If you for whatever reason doubted that the next iPad would be FaceTime compatible, a new screenshot found inside the latest iOS 4.3 beta gives stronger indication than ever that there will be both front and rear-facing cameras in the iPad 2.
Apple giveth and Apple taketh away after notifying developers that the new multi-touch gestures for the iPad, discovered in the first beta release of iOS 4.3, will not be available to the public when iOS 4.3 is released.
This bit of news was delivered to developers today in the Read Me file included with the iOS 4.3 Beta 2 release.
Now Apple is claiming that these gestures are now simply there for developers to preview and test with their own apps.
You can see how the new gestures work by clicking the read link below and watching a video demonstration of them.
Here at Cult of Mac, I’ve posted time and time again why I don’t think the iPad 2 will have a Retina Display, even though Apple definitely wants to give it one. It’s all about economic feasibility, and the bottom line is that an iPad packing nearly the same amount of pixels as a 27-inch iMac isn’t going to come in at a sub-$500 or even sub-$600 price range.
It appears that Daring Fireball’s John Gruber agrees. His sources, which are usually impeccable, tell him that the iPad 2 simply does not have a Retina Display, and will still run at a 1024 x 768 resolution.
Asked at today’s earnings call whether or not he feared that the success of the iPad and the rise in popularity of tablets would cannibalize Mac sales, Tim Cook not only said Apple was not afraid of cannibalization and hadn’t seen it occurring, but even if it did happen, they weren’t worried about it. In fact, Apple welcomed it.
“Last quarter, the Mac grew at eight times the PC market rate of growth, so as far as we can see, there’s no cannibalization on Mac sales by the iPad,” said Cook.
“In fact, there’s the opposite: a Halo Effect from Apple product to Apple product.”
“If this is cannibalization, it feels pretty good,” Cook laughed.
What if the tablet market does cannibalize PC sales, though? Cook downplayed the threat.
“One thing to keep in mind if the iPad and tablets do start cannibalizing, the Mac has a relatively low share in the PC market, so we actually have a lot more to win because of that, while our competitors have a lot more to lose.”
During today’s Q1 2011 earnings call, one consistent strain ran throughout: Apple could not be happier with the success of the iPad, and could not be more contemptuous of the competition.
Apple just concluded their Q1 2011 earnings call, and while Steve Jobs may be taking a leave of absence, he’s leaving his company in good shape: Apple has just had their best quarter ever, racking in over $26.7 billion in revenue, a number which blows away even the most optimistic Wall Street projections.
In Q1 2011, Apple managed to sell 16.24 million iPhones, which was a new record for the company. Even more impressively, they sold 7.33 million iPads over the holiday period, which was over 3 million more than the previous quarter.
On the Mac side, Apple sold 4.13 million Macs, a strong growth of 23 percent year-over-year, largely buoyed by the runaway success of the new MacBook Air. iPod sales, on the other hand, were down 7 percent year-over-year, continuing a steady decline.
Steve Jobs did not appear during the conference call, nor was his health referenced. However, he did provide a quote for the press release, saying: ““We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales. We are firing on all cylinders and we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on.”
Apple projects $22 billion in revenue for next quarter, as well as earnings per share of $4.90. Given Apple’s history surprising its shareholders, it’s probably going to be a lot more.
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The news of Steve Jobs’ health problems has saddened a lot of Apple fans. Rather than sit around speculating what may or may not be wrong with Steve’s health, we want to do something to try and lift his spirits. But we need your help.
We’re asking all our readers and anyone else who’s a fan of Steve Jobs to use their creativity and join us in making an awesome Get Well Soon video message.
Click on the YouTube video above and submit your own video reply. You can upload video or record a quick message with your webcam. It’s the easiest way we can think of to get a bunch of video messages that we can edit together into a big group message.
Uniquely express your well wishes to Steve and upload it. The more video replies we can get the better. It’s your choice if you wish to make your message funny or dramatic or sincere. Just make it you. Spread it on Twitter with #getwellsteve.
Let’s let the world’s best CEO know that we care about him.
Here are step-by-step instructions showing how to use YouTube’s Video response feature. And again, please spread the word.
Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence and handing day-to-day control of Apple over to Tim Cook.
Jobs sent the following message to staff this morning:
Team,
At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.
I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.
I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.
(Sources: Reuters and Business Insider.)
VoIP service VoxOx thought its rebranding at CES — which includes a massive effort to unify almost every method of communication known to man, and new features like being able to pick your own phone number for free — was such a big deal, they had an army of extras with duct-taped mouths following around an alien who gave away “dozens” (according to VoxOx) of iPhones at the show.
In fact, the PR stunt attracted so much attention it detracted from VoxOx’s actual message about all the neat stuff they’ve bundled into their reworked desktop app, and that they’re well on the way to having an iPhone app out, pending Apple’s approval (and as should be expected, VoxOx says they’ve focused on putting out an iPhone app ahead of any possible Android app).
Here’s the big picture about some of the new features; everything — apart from some outgoing calls — is free:
MacBook Pro owner Tommy reports that his 1.5-year-old replacement battery is swelling and that an Apple service rep told him that this is “normal.”
First, nobody seemed to know what to do with me or who I should talk to. Second, while they Apple Customer Representative could look up the age of my computer by the serial number, they had no way of tracking (and “proving the age”) of my battery by its unique serial number. Third, while nearly everybody I talked to seemed to show much concern over this safety issue, the “Senior Customer Representative” who finally spoke to me was quite apathetic about my battery problem. According to him, this issue is normal and the result of wear-and-tear on the battery and, more importantly, this was Apple’s official position.
Since the battery is too old to be covered by Apple’s one-year warranty, the rep refused to replace it. That is, unless it might cause bodily injury or fire.
It may be the New Year, but sadly, it appears that the mere turning-over of the calendar isn’t enough to put a stop to the slate of Foxconn suicides: last Friday, a female engineer leaped from her brother’s 10th floor flat to her death after being insulted by a superior, ordered to quit, then sent to a psychiatric hospital on Foxconn’s orders.
The suicide is the fifteenth so far, although the first Foxconn suicide in 2011.
In just a little over 200 million downloads, the App Store will serve up its ten billionth app , and to celebrate the occasion, Apple’s going to give the lucky S.O.B. who downloads the 10 billionth app a $10,000 iTunes gift card.
Well, technically, Apple’s only saying that the person who downloads the ten billionth app has a chance of winning a $10,000 gift card. Note the verbiage (emphasis ours):
As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet.
The explanation for Apple’s wishy-washiness are pesky American laws that require companies to give an equal chance to no-commitment entries, which is why Apple has provided an entry form that you can fill out up to twenty five times a day. These entries count as make-believe app downloads; if one of these cheapskate entries triggers the ten billionth download, they’ll walk away with $10,000, just as if it were a real download.
Either way, this is super cool. A $10,000 iTunes gift card is probably large enough that even the most addicted app fiend will never have to spend another real-world dime in the App Store again.
The next iPhone and iPad — both coming soon — will have no Home button on the front. “Multitasking gestures” on the screen will replace the button.
The next iPhone will have a “friend finder” feature or app similar to Google’s Latitude service. It will have built-in support for Wi-Fi hotspots (where the phone is the hotspot that supports up to five other devices). And it will have several other refinements and tweaks.
The next iPad will have a screen that’s the same resolution, but it will gain a camera.
How do I know all this? Well, I don’t. These are educated guesses. That education comes courtesy of a new beta version of the software that powers these devices.
You can’t see bare-chested women in the iTunes store, but a big fat nude male torso that makes music is perfectly acceptable.
Enter the Belly Jam app, wiggly musical goodness offered gratis on iTunes. OK, musical goodness is pushing it, but the idea is you touch the tummy or chest to make 16 different sounds.
The mechanism — slap that fat to make a soundtrack – is similar to apps like iBoobs, where users shook the iPhone to jiggle a pair of breasts.
Although Apple rumor-mongers can rarely agree on anything, two things that most of the supposed tipsters and leaksters have managed to agree on is that the iPad 2 will be FaceTime compatible and have a higher resolution display.
Some files in the new iOS 4.3 SDK seemingly confirm the FaceTime claims, as it includes iPad-specific graphic files for the shutter screen seen in the iPhone and iPod Touch, which implies, at the very least, a new backwards facing camera. Interesting, but a no-brainer: there’s no way Apple’s going to leave FaceTime capability out of the iPad 2.
More surprising than the FaceTime implications of those icons, though, are their resolution: 1024 x 768. In other words, the current iOS 4.3 SDK implies that the FaceTime-capable iPad 2 will have the same resolution as the current iPad.
iOS 4.3 Beta Build 8F5148B has just been seeded to developers, and there’s some big changes across all devices to get your head around:
• iOS 4.3 officially drops support for the iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod Touch. iOS 4 never ran particularly well on these devices anyway, and it looks like Apple knows it: they’ve now left all support for less-than-third-gen devices at iOS 4.2.1.
• As predicted, iOS 4.3 brings the Verizon iPhone’s “Personal Hotspot” feature allowing WiFi tethering for up to five devices to all iPhones… or, at least, all iPhones that are blessed with their carrier’s approval.
• A new software option to choose what your iPad’s side switch does: lock rotation or mute. This is a pretty big change: Steve Jobs himself basically said the change in iOS 4.2 from a lock switch to mute was permanent, but it seems user complaints eventually made Apple see sense. Mute just doesn’t make any sense on a non-phone device.
• A new FaceTime icon and full-screen iAds.
• New multitouch gestures for iPad users. You can use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen; swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar; and swipe left or right between apps.
Anything we missed? Let us know in the comments.
Steve Jobs introduced iTunes ten years ago this week, on January 10, 2001 at the MacWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, where he proclaimed a belief in the “revolution” of “digital music on computers.”
At the time, Macs still ran on OS 9 and iTunes was all about “ripping audio CDs onto your computer disk;” tens of billions of dollars in digital music sales were yet a glimmer in Jobs’ eye.
At the time, iTunes launched as a competitor to existing products from companies such as Real Networks and Microsoft, and Jobs admitted at MacWorld that his company was “late to the game.”
iTunes, of course, quickly became the only game in town, as Apple soon launched OS X and seamlessly integrated its music software with iPod, the line of portable music players that “changed everything” and helped Apple become the tech industry powerhouse it is today.
Just like AT&T’s iPhone 4, the Verizon iPhone 4 will feature a Retina display, a front-facing camera, an Apple A4 chip, and HD video recording. Other than the CDMA chip in the Verizon device and the redesigned antenna, the hardware is exactly the same. So, how do you choose the best device for you?
We’ve created a handy comparison chart that will help you identify the difference between the two options. If you’re looking to purchase Apple’s latest iPhone, the chart below will help you choose the best carrier for your device based on price, data allowances, and additional features exclusive to each. Check it out after the break!
AT&T lost its iPhone monopoly, and may soon lose a million or two customers, to Verizon. But I think Verizon’s freshly announced support for the iPhone is on balance a very good thing for AT&T.
Estimates for how many current AT&T customers will switch to Verizon range from half a million (Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe) to 6 million (Davenport & Company analyst Drake Johnstone). The likely number is probably somewhere between 1 and 2 million customers. (Full disclosure: My wife works for AT&T Interactive, a division of AT&T.)
AT&T Mobility currently has more than 93 million customers, and often gains somewhere between 2 and 3 million customers per quarter. So the loss of say, 2 million customers is significant but by no means catastrophic.
But what does AT&T gain?
So now that Verizon has announced that they’re selling shiny new iPhone 4’s you’re chomping at the bit to get off of AT&T or T-Mobile and join the ranks of Big Red right? Of course one of the biggest draw backs to doing this is that your Early Termination Fee could cost as much as $325. While it’s not the easiest thing to do, there are multiple ways to get out of having to pay the ETF, and we’re going to show you a couple of ways to avoid the fees.
Those expecting the 3G limitations of Verizon’s CDMA network to disappear with the iPhone 4’s debut should think again.
Asked whether or not you will lose your data connection when you get a phone call on the iPhone 4, Cook responded: “It’s consistent with other CDMA devices right now.”
That sucks. That means no talking and browsing at the same time, and if you get an incoming call when your 32GB iPhone is working as a mobile hot spot, everyone connected to you will have their signals drop. Bummer.
Asked if this experience would be jarring to those who expected constant voice and data, and asking how Apple could allow this when they are so focused on user experience, Tim Cook paused for a long time before answering, then finally said: ” I think people place different emphasis on things — I can tell you that the number one question I’ve gotten is when will the iPhone work on Verizon. I couldn’t be happier to tell people that. They will make those sorts of tradeoffs.”
In other words, Apple knows this is a problem, but there’s nothing they can do. They aren’t happy about it.
We know that the Verizon iPhone 4 will be almost identical in hardware to the AT&T iPhone 4. We know it’ll launch on February 10th. But what will it cost, and when will it be available to pre-order?
First the price: the 16GB Verizon iPhone 4 will cost $199, the 32GB will cost $299 with a mobile hotspot included that can support up to five devices. That’s a big perk: unlike AT&T’s iPhone 4, you get tethering!
As for pre-orders, Verizon is giving its existing customers a week’s window to pre-order the device starting February 3rd. Come February 10th, orders will be open to all customers on both Verizon and Apple’s official website.
One thing that no one mentioned? Unlimited data. It appears that the Verizon iPhone 4, despite everyone’s hopes, will not be the exception to Verizon Wireless’ tiered mobile data approach. Pity.
Verizon has made the launch date of the iPhone 4 on their network official: it will be coming on February 10th, and according to Verizon’s Dan Dee, they are ready for launch, and no one is going to experience the sort of congestion that has become synonymous with AT&T’s iPhone service.
“Wireless customers have been asking for the iPhone on Verizon — and we’re excited to offer this to existing and new customers. I want to tell you how dedicated we are to launch this. Our employees are ready, we’ve been scaling our shipping systems. We’ve been scaling our inventory systems,” said Vee.
“I want to spend a minute on how robust our network is. We have designed this network for customers to have an optimum experience. We have been drive testing this on our network. We’re now into the thousands of devices, and we could not be more pleased.”
“iPhone 4 is going to run on our network… network capacity — we have advanced the capacity and built margin into it. We’re ready for this launch,” asserted Vee.
After years of spotty AT&T service, Verizon knows this is what people need to hear to be convinced to make the switch.
After several minutes of bragging about Verizon’s networks and partnerships, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has just dropped the bombshell: “Today we’re partnering with a giant of the industry, and that’s Apple.”
Boom. “”Our relationship with Apple has developed over the last two years. In 2008 we started talking about bringing the iPhone to a CDMA network. We spent a year testing. Late in 2010 we started offering the iPad… today, we are extremely gratified to announce that the iPhone 4 will be available early next month.”
And just like that, three years of rumors have finally ended: the Verizon iPhone 4 is coming early next month, and the last major exclusivity deal for the iPhone has crumbled.
Could the Genius Bar be going head to head with the Geek Squad in Best Buy stores around the country?
TUAW certainly thinks so, but that seems pretty fishy to me: why would Best Buy agree to juxtapose their own utterly inept and criminally exhortative customer tech organ with Apple’s far classier and fuller serviced one? The Geek Squad can’t come off well in the comparison.
On Apple’s part, though, the move makes a great deal of sense. Genius Bars around the country are already stuffed to the gills with appointments. Short of opening more retail stores, there’s not a lot Apple can do to eliminate he congestion… short of taking advantage of a retail partner’s surplus of big box space.
Clever! We’re interested in seeing how this works out: bringing the Genius Bar experience to Best Buy would certainly be one way to more easily cover more customers.