Jan 24, 2010 Jan 26, 2010 Monday January 25, 2010
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Apple Income Statement Analysis for December 2009 Quarter
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported earnings of $3.67 per diluted share in the quarter that ended 26 December 2009, which was the first quarter of Apple's fiscal 2010. In this quarter, Apple revised, in a very substantial way, how it accounts for Revenue due to sales of the iPhone (and the less important Apple TV). This change, which complies with the latest standards issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, enables Apple to recognize "substantially all" iPhone and Apple TV Revenue in the period that the sale to a consumer took place. Apple had been required to recognize Revenue from these products over each product's two-year estimated economic life. This "subscription accounting" method resulted in substantial amounts of deferred Revenue and costs, reducing the reported values for each.
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Apple: Another Good Quarter Validates Bull Case Despite Confusion
Apple (AAPL) reported another good quarter (revenue +32%, EPS +44%) although investor reaction was unusually muted as the company unexpectedly switched its revenue recognition policy for iPhones. Apple has been reporting “adjusted” results based on the new accounting for several quarters and most investors new a switch was in the pipeline. However the company gave no indication the change would come this quarter. As a result, there was no real way to compare Apple's results or the March quarter guidance to estimates. This confusion I think led to a muted reaction. After I quickly updated my spreadsheet with the new historical reported results, it looks like another very good quarter although not a massive upside blowout compared to restated estimates. Guidance looks pretty good in that it appears to roughly match analyst estimates. Apple usually guides below the Street.
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Gates visits 'The Daily Show' again
Three years after appearing with Jon Stewart to plug Vista's debut, the Microsoft chairman shows up to tout his foundation's efforts.
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Steve Jobs: Apple tablet “the most important thing I've ever done”
Prince McLean, AppleInsider Adding fuel to the already blazing bonfire of excited anticipation surrounding the tablet-sized product Apple is expected to announce on Wednesday, CEO Steve Jobs has being quoted as saying, “This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done.” Steve Jobs: Apple tablet “the most importing thing I’ve ever done” . That phrase was attributed to [...]
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Apple defends AT&T, downplays talk of multi-carrier inevitability
Prince McLean, AppleInsider Despite a howl of complaints and even lawsuits filed by some disgruntled iPhone users, Apple reiterated that it supports AT&T as a great mobile partner, despite rumored moves to expand its iPhone partnerships in the U.S. Apple defends AT&T, downplays talk of multi-carrier inevitability . During Monday’s quarterly earnings conference call, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim [...]
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7 for 7: Home Controls on the Apple Tablet
This is the sixth in a series of 7 posts in the 7 days prior to Apple’s January 27 media event in which I explore various possibilities for an Apple Tablet and other potential announcements. The unlikeliest of all the features I'm hoping for in an Apple Tablet–home controls–made it to the penultimate post in the 7 for 7 series (tomorrow's article will be a recap and will address some broader concepts about Apple's mobile strategy). Unlikeliest? I've seen very little in the way of rumors or speculation that Apple is intending to include support for home controls in the iSlate, iPad, Canvas or you-name-it tablet device now widely expected to be unveiled on Wednesday. Yet its one of those out-of-the-blue kinds of things that would allow Apple to both surprise analysts and pundits alike, and to totally disrupt the current home controls market while opening it to the masses. So allow me to dream for a day before the reality of Wednesday's announcement brings me back to earth. First off, we should probably define home controls, which is also known as home automation. Home controls is the automation of many household appliances and services, such as lighting, temperature, audio-video, and security, among other systems. These systems are integrated into one central control unit, which can then be accessed by multiple devices on the network. Home controls give residents the ability to turn lights on and off, increase or decrease your thermostat's temperature control, or select options on your home entertainment center. Home control systems have become commonplace in luxury homes because of the convenience they offer, but are out of reach for most homeowners because of cost. Companies like Savant and HomeLogic offer an impressive array of control devices, from wall-mounted and wireless touchpads to sleek system controllers and even digital furniture. Control4 has successfully attempted to make full-scale home automation systems more affordable, but their system can also be a bit pricey as it requires many custom components. My brother has a Control4 system in his new home, and I love how it makes distributing audio a breeze. All three companies, and others, offer home controls iPhone apps, as central servers can often be accessed via Wi-Fi. Devices in your home must also be controllable, which means they typically need some form of actuator. The high-end companies offer their own solutions, but there are industry standards for communications like X10 which drive down the cost. Any device, like a light switch, can be retrofitted to support X10, and communication signals are sent over existing electrical lines. Yet such controls have yet to hit the mainstream, in part because they are somewhat technically advanced and still considered a luxury. However, as energy consumption becomes more important and the cost of home control equipment goes down, more and more people will consider home controls as a serious option, especially if government incentives that support such devices gain traction. Apple and its developers have ventured into various aspects of home controls. Apple offers its Remote app in the iTunes App Store to control iTunes, Apple TV, and Airport Express audio. The aforementioned home controls companies have released iPhone apps as part of their solutions. And there are a few Mac-based home controls systems on the market, including Shion and Perceptive Automation's Indigo, which communicate with X10 and other automation standards and devices. The reasons I want to see and think there is an outside chance that home controls a part of the tablet announcement are: 1) positioning of the device as a new kind of home computer or room-to-room mobile; 2) the huge market opportunity that home controls represents; and 3) my own imagination about what Apple could do with a multi-touch interface that controls my home's functions. But the reasons not to expect it are perhaps stronger: 1) this positioning competes too much with a larger opportunity to be a digital media device; 2) a successful home controls strategy would require too heavy a reliance on a now fragmented market for hardware peripherals; and 3) frankly, Apple has too many other ways to excite and engage customers via multi-touch interface. I'd really, really like to believe that Apple will aggressively address the home controls market, starting with the launch of the tablet on the 27th, but I don't think that's going to happen. For some entrepreneurs out there, however, I think the tablet represents a new opportunity to develop new, or better commercialize existing home controls solutions using Mac hardware for control center and user interface functions, x10 and related hardware for device control, and system integration services to pull it all together. If Apple doesn't do it, someone should.
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Apple Macintosh: Where's the respect?
Of course, the vast mindshare of the tech market is focused almost single-mindedly on Wednesday and its supposed announcement of an Apple tablet. Still, one longtime Mac-head was impressed by the continuing strength of Mac sales. And this in the face of the competition's (aka Microsoft) desperate marketing campaigns.
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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Like the story as a whole, the still-frame cutscenes are a simplistic means to an end. While the more recent Grand Theft Auto videogames all focus on expansive 3D worlds, GTA: Chinatown Wars steps back in time to the series’ 2D roots. Surprisingly enough--and in spite of its forgettable narrative--it’s more refreshing and brilliant than we ever would’ve imagined.Cars control like a dream, even without the optional assists on.What shocked us more than that, though, is the way Chinatown Wars embraces the impressive size of Grand Theft Auto IV’s Liberty City, rather than dumbing it down. That means you end up with a massive open-world playground and exploration that’s rich with variety. The diverse missions aren’t just built for portability--they keep touch capabilities firmly in mind as well. The punchy objectives are great for short burst of car-thieving and gunfighting, though the immense level of creativity in our assignments had us hooked for longer-than-expected stretches. Both big-bang missions and the subtler but more time-intensive objectives are equally memorable. Two favorites are busting buddies out of a SWAT truck with explosives (and the high-speed pursuit that followed), and using a humongous crane to dump cars into the ocean. Even some smaller moments stick out as excellent ideas--for instance, using the touchscreen to assemble pieces of a gun or unscrew a wire panel before hotwiring a car. That’s genius.The faux analog-stick works, but it sometimes slips out of your grasp.Chinatown Wars only really falls flat over its virtual-thumbstick and touchscreen button controls. We sometimes ended up dead or busted because the movement “stick” would periodically pop back to center during a routine getaway, which suddenly immobilized our itty-bitty criminal. It’s a small complaint in the grand scheme of things, however, because it happened so infrequently. Short on cash? Shotgun a civilian.On the other hand, vehicles always felt great--a rarity for GTA--and we appreciate that the e-brake involves a finger-sliding technique, instead of adding another button to an already cluttered screen. In fact, the HUD feels pretty busy until you crash through the first couple hours of tutorials. After that, the user interface becomes simpler, and filtering through emails on your PDA, pulling up directions on the GPS, and hot-swapping from billy club to boomstick is as easy and effective as managing your, um, other goods.Dealin’ drugs in Chinatown Wars is its own kind of addiction. We loved the barreling through Liberty City with the pedal to the metal and a pistol out the window, but it’s the drug dealing that really had us captivated. We became obsessed with the extremely profitable objective of slinging illicit contraband to various dealers scattered about town. The buy-low, sell-high economy of it makes it easy to get distracted from the story. And because drugs occasionally play a role in the game’s story missions--the “ordinary son of a Triad boss stumbles into a life of crime” story is, by far, the series’ weakest in recent memory--the risky business is also an essential aspect of your 15- to 30-hour stint in Liberty City.
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Your Macsimum Podcast for January 25th
Posted by Frank PetrieDELAY DUE TO POWER OUTAGE. SORRY. Today on your Macsimum Podcast: “The Numbers,” “Finally!” “Future Converged Mobile Device Growth” and ”...Story 4.”
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AT&T Exclusivity Death Watch
It's what so many people out there are waiting and praying and hoping desperately for: that soon, perhaps very soon, Apple will break its pact of exclusivity with its mobile carrier, AT&T. With speculation running rampant about what will or will not happen at the upcoming January 27 Yerba Buena Center event, this is one issue, tablet or no tablet, people will be waiting anxiously to see addressed.Of course, Apple is keeping up a decent face in spite of all the criticism their carrier has come in for, even praising AT&T at times. This is not to say that everyone at Cupertino is deaf to the the howls of complaints that make up the internet conversation regarding the Evil Empire. In a recent quarterly earnings conference call, according to AppleInsider, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook distanced the company from talk that they might move to a multicarrier arrangement "in every market or that [they] are headed that way in every market." Analysts clearly took this to refer to the American situation where AT&T rules the roost. When pressed on the benefits of remaining with a single carrier, Cook went out of his way to praise AT&T, noting they had the largest mobile broadband usage of any carrier in the world then following up with the claim that iPhone users have a great experience with the carrier. While this may be backed by research, Cook did then go on to point out the obvious, that AT&T does have its problems though he claimed this was limited to "a few cities." Still many believe that 2010 will finally be the year that the iPhone loses its AT&T monogamy and rushes headlong into the arms of the dashing stranger in the shadows, Verizon Wireless. For what feels like a major confirmation of some kind of Apple-Verizon hook up, Electronista is reporting a very, very peculiarly timed meeting for Verizon retail managers. According to an inside source, Verizon is holding their usual quarterly kick-off meeting on January 27th, a date which may sound vaguely familiar to those of you who read the first paragraph of this article. More intriguing still, managers will also be instructed to begin watching a "live webcast" set to start at 1pm EST, the same time as Apple's event on the West Coast. Whether this proves to be an announcement that Apple is looking for a more open marriage arrangement in regards to the iPhone or that, as other rumors have pegged it, Verizon is set to be one of multiple carriers for the long-awaited tablet, none can as yet say. If there's anything we can guess with some assurance, it's that January 27's event will be must see web TV.
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Pen input faces off against hardware and software QWERTY keyboards: there can be only one (maybe)
It's completely anecdotal and lacking in what some might call "scientific rigor," but we're digging the, ahem, relevance of Phil Gyford's little text input faceoff he performed for his blog recently. The piece pits an Apple Newton, Palm Vx, Treo 650, and Apple iPhone up against each other, with regular pen and paper and a laptop's full QWERTY keyboard thrown in for reference. The results may or may not surprise you, but (spoiler alert) after the MacBook Pro took top honors in blazing through a 221 word passage twice, the iPhone beat out the rest of the competition, with the three pen-related inputs (pen and paper, Newton MessagePad and Palm Graffiti) all taking up dead last. The iPhone, Treo and pen and paper all were relatively close in speed, and naturally your mileage may vary. That said, where do you think you fall? Drop in your results in comments (the full text he used can be found at the source link) or hit up the poll below with your best guestimate. We're dying to know! View PollPen input faces off against hardware and software QWERTY keyboards: there can be only one (maybe) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.PermalinkSlashdot | Phil Gyford |Email this|Comments
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MacHighway Easy
There’s nothing like a bold statement to get our attention, and Chris Graves, president of Mac-centric Internet host MacHighway, makes this one: His company is “presenting [its] services as an alternative to MobileMe, as opposed to a replacement.” We take his nuanced wording to mean that MacHighway Easy lacks the full features of Apple’s option, but could still serve the same purpose for some customers by providing email accounts, website hosting, and file-server storage. The service even includes a domain name and other features beyond MobileMe’s scope. But since MacHighway is inviting the comparison, we’ll have to ding it for the areas where it can’t match MobileMe: ease of use, and iCal and Address Book syncing.MacHighway Easy matches some of MobileMe’s features--at a lower cost. You’ll pick a domain name at signup--or transfer over one you already own--beating Apple’s generic www.me.com/username approach. That means that both your website and email comes from your customized address, which tops myname@me.com for professional correspondence. You’ll also get five email addresses, great for sharing with family and sticking an info@mydomain.com address on the front page of your website.You’ll get 10GB of storage space and 10GB of transfer bandwidth a month, which is plenty for personal or small-business email, site hosting, and file sharing. You can transfer files through MacHighway’s Web interface, an FTP client, or even the Finder, mounting the online storage on your Desktop. At press time, Finder-mounting only worked over an insecure connection, but MacHighway was working on a solution to the problem.It's déjà vu all over again; these tools are the same as those you'd find on most Internet hosts.MacHighway Easy goes beyond MobileMe in a few key areas. You can set up an unlimited number of email aliases to instantly forward incoming messages to one of your real accounts. You can add temporary or permanent email autoresponders, telling customers that you got their note or alerting friends that you’re on vacation. MacHighway also includes 10 subdomains, such as www.subdomain.mydomain.com, to organize your site. And you can view basic details about your traffic and visitors. But instead of providing a way to sync a calendar and address book online--or with an iPhone--MacHighway merely supplies a few tutorials for setting up Google’s calendar and contact alternatives. Err… thanks?MacHighway Easy tries to live up to its welcoming name with documentation and embedded videos throughout its online setup process. For example, when you create an email account, you can watch a video that walks you through the setup, and Mac-specific tutorials advise you on many procedures like publishing to your site from iWeb.However, MacHighway often presents strange and confusing situations that will trip up casual users. During the setup process, you need to decide if you want to pay extra for additional spam protection or ID Protection, but the site offers sparse details about what you’re actually buying. If you don’t already know that ID Protection shields your personal address and phone number from public disclosure, you might regret skimping on its $7.95 cost. MacHighway even lacks a simple, obvious control-panel login at www.machighway.com.If you do have questions, the Mac-savvy documentation and tech support will help. And most importantly, the service works well in practice. We’re not sure the comparisons to MobileMe are appropriate since crucial syncing features are missing, but MacHighway has no problems working with Mac standards like iWeb or Mail.
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Our Favorite Tablet Mock-ups and Patents
In January 2008, an Apple patent application originally filed in July 2006, titled Integrated monitor and docking station, was finally published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. We believed that this particular patent could foreshadow a future tablet accessory -- a docking station that looks like an iMac. According to the patent, a device resembling the MacBook could be inserted into a slot within the body of the iMac and provide additional monitor space. The concept looked great because, unlike traditional docking stations, it would have been aesthetically pleasing, while conserving desk space. Above, Figure 1A of Apple's patent shows a conceptual view of this idea. The drawing suggests that the computer is an iMac with the body of one of Apple's recent generation of cinema displays. The device shown sliding into the new docking station looks like it could be a removable tablet with MacBook innards. The patent also mentions the inclusion of an iSight camera, storage devices, speakers, microphone, memory card reader (like all of Apple's current computer line up with the exception of the Mac Pro), a battery charger, and a modem connection. The above figures depict other aspects of the iMac dock. Figure 1B shows the rear, Figure 1C shows the empty docking slot and, Figure 1D shows the slot with what could be a tablet nestled in its docking state. Mock-up by Adam Benton We took Apple's black and white drawings and came up with the mock-up above. Will we see this on Wednesday? Probably not, but it's still nice to dream. The iMac dock isn't our only foray into the world of three-dimensional design based on patents. We gathered some of our favorite mock-ups, patents, and unreleased Apple products and dropped them in the gallery below. Your browser doesn't support JavaScript or you have disabled JavaScript.Be sure to check out our live blog of the Apple event at 10am PST on January 27.
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Apple Inc. F1Q10 (Qtr End 12/26/09) Earnings Call Transcript
Apple Inc. (AAPL) F1Q10 Earnings Call January 25, 2010 5:00 pm ET
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Apple Back Above 50-DMA After Hours
Apple (AAPL) had a nice day today, closing up $5.32 to $203.08. The stock had a strong earnings report after the close, and it closed the after-hours session up another $1.52 to $204.60.While this is a small gain for Apple compared to what it does sometimes after earnings reports, it is a significant gain because it has put the stock back above its 50-day moving average. With the speculated release of its tablet coming on Wednesday along with lots of other non-stock related events going on in the market right now, Apple can use as many positive technical forces as it can get.
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Noby Noby Boy demoed at Apple Store in Japan
Filed under: Gaming, Freeware, Developer, iPhone, App Store This one might require a little patience to watch, but those interested will be rewarded well, I think. The footage above is from an Apple Store in Toyko's Ginza shopping district, where none other than Keita Takahashi showed up to demo his latest iPhone game. Who's Keito Takahashi? He's the gaming auteur behind Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, two of the weirdest yet most fascinating games of the last decade or so, and he's bringing Noby Noby Boy to the iPhone. Unfortunately, the above demo is in Japanese, but you can see what kinds of thinking is going into the game. It looks like he's completely revamping the game as a top-down physics-based version of the already very strange PS3 version. We would provide you with some more explanation, but it probably won't make things any clearer: the object of the game is to stretch out a little creature named BOY, and at the end of the level, your stretched length adds up with all the other players of the game online to another creature called GIRL, who is currently reaching out into the solar system. Told you it wouldn't help. Nevertheless, it's pretty fascinating just to watch the four videos (start here) and see what weirdness transpires in the video -- there are some interesting touchscreen controls, and lots of quick physics on the items bouncing around the iPhone's screen. It's not that great as an actual game preview, but that might not matter much anyway: Takahashi said a while back that whenever this weird monstrosity does release on Apple's handheld, "price-wise might be like free." We can't wait to see it. [via Panic]TUAWNoby Noby Boy demoed at Apple Store in Japan originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments iPhone - Noby Boy - Keita Takahashi - Katamari Damacy - App Store
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Apple event countdown brings new rumors
As the company's Wednesday press event draws nearer, speculation over what it will announce continues to mount.
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Belkin releases FM transmitter with iPhone app for finding clear stations
Filed under: Multimedia, Peripherals, iPhone, App Store, Music Belkin has announced the release of their latest FM transmitter for the iPhone and iPod touch, the TuneCast Auto Live. You know these things -- they plug into your iPhone or iPod touch's dock connector, and then send a local FM signal out to your car's radio, enabling wireless transmission of your music or podcasts. I've got a Belkin transmitter already (the TuneCast Auto -- more on that in a second), but I'm interested in this new one, because it can be used with a free iPhone app [iTunes link] that will actually use your iPhone's GPS information to find a good station for you right away. That seems helpful -- my current issue with my Belkin is that here in Los Angeles, where the radio stations are almost as thick as the fast food joints, I can't seem to find a solid station to keep it on that's clear enough to actually listen to. If you're in a busy urban area, there's so many signals flying around that these transmitters are more or less useless. I don't know if the GPS app would help me (seems like I'd have to keep changing the car's station while I move even if I could find a clear signal here in the city), but if you're in the market for an FM transmitter and are in a place with a little more room on the radio dial, the $79.99 TuneCast is as good a choice as any. As for me, I'll probably go for an aux hookup straight into my dash the next time I have some car audio upgrade money.TUAWBelkin releases FM transmitter with iPhone app for finding clear stations originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments Presented By: NEC Ads by Pheedo iPhone - App Store - IpodTouch - Apple - Radio
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Twitter + Defense = Tweet Defense
The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports that a new tower defense game is coming to your iPhone and iPod touch next month. But Promethium Group (the former MS Gamerscoreblog crew) has added a twist to the new game Tweet Defense. In what might be the worst thing to happen to electronics since the first person decided to sell Viagra by e-mail, the game awards points to strengthen your tower based on how much you use Twitter. The premise is straightforward enough. An attempt at the Genetic Synthesis Biolab to create human clones to do video game marketing has gone horribly awry and turned half the world's population into brain-eating zombies—and really, who can't identify with that? But now they are after your brains. Let the comments section go wild over the premise that those who avoid marketing are the ones with desirable (and tasty) brains. For only $0.99 at launch (though they strongly hint that will be a limited time offer), you will be able to build protection from the walking undead on 10 different maps, with 5 types of enemies, 6 tower types, upgradable weapons and so on. According to Nelson Rodriguez, executive producer, “We wondered what it would be like to take your social network and your activities there and turn it into a game. We ended up with a full on tower defense game that uses your friend list and your tweeting activity to impact how powerful your towers are.” There are no hard stats on how many people have been unfriended on Facebook because of the barrage of messages from Farmville discussing their friends' eggs and who fertilized what, but this could surpass it.
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Apple Q1 2010: Mad Money and Macs
Earnings for the first fiscal quarter of 2010 were insanely great with Apple selling a record number of Macs, and plenty of iPods and iPhones, too. Of course, part of that comes from adopting new accounting standards, but money is money no matter how you count it. Apple reported revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, beating even the most optimistic of six-figure analysts, not to mention the Wall Street consensus. Apple CEO Steve Jobs focused on the meaning of the accounting change and teased us all via press release. “If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.” I wonder what that could be? As for the non-investor who just likes Apple products, the holiday quarter was another record for Macs and iPhones, while iPods remain dominant in the market, if declining slightly in sales. Astounding as it may seem, Apple sold more Macs last quarter than for the entire year a decade ago. Also of note is the ratio between laptops and desktops. Apple sold 2.128 million laptops and 1.234 million desktops last quarter, 63.3 and 36.7 percent, respectively. Apparently, the new iMac has at least temporarily reversed the decline of the desktop slightly. With an eight percent decline year over year, clearly saturation point has been reached for iPods. Of course, that saturation point is 50 million iPods a year, so it could be worse. Also, it's important to remember that some of those iPod sales are now iPhone sales. An important shift in iPhone sales took place last quarter with iPhones breaking out of new-model cycle. Up until now, sales rose and fell more or less in relation to the launch of new iPhones, albeit at significantly higher sales levels after each cycle. Increased sales in Europe, and launches in Korea and China are likely a big part of this, so this quarter and next there may be a drop off in anticipation of the next generation device. With the Apple event and an expected tablet in the immediate future, and a new, possibly Verizon, iPhone in the summer, it's hard to imagine 2010 not superseding last year's records. Expect analysts to futilely attempt to pry more information from Apple during the conference call, and TheAppleBlog to duly report the obfuscations.
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David Weiss’s Prediction Score Card for Wednesday’s Event
I’ll go with yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, no, yes, yes, yes, yes, no, no, no, no (but I hope), no, no, yes, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes, no, no, no, no. And, even cooler, just today Apple approved Weiss’s new iPhone app for aggregating such rumor predictions, the aptly-named Prediction. ★
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News: Notes from Q1 2010 Apple Conference Call
During Apple’s First Quarter 2010 Financial Results Conference Call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer and Apple COO Tim Cook made several comments concerning its media-related products, including the iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV, as well as U.S. cellular partner AT&T. In his opening statements, Oppenheimer said that while traditional iPod sales declined, sales of the iPod touch were up 55% year-over-year, boosting the iPod's Average Selling Price…
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Apple results: First look
Cupertino beats some, but not all of the analyst predictions for its fiscal 2010 first quarter. The company announced revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38.
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Considering parenthood? There's an app for that
Filed under: Software, Odds and ends, iPhone, App Store, iPod touchIn just a few days, a UK couple will welcome their "iPhone baby." After three years of unsuccessful attempts at pregnancy, the couple downloaded an unnamed fertility calculator app. The mother-to-be, who wishes to remain anonymous, entered her temperature and other information daily. The app then did the necessary calculations to determine when she'd be most fertile. Just two months later, the couple had a little one on the way. Since the Telegraph story doesn't name the app the couple used, we've gathered a few with similar functionality: Fertility and Pregnancy Calculator [iTunes link] Much like the app in the story, this one will help a woman determine when she's most fertile. After that, she can use it to track Jr.'s development. Free. iFertility [iTunes link] iFertility helps women track their Basal Body Temperature and adds an option to share logs with her doctor either via the app or email. $1.99 Fertility Foods [iTunes link] This ebook for the iPhone and iPod touch by Dr. Jeremy Groll presents a diet-based method of increasing ovulation and getting pregnant. Dr. Groll is an OB/GYN specializing in the treatment of infertile couples. This book is an Iceburg Reader book, which are very well done. $15.99 A Barry White album wouldn't hurt, either. As a parent of toddlers, I get much use out of Pocket God [iTunes link], which my 6-year-old loves, PicPosterous [iTunes link] for uploading snapshots to a family gallery and Pickin' Time [iTunes link], which both the 6-year-old and 5-year-old love. We even used Ambiance [iTunes link] for my son when we left his white noise machine at home while on vacation. Last week an iPhone app helped save a life, and this week it helped create one. The tablet better have some REAL magic up its sleeve in order to top that.TUAWConsidering parenthood? There's an app for that originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments iPhone - App Store - Apple - IpodTouch - iTunes
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iPod sales down year-over-year
Posted by Dennis Sellers Although Apple sold almost 21 million iPods in the fiscal 2010 first quarter that ended Dec. 26, 2009, but sales declined year-year-over-year (down from 22.7 million in the year-ago quarter).
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Shrink Your iPhone App Icons with Shrink
A new jailbreak iPhone app lets you play with your icons as if they were Shrinky Dinks.Shrink, as it's aptly named, lets you shrink your app icons on the home screen so you can fit more on each screen. From the Settings, you can select Shrink, then select the shrink percentage. After that, you can respring your device to have the changes applied. The only problem is that Shrink is only available for people who have jailbroken their iPhones. If this is you, then visit the Cydia store where you can pick up Shrink for a mere 99 cents.via Just Another iPhone BlogImages via Daily Mobile
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Apple Beats, Macs Up, iPods Slip
Apple (AAPL), which is capturing headlines for a big Wednesday event that's expected to launch a new tablet device, put the speculation on hold long enough to report its first quarter earnings, which would include holiday sales. (Statement, Techmeme) On the surface, the company appeared to far exceed analysts expectations. The company reported a net profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per share, on sales of $15.68 billion. Wall Street analysts has been expecting earnings of $2.07 per share on sales of $12.06 billion. But it's also important to note that Apple changed its accounting processes during the quarter, changing the way it counts sales of items such as Apple TV and iPhones, which are subscription-centric products. (more on that below)
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Accounting Standards and Apple's Earnings Beat
By David Parkinson If investors sat on their hands Monday waiting for inspiration from Apple Inc. (AAPL), they may have just gotten it. Then again, maybe they didn't.
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Macworld’s Coverage of Apple’s Quarterly Results and Finance Call
Everything is up year-over-year: Mac sales, iPhone sales, revenue, and profit. Here’s Apple’s press release. Update: Here’s Tim Cook on the conference call, regarding Apple’s relationship with AT&T: “As you know, AT&T has acknowledged that they’re having a few issues in some cities, and they have plans to address these. Have personally reviewed these plans, and they have high confidence that AT&T will address them.” This tone gibes with what I’ve been hearing lately, which is that Apple is sticking with AT&T in the U.S. for now. I expect the 3G version of The Tablet to debut as AT&T-exclusive; if I’m wrong, I expect it to debut on both AT&T and Verizon. ★
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Walt Mosspuppet Gets an Exclusive First Look at the Apple Tablet
Fire. The wheel. And now, finally, the iSlate. Walter Mosspuppet, the only tech journalist in the world, gives us an exclusive first look at what the world is anticipating this week. The new device is similar to a unibody MacBook Pro in appearance. In Walter's words, “It's like a brushed aluminum orgasm.” The mystery is over about the operating system as well, as Walter reports,“The iSlate runs a greatly enhanced version of the iPhone OS, which is a crippled version of Mac OS X, and it’s gorgeous.” But with all the hype that has led up to the announcement, can any device avoid being a disappointment? Walter says the answer is a resounding yes! “This device is everything you’ve been waiting for, but so much more. There’s a sophisticated AI in here that knows which user is holding it, so if you hand it off to a family member, it switches user accounts AND starts making them coffee. There’s even a button in one of the menus that if you press it—I have no idea how this works—a unicorn comes to your door with your favorite kind of pizza.” But how useful is it? Is this just the latest whiz-bang gadget that you'll show off a few times and then toss aside? Not according to Mosspuppet. “Buy five. Put one in every pair of pants that you own.”It's rare that a new piece of technology lives up to expectations, but clearly this one is a hit. Check out the video below.
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Mac sales set record due to new iMacs, unibody MacBook
Posted by Dennis SellersApple sold 3.36 million Macs in the fiscal 2010 first quarter that ended Dec. 26, 2009. It was a record quarter for Mac sales, with year-over-year growth up 33%. Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer attributes the great results to new iMacs and the unibody MacBook.
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MarketWatch First Take: Apple's upside comes from accounting shift
Apple Inc. seemed to blow the doors off estimates for its first quarter on Monday, but the upside came mainly from a shift in accounting rules.
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Apple profit jumps on strong iPhone sales
Apple Inc. on Monday reported a fiscal first-quarter profit that surged 50% from the same period a year ago as the tech-industry icon saw its results driven by strong sales of iPhone and across all its main product lines.
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Apple's First Quarter Results Are In--And Things Are Looking Up!
Today, Apple announced the first quarter results for 2010, and they're reporting an all-time revenue high. According to the report, 33.36 million Macs were sold during the quarter ending December 26th. This is a 33% increase from the year prior. They sold 8.7 million iPhones, an astonishing 100% unit increase from the same quarter in 2008.In addition, Apple has adopted new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) amended accounting standards relating to sales of iPhone and Apple TV. “If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.” Apple's investor phone call was scheduled for January 25th at 2:00PST/5:00EST and can be listened to on Apple's website. You can access the full financial documents and report by clicking here.
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Jobs on Q1 Results: Apple Now a $50+ Billion Company
By MG SieglerApple (AAPL) has just announced its Q1 2010 earnings, and as expected, they're very good. I'll get to the numbers in a second, but perhaps more notable are two Steve Jobs quotes in the release:
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Liveblog: Apple's Q1 2010 results conference call
Filed under: Apple Financial, LiveblogThanks for joining TUAW for our liveblog of Apple's first quarter 2010 earnings conference call. If you've never joined us for a liveblog before, it's a blast. You can send us your questions or comments as the phone call is progressing. We'll be supplying our "expert commentary," but we invite your inquiries and opinions as well. Just use the CoverItLive tool below to join in. To listen to the phone call, you can tune in at http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/01/21alert_results.html. After the phone call has been completed, you can revisit our liveblog at this page and listen to the phone call at the same URL. Apple FY10 Q1 Results Conference CallTUAWLiveblog: Apple's Q1 2010 results conference call originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink|Email this|Comments Apple - CoverItLive - Apple Financial - TUAW - Conference call
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Mac software updates for Jan. 25
Posted by Dennis SellersBKeeney Software has updated Task Timer, a project management and time-tracking tool for Mac OS X (10.4 and 10.5), to version 4.3. The app can now duplicate Projects and Tasks from within the Project Editor and can now have multiple color options for charts.
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iPhone/iPod apps for Jan. 25
Posted by Dennis Sellers Adobe has announced an update of Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone to version 1.1. The free app lets you edit, view and share images on the iPhone.
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Apple 2010 Q1 earnings announced... and they're magnificent
Filed under: Apple FinancialApple's press release discussing the FY10 Q1 earnings (the December '09 calendar quarter) has been transmitted to the ether, and the SEC has the form 10-Q. You can read the whole thing at Apple's investor relations page, but let us sum up: goodness gracious. Earnings per share (under GAAP rules) were at $3.67, with a total revenue number of $15.68B; net profit was $3.38B. Mac sales for the quarter hit 3.36 million and iPhone sales came in at 8.7 million (under analyst estimates of 9.1 million). The company has over $23B in cash and short-term investments. Ahead of today's earnings news, AAPL was up over 2.5 percent for the day, closing at 202.87; market mood monitor Piqqem had analyst estimates largely bullish at $2.07 EPS and $12.05B in revenue. Join us momentarily for our liveblog of the analysts' call at 5 pm ET. One more thing: a quote from Steve Jobs. "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about." Us too. Disclosure: I hold a small, long-term position in AAPL. See the full release below.Apple Reports First Quarter Results All-Time Highest Revenue and Profit New Accounting Standards Adopted CUPERTINO, California-January 25, 2010-Apple(R) today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter ended December 26, 2009. The Company posted revenue of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $11.88 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.26 billion, or $2.50 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.9 percent, up from 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter's revenue. Apple sold 3.36 million Macintosh(R) computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 100 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 21 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. During the quarter Apple elected retrospective adoption of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's amended accounting standards* related to certain revenue recognition. Adoption of the new accounting standards significantly changes how the Company accounts for certain items, particularly sales of iPhone(R) and Apple TV(R). "If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it's surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about." "We are very pleased to have generated $5.8 billion in cash during the quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $11.0 billion to $11.4 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $2.06 to $2.18." Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2010 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime(R), Apple's standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST on January 25, 2010 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq110/ and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter. *Retrospective Adoption of Amended Accounting Standards On September 23, 2009, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ratified Emerging Issues Task Force (EITF) Issue 08-1 and EITF Issue 09-3, resulting in the issuance of accounting standard updates ASU 2009-13 and ASU 2009-14. Apple was required to adopt the new accounting standards no later than the first quarter of fiscal 2011. Apple elected to adopt the new standards during the first quarter of fiscal 2010, as reflected in its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 26, 2009, which was filed with the SEC on January 25, 2010. The Company also filed a Form 10-K/A to amend its Form 10-K for the year ended September 26, 2009 solely to reflect the retrospective adoption of the new accounting standards to the periods presented in that report. Additionally, Apple filed a Form 8-K that included selected quarterly financial schedules reflecting the impact of retrospective adoption of the new accounting standards and reconciling the application of old and new accounting principles to historical income statements, balance sheets, cash flow from operations, deferred revenue and summary data information. These financial schedules will also be available on the Company's website at www.apple.com/investor. The new accounting principles result in the Company's recognition of substantially all of the revenue and product cost for iPhone and Apple TV when those products are delivered to customers. Under historical accounting principles, the Company was required to account for sales of both iPhone and Apple TV using subscription accounting because the Company indicated it might from time to time provide future unspecified software upgrades and features for those products free of charge. Under subscription accounting, revenue and associated product cost of sales for iPhone and Apple TV were deferred at the time of sale and recognized on a straight-line basis over each product's estimated economic life. This resulted in the deferral of significant amounts of revenue and cost of sales related to iPhone and Apple TV. Because Apple began selling both iPhone and Apple TV in fiscal 2007, the Company retrospectively adopted the new accounting principles as if the new accounting principles had been applied in all prior periods. Consequently, the financial results of each quarter from fiscal 2007 through fiscal 2009 have been revised. The Company believes retrospective adoption provides analysts and investors the most comparable and useful financial information and better reflects the underlying performance of the Company's business. For additional information refer to the "Explanatory Note" in Apple's Amendment No. 1 to its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 26, 2009. This press release contains forward-looking statements including without limitation those about the Company's estimated revenue and earnings per share. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company's reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company's products; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the ability of the Company to deliver to the marketplace and stimulate customer demand for new programs, products, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that product transitions, changes in product pricing or mix, and/or increases in component costs could have on the Company's gross margin; the inventory risk associated with the Company's need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components and services essential to the Company's business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the effect that the Company's dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; the Company's reliance on the availability of third-party digital content and applications; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the Company's dependency on the performance of distributors and other resellers of the Company's products; the effect that product and service quality problems could have on the Company's sales and operating profits; the Company's reliance on sole service providers for iPhone in certain countries; the continued service and availability of key executives and employees; war, terrorism, public health issues, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; potential litigation from the matters investigated by the special committee of the board of directors and the restatement of the Company's consolidated financial statements; and unfavorable results of other legal proceedings. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company's financial results is included from time to time in the Company's public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 26, 2009 and its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 26, 2009. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates. TUAWApple 2010 Q1 earnings announced... and they're magnificent originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments iPhone - Apple - Steve Jobs - Financial Accounting Standards Board - IPod
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Apple posts $3.38b Q1 profit: iPhone sales double, Macs up 33 percent, iPods down eight
Apple just turned in its Q1 financials, revealing that iPhone sales have doubled in the past quarter compared to last year, Mac sales are up 33 percent, and iPod sales continue to decline with an eight percent dip from a year ago. The company brought in revenues of $15.68 billion, good for $3.38 billion in profit, or $3.67 profit per share. That's up from last quarter's profit of $2.26 billion on $11.88 billion in revenue, and in fact, it's Apple's all-time highest revenue and profits. Steve sounds pretty pleased in the PR, and hints at far more to come: "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about." We're sure to find out more later on the analyst conference call, so stay tuned. Update: We're jumping on the call now, we'll update the good parts in semi-liveblog style after the break, since we're sure the real action will come on Wednesday. Let's go.Continue reading Apple posts $3.38b Q1 profit: iPhone sales double, Macs up 33 percent, iPods down eightApple posts $3.38b Q1 profit: iPhone sales double, Macs up 33 percent, iPods down eight originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Apple, SEC |Email this|Comments
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News: Apple Q1 2010: 21 million iPods, 8.7 million iPhones sold
Reporting its first quarter financial results today, Apple said it sold 21 million iPods during the holiday quarter — an eight percent decrease compared to the same quarter last year. Despite the drop in unit sales, revenue from iPod sales actually increased one percent year-over-year, to $3.391 billion. Apple also sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, a 100 percent increase year-over-year, and up from 7.4 million units in the prior quarter.…
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Apple Beats Street
Apple's (AAPL) FQ1 EPS of $3.67 beat consensus estimates of $2.07, although a change in Apple's accounting methods make apple-to-apple comparisons (sorry!) questionable. Revenue of $15.68B vs. consensus of $12.06B. Sees FQ2 EPS of $2.06-2.18 vs. consensus of $1.77, and revenue of $11-11.4B vs. $10.4B consensus. Gross margin rose to 40.9% vs. 37.9% a year-ago. (10-Q) Apple shares have traded up and down after-hours, and are +3.4% AH to $204.40 as of 5:40 p.m.
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Apple earnings jump 50 percent
With its profit up 50 percent and revenue up 32 percent from the same period a year ago, Apple handily beats expectations while adopting new accounting principles.
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'Macsimum Recommended Reading' for Jan. 25
Posted by Dennis Sellers “Inside the multitouch FingerWorks tech in Apple's tablet: The hyped anticipation surrounding the Apple Event later this week is looking for clues as to exactly what the company might deliver. One element of the anticipated new tablet's software side is related to Apple's 2005 acquisition of multitouch technology and expertise from...
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News: Mix: AAPL Q1, MusicDNA, Verizon tablet, Apple + publishers
Apple will announce its first quarter 2010 financial results later today. As it has done in the past, the company also plans to conduct a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter results; the call will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST and will be available as an audio webcast. Bach Technology, a new company made up of some former MP3 developers, has unveiled MusicDNA, a new digital music file format. Similar to Apple's recent iTunes LP offerings,…
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Apple announces all time highest revenue, profit
Posted by Dennis Sellers Oh yeah, they're in the money, Again. Apple has announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 first quarter that ended Dec. 26, 2009.
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Apple retail stores see record number of visitors
Posted by Dennis SellersApple's retail stores sold 689,000 Macs in the fiscal 2010 first quarter that ended Dec. 26, 2009. According to Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer about half of Macs sold were to those who have never owned a Mac before—which is the company line everytime fiscal results are announced.
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Luxology announces free modo training from Pixel Corps
Posted by Dennis SellersLuxology, an independent technology company developing next-generation 3D content creation software, has announced a free bi-weekly podcast on the company's 3D modeling and rendering software modo.
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Frog Design releases 1983 tablet prototypes
Filed under: Hardware, Peripherals, Odds and ends, Apple, Apple History It's this week! It's almost a sure bet that we'll finally, after all of these years, see the Apple tablet unveiled this week, and to celebrate, Frog Design (the company responsible for many of Apple's designs back in the day) has given Wired some old shots of prototype tablets from the Cupertino company ... from 1983. Of course, Apple has released tablet-like devices before, and they've been thinking about this type of computer for a long time. But back in 1983, they apparently commissioned some concepts for an unreleased tablet called "Bashful" (so called because it was designed to work with the Snow White "industrial design language" that Apple used back then in the //c and other releases. As you can see above, the tablet isn't exactly "elegant" by today's standards, but it is interesting how similar it actually is to many of today's smartphones and handhelds, considering that we're talking about almost 30 years ago now. One model had a floppy drive attached (which was gigantic), and apparently they even considered a version with a phone on it as well. We still don't know for sure what Apple's release this week will look like, but it's fascinating to think just how far back the planning for this week's unveiling actually went.TUAWFrog Design releases 1983 tablet prototypes originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments Apple - Frog Design - Unofficial Apple Weblog - Floppy disk - Cupertino California
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Apple sees highest iPhone sales ever
Posted by Dennis SellersApple sold over 8.7 million iPhones in the fiscal 2010 first quarter that ended Dec. 26, 2009. That's a record number, an increase of 100% over the previous quarter and a total of US$5.4 billion in revenue.
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Report: The End Is Nigh for AT&T's iPhone Exclusivity
Jan. 27 will no doubt be a big day for Apple. The company is widely expected to unveil a new tablet computer Wednesday, but that may not be all it will have to talk about. Apple will also announce the end of AT&T's exclusive hold on the device in the U.S., according to a source cited in a Hot Hardware report. Cupertino may also split carrier rights for its much-anticipated tablet between AT&T and Verizon. That might sound like bad news for AT&T, but the company may be eager to let another wireless company share the burden of carrying the data-hungry device.
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Have Your Mac and Eat it Too
I've mentioned before that aside from being an Apple fangirl, I'm a baker- which explains this little collection of photos I want to share with you. These are, without a doubt, the sweetest Macs ever- nine of my favorite Apple “products” in cupcake and cake form: Sweet 16 Macbook What Twilight-loving, Robert Pattinson-obsessed sixteen year old wouldn't love this one? The coolest laptop + Edward + Bella = winner. iPhone Cupcakes These you've probably already seen: a dozen fondant-topped cupcakes, they won a Cupcake Decorating Championship, and it's obvious why. Apple Nav & Function Cupcakes Not as perfect as some of the other cakes here, but these definitely look the most delicious. Classic Apple icons for various navigation and function elements, in chocolate. Mmm. iPhone Cake Here's another one that looks both pretty and delicious: an iPhone cake made by someone's (very talented) wife for his birthday. I urge you to go see the entire gallery to see the amazing details. iPod Touch Cake For the iPod Touch users out there, a cake that's gorgeously done. According to its maker, it's a “vanilla Madeira cake filled with strawberry jam and chocolate ganache, crumb coated with vanilla mousseline and covered with marshmallow fondants”. Delish. Mac Mini Cake It might not be as popular as the other models, but it sure makes for a pretty cake. Another Mac Mini Cake Yes, another Mac Mini cake. But seriously, how can you not love the old school psychedelic Apple cake accompanying it? And the Superman gift bag in the background? iPod Shuffle Cake Miss the original Shuffle? Me too. Reminisce with this cake from Melissa (hint: her other cakes are a riot, too). Mac Workstation Cake Finally, this masterpiece of intricacy from Bcake NY features everything from a shiny Macbook to an iPhone to a Mighty Mouse, and a bunch of post-its!
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Tower Defense + Twitter = Tweet Defense
Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch I don't know if this is a great idea or an invitation to clog up your Twitter feed with inanity (go ahead, hit me with your best shot in the comments on that open invitation), but Tweet Defense takes the usual tower defense game to a new "social" level by upgrading your towers based on how much you tweet. What's the worst that could happen, right? Slidetoplay says it'll debut at $.99, but what price could you put on leveling up via Twitter, really?" [Via Joystiq]TUAWTower Defense + Twitter = Tweet Defense originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments iPhone - Twitter - IPod Touch - Tower defense - Apple
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Keep Tabs on Your Dysfunctional Family via iPhone
Paranoia and distrust among family members is sure to escalate, thanks to a new iPhone and iPod touch app that promises to let you keep tabs on your loved ones.LogSat Software, the App Store developers responsible for the popular Sex Offenders Search app, are back -- and this time, with a potentially even more controversial app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Family Tracker allows you to track your husband, wife, children or even fianceé, all from the comfort of your handheld device. Paranoia, distrust and suspicion? Yep, there’s finally an app for that.Shockingly, Family Tracker is described in this straightforward, manner-of-fact way on the App Store: “Your husband tells you he’s going to be late tonight due to a business meeting. Is he really at the office, or is he having dinner somewhere else? Your wife told you she is going out shopping with her girlfriends at the mall. Is she really there or is she with her gym teacher? Your kids tell you that they are staying late with friends to study for their test. Are they really there, or did they go out partying?“No more lies or excuses!” the app description promises. “You can now find out where they are, at anytime, as long as they have their iPhones with them.”Worse yet, the app developers seem to think this all comes down to a matter of convenience: “With our busy lives, sometimes we don’t have time to answer the phone and/or write an SMS text to our spouse/parents,” developer Roberto Franceschetti states in a press release for the app. “With Family Tracker, we can let them know we are ‘OK’ by just turning on the iPhone screen.”The app is apparently already off to a bang with like-minded controlling parents, too. One review already in the App Store was written by a father named “TheiPhoneJunkie” who proclaims, “I just forced my [teenaged] son to install this on his iPhone. If he deletes it he’ll be grounded and will loose [sic] his iPhone privileges… I want to see now how he’s going to find an excuse when we catch him in a lie!”Family Tracker is now available on the App Store for $4.99, compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch and requires iPhone OS 3.1.2 or later. Family dysfunction is optional, but highly recommended.
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Apple's Latest Creation Event Live Blog
Get your browsers ready kids, it's live-bloggin' time! Starting at 10am PST on Wednesday January 27, the Mac|Life staff will be bringing you up-to-the-minute information directly from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater.What will our favorite technology company release? The Tablet, iPhone OS 4.0, an Apple TV with DVR and an LOLcat feature? We'll find out on Wednesday. If you can't make it to MacLife.com during your work day, you can follow our Twitter feed at Twitter.com/maclife or follow along on your iPhone with our magical Cover It Live module.
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Apple Tablet Rumors Stirring Strong Wave of Demand
A January ChangeWave survey of consumer PC buying trends showed the 'iSlate' – Apple's (AAPL) highly rumored but yet to be announced Tablet Mac – is causing a major wave of demand among consumers, with repercussions that are already affecting the PC industry and related markets.The survey also shows a surge in computer purchases over the past 90 days, driven in large part by Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows 7 momentum.
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How-To: Turbocharge Your Browsing With Greasemonkey
While the debate over Mac versus PC will last for eternity, one of the elements that many “diehard” PC users have thrown at Apple fanboys is the ability to really tweak their experience, through application add-ons and plugins. Mac users who use Firefox have had a little taste of this with Greasemonkey, a Firefox add-on that allows support for on the fly changes to websites. If you haven’t heard of Greasemonkey, this is a must read for you and if your browser of choice isn’t Firefox, we’ll show you how to install its equivalent, GreaseKit with Safari. What Is Greasemonkey? Greasemonkey is an add-on for browsers that allow users to install “scripts” that are fine tuned to affect how different websites function. For example, if you’re a person who uses MySpace and really hates how the login page is full of ads, you can install a script that adjusts the display of the page when it loads and gives you a cleaner experience. Cleaning up MySpace is just the beginning; there are scripts for just about everything. If you’re not a fan of the default Gmail web interface, you can use a script that declutters it. But it’s not just about changing the look and feel of a website; there are scripts that remove content like ads and scripts that add functionality, like a script that lets you add notes to entries in your Netflix queue. Installing GreaseKit in Safari While Greasemonkey is an easy add-on if you use Firefox, you can also use similar add-ons in Safari. For Safari users, begin by downloading SIMBL and install it. Then download GreaseKit and install the bundle file inside to ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins. If this folder doesn’t exist, just add it before dropping the file inside. Next, relaunch Safari and, provided things worked well, you’ll see a new menu entry for GreaseKit. Now go find some scripts (see below) and click “Install This Script” to copy it into GreaseKit. You’ll see the JavaScript flash on screen and eventually it should be added to your GreaseKit menu. Getting Scripts There are a variety of places to find the scripts that integrate with Greasemonkey or GreaseKit. Userscripts.org is perhaps the largest of these and an excellent place to start. I urge caution though as these scripts can become dated when the websites they affect are updated. Also, because you’re not running the scripts in Greasemonkey on Firefox for Windows (where they are usually tested), the add-ons may not function exactly as described. This is likely to happen in Safari if the script is overly complex, requiring additional interfaces to manage it. Here are the scripts I’ve discussed in this article: Netflix Notes MySpace Clean Redesigned Login and Logout Simplify Gmail You also might enjoy the Unfriend Finder for Facebook that lets you know when (and who) has unfriended you. This particular script doesn’t work well in Safari, so I recommend using it in Firefox. Have you found any good scripts? Feel free to use the comments below and let us know what you think.
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Native Instruments introduces Abbey Road 60s Drums
Posted by Dennis SellersNative Instruments has introduced Abbey Road 60s Drums, the first instrument created in its collaboration with the iconic British recording studios.
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Vodafone sells 100K iPhones in 7 days
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Apple FinancialLast September, Vodafone announced their intention to sell the iPhone in the UK and Ireland "...in early 2010." They spent most of 2009 prepping their networks for the traffic that the iPhone would bring. Now they've finally thrown the switch and sold 100,000 iPhones in just seven days. Vodafone announced the milestone via Twitter on Friday. Wider distribution in the UK has benefited Apple. Orange's exclusivity in France ended last April when the Paris Appeals Court ruled that the intended 5-year exclusivity arrangement was uncompetitive to other French carriers. Since then, Apple's market share jumped to 32 percent in the latest quarter from 21 percent just three months earlier. It makes one wonder what kind of dark pact Apple has with AT&T that maintains exclusivity in the US. In my own experience, "Fewer bars in more places" is a hindrance that hurts the iPhone. Most consumers don't separate the network's performance from the iPhone's capabilities, and walk away saying, "My iPhone just couldn't make calls." Vodafone is the fourth network in the UK to carry the iPhone, the other three being O2, Orange, and Tesco Mobile. Come on, Apple. Look to our European neighbors and give AT&T the boot.TUAWVodafone sells 100K iPhones in 7 days originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments iPhone - Apple - Vodafone - Tesco Mobile - Orange
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Apple quarterly results voodoo
Like the clip-'n-check lists posted before the annual Academy Awards, Fortune's Tech Storm blog provides readers with a convenient way to score the Apple market prognosticators. Who will guess best on Apple's financial results that will be released late in the day on Monday?
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First Looks: CableJive duaLink Sync Splitter Cable for iPod + iPhone
If you're low on USB ports for charging or synchronizing two iPods, two iPhones, or an iPod and an iPhone, CableJive's duaLink ($26) may help. The 9-inch long cable has twin Dock Connectors on one end and a single USB plug on the other, enabling two devices to simultaneously connect to the same USB port. CableJive claims that both devices can be synchronized and charged at once, though there are obviously questions as to how quickly or slowly the…
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PlayStation 3 finally 'jailbroken'
George Hotz, who jailbroke (read: hacked) Apple's iPhone, has done it again with Sony's PS3. This feat is remarkable due to the fact that the PS3 is the last remaining box that can't be modified for pirated games.
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Apple pitching its agency model to book publishers
Publishers being courted by Apple for their content indicate that the Cupertino firm is positioning it's agency model as superior, and more profitable, than Amazon's wholesale model.
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It Exists Because They Say So
Flurry Analytics is a company that analyzes info from the web, and uses that data for ad sales and the like. I had never heard of them before today, but then again, I live in a one room shack with minks on my back.From their blog: Using Flurry Analytics, the company identified approximately 50 devices that match the characteristics of Apple's rumored tablet device. Because Flurry could reliably “place” these devices geographically on Apple's Cupertino campus, we have a fair level of confidence that we are observing a group of pre-release tablets in testing. Testing of this device increased dramatically in January, with observed signs of life as early as October of last year. Apple appears to be going through its cycle of testing and polish, which is expected from any hardware or software company as it nears launch. Steve Jobs could pull the best PWNED moment of the year if he introduced a new line of MacBooks with rainbow keyboards, and never talk about a tablet again. Chances are though, Flurry has discovered the Tablet in the wild. Can't wait until Wednesday.
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Audio Technica AT-HA35i melds headphone amp and iPod dock
Headphone amps may not be a necessity for the average user with a pair of off-the-shelf 'phones or iPod buds, but they're definitely a must-have for a particular subset of users, and Audio Technica is looking to make their lives a bit easier with its new AT-HA35i amp. From the looks of it, it this one doesn't skimp too much where it counts, and includes a D/A converter that supports 192 kHz/24bit audio, along with a max output of 440mWx2, 20-20kHz frequency response and support for 32kHz, 44.1kHz, 48kHz sampling. Unlike other amps, however, this one also packs a built-in iPod dock, plus some RCA, S-Video, and digital audio outputs 'round back to connect it to your other audio / video gear. Of course, Audio Technica headphone amps tend not to come cheap, and this is no exception -- look for it to set you back 50,400 (or about $560) when it rolls out in Japan next month. Audio Technica AT-HA35i melds headphone amp and iPod dock originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.PermalinkiTech News Net | Audio Technica |Email this|Comments
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Flurry sees fifty devices that look like tablets
Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Rumors, iPhone Mobile analytics firm Flurry tracks usage of mobile apps and lo and behold, look at what popped up this week. There are 50 devices running iPhone OS 3.2 within the Apple Campus. Flurry also reports that they've been tracking 200 apps across 50 devices since October of last year, and that usage has really ramped up in the last few weeks. Internal testing typically increases sharply just prior to a release. Flurry's report doesn't give a lot of concrete evidence that these devices are tablets, but they do note that "...we have a fair level of confidence that we are observing a group of pre‐release tablets in testing." If only they had shared what raised their "level of confidence." As you can see from the chart above, the majority of these devices are running games, with the entertainment and news & books categories tied for 2nd place. Apps in the lifestyle category come in third. Flurry also reports that they've been tracking activity on these 50 devices since October of last year, and that usage has really ramped up in the last few weeks. It's interesting for developers to note that the devices seem to be running iPhone apps. If they are tablets, that means it'll be easy to move applications over (though we don't have any information on how they will scale or the final resolution for the device). At the end of the day, we have data collected by Flurry from apps installed on 50 or so devices placed inside Apple via geolocation that are running on iPhone OS 3.2. They could be tablets -- rumors have suggested that the tablet's release is delaying the next iPhone OS upgrade -- or they could be test unit iPhones running an unreleased version of the OS. Either way, two things are certain: There's cool stuff inside 1 Infinite Loop All of this conjecture will end on Wednesday OK, so number 2 is a "probably." [Via Engadget]TUAWFlurry sees fifty devices that look like tablets originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments IPhone - Apple - flurry - Operating system - InfiniteLoop
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Your Macsimum Podcast
Posted by Frank PetrieToday's Macsimum Podcast will be posted later this afternoon, as we would like to lead the podcast with Apple's quarterly numbers.
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Our live coverage of the Apple 'latest creation' event starts Wednesday, January 27th
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Apple is supposedly set to introduce a tablet device (AKA the Apple Tablet, iSlate, etc.) at its latest event that will change the lives of every man, woman, and child on the planet. Sure, it could just be a fresh version of iLife and an 8GB iPhone 3GS, but we kinda doubt that. If you know what's best for you, you'll tune in for our minute-by-minute, live coverage of the event. There won't be a better seat in the house... well, except for wherever Steve Jobs is sitting. The show gets going on Wednesday, January 27th at 10AM PT. Here's the URL where you should park your browser, and below are starting times around the globe: 08:00AM - Hawaii 10:00AM - Pacific 11:00AM - Mountain 12:00PM - Central 01:00PM - Eastern 06:00PM - London 07:00PM - Paris 09:00PM - Moscow 03:00AM - Tokyo (January 28th)Our live coverage of the Apple 'latest creation' event starts Wednesday, January 27th originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | |Email this|Comments
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Saving Your Life: There’s an App for That
Let's face it, most iPhone apps probably won't even get used more than once or twice, and even then, you won't be using them for anything particularly important. But one app came in very handy for one very lucky iPhone owner. The phone and the app belonged to an aid worker trapped after the tragic January 12 earthquake in Haiti. Max Woolley, a father working in the area with a humanitarian aid group prior to the disaster, was buried under rubble for about 60 hours after the earthquake struck. During the quake, Woolley received fairly serious injuries to both his head and his leg. Luckily, he also had an app that dealt specifically with how to treat and respond to such injuries. The app was Pocket First Aid & CPR, created by the American Heart Association in tandem with Jive Media. It allows users to browse a variety of first aid techniques and practices, provides emergency numbers, stores medical info such as blood type, insurance providers and emergency contacts, and instructs users on what to do in various emergency situations. Techniques are demonstrated using a combination of text instructions and videos of the procedures being done correctly. Probably a better bet than depending on that vaguely-remembered first aid course you took five months ago. Woolley used the app to look up the correct method of treating his wounds. He learned to bandage his leg with his shirt and then tie-off the wound with his belt to slow the bleeding. For his head injury, the app told him not to fall asleep in case of concussion, so he set his iPhone's alarm to go off every 20 minutes. Of course, the iPhone's battery wasn't up to the challenge of being almost perpetually in use for 60 hours, but Woolley says then when he did have to turn it off to conserve what little battery remained, his body was used to the cycle and wouldn't drift off to sleep for longer than a few minutes at a time. The app is a $3.99 purchase, but Woolley clearly thinks the money was well spent. There are other, free first aid applications available, but it was the American Heart Association connection that gave Woolley the confidence to follow the advice contained within to the letter. According to CNN, he said his phone “was like a high-tech version of a Swiss Army knife that enabled me to treat my own injuries, track time, stay awake and stay alive.”
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ABI Research: 802.11n will lead the Wi-Fi chip market in 2010
Posted by Dennis SellersIn 2009, worldwide shipments of Wi-Fi ICs increased approximately 28% compared to 2008, according to data from ABI Research. Total revenue achieved an estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% between 2009 and 2014.
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Article: Editorial: Apple's Tablet - Likely Transformative, Beyond The Sum Of Its Parts
In two days, Apple will introduce its long-awaited tablet computer, and as the event approaches, I'd like to offer a little insight into what I—and the rest of iLounge's editors—have been hearing and discussing about the device for the past year. A few points need to be established up front. I hold no Apple stock, have received no Apple briefing on the Tablet, and know only what my sources have been whispering about it for…
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★ Apple, Adobe, and Flash
In my “Tablet Musings” piece two weeks ago, I speculated that Apple’s imminent tablet probably won’t support Flash, for all the same reasons the iPhone doesn’t. Reaction to this was polarized — typically either “duh, of course it won’t” or “no way, it has to support Flash”. You can see both reactions represented in the thread on my piece at Hacker News. One group is going to be very surprised come Wednesday. I’ve been writing about this saga for two years. My fascination with the subject is fueled by the fact that it’s so polarizing, and that it encompasses both technical and political issues. On Flash and Mac OS X Application Crashes Two weeks ago I wrote: To my knowledge, Apple controls the entire source code to the iPhone OS. That’s not to say they wrote the whole thing from scratch. Many low-level OS components are open source. But they have the source. If there’s a bug, they can fix it. If something is slow, they can optimize or re-write it. That is not true for Mac OS X, and Flash is a prime example. The single leading source of application crashes on Mac OS X is a component that Apple can’t fix. Several readers asked me for the source for my accusation contained in that last sentence, that Flash is the “leading source of application crashes on Mac OS X”. (And good for them for asking; I’m not sure what I was thinking including that without sourcing it.) Here’s the deal. On stage at the WWDC 2009 keynote address last June, Apple senior vice president of software engineering Bertrand Serlet was explaining the new web content plugin mechanism for Safari in Snow Leopard. Rather than run within Safari’s application process, web content plugins now run in their own process, so if they crash, they (usually) don’t crash Safari itself. You get a broken little rectangle in the page where the plugin was executing, but the browser itself stays running. Apple did this for two reasons. Serlet’s stated reason on stage was “crash resistance”, as mentioned above. As for why such crash resistance was worth implementing, Serlet explained that, based on data from the Crash Reporter application built into Mac OS X — the thing that asks if you’d like to send crash data to Apple after a crash — the most frequent cause of crashes across all of Mac OS X are (or at least were, pre-Snow Leopard) “plugins”. Serlet didn’t name any specific guilty plugins. Just “plugins”. But during the week at WWDC, I confirmed with several sources at Apple who are familiar with the aggregate Crash Reporter data, and they confirmed that “plugins” was a euphemism for “Flash”. In other words, in Apple’s giant pile of aggregate crash reports — from all app crashes on all Macs from all users who click the button to send these reports to Apple — Flash accounts for more of them than anything else. That doesn’t mean Flash somehow causes crashes in any various app. Presumably, most of the time it’s Safari or some other browser playing Flash content. And it’s worth noting that this doesn’t necessarily mean Flash is particularly crash-prone or poorly engineered. Think of it as a formula like this: total crashes = (crashing bugs) × (actual use) Flash’s number and severity of crashing bugs could well be somewhat low and it would still account for a large number of total crashes because it’s actually used all the time — by any Mac user with Flash content playing in a web page. And, if Flash Player for Mac OS X actually is poorly-engineered overly-buggy code, well, that’s even worse. But there’s another reason why Apple created this new external process architecture for web content plugins in Snow Leopard: it was the only way they could ship Safari and the WebKit framework as 64-bit binaries. Flash Player is only available as a 32-bit binary. (This is true for other third-party web content plugins, like Silverlight, but Flash is the only one that ships as part of the system.) 64-bit apps cannot run 32-bit plugins. Apple doesn’t have the source code to Flash, so only Adobe can make Flash Player 64-bit compatible. They haven’t yet. So if Apple wanted Safari to be 64-bit in Snow Leopard (and they did), they needed to run 32-bit plugins like Flash in a separate process. Maybe you don’t believe Apple that web content plugins are the most frequent source of crashes on Mac OS X. Maybe you don’t believe me and my unnamed sources at Apple that it’s Flash in particular that accounts for this. That’s cool, skepticism is good. So then in that case, maybe Bertrand Serlet blamed “plugin crash resistance” for political reasons, just to stick a knife in Adobe’s back, and the only reason Apple went with this external-process architecture was for the 64-bit/32-bit incompatibility. But that just shines a light on the fact that Flash is still a 32-bit binary despite the fact that Apple wants to go 64-bit system-wide. Flash remains 32-bit and there’s nothing Apple can do about it. Instead of being able to make Flash 64-bit themselves, Apple had to engineer an entirely new plugin architecture. This is why Apple wants to control the source code to the entire OS. If they want to go 64-bit with iPhone OS, it’s entirely in Apple’s own control to do so. And what happens if Apple goes to a new CPU architecture? For the components Apple controls the source code to, they can recompile for the new architecture. If the entire system doesn’t recompile cleanly for the new architecture, they can work on it until it does. For a component like Flash, where Adobe controls the source code, Apple instead has to wait. Which situation do you think Apple is happier with? Mac OS X, where they had to create a new web content plugin architecture because Flash crashes frequently and isn’t 64-bit? Or iPhone OS, where they control the source code to every single component, and can do whatever they want, when they want? Point is, even if you think Flash Player for Mac OS X is the greatest piece of software in the world and that a Flash Player for iPhone OS would run just fine, too — there’s no denying that Apple executives have and continue to say anti-Flash things publicly. Apple doesn’t say much about Flash, but what they do say doesn’t sound like the sort of things they’d say if they were looking forward to supporting it more rather than less. The Proprietary Web It’s probably pretty clear to regular DF readers that I don’t care for Flash, and that I’m hoping Apple never includes it in the iPhone OS. Might as well make my biases clear. Why? At the core, because Flash is the only de facto web standard based on a proprietary technology. There are numerous proprietary web content plugins — including Apple’s QuickTime — but Flash is the only one that’s so ubiquitous that it’s a de facto standard. Flash is the way video is delivered over the web, and Adobe completely controls Flash. No other aspect of the web works like this. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are all open standards, with numerous implementations, including several that are open source. The simplest argument in favor of Flash support on the iPhone (and The Tablet, and everywhere) is that Flash is, by dint of its popularity and ubiquity, part of the web. But the best argument against Flash support is that it is harmful to the web as a whole to have something as important as video be in the hands of a single company, and the only way that’s going to change is if an open alternative becomes a compelling target for web publishers. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem. Publishers use Flash for web video because Flash is installed on such a high percentage of clients; clients support Flash because so many publishers use Flash for web video. Apple, with the iPhone, is solving the chicken and egg problem. For the first time ever, there is a large and growing audience of demographically desirable users who don’t have Flash installed. If you want to show video to iPhone users, you need to use H.264. Apple isn’t trying to replace Flash with its own proprietary thing. They’re replacing it with H.264 and HTML5. This is good for everyone but Adobe. And yes, I know Flash does much more than just play video. But that’s the main thing everyone is talking about when they talk about Flash not working on the iPhone — video. And when you talk about others uses for Flash, you’re talking about serving as a software runtime, and whether you like it or not, Apple has a clearly stated opposition to third-party software runtimes for iPhone OS, and that policy seems to be working out pretty well for them. Here’s an email I got from a DF reader: I was in line waiting for a coffee on Christmas day. In front of me was a kid, about nine or ten, who had an iPhone. He clearly had gotten it that morning. He was pushing frantically at a white box on a web page with the broken plug-in symbol. He was squeezing it, swiping it. He was frustrated and on the verge of getting pissed with his new toy. It seemed like he was trying to hit an online game page, probably one he was used to playing on the family PC. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I leaned over and said, “It won’t load Flash. It won’t play your Flash games.” His mom, ignoring him up to that point, was triggered by a stranger talking to her kid. “That’s okay honey,” she said, “we’ll get you a game from the App Store.” His response to this? He started working that device even harder. He didn’t want an App Store game; he wanted his Flash game. And that iPhone suddenly took a huge dive in value to him. Like it not, Apple needs to come to terms with this. If only for the kids. I think this anecdote, and this reader’s takeaway from it, accurately captures the feeling behind much of the “Apple has got to bend on this eventually” sentiment that’s out there. But think about it from Apple’s perspective. How do you think this situation turned out in the long run? Do you think the kid told his mom to return the iPhone for a refund? Or, do you think they went home and started buying games from the App Store? That there was a period of initial frustration due to Flash games not playing doesn’t change the fact that they (a) bought an iPhone and (b) were set to buy games from the App Store. I’m not arguing that Apple’s apparent executive-level antipathy toward Flash is about anything other than Apple’s own interests. (I do think, though, that Apple’s WebKit team is genuinely idealistic about helping the web as a whole.) But while Apple may be acting spitefully, they’re not spiting themselves. The iPhone’s lack of Flash has not hurt it one bit. Perhaps that will change in the future, if Flash someday proves popular on other mobile platforms, but don’t hold your breath. Flash Performance on Mac OS X In addition to the principled concerns outlined above regarding Flash being proprietary, there are also practical issues. One, Flash’s aforementioned crashiness on Mac OS X. Second, crashiness aside, its performance on Mac OS X is not as good as it is on Windows. And for video playback specifically, Flash’s performance pales compared to H.264 played through QuickTime. This is not subjective. My machine is a two-year-old MacBook Pro. It plays full-screen H.264 video through QuickTime without problem. When I play full-screen Flash video, my fan kicks in within a few seconds, every time. I’ve been hard on Flash Player for Mac OS X, but this performance situation is not entirely in Adobe’s hands. On Windows, Flash makes use of hardware decoding for H.264, if available. On Mac OS X, it does not. This is one reason why Flash video playback performs better on Windows than Mac OS X, and also why H.264 playback on Mac OS X is better through QuickTime (which does use hardware decoding). According to Adobe, though, this is because they can’t. Here’s an entry from their Flash Player FAQ: Q. Why is hardware decoding of H.264 only supported on the Windows platform? A. In Flash Player 10.1, H.264 hardware acceleration is not supported under Linux and Mac OS. Linux currently lacks a developed standard API that supports H.264 hardware video decoding, and Mac OS X does not expose access to the required APIs. We will continue to evaluate when to support this feature on Mac and Linux platforms in future releases. Adobe platform evangelist Lee Brimelow recently posted a weblog entry addressing this: But let’s talk more about the Flash Player on the Mac. If it is not 100% on par with the Windows player people assume that it is all our fault. The facts show that this is simply not the case. Let’s take for example the question of hardware acceleration for H.264 video that we released with Flash Player 10.1. Here you can see some published results for how much the situation has improved on Windows. Unfortunately we could not add this acceleration to the Mac player because Apple does not provide a public API to make this happen. You can easily verify that by asking Apple. I’m happy to say that we still made some improvements for the Mac player when it comes to video playback, but we simply could not implement the hardware acceleration. This is but one example of stumbling blocks we face when it comes to Apple. I’m aware of no reason to dispute this. Windows is more hospitable to a third-party runtime like Flash than Mac OS X. I think most would agree that Apple is an opinionated company (to say the least), and they make opinionated products. The runtimes Apple cares about are Cocoa and WebKit. The Apple way to play H.264 is through the QuickTime APIs (and really, as of Snow Leopard the new QuickTime X APIs), not to write your own H.264 playback code that seeks to directly access hardware accelerators. You can argue about why Apple has taken this stance. One could argue that it’s pragmatic — that Apple doesn’t allow third-party software access to things like hardware H.264 acceleration because it seeks to maintain a layer of abstraction between third-party software and the underlying hardware. One could argue that it’s political — that Apple is happy to make Flash look bad performance-wise because Flash is competitive with Apple in several different regards. (E.g. you may wish that Hulu, which is entirely Flash-based, worked on your iPhone and worked better on your Mac. Apple wishes that Hulu’s content was going through the iTunes Store.) I would argue that it’s both — that Apple’s distaste for Flash Player is both a matter of engineering taste (that third-party software should only have access to high-level APIs) and politics. But objectively, regardless of what you personally wish Apple would do with regard to Flash, if Adobe needs Apple to grant them further access to the hardware to make the Mac version of Flash Player better, what are the odds that they’d get that sort of low-level hardware access on the iPhone OS? (Hint: zero.) I’ll leave the last word to Apple COO Tim Cook, who a year ago said, “We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.” Flash is owned and controlled by Adobe.
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Apple FY10 First Quarter results conference call liveblog
Filed under: Apple Financial, LiveblogApple announces its fiscal year 2010 first quarter results today at 5 PM ET / 2 PM PT, and TUAW will be liveblogging the event. Apple's first quarter was the quarter ending December 31, 2009, including the always-important holiday buying season. You can join in on the call several ways. First, you can listen in on the streaming audio from the event by opening www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq110/ in your favorite browser at the appointed time. Second, come back to TUAW at about 4:50 PM ET / 1:50 PM PT and sign into our liveblog tool CoverItLive to add your questions or comments. If you can't make it to the liveblog, the entire transcript will be available for your reading pleasure after the event. A recording of the conference call will be available at the Apple URL listed in the previous paragraph.TUAWApple FY10 First Quarter results conference call liveblog originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments Apple - CoverItLive - Conference call - AppleFinancial - Streaming media
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IDC: Android will be number two mobile OS by 2013
Posted by Dennis SellersBy 2013, IDC forecasts that worldwide shipments of converged mobile devices, also known as smartphones, will surpass 390 million units, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.9% for the 2009–2013 forecast period.
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Apple tablet: primarily a gaming device?
App tracking code embedded in some iPhone apps has identified 50 devices that match the characteristics of Apple's rumored tablet lurking deep within Apple's Cupertino headquarters.
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Apple's sentiment results prior to today's financial announcement
Posted by Dennis SellersCrowd Technologies, provider of the stock prediction site Piqqem, has announced the sentiment results for Apple Inc. going into their earnings announcement this afternoon. Apple is scheduled to release quarter one earnings after the market close.
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News: Steve Jobs: tablet 'most important thing I've ever done'
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been making bold claims about the company's upcoming tablet to senior Apple executives and close friends, according to a new report. Citing multiple independent sources, TechCrunch reports that Jobs has repeatedly stated that the tablet “[W]ill be the most important thing I’ve ever done.” Previous reports have indicated that Jobs was giving the tablet his full personal attention following his return to…
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Decline of the Desktop Mac
Strolling the mall with my wife, I was looking for an excuse to visit the Apple Store, but instead I found a reason: the disappearing desktop. “Where have all the desktops gone?” I asked her pointedly. She looked inside the glass front and pointed. “They’re right there.” “Well, yeah, but why are there so few? I need to investigate.” She sighed. “Don’t buy anything.” “Don’t be ridiculous,” I replied. “This is work. Anyway, no one in the know buys anything right before an Apple event.” Well, not usually. Inside, a quick count of Macs tallied just thirteen desktops, ten iMacs, two Mac minis, and a single Mac Pro. That contrasted with 36 Mac laptops. If that disparity surprises, it shouldn’t. A look at a few other numbers tells the tale of the respective rise and fall of Mac laptops and desktops, and maybe what it means to you. I asked a nice person in a brightly-colored shirt about the dearth of desktops, but he didn’t know anything, not even that there was a brightly-colored Apple event imminent. The invitations were privately sent out from far above the local Apple Store, and thus could not even be officially acknowledged below. That might explain from whence the store layout came. Luckily, Apple must still divulge at least some information to the public, like Macs sold. Over the last decade laptop sales have been waxing, desktops not quite waning. While it is true desktop sales have seen some growth since the nadir in 2004, desktops have yet to match the sales record set in 2000. While that’s not exactly the end of the world, looking at models in percentage terms of Macs sold does seem a little more apocalypsish. Those trend lines are no friend of the Mac desktop. For 2009, seven out of ten Macs sold were laptops, and in 2010 that ratio will likely rise to three out of four. While this may explain the single table of iMacs in the back of my local Apple Store, the question now becomes: is the Mac desktop doomed? Steve Jobs once described Apple’s business model as an uncomfortable piece of furniture, a three-legged stool. What he was getting at is where the money comes from: Macs, iPods and the iTunes Store, and the iPhone. This is Apple’s business model without the awkward furniture metaphor. Looking forward into 2010, the iPhone is surging, pulling along the iTunes Store, the iPod flattening out, and Macs are holding their own, or rather laptops are. In 2010, the desktop Mac will likely account for just a tenth of Apple’s net sales. However, it’s important to remember Apple is a company that makes things, four major hardware product types, maybe five soon, but four now. In 2009, desktop Macs, which include the Xserve, Mac Pro, iMac, and Mac mini had net sales of $4.3 billion on 3.18 million units. That works out to about $1,350 per desktop, and compares favorably with laptops at $9.47 billion in sales on 7.2 million units, around $1315 per laptop. There is no chance Apple is going to take that kind of money off the desktop anytime soon, but an increasingly portable world will continue to have consequences for desktop users. I was there at Macworld Expo 2005 when the Mac mini was introduced, and five years later it looks pretty much the same, even the new server model sans optical drive. From the outside, the Mac Pro of 2010 looks a lot like the PowerMac G5 of 2003, even though one could arguably create a lighter, more portable mid-tower case with Intel inside. Not going to happen. While internal changes are required, external redesign of Apple’s desktops would require R&D better spent on, say, a tablet. To that end, only Apple’s flagship desktop, the iMac, has seen, and will likely see, further refinement. From polycarbonate to aluminum and glass, to maybe a dock/slot for a tablet, the iMac has effectively become the desktop Mac. If you are the Panera Bread iMac Man, you probably won’t notice, but for the rest of us desktop Mac users the future will pretty much look like the past.
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lafcpug to present plug-ins for FCP and Motion Night
Posted by Dennis SellersThe Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group (lafcpug) will have its first meeting of 2010 on Wednesday Jan. 27, beginning at 6:45 pm at the Gallery Theater in Hollywood California. It will be “Plug-ins and More Night.”
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10.7 Showing Up Already
Although it's not even a year since Snow Leopard was released, and now web servers and other programs are already seeing 10.7 show up. From Mac Rumors: The information comes from an entry posted earlier today in a database of changes to the open source “launchd” framework, which oversees booting of Mac OS X and administers processes running on the system. In particular, today's entry cites an error message containing the text string “11A47″, a reference to the Mac OS X build number being used. And again, from MacNN: After only a relatively small level of traffic late in 2009, numerous web logs in recent days have shown many more systems browsing to sites and identifying themselves as 10.7 in their user agent strings. Most of these continue to come from the 17.x.x.x IP address block associated with Apple's offices, but they are now also coming from outside the company or in other countries. I can't say that this is particularly shocking news, but it will be interesting to see what 10.7 offers over Snow Leopard. Maybe it's more of a complete OS like Leopard, and not just stacked on features, or maybe it's something completely different. Whatever it is, I'm sure some guy in a black turtleneck will give us the deets sometime this year.
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MusicDNA looks to supplant MP3, bring along updatable extras
As far as formats go, MP3 has managed to hang around for an impressive amount of time. To date, we've yet to see another digital audio file garner a similar amount of support (though ATRAC had a fighting chance!), but it looks as if an alternative from BACH Technology could be gunning for that crown. The new proposal is dubbed MusicDNA, and contrary to what you may expect, Dagfinn Bach -- who tinkered with the first MP3 player back in 1993 -- is all for it. Much like iTunes LP, the new format would include "lyrics, videos, artwork and blog posts, which [would] continually be updated." We're told that pirated files would still play back (as in, DRM shouldn't be an issue here), but none of the aforesaid updates would arrive. Currently, no major labels are onboard with the idea, but the company has suggested that the initial response has been pretty positive. Too bad it'll never go anywhere without a recognizable online storefront, but hey, we're rootin' for you over here!MusicDNA looks to supplant MP3, bring along updatable extras originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Reuters |Email this|Comments
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Mac OS X 10.6.3 out to devs
Filed under: OS, Software Update, DeveloperThe third major update to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is getting closer to appearing in Software Update. A new beta of Mac OS X 10.6.3 (build 10D538) was released to a limited number of Apple developers last Friday. The Friday beta includes an update to QuickTime X that enhances reliability, security, and compatibility. The release also provides performance-enhancing tweaks for Apple's 64-bit Logic Pro audio suite, better compatibility with a host of printers, and applications that use OpenGL. Apple is asking developers to evaluate other core system components in their testing, including VoiceOver, AirPort, and graphics drivers. There's a known issue with the beta when viewing photo albums using Front Row, but the approximately 670 MB release should arrive for the rest of us within the next six weeks. Although past performance is not necessarily an indicator of future releases, both 10.4.3 and 10.5.3 were released about 110 days after the earlier versions. That would put the release of 10.6.3 near the end of February, 2010. [via AppleInsider]TUAWMac OS X 10.6.3 out to devs originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments Apple - OpenGL - Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Unofficial Apple Weblog - QuickTime
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Create a live music visualizer desktop
I've always wanted to have a desktop image that was a live music visualizer. This is how I did it. As far as I can tell (by Googling the techniques that have been detailed elsewhere), this is the only start-to-finish instruction to accomplish responsive music visualization on the desktop. Before you begin, note that the major issue with this hint is that it requires you have the visualizer running in iTunes in order for the desktop visualizer to work. I have a Quad dual-core, so I don't notice a hit in performance, but I'd prefer this to work cleaner. Read on for the how-to if you'd like to see how I did it... First, I copied a visualizer (for example, Lathe.qtz) from the Compositions folder in the /System Library Compositions folder, and modified it heavily in Quartz Composer (part of XCode) to make it unique. Still in Quartz Composer, go to Editor Edit Protocol Conformance, and click both Screen Saver and Music Visualizer. Then save the ed...
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10.6: Re-enable Java 1.4.2 and Java 1.5 apps in Snow Leopard
Many applications that relied on Java 1.4.2 and Java 1.5 stopped working in Snow Leopard, because Apple removed these Java versions from the system. Upgrading to the lastest versions of many applications usually will solve the problem. However, your favorite application may not have a Snow Leopard compatible upgrade. For these applications, re-installing Java 1.4.2 and/or Java 1.5 is necessary. Sometimes, even this is not enough. As an example, Apple also removed the Cocoa-Java bridge from Snow Leopard, which some Java applications such as PDFLab depended on. Reinstalling the Cocoa-Java bridge along with the proper version of Java is necessary to re-enable these applications on Snow Leopard. For example, getting PDFLab working again in Snow Leopard requires reinstalling Java 1.4.2 and the Coc...
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How to get a jailbroken iPhone out of a locked screen loop
On jailbroken iPhones where sbsettings is installed (nearly all of them) and the 'autolock' toggle is also installed, there is a chance of getting permanently stuck in a lock screen loop. When you slide to unlock the iPhone, it unlocks for a 10th of a second, then locks again. The problem is that this unlock-lock loop stays through a restore. Try as you might: DFU mode, restarting, restoring from backup, etc., all will end with an iPhone in the same loop. This problem is caused by a bug in sbsettings' autolock toggle. This is how I fixed mine when it happened to my phone last night... Now when I mean "fixed," I mean getting all my photos, SMS, calendars, contacts, app settings, call log, etc. back, but the phone is left unjailbroken. Since we have to do a restore through iTunes, the phone will be unjailbroken when finished. A re-jailbreak is necessary from the get-go. Plug in your locked iPhone and manually force a backup (command-click on its icon in iTu...
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Rumor Has It: AT&T Losing iPhone Exclusivity this Wednesday
According to a report over the weekend on HotHardware.com, Apple may have more to announce at its special event this Wednesday than its mythical tablet. We have been led to believe by an inside source that AT&T will lose their iPhone exclusivity on the same day, though it's not yet clear what other carrier (or carriers) will be stepping in to also carry the phone. It doesn’t come as any great surprise to hear about the end of AT&T's exclusive partnership with Apple, but I will be surprised if El Jobso deliberately announces it during his keynote. After all, if he did announce it, at what may become the most-watched-and-reported-on keynote in Apple's history, the predictable whoops of delight from the attendees will be hugely embarrassing for AT&T. Will Jobs be so insensitive? AppleInsider says AT&T’s contract with Apple expires in June this year. Certainly, AT&T has recently been shoring-up its offering of smartphones to include Android-based handsets, but that's hardly unusual for a mobile operator striving to remain relevant in a crowded and hugely competitive market. While Apple may be looking forward to ending the exclusivity deal, I don’t think the same is true of AT&T. They have attracted and retained millions of new subscribers with the iPhone since its launch in 2007. The press hasn't been kind to it, and even its own CEO has criticized its bandwidth-chomping customers, but I'm sure AT&T doesn't regret one single lucrative day of that almost-three-year partnership. Brand Loyalty Incidentally, this is pretty much win-win for Apple, who — I am sure — will see tremendous sales on other networks despite the relative age of the iPhone. For instance, here in the UK, O2 enjoyed high iPhone sales throughout its exclusive partnership period. But as soon as O2’s exclusive partnership with Apple ended, Orange reported record-breaking opening day iPhone sales. And more recently, a third major carrier, Vodafone, also started selling the iPhone and reported even higher opening day sales. If this demonstrates anything, it is that significant numbers of customers remain loyal to their cellular networks, choosing to “make do” with whatever handsets are available to them, all the while quietly coveting the wares of competing operators. Personally, I have no such loyalty. Most of the operators here in the UK offer pretty much the same awful services at pretty much the same inflated prices, with only minor differences in tariffs. The biggest differences lie, as always, in the range of handsets they have to offer. When I bought my iPhone back in 2007 I just happened to already be an O2 customer, but I readily admit, had I been with another carrier, I would have made the move without hesitation. I’m surprised, then, to learn that an awful lot of people are not so ready to switch. Apparently brand loyalty extends to products and services beyond Apple. Who’d have thunk it? A Harsh Light AppleInsider suggests this brand loyalty probably had something to do with the relative sales success of iPhone alternatives such as Motorola’s Droid, which served as a “second best” choice for carrier-loyal customers who wanted an iPhone but weren’t prepared to leave their existing network operator. …an announcement this week might effectively preclude a large group of consumers from upgrading to phones they might otherwise be interested in because they know the iPhone will be hitting the relatively stable Verizon network in just a few months. Verizon’s network may be “relatively stable” right now, but wasn’t AT&T’s considered stable before the arrival of the iPhone in 2007? I don’t know, of course, but — wasn't AT&T always a bit rubbish? Didn't it take the arrival of the iPhone to shine a harsh light on its patchy service? Or was it the arrival of the iPhone that caused the degradation in service? HotHardware’s Shawn Oliver thinks it was the latter. The iPhone itself doesn't really handle the switch from 3G to EDGE very well, so calls that are in-progress tend to fail… It seems that AT&T is tired of taking the heat for this, and at this point, they may be smart to just let another carrier take some of those customers who are most inclined to complain. Did he just imply iPhone customers are a bunch of moaning minnies? So who's right? Will the inevitable opening-up of the iPhone to other carriers in the U.S. destroy Android sales? Will Americans enjoy the iPhone price wars that (sadly) never happened over here? Or will everyone be too busy cooing over the Tablet to even care? Or — worse — what's the chance that Apple will have an AT&T-related announcement this Wednesday, but rather than confirming the end of the exclusivity deal, could Jobs announce a new, extended exclusivity partnership that includes the iPhone and the Tablet? What fresh horrors could such a partnership bring?
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Tech Stocks: Attention to Apple leads tech-sector gains
Technology stocks start the week on an upbeat note Monday, with gains from Apple Inc. highlighting the sector’s action ahead of the company’s first-quarter earnings report.
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Apple to Time Capsule Customers: All Your Files Are Belong to Us
Back In October '09 I wrote an article about a disturbing failure-rate in Apple's Time Capsules that was starting to gain some attention in the press. An apparent design flaw in the device was causing some units to die after about 12-18 months in operation. Reports on the Apple discussion forum at that time suggested the same flaw also affected Apple’s Airport Extreme, a device that shares an almost identical form factor. In what would prove disastrously precognitive, I wrote: Imagine, then, the pain when a well-used Time Capsule croaks, taking up to 18 months’ worth of incremental backups with it. I don’t mind admitting that the thought of it strikes fear into my heart. I use two Time Capsules every hour of every day. I can’t help thinking that I don’t own two Time Capsules; I own two ticking Time bombs. Fast forward to early last week when my Mac Pro’s 1TB Time Capsule breathed its last and died a sudden — if not entirely unexpected — death. I called Apple Support and the guy on the other end of the phone asked me for the TC’s serial number. A moment later he confirmed Apple was aware of “a fault” with that model and offered to replace it for free. So far so good. The process was explained to me; I would receive the replacement TC in a few days, whereupon I had to return the dead TC to Apple. Immediately alarm bells rang in my brain. “But what about my stuff?” I asked. There was a year’s worth of data stuck on that thing. Finances, contacts, personal and shared calendars, photographs, email… I didn’t relish the thought of sending all of that data to someone I didn’t know. Not even if it was an Apple technician. “Don’t worry, we will wipe the drive thoroughly for you,” offered the support guy, “It’s safe with us.” No it isn’t, I worried. “Can’t I just remove the drive and wipe the data? I’ll put it back if necessary, only, I’m concerned about–” “No. You must not open the unit. If you do, you will void the warranty.” “It’s already out of warranty,” I replied as politely as possible, not wanting to sound like a jerk. “You’re replacing it because of a design flaw, right?” The Apple Support guy wouldn’t budge. “If you open the case we will charge you the full price of a new Time Capsule.” The bottom line; Apple forbade me from retrieving my data from their Time Capsule. Doing so would somehow make me responsible for its death, even though they admitted the product was already faulty. Now, I understand Apple wanting to retrieve faulty gear for study. Doing so helps them improve their products. But this isn’t a broken mouse or keyboard. This is a device that stores a lot of valuable personal information. In this instance, shouldn’t Apple exercise a higher degree of flexibility and sensitivity to customers? I know what you’re thinking; maybe they’d wipe it right before my eyes at the Apple Store? So I asked. He replied, “No. They’ll give you a replacement but they will send the faulty device back to us for wiping.” So, either way, I get a replacement Time Capsule… but I have to surrender my personal data to Apple. Trust Apple sells a Time Capsule as part of a complete backup solution. Time Machine + Time Capsule = Backup. Right? The Time Capsule website even proclaims, “…you never have to worry about losing your important files.” I guess the small print needs to add “…except when you’re handing all your data to us.” Apple's bold promise on their Time Capsule website What’s more, in the days it took for the replacement to arrive, I had no satisfactory backup solution. Of course, it’s not Apple’s responsibility to ensure I always have a complete and reliable backup strategy in place, but it sure felt like Apple had let me down. (Yes, now I'm just ranting.) Thankfully, Apple is doing the right thing by replacing (most) affected units, even if they’re out of warranty and not covered by AppleCare. Yet I can’t help feel that there’s more they could have done; starting with permitting me to take responsibility for my own data, rather than threatening me with a hefty charge to my credit card if I did so. Apple normally pays close attention to the little details other companies miss, but here it feels like they failed to appreciate the single biggest issue – the proper handling of customer’s valuable personal data. If they had paid closer, more careful attention to that detail, I might not feel so indignant today… and I might still be recommending the Time Capsule to my friends. As it stands, the Time Machine + Time Capsule solution is great when it works. But if it breaks, customers may have to face zero backup functionality and a worrying lack of perspective from Apple when it comes to allowing them to take steps to secure their personal data. Am I overreacting? Should I simply trust Apple with all my personal files, no questions asked? Leave a comment below to tell me I’m a shameless drama queen and how, like you, I should be using an offsite RAID array if I'm serious about backup.
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News: Belkin ships TuneCast Auto Live FM transmitter
Belkin is now shipping its TuneCast Auto Live FM transmitter for the iPod and iPhone. The TuneCast Auto Live offers device charging though a vehicle's 12-volt lighter outlet, in-line controls with an LCD display, two programmable preset buttons, and ClearScan technology that automatically scans for the clearest frequency available. In addition, TuneCast Auto Live also features integration with Belkin's ClearScan Live application for iPhone…
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Belkin finally ships $80 TuneCast Auto Live iPhone FM transmitter
It may have taken Belkin a season or two longer than it would've liked, but the TuneCast Auto Live FM transmitter has finally received its shipping papers. Hailed as the first iPhone 3.0 accessory way back in June of last year, this here device is designed to tap into your iPhone 3G / 3GS GPS module and quickly find the best FM station for transmission. Put simply, it takes the guesswork out of selecting the most optimal frequency for use in your vehicle, and it also allows you to switch stations right on your iPhone's display. It's up for purchase right now in North America for $79.99, while Europe and Asia / Australia is expected to see it in March and April, respectively.Belkin finally ships $80 TuneCast Auto Live iPhone FM transmitter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Business Wire |Email this|Comments
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Apple Earnings and Outlook by the Numbers
Apple's (AAPL) upcoming financial report Monday is likely to be stellar, but the focus will shift from what one analyst calls “the year of the Mac” to Wednesday's expected launch of a tablet. Wall Street analysts expect Apple to report earnings of $2.07 a share on revenue of $12.06 billion in the December quarter. Apple's fiscal first quarter is generally known as the iPod quarter because of the Christmas pop in sales of the music player.
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Apple earnings expected to shine
Earnings report due out Monday afternoon is likely to be stellar, though the focus will quickly shift to Wednesday's expected tablet launch.
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Report: AT&T Losing iPhone Exclusivity on Wednesday
The news this week can’t all be tablet-related, such as this nugget of rumor that leaked out over the weekend: AT&T may be losing its iPhone exclusivity come Wednesday.That’s the news that’s fit to print from HotHardware.com, who is using information obtained by “AT&T insiders” to reveal that the telco giant may finally lose their unholy grasp on the iPhone come Wednesday -- presumably a “one more thing” at the San Francisco media event presumed to unveil Apple’s tablet.In what would surely be a sigh of relief heard ‘round the country, HotHardware.com proposes a number of reasons why this might be a good idea for everyone, including Apple, the consumer (that’s you!) and yes, even for AT&T.“Inside of AT&T, we are hearing that the iPhone is causing more trouble than ever before,” the tech blog writes. “On some level, having the iPhone is hurting AT&T’s image. Because they are the only company to carry it, and it’s such a data hog, it’s largely to blame for AT&T’s network troubles. We don’t remember hearing about AT&T’s ‘horrible network’ before the iPhone -- do you?”Of course, few smartphones were so data-intensive prior to the iPhone, and the ones that were -- primarily Blackberry phones and Windows Mobile devices -- were nowhere near as universally popular with the common man as Apple’s handset. Taken in that light, it could be said that the iPhone has actually exposed the weaknesses in AT&T’s network -- and may now be on track to do the same for other telcos.It’s widely believed that Verizon will be the next U.S. carrier to score the iPhone, although such a move would require new hardware to support its CDMA-based network -- and the next iPhone may not appear until early summer, its traditional debut date. The only other GSM-based U.S. carrier is T-Mobile, whose 3G service is also not compatible with the current iPhone.So while many potential iPhone buyers cite AT&T as a reason they don’t want to take a bite of Apple’s handset fruit, even if AT&T loses their exclusivity as early as this week, it may not matter -- for now.(Image courtesy of D.B. Grady)
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3M Miniprojector Packs Lots of Versatility Into Small Package
Digital cameras have been around for so long that for some shutter buffs, it's difficult to remember a time when they didn't exist. It's even more difficult to recall the days when a slide projector was a necessary accessory for an image-grabbing hobbyist. Projectors, though, may be poised for a comeback. We're not talking about the boxy heavyweights from the days when 35 millimeter slides were king, but a new wave of small, compact offerings that fit in the palm of the hand.
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Apple Tablets Running iPhone OS 3.2 Showing Up In Flurry Data?
Hang tight, gang: The Apple tablet rumors are coming fast & furious with the dawn of a new week. The latest is a report that some tablet activity may be showing up in data from Flurry.Analytics firm Flurry has reported to VentureBeat that they believe Apple is testing its new tablet computer at the campus in Cupertino -- make that 50 of them! Flurry’s data reveals that testing of the mystery devices “increased dramatically” in January after first detecting the devices as early as October.Flurry is able to track such data by embedding their tracking code in apps that use its analytics service. Those apps then send information back to Flurry about the device that it’s running on, which is how the company first detected the unknown devices which are now assumed to be the fabled tablet.“Apple appears to be going through its cycle of testing and polish, which is expected from any hardware or software company as it nears launch,” explains Peter Farago, vice president of marketing for Flurry.Expected to finally make its first appearance this Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 10 am PST in San Francisco, the Apple tablets being tracked by Flurry appear to be running “200 different applications,” with games being the main apps in use by testers, followed by entertainment, news and books.Most intriguing, the suspect hardware was apparently running iPhone OS 3.2, an as-yet unreleased version. The iPhone and iPod touch both currently run iPhone OS 3.1.2, a minor update that hasn’t been refreshed since its release last October. This runs counter to recent rumors suggesting that iPhone OS 4.0 may be released as a beta on Wednesday, and also provides further insight into whether or not the Apple tablet with run some variation of Mac OS X.
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Four out of ten IT professionals would buy a tablet, but would you?
Filed under: Hardware, Other Events, Steve Jobs, Surveys and Polls, Apple Macworld is reporting that their partner Network World recently did a poll and came up with the figure of four out of ten Network World readers willing to buy a tablet on day one sight unseen. That's an interesting result (and it's not the only one seen along those lines), but I want to know what you TUAW readers think. We've got a pretty good group of professionals, "pro-sumers" (ugh, sorry, I'll never use that word again), and just plain Mac fans in the audience here, and I think we represent a pretty good cross-section of Apple's core audience. Jump in on our poll below, and let us know, if the impossible became possible, if you'd plunk down the rumored $1000 for a tablet even before Steve's demo, or if you'd rather wait and see (or maybe not even buy a tablet at all, no matter what it does). View Poll Personally, I'm more of a "maybe," though I can totally understand the belief that this is already a revolutionary project (we've certainly been waiting long enough for it). Or perhaps those of us who already have an iPhone and a MacBook aren't really as interested in the in-between as Apple might think.TUAWFour out of ten IT professionals would buy a tablet, but would you? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments Apple - Steve Jobs - iPhone - Macintosh - Network World
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Steve Jobs: Tablet “Most Important Thing I’ve Ever Done”
Nothing like kicking off “Tablet Week” with a rumored quote from Apple’s head honcho himself.TechCrunch is reporting that they’ve heard from “completely independent sources” about how happy Apple CEO Steve Jobs is with the company’s as-yet unannounced tablet, presumed to be unveiled in San Francisco 10 am PST this Wednesday at a media event.“This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done,” Jobs has been heard to exclaim. The quote has been repeated “multiple times second and third hand,” reportedly from senior Apple executives and friends of Jobs himself.As TechCrunch notes, that’s saying a lot -- Jobs has spearheaded so many of Apple’s greatest hits that it would be hard for anyone in his position to rank them by importance.“If Steve Jobs thinks the iPhone was just a warm up act to this device,” writes TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, “I can’t wait to see what it can do.”‘Nuff said.
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My Prayers Have Been Answered: Apple Rumored to Drop AT&T Wed
A few years back, I had AT&T service for my cell phone. It sucked. Bad. Around that time they got bought up, or switched names, or something like that and I switched to T-Mobile. All was right in the world again. Of course, I, like most of you, went back on board the old Death Star to get myself an iPhone, but I've had mixed results. Sometimes, the service is amazing. Most of the time though, not so much. Soon though, that might all change. According to HotHardware, via the Silicon Valley Insider, an inside source at AT&T is claiming that come Wednesday – you know, Unicorn Tablet day – AT&T will be losing exclusivity of the iPhone. Who will get it? Smart money is on Verizon, but I wouldn't be surprised if T-Mobile or Spring popped out of the woodwork. What will be interesting however is to watch the mass exodus away from AT&T. I don't know if I'll be one of those people, but a little competition never hurt anyone.
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DoubleTwist partnering with T-Mobile for Android music management
As the late, great Rodney Dangerfield would attest, DoubleTwist has been jonesing for some respect for quite some time. For those unaware, said software essentially acts as an iTunes for everything else, giving users of all those non-Apple devices a somewhat familiar interface and portal to sync media, playlists, etc (video demonstration is after the break). Up until now, Android users have been forced to figure out content management on their own, and while geeks have obviously had no issue, those expecting iTunes to take the wheel have found themselves in an uncomfortable position. Reportedly, T-Mobile USA has decided to partner with the company and pre-load the software onto a number of new Android devices -- not just the Fender myTouch 3G. The only real pitfall here is that Amazon's MP3 Store integration is missing, but we should learn more as T-Mob goes official with the details later today. Is this the big break DoubleTwist has been waiting for? Time shall tell.Continue reading DoubleTwist partnering with T-Mobile for Android music managementDoubleTwist partnering with T-Mobile for Android music management originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | TechCrunch |Email this|Comments
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Is Jobs looking to overhaul education with the tablet?
Filed under: Education, Steve JobsTechCrunch is reporting that Steve Jobs has been heard saying that the Apple tablet will "be the most important thing I've ever done." We haven't heard this first hand, but we've heard it multiple times second and third hand from completely independent sources. Senior Apple execs and friends of Jobs are telling people that he's about as excited about the upcoming Apple Tablet as he's ever been. Coming from the man who has created so much, that's saying something. This got me thinking. More "important" than the iPhone? Why "most important" and not "most innovative"? Maybe Steve wants to do more than reinvigorate the publishing industry? I dug back through some stories where I could surmise what Steve Jobs viewed as "important" - and for a guy with such strong feelings about so much, one thing stuck out: his passion about the importance of education reform. Could it be possible that Steve sees education as the primary function of the tablet? Does Jobs sees a tablet in the hands of every school child in America? In 1995, giving a speech to the Smithsonian, Jobs said: I think the school situation has a parallel here when it comes to technology. It is so much more hopeful to think that technology can solve the problems that are more human and more organizational and more political in nature, and it ain't so. We need to attack these things at the root, which is people and how much freedom we give people, the competition that will attract the best people. Unfortunately, there are side effects, like pushing out a lot of 46-year-old teachers who lost their spirit fifteen years ago and shouldn't be teaching anymore. I feel very strongly about this. I wish it was as simple as giving it over to the computer. Twelve years later, Steve Jobs gave a speech at an education reform conference in Austin, Texas. At the conference, Jobs reiterated that no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers. However, at the same conference he reportedly told the audience that he envisioned schools in the future replacing textbooks with a free, online information source that is constantly updated by experts. "I think we'd have far more current material available to our students and we'd be freeing up a tremendous amount of funds that we could buy delivery vehicles with -- computers, faster Internet, things like that," he said. "And I also think we'd get some of the best minds in the country contributing." Maybe Steve sees the tablet as a dynamic textbook that will allow schools to free up those funds? Or, at least these textbook publishers hope so. Who knows, maybe iTunes U was just the start? This is, of course, nothing more than conjecture - an educated guess, if you'll pardon the expression.TUAWIs Jobs looking to overhaul education with the tablet? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments Steve Job - iPhone - Apple - iTunes - TechCrunch
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Acer to launch e-reader, app store, and Chrome OS netbook this year
If you thought Acer might stand stoically still in the face of all this ebook reader madness, think again. Promising to fully detail a 6-inch monochrome e-reader by June, the company says it'll target European markets first. More intriguingly, we're also informed of a forthcoming application store that will be compatible with Android, Windows Mobile, and in due course, Chrome OS. Apps will free or close to it. A Chrome OS netbook is also being promised for the third quarter, which is somewhat ahead of Google's own schedule for reaching v1.0, but then there's also the suggestion it would be a dual-boot setup with a version of Windows onboard as well. Finally, an Acer tablet is in the works, accompanied by the candid admission that the Taiwanese giant is waiting to see what Apple has in store before finalizing its own plans.Acer to launch e-reader, app store, and Chrome OS netbook this year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Bloomberg |Email this|Comments
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iVCD Turns Up Heat on Disc-Burning Features
When Mireth Technology began business, the price of optical drives that could burn DVDs hovered around $1,000. That's changed over the years, and so has the company's flagship product, iVCD. Originally designed to create video CDs on a Mac, the application has evolved into an all-purpose DVD, VCD and SVCD authoring and burning program with support for a broad range of video formats -- AVI, DIVX, WMV, MPEG, MOV, iMovie and QuickTime -- and North American NTSC and European PAL standards.
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January closes out with notables presenters and topics on 'MUG Event Calendar'
Posted by Dennis SellersJanuary closes out with some notable presenters and topics on the MUG Event Calendar.
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Movers & Shakers: Monday's biggest gaining and declining stocks
Among the companies whose shares are expected to see active trading Monday are Amgen, Apple, Eaton, Google, Motorola, Philips, Rambus and TI.
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Macsimum review: Need to convert PDFs into editable InDesign files? Here's your solution
Posted by Dennis SellersBy David Creamer PDF2ID from Recosoft—which is Mac OS X and Windows compatible—now comes in two versions: Professional (US$399) and Standard ($299). Professional includes all the Standard features, plus three unique features. For just the second version of the PDF2ID plug-in, it has a nice list of new features.
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Play Our Unofficial Apple Tablet Game!
Sports fans have the Super Bowl, and nerds have technology launches. This week, Apple is in the spotlight. Print out and play our unofficial Apple tablet game during Wednesday's expected introduction of a tablet PC.
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Apple's latest financials to be announced today; here's what I see
Posted by Dennis SellersApple will announce its financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2010 today at 2 pm (Pacific). Expect them to be good. Real good.
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Google's YouTube Rental Service Will Improve Monetization
Google (GOOG) is planning to enter the online video rental market by making selected content available on YouTube for rent. YouTube's selection of quality content like TV shows and movies is currently limited due to restrictions from studios that do not want their content distributed for free or monetized solely from advertising. Google's new rental service could entice studios to distribute more of their content through YouTube. Large YouTube Audience
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Earnings: Analysts Miss Apple's Key Metric
Apple reports its earnings this Monday. Philip Elmer-DeWitt posts this summary of analyst forecasts.
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Weekly Market Report: In Correction Mode
So what's with the selling? Readers familiar with our methods know how much we scoff at over-analysis and excessive technical scrutiny. Simply put, the market sold off last week because more investors were eager to flee holdings than buy them. Given the rise of sell-volume over the past month we had plenty of warning here. Volume usually precludes price action. We hoisted our Red Flag Sell Bias to adjust for Distribution Days, where volume comes in higher than the previous day. It happened a total of four times on the Nasdaq and Dow over the last month. With the S&P 500 it happened three times. These Distribution Days tell us that institutions are unloading their positions. When we collect a string of them it's time to look out.
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How Apple's Tablet Hurts Intel
Given Apple's (AAPL) track record of creating blockbuster consumer devices, the upcoming Apple tablet could be the most successful mobile computing alternative to a notebook PC. Intel (INTC) does not provide the processors used in many tablet PCs, smartbooks and e-readers, and we do not expect it to provide the processor used in Apple's tablet. Intel could be negatively impacted if Apple's tablet and similar devices siphon off demand for Intel-based notebooks and netbooks. Tablets Use Smartphone Processor Technology
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Apple: I'm a Believer
I am not quoting the Monkees from the 1960s nor am I making a religious statement. I have to admit that I am consistently amazed by Apple Inc. (NasdaqGS: AAPL). In a discussion with one of my tech analysts, they questioned if the new device (soon to be announced) will have an option to be just wifi. If the new device is a Kindle killer and more, and not a phone at all, for many users it will not require hooks into Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) or AT&T (NYSE: T). She assures me I could purchase all the magazines, text books and apps I want just from wifi and not need a cell hook.
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Mac OS Ken: 01.25.2010
RBC Analyst Talks Tablet Expectations / Fortune Outlines What the Street Expects from 1QFY2010 Call from Apple / Bernstein Analyst Says iPhone Sales Expectations May Be Too High / Report Says Third Beta of Snow Leopard Update Out to Developers / Web Logs Show Online Testing Increase for Next Version of Mac OS X / Munster on 3G and Year One for the MacTabletNetbookThingy / Apple Said to Be in Talks with Publishers McGrawHill and Hachette and Wiley and Pearson for Tablet Content / Daring Fireballer Gruber Plays Name That MacTabletNetbookThingy / Jobs Reportedly Calls Tablet Most Important Thing He Has Ever Done / Vodafone UK Sells 100k iPhones in Eight Days / Apple Opens Third German Store in Frankfurt
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Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo compared at the macro level
We all love a good debate about how the tech giants of today are competing with each other, but rarely do we get a handy reference sheet like this to point people to. Nick Bilton of the New York Times has put together a segment-by-segment comparison between America's tech heavyweights, which does a fine job of pinpointing who competes with whom and where. We find the gaps in coverage more intriguing than the overlaps, though, with Microsoft's only unticked box -- mobile hardware -- raising habitual rumors of a Pink phone. Apple's absence from the provision of mapping services might also soon be at an end, given the company acquired map maker Placebase in July of last year (see Computerworld). Anyway, there should be plenty more for you to enjoy, so hit the source for the full chart and get analyzin'.Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo compared at the macro level originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.PermalinkHardOCP | New York Times |Email this|Comments
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Wild Weekly Wrap Up: Back to November Lows
Well I hate to say I told you so but…No wait, that's nonsense - what market prognosticator doesn't love to say "I told you so"? Actually, it's kind of my job to tell you so. The reason I'm so popular is because, more often than not, when I tell you so, I tend to be right. I'm not right all the time and my single biggest flaw is I am often right but sometimes way too early. And timing is EVERYTHING in the markets. It's not good enough to tell you what is going to happen (give things enough time and everything happens eventually, right Cramer?) - I need to get the period right as well so we can turn it into an actionable trading idea that makes money.