iOS Devices

COMPUTERWORLD: All reports now suggest Apple will introduce its second-generation iPad in the second quarter of 2011. The device will hit a far more competitive market than it faced in its first iteration, with tablets coming from all directions. Will features be enough to prevail in the growing tablet industry? I think it will be developers who determine who succeeds in 2011’s tablet wars.

Read More

Developers and jailbreakers alike are already pouring through the secrets within the new Apple TV firmware.

FaceTime coming to Apple TV?

We think this may be some left over code from iOS 4.1 for the iPhone/new iPod touch. We never know though… New iSight for TV’s?!

DVD Support?

We’re seeing some Bluetooth code as well.  Oh, and here are the Flickr accounts Apple uses in their promotional kit:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Version 2 just hit the App Store with some new features:

The new Remote.app also gets updated to Retina on the iPhone 4 and better takes advantage of the real estate of the iPad.  The shared libraries feature should also make playing video much easier (rather than having to open the video and click the AirPlay button).

If you look at the new iPad version, the interface is almost like the iTunes desktop interface!

And don’t forget that new icon!

Lots of new screenshots below:

Expand
Expanding
Close

The first we’ve seen is from Clayton Morris at FoxNews, but more are likely in the pipeline as the embargo is lifted.  You aren’t going to learn much if you’ve already seen the One More Thing keynote, but as we’ve talked about, AirPlay is the differentiator:

AirPlay is the new feature I’m most excited about. It lets you share your movies, music and photos across all of your Apple devices. This feature won’t be entirely ready when Apple TV launches, but Tuesday Apple will release a new version of the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad remote app that’ll let users AirPlay music back and forth.So here’s how it works. Let’s say I’m out watching an episode of Star Trek on my iPad. When I walk in my front door I can continue watching that same episode on my ginormous HDTV with the flick of a finger, and vice versa. How handy is that? Apple told me the company has opened this feature to third-party developers, and that’s where my imagination runs wild. Think of the possibilities! Imagine the apps you could be flicking back and forth across all of your iDevices: NPR, Netflix, YouTube, MLB, Hulu, Internet Radio, Pandora, the list goes on. AirPlay could be the most important Apple announcement in years.

AirPlay is what turns hobbies into products.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Just in case you haven’t guessed already, the analysts over at Goldman Sachs are speculating the next-generation iPad will appear next year, in the second quarter, to be exact.

They anticipate the new Apple (AAPL) tablet will host a 9.7-inch display and will be thinner and lighter than before. We’re also going to see a built-in camera and a mini USB connection – perhaps in anticipation of upcoming European standardization on the interface.
Expand
Expanding
Close

We’re looking at Amazon’s new Web-based Kindle book samples here, folks, offering you the chance to read the first chapter of a host of books in a format you can host on your Facebook page, website or by email. All very nice, particularly as rumors of an Android-powered Amazon iPad competitor continue to gather steam.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Millennial Media has released their August 2010 ad impressions report and the results are quite phenomenal for iOS. iOS led the pack with 48% of total advertisement impressions in August. This 48% includes all iOS devices, not just the iPhone, such as the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Android comes in number two with 26% of ad impressions just 7% of Research in Motion’s (BlackBerry etc.) 19%. Getting into actual phones (not including non-phone communicators such as iPad, iPod touch, PSP, Kindle etc.) Apple still leads August impressions with 28.32%.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple new sixth-generation iPod nano costs from $43.73, according to iSuppli’s latest tear-down analysis of the same.

The 8GB version of the latest iPod carries an estimated BOM of $43.73, the second-lowest BOM of all members of the iPod line —  only the fourth generation product was less expensive to manufacture at $40.80.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has given its approval to the Google Voice App for iPhone, which should be available at the App Store “soon”. Some changes were required to make the app work the iPhone 4 and iOS’s multitasking capabilities. The move follows Apple’s move to block the app last July of last year and its subsequent decision to relax its app guidelines for App development in September.
Expand
Expanding
Close

If you still had any doubt that the new Apple TV runs iOS, this will surely make you a believer. Apple has already placed iOS 4.1 for the 2nd-gen Apple TV on their servers and yeah… get downloading! (This won’t actually do any good for you until you need to restore or something like that)

Thanks, Ryan!

Giz has put together a pretty good chart which outlines the iPad’s competition. We still aren’t certain on the pricing for the BB PlayBook (Business = Play?!), HP Slate, or the Galaxy Tab but there are many other factors to look at. The chart says it all, folks:

…unless you consider which devices are actually shipping (iPad).  The PlayBook likely won’t ship until iPad 2 rears its head.
Expand
Expanding
Close

The New Yorker iPad app, strategically priced at $4.95/issue – about five times the subscription to the paper version – goes on sale today.  Also, just to prove that they ‘get’ online, the post about the app and the accompanying story from the New Yorker don’t contain a link to the actual app (there’s a freebie).  Also the entertaining intro video is in Flash (with that dude from Rushmore) which is also not so iPad friendly.

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1827871374

Don’t get me wrong, I love the New Yorker. I just wish as a current subscriber, I could have it on my iPad as well without paying five times as much as I’ve already paid.
Expand
Expanding
Close

COMPUTERWORLD: The iPhone 4 is the best iPhone yet if held correctly, but don’t let that stop you wishing for more. What improvements would you like to see Apple make in the next-generation iPhone?

Read More

OK, the Apple TV is shipping. Some people are getting them tomorrow, some people are getting them October 1st, and some will be lost in the mail like my iPhone 4.  And some dude got his already.

Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz warned last month that Apple’s iAds would fall apart. So far, here’s how iAds are doing in booking mobile app ads for December vs. Yahoo and the rest according to Bloomberg:

thanks for the graphic

Also interesting that Apple has matched Google in its first December.
Expand
Expanding
Close

A UK university is offering free iPhone loans to its fourth and fifth year medical students,  report claims.
Expand
Expanding
Close

This could be a big deal: demand for the iPhone 4 is already outstrippign supply in China, where local carriwer China Unicom received over 200,000 preorders for the device by Saturday.

The iPhone went on sale in China last week, and the local carrier there intends building up supply as fast as possible.
Expand
Expanding
Close

According to TUAW, iOS 4.1 has a little bug which wakes up those New Zealand folks an hour early each morning via clock.app. The cause of the bug is related to daylight savings time in the Southern Hemisphere and other than that this is goes into the meh category (OK it’s not meh).

Expand
Expanding
Close

This past week, many sites reported that Apple would be delaying the new Apple TV that was originally set for a September release. These reports of delays were based off an email Apple sent to customers that signed up for expedited shipping. If you recall, the same email was sent to iPad purchasers prior to its launch. Did Apple delay the iPad’s April 3rd launch date? No.

So we’re going to debunk those Apple TV delay rumors right now by showing you that Apple is already preparing Apple TV orders for shipment. In case you are not familiar, when your Apple.com order turns from the “not yet shipped” to the “prepared for shipment” marker it means that your items are packed up and waiting for Fedex, for example, to pick it up. Based on this, they will probably start shipping later today or tomorrow. Thank you, Bjørn!

This morning we reported on a couple new patents which revealed some realistic new features that may someday arrive for the iPad. On one of the patent images we posted (pictured below) there is a circle-shaped hole on the top of the iPad. This hole is identical to the one seen on the current iPod touch with a front-facing camera and this led to several comments, tweets, and email calling us out for not mentioning the “camera”.

We personally did notice this “camera hole” but didn’t give it a mention as it’s most likely the iPad’s ambient light sensor. If you recall, there was some controversy after the iPad’s announcement when people believed that the iPad Steve Job’s showed off at the keynote had an unmentioned camera, when iPad replacement parts emerged with MacBook-like camera holes, and when we revealed some camera evidence in the iPad SDK (here and here).

In the end, the camera evidence most likely was some left over code when Apple was simultaneously developing the iPhone 4 and iPad, and those “camera holes” turned out to be spots for the ambient light sensor. Because of these we held back on saying that hole is a camera. On the other hand, Apple does not normally include that ambient light sensor hole on their patents as shown here, and here.

So in the end it is really a tossup. That hole could be an upcoming front-facing camera for the iPad or could simply be that ambient light sensor. We think it’s the sensor but let us know what you think in the comments.

Last night Apple updated iTunes to version 10.0.1 and perhaps the most important new feature is Ping Sidebar. Besides the new Ping features Apple fixes tons of bugs and added a neat little time saver to the App Store. For those who are interested in finding out if the app they want to download is compatible with Game Center, they traditionally would need to scan the app description or take a look at the featured Game Center section.

Now, Apple has added Game Center compatibility indicators to Game Center apps. If you want to find out if the app you’re looking to buy works with Game Center simply take a look at the upper-right-hand-corner of the iTunes page and if you see the pictured logo (above) you’re good to go. As far as we can see, this feature is not yet available on the mobile version of the App Store. Thanks, Benjamin!

Update: Reader, Justin, has let us know that this is not iTunes 10.0.1 specific. This is a new feature though so the story still stands.