Seth Weintraub

(via Flickr User Cstoller)

The NYTimes reports that resellers continue to line up overnight for Apple’s iPad 2 in New York often earning over $400/night for their two iPads, much more than a typical local immigrant job pays.

As I had anticipated, a store clerk said they were out of stock and recommended that I check back the following morning. When I asked what time I should arrive, the clerk hesitated, looked around as if about to tell me a secret and said: “Well, do you see that group of people outside? They’re already here waiting for tomorrow’s shipment of iPads.” I looked, and saw that outside the store sat a small group of Chinese men and women ready with camping chairs and apparently all the time in the world, preparing for a chilly night on New York’s streets as they waited to buy the iPad 2.

The ironic thing is that these things are being sent all the way back to the same country as produces these things, enriching a number of buyers and carriers along the way.
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In a great cover piece on iOS and Android, Fred Vogelstein of Wired dropped this little nugget on the AT&T vs.Verizon fight for the iPhone:

[Android] also improved [Verizon’s] bargaining position with Apple. Less than two years later, when the two companies introduced the Verizon iPhone, the carrier managed to get a better deal from Apple than AT&T had.

Vogelstein, you’ll recall, wrote another very informative article on the AT&T Apple relationship –which at the time was souring – so he knows the players.

Verizon released the iPhone 4 a lot later than AT&T did, which could have also contributed to the cost disparity.
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Apple’s testing out their bandwidth today with not only an iOS update but also a Safari Update as well.  No new features published but lots of bugfixes and Securitai.

Hopefully fixes this. Of course, you’ll need to restart.
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iOS Firmware shows some new firmware in the queue for you folks with relatively new iOS devices.

As stated earlier this week, the update fixes iPad 3G connectivity issues as well as iPad Facetime issues as well.  We’ll see how it does with battery life.  Apple states: This update contains improvements and other bug fixes including:

1. Fixes an issue that occasionally caused blank or frozen video during a FaceTime call
2. Fixes an issue that prevented some international users from connecting to 3G networks on iPad Wi-Fi + 3G
3. Contains the latest security updates

Direct links are below.

device
current version
date found


AppleTV(2G) (AppleTV2,1)
4.2.1 (8F202)
03/22/2011 16:12:01


iPad (iPad1,1)
4.3.2 (8H7)
04/14/2011 13:06:02


iPad2,1 (iPad2,1)
4.3.2 (8H7)
04/14/2011 13:06:02


iPad2,2 (iPad2,2)
4.3.2 (8H7)
04/14/2011 13:06:02


iPad2,3 (iPad2,3)
4.3.2 (8H8)
04/14/2011 13:06:02


iPhone (iPhone1,1)
3.1.3 (7E18)
04/08/2010 21:05:48


iPhone3G (iPhone1,2)
4.2 (8C148)
11/22/2010 13:08:57


iPhone3GS (iPhone2,1)
4.3.2 (8H7)
04/14/2011 13:06:02


iPhone4 (iPhone3,1)
4.3.2 (8H7)
04/14/2011 13:06:02


iPhone4(vz) (iPhone3,3)
4.2.7 (8E303)
04/14/2011 13:06:02


iPodTouch(2G) (iPod2,1)
4.2 (8C148)
11/22/2010 13:08:57


iPodTouch(3G) (iPod3,1)
4.3.2 (8H7)
04/14/2011 13:06:02


iPodTouch(4G) (iPod4,1)
4.3.2 (8H7)
04/14/2011 13:06:02


last updated: 04/14/2011 13:14:02 EDT

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The man who famously said of the Palm Pre:

“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”

– Palm investor Roger McNamee

His Palm company was sold a year later to HP after lackluster sales backed the company near bankruptcy.

All of that being said, he’s bullish on Apple and of course the other companies he’s got a big stake in:

http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/3000016655/code/cnbcplayershare

Via BusinessInsider

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..

…or so everyone keeps saying.  Our Twitter feed is filling up with people singing its praises.  In fact there are reports it even has a personality.

Tweetbot – A Twitter Client with Personality($1.99) – Tapbots.

[vimeo 21852319 w=600 h=350]

More screenshots below:
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iPhone, iPod touch and iPad owners will soon have access to Sony’s growing library of free movies and TV shows on Crackle.com.  We just saw the news when browsing to the service on our iPad.

Crackle is a growing collection of Sony’s library of TV shows and movies including some recent hits and well as B-listers.  The content is monetized with ads just like Hulu.  Currently, the service is only available via Flash.

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The April Fool’s Day joke turned real product by Ion is making its way through all of the electronic channels including this stop at the FCC.  Interestingly, if you look at all the guts, it is little more than a Bluetooth adapter connected to that joystick above, with the 80’s retro arcade facade wrapped around it.

But that’s what we are after.  It is up for pre-order at ThinkGeek and might we suggest a few (100) games to go with it?
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source: chipworks

EETimes deep dives into the new(ish) Apple A5 processor that debuted in the iPad 2 last month.  While there is a lot there and not much new information to take away, they do offer an interesting take on the large size of the processor:

Bold is the only word that can be used to describe Apple’s A5. It was bold to design such a large device. Certainly the CPU+GPU combination is significantly larger than the comparable portion of the A4. However, this is only the beginning of the story. Going beyond these basic elements leaves an additional 34 mm² or 64 percent of the whole A4 die. Yes, there are very likely additional IP cores there, but there might also be some clever custom design that leverages Apple’s integrated approach.

The much larger A5 incited some back and forth amongst analysts on Wall Street.  Discussions of die cost miss the point. This is a very determined step in the emerging A-series SoCs. Apple is well aware of the costs of such a large SoC, but decided the overall system performance gains justify the increase in silicon. Is it also possible that the design has lowered other silicon, system or power consumption burdens?  The point is that we need to consider the entire system.

To me, this increased size is all about GPU.  Sure you have another core and more DRAM, but you don’t just flip a switch and get 9X graphics.  Read more at EETimes.

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We got a tip earlier today that there would be a white iPhone in a matter of weeks.  We weren’t able to verify it on the spot, but along comes Bloomberg who is saying the same thing.

Apple Inc. will begin selling a white model of the iPhone 4 in the next few weeks after a 10- month delay, according to three people familiar with the plans.

The new version will be available from AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless by the end of April, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. The release was stalled as Apple resolved manufacturing challenges, including paint that peeled under heat, one person said.

How many of these things should Tim Cook order?
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5o2xmJXrAY?rel=0&hd=1&w=640&h=510]

Adobe is demonstrating a new product at NAB which a Flash server broadcasts an iOS-readable HTTP stream…

We began previewing new video streaming technology today at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Conference in Las Vegas. Built on the Adobe Flash Media Server these new capabilities are another demonstration against our vision of helping content publishers stream protected video to more mobile devices, including the Apple iPad 2, Samsung TVs, and the Motorola Xoom tablet and Atrix smartphone.

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As noted by MacRumors, YouTube user machineurs has posted the video from last night’s Final Cut Pro X announcement and demo extravaganza at Supermeet’s NAB show.

Part 1

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-77beFICSlI?rel=0&hd=1&w=640&h=390]

Part 2

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAXL7L9fToQ?rel=0&hd=1&w=640&h=390]

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via@adamtheeditor (click twice for full size)

After a lot of hype, Apple did release a new version of Final Cut Pro, Version ‘X’, tonight at Supermeet at NAB in Las Vegas. It will be priced at an astounding $299 and be available in June in the Mac App Store.

“Something as revolutionary as the first version of FCP when introduced in 1999″, it is rebuilt from the ground up, 64-bit, and will fully utilize all cores of all processors.

“Fully color-managed Final Cut based on colorsync.” “Resolution-independent playback system” Up to 4K formats. To be able to deliver that, “we’re leveraging Grand Central Dispath.” You can use all 8-cores. Background rendering built into application.

Update: The Loop has three screenshots of Final Cut Pro X provided by Apple.

Some other notes from Photography Bay:

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From the Toys section:

Sony Style offers the factory-refurbished Sony BDP-S270 Blu-ray Disc Player for $99.99. Coupon code “OUTLETSONYBDPS270” drops it to $59.99 plus $6.50 for shipping. That’s $10 less than our February mention and $113 under the lowest total price we could find for a new one. Sales tax is added where applicable. This BD-Live player streams content from Netflix, Youtube, Pandora, and more (wireless adapter sold separately). It also includes DVD video upconversion to 1080p via HDMI, as well as Ethernet, and USB connectivity. A 90-day Sony warranty applies.
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From the Toys section:

Today only until 4 pm ET or sold out, MacMall.com via eBay Daily Deal offers the Apple iMac Intel Core i3 3.06GHz 21.5″ Desktop, model no. MC508LL/A, for$1,049. With free shipping, that’s the lowest total price we could find by $89 and the best deal we’ve ever seen for this system without rebate hassles. This iMac features an Intel Core i3 3.06GHz dual-core processor, 21.5″ 1920×1080 widescreen LCD, 4GB RAM, 500GB 7200 rpm hard drive, ATI Radeon HD 4670 256MB video card, SuperDrive, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, AirPort Extreme, iSight, Apple Magic Mouse, and Apple Wireless Aluminum Keyboard.

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Techcrunch reports on an interesting new technology by a company called Pieceable. The idea is simple and is similar to what Amazon is doing with Android Apps.  Developers upload their apps to Piecable and Piecable creates an embeddable Flash application that runs the app. It sends back embeddable code at three different price tiers for developers to embed in their web pages.  For the most part, the applications seem to work pretty well.  Below is Yelp:

http://www.pieceable.com/view/embed/p/4291d9296c241878a5b58895da19090766961d36

Obviously, if you don’t have Flash, you aren’t going to see these. Interesting concept with big potential ramifications. For instance, these iOS Apps work on Android devices…

Others available on the site:
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Amazon will knock $25 off the price of the Kindle to watch ads.

You agree to use sponsored screensavers and ads at the bottom of the home screen and Amazon gives you $25.  I’m convinced a Kindle will eventually be free.

It is really too bad that there aren’t any jailbreak efforts going on around the Kindle community.

Details down below:
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By being able to follow the viewer with the front side camera, developers can build apps that know which direction the viewer is looking at the screen. When the viewer moves, so does the perspective.

Head-Coupled Perspective on Mobile Devices. We track the head of the user with the front facing camera in order to create a glasses-free monocular 3D display. Such spatially-aware mobile display enables to improve the possibilities of interaction.
It does not use the accelerometers and relies only on the front camera.

The demo with the targets has been inspired by the work of Johnny Lee with a Wii remote.

Here’s a video via MacStories:

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Honestly, if the Windows App Store looked any different than the Mac App Store….that would be more shocking than this:

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A BGR Source has the 4.3.2 update and it appears to fix those Verizon iPad 2 issues that have 3G connections freezing. The update…

will fix the issues we’ve been hearing about with some Verizon iPad 2 models. Additionally, the new update is said to contain a fix for FaceTime in addition to security fixes for things like WebKit vulnerabilities and other minor changes.

It isn’t certain yet if this update is for Verizon iPhone 4s but that’s a bit …due as well.
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Last week, G-Form threw a 8lb. Bowling ball at the iPad covered in its new-fangled sleeve. But who really uses anything that light?

Today they’ve upped the bowling ball to a 12 lb. job. They’ve also compared results to a hard case made by one of their competitors.

Same results for G-Form.  Less so for the hard case.
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