Archive for January, 2011

Yesterday research firm Strategy Analytics has reported that in the December quarter iPad rivals started to conquer the tablet market, which caused Apple's tablet market share to drop from 95% to 77%.

In the Q4 of 2010 Apple sold record 7.3 million iPads and thus represented 95% of the market. Android shipments in turn increased from 100,000 units to 2.1 million, which eventually significantly changed the situation on the market, the director of Strategy Analytics Neil Mawston told.

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Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak confirmed that Apple managed to solve problems with the painting of the white iPhone 4. Last week we reported that Apple in collaboration with the unknown Japanese company created the new coloring process to address issues with the device. Wozniak also claimed that the device should come soon. He said one of the reasons which caused the delay was the device’s parts soled by the well-known kid (he ordered white iPhone 4 parts and then made some conversion kits and sold them). Those parts led to light leakage issues and washed-out pictures. So, the white iPhone 4 seams to be real.

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has recently released another report, where he states that the next-gen iPad won't get new resolution this year.

"The most important reason why iPad 2 won’t have retinal display is yield rate of panel making. At this point, making high resolution and bright IPS/FFS panel is not easy and the production volume and cost couldn’t meet Apple’s requirements."

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Angry Birds is obviously one of the most popular games in App Store. And now its funs are waiting for the next version of their favorite game. The developer of the game, RovioMobile, has announced that new version of Angry Birds will come to the App Store in March. It’s based on the upcoming animated film Rio. Rio is a film about rare birds which are kidnapped by other birds and is about them escaping to freedom. The film Rio will be released on April 15th but the new game will be available earlier, in March.

Sony has won a lawsuit against iPhone Jailbreaker George Hotz (better-known as Geohot) . The court agreed with Sony's sentiment and after consideration of the record and the arguments found that a temporary restraining order would be appropriate and should be applied to hacker. Though, Geohot didn’t find himself guilty.

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A California resident has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple. He claims that the company doesn’t warn customers enough about the fragility of the iPhone 4. He said that his iPhone 4′s glass broke when his daughter dropped the device from a height of about 3 feet, while sending a text message. He tried the same experiment with an iPhone 3GS, which didn't break. The man even claims that Apple “knows about the design flaw and refuses to warn consumers that “normal” use leads essentially to a broken phone.” Though, as Apple claims, the iPhone 4′s glass is 30 times harder than plastic and is the same “glass used in helicopters and high-speed trains.” But a survey of 20,000 damaged iPhone 4 proved that the iPhone 4′s glass breaks 82% more than the iPhone 3GS’s glass.

Last week Toshiba introduced a new 1.8-inch hard drive. The highest capacity of those drives reaches 220 GB, while keeping the same thickness of 5 mm, the same hard drives found in the iPod classic. That means that the iPod classic capacity might be enlarged from 60 GB to 220 GB. That’s enough for 55,000 songs, 275 hours of video or over 34,000 photos. Moreover, the new drive uses less power, so we can expect more impressive battery life. Today’s iPod classic offers 36-hours. All this changes are likely to come in September’s iPod refresh. Tell the truth, the iPod classic isn’t Apple’s main product now, but it still sells. Everything tends to show that Apple kept it in its line only not to lose the small market of very high capacity music players.

A hacker named Chpwn has recently posted a video where he uses his new jailbreak-only app called VoiceActivator. It allows you to fully configure what voice commands you may give to your iPhone/iPod touch and what the device should do after it'll hear it. For example, it can open webpages, make screenshots, and, as it seen from the video above, many other actions from the long list.

Chpwn didn't mention what will be the price for the app, but we may assume it will be cheap enough (and thus not free). We can expect it to be released next week.

The built-in iOS voice control application (which can be activated if you press and hold Home button for some time) allows to dial phone numbers, ask for the time, initiate FaceTime calls and control music playback. It is also known that Apple is going to incorporate the idea of VoiceActivator in future versions of iOS. Maybe, it will be the one of the ways to refuse from using Home button.

Few days remain before iPhone 4 will become available for preorder at Verizon's stores, and this week the carrier has already launched a teaser countdown page available for existing customers, which tells them to come at 3 a.m. Eastern on Feb 3.

Previously Verizon has also sent out emails to its business customers with a notification of 3 a.m. start.

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New report from Korea Times reveals that Samsung "has agreed with Apple to quadruple monthly shipments of its mobile AP chips to 20,000 sheets throughout this year from 5,000 last year". This information came from sources related to Samsung's suppliers.

According to Korea Times, that means that in 2011 a half of Samsung's mobile Application Processor chip capacity will be dedicated to Apple. Therefore, Apple becomes a bigger consumer of Samsung's chips that Samsung itself that produces similar chips for its smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablet.

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Good news everyone. DevTeam recently posted a tweet where they inform us that they will soon release a new version of Redsn0w utility for Windows. It will be an untethered jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1 using the Monte iOS 4.1 technique.

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MacLife has posted a video that races you through MacWorld Expo 2011 in 60 seconds. Too fast for me. Take a look:

Yesterday Apple released iTunes 10.1.2 which provide support for the upcoming Verizon CDMA iPhone 4. The update offers stability and performance improvements.” iTunes 10.1.2 syncs music, movies, and more with iPhone 4 (CDMA model)”, - Apples claimed.

Remind you that the previous iTunes 10.1 came with several new features and improvements, including:

• Use AirPlay to instantly and wirelessly stream videos from iTunes to the all-new Apple TV.
• Sync with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 4.2.

Download iTunes 10.1.2

As reported, Skype 5 has recently exited the beta stage that began in November 2010. Company made some improvements in the program, having reduced the size of the application window.

We've reduced the minimum window size, so that those of you who prefer to keep Skype to one side of your screen, for example, can do that more easily. We've also tightened up the contact list, so that you can see 30% more contacts at once. We've reduced the amount of whitespace in the sidebar too.

Other changes include the return of full-screen mode for video calls and easier access to chatting functions during calls. But the most important change is availability of group video calling to Skype's premium package for $4.99 per day or $8.99 per month. Free during the beta testing period the option was free.

You may download Skype 5 from here

Today at the media event in Tokyo Sony unveiled its next-gen PlayStation Portable that will challenge Apple's iOS as a game platform.

The device's codename is NGP (Next Generation Portable) and it was built around five concepts: Revolutionary UI, Location-based Entertainment, Social Connectivity and Converging Real and Virtual Reality. And here are the characteristics of the device according to Engadget:

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