iOS devices refer to any of Apple’s hardware that runs the iOS mobile operating system which include iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Historically, Apple releases a new iOS version once a year, the current version is iOS 10. Here is the complete list of iOS 10 compatible devices.
You know you’re in trouble when people write an app with sole purpose of pinging your content network to tell users whether or not it’s up. Touche. Clearly Sony should have released such an app as part of their damage control process. It’s surprising that the idea for the PSN Status app took so long to dislodge. Image iTunes were busted and went down for a month…
I assure you that Apple fans and haters would fall over each other creating a similar app within the first 24 hours of the incident. Not a PlayStation 3 owner? How about i360Emu, a free app for your iPhone and iPod touch (depicted below) that emulates the famous Red Ring of Death which appears when your XBox 360 fails? I know, it’s been a slow news day.
If Square gave these things away for free, everyone would take home 6 of them. A minimal charge insures that people who get these will actually use them. Expand Expanding Close
Citrix, Online, a division of Citrix Systems Inc. which provides remote-connectivity and online collaboration solutions, is jumping on the iPad bandwagon with the news that it will soon release a free iPad app which they claim will be the “first iPad application designed for real-time, remote support.” Dubbed GoToManage, the program will enable support for single location or multiple sites. Why’s that a big deal?
Well, if you’re an IT administrator, you will have the luxury to work anywhere at any time and thereby assist dispersed workforce of your company even while away. That will no doubt come in handy when you lazy on a Sunday afternoon, sunbath on the beach or enjoy cocktails on your summer holiday. GoToManage for the iPad will be the first iPad application designed for real-time, remote support. Those eager to find out more can register their interest and Citrix will notify them when the program becomes available for download.
With Russia from love. Russian tourist Alex Shumilov camped outside New York’s Fifth Avenue Apple Store to be the first to buy an iPad 2. Image credit: PCMag.com
Fierce competitors Apple and Samsung are once again in each other’s cross-hair as iPhone 4 and Galaxy S II smartphones hit the 1.2 billion people market of India this coming Friday, May 27. According toBusiness Line, Indian carrier Aircel will sell the 16GB iPhone 4 for 34,500 Indian rupees, or about $760 American dollars (40,900 rupees for the 32GB model, or about $900).
Ouch! Those are exorbitant prices to charge in the country with 41.6 percent of the total population living below the international poverty line of $ 1.25 a day. Aircel in its defense will introduce a new pricing model where buyers “will have the opportunity to recover hundred per cent of their upfront iPhone cost in monthly credits on their service plan over 24 months”.
Meanwhile, iPad 2 will also land on store shelves in Russia and Ukraine on Friday. Retailers in Russia, which has population of 142 million, are tipping“unprecedented demand” for the sough-after tablet. Several major electronics retailers should sell the gizmo, including MediaMarkt, Beliy Veter Cifrovoi, M.Video, ION, Technosila, Eldorado, z-Store and Re:Store which has Nokia, Lego and Apple products in its offering.
“Following unprecedented demand from customers in Germany, Denmark and Norway, where the first batch of iPad 2 was sold inside three days, we are expecting all iPad 2’s to be sold even faster in Russia”, said Re:Store’s PR director Ludmila Semushina. The device won’t come cheap, though…
UPDATE : iPad 2 arrives in Brazil on Friday, too, per our tipster. That’s another 200 million people market to you. Another tipster pinged us, telling: “iPad 2 also hits Chilean market, Ripley.cl is already selling the idevice, other stores will do so on Friday at 00:00” Number 3 says Ipad 2 arrives in Argentina this friday to Garbarino and Maxim stores, and don’t forget Taiwan.
Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes (which has a a hit-and-miss record in the Apple rumors business) is out today with the news that Largan Precision might become the principal supplier of eight-megapixel lens modules for a fifth-generation iPhone:
Taiwan-based Largan Precision currently sees 8-megapixel phone-use lens modules account for nearly 10% of its total lens module shipment volume, but it may see 8-megapixel modules replace 5-megapixel ones to become the mainstream for smartphones in the third quarter of 2011 due to possible orders from Apple, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
Opera Software has updated the Opera Mini web browser with iPad support this morning. Having spent some time with the app, MacStories praised visual tabs allowing you to switch between multiple pages by tapping their previews, smooth UI animations, background loading of tabs and a handy menu with rich bookmarks, history, settings and sharing options with Facebook and Twitter social integration and My Opera support.
The updated browser also includes the souped up interface with the iPhone 4 Retina Display support. Grab it now, Opera Mini is a universal binary available free on the App Store. When Opera Mini debuted on the iPhone last March, it came down in history as the first major iOS browser from a third-party, following a change of heart from Apple’s previous policy of prohibiting any web browser on the handset other than its own.
Apple in the past received its share of criticism over the lack of data protection prior to iOS 4. It was a big issue for businesses who couldn’t even fathom losing unprotected sensitive information from stolen devices. The iPhone 3GS introduced a chip for hardware-based encryption and iOS 4 brought out the Data Protection feature that secures your data with a 256-bit encryption.
ElcomSoft, a team of Russian forensic experts behind security software used by law enforcement and certain three-letter agencies, has managed to crack both the on-device data protection and backup file encryption. Bright side of newsinterviewed Elcomsoft’s Vladimir Katalov who explained how the GPU-accelerated Phone Password Breaker tool unlocks Apple and BlackBerry backups. The program might also come in handy should you ever forget your backup file password, but there are some caveats.
The App Store, Apple’s software bazaar for mobile apps, has apparently crossed a cool 500,000 app approvals in two years and ten months since its inception. The actual number of store items available for download is closer to 400,000 due to withdrawals, replacements etc. This semi-official news came courtesy of Chomp.com, 148apps.biz and EA-owned games publisher Chillingo. They also posted a cool infographic on the 500K Apps Facebook page which details a bunch of headline-worthy factoids, seen below the fold.
According toFortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt, “sometime after midnight Tuesday morning, the iTunes team pushed through a batch of app submissions that sent the total over a six-figure milestone”. In January, a customer downloaded ten billionth app on the store. Android Market has close to 300,000 apps and three billion downloads, per latest figures Google shared at the I/O 2011 conference earlier this month. Knowing Apple’s penchant for juicy stats, we can expect a formal announcement during a Steve Jobs keynote at WWDC on June 6. Here’s more food for thought…
Fans have taken AirPlay, a wireless media streaming technology from Apple, to places far beyond the boundaries of the iOS/Apple TV walled garden. For example, we’ve seen stuff like a Cydia hack that enables AirPlay in any third-party app, AirPlay support on Android and more. Developer Thomas Pleasance took it upon himself to enable AirPlay on Windows Media Center devices.
Note that you must have Apple’s Bonjour running on your Media Center PC prior to installing his cool AirPlay for Windows Media Center add-in. Bonjour is included with Apple’s free programs for Windows, such as iTunes, QuickTime, Safari and more. Grab the AirPlay for Windows Media Center add-in (still in beta) at Thomas Pleasance’s personal homepage, it’s a tiny half a megabyte download.
Besides the extremely unfortunate loss of life, Bloomberg posts a dire scenario on iPad production laid out by IHS iSuppli this evening:
The drop in manufacturing will depend on how long the plant is closed following a May 20 explosion that killed three people and injured at least 15, according to ISuppli. The total could be even greater if the suspension of operations at the facility lasts longer than a month, the firm said.
Another Foxconn factory in Shenzhen that produces iPads may not be able to make up for the lost output, ISuppli said. The manufacturing breakdown may lead Apple to miss ISuppli’s forecast of 7.4 million iPad 2 shipments in the quarter ending in June, the El Segundo, California-based research firm said.
Not all analysts are as down with Apple Bull Shaw Wu saying there may not be cause to worry. He said in a report today that the concerns are “overdone” and that production at other facilities is being ramped up to make up for the shortfalls. He expects Apple to sell 6.8 million iPads in the June quarter.
In an interview with AllThingsD, France Telecom/Orange CEO Stephane Richard discussed a smaller SIM card that Apple is developing with their global carriers for future versions of their mobile devices. Besides confirming that carriers, including Orange, are working with Apple on the new initiative, Richard said that Apple’s next-generation iPhone will be smaller and thinner.
Richard’s comment specifically says the “next” iPhone, meaning the fifth-generation iPhone – rumored for a September launch – but we think his comment could simply be an assumption based on the smaller SIM card developments. Another possibility, since we have no time frame on these smaller cards, is that the next iPhone is actually an all new, thinner, smaller design.
Another possibility is that these smaller SIM cards are for the “iPhone nano,” which the Wall Street Journal discussed earlier this year. The device, codenamed N97, is said to be smaller, lighter, cheaper and feature an edge-to-edge display. Smaller SIM cards would be perfect for this device, so perhaps Orange’s CEO just dropped a hint of that.
The person who saw the prototype of the new iPhone said the device was significantly lighter than the iPhone 4 and had an edge-to-edge screen that could be manipulated by touch, as well as a virtual keyboard and voice-based navigation
It’s necessary to mention that Richard is the same person who “confirmed” an Apple tablet – with 3G -announcement in late January, but said it would include a webcam. As we all know, the Apple tablet only got a webcam two months ago with the iPad 2.
Do you remember your first interaction with panoramic video clips? For me, it was kinda Minority Report moment. Panoramic clips have gone mainstream and in part owe their popularity to BEP360, a 99-cent music app for iPhone and iPad by Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am that lets you interact with the band’s 360-degree music video. Should you ever need to shoot panoramic clips using your iPhone 4, definitely consider the Kogeto Dot, a Kickstarter project by Jeff Glasse aimed at bringing 360-degree video recording to the masses. It’s cool, stylish and highly portable, according to the above promo video.
For a limited time, the Nike+ GPS App (iTunes) has gone free. Normally priced at $1.99 , this run tracker records your route, pace, and distance, as well as providing feedback. *Obviously, the GPS features of this app do not work with the iPod touch.
Version 2.0 of the Square app has the new virtual shelves feature on iPads
Square, a mobile payment startup founded and led by Twitter’s CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey, has issued a new version of their iOS app with three interesting features. Certainly the most visible change is the new-look interface which looks particularly business on iPad. The main idea here is to be able to showcase products to your prospective customers on an iPad’s gorgeous 9.7-inch display. You can set up your products on virtual shelves any way you like, add your own graphics, write the accompanying description and so forth.
Another nice-to-have and more screenies below the fold.
The iPhone interface is also slightly subdued for a more professional look
An explosion which on last Friday rocked Foxconn’s Chengdu plant that manufactures iPad 2s could seriously affect the gizmo’s iPad 2 availability, but not as drastically as originally feared because the site isn’t the only production facility where the device is being made. The worst case scenario has the aftermath of the unfortunate event which left three dead and fifteen injured affecting up to 30 percent of iPad 2 output. The stricken plant only recently began assembling the sought-after tablet, sources tell Asian trade publication DigitTimes.
Foxconn only recently opened up iPad 2 production lines at the new plant in Chengdu, while the company’s facilities in Shenzhen, southern China, remain the main manufacturing site for the tablet PC, sources at upstream component suppliers have commented. Foxconn’s Chengdu site shipped 25-30% of the total iPad 2 devices shipped in April, while its Shenzhen site made up the remainder, the sources estimated.
Mixed reports, however, have been adding up to the overall confusion… Expand Expanding Close
The Ecconomic Times expands on the recent chatter about the iTunes Cloud (iCloud?)service we’ve been hearing about. The news site confirms that Apple has locked up deals with 3/4 of the top labels (Universal is widely reported to be the holdout) and is set to reveal the new service at next month’s WWDC.
The Cupertino, California-based gadget-maker is expected to launch a new Web-hosted music service next month, according to multiple reports, after negotiating deals with at least three of the four major record labels.
WWDC isn’t traditionally a venue for iTunes related news but we’ll give Apple a pass…
Although the previous generation iPod nano had curved glass (it wasn’t universally loved), the Samsung Nexus S was the first mainstream smartphone with curved glass. If Digitimes is right, the iPhone 5 may be the second (and likely more popular).
…the latest being circulated around the supply chain in Taiwan is that Apple is going to adopt a curved cover glass for its next generation model, according to industry sources.
That would seem to fly in the face of recent reports that the iPhone 5 would be very similar to the iPhone 4 in appearance. Digitimes has found what they think is anecdotal evidence.
However, in order to push forward the production of curved glass, Apple reportedly has purchased 200-300 glass cutting machines to be used by glass makers, said the sources.
The glass slicing machines are currently being stored at associated assembly plants and will be brought online once yield rates for the production of curved glass reaches a satisfactory level, the sources revealed.
Although Samsung is a competitor wrapped in lawsuits with Apple, it is also a major supplier and obviously has experience with curved glass screens. Expand Expanding Close
An Apple Store Manager relayed to us that the new iPad 2 displays are able to turn into “normal iPads” with a few swipes in secret combination. To find out if true, I went to the Soho store and tried it out. Yep, it works. The button still doesn’t work so it is easy to get yourself stuck – like in Email Setup below:
I’m not going to post the gesture combination unless it hits the web but it does exist and Store managers know it.
Anyway, the moral of the story: Those are normal iPad 2s under the glass, even though they have different part numbers. Expand Expanding Close
First of all, we’d like to thank all of the Apple Store employees who have been sending in tips over the past week on the new Store stuff. Thank you and we hope to continue to hear from you guys (and gals!). We’re hearing there is more to come
We’re pasting without (much) editing some of the different tips we’ve gotten below:
As noted, the home button does not work when Smart Sign app is running so it cannot be exited. The only way to get the home button to work again is to reset the iPad using the home and lock buttons.
The Apple Store App will be updated tomorrow, and will be available world wide. It will support CTO orders, and should also be available as an iPad optimised app.
The Display iPads have a different model number than current iPad 2s. There has been some concern about the cameras: Is Apple watching us from HQ? Listening? Customers? Also, we’ve been told there is a bunch of security stuff on the new iPads. If they leave the Store they keep calling home with their Wifi coordinates.
Apple is giving the old Pioneer tvs to one lucky Apple Employee per store. We had just upgraded all of them to new Sonys
The iPads are charged using a kind of tape, which goes from the cable which enters the plastic casing, to the dock connector (you can hardly see it!). This charges the iPad and alarms it – if it is removed, the alarm will sound.
There was some speculation about how the iPads are powered in the new display. They are connected via ribbon cables that hook into the dock connector. All the cables are custom made for each iPad, and also power the product they are advertising. All the content on the iPads is loaded from a server, nothing is stored locally except the custom application. The home buttons are disabled. We load them up, provision them to be signage iPads, boot the application, tell the iPad where in the store it’s located and that’s it. Apple can change prices and info live across all of retail
We have one of the smaller stores in the market and we received 100 iPad 2’s for the smart signs. The app that runs the information disables the home button on the iPad (obviously) and the image is all encompassing. If products move tables we won’t necessarily have to move smart signs just tell the iPads to display different product information. There is a specially designed flat ribbon cable that powers the iPad, no inductive charging or anything like that.
Pasted below is a close up of the back of the acrylic enclosure
Asian carrier China Telecom has approached Apple with an idea of bringing a CDMA version of the iconic handset to its 103 million subscribers. Apple, of course, is currently dealing with China Unicom only. That company commands a whopping 886 million users in the 1.4 billion people market. China Telecom’s chairman Wang Xiaochu toldReuters:
We’re not denying that we’re in touch with iPhone (Apple), but I cannot comment on the progress.
The state-owned carrier, the smallest of China’s three major wireless operators, sees a window of opportunity opening as Apple’s exclusive agreement with Unicom is set to expire later this year.
Apple’s lawyers called and told us to take down the screenshots.
We’ve gotten our hands on the internal Apple RetailMe iPads and have been rifling through the interesting new features that debuted for Retail employees on Monday. First is obviously the Daily Download, which is a well-produced internal Daily ‘newspaper for employees’. It is incredibly stylish, functional and much better than the previous web-based version. We have many more screenshots below.
Bloomberg this evening reports that Apple and Sony have come to terms on a streaming music licensing deal, leaving the largest label, Universal, as the only one of the big four labels not to (yet) sign with Apple. Earlier this year and again this week, it was reported that EMI signed with Apple.
A licensing deal will allow Apple to more efficiently store music in the Cloud (it can store top songs only once rather than once for every user library that contains the song like Google). Apple could announce a product as early as WWDC or at a more traditional music event, like the one Apple usually introduces iPods at in the Fall.
Bloomberg also noted that Apple would need to reach agreements with music publishers, which control different rights than the labels. Expand Expanding Close
