Apple

From 9to5Toys.com:

Today only, Amazon offers the Kensington KeyFolio Pro  Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard for $39.99 with free shipping.  That’s 60% off of list and the lowest price we could find for this 4-star rated keyboard for iPad 2. It offers both landscape and portrait use.

This will likely also work with Apple’s new 3rd Generation iPad as well (though Bluetooth 4.0 Keyboards could start showing up soon)

We haven’t tested this model but we’re fans of the similar Zagg Keyfolio keyboard case, although it is over double the price. 
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The Wall Street Journal reports that the United States Justice Department threatened to launch an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five of the nation’s biggest book publishers over an alleged price-fixing that has resulted in higher prices of e-books.

Several of the parties have held talks to settle the antitrust case and head off a potentially damaging court battle. If successful, such a settlement could have wide-ranging repercussions for the industry, potentially leading to cheaper e-books for consumers. However, not every publisher is in settlement discussions.

The government is specifically aiming to probe CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster Inc., Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group, Pearson PLC’s Penguin Group (USA), Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH, and HarperCollins Publishers Inc., a unit of News Corp. that also owns The Wall Street Journal.

At question: The so-called agency model where publishers freely set prices of their titles on Apple’s iBookstore before the Cupertino company reaps 30 percent of the proceeds. The freedom to pick the price has led most—if not all— publishers to allegedly raise prices of e-books across the board as they feared customers would get accustomed to inexpensive $9.99 Kindle books from Amazon.

Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch already gave a deposition to the U.S. Justice Department. He said abandoning the agency model would allow a single party to achieve dominance in the marketplace, alluding to Amazon. According to the people familiar with the matter, the U.S. Justice Department believes that Apple and the publishers “acted in concert to raise prices across the industry, and is prepared to sue them for violating federal antitrust laws.”

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So about two weeks ago we got a tip from a reliable source that Apple was going to call the iPhone 5 (or whatever)- the new “iPhone”.

That seemed a little nuts at the time but what a difference a Keynote makes. As Christian explained, Apple chopped the suffix off if the iPad as part of a branding makeover that will likely expand.  Just like iMac is not called iMac 1,2,3 it looks like Apple won’t be doing the numbering on iOS devices (though it never did with the iPod touch).

So that tip –That the next iPhone is simply the new “iPhone” – seems a lot more plausible now.

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Apple demoed quite an impressive iPhoto app today during the new iPad unveiling, and the app is now officially live on the App Store for $4.99 [iTunes]. In case you did not know, the app is a universal download for both iPhone and iPad. You can grab iPhoto for iOS now (iTunes link). Apple also boasted updated versions of iMovie and GarageBand today that you can already get on the App Store here and here for $4.99 each (free update for current owners). The updated GarageBand app features a Note Editor, Smart Strings orchestra feature, and Jam Sessions for realtime playing and recording with up to three other iOS devices.  You can read our full break down of the new iPhoto app here.

In addition Apple updated iBooks Author today to “take advantage of the Retina display on the new iPad” and did the same for the iTunes U app. The updates also include the usual stability and performance improvements.

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Get yours via Software Update or here.  Included is the ability to play 1080P iTunes and improvements for iTunes Match.

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Apple said today at the new iPad unveiling that the device runs iOS 5.1, which is an unreleased version of its mobile operating system featuring Siri in Japanese, several camera app tweaks, and other little nice-to-haves. Interesting, this update also “addresses bugs affecting battery life.” Other features include new podcast controls for playback speed on iPad, the redesigned camera app on iPads, the always-visible camera shortcut on the lock screen, updated AT&T network indicator, Genius Mixes and Genius playlist for iTunes Match subscribers and more. We are guessing iCloud users will appreciate that they can finally remove photos from their Photo Stream directly on the device without having to go to iCloud.com on their computer.

Depending on your location, the update might not have hit iTunes, but you can always download the right firmware for your device using direct links here. Of course, you can also bring your device up to date over-the-air by hitting Software Update under the General section of the Settings app.

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In what many might call a long overdue move, Apple finally ported the photo management application iPhoto to iPad. The release of the software completes a trio of the most important iLife apps that are now available on the iPad: iMovie, GarageBand, and now iPhoto. The app supports images up to 19-megapixels. It also sports many familiar and popular features, including the auto-enhance tool, social sharing through Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, email, and more.

The iPhoto app is aimed at people who “want to do more with your photos.” One aspect immediately becomes clear: iPhoto for iPad is gestures-heavy (per an extensive live demo Apple’s Chief Architect for Photo and Video Randy Ubillos gave on stage).

You can use the new bezel gesture —a first for an Apple-made iPad app— to swipe from the left side of the screen to look at other images in the album. From there, just tap on an image to bring the editing interface up. When you want to bring in the thumbnail view, just swipe from the side again.

Another cool feature: Double-tapping a single image tells iPhoto to scan your entire library and compare all the images to find the ones that look similar. You can also beam photos between devices over-the-air, tap a specific area to adjust it, touch, and drag to brighten or tweak saturation, and more.

However, when it comes down to heavy image editing, the iPhoto app does not disappoint. For example, brush palettes include tools such as red-eye, saturation, and lighten. Other notables include sharpen, soften, darken, and a general repair tool. Meanwhile, the effects gallery includes black and white, vignette, tilt-shift, watercolor, and more.

More information is available below.

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Apple just finished the new iPad presentation at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Now we have full tech specs, and the new Retina Display is its defining feature, but what about the little things? Per pre-event rumors and whispers, the new iPad is a tad heavier and thicker than its predecessor is.

The new iPad is 9.4mm thin and weighs 1.4lbs. As for the iPad 2, it is 8.8mm deep and weighs 1.33lbs (Wi-Fi model). This makes the new iPad 0.6mm thicker and 0.07lbs heavier. However, we somehow doubt anyone other than the most eagle-eyed fans will notice the difference.

As for its battery, the new iPad maintains the same 10-hour battery life as both the original iPad and iPad 2. Steve Jobs highlighted battery performance at the iPad 2 unveiling by underscoring how iPad 2 features the same “legendary” battery as the original model. “We don’t want to give that up,” he said, “This has been tried and tested by many reviewers.”

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Image courtesy of the Los Angeles Times

From the beginning of today’s iPad launch event at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple executives referred to the new iPad simply as “the new iPad” slide after slide. No “iPad 3” moniker or “iPad HD,” as the bloggers called it. So, what fancy new name did Apple come up with this time?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g88ufDHEYpY]

The truth is but a click away.

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Apple just announced at a media event occurring in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts that an updated Apple TV set-top box is capable of 1080p video output. Of course, 9to5Mac was the first to call that one. What is better: iCloud now streams movies in 1080p—an upgrade from the previous and often criticized 720p video resolution. Even more importantly, you can now access purchased movies in iCloud any time you want, just like with music and television shows.

Also updated is the Apple TV’s user interface. It is now more streamlined and taking advantage of the full 1080p video resolution. The new interface takes clues from iOS with its shiny new icons and the beautiful Cover Flow view. The new Apple TV has the same low price of just $99 and is available for pre-order today with shipments beginning March 16. In addition to the new Apple TV, Apple has tweaked its pricing matrix for movies and television shows on iTunes to reflect 1080p content. More on that below.

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Apple is having a media event underway at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco to unveil its third-generation iPad tablet. The company’s CEO Tim Cook just took the stage to share news about the new iPad. The executive noted that Apple has three post-PC products: The iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad.

“Now any company would be thrilled to have just one of these devices,” he said. “At Apple we’re fortunate to have all three.”

In total, 172 million post-PC devices were sold last year, accounting for 76 percent of Apple’s revenue. He remarked:

We have our feet firmly planted in the post PC future.

Apple now has 362 retail stores that greeted 110 million visitors just during the holiday quarter of last year alone. The company sold a whopping 62 million iOS devices last quarter and 315 million in total—the same numbers Apple shared while announcing the winner of the 25 billionth App Store download.

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Liquidmetal Technologies just announced it has begun shipment of commercial parts to unnamed customers around the world. The announcement of the Delaware-headquartered company is conveniently timed just two hours before Apple unveils its third-generation iPad at a media even in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The press release reads:

Liquidmetal Technologies today announced that its manufacturing operations are currently in the midst of shipping commercial parts to several of its customers world-wide. Parts delivery began this past December with continuing shipments scheduled for the months ahead.

CEO Tom Steipp noted that customers could use his company’s amorphous alloy technology to deliver “stronger, lighter, and more corrosion resistant parts.” Although no customer has been named, Apple is known to have obtained exclusive worldwide rights to use Liquidmetal’s patented metallic glass substance in consumer electronic products.

Specifically, Liquidmetal Technologies granted all of its intellectual property to Apple in 2010. There has been some speculation that the iPhone maker is already using the alloy in batteries and the SIM removal tool, but no compelling evidence has been produced to support those claims. With that in mind, the Cupertino, Calif.-headquartered consumer electronics giant has yet to make a jump from aluminum to metallic glass in its gadgets.

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We are extremely skeptical about this one, but we are reposting it for the sake of discussion. According to Pocket-lint sources, Apple’s iPad 3 will include a new advanced tactile feedback technology that could add a completely new sensory input to the tablet. Unlike traditional haptic feedback that creates the sensation of physical touch with a small electrical stimulus (creating pulses that push against the finger), Apple’s solution allegedly puts an electrical pulse behind every pixel.

In theory, this would effectively create a 2048-by-1536 Retina display with so-called “textured feedback.” That is, it would add “texture” to objects on the screen when touched. Possible applications of this technology could be numerous and especially handy for both seeing and hearing issues. In addition, games would gain a whole new dimension if programmers could control screen pulses with a pixel-level accuracy and provide sensory perception of textures by varying friction between the screen and the user’s finger.

According to the article, Apple has been in talks with a Finnish startup called Senseg, the creators of advanced haptic display technology called E-Sense, depicted in the below clip. Now, when asked whether Apple licensed its technology, a company spokesperson told the publication “We won’t be making any statements until after Apple’s announcement.”

Similarly, Senseg’s technical marketing manager Petri Jekonen provided a similar answer to The Guardian newspaper yesterday:

That would be for Apple to say. My comment is no comment.

Furthermore, Senseg Senior Vice President Ville Mäkinen told Trusted Reviews that his company is “currently working with a certain tablet maker based in Cupertino.” The publication explains that the aim of Senseg’s technology is to “make a corrugated surface feel corrugated, a rough surface rough, a soft surface soft.”

On the other hand, Senseg CEO said less than four months ago that his company’s technology won’t be available for prime time for 1 to 2 years. “We’re certainly optimistic that we’ll have something in the next year. That might extend to 24 months,” he said in the below clip. The new iPad’s hardware design was likely finalized four months ago when Senseg’s CEO made those comments.

What is so special about Senseg’s technology, you ask? Read on…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X-9-57qG9Y]

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We’ve gotten a few more tidbits about tomorrow’s Apple TV announcement (Oh, there will be a new iPad too!).  The Apple TV J33 model, MD199LL/A – J33 BEST -USA, which we’ve covered before will come in at the same $99 price point (and similar prices globally).  We know from previous reports that it will have updated hardware internally including Bluetooth 4.0 Broadcom chip as well as a higher powered processor capable of 1080P video. 

It will likely look the same as the current Apple TV with similar ports otherwise, though that hasn’t been confirmed.

Also, the new mystery B82 accessory part just got a price as well: $39.  We’re still not sure what exactly it is (Dock, A/V cable – currently $39, remote – currently $19, etc.).  We’re not expecting anything too spectacular however under $40.

Finally, MacRumors confirms tips that we’ve been hearing today.

Apple appears to be making a similar transition for the iPad with tomorrow’s introduction of the iPad 3, rolling out a $99 AppleCare+ for iPad warranty that would replace the current $79 standard AppleCare package.

AppleCare +, which also covers accidental damage with a $49 deductible, for iPad has shown up on a number of occasions in EasyPay as a $99 option leading our tipsters to believe that it will debut tomorrow.

We’ll be covering all the action tomorrow live, so make sure you stop back.

As always, thanks Mr. X!
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Ever since we first sampled the Starbucks app in September 2009, we could not help but wax eloquently how your iPhone will become your wallet. A deluge of ideas Apple has patented with NFC over time, and some interesting hirings, hint that the company is heavy into NFC. Then, in January, 9to5Mac heard from a developer at Macworld that iPhone 5 would have NFC and that MasterCard/Paypass would launch partners for an Apple-branded payment service that would span both iOS devices and Macs.

Fast forward to today, as the United States Trademark & Patent Office awards the company a major patent grant that covers the intricacies of the iWallet. According to PatentlyApple, this invention is supported by as much as 23 patent claims and dates back to the first quarter of 2009—indicating just how important it must have been to Apple.

The document outlines “techniques for implementing and defining financial transaction rules for controlling a subsidiary financial account,” allowing parents to control spending of their children, for example. Financial transaction rules are also detailed that would allow for spending limits based upon different criteria, such as a particular time period or geographic region.

The really interesting part about this are the drawings included with the patent application depicting a future iPhone with Near Field Communications (see the above illustration). The drawings indicate the use of iTunes billing system for credit card statements and records. The iWallet app could also tie nicely with a number of other utilities Apple’s been researching, such as this iPhone app for buying movie tickets.

But what’s in all this for you and me?

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We’ve been told by an Apple Store source who has been reliable in the past that preparations are being made for a big Apple Store event which will culminate on Friday, March 16th.  Naturally, this points to an iPad 3 launch on the Friday just nine days after tomorrow’s announcement.  We’ve previously noted that an Apple Store in London at the world famous Harrod’s will open on that date as well as a new Store in Houston, Texas.

Speaking of Texas, Apple will NOT be putting up a temporary store at SXSW in Austin this year according to the The Austin American-Statesman.  Last year, Apple built a temporary Store at the event that coincided with the launch of the iPad 2.

Last year, Apple’s then-CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the release of the iPad 2 on March 2. The pop-up store opened at the start of the SXSW Interactive Festival on March 11, 2011. The store, at the Scarbroughs building on Congress Avenue and Sixth Street, sold the tablet, as well as accessories, during the festival.

The show runs from March 9-13 this year.

Yesterday, two simultaneous reports came out stating the name of Apple’s new product would be the ‘iPad HD’ and recently more and (iM)ore evidence points to an LTE version being announced. Today, Verizon began teasing a “Something is Coming” campaign.

Interestingly, we were told that there would be a subsequent launch event a week later but he had no further information on the the subject matter.  This could be a separate Apple product (AppleTV?) or perhaps additional International launches of the iPad.

We’ll have live coverage of tomorrow’s event as it unfolds.
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It is interesting how little Verizon has to provide, yet the splash page they put up today still screams “iPad!”.

Notably, the graphic image file name is:766x385_HP_pre_NO_optin.jpg but somehow we don’t think Verizon’s big surprise is the recently discontinued HP Pre.

Update: Now AT&T has their version up:

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Apple’s latest cunning move in its Holy Crusade against Android involves getting a court order to force Google, the maker of Android software, to produce documents detailing the Android roadmap and its proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of handset maker Motorola Mobility. It was not immediately clear what data Apple was exactly seeking to uncover. This is notable, because Apple is actually going after Google with this request. It is the first direct in the ongoing legal war considering Apple fought Google by proxy in the past.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner ruled yesterday based on a patent lawsuit Apple filed in 2010 against Motorola that both Motorola and Google must spill relevant information to Apple, as “the Android/Motorola acquisition discovery is highly relevant to Apple’s claims and defenses.” Motorola, of course, opposed the request, offering the following argument.

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According to both CNET and VentureBeat, Apple’s new iPad won’t be officially called “iPad 3,” but rather “iPad HD.” The “HD” suffix is a nod to the new iPad biggest upgrade: the high-definition Retina Display. The Verge reported last year that the new iPad would be called the “iPad HD,” so it’s worth taking a look at their surrounding iPad HD rumors from last year.

We’re not entirely buying the new name.

The Verge’s report called for some new professional software for the iPad HD, and also said the device would be marketed as a new high-end iPad, and the iPad 2 would continue to sell. However, our sources have been saying that most iPad 2 models will be discontinued, and the new iPad  will keep the iPad 2 price points. The new iPad will also include a faster chip and improved cameras, and Apple’s media event is this Wednesday.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIUiezAsUAU]

Mobile device manager Aerohive introduced Enterprise Bonjour Gateway today for enabling Apple’s Bonjour protocol to work across multiple network segments in a corporate setting.

Bonjour allows networking hardware to automatically configure (zero-configuration), while Bonjour Gateway (PDF) essentially adds support for iPad and iPhone users to employ components like AirPrint for wireless printing wherever an AirPrint-capable printer is accessible. The feature intends to aid the growing trend of users who bring their iOS devices into work.

More information is available below.

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A new national study indicates the iPad nearly quadrupled among the small business market in 2011.

The Business Journal is a Charlotte N.C.-based solutions platform for companies targeting business resolution makers. Its recent study, which is fully available on March 31, highlights Apple’s iOS tablet as “the fastest growing technology among the SMB market” due to usage growing from 9 percent in 2010 to 34 percent in 2011.

More information is available below.

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