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• 500GB Hard Drive
• 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM, DVD SuperDrive
• 21.5" LED-backlit display with a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, AMD Radeon HD 6750M
• Mac OS X v10.7 Lion

Introducing the new iMac. The ultimate all-in-one goes all out. The new iMac features next-generation quad-core processors and the fastest graphics ever in an all-in-one computer. It also brings Thunderbolt I/O technology to the desktop for lightning-fast data transfer. And a new FaceTime HD camera lets you make full-screen HD video calls.* All from a beautiful widescreen LED-backlit display that takes up just a sliver of your desk. It’s everything you want in a desktop. Now more powerful, more advanced, and even more incredible than before. *FaceTime requires a FaceTime-enabled iOS device with a Wi-Fi connection or a FaceTime-enabled Mac with an Internet connection and FaceTime for Mac software (may require separate purchase). Not available in all areas. The Ultimate All-in-One Goes All Out. The 21.5-inch iMac features a brilliant LED-backlit, edge-to-edge glass display (see larger image). The new iMac features next-generation Intel Core i5 quad-core processors and the fastest gr

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Click Here For Info About Apple iMac MC309LL/A 21.5-Inch Desktop (NEWEST VERSION)

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Apple iMac MC309LL/A 21.5-Inch Desktop (NEWEST VERSION)

• 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor
• 320 GB Hard Drive, 8x DVD/CD SuperDrive, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, Precision aluminum unibody
• 13.3 inch LED-backlit display, 1280-by-800 resolution
• Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 384MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory
• High Speed Thunderbolt Port, FaceTime HD Camera, Mac OS X v10.7 Lion

Just when you thought your MacBook Pro was state of the art, Apple introduces the MC700LL/A 13" MacBook Pro with new advanced processing power and graphics. New connectivity capabilities potentially speed large file transfers beyond any current connection. All MacBook Pro models are state-of-the-art. This new one takes it out to another edge.

New Thunderbolt technology lets you connect high-performance peripherals and high-resolution displays to one port - with data transfer rates up to 10 Gbps. Thunderbolt is based on two fundamental technologies: PCI Express and DisplayPort. And because Thunderbolt is based on DisplayPort technology, the video standard for high-resolution displays, any Mini DisplayPort display plugs right into the Thunderbolt port. To connect a DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, or VGA display, just use an existing optional adapter. Take everything from games to CAD to HD video projects anywhere. Time makes full-screen HD video calls that are astonishingly crisp. And t

List Price: $ 1,199.00

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Click Here For Info About Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop

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Samsung All In One Computer Intel Core i3 Processor 23 Display NEW DP700A3B US $789.00

AMD Computer Processor K 6 2 350A FR 22V Core 33V 1 0 A9920 APBW US $10.99

New Blue PC Processor Heatsink Fan for PCs Computers US $16.95

Super Micro Computer Core 2 Duo E8400 3 GHz Dual Core Processor US $49.00

Intel 815 Logic Board Computer Motherboard Processor US $29.99

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August 2007 Learning the Components: Processors Technical Sales Assistants at UC Berkeley's Campus Computer Store, The Scholar's Workstation explain the processor. Confused about the latest terminology? What's Dual Core? Multi-core? Listen in and learn! Visit your Campus Computer Store: The Scholar's Workstation tsw.berkeley.edu Running Time 3'18" (c) 2007 UC Regents
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop

• 3.06GHz Intel Core i3
• 500GB Hard Drive, 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM, DVD SuperDrive
• 21.5" LED-backlit display with a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, 1920x1080 HD resolution
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB
• Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard, Magic Mouse

The ultimate all-in-one. Turbocharged. The new iMac is the ultimate all-in-one computer. Its Intel Core i3 processor feature an advanced architecture and set new benchmarks for iMac performance. And fast discrete graphics processors now come standard in every iMac. The 21.5-inch widescreen displays is perfect for HD video, and the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse keep your desktop tidy. The new iMac is the ultimate all-in-one computer. Its Intel Core i3 processor features an advanced architecture and set new benchmarks for iMac performance. And fast discrete graphics processors now come standard in every iMac. The 21.5-inch widescreen display is perfect for HD video, and the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse keep your desktop tidy. The 21.5-inch iMac features a brilliant LED-backlit, edge-to-edge glass display (see larger image). The iMac's display offers a 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution (for native 1080p high-definition viewing), and it uses IPS technology to deliver c

List Price: $ 1,199.00

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Click Here For Info About Apple iMac MC508LL/A 21.5-Inch Desktop

LENOVO G560 WIN 7 PC 0679 LAPTOP NOTEBOOK COMPUTER Intel Pentium Processor P6100 US $232.50

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Scrap Gold Computer Memory Processors Cell Phone Boards US $24.95

Dell Dimention E521Model DC5M Dual Core Processor 5000 Computer Server US $27.00

Apple Power Mac G5 desktop computer dual processor US $199.00

277 GRAMS OF COMPUTER CPU PROCESSORS FOR SCRAP GOLDSCRAP GOLD SCRAP RECOVERY US $20.00

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75 Pound Computer CPU PROCESSOR CHIP Lot for GOLD RECOVERY US $60.00

BobCad Cam Version 23 Computer aided machining software With Post Processor US $400.00

6 Lb Scrap Computer RAM Memory Hard Drive Logic Boards Gold Recovery Processors US $49.99

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Samsung All In One Computer Intel Core i3 Processor 23 Display NEW DP700A3B US $789.00

AMD Computer Processor K 6 2 350A FR 22V Core 33V 1 0 A9920 APBW US $10.99

New Blue PC Processor Heatsink Fan for PCs Computers US $16.95

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Fusion processor that transforms computer into supercomputer launched
Bangalore, Feb 2 (ANI): Advance Micro Devices (AMD) has launched its latest creation Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) Fusion chip, set to transform a normal computer into a 'Supercomputer'.
Read more on ANI via Yahoo! India News

A processor is also known as the CPU, or central processing unit, and is the main brain of the computer. Processors can be single core, dual core or even quad core, and they frequently have a heat sink on top of them. Get a computer processor with enough core power for your tasks with advice from a computer specialist in this free video on computer processors.
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Apple iMac MC508LL/A 21.5-Inch Desktop

Today at its mobile event, Facebook executives Mark Zuckerberg and Erick Tseng gave some (vague) answers as to why there still isn’t an official iPad application.

Zuckerberg was pretty blunt when it came to explaining why there wasn’t an iPad launch during today’s mobile event: “The iPad isn’t mobile”. He later qualified this statement to say that Facebook loves working with Apple, but that the iPad isn’t as mobile as a phone (he’s right).

Tseng stepped in to add that the rise of tablets isn’t going to be about the iPad alone — we’re going to soon see numerous additional devices running on Android and possibly other platforms. And given Facebook’s limited resources, it doesn’t really make sense to hone in on a single platform.

Facebook needs a solution that will let it deploy features across multiple devices quickly, so there isn’t a lag time like there has been between the Android and iPhone apps. In other words, we’re going to see a web-based mobile application that’s going to be targeted specifically at the tablet form factor.

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

Why Facebook Still Doesn’t Have An iPad App

Nearly a year ago, Microsoft pulled together a group of reporters for Bing Fall Release event. The highlight of the presentation was a demo showing off some nifty new features in Bing Maps. The problem? All of this stuff required Microsoft’s Silverlight browser plug-in to work. I berated the company for once again pushing users towards a more proprietary web. So today it’s time to laud them, as they seem to be backing away from that strategy.

During last week’s Professional Developers Conference (PDC), ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley asked Bob Muglia, Microsoft’s SVP of the Server and Tools Business, why the company failed to highlight Silverlight in a meaningful way this year. His answer was rather surprising.

“Silverlight is our development platform for Windows Phone,” he said. And while he said that the technology has some “sweet spots” for media applications (presumably like Netflix, which uses Silverlight on the web), its role as a vehicle for delivering a cross-platform runtime appears to be over. “Our strategy has shifted,” is how Muglia put it.

Instead, as they made clear during PDC, Microsoft is putting their weight behind HTML5 going forward. Hallelujah.

Microsoft’s new IE9 web browser (which is in public beta testing) will be a big part of this strategy. And presumably, a lot of the things that currently require Silverlight, like some of those nifty Bing Maps features, will move to HTML5 going forward. Again, that’s great news.

So why is Microsoft doing this? It seems that Microsoft sees the writing on the wall. They likely know that’s it’s going to be much harder to make a dent in the new developer world order with Silverlight, which still has a relatively small market penetration and no penetration in mobile, than with HTML5, which is (or shortly will be) everywhere — including all of Apple’s devices.

“HTML is the only true cross platform solution for everything, including (Apple’s) iOS platform,” Muglia told Foley.

This is a very different tone than Muglia had just a year ago, when he and then Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie were out on the circuit drumming up support for Silverlight with hopes that it would become a new de-facto standard like Adobe’s Flash. It’s not clear if Ozzie’s imminent departure from the company has anything to do with this change of tone or vice versa.

Regardless, Silverlight will now be mainly known as the development platform for Windows Phone going forward. In other words, the way to make native apps for those devices. But for just about everything else, it will be HTML5 or bust. And that’s great news for all end users. It’s one less plug-in to download. And it’s another step towards a unified web.

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

Microsoft Has Seen The Light. And It’s Not Silverlight.

“If you waited for the white iPhone, you’re an idiot. You’re a stupid human being who has waited 5 months for a phone that’s a different color. That you’re just gonna put a cover on anyway. So you’re a fool. In fact, why don’t you go get an EVO or something? Or a Droid. 2. They apparently does.“

Back in July, a group named jLe Productions made a great mock iPhone 4 commercial addressing the antenna issues. Now they’re back. And this time they have a promo for the mythical white iPhone 4. And once again it’s great.

Watch it above, or watch their earlier spoof below.

And here are some of our other favorite humorous Apple-related videos from the past few months. Yes, there have been a lot of them:

• Video: An EVO 4G Salesman Confronts An iPhone 4 Shopper (NSFW)
• The Rebuttal: An EVO 4G Owner Walks Into An Apple Store (NSFW)
• The iPhone 4 Antenna Song
• A Must Listen: The Steve Jobs Song [Video]
• Darth Vader Calls Apple About His iPhone 4 Antenna [Video]
• MG Siegler’s Double Rainbow iPhone Love

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

The Banned White iPhone 4 Promo [Humor]

So, you may or may not have noticed that this morning, Apple updated its own Apple Store app for the very first time, and version 1.1 has a little surprise. That's right, in the 'Reserve Products' screen, the much delayed white iPhone 4 shows up as an option. Now, before you lose control of yourself, keep in mind that you can't actually reserve one... yet. Of course, this could just be some sort of cruel glitch in the system, or it could be a tiny bit of evidence that the white iPhone is actually, finally on its way. At the very least, we know that Apple's still thinking of it... just like us.

White iPhone 4 evidence shows up in Apple Store app's update? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

White iPhone 4 evidence shows up in Apple Store app’s update?

While yes it would be an amazing feat of hypocrisy if Apple actually advertised against the search term “Sex Game Apps” that is not what is happening here, even though this specific Google Ads juxtaposition is worth noting due to Apple’s stringent attitude towards featuring sexually explicit materials in the App Store.

So what is actually going on? Crunchgear’s Greg Kumparak has a pretty solid theory; Due to the fact that Google won’t advertise for actual sex sites (only sex education-related sites pass muster), when a user searches for blacklisted stuff like “Sex Game Apps” the Google AdWords (and/or Automatic Match) algorithm treats the word “sex” as invisible and focuses on serving up ads triggered by the whitelisted keywords “Game Apps” in bold. Hence, why the iPod touch ad shows up above despite not having any mention of sex. The same trick works for “Nazi Game Apps” and myriad other racy iterations.

While AdWords loopholes like this are nothing new (try “Android Apps Boobs” if you’d like the Android compatible version), Apple’s inadvertent advertising against people searching for something the App Store explicitly doesn’t allow is enough to at least consider a change in policy, on either Google or Apple’s part.

Update: Search expert Danny Sullivan more precisely explains what is going on here in the comments.

“It’s not that “sex” is being treated as invisible or is on a blacklist. It’s because Apple is buying the phrase “game apps” on a broad-match basis — which means anything plus those words will trigger that ad. For example, search for “i hate apple game apps,” and voila — there’s the ad. The fact that the words “games” and “apps” are bolded tell you what they bought.”

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

Google Serves Up Apple Ads For Search Term “Sex Game Apps”

Much has been said about Apple’s foray into “social networking” (at least into what they consider that term to entail) with the introduction of Ping, part of the company’s iTunes software.

Some are positive about its chances, saying it is merely the seed of amazing things to come, others much less so.

I concur with the latter group and deem the product to be horse dung, 160 million potential users be damned.

Yes, they recently did make it a thousand times better when they added the ability to like / share a song you’d already purchased in the past.

But that only tells me just how badly it reeked before that (I’m actually quite positive some people at Apple got stomped for not adding support for Ping within users’ existing iTunes library from the get-go – at least I should hope so).

And it appears to me that it’s still a product no one quite seems to have been waiting for.

Yes, you say, but had Facebook and Apple not jointly pulled the plug on Facebook integration at the last minute, I’d see things more clearly. I would realize how awesome it will be once you can actually connect with your real friends, transfer music recommendations and share purchases in and out of Ping, courtesy of Facebook.

Well I say it wouldn’t make the product suck that much less, and it won’t once it eventually gets implemented in some way (Facebook’s CTO is “very confident” it will, apparently).

I’ll happily stick my foot deep in my mouth if it turns out Facebook integration is what Ping needs to shine, but I’m bearish on the chances of that happening any time soon.

Don’t get me wrong: Ping needs Facebook integration to make it a little more useful, or fun for that matter. But a little useful or fun is not what people want – there are so many better music discovery and relevant social networking services out there that the only thing Ping has going for it is its potential audience thanks to the success of iTunes. But purely as a product, it simply stinks right now (particularly on the desktop), and people realize as much.

We’re a month in since Ping made its debut. No doubt, you’ve checked it out en masse. You’ve started following some of your friends and perhaps even a couple of artists, and some even people started following you. But have you really used the product a lot since? Have you discovered a lot of music thanks to it? Have you effectively connected with any of the people you follow, let alone with the artists pimping their wares on the service?

I simply don’t see any of that changing fundamentally when Facebook integration ever comes to fruition, if it ever does.

Upon introducing the service, Jobs talked about Ping along the lines of “Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes. But it’s not Facebook, it’s not Twitter.” He was absolutely right. There’s no Facebook or Twitter element whatsoever, so only iTunes showed up to that particular party.

And as a result, it’s not a very lively one.

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

Tell You A Secret – Even With Facebook Integration, Ping Will Still…

Apparently you can get satisfaction, if you’re the owner of an iPad that is. A report recently released by the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that consumer satisfaction with personal computers is at an all time high, having grown 4% this year and now registering a 78 on the ASCI 100-point scale.

Leading the pack for the seventh year in row, beloved fanboy brand Apple gains 2% to hit 86 points, its highest score ever and a full 9 points ahead of its competitors Dell, Acer and HP which all scored 77s.

The secret of Apple’s success? CNBC delves deeper and reports that all this fuss is about the iPad.

“The iPad, even at this early stage, pulled up Apple’s overall numbers – which makes it the highest-scoring product Apple has, and therefore the highest-scoring product ACSI has ever tracked.”

Hmm … Fair enough. After all, I’ve never seen anyone get excited about a HP Color LaserJet printer in quite the same way (See: image above).

Photo: Josh Liba

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

People Are Really Happy With Their iPads

It seems like only yesterday that Oracle announced it was hiring former HP CEO Mark Hurd to be a Co-President and member of the Board — that’s because it was just yesterday. And now just one day later, we have a lawsuit filed by HP to block such a maneuver by Oracle.

In confirming the lawsuit in a brief blog post today, HP’s official corporate blog highlights what they see as the key issue here: trade secrets and confidential information. HP even included a link to the full complaint that they’ve posted on Scribd (embed below). Here’s the key nugget:

In his new positions, Hurd will be in a situation in which he cannot perform his duties for Oracle without necessarily using and disclosing HP’s trade secrets and confidential information to others.

It’s important to note that while Hurd signed a non-compete agreement in his contract with HP, those almost never hold up in California courts. Instead, HP’s angle is to say that Hurd has trade secrets that could hurt HP if rival Oracle knew them. This is undoubtedly true, but the question is whether Hurd can perform his new duty without disclosing those to Oracle?

In some ways, this is similar to the fight IBM and Apple had last year over Mark Papermaster (though, thanks to the scandal involved in his HP dismissal, much more high profile, obviously). Following Apple’s hiring of Papermaster, a California court ruled that he had to stop work due to his potential knowledge of IBM trade secrets. This was eventually settled, but Papermaster had to sit on the sidelines for several months. (Incidentally, Papermaster and Apple parted ways only a little over a year later.)

We look forward to Oracle’s response to all of this grandstanding — they had to know this was coming. This is the story that won’t go away.

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

HP Confirms It Is Suing Mark Hurd For Potential Leakage Of Trade…

Are you addicted to Twitter? Do you have an iPad? Even if the answer to both is “no” right now, after you see Twitter for iPad, those answers are going to change — quickly.

Yes, the wait is over. Launching tonight in the App Store is Twitter for iPad — the first official native iPad app from the company. We all knew it was coming (Twitter even said so a few months ago), but it has been a long wait. It was definitely worth it.

Like most people, I wander into hyperbole from time to time. But it has now been a few days since I first played with Twitter for iPad, and I still think it is hands-down the best iPad app out there. It’s that good. With all due respect to Reeder, Instapaper, Flipboard, and Pulse, this is now going to be my go-to app for just about everything related to reading news. It’s simply such a great experience for reading tweets — and more importantly, reading the links your friends share.

What Twitter has done is create an amazing user experience for reading information. This is thanks to an intuitive user interface that layers on top of itself. So, for example, if I click on a link in my tweet stream, I’ll have a new layer that rolls over to show that webpage in a customized browser window. If you’ve used Flipboard, it’s somewhat similar, but better because it’s much easier to go back to where ever you previously were before you clicked the link. You simply swipe something to the side to move it temporarily or swipe it again to get it off the screen (in portrait mode anyway, where there’s less space).

Something else that’s awesome: when you highlight a tweet by clicking on it, it’s now pinned to the top or bottom of the screen as you scroll through your stream. This is great if it’s something you want to reference. A lot of thought has been put into these type of saving state actions within this app. It’s simple to save a draft and go back to it, for example (much easier than with Twitter for iPhone). Or to reference one of these pinned tweets in your own tweet.

There are also some great new gestures that Twitter came up with for this app. For example, if you pinch-outward on a tweet, it will unfold to show you more information about the Twitter user. Better may be the way you can swipe down with two fingers on any tweet to see a full conversation in context. It’s the little things like this that make the app great — Apple-like, even.

Overall, the app looks and feels quite a bit different from Twitter for iPhone (which Twitter built from Tweetie — developer Loren Brichter’s client that they acquired earlier this year). But Twitter’s Leland Rechis assures me it’s using all the same stuff on the backend. In fact, Twitter is now a universal app — meaning it’s one app that will work on both the iPhone and iPad, it will just look different depending on which device you’re using it on.

Rechis also says Twitter started experimenting with some newer things on the iPad version that haven’t yet been brought to the iPhone version, but undoubtedly will. A great example here is that when you click through to a user’s profile page, you’ll see at the bottom a list of users similar to that user that you may like to follow.

Rechis also notes the importance of the logged-out view — something Twitter worked on before the iPhone version launch. Twitter wants to make the service as useful as possible to people even if they don’t have an account. The idea, of course, is that they’ll hopefully sign up for one — and this app may give them the most reason to yet. When logged out, you’ll be able to see tweet streams based on hot topics.

“Tweets in general are not just what I’m doing, they have an incredible amount of metadata,” Rechis says speaking to why they created this layering idea for the app. Almost 25 percent of all tweets now have a link in them, he says. This app is perfect for those tweets, and content consumption and exploration in general.

Rechis notes that one of his favorite things about tablets is how they eliminate window management. At the same time, you need some way to manage all this information. He notes that Brichter’s original concept was stacks of sheets of paper that you quickly shuffle through. Other members of Twitter including Rechis refined that idea and the end result is Twitter for iPad.

That’s roughly 750 words about the app — but you really just need to see it, and use it. It will definitely be my go-to way to browse Twitter from now on. It’s that good.

Look for it in the App Store shortly. It will be a free download.

Update: I should note that for some of these more advanced gestures, there is a slight learning curve. That said, you can do everything without using those gestures, so it’s not a big deal — it’s just icing on the cake. And yes, Twitter is trying to come up with the best way to teach users about these new gestures.

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

Twitter Just Killed Something Else: Their Own Website. Twitter For…

As far as we can tell, the general logic behind touchscreen iMac rumors goes something like this: "Apple is good at touch UIs, so it should build a touchscreen iMac." Unfortunately, the reality of a usable, desirable touchscreen desktop computers has yet to materialize (sorry, HP and Microsoft), and so far Apple has steered clear of those dangerous waters. An international patent recently unearthed at the World Intellectual Property Organization, however, shows just how Apple might go about a touch UI on a desktop computer.

Basically, the patent covers the method of transitioning from a traditional "high resolution" UI (best operated by a mouse) to a "low resolution" UI suitable to finger operation (like iOS). A myriad of sensors can be employed to detect the user moving the screen into touch mode, and as the user does this the difficult high res bits like cursors and scrollbars and drop down menus "slide off the screen," leaving only a touch UI at the end of the transition. It's all very broad and vague, naturally, being a patent, but it's an interesting idea, and makes more sense than ruining the good thing desktop UIs have going with a tacked-on touch UI in the style of Microsoft's Windows. Of course, stuffing two UIs into one device also seems rather un-Apple like, so we're not going to start expecting an Apple-built touchscreen iMac or MacBook to act exactly like this until Steve gets on stage and starts telling us how we magical and revolutionary it is.

Apple patent unearthed for touchscreen Macs that can flip between mouse and touch UIs with tilt of the screen originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple patent unearthed for touchscreen Macs that can flip between…

My, how quickly things change. It wasn’t much more than a year ago that Apple and Google were happy partners — at least from the public’s perspective — working in tandem to push technology forward at a clip pace. Google’s search and various apps complimented the iPhone perfectly, and the existing Android phones merely affirmed how much better the iPhone was than everything else on the market. And then everything went to hell.

Late last July, we broke the news that Apple blocked Google’s official Voice application and removed any third-party applications that supported the service, sparking an FCC inquiry into why Google Voice was banned from the iPhone. Today marks the one year anniversary of Apple’s response to the FCC, in which it gave a remarkably disingenuous explanation as to why Google Voice wasn’t on the iPhone: Apple was still “pondering” the matter. A year later, it apparently still is.

Google Voice is nowhere to be found on the App Store, and while Google has developed an impressive web version for the iPhone, it can’t provide the same performance or ‘native feel’ of a native app and it can’t access the phone’s local contacts directory (at least, not yet). In light of today’s milestone I reached out to both Apple and Google to see if there’s been any progress. Both declined to comment.

Of course, Google Voice itself was never the key issue at play — the service was only available in a private beta when it was blocked from the iPhone. Indeed, most of the outcry stemmed from the fact that Apple was blatantly using its control over the App Store’s walled garden for anti-competitive reasons. Before the Voice fiasco Apple had drawn plenty of heat over its inconsistent App Store approval policies, but most of these removals could be ascribed to the notion that Apple was censoring apps to help maintain the quality and safety of the App Store. That clearly wasn’t the case here: Apple saw Google’s increasing presence on the iPhone as a threat, so it killed it.

Soon after the Google Voice fiasco, I abandoned my iPhone for Android (TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington quit his iPhone too). My rationale had little to do with wanting to use Google Voice more frequently. Rather, it had a lot to do with the knot I got in the pit of my stomach as I imagined just how important Apple’s stranglehold over the iOS platform will become in the next five years and beyond.

The runaway success of the iPhone and the iPad have made it clear that the App Store and iOS are only going to become more ubiquitous. The new Apple TV will soon feature them. In all likelihood Apple will find ways to integrate iOS into form factors that are more competitive with desktop and laptops. Simply put, iOS will be synonymous with computing for a lot of people.

Tim O’Reilly believes that Apple is trying to build a fundamental challenge to the web. A web controlled by a single company. Apple may have intended to use the App Store’s approval system to protect customers and the user experience, but it has the convenient side effect of enabling it to stifle anything that could compete with its own products on the iOS platform. Remember, we are still very early in this game, and the App Store had existed for just one year before Apple gave Google the boot. Is there any doubt it will do the same the next time someone tries to encroach on its turf?

Most of Apple’s ardent defenders will simply tell people like me to go use another, more open platform if they have a problem with the App Store and Apple’s policies. Fair enough. But the time and uncertainty involved in having to switch to a new computer platform are far from trivial, and eventually we may have kids who are raised on iOS — getting them to switch platforms so they can use an innovative new browser or FaceTime competitor or whatever else Apple is quietly blocking from the App Store will be no easy task.  It is this inertia, which is only going to become more difficult to overcome as iOS becomes more successful, that troubles me most. Apple will be able to get away with even more egregious behavior, because its users will want to stick with what they know.

Disclosure: Months after the Google Voice/Apple story broke I had my number ported over to the service (just as Michael did). All users will be getting access to this feature soon.

Image by Brian Hillegas

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Celebrating A Year Of Apple Pondering Google Voice

Been waiting for evidence that the iPad will dent the netbook market? If you believe ASUS, that's already happened, with the Eee PC vendor reporting fewer sales in the second quarter relative to the first and downgrading expectations for the usual peak season of Q3. Apple's prodigious tablet is specifically named by ASUS CEO Jerry Shen as an invader that is "crowding out" netbook demand, though he remains firmly committed to the small and affordable laptop market. All the same, Shen does also point a finger to the horizon, where a trifecta of Eee Pads marches ever nearer with the intent to do battle with the iPad. So while netbooks aren't going away in a hurry, these latest numbers seem to suggest they're set to at least share the lower-end spotlight with touch-friendly slates, or rather Pads.

ASUS downgrades Eee PC shipment forecast, blames iPad originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 03:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ASUS downgrades Eee PC shipment forecast, blames iPad

There is no question that Android’s share of the smartphone market is growing by lleaps and bounds. Earlier today, Nielsen came out with some more evidence that Android keeps rising. It published some very provocative numbers today suggesting that Android’s share of new smartphone subscribers surged past new iPhone subscribers in the U.S. during the second quarter, commanding 27 percent of recent smartphone purchases compared to 23 percent for the iPhone.

These figures represent new smartphone purchases over the preceding 6 months.  In terms of total smartphone subscribers in the U.S., the iPhone still has more than twice as many as Android, with 28 percent versus 13 percent.  But that number was flat for iPhone from the first quarter, while Android’s share rose from 9 percent.  (Blackberry is still bigger than both with 35 percent share of total subscribers, and 33 percent of recent subscribers).

The relative gains of Android compared to iPhone could very well signal a tipping point for Android.  Perhaps the weight of all 20+ Android phones and multiple carriers is finally collectively beating the iPhone, and there will be no looking back.  Or maybe the fight is not yet over.

According to this data, new Android subscribers passed iPhone subscribers in the second quarter, which ended on June 30.  The new iPhone 4 was announced on June 7, but not available until June 24th.

In other words, this data only includes one week of iPhone 4 sales. The flat market share line may very well be indicating nothing more than the end of the iPhone 3Gs product lifecycle. Many people who wanted a new iPhone delayed their purchase in anticipation of the iPhone 4. Yes, the iPhone 4 has some antenna issues, but those do not seem to be affecting sales.

Can Android keep on taking market share among new smartphone buyers, or will the iPhone bounce back next quarter with the full force of iPhone 4 sales behind it? Like they say, one data point does not make a trend.

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Data Showing Android Pushing Past Apple Does Not Include iPhone 4

At current (self-reported) growth rate, the company should hit 2 billion downloads in about a year, if calculated on the back of a virtual envelope.

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Independent Mobile App Store GetJar Now Seeing 3 Million Downloads Per…

I thought I was a fanboy. I’ve got nothing on Jonathan Mann.

Regular readers may recall that Mann is the guy behind the Bing jingle (which we didn’t like – but students did, or were forced to), the song about me (which we did like), and most recently, the iPhone 4 antenna song (which not only did we love, but apparently Apple did too). Mann, touched by the fact that Apple decided to play his song at their press conference last Friday, decided to follow it up with a serenade for CEO Steve Jobs.

Warning: if some of my posts about Apple drive you crazy, this song is going to make your head explode.

We have lyrics like:

• “If that sounds like Moses, it’s no accident. The cult of Macintosh is a religion.”
• “We bow down to products that make us weep. The beauty of simplicity. The shepherd and his sheep.”
• “In his guarded temple, there’s a beating drum. And it’s made of glass and of aluminum.”

But the craziest thing about this song is that it’s good. Seriously. It’s so damn catchy. Mann continues to impress.

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A Must Listen: The Steve Jobs Song [Video]

I’ve fielded a lot of questions today about the iPhone 4. No, not about the antenna — that was last week — today, all people want to know is why the hell is white version being delayed again? Like everyone else outside of Apple, I have no idea. Is it a problem with the glass supplier? That they’re prioritizing the black ones for now? That they’re working on an antenna modification? Any of those things could be the reason behind the delay (though if it’s the last one, Apple is going face a whole range of new questions). But I can’t say for sure what the reason actually is. What I can say that this is potentially a real problem for Apple — and I don’t mean from a manufacturing perspective.

In their two-sentence statement on the matter this morning, all Apple said is that the white iPhone 4 “will not be available until later this year.” This is a quick reversal from just one week ago when Apple confirmed that the device was on track to ship by the “end of July” — which itself was already quite a bit of a delay from the original iPhone 4 launch in June. “Later this year” is a bit ominous. It could mean anything from August all the way until December. The fact that Apple isn’t saying “August” or “another month” seems to suggest that it will be at least the Fall when we see the ivory device.

And again, that’s a problem. Let’s just pick a random month that it could be released — let’s say November. A white iPhone 4 released in November means it will have been a full five months since many customers have had the black iPhone 4 — the exact same device, only black. More importantly, it will only be seven months until the next WWDC event, where the iPhone 5 (or whatever it will be called) will be announced.

Sure, some consumers won’t care about that. But many others now have in their minds three years worth of evidence that a new iPhone will be unveiled every June. Many of those customers will have a decision to make: is it worth it to spring for the white iPhone 4 now and have the latest and greatest Apple gadget for only seven months? Or is it worth it to wait?

Compounding this tough decision at that point will undoubtedly be a whole new round of rumors that Apple could unveil a Verizon iPhone shortly — perhaps even at an event in January. Can you imagine the horror customers will feel if they sign their souls over to AT&T for two years in November, only to have the option to instead go with Verizon a couple months later?

The white iPhone may reveal itself to be a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothes at that point.

But Apple is nothing if not genius marketers. A white iPhone unveiled in November will be spun as a holiday iPhone — the perfect present for Christmas. Look, it’s even the color of snow!

Apple will sell millions of them to customers oblivious to the fact that the next version — one undoubtedly without the same antenna issues we’re seeing now, and possibly one that works on Verizon — is just months away. But plenty of consumers won’t be oblivious to this. And Apple will move less iPhones than it could have.

The issue here is that more than anything else, people interested in the iPhone but who are holding out are doing so for three reasons. First, many are still unsure about the antenna issue and think it may be worth it to wait until the next iteration next year. Second, many are waiting to see if a Verizon version becomes available. Third, many are waiting for the white version of the iPhone 4.

If Apple doesn’t get the white version out there soon, all three of those issues are likely to collide. And it may push a lot of would-be iPhone purchasers back from making the jump until next year.

Either that, or the special edition Disney™ Snow White® iPhone 4 will be the fastest selling iPhone yet.

[image via NQB]

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Apple’s Real Problem With The White iPhone 4 — Well, Potentially

Microsoft has just reported its earnings for Q4 2010 (their fiscal calendar is a bit odd). Given Apple’s blockbuster quarter announced on Tuesday, there was a lot of talk that Apple would surpass Microsoft in revenue for the first time in recent history. That hasn’t happened. Instead, Microsoft had its best Q4 ever with $16.04 billion in revenue (Apple had $15.7 billion in revenue last quarter).

Microsoft easily beat Wall Street estimates that they would see about $15.3 billion in revenues. Microsoft largely credits strong sales within enterprise of Windows 7 and Office 2010. Net income was also strong at $4.52 billion. And earnings per share were at $0.51. Both of those beat Wall Street estimates as well.

Microsoft says it has sold over 175 million Windows 7 licenses to date so far. They also tout the fact that Bing has achieved its 13th straight month of market share gain.

Since this was Microsoft’s fiscal Q4, they reported revenue of $62.48 billion for the year — a 7 percent increase from the 2009 fiscal year. Operating income, net income, and earnings per share were all up significantly higher at 18 percent, 29 percent, and 30 percent, respectively. The 29 percent jump in net income (up to $18.76 billion) is particularly impressive.

Investors, meanwhile, are giving Microsoft’s earnings more of a “meh.” So far in after-hours trading, the stock is down two cents (.08 percent). During the day today, the stock rose almost 3 percent ahead of earnings.

While some were predicting Microsoft revenues to fall behind Apple’s (though, for the record, I wasn’t), there was never a question that Microsoft would retain a big lead in income. As they’re primarily a software and enterprise company, Microsoft’s margins remain massive. Their $4.52 billion in net income easily beat Apple’s $3.25 billion.

That being said, it seems quite likely that next quarter Apple will surpass Microsoft in revenue. Assuming that iPhone 4 sales are huge and that the iPad continues to grow, Apple’s momentum in revenue is simply too great for Microsoft to keep up with. Apple may or may not hit $20 billion in revenues next quarter (they’re projecting $18 billion, but they always low-ball that number so they can beat it).

This past May, much was made of Apple passing Microsoft in market cap for the first time — giving Apple the title of most valuable tech company. That distinction is more ceremonial than anything else, however. But when Apple passes Microsoft in revenue, that will be significant. As I said, it will be more difficult for Apple to catch Microsoft in income because of Microsoft’s software margins (whereas Apple primarily makes money on hardware, which offer smaller margins, even though Apple’s are the best in the business). But the gap is closing there as well.

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Microsoft’s Record Q4 Earnings Keeps Revenue Ahead Of Apple……

Thought Nokia's statement was strongly worded? That was nothing compared to the little tirade put together by RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie -- a pair of dudes known for having some of the bigger mouths (and bigger egos) in the wireless industry -- in direct response to Apple's Friday press conference on antenna issues. Of course, unlike Nokia, Apple made it personal for RIM because it used the Bold 9700 as a demonstration device in its attempt to prove that signal loss was a problem for phones and manufacturers from all walks of life, but Mike and Jim are having none of it. Phrases like "self-made debacle" and "deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding" should give you an idea of the statement's overall flavor, but basically, they're saying that RIM puts a lot of time, money, and energy into avoiding dropped call issues and that you don't need a case to use any of their phones. Snap!

Here's the full statement:

"Apple's attempt to draw RIM into Apple's self-made debacle is unacceptable. Apple's claims about RIM products appear to be deliberate attempts to distort the public's understanding of an antenna design issue and to deflect attention from Apple's difficult situation. RIM is a global leader in antenna design and has been successfully designing industry-leading wireless data products with efficient and effective radio performance for over 20 years. During that time, RIM has avoided designs like the one Apple used in the iPhone 4 and instead has used innovative designs which reduce the risk for dropped calls, especially in areas of lower coverage. One thing is for certain, RIM's customers don't need to use a case for their BlackBerry smartphone to maintain proper connectivity. Apple clearly made certain design decisions and it should take responsibility for these decisions rather than trying to draw RIM and others into a situation that relates specifically to Apple."

RIM co-CEOs pull no punches responding to Apple's antenna statements originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM co-CEOs pull no punches responding to Apple’s antenna statements

Apple’s executive team will no doubt be fuming this morning, as Bloomberg reported that a senior Apple engineer and antenna expert voiced concerns about potential reception issues with the iPhone 4 due to its antenna design in the early phases of the hardware design process, citing a source familiar to the matter.

Adding fuel to the fire is Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (aka The Woz), in an interesting interview with Dutch journalist Henk Van Ess.

“It’s like the AT&T dead zone has been extended with this new phone,” the man says.

Here’s the relevant bit from the interview:

Henk van Ess: How did you find out about the antenna problems?

Steve Wozniak: The first time I tried I was able to duplicate the problem. My wife was driving me to the airport and as soon as I got a short distance from my home, and no longer on wifi, I tried it by accessing a web page (using Safari on my iPhone 4) and observing the progress bar.

As the bar started to proceed I lightly (‘lightly’) touched a couple of fingers to the trouble area and the progress bar froze. When I lifted my fingers the progress bar continued it’s (sic) rapid progress. Putting my finger[s] back down halted the progress bar again. Lifting my fingers another time allowed the web page to finish loading.

I tried it again with one more web page I was in a moving car in the hills near my home. Currently I maintain cell phone calls fine there with my iPhones and with other cell phones, although this exact area used to drop AT&T calls reliably, a few years ago.

I was in a moving car in the hills near my home. Currently I maintain cell phone calls fine there with my iPhones and with other cell phones, although this exact area used to drop AT&T calls reliably, a few years ago.

I tried to repeat this experiment somewhere else a second time, I think in a San Jose restaurant, and I only had partial success. That time I could only slow the progress bar a little and only if I squeezed my iPhone 4 tightly. I concluded that the effect only occurs in some places. It’s like the AT&T dead zone has been extended with this new phone.
If you can afford it, carry a second Verizon phone for backup. Another option is to carry a Verizon mifi and rely on Skype on your iPhone.

To be fair, the issues don’t seem to bother The Woz as other than that, “the iPhone works well enough and its beauty is worth the care in holding it”.

That’s similar to MG Siegler’s arguments in favor of the iPhone 4, while Michael Arrington is more straightforward in his advice (“buy an Android instead”).

I’m a proud iPhone 3GS owner seriously considering an Android device for his next smartphone, for a variety of reasons – or maybe I’ll just follow Wozniak’s advice and buy a bunch of phones for backup in one go. What’s the situation you’re in?

(Image courtesy of Flickr user OnInnovation)

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The Woz Experienced Reception Woes With His iPhone 4, Too

Laptop's 2010 tech support showdown reveals ugly truth: you're (almost) on your own originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Laptop’s 2010 tech support showdown reveals ugly truth: you’re…

The days of Google Maps as the default mapping app on the iPhone may be coming to an end. Apple is beefing up its Geo team, reportedly acquiring Canadian 3D mapping startup Poly9 Group. The company was funded in 2005 and was completely bootstrapped, with no venture money. Its employees have now gone quiet. Its corporate Website is down and nobody answers the phones.

Poly9 made a browser-based 3D globe like Google Earth, which powered apps such as the NORAD Santa Tracker and this Skype Nomad blog. You can still see it on this product page for Poly9 Globe. It is a lightweight, browser-based, spinning globe that only takes up 303kb of memory—perfect for an iPhone.

So far Apple and Poly9 have not confirmed the acquisition, but French-Canadian reporter Pierre Couture of cyberpresse.ca (via Google Translate) reports that all but two of the employees are now relocated in Silicon Valley and that they are zipped up due to non-disclosure agreements.

This wouldn’t be the first mapping app to be acquired by Apple. Last September, it bought Placebase, another mapping startup, which adds layers of data on top of maps. It is hard to speculate what Apple’s Geo team is brewing. Most likely these were more acqhires where the talent was being bought more so than the underlying products. What do you think Apple Earth will look like?

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Here Comes Apple Earth. Map Startup Poly9 Reportedly Snatched Up By…

ComScore just released its smartphone market share numbers for March through May, and unsurprisingly the trend continues from previous months. Android phone saw the most significant growth in market share in May, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers. Of course, despite Android’s gain, RIM and Apple dominated, with RIM taking 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share. Microsoft saw a 13.2 percent share and Palm rounded the top five out with a 4.8 percent share. In total, 49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period.

In terms of manufacturer share, the report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.4 percent market share. LG ranked second with 21.5 percent share, followed by Motorola (21.2 percent share), RIM (8.7 percent share, up 0.5 percentage point) and Nokia (8.1 percent share).

For the three month period from March to May, comScore reports that 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Across the board, comScore’s numbers show mobile phone users in the U.S. are interacting more with their phones. In terms of actions, 65.2 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device in May, up 1.4 percent versus the prior three month period. Mobile browsing also increased to 31.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.3 percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 30.0 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 2.1 percentage points from the previous period. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs also saw growth, increasing 2.6 percentage points to 20.8 percent of mobile subscribers.

While Android smartphones were the only type of phone to see a gain in market share for the three month period, the platform is still way behind Apple’s mobile user base. Android still has a ways to go in terms of market share before it can be seen as a major competitor to Apple, but it is nice to see that the platform is slowly gaining a larger user base.

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comScore: Android Continues To Gain Smartphone Market Share

Regular readers will know that recently I’ve liked to state my bias in the title of my mobile device reviews: I love the iPhone. Some will call that being a fanboy, and that’s fine. But really, it’s just my opinion that the iPhone is hands down the best mobile device out there. If there were a better one, I would use it. But there’s not. So I use the iPhone. And that’s the angle I take towards these mobile device reviews. It’s simple: if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Well, one finally has: iPhone 4.

Yeah, if you hate these types of reviews, you’re really going to hate this one.

Before I dive into specifics, I’ll say right away that the iPhone 4 is easily the best mobile device I’ve ever used (notice I didn’t say phone, more on that later). But a lot of you probably already thought you knew I was going to say that. The more interesting question may be: how does it compare to the other iPhones? Or, perhaps even better: is it worth it to upgrade? The short answer is yes.

In my view, iPhone 4 is the biggest leap forward that any iPhone has taken yet over the previous generation. It’s not really any single thing that makes me say that, but it’s the combination of changes to the hardware. The screen is much better. The camera is much better. The video quality is much better. The form factor is much better. The device is faster. It can do more at once (thanks to double the RAM). The battery lasts noticeably longer. And, of course, it has FaceTime.

The main upgrade of the iPhone 3G from the original iPhone was the 3G chip which brought faster download speeds. The main upgrade of the iPhone 3GS from the iPhone 3G was the CPU speed increase and the video-taking capability. All of those were nice upgrades. But again, the iPhone 4 offers much more from a hardware perspective. And that makes it worth the upgrade from an older iPhone, as well as worth an outright purchase if you’re new to the platform.

I wrote down my initial thoughts about the iPhone 4 after playing with it for about 20 minutes after the WWDC keynote in June. This time, I wanted to play around with the device for an entire week, using it as much as possible before I wrote up a full review. Now I have, so here it is.

The Screen

The element most played up by Apple during the WWDC keynote was the iPhone 4′s screen. And rightly so, it’s fairly amazing. The so-called Retina display offers 960×640 pixel resolution at 326 pixels per inch. And it has a great 800:1 contrast ratio. Those specs make it great for both reading text and for watching video content or looking at pictures.

The screen is so sharp that when you’re looking at it, it almost looks as if you’re looking at a sticker overlay that they may put on a display unit at an electronics store. It looks more like you’re looking at a printed out picture than an electronic display.

But here’s the curious thing about the screen: More than a few people I showed it to thought it looked great, but wondered what was exactly so different from the previous iPhone screen. Part of that is because the previous iPhone screen was already good. But then I showed it to them side-by-side with the iPhone 3GS screen and they were blown away.

If Apple really wants to emphasize the screen, I recommend they do the same thing in Apple Store. Of course, then they may have a hard time selling the iPhone 3GS.

But when you do put them side-by-side, it’s easy to see just how much sharper text is on the iPhone 4. And just how much better colors appear. If you bring both close to you eye, on the old one you can see the pixels. On the new one, you can’t. Just look at the picture below — I don’t think I have to tell you which is which.

As I said, previous iPhones already had pretty solid displays, but they had since been passed up by the screens on a few Android devices. For example, I love the Nexus One’s screen, which is 800×480. But the iPhone 4 now destroys that. And, as a bonus, you can actually see it in daylight (which the Nexus One’s use of OLED makes very difficult).

The Speed

The iPhone 4, which uses Apple’s A4 chip just like the iPad, is definitely faster than the iPhone 3GS. However, the most part, it’s not noticeably faster in the same way that the iPhone 3GS was noticeably faster than the iPhone 3G. But it is in some cases, such as photo manipulation. One of my favorite apps is one called CameraBag (you can find it here for $1.99). On the iPhone 3GS, it can take several seconds to apply various filters to pictures in this app. On the iPhone 4, the same tasks take about a second.

Likewise, some games are noticeably faster, even those not yet optimized for iOS 4 or iPhone 4. Also, the few lags that previously existed in things like typing are now gone as well.

When you’re on WiFi, browsing the web can actually seem like a faster experience than doing so from a desktop computer. This is undoubtedly mostly thanks to the proliferation of iPhone-optimized sites. But still, for getting at raw information, the iPhone is now faster in quite a few cases, I’ve found.

On top of the new chip, another factor in the speed boost is like the 512 MB of RAM now included in the device (double what it was in previous iPhones — and double what is even included in the iPad!). But more than speed, this helps with the iOS 4′s new multitasking capabilities. In the week I’ve been using the iPhone 4 with iOS 4, I haven’t noticed the device having to quit any app I’ve loaded that takes advantage of fast app switching. Of course, that’s sort of the point, you’re not supposed to notice this. But with the iPhone 3GS running iOS 4, I have noticed a few times when an app has to restart when I switch back to it.

But the biggest speed difference for the entire device has to be the vast improvements to upload speeds. I like to send pictures I take from my iPhone to Flickr via email. On the iPhone 3GS, this takes a while, as each picture tends to be a little over a megabyte in size. On the iPhone 4, sending these pictures is so much faster — and that’s despite the files being much larger (thanks to the new 5 megapixel camera).

This upload boost is thanks to the iPhone 4′s use of High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), a 3G data protocol which can boost upload speeds by as much as 10x. If you do a lot of media uploading from your phone, this alone may make the new iPhone worth it.

The Antenna

While we’re on the subject of connectivity speeds, there’s no point in beating around the bush any longer — you likely want to know about the antenna issues of the iPhone 4 that have been widely reported.

At first, during regular use, I didn’t notice anything abnormal about the device with regard to its connection. Of course, I also live in San Francisco where AT&T offers up shitty connections as standard practice.

Then I started reading all the reports and decided to see if I could get the signal to drop myself. Sure enough, I could. I even tried it on a second iPhone 4 in a different area — same result. When wrapping your palm around the lower left corner of the iPhone 4, at least on the two devices I tried, the reception bars definitely start to drop.

I also tried making calls and using data while doing this. In both cases I was able to push the connection to failure when I would shove the iPhone into my left palm. Calls would drop and data would stop. When I released from that specific area of the phone, things would start working again.

But then I decided to try something out. I did the same thing with the iPhone 3GS — and guess what? Same results. Granted, it is much hard to push the connection to this point of failure on that device, but it can be done (by wrapping your hand around the entire bottom of the phone, where the antenna resides). Interestingly enough though, when I would do this on the iPhone 3GS, the signal would degrade, but the bars wouldn’t fall. Perhaps this is why no one noticed this issue on the iPhone 3GS but they are noticing it now (though other videos show the bars falling on the iPhone 3GS as well).

Yesterday, Apple finally issued an official response to this antenna issue. The basic gist? It’s a software bug. More precisely, they claim that the iPhone software currently incorrectly shows signal strength to be better than it is. A software update is supposedly going to “fix” that. Of course, that’s not really a fix at all for the actual signal, it’s just a fix for being misleading about it in the first place.

This seems to go against Apple’s earlier suggestion that you hold the phone a different way or use a case (both of which, of course, imply there is something to the idea that the design of the new device impacting the signal). That said, I spent last weekend in Lake Tahoe which has areas of decidedly better AT&T service than San Francisco. There, I didn’t notice the same falling bar issue, even when I held it in the corner (it would sometimes drop one bar, but not more). Others have noted this as well — when you’re in an area with good service, the bar loss doesn’t seem to be an issue. When you’re in an area with bad service, it is an issue. So more accurate software should at least solve the bars being high enough to drop in the first place.

But all that being said, there is still clearly something to this notion that holding the phone in the lower left corner degrades signal quality. My tests show it, dozens of other tests have shown it as well. And Apple even somewhat acknowledges it, saying this is an issue with all cell phones to some degree.

Here’s my take on this (and while I’m no expert, this seems to be pretty common sense): Apple’s software update should alleviate some concern about the signal drop by being more accurate in the first place. But the signal drop when holding the phone is very real — again, just as it is on other devices like the iPhone 3GS. The fact that the iPhone 4 is the first phone with the antenna on the outside of the phone, I have to believe must exacerbate this issue. And this combination of software plus hardware issue is why we’re all talking about this for the first time.

But at the end of the day, all that matters is this: does the device work? While that’s a more complicated question for me to answer than it should be because I happen to live in an area with notoriously bad AT&T reception, the answer is yes. In regular use (so, not holding the device a certain way to try and get it to fail) the iPhone 4 seems to perform the same with regard to data usage as the iPhone 3GS did. Without all the hubbub over the signal issue, I don’t think I would have noticed a problem (aside from day one when AT&T’s network was clearly getting slammed harder than usual).

As for call quality, I think the iPhone 4 is actually a bit better, believe it or not. I’ve been to at least three spots where I couldn’t make a call before, and now I can. This lends some credence to the idea that the iPhone 4 actually has a better antenna than the previous iPhones, despite the fact that it’s now exposed and seemingly more susceptible to signal degradation.

I have also tried using the iPhone 4 with the new bumpers Apple sells for the device, and it definitely seems to help the lower left corner issue. It’s too bad these things coast $29.99 a pop. I know Apple’s current stance is not to give these things away, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t start doing it if the software update isn’t as effective as they hope.

The Design

All this antenna talk is the direct result of something else: design decisions Apple made for the iPhone 4. Ultimately, they may regret the exterior antenna choice, but it’s hard to argue with the overall package. The iPhone 4 is easily the best piece of mobile hardware I’ve ever laid my hands on.

In my initial thoughts (again, after playing with the device for about 20 minutes), I noted that the iPhone 4 made the iPhone 3GS feel a bit like a toy in comparison. Well, if the iPhone 3GS feels like a toy, most other smartphones out there feel like toys from the 99 Cent Store compared to iPhone 4. It’s just at a whole different level.

I happen to have 10 other recently popular cell phones laying around my apartment (dating back to the Motorola RAZR — the phone I used right before the original iPhone). I decided to pick each up just to see how they feel compared to the iPhone 4. It’s kind of a joke. Some feel okay (the EVO and Nexus One), but nowhere close to the iPhone 4. Some feel pure amateur by comparison (the Palm Pre and the myTouch 3G). And some feel like I’m holding a Zack Morris or Gordon Gekko-style brick (the G1). In fact, the best of the bunch was the original iPhone with its aluminum back, in my opinion.

There has never been an iPhone that feels more solid, looks so symmetrical, and has buttons that feel so right. I’m sure someone will tell me there’s a phone out there that’s crafted at least as well (perhaps in one of the European countries). But I have no doubt that if such a device exists, it’s one that 99.99% of us will never see or use because it probably costs thousands of dollars. That may be the most impressive thing about the iPhone 4 — it’s priced to move at just $199 (or $299 — both after AT&T subsidy, obviously).

No other phone in that price range can touch the iPhone 4 in terms of design and build quality. Not by a long shot.

That’s actually the other thing that saddens me about the bumper — it just makes the device feel (and look) cheaper. That said, the bumper is very useful when setting your device down flat because it provides some room between the all glass back and whatever surface it’s on. This glass is supposedly extremely strong, but that doesn’t mean sticky substances can’t muck up say, the back camera.

The Camera

Speaking of the camera, it’s a thing of beauty. Maybe you’ve heard Apple’s marketing talk that “it’s about more than megapixels” — coined because the iPhone 4 has a 5 megapixel camera while rivals like the EVO have an 8 megapixel one. Well, it’s not actually just marketing talk, it’s absolutely true.

I have both devices and the iPhone 4′s camera is definitely better the EVO’s. And that’s just in quality — as previously mentioned, the camera software on the EVO seems to be buggy and often has issues saving pictures. I haven’t had an issue once on the iPhone. The EVO also makes it hard to switch between the back and front camera on the device. On the iPhone 4, it’s a one-click process right there on the screen.

What most impresses me about the iPhone 4′s camera though is its ability to shoot in low light. In that regard, it reminds me much more of my Canon S90, than any other camera phone I’ve ever used. The iPhone 4 includes an LED flash, and it works fine, but I’m tempted never to use it because this thing is so good in low light. (See: the picturea below taken with the iPhone 4.)

Just as impressive as the still camera is the iPhone 4′s ability to shoot HD video (720p). This matches the EVO and other Android phones in terms of quality and it also brings it up to par with the stand-alone Flip HD cams. The quality of HD videos taken with the iPhone 4 is excellent. There are some stability issues if your taking the video while walking, but standing still, things look amazing (see: below).

FaceTime

The other big element of the iPhone 4 Apple is playing up (and, in fact, the only element they’re playing up in commercials right now) is FaceTime. Yes, I know, other phones have done video chat for some time now. But the fact that seemingly everyone is talking about mobile video chatting for the first time with this release says just about all you need to say.

As a technological demo, FaceTime is impressive. It really is one-click-and-it-works provided both parties have iPhone 4s are are connected to WiFi. There’s nothing to set up, nothing to configure. You hit the button and it works.

As a real world usable technology, FaceTime is profound. It’s one thing to do demos for your friends. It’s another when you make your first real FaceTime call. There you are, somewhere in the world, face-to-face with someone else, someplace else in the world. Once the initial cool factor wears off, it’s like your in the room with them. And Apple is ingenious to play this up in their commercial (below).

But what’s even crazier about FaceTime is that Apple says they will open source the technology — something which Apple doesn’t often do. If third-party developers choose to utilize it, it could be really interesting.

Android

During Google I/O this past year, Google didn’t beat around the bush: the updates they were making with Android 2.2 were aimed squarely at the iPhone. The problem that Android as a platform faces (with regard to challenging Apple) is that they don’t have the control over the software + hardware mix in the same way that Apple does with the iPhone. Yes, they may have taken charge of the design the Nexus One — and that is still, in my mind, their best phone to date — but they don’t have the type of industrial design expertise that Apple does in-house. And it seems unlikely that they ever will unless they change strategy.

Android now brings a lot to the table — plenty of things that the iPhone doesn’t offer such as WiFi hotspot creation, true voice search, and tight Google Voice integration. From a technological and spec sheet perspective, Android is impressive — and it continues to get more so. But from a regular consumer and practical perspective, iPhone remains the device to beat. There are just so many things you can do on the device with such ease that are kind of a pain in the ass on Android. It doesn’t appear that Apple is letting Android phase them — they still focus on quality over quantity.

But that doesn’t mean the moves Google is making with Android don’t alter Apple’s selective areas of focus for the iPhone. And I think it’s great that there are two companies playing off each other in that regard. They’re pushing one another to continue to innovate. And that means all of us, as consumers, win.

From a hardware perspective, iPhone 4 rises to the challenge brought by many Android devices in the year since the iPhone 3GS launched. And it surpasses those devices. It offers a better screen, better camera, better speed, and better battery life than any Android device. But I have no doubt that much of that will again change in the next year, as Android continues to rapidly iterate.

And then iPhone 5 will come out, and we’ll be having this discussion all over again.

Conclusion + One More Thing

In conclusion, if you said you were buying a phone today, I would absolutely tell you to get the iPhone 4. Are there antenna issues? Yes, but they don’t adversely affect the overall experience to the point where I wouldn’t buy this phone over all others. And in fact, in normal day-to-day usage they don’t seem to adversely affect the iPhone usage that I’m used to at all (and that’s not so much a statement in favor of Apple as it is a statement against AT&T).

That brings me to the caveat. And it’s a big one. Since the initial launch of the iPhone there have been rumors about the device coming to Verizon — but those rumors are now louder than ever. The current ones suggest a January 2011 launch date for such a pairing.

If I 100% knew that was the case, there is no way I would recommend anyone to buy the iPhone 4 right now. But, just as was the case last year, I simply don’t know that right now — and I’m not sure anyone besides Apple really does (including both AT&T and Verizon). Basically, buying the iPhone 4 right now is a several hundred dollar bet that it won’t launch on Verizon in 6 months. It’s a gamble.

But there is a silver lining if you choose to make the bet. Even if the Verizon iPhone does launch, it should help the iPhone on AT&T, because there will undoubtedly be defectors by the thousands (if not more). Those users switching will ease the strain on AT&T’s network and could actually render it usable at all times again. It really could be a win-win.

Speculation aside, the iPhone 4 is the smartphone to beat from this point going forward. It will be fun to watch Android try to answer and see if they can dethrone the king before iPhone 5. Leading up to iPhone 4, Android has kept inching closer, but this latest device from Apple is the biggest leap forward the product line has taken yet. It’s going to be hard to beat.

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

An iPhone Lover’s Take On The iPhone 4

AppleCare Protection Plan may cover certain types of damage, but it sure didn't stop up today's alleged leak -- if you pick an unlocked iPhone at the online Apple Store for Canada, Australia or the UK today and click the "Learn more" button on the AppleCare option, you'll be treated to this "iWork for iPhone" containing screen. Coupled with the "Open in Keynote" prompt we saw a few weeks back, we may picking up the crumbs of a real app here, even if productivity isn't the first thing that comes to mind when fondling that Retina Display.

iWork for iPhone revealed by AppleCare product description? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Mobiture Blog  |  Apple Store UK, Apple Store CA, Apple Store AU  | Email this | Comments

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iWork for iPhone revealed by AppleCare product description?

The biggest problem with testing Facetime is the dearth of real, hard-core nerds out there with iPhone 4s. I’ve been able to talk to Greg and my buddy Tom, but that’s about it.

Now, however, you can call 1-888-FACETIME (188832238463) and talk to an Apple rep live over Facetime. They’re available from 8am to 8pm CDT. I tried it. It actually works.
Read more…

Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

Don’t Have Any Friends? Call 1-888-FACETIME to Test Facetime On the…

Welcome to the latest installment of our annual tradition: the iPhone launch day queue experience in pictorial form. London's getting the party started early (not as early as some, admittedly) with a sizable crowd turning the corner from the Apple Store at Regent Street, but we'll keep this post updated with imagery from all over the place. Wouldn't mind if you helped us out with a few of your own pics, either. You know where to send them in by now, and once you've done that, feel free to slide past the break to see how everyone else is doing it.

Continue reading iPhone 4 launch day line watch

iPhone 4 launch day line watch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Post from: Technology News Videos And Resources

iPhone 4 launch day line watch

The tablet era has just begun, but Forrester Research is already predicting tablet sales in the U.S. will overtake netbook sales by 2012, and desktop sales by 2015. At the Untethered conference today in New York City, Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps laid out her projections comparing tablet sales to netbooks, laptops, and desktops. She expects 3.5 million tablets (including the iPad and other tablets) to be sold this year, growing to 20.4 million in 2015. Meanwhile, she expects desktop sales to drop from 18.7 million units in 2010 to 15.7 million units in 2015.

As a percentage of overall PC sales, tablets will grow from 6 percent this year to 18 percent in 2012 (when netbooks are estimated to account for 17 percent of sales. The next year, in 2013, tablet sales are projected to outstrip desktop unit sales, 21 percent to 20 percent. By 2015, tablets will make up 23 percent of PC sales in the U.S., while desktops will be 18 percent and netbooks will be 17 percent. Only laptops will sell more in the U.S., with a 42 percent market share.

The big question is how much of the tablet market can Apple capture? It has already sold 2 million iPads, and could easily blow past Forrester’s 3.5 million estimate for this year all by itself. It is not stretch for it to get to 20 million by 2015 either. So is there room in this market for other tablets, or will Forrester need to increase its estimates?

These projections are for unit sales, not total revenues, but still the expectation that there will be more tablets sold in five years than any other type of computer is stunning. By 2015, the cumulative number of people using tablets will be 59 million, according to Rotman, which will be larger than the installed base of netbooks (but still just a fraction of the installed base of desktops and laptops). On a global basis, IDC also sees tablets and e-readers driving more growth than netbooks. Looks like it is time to stick a fork in netbooks.

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Forrester Projects Tablets Will Outsell Netbooks By 2012, Desktops By…