iOS Devices

So smartphone hardware is smartphone hardware right?  They probably all use the same capacitive touch screen parts from the same suppliers in China right? 

Actually no.  And this test from MOTO proves it.  According to their (frankly a bit unscientific) tests, the capacitive touch screens from Motorola and HTC aren’t nearly as accurate as the one that Apple uses in the iPhone.  Whether this is related to software or hardware isn’t certain, but it is clear that Apple’s iPhone has a distinctive lead in touch screen accuracy, which in turn leads to a better touch and typing experience.  Perhaps this is yet another example of Apple’s hardware/software integration proving to be an advantage.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8569827&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=1&color=ffffff&fullscreen=1

The results, you can see below, favor the iPhone pretty significantly, with Motorola’sDroid doing the worst of the four and HTC’s being middle of the road.

via TechChrunch

Vinyl sales hit a historical high last year as US music purchases climbed 2.1 percent year on year and digital sales accounted for 40 percent of total US music purchases, Nielsen SoundScan confirmed today, up from 32% in 2008.

The news follows an August 2009 NPD Group report which confirmed iTunes-purchased songs now account for 25 percent of the overall music market–both physical and digital – in the U.S..

(During the first half of 2009, iTunes itself snagged a 69 percent share of the overall digital music arena, trailed far behind by Amazon.com with 8 percent – this may have changed but we haven

Imagination Technologies, a partially Apple (and Intel)-owned UK firm that has been providing the graphics chips for every iPhone to date, announced their latest graphics core today.  The POWERVR SGX545 ups output capabilities to 40 million polygons/sec (up from previously 26 million) and resolution to 1080P with high framerates (60FPS?) and 3G graphics.

SGX545 will also deliver OpenGL ES 2.x and OpenGL 3.2 to deliver class leading 3D graphics performance, and will also support OpenCL 1.0 full profile capability which will enable mobile and embedded applications to take maximum advantage of the capabilities offered by these GPU APIs for both 3D graphics and general purpose applications.

POWERVR SGX545 is available for licensing now. The IP is already proven in silicon in a test chip from Imagination and licensed by a lead partner.

There is every possibility that the “lead partner” is Apple, as they are part owners in the company and have recently upped their percentage ownership significantly.   Imagination also makes graphics cores for other devices including the Palm Pre, however.

Also, as you might have guessed, this processor might find its way into Apple’s tablet as well.

That

So, there

Fresh from the CES introduction of the D-Link Boxee box and the all new and quite lovely remote control which accompanies it, the Boxee team last night announced the Boxee Beta is officially out, reports Distorted Loop.

The Beta is available for Mac, Windows and Ubuntu (including 64bit). The version is still not available for Apple TV, yet, but Boxee is working with the atv-creator community, and

All this Lala.com talk and Apple still won

Among other announcements, Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer tonight unveiled a “new touch-enabled slate PC from HP”.   The demo was pretty anemic, only showing a clunky Kindle application and fumbling around a video application which clearly didn’t work like it was supposed to.  We wonder if anyone was calling this a “slate” a month ago? 

That being said, Robbie Bach brought it with Project Natal based XBOX 360 which wil be available by next Christmas. (image via Engadget).  Short video of HP Slate below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIIjTDnX2Y0&w=600&h=385]

Update: We’re hearing reports that the Facebook app is reaping havoc on contacts.  You might want to hold off on syncing until this is straightened out.

Update 2: A new version is already out that addresses this issue

All kidding aside, we suppose that it’d be good to know when someone direct messages you in Facebook – or something.  More importantly, Facebook now also lets you sync your addressbook contacts with your Facebook friends which could be beneficial for when people change email/phone/address/etc.  Or maybe you don’t need those people you hated in high school in your addressbook?

You’ll recall that Facebook’s lead iPhone developer, Joe Hewitt recently quit over his concerns with the App Store review process to focus on Web Apps. It looks like someone else was able to fill his shoes…

Download it from the App Store here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3KrFV0-WFw&w=560&h=340]

This just looks like fun – a flying machine that

Tmobile’s got a nationwide 7.2mbps HSDPA network that is compatible with the 3G radios on phones from Europe and Asia.  Compared to AT&T who has a different radio frequency for 3G and are still working on the 7.2mbps network, that’s pretty solid.  They also have the lowest-priced unlimited data plans of any US carrier which helps the Nexus One come in $500-$1000+ less over the two year contract (the difference in the phone cost is $20) than the iPhone…and even the Verizon Droid.  

Will AT&T lower their prices to compete with Tmobile?

Breakdown from BillShrink is below.

Billshrink

Adrian Ludwig from the Flash team at Adobe shows us Flash 10.1B on the Google Nexus One which is slated to be delivered via an over the air update in the first half of this year.  

It looks like it works OK, but frankly we’ve gone so long without Flash, it’s no longer on our wishlist.  If Flash does come to the iPhone or tablet, we’re hoping Apple delivers a Click2Flash type of opt in opt/out functionality.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlWOocHwcLo&w=600&h=335]

We just got these pictures of Boxee’s new remote control. Perfect! QWERTY on one side, Apple Remoteish simplicity on the other. Hopefully, the D-link box will be just as good!

via Boxee Blog

According to Computerworld, the Apple tablet won’t be tied to AT&T exclusively.  It will be available on a variety of networks.  Verizon?  Definitely!

“The tablet will be supported by multiple [mobile] carriers,” said Brian Marshall of Broadpoint AmTech, citing unnamed sources he said were close to the situation. “Verizon and others,” he continued. “Definitely Verizon. I’ve been told that’s a certainty.”

That echos claims last year by Businessweek and others that were saying that “Apple was talking to Verizon about the tablet and iPhone lite”.

http://feedroom.businessweek.com/linking/index.jsp?skin=twoclip&fr_story=816e6f8e0ae953ce1c952ae3b0cac12dd829fd61&rf=ev&hl=true

We’re hoping that it is sold on the open market with providers able to offer plans subsidized or not. Why is that so hard? Google is doing that. Sort of.

Quattro posted to its website that it had been purchased by Apple today. It was reported last night that the deal had been finalized but until now neither Apple nor Quattro had confirmed the news.  

“We look forward to developing exciting new opportunities that will benefit Quattro Wireless customers in the future,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said.

A post by Andy Miller, Vice President, Mobile Advertising for Apple (formerly CEO of Quattro) tells us they’ll keep servicing their current customers…yada yada…

We reported back in December that Apple had submitted some patents for 3D Operating System navigation.  It turns out that they’ve also been looking at 3D multi-touch as a way of navigating a multi-touch tablet/iPhone.  The Baltimore Sun (via PED) dug up a patent from last month (#20090303231, Dec. 10, 2009  to be exact) on just such an idea.

[0034]The device supports a variety of applications, such as one or more of the following: a game application, a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a photo management application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application.

If this patent comes to fruition, the next iPhone/iPod/tablet interface might be nothing like anything we’ve seen before, and it could perhaps explain why we’ve been hearing the possibility of a “new type of interaction” to accompany the tablet.

The Sun also reports:

According to documents filed with the USPTO, Apple obtained the rights to this patent application from three French citizens: Fabrice Robinet, Thomas Goossens, and Alexandre Moha. The inventors assigned the patent to Apple on Sept. 29, 2008. It’s not clear if those citizens are Apple employees, per se. (Update: Actually, Mr. Moha is a product and engineering manager at Apple, per his LinkedIn profile; and Mr. Robinet is a software engineer at Apple, again, per LinkedIn.) Regardless, searches under Apple’s name in the patents database doesn’t retrieve this patent, because the names of the original French inventors are still on it. (I wonder why that is? Hmmm. :-)

Apple