COMPUTERWORLD: Apple [AAPL] is pushing out iOS 4.2 today, and as it does it is dropping a few hints as to the philosophy which drives the company in its evolution of the Mac OS, Lion, which will itself hint at the future direction of Apple’s operating systems for mobile and computing devices on this Apple planet.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ82HW81t9o&fs=1&hl=en_US]
We’re liking the look of Tivo’s new app for iPad. It is so much more than a remote, it lets you connect with all the information Tivo has — actors info, film guides and more, effectively a link to the Tivo TV interface that doesn’t depend on you interrupting what’s playing on your television.
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UK Apple-watchers are excited this morning on reports that Orange and T-Mobile are preparing to offer iPads on a contract for the subsidised price of £200.
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Apple’s plans to introduce an iPad 2.0 are becoming children of mass speculation now, but in the tablet battles these rumors are real weapons as manufacturers expect the chatter to dent sales of competing tablets.
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It shouldn’t surprise anyone but PCWorld put the smaller, lighter MacBook Air up against the fastest PC Netbooks out there.
Our WorldBench 6 software runs systems through a timed gantlet of popular consumer applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Mozilla Firefox, compiles the results, and spits out an overall score. The 11-inch Air earned a WorldBench 6 score of 74, very impressive given that the average WorldBench 6 score of the netbooks we’ve tested recently is 45.
Even more impressive was the 11-inch Air’s performance in our gaming tests: Most netbooks can’t run 3D games like DiRT 2 and Call of Duty 4 at all, but the Air managed to sustain a frame rate of 23 frames per second while running COD4 at 1024 by 768 resolution and high graphic settings; much of the credit probably should go to the Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics card, which comes standard in every Air model.
The one area that Netbooks were able to outperform the Air was in battery, with the much thicker Gateway LT2118u lasting double as long at 11 hours.
PCworld then proceeded to put the 13″ 1.86GHz Air up against Ultraportable PC laptops. It fared almost as well…
Although the iPhone won’t be getting an integrated SIM-card system The Telegraph now adds to their report that Apple is set to release a slightly updated iPad WiFi + 3G model with an integrated SIM-card system instead of its current micro-SIM card system. The reason Apple can do this with the iPad is because the device is not carrier-subsidized.
Their report also notes that this new iPad will lose the lock switch on the side and become a mute switch, but we already know that because the change will be happening this week with iOS 4.2. In terms of this new iPad launching around the late December/early January timeframe we are a bit skeptical. It would make much more sense for Apple to release an all new set of iPad models around March or April.
We have been telling you about an iPad-only newspaper created by News Corp. being in the works for sometime and today the Guardian claims the project will be unveiled later this month with some interesting new information. This newspaper project will be called The Daily and will be a newspaper that is only available on the iPad as well as other tablets in the future. That means no web or print version. The newspaper will be a downloadable application that will cost 99 cents a week to use. For just under $4 a month you will have full access to this tablet-only newspaper.
The Daily will be a huge deal and will be managed right on the 26th floor of the News Corp. offices in New York with 100-150 journalists dedicated to the newspaper. The lead-editor of The Daily is yet to be announced but claims say The New York Post’s managing editor, Jesse Angelo, will take the lead job. According to the Guardian, News Corp. leader, Rupert Murdoch, has taken a huge role in the project and pictures it as the future of online news content. He believes that “consumers are willing to pay for high- quality, original content.” This corroborates with Steve Job’s vision since the iPad’s launch as well.
Apple engineers have reportedly been working on the technical side of things and the launch of The Daily is said to coincide with the launch of an Apple newspaper-subscription service. Some other reports claim that News Corp. has invested $30M into the project. The Daily will reportedly launch exclusivly on Apple’s iPad by the end of this month but will eventually make its way to other tablet devices in the near future.
According to a new report from Digitimes Apple is ramping up their orders for touch-screens Q4 of 2010. Apple along with other companies will be putting their suppliers, TPK Touch Solutions and Wintek, in short touch-screen supply during the 4th Quarter. The report notes that these touch-screens will mainly be for “handsets” so there is room to specultate that these touch-screens are for a new iPhone launching in early 2011 or the 5th generation iPhone coming Summer 2011.
The best bet is probably to say that these touch-displays are for the upcoming iPad 2 we’ve been hearing a lot about lately. Just yesterday we reported that Apple was sourcing multiple suppliers for the second-generation iPad and we recently reported Apple’s next-gen tablet would feature at least one camera. Also, Apple already shot the advertisements for their next iPad so it should be coming relatively soon.
A fun survey from the folks from Changewave today. They asked US smartphone customers not on AT&T if they would have liked to have purchased the iPhone, if their carrier …carried it.
Over a third of respondants said they’d rather have bought an iPhone. Another 20% weren’t sure. Less than half were hapy with the phone they purchased. Jeez. Why stick with your carrier?
In other ‘News’ Apple (77% satisfied) remained at the top of the satisfaction charts (below) though Motorola (71%) made a surprisingly strong showing along with HTC (63%). Samsung (45% ) and RIM (44%) brought up the rear.
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COMPUTERWORLD: Only this morning declared one of the greatest innovations of 2010 by Time magazine, we’re receiving reports that components for the iPad successor, let’s call it ‘iPad 2.0’, have been selected and approved with production set to accelerate come February, suggesting the next-gen Apple tablet will ship in Q1. I’ve gathered my thoughts and this is what I think we might know about iPad 2.0 at this time, though it is speculative, so some ideas may be wide off the mark.
Fortune sheds some light on the recent opening of the Bellevue, WA Microsoft store which drew campers (!!)…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7G6eycmykE&w=640&h=385]
Were some people there for the Microsoft products?
More likely it was the free performance by Dave Matthews and the lure of 2,000 free tickets for Saturday’s Miley Cyrus concert.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95im6Hu2Etk&fs=1&hl=en_US&hd=1]
“In this video we take a look at 15 different sized tablets and compare them for size and aspect ratio which affects their portability, weight, size and often OS and hardware platform architecture.” C/o Shanzai.com
Samsung continues to follow Apple’s lead in tablet design, confirming it has chosen the ARM Cortex-based processor to power its next-generation tablet. That’s the same basic processor Apple is expected to field in iPad 2.0.
More trouble at the iPhone mills, were reports claim workers are in protest at Foxconn management plans to move some work groups to other parts of China — and they still want more pay.
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According to a report from Digitimes the production of Apple’s second-generation iPad will go into full-force in Q1 of 2011 for an early 2011 product launch. Apple has already secured three iPad 2 parts suppliers, Ibiden, Tripod Technology and TTM Technologies, and will be adding four more suppliers in February. The report notes that the three named suppliers have received final certification from Apple and will begin shipping limited quantities of any-layer HDI boards next month.
Apple’s next-generation iPad is rumored to gain a front-facing camera for FaceTime video calling, faster chips, more RAM, a mini-USB port, as well as a ‘Smart Bezel’ feature. Apple has even already shot their ads for the next-generation iPad and our report on this indicated that the iPad 2 will feature a form-factor that is similar to the current generation product.
We recently reported that Apple was exploring integrated, pre-installed SIM cards for future devices. This integrated SIM-card system would allow customers to purchase an iPhone and choose any carrier they like from a special menu on that device, completely ditching the carriers from the usual ways of setting up your phone’s service. Today, the Financial Times is reporting that some of Europe’s leading iPhone carriers are furious about Apple’s exploration into this technology and are ready to terminate their carrier subsidy deals.
The carriers reportedly feel that Apple is completely leaving them out of the picture and they are giving customers the opportunity to choose any carrier they would like. For those unfamiliar, users with the iPhone have a very unique cell phone experience. Apple essentially has full control over the iPhone. They make the hardware, software, and they are the ones who replace and service your phones. Not many other smartphone companies and phone service companies have a similar relationship. The only thing the carriers seemingly do is manage and setup your service.
The carriers in Europe, including Vodafone UK and France Telecom, fear that this integrated SIM-card technology will remove the carriers completely from the customer. The SIM-card is a tiny chip commonly found in GSM devices with cellular connection and they store customer information and activate your phones cellular and data features. A high-level executive at an unnamed European carrier sums the potential conflicts by calling out Apple for potentially igniting a “war” with their possible integrated SIM-cards.
Engadget notes that TJMaxx is carrying iPads for just $399. That’s a huge discount over the pretty standard $500 costs that traditional stores all over are offering. It isn’t clear if these are refurbished models (which would fit with the pricing) and TJ Maxx’s rep. According to Engadget, they are showing up in stores in New York and Ohio and some stores are supposedly holding back their inventory for Black Friday
I wonder how long it took to convince Steve Jobs that putting iPads on TJ Maxx’s shelves was a good idea.
Update: Some Marshalls stores are carrying iPads for $399 as well.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG5pqTWVahQ&w=640&h=385]
There are probably more than a few of you out there that want to see a quadricopter under the tree this year. Press release below:
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Apple’s newest board member is a living embodiment of just why we should all be using Macs — but unfortunately not in a good way. You see, his former company, Northrop Grumman, is currently causing huge problems in its implementation of computer systems across the state of Virginia.
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The Financial Times is offering all 1,800 of its staff a £300 or $480 rebate against the cost of an iPad or other tablet.
The newspaper wants to get its staff using those tablets — it is even offering the rebate to staff who already own an iPad,
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COMPUTERWORLD: What we see at this stage of evolution may reflect massive growth for Android as the amorphous entity it is, but the confusion for consumers attempting to install Apps shows us Google’s Achilles’ Heel — it doesn’t do usability. Apple does. The war’s not done yet.
We’re hoping Steve Jobs doens’t kick his old Apple co-founder off of his Christmas card list for this, but Steve Wozniak today grabbed a few more million column inches when he said, Android will be the dominant smartphone platform.
Update: Engadget got a call from Woz, it appears that things aren’t exactly as they seem. While Woz does acknowledge making comments about Android grabbing more marketshare than iPhone, he says that almost every app he’s used is better on iOS than Android.
As anticipated, Apple today confirmed its intention to launch iAds in Europe next month — the company had been expected to begin its ads system earlier in the region.
In a press release distributed this morning in Europe, the company revealed its launch ads partners will include L’Oréal, Renault, Louis Vuitton, Nespresso, Perrier & Unilever.
Press Release follows:
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In an interview with the WSJ Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg revealed that his “embrace” of LTE data technology has “drawn the interest” of Apple, so much that it was one of the leading reasons for the Verizon iPad deal. Even more interesting is when Seidenberg was given the money question: when’s Verizon getting the iPhone? His response was not very revealing but he did say the reason Verizon would get the iPhone is “because Apple thinks it’s time.”
This once again shows the Verizon iPhone deal is on Apple’s court and Apple will be the one leading the show and deciding when the Big Red will be getting the iPhone. The CEO also said “our interests are beginning to come together more but they have to take steps to align their technology with ours.”- That’s quite obvious from the iPad deal but does represent their new ongoing partnership. Recent Verizon iPhone rumors have pointed to an early 2011 release with claims brought to light by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal