Jordan manages the internal Partner Program for sponsorships and partnerships across the 9to5 network’s media brands including 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, Electrek.co, SpaceExplored and DroneDJ.com.
Along with Apple’s refreshed Apple TV capable of 1080p video output, iTunes movies also got a bump up to 1080p with the introduction of iTunes 10.6. While there were some concerns over increased file sizes, iTunes users for the most part seem to be quite pleased with the quality of iTunes movies encoded in 1080p compared to the 720p they were stuck with before. On that note, Ars Technica decided to find out exactly how the 1080p movies compare to the same content on a Blu-ray. Here is what it found: Expand Expanding Close
We told you yesterday that Vietnamese website Tinhte.vn, which acquired yet-to-be-released Apple products in the past, appeared to have a legit third-generation iPad. Following an unboxing video, the website quickly Geekbenched the device and now posted images taken with the new iPad’s 5-megapixel iSight camera.
The website also posted some screenshots of apps optimized by Apple for the new iPad’s Retina display and claimed most apps are 2.5 to 3 times larger. The website noted Keynote, as an example, jumped to 327MB from 115MB before. iMovieis now 404MB, compared to the 70MB app before being upgraded for the new iPad. Of course, many new features packed into the latest updates could account for the increased file size. You can check out a screenshot of iPhoto running on the third-generation iPad and the full gallery of photos taken with the new camera after the break. Expand Expanding Close
Apple just released a press release confirming the new iPad will launch in the United States and nine additional countries March 16 at 8 a.m. local time. We first confirmed the 8 a.m. launch yesterday in leaked marketing materials. The countries geared for the initial launch on Friday include: the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, as well as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Apple also confirmed launch stores for the U.S. with Best Buy, Radio Shack, Sam’s Club, Target and Walmart each getting the device —presumably— this Friday. As for the international launch, Apple is still on track to launch in an additional 23 countries on March 23. A full list of those countries is below.
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden
According to a report from Bloomberg (via AllThingsD), the U.S. Federal Trade Commission subpoenaed Apple as part of its antitrust investigation of Google. There are not many details currently, but the report claims the FTC is interested in Apple’s agreement with the company to use Google as its primary default search engine on iOS devices.
The agency’s request for documents includes the agreements that made Google the preferred search engine on Apple’s mobile devices, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly and declined to be identified. Google rivals such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) have criticized these agreements as anticompetitive.
There are rumors that Apple will transition to Nvidia for certain Macs in the near future. In November, SemiAccurate claimed Apple won the bid to supply upcoming Ivy Bridge Macs. Another report popped up last month claiming Apple was eyeing Nvidia’s upcoming Kepler platform for next-generation Mac Pros. Apple now implements AMD after making the switch from Nvidia two years ago. However, a new report from SemiAccurate today claimed Apple will not include Nvidia GPUs in future low- and mid-range MacBooks, and it will instead likely go without a GPU and only a GT2 Ivy Bridge.
Apple upped their SKUs from parts bearing awful Intel GPUs to variants with more of those awful shaders. Since those Ivy Bridge CPUs are going in to laptops that have a GPU, upping the shader count from 6 to 16 should be a waste, they will never be turned on. If they are going to be turned on, that would mean that the discrete GPU in those machines is either going to be much higher spec’d, or it won’t be there. Since Nvidia can’t supply enough small GPUs, what do you think the odds of them supplying the same number of larger and lower yielding ones are? There goes that option, leaving only one possibility, the next gen low and mid-range MacBooks are not going to have a GPU, only a GT2 Ivy Bridge.
The report continued to claim sources indicated Nvidia could not meet necessary supply, which means the Macs would not include a GPU. However, Apple could likely go with Nvidia in higher-end Macs where Intel’s GPUs are not enough. It also claimed the middle-range of Macs might see some models with it and some without it. SemiAccurateended its report by noting Nvidia’s and AMD’s GPUs used by Apple in mid-range Macs will likely be “dead forever” with Intel’s Haswell expected to win bids for Apple’s upcoming next-generation Macs.
We are not entirely certain that Apple ever planned to use a discrete GPU in its mid-range MacBook Pros. While it seems that Apple is planning to move to Retina displays in its Mac lineup, which requires extra GPU hardware, Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs are growing exponentially better at doing graphic intensive tasks. In addition, Apple seems to be doing well with AMD GPUs in its high-end portables.
Moreover, remember Apple took a direct jab at Nvidia at the iPad keynote last week (below). That is not something partners generally do (Samsung notwithstanding).
IDC just released its Q4 2011 report on tablet shipments and Apple continues to lead the market with 54.7-percent of global market share despite being down from 61.5-percent in the quarter before. Apple did increase shipments to 15.4 million units in Q4 (up from 11.1 million in Q3), but experienced an overall decrease in market share thanks to strong gains from Amazon’s Kindle Fire and other Android devices from competitors such as Samsung.
Kindle Fire is now the iPad’s biggest competitor with 16.8-percent of the tablet market due to 4.7 million units shipped during Q4, which is followed by Samsung with 5.8-percent of the market (up from 5.5-percent in Q3). IDC noted Apple’s results for the quarter represent “an increase of 110.5-percent from 4Q10.” The Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble came in fourth, but it fell slightly to 3.5-percent of the market (from 4.5-percent the quarter before). Pandigital took the No. 5 spot, but it is down from 2.9-percent to 2.5-percent market share.
As for iOS vs. Android, IDC is expecting Android to overtake iOS for global market share by 2015 and noted that Android now has 44.6-percent of the market as of Q4 2011. That resulted in a decrease for iOS, which fell from 61.6-percent to 54.7-during the quarter. As we noted before, IDC’s report accounts for tablet shipments and not actual sales. We know Apple typically sells as many new devices as it can make, and the same cannot be said for devices shipped by all Android vendors. Research Director at IDC’s Mobile Connected Devices Tom Mainelli talked about the report:
Following an overwhelming launch day for the iPhone 4S in China plagued by massive crowds of scalpers, Apple suspended in-store sales of the device to walk-in customers and employed a lottery system for reservations that did not operate on a first-come-first-serve basis. Customers also had to bring government-issued ID when picking up their device. Apple confirmed on its website it will be doing the same for the new iPad launch with reservations beginning the morning of March 15 and pick ups available March 16 at the IFC Mall store in Hong Kong. Expand Expanding Close
A report from Bloomberg today confirmed Foxconn is interested in hiring new safety and security experts to help improve working conditions in facilities responsible for supplying Apple products. Foxconn’s retail division chairman Louis Woo confirmed the job listings, which include a “lifestyle manager” responsible for maintaining worker dorms and healthcare, a safety and security expert, and two fire chiefs: Expand Expanding Close
If there is one analyst convinced Apple is indeed launching an HDTV this year, it is Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek. First Misek said in November that Sharp was getting its manufacturing lines ready for an “iTV” product (he also said the iPad 3 would have a Retina display with slightly less pixel density than iPhone 4S) that could go into commercial production as early as last month. A new report from Misek (via BusinessInsider) claimed small quantities of TV components are starting to move through Apple’s supply chain. He also said production of up to 5 million units could kick off as early as May, and he still expects the product to launch by Q4 of this year:
We know that demand for the new iPad met expectations with Apple telling USAToday demand is “off the charts.” Apple also confirmed that the initial pre-order supplies were purchased with shipping times for the device slipping to “2-3 weeks.” Now, a new ChangeWave Research study of “1,604 business IT buyers” gives some insight into just how in-demand the new device will be in the enterprise.
From the study, we learn that approximately 22 percent of companies plan to buy tablets for their employees during Q2 2012. ChangeWave noted, among those companies, demand for iPad increased to the “highest level of corporate iPad demand ever” with 84 percent planning to make the new iPad their tablet of choice. The increase represents a 7-point jump from ChangeWave’s last study due to the new iPad launch. The study also aimed to find which carrier the companies plan to use for data services with their tablets. Not surprisingly, AT&T and Verizon were neck and neck:
With Apple currently allowing the Fair Labor Association to inspect the working conditions of its supply chains abroad, a new report from NPRprofiled 25 of the 59 workers injured in an explosion at the Pegatron iPad factory in Shanghai, China last December (audio here – MP3). The explosion was attributed to a build-up of aluminum particles. According to Pegatron, it started in the machinery meant to collect the dust. Today’s report from NPR gives us a look into the conditions of the Shanghai plant before, during, and after the explosion from the eyes of workers.
A similar explosion months before in May at a Foxconn factory in Chengdu was the focus of The New York Times’recent story sparking controversy over Apple’s suppliers. Zhang Qing explained to NPR that Apple inspected the Shanghai factory just hours before the explosion:
Apple just released Safari 5.1.4 through Software Update with a long list of security and stability fixes and improvements. You can download Safari 5.1.4 here or through Software Update now. The update’s release notes and a full list of fixes for Lion and Snow Leopard are below.
Safari 5.1.4 contains improvements to performance, stability, compatibility, and security, including changes such as: Expand Expanding Close
Berlin-based Nova Media, best known for its OS X utilities for OEMs used by carriers like Vodafone, announced a new personal hotspot device today called “XYFI.” The thumb drive-sized device (80mm-by-23mm-by-12mm) connects to any USB port for power and allows you to insert a SIM card to share a 3G data connection with up to eight other devices. The XYFI is also completely configured through a browser, so the entire setup process can be done through an iPad or iPhone. It will also function as a regular Wi-Fi modem for your Mac and packs a microSD card slot for file sharing over the network.
Nova Media explained in its press release that the XYFI provides up to 5.76 Mbit/s upload speeds and 14.4 Mbit/s download on 3G. Meanwhile, the Wi-Fi is compatible up to up to 54 Mbit/s on 802.11 b/g networks. It also supports WPS and uses WPA, WPA2, and WEP. In the image to the right, we see the web-based interface will allow a user to hide the network SSID, create guest logins, and manage network settings.
You can buy the world’s smallest 3G Wi-Fi hotspot for 179 euros (around $234 USD) from Nova Media here.
Although there are a few unofficial apps in the App Store that allow you to access content from the Khan Academy, the online education portal just launched an official iPad app. Available free in the App Store now, the app provides access to the organization’s 2,700-and up educational videos. The videos cover a range of subjects from K-12 math and science to history and finance. The biggest difference between the new official app and those from third-party devs is that you can now log in to your Khan Academy account; get credit for watching videos, and track goals and achievements from within the app. The app also provides fully subtitled videos with the ability to browse by subtitle, an enhanced video scrubber, and lets you download videos and playlists for offline viewing.
Spend an afternoon brushing up on Statistics. Discover how the Krebs cycle works. Learn about the fundamentals of Computer Science. Prepare for that upcoming SAT. Or, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, learn how fire stick farming changed the landscape of Australia.
With the introduction of the new Apple TV, alongside the new iPad’s introduction last week, we learned that iCloud users would now be able access purchased movies (which also extends to digital copies uploaded from DVDs). The feature was previously limited to music and TV shows. At the time, we unfortunately learned content from Comcast’s Universal and Fox would be blocked from iCloud due to exclusive rights in place through pre-existing deals with HBO. An HBO spokesperson has now confirmed to The Wall Street Journal the company will relax the terms of its deals with the two content providers in order to allow iCloud users to access to their previously purchased content: Expand Expanding Close
According to a post over on melablog.it, Apple’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook apparently responded to a customer email regarding Italian language support in Siri. Apple’s website already lists Italian, alongside Chinese, Korean, and Spanish, as languages to be supported sometime in 2012. Tim’s email confirmed the feature is still on track for release this year. It also confirmed Tim will keep the tradition of answering customer emails. The customer asked Cook why Italy was not a focus at the launch of products and pointed to Siri and the fact that Italy is not typically included in the list of initial launch countries:
As usual, Apple’s latest product announcement was a topic of conversation on Conan yesterday (Flash only, sorry). We know one of the new iPad’s biggest upgrades is the 2048-by-1536-pixel resolution Retina display that Apple pointed out has a million more pixels than your HDTV, the most ever in a mobile device. You can check out Apple’s real ad focusing on the new iPad’s Retina display here.
When Apple unveiled the new Wi-Fi + 4G iPad on Wednesday, it only announced AT&T, Verizon, and Canadian carriers Bell, Rogers, and Telus as launch partners. Following the announcement, many international readers were quick to point out the device would not work on certain LTE networks from carriers abroad who operate on varying frequency bands. For example, German carriers operate on 800 and 2600 MHz frequency bands, while the new 4G iPad supports only 700 and 2100 MHz frequencies used by both US and Canadian carriers. The good news, at the very least for AT&T, is Apple has confirmed to TheVerge that the new LTE iPad can be used by international roamers on AT&T’s LTE network: Expand Expanding Close
Yesterday, reports fromThe Wall Street Journal claimed the United States Justice Department was planning to launch an antitrust case against Apple and the country’s five largest book publishers related to claims of e-book price fixing. The European Commission announced in December that it would begin investigating whether Apple and book publishers “engaged in illegal agreements or practices that would have the object or the effect of restricting competition.” Many believe the probes are a direct result of Steve Jobs’ comments documented in Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography where the late CEO said: “Amazon screwed it up.”
“We told the publishers, ‘We’ll go to the agency model, where you set the price, and we get our 30 percent, and yes, the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway… They went to Amazon and said, ‘You’re going to sign an agency contract or we’re not going to give you the books.’ “
Today, new court documents from a request by Apple to throw out a class action case over e-book price fixing revealed Apple’s stance on the issue. PaidContent explained: “Apple argues that its business plan was to sell as many e-books as possible and that it had no incentive to raise prices.” Meanwhile, Apple argued: “Why would Apple offer Amazon’s Kindle app on the iPad.” The company’s comments sidestepped all claims about Apple allegedly conspiring to slow Amazon’s entrance into the tablet market with Kindle Fire:
Apple may not be hosting a temporary store this year at SXSW in Austin, Texas, but it is investing $304 million to increase its presence in the state by up to 3,600 employees. According to a statement from the State of Texas and Gov. Rick Perry, Apple’s new Austin campus will “double the size of Apple’s workforce” in the state for customer support and other administrative positions over the next decade. In exchange, cash-strapped Apple will benefit from $21 million over 10 years through the Texas Enterprise Fund. While it is mainly administrative positions mentioned in the statement, we reported in December that Samsung’s new $3.6 billion factory in Austin is now producing almost only Apple’s A5 chip for iPhone 4S and iPad 2. Gov. Perry said the following about today’s announcement:
Yesterday, we told you the iPad 2 was discounted by $100, as announced by Apple during the new iPad unveiling, through a number of retailers including BestBuy and RadioShack. According to one tipster, Apple retail stores are also offering the discounted iPad 2. However, in the case of the West Farms Apple Store in Connecticut, Apple discounted at least one Wi-Fi + 3G 32GB iPad 2 (White, AT&T) by $200. As you can see from the receipt above, store employees mistakenly added an extra $100 discount to the already discounted iPad 2.
The 32GB iPad 2 presumably dropped from $729 to $629 following Apple’s announcement, but it sold for $529 (the new price of the entry level 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad 2) to at least one surprised customer. It was likely a mistake on Apple’s part due to an employee not noticing the discount had already been applied.
However, is it possible Apple is offering a special promotion on Wi-Fi + 3G iPad 2 models (other than the 16GB model) leading up to the new iPad launch on March 16? Apple never mentioned the 32 or 64GB iPad 2 during its event.
During the new iPad unveiling yesterday, Apple announced it would drop the price of the 16GB iPad 2 to $399 with the Wi-Fi + 3G model discounted to $529. This was, of course, to make room for the new iPad, which would start at $499 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $629 for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 4G model. We knew the price drop would likely be implemented by the new iPad’s March 16 launch date, but it seems BestBuy and other retailers are already offering the new prices. BestBuy is now advertising not just the 16GB models, but the entire iPad 2 lineup, for $100 off the usual pricing. However, the best price we have been able to find comes from Micro Center. It is offering the 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 for $360.
BestBuy is advertising the new iPad as being available on March 16 (despite Apple’s own shipping times slipping), but it has not announced preorders for the device. On the other hand, RadioShack confirmed that you can now preorder the new iPad by purchasing a $50 gift card that can also go toward the final purchase price. Its website is listing all iPad 2’s as on sale in-store. RadioShack’s full press release below also outlines its trade-in program for old iPads:
Path’s iOS app was just updated in the App Store to introduce a number of new features, including Nike+ GPS Running Stories, Music Match for identifying and sharing currently playing songs, and camera improvements with “Focus & Exposure” and “Pow!” comic book effects.
Perhaps the biggest part of the update is the Nike+ integration. Path has a website up showcasing a demo of the new GPS Running Stories feature. Now in Nike+, there is an option within Share Settings to share on Path. The demo explained, “When you start a run, Path will let your friends know. If they add an emotion or comment on your run, you’ll hear a cheer!” Path will also display when your friends “cheered you on” and when you hit your best pace. Today’s update does not address the privacy issues over address book data that came up last month, but apparently there is an update for that on the way… Expand Expanding Close
During the new iPad’s unveiling yesterday, Phil Schiller noted many of the device’s upgrades— the new Retina display, quad-core graphics engine, and LTE networking— consume a lot of battery life. Schiller then announced the new iPad would have the same 10-hour battery life over Wi-Fi (or 9 hours over 4G) as the iPad 2. A few things not included in the presentation: The new battery is a 42.5-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery with 70 percent more capacity compared to the iPad 2’s 25-watt-hour battery (pictured right). Judging from the image of the iPad 2’s battery, the new iPad battery likely will cover almost the entire surface area of the device.
One of our readers noted that there isn’t a 1:1 relationship with capacity and size, however battery tech moves slow enough that a 70% increase in capacity will be a significant addition very close to 1:1.
With battery life remaining the same, the much larger battery is likely going toward powering the Retina display, LTE-capabilities, and the quad-core graphics in Apple’s new A5X chip. The A5X is also rumored to have double the RAM, which would require additional power.
The improved battery is likely the reason behind the new iPad’s 9.4 mm thick frame (compared to the 8.8mm iPad 2). In contrast, the iPad 2 was 34 percent thinner than the 13.4mm-iPad 1. According to IHS iSupplireport from March of last year, Apple was able to make its biggest reduction in thickness by redesigning the iPad 2’s battery. The thick new battery is obviously a compromise for the Retina display and LTE support.
One unanswered question is whether the new iPad’s 70 percent larger battery will take longer to charge. Will it take 70 percent longer from the same USB ports/Wall charger?
It will certainly be interesting to get a look at the new battery once we crack open the new iPad. Expand Expanding Close
A report from Bloomberg 
Yesterday, 
