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Apple’s IPhone’s A Halloween Hit

admin — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 23:00:24 +0000

I sent out a request on Twitter (@kymbee) asking for people to send in pictures of their high-tech Halloween costumers. Out of the 30 pictures I received, 17 were of folks dressing up as iPhones. this is my favorite, which was sent in by @bobscirpo :

It seems the response I’ve recieved isn’t unusual this Halloween.

Check out this video: Two Men Get Creative With High-Tech Costumes

The two men in the above video created the ultimate iphone costumes!

The iPhone has been a Halloween hit since it’s release. The first year on the market, Apple fans were so excited about Steve Jobs’ new invention, they even dressed up their pets.

Take a look: IPhone Dog

Share your favorite iPhone costumes in the comment section below, or any other high-tech costumes you snapped shots of over the weekend.

Apple’s IPhone’s A Halloween Hit

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Apple Announcement: How Steve Jobs Made Geek Culture Cool

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:00:34 +0000

A blog about media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. Speakeasy is produced by Christopher John Farley, Michelle Kung, and Steven Kurutz, with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com.

Steve, I'm disappointed

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12 big things we didn't see at WWDC 2010

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:00:22 +0000

Like the lead-up to any big, annual Apple event, the weeks and months ahead of this year’s WWDC brought the usual wash of rumors about new hardware, software, and online services.

The biggest unknown was not so much on the hardware side–as we all knew there was a newiPhone on the way (even what it looked like and whose fault that was), but the software and online services portion remained a mystery. this is typically the chunk of the WWDC keynote where Steve Jobs and company go into detail about the latest operating system tweaks and new software offerings.

There were rumors on both sides of the spectrum ranging from paid services like MobileMe going free and iTunes getting a streaming component to a fancy new wireless trackpad. Read on to get the details.

1. OS X 10.7

Apple’s preview of OS X 10.6, nicknamedSnow Leopard, happened at 2008′s WWDC. 10.5 was unveiled during 2006′s keynote, and 10.4 in 2004′s. following that logic, 2010′s show would bring a preview, or at least an acknowledgment that Apple had 10.7 in the oven. Though given the focus on Apple’s iOS, and the shiny new device that will run on it, it’s not all that surprising we didn’t hear a peep.

An OS update, especially for the desktop, would have likely filled an hour or two on its own. Yet, the downside of this omission is that the eventual preview of that update will likely be shelved until next year’s show, since WWDC is Apple’s only big developer event of the year.

2. A developer preview for theiPad‘s iOS 4

When introducing OS 4 at a preview event back in April, Jobs said we’d be seeing a public release of it for the iPad sometime this fall. Again, logic would dictate that developers would get their hands on a build of the iPad 4.0 SDK at Apple’s big developer event, alongside the first beta of the firmware for testing on real devices.

So why the no-show? Apple has likely had its hands full getting the iPhone and iPod Touch version of OS 4 ready to go in time for the iPhone 4 launch in two weeks. And developers only got their hands on the gold master candidate version of that late Monday. maybe the delay was to include some new OS features being baked into the next batch of iPods this fall.

Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer at CES 2010.

(Credit:James Martin / CNET)

3. A Steve Ballmer appearance

In a note to investors, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry claimed that Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer would be giving a seven-minute presentation of Visual Studio 2010 during the WWDC keynote. this was vehemently denied by Microsoft reps, then later retracted by Chowdhry, though many large news outlets (including us) picked up the story and ran with it.

There was some semblance of truth to the rumor of Microsoft having a presence at the keynote, in the form of Jobs announcing that Microsoft’s Bing was now a search option in Safari, both on portable devices and on the desktop software.

4. iTunes streaming service

Like Apple’s annual “buy a Mac, get a free iPod” promotion, which always manages to end just a few days before the company announces a new model, it seemed just a little too convenient music-streaming service Lala, which Apple bought back in December of last year, was being shut down just a week before WWDC.

Prior to Apple picking up the company, sources had told CNET that Apple was planning to purchase the company primarily for its music streaming technology and engineering talents. It seemed fair then (given the timing), that Apple would fill in the gap Lala.com’s closure had left with something similar built right into iTunes, though that never came to fruition during Monday’s keynote. Then again, given Apple’s propensity for having its “music” events in September, we might just have to wait three months.

Another good thing that is likely to keep such a service coming is pressure from Google, which just a few weeks prior had demoed its free music streaming service, which uses technology from SimplifyMedia–a company Google had quietly acquired back in March.

5. Free MobileMe

Everyone loves a free lunch, and in the case of Apple’s MobileMe–that was the rumor de jour. 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman spotted some interesting wording in the preferences pane of MobileMe that changed the name of the account type from “individual” or “family plan” to “full member,” which lead to speculation that Apple would be offering a free service.

The evidence a little thin you say? That’s a fair assessment, however keep in mind the number of services Apple has added to MobileMe (formerly .Mac) over the years has grown substantially. that, and large chunks of it like the Web mail, photo hosting, and calendar tools are offered free (with advertising) by competitors. There’s nothing to say Apple wouldn’t offer some basic parts of it for free, and charge to upgrade to the more advanced features. after all, it’s done that with its QuickTime software for years.

6. iLife ’10

The steady march of iLife updates has consistently taken place every January since 2003 with the exception of iLife ’08, which debuted during a special presentation in early August of 2007. And of course this year, where Apple’s pull out of the Macworld Expo, which began in earnest at 2010′s show, meant that the company’s iLife software suite was a no show too.

The biggest question since then has simply been when Apple will release its big update. With 2010 already halfway over, it’s not too outlandish that Apple will simply skip on to iLife ’11, or bundle that news together with this year’s iPod event.

Will the iPhone be available in the U.S. on another carrier besides AT&T? Certainly. the real question is when and which carrier.

The rumors that Apple was striking up a deal with Verizon have been simmering for years. One big one came from 9to5Mac in 2008, which claimed an iPhone would be coming to Verizon at the end of the year, maybe even at Macworld in January 2009, however that obviously turned out not to be the case. Fast forward to March of this year and there was a Wall Street Journal story with a source that claimed one of Apple’s contract manufacturers was building CDMA-compatible (read: Sprint and Verizon) iPhones.

While this didn’t quite shake out with the announcement of the iPhone 4 at WWDC, the possibility of the iPhone landing on another U.S. carrier is inevitable.

8. the Mystery Multitouch trackpad

Meet the rumor that seemingly came out of nowhere. Engadget snagged photos of a largish, multitouch track pad peripheral, basically the same ones you find on Apple’s notebooks, but wireless and usable on a desktop machine.

Little was known about the device, and still is, besides the fact it uses Bluetooth, is silver, slightly shiny, and remains unannounced.

9. A $99 AppleTV

The AppleTV has been Apple’s most curious product in the last few years. unlike the vast majority of the company’s hardware efforts, it has remained largely unchanged since its introduction at an Apple event in late 2006. Apple has pushed out two major system software reinventions and bumped the built-in storage, but otherwise it’s the same machine.

Reports that Apple was working on a cheaper and more capable version of the hardware surfaced late last month. Blog Engadget had a source that claimed Apple was readying a version that made use both of Apple’s in-house A4 processor and that ran a modified version of the iOS. Such a device could still surface later this year if, or rather when Apple hosts its annual iPod event. Though if it is in fact running the iOS, Apple likely would have wanted to get developers on board so they could get a head start on building apps for it.

10. A Mac Mini refresh

The Mac Mini is another piece of long-outdated hardware. in fact, its last big update was in late October when Apple gave it a modest bump in processing power and doubled up on the RAM. Still, its graphics card has lagged behind what has been available on Apple’s notebooks. both the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines now feature a beefier Nvidia GeForce 320M chip, which MacBook Pro users can bump up to the 330M version, which packs twice the memory.

More importantly, two separate reports from AppleInsider pointed to Apple adding an HDMI port to the Mac Mini instead of the DVI connector that exists there now. Given the no-show of the Apple TV, maybe there’s more to that delay than meets the eye. AppleInsider had also received reports from sources that supply of the machine was drying up both from Apple and third-party resellers, which is usually a good sign that a refresh is on the way.

11. A new MacBook Air

Apple’s ultraslim laptop, which was launched by Apple in January 2008, has remained largely unchanged short of some slight adjustments to things like the trackpad, the internals, and the video-out jack. in fact, it hasn’t had an update since this time last year, which in the world of electronics means either a very large update is due, or it’s time to put it on deathwatch.

The third option, and one that makes more sense, is that Apple has quietly replaced the Air with the iPad. in fact, that much was said to CNET’s David Carnoy at his local Apple Store, where he was attempting to purchase an Air in place of an iPad that was out of stock.

This is not a real iPod Touch with a camera–at least not yet.

(Credit:Apple / CNET)

12. an iPod Touch with camera

A version of the iPod Touch with a camera has been expected since last year. three months before last September’s launch of the (still) latest generation iPod Touch, TechCrunch reported on a large order of the same camera modules used on the iPhone 3GS. These later ended up being the camera modules that ended up in the iPod Nano instead.

To make matters more interesting, photos and videos of an iPod Touch with a built-in camera popped up less than a month before Apple unveiled new versions of the device last year. but, the final devices shipped by Apple had no such camera. Teardown site iFixit later took the latest-generation Touch apart and discovered that the insides still had room for it in the exact same spot.

Before WWDC, the rumors of an iPod Touch with a built-in camera were revived when another development iPod Touch with a camera in the same spot showed up on eBay. Then, a few weeks later, Vietnamese site Tinhte (the same folks who acquired an iPhone 4 ahead of its announcement) scored a similarly spec’d iPod Touch, which was later discovered to be as old as the one from the year before. in any case, it would be unsurprising to see Apple roll out a camera-ready Touch this year given the new FaceTime video chat service.

Honorable mentions: The end of the “get a mac” ads going out with a bang, and Safari 5, which was released Monday but got no stage time.

12 big things we didn't see at WWDC 2010

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Adobe Gives Up on Flash Apps for the iPhone

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:00:47 +0000

Saying that Apple “wants to tie developers down,” an Adobe product manager yesterday said his company would toss in the towel on a tool that lets programmers port Flash applications to the iPhone and iPad.

The announcement was the latest in the escalating confrontation between Apple and Adobe. Apple has repeatedly claimed that letting Flash on its iPhone would degrade performance, with its CEO, Steve Jobs, saying that Adobe’s software “performs too slow to be useful” on the smartphone. two weeks ago, Jobs flatly rejected the idea that Flash would be allowed on his company’s mobile devices.

At the same time, Apple changed the language of its newest iPhone software developers kit (SDK) license to ban developers from using cross-platform compilers, tools that let them write in one framework, say JavaScript or .Net, and then recompile it in native code for another platform, like the iPhone. Days later, an Adobe platform evangelist said, “Go screw yourself Apple,” on his personal blog, which had been reviewed, if not vetted, by Adobe.

Yesterday, Adobe took the war up a notch with an unusual move: It gave up on a feature it had once loudly trumpeted.

“We will still be shipping the ability to target the iPhone and iPad in Flash CS5,” said Mike Chambers, the principal product manager for developer relations for Adobe’s Flash platform, in a blog post late Tuesday. “However, we are not currently planning any additional investments in that feature.”

The feature Chambers referred to takes applications written in Flash’s ActionScript and recompiles them to run natively on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Adobe calls it “Packager for iPhone,” and includes it with Flash Professional, part of Creative Suite 5 (CS5), which launched April 12, just days after Apple modified its SDK .

Analysts said Apple’s move was aimed right at Adobe . “It’s primarily directed at Adobe. The two have an oppositional relationship that goes back at least 15 years,” said Ray Valdes, an analyst with Gartner, in an interview last week.

Some of the firms that market other cross-platform compilers agreed. “It’s not a coincidence that this came out just days before Adobe launched CS5,” said Scott Schwarzhoff, vice president of marketing for Appcelerator, whose Titanium tool produces native iPhone applications from JavaScript and HTML.

Chambers said Apple had Adobe and Flash in its sights. “While it appears that Apple may selectively enforce the terms, it is our belief that Apple will enforce those terms as they apply to content created with Flash CS5,” he said Tuesday. “Developers should be prepared for Apple to remove existing content and applications created with Flash CS5 from the iTunes store.”

He said that there were more than 100 applications currently in Apple’s App Store that had been created using Flash Professional CS5 and the Packager. Adobe issued a beta of the development software last year.

“The primary goal of Flash has always been to enable cross-browser, -platform and -device development,” said Chambers. “This is the exact opposite of what Apple wants. They want to tie developers down to their platform, and restrict their options to make it difficult for developers to target other platforms.”

He also took Apple to task for changing the rules in mid-game. “During the entire development cycle of Flash CS5, the feature complied with Apple’s licensing terms,” Chambers said. “However, as developers for the iPhone have learned, if you want to develop for the iPhone you have to be prepared for Apple to reject or restrict your development at anytime, and for seemingly any reason.”

Rather than play within Apple’s walled garden, Chambers suggested developers put their resources on Google’s Android operating system, whether phones like Motorola’s Droid or likely Android-based tablets slated to ship later this year. “The iPhone isn’t the only game in town,” said Chambers, who called Adobe’s efforts to bring Flash Player to Android “very promising.”

Adobe and Google have recently been taking tentative public steps to combine forces. For example, late last month, Google said its Chrome browser would include Adobe’s Flash Player in its downloads, and use Chrome’s updater to automatically push Flash fixes to users.

“I think that the closed system that Apple is trying to create is bad for the industry, developers and ultimately consumers,” Chambers concluded. “We are at the beginning of a significant change in the industry, and I believe that ultimately open platforms will win out over the type of closed, locked down platform that Apple is trying to create.”

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld . Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer , or subscribe to Gregg’s RSS feed . his e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com .

Read more about mobile and wireless in Computerworld’s Mobile and Wireless Knowledge Center.

Adobe Gives Up on Flash Apps for the iPhone

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Apple Gains Share in Smartphone Market

Sun, 09 May 2010 16:00:14 +0000

Sat may 08, 2010 11:45 pm

Research group IDC reported that Apple’s share of the smartphone market surged to 16.1 percent from 10.9 percent the same period last year.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs nearly doubled Apple’s profit on “staggering” sales of iPhones, from strong international sales in China and Asia Pacific. Analysts expect it to launch its next-generation iPhone HD this June or July.

In the period, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company narrowed the gap with RIM, the second-largest smartphone maker and its nearest rival. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company saw its smartphone share slip to 19.4 percent from 20.9 percent. but it still holds a distinct advantage in the U.S., where it has a 41.7 percent share compared with Apple’s 17.2 percent.

Apple is also facing fierce competition from Nokia, HTC and Motorola.

Nokia, still the world’s largest handset maker, maintained its lead with a 39.3 percent share of the smartphone market, unchanged from a year ago. Shareholders have worried that the Finnish company is falling behind Apple after it said it would delay the release of its updated Symbian 3 software.

Taiwan-based HTC, maker of some of Google’s Android devices, including the Nexus One, increased its share to 4.8 percent from 4.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Motorola, another Google partner, boosted its share to 4.2 percent, compared to 3.4 percent last year. The beleaguered handset maker has seen its fortunes improve, as smartphone shipments grew nearly 92 percent in the period.

Smartphone sales surged over 50 percent last quarter, according to Strategy Analytics, another research company, accounting for nearly one in five phones sold. The overall market, which includes regular handsets, rose 22 percent in the same period.

Apple Gains Share in Smartphone Market

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Full Apple ipad Keynote (5 of 9)

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:00:12 +0000

The following video is provided by Youtube.com – we are not responsible for the content of this video, as it is not hosted on our website. if you have problems playing the video below, or it is not what you were expecting, please email us at web (at) uptrendseo.com.

January 27, 2010 — Apple released the ipad at their “Come see our Latest Creation” keynote. the ipad was the main and only focus of the event. Unfortunately the Macbook Pro did not get an update :’( Tags: Apple official announcement news big day wwdc 2010 2009 new tablet rumors fact release date macrumors iphone 4g iwork imovie ipad ipod iphone capacitive shuffle classic touch nano mac imac macbook pro update ifail iplod camera mac mini macbook air apple tv osx os ten snow leopard software games magic mouse wifi 3g 3g 3gs ibook ibookstore itunes app store imac 27 inch 21.5 flicker Mac air powerbook g1 g2 g3 g4 g5 steve jobs return random tags to get more views lol.

Full Apple ipad Keynote (5 of 9)

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5 Apple Predictions for 2009

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 01:00:34 +0000

In the face of extremely low expectations for Apple’s (AAPL) future prospects, I present to you my 2009 predictions. you didn’t think that $1.1 billion spent on fiscal 2008 R&D is going to waste did you?

1) Apple TV will evolve into an actual TV. The current Apple TV box has not worked. Steve Jobs knows this and has referred to the product as a ‘hobby’; allowing Apple to obtain the content that it needs before the real Apple TV is launched. in accordance with the Apple way of doing things, I am going to predict that the new version of Apple TV will in fact be an Apple brand flat screen television. People laughed when Apple announced that it was actually going to make a phone but they won’t be laughing when Apple announces that it is actually going to make a television.

2) Independent analyst Andy Zaky foretells the future Apple earnings blowout. non GAAP accounting will never be acceptable to the mainstream so investors must wait for Apple’s GAAP numbers to catch up. it is in the midst of historic growth for such a mature company and the amazing thing is that it has accomplished it during a recession.

Interestingly enough, the very analysts who are paid to see through the accounting smoke and tell investors what is really happening are missing it. Zaky’s research reports that in its recently reported fiscal fourth quarter, Apple’s adjusted net income grew approximately 124.6% from $1.085 billion in Q4 2007 to $2.437 billion in Q4 2008—an extraordinary number when fully accounting for iPhone sales in both periods.

Just as impressive is Apple’s 75.1% growth rate in sales. Apple’s adjusted revenue grew from $6.673 billion in Q4 2007 to a whopping $11.682 billion in Q4 of 2008. Earnings per share grew 123.0% from $1.21 in Q4 2007 to $2.69 in Q4 2008. because the iPhone accounting is spread out over a 24 month period, Apple is building an expanding moat around its earnings announcements even as all analyst estimates are shrinking. a great recipe.

3) Apple will team up with a car manufacturer and begin producing the first iCar. in 2007 we heard rumors that Apple was working with Volkswagen (VLKAY.PK) on the iCar but talks fizzled. With the automotive industry in dire straits, car companies will be looking for any competitive edge they can find. Ford (F) or GM (GM) would be smart to contact Mr. Jobs today and be the first to secure an exclusive agreement with Apple. when the iCar is released, dealers won’t be able to keep them on the lots.

Just as Apple has done with all its other products, this endeavor will result in the seamless integration of iTunes. we spend a lot of time in our cars and currently it is a hassle to hook up an iPod and fully utilize the quality of music and video. That will change with the iCar. This new car will make traditional vehicles look silly. Car makers have been very slow to adopt new technologies into their designs. Televisions has been around forever and most cars still don’t even have built in screens. I really believe that the current turmoil in the automotive industry is because car companies are still living in the stone age with absolutely no vision. in 2009, Steve Jobs will change that.

4) Apple will enter the Chinese market in a major way. The Chinese are craving an inexpensive Internet device to further liberate their access to information, entertainment, and communication. Perhaps an alternative to the western world’s use of laptop computers will fuel a revolutionary wave of Chinese gadget obsession. They love their gadgets. Before the government intervened with the China Mobile (CHL) monopoly, the company reported 574 million mobile subscribers back in March; the number of mobile subscribers is expected to grow to 738 million by 2010. to put that number in proper perspective, consider that the entire US population is just over 300 million.

Capturing the Chinese market is the prize of all prizes. to win the Chinese prize one must cater to the Internet demand of the young Chinese but do so on a culturally accepted platform. Computer ownership is not culturally accepted. Cellphone ownership is. That’s where Apple’s iPhone comes in. The inexpensive iPhone caters to the hundreds of millions of people who will trade in their current cellphones for their first ever opportunity of owning a mini-computer. The iPhone launch in China represents the most significant technological product release of our generation; not only financially for Apple but culturally for China as 7 out of every 8 households goes without a computer. Will Apple bite the bullet and advertise the iPhone as a laptop alternative in China? We’ll see.

5) Apple hardware and software will continue to gain market share in the tech revolution. most people still don’t know how to make their own websites or to build up an online business. Apple products such as iWeb, Garage Band, Mobile Me, etc, allow the common man to become creative and market that creativity to the world. Just as the iPod had a halo effect on Macs, I predict that the App Store is going to have a halo effect on Apple software.

Consumers are tired of depressing local news broadcasts, predictable sitcoms, and the limited ‘day old’ reports found in the local paper. Modern consumers are much more interested in the unpredictable videos found on Google’s YouTube or in their ‘real’ evening news found on Facebook or on a friend’s updated blog. many worry that the new tech revolution will make society less personal but I think the opposite is true. How much more impersonal or out of reality can you get than having the evening news or the newspaper feed you what they think is important?

Advances in Apple’s iLife software will continue to improve and I think that Apple and Google (GOOG) will lead the tech revolution into the next stage, which will further empower the individual. in my own career I’ve used Apple’s iWeb to expand my business at www.lonepeakportfolios.com. I can use E-Trade (ETFC) to make my own trades instead of going through a broker. I can use YouTube as a distribution channel for my market forecasts. I can create my own Amazon (AMZN) store and sell products to my network of bloggers and friends. I have access to the best professors at Stanford or MIT through iTunesU. The tech revolution is empowering the individual and Apple will lead the innovation with hardware and software. Mac sales will continue to grow and thrive as the company takes market share away from Microsoft (MSFT).

I would be careful who I listen to as 2008 comes to a close. most analysts have been beaten up this year and they no longer know which way is up and which way is down. Yesterday’s announcement that this is Apple’s final year at Macworld is no reason to suppose that Apple innovation is finished. Even if no new products are released in January, you can be sure that there is more to come.

Disclosure: Long AAPL.

5 Apple Predictions for 2009

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Best mobiles -: 5G iPod nano and iTunes V9.0, the test of music.

admin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 01:00:11 +0000

As every year, Apple updated its iPod lineup in September, including the iPod Nano, the player the most popular brand. For its fifth version, the Nano is developing an objective that can capture video (but no photos!), a new dress and some additional features now included as standard (radio, voice recorder, pedometer). the iTunes jukebox take this opportunity to switch to version 9. Let’s see if the latest new music from Apple is a credit to the brand.

Launched in 2005 to replace the iPod Mini, iPod Nano has quickly become the most popular Walkman brand, despite the introduction in 2007, the iPod Touch which is still a top range. It is true that the Nano small, unlike the older iPod Classic, still has many strengths, including its small size and colorful dress that make it a very attractive player. Proof of its success is undoubtedly the star of the 2009 series between an iPod Touch that evolves as technology and an iPod Shuffle which merely reproduces colors. Without changing so drastically last year, the new Nano is enhanced with a video camera (strangely absent from the Touch) and a few aesthetic improvements or internal.

One player finally maturing?

Since its introduction, the iPod Nano has undergone many changes in its functionality as in design ranging from one year to another in the form of screen size or materials used. the fifth version of the player seems to finally bring some stability with a model who wants a significant evolution, but gently, the previous model. a double-edged observation: if the iPod Nano fifth of the name is an attractive player, has he sufficient reasons for an owner to iPod 4G, cracking again? We try to answer these questions.

iTunes: a revolutionary V9?

Along with its new line of music players, Apple also introduced the new version of iTunes, described by Steve Jobs of the most important development of iTunes for a long time. In fact, iTunes 9 makes several changes in its interface as in that of its online store, a few new features such as shared library between authorized computers or reorganization of applications for the iPhone or iPod Touch and a new format virtual album, meant to restore “LP” their visual side lost with dematerialization. the complementarity between the iPod and iTunes have made Apple’s success so far, we focus also on iTunes 9, a figure definitely in the air.

Best mobiles -: 5G iPod nano and iTunes V9.0, the test of music.

Applications for iPhone