News - page 2280

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.

Cult of Mac reader Jason Guest got fed up with waiting for Apple’s latest device to hit stores, and so he made his own tablet—the iFelt.

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.

[via TUAW

The House of Mouse becomes very animated when talking about the possibilities the iPad offers. Disney CEO Bog Iger Tuesday described the new Apple device as a “game-changer,” saying the tablet will enhance the television-watching experience.

“The interactivity it will allow on a portable device with such a high quality screen is going to enable us to really start developing products that are different than the product that you typically see on an Internet-connected computer, or on a television screen,” Iger said during a quarterly Walt Disney Co, earnings call.

Vampire scribe extraordinaire Anne Rice just agreed to make a video-enhanced book or Vook for the iTunes store.

Her effort may provide a necessary lifeblood to the genre, even though she’s not risking much by giving video treatment to a 1984 story first published in Redbook magazine. Set in 1888,  “The Master of Rampling Gate”  is a vampire tale of two siblings and a foreboding mansion that has already been published as an audio book.

Rice’s Vook, priced at $6.99, will launch with iPod Touch and iPhone versions on March 1, a strategic move before the iPad hits the scene.

Two new voices have joined a chorus of analysts predicting AT&T will remain the exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier through 2011. A belief that Apple would cut AT&T loose this summer is giving way to a sentiment that the carrier will be given more time to improve its network and find a way to supplement its smartphone offerings.

Barclays Capital analyst Vija Jayant told investors Tuesday AT&T will probably remain the exclusive iPhone carrier through the rest of 2010. The analyst said Apple’s use of AT&T for the iPad “is a vote of confidence in AT&T’s network by the equipment maker.” The move “could suggest the iPhone exclusivity may continue, at least through the end of 2010,” he added.

Another research firm is reporting how much it costs Apple to build it’s new iPad. ISupply said the 32GB version with 3G costs $287.15 for the parts and manufacturing. The iPad’s low cost to build may provide the Cupertino, Calif. company the “wiggle” room to lower the device’s retail price if needed.

Although the iPad’s parts cost $219.35, the $80 multi-touch screen and $17 processor adds to the final tally, according to iSuppli. Even so, the 32GB iPad costs only to build is only 39.4 percent of the eventual retail price, the analysts said.

Apple topped a survey of brands that Europeans are “passionate” about.

Some 10,000 Old Continent dwellers of 15 nations were asked to reveal their passions for online research agency Panelteam.

Consumer electronics all got Euro-folks hearts racing: the top five brands are Apple, Sony, Coca-Cola, Samsung and Adidas. (And this despite the relative high cost of Apple products — compared to US prices — and without the benefit of ad campaigns like “Get a Mac” in most countries.)

German-based sportswear maker Adidas was the only European company in the top five, though regional passion preferences turned up local companies for each country.

Earlier today, I was reading Infoworld’s article, The iPad questions Apple won’t answer. The first question they listed was “Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad?”, and their assumed answer was “No”; they suggested that the only way to do this would be to open a document from an email message.

I read that and I knew it wasn’t the case. I knew I’d seen something that suggested to me that the iPad has on-board storage for documents. It was something I’d seen somewhere before, and for a moment I couldn’t think where. Then I remembered.

It was here:

This is at 1:04 in Apple’s official iPad announcement event.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1NpU0NwKKk&feature=player_embedded

Courtesy of PopCap Games’ Twitter account, I can now tell you the exact date that my girlfriend will plant herself in her apartment with her iPod Touch and gradually undergo a zombie-like desiccation process herself: February 15th. Because that’s the day that Plants vs. Zombies is finally coming to the App Store.

Plants vs. Zombies is an adorable, hilarious and disgustingly addictive tower defense game in which you must set up rows of specially powered anthropomorphic plants to fight off wave after wave of brain-munching zombies. You can play it over at Pop Cap’s site for free, or buy it for OS X for $20. And let me tell you, if the iPhone port is half as good as the OS X version, we’re looking at one of the best iPhone games of the year.

Australian retailer Woolworths is buying time in the latest Apple logo dispute.

At the core of the corporate tussle is a “W” logo of a peeled apple with leaf filed back in August 2008 for the 80-year-old supermarket chain.

The new logo was supposed to symbolize fresh produce, but speculation was that Apple opposed it because the retailer might also slap blanket trademark on “fresh” computer products and home electronics, causing confusion for customers. Woolworths already sells own-brand credit cards and mobile phone plans.

It never takes long for the Dev Team to pry open the seams of the latest iPhone OS firmware, tickle its insides and come up with a fresh Jailbreak. Less than a week after Apple released their iPhone OS 3.1.3 update, the Dev Team followed it up with an update of their own: Pwnage Tool 3.1.5.

Here’s the caveat: the iPhone OS 3.1.3 update was pretty insignificant. The only real bug fix for non-Japanese users was improvement of the battery life indicator in rare cases. If you haven’t noticed a problem with your jailbroken phone, especially an iPhone 3G or 3Gs, you shouldn’t upgrade, since if you mess up your Pwnage, you risk losing your carrier unlock forever.

Apple’s iconic iPhone, despite increasing pressure from Google, has 25 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, keeping it in the No. 2 slot, according to a new study. Apple’s domestic market share actually grew 1.2 percent as rivals lost ground.

The ComScore Mobile Subscriber Market Share research measured the period ended December, 2009. Although RIM remains the No. 1 smartphone in the U.S. with 41.6 percent, its shares fell 1 percent compared to September. Microsoft, in third place, had 18 percent, losing 1 percent from the September quarter.

Apple’s refusal to spec their devices with memory card readers continues to irritate. My assumption has always been that the lack of an SD card reader on the iPhone has to do with two things: discouraging customers from buying the lowest priced iPhones and cheaply supplementing the storage with an SD card instead of shelling out a couple hundred more on the higher-capacity models, and making sure iTunes is the only real entry to shift to the device.

Still, when Apple updated the iPhone OS to firmware 3.0, adding functionality for iPhone peripherals into the mix, it was only a matter of time that we’d see an aftermarket SD card reader accessory… and here it is, ZoomIt.

Essentially, you plug the ZoomIt SD reader dongle into your iPhone or iPod Touch’s dongle connector, launch the free ZoomIt app and you’re free to shift any file supported by the OS to and from your device.

Of course, this isn’t really an expandable storage solution, but it wouldn’t be a bad way to backup photos from your camera while you’re on the road… and it should even work on the iPad. You can pre-order the ZoomIt now for $50, with a ship date in April.

The Apple Store went down for a little bit today, and while we all got hopeful for a Core iX MacBook update, most of what Apple ended up delivering was the usual assortment of Valentine’s Day deals (and why not? An iPod gifted to a loved one usually lets you steal a base). But there was one significant new product to be had: Aperture 3, a significant 64-bt update that adds up to 200 new features to Apple’s pro photo software package.

Some of the more frivolous new features are the ones you’re already using in iPhoto ’09: face detection and tagging, along with direct Flickr and Facebook exporting. Others are entirely new: Brushes, for example, brings reversible and non-destructive painting to Aperture, including Photoshop stalwarts like dodge, burn, contrast and saturation curves.

Aperture 3 databases have also been written: you can now merge and sync libraries, which should make it easier for professionals to take their libraries on the road. Slideshows have also been significantly improved, integrating photos, audio, video and text into single files that can be exported to iTunes and played natively on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Aperture 3 costs $200, although existing users can opt to pay $100 to upgrade. There’s also a 30-day free trial available.

Will Apple unveil a new line of MacBook Pros today? Some signs point to the possibility the Cupertino, Calif. may announce new laptops with faster chips to coincide with this week’s Macworld Expo 2010.

The first tea leaf isa French gadget blog which quotes an anonymous source. The source “who works for Apple just tell me that the new MacBook Pro line will be launched tomorrow,” according to blogger Steve Hemmerstoffer. The MacBook Pro, which has not seen a major change since last June, could receive faster Intel chips.

Perhaps in a bid to become the world’s leading iCollege, Abilene Christian University will publish an edition of the school paper designed for iPad.

The Texas institution — where the IT studies department was rechristened iSchool — started equipping freshmen with iPhones and iPod Touches back in 2008. The iSchool also started prepping iPhone devs of the future with a 2009 programming course.

Since 2007, they’ve also published the twice-weekly school paper dubbed “The Optimist” (a commentary on future journalists?) for the iPhone.

“The faculty as a whole and the department discussed it, and we said we have to do this,” Dr. Cheryl Bacon,  chairwoman of the department of journalism and mass communications told The Daily Orange. “It’s just too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

Apple says it will stay “nimble” on pricing for its newly-released iPad, dropping the price to attract more customers. This comes as a new survey indicates a doubling of consumers not interested in buying the device once the tablet shifted from rumor to reality.

“Apple seemed to indicate it would respond with price cuts if demand for the device wasn’t revving up the way it liked,” Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope said. Shope met with Apple officials last week. Shope said Apple “will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated.)”

The best thing about Macworld was always the parties. MacWeek’s annual Mac The Knife Party was a drunken bacchanal for the ages; Peachpit and O’Reily put on nice literary soirees with cash bars; and Microsoft’s events always had fancy hors d’oeuvres.

Even Apple, a stranger to shows of public hospitality, once threw parties with generous helpings of food and booze. I got so ploughed at one event, I forgot my heavy laptop bag — computer, camera and all. Apple designer Jonny Ive kindly picked it up and lugged it about all evening until we ran into each other later at a nightclub, and he handed it back.