iOS Devices

DU, one of the largest cell phone carriers in the Middle East, today confirmed (via Saudi Mac) that parts of the Middle East (Specifically the UAE) won’t be seeing FaceTime functionality on their iPhone 4s. DU also states that the situation is out of their control meaning this is either a government restriction or something to do with Apple. The announcement came via their official twitter page along with some other notes on their iPhone 4 launch plans.

Since no FaceTime for many Middle Eastern customers is a huge drawback the carrier notes that new iPhone 4 contracts will come with one year of free data and data plans will cap at 10 GB versus AT&T’s 2 GB.

http://online.wsj.com/media/swf/VideoPlayerMain.swf

In this clip, Google CEO Eric Schmidt talks about technology, his relationship with Apple and Steve Jobs.  He also told Businessweek that Apple and Google have recently extended their search partnership.

Apple is a company we both partner and compete with. We do a search deal with them, recently extended, and we’re doing all sorts of things in maps and things like that. So the sum of all this is that two large corporations, both of which are important, both of which I care a lot about, will [remain] pretty close. But Android was around earlier than iPhone.

Among other highlights in this (really interesting) interview:
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Target this morning made the rumors that they will be selling the iPad, legit. According to the Associated Press Target announced they will begin selling Apple’s iPad on October 3rd via their retail locations.

Something to note is that Target will only be selling four iPad models starting at $499. This means they’ll be selling all three WiFi variants and only one 3G model. We still don’t know which 3G model that is though.   Target currently sells all of Apple’s new iPods. Target will also be offering 5% off discounts on iPads for Target card holders starting October 17th.

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COMPUTERWORLD: In July I wrote about an Apple patent which described ways in which iPhones and other devices could change shape and function depending on what’s going on around them. At the time I visualized this only in the sense of the user interface, but how much further can these ideas go?

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Of course Apple will never, ever, ever release a 7-inch iPad, the argument goes, why would it, its product lines are models of simplicity, etc., etc. So here’s the news from out of China, Apple is prepping a 7-inch iPod touch.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM25fGAzy34&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Just in time for a Friday morning, here’s a neart little video showing an all-new iPod nano transformed into a little walking robot, from the same dude who made the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch into a tryptch of walking technology a few months ago.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gngr3RF_eBY&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Here’s a video showing some of the differences between Windows 7 and the iPhone. Win 7 incidentally seems set to drive some future Nokia smartphones.

South Park is known to mock and parody a range of topics and their latest promotional commercial does just that… to Apple. They took Apple’s new iPad is magical, delicious, musical etc. TV ad, kept the same music, but changed the scenes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_11vl5WS_E&w=640&h=385]

Do let us know if you find a better quality version. Thanks, Connor! Apple’s original is after the break for comparison:

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This morning we told you about the China iPhone grey market where iPhone 4s would be purchased in New York and shipped back to China only to get sold at higher prices. Well, according to Cult of Mac the same is happening in Britain. People are lining up early in the morning to purchase unlocked iPhone 4s to only sell them back to the place they were made, China.

To express how long these lines are, the picture above is not from launch day but from a couple days ago. Also, what about all the time and energy these line waiters are spending? The shipping costs? They must be spending a ton to get these things back to the place they were born.

As noted by Fortune, J.D Power and Associates has ranked the iPhone as the phone with the highest customer satisfaction rate. The iPhone 4 got a score of 800 or out of 1000 beating number 2, LG with their score of 731.

Oh, Apparently the iPhone’s battery life is the worst…compared to… say, the HTC EVO?

http://online.wsj.com/media/swf/VideoMicroPlayer.swf

I need to take a “Working Vacation” to Paris.  Who wants to pay me for that trip/story?
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Apple constantly invents and reinvents, files patents and attempts to weave its advances into new generations of device to amuse and amaze the Apple faithful, today in AAPL Patent watch we present you with a new technology which could spearhead Apple’s move to take a big slice out of the digital photography market and another which basically just makes iPod nanos even more nano.
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COMPUTERWORLD: No sooner do we learn Apple is manufacturing CDMA iPhones for launch in 2011 than Verizon’s CEO makes statements which suggest it won’t sell the iPhone next year. Don’t US customers deserve a little more clarity on the future availability — or otherwise — of Apple’s must-have mobile in the US?

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of2GBIqP9eA&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Look I’ve been bleating on ad infinitum about how your iPhone will one day be your wallet — now over at the real world, New Yorkers may soon pay for their travel fares with a flick of their iDevice.

Visa has just launched a new pilot scheme in which New Yorkers can pay for subway, bus and train fares with their iPhone.
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Independent artists are finally making their long, slow progress onto Apple’s social network for music, Ping.

Ping, which launched after months of development without support from Facebook and with limited involvement of the labels, was originally castigated for offering a major label bias.
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There’s a series of interesting App Store metrics contained in a handy (but large) infographic you can go grab from a business-focused website right now. These little visual nuggets of information include data on just how many inactive apps exist, how quickly the App Store has grown and much more.
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Apple has begun charging buyers of the new AppleTV.  That means they are due to start shipping any moment for arrival before September 30th at 11:59 PM.  (Jobs said they’ll ship in September)

Let us know in the comments if yours ships, gets prepared to ship etc.
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Apple made their iPad iWork apps a little more useful today by allowing the export to .xls and .ppt formats and better format support overall.

Another biggie is MobileMe iDisk and other WebDAV server support.

With the latest Keynote, Pages and Numbers for iPad, you can now transfer your documents directly to and from your MobileMe iDisk so you can work on them anywhere you have an Internet connection. For example, create a new Pages document on your iPad and copy it directly to your iDisk. Then, when you are back at your Mac, open the document from iDisk and continue editing right where you left off.

Everything new listed below:

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Apple’s attempt at 99-cent TV show rentals is off to a choppy start, with NBC Universal chief exec Jeff Zucker saying his network ain’t about to follow Fox and Walt Disney to rent movies via the service.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK-fnAnLX3o&fs=1&hl=en_GB]

Hey we’re just hearing this from the BBC so it must be true, but it looks like some of those iPhone apps out there aimed at kids may sometimes manage to fool children into making in-game purchases using a grown-up’s credit card. We also have Apple’s response to this.

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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple’s on track to deliver the iPhone on US carriers other than AT&T early next year, the latest reports claim, but at least one analyst suggests iPhone sales growth may have slowed down (while setting new records). And perhaps the iPad really is ‘magical’.

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