News - page 2307

In a sign that Apple is perhaps distancing itself from Google, the Cupertino company has bought a mapping startup.

In July, Apple bought the Los Angeles mapping startup Placebase, Seth Wientraub reports at Computerworld.

Placebase offered a sophisticated mapping application and API called Pushpin, which can create rich, detailed maps from all kinds of public and private data sets — much more than Google. See the example above, which shows gas stations and auto service shops in the L.A. area.

Steve Jobs has always said he likes to control the primary technology in his devices. Can he be preparing to move away from Google, especially its Mapping app, which is behind some of the iPhone’s primary functions and underlies new mapping features in iPhoto?

As Weintraub notes, Apple has been fighting with Google lately over the Google Voice app, and Google CEO Eric Schmidt quit Apple’s board to avoid conflicts of interest.

Is the Google/Apple rift deepening?

Entrepreneur Peter Collingridge, founder of Enhanced Editions, an experimental ebook publisher that’s just put out Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro as an iPhone app, thinks it unlikely Apple is trying to “redefine publishing” as recent reports have suggested.

“Whilst I’d love it if Apple were looking at doing exactly this, I find it unlikely,” he says.

But Collingridge does think there’s huge opportunity in reinventing the ebooks as “digital books,” and that Apple’s tablet presents some interesting UI opportunities.

As Brian Lam on Gizmodo today says about Apple “redefining print” for its upcoming tablet, it’s all about the content.

If Apple has learned anything from the iPod, it’s that a modern consumer electronic device is a three-legged stool: hardware, software, and media that fills it.

Apple doesn’t want to launch a tablet without media to consume on it. This is the mistake Apple made with the Apple TV: It’s a great piece of hardware and software, but the content isn’t there yet (especially the paucity of Hollywood movies).

So Steve has set out to persuade publishing houses, magazine companies and textbook publishers to make interactive books and magazines that make sense on an interactive, multitouch device. Here’s the key paragraph from Lam’s story:

“Some I’ve talked to believe the initial content will be mere translations of text to tablet form. But while the idea of print on the Tablet is enticing, it’s nothing the Kindle or any E-Ink device couldn’t do. The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft’s Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static E-Ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it’ll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today.”

But what might this “hybrid content” look like?

One clue comes from Enhanced Editions, a U.K. startup founded by former-book industry executives that seeks to marry technology with traditional print publishing. “We have long-since seen the destiny of the latter bound to its embrace of the former,” the company says.

iHome combines the common iPhone doc and the ubiquitous iPod alarm clock into the iP88, a dual dock for both the iPhone and iPod that also serves as a customized alarm clock. The $150 simultaneous charging unit is the result of iHome’s understanding that “many households have multiple iPhones, iPods and docking stations,” the company said upon announcing the start of shipping.

There is a parallel with the cell phone. Initially, mobile phones were not that common, so one family could do with a single charging station. Eventually, multiple cell phones with accompanying chargers resembled a tangled snakes nest of cords and plugs. The result: companies created charging stations where multiple phones could reside.

But multiple docking is not all the iP88 offers. Along with convenient charging, you can customize how you awake: either with a selection from your iPod’s playlist, a tune from the AM/FM radio, or a buzzer. Along with the Reson8 stereo speakers, the unit comes with a remote control.

The alarm clock portion of the iP88 is what makes it stand out from the crowd of other dual docking station, such as the Gigaware model we featured earlier this week.

[Via iHome]

This an ad mock-up from Moscow agency Doberman Studio has me plenty confused.  Sure,  the sleek, round lines of the Mac Mighty Mouse might induce one to think it feminine.

Or is it some kind of commentary on gay marriage — i.e. did Mickey fall for the cartoon Mighty Mouse?

In the second version, cartoon mouse Jerry also falls prey to the seductive powers of the Mighty Mouse.

Europe’s Alpine glaciers are going fast — some reports have them washed away by 2050.

To stop them, some Alpine regions have tried gimmicks like heat-reflecting blankets, but the Swiss region of Jungfrau is banking on an iPhone app to raise awareness.

Developed by the University of Berne’s Institute for Climate Change, the Jungfrau Climate Guide app, also available on iTunes, shows hikers where the effects of climate change are already visible and what scientists know about the subject.

Finally, the team at Dropbox have released a native iPhone app. And it’s pretty awesome.

Twenty five years after Apple aired its famous 1984 commercial, it’s Steve Jobs that is being portrayed as Big Brother.

In a remake of Apple’s famous 1984 ad, which famously portrayed IBM as a force of oppression, startup doubleTwist has Apple pegged as the oppressor.

Microsoft’s Courier tablet isn’t just a concept.

The company’s Research Lab built a remarkably similar device in 2008 called Codex. And in the real world, the Microsoft tablet is not quite as slick as the demos make it look.

ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley is reporting that Courier is more than a concept: it’s an “incubation project” slated for a possible mid-2010 release. Also, Microsoft is “leaning toward” building the hardware itself, like the Xbox, to speed the device to market, and presumably offer competition to Apple’s rumored tablet.

Check the video and pictures after the jump to see what it actually might look like in real life.

When people talk about classic gaming, they usually rattle on about really simple, playable games that are challenging but that a five-year-old could conceivably master. Such people were clearly traumatised by text adventures (now referred to using the rather loftier term ‘interactive fiction’) and have therefore removed them from memory.

These games were primarily text-based, with you solving puzzles via verb-noun parsers. As time went on, adventures gradually became increasingly complex and elaborate, with Infocom arguably leading the genre to its height.

Sadly and perhaps predictably, text adventures eventually got a thorough kicking. In the words of Richard Harris: “Graphics came along and the computer-using portion of the human race forgot all about 500,000 years of language evolution and went straight back to the electronic equivalent of banging rocks together—the point ’n’ click game,” which, he argues, signalled the arrival of the post-literate society.

But via the magic of the internet, interactive fiction clings on, and apps for playing the Z-machine format are commonplace. Frotz is one of the best, and it now exists as a free iPod app. I interviewed its developer, Craig Smith, to find out what he thinks of interactive fiction and why he brought Frotz to Apple handhelds.

Classic rockers Queen Tuesday helped boost the profile of Logitech’s Squeezebox Radio. To promote the $200 Squeezebox, the group’s “Queen Absolute Greatest” album, device owners will get exclusive access to songs, lyrics and photographs prior to the November release.

Introduced in September, the Squeezebox Radio streams music via Wi-Fi. Napster, iTunes and Sirius selections are supported.

[Via Logitech]

What do you get when you mix the old-style pedometer with the Wii and our modern obsession with health? The answer: the fitbit, a tiny wearable motion-detector providing you with a window into just how healthy (or not) are your days and nights. The $99 wireless gadget begins shipping today a year after its unveiling.

Borrowing some of the technology of the Wii, which tracks players’ body movement, the fitbit senses when you walk, run, bike – even sleep. The fitbit can either clip on your clothing or on a wristband. Data gathered by the device is then wirelessly transmitted to a base station. You can then either check the fitbit’s LED screen (which displays a flower that grows as you exercise more) or through fitbit’s “dashboard.”

Gizmodo has another mockup video of Microsoft’s Courier tablet concept showing how the device might be used for creative work.

The heart of the system is an “infinite journal,” an interactive work area that’s used to store and work on photos, handwritten notes and messages from colleagues.

But in four minutes of video, there’s just the pen. Fingers are used for navigation, but all the input is via pen and handwriting recognition. There’s no virtual keyboard to be seen.

It’s a pretty compelling vision of how a touchscreen device might be used in real life. I’m half convinced, but I can’t help feeling it won’t work. A tablet device has to be multitouch, not pen-based, otherwise it’s going to be  mainstream flop. History has shown, pen-based systems are niche products. The future is fingers.

The Apple tablet is 10.7-inch device that runs the iPhone OS and is ready to go, subject to Steve Jobs’ final approval, iLounge reports.

Citing a rock solid source with a proven track record, iLounge says the “iPad” looks like a jumbo iPhone with a curved back and an approx. 720p touchscreen. The device will be announced on January 19 and ship in May or June — the delay is designed to build iPhone-like hype.

It will come in two configurations: One with built-in 3G networking and another without. “Think of the 3G version as a bigscreen iPhone 3GS, and the non-3G version as a bigscreen iPod touch,” iLounge says.

The device is not designed for a work or productivity. It’s for media consumption.

“It’s a slate-like replacement for books and magazines, plus all of the media, gaming, app, and web functionality of the iPhone and iPod touch,” iLounge says. “It is not meant to compete with netbooks. It’s an iPhone OS media player and light communication device.”

And Steve Jobs is 80 percent likely to give the green light for a January 19 launch.

Why January 19? That’s the big question.

After a 15-year hiatus, Apple has taken Newton Tablet developer Michael Tchao back into the fold.

Tchao, once part of the original Newton team,  will now be a vice president of product marketing.

Steve Dowling, the Apple spokesman who confirmed the hire did not say exactly what the man who helped create the grandfather of PDAs will be doing in Cupertino.

The NYT speculates that he’ll be helping define the market  for an Apple tablet; though they can’t resist calling the Newton a “groundbreaking but failed personal digital assistant. ” (Most other takes, including ours, say the product was axed when Steve Jobs returned.)

It’s not such a big jump from the Apple tablet to Tchao’s most recent gig, serving as general manager of Nike Techlab,  which designed armbands and running shoes to integrate with  iPods.
It’s just as easy, for now at least, to speculate he’ll be doing more in-house integration with these devices.

Via Mediabistro

Apple announced today that there have been 2 billion downloads from the App Store. But how many of those were paid, and how may were free?

The mobile advertising firm Mobclix claims its app analytics shows that paid apps represent 77.3% of the App Store, while the other 22.7% of apps are free. However, far more free apps are downloaded than paid.

“For app developers, this means it’s much harder to get your paid app discovered,” the company says.

The App Ranking section of Mobclix’s website reveals some other interesting App Store tidbits.

While there are 20 categories of apps in total, for example, the two most popular categories — Games and Entertainment — account for more than a third of all apps in the store. Together, the Games and Entertainment categories make up 35% of all apps.

At the other end of the scale, the smallest five categories — Social Networking, Photography, Finance, Medical and Weather — account for only 6.2% of the App Store.

The site also lists the most popular apps in the 20 different categories.

Did you know that Pee Monkey Toilet Trainer is the most popular book on the App Store?

More here.

OK, recently exhibited at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art. (Huge version of this.)

When does an operating system UI element become a work of art? Is it when Artie Vierkant replicates it many times over and makes it into a huge print? Or was it art in the first place?

Here’s one of those ‘lifeboat’ questions: you’re on a snowy mountain, the rescue ‘copter is 8 eight hours away and your iPod runs out of juice. Do you a: listen to the whistling wind and stay toasty warm inside a heated jacket or b: hotwire your jacket to power your ‘pod? That may be the situation if you purchase the Refugium Jacket from Mountain Hardwear.

The $375 jacket claims to keep you toasty warm for 8.6 hours using Ardica’s 10-watt power source located in the coat’s shell near a person’s shoulder blades. The heat can be adjusted (there are three settings) by pressing a tab near the chest.

But for CoM readers, here’s the real feature: a USB adapter can re-route the energy used to heat the jacket to an iPod. Of course, it’ll cost you $50 extra to contemplate whether listening to your favorite tune really is to-die.

[Via Product and Gizmodo]

Maybe James Bond will finally get an iPhone, now that it has driven his iconic Aston Martin out of the top spot of cool brands for the UK market.

The iPhone was neck and neck with the high-end car maker, coming in second last year. After being in the top spot for four years in a row, the Aston is surrounded by Apple electronics.

The top four spots in the annual Cool Brands list are iPhone, then Aston Martin, Apple and the iPod. (Nintendo rounds out the top five. Other car makers like Ferrari and Mini placed 15 and 17 respectively.)

It’s an interesting victory of relatively affordable personal electronics over luxury — in the top 20, Apple also triumphed over Dom Perignon, Rolex and Vivienne Westwood.

Aston Martin, however, hasn’t quite lost its cachet, if the rumors are true that iPod designer Jonathan Ives drives this sleek little number (check out the Bond-related plates) we spotted parked outside Apple’s Rock n’ Roll event.

Via Telegraph

The number of apps downloaded from the App Store has passed a cool 2 billion, Apple said on Monday.

That’s means the App Store is growing like a weed. In late April, Apple announced the App Store hit one billion downloads, and 1.5 billion three months later in July — on the store’s first birthday.

The latest 500,000,000 mark took just two-and-a-half months to hit. That means about 6 million apps are being downloaded EVERY DAY. That’s a pretty mind-boggling number.

In addition, the number of apps is now 85,000 from 125,000 developers, Apple’s press release said.

Apple’s full press release after the jump:

Orange is to start selling iPhones in the UK “later this year”, ending O2’s exclusive reseller deal with Apple.

Orange already sells iPhones in several other countries.
Conor Maples broke the news to Twitter users first thing this morning. Mobile Entertainment predicted that the exclusive deal would end about about this time back in August.

Orange is saying nothing yet about prices and contract tariffs, nor has the company pinpointed a launch date. It has put up a web page where people can register their interest.

O2 has had the exclusive deal since 2007 and generally done a decent job of it, although it has been criticized for poor data network reliability and high prices for tethering and roaming. A little bit of competition is probably going to be a good thing.

Here’s some pictures of the rare Apple I that will be up for auction on eBay early next week. Hit the jump for more.

As reported earlier, the historic machine will be up for auction shortly, likely next week. The owner, Monroe Postman, hasn’t announced the date of the auction.

Postman picked up the Apple I at an estate sale around 1980. He doesn’t remember the details, including how much he paid.

Hit the jump for some amazing overhead pictures by Jason Hawkes, a UK aerial photographer.

Can Microsoft ever do anything right? The company has some produced some pretty good advertising for Windows 7, but for some inexplicable reason, the ads will not be shown on TV. Microsoft’s best advertising in years is restricted to a dusty corner of YouTube, where no one will see them.

After making everyone squirm with Jerry Seinfield and Bill Gates, and then reducing Windows 7 to rainbows and unicorns, the software giant has produced five new ads that are right out of Apple’s playbook.

At the giant Tokyo Game Show, everyone’s freaking out about Apple, the New York Times reports.

Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are more worried about Apple and it’s new iPhone/iPod platform than the worst recession in decades, the Times says.

Apple’s recent foray into video games — with the iPhone, the iPod Touch and its ever-expanding online App Store — is causing as much hand-wringing among old industry players as the global economic slump, which threatens to take the steam out of year-end shopping for the second consecutive year.

The industry sees a big shift to casual gaming on cellphones and other handhelds, rather than expensive, overpowered consoles. Consumers are buying $0.99c games, rather than dropping $50 on big, blockbuster titles with multimillion dollar budgets and massive development teams. Of the 758 games debuted at the show, 168 are for cellphone platforms, the most ever.

Some game developers say Apple’s App Store is the biggest recent breakthrough in gaming, and the industry is better off trying to find new business models rather than new consoles.

“We are going to move away from a market where it’s the hardware that fights against each other,” one developer said during a presentation. “We are going to be moving to an era when different software stores fight against each other.”