A study by warranty provider SquareTrade found that 26% of all iPhones fail — break or suffer hardware malfunctions — in the first two years of use.
Of course, SquareTrade sells warranties to cover all your iPhone health issues so the info requires a grain of salt. But their study of 25,000 customer claims did find that iPhone reliability is on the upswing. You can read the full report here [PDF].
Last year’s report covering the iPhone and iPhone 3G put the failure rate at 33%. For the iPhone 3Gs, they found most snafus came from power, followed by touchscreen, battery and button issues.
On the heels of Apple’s recent announcement it has sold three million iPads in the first 80 days, comes a survey of developer interest showing the tablet device is the second most popular device, behind the iPhone. The survey, by the maker of a development tool, found 84 percent of developers asked named the iPad as holding their interest, a 26 point jump from April.
Developers expressed declining interest in other smartphone platforms, prompting Appcelerator to comment: “Apple and Google are now playing chess while everyone else plays catch-up.” Between March and June, RIM’s BlackBerry lost 9 percent of developer interest, with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 (announced in February) had 7 percent fewer developers interest.
Conde Nast hasn’t given up entirely on food magazine Gourmet, it just plans on serving the leftovers in an iPhone and iPad app.
Gourmet, known for its literate articles and collectible recipes, hung up its apron in fall 2009. Conde plans to launch Gourmet Live, a free mobile version of the 70-year-old magazine title by the end of the year.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67PZjbDnBCI&feature=player_embedded
The app will offer a sampling of articles, recipes, video demonstrations and slide shows plus social media bells and whistles that will allow those grazing on the content to see which of their Facebook friends and Twitter connections have seen it and what they have to say.
Heavy users will be prompted to pay for a subscription, though the payment options haven’t been put on the menu, yet. It’ll be made in iPad-friendly HTML5, so perfect for propping up in the kitchen to execute that peppercorn roasted pork with vermouth pan sauce recipe.
Like the Apple gear they love to dissect, iFixIt’s teardowns seem to just get better and better. Benefitting from the kindness of a customer whose iPhone 4 was delivered early yesterday by FedEx, the premier DIY evangelists took apart and photographed in beautiful detail a brand new iPhone 4, describing the many amazements Cupertino designers and engineers have rolled out with Apple’s newest portable communication device.
iFixIt’s CXO Luke called Apple’s integration of the UMTS, GSM, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth antennas into the stainless steel inner frame something that can “only be described as a work of genius.”
The 1.3mp front-facing and 5mp rear-facing cameras have independent boards, making it possible to remove the cameras without damaging the phone.
512MB RAM confirmed.
1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 core processor.
Chips from Broadcom, Cirrus Logic, Numonyx, Samsung, ST Micro, Skyworks, Texas Instruments, and TriQuint.
A look at the photographs — and there are many more at much higher resolution available at the iFixIt teardown pages — really gives one a sense of the delicate beauty beneath the already gorgeous surface enclosure of the iPhone.
Kudos to Apple and its manufacturing partners for delivering such a well-made device, and to iFixIt for tearing the thing apart with such meticulous care and attention.
Although Apple had said it runs its App Store and iTunes at near break-even, we now know the App Store, while wildly popular with users, contributes just 1 percent of the Cupertino, Calif. company’s gross profits. That, and many other interesting insights into the App Store’s balance sheet come from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
In a research note to investors Wednesday, Munster wrote the App Store brought in $429 million since it was launched in July 2008. Apple has earned $33.7 billion in gross profit over the same period, meaning the App Store equates to just one percent of profits.
What it is: i2KQuickage is curiously named but unbelievably powerful photo panorama software from the genius minds at DualAlign, software developers whose primary markets have long been medical communities and defense sorts. There’s no reason to keep this software’s incredible charms from the broader photography market, though – it gives even the humblest talents and rigs (such as those possessed by this reviewer) the power to make arresting panoramic images with just one click of the mouse.
Why it’s cool: If you ever spent time using photo editing software to stitch together several photos into a panorama, you likely praised the heavens with the arrival of auto-stitching and panorama tools to Photoshop. But even Photoshop users — and users of other specialized software such as Double Take, which integrates well with both Aperture and iPhoto — still have to deal with quite a number of considerations to get the job done. Image registration, correction for exposure anomalies across the range of images used to build a panorama, distortion correction, seam selection and blending, and final image processing — Photoshop, Double Take and other solutions all require multiple user choices and steps to achieve optimal results.
i2KQuickage ends all that. Its proprietary algorithms produce stunning panoramas — with the user’s responsibility being no more than selecting the images to be used and clicking the “Create Montage” button. Even using images captured with a camera set in the “Auto” mode, which can led to dramatic differences in illumination and exposure between
images, even with movement of people and natural phenomena (such as waves on a beach) in the photos, the results produced by i2KQuickage are outstanding.
CC-licensed picture by joshlowensohn:http://www.flickr.com/photos/58907237@N00/4687706563
AT&T is still offering unlimited data plans for the iPad, weeks after the company discontinued its all-you-can-eat offerings, reader Vincent Fox reports.
However, Vincent signed up for his plan this weekend. Vincent writes:
“Today on my iPad 3G, I activated 3G for the first time. The “unlimited” option is still available! This was at 11:10 PST on June 19th 2010, long after the supposed expiration of this option. I purchase my iPad a couple of weeks after launch. Perhaps the older units are still allowed this choice? I was billed $29.99 and it clearly shows I am now on the unlimited plan. Perhaps others can take advantage
of this as well.
Has anyone else been able to activate an unlimited 3G data plan on AT&T?
While the white iPhone 4 wasn’t available from Apple or AT&T for pre-order last week, it’s started to look like those who want a more opalescent handset might have more luck local big box retailer: just two days after info leaked that Best Buy might have white iPhone 4s on Thursday comes indication that Walmart might have them as well.
Bluntly, I doubt you’re going to be able to get a white iPhone 4 anywhere on June 24th: if anyone was going to have them, it would be Apple and AT&T, and their refusal to take pre-orders for the white model strongly hints at some sort of supply chain problem. My guess is that while Best Buy and Walmart may have placed orders for the white iPhone 4 before this problem exhibited itself, they aren’t going to be getting any… this week, that is. If you’re optimistic or desperate for a white iPhone 4, though, it can’t hurt dropping by.
Line-sitting obssessive Greg Packer is at it again, camping outside of the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City for the iPhone 4. And this time he’s got a sponsor!
The sponsor is Gazelle.com, a site which buys up your used gadgets based upon a cash offer from their dynamic pricing engine. They then either resell your used gadget or recycle it.
Packer himself — more enthusiastic about line-sitting than he is functionally knowledgeable about tech — doesn’t really seem to have a very nuanced understanding of what his sponsor does, describing Gazelle as an “eBay for electronics.” It’s not, really, but either way, it looks like a pretty cool site for individuals who don’t want to go the eBay or Craigslist route for selling their old gadgets… or at the very least, recycle their own tech easily and responsibly. Their sponsorship of Packer has certainly raised my awareness of what they do, so in that, their money seems well spent.
As for Packer and his motivation for sitting in line, “I was the first in the US to have iPhone 1, so why not do it again?”
Just in case the iPhone 4 thought it was going to steal the iPad’s thunder, Apple has shot out a preemptive press release proudly proclaiming that in just eighty days, they’ve managed to sell three million iPads.
That’s pretty incredible. To put that in perspective, a million iPads were sold within the first four weeks of the iPad’s (demand limited) availability. About thirty days later, that number had creeped to two million. Apple sold the third millionth iPad just three weeks later.
Demand is picking up… which only makes sense, with the device being more widely available in the United States thanks to increased supply, as well as the iPad’s long-awaited international launch finally putting the iPad in the swarthy, wildly gesticulating hands of those weirdo foreigners.
If anyone thought Apple’s “big iPhone” wasn’t going to be a success, these numbers should certainly help to garnish their steaming plate of crow.
While the ability to set a user background wallpaper under iOS 4 is a welcome addition to the operating system, the default wallpaper choices can be pretty, well, garish. Some of them are just too busy, too high contrast, too gross.
The wallpaper above, called Tranquil, is Jason Kottke’s brilliant send-up of the questionable taste Apple employed when picking some the default iOS 4 wallpaper choices.
Just tap and hold on the image until the “Save Image” dialog appears to apply it as the wallpaper of your iPhone.
With its Official Release still days away, iPhone 4 is already spilling its guts.
It should come as no surprise that with the iPhone’s early delivery the boys at iFixIt have already got their hands on one and are opening it up and exposing its innards for all the world to see.
If your iPhone 4 pre-order was unceremoniously canceled by AT&T this week, you might have some notion in your noggin of pulling a Packer and waiting in line to get one.
Well, don’t wait in front of an AT&T store. The company that has managed to victoriously spike the FUBAR line each and every down of the iPhone 4 launch will not be selling iPhone 4s to walk-ins until June 29th.
Or won’t they? According to a TUAW reader:
I spoke with my local AT&T store this afternoon and they informed me that they had received over 50 calls today on the subject (apparently all since the release went out).
They told me that they WILL have iPhones available for folks who show up without a pre-order on the 24th. And that the 29th is when they will start taking in-store orders for those who do not have pre-orders.
Now, the statement from AT&T seems pretty darned clear on the subject. But the employee I spoke to seemed pretty darned convinced that they would have phones available.
In other words, who knows? It’s yet another example of Ma Bell’s garish ineptitude when it comes to smallest detail of handling the iPhone’s incredible demand.
iPhone 4s dropping on doorsteps around the country means that all bets are off when it comes to embargoes, so no surprise here: iPhone 4 reviews from many of the big boys are starting to go live.
The fourth incarnation of Apple’s iPhone is an incrementally improved, familiar device—not a new kind of device, as was the case with the recent introduction of iPad. Yes, the notable features with iPhone 4—both the device and the iOS4, which came out yesterday in advance of the iPhone itself—are mostly tweaks. But what tweaks they are: Apple’s focus on improvement is as much key to the quality of its products as innovation. Still, there’s one flaw it can’t completely eliminate: the unreliable quality of calls placed over AT&T, which remains the iPhone’s only U.S. carrier.
We’re not going to beat around the bush — in our approximation, the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market right now. The combination of gorgeous new hardware, that amazing display, upgraded cameras, and major improvements to the operating system make this an extremely formidable package. Yes, there are still pain points that we want to see Apple fix, and yes, there are some amazing alternatives to the iPhone 4 out there. But when it comes to the total package — fit and finish in both software and hardware, performance, app selection, and all of the little details that make a device like this what it is — we think it’s the cream of the current crop.
Pretty much nothing has gone right for Apple when it comes to the iPhone 4 launch, so it’s no surprise that the device that was leaked months early to Gizmodo, crept its way into the hands of a random Vietnamese forum and spontaneously materialized in the middle of the Czech countryside is now arriving two days early on people’s doorsteps, courtesy of FedEx.
This isn’t happening just to a few people: Twitter’s literally full of braggy new iPhone 4 owners, and Gizmodo’s got an entire repository of reports. According to one of these guys, activation of the iPhone 4 was initially fairly difficult, but a call to Apple sorted everything out.
Are you one of the lucky SOBs who got his iPhone 4 early? We hate you. Go to blazes. But now that our own seething jealousy is out of the way, seriously, congratulations. Could you hit the comments and tell us what you think of the iPhone 4? Noblesse oblige to all us non-iPhone-4-owning plebs, after all.
There are over 200,000 apps in the iTunes App Store now and everyone can agree that wading through all those apps trying to find the real gems is a big problem. We all muddle through somehow and find an app gem or two usually by word of mouth, a Cult of Mac review, or other means. I’m happy to announce that I’ve found another way to find good apps and this solution is entertaining to boot — Adam Curry’s Big App Show app.
NOTE: My bad. Apologies for screwing this up. Google Voice is not a VoIP service on the iPad, but a call-forwarding service. It only works as a VoIP app on the iPhone. I got confused with Line2 from Toktumi, which is what I used to make a call this morning, not Google Voice (see below). My memory is totally shot. I was convinced it was Google Voice, until I got a bunch of emails and comments. Again, apologies for being flaky.
This is very handy for iPad 3G iPhone users. Your iPad iPhone is now a low-cost VoIP phone that works wherever there’s service. It’s also very handy for adding voice call-management features to Wi-Fi-only devices like the iPad and iPod touch.
Google Voice is a free service that offers free calls to the U.S. and Canada and low-cost international calls (and SMS). The Google Voice app also features several advanced call-handling features. For example, when someone rings your Google Voice number, it will ring multiple lines — home, office, cell — until it finds you. It transcribes voicemails and emails or texts messages to you (very handy, but spotty). There’s also conference calls and Web-based voicemail.
Apple and Google got into a fight over the Google Voice app last year; a scrap that attracted the attention of the FTC. Apple refused to add Google’s Voice app the App Store, saying it replicates core iPhone features and may confuse users. Google responded by making a kickass web app that works great on the iPhone and iPad.
I’ve been using Google Voice for several months, and it works great on the iPad, even over 3G iPhone. I just used it this morning when I was too lazy to get up and find my phone. (I actually used Toktumi’s Line2 app to make the call on my iPad. Apologies for the mistake).
Kimmel records today's show with his MacBook (Photo: abc.com)
This just in: after a power outage hit the taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier today, our intrepid host lept to the rescue with a Mac user’s quick thinking – plus the Power of QuickTime. Kimmel improvised and with the help of the crew taped the entire show using his MacBook’s iSight webcam.
Kitchen Performers and Video Bloggers rejoice – your video production tool of choice has been vindicated! The show airs Wed 23 June at 12:05AM EST on ABC if you want to see how it all worked out…
Redsn0w by DevTeam allows you to jailbreak your device, to get complete control over it (see why you should jailbreak here). Currently, redsn0w version 0.9.5b5-3 allows you to jailbreak a device that has already been upgraded to firmware 4.0, without losing the jailbreak data. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.
Please note that this tool will NOT work if you have ANY iPhone 3GS, newer iPod Touch G2 or the iPod Touch G3.(On the newer iPod Touch, serial number begins with ‘MC’.)
The Pwnage Tool by the DevTeam hacker group allows you to create custom iPhone firmwares for the purpose of jailbreaking, to get full control over your device (see why you should jailbreak here).
Currently, the Pwnage Tool version 4.0 allows you to update your previously jailbroken device to firmware 4.0, without losing the jailbreak data. However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.
Please note that this tool will NOT work if you have the iPhone 2G, newer iPhone 3GS, newer iPod Touch G2 or the iPod Touch G3.(On the newer 3GS, go to Settings –> General –> About, the fourth and fifth digit of the serial number should be greater than 40 and on the newer iPod Touch, serial number begins with ‘MC’.)
Halogen for iPad from developers RocketHands is a fast-paced action game that kind of mixes air hockey with Space Invaders. Your job is to smash a puck around the screen and activate the colored reactors on each side, while at the same time eliminating the hordes of colorful enemies that invade your space to collect enough Halogen elements to complete each level and achieve your highest score.
There are 4 game modes that will each push your reflexes to the limit – single player mode features 16 insanely crazy levels that start off fast and then become faster. Your enemies get bigger and nastier and the black hole at the bottom of your screen gets wider. This intense, fast-paced gameplay is what makes Halogen so addictive and keeps you returning to the game in an attempt to beat each level and complete the game.
We start the day off with another deal on MacBook Pros. This time, the Apple Store has about 43 units in stock, beginning with a Core 2 Duo 2.26GHz machine with 13.3-inch screen for $929. Also up is “Chop Chop Tennis” for the iPhone from the App Store – it’s free. As Apple prepares to begin sales of the iPhone 4, Walmart has a deal on the new handset – $197 plus activation.
As always, details on these and many other items (such as a 6x telephoto lens for your iPhone) are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
A price war of sorts has broken out among e-reader makers Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Although we won’t take credit for it, a short while after we highlighted the Internet retailer’s reluctance to lower it’s Kindle’s price, the Seattle-based company dropped the e-reader’s price to $189, from $259.
Actually, the move likely was more in response to an earlier action by Barnes & Noble, which dropped its 3G Nook to $199 from $259. The bookseller also introduced a Wi-Fi only version of its e-reader for $149. As one onlooker commented, the price of an e-reader dropped $100 in a single day, putting the price of a single-purpose e-reader on par with an MP3 player.
Will (or when) Verizon get the iPhone? Stories speculating on the answers to those questions have taken on a near myth-like quality; although disproven, the conversations continue. The chatter has been given new life by some analyst comments released Tuesday.
Analyst Ben Reitzes of Barclays Capital told investors he believes we could see Verizon selling an iPhone 4 in the first quarter of 2011. Reitzes points to “checks” seeming to show a CDMA iPhone could be produced late 2010.
iPads: easy pickings? CC-licensed. Thanks to twid on Flickr.
Twice in one week, enterprising thieves hit Apple’s Upper West Side store to snag shipments of iPads.
The low weight and easy portability of the iDevice makes it an easy target: in both incidents, thieves grabbed boxes of five iPads and ran away with them in broad daylight.
“Thieves are opportunists, and it’s the hottest gadget out there,” a police source told the New York Post. The first theft occurred mid-morning on Tuesday. A man swiped a box with five iPads while a delivery driver was stacking cartons outside his truck. The thief zipped down the street on foot and has not been caught.
Two days later, a thieving duo snatched another box of five iPads taking advantage of momentary distraction from a UPS driver. One of the pair asked the driver for directions, the other snagged a box and took off on foot down Broadway.
“We definitely have a heightened security presence,” said a worker at the store at Broadway and 67th Street. To improve the chances of getting them on the shelves, even the Apple employees are kept in the dark about delivery times. “Even if I knew, I couldn’t tell you. We don’t know when we’re getting more in,” an employee said.
