Apple’s iPhone and iPad supply partner, Foxconn, this morning claimed its China workforce now exceeds one million workers — and the company continues to expand. A huge recruitment drive is taking place as the company rushes to build numbers to meet anticipated heavy demand for products to serve the Christmas market, a report claims.
Gorillaz will release their recorded on an iPad new album for free on Christmas day, the band confirmed.
“At the moment, we’ve got an Advent calendar on our website, and there is a daily door that opens to reveal a gift,” said Gorillaz co-founder Jamie Hewlett speaking to Perth Now. “On Christmas Eve, a video for one of the new songs from the iPad album will be released. Then, on Christmas Day, fans get the whole album downloaded to their computer for free as a gift.”
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COMPUTERWORLD: In a few years time Apple [AAPL] will face a handful of competitors as fierce competition within the smartphone industry drives a wave of consolidation between handset manufacturers, platform developers, carriers and app store providers.
Apple is deadly serious with its App-driven vision for life in the clouds, with a new patent application describing its new way to share and buy apps from the cloud.
Published today and spotted by Patently Apple the application reveals the concepts behind the Apple vision, whch essentially allows users to share apps on their phones — say you were impressed the first time you saw Angry Birds, for example.
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By the end of 2011, the iPad will generate more than two percent of all North American Web traffic according to Chitika, as reported by DigitalDaily.
In time-honored fashion the leaks are beginning — this picture of a case for iPad 2.0 shows a rear camera, new curves and suggests new speaker positions on the system.
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Today we’re liking the BlueSLR gadget, a Bluetooth dongle that lets you control your Nikon SLR from your iPhone, and adds a few other features which justify its $150 price tag.
All you need to do is connect blueSLR to your compatible digital SLR camera and use your phone to adjust your camera’s focus, shutter speed or timer.
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US readers with an eye for a bargain will probably be pleased to hear about a big iPhone deal at Best Buy set for one day only tomorrow, when the stores will be offering you the chance to purchase an iPhone 3GS for free.
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Apple has lost its iPhone game team leader, Graeme Devine, who quit the iPhone Game Technologies division last Friday.
Formerly of id Software where he had a hand in development of Quake 3 for Mac, Devine says he quit Apple in order to return to game development — with a focus on titles for the iPhone and iPad.
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Apple has patched a problem which afflicted some MacBook Air displays, in which 11- and 13-inch models would wake to a black screen or become unresponsive.
The company recommends all MacBook Air users should install the update, which addresses that problem of flickering horizontal lines sometimes appearing on the display of the 13-inch model or displays being discoloured when waking from sleep.
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The Apple Store cut prices on three of its five factory-refurbished Apple iPad Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/3G Tablets. Up to a $50 drop applies. With free shipping, it’s the best deal we’ve seen for most of these iPad models. Sales tax is added where applicable. This 0.5″-thick tablet weighs 1.5 lbs. and features an Apple A4 1GHz processor, 9.7″ 1024×768 LCD touchscreen display, 802.11a/n wireless, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, accelerometer, compass, up to 10 hours of battery life, and more. Each carries a 1-year Apple warranty, the same as new units. The iPads:
COMPUTERWORLD: Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the news today with a promise his company will make its online hosted MobileMe service much better next year. Other than improved stability, reliability and consistent performance, just what exactly do we want Apple to give us? Here’s a few suggestions.
Looks like there’s action being taken against China’s grey iProduct market. Just weeks Apple was forced to close its retail stores there as price-gougers became a high-street problem, Chinese customs have detained 14 iPad-smuggling housewives, a report claims.
Customs officials in Shenzhen caught 14 housewives trying to carry 88 (presumably 3G) iPads and 340 mobile phones into China. One of the women had 65 phones strapped around her waist along with another 20 in her handbag. (The report doesn’t say what the phones were, but we have a hunch…)
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Repetitive sync, record-keeping inccuracies and slow performance, for some of us that’s what we think we pay $99/year for when we sign-up for MobileMe, well, that and an over-priced image sharing service and an online storage facility that’s almost as good as Dropbox — but don’t worry, keep paying your subs because Steve Jobs says MobileMe is going to get better (next year).
Many industry watchers had hoped Apple would take a bite on the bullet and make the service free earlier this year. To an extent it did, bowing to public pressure (and potential feedback from lawmakers sick that such a powerful feature wasn’t available to every owner of an iDevice) and making ‘FindMyiPhone’ free for all.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRo3mExpl30&w=670&h=401]
This video clip purports to show yet another accomplishment from the iPhone Dev Team, this time they’ve managed to boot an iPod touch without using wires.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple’s plotting course for the release of iPad 2.0 in February today’s hot rumor claims, but there’s some signs Apple plans a massacre as it prepares the ground for 2011’s expected battle with tablets powered by Android’s more tablet-friendly “Honeycomb” software. Apple has price, subsidy and many more options open to it as it moves into next year.
Apple’s decision to end the Xserve has attracted criticism from some of the company’s existing enterprise users — critics who’ve managed to raise their voices on CNN.
What is interesting is that despite their general displeasure at being given just four months to plan the change away from Xserve, “many Xserve customers say they’re sticking with the Mac plaform.”
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Andy Rubin gives the audience a Shocker
According to some reports, Apple will be introducing iPad 2.0 this February. Meanwhile, Google is getting ready for battle with a future introduction of Android Honeycomb, software designed to drive Android tablets.
Google Android boss Andy Rubin showed an Honeycomb powered Motorola Tablet at the All Things D Dive Into Mobile conference last night, saying this product would ship next year.
ABBA fans — there’s an app for that. ABBA Singbox is your sing-along a ABBA app for all happy fans of the Swedish four piece. In the style of SingStar and Lips, the app lets you sing along with the songs at two difficulty levels. Amateur, which tests timing, and Pro, which also tests pitch.
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Apple’s taken yet another slice of the enterprise market with the introduction of the all-new iPad-savvy version of Cisco’s industry-leading Webex platform!
This will let you schedule and start meetings on your PC — and host meetings on your iPhone — when you sign up for a WebEx account.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple works in partnership within the in-car entertainment systems sector, but somehow solutions there lack a certain ‘Apple’ touch. So just what might a fully integrated future Apple-focused in-car entertainment system be capable of?
The eBook wars have just become a tri-partisan dispute, with Amazon versus Apple now seeing a third gorilla enter the room as Google launches its long-anticipated ebookstore.
Google eBooks is apparently “all about choice”, so you can get an app for iPhone, Android, Nook and Sony and for your computer. The service isn’t yet available outside the US.
Interestingly, your books are stored in the cloud, suggesting ad opportunities for the company.
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Apple may have hatched a deal with Verizon under which T-Mobile and Sprint will be locked out of the sexy, beautiful iPhone everywhere post-ATT exclusive in the US next year, an analyst said.
I hasten to note that the analyst here is one Kaufman Bros., Shaw Wu, and I’ve noted that his analysis while widely reported is often incorrect. But here’s the story.
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What’s this we hear? Apple’s going to open up its Mac App Store for business just on time for Christmas? That’s how it seems with the latest claimed insider gossip suggesting Apple’s gonna open its doors on the new big consumer software online retail outlet on December 13, hurrah!
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