Archive for July, 2011

Today Adobe has presented a new "switcher" discount program that is intended to take advantage of harsh criticism directed  to Apple’s new Final Cut Pro X. This promotional program provides 50% discount on either Premiere Pro CS5.5 or Creative Suite CS5.5 Production Premium to people who currently use Avid’s Media Composer or Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Some current users of Adobe products are also allowed to get this discount.

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Apple released MAC OS X Lion Golden Master seed to developers in anticipation of its official release at some time this month. The download of Golden Master seed is available on the Mac Developer website. The number of the build is 11A511. Also, Apple released Developer Preview 7 seed of Xcode 4.1.

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MIC Gadget has posted an article that tells us about some details of the upcoming Mac Pro update that may come out in August. MIC Gadget also posted a screenshot of the App Store that shows a Mac Pro with Promise Thunderbolt RAID system. The current generation of the Mac Pro doesn’t support Thunderbolt technology. Of course, that image could be just an error of the graphics department, but if it doesn’t, we should expect Mac Pro with Thunderbolt that is slowly being rolled out onto every Mac.  The MacBook Pro, iMac already received Thunderbolt input/output ports, and recent rumors claim that the MacBook Air refresh will similarly get Thunderbolt capability. The image also shows that the Mac Pro design won’t be changed. MIC Gadget also believes that the Mac Pro will feature an 8 core CPU that will be ‘exclusive’ to Apple for a few months before other PC manufacturers can have access to it in Q4 of this year.

Our sources indicate Apple is making headway with access to this technology, and they are investing heavily into the Mac Pro. Sandy Bridge will be integrated with the new Mac Pro CPU as well, but issues remain with the heat being produced by such powerful CPUs.

Gameloft did the same, just like EA. The sale is not as that big, but you can get several famous games like Asphalt, Nova and Starfront for $0.99. iPad games have the same low price. Take a look:

• Asphalt 6: Adrenaline – $4.99 → $.99
• Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD - $6.99 → $.99
• Dungeon Hunter 2 – $6.99 → $.99
• Dungeon Hunter 2 HD – $6.99 → $.99
• NOVA 2 – $6.99 → $.99
• NOVA 2 HD – $6.99 →> $.99
• Sacred Odyssey: Rise of Ayden – $6.99 → $.99
• Shrek Kart – $4.99 → $.99
• Shrek Kart HD – $4.99 → $.99
• Starfront: Collision – $2.99 → $.99
• Starfront: Collision HD – $6.99 → $.99

EA games are on sale for the July 4th Independence Day weekend. EA is Discounting over 90 iOS games to $0.99 or less!

EA's most popular titles include: Need for Speed, C&C, Battlefield, Fifa, Tetris, Scrabble, Monopoly, Battleship and more. You can look through EA games here.

Here is the list of some popular games and prices:

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As Reuters writes, a consortium consisting of Apple Inc, Microsoft, EMC Corp, Ericsson, Sony, Research in Motion and BlackBerry placed a winning bid in the auction and bought Canadian telecommunications equipment maker Nortel with its collection of more than 6,000 patents.

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We already know top 5 reasons why Apple iCloud rocks. Let's take a look at top 5 things iCloud is missing:

As noted by MacStories, App Store offers now more than 100.000 applications specially created for 9.7-inch iPad’s display.

This 100.000 milestone was reached by Apple this week. The total figure refers to iPad-specific applications, and does not count iPhone apps, which can work but doesn’t enjoy advantages of the bigger screen size.

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Here are the Top 5 reasons from CNet you should seriously consider embracing iCloud on your Apple iPhone, iPad, or other device.

Take a look at Top 5 thing iCloud is missing.

Apple is going to renovate its SoHo store to increase its space in the next three months. This step is necessary because the SoHo store, opened in 2002, is the smallest Apple Store within Manhattan and it scarcely accommodates the thousands of customers every day. During the renovations, the SoHo Apple store will be relocated to a temporary location. There is no information about what exactly location Apple chose but it obviously will be somewhere within Manhattan. The renovations will apparently include reconfiguration of the first floor, but the glass staircase that was the first one in Apple’s store, won’t be changed.

MacBooks have been running out of supply at resellers such as Amazon, J&R, and MacConnection. European distributors have also run out of MacBook supply and are not expecting future shipments. Apple’s MacBook Air supply is also decreasing, giving birth to rumours that their update may coincide with the release of Mac OS X Lion.

Apple’s white MacBooks are quite expensive and their hardware is outdated. So they may receive newer processors and Thunderbolt technologies, or Apple could simply reduce price. Some analysts suggest that the second variant is more preferable for Apple. Cutting price Apple will make MacBooks more valuable for students. So, the new MacBook could be priced closer to Apple’s entry-level Mac Mini.

Mike Abramsky, Analyst at RBC Capital Markets, expects that Apple might offer the iPhone 3GS for free with 2-year contract after the iPhone 5 launch; that step will obviously attract mid-market buyers.

"While a $49 iPhone is already available (AT&T), psychologically a $0 iPhone provides a compelling offer," Abramsky wrote in a note to investors. "Proprietary survey data... suggests 14% are very/somewhat likely to buy the iPhone 3GS for free with 2-year contract, exceeding buying interest for the iPad (13%) and original iPhone (9%)."

Abramsky suggest that free iPhone 3GS will increase iPhone numbers to more than 150 million smartphones. That will be unusual for Apple, because the company always discontinues its two-year-old smartphones. For example, after launch of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, first released in 2009, was dropped to $99, and the iPhone 3G was discontinued. Noteworthy to say that despite the fact that the iPhone 3GS was first released in 2009, it will be compatible with the iOS 5.

DigiTimes reports that Apple is planning to increase significantly the iPad 2 shipments for the third quarter of this year. The company is going to ship about 12-14 million devices over that period. These numbers are obviously larger than the 7-9 million units reportedly shipped during the previous quarter.

In order to significantly increase its shipments in the third quarter, Apple has been piling up its inventory of iPad 2 components such as panels in the second quarter to minimize the risk of facing component shortages.

Now it is quite difficult to forecast the iPad’s shipments due to production constraints and the transition from the original iPad to the iPad 2. Moreover, Apple didn’t come up with forecasts of some analysts suggesting that Apple's total 2011 iPad could reach 40 million units and sold in the first quarter only 4.69 million units, though, these numbers include a few initial weeks of official iPad 2 sales.

Arstechnica and iFixIt claim that Apple’s new Tunderbolt cable is actually a "smart" cable that contains circuitry and firmware. iFixIt have already torn down the cable, having found inside two Gennum GN2033 chips in the connector that works as a transceiver to enable “reliable data transfer at cutting-edge speeds over low cost, thin-gauge copper cables.” There were also found additional support chips and resistors, so the total number of chips inside the Thunderbolt connector is 12, of course not including multiply smaller electronic components.

Quite interesting that the current Thunderbolt ports found in iMac and MacBook Pro are planned to be compatible with future Thunderbolt cables, bringing a significant speed improvement. But the current generation of such ports works on the traditional wiring.

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According to Bloomberg’s report, HP is interested in licensing its mobile operating system webOS to other companies, which may open the door for yet another competitor in the tablet and smartphone market.

"We are talking to a number of companies," Apotheker, president of the company, stated in Beijing, refusing to give more details."I can share with you that a number of companies have expressed interest. We are continuing our conversations."

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