From 9to5Toys.com:
Today only, Best Buy offers the Slingbox Solo for $99 with free shipping. That’s the best price we’ve ever seen on this media place shifter with iOS app
Also, Best Buy today has the Transcend 32 GB SD Card for $22.99. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen on a Class 10 20MB/sec SDHC card.
From 9to5Toys.com:
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For a limited time, Walmart is offering the $50 iTunes gift card for $40. That’s 20 percent off and the lowest price yet. The card comes immediately through email, and it counts toward free shipping on other items. It can be purchased for use in the US iTunes Store on iBooks, Mac and iOS Apps, Music, Videos, Movies and more.
Limit two per customer. International readers are having mixed (mostly turned down) results.
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The first customer satisfaction survey since the release of the new iPad shows that owners are almost completely smitten with their new devices.
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Changewave surveyed 200 new iPad owners from March 22 to March 28 and found that those “Very Satisfied” were up 8 percent from the iPad 2 to an impressive 82 percent.
And those heat “issues”? Not a big problem.
What is an aspect that new iPad owners like the most?
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[slideshow]
Square updated its “Card Case” app with a new design, new name, and a shiny new icon (literally) less than a week after PayPal announced its triangular Square competitor.
Unlike the previous version of the app, which used a credit card metaphor for each store you had an account with, version 2.0, now called “Pay with Square,” uses a list of businesses nearby that accept Square payments and allow you to quickly open a tab at any of them. You can also search a map for nearby Square-compatible businesses and add your favorites to a list for quick and easy access on future visits.
What’s new in Version 2.0, below:
For a couple of seconds this morning Apple’s stock hit 600. It is currently dropping slightly, but we imagine some of you aren’t about to sell your yachts.
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We know that demand for the new iPad met expectations with Apple telling USAToday demand is “off the charts.” Apple also confirmed that the initial pre-order supplies were purchased with shipping times for the device slipping to “2-3 weeks.” Now, a new ChangeWave Research study of “1,604 business IT buyers” gives some insight into just how in-demand the new device will be in the enterprise.
From the study, we learn that approximately 22 percent of companies plan to buy tablets for their employees during Q2 2012. ChangeWave noted, among those companies, demand for iPad increased to the “highest level of corporate iPad demand ever” with 84 percent planning to make the new iPad their tablet of choice. The increase represents a 7-point jump from ChangeWave’s last study due to the new iPad launch. The study also aimed to find which carrier the companies plan to use for data services with their tablets. Not surprisingly, AT&T and Verizon were neck and neck:
We learned last year that the new iPad is codenamed “J2” in the iOS 5.1Beta software, and we learned last week that it will probably be announced at the beginning of next month. However, we also learned about another Apple Jxx product: The next Apple TV. It is codenamed “J33” and “AppleTV 3,1” in the 5.1B software. This new Apple TV will also feature the low-power Bluetooth 4.0 technology. Perhaps, besides both showing up in iOS 5.1 software, the Jxx devices are also A6 devices? We cannot tell if this new device will be a 1080P/A6 upgrade from the current or something bigger.
So, when will it be delivered?
One of our Best Buy sources just pinged us and alerted us that Apple TV is not just out of stock at his store, but Apple TVs are no longer shipping to the stores at all anymore.
A customer was inquiring tonight about Apple TV. However right now we are out of stock (Which hasn’t happened since I started). Not only were we out of stock, but also I was also unable to order one from our product ordering system (OMS). Product was listed as “currently unavailable”. From prior experience, this usually is associated with a product that is being “discontinued”.
A visit to Best Buy.com shows that it is out of stock online. Only some stores have them in stock and if those are like our tipster’s, as seen above, they cannot order any more either. A quick check around the web shows an eerily similar pattern: Amazon is out for “2-5 weeks”, as seen below, which fits into Apple’s iPad announcement window, and it has returned to calling it the “2010 model.” Some of Amazon’s third party retailers do have them in stock, however.
We checked Target and many others too…
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From 9to5Toys.com:
Today only, until 7 pm ET, Best Buy takes 20% off iTunes eGift Cards, as listed below. At up to $20 off and no shipping, each is tied with our mention from four weeks ago and at or near the lowest price we’ve ever seen. Sales tax is added where applicable. The gift cards will be emailed for redemption so those overseas with US iTunes accounts can take part.
iTunes credit can be used for Mac Software, iOS Software, Games, iBooks, music, movies or just about anything besides hardware.
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Source: IDG
Research firm IDG on Monday published a new survey called “iPad for Business 2012,” showing that the iPad is anything but a fad as far as big business is concerned. The global survey, available as a downloadable PDF document, noted that 91 percent of businesses that deployed iPads are using the device primarily for work, even if only approximately a quarter of issued devices were supplied as a corporate tool. Consumers and pros alike both use the device for media consumption, which in the case of the latter is predominantly text-based and work-related.
IT and business professionals certainly use their iPads at home. But unlike most consumers, they also use their devices in a similarly intensive way at work. In a further, decisive, break with consumer usage patterns, IT and business professionals use their devices on the road far more frequently than anywhere else.
Some 79 percent of IT professionals “always” use the iPads on the move and 59 percent “always” or “sometimes” use the device in offline mode. Road use usually entails planes, trains, automobiles, hotel lobbies, coffee shops, conference halls and meeting rooms, IDG noted, even though only 40 percent of iPads sold incorporate 3G connectivity.
More than three-quarters of polled workers use the iPads to browse the web, and 76 percent of pros said they “always” use iPads to read content. Meanwhile, 73 percent opted for news consumption and more than half— or 54 percent— use it for work communication. Some 79 percent tap into the iPad on the move and 54 percent use it at home. Social media, personal communication and entertainment follow with 44 percent, 42 percent and 31 percent, respectively.
Corporate iPads rarely supplant notebooks, though:
From 9to5Toys.com
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Update: 20% discount is over
Best Buy offers Digital Delivery of iTunes Gift cards for 20 percent off across the board. Sizes range from $15, $25, $50 and $100 that are marked down to $12, $20, $40 and $80. These cards can be used toward music, movies, TV, books, apps and more. This might be particularly interesting to our overseas readers who use the United States iTunes store.
Today’s updated Apple Headquarters Spaceship campus plans include a roof made almost entirely out of solar cells, according to details released today. With a building as large as Apple’s, that puts it in the top corporate solar installations in the world and the biggest in the US. The current title holder is the 4.26 MW system in Edison New Jersey and another being built by ToysRus in sunny NJ is rated 5.38MW
From today’s plans
From today’s plans, we can estimate the roof surface area to be over 750,000 square feet. Assuming (conservatively) 2/3rds of that, or 500,000 square feet of that is utilized for solar, that gives Apple close to a 5MW installation on the amin building alone. On average or as a general “rule of thumb” modern photovoltaics (PV) solar panels will produce up to 10 watts per square foot of solar panel area. Since Cupertino is generally favorable in terms of weather and Apple will obviously use the latest Solar technology developed in the coming years, that could give Apple over 5,000,000 Watts of power to play with. Additionally, Apple has a few other buildings on campus that could be outfitted with solar roofs. The plans list a photovoltaic roof canopy of 320,000 sq.ft. just on the parking building.
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From 9to5toys.com:
Staples has the 16GB SanDisk SDHC Card for $14.99 with free shipping. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for a 16GB SDHC card. Class 4 represents a minimum speed of around 4MB/sec.
Staples also offers a Sandisk Cruzer 16GB USB stick for $14.99. 8GB is $8.99 and 4GB is $5.99. Staples currently offers free shipping sitewide with no minimum.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nOdc5knf-M]
Computerworld/IDG reports that wireless industry pioneer John Stanton (founder of of Western Wireless, VoiceStream wireless and former CTIA chairman) worked with Steve Jobs prior to the launch of the iPhone on becoming a carrier using unlicensed spectrum…
Stanton, chairman of venture capital firm Trilogy Partners, said he spent a fair amount of time with Jobs between 2005 and 2007. “He wanted to replace carriers,” Stanton said of Jobs, the Apple founder and CEO who died Oct. 5 after a battle with cancer. “He and I spent a lot of time talking about whether synthetically you could create a carrier using Wi-Fi spectrum. That was part of his vision.”
The one that got away…
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Apple is holding a training session with new managers to address unionizing tomorrow, reports CNet. The session will be held to address unions in the workplace and take any legal questions they might have. The internal document obtained by CNet said the following:
“This course is intended to provide managers with a practical understanding of how unions affect the workplace, how and why employees organize, and the legal do’s and don’ts of dealing with unions. This is a mandatory class for all new managers, and is required biannually for all managers.”
The course will then become a biannual occasion for all of Apple’s retail managers. The push for this course by Apple’s executive team most likely comes after early this year when Apple employees began pushing for the “Apple Retail Workers Union” that would address issues of part-time employees being underpaid. Other issues also included training opportunities and break schedules.
From 9to5Toys.com:
Walmart today lists the iPad 2 in all sizes and varieties with a “Starter Accessory” which include previous generation Smart Covers or USB wall chargers (or $50 iTunes Gift Cards when ordered and picked up site-to-store).
If your shopping tastes take you to Target, you can get a $40 Target GiftCard with iPad 2 purchase (or $450 iPad 1 32GB 3G/GPS). They also have various other iTunes/Apple device offers via circular including this 10% off printable coupon, below:
The teardown is in progress. Notes of interest:
The extra .05W/hrs battery increases talk time by an hour but for some reason (likely additional background processes with notifications), standby time is reduced from 300 to 200 hrsThe second confirmation iFixit’s teardown gives us is the size of the A5’s on-package memory: 512MB. A quick look at the image above yields the Samsung part number: K3PE4E400B-XGC1. Each highlighted E4 refers to a separate 2Gb LPDDR2 die. The A5 features a dual-channel LPDDR2 memory interface, thus requiring two 32-bit die to fully populate both channels. The final two characters in the part number (C1) refer to the DRAM’s clock period, in this case 2.5ns which indicates a 400MHz clock frequency (F=1/T). My assumption here is Samsung’s part number is actually referring to clock frequency and not data rate, implying there are a pair of LPDDR2-800 die in the PoP stack. It’s not entirely uncommon to run memory at speeds lower than they are rated for, a practice we’ve seen in graphics memory in particular for as long as I can remember, so I wouldn’t take this as proof that Apple is running at full LPDDR2-800 speeds.
We’re updating as things develop.
Have to say that as a 9to5Mac reader, there were no surprises for you today. On the other hand, the market isn’t so happy with AAPL shares currently trading at 356, down almost 18 points.
Update: Check that. AAPL is making a comeback, but judging by the comments, all is not well.
Having a look at the otherwise impressive Galaxy S II phones from Samsung, I noticed that the USB AC power adapter had a ‘familiar’ feel to it. Turns out, it is almost an exact replica, within a millimeter in every direction. Compare to their previous USB power adapter.
AAPL shares are trading at a relatively small loss of anywhere from 1.5-2.5% from yesterday’s close against a slightly up broader market. Overnight, shares had been down 5-6% in after hours trading on the news that Steve Jobs would be leaving his CEO role and taking the Chairman role. This morning Apple opened at 365 and at the time of this writing, Apple is heading towards yesterday’s close, at 370.
I think the truth is that Jobs resignation from the CEO role, while shocking in the short term, had been baked into the share price for a long time now.
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According to his LinkedIn Profile, John Herbold has left the iCloud. On his departure, he said:
I’ve been fortunate enough to define, ship and market a variety of products for one of the world’s most admired product companies. That opportunity was a great privilege.
Now I get to take that experience and apply it to the enormous challenge of materially improving youth health.
He is the third prominent Apple employee to leave the company in recent months (though much less so than the others), following MacOSX head Bertrand Serlet a few months ago and Stores leader Ron Johnson last week.
He was at Apple during the MobileMe rollout and managed to stay almost until the iCloud announcement this month.
Everyone’s favorite iPad insurance provider Square Trade decided to waste a few perfectly good tablets (well one is) to drive home the message: Dropping glass screens on cement will break them.
Conveniently, Square Trade just happens to be in the business of insuring iPads and other tablets (Shocking, we know).
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We are getting reports that Apple Stores are receiving packages that aren’t to be opened until Tuesday. Perhaps they are fluffy little iClouds – or maybe new Airport adverts? Or, yes, Lion and iOS 5
Thanks Jmfm!
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Hacked iTunes accounts are available for sale across China at prices starting as low as a few dollars, a report explains. These hacked account details (which include credit card details) were being made available for sale via China’s largest retail website, Taobao.
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We might be due for an iWork refresh pretty soon. We’re hearing from a few Apple Store employees that “there is no iWork on the shelves, no iWork in stock and none on the way”. A quick check to Amazon shows none in stock there (but family packs are available).
Ingram Micro shows a few hundred retail boxes available and Amazon’s secondary sellers have some in stock. The online Apple store has them in stock but there is a fresh “new” label on the product (see above).
We’re not sure if this is a inventory blip or a sign that new products might be coming but we do know that iWork is coming as apps in the Mac App Store and we know that is coming January 6th. Anyone else heard anything?
Update: Also, the Apple Search page also autocompletes “iWork ’11” (thanks Pete!):
Update 2: TUAW points out that iWork ’09, the latest version of the software suite, was released on January 6, 2009. Coincidence?
Update 3: Video below of Apple store Employee saying wait for iWork ’11 soon:
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