Google Drive detailed: 5 GB for free, launching next week for Mac, Windows, Android and iOS

Sometimes we get lucky, and today is one of those days. I got a draft release from a partner of Google’s upcoming Google Drive service and it gives away a wealth of information about how Google plans to take on the incumbent Dropbox. The short story? 5 GB of storage, and it launches next week, likely on Tuesday at http://drive.google.com

Now let’s talk details. It’s no surprise that it will roll out for free. What’s interesting though is that Google is planning to start everyone with 5 GB of storage. Of course you can buy more, but that trumps Dropbox’s 2 GB that is included with every account. Dropbox does make it easy to get more space, including 23 GB of potential upgrades for HTC users.

What’s also interesting is the wording related to how the system will work. It’s been long-thought that Windows integration will come easy, but that getting the Google Drive icon into the Mac a la Dropbox would be a bit harder. From what we’re reading, Google Drive will work “in desktop folders” on both Mac and Windows machines, which still leaves the operation question unanswered.

But there is one very solid piece of news – Google Drive is expected to launch in the middle of next week. Given how big companies such as Apple, Google and the rest operate, I’m placing my bets on Tuesday, but Wednesday is also a popular day for Google updates. In fact, TechCrunch seems to have gotten their hands onto the app itself.

Now as for the reliability of the information? It’s not at all uncommon for big companies to launch with partners for new features. When that happens, the partners will often-times have a heads up to integration and specifics, and that’s exactly what appears to have happened here as it did with the Lucidchart leak from last week. We’ll have to wait and see exactly how it all works out, but let’s just say that our earlier prediction of in-app document editing is pretty solid as well, given the nature of the release that was sent to us today.

But the question remains – Can Google Drive hold a candle to Dropbox?

Read more »

The Best iOS Apps To Watch On Apple TV

Developers don’t have to wait for a fully baked version of Apple TV to come out to get a feel for
how their apps will play on the big screen.

Although an eco-system for Apple TV apps does not yet exist, there are dozens of quality iOS applications that are best consumed on an HDTV via AirPlay Mirroring. Creating apps specific to the leaned-back setting of the living room requires more than just supersizing titles originally conceived for smartphones or tablets. Successful Apple TV apps need to source and showcase entertainment, news and social activity in ways not currently possible via cable, satellite or video streaming providers.

Below are the 10 best iOS apps available on Apple TV today. Note that no games are featured here as that topic requires its own standalone assessment. I am also not including obvious titles like the pre-installed YouTube, as well as mainstream subscription-based services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. The apps showcased here provide a glimpse into what to expect in an app-enabled Apple television, and serve as models for any developer gearing up for the new platform.

Video Curation And Search
The 500-channel universe seems so passé. In a world with seemingly unlimited video options, these apps help surface clips and programs most important to you.

Showyou (iPhone, iPad: Free)
In many ways a Flipboard for video, Showyou elegantly displays clips shared by your social networks and other reliable sources. The app is currently divided into four distinct channels. In addition to showcasing videos shared by Facebook and Twitter contacts, Showyou has channels for overall popularity as well as for individuals and publishers you follow within the app. Notable members of Showyou include tech commentators Robert Scoble and John Gruber.

As well, from Funny or Die to Charlie Rose to NASA TV, there is a nice variety of publishers whose videos you may not otherwise see. To date, Showyou has tracked more than one billion social signals for approximately 40 million videos. Its video search engine is informed by all of this social behavior and is noticeably improving over time.

Visually, Showyou has a playful yet structured interface. The app displays streams of videos by channel in reverse chronological order starting at the top of the screen. More than even YouTube, Showyou is the best app for discovering new videos that are contextually relevant. It is also unlike any broadcast or cable network you will ever find.

Squrl Video Discovery (iPhone, iPad: Free)
Squrl categorizes videos from publishers better than Showyou and any other app optimized for AirPlay Mirroring. The app’s taxonomy for showcasing publishers is intuitive (Comedy = College Humor and Team Coco TV and Sports = Deadspin and The Bleacher Report, for instance). The app also has a faceted search layout, where results are sorted by relevancy within Squrl, how they appear on YouTube and where they are found within related YouTube playlists.

Squrl’s social integration, however, is lacking. Compared to Showyou, the shared videos from Facebook and Twitter contacts seemed delayed upon multiple viewings. As well, Squrl’s layout is a bit too cookie-cutter, making it more difficult to discover clips you didn’t even know you were interested in viewing. The app is still an extremely worthy download.

From The Broadcasters
Of course, it’s not wise to live off of curated YouTube clips alone. Here are the best examples of
how broadcasters are approaching apps for TV.

Touchtv (iPad: Free)
If you cut the cord from your cable or satellite provider but still want a taste of broadcast entertainment and mainstream news and sports coverage, Touchtv is your go-to app. Developed by the team behind news aggregation app SkyGrid, Touchtv airs short (on average three of four minutes) video clips from most major broadcast and cable networks. As Touchtv works in some capacity with each network it distributes, the production value of every clip is quite high (even if they leave you wanting more).

Touchtv has the slickest interface of all the video aggregation apps. You can select feeds from approximately 40 networks, which then appear as miniature squares on the homescreen. Tap a station like ESPN or Nickelodeon, and you see the most recent video. Scroll to the right to see the next video in line, or press the “Done” icon on the upper left part of the screen to see a more comprehensive directory.

The biggest complaint with Touchtv is that the videos are not full-length, and are essentially appetizers of programming still most easily accessed via cable or satellite providers. This is more of a licensing rather than a technological restraint, however. SkyGrid CEO Kevin Pomplun explained to Robert Scoble earlier this year that he is confident that the networks will eventually make all of their programming available via apps.

PBS KIDS Video (iPhone, iPad: Free)
My two-year-old son has no idea how to use a remote control, but is able to find episodes of Curious George and Cat in the Hat easily within this app. You can’t get a better testimonial than that in my household. While PBS KIDS Video is not technically optimized for AirPlay Mirroring as of this writing, the app and its more than 1,000 children’s videos display beautifully on Apple TV. The official ABC Player app is AirPlay optimized, and shows full-length episodes of dozens of shows (with limited commercial interruption) that air on the network.

Music Appreciation
It is highly likely that Apple’s next television offering will be a full-fledged media hub, forever impacting how we consume music in the living room. While no app today rivals YouTube for video music discovery on Apple TV, these independent titles are worth a look.

Qello (iPhone, iPad: Free, with $4.99 monthly subscription)
For professionally-produced, high-definition concert footage, Qello is currently without peer. The
company has licensing agreements with the rights holders, and the app’s ever-expanding library will please most rock, jazz and hip-hop fans. Concert films are categorized by artist, genre, and decade. The app also makes recommendations based on what is in your iTunes library. While a fair amount of concert and documentary footage can be viewed for free, an All-Access pass will run you $4.99 per month.

Other notable music apps that feature videos optimized for AirPlay Mirroring are Band of the Day and History of Jazz — an interactive timeline, both developed by 955 Dreams.

News and Current Events
If you’re looking to be informed without the bias of cable news outlets or the ambulance chasing absurdity of your local broadcast, these apps are your best bet.

Newsy for iPad — Video from Multiple Sources (iPhone, iPad: Free)
Newsy packs a lot of information and vantage points into its two-to-three minute video clips. The aim of each story, presented by in-house newscasters, is to provide multiple points of view around the biggest trending topics each day. Any given Newsy story can blend the biases of The New York Times or Fox News into one unique take. Newsy is a partner of the elite Missouri School of Journalism, and the app also serves as a vocational laboratory for those still willing to make a go of it in the news industry. Tap “Play All” on Newsy to watch its most recent coverage, and compare its performance and what you learned against the more established cable news networks.

Ustream (iPhone, iPad: Free)
This live video streaming service, originally conceived for the web, is a great preview guide for what individuals and organizations are broadcasting from all over the world. While Ustream is used by many to upload and transmit videos, its best application for AirPlay Mirroring is as a conduit to live or super-recent events, lectures and concerts that can be tapped into from the comfort of your own home.

Special Interests
As independent developers begin creating apps specific to Apple TV, a world of possibilities for longer tail interests awaits. These are the best apps optimized for AirPlay Mirroring to make you think, feel and breathe.

SnagFilms (iPad: Free)
More than 3,000 documentaries are contained within SnagFilms, which also exists online and via applications on multiple platforms. You can spend hours, if not days and weeks, watching award-winning documentaries on culture, politics, history and the arts. The biography library here is a nice antidote to the watered-down fare now found on A&E. SnagFilms is also a boon to individual filmmakers who have trouble finding distribution on traditional outlets.

TED (iPhone, iPad: Free)
While the now well-known global set of conferences technology, entertainment, and design conferences known as TED already have a prolific presence on Apple TV via podcasts within iTunes, accessing TED Talks to watch on the big screen is much more intuitive with its iPad app than the existing iTunes interface. The “Inspire Me” feature — where the app will create a playlist around a user’s given interest and amount of discretionary time — is not something that could be easily programmed with an Apple remote.

Authentic Yoga with Deepak Chopra for iPad (iPad: $1.99)
As a long-time practitioner of Bikram and Vinyasa Yoga, I’m not ready to ditch my studio membership to downward dog in front of the boob tube. But this app, which lets users create playlists of poses, is better and more economical than any DVD you can buy.

But what about Google TV?

While Google has operated its own television platform since 2010, like Apple TV, it has yet to draw a critical mass of mainstream users. My bet is that once Apple finally goes all-in on TV, Google will strike back strongly, very much like it did with its Android mobile operating system. In the meantime, here are some interesting Google TV apps worth getting to know.

Redux for Google TV: Curated content from the major broadcast and cable networks.

Qello for Google TV: See above, this music and concert app actually debuted on Android before iOS.

News Republic for Google TV: Popular smartphone and tablet app optimized for Google TV. More than 5,000 journalists curate thousands of stories each day.

Thuz Sports for Google TV: Sends push notifications when the game you’re interested in is in the balance.

TV & Movies for Google TV: This Google-developed app looks at all content sources (cable, satellite, Netflix, YouTube, etc.) and makes viewing recommendations.

Source

Read more »

Apple and environmental group to begin China pollution audit “within weeks”

The Financial Times is reporting that Apple is preparing to audit its Chinese supply chain for pollution and will begin joint investigations with a local environmental group ”in the next few weeks.”

The newspaper states that one of Apple’s partners, “a maker of printed circuit boards”, is set to be inspected by the firm and the China-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) as it looks to bring environmental issues to the surface.

News of the planned audit first broke in February when Ma Jun, the founder of the IPE, told USA Today that the firm had commissioned independent environmental reviews of at least two of its partner’s factories in China. However, it seems that Apple will have a level of involvement in proceedings, while there are no details of any more than the one factory visit.

The Cupertino-based firm has previously kept details of its environmental issues in-house but, as Jun explains, the company has now realised the importance of being open with its findings.

“One Apple vice-president said that transparency was needed and I felt that was the moment they decided they wanted to change the way they were doing things,” he told the Financial Times. “But it’s now become about validation, we keep telling them that you can’t just say that everything’s fine – we need proof.”

The change in attitude began last year when a meeting was held between Apple and its suppliers in China, following a series of environmental issues at a number of plants. Notebook casing supplier Catcher Technology was forced to close one facility over environmental concerns, while iPhone supplier Pegatron was fined for pumping out harmful gases during the manufacturing of products.

Apple is seemingly aware of issues in China, having increased the number of audits of its partners there to 229 last year, that’s 80 percent more than it ran in 2009, and it is now making public efforts to bring its workings in China up to the required standard.

The investigation into environmental issues follows Fair Labor Association (FLA) reports into the welfare of workers in Apple’s partner firms in China. Initial comments were positive, however the FLA’s conclusion found extensive violations in areas like payroll, working schedules and health and safety risks.

Two recent New York Times articles, How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work and In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad, painted a grim picture of the lives of workers that build the company’s products and put company CEO Tim Cook under increased pressure.

Cook has since visited China — becoming the first serving Apple CEO to do so — and the country is very much a focus, both in terms of sales and now the social side of its business.

We’ve contacted Apple for confirmation of the investigation and will update the article with any response we are given.

Source

Read more »

HTC One S vs Apple iPhone 4S

Here we go, folks, the battle of the “S”-es – the new HTC One S in the blue or black corner, and the iPhone 4S in the black or white corner. This may leave us with two black corners, though, and it's exactly the dark metal ceramic version of the One S we have now, so the fight will be based entirely on merits, rather than color preference.

We kid, since one thing is missing from HTC's phone to go head-to-head with the iPhone 4S in terms of specs, and it is pixel density, while it exceeds in other geeky stuff like processor clock and operating memory. The iPhone's iOS and Android have different resource needs, though, so we'll judge mainly on design, interface performance and camera quality, leaving the application stores aside.

With the new trend of higher-end Android devices coming with sealed batteries and non-expandable memory, just like the iPhone has been from day one, another Android differentiation is lost compared to it, so who will take over the ARM wrestling match? Read on our comparison to find out...


Design:

Apple's iPhone 4S has a unique steel-and-glass casing, which is yet unmatched by other manufacturers, even though this chassis is the same as the previous iPhone edition from 2010. It leaves a very premium feeling in the hand, with the downsides being that it makes the phone comparatively heavy, with sharp edges, and more prone to shatters and scratches than run-of-the-mill materials.

The HTC One S, on the other hand, sports two very distinct chassis materials – a blue-grey version with the more ordinary anodized aluminum, and the black version we have. Blacky is coated in a metal ceramic fusion obtained by zapping the aluminum frame with 10,000 volts, which results in oxidized metal that is three times stronger than stainless steel. This is making the phone very rigid and durable, but have no doubts that if you key it with a vengeance, marks will be left, this is no adamantium.

In terms of comfort, both phones lie well in the hand, with the iPhone leaving a more “edgy” feeling than the rounded corners and tapered back on the One S. HTC's handset is one of the most compact 4.3” phones we've handled, and is thinner than the iPhone 4S, but for smaller palms one-handed operation with the iPhone will come much easier since its screen size is 3.5”, and the whole phone is shorter and a tad narrower than the One S, so your thumb can reach everywhere.

Displays:

The displays on both phones are pretty different in both size and tech. We have the 3.5” Retina Display on the iPhone 4S, with its IPS-LCD technology and 640x960 resolution, meaning 326ppi pixel density, good colors, wide viewing angles, and high brightness.


The 4.3” AMOLED display on the HTC One S sports 540x960 pixels of resolution, which not only results in lower pixel density than the 4S, but since it is done with the PenTile matrix arrangement, the honeycomb structure of the dots makes some elements appear pixelated. Nothing you'd notice unless deliberately looking for it, though.

What they will notice are the oversatured colors on the display, which go way above the standard gamut, and the cold images, making white appear blueish compared to the iPhone 4S. AMOLED has other advantages, like wider viewing angles and deep blacks, hence extremely high contrast ratio. This comes in handy when watching movies, and the AMOLED screens draw much less energy then, compared to displaying white backgrounds during browsing, while for LCD ones this doesn't matter.

Source : phonearena

Read more »

Fire from ipod nano to cost apple

While the first version of Apple's iPod Nano media player came out in 2005, a number of the units have since been discovered to be faulty. Indeed, Apple issued a recall of the first generation iPod Nano just six months ago, in November 2011, due to a problem with its battery. Now it looks like Apple is going to have to pay a bigger price for the device's hardware issues.

The Japanese media outlet Nikkei (via The Verge) reports that a judge in that country has ordered Apple's Japan division to pay 600,000 yen (about $7,425) to an unidentified married couple in Tokyo. It seems the couple bought their iPod Nano in September 2005. However, in July of 2010, the couple claimed that when they were recharging the device, the iPod Nano started overheating.

The product then caught on fire and unfortunately the iPod Nano was in the hands of the wife at the time. She suffered burns on her hands that the report claims took a month to heal. The judge in the case said that Apple should pay the fine for the couple's medical fees along with general pain and suffering damages. So far, there's no word on if Apple will appeal the ruling.

Source : neowin

Read more »

Try Windows 8 Metro UI on your iPad using Splashtop

Trying out Windows 8 before it launches is quite a simple affair if you have a PC capable of running it. Simply download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview build and run it through a virtual machine or dual-boot your existing PC.

Taking the above route does give you Windows 8 to play with, but unless your PC has a touchscreen interface you aren’t going to get the full Metro UI experience. To achieve that, you may be surprised to find an iPad is probably your best option.

Splashtop has released a $25 remote desktop client that allows you to load up the Metro UI on your iPad. You’ll be able to use it as if Microsoft’s OS is actually installed on Apple’s hardware, and could class as the best pre-release Windows 8 touchscreen experience there is.

While consumers may be put off by the $25 price tag, a developer wanting to test out a Windows 8 app may view it as a bargain. Having an app ready for the launch of Windows 8 is sure to be worth quite a few sales as new users rush to try out the features, play some games, and get to grips with Metro.


To get this working you will need to download and install the Windows 8 Metro Testbed on your iPad from the App Store. Then download and install the Slpashtop Streamer on your PC. After that, it’s just a case of establishing a connection between the two, which requires a solid Internet connection.

Anyone considering doing this should act quickly. Although the $25 price may seem high, that’s an introductory offer and it will increase to $50 in the near future.

Source : geek

Read more »

Apple Denies U.S. Accusation of Collusion on E-books

WASHINGTON (AP) — Apple Inc. said Friday the government’s accusation that it conspired with major book publishers to raise the price of e-books is untrue.

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said that instead, Apple fostered innovation and competition by introducing its iBookstore in 2010. He said customers have benefited from e-books that are more interactive and engaging.

Apple’s entry into the e-book marketplace has broken “Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry,” said Neumayr.

Lawsuits filed this week by the Justice Department and 15 states said Apple and the publishers cost consumers more than $100 million in the past two years by adding $2 or $3, sometimes as much as $5, to the price of each e-book.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder said executives at the highest levels of the companies conspired to eliminate competition among e-book sellers. Justice’s antitrust chief, Sharis Pozen, said the executives were desperate to get Amazon.com – the marketer of Kindle e-book readers – to raise the $9.99 price point it had set for the most popular e-book titles, because that was substantially below their hardcover prices.

The federal government reached a settlement with three of the publishers, Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Shuster. But it will proceed with its lawsuit in federal court in New York City against Apple and Holtzbrinck Publishers, doing business as Macmillan, and The Penguin Publishing Co. Ltd., doing business as Penguin Group.

Connecticut and Texas, two of the 15 states filing a separate lawsuit, reached agreements with Hachette and HarperCollins to provide $52 million in restitution to consumers, using a formula based on the number of states participating and the number of e-books sold in each state. Other states in the case may sign onto the agreement, and other companies might be persuaded to join.



Source : techland

Read more »

Apple Fires Back at the Feds, Amazon

Nearly two days after the Department of Justice filed antitrust charges against Apple and major book publishers, Apple is responding. Here’s comment from Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr:

The DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true. The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.

Apple’s response is similar to ones made by Penguin Group and MacMillan, two of the five publishers named in the suit. The three other publishers — HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster — signed settlements with the DOJ immediately after the suit was filed Wednesday morning. (News Corp., which owns HarperCollins, also owns this Web site.)

It’s worth noting that Apple’s pricing policy with books and apps differs from the setup it has with the music industry. In that relationship, Apple pays the music labels a wholesale price for their digital assets, and then sets the retail price itself.

Source : allthingsd

Read more »

Apple to DOJ: Amazon had a monopoly on ebooks and the iBookstore broke it

Only a few days after the US Department of Justice filed suit against Apple as well as many other publishers over the pricing of ebooks, Apple has finally decided to break its silence on the matter.

According to All Things Digital, Apple spokesperson Tom Neumayr had the following to say:

“The DOJ’s accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true. The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon’s monopolistic grip on the publishing industry. Since then customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we’ve allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set prices on the iBookstore.”

The suit, which came after 2 years of investigation against the publishers, alleges price fixing in the ebooks market, as well as collusion between the publishing houses. Apple took on what it calls an “agency model” wherein the publisher (in this case Apple) would set the pricing rather than the retailer.

What’s probably most interesting here is Apple’s argument that it is using the App Store pricing scheme with ebooks. It would be hard to argue that developers and advertisers alike have profited greatly in Apple’s walled garden of the App Store, so it’s just as easy to argue that it’s the ideal model to take for iBooks as well.

In what seems to be a response to the controversy, Amazon today slashed prices on a number of its ebooks, in some cases by as much as $5. As the New York Times points out, the move is a strong one, which could end up setting the pricing precedent for ebooks across the market.

Source : thenextweb

Read more »

Apple will finally be allowed to intervene on behalf of developers in Lodsys patent case

Apple will be given limited rights to intervene on behalf of developers sued by patent troll Lodsys, a source has informed Florian Mueller of Foss Patents.

Today, finally, Apple’s motion was granted in part: “Apple is permitted to intervene in this suit, but such intervention is limited to the issues of patent exhaustion and licensing.”

Judge Rodney Gilstrap concluded that Apple was entitled to intervene, and in any event, a permissive intervention (one that the court can allow in its discretion) was also an option.

Back in August, Apple insisted on intervention rights in the case, even after a rebuff attempt from Lodsys should be a welcome one for many small developers that are waiting with bated breath the outcome of this proceeding.

In the meantime, the original Judge on the case resigned and another one was appointed. Smaller defendants in the case, like The Iconfactory, settled the dispute with Lodsys privately. Google also filed a request to intervene back in August of 2011, so hopefully that will go through as well and Lodsys will have its hands full.

This whole saga began when Lodsys, now thought to be a shell company for huge patent firm Intellectual Ventures, began sending out letters to developers informing them that their use of in-app purchasing infringed on Lodsys’ patents. Lodsys then explained its stance and proceeded to go on to sue most of the developers that had received letters, along with many more. Apple then made a public statement saying that its developers already were licensed for in-app purchasing because Apple themselves were licensed. Lodsys responded negatively, saying that developers were not Apple’s customers after all and that they would need to negotiate licensing deals separately.

Needless to say, this has been quite the ordeal, especially for many developers who created iPhone apps solo or with small teams, and have been feeling that their only recourse was to bow to Lodsys’ demands and license the patent separately.

Source : thenextweb

Read more »

An iPhone User Tries Nokia’s Lumia 800 For Two Weeks

There’s a lot of talk right now about Nokia and its Windows Phone 7 handsets. Specifically, it is the newly released and much hyped Lumia 900 which is seeing most of the headlines and clicks right now.

The handset itself is expected, or at least hoped, to signal a return to form for Nokia and to offer Microsoft a way back into the minds of US smartphone buyers who have been happy to lean towards iOS, Android or even BlackBerry over the last few years.

While the Lumia 900 is the subject of many a review right now – not all of them good, just ask The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky about that – that isn’t the model I’m here to tell you about. I’m here to tell you about the handset that brought Windows Phone 7 to the world of Nokia, and is currently the top-of-the-line Lumia that is available outside the United States.

Those paying attention will have realized I am talking about the Lumia 800, Nokia’s first Windows Phone 7 device. Arguably the Lumia 900′s older brother, the handset has one big thing in common with the Lumia 900 – it was seen as nothing short of the second coming of Nokia, and just the same as the 900, it disappointed while still being a very good smartphone.

But let me back up a second before I qualify that statement.

First off, and to put everything into context, there is something you should know about me. If you’ve been reading closely over the last year or so, then you’re probably already aware that I own an iPhone. I’ve had every iPhone bar the 3GS, and I’m very happy with my current 4S. I like iPhones.

I’ve had Android phones in the past, too. The most recent was a Nexus S from Samsung, and it was OK. Not great, just OK.

I’ve even had Windows Phone 7 handsets before, with the HTC HD7 the pick of the bunch. Again, it was OK.

So, I waiting for the Lumia 800 to arrive with great intrigue. The HD7 had whetted my appetite for Windows Phone 7, because in all honesty, I enjoyed the OS. It was a breath of fresh air, especially on the back of my Nexus S experience. The hardware, however, left a lot to be desired.

When the Lumia 800 arrived I decided to go full bore with my little experiment. My SIM card came out of my iPhone and went into the Lumia, with the aim of it not returning to its home for a full two weeks. Off I set on my mini adventure, Nokia wunderphone in hand.

Now this is not going to be a full, 5,000 word review of the Lumia 800 because, frankly, everyone’s read enough of them since the handset’s original release. It got good reviews for good hardware, but the software was lacking. This sounded like the opposite of my HTC HD7 experience, so I was looking forward to spending some time with the Nokia.

The first few days were pretty good. The novelty factor was certainly in full effect, and I can honestly say this is the best Windows Phone 7 handset I have ever used. I would possibly go so far as to say it is better than any Android handset I have ever used, but seeing as I’ve not had my hands on any of the latest Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones yet, then I’m not going to imply that stands for much.

My real problem, and I feared this would happen, is that it’s not my iPhone.

I’ll explain that a little further. Having used iPhones for years, I have built up an almost symbiotic relationship with it. I know all my apps, I know how they work, and they work how I want them to. I have an app that will allow me to do just about anything that I could do with my MacBook, should the need arise, including managing a home server over SSH, FTP or VNC. There may be apps that do such things for Windows Phone 7, but I didn’t find any good ones, if any at all.

That may sound like a very narrow example, but it is an example nonetheless. My main issue, working my way through those two weeks without an iPhone, was that I just didn’t feel as if I was connected to everything. I missed Instagram. The Facebook and Twitter apps felt alien to the point of not wanting to use them. These Live Tiles I hear so much about didn’t do what I had hoped and the Metro interface grew old once the novelty of all those transitions wore off. In short, the whole experience felt gimmicky, but with little substance.

All this is a real shame. Nokia’s hardware is undoubtedly gorgeous, and the Lumia 900 is no different by all accounts. The issue is that despite throwing itself into Windows Phone 7, Nokia is still lacking a real mobile OS that will claw people away from iOS and Android. Apps speak volumes for a platform these days, and Windows Phone 7 just doesn’t have them in large enough quantities and of enough quality to really compete.

The end result was a disappointing one. I didn’t get through my two weeks with the Lumia without having to admit defeat and return to my iPhone. As much as I wanted to love the Lumia 800, I just couldn’t live with it, and that was the end of that.

One thing that is worth nothing though, is that I am what people would call a power user. Most smartphone owners won’t be doing the things I do on a daily basis, and with that in mind I do wonder whether Windows Phone 7 may have a home in the market yet, just not in my home. Less nerdy types may enjoy all those transitions, and Nokia’s own apps add value to be sure, just not for me.

To be clear here, the problem I have with the Nokia Lumia 800 is not so much with the handset itself, but with the software. Windows Phone 7 has improved greatly since the early days, but has it improved enough to really compete? I fear not.

If you are a Windows Phone 7 fan though, the Lumia 800, and I suspect the 900 too, are well worth a look. If you’re an iOS or Android owner though, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.

And that’s the real shame.

Source : redmondpie

Read more »

AppMosaic For iPhone Displays The Top 200 Free / Paid Apps In A Beautiful Mosaic Pattern

If you’re a fan of tweaks a little out of the ordinary, then AppMosaic by ctrled may be just the sort of thing you look for. Probably classifiable as an app as opposed to a tweak, it portrays the top 200 apps (free and paid) in one elongated mosaic. It only depicts the icons, but by tapping on them, a box appears at the bottom of the screen denoting the title and its publisher/developer.

Since the App Store app only seems to load 25 entries at a time (the rigmarole of scrolling down and tapping "see more" can get tiresome if you’re interested in the broader scale), AppMosaic is certainly useful because it allows you to view all of the top free and paid apps with very little scrolling.

Having said that, it’s WinterBoard dependent, and I, for one, like to avoid the very outdated, bloated visual modification jailbreak app wherever possible. If you don’t have an issue with WinterBoard, and think the mosaic looks good, or will be helpful in your quest to find new apps – or all of the above – then fire up Cydia and get downloading.

Additionally, it clashes quite heavily with Springtomize 2 (at least, in my experience), and would not install until I completely disabled it, so you may want to take this into consideration before you do download it.

It’s available over at the ModMyi repository – a default entry to your Cydia source list – and is absolutely free of charge. There are no modifiable settings – the icon simply sits on your home screen, so if you no longer wish to use AppMosaic, then simply open Cydia and remove it.

Of course, you will need to jailbreak your device to install this tweak. For jailbreaking the latest iOS 5.1 (tethered), follow the instructions posted here to jailbreak using Redsn0w, or here for Sn0wbreeze. For jailbreaking iPhone 4S and iPad 2, you can simply follow our step by step tutorial posted here to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 using Absinthe on Windows or Mac. Those of you with an iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1, and iPod touches can use Redsn0w or Sn0wbreeze to untether jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1.

Be sure to check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the web.

Source : redmondpie

Read more »

Check if your Mac has the Flashback trojan

If you’ve been following the tech news over the past few days, you’ve probably seen a few mentions of the Flashback trojan. It’s been said that over 550,000 Macs have been infected, which is a staggering amount considering the relative safety (or at least the perceived safety) of OS X. The malicious software has been known of for a few months now — it disguised itself as a Flash installer, making it seem like an innocuous addition to your computer, when it was anything but.

But how to do you find out if your Mac is infected with Flashback? It’s surprisingly easy — a tool that will diagnose your computer is available here. You just need to download it, unzip the package, and then run the two applications within.

If you were affect, the removal process is outlined here. F-Secure’s instructions look pretty complex, they mostly involve finding the terminal and then copying and pasting.

And, don’t worry, the good folks at Apple are on top of the issue. An update made available today, known as Java for OS X 2012-002, will address the problem. It might seems like a nondescript OS update but it includes two important components. The eponymous one is a Java update that brings Java SE 6 to version 1.6.0_31. The other, HT1222, is the security component, though no explanation is offered as to what was specifically changed aside from it dealing with Java.

This is the second update Apple has issued in response to Flashback. And, this time, only OS X 10.7 (Lion) systems received the patch. Java for OS X 2012-002 is available now and does not require a restart. OS X Lion users simply need to go to the Apple icon (on the top left) and then choose “Software Update” to get it.

While Macs are affected, the malware exploits a flaw in Java not OS X specifically (though Apple maintains its own version of Java, so you can look at the situation either way). Even so, this can be seen as a sign of things to come for Mac users — as the operating system get more popular the computers using it will increasingly be a target for attacks like this one. The install base is still relatively small compared to that of Windows, but it’s large enough that OS X is a worthwhile target. The days of OS X users gallivanting around the internet with impunity are over, so get some security software and think twice about what you install.

Source : geek

Read more »

iPhone 5 to have a Larger 4 inch Screen

If you think, the iPhone 4S is sizzling, iPhone 5 will be much better if rumors are to be believed. The new generation of the iPhone, gadgets yet to be released will have a larger 4-inch screen coming with a brand new and sleeker design.

What is New?
The sleek and new design will be the main attraction of the iPhone 5 and the 4G connectivity support will be an added advantage. Customers are expected to ‘dwarf’ iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S when the new iPhone is launched- that in itself is and achievement in itself considering that present iPhones have been hugely successful. The built-up to the iPhone 5 launch is the same if one looks at what happened before iPhone 4 debuted
.
Unlocked Old iPhones
Finally, AT&T allowed unlocking iPhones- and that is terrific news for Apple users since the wireless network has a vast network. T-Mobile has long been an ardent supporter of old iPhone users. The T-Mobile network has about one million unlocked and or jailbroken iPhone gadgets.
T-Mobile, however, has a less attractive connectivity solution compared to other networks like AT&T or Sprint- the 3G network is still not the best, and the 4G HSPA+ network will only be introduced this year.

Source : newgadget

Read more »

Alternatives to the iPhone

Q:
I’ve been using the iPhone since it came out in 2007. And while I’m satisfied with the way it works, I’m considering changing phones just to have something different—in particular a larger screen. What, in your opinion, are the best alternatives to the iPhone? I use mine primarily for email, along with checking stocks and weather.
A:
I would go with an Android phone, which has plenty of apps that are similar to what you are used to, and which typically these days come with larger screens, some exceeding 4.5 inches. There are always new models coming out, and there are so many that it can be hard to recommend one. But, in my tests, I’ve been especially impressed with the Samsung Galaxy models.
Q:
I’m a Verizon user currently on 3G and we’ve been promised 4G in our area by end of 2013. Do you have any indication Verizon is actually going to continue with LTE service or is this just a smoke screen? Are they really going to roll out new 4G (LTE) service or is this just chosen markets?
A:
I don’t know where you live, or when or whether Verizon Wireless plans to offer LTE, the fastest cellular data network, in your particular area. But I can say that, for Verizon, LTE is anything but a “smoke screen,” and I’d be stunned if the carrier didn’t continue rolling it out. Verizon has deployed it in over 200 markets and says it plans to cover 400 markets by the end of 2012. It’s a key part of the company’s competitive strategy.
Every carrier that deploys a new network starts with a few “chosen markets,” and there are always some areas left out, even years later, for various reasons. But from everything I know, Verizon is planning a broad national LTE network.
Q:
I run Windows 7 on a Mac using Parallels Desktop. Can I use the normal Windows update process to keep Windows 7 up to date or will it compromise the Windows setup through Parallels?
A:
Your virtual copy of Windows inside the Parallels software is designed to work just like Windows on a physical PC. That includes the Windows update process, which I have used many times on Windows via Parallels. This is separate from any updates made by Apple to the Mac operating system, or updates to the Parallels program itself.

Source : allthingsd

Read more »

Will Apple make a 7 inch iPad?

Will Apple make a 7 inch iPad? That’s the question being batted around yet again today. The true answer right now is easy: I don’t know. No one does. Most likely not even Apple. They’re undoubtedly thinking about it. And may even have to make a call soon. But it has probably not been decided just yet. But that’s a lame answer. Let’s sexy it up using history, logic, and common sense.

Will Apple make a 7 inch iPad?

Yes.

This topic came up today because of remarks John Gruber made during a podcast he records on a weekly basis with Dan Benjamin. When Benjamin asked Gruber about the possibility of Apple making a 7 inch tablet, Gruber responded: “Well, I don’t know. What I do know is that they have one in the lab. A 7.85 inch iPad that runs at 1024×768. It’s just like the regular iPad shrunk down a bit.”

This should surprise no one. Apple has many prototypes of various devices in different stages of the product lifecycle. They probably have a few other variations of the iPad as well, and they probably have for years (pre-dating the iPhone even). Most prototypes never see the light of day. But I believe this one that Gruber is talking about will.

Again, I have no actual inside information here. But just think about it for a second.

Apple views the iPad as the future of general computing. They already sell in far greater quantity than Macs (and every other PC). And Apple drops hints from time to time that the category may even eventually be bigger than the crown jewel of their entire kingdom: the iPhone.

Apple may or may not be able to take the iPad to such heights with one form factor. But it will be a lot easier if they have two.

Apple often starts product lines with the Henry Ford mentality: “You can have any color as long as it’s black.” Mac, MacBook, iMac, iPod, etc. As the product matures, so does the offering. New form factors. New sizes.

The one major exception, of course, is the iPhone. It has always had the 3.5 inch screen even as the competition has gone bigger — sometimes ridiculously so. But you can certainly make the argument that the iPhone exception is the right call. A mobile phone has to be portable enough to carry around all the time comfortably. And you want to be able to use it with one hand (thumb reach). And given Apple’s preference towards pixel-perfect design, keeping the screen the same size ensures apps are relatively uniform.

The iPad doesn’t have the same constraints. At 9.7 inches, you obviously can’t carry it in your pocket. Nor can you use it with one hand. The proportional design aspect remains true (the iPad ratio exactly doubled the iPhone ratio), but as Gruber points out, a 7.85 inch screen running at the original iPad’s 1024×768 resolution would keep things simple for developers. It could work. And it will.

But wait, won’t users have to whittle down their fingers with sandpaper to use a 7 inch screen? Steve Jobs did in fact suggest this a few times. But he said a lot of things. In fact, if you look throughout the history of Apple, you can often predict that Apple is eventually going to do something if Jobs implied in the past that they never would. Look at your iPad right now. There’s plenty of room to shrink things a bit. Apps and their attributes just have to remain basically in proportion.

But even at a high level, all of this is too technical. The bottom line is that there isn’t a week that goes by without someone coming up to me and gushing about the iPad, but wishing it was a bit smaller. Not everyone feels this way, of course. And that’s why Apple will keep the 9.7 inch model as well. But there are plenty of folks out there who want a smaller version.

The fact of the matter is that the iPad is great at many things and the list is constantly expanding. But it’s not great for holding up for prolonged periods of time in certain settings. This is problematic for say, reading in bed. It’s not that it’s too heavy, it’s not. But the large size does make it a bit clunky at times. A 7 inch iPad would be perfect in many of those situations.

Of course, that alone would not be enough for Apple to do the smaller iPad. But like the iPod mini (and nano), Apple understands the mentality that smaller is often better in the eyes of many. The mini and nano eventually became far more popular than the original iPod. (Some) options are important. None more so than pricing options.

The Kindle Fire has a 7-inch screen. It’s $199. By most accounts, it’s pretty poor when compared to the iPad. But that isn’t stopping millions of people from buying them. $199 to $499 (the entry-level new iPad) is a big jump. Even $199 to $399 (the iPad 2′s new price) is a big jump. If Apple can sell the iPad 2 at $399 with a healthy margin, imagine what they could do with a smaller-screen iPad? I wouldn’t rule out $299.

Paying $199 for a 7 inch Kindle Fire versus $299 for a 7.85 inch iPad would be a significantly harder call for many consumers. For many others, it would be an obvious one: get the iPad.

Also consider the forthcoming Google-branded tablet. While few details are known about it, everything leaking out suggests a very competitive price compared to the Kindle Fire, and as such, likely a similar form factor. In the two years since the iPad first launch, everyone has tried and failed to compete directly against Apple. The only avenue getting any traction is this smaller and cheaper Kindle Fire. And it’s only getting some traction because it’s a space where Apple is simply not competing. Yet.

Consider the 11-inch MacBook Air versus the 13-inch MacBook Air. I’ve had both models. The reality is that they’re not all that different. The 11 is (obviously) smaller and lighter, but the 13 is pretty damn small and light compared to just about any other notebook ever created. Still, Apple offers both. Consider also the MacBook Pro line: 13 inch. 15 inch. 17 inch. The reality again is they’re not all that much different on a macro level. But Apple still offers all of them.

You could certainly argue that a 7 inch iPad versus a 9 inch iPad is a more meaningful difference since you have to be holding it all the time to use it. You’ll notice it more. Some people will prefer one size. Some will prefer the other. In some cases, it will depend on the circumstance. Plenty of folks will probably buy both. A 7 inch for the kids, a 9 inch for the grownups, for example. Or maybe a 9 inch for work and a 7 inch for home.

I also suspect that like the difference in laptop sizes, the smaller iPad would come less juiced-up in the spec category. Since the spec is dead, Apple probably won’t play this up much, but to keep costs down, maybe the smaller iPad would have a last-generation chip. Or maybe it would have a slightly less powerful one than the current generation 9 inch iPad.

Maybe it would also have less storage. Or maybe the high range of the storage options would simply be less. Apple will clearly soon move to a 128 GB option for the 9 inch iPad and drop the 16 GB option. Maybe a 7 inch iPad would start at 16 GB and only give the option to go up to 64 GB.

Maybe the 7 inch would have slightly less battery life due to less physical space for a battery. Or maybe it would be the same because the smaller screen would draw less power.

Lots of possibilities. The point is, I suspect that with the 7 inch iPad, Apple would vary more than just the screen size. It would be the most important difference, but not the only one. And it would result in Apple selling a ton of both models. And it would drive even more revenue and profit Apple’s way while keeping their rivals at bay.

I’m basically writing this post so that when Apple does release a 7 inch iPad at some point in the future, I can point back here and say “I told you so”. Cause I did. The option is just sitting on the table waiting for Apple to pounce. This is about the future of computing. It’s about expanding the brand. It’s about securing the stake. It makes sense. It will happen.

Source : techcrunch

Read more »

What Does A Post-UDID World Look Like For iPhone And iPad Developers?

This past week has been a big wake-up call for the iOS developer community. The need to move away from UDIDs, or an ID scheme that many developers rely on to power advertising and store data about their users, took on extra urgency after Apple issued a few app rejections related to UDID use over the past week and a half.

Even though Apple told developers that it would deprecate UDIDs about six months ago, the community hadn’t yet converged on a good alternative.

There is a lot of misinformation right now. Because Apple often communicates policy changes through one-off app rejections instead of publishing a clear and transparent notice to everyone, developers get incredibly aggravated by rumors. While being super secretive stokes consumer appetite for Apple products, it’s a ridiculously awful way to operate a platform that 700,000 apps rely on.

Chartboost, which does direct advertising trades between developers, sent out an e-mail last night saying that the stories about UDID rejections are “completely fabricated.”

But another indie developer, TapBots, posted an actual copy of a rejection notice they received this morning

So what is going on?

So this morning, apps are still getting through the approval process even if they access UDIDs, according to conversations with some of the ad and install networks. The distinction is that they need to disclose this fact to users and ask for permission.

“There is literally not one developer’s app that we could find that had a rejection due to UDID alone,” said Peter Farago, who is vice president of marketing at Flurry, a mobile analytics company that serves more 160,000 apps.

But is the UDID still going away some day? Yes, but I don’t know the timeline. Amid media and Congressional scrutiny, Apple is moving away from letting developers access UDIDs or unique device identification numbers. UDIDs carry more privacy risks than cookies on the web, because they can’t be cleared or deleted and they’re tied to the most personal of devices — the phone we carry with us everywhere.

What can you use instead? Here are a bunch of competing methods for generating IDs. (Forgive me because I’m not technical. But this is my best understanding about the relative advantages and disadvantages of each method.) If you want to read an ad platform’s take on this, Jim Payne at MoPub has a survey of all the techniques as well.

Device Fingerprinting: This is a way of generating an ID number from a number of characteristics about a user, like what kind of mobile browser they have, the device they’re using or their location. You need many parameters to generate enough combinations so there aren’t duplicates.

Who’s doing it? Mobile App Tracking, a Seattle-based firm. The company behind it, Has Offers, counts LivingSocial and Zynga among its clientele. They charge 5 cents per install for 0 to 5,000 installs, 3 cents per install for between 5 and 25,000 installs and a penny an install once you get past 25,000 installs.
Pros: It probably won’t get rejected as it’s outside of Apple’s control.

Cons: It’s a probabilistic approach that carries the risk of generating duplicates. Mobile App Tracking says they minimize this by only generating a fingerprint at one point in time when the user initially opens the app. “Over a long period of time, fingerprinting can produce discrepancies. But the reason we’re seeing such a high percentage of accuracy is because we’re only fingerprinting for a short period of time,” says Micah Gantman, the director of mobile business at HasOffers, the company behind Mobile App Tracking.

Copy-and-Pasteboard Method:
This is roughly analogous to the way you might copy something from one application like Microsoft Word and paste it in Powerpoint. “The copy and paste buffer is really meant for copying and pasting from function to function,” says Craig Palli, a vice president of business development at Fiksu, a Charles River Ventures-backed company that helps mobile developers get users cheaply. “It was not intended to be used this way.”
Who’s doing it? Appsfire’s OpenUDID and Crashlytics’ SecureUDID, and there’s super drama between the two of them! MoPub, which operates a real-time bidding platform more mobile advertising and was founded by some early AdMob folks, is putting its weight behind OpenUDID.

Pros: Probably not getting rejected by Apple. Both OpenUDID and SecureUDID give consumers opt outs.
Cons: There are a couple of developers who have raised concerns around data leakage with OpenUDID, but Appsfire’s co-founder Ouriel Ohayon says those have been resolved. SecureUDID was created by one of the contributors to OpenUDID because they thought that Appsfire’s approach was flawed. It assigned a single identifier to each device. SecureUDID creates multiple identifiers per device and a developer would need a domain and a salt to access them. Ohayon says OpenUDID serves a totally different need than SecureUDID (read his comments below!)

HTML5 First Party Cookies:
This mimics what advertising networks have been doing for years on the desktop web to track users through cookies. If it were implemented in native mobile apps, you’d have to force the user to open a Safari browser window when they first open the app or click on an ad.
Who’s doing it? Don’t know, but it wouldn’t be surprising if companies behind web-based ad targeting companies eventually moved in to create solutions for mobile developers.
Pros: Probably won’t get rejected. “It’s really similar to what we’ve been doing over the last 15 years on the web,” Palli said.
Cons: It’s a bad user experience to make users open a web browser every time they install an app.

Wi-Fi MAC Address:
The MAC or media access control address is an identifier that’s assigned to networked devices (whether they’re smartphones or laptops). Like the UDID, it’s definitely unique to every device.
Who’s doing it? The ODIN, or open device identification number, is generating ID numbers from the MAC Address. InMobi, an advertising network that has raised about $216 million and is backed by Kleiner Perkins, has chosen ODIN.
Pros: It’s definitely unique to every single device, just like the UDID. So it would be an easy one-to-one replacement.

Cons: This probably won’t last very long and it’s our understanding that Apple will also eventually crack down on access to MAC addresses. The MAC Address has the same privacy flaws as the UDID because it’s unique to every device and is hard to erase or clear, unless you jailbreak your device and spoof it (which most people aren’t going to do). “The MAC Address is terrible,” Payne said. “Your phone is constantly broadcasting your MAC Address to find Wi-fi networks. It’s literally being broadcast while you walk around. So it’s got all the same problems at UDID, plus this other huge problem.”

Everyone does their own identifier:
Who’s doing it? Many companies are rolling their own ID schemes just in case.
Pros: It probably won’t get rejected by Apple.

Cons: It’s like the Tower of Babel. If everyone uses their own ID scheme, how will developers know which ad network performed the best for them? There would need to be some kind of complicated, centralized broker that could match IDs from one service against others while preserving user privacy. While mobile analytics service Kontagent didn’t create this to specifically address the UDID issue, the company launched something called the Mobile Acquisition Transparency Alliance today which is meant to standardize reporting from many different mobile advertising networks. It handles many identifiers and has a single API that developers can use to report performance from different campaigns they run.

This whole ordeal is part of a much broader debate among policy makers, platform providers like Apple, Facebook and Google and the public about how to best guard privacy amid an explosion of popular consumer web and mobile apps.

Because the nature of software distribution has changed so much over the last five years with the advent of the Facebook, iOS and Android platforms, it’s possible for a two-man band to wind up with millions of users in a matter of months and personal data on each and every one of them. In most cases, developers are well-meaning and they just want to create great products that people love. But some are unscrupulous.

On top of that, there is also the question of how much notice or control consumers should have around their data. The trend toward free apps has created a world in which consumers are implicitly bargaining their attention and personal data for these products. Like the saying goes: if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product!

Even if the Federal Trade Commission does end up setting certain rules and expectations around apps and privacy, enforcing them is very difficult. If the platforms run by the best technology companies in the world can’t do it right 100 percent of the time, what chance do government officials have?

Source : techcrunch

Read more »

‘iPad’ is in danger of becoming a generic trademark – and that’s great for Apple

Interesting weekend piece by AP business writer Mae Anderson, who opines that Apple’s iPad is on the verge of being ‘genericized’ – i.e. the brand name is now nearly synonymous to the ‘tablet computer’ class of products as a whole – joining the likes of Kleenex, Photoshop, Xerox, Rollerblade, Google, Yo-Yo and Band-Aid.

It’s a valid argument, although it’s of course impossible to pinpoint when such a brand ‘genericization’ occurs exactly.

I do know from hanging around with people who aren’t as embedded in the tech industry as I am that Apple’s iPod and iPhone have reached that very status – some of my friends will call any smartphone with a touch screen an iPhone, whichever operating system the phone in question runs, and not out of sheer ignorance.

Apple didn’t exactly invent the tablet computer category, but they might as well have. The first-generation iPad was a trailblazer, released at a perfect time, and of course benefited greatly from Apple’s existing armies of customers, developers and brand advocates. No other tablet computer has been able to touch the iPad let alone threaten its dominance on the market, and it seems Apple is doing its utmost to stay a few steps ahead of its competitors at every turn.

We genuinely look forward to trying out high-end Android tablets, and soon, tablets running Microsoft’s latest Windows operating system, but Anderson’s words ring true: when you’d ask people what they think off when you mention the term ‘tablet computer’, they’re most likely to project an iPad in their minds and not, say, a Toshiba Folio 100 or Acer Iconia Tab A500.

Anderson points out that brand genericization isn’t always a good thing; building on the previous para, you can imagine Apple wouldn’t be excited about people consistently calling the Toshiba Folio 100 ‘an iPad’.

Theoretically, if iPad becomes too synonymous with the term ‘tablet computers’, rivals could actually sue to have Apple stripped of its U.S. trademark (see what happened to ‘aspirin’). As tech industry bloggers, we genuinely hope one of Apple’s competitors ever tries to do just that (field day!), but we doubt it’ll happen.

There isn’t much a company can do about its brand becoming so ‘household’ that it turns into a generic trademark. We also doubt Apple really worries as long as pretty much everyone is buying iPads and it reapings all the profits.

So don’t break out the Kleenex for Apple just yet – it’s not like it has hurt sales for the iPod or iPhone much in past times. We know because we Googled it.

Source :  thenextweb

Read more »

Apple lures away Symantec executive Phillip Bullock to head up its tax department

Apple’s hires are traditionally quiet affairs, and one of its most recent is no different. A recent SEC filing by computer security giant Symantec has revealed that the Cupertino-based company has hired its former Chief Accounting Officer Phillip Bullock, and will lead Apple’s tax department.

As a result of the hire, Symantec appointed Andrew Del Matto as its new Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer, who has seven years at the company under his belt, as its Corporate Treasurer and Vice President of Finance Business Operations.

From the SEC filing:

Phillip A. Bullock, who was appointed as Symantec’s Chief Accounting Officer in September 2009, announced he will be leaving the Company to lead the tax department at Apple, Inc., and not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matters relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.

The company hasn’t released around Bullock’s appointment, although it could update information on its investor relations website soon.

Apple’s most high-profile appointment this year was that of former Dixons Retail CEO John Browett. The Englishman filled the position of Senior Vice President of Retail, which was formerly held by Ron Johnson.

Johnson announced his impending departure from Apple in June this year and is now the CEO of US department store chain J. C. Penny.

Source : thenextweb

Read more »

iPhone and iPod Touch Rumors Collide in Apple Rumorpocalypse

What’s better than a blog post based on a single sketchy iPhone rumor? A blog post about three iPhone rumors, of course, with a side of iPod Touch speculation for good measure.

First up is 9 to 5 Mac, which states that Apple is testing a new iPhone prototype. This device apparently uses a variation of the A5X processor that debuted in the new iPad and has 1 GB of RAM. If this rumor holds up, Apple will essentially be following a pattern from the last two years, where the specs of the latest iPad wound up in the iPhone later that year.

As for design, 9 to 5 Mac says Apple’s prototype uses the same case as the iPhone 4/4S, but that’s probably just a defense against leaks, not the final design.

That brings us to rumor number two, via AppleInsider: Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White is parroting the popular notion that Apple’s next iPhone will have an all-new design, with a 4-inch display instead of the 3.5-inch screen in all previous iPhones. White, who’s basing his report on a tour of suppliers in China and Taiwan, believes the next iPhone will have a “sleek” unibody design and support for 4G LTE networks.

Contrary to dubious reports that the iPhone 5 would launch in June, our third rumor claims that Apple’s next phone will launch in October 2012, a year after the launch of the iPhone 4S. You can thank South Korea’s Maeil Business News (via Kotaku) for lending credence to what seems like a pretty safe bet.

Finally, we come back to 9 to 5 Mac for rumor number four. Apparently, a bit of code inside iOS 5.1 hints at a new iPod Touch, with the internal product label “iPod 5,1.” Seeing as Apple hasn’t refreshed the iPod Touch since September 2010, I’d be surprised if a new model isn’t on the way. The question is timing, since I don’t think the company will go back to holding September events specifically for the iPod and iTunes.

None of these reports contain any earth-shattering revelations, but as my colleague Harry McCracken noted, the most accurate iPhone rumors rarely do. Manage your expectations, and you won’t be disappointed when new iPhones and iPod Touches do come along.

Source : techland.time

Read more »