Computerworld: The BBC confirms iPhone users watch TV on their devices, while Android users don’t. Is Google’s decision to support the Apple-rejected Adobe Flash video standard on Android phones going to limit the evolution of that company’s mobile OS? Is the implementation anti-‘choice’?
Computerworld: The smartphone wars are a battle for the future of computing. And with computers central to the experience of most people across most industries worldwide, you could argue that the importance of this battle could affect the future of the world itself.
Valve has released some detailed figures on Mac user habits in the Steam for OS X universe, confirming a mass move to portable computers and strong steps for Mac gaming.
The latest figures show us that over two thirds of Mac users on Steam own a MacBook or MacBook Pro, another 23 percent use an iMac.
Expand
Expanding
Close
One more tale from the Farewell Flash Dept.: online video service Vevo last night announced its iPhone app has been downloaded over one million times since its release on August 18.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekaQpCmD1_Y&w=670&h=400]
Apple has severed its relationship with a small design firm engaged in tablet development, a report claims.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Google’s attempt to create its own royalty-free video standard took a blow last night on news that MPEG LA has declared the popular H.264 codec will be made available royalty-free forever.
Computerworld: I can understand all the excitement about Apple’s special event next week, but looking at the invitation I really wouldn’t be at all surprised if Apple doesn’t focus on video and the Apple TV, but on new iPods and cloud-based services for iWork and iLife….
Apple, Tivo, Adobe, HP, Xerox and eighteen other firms have been named in a new slice of US legal lawsuitage as defendants in a case set down by another firm, Ganas.
The case — filed in the patent-holder friendly court of the Eastern District of Texas — alleges companies of breaching a patent that relates to object orientation, patent 7,316,913.
Netflix has launched its free app for iPhone and iPod touch, allowing members (on plans starting from $8.99/month) to instantly watch TV episodes and movies streamed to their devices. Notice on the screen shot above it is working beautifully over AT&T’s 3G without any pixel-izing. That might be good for those grandfathered into real unlimited plans.
Oh, this might work on an iTV as well ;)
Expand
Expanding
Close
Facebook app developer, Joe Hewitt, famously lambasted Apple for being too controlling with its App Store review process — now he’s dissing Google, calling Android dev tools “hideous”.
In a series of hyper-critical Tweets he says, “Android tools are horrendous, OS is hideous…”
Expand
Expanding
Close
Orange has channeled some of its iPhone profits into creating products designed to compete with the iPad, but Apple needn’t worry as analysts expect it will dominate the tablet market all the way to 2012.
A French report in Les Echos tells us Orange is preparing to introduce its own tablet device at a price under half that charged by Apple for the iPad.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Adobe has updated its Web-based Photoshop service, you don’t need to become a member to use the service any more.
The online image editing service has been around for three years. Yesterday the company updated many of its components, Adobe Photoshop Express Editor, Organizer, and Uploader are included in the refresh.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Apple may have a plan to insert iAds within books purchased via the iBookstore, a report explains.
Publishers are resistant to the plan as they feel the move would come at the expense of content, but as they watch profits dwindle and the decline of eReaders in the face of solutions such as the iPad, the scene seems set for ads in books.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Computerworld: Apple-watchers look to September 1. That’s when Apple is now expected to host a special event to introduce its new products for music and television, including a 99-cent TV show rental service.
Apple has refused to allow its iPhone to be included within a new UK ranking of environmental friendliness to be launched by original iPhone carrier, O2.
The UK’s first-ever green ranking scheme for mobile phones gives handsets a rating between zero and five based on their environmental footprint. Handsets from competitors, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung are included in the scheme, which already covers 93 percent of the devices offered via O2.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Recall a recent post in which I argued that Apple CEO Steve Jobs was completely right when he dismissed Flash as not being up to the demands of being installed on an iPhone? I was right. It isn’t.
Reluctant to enable Apple to take music services into the future, fearful of its level of control and clearly unwilling to abandon the money tree that is iTunes sales, Apple and the labels sit in a strange and unhappy place. Both want to explore different futures, but neither can yet figure out how to let the other go.
Apple has introduced a new feature within its online Apple Store called
Apple will close its recently acquired Quattro mobile ad network on September 30, in order to focus entirely on iAds; meanwhile, Research In Motion (RIM) is understood to be attemtping to purchase its own ad network.
According to The Wall Street Journal, RIM is in talks with Millennial Media about a potential acquisition, but talk has been restrained by Millennial’s asking price of between $400 million and $500 million.
“We believe iAd is the best mobile ad network in the world, and starting next month we
There’s a lot of folks who say the iPad isn’t proper competition for netbooks because it isn’t a ‘productivity tool’. They’re all wrong. Take the visual arts, for example, and you’ll find a growing army of examples of artists using the Apple device to create stunning pieces of art,
Preservationists have finally ended their battle to preserve the house that Apple boss, Steve Jobs, loves to hate, the Jackling House in Woodside.
Jobs has wanted to demolish the house to replace it with his style of ‘iHome’ for years, which has led him into a fierce court battle with the local planners and preservationists. Even the local historical society seemd to think the place, owned by Jobs since 1984, had some significance.
Of course, it does, the house is a historic mansion in Woodside, California, designed and built for copper mining magnate Daniel Cowan Jackling and his family by the noted California architect George Washington Smith in 1925.
In 2004, Jobs received permission from the town of Woodside to demolish the house in order to build a smaller contemporary styled one. Local preservationists created a new group, ‘Uphold Our Heritage’ (UOH), dedicated to saving the historic residence. They sued the town and Jobs.
Eventually the courts gave Jobs permission to tear down the place if an appeal against the permit was not received.
Uphold Our Heritage on July 19 dropped its appeal of the last March 2010 ruling by San Mateo County Superior Judge Marie S. Weiner that granted Mr. Jobs a demolition permit.
They decided to do this once Jobs failed to respond to a proposal by Woodside residents Jason and Magalli Yoho to dismantle the house and move it elsewhere.
Jobs’ attorney, Howard Ellman, said that now the appeal had been abandoned, “we’re going forward”.
“The town has hired architectural historian Michael R. Corbett to conduct an inventory of historically significant parts of the house. Preserving these items for posterity is a key condition of the demolition permit issued by the town in 2009,” Almanac News reports.
Ever get the feeling these boys were burned? Mitchell and Webb were briefly stars of the UK version of Apple’s ‘Get A Mac’ campaign, before bad feedback saw that attempt scrapped. Now they’ve gone for the jugular with an attack on Apple retail in their latest series of their TV show.
Episode six series four features the two posing as customers at an Apple Store (which they call the ‘Arse Store’). You can watch the clip here, just scroll forward to 5:50 to see it in its entirety. They take on everything, from the tabby cat OS to brand loyal Apple fanbois. Below, for reference, is one of the duo’s former Apple ads.
Via: Electric Pig
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz9NMVMwB9o&w=700&h=515]
iPad and iPhone production rates are beginning to catch-up with demand, Rodman and Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar has said.
He believes Apple’s on course to achieve 14 million iPhone 4 sales in the current (September) quarter and another 15 million by the end of the year.
iPad sales continue to be strong. LG has apparently managed to boost display manufacturing, beefing up iPad supplies. Apple should sell between 5 million and 6 milllion iPads in the current quarter, the analyst said.
Apple’s soon-to-be-revealed 7-inch iPad also seems set to boost sales. The Economic Daily News of Taiwan is reporting that construction of a 7-inch iPad has begun.
This is likely to be cheaper and more portable while also offering good screen real estate for reading and games playing. It is likely to be a smash for the holiday and back-to-school market.
Kumar believes the growth trajectory on both devices will translate into continued stellar earnings in Cupertino.
UK major label EMI this week railed against Apple’s iTunes in the body of its latest annual financial statement.
The record labels are unanimous in their praise for Apple’s achievements in online music sales, but resent the huge slice of the music sales market the company has carved out. Apple is now the biggest music retailer in the US, for example.
This gives Apple too much control, label bosses feel. Now EMI has found this sufficiently significant to warn that a key risk to the music industry is:
“The substantial dependence on a limited number of online music stores, in particular the iTunes Store, for the online sale of music recordings, and the resultant significant influence that they can exert over the pricing structure for online music stores.