News - page 2345

More consumers are satisfied with Apple computers than products from PC makers, indicates a new survey. The Cupertino, Calif. company registered 81 percent consumer satisfaction compared to 67 percent for its nearest PC competitor.

The survey by ChangeWave Research asked customers who had purchased a computer in the past 90 days whether they were very satisfied, somewhat satisfied, unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with their choice.

Apple garnered an 81 percent “very satisfied” rating, while PC maker ASUS earned a 67 percent “very satisfied” ranking. Acer received a 61 percent satisfaction rating while 56 percent of Sony customers were very satisfied.

Taiwan-based cell phone maker HTC Wednesday was credited as the source of 80 percent of mobile phones running Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software.

“We have sold more than 40 million HTC Windows mobile phones around the world,” HTC CEO Peter Chou reportedly told a Mobile World Conference audience.

HTC, along with producing phones carrying its own brand, makes handsets for carriers AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Orange.

Wired founder Louis Rossetto’s new business, artisan chocolate company TCHO (technology + chocolate) lives up to its name.
The San Francisco chocolate plant is full of industrial hacks, including common kitchen gadgets, like turkey roasters and curry mixers,  a $40 space heater from Walgreens and a dryer duct. (Take a peek inside the chocolate works with a video).

Where does the iPhone come in? Tcho founders commissioned an automation software to allow for 3-D monitoring of the labs from the device.

They’ll be checking on a new kind of fermentaria, boxes used to naturally ferment cacao, developed by former Nasa scientist Timothy Childs.

“In Peru, we’re setting up weather and fermentation monitoring and sensory analysis. We are putting temperature probes in the middle of fermentation boxes,” said Childs.  “We are creating a baseline of data. We are telling farmers to charge us more for beans when they get it right. We are saying, ‘If you go from 60 percent fermentation to 72 percent, we will pay more.’ We want better uniformity in fermentation.”

More details as we get them…

Via SF Chronicle

Well. That didn’t take long.

Just Tuesday we reported on the sad news that Apple decided a South Park iPhone app that allowed downloading of episode clips would be “potentially offensive,” and so barred it from distribution in the AppStore.

Here’s a how-to video for all the jailbreaking criminals out there who just can’t live without South Park on the iPhone.

Dude has pretty good taste in music and a very easy-going instructional manner. If you’re willing to flaunt “the law” he shows you how to download South Park episodes to your iPhone and even how to put ’em on your PC.

Image courtesy TUAW

The bottom line to the story here is clear: after Friday Boxee users will no longer be able to stream Hulu content through Boxee’s media center platform.

What’s less clear is who holds the cards in the deal — is it Boxee, Hulu, or the content providers on whom both of them depend for existence — and who will win in the end.

As usual, consumers, at least in the short run, get the short end of the stick.

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar put the best face on things in a blog post Wednesday, saying, “we stubbornly believe in this brave new world of media convergence,” while admitting that without Hulu’s content partners’ content “none of what Hulu does would be possible.”

A Boxee spokesman told Cult of Mac, “our goal has always been to drive users to legal sources of content that are publicly available on the Internet.” He said as a bridge between the converging worlds of traditional and online media Boxee can be a revenue generator for both content streamers such as Hulu, as well as for original providers. “We have many content partners who are generating revenue from boxee users and we will work with Hulu and their partners to resolve the situation.”

For now, after accounting for the cost of a robust internet connection, consumers can still access content from Netflix, ABC, CBS, MTV and more for free. But where Boxee will fall in the ongoing scrum for ever-tightening consumer dollars among cable providers and network content producers remains to be seen.

These simple, sleek iPod touch custodians made of wood also double as stands.

These Dutch-designed cases are called iWood Touch (what else?) they’ll set you back about $100 (€80).  Miniot offers them  in four different types of wood ( cherry, oak, padouk – the reddish Asian wood pictured above — and walnut) for first gen iPod touches and two for second gen (just padouk and walnut). They’re a little pricey, but have the advantage of looking  enough  like an eyeglass case that they might  thwart a thief or two. Your monogram or short message of love are carved into the case as part of the price.

If you find wood is good, new two-tone versions of their iPhone covers are also available, though these do seem to clunk up the design of the device a bit.

Images courtesy Miniot,  iLounge

Via Care2

Owners of Apple’s iPhone should not hold their breath waiting for a version of Flash for the favorite handset. Adobe is now reticent to talk about whether it was working with the Cupertino, Calif.-based company.

“Adobe needs more from Apple to succeed than Apple ordinarily makes available to iPhone software developers,” Dow Jones wrote Tuesday after talking with an Adobe spokeswoman.

The refusal by Adobe to comment on its relationship with Apple caused one Apple fan site to pour cold water on previous suggestions the two companies were working closely on an iPhone version of Flash.

Cult reader Flunky Carter shares this interesting survey of his iPhone shot using a webcam’s Night Vision.

Small cracks and stress fractures he says are not visible to the naked eye under normal lighting conditions show Apple’s mobile device takes significant wear and tear in the real world.

Thanks FC!

Although the economy has caused it to curtail opening more retail locations in 2009, Apple Wednesday officially added France and Germany to its list of European stores.

Two locations appear to be vying for the spot as Apple’s first storefront in Paris. The most well-known is one slated in the Carrousel du Louvre, a mall nearby the famous Louvre museum. However, a store is also on the drawing board situated close to the Paris-based Garnier operahouse, according to reports.

Following its Paris premiere, Apple is expected to launched another French store in Montpellier.

During bleak economic times, companies need to welcome the faintest rays of sunshine. That appears to be the word from one analyst forecasting lower sales for Apple’s upcoming March quarter.

“We believe this data will be perceived as a neutral or a slight positive given the uncertainty surrounding the Mar-09 quarter,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told clients Tuesday.

Sifting through numbers from NPD and internally, Munster expects -6 percent growth for Mac sales, compared to the second quarter of 2008.

Cell phone maker Samsung Tuesday added its name to the growing list of manufacturers joining the Android bandwagon. The company said it would unveil at least three handsets based on the open-source Google mobile phone platform in 2009.

In a Reuters interview, Samsung’s product strategy chief, Won-Pyo Hong, said ‘at least three’ Android phones would be produced, the first appearing in the later half of this year. Previously, the No. 2 cell phone maker had said its Android phones would appear in the Spring.

Although the company released few details, talk has surrounded Sprint and T-Mobile as the handset’s U.S. carriers.

There are many co-workers who would be wise to read this message before approaching, just wonder if over time, they’d start pretending you hadn’t declared yourself the resident grouch.

Available for $6 on Etsy

Apple made a huge detail about the non-removable battery it created for the 17″ Unibody MacBook Pro. By going with a sealed design, the company argued, it would be possible to make a much-higher capacity battery. Well, the guys over at iFixit have had their way with one of the new models, and it’s pretty clear the battery isn’t THAT hard to remove. It actually surprises me how much it looks like the interior of my existing MacBook, giant fans excepted.

Definitely check out the full slideshow — it’s good stuff. Anyone picked up a 17-incher yet? What do you think?Check out a couple more shots from iFixit’s meticulous disassembly operation after the jump.

The long-awaited South Park iPhone app (submitted to Apple last October) has been officially denied AppStore approval, according to Matt Stone, creator of the hit Comedy Central television show, who informed fans in an email to BoignBoing Tueday. “We are sad to say that our [iPhone] app has been rejected. According to Apple, the content was potentially offensive.”

Memo to AppStore Gatekeepers: “Huh?”

The South Park iPhone app was a little something that would have given fans of the show and other users the ability to stream clips, grab wallpapers for the phone, read news, and browse the complete episode index.

A cool feature that would likely have been a big hit with many was the ability to choose character likenesses as “contact images” for the iPhone’s address book. An incoming call from a user’s best friend would display as Kyle or Cartman; the medical marijuana dispensary could be Towelie; Tony Bourdain could be Chef, etc.

This is indeed sad news and further evidence of the persistent inscrutability of Apple’s AppStore approval process, especially in the light of users already being able to purchase entire episodes of the foul-mouthed tv show directly from iTunes.

Via VentureBeat

AT&T announced Monday its next-generation 4G network will be commercially available in 2011. The carrier had previously said the new network would begin trials in 2010.

The 2011 timeframe would put the exclusive iPhone carrier a year behind rival Verizon Wireless, which has said its trials of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network would begin this year.

For AT&T, the shift in timing for introducing LTE differs from previous statements by the carrier suggesting it intended to use its 3G HSPA, or HSPA+, technology until 2012.

(Larger version here.)

Norwegian Mac support company Teknograd likes to have fun with its advertising campaigns, and this latest one is the cleverest idea yet.

In recent years they’ve had a series of ads showing a Mac desktop where the Hard Disk is under attack from a mass of files and folders. But for this year’s campaign, they wanted something new that made use of the default Leopard desktop wallpaper.

The result is these TIE fighters, created by advertising agency TBWA. I asked them how they did it – surely not with real icons on a real desktop? No.

“We have photoshopped this, in almost 400 layers, but each folder is named individually, so it was a hell of a lot work. Martin Holm, the illustrator and art director, just passed out when we asked him how long time it took,” they told me.

Apple’s planned refresh of iPhones is putting increased pressure on flash memory manufacturers managing dwindling inventory, according to one analyst Tuesday.

“Our checks indicate that Apple has started ordering for its iPhone refresh (iPhone and iPhone Nano), stifling the supply chain,” ThinkEquity analyst Vijay Rakesh told clients in a note.

In the case of memory maker Samsung, Apple has allocated its inventory until April, according to Rakesh.

HTC Monday unveiled its Magic handset, the second smartphone powered by Google’s Android software. The phone also is the first Google phone to sport a virtual keyboard, striking closer to home for the Apple iPhone.

Although the model does away with a physical keyboard, the Magic retains its 3.2-inch touchscreen, 3.2 megapixel camera, as well as 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS for access options.

Vodafone will be the first carrier to offer the Magic. The carrier won an exclusive deal in the UK, Germany and Spain and a non-exclusive pact in Italy. France’s SFR will also sell the phone.

Not too surprising that nearly 70-year-old Sir Tom Jones doesn’t “do” technology.
Hey, he’s a sex bomb, not a geek, ok?

Jones has an iPod with trendy music —  Kings Of Leon and The Ting Tings — but someone else has to load up the device  for him.

“I am useless at the internet and I have never owned a computer,”  Jones told tab The Sun. “I have an iPod but I don’t load it up myself.”

“I don’t get any pleasure from that sort of thing. I have never seen a text message – what’s the point? Why not ring someone up?”

In other, unrelated Jones news, the Welsh crooner has finally decided to give up the Grecian formula and show his gray hair. If he ditches the fake tan, I’m in the front row.

Via the  Sun

If you’ve spent any time around wee ones lately,  you know toy manufacturers seem to be challenging each other to see who can devise the most annoying, ear-wormy tinny electronic jingle to fart out whenever your kid interacts with it in some way.

Hail the Combi Bouncer, the killer app for baby bouncers. You can plug in the music from your iPod and a vibration unit driven by the music sends them into cooing cuteness or sleep faster. Sound controls are on the back,  so the baby is not disturbed when you turn down the “Cradle Song.”

It can hold babies up to 25 lbs and comes with a removable collapsible canopy, toy bar with wooden toys and an adjustable hammock-style seat design.

$79.99 USD on Think Geek

Via Softpedia

Here’s an interesting concept for an Apple product by San Francisco artist

Here’s the first touchscreen Mac. Harvey says, “I designed the product from all angles (the back is absent from this page) and set it up on a layout typical to apple.com. Down below there’s also a sloppily thrown together iPhone ][ in a (PRODUCT)RED advert and spliced into Steve Jobs’ hand.”

Check out more of Harvey’s work at deviantART

Wow, here’s a fantastic hack from the RetroMacCast forum, in which contributor Charles Mangin creates a new body for a Mac mini – using the body of an ancient Apple Disk ][ drive.

Palm continues to be a thorn in Apple’s iPhone as the handset maker announced its touch-screen phone will include Adobe’s new mobile Flash version.

After engaging in saber-rattling over the Pre, the two companies face-off on a nagging problem for the iPhone: lack of a suitable version of Flash. Until recently, smartphone makers were forced to choose either Flash lite or the bulkier Flash version meant for desktop computers. Recently, Adobe said it was still committed to developing a version of its graphics software that met the requirements of Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

As part of its announcement, Palm also said it would join Adobe’s Open Screen Project, an industry-wide initiative.

HyperMegaNet UG, the maker of Germany’s PearPC Mac clone, voiced confidence it would win a copyright infringement case against Apple in European courts.

“We are not afraid of going to court with Apple,” a HyperMegaNet spokesman told Computerworld. The German company said they “are awaiting” contact from Apple’s legal eagles over its PC towers that come with Mac OS X pre-installed.

Germany’s laws invalidate Apple’s end user licensing agreement (EULA), according to the spokesperson, Dirk Bloessi.