We start off with a deal on Apple’s 1TB Time Capsule. The 802.11n base station includes a hard drive and is designed for laptop users looking to use Time Machine. Just $270. Next up: is a refurbished 160GB Apple TV from the Apple Store for just $189. We round out our top trio with a pair of Apple’s in-ear headphones.
Along the way, we check out software for Macs and iPhones, including “Robot Rampage”, part of the latest batch of App Store price drops. As always, details on these and many other bargains can be found on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
The iPhone 3GS. Creative Commons-licensed photo by Fr3d: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fr3d/2660915827/
The iPhone, initially a sideline to Apple’s main Mac sales, could account for up to half of the Cupertino, Calif. firm’s revenue by 2011, according to an analyst. The company is on track to sell 45 to 50 million handsets next year, more than double the 20.7 million iPhones sold in fiscal 2009.
Toni Sacconaghi, analyst with Bernstein Research, in a note to investors, said the iPhone could become 45 percent to 50 percent of Apple’s revenue, up from 30 percent in 2009. The analyst forecasts iPhone sales will reach 40 million to 50 million units in fiscal 2011, a dramatic increase from 20.7 million sold in 2009. The company should report sales of 8.7 million for the first fiscal quarter of 2010, he adds.
Ladies, gentlemen, please stifle the gasps and shrieks of surprise that the following announcement may well startle out of you. I recommend pushing your first into your mouth until your lips are elastically wrapped around your wrist.
Ready? Good. Prepare for a shock. According to Apple’s latest iPad SDK Beta 3 documantation, the iPad uses Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX Graphics Hardware for its GPU, just like the iPhone and iPod Touch.
I can see by your expressions that you didn’t find his revelation quite as heart-stopping as I thought you might. A steely nerved bunch, I see.
I suppose you’re right, though: iPhone and iPod Touch Apps have been confirmed as being fully backwards compatible with the iPad, despite the latter device’s significantly larger touchscreen display. That implies similar guts. It was probably to be taken as read that Apple, an investor in Imagination Technologies, wasn’t going to go too far afield of the iPhone’s architectural pairing of an ARM-based CPU and a PowerVR SGX GPU.
So not, perhaps, a revelation at all, but this should at least comfort existing app developers, who now know for certain they are working mostly with hardware elements they are familiar with. Even so, Apple warns: “[B]ecause the processor, memory architecture, and screen dimensions are different for iPad, you should always test your code on an iPad device before shipping to ensure performance meets your requirements.”
The iPhone 3GS. Creative Commons-licensed photo by Fr3d: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fr3d/2660915827/
Is Apple considering its iPhone OS for products other than the iPhone and iPad? A new job ad by the Cupertino, Calif. electronics maker seeking an Engineering Manager suggests such an expansion could be in the works. The manager would be tasked with leading “a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms.”
Such a team would be responsible for “low-level platform architecture, firmware, core drivers and bring-up of new hardware platforms,” according to the job listing posted last week and first spotted by Computerworld.
UPDATE (23 February): The Simply Beach developer just emailed us to say that “Apple appear to have quietly reinstated the Simply Beach app this evening”. He notes that neither he nor his customer received any communication whatsoever from Apple.
Ourrecentarticles on Apple’s decision to ban “overtly sexual apps” have caused plenty of arguments in the comments. Some (including your correspondent) think Apple’s being ridiculous, overbearing and taking a dangerous path in initiating a blanket ban on even extremely mild content, such as images of women (or, er, men) in bikinis. Others claim Apple should be applauded, and they can’t wait to see the back of apps with sexual content, no matter how mild.
However, Apple’s stance hasn’t only affected the likes of iWobble, as Andrew Long of software development company Exploding Phone explains: “One of our customers has fallen foul of Apple’s new puritan crusade—the crazy thing is, the customer is an online beachwear retailer, Simply Beach, that happens to sell bikinis via an online store and the accompanying iPhone app that we developed for the company.”
Andrew notes that Apple removed the app without warning. On Friday, Simply Beach received an email from Apple about the decision to remove any overtly sexual content from the store and that included the Simply Beach application. “The email also made mention to numerous complaints they had received from customers regarding ‘this type of content’ and implied it was these complaints which had led to the changes,” says Andrew, adding that his customer initially thought this was a hoax.
If this is what Apple considers 'overtly sexual' content, we fear for civilisation itself - and the entire company needs to get out more.
At the time of writing, Apple has yet to respond, and Andrew resubmitted the app with a much increased age rating, although he states: “Neither we nor our customer believes that the content warrants a rating.” The app also has some heavy investment by the swimwear company, and was soon to have had a revision including multi-currency pricing and video streaming. “This upgrade is now under threat until we find out where Apple’s puritan values lie,” said Simply Group MD Gerrard Dennis in a press release. “This has put people’s jobs at risk as we rely on all income streams. We are not Apple, we don’t have billions sat in our bank account! It would have been better to have had some warning or discussion before removing the app. I assume all clothing retailers that sell anything other than overcoats will now have to be removed from iTunes?” (our emphasis)
“Personally speaking, I think the decision is ludicrous, but to be honest not much that Apple does surprises me any more,” says Andrew, stressing that his views don’t necessarily reflect those of his customer. “As an iPhone developer you have to be prepared for the goalposts to shift unendingly and be as dynamic as you can in changing to meet the new way of life.” However, in this case, Andrew thinks it’s clear the content is not ‘overtly sexual’: “Apple has clearly been overzealous and inconsistent in trying to rid the App Store of ‘bikini blight’. It makes a mockery of the rating system, too, which is surely there to ensure that questionable content doesn’t get into the wrong hands.”
To add insult to injury, Andrew notes that his customer sells some of its goods through an Amazon feed, which is still available through the Amazon iPhone app. “And I’m sure if you searched that app for more fruity items, you’d find many images available which are much worse by the average person’s moral compass.”
At the time of writing, Apple hasn’t responded to our request for a comment. We also note that there’s not a total bikini ban—you can still get the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, perhaps because Apple didn’t want to piss off Time magazine? (Hat tip: Nicole.)
It appears Apple has stepped-up its battle with hackers, reportedly banning at least two App Store accounts for “security reasons.” The action comes after a long-running tug-of-war between the Cupertino, Calif. company and hackers releasing ways to avoid iPhone security.
Monday, a hacker known as “Sherif” told his Twitter followers Apple had banned his ID. “They must be really angry, he wrote, following the comment by a smiley face emoticon. Another hacker, known as “iH8sn0w,” and the person behind the XEMN tool said to unlock iPhone 3.1.3 baseband for the 3G and 3GS, also reported being banned from the App Store.
Apple’s decision to go with AT&T as the sole carrier for the newly-introduced iPad had some wondering about the months of on-again, off-again talks between the Cupertino, Calif. company and Verizon Wireless. Although still talking about a deal, turns out, the CDMA carrier was more interested in snagging a contract for an upcoming iPhone.
“According to sources at Verizon, the company is more interested in the lucrative iPhone contracts,” Fox News reported Wednesday. The carrier says its still interested in supporting the iPad, as well.
Apple reportedly has picked a new maker for its upcoming fourth-generation iPhone. Pegatron Technology, a subsidiary of Asus, will join Foxconn, which manufacturers the current handset for the Cupertino, Calif. electronics company.
According to Taiwan-based DigiTimes, Pegatron says handsets shipped from its plant will “grow substantially in 2010,” although declined to elaborate. The company, which makes LCD TVs along with cell phones, will also make a motion controller for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in 2010.
How do you get more attention for a largely unknown netbook at a time when the tech press has the vapors for Apple’s iPad? You sue Apple and claim its new device is just a clone of your netbook, thus grabbing some headlines for a day or two. China’s Shenzhen Great Loong Brothers said it might sue Apple, claiming the iPad looks like its P88.
The Chinese company’s president Xiaolong Wu, in an interview with Spain’s El Mundo, said if Apple tries to sell the iPad in China he “won’t have any choice but to report them [Apple],” noting the device would hurt his sales.
If the most often repeated scuttlebutt is to be believed. Apple’s Tablet, when released later today, will feature some sort of souped up flavor of the iPhone OS. That raises an interesting point: even as it is, the iPhone OS as an operating system brand name is pretty clunky, especially when you’re talking about non-iPhone hardware like the iPod Touch. If the Tablet does indeed run some flavor of the iPhone OS, maybe it needs a name change to reflect its expanded scope?
According to Mac Daily News, that’s just what Apple plans. The video they use as proof is pretty questionable, but nonetheless, MDN claims that Apple will rebrand the iPhone OS to iOS during today’s media event.
Short of a few bigwigs cloistered away in Cupertino’s panic rooms, no one really knows the exact details of what Steve Jobs plans to announce today, but even if this iOS rumor turns out to be false — and I suspect it might be — I think it’s still a pretty good bet that a name change for the iPhone OS might be in store.
