iOS Devices

Pocket Now takes us through a neat browser comparison between the iPhone 4 and a Windows Phone 7 device (Nexus One too! Meh). Keep in mind the Windows 7 experience you will see below is still in beta form but both of the other platforms should improve during the time it takes Microsoft to ship their product. As you will see in the video, each have their strong points, but I’m still digging that perfect intertial scrolling on the iPhone.   Oh and the Microsoft won’t do HTML5 (or Flash).

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Admittedly, I’m more into this technology than perhaps the use case here, but check out the video above.  You wave your magic little barcode scanning iPhone over the product you wish to evaluate, then in a few seconds, you get a readout on how terrible it is.

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According to El Reg, Google is building an iPhone version of its Google Goggles product.

“We’re working on an iPhone version, and hope to have it out by the end of the year,” David Petrou, a Google staff engineer working on the Goggles project, told his keynote audience at Monday’s Hot Chips conference at Stanford University in California.

A web app for Goggles, Petrou said, isn’t current;y an option, even with HTML5’s enhanced media-capture abilities. “There is a new part of HTML5,” he said, “that allows you to acquire an image from a camera. And that’s really nice and really useful, but we don’t think it’s sufficient for something like Goggles that needs very fine control over the camera.

While it doesn’t seem immediately useful, I’m looking forward to playing with this on my iPhone.

It appears that iTunes accounts are still being compromised, though it isn’t certain if hackers are brute forcing or phishing passwords out of users. Today’s incident involves PayPal who has swooped into the action as hackers are using iTunes to deplete users’ bank accounts.

According to a report by TechCrunch, one user’s account was charged $4,700 after receiving close to 50 $99.99 iTunes charges via PayPal. Luckily for this user, he got PayPal to stop the funds transfer but others, like the Twitter user below, aren’t so lucky.

iTunes users are ranting their disgust and hacking concerns across the Social 2.0 space and here are some quotes from Facebook:

Everybody watch your itunes account closely. I just got hacked for almost $1000.00 worth of software, videos and music. Hopefully paypal will refund it all. . . . This happened within the last few hours. Once transaction after another.

So apple/itunes had a security breach & someone bought over $500 worth of music through my paypal account. just what i wanted 2 b dealing w/ while in San Diego! AWESOME!!!

The issue seems to involve iTunes with PayPal being the hackers money-stealing gateway. Until this is officially resolved it might be a good idea to remove all forms of payment from your iTunes account.

These types of ‘hacks’ usually come down to phishing sites getting your login information from a third party.

Patently Apple does what they do and today found some patents related to a touch based iMac-type computer. These patents cover the sensors in the hinge that would change settings based on the orientation of the iMac Touch. For instance, if the thing is upright, it would accept input based on keyboard/trackpad but if laid flat, it would accept touch input. Now, when can we haz? 10.7!

Fortune reports that analyst Charlie Wolf has broken down IDC numbers on Apple’s Mac sales for June and shows incredibly high growth in government spending.

Not only did Mac share triple in government, but it doubled in large business as well:

Wolf also points out that Mac sales are booming in European homes, likely a benefactor of the iPhone halo effect. He notes the halo effect is much stronger in Europe because the iPhone has grabbed a much larger market share. That, he says is due to the fact that the iPhone is available on all carriers.

Digg founder, Kevin Rose is jumping on the iTV bandwagon. He doesn’t have any new technical news but he does think Apple will launch the new device in September.

“From what I hear we should expect to see the iTV launch in September. Also, keep an eye onGoogleTV – this is going to be a hot space in 2011.”

Engadget has had two posts on the new device. Rumors have been floated that the event would be in mid-September (14th?).

Rose also thinks the iTV will change everything. Why?

• iOS TV Applications
• a la carte (app) stations
• .Me Picture/Video sharing
• The iPad will turn into one big badass remote control
• $99

September can’t come fast enough!

Facebook for iOS has over 100 million active monthly users, yes, 100 million. As we pointed out the other day, that’s almost as many as iOS devices walking the planet.

In other milestones, the App Store is sitting at almost 250,000 apps and 300,000 apps approved all-time. 50,000 apps have been pulled (by Apple and by choice)?! Apple usually throws up some promotional banners about these huge milestones.

The relationship between the two companies isn’t necessarily cozy.  App Store Chief, Phillip Shoemaker had this to say about the original Facebook app developer, Joe Hewitt:

We’re going to keep these latest Apple patents short and sweet: Multi-touch laptops equipped with IPS displays are being dreamt up in Cupertino. In addition, the latest Apple patents point to IPS displays coming to the iPod touch, which is quite obvious as the latest iPhones and iPads utilize this advanced screen technology. 

What’s surprising is the lack of IPS displays on Apple’s current notebooks and hopefully that new MacBook Air coming any day now has one. Multi-touch MacBooks are self explanatory (right?) and is a concept heavily talked about until around January 27th of this year. 

Hit up Patently Apple for the full rundown of these patents. 

Even though Apple says the (recently shipping!) Mac Pros max out at 32GB of RAM…

According to OWC, those new Mac Pros can handle 64 GB of RAM conveniently using 8 of OWC’s 8GB RAM modules.  A bargain (compared to Apple) at $2400. (Yes, the older Mac Pros can do this too)

Conan’s desktop computer is an iPad.

thanks AD!

An interesting opinion (and data, if true) from the Author of the Facebook Effect:

The Facebook application is by far the most important application on both the iPhone and the iPad. Without the Facebook application, my own opinion is the iPhone would never have become as important as it is. It’s the single most widely used application. It’s so heavily used compared to other apps that I have been told by someone who thought he knew the data — this is highly secret data and I don’t know the actual numbers — that more than half of all usage of the iPhone of apps, other than those provided by the phone itself like telephony and email, is coming from Facebook. And on the iPad, too, it’s just a huge, huge part of usage. So in a way, Apple and Facebook are joined at the hip, and I think that’s one reason why Zuckerberg and Jobs have been spending time together.

That is kinda depressing.  But if you don’t believe it, check these numbers: Remember how Steve Jobs announced in June that there were over 100 million iOS devices sold?  Considering a few percent of those were lost, broken or decommisioned, what percent of those 100 million+ iOS devices would have active Facebook accounts?  99,125,680 is Facebook’s current tally.

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Although Steve Jobs said it was rude to post ‘intimate’ emails with customers, this one could use some spreading.  For those who are stuck with an iPhone 3G running iOS, there is some good news: 

The new email came in response to feedback sent by a customer who expressed frustration over the performance of his iPhone 3G, calling it “dog slow” and pointing to problems with system responsiveness when scrolling, zooming, and typing.

I’ve waited patiently through 4.0.1 and 4.0.2, looking for a fix that will make my phone work again. I’ve read the forums that advise me to jailbreak my phone or use some other method so I can downgrade back to a version of iPhone 3, however I’m not prepared to use a method that is not supported by Apple.

Jobs’ response was unsurprisingly terse:

Software update coming soon. 

Sent from my iPhone

iOS 4.1 Betas on iPhone 3G devices have shown steady speed improvements, though there are limitations with older hardware.  Apple was selling the iPhone 3G up until a few months ago ($99 option) so getting a fix in place is important.

The maker of many of Apple’s displays including the iPhone 4 Retina Display had some not so kind words for their other iOS product today. Speaking to the PayWall St. Journal Chang Ma, vice president of marketing for LG’s mobile-devices unit said,

The first LG tablet, which will run on Google Inc.’s Android software, will set itself apart from Apple Inc.’s iPad by focusing on the ability to create content, rather than simply display it.  The iPad is a great device, but he doesn’t do much work on it. The tablet will include content focused on creation such as writing documents, editing video and creating programs. It will also have “high-end features and new benefits,” many of which will focus on productivity, Mr. Ma said. “It’s going to be surprisingly productive. Our tablet will be better than the iPad.”

Uh huh.  These things usually pan out.

Double post.

Here’s what appears to be a production white iPhone.  On this model, the LED flash doesn’t have the tell-tale design issue as the white iPhone kits that have been populating the Internet. We’ve re-uploaded the video for you below. This may be an international model scrapped by Apple at the last minute after defects in the white color clarity were found. 

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Notice the iPhone can’t even pick up service. That is all. 

Things in the tablet space are about to get a whole lot more interesting with the impending releases of Verizon Android tablets, and HP confirming that a webOS tablet-device will see in light in the early days of 2011. Hopefully the thing doesn’t have WiFi issues and comes with multitasking out of the box. If HP uses Palm’s webOS to its full potential, we imagine this thing to be pretty sweet. Only time will tell if the PalmPad will kill the iPad like the Palm Pre killed the iPhone.

Google is expected to unveil their tablet device for 2011 with Digitimes expecting it to sell 2 million units within launch year. The Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) powered device is expected to be manufactured by Motorola and will be carried by Verizon Wireless in the U.S. for data. The party seems to only be getting wilder with a Verizon Google Tablet 3G going up against the AT&T Apple iPad 3G. A true war of the competitors in imminent. 

So let’s assume that after all of this time, Apple is indeed going to end its US exclusivity and put the iPhone on Verizon.

OK! $199 Verizon iPhone 4!  Sign me up!

Not so fast.  That exclusivity comes at a price.  AT&T is subsidizing more of the iPhone 4, than it is, say for a Samsung Captivate Android device. 

Why?  Exclusivity.  

What is AT&T’s part in this whole game?  They get exclusive rights to the iPhone and in return, they subsidize more of it than they would otherwise.  More than they do for any other phone running any other OS or any other hardware manufacturer.  But having a monopoly on the iPhone in the US is worth it.  They get smartphone customers that would (will?) go elsewhere if the iPhone is carried on other networks.

When the monopoly ends, so does that special AT&T subsidy.  Is it $50/phone?  $100?  In France, a totally open iPhone 4 costs $800 vs. $600 in the US, but Apple charges Europeans more (taxes, etc).  

So, when the monopoly breaks, either consumers pay more for the iPhone (to make up for the lost AT&T subsidy) or Apple gets less money for every iPhone sold in the US.  Will Verizon charge $250 for an iPhone?  $300?

It wouldn’t be hard to see Apple dropping its carrier price on the iPhone 4 to make up for the special subsidy, knowing they are going to be selling ooodles more when Verizon signs up.  More.

It appears that front panels of Apple’s next iPod touch are already on sale in China. As you’ll see in the picture below, a hole for the FaceTime camera is present. If you’re daring you can even buy the panel now for 95 bucks, or just make your own. They look very similar to the panels from a few weeks back for those keeping track. 

More pictures after the break:

Gameloft has just pushed out an update to their fantastic first-person shooter, Modern Combat: Sandstorm. The game’s gameplay and graphics already seem realistic and intuitive, but Gameloft decided to take their game to the next level by leveraging the iPhone 4s new technologies. High Resolution graphics for the Retina Display are a go, and so is multitasking with quick app-switching. 

Gameloft is even pushing it to the max with a full Gyroscope mode and something called “complete 3D range.” This new update’s pretty sweet and you can get it from iTunes now.