As experts attempted to gauge the potential impact of AT&T losing its exclusive iPhone arrangement to Verizon, the opinions ranged from a severe body blow to downright demolishing. However, just weeks from the Feb. 10 (Feb. 3 for pre-orders) date for Verizon sales to begin, one expert claims 90 percent of AT&T iPhone owners are locked-in to contracts with costly early-termination fees.

Indeed, Susquehanna analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro believes AT&T will lose 2 million subscribers – “at most” to rival Verizon. What’s holding them there? Apparently, there are several hundred reasons. The No. 2 carrier will charge a $325 early-termination fee. The 90 percent expected to remain with AT&T is even higher than the figure CEO Ralph de la Vega gave reporters last year. The carrier executive said in May that he wasn’t too worried about the (then potential) Verizon deal, given that 70 percent of iPhone owners used family plans with onerous restrictions and the 40 percent of iPhone users attached to corporate discount plans.

Still rocking an iPod Classic? I know I am: although I love my iPod Touch, a part of me just can’t let go of the notion that the true magic of the digital music experience is the ability to carry around, on one pocketable device, more music than you could conceivably listen to in a decade. Picking and choosing which songs and albums to load? What is this, the stone age?

That’s why I still rock my 160GB iPod Classic, which is actually just a few gigs a way from being filled up entirely. Now Toshiba is doing the rounds with a new 1.8-inch drive that is just as thin as the current Classic drives — just 5mm — but goes all the way up to 220GB, while boasting better battery life and a bigger buffer for less skipping.

So: 220GB iPod Classics, coming soon? I don’t really know. I’d say that the Classic line is on its way out: Apple’s committing to flash memory and multitouch these days. But is there a possibility that Apple will continue to crank out the Classic to appeal not to everyday users but to niche listeners like me who want to hold their entire iTunes libraries in the palm of their hands? I doubt it — extreme niche really isn’t Apple’s thing — but maybe.

[via Hard Mac, 9to5Mac]

AT&T is expecting a “rocky, volatile and hard to predict” 2011 after losing iPhone exclusivity, said CEO Randall Stephenson speaking with analysts on Thursday.

However, the erstwhile sole American provider of Apple’s nifty prestige handset claims to be “fairly confident” that they will still manage to grow through the disruption.

Last quarter, AT&T gained enough subscribers to pass Verizon as the biggest domestic wireless carrier, now boasting 95.5 million wireless customers compared to Verizon’s 94.1 million.

The only problem is now Verizon’s got the iPhone, and analysts are going absolutely bonkers predicting how many people will flee AT&T, and how many CDMA iPhones Verizon will sell. Some analysts say that up to 10% of AT&T’s existing subscribers could jump ship in the coming year, while others suggest that Verizon could sell twenty five million CDMA iPhones.

Meanwhile, Verizon’s further sweetening the pot by offering unlimited data and mobile hotspot features for up to five connect devices, neither of which AT&T has officially countered yet.

“Rocky?” Seems like a bit of an understatement, don’t you think? 2011 is going to be a knuckle-whitener for AT&T.

I’d be hard pressed to identify a gadget more likely to be repeatedly dropped as much as a cell phone. The constant, frenzied fumbling into a pocket for a ringing call pretty much guarantees that your phone will go flying out of your hands on at least one occasion. So when Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 with a design that was glass both front and back, I arched my eyebrow. I suspected daftness.

As it turns out, though, the iPhone 4’s Gorilla Glass backing is pretty tough. It’s not tougher than the iPhone 3GS’s plastic, though. There was also Glassgate, where various third-party slider cases would cause particulate matter to become trapped between the rear back of the iPhone 4 and case, scratching the Gorilla Glass and even growing into larger fractures over time.

No surprise, then, to hear that the first class action lawsuit over Apple’s decision to use Gorilla Glass in the casing of the iPhone 4 has just been filed in Los Angeles. The lawsuit, filed by Donald LeBuhn, claims that the iPhone 4 is not as durable as Apple claims and that Apple continues to sell the product without warning customers of its defective glass housing.

After months of rumor, speculation and delay, Rupert Murdoch’s iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, is finally ready to say “how do you do,” judging by these very stodgy and dusty invites News Corp. just sent out.

The Daily will be officially unveiled on Wednesday, February 2nd at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City at 11am EST, headed by Rupert Murdoch and Apple VP of Internet Services Eddie Cue.

Yesterday afternoon, Apple released version 10.1.2 off iTunes through Software Update, a seemingly mysterious update to Apple’s catch-all media library / shopping / syncing / social networking software gryphon.

As is usually typical, Cupertino was terse about what was in iTunes 10.1.2, only noting that it “provides a number of important stability and performance improvements.” No new features were mentioned.

Don’t shrug off iTunes 10.1.2 though, especially if you plan on buying a Verizon iPhone in the coming weeks. In the update’s Read Before You Install iTunes document loaded in the .dmg file, it is explicitly noted that the 10.1.2 update adds support for syncing with the CDMA iPhone 4.

Best grab the 10.1.2 update now if you plan on jumping ship to Verizon. You might easily forget, then spend hours bashing your head against the wall in activation before a Genius finally explains the problem to you with such smug bemusement that you almost squinch his turtleneck shut with your hands then and there.

If you bought your copy of excellent FTP client Transmit directly from its makers at Panic Inc, then stand up and shout “YAY”, because you can go grab yourself an updated version today.

But if you bought your copy via the magical Mac App Store, turn towards Cupertino and shout “BOO”, because the exact same update was submitted to their approval system three weeks ago, and still hasn’t been approved.

Verizon may have just landed the iPhone just in time: AT&T just announced that they have passed Verizon as the number on wireless carrier in America, increasing their current subscriber numbers to 95.5 million.

Yeah, I said Sinbad! Apparently it’s an old joke that everyone has a “I-met-Sinbad-at-Macworld” story, after all, he’s been coming to Macworld since 1985. Well since he was going to be here anyway, they asked him to get on stage and give a keynote, and I’m glad they did because it was fantastic.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2011 — Here’s a panoramic pic of the huge crowd that just went into the main auditorium at San Francisco’s Moscone Center West to hear what the comedian Sinbad has to say about, well, Macs presumably.

As much as I wish I could be inside getting the benefit of the big guy’s wisdom and a few yuucks beside, I’m trying to gather info on a few of the pretty interesting products we’re seeing at Macworld this year.

So I’ll have to leave it to others of my colleagues to fill readers in on what Sinbad had to allow at his keynote today.

But I thought you’d be pleased to know he can still draw a crowd.

Here’s a fun one. Whatever you’re doing on your Mac, from any application or any document, try hitting all these buttons together: Control+Option+Command+8.

Bam! Your screen colors are inverted. Don’t worry, you haven’t broken anything, and this isn’t a bug. It’s a feature.

You may have heard of Djay for iPad, it just got featured in Apple’s newest iPad commercial. Well, I got some hands-on time with the app and I gotta say, I love it.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2011 – The twin booths for Livescribe and Evernote are mobbed this morning. Though the alliance between the popular virtual notebook and productivity suite and the MP3 pen was announced a few months ago, there’s something about seeing what they can do together that makes for a real-two-great-tastes-that-taste-better-together moment.

Ray Toledo of Evernote is busy fielding questions from teachers — three stop by while I’m there — who are asking questions about how to use the service to keep notes in a cloud system that can be accessed by students. He shows them how Evernote can recognize handwriting so you can take a picture of a whiteboard then search for the term in your database,  share it online with groups or send it as an email.

It’s not the first time he’s been asked these questions — Evernote has an ongoing series on how to use the service in education — and he also assures them that the free version is probably sufficient the needs of most for pennywise educators. (As an Evernote aficionado and prolific clipper, I’d tend to agree. I’ve never exceeded even a third of 40 megabytes free space per month.)

They’re also showing the slick looking Echo, but Toledo assures me that if I update the software for my 2GB Pulse model, I can still integrate with the note service.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2011 — Five minutes on the show floor at Moscone West and the florescent lights, flashing cameras and jostling crowd have got me wanting to bolt.

So I put on some headphones for a demo of Naturespace, an app that billed as “holographic audio” that promises to help users “relax, meditate, escape and sleep.”

Gary Goldstein tells me the “aha” moment that started the company came by accident. A group of sound engineers left a high-end mic recording in a forest by accident and came across the recording months later.

Transported back to the idyllic scene, they realized there was a huge difference in sound quality between studio recorded nature sounds and those captured outdoors with optimal equipment.

There are currently six free tracks for your iPad, iPhone and iPod and another 80 available ranging from $0.99 to $3.99.First timers at Macworld, they came to show off an iPad version of the app  launched late 2010.

Although some of the tracks (“Peyote” and “Loki” ) might do a little more for you than soothe, as will the incredibly powerful lightning storms. As a fan of computer assisted meditation, I liked the app — especially since the sound has been optimized for Apple earbuds — great if you are an insomniac (like me) who never goes to bed without an iPod loaded up with some droning audio books handy.

Goldstein says he doesn’t have a favorite, but frequently uses the app for a quick mental escape. His current winter favorite is the soothing sounds of warm Hawaii.

The Best App Ever is… Angry Birds, according to the 148Apps website.

On Thursday here at Macworld, the hyper-popular game won the top Best App Ever category in 148App’s third annual Best App Ever awards. The $4.99 game also won the top spot in six other categories. The awards attracted about 500,000 votes for the 609 final nominees.

Angry Birds dominated Apple’s top iTunes download charts for most of most of last year (12 million downloads), and is storming the charts on Android, PlayStation Portable, Windows and is proposed on several other platforms.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2011 — The biggest booth at Macworld used to be Apple’s. Until 2009, when Apple pulled out, the first thing attendees would see was Apple’s giant booth.

That spot is now occupied by, of all things, Sanho Corp., maker of the HyperMac line of external battery packs. The company is best known for being sued by Apple. Apple filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Sanho for using its MagSafe connector in the HyperMac batteries.

HyperMac’s booth is front and center of the show hall. It is draped in a couple of big banners, giving it by far the biggest presence at this show, which is made up mostly of small companies in small booths.

Getting sued by Apple must be good for business.

SAN FRANCISCO, MACWORLD 2011 — The corridors are crowded, the booths are hopping and the registration desk is doing brisk business.

Against expectations, Macworld 2011 is doing pretty well on opening day. Of course, there are a few caveats:

• It’s in a smaller hall in the West Moscone building, instead of the main Moscone Center.
• It’s the first day, which is usually the most popular.
• And compared to CES, it’s a minnow of a show.

But against the odds, Macworld looks prettty healthy this morning. Macworld isn’t dead! Long live Macworld!

We start the day with a new batch of reduced-priced iPad applications, including the game “Puzzle Agent HD.” We also check out a new crop of free iPhone apps, including “Real Skijump HD.” To round out the spotlight, we take a look at some iPads that are marked down by as much as $100. A 16GB refurbished Wi-Fi model is just $429.

Along the way, we also look at a 1.4GHz 64GB SSD MacBook Air for just $849, as well as various other hardware and software for your favorite Apple product. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Three years after opening doors in Beijing, China has Apple’s highest-grossing stores worldwide, outselling New York’s iconic Fifth Avenue “cube” location.

“Apple has an iconic product, and they are well-positioned in China,” said Ted Dean, president of Beijing-based technology consultant BDA China told Business Week. “There is a category of consumer in China that wants the best-in-class product, and they are willing to spend to get it.”

Apple’s Fifth Avenue store sells the equivalent of a Mercedes-Benz C300 in iPods, MacBooks and iPhones per square foot and is the top-selling store on the tony street.

But the four Apple stores in China generate, on average, the highest traffic and highest revenue of any company stores in the world, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said during the Apple earnings call recently.

Apple plans to open doors on 40-50 stores worldwide in 2011, over half of them will be outside the U.S.

Looks like we should update our bucket list of Apple stores to visit.

Via Business Week

Nokia. Remember them? They are the world’s largest seller of cell phone. But then came the iPhone and Android, and the spotlight mostly left the Espoo, Finland company. Perhaps that was the meaning behind a statement Thursday by Nokia’s CEO. “Nokia faces some significant challenges,” former Microsoft exec Stephen Elop remarked. In the memorable words of Homer Simpson: well, duhhh.

Although Elop didn’t mention Apple or Google by name, the Nokia leader obviously had them in mind when the phone maker reported a drop in net income to $1.02 billion, down from $1.29 billion during the same time last year. Additionally, Nokia’s share of the smartphone market during the last three fiscal months of 2010 fell to 31 percent, a drop from 40 percent during the fourth quarter of 2009.

A city in Northern California is crowdsourcing first responders with an iPhone app.
Called Fire Department, the app is the aimed at the 20,000 people in San Ramon trained in CPR.

Developed by the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District for the city about 34 miles east of San Francisco, the free app sends citizens 911 alerts, including requests for CPR.

If the cardiac emergency is in a public place, the application uses GPS technology to alert citizens about urgent CPR requests. The app also tells citizen rescuers to the exact location of the closest public access Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

“It’s volunteerism in an entirely new way,” said San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District Fire Chief Richard Price.”It’s volunteering 2.0.”

Back at CES last month, when Scosche unveiled its new line of gear, I was particularly taken by the flipSYNC II, the successor to their first gen key fob that transformed, in a pinch, to an iPod cable. I’ve been eager to have one ever since, and today, I get my wish, as they are now available for sale.

The flipSYNC II is a transforming key chain accessory that makes sure you’re never without an iPod cable when you need to charge or sync your device, even in a truly rare pinch. When not in use, the flipSYNC folds up into a black dongle similar to the one you might have on your car keys to turn off the alarm when the neighborhood brats start jumping on the hood. Yank the ends, though, and out comes an iPod Dock Connector and a USB appendage.

We’ve heard before that Apple intends to update their A4 chip for the next-generation of iOS devices to a so-called A5 dual-core SoC , which would not only allow the iPhone 5 and iPad 2 to run more intensive apps even faster than they currently do, but would quadruple the A4’s graphics and video capability.

Now Digitimes is jumping aboard that rumor, claiming that “the chance is high” that Apple’s next-gen SoC will adopt a dual-core processor in time for the iPhone 5.

It appears that at least some existing Verizon customers will be spooning instant coffee directly into our mouths and shoving match embers between our finger webbing next Wednesday night: the Verizon iPhone preorders will begin at 3am EST on February 3rd.

The $99 second-gen AppleTV has already supplanted the iPad in at least one metric: Netflix has just announced that more content is Watched Instantly on the iOS set-top box than on the best-selling tablet.