News - page 2289

Can AT&T survive the end of its exclusive iPhone contract? Probably. But one analyst believes the carrier won’t come away from its arrangement with Apple unbruised. “With its iPhone exclusivity likely to end in 2010, we believe performance could weaken,” Jefferies analyst Jonathan Schildkraut said Thursday.

The analyst put a “Hold” on AT&T shares with a $30 target. AT&T rival Verizon was given a “Buy” rating. Verizon shares could gain if it sells the iPhone later this year.

The carrier, hurting from a dust-up with iPhone owners over talk of reigning in increasing data usage, used the CES in Las Vegas to repair the relationship while also unveiling its after the iPhone plans.

Thieves looking to get their hands on iPhones have streamlined operations by snatching them while the owner is on the phone,  if recent police reports are anything to go by. (If it happens to you, try writing Steve Jobs — he may render justice when police can’t).

Simple but effective: it’s easier than snatching a bag and hoping there’s something good inside, right?

Chicago-based columnist Mark Bazer wrote an open letter to the person who snagged his wife’s month-old iPhone on a train:

Congratulations on your new iPhone! I just know you’re going to love it, as it’s a fantastic device with an easy-to-use interface and photos of my relatives. Heck, they’re now your relatives, too — we’re on the same family plan! That reminds me: It’s your turn this year to host Thanksgiving.

But back to your shiny new iPhone, because there are a number of things you should know to ensure it gives you so much enjoyment that you forget your shame.

For starters, it’s got plenty of room for music, but we weren’t sure what kind you liked. We were hoping Simon and Garfunkel , but if not, just sync that baby up to your PC and create your own mix. (If you don’t have a PC, they can be stolen from most homes.)

Also, we had the foresight to buy you the AppleCare protection plan, so your iPhone is covered for two years if anything goes wrong — with the exception of someone stealing it.

Funny, but it kinda makes me want to grab one, too.

Via Baltimore Sun

If you take a lot of photos, you know it’s all about storage and organization.

Enter Eye-Fi’s Pro X2 8GB Wi-Fi memory card with Endless Memory Mode.

The software recognizes the pics and videos that have already been uploaded and wipes them from the card faster than you forgot which co-worker you slurred sweet nothings to at the company Christmas party. (The self-cleaning card may also help curb bad habits, if, like me, you tend to leave stuff on the camera out of  laziness or fear and loathing of iPhoto).

What else has it got? Class 6 read and write speeds for a minimum transfer speed of 6 MBs and Wi-Fi with built-in 802.11n,  plus a bunch of features for sharing your pics: geotagging, free HotSpot access for a year, uploading to Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, MobileMe and YouTube (and it’ll also alert you via text message when your photos are uploading).

Price: $150.

I grabbed the Eye-Fi 4GB for my mom after realizing her new point-and-shoot came sans memory card — for $80, it’s been a great buy.

Via Wired

Apple appears to be moving closer to a cloud-based iTunes, now offering 30-second sound clips via its browser-based iTunes Preview. The new feature may be a result of the Cupertino, Calif. company’s $85 million acquisition of Lala.

The new feature, noticed this week, allows people to listen to a sample of songs available through the Web-based service silently introduced in November. Itunes Preview lets customers view song titles without requiring they open Apple’s iTunes application.

Former Senior Market Manager at Apple John Martellaro has a thoughtful post up at the Mac Observer explains how and why Cupertino occasionally leaks information about its own products to major news outlets.

Martellaro notes, “Often Apple has a need to let information out, unofficially. The company has been doing that for years, and it helps preserve Apple’s consistent, official reputation for never talking about unreleased products.”

Apple’s method of leaking product or company news is always done in such a way as to guarantee that no one can accuse them of trying to manipulate stock prices, by making sure the leak goes live after the close of the markets.

Although it’s been promised for awhile, a new update to Facebook’s popular iPhone app has hit the iTunes App Store, finally bringing push Facebook notifications to your iPhone.

As soon as you update the Facebook app to version 3.1, you’ll be given the option of turning on push notifications, which will pop up on your phone anytime someone send you a new message, writes on your wall, requests to be your friend, lurid new sexts, tags you in a photo or… jeez, whatever Facebook kiddies are doing these days… throwing vampiric llamas at each other, I guess. However, if you don’t want your iPhone chirping in your pocket every time your mother buys a new sheep in Farmville, the selective push notification options seem robust.

The 3.1 update also adds contact syncing to the mix, which adds Facebook profile pictures and links to your contacts automatically, although it seems buggy and prone to duplication right now. I’d personally recommend holding off on enabling this little feature, although it would be nice to see this functionality continue to improve, given the growing role of Facebook as a subscribable, automatically updated address book for smartphones.

There’s little reason not to grab this one, so hit the update button in the App Store now.

A few months after the gorgeous — albeit issue prone — 27-inch iMac exploded everyone’s socks, Dell has just unveiled their own 27-incher, the UltraSharp U2711, which matches the iMac’s resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 and throws in HDMI 1.3, DisplayPort, two DVI-D ports, VGA, composite video, component video, four USB ports and an 8-in-1 multicard reader

None too shabby, and Engadget loves it. But man, what is up with the price? Dell says that their new display will go on sale next month for $1049. Granted, the 27-inch iMac is $650 more… but you get a frickin’ top-of-the-line Mac along with it.

On the other hand, Dell does tend to discount heavily through coupon codes and the like, so I imagine we’ll see the price fall over time. In a few months, then, this might be worth considering, if you want to give your laptop another 2500 odd pixels of horizontal real estate.

Dell actually makes quality displays, and I doubt the UltraSharp U2711 is any exception, although it’ll be interesting to see if the display, once shipped, is prone to the same yellowing problems as the 27-inch iMac.

It seems pretty clear that Apple and Google are planning for a ruckus in the mobile app space. Google picked up mobile ad company AdMob in November, right under Apple’s noses; Apple responded by acquiring one of AdMob’s biggest competitors, Quattro Wireless.

Google, on their part, seems pretty blase about the upcoming battle, though. Over on the Google Public Policy Blog, group product manager Paul Feng wrote:

When we announced our planned acquisition of AdMob in November, we noted that the mobile advertising space is highly competitive — with more than a dozen mobile ad networks.  In fact, the experts at MobiThinking recently called mobile advertising a “very fragmented” space, in which “no ad network is dominant” and “no one really knows what ad network is biggest.”

Today’s news that Apple is acquiring one of AdMob’s competitors, Quattro Wireless, is further proof that the mobile advertising space continues to be competitive.  And with more investments and acquisitions in the space, including from established players like Apple and Google, that’s a sign that vigorous growth and competition will continue. That’s ultimately great for users, advertisers and publishers alike.

In truth, there’s room for both Google and Apple in the mobile ad space: Apple will be happy if they can establish control the in-app advertising on their mobile touchscreen devices, while Google will be happy to control the rest of the market. Business isn’t a kilted sword fight amongst Queen-backed space vampires, after all. There can be more than one.

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer offered a very brief glimpse of Hewlett-Packard’s upcoming tablet during his pre-CES keynote on Wednesday night. An appearance by the HP tablet was the most-anticipated part of his keynote because the device will likely go head-to-head with Apple’s upcoming slate, if and when it is released.

Although it was on stage at the Las Vegas Hilton for only a couple of minutes, the HP Tablet looks thin and polished — hardware wise anyway. Ballmer showed it running Windows 7 and Amazon’s Kindle for the PC software.

“You can flip through pages with your finger,” he said, flipping through pages with his finger. “And you can buy content from Amazon right within the app.”

He then proceeded to show a video running on the tablet, but was briefly frustrated when he couldn’t hit the tiny buttons on screen with his fingers. “Ooops,” he said after trying a couple of times. He eventually got it to play. Microsoft hasn’t yet optimized the tablet’s UI for big chubby fingers.

He didn’t mention the tablet’s name, pricing or ship date. He simply said, “It’s a beautiful little product” and it will be shipping “later this year.”

It appears to have a 10-inch screen and is very thin. It has no visible buttons on the top surface. The HP tablet will be one of the major products from a big-name manufacturer to compete with Apple’s device, which will likely be unveiled at a special media event in San Francisco on January 27.

With the 3GS demanding practically permanent attachment to a power source like a morphine addict to an IV drip, bringing a car charger along to placate the iPhone on a road trip is simply mandatory.

But an iPhone without a Bluetooth headset or backpack battery to play with is both un-fun and/or treacherous. Monster‘s solution, then, is their new iCarCharger 800, a $30 charger that sports an inline USB port. Typical for a Monster product, the 800 veers toward being over-engineered, with gold-plated contacts and an output of one amp (most peripherals typically require only half that).

The other solution is an outlet splitter, an extra USB car plug and another cable; to which the iCarCharger 800 says, “I’m cheaper, less cluttered and I look damn hot. So, ha.”

iHome may have challenged the likes of Bose and Bowers & Wilkins with their iP1, but they haven’t neglected their position as the big boys of the portable-dock space, as evidenced by this trio of updates to their line (no word on pricing yet):

Upper Left: Zipped up, the fabric-covered iP48 alarm dock looks like one of those over-stuffed CD (yeah — remember those?) wallets we used to carry around. Cool feature: the time adjusts automatically just by docking with an iPhone.

Upper Right: An update to the iHM77, iHome says the assegai-like  iHM79 speaker set yields improved battery-life and sound. Like their ancestors, the speakers have magnetized bums to keep them together in transit.

Lower Left: The iP1’s Digital Power Station technology trickles down into the high-end, feature-packed iP49 clock-dock. Sound enhancements also include an EQ and neodymium compression drivers (which must mean something to the audiophiles out there). Comes with a remote to control all that tech.

LAS VEGAS — Orbitsound claims its T12 Soundbar sounds so good, they refused to demo it on the show floor.

“It just won’t do it justice,” said Ted Fletcher, founder of Orbitsound, which is based in London.

“It’ll revolutionize the way you listen to music,” he added.

LAS VEGAS — Dexim, a young Chinese company that is starting to win design awards, is at CES showing off an iPod/iPhone docking station.

The MHub Docking Station isn’t the most exciting product here, but looks well-made and well-designed, and promises to reduce a considerable amount of desktop clutter. It includes a iPhone/iPod dock, SD card reader and a three USB connections.

“It really reduces your desktop spaghetti,” said Patrick Tarpey, a spokesman for Dexim.

Priced at $80, the MHub won an International CES Innovations 2010 Design and Engineering Award, and competes with Griffin’s iSimplifi.

LAS VEGAS — Lasers make a big difference for pico projectors, says Microvision, which, coincidentally, is showing off the first laser pico projector made for iPod at CES.

Although pico projectrors are a crowded field, Microvision’s SHOWWX Laser Pico Projector is the first powered by laser, which gives it better color and infinite focus, the company says. Most other pico projectors are powered by LED.

LAS VEGAS — Powermat is a wireless charging pad for powering up gadgets without plugging them into their chargers. I’ve been testing a competing product from Pure Energy Solutions for several months, and found that wireless chargers really change your charging habits. My wife and kids, for example, who never charge their cell phones/iPods, have no trouble dropping their gadgets on the Pure Energy’s WildCharger charging pad. For once, there’s not a bunch of lifeless gadgets lying around.

Powermat has noticed similar trends among its buyers, and at CES is showing off several new, inexpensive charging pads priced to encourage users to have several pads around the house.

Can Microsoft’s combative CEO needle his nemesis once more by stealing Apple’s thunder during the CES? That’s the question many are asking following reports Steve Ballmer will introduce a tablet during a keynote speech for the gadget get-together in Las Vegas.

The HP-made device “will be touted as a multimedia whiz with e-reader and multi-touch functions,” the New York Times reported late Tuesday. For months, rumor has swirled around Apple prepping a tablet to possibly launch later this month and begin sales in March. The chatter has reached such a crescendo that a fellow NYT columnist called the rumored product from Cupertino, the “Jesus tablet.”

Verizon Wireless, which has belittled the iPhone in ads for the carrier’s Droid smartphone, will be one of multiple carriers for Apple’s long-awaited tablet device, an analyst announced. “Verizon and others,” said Broadpoint AmTech’s Brian Marshall.

“Definitely Verizon. I’ve been told that’s a certainty,” he added, referring to unnamed sources.

While most eyes are on CES and attention focused toward Apple’s expected tablet, analysts predict 2010 will also be a gangbuster year for the iPhone. Apple should sell 36 million iPhones, a 40 percent increase over 2009. In what was described as a conservative projection, Piper Jaffray announced 15.8 million iPhones will be sold this year – by AT&T, alone.

Apple sold 11.3 million iPhones during calendar year 2009, according to the financial analysis firm.

PocketHeat is an app that has recently been pushed to the iTunes App Store designed to keep your hands warm in the winter. For $0.99, the app will push your iPhone or iPod Touch to its maximum CPU capacity.

It’s rather mystifying that this app got through the App Store approval process, since pushing your iPhone or iPod Touch CPU to the point of meltdown seems risky, to say the least.

Still, it has given me my own killer idea: an exfoliating iPhone app that works by making a user’s handset physically explode. Any developers out there want to help me make it happen?

Intel’s decision to marry their new mobile Core i5 and i7 CPUs with integrated graphics has reportedly not gone over well with Apple, who are rumored to be demanding custom-designed chips from Intel for an update to their MacBook and MacBook Pro line of notebooks.

But perhaps there’s another solution. Gizmodo noticed that NVIDIA, maker of the MacBook line’s ubiquitous GeForce 9400M GPU, is now teasing a new notebook technology called Optimus that is supposedly capable of achieving the performance of discrete graphics in a notebook while still delivering great battery life.

It’s probably just scalable performance, but if the Optimus tech is as good as NVIDIA is bragging, it would allow Apple to ditch the substandard switchable GPU configuration of current unibody MacBook Pros, which requires a reboot, to a discrete-only solution, like the earliest MacBook Pros and PowerBooks.

While it probably won’t encompass a 3D interface, there’s been enough background murmurings about the method users will employ to interact with Apple’s forthcoming tablet to expect something new. What that “new” is? Only Apple knows… but if our tipster is right, whatever the Tablet’s UI is, it’s going to be different enough from OS X or the iPhone OS to require a significant learning curve.

According to reader Tom: “I just heard [to] be ready for a steep learning curve regarding the “new” Apple product about to be released [and its] interface. This person is an employee of Apple and had just had a meeting regarding some of the new things coming. He/She would not go into details, but did say that he/she hoped we liked learning.”

If you read this site every day, it’s hard to imagine that you could have suffered the sort of massive cranial trauma that would prompt you — swollen tongued, googly eyed and phonemically fixated on an open-ended “Duhhhh…” — to waltz into a Best Buy and buy your next Mac. The online Apple store is only a click away, with free shipping even!

But yeah, yeah. I know. Snap decisions and all. Just promise me one thing: if you do, for some reason, make the decision to pick up your next Mac from your local Best Buy, don’t let their Geek Squad sell you a $40 optimization. According to Slate.com’s The Big Money, that optimization is just as much a waste of money as you’d expect.

LAS VEGAS — The first piece of hardware to take advantage of the iPhone 3.0 OS’s much-heralded hardware interface has finally surfaced at CES. And of all things, it’s a speaker clock from Sharper Image.

LAS VEGAS — Ed Curran is a reporter for WBBM-TV in Chicago, and he’s shooting CES using an iPhone.

LAS VEGAS — The biggest electronics show in America —  the Consumer Electronics Show (or CES for short) — opens later this week in Las Vegas, but several companies paid big bucks to preview their new wares to the hundreds of journalists at a special preview event on Tuesday evening.

And there, in the middle of the room, was this bright-red Apple TV. Yeah, a high-def, flat-panel TV shaped like an Apple. The question is, what idiot would buy a TV shaped like an Apple?

“It’s unique, it’s fun, it’s apples,” said the flak unhelpfully.

Made by an unknown-to-me Chinese company, Hannspree, perhaps someone thought it might be mistaken for a real Apple TV, made by, you know, Apple? It has a remarkably Apple-like logo on the front (see the pic after the jump). And it does remind you of the old toilet-seat iBooks of old; the transluscent plastic ones with the carrying handle.

But the company was also displaying TVs covered in fur that looked like Polar and Panda bears, so who knows?