China Mobile, by far the world’s largest carrier with more than 610 million subscribers as of March 2011, still doesn’t offer the most popular phone on the planet. Although we’ve been hearing whispers that Apple and China Mobile are engaged in talks over the iPhone, no hard evidence has been provided until today’s leaked shots allegedly showing off a next-generation iPhone prototype running on China Mobile’s 3G network.
Chinese-language web site Sohu.comre-published the images which we also included in this article for the sake of discussion. The phone appears to run baseband software with version number 06.10.01, which hasn’t been released yet. It also lacks an IMEI number, just like an iPhone 4 prototype we spotted on eBay. Evaluation devices normally have no IMEI number.
Apple this morning announced that its venerable App Store has hit fifteen billion downloads, matching the number of song downloads on the iTunes Store as of last month. The company re-iterated that it has paid developers over $2.5 billion cumulatively since the App Store’s inception. This is after Apple’s standard 30 percent cut, meaning total App Store revenue before the break-down is almost $3.6 billion in aggregate.
Apple also said it sold over two hundred million iOS devices (iPhones, iPod touches and iPads). Unfortunately, the company wouldn’t say how many of those are devices in active use. The number of apps on the App Store has swelled to 425,000 items, of which a hundred thousand are native iPad apps – but we already figured out the iPad App Store. The App Store now operates in ninety countries worldwide, Apple notes. The company quoted its marketing honcho in a statement:
In just three years, the revolutionary App Store has grown to become the most exciting and successful software marketplace the world has ever seen. Thank you to all of our amazing developers who have filled it with over 425,000 of the coolest apps and to our over 200 million iOS users for surpassing 15 billion downloads.
Apple in May actually approved 500,000 apps in total, but the store contains less apps because of withdrawals, replacements and so forth. Google confirmed at their developer conference in May that Android Market is approaching the 200,000 apps mark, having topped four and a half billion downloads since the store launched on October 22, 2008. Check out a one-minute clip showing off the App Store wall Apple installed at last year’s WWDC which depicts software downloads in real-time.
Storage maker Western Digital today announced a redesign of its popular My Book Studio desktop drive family. The revamped gadget now caters to Apple fans with its brushed aluminum casing that complements your Mac desktop while keeping the drive cool. The back of the case features punched holes so engineers could ditch an internal fan, leading to quiet operation. Folks who have grown accustomed to noisy and ugly drives will certainly appreciate the pretty and silent gizmo.
Also on the back are three I/O ports: USB 2.0 and both FireWire 400 and 800 (hey Western Digital, how about a Thunderbolt interface?). In addition to one and two terabyte capacities, the My Book Studio is now available in a three terabyte storage capacity. The device comes pre-formatted for the Mac, it works with Apple’s Time Machine backup solution and ships with software for hardware encryption, password protections and automatic backup. How much, you ask…
Space Orbiter ATGAtlantis lifts off from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on April 8, 2002.
Apple’s iconic iPhone smartphone has been deemed “more important than space travel”, a woman used it to shoot an astounding clip of the final Space Shuttle Endeavour launch and was even itself launched into space by Brooklyn enthusiasts. In addition to dozens of astronomy apps on the App Store, iPhone also lets you explore breathtaking space imagery with the free and official app from NASA. And now, the device will be part of the Space Shuttle Atlantis’ payload which is due for lift-off from Kennedy Space Center tomorrow at 11:26am Eastern.
The 135th and final mission of the Space Shuttle fleet will include two modified iPhone 4s that will be used for experiments on the International Space Station. The device is said to be hardened for use in space, all wireless communication will be disabled and its internal battery will be replaced with an external battery pack which is certified for use in space. Interestingly, it won’t be jailbroken. But why will NASA blast Apple’s phone into space?
Facebook’s boss Mark Zuckerberg appeared today before the crowd of journalists summoned at the company’s Palo Alto headquarters to reveal new Facebook features designed to tackle the Google+ threat. He began by saying that the industry is quickly approaching an inflexion point where focus will be on apps rather than the number of registered users. Facebook has over 750 million users, he said. Facebook is hoping to zoom past the one billion mark in the near future, he said, predicting that the social networking industry at large will soon measure its user base in billions.
Social today is about sharing. It’s about what people do on social networks, what content they share and so forth. Sharing on Facebook is growing at an exponential rate, said the executive who famously had the “I’m CEO, bitch” tagline printed on his business card in the early days. Today, an average Facebook user is sharing twice as much than the previous year and in 2012 will share double the items shared today. “We’re at the elbow of the curve,” Zuck said. For example, people share four billion things on aggregate each day on Facebook. This figure excludes direct interactions between users, such as instant messages.
He then took this huge jab at Google:
We just have this belief at Facebook validated by the success of Facebook, entrepreneurs who focus on one thing do better.
Zuckerberg predicted proliferation of apps which are “the biggest driver for us”. Mobile and the ability to segment stuff into groups are the #2 and #3 things for the company, respectively, he said.
The CEO then proceeded to unveil an improved Groups feature, a redesigned chat and an all-new video calling via Skype. More about that plus a nice promo clip showing off Skype video calling right below the fold. Oh, and check out a MacBook that Facebook’s engineer used on stage to demo the new features. I mean, purple?
Our overseas readers are aware of Spotify, a popular online music service which lets them stream over thirteen million tracks to their computers for free or upgrade to a paid account for ad-free, higher-quality music and access to Spotify on the go on the iPhone, Android and other mobile platforms. Up until now, the arrival of Spotify to the United States has been marred by complicating licensing arrangements with labels, strong competition and the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon derailing Spotify’s US plans.
The Swedish startup confirmed the news on its web site:
The award-winning music service that’s taken Europe by storm will soon be landing on US shores. Millions of tracks ready to play instantly, on your computer and your phone.
They did not yet publish specifics about the pricing, terms of service or the size of their US music catalog, but you’ll know when we know. This will be huge. For the first time ever, iTunes will be under tremendous pressure to come out with a subscription-based music service because Spotify lets you stream music on an unlimited basis for a single-digit monthly fee, it’s in the cloud and available to any connected device and you can even mark songs for offline access.
With Apple’s iPhone now on the Verizon network, all eyes are on Sprint Nextel, the nation’s third-largest wireless provider. They are running the CDMA network like Verizon Wireless, so bringing the CDMA iPhone to Sprint should just be a matter of business and politics, not engineering. The business side of it is apparently coming into full view and some analysts now think the Sprint iPhone will be a reality by this coming Christmas. From the Barron’sblog:
Citadel Securities analyst Shing Yin this morning writes that it is increasingly likely that there will be an iPhone from Apple (AAPL) for Sprint-Nextel (S), especially considering that with the inauguration of Verizon Communications (VZ) tiered pricing for data tomorrow, Sprint will be the sole remaining national carrier with an unlimited data plan offering, something desirable to Apple, he believes.
He sees “little reason for Apple to hold back” and says neither Verizon nor AT&T would leverage their distribution deals with Apple to delay the iPhone launch on the Sprint network.
Bringing iPhone to Sprint will no doubt help accelerate iPhone sales: Sprint has 51 million customers as of this month and Apple’s handset is the #2 smartphone platform, but Android is still gaining ground faster in the United States. That said, any expansion of the addressable market will help Apple keep pace in the smartphone race. The iPhone will be a boon to Sprint’s failing fortunes attributed to the Verizon iPhone launch. Another thing:
Sprint also has best pre-paid customers and Apple’s operations chief Tim Cook told Wall Street analysts that Apple doesn’t want the iPhone to be “only for the rich”, meaning perhaps Sprint will get an inexpensive iPhone 4 for pre-paid customers while AT&T and Verizon battle it out for the post-paid market. Cheap hardware should tie nicely with the fact that Sprint is now the only major unlimited data provider in the US. Sources told9to5Mac earlier this month that a version of the iPhone for Sprint’s network is currently in advanced testing. We also learned that the next iPhone might feature T-Mobile, Sprint, and China Mobile compatibility and some of Apple’s job postings certainly point to the Sprint iPhone.
We’ve been hearing scary stories about the post-PC era ever since Steve Jobs and Apple first talked about this new age of computing at the iPad 2 unveiling. Mobile devices akin to iPad will obsolete our desktop computers (which will be like trucks), we are being told. This, in turn, will leave little room for notebooks and iPad has already decimated the netbook market (even Microsoft agrees). There’s little wonder then that the old-fashioned types scrambled to design interesting accessories which turn your post-PC device into a “notebook”.
That’s exactly what this Aluminum Keyboard Buddy Case does for your iPad 2. It features a thin, eye-catching design said to “give your device durable protection, added functionality and style”. We just think it’s darn cool and innovative. If you’re sold on it, why not order yours over at the MIC Gadget store for fifty bucks, a $20 saving over Apple’s standard Wireless Keyboard or iPad Keyboard Dock.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4KVbqx87dY?rel=0&w=670&h=411]
In case you didn’t notice, tech headlines recently are all about patents. Be it an ongoing case of patent troll Lodsys which is now suing The New York Times Company and five other firms that previously sued Lodsys (bringing the number of defendants to 33) or Microsoft going after Samsung and signing patent protection pacts with Android backers or the Apple led-consortium winning a crucial $4.5 billion bid for Nortel’s patent trove – you name it, the blogosphere is all over it.
HTC is now joining the craze with the news that they’re snapping up graphics vendor S3 Graphics from Via Technologies. The transaction valued at $300 million is about – you guessed right – patents. A total of 235 patents and pending applications will change hands once regulators approve the deal (VIA’s and HTC’s boards of directors already have). The patent agreement should help HTC protect themselves from future patent litigation from rivals. There’s also this:
On July 1, a U.S. International Trade Commission judge ruled that Apple infringed on some of the claims contained in two S3 Graphics patents. Judge E. James Gildea found that Apple infringed on U.S. Patent No. 6,658,146 directed to systems and methods for compressing images and U.S. Patent No. 6,683,978 directed to image data formats, both of which belong to S3 Graphics.
This should in turn help HTC relieve some litigation pressure coming from Apple…
Some think Kobi and Ron Shelly’s documentary MacHeads is a little too fanboyish. They are probably right. In any case, true Apple fans should not pass on it. Released in 2009, the documentary has been available from Amazon or iTunes as a $10 purchase or a $3 rental (DVDs available from the official web site). If you’re not fond of paying any money to explore “what makes Apple products a ‘cultural phenomenon’, rather than just consumer electronics”, there’s a free of charge solution thanks to SnagFilms.com, an online library of over 2100 free streaming movies. Just follow the link here. You’ll have to sit through a one-minute sponsor message, but that’s the price of free. Check out the above promo clip depicting the 1997 return of Steve Jobs.
[UPDATE 1: July 6, 2011 12:40am]: MacRumors quotes a The New York Times article that has Walter Shimoon pleading guilty to leaking trade secrets about iPhone and iPad plans to research firm Primary Global Research.
How much does it cost to get hold of insider information about an unreleased device from Apple? Apparently no more than two hundred bucks per hour of “work”. Apple’s supplier of camera and battery components Flextronics has found itself in the middle of an international scandal involving its director Walter Shimoon who was busted leaking information pertaining to iPhone sales and the then unreleased iPad. His indictment, leaked by The Wall Street Journal, reveals he leaked trade secrets to a New York-based hedge fund called Kingdom Ridge Capital.
The juicy stuff included quarterly sales figures two and a half weeks ahead of Apple’s quarterly earnings release. Don’t for a second think that the fund didn’t use this knowledge data in order to manipulate stock – they profited a cool $560,000 in October of 2009 by taking advantage of the secrets Shimoon leaked. Philip Elmer-DeWitt scavenged court documents unsealed yesterday and published a nice summary on the Fortune blog. From FBI’s tapping records of Shimoon’s conversations with a Kingdom Ridge Capital person: Expand Expanding Close
Well, not quite obsolete but sure enough Microsoft is issuing a challenge to Apple’s trademark gesturing with a new search shortcut called Lasso. Instead of holding your finger on a block of text in order to bring up the loupe and painstakingly dragging little blue dots to select the beginning and end of your selection, the Lasso tool has you draw freely around text on web pages, which triggers a quick search from that selection.
Bing group program manager Tony Chor says the Apple method requires up to nine steps versus simply drawing an arbitrary shape in the case of the updated Bing for iPad app, which hits the App Store later today. From the usability point of view, Microsoft’s Lasso beats the Safari search box anytime, especially the tedious process of copying and pasting a text selection, if you ask us…
via CNET
[vodpod id=Video.12364937&w=425&h=350&fv=player.v%3D5ac23e96-2489-4466-8433-d56ab7a83cdc%26amp%3BconfigCsid%3DMSNVideo%26amp%3BconfigName%3Dsyndicationplayer%26amp%3Bmkt%3Den-us%26amp%3Bbrand%3Dmsn%2Bvideo] Expand Expanding Close
After weeks of rumor mongering (Verizon isn’t great at keeping secrets), the nation’s leading wireless provider is definitely going to switch to a metered scheme for smartphone data. As a result, many will (sadly) kiss their unlimited plan on the Verizon network goodbye. Verizon’s spokeswoman Brenda Raney confirmed toFierceWireless that new pricing models will go into effect beginning this Thursday, July 7:
New smartphone customers will choose from one of four options: $10 for 75 MB per month, $30 for 2 GB, $50 for 5 GB or $80 for 10 GB. There will be an overage charge of $10 per GB of data.
Folks who already have a contract with Verizon and upgrade on or after July 7 will be allowed to upgrade to a newer smartphone and keep their unlimited smartphone data plan, similar to AT&T. Verizon’s move wasn’t unexpected: Rival AT&T has also switched to a usage-based model which went into effect from June 7. The carrier is also rumored to lower prices for iPhone 4 to $150. So how do Verizon’s prices compare to AT&T’s?
First Officer Kelly Caglia with an iPad in a Boeing 777. Credit: The New York Times
The Federal Aviation Administration has certified Apple’s iPad for use in pilot cabins. Pilots won’t be playing Angry Birds: The approval paves the way to replacing some forty pounds worth of dead trees in pilot bags with shiny apps. Printed manuals, safety checklists, logbooks, navigation charts, weather information, airport diagrams – iPad will obsolete all of this paperwork with elegant apps, a true paperless cockpit, reportsThe New York Times:
The Federal Aviation Administration has authorized a handful of commercial and charter carriers to use the tablet computer as a so-called electronic flight bag. Private pilots, too, are now carrying iPads, which support hundreds of general aviation apps that simplify preflight planning and assist with in-flight operations.
We take it the FAA approval means iPad has been cleared as a device that doesn’t interfere with airplane electronics. Battery life? The iPad has a ten-hour rated battery so pilots should be able to use the device on long flights without hooking it to a power socket in the cabin. Steve Jobs kinda thought about that. He remarked at the iPad unveiling on January 27 of last year how Apple’s engineers had been able to achieve ten hours of battery life, illustrating that “I can take a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole way”. If it’s good enough for US Marine Corps and Singaporean enlistees, it should do the trick for commercial airliners.
If a new report from Apple’s supply chain is anything to go by, Apple plans on shipping some five million iPad 2 units during the month of July. According to a brief report by DigiTimes, the company has placed orders for five million touch sensors specifically aimed for its second-generation tablet:
Five million touch sensors for the iPad 2 will be shipped in July, according to sources with Apple’s supply chain. Shipments in June were also five million, with TPK Holding and Wintek supplying 1.4-1.6 million units each and the remaining by Cando, Sintek Photronic and Chimei Innolux (CMI), the sources indicated.
The fact that Apple also shipped five million iPad 2 units last month indicates healthy demand following the supply and product transition issues in the previous quarter. Also, with last quarter’s 4.69 million iPads added to this rate of five million units a month, Apple could as well ship some forty million iPads in the 2011 calendar year, besting analysts’ estimates…
Pictured above: CrispApp’ free phone app that lets you call your Facebook friends for free
Hot on the heels of Shape Services’ acquisition of Hong Kong-based CrispApp, the news on the street is that a brand new video calling application is due on App Store withing the next ten days, reports technology blog TechCrunch. Called IM+ Video, the app should leverage CrispApp’s proprietary video technology to enable the fourth major video calling choice, in addition to iOS versions of multi-platform apps Skype and Fring, as well as Apple’s own FaceTime technology bundled since iOS 4.
Exclusive – SHAPE Services, the company behind the immensely popular, cross-platform IM+ messaging applications (and then some), has agreed to acquire CrispApp, the Hong Kong based developer of the fone app for iOS. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we’ve poked around and learned that the purchase price was approximately $200,000.
Apple could switch its NAND flash provider for the upcoming MacBook Airs expected around July 14 (which is the same release date for Lion as well), Japanese blog Macotakara.jpreported today. The report quotes unnamed parts makers in Asia who claim the Cupertino firm will adopt the latest NAND flash chips manufactured on a 19-nanometer process and soldered directly onto the motherboard. The current Air lineup uses an mSATA connector to connect SSD storage to the motherboard (only the RAM chips are being soldered directly onto the board). Dubbed Toggle Ddr2.0, the new technology is said to provide data transfer rates of up to four hundred megabytes per second. This technology has been ratified by Open NAND Flash Interface Working Group in March of this year under the ONFI 3.0 moniker.
Improvements in ONFI 3.0’s NAND interface speeds let NAND controllers achieve similar performance with half the number of channels, providing for both cost and space savings. The technology reduces the number of pins on NAND chips thus making the routing more efficient. The chips are cheaper to manufacture and sport significantly greater data transfer speeds compared to today’s technology aimed at the consumer segment of the market. If the rumor is true, expect new MacBook Airs to be even more nimble and with shorter boot and application loading times compared to the current-generation lineup. Don’t take the rumor for granted, however…
The Kinect from Microsoft is, in case you didn’t know, the best-selling and most-hacked motion controller. In fact, we here at 9to5Mac love the Star Trekkiness and pure geekiness of some of the hacks and mods we’ve seen. It took the community a rather long time, however, to figure out how to hook up a Kinect to an iPad. The guys at LAAN Labs changed all that with a remarkable application that takes advantage of Microsoft’s motion controller and Apple’s tablet in clever ways.
In their example, a Kinect is used to capture 3D data of its surroundings which is then being wirelessly fed to an iPad 2 and enhanced in gorgeous augmented reality on the tablet, courtesy of the String Augmented Reality SDK for iOS. Not bad, not bad at all… The video makes one wonder whether Apple is working on a Kinect-like device for the living room entertainment. Maybe a rumored Apple-branded television set will incorporate motion controlled gestures?
AT&T has added Apple’s iPhone to their mobile insurance program (viaMacRumors). As of July 17, customers can have a piece of mind for just five bucks a month. The coverage protects the iPhone and your other wireless investments on the AT&T network from theft, loss, accidental damage and electrical failure beyond Apple’s standard warranty. In an unfortunate case that your handset is stolen, lost or damaged, you will be eligible for a replacement handset with the deductible ranging between $50 and $125 per claim and provided you file no more than two claims withing twelve consecutive months. The new insurance planis replacing the previous insurance option which has been specific to iPhone customers. From AT&T’s mobile insurance page:
Effective July 17, 2011, the Apple iPhone (all models) will be eligible for coverage with the AT&T Mobile Insurance program (formerly Wireless Phone Insurance). Enrollment restrictions apply. Customers can only enroll within 30 days of a new activation or upgrade, prior activations or upgrades outside of 30 days are not eligible.
As MacRumors noted, folks can also consider ditching AT&T’s insurance plan and rely on Apple instead because the company “is known to replace accidentally broken and out-of-warranty iPhones for a flat $199 repair fee, though this doesn’t cover loss or theft”. You should also remember that some cases are not covered by neither company’s insurance or warranty polices, such as liquid damage.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQbJ7IsWIak] From 9to5Toys.com
When Skrappy for iPad debuted in May priced at four bucks, it was deemed money well spent for all the bang and wow it provided. The program takes photo slideshows on iPad to the next level, allowing you to create gorgeous mouth-watering presentations that incorporate music, movies (with multi-line text editing), voice memos, web pages, text and photos. It takes clues from Apple’s Keynote app, mimicking its approach to sticky guidelines, shadows, borders, crop shapes, detailed object properties.
Additionally, Scrappy for iPad ups the ante with fancy scrapbook themes and iBooks-like flipping through pages. The latest version comes with dozes of enhancements and is being priced at 99 cents for a limited time. It’s a steal so grab it before the deal expires. More screenies and features after the break.
Of all web browsing globally – of which one fifth happens on the Chrome browser – various mobile devices and tablets now account for five percent, with one percent belonging to iPad. In other words, one fifth of all global browsing happening on both mobile devices (all iOS, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Java ME devices) and tablets is being credited to Apple’s 9.7-inch aluminum and glass slab, an improvement from 0.92 percent in the month-ago period. That’s the gist of two separate reports released today by web research firm Net Applications (here and here). In the United States, Apple’s tablet accounts for and 2.1 percent of all browsing, confirming many customer surveys telling us that people are using their iPads to browse the web, first and foremost.
As one might expect, the GM Seed of Lion looks like it is making the rounds in the Torrent sites. This is interesting this time around because Apple is distributing the install via the App Store (for a very reasonable $30) which has tracking codes embedded in the download. That means whoever leaked this is probably going to get in some trouble. We’re assuming most people who choose to download this version will be doing so for the two week head start rather than trying to save $30.
Might be better to just plunk $99 down for a developer account?
Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes is calling for iPad 3 in October. Based on an industry chatter in the Asian supply chain, they are claiming that Apple has begun commissioning parts for the third-generation iPad and fifth-generation iPhone, both debuting in small quantities in September and in volume the following month. iPad 3 should be “even thinner and lighter”, with panel resolution increasing to 250dpi.
There won’t be two iPhones – one being a major upgrade and the other for low-income markets – as some analysts predicted. About 85 million iPhones and 40 million iPads are expected in the entire 2011, the sources estimate, which means Apple could dethrone HP and become the leading portable PC maker in the world. Total third-quarter iPad shipments should total 15 million units, of which 12 million should be iPad 2s. Total iPhone shipments for the quarter should reach about 25 million units (7 million iPhone 5s and 18 million iPhone 4s).
Such an aggressive manufacturing and the shortened release cycle reveal that Apple is betting big on the post-PC world. Fourteen months following the iPad’s arrival, Apple still owns the tablet market. Research firm comScore estimates that iPad enjoys 97 percent share of tablet traffic in the US and 89 percent globally. And with more than 100,000 iPad-optimized apps in the App Store, competitors are increasingly experiencing setbacks putting a meaningful dent in Apple’s tablet lead. Expand Expanding Close
Well, we were kinda expecting Adobe to make a move following the Final Cut Pro X outrage and today the company formally announced the “switcher program” that offers a cool 50 percent discount to Final Cut Pro or Avid Media users who defect to Adobe Premiere Pro (the offer ends September 30, 2011).
The promotion arrives on the heels of recent success stories Adobe has been promoting on its website and applies to any Final Cut Pro or Avid Media Composer purchase. The 50 percent discount can be redeemed against any purchased of Adobe Creative Suite CS5.5 Production Premium or Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5.
And while Apple is adamant that Final Cut Pro X “revolutionizes video editing”, Adobe subtly begs to differ. Check out this quote from Jim Guerard, their general manager and vice president of professional video and audio:
