Archive for March, 2010

Apple posted a new document on its website about iPad battery replacement, where it is said:

"If your iPad requires service due to the battery’s diminished ability to hold an electrical charge, Apple will replace your iPad for a service fee."

Apple also added that your data will not be moved to a new iPad, so you'll need to sync your device to iTunes to backup all the personal information it contains.

The battery replacement will cost you 99$ (and 6.95$ for shipment). Apple claims the process will take one week from sending the iPad to receiving replacement device. You can replace your battery in local Apple Store or at the office of Apple Authorized Service Provider. To get further information contact Apple Technical Support.

The Wall Street Journal has information that nearly 10,000 iPhone users regularly access the Microsoft employee mail system. Such a number represents almost 10% of the company's global staff.

It is really interesting as Microsoft executives are not happy to see their employees using products of rival companies. Its CEO Steve Ballmer already had an accident last September when he caught a man from the company's personnel who tried to snap a photo of an entrance with his iPhone. At that moment he was so angry he put the phone on the ground and pretended to stomp on it. After that he walked away.

The WSJ also reports:

"...the company in early 2009 modified its corporate cellphone policy to only reimburse service fees for employees using phones that run on Windows Phone software."

It is obvious the company tries to reassure its employees to use its software and hardware, but they continue to hide and even customize their iPhones to make them look more like generic handsets.

New page featuring iBooks for iPad has been rolled out on the Apple's official site. The app will be available as soon as the new device will be launched (the official date is April 3rd). Apple confirms iBooks will use the open ePub standard and the same version of FairPlay DRM that continues to be applied on video content distributed via iTunes.

iBooks will allow users to switch portrait and landscape modes, change fonts and text sizes and even tap on words to see its definition from Wikipedia or built-in dictionary. It is compatible with VoiceOver functionality that makes content to be read aloud automatically.

For some time iBooks will be available only in USA, but as we know Apple already seeks for professionals to expand their book business internationally.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BK_FCXcyrk

iDongle is a new device that lets you to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod Touch or reboot it on the go. It is very easy to use - just plug it in and wait. The only problem is that it supports only iPod Touch 2G/3G and 3.1.2 iPhone 3GS.

At the moment there is only a dozen of this devices, but the developer says he collects money at the moment to build up a full-fledged production.

iSMEStorage is the first application for iPhone with cloud storage virtualization service that allows users to manage more than 10 different storage clouds from their device in 1 Cloud file. Clouds include Google Docs, FTP-as-a-cloud, Email-as-a-cloud, Gmail-as-a-cloud, Miscrosoft SkyDrive and LiveMesh, Apple Mobile Me and Amazon S3 and other.

SMEStorage CEO says:

"We are very happy to add the iPhone to the list of clients that users can use to get access to their files from our platform... It is the first [application] to virtualize storage clouds and make them available from one Cloud File System, and it is the first App of any kind in the App Store that enables access to Microsoft SkyDrive files."

iSMEStorage v1.01 is available here in the Productivity Category from the AppStore only for 0.99$.

Members of AAPL Sanity Board at Investor Village resource decided to study the iPad order numbers. By 11:05am EST they received fifteen confirmations about 74,000 orders (the device went up for pre-order at 08:30 am EST).

But there were other who became interested in the dynamics of iPad sells. Valcent Financial Group says about 51,000 orders in 2 hours, Silicon Alley Insider reports about 20,000 devices reserved per hour.

Fortune predicts Apple may have only 300,000 iPads available for sale right now. It also reports 91,000 devices were sold in six hours since 08:30 am.

Today Apple announced new photos of iPad. One screenshot is very interesting as it contains mysterious icon on the home screen. It is situated on the right of the device and appears only in the one picture on site.

As you can see it looks like the logo of National Geographic, so we can assume the icon is for a digital version of this magazine.

Another cool stuff was released by the Jailbreak Collective. It is a set of  iCon Magnets for your refrigerator (or any magnet surface). The authors say these are the icons for the old-school tasks where the usual iPhone apps are coming up short.

The price for 18 magnets is $13 plus shipping. It is available for purchase here.

Forbes ranked Steve Jobs the 136th Richest Man in the World. He has a net worth of $5.5 billion and shares his ranking with 5 other rich men.

Carlos Slim Helu tops the list with a net worth of $53.5 billion. More information here.

9to5mac reports that the latest iPhone 3.2 Beta 4 SDK has the new gestures folder. And there are two new types of commands (3Tap.plist and LongPress.plist), that are certainly not implemented in the iPhone SDK 3.1.

Apple will probably allow developers to use these new capabilities in the next version of the iPhone OS. We might even see these next month in the shipping version of the iPad.

In a week after the story about the lawsuit Oppenheimer analyst Yal Reiner wrote a research note, where it is said that Apple started warning Motorola and HTC in as early as January 2009. The Cupertino's company was not so happy to see that rivals' new products look like iPhone (or at least use the same concepts).

Apple COO Tim Cook even commented on this situation:

"Apple will not stand for having our IP ripped off, and we'll use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal".

The words were presumably about Samsung, LG and Nokia (Palm is not mentioned as its sales numbers are not so considerable).

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Developers have found references to multitasking in iPhone OS SDK files. The below mention of a "multitasking dialog box" is just one example:

Actually many different Apple's built-in applications already multitask. For example, phone.app, iPod.app, Safari.app, Mail.app, etc. so theoretically, the dialog box in this case could refer to current functionality.

Designer Antonio De Rosa, the author of a beautiful iPhone 4G concept, offers us his new creation iPhone Pro. Here is a video demonstration and a full image gallery:

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3MSjwUrxT0

HP confirmed that their slate PC can run Adobe flash and Air applications and emphasized it with a little bit provocative notes in their new ads:

• "Complete Internet - including Flash".
• "Access the full web and not jut part of it!"

The company representatives also ambiguously said:

"With this slate product, you're getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand. No watered-down Internet, no sacrifices."

For more information watch the new video ads above and below.

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Chinese companies are producing iPad clones that will have Windows 7 OS pre-installed on it. Clone makers are interested in putting it on sale as soon as possible as there is still no information about whether Apple will ship iPad to China or not.

Some Chinese stores have already started taking pre-orders for the new Apple devices. They hope to import device from those of other countries where it will be officially on sale.