iOS Devices

The age of future motoring is scurrying fast toward us, and it looks like the iPhone could be coming along for the ride, at least according to Mercedes and BMW, who showcased a pair of eScooters at the Paris motorshow this week, both of which use the iPhone as the sole driver interface.
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Apple’s recent move to allow applications developed using Adobe’s Flash Packager for iPhone tool for CS5 has had some effect, but only a “muted” one, claimed Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen during that company’s Q3 financial call.
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Apple creates amazing devices, sometimes you can’t help yourself and feel compelled to simply touch them, to feel their delicate electromagnetic chemistry shimmer under the contact with your skin. Almost like they’re alive.

No, this isn’t now, silly, but it sure will be a hallmark of Apple’s products of the future,
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Speaking of the change-everything iPad as I seem to from time-to-time AT&T has some interesting wit and repartee for us — alleging there’s already over half a million iPads on its US 3G network — meanwhile the survey results are in and the iPad is (I can feel blushes in Cupertino) the highest-scoring product a leading consumer satisfaction index has ever tracked.
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Here’s news for all you socialites out there — it appears Apple and Facebook chatted for over a year before the launch of Ping, and the talks gave us … nothing.

Recall when Apple boss Steve Jobs says Facebook demanded “onerous” terms?
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Led by the Apple iPad tablets seem set to become a big big business in 2011, with flash memory shipments set to triple as a result, according to iSuppli.
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You knew Rock Your iPhone was officially acquired by Cydia just over a week ago and today it’s officially done. Over. When you head to Rock.app on your jailbroken iPhone it will tell you to hit up Cydia for your themes and all.

via IDB

If Apple’s iPhone 4 promotional pages for some Middle Eastern countries are any indication, it doesn’t look like the FaceTime part of the iPhone package. For many of these countries, the image on the left turned into a Retina Display promotion while they were FaceTime images before like on the U.S. site.

We’ve confirmed the loss of FaceTime promotional images for Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia but check out the full list yourself by navigating this page. This could either be a simple image swap, but TUAW speculates that (via SaudiMac) the lack of FaceTime may be due to some “cultural sensitives” in the Middle East. Or it could just be that the woman in the ad doesn’t have her modest covering on.

We’ll be sure to update when we learn more.

Fortune reports that Rovi Corp. announced Monday (in a filing with the SEC ) that it had signed a mulityear deal giving Apple access to undisclosed portions of its TV-related intellectual properties.

Rovi Corporation (the “Company”) announced today that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with Apple Inc. whereby Apple shall license intellectual property from the Company. The specific terms of the license agreement are confidential.

Rovi already provides entertainment metadata to iTunes (and this news could just be a re-up on that front) so the news might not be that awe-inspiring.

Nevertheless, Gene Munster also uses the news to push his all in one…
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4CHkHtUJ8w&w=640&h=385]

Your .AVI and .MKV on iPad  prayers have been answered.  VLC is  now (or will soon be) available from the App store via this link. It is already live in New Zealand and is making its way across the globe. via

See our previous coverage for the backstory.

Update: We’re not getting much for our videos on our 4.2 iPads.  How are ya’ll makin’ out?

Google Docs/iPad users, it is almost time to break out the champagne.  Google announced today that Docs would soon be editable (and creatable?) form the iPad (and iPhone/iPod?).

We’re launching new cloud-powered capabilities: two-step verification to help enhance security and soon, mobile editing in Google Docs on Android and the iPad™.

..today we demonstrated new mobile editing capabilities for Google Docs on the Android platform and the iPad. In the next few weeks, co-workers around the world will soon be able to co-edit files simultaneously from an even wider array of devices.

Only cloud computing is able to deliver the whole package of productivity-enhancing collaboration, superior reliability and virtually unlimited scale at a price that’s affordable for any size organization. Our Atmosphere event is a nice opportunity to step back and fully appreciate the power of the cloud with customers and future customers alike.

This is a big win for iPad users, especially those who use Google Docs/Apps for business.
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Google has updated their Earth app for iOS this morning to support the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation Retina Display. The update also brings the fancy ocean layer to Google Earth as well as some underwater bathymetry and ocean surface support.

The app is free and works natively on all three iOS devices.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Apple’s iPad hints at an end-to-end Apple network strategy for television everywhere, but is the television industry ready to be reinvented? Meanwhile Radiohead hint they are looking at the iPad — might the band explore the new app universe for its ‘In Rainbows’ album follow-up?

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Napster is back (well it has been for a while), and while it isn’t really the same service that became so very legendary back in 1999 (new management), it is now available — on your iPhone.

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocZcMlz4Unk&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Here’s a little video for your Monday morning. It will be of particular interest to retro Apple watchers, as it shows us Apple’s previous handheld, the Newton OS, running on an iPhone.

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Today we reported that Apple has officially announced a September 25th launch date for the iPhone 4 in China. Now, 9to5mac has learned that Apple has some more international iPhone 4 launches up it its sleeve. We’ve heard that the iPhone 4 should be launching in both Israel and Malaysia next weekend and presumably a few other countries. Exact info on the Israeli side of things is scarce but we’ve managed to get some more precise info out of Malaysia.

The iPhone 4 and the 8 GB iPhone 3GS are said to be launching in Malaysia this upcoming Thursday, September 23rd on both Maxis and DiGi as the carriers. That’s what we know for now and we’ll be sure to update when we learn more.

Update: We’ve just gotten some new info… Israel will be getting the iPhone 4 on September 24th on Orange, The Philippines will get the iPhone 4 on September 26th for Globe Telecoms, and Turkey will be getting the iPhone 4 on Turkcell & Vodafone Turkey on September 24th. Lots of additional info coming in via comments, below…

This one’s crazy! ABC has teamed up with Nielson to create an iPad app that eavesdrops on your TV. The iPad’s microphone is used to pick up what you’re watching and the app will present interactive content to go along for the show. The first show that gets TV-wiretapping is My Generation and Nielson claims their uber-cool technology is built so it won’t pickup your personal convos; yeah right.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY6oJR38OoI&w=640&h=385]

via Engadget

Apple has just announced that the iPhone 4 will officially launch in China next Saturday, September 25th. Both official Apple retail stores and China Unicom stores will open their doors for iPhone 4 customers at 8 AM. Pricing for the iPhone is CNY4,999 ($743) and CNY5,999 ($892) for the 16 GB and 32 GB models (without a contract) respectively.

CUPERTINO, California—September 19, 2010—Apple® today announced that iPhone® 4 will be available to customers in China beginning Saturday, September 25 at 8:00 a.m. at Apple Retail Stores including the new Apple Store® Hong Kong Plaza in Shanghai and the new Apple Store Xidan Joy City in Beijing opening on the same day. iPhone 4 will also be available on Saturday at China Unicom retail stores for qualified buyers with a new two year contract.

Apple also announced that a new Beijing retail location will be opening on September 25th. iPhone 4’s will be on sale at this new store for those wondering. China readers: Be sure to send in your line waiting experiences, photos, and video to tips@9to5mac.com

Update: Here’s an unboxing of the official Chinese iPhone 4. WiFi, FaceTime, and iOS 4.1 included.

Full press release is after the break.

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Full story here. Short version: Kindle.app, Nook.app and iBooks.app are more similar than different.

http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/main.swf

Fortune reports on a blog post by Adobe’s John Nack which appears to show that Flash is faster and much more efficient than HTML on mobile phones. These statements are conclusions based on a benchmark test by web developer, Chris Black. He tested HTML 5 running the same animation on an iPod touch 4 (same for iPhone 4), and a Nexus One, but also ran it in pure Flash on the Nexus one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFFax1oYyBE&w=480&h=385]

The HTML 5 animation ran at 24 frames per second on the iPhone 4 and at 40 fps on the Nexus One. The same animation running on Flash on an Nexus One ran at an unprecedented 57 frames per second. This is more than double the frame rate of Apple’s offering and is still 17 frames faster than the HTML 5 version on the same Nexus One. The post also claims the Flash version used half the battery but it is not clear as to what the battery life of flash is being compared to. We presume it is being compared to the HTML 5 running Nexus One.

Update: The original Author chimes in in the comments:

Hey everyone, thought I might chime in as the author of the blog post being criticized. The code was engineered to be as equal as possible between the two demos. Full source has been provided to show this. The code posted by wolever is not scalable but raises some interesting points. The physical dimensions of the canvas being rendered does matter. Scaling the demo down to 300x300px yields 40fps on the iPod Touch. I’ll be doing an updated blog post on this tomorrow showing results at different sizes. I’m not sure why anybody thinks canvas is limited to 24fps. My post tomorrow that wrong. And no, I don’t work for Adobe. I complain about Adobe almost as much as Apple and I much prefer running my own company at the moment. You might find this post a bit more interesting,http://www.blackcj.com/blog/2010/09/19/css3-excels-on-ios-but-lacks-on-android/

Apple has just a dropped an update for their Apple Store app to the App Store. The Apple Store app allows customers to access the Apple Online Store from their iPhone and iPod touch and purchase any product.

The update brings Retina Display support for the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4th generation as well as iOS 4 quick-app-switching. The update also promises the usual bug fixes and improvements… and where the heck’ is the iPad support? — I guess Apple figured people will just use the full site on the iPad.