch.
Prepress manager Graham Clarke is trying to bring offshore jobs back onshore by investing in easy-to-use masking software.
SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — Graham Clarke, prepress manager at TravelSmith, a travel clothing website, is wandering Macworld in search of software to help him bring offshore jobs back onshore.
Clarke is looking for easy-to-use masking software, which will allow his company to bring a lot of image processing work — currently performed in China at rock-bottom rates — back to the U.S.
Travelsmith processes about 6,000 product images a year. Each has 10 or 15 masks, which are currently processed in China for $10 per image. “It’s very long, boring and labor intensive,” explains Clarke.
“Now it’s like painting,” Clarke says. “It’s so quick and easy, why pay for the labor? If we’re paying someone $10 to do something that takes 10 minutes then it’s time to bring it back in-house. It’s ironic. What work went offshore is now coming back because it’s so easy to do.”
Liana Lehua of the Fittorrent website "bumping" her contact details at Macworld.
SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — Years ago at Palm conferences everyone used to get out their Palm Pilots and beam contact information at each other via infrared.
The tradition is alive and well at Macworld, except people are using the popular Bump iPhone app. The free app transfers contact info wirelessly via Wi-Fi or 3G when two iPhones are bumped together.
Wandering the show floor, you can see people bumping their iPhones together. I saw one group of about six people standing in a circle bumping each other.
“I made them all do it,” explained Liana Lehua of the Fittorrent website, nodding at the rest of the group. “I don’t carry business cards, so everyone downloaded the app.”
Much to my surprise and delight, the crowds are showing up in droves for Macworld. Though the gates opened just 30 minutes ago, the show floor is already crowded with attendees.
“It’s a zoo up there,” said one paserby who queued up to get an entrance badge.
True, the show is restricted to the Moscone Center’s smaller North Hall (instead of both South and North halls), and it’s not as jammed as some previous opening days, but it’s still a very healthy crowd.
To be honest, I’ve always hated the Macworld show floor. The throngs get old really quick, with people shuffling along in a Magadon dream, bumping you with rucksacks full of crap, or interrupting a briefing with dumb questions.
But still, I’d be sorry to see it go. So best of luck to Paul Kent and co. Long live Macworld!
SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — Helped perhaps by low expectations, David Pogue’s opening keynote here was a surprising success, playing to a packed, standing-room-only audience and bringing in a steady stream of laughs at Apple’s expense.
Pogue’s keynote was a variety show, with interviews, skits, singing and dancing — and a one-act play starring LeVar Burton as Steve Jobs.
SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2010 — New York Times tech columnist David Pogue just kicked off Macworld Expo with an impression of Steve — Steve Ballmer, that is, not Jobs.
Pogue stormed the stage grunting and whooping in an exuberant impersonation of the Microsoft CEO, who is famous for his Monkey Boy stage appearances.
“Steve Jobs would have been too obvious,” Pogue said.
It wasn’t a bad start to the Expo. Except for the obligatory song, Pogue is bringing the house down with a string of good jokes at the expense of Apple, AT&T and Twitter.
I’m one of the few avowed fans of Google’s Chrome browser here at Cult of Mac, but it’s definitely got its problems. As Craig eloquently pointed out, it’s a browser utterly dismissive of Apple’s own UI design principles, and the Chrome for Mac beta has a number of shocking holes in its feature set…. biggest among them the lack of a bookmark manager, a cookie manager, a task manager, bookmark sync and extension support.
Guess what features were just added to the Chrome for Mac beta? Hint: Craig’s not going to be any happier.
You should at least check it out: it’s a fuller featured browser than Safari, and the new beta not only brings Chrome for Mac up to spec compared to Chrome on other platforms, but the addition of extensions, managers and sync finally makes Chrome for Mac a serious competitor to Firefox.
If you’re interested in trying it out or upgrading your copy of Chrome, you can download the newest beta here.
This waterproof case for the iPad will probably provide more consumer protection against unnecessary purchases than traditional spending prophylactics.
When the iPad was unveiled, many of us at Cult of Mac who are bag/case junkies wondered just how you’d best carry the device around.
With enough time, cool cases are sure to come. But the iPad is a somewhat oddball size to protect and serve — swaddled in cloth cases it’ll probably look, well, even more pad-like and hard to use on the go, with rubber or plastic border protection like a cell phone it’ll be an awkward size.
This clear envelope style with blue or purple border costs $19.99 from the ironically-monikered TrendyDigital Design. It can also be worn around your neck or shoulder with adjustable strap and was originally designed for the Kindle or Sony e-readers.
The iPhone already plays Doom better than just about any smartphone out there thanks to iD Mobile’s continuing interest in porting their older titles and releasing iPhone-specific spin-off games of their more popular franchises to the App Store… but years before the iPhone’s debut, I was playing Doom RPG on my little Motorola RAZR.
Doom RPG was a great little game that did the impossible: it translated the frenetic first-person action of Doom into a wonderful, story-rich, turn-based RPG perfect for playing on a cell phone’s numeric keypad.
Ever since I got my iPhone, I’ve wished that iD Mobile would port it on over to the App Store… and while they still haven’t done so, they’ve done one better, releasing a sequel for the iPhone and iPod Touch called Doom II RPG. It’s available on the App Store now for $4.
My only question: who is that egghead shooting the demon in the screenshot? That’s not the bloodied, Schwarzenegger-esque marine I remember from Doom days gone by.
Companies seem to be treating the iPad more seriously than they treated the iPhone when it was first announced… at least as far as scrambling to make sure they get their content available on it.
Case in point: Hulu.com, which streams popular television shows to millions of users in the United States through their web browser. According to Techcrunch, Hulu is now in the process of trying to get their content on the iPad… but they’ll need to ditch their online Flash video player to do it.
In truth, that’s not really a big deal. Hulu’s videos are already encoded in H.264, so they should run on the iPad without a problem. As Techcrunch points out, the big issue is making sure Hulu’s ads — all of which are in Flash — are iPad ready. A hurdle, sure, but not a big one… and one that can be gradually rolled out over time. I doubt any of us will mind a few less ads on Hulu through the iPad, at least initially.
Used with a CC-license. Thanks gruntzooki on Flickr.
British thieves have realized it’s more profitable to snatch the iPhone from your hand than risk breaking into your home for a no-name DVD player.
Ten years ago, there were an estimated 1.28 million domestic burglaries in England and Wales, according to the British Crime Survey (BCS). By, 2008/09 that number had fallen to 744,000 burglaries.
The drop, one researcher says, is due to expensive portable gadgets and cheap home electronics.
“While DVD players for example, got cheaper, certain consumer items became smaller and were very, very expensive and sought after,” said James Treadwell, a lecturer at the University of Leicester’s Department of Criminology. So the latest mobile phone, or the latest iPod, which people carry about them, have become targets for robbers.”
Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates has never been shy about commenting on Apple’s products, and now, in response to the iPad announcement, he’s pretty much towing the line of the general Windows world response to Apple’s new tablet: meh.
“You know, I’m a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard — in other words, a netbook — will be the mainstream on that,” Gates reportedly told Brent Schlender of BNET.
“So, it’s not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, ‘Oh my God, Microsoft didn’t aim high enough.’ It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'”
Apple’s most useless-out-of-the-box product, the “hobby” Apple TV, has just gotten a minor update.
Don’t expect this to revolutionize (or even improve) the usefulness of your dust-catching Apple set-top. It’s an update so inconsequential that Apple couldn’t even be bothered to write up some change note for it.
That said, Apple TV users are piecing together that the update, once applied, is mainly to improve the way that the new Aperture 3 pro photo software suite shares images with the Apple TV over the local network, while bringing support for iPhoto and Aperture’s Places and Faces features.
If you don’t care about that, there’s another reason to tempt you top upgrade: users are reporting that the update seems to fix intermittent issues the Apple TV has when switching the HDMI output cable.
If you’re interested, you can update the firmware of your Apple TV to 3.0.2 through the “Update Software” option under Settings > General. Otherwise, we’ll be sure to shake you all awake when Apple finally gets serious about Apple TV.
iBooks, one of the best-known applications for the Apple’s new iPad, won’t ship with the tablet device, according to a Thursday report. Viewed as the ebook equivalent of iTunes, iBooks must be downloaded separately.
“Apple didn’t emphasize this heavily at the introduction, but the iBooks app is not going to be bundled with the iPad — it’s an app you download from the App Store, putting it on an (at least somewhat) equal footing to e-book readers from other companies,” writes Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber.
Apple will offer $1 TV shows on the iPad when the new tablet device goes on sale later this year, according to a Thursday report. Several unnamed studios are going along with the pilot program designed to determine whether cutting current pricing in half stimulates sales.
“If you move five times the volume [of sales] at half the price, it’s a good deal,” one U.S. media conglomerate told the FT. Although studios had previously hesitated to sign-onto such an arrangement with Apple, falling DVD sales and low-cost $1 movie rentals from Redbox, are prompting the turn-around, according to the report.
Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone at Macworld 2007. It was a great success, thanks to the venue and audience.
SAN FRANCISCO — Three years ago Steve Jobs took the stage to introduce the iPhone here at Macworld. The presentation was one of the best in Jobs’ career, generating enormous buzz and expectation for the device.
Also important, fans could check out the device in person on the Macworld show floor (Well, kinda — there was a prototype in a glass case). It was obvious the iPhone was a big deal, and by the time it went on sale in June, there were lines around the block. Looking back, I think the success of the iPhone’s debut had a lot to do with the venue, and the audience it was introduced to.
Despite widespread criticism of their mobile broadband service and the crushing network demand of millions of iPhone users, AT&T isn’t exactly spending a lot of money beefing up their nationwide 3G coverage… and now they have announced that they’ve just signed deals with Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson to roll-out LTE in 2011.
LTE is to 3G what 3G was to EDGE, theoretically offering transfer rates of between 140 to 300Mbps… and if they want to keep the iPhone as an exclusive, it’s important for AT&T to roll it out before their competitors. In fact, maybe the impending LTE roll out explains why AT&T has been so reticent to beef up their 3G network: they’ve known for awhile that 3G is a dead duck, and all they need to do is keep service good enough to get through the next couple of years until LTE comes.
Or at least that’s what I hope it was. Frankly, AT&T’s handling of its 3G network was of such staggering ineptitude that unless they ignored it on purpose, I have no faith that their LTE roll out will be anything besides a debacle.
Either way, you can now probably put a firm date on the iPhone 4G: June 2011.
With the App Store Review Team’s undisguised animosity towards approving apps that “duplicate” innate functionality of the iPhone’s built-in applications a stark fact of the iPhone development scene, releasing a third-party web browser for the most widely adopted smartphone on the market is a risky proposition… but Opera’s going to try it anyway, having just announced that they will be previewing Opera Mini for the iPhone next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Before Firefox and Chrome smudged a lot of their luster, Opera was one of the most cutting-edge browsers out there. In the last couple of years, though, most of Opera’s users are in the mobile phone sector: in fact, before the iPhone, Opera Mini was one of the only options out there for using a (relatively) full-featured browser on a mobile phone. A huge chunk of Opera’s money these days is made in the mobile phone and smartphone sector, so it’s no wonder they want to get their browser on the iPhone.
Unfortunately, Opera Mini is going to be at a marked disadvantage here. Even if it can get past the App Store approval process, Safari is allowed to run on the iPhone in the background while Opera will have to open and reload anew every time the user switches apps. Until Apple allows third-party apps to stay loaded in the background, I’m just not sure I see a market for another iPhone browser.
On a physical keyboard, my own digits are pounding pistons capable of rattling off text with enough pressure pounds per inch to bore through a human skull at roughly 120 words per minute… but get me on an iPhone, and all of my speed typing skills go to pot.
I’m more impressed with this video of some guy typing at an incredible rate of 56 words per minute on the iPhone in portrait mode, then, than I would be at the touch typing tornado of a polydactyl secretary with an IV drip of amphetamines smashing out text at three times the rate.
Simply amazing… and I’m willing to bet some of you out there can do even better, self-proclaimed “fastest iPhone texter in the world” or not.
