Imagine you run a large technology company not named Apple.How are you feeling today, a day after Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the new iPad? Are you discounting the device as just an incremental improvement, the same shiny tablet with a better screen and faster cellular access? Or is it possible you had trouble sleeping last night? Did you toss and turn, worrying that Apple’s new device represents a potential knockout punch, a move that will cement its place as the undisputed leader of the biggest, most disruptive new tech market since the advent of the Web browser?For your sake, my hypothetical CEO friend, I hope you’re frightened.
680 News is a local AM station in Toronto that does all news all the time. They started a Twitter feed back in 2008 that alternately informs and annoys. Then there are times you wonder if the person tweeting is actually lucid.
The State of Texas on Friday announced that Apple will significantly expand its Austin, Texas facilities with a new campus and an expanded workforce – 3,600 new jobs over the next decade, more than double Apple’s current Texas headcount, according to a statement from the governor’s office. Apple houses customer support, sales and accounting personnel in the Austin offices.
In return, Texas is kicking in $21 million, money taken from the Texas Enterprise Fund, a business incentive fund in operation since 2003.
With crime lord Charles Jericho now on the loose, San Francisco faces a terrible threat. Only one man can stand against him. He has driven the streets of a hundred cities and spent his whole life putting criminals behind bars. But to take Jericho down, there can be no turning back, and he knows that this may very well be his last ride. His name is John Tanner. He is the DRIVER.
I’m not much of a gamer, but I like driving and shooting games.
Jenna Myers Karvunidis says the Chicago Tribune and its Red Eye commuter paper seem to be “stealing scoops” from her and other amateur bloggers on the Tribune-owned ChicagoNow site.
This echoes TechCrunch alum MG Siegler’s recent rant at the Wall Street Journal, which he alleged stole his scoop about Apple’s acquisition of Chomp.
More than ever, journalists need to be careful to document their research and newspapers need to make sure that attribution rules are clearly spelled out.
“We’re prepping the Steam Big Picture Mode UI and getting ready to ship that, so we’re building boxes to test that on,” Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi said, referring to a new Steam interface that will make the online gaming service easily useable for people who want to play Steam games on a PC that’s connected to their TV. “We’re also doing a bunch of different experiments with biometric feedback and stuff like that, which we’ve talked about a fair amount.
The Verge suggested last week that Valve was working on a video game console to play games from its Steam service. Valve’s Doug Lombardi won’t rule out the long-term possibility, but says it’s not in the cards for now. So for now, you’ll have to make do on your Mac or PC.
Because Apple has used the term Quad-Core in an unusual context (graphics unit), it leaves a lot of users confused about what Quad-Core means. Coincidentally, this was exactly what Apple needed, from a PR/Marketing standpoint. To make a long story short: the Apple A5X is NOT a quad-core processor, but let’s take a closer look…
Nguyen explains that the A5X chip inside the new iPad uses a graphics core that can operate twice as fast as the previous-generation model thanks to the addition of more graphics processing units.
Apple’s claim that the A5X is faster than Nvidia’s new (truly) quad-core Tegra 3 raised eyebrows, and Nguyen is skeptical that it does outperform Nvidia’s hardware in graphics performance measurements other than fill rate. Apple certainly needed to do something to speed up the iPad’s graphics since the new screen is pushing so many more pixels than before.
Apple now has the top-selling cellphone of any kind in Japan, IDC Japan determined late Thursday. The iPhone 4S launch helped Apple claim 26.6 percent of all cellphone shipments in the country this fall.
Apple outsold Fujitsu/Toshiba, Sharp, Kyocera and Panasonic.
The fees to use Google Maps probably aren’t what’s starting to put off companies like Foursquare and Apple — it’s probably the ever-increasing reach of Google’s advertising efforts.
Google Maps isn’t part of the new iPhoto for iOS – it’s using OpenStreetMaps data instead.
Space may or may not be the final frontier, but the television and movie series Star Trek and its subsequent incantations have sparked the imagination of sci-fi fans across the ages. From Kirk and Spock to Picard and Data, then back to a new Kirk and Spock, Star Trek has become one of the most influential fictional concepts of the modern era.From nerds to geeks to hipsters and beyond, the dreams of millions have been guided by the ideas of particle transporters, warp engines, and photon torpedoes. It is an icon of pop culture and road map towards a better distant future.
Besides Apple, RadioShack is now open to sales of the new iPad.Today the company said it’s taking pre-orders for the new tablet, which was announced at an event yesterday and proceeded to go up for pre-sale only on Apple’s Web site.There is a catch for those who choose to pre-order with RadioShack though, buyers need to purchase a $50 RadioShack gift card, and make the pre-order from one of RadioShack’s retail stores.
…despite the fact that 1920×1080 means 2.25 times as many pixels as 1280×720, file sizes often differ by a factor of 1.5 or less. So what’s going on—is the 1080p content pretty much indistinguishable from the 720p version, or did Apple succeed in magically upping the compression?
Van Beijnum concludes that Apple’s compression for 1080p content has improved. That, combined with specialized decoding hardware in the new Apple TV and the new iPad, makes it possible for that video to look great without making the file itself huge.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper, who oversees Kodak’s Chapter 11 case, said at a Thursday hearing it would be an “inappropriate way forward” to allow Apple to continue pursuing litigation over a Kodak patent that lets consumers preview digital photographs on LCD screens.
Kodak is in the process of trying to unload patents as part of its bankruptcy restructuring. The judge hearing the case says that Apple can’t block Kodak’s attempts under existing law that protects bankrupt companies from lawsuits that might qualify as “creditor harassment.”
An AT&T spokesperson says “We are working with Apple to enable this feature in the future, but we currently do not offer it.” So for the moment, hotspot capability on the new iPad appears to be a Verizon exclusive in the US.
Might make the choice of US carrier easier for some people.
“We are actively engaged with OnLive with the hope of bringing them into a properly licensed scenario, and we are committed to seeing this issue is resolved,” said Joe Matz, Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Licensing and Pricing at Microsoft, in a March 8 blog post.
OnLive, for the uninitiated, is a gaming service that streams content to your desktop or your iPad. It works by remotely hosting the content, streaming a video of it to your local machine (and yeah, it really does work). Now OnLive is making waves with its new OnLive Desktop service, which does the same but for the Windows 7 operating system and real productivity apps like Microsoft Office.
Ged sighed sometimes, but he did not complain. He saw that in this dusty and fathomless matter of learning the true name of each place, thing, and being, the power he wanted lay like a jewel at the bottom of a dry well. For magic consists in this, the true naming of a thing. – A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
To hear critics rail and complain, Apple fell on it face yesterday when it failed to differentiate the new iPad with the “3” or “HD” moniker that it had been rumored to hold in the days before its official unveiling.
Bullshit. Cut it out with the magical thinking, folks.
I’m typing this from a MacBook – not the first generation of the device to hold that name, and it didn’t suffer poor sales as a result. Later on I’m going to drive my Jeep Grand Cherokee – not the first vehicle to be named that, either – to the grocery store to pick up the makings of dinner. I can come up with countless examples of products that change – dramatically, in some cases – from year to year but don’t change their names.
Apple is neither the first company to do this, nor is their decision to simplify the iPad’s name particularly ground-breaking. Get over it.
I’d also like to point out that when the first iPad was introduced, its name was the subject of huge controversy in the blogosphere and among the tech punditry, many of whom considered the name silly; it was likened it to a feminine hygiene product.
Two years and tens of millions of units sold later, the iPad defines the tablet market much in the same way that the iPod defined the MP3 market through much of the first decade of the millennium.
Apple launched iPhoto for iOS Wednesday, and it doesn’t use Google Maps for geolocation. Instead, the software uses OpenStreetMap data.
OpenStreetMap is billed as “the free wiki world map.” It’s a global mapping project contributed to by hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world.
Apple’s use of OpenStreetMap data elicited a welcome from Jonathan Bennett, a member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation and author who’s written a book on the project. Bennett noted that Apple is using an older data set.
“It’s also missing the necessary credit to OpenStreetMap’s contributors; we look forward to working with Apple to get that on there,” writes Bennett in a blog post.
“But we’re delighted to see another prominent map user make the switch to OpenStreetMap, and look forward to many more.”
If you’ve never fantasized about what it’s like to hitch a ride on a paper airplane, you’re either lying or dead inside. Now you can do exactly that with Air Wings, Pangea Software’s newest game for iOS. It’s free to download (in-app purchases unlock new airplane models and multiplayer maps).
Air Wings is a 3D flying game in which you pilot paper airplanes, collect coins and gather weapons (like rubber bands, darts, firecrackers and more) which you can launch at other opponents. The game is designed to work online, and you match with other opponents over Game Center – up to four players can take to the skies at a time. There are indoor and outdoor environments, and each different airplane has their own flight and battle characteristics.
Air Wings is Airplay compatible, so if you have an Apple TV, you can even play the game on your television. It’s a Universal Binary that runs natively on any iOS device running iOS 5.0 or later.
On Tuesday, Apple issued the iOS 5.1 software update, and with it came a small but hugely symbolic change: the AT&T iPhone 4S data indicator now reads “4G.” Owners of the iPhone will notice no difference in performance or data transfer speeds; the device will not magically connect to AT&T’s shiny new 4G LTE network. It will simply receive a deceptive labeling change that allows AT&T to market the iPhone as a 4G device against competitive phones from Verizon — including, perhaps most importantly, Verizon’s own 3G iPhone 4S. It is a triumph of marketing for AT&T, and a rare acquiescence to a poor and confusing user experience for Apple.
The problem here is that “4G” as used here is marketing speak that doesn’t jibe with the actual technical standard. I agree with Patel, though – Apple made a mistake here that’s bound to leave a sour taste in users’ mouths.
(Thanks to David Nanian of Shirt Pocket for pointing us to the 4G definition.)
Most of the people opining about the Lytro have never seen one, never held one, never used one – but these days, I guess authority doesn’t count for much in a culture where everyone’s entitled to their opinion even if it’s not based on a single fact, completely wrong and slung with bad intent.
For the uninitiated, the Lytro Field Camera’s sensors gather light from different sources and directions, making it possible to refocus the image after it’s been taken. As Bourne points out, a lot of the criticism focused on the device is being made by people who either don’t understand the technology, have never used it or are just plain wrong in their assumptions. Does it replace a good existing digital camera and a skilled photographer? Of course not. But it’s a really exciting new technology that deserves a fair shake.
Apple took direct aim at Nvidia’s Tegra 3—a processor for a new batch of superphones—as it launched its latest iPad. The problem: Apple showed a chart with 4X the performance of Tegra 3, but provided no benchmarks or footnotes. … Ken Brown, a spokesman for Nvidia, said that it was “certainly flattering” to be called out by Apple, but the performance claims are sketchy without more data.
Nvidia’s invested a lot to convince Android hardware and software developers that its Tegra platform is the way to go for maximum performance for games and other demanding apps, so it’s unlikely to take Apple’s claims lying down. Not that the A5X is a design choice any Android developers have anyway.
Thomas Catan and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg for the Wall Street Journal:
The Justice Department has warned Apple Inc. and five of the biggest U.S. publishers that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books, according to people familiar with the matter.Several of the parties have held talks to settle the antitrust case and head off a potentially damaging court battle, these people said.
Apple and major publishers including Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins worked together prior to the iPad’s initial release in 2010 to help break the hold on inexpensive e-books held by Amazon.com and its Kindle e-reader. The European Union is also said to be looking into the matter.
In conjunction with today’s announcement of the third-generation iPad, Apple has introduced its new AppleCare+ protection plan for iPad.The new AppleCare+ for iPad extends both warranty coverage and phone support for the device to two years—normally limited to one year and 90 days, respectively. In addition, the plan adds up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage for the same $49 service fee as seen on the iPhone.AppleCare+ for the iPad sells for $99 and must be purchased within 30 days of the purchase of the iPad.
Apparently, Sprint Nextel’s seat at the cool kids’ table got revoked by Apple. As AT&T and Verizon Wireless got their hands on a shiny new 4G-enabled iPad, Sprint got stuck with zilch.“Sprint is not carrying the iPad at this time,” said a Sprint spokesman. He declined to comment on whether the company would eventually get to sell the device.The lack of an iPad could have to do with timing. Sprint is in the middle of rolling out its 4G LTE network, and expects to be in 10 cities by the end of June. That’s nice for Sprint, but Apple was likely looking at that paltry deploying and opting to take a pass.
If you have a second-generation Apple TV and want the nifty new interface you saw during Apple’s event in San Francisco on Wednesday, you’re in luck – a new update is now available for download and installation, and it replaces the old, busted, horribly antiquated and very retro-looking Apple TV interface with that hot, shiny, simplified interface you saw in screenshots and Apple’s recently-posted QuickTime video of the event.
Of course, you don’t get 1080p video support – that’s supported by speedier hardware inside the newest Apple TV, which goes on sale at the end of next week. But if you’d at least like your existing Apple TV to look the part, just make sure to run the “Update Software” command under the “General” menu.
Obviously, you don’t want to feel vomit rise in your throat every time you look at a tragic old-school Apple TV interface, so update it just as fast as you can (to version 5.0) and banish the old software to the dustbin of history.
After the iPad event ended, I had the opportunity to test out the new device and see if it really was as good as it seemed in the demos.
It really is.
It’s impossible to put into words just how good the Retina display is on the iPad. It’s not just images that look sharper, it’s text too. Reading a Web site or an iBook on the iPad’s display is incredible. Even the home screen on the iPad is crisper and sharper than I expected.
The iPad seemed quite a bit faster in doing tasks too. For example, looking at photos and scrolling showed no lag at all.
One of the great announcements for me was iPhoto and seeing that on the Retina display was amazing. iPhoto has the potential to really change the way a lot of people use the iPad.
The form factor of the iPad itself hasn’t really changed much. It’s still sleek and light-weight, but with all of the new features this is going to sell like crazy.
Along with a new version of iOS, Apple on Wednesday introduced iPhoto for iOS – the first version of the popular photo cataloging and editing software designed to work on the iPhone and iPad.
Available for $4.99 from the App Store starting today, iPhoto for iOS lets you compare photos, flag shots, adjust color, exposure and contrast, and enhance images using effects. You can share the shots you’re happy with using services like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. You can also send images to a nearby Apple TV using Airplay or use Apple’s iCloud service to publish photo journals online.
iMovie has been updated with a new Theater view that lets you preview your movie and choose from one of nine templates like Fair Tale, Superhero and Romance. The new Jam Session feature in GarageBand lets you invite friends (up to three) to connect wirelessly to your iPad so you can jam together. Jam Session synchronizes tempo, key and chords, automatically collecting everyone’s tracks together. Other new features of GarageBand include Smart Strings, a new touch instrument that lets you simulate the playing of a string orchestra, and a Note Editor. Both upgrades are free for existing users.
Apple has also updated the iWorks apps for iOS to version 1.6 – Pages, Keynote and Numbers. The new updates take advantage of the Retina display of the new iPad with new 3D charts, support for landscape orientation in Pages for iPhone and iPod touch, and new builds and transitions in Keynote including Iris, Shimmer, Wipe, Flame, Swing and Fade Through Color.
