… along with Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates, of course, as part of a stained glass piece spotted on a Chelsea gallery tour recently by tefjr77. I have to say, I find it incredibly funny that Steve holds an iPhone, while Bill Gates is being buzzed by a Steve Ballmer cherub. Charming.
Flickr via iPhone Savior
UpNext 3D NYC iPhone App from Danny Moon on Vimeo.
The 3D NYC iPhone App from UpNext is unbelievably cool. It renders Manhattan in 3D, allowing you to zoom up and down the city streets, in-between buildings, finding places to eat and things to do. The rendering is amazing — see the video above.
It overlays the subway map and crowdsources popular destinations. All this for only $2.99 from the iTunes App Store. Worth buying even if you don’t live in NYC.
Apple will launch a $700 touchscreen tablet with a new operating system and optimized apps in 2010, new research claims.
Apple’s response to the fast-growing netbook market will a touchscreen tablet like an outsized iPod touch. It will have a touchscreen measuring 7- and 10-inches; will cost between $500 to $700; and may have built-in 3G wireless, claims Wall Street analyst Gene Munster of investment bank Piper Jaffrey.
But thanks to the complexity of the tablet’s hardware and, more importantly, the new version of OS X and the apps it will run — it will not be ready until early 2010, Munster said i.
In a long and detailed research note to clients, Munster cited “mounting evidence” for his claims:
Apple is indeed working on a version of OS X to power a tablet device more robust than an iPod Touch yet still more limited than the operating system that powers the company’s line of notebook and desktop computer systems, according to Gene Munster, the widely followed Piper Jaffray analyst.
“We expect the development of such an OS to be underway currently, but its complexity, along with our conversations with a key company in the mobile space, leads us to believe it will not launch until CY10,” Munster said (meaning 2010) in a note released to clients Thursday.
Many in the Apple universe have long predicted a tablet device to compete in the growing market for netbooks, smaller, less-powerful – and less expensive – mobile devices designed for surfing the Internet, watching movies, reading and composing email and other “computer-lite” activities.
Not a few people will be disappointed if Apple fails to launch such an offering in the current year, but Munster implies that such a market, while growing fast, remains relatively small and believes Apple has plenty of time to get its entry right before joining the fray.
Parents with children aged 8 – 12 and relatively easy access to an Apple Retail Store might consider enrolling in Apple’s free summer camp workshops during July.
Beginning the week of July 13, Apple stores will offer a series of 3 hour workshops where kids will be introduced to Macs and Apple software and learn how to make a movie, create a photo slideshow, write and record a song or craft a presentation.
Space in each workshop is limited and kids are limited to no more than two workshop sessions each for the summer, but it is a free opportunity to kill six hours out of what can be a long, boring summer break for some – and a chance to get hands-on instruction with some of the hardware and software many kids are likely to encounter in school during the coming years.
The workshops break down into two weekly sessions in movie making, music, photography and presentation arts, where Apple instructional staff will teach kids the ins and outs of iMovie, GarageBand, iPhoto and Keynote.
A quick check of some of the session availability shows all sessions in New York City’s Apple stores are already full, though the rest of the country – even in populous California cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco – have spots still open.
Apple also offers similar youth programs year-round to help cultivate the next generation of evangelists.
This handmade set of two cotton applique pillows inspired by Mac keys is a nice way to put some fandom in your living room or office lounge without going overboard. Specify your initial on the letter key pillow to personalize.
$65 for the set on Etsy.
Location based software applications in Blackberry’s new App World store are four times more expensive than similar titles in Apple’s App Store, according to a Skyhook Wireless report released Wednesday.
The company’s Location Aware App Report (PDF), a monthly survey of titles available in the online stores of mobile handset manufacturers Apple, Blackberry and Android, found the App Store offers a greater percentage of paid to free apps across a wider variety of title categories than either Blackberry or Android.
With over 35,000 apps in the App Store at the time of the survey (around 10,000 having been added since), and 2,300 of them location aware, Apple’s average price for a paid location aware app was $3.60. In contrast, the average price for a location aware app from Blackberry’s App World store was $13.60, while bargain-basment titles could be had from Android’s Market at an average price of just 84¢
The survey results are skewed in that Apple’s App Store has been open nearly a year, while Blackberry’s App World is only in its second month of operation. On the other hand, in its first six months of operation, the App Store saw more than 800 location aware apps released, while Android’s Marketplace produced fewer than 200 in its first two quarters.
For now, location aware software developers have shown a clear preference for Apple’s iPhone platform, even if some seem to believe the Blackberry platform might support quite a bit more revenue per title.
Source: DisplaySearch 2009 Touch Panel Market Analysis
Thanks to the success of the iPhone, touchscreen technology will see explosive growth in the next few years.
The touchsreen market will nearly triple in the next few years, growing from $3.6 billion now to $9 billion in 2015, predicts a new report by market research firm DisplaySearch.
“With the success of the iPhone, the touch panel market has entered a dramatic new growth phase.,” the DisplaySearch report said.
The report predicted big growth in projected capacitive touchscreens — the technology used in the iPhone and iPod touch.
“Projected capacitive touch screens have increased substantially and become the second biggest touch technology following closely behind resistive touch,” the report said. “About 27 touch screen suppliers manufacture it. Not only have more resistive touch screen manufacturers moved to produce projected capacitive, but projected capacitive technology has evolved to single layer or film type, and can serve sizes larger than 100-inches.”
Whoa — a 100-inch iPhone in 2015.
Mobile phones and smartphones will be the most popular application of touchscreens, but they will also be the primary interface for media players, navigation devices, and games. More than 40 percent of mobile phones will have touchscreen interfaces by 2015, the report predicts, up from 16 percent now.
Touchscreens will also become popular in applications like retail, ticketing, information kiosks, and education and training terminals, the report said.
One million potential iPhone developers downloaded Stanford’s dev course since it started in April. The 10-week course from the Palo Alto university’s school of engineering is offered gratis on iTunes.
Steve Demeter, the founder of Demiforce and maker of the popular Trism iPhone game, spoke to the class Monday, the SF Chronicle reported, and touched on the opportunities and growing challenges of developing for the iPhone.
Demeter earned $250,000 in the first two months of Trism but acknowledged his good luck in breaking through early and having the support of Apple, two things that most developers now can’t count on.
You can still catch the video lectures of about an hour long each are available here.
Screenshot from Steve Marmon’s May 8 lecture, courtesy Stanford, iTunes.
Via SF Chronicle
Rumors that the new iPhone will feature a glowing Apple logo on the back of the handset have generally been met with derision. The idea that Apple’s designer’s would waste precious battery life with a glowing logo is so abhorrent, many have used it to dismiss the rumors altogether.
But a group of Russian hackers in August last year hacked an iPhone to make the logo glow. The hack — as seen in the video below — involved a Dremel tool and about $300 in parts, according to reports.
And it had no effect on the battery life whatsoever, the Ruskies said.
But why would Apple add a frivolous glowing logo?
To make the Apple logo more visible, of course. Just like glowing lighthouse on the lid of a MacBook, or the iPod’s white headphones, Apple is not shy of using us to advertise its wares.
Photo: Alf Ove Hansen/Dagbladet.no
Nerdy Norwegian Petter Roisland helped police find a fugitive drug dealer, thanks to his stolen MacBook.
Roisland, a 23-year-old who lives near the southern Norwegian town of Stavanger, lost a computer in a burglary last year.
Determined not to get ripped off twice, Roisland installed Orbicle’s Undercover recovery software on two MacBooks he bought as replacement machines. And then in February, they too were stolen.
The designer of the brilliant “PhotoShoplifter” t-shirt (see the pic after the jump) is back with a new design honoring old Macs.
Roger of RubyRed T-shirt Designs has created the “Sad Chimes Rest Home” shirt featuring three vintage machines that are loved but no longer used.
“Old Macs deserve more than ending up on the scrapheap after a life of creation and innovation,” Roger says. “Be sympathetic to your old Apple in its time of need, send it to the Sad Chimes Rest Home for retired and redundant Macs. A place where the Mac Classic and the G3 iMac can reminisce about operating system developments.”
More of Roger’s work after the jump.
UPDATED: YouGov sent a little more info about the survey’s other metrics — posted after the jump. Basically, Apple still leads on quality and reputation, but MS has caught on value, satisfaction and willingness to recommend.
Microsoft’s “Laptop Hunters” ad campaign is hurting Apple, according to a new consmer survey by YouGov BrandIndex.
Redmond’s new ads portray consumers rejecting Apple’s laptops as too expensive. Though clearly a defensive reaction to Apple’s successful “Get a Mac” ads, they are nonetheless reinforcing the stereotype of the “Apple tax,” says YouGov.
“With the Laptop Hunters campaign, Microsoft is making an impact on the perceived value score in the mind of consumers, particularly young consumers,” Ted Marzilli, global managing director of BrandIndex, said on Tuesday afternoon when I phoned him up.
YouGov is an international market research firm based out of London. Its BrandIndex survey queried about 5,000 people online from a pool of about 1.5 million, Marzilli said. It claims to be representative of the U.S. adult population.
Its latest survey shows a clear uptick in Microsoft’s “value,” and a clear downtick in Apple’s. The change coincides with Microsoft’s high-profile campaign.
Credit: Dystopos, used under a Creative Commons license.
Wal-Mart is busy re-vamping the electronics departments in 3,500 of its giant retail stores, in a move to both fill the void left by Circuit City’s recent bankruptcy and to compete with another electronics mega-chain, Best Buy. But some believe it’s also actively lobbying Apple to become a distributor for more than just iPods and iPhones.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart is widely perceived as a low-end discounter whose vast properties are largely filled with the cheapest, most useless junk Americans could dream of importing from China, which makes Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes’ opinion that Wal-Mart is angling to one day carry Macs all the more disconcerting.
Speculation over Apple’s interest in expanding its fewer than 10,000 worldwide distribution points comes amid recent data indicating that Microsoft’s advertising blitz over the past year has succeeded in re-positioning devices that run the Windows OS as value propositions in the computer world.
But this Mac user wonders whether a move into retail’s hoi-polloi might cost Apple more in the long-run than it would gain from the increased revenue that would surely come from the greater retail exposure a distribution deal with Wal-Mart could represent.
There has always been something satisfying, from the user perspective, about the panache of owning an Apple product; in many respects – as mythical as the concept of an “Apple premium” might in reality be – some Apple owners believe they get more for their money, and are willing to pay for the sense of exclusivity the company’s limited distribution network provides. Similar perceptions have maintained the public’s high regard and brand loyalty for companies such as Bose and Bang & Olufsen for years.
If the demands of a rebalancing global economy and of shareholders’ inexhaustible lust for profits cause Apple to seek a different path it would be a real shame, and likely signal the beginning of the end for the company that once implored the world to Think Different.
CC-licensed photo by David Paul Ohmer.
In an effort to reach out to young, tech-savvy Catholics, the Holy See will launch an iPhone app to coincide with its World Communications Day, celebrated May 24.
The Vatican app was created by Father Paolo Padrini, the priest who developed iBrevary, an app that puts morning prayer, evening prayer and night prayers on the iPhone and a Facebook application called Praybook.
“The pope is inviting us to promote a culture of dialogue, of respect and friendship, especially among young people,” Archbishop Claudio Celli told Catholic News.
The initiative to put the Pope in your pocket comes after the Vatican youtube channel and will launch from a website (not yet live) called www.pope2you.net. So far the app lets people send and receive “virtual postcards” of Pope Benedict along with inspiring excerpts from the pope’s various speeches. No word on whether its gratis or, like the iBreviary, will cost $.99.
Would you download the Vatican app?
Via Catholic News
The new iPhone will be available July 17 and will have a bunch of new features, including video recording and editing, a digital compass, turn-by-turn directions, and a better battery, according to an obscure blog called iPhone Apps.
The blog, who no one has ever heard of before, claims to have been contacted by a “reputable source,” who is “closely connected to Apple’s hardware development team.”
Whatever. I’m dubious, but the rumor somewhat gels with previous rumors and the site’s detail and specificity lend the claims are certain credence. Kinda.
Full specs after the jump.
CC-licensed iPhone homescreen screenshot by Blake Patterson.
Developers are sneaking Easter Eggs into their iPhone apps to get around onerous App Store restrictions, Brian Chen at Wired.com reports.
Programmer Jelle Prins’ song lyrics app Lyrics, for example, was initially rejected by the App store because it included songs with naughty words. Apple bans profanity, pornography and basically anything adult and fun.
But the Lyrics app will include swear words if you go to the About page and swipe downward three times. Up pops an option to turn off a swear word filter.
“Lyrics has slipped in a quiet ‘Screw you’ to Apple’s App Store gatekeepers albeit one mumbled behind their backs,” Chen writes.
Has anyone else discovered undocumented features in iPhone apps? If so, leave them in the comments. A prize for the best one.
Apple published a support article Monday indicating “It’s possible to receive a small and quick electrical (static) shock from your earbuds while listening to iPod or iPhone.”
The article reads like a schoolbook primer on the nature and causes of static electricity and points out that the condition is not limited to Apple hardware, that static can potentially build up on almost any hardware and could be discharged using any brand of earbuds. Support staff also helpfully note that receiving a static shock from a pair of earbuds does not necessarily indicate an issue with the iPod, iPhone, or earbuds.
OK. And the company found it necessary to publish this information because…?
Have iPod and iPod users been experiencing an inordinate build-up of static electricity with their devices?
Let us know in comments below if you find it shocking to use your Apple mobile device in windy, low-humidity conditions.
[Techmeme]
Palm’s long-awaited rival to the iPhone, the Pre, will go on sale on June 6, Palm said on Tuesday, and will cost $200 and up with a two-year contract, depending on the plan.
The Pre goes just two days before Apple’s WWDC keynote, where he company is expected to announce the third-generation iPhone.
The Pre looks like a genuine rival to the iPhone. The software looks very slick, powerful and easy to use, and the hardware includes a built-in keyboard, an important distinguishing feature.
But Palm already seems to be pulling consumer-unfriendly stunts with pricing. The $200 price tag is dependent on a $100 mail-in rebate, which is never popular. And the data plans appear to cost between $70 and $90 a month (it’s not clear on Sprint’s page which plan the Pre needs). Plus, Palm is charging an extra $70 for the innovative Touchstone charger, and $30 for a car charger.
Apple of course charges extra for an iPhone docking cradle, but Palm seems to be nickle-and-diming consumers already.
Jonathan Ive, Apple Senior VP of Design, has been named the #1 most creative person in business by Fast Company magazine.
Citing Ive’s decade-long influence over Apple’s rise to prominence as a trendsetting company with global reach, Fast Company‘s “100 Most Creative People in Business” list builds on an interview the magazine did with Apple’s young design star not long after he’d produced the groundbreaking Bondi Blue iMac. “We feel that we’re just getting going,” Ive told the magazine then, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Robert Brunner, Apple’s previous design chief, and the man who hired Ive and recommended him as his successor, said, “He likes to make perfect stuff,” describing what sets Ive apart from his peers in the design universe. “Ive has this design ability combined with a craftsmanlike mentality,” Brunner added, pointing to Ive’s understanding of the interplay between design and manufacturing as keys to the success of more recent products such as the iPhone and unibody laptop computers.
What it is: A wee utility for downloading web-page grabs.
Why it’s good: Web Snapper enables you to save unbroken grabs of a website in a variety of formats, exactly as they appear in your browser. This beats direct printing to PDF from the likes of Safari, which rarely retains styling, and Web Snapper also betters its rivals, due to its excellent interface. (That said, if you’re counting the pennies, take a look at donationware effort Paparazzi!, which offers broadly similar functionality.)
Where to get it: Web Snapper is available from the Tasty Apps website, and is priced $14.99.
Image from GameSpot.
This isn’t official yet, but look out — sales of Apple’s iPod business might have dropped in April compared to last year. If true and an indication of performance for May and June, that’s the first time that’s ever happened — iPod revenue has gone up year over year every single quarter since Apple launched the 1G in October 2001. According to the NPD Group, Apple will sell between 9.5 and 10.5 million iPods this year, between 5 and 14 percent of last year’s mark.
Now, this doesn’t include iPhone revenue, which is almost guaranteed to keep delivering huge profits and revenue growth for years to come (dividing the money from each iPhone sold across 24 months will tend to yield more reliable numbers than lump sum payments). But it does show that even Apple isn’t immune to the current downturn — and the iPod business might be in for somewhat lean times until we get to back-to-school promotions and the holiday season. When money’s short, the urge to upgrade fades away, especially when the new killer features of the last year are Shake-to-Shuffle, built-in NikePlus support, and a buttonless shuffle. Still, who knows — people constantly expect iPod sales to collapse, and it’s never happened yet.
In better news, Mac sales are solid and down less than most consensus estimates. In spite of Microsoft’s best efforts. People are loving the Mac. Using a late 2008 MacBook, I’m not surprised. This is the best line-up of computers that Apple has ever had. Not a weak spot in the family.
Via BusinessWeek
This steampunked iPod is the handiwork of Neal Bridgens , a Toronto-based retoucher and illustrator, who noticed that a piece of copper tubing on his workbench fit perfectly around the rounded edges of an iPod.
From there, Bridgens told CoM that he spent “many, many hours” in this labor of love over the last year building the case from materials he had on hand.
CC-licensed photo by Joohyun Jeon
Apple appears to be building a large, distributed helpdesk operation, either in anticipation of a major new product, or simply to sustain the company’s growing popularity.
Apple this summer is recruiting about 450 “At Home” technical support staff in at least six cities across the U.S., according to a document seen by Cultofmac.com.
Instead of locating these workers in a centralized call center, they will work out of their own homes.
“As a company who’s motto is ‘think different,’ our ‘work different’ philosophy offers you the opportunity to work independently in your home office,” the job ads said. “You will receive all the wonderful benefits of working for an amazing company without ever leaving your home.”
At first blush, something called Bacterial Orchestra – Public Epidemic No.1 might seem cause for a call to the Centers for Disease Control.
In fact, however, it’s a music art project slated for the Volt Festival June 6th in Uppsala, Sweden, where organizers hope hundreds of iPhones will communicate through audio – creating a musical organism. The result, according to Olle Cornéer and Martin Lübcke, will be a self-organizing system they describe as intelligent neural music.
The idea builds on an installation, called Bacterial Orchestra, the pair took in 2006 to Brazil, Germany, Norway and elsewhere. This year, the new generation, called Public Epidemic No.1 is spreading beyond the microphones and loudspeakers of the original installation.
Cornéer said the current project could be hosted on any mobile phone but they chose the iPhone “because it’s popular and the centralized App Store makes it easy for the epidemic to spread.”
Check out the clip from the first test of the project above and follow after the jump for more detail on how it works.