Photo: Cishore/FlickrWith Apple already ahead of Microsoft in terms of market capitalization, could Tuesday’s earnings report take the Cupertino, Calif. company just another step toward earning more revenues than its long-time foe? One expert believes that day is nearing. “Most analysts think it is just a matter of time before Apple is truly the bigger company,” Andy Zaky tells Fortune.
Some of what Apple will say tomorrow after the stock market’s close is already known. For instance, the handset maker has said it sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s in three days, 3 million iPads in just 80 days, and between 2.9 million to 3.5 million Macs. Both Apple and Microsoft are expected to report more than $15 billion in quarterly revenue, but will it be enough to put the consumer electronics company over the top? Probably not.
Microsoft still has one advantage. According to Zaky, Microsoft has an operating margin of more than 50 percent, an enviable asset and one likely to keep the venerable software giant out of the grasp of Steve Jobs and the Apple money-making machine.
To solve the iPhone 4 Antennuation problem (or, at the very least, the PR disaster of that problem), Apple’s giving out millions of dollars in free cases to anyone who bought an iPhone 4… but maybe they should have saved their money and just shipped out some of these adorable, Band-Aid style Antennaids instead: $4.99 will patch the signal boo-boos of up to six iPhone 4s, although without a kiss from Papa Steve first to make the hurt better, who can really say how effective they will prove to be?
When you think of Tron in a gaming context, you inevitably think lightcycles, which makes the official Tron game from Disney Interactive something of a puzzler: it’s a dual-stick tank shooter game. The single player is a diverting (if not particularly engaging affair, in which you blast programs into pixels across 15 different levels, but it’s the multiplayer that shines: you join a particular team, and each faction’s score is gauged weekly according to their deathmatch dominance.
The best news of all? Tron is free to download. Go grab it on the App Store, program.
The iPad is coming! The iPad is coming! That could be the cry heard in nine more countries as Apple announced Monday it was expanding international orders this Friday. Both the 3G and the 3G+WiFi version will begin selling in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore July 23.
The iPad “will roll out to many more countries later this year and Apple will announce availability and local pricing for these additional countries at a later date,” the Cupertino, Calif. company announced.
If you’re a heavy-duty Flickr user, you might want to hit “Update All” under the iPhone App Store: the official Flickr app has just received a swell new update, including support for HD video uploads from the iPhone 4.
If that’s not enough, the latest version of Flickr for iPhone brings multitasking support with background photo uploads, Twitter support, fast app switching and enhanced full-screen browsing behavior, as well as the ability to clear recent searches.
Don’t have Flickr for iPhone yet? It’s free, and you can grab it here.
9to5Mac has gotten their hands on some leaked details, showing off more about how Apple’s FaceTime videochat protocol will work with the WiFi-only iPod Touch.
As we reported before, FaceTime on the iPod Touch is all linked through an email address linked to your Apple ID… although interestingly, it appears you can set up multiple e-mail addresses where FaceTime contacts can contact you. Then there’s the FaceTime icon, seen above.
Interesting, and I can’t wait to try it out. My only question: does this mean the new iPod Touch is getting a mic as well, or will FaceTime users be expected to wear mic-enabled earbuds on their calls? That seems like a lackluster implementation of a new software feature Apple intends to use as the headliner of this generation of iOS devices. My money is on the iPod Touch getting a mic.
So apparently, that iPhone DSLR mount we posted on Friday wouldn’t actually work in real life, but that’s not to say that hooking a SLR lens up to your iPhone 4 is total madness: the guys over at vid-atlantic did just that, hooking their iPhone 4 up with a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 lens, and the resulting video is striking: for all of the mock-ups and rigs going around right now of SLRs Frankensteined together with iPhone 4s, I didn’t actually know the quality of the resulting footage would look so impressive. Impractically impressive, sure, but impressive none the less!
You might have heard: Apple’s giving a free case away to every iPhone 4 owner who even softly complains about their new smartphone’s reception. Needless to say, then, that their heretofore $30 bumper case is now going to be in short supply as Apple tries to handle freebie demand… so it’s ultimately no surprise that their rainbow assortment of bumper cases are now unavailable for purchase from Apple’s online store. Hope no one had their heart set on buying one!
This video is, without doubt, today’s Best Thing Ever. Possibly this week’s Best Thing Ever. Steve Jobs is the Sith of the Mobile Universe, his Reality Distortion Field is a manifestation of the Force itself.
And to really fix the iPhone 4 Death Grip, all you need do is slice off two of your fingers.
Yesterday, Nokia made it clear they wanted nothing to do with Apple’s all-smartphones-suck-at-making-calls spiel made during a press conference on Friday (a breakdown of Apple’s test can be found on the company’s website, here). Blackberry maker Research In Motion followed with much stronger words, saying that “Apple’s claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public’s understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple’s difficult situation.”
Then just this morning, HTC appear to have made their position clear, telling the folks at Pocketlint HTC has only received complaints about the Droid Eris — which was one of the hapless phones demonstrated to have antenna issues by Jobs on Friday — from “approximately .016 percent of customers,” far below Apple’s claim of .55 percent of customers complaining about the iPhone 4.
While the comparison may or may not be all that significant, what’s certain is that Apple seems to have its competitors snarling at it. Expect the shouting match to get louder tomorrow.
Sleek design, Samsung uses Hydro-forming. Just like a $200,000 Italian sports car.
I’d heard mixed reviews about Samsung’s new 14.2 megapixel TL240 point-and-shoot camera. One friend told me it was slow. You know, the dreaded shutter delay? Depress the shutter and two weeks later it fires off.
Expectation is a mighty powerful sense. I hate going to movies that are highly recommended. I tend to expect too much, and in most cases the movie never lives up to my expectations. That is why my brother always recommends movies to me by saying, “It was a piece of CRAP, don’t miss it.”
But when it comes to the TL240, my lowered-expectations didn’t pan out. This is a nifty little camera that takes good pictures. It has a nice big touchscreen, and some suprisingly-useful shooting modes like “blink,” which is perfect for shooting relatives who always have their eyes closed.
This is a guest column by Dan Burcaw, founder and CEO of Double Encore, which develops apps for iPhone (and now iPad). Dan is extremely passionate about why developers should work on iPhone apps instead of Android. Here he explains why Android developers don’t make money, and why Android apps will always be secondary to iPhone/iPad apps.
A few years ago, apps were novelties – a cute idea. Now there are over 250,000 of those cute ideas in the App Store alone – and the Android Market is catching up quickly.
Apps are like the Wild Wild West – and from a developer’s perspective, there’s definitely a shoot-out coming. Google vs. Apple. iPhone and iPad vs. Android. Who should you code for, and why? For that matter, as a consumer, which phone and apps should you choose?
On one hand, you’ve got Apple with the newly released iPad and iPhone – a well-established if tightly controlled platform. On the other, there’s the Shiny New Android platform, with its open-ended promise of apps and plenty of freedom – freedom of handset, freedom of carriers. It sounds like a developer’s paradise … which is in fact how Google markets it. But I predict that a year from now, developers and consumers alike are going to find the Android platform really disappointing.
Apple’s public relations problems with the iPhone 4 antenna reached critical mass last week when Consumer Reports said they could not recommend their readers purchase an iPhone 4 because of their issue. In many ways, then, yesterday’s press conference was a specific response to the well-respected consumer advocacy site.
So did Jobs change Consumer Reports’ mind on the issue? Nope.
Consumer Reports believes Apple’s offer of free cases is a good first step. However, Apple has indicated that this is not a long-term solution, it has guaranteed the offer only through September 30th, and has not extended it unequivocally to customers who bought cases from third-party vendors. We look forward to a long-term fix from Apple. As things currently stand, the iPhone 4 is still not one of our Recommended models.
It’ll be interesting to see third-party tests on these reported smartphone death grips. For the iPhone 3GS, at least, Apple’s claims of attenuation seem more profound than reported actuality in most of the cases I’ve seen.
Since Apple specifically called other smartphones out in his response today to the iPhone 4 Reception Issues, it was only a matter of time (and not much at that) before other smartphone companies took their own potshots back.
Antenna design is a complex subject and has been a core competence at Nokia for decades, across hundreds of phone models. Nokia was the pioneer in internal antennas; the Nokia 8810, launched in 1998, was the first commercial phone with this feature.
Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying human behavior, including how people hold their phones for calls, music playing, web browsing and so on. As you would expect from a company focused on connecting people, we prioritize antenna performance over physical design if they are ever in conflict.
In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.
If only Nokia didn’t prioritize everything over design? Am I right? Hey-o!
If you pull back and look at the grand scheme of things when it comes to the globe as a whole, a Verizon iPhone 4 doesn’t make so much sense: Verizon uses the CDMA protocol, and that’s not an international standard, so why would Apple bother?
Yet bother, they might very well being. During today’s questions and answers session, Jobs mentioned having Verizon cell sites on the Cupertino campus.
As 9 to 5 Mac notes, cell sites cost a buttload, so Apple’s got them for a reason.
Is Apple covering their bases? Or is the Verizon iPhone imminent? My guess is Apple is as sick of AT&T’s garish ineptitude and poor customer service as anyone, and they’d be willing to plunk down some significant change to have a chance of giving them the boot domestically.
If you didn’t want to keep refreshing the website, we gave you the Cliff’s Notes on Twitter about Apple’s press conference regarding the antenna issues with the iPhone 4. Here are some of your reactions from Twitter:
In the wake of the iPhone 4 Antenna Press Conference, some smaller news: the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is now reporting that the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office has withdrawn the search warrant used to seize items from Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s home earlier in the year, after Gizmodo published full details of a leaked iPhone 4 prototype that Apple alleges was stolen.
Although the EFF has continuously stressed that the search warrant used to enter Chen’s home and confiscate his computers was illegal because it violated a prohibition against warrants for “unpublished information obtained or prepared in gathering, receiving or processing of information for communication to the public,” the warrant was repealed not by court order, but because of Gizmodo’s own cooperation.
According to Gawker’s COO and legal advisor Gaby Darbyshire, Gizmodo agreed to voluntarily give the district attorney access to materials that a court appointee deems relevant.
In other words, Gizmodo is still under investigation for any wrong doing, but San Mateo County will no longer hold onto Jason Chen’s personal property by force: rather, he’ll be co-operating with them and delivering anything they request going forward.
Apple has posted video of this morning’s press conference about the iPhone 4’s antenna. You can watch it here. However, it does not include the juicy Q&A session, where Jobs rips the tech press for creating Antennagate.
If one thing was crystal clear from Steve Jobs’ remarks during today’s iPhone 4 Antenna Press Conference, it was that he blamed the tech press for “overblowing” the iPhone 4’s reception issues, and was downright contemptuous of tech journalists as a whole.
“I guess it’s just human nature that when you see someone get successful you want to tear it down…” Steve Jobs said at one point. “Sometimes I feel that in the search for eyeballs, [journalists] don’t care about what they leave in their wake.”
Fielding a question from Engadget about a recent New York Times report, Jobs further attacked tech writers. “Go talk to the Times, because you guys talk to yourselves a lot. They’re just making this stuff up.”
Even Steve’s parting shot was aimed at the credibility of the tech journalists. “Thanks for coming. I wish we could have done this [had the press conference] in the first 48 hours, but then you wouldn’t have had anything to write about.”
I’m certainly not here to defend the press against Jobs’ accusations of sensationalism. He may be right: the iPhone 4 Antenna Issue is the Amy Winehouse of tech right now. On the sensationalism of the press, I’d argue that the job of the journalist is not to report the status quo, but to report the exceptional. Over the past three weeks, the iPhone 4’s antenna issues have been an exceptional problem, and so we’ve covered it extensively.
But you know what else is exceptional? Apple and its products. And what Jobs has conveniently forgotten is that ever since he returned to Apple back in 1997, the tech press has collectively been the tireless advocate of both, and written about Apple’s excellence as the rule — not the exception — with every year that has passed.
This is Apple’s $100 million state-of-the-art antenna test lab. It has 17 different antenna characterization chambers (or anechoic chambers) for measuring antenna performance.
Our anechoic chambers are connected to sophisticated equipment that simulates cellular base stations, Wi-Fi networks, Bluetooth devices — even GPS satellites. These chambers measure performance in free space, in the presence of materials simulating human tissue (“phantom” heads and hands, for example), and in use by human subjects. Over a one- to two-year development cycle, Apple engineers spend thousands of hours performing antenna and wireless testing in the lab.
The iPhone 4 press conference offered some new (and unexpected?) declarations from Steve Jobs, including “Phones aren’t perfect. It’s a challenge for the entire industry” and “The iPhone 4 went through all of these tests. We KNEW that if you held it in a certain way, the bars would go down.”
After a presser that lasted nearly an hour and a half and the promise to give free bumper cases, what’s your impression of how Apple handled the “antennagate” issue?
Vote and let us know your reasons in the comments below.
Asked if he has learned anything from Antennagate, Steve Jobs’ response basically boils down to one thing: haters gonna hate.
” I guess it’s just human nature, when you see someone get successful you just want to tear it down,” said Jobs.
“Look at everything they’ve created. Would you prefer we’re Korean companies? Do you not like the fact that we’re an American company leading the world right here?”
Am I reading that right? Did Jobs just say that people shouldn’t criticize Apple as much as other companies because they are Americans? Yeesh.
Luckily he followed it with a better argument:
“I look at this and think wow. Apple has been around 30 years. Haven’t we earned the credibility and trust that we’re going to take care of our users?”
“Of course we’re human, of course we’ll make mistakes,” admits Jobs. “But sometimes I feel that in search of eyeballs for these web sites, people don’t care about what they leave in their wake.”
Like dipped Apple stock value, perhaps?
“We weren’t just innocents in this. But the reaction has been so overblown.”
Jobs ended his answer with a plea. “Help us out here.”
Answering a question about whether or not Apple will refund users who already bought an iPhone 4 case, Jobs candidly explained what should be obvious: Apple’s secrecy about new products is all about not tipping people off that they should wait for a new product before they buy.
“We’re not going to refund the 3rd party cases — it’s a very small number because we didn’t sell as many cases because we didn’t share the phone design with case manufacturers in advance of launch. But now we kind of wish there were more cases out there!” Jobs laughs.
“It’s really simple why: when people find out about your new product, they stop buying your old products. Sometimes websites buy stolen prototypes and put ‘em on the web, and we don’t care for that. But if we give the designs to case makers, they have a history of putting them up on the web as well.”
“The case vendors haven’t had a history of helping us through that. It’s a conundrum,” admits Jobs. ” We’ll consider things on a case by case basis.” Groan.
