Archive for November, 2011

Chair Entertainment launched a sequel of its Infinity Blade in Apple Stores. The original version became the first iOS game running on the Unreal Engine and also the best-selling iOS game with 1,6 millions downloads just in four days after its release.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sydney Morning Herald reports that an Australian court has overturned a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1. Apple was able to extend the ban until Friday at 4pm while it prepares for an appeal to the High Court.

The full bench of the Federal Court - Justices John Dowsett, Lindsay Foster and David Yates - today unanimously reversed a Federal Court judge's ruling last month that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 be banned from sale in Australia.

"Samsung will be permitted to launch the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia provided it keeps accounts of all transactions involving that device in Australia," the judges wrote in their judgment.

The original ruling came last month from Justice Annabelle Bennett. Following the initial injunction, Samsung was quick to appeal the decision in hopes of releasing the device in time for the valuable Christmas shopping season. Samsung lawyer Neil Young said in October that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would be "dead" if it was delayed past Christmas.

Galaxy Tab 10.1N (top) vs. Galaxy Tab 10.1 (bottom)

Apple has reportedly filed a request for a preliminary injunction to prevent sales of the revised Galaxy Tab 10.1N, a design-tweaked variant of the original Galaxy Tab 10.1, in Germany. Samsung launched Galaxy Tab 10.1N last month in attempt to deal with the ban on Galaxy tab 10.1 sales in the country.

Apple has requested a preliminary injunction, and the Duesseldorf regional court has scheduled a hearing on the matter on Dec. 22, a spokesman for the court told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday.

The move has no effect on sales and distribution of the product, Samsung said in an emailed statement, while Apple repeated earlier comments that it intends to protect its intellectual property.

Apple clearly believes that slight changes in design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 are not sufficient to overcome the ruling that the Galaxy Tab design is almost similar to the design of the Apple’s iPad, and that is why Apple has decided to claim a new injunction.

Samsung's attorney Neil Young claims that Australian judge Annabelle Bennett was wrong in granting Apple a temporary injunction against the Galaxy Tab. He stated at an appeal hearing that she made a series of errors and did not understand key elements of the case. The judge issued the ban on the basis of just two of the patents, but Apple’s claims are based on 13 company’s patent infringements. So the judge decided that they were enough to warrant a temporary sales ban until the full case will be solved. However, Samsung may lose their customers during the holiday sales season at least in Australia.

As far as we know, Apple is also suing Samsung in California and in some other countries.  A separate injunction on sales was won by Apple in Germany. Rather curious incident occurred in the US court. A judge, who held Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Apple's iPad in the air, asked Samsung's attorneys to identify which one is made by Samsung. Surprisingly, the attorney preferred to evade a question.

Of course, Apple's attorney Stephen Burley does not agree with Samsung's attorney. He believes that Bennett reviewed the infringement case in a detailed fashion. Moreover, he claims that Apple had good chances to win infringement.

Fortune has analyzed two reports and suggests now that Apple may be experiencing some supply constrains on the iPhone 4S throughout this holiday quarter. The company, no doubt, works hard to stock-pile necessary number of the iPhone 4S that will allow Apple to meet customer demand for its newest smartphone, as well as shipping estimates of iPhone carrier partners during this quarter, but Apple may be having some trouble meeting its own production goals for the device that will result in supply constrains.

The first report, from Rodman and Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, alerted the company’s clients about the iPhone 4S production constrains, citing that shortages of an unidentified "key component" for the iPhone 4S that is holding back production. Kumar says that Apple has four million iPhone 4S not sold in the prior quarter. Taking into account there numbers, he suggests that Apple may sell 30 million iPhones during this quarter, though the company won’t be able to completely satisfy consumer demand.

The second note comes from Susquehanna Financial's Jeff Fidacaro. He also says that the main problem for Apple in this quarter is "supply constraints". As a result, we see reduction in quarterly iPhone sales of about three million units, moving from 26-28 million units to 23-25 million units.

We have already found two new iPads and the next-generation Apple TV codenames tonight. Now we are are ready to something big. Here is, perhaps, the most important find of all: iPhone 5,1. That's right, the next version of the iPhone is has been found in iOS 5.1 internals.

This codename also tells us that iPhone 5 would be a major update. New 4,x model would represent minor changes. For example, the iPhone 3G went from the original iPhone 1,1 to 1,2 because there were no internal speed and performance enhancements, just 3G and a GPS.

The jump from 4,1 to 5,1 represents major changes, both internal and external. This means the iPhone 5/6 will have a brand-new processor, probably A6. Rumored additions for externals are a 4 inch display and a new aluminum casing. Since Apple just released the iPhone 4S in October 2011, we should not expect iPhone 5 anytime soon. New iPhone will come next October or maybe in the summer. With the 5,1 reference appearing this early, we like to think the latter.

Read the rest of this entry »

More news on new devices found in iOS 5.1 beta. This time it's Apple TV 3rd generation.

Usually every product has a codename identifier. For example iPhone3,1 is iPhone 4 and AppleTV2,1 is Apple TV 2G. We have seen AppleTV3,1 codename in iOS 5 a while ago. 9to5mac reports that as a product in development moves closer to the release, it is assigned another codename. For example N94 (iPhone 4S) or K48 (original iPad). The 3rd generation Apple TV has reached that stage. New name J33 was found in iOS 5.1, that corresponds to new Apple TV 3,1.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the just released iOS 5.1 beta, developers have found references to two new iPad devices. They have codenames iPad 2,4 and iPad 3,3.

Just to remind you, iPad 2 has 3 different codenames - iPad 2 Wifi version is iPad 2,1, iPad 2 GSM is iPad 2,2 and iPad 2 CDMA is iPad 2,3. So what could be the new iPad 2,4? There are rumors that this new gadget might be a Sprint version of iPad 2. However 3G Sprint iPad would be the same hardware as the Verizon iPad, so new name might be iPad 2 WiMAX. Other rumors say this is iPad for China's TD-LTE or a dual-mode device like the current iPhone 4S.

Read the rest of this entry »

We have recently been able to test NoiseHush NX80 headphones from WirelessGround.com and compare them with Apple headphones.

Just by looking at NoiseHush NX80 headphones one can say they are very well made. In the package you will find headphones with tangle-free red cables, a small pouch and a selection of ear gels (small, medium and large). NoiseHush NX80 headphones have a microphone and a switch button, so users can easily answer calls or switch between the tracks just like when using Apple earphones.

We have found that NoiseHush NX80 3.9 feet cable is more suitable for everyday use, since they indeed tangle less than original Apple Earphones that come with every iPhone and iPod. The red color also looks nice and attractive. The selection of ear gels is very important. They not just make headphones stay in ears, we have also found that the sound quality is much better when appropriate ear gels are used.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week The New York Times reported on Apple's retail store software that helps employees timely respond to customer assistance requests. This internal app shows the in-store location of customers who requested assistance to employees on their iPod touches. Customers can inform employees that they need their assistance by touching a button on iPads which are mounted on the sales floor next to products and display information and purchases option. Employees’ iPods receive requests and show customer location in red. Apple Store’s employee Diego Aguirre said:

Read the rest of this entry »

Apple has released iOS 5.1 beta and a preview of Xcode 4.3 to developers.

The build of iOS 5.1 is 9B5117b and the build of Xcode 4.3 is 4D1002. There is no official changelog and no information on what was added or changed.

Developers can download the iOS 5.1 ipsw from here.

The well-known market research firm comScore today released data on U.S. sales for Black Friday. The report shows that customers spent $816 million, up 26% over last year's numbers. Apple’s online store became the fifth most-visited online retailer in the country on Black Friday behind Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target.

Fifty million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, representing an increase of 35 percent versus year ago. Each of the top five retail sites achieved double-digit gains in visitors vs. last year, led by Amazon. Walmart ranked second, followed by Best Buy, Target and Apple.

“Each of the top online retailers generated significantly greater Black Friday activity compared to last year,” added [comScore chairman Gian] Fulgoni. “Amazon.com once again led the pack, with 50 percent more visitors than any other retailer, while also showing the highest growth rate versus last year. However, it is telling that the top multi-channel retailers also showed strong growth in visitors, demonstrating the importance of the online channel to the retail industry as a whole.”

Regional Express (REX), Australian largest independent regional airline, had to extinguish a glowing iPhone 4, emitting “dense smoke” while a flight from Lismore to Sydney. A flight attendant extinguished the smoking smartphone and no one was injured during the incident. The situation, obviously, has sparked concerns over the handset's battery. The defected device was the GSM version of the iPhone 4, according to the model number of the device.

This issue, probably, caused by battery overheating wasn’t a unique one for Apple's devices. As far as we know, the company recently initiated a replacement program for the first-generation iPod nano due to potential battery overheating issues earlier this month, although Apple notes that the problem is very rare, but the likelihood of overheating does increase over time.

One of the biggest consumer electronic battery scares in recent years occurred in 2006. Microscopic metal particles were found in 9.6 million lithium-ion Sony batteries that the company had to recall. Such batteries were also used in Apple’s iBook and PowerBook G4 and Apple recalled 1.8 million batteries.

According to research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, demand for Apple’s iPhone 4S helped the company to push it market share in the UK to nearly 43% in October. Apple's U.K. market share increased 2.8 percent to 27.8 percent year-to-year and it is the first time since late 2010 when Apple’s sales beat Android-based handset sales in the region.

"Apple took a whopping 42.8 percent share of all smartphone sales, giving it a significant lead over Android - a feat many thought was impossible," said Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at the firm.

About 75 percent of British customers who purchased an iPhone 4S in October already own a previous version of the device, with 14 percent upgrading from last year's iPhone 4. Sunnebo claims that the main driver for the sales of the iPhone 4S in the U.K. was the existing iPhone users. The second driver is rather long period between the launches of the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Analyst Chris Whitmore with Deutsche Bank and his team of analysts checked more than 200 stores on Black Friday to assess demand for Apple products, including the iPhone, iPad and Mac lineup and found out that Apple's Black Friday sales were more than successful.

75 percent of Apple’s retail stores sold out of the iPhone 4S on Black Friday while on Saturday just 30 percent of Apple's stores remained sold out of the iPhone 4S. At AT&T stores, Whitmore found that about 50 percent were sold out over the weekend.

Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray also polled Apple's retail stores on Black Friday, and discovered that iPad sales per hour were 68 percent higher than they were a year ago that means an average of 14.8 iPads per hour, comparing with the 8.8 iPads sold per hour year-over-year. Mac sales were 10.1 units per hour, up 23 percent from Black Friday 2010.

Whitmore also found strong iPad and Mac sales, noting that the 11.6-inch MacBook Air was the most popular option in the MacBook Air lineup on Black Friday. As for the iPad, he revealed that the most popular version was the 32GB model.