If you need a screen protector for your iPhone, prepare to go to Best Buy to pick one up: Apple will no longer be selling screen protectors — including protective cases and screen films — in either its online store or retail outlets starting in May
Apple has devs to the grindstone for a new social networking app called iGroups.
Patently Apple reports that docs out today from the US Patent Office describe a new service that would work on your iPhone and probably MobileMe, too.
Let’s say you’re attending SXSW: iGroups would keep you in touch with your co-workers and friends by allowing you to share your location plus info and comment on events as they happen, greatly facilitating which parties or events are worth attending or already over.
To accomplish this, iGroups reportedly employs a sophisticated cryptographic key generation system to ensure security and privacy.
The patent also states that if one of group devices lacks true positioning technology, Apple’s MobileMe service would provide “virtual GPS” capability to that user so they can still know the whereabouts of other group members.
Would you welcome a geo-location social networking app from Apple, or prefer to stick to Gowalla or Foursquare?
Or do you plan to shun the “Where’s Waldo?” world altogether?
If Palm has problems now, wait until this summer, one analyst predicts. Not only will Apple likely have introduced a new iPhone, but there is BlackBerry-maker RIM, as well as the growing strength of Android-powered handsets.
UBS analyst Maynard Um predicts Apple will unveil a new iPhone in June. Although Palm has a deal to promote its Pri, Pixi and Plus through AT&T, Um believes Palm will be down to a one-carrier strategy as AT&T focuses its marketing muscle on promoting the new Apple handset. Indeed, we saw the first signs of that pulling away when the Dallas-based carrier announced it would delay launching the Palm Pre and Pixi from April to June or July. In another sign the upcoming iPhone may be drawing AT&T’s eye off Palm’s new handset’s, the carrier will “sharply reduce its marketing budget” for the handsets’ launch, according to Cannacord Adams analyst Peter Misek earlier this week.
In addition, amid talk Palm might be better to sell itself to Apple or Google, Um told investors Palm must “drive greater scale” (analyst-speak for sell more handsets) at a time when AT&T is focused on the iPhone into August and Verizon is busy with its Android-based offerings.
Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum said Palm could license its webOS to other manufacturers, rather than hawk its own line of handsets. A BNET writer tweaked that suggestion, promoting Palm as the perfect take-over prospect in the increasingly competitive battle between Apple and Google.
[via Electronista]
Publishers are balking at a new requirement by Amazon for three-year contracts aimed at thwarting the current rush toward Apple’s rival iBookstore and iPad.
Apple has said it will permit publishers to charge between $13 to $15 for best-selling titles, a premium over Amazon, which keeps titles for its Kindle e-reader at a flat $9.99. A number of larger publishers have sided with Apple’s so-called “Agency” pricing model, concerned the Amazon flat-pricing will undervalue printed books in the eyes of consumers.
Next week sees the opening of the CanSecWest digital security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.
It’s also going to be host to the annual Pwn2Own contest, where a variety of computers are offered up as prizes to the first individual who can crack their way into them.
This is the fourth year of Pwn2Own and the total prize money has ballooned to US$100,000. Nice work if you can get it.
This year the browser targets are: Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7, Mozilla Firefox 3 on Windows 7, Google Chrome 4 on Windows 7, and Apple Safari 4 on MacOS X Snow Leopard.
There’s also a separate part of the contest aimed at mobile devices, which this year will be: an Apple iPhone 3GS, a RIM Blackberry Bold 9700, a Nokia device running Symbian S60 (probably the E62), and a Motorola phone running Android (probably a Droid).
There are some interesting omissions from the target list this year: no Ubuntu desktops? No Opera Mobile?
In 2009, the a MacBook Air was the first device to be won. Wonder how Snow Leopard will fare this year?
Last year I signed up for a landline phone for my office. I wish I hadn’t for two reasons:
1. No one calls me.
2. Toktumi’s Line2 iPhone app, which adds a second, distinct number to my iPhone.
With a service like Line2, there’s no need for a physical phone at my place of work. I give my Line2 number to all my contacts, and it’s just like having a phone at work — except this office phone is always with me.
Like most people, I don’t like giving out my iPhone number for work but I do it all the time. But when the Line2 number rings, I know it’s a business call. I can route it straight to voicemail, or use the sophisticated Auto Attendtant to make my little company look big and important. “Dial one for the news desk,” it says, “or dial two for advertising and sales.” There’s no telling that both departments are one and the same: me.
Fake Steve creator Dan Lyons just signed a deal to bring Steve Jobs to another small screen near you.
The half-hour series called “iCon” is billed by the presser as “a savage satire centering on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed.”
Making sure the barbs prick will be the job of Larry Charles, director of “Borat” and “Religulous.” The single-camera show to be aired on cable channel Epix may borrow something in style from his work as writer and producer of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Charles said, “We are attempting to do nothing less than a modern ‘Citizen Kane.’ A scabrous satire of Silicon Valley and its most famous citizen.”
No word yet on air dates or iTunes availablilty.
Will you tune in or not?
Last week we reported on a director who shot a music video using only three iPhones. Now, Tom Freeman brings an all-iPhone production to the arena of sound with the release of his electronic soundscape, iMatik.
Take a gander at the clip up there. It’s been forty-odd years since Bobb Goldsteinn coined the term “multimedia,” but I think — and maybe you’ll agree with me — this is the first time I’ve felt that I could easily apply the word and think “yeah, that’s exactly what it is.”
In the clip, Alexx Henry of Alexx Henry Photography guides us through a behind-the-scenes peek at the production of an issue of online-only Viv Mag, tailored for consumption on the iPad. Along the way, you’ll see references to some of the other forerunners of this transformation that we’ve written about in the past, like Wired and Bonnier.
Probably the coolest way I’ve heard anyone yet sum up the new paradigm, from Alexx Henry, late in the clip: “We aren’t making moving pictures — that’s what movies do. We’re creating pictures that move.”
We start the day with two – count ’em, two – 27-inch iMacs. First up is an iMac Core i5 Quad running at 2.66GHz for $1,699. Next is a Core 2 iMac running at 3.06GHz, outfitted with 8GB of RAM for $1,899. If you haven’t found an iPhone 3G yet, AT&T is back with a $49 deal on an 8GB handset.
Details on all these and plenty other bargains are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page coming up right after the jump.
Ken from Cooks’ Den has whipped up this snazzy iPad Thai dish in honor of the holy tablet’s launch. Who’s hungry?
Cooks’ Den via BoingBoing
Palm seems in dire straights. Cannaccord Adams has cut its estimates following word AT&T may delay launch of the Palm Pre and Pixi from April to June or July. Now other analysts are suggesting Palm’s 400 handset patents could spark a bidding war between Apple and Google.
Cannacord analyst Peter Misek said Tuesday he’d “recently learned” AT&T would delay launching the two Palm handsets due to what he said was a “long list of technical issues” with the smartphones. Additionally, the carrier plans to “sharply reduce its marketing budget for the launch.” Along with weak sales, technical issues have started impacting Palm’s relationship with carriers, Misek said.
Apple has redesigned its iWork.com Website for the iPad and iPhone, allowing documents to be viewed on touchscreen devices. The company also unveiled new ways to share documents, allowing documents to become public.
The updated interface now allows documents to be scrolled using a finger, an action that has become common for iPhone users and upcoming users of Apple’s iPad tablet device. In a statement, the Cupertino, Calif. based company said the “new interface and improved scrolling help you find your shared documents faster.”
Londoners stuck in the tube now have a handy iPhone app to request ticket refunds.
Tube Refund, which costs $0.99, zaps off the request for riders whose journey is delayed over 15 minutes.
Depending on where you go and what time of day, a one-way tube ticket can cost from £1.80 to £4.00 ($2.75 – $6 circa) and a weekly pass £44 ($67) so the app could quickly pay for itself.
This is a great idea — though according to the London Underground rules, refunds only apply for delays “within our control” that last over 15 minutes.
Given that it’s the oldest underground railway in the world, it’s hard to know how much time riders spend in darkened tunnels is due to reasons beyond control of transport authorities.
Via London Evening Standard, thanks hackneye.
The global PC market can thank Apple’s iMac for being the main reason desktop computer sales have pulled out of a two-year nosedive, an analyst said Wednesday. The popular Apple all-in-one computer accounted for 25 percent of all desktop growth in 2010.
Although notebooks and netbooks account for more than 90 percent of global PC growth, desktops now appear “like they’ve stopped eroding and can resume at least some low single-digit recovery after two years of decline, driven by emerging markets, corporate workhorse use and power gamers,” Caris & Company analyst Robert Cihra writes.
At least two media sites are following Apple’s no-Flash policy when it comes to the iPad. The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio have produced versions of their Web sites with front pages that do not require Adobe’s Flash, reports say. However, possibly more interesting is how publishers view the iPad experience differently than the iPhone. The iPad, it seems, has jumped that evolutionary hurdle from strictly a computing device to more akin TV.
Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s head of digital operations, told MediaMemo‘s Peter Kafka iPhone apps are a ‘very intentional experience’ where people actively search for information. That possibly is why pages on the NPR Web site deeper than the front page are customized for the iPhone.
Traditional publishers may be feeling the heat to develop iPad apps and versions of their pubs, but online publishing execs are adopting a wait-and-let’s-see 2.0 attitude.
The Association of Online publishers polled its 1,500 members, finding them optimistic for 2010 — but not about e-readers or iPads. Half of the respondents predicted strong growth of 10%+, mainly from display ads and an uptick in video, with a number of smaller revenue streams adding to the bottom line.
When asked about the impact of e-readers and tablets in 2010, that sunny outlook was a bit scarce.
Here’s what they said in video interviews:
—Mail Online MD James Bromley: “These are still really really embryonic devices that are great and fantastic, and I want to be at the top of the queue to buy one and play with it. But we’re talking about a very, very narrow subsection of society that will have these in 2010. This is the time that we learn about these devices – ‘11, ‘12, ‘13 is when these might become slightly more mainstream.”
—Conde Nast Digital UK manager Emanuela Pignataro: “E-readers will be the novelty of 2010. I don’t think it is a short-term adoption – it will take years.”
—Thomson Reuters consumer GM Tim Faircliff: “I don’t think we’re quite there yet.”
—Incisive Media digital manager John Barnes: “The issue with tablets is, they’re not really servicing the needs of color, with graphics and diagrams – it’s a bit like version one of the iPod.”
Via Paid Content, thanks @kevglobal
Robert Gary Jones was enjoying a jog along on the beach with his iPod when a single-engine plane making an emergency landing hit him from behind, killing him instantly.
The 38-year-old father of two was on a business trip in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina when a Lancair IV-P aircraft lost its propeller and was “basically gliding” Monday evening before hitting Jones, coroner Ed Allen told AP.
“There’s no noise,” said aviation expert Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the National Transportation Safety Board. “So the jogger, with his ear buds in, and the plane without an engine, you’re basically a stealth aircraft. Who would expect to look up?”
Pilot Edward I. Smith and his passenger walked away from the crash landing near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa.
According to the Lancair web site, the airplane model that killed Jones is a four-seater that can reach speeds of up to 345 mph and is sold in kit that can “be easily built in one’s home shop,” with a final price tag estimated at $320,000 – $470,000.
Jones’ death is uncommon, but not unheard of: last year a Philadelphia jogger using an iPod died when a tree fell on her.
Hard to say whether volume control might have saved him, but it’s worth thinking about.
Via AP
Ever been attacked by a voyeuristic hankering to see what images are being tweeted right now while, say, waiting for a table at the local steakhouse? Well, whip out the iPhone, because Swiss developer Nicolas Seriot has the scratch for your itch.
TweetyShow does for tweeted photos what Chirp Flow did for text tweets: displays a stream of images being tweeted — in this instance, to Twitpic — in realtime. There are sites on the web like PingWire that do the same thing, but Seriot says this is a first on the iPhone.
The app sells for a buck, and also has the ability to search for photos tweeted by a specific user.
You know spring has arrived when apps like this start making appearances: New from App Cubby is KaleidoVid, a dollar-app that turns the iPhone into a kaleidoscope.
Just point the camera at something colorful and KaleidoVid does the rest; the app then lets you unleash your creation on the world through email, Facebook or Twitter.
Seems like a great candidate for the Best Magic Brownie App Award.
So another MacHeist has been and gone, and no doubt a lot of Cult readers jumped in to get their bundle of apps for a bargain price.
But not everyone thinks it’s necessarily such a good idea.
Knox Bronson got in touch to tell us about a little video he’d made.
It’s called Pixels at an Exhibition, and it documents the creative efforts of people who took part in the iPhone photography exhibition at the Giorgi Gallery in Berkeley, California, in December last year.
Way back in 1991, just as Apple was transitioning from 68k to PowerPC chips, the braniacs at Xerox PARC were predicting it’s entire iPod, iPhone and iPad strategy. And next up for the iPad is a blackboard-sized device.
Nearly 20 years ago, just as personal desktop computers were taking off, researchers at Xerox started thinking about the next stage: ubiquitous computers and the cloud.
They envisioned a range of always-connected devices that came in three basic form-factors: Tabs, Pads, and Boards. They are described thus in a Scientific American article:
“Ubiquitous computers will also come in different sizes, each suited to a particular task. My colleagues and I have built what we call tabs, pads and boards: inch-scale machines that approximate active Post-It notes, foot-scale ones that behave something like a sheet of paper (or a book or a magazine), and yard-scale displays that are the equivalent of a blackboard or bulletin board.”
The inch-scale “tabs” are Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch, plus smartphones from Google and Palm. The foot-scale “pads” are the iPad and the 50-odd tablets coming out this year. And next up are yard-scale “boards,” which will act a big-screen hubs in the home and interactive workspaces in the office. Microsoft’s Surface table is the best current example, but more big-screen devices are inevitable as component prices come down thanks to the flat-screen TV industry.
What’s amazing is how twenty years later PARC’s vision describes Apple’s transition into a “mobile” company with a range of devices accessing the cloud. It’s fitting that the vision that should come for the same lab that invented more-or-less personal desktop computing.
Via Adam Rosen: Ubiquitous Computing 2010 – Tabs, Pads, Books and Clouds.
Apple seems to be changing its tune on VoIP apps for the iPod touch. Less than a week after it was submitted, Toktumi’s Line2 VoIP app has been approved by Apple. The $14.95 a month app turns the iPod touch into a fully-featured telephone.
“Interesting was how quickly it was approved – less than a week from submission!” says Toktumi’s founder and CEO, Peter Sisson. “I think its an important development.”
Already available for the iPhone, Toktumi‘s Line2 app joins Skype and Truphone For iPod on the touch, but boasts more features, Sisson says. As well as unlimited U.S. and Canada calling and low international rates, the app has a host of “professional-grade” features, such as call waiting, conferencing, call transfer and visual voicemail.
“It turns the iPod touch into a serious telephone,”Sisson says. “It’s a real telephone. You use it over Wi-Fi and you’re spending $15 a month and that’s it.”
In January, Apple approved an update of the Line2 app on the iPhone to make and receive phone calls over a 3G or WiFi. The approval was in stark contrast to Apple’s earlier stance on VoIP apps, which seemed hostile. Apple’s position was highlighted by the spat over Google Voice, which Apple still hasn’t approved for the App Store.
On the iPhone, the Line2 iPhone app provides with an additional number. It’s pitched at business users as a way of separating business and personal calls.
It also provides a host of advanced, business-oriented call control features like caller-specific call forwarding, after-hours settings, voicemail by email and an auto-attendant (“Press 1 for…”). And it can be used to avoid roaming charges when travelling overseas.
Avaliable as a free 30-day trial, Line2 is $14.95 a month, pay-as-you-go. Here’s the iTunes Link.
Hit the jump for a couple of videos showing how it works.
Today we have a bit of everything in the way of Mac deals. We start off with a kit everyone needs – a charger for your iPhone and iPod when on the road. The $4.99 collection includes a USB hot-syncing and charging cable along with a charger for your car or when you are traveling. We shift into software mode with the lastest batch of price drops for iPhone and iPod touch apps, including Tiki Totems Premium. The app is an accelerometer-based game with one of favorite guaranteed to tie your tongue titles. Nobody has enough storage – actual or virtual. After a while, your pristine Mac gets cluttered with apps, icons and assorted files. Do something about that bulging byte count and latch onto some external storage, such as a 1TB off-loader from Iomega.
Along the way, we check out some timely software from HR Block. As always, details on these and many other bargains are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
