News tagged ‘less’
iPhone case made of rock
In welcoming the Spring/Summer 2010 season, JOYCE presents the much anticipated “Truly Gifted III” program starting from February 25th to March 14th. Last year they collaborated with Alexander McQueen to create an exclusive USB stick. Now they invited more designers - Rick Owens, Dries Van Noten, Marni, Etro, Bless and Anna Sui specially designed limited iPhone cases for Hong Kong’s JOYCE.
The most interesting one is on the picture above. It is made out of rock! Here's the photo of all iPhone cases:
iPad Can Make Emergency Calls!
One of the developers enabled a passcode lock in iPad SDK and then decided to type it incorrectly for a few times. After 5th try iPad proposed to make an emergency call.
This option looks pretty obscure but can be explained as a following to FCC regulations, that demand wireless phones to be able to make emergency calls (even in the cases when the device isn't currently active or assigned a number).
Jobs claimed at the iPad's keynote that it has a built-in speaker and mic, so does it really can make normal calls in addition to emergency calls?
Apple and HTC commented on the lawsuit situation
When HTC found out about Apple's actions, the company told Gizmodo website they will defend their technologies:
"We only learned of Apple's actions based on your stories and Apple's press release. We have not been served any papers yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years."
Steve Jobs expressed his opinion in the official press release:
"We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
It is interesting, that 14 years ago it was Steve Jobs who said: "We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.".
Wow! It looks like Steve Jobs totally changed his mind?
Free Pass for MWSF2011 Is Available!
Less than a month has passed since MacWorld Expo 2010 was closed, and IDG World Expo already prepares for MWSF 2011 (which is announced to be on January 27-29 in Moscone Cetner West in San Fransisco). Today they announced a one-week free registration window for the show! All you need you do to take a free pass is to click here and fill in the information in the form. Enjoy!
iPad Uses Cortex A8-based Chip
As you remember, Steve Jobs clearly said at the iPad's presentation that the device will have a 1 GHz A4 Chip. But after that event there was no information given about this secret two-letter name "A4". And this isn't usual, as almost every company reports the specification of every announced device before it'll come to market.
Later it was rumored that the chip is based on Cortex A9 with dual cores. But finally Arstechnica author Jon Stokes revealed that A4 is a 1 GHz custom system-on-chip with a single Cortex A8 Core and a PowerVR SGX GPU. Though the information is not announced publicly, the author is sure it is true.
MWSF 2010: DriveSavers, Sky Voyager, Papershow, Inklet and Yapper
In this last post we'll tell you about new Drivesavers instructive app, virtual iPhone planetarium, papershow tool for making presentations, Inklet software to turn Mac multi-touch trackpad into a drawing tablet and a tool for creating your own iPhone apps.
Free DriveSavers Hard Drive Disk-aster Simulator app for the iPod Touch and iPhone is a new way to study how a hard disk works. It teaches in interactive fashion about all the things that may crash a drive, what happens during a seized motor, clicker failure, SSD failures, contamination and head crashes. Also you’ll learn how the data recovery gets done and see the inside of a hard disk. That looks pretty instructive.
MWSF 2010: iV Plus, FloTV, Square Up and Wissair's DisplayDock Set
We're back on reporting about the apps and gadgets presented on the MWSF 2010. Now we'll talk about iV Plus - the solution to turn your iPhone into remote; FloTV - the service to watch TV in the USA; Square Up service to pay for everything you need only with your credit card and iPhone; and Wissair's USB DisplayDock Set will get the screen from your laptop to the HDTV-set wirelessly.
U-Socket turned to be out a very interesting solution, but FastMac was found to offer something more. The thing on the pictures below is called The iV Plus. It helps to manage a set of your home devices and consists of IR Remote, Battery Pack, Flash LED and case that wraps around the iPhone. FastMac will also provide free Universal Remote software to work with this creation. The iV Plus will be shipped expectedly in the second quarter of 2010 for $130.
MWSF 2010: Capacitive Gloves, Electrorack products, TuneBug Shake, U-Socket
From now on sausages are not the only substitutes for human fingers; Electrorack presented an interesting rack enclosure for Xserves; Shake allows you to listen music without earphones; U-Socket solves a problem of USB-rechargable devices.
As you remember few days ago we wrote about sausages as the best substitutes of human fingers for iPhones. Well now it is not. Two companies at once presented their capacitive capable gloves that allow you to use iPhone even when it's cold. iTouch Gloves offered high end leather gloves (start with $99.95, on the left side) and Telefingers offered thinner, less stylish and cheaper solution (for only $15, on the right side).
That really looks like oversized Mac Pro, but indeed this is a rack enclosure for Xserves and RAID configuration presented by Electrorack. The latter also offers a variety of other server racking solutions.
Read the rest of this entry »
Apple doubles the size limit for apps downloaded over 3G data network
Apple decided to increase the limit of MB downloaded from the AppStore over 3G or cellular network. Previously applications could be bought if their size was less than or equal to 10 MB. Apps over this limit were available only through Wi-Fi. Many game and app creators deliberately whittle their software down to less than 10MB to make them more accessible to iPhone users.
This limit now has been doubled. Although it might not seem like a big difference for developers it is certainly a plus to both developers and end users.
New App Store Rival To Launch Soon
AT&T, Telefonica, Orange and 9 other world's leading mobile phone operators created an alliance to build an open technology platform that is designed to deliver applications to mobile phone users. The decision will be announced tomorrow at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. There are rumors the presentation is supported by Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG.
According to the Times, Vodafone hasn't yet committed to the new alliance. It is collaborating with Verizon Wireless, Softbank of Japan and China Mobile to create a new common technology standard.
More than 7 million users have tried to download Flash Player in December
Flash for iPhone has a long history. Back in March 2008 Adobe CEO announced that they start working on a Flash player for the iPhone. Last year Apple and Adobe again announced that they were working together. The problem is that we haven't seen any result of this work. This year we had iPad Flash-less introduction and very aggressive words from Steve Jobs calling Adobe lazy.
Adobe is keeping track of its download stats using a script installed on their official website. Statistics show that as many as 7 million iPhone and iPod Touch users have tried to download the Flash Player. That number is up from 3 million download attempts from iPhones and iPod Touches in June. These numbers are shocking. They clearly show that iPhone and iPod Touch users want Flash, despite Apple's decision not to support it. However don't be surprised if Apple decides to ignore Adobe once again.
Only 14% of users have upgraded the iPhone to Firmware 3.1.3
According to the statistics just 14% of iPhone users have updated the firmware to version 3.1.3.
In particular 72.3% are still using firmware 3.1.2, less than 1% - firmware 3.1.1 and 4.6% have previous versions yet. The reasons for this are probably from the fact that 3.1.3 is only a minor update. Another reason could be the uncertainty of the jailbreak.
Apple Could Lower iPad Pricing
Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope recently met with Apple executives:
Apple wants the iPad to be the best device for a few key use cases. For instance, the company believes it could eventually be seen as superior to both handheld and notebook devices for browsing the Internet, using the App Store, and consuming mobile media (video, photos, and e-books). Nevertheless, in other areas, notebooks, the iPhone, or an iPod may be more appropriate. This clear segmentation of capabilities suggests that cannibalization may be less of a concern than most currently believe.
Shope writes about the price:
it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated).
Sounds great. What do you think about $200 iPad? Would you buy one?
US Government is concerned about iPad's popularity
Government officials are worried about iPad’s popularity, as it may prove a threat to national network infrastructure. And we're all informed by Steve Jobs that iPad will be available with AT&T unlimited 3G-internet access for only 30$. Government warned that the device can bring wireless network to a standstill as new users may overload wireless networks. The director of scenario planning for the federal government’s Omnibus Broadband Initiative Phil Bellaria said that with iPad’s release modern networks will be overburdened by a data flow they were not built to handle.
… We must make sure that network congestion doesn't choke off a service that consumers clearly find so appealing or frustrate mobile broadband’s ability to keep us competitive in the global broadband economy.
In addition to that, analysts predict Apple can sell 2 million to 5 million units in the first year.
4 more things to transfer from iPad to iPhone
As the new A4 CPU is rumored to be the next CPU for the 4th generation of iPhones,
1. Bluetooth Keyboard Support.
Apple iPad is claimed to support Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR that lets you connect Apple Wireless Keyboard, wireless headphones or other devices. This feature isn't supported yet in iPhones.
2. Desktop file syncing for third party applications
Now iPad allows you to drag-and-drop files from computer to the storage folders of third party applications. At one moment you're editing your document on a Mac, and at the second you're viewing it on your iPad.
3. Apps identify themselves as supporting their specific file types.
On the iPhone even if you have installed a specific application, you will need to find a way to get that file into the application's storage space. On the iPad you can open a file from the desktop or even from an email.
4. PDF Creation Support
There was always a problem of saving files that other people need to see in the friendly format. New iPad has built-in PDF creation functionality for iWork, which is very convenient.
With this improvements iPad can obviously be considered as a sign of innovations to come for the iPhone.