News from category ‘Official’

Yahoo! has placed the iPhone 4 on the top of obsessions of 2010 and the iPad is the number 3. Facebook came in at number 6. Though, the numbers are not a huge surprise. What is surprising is that the iPhone 4 became the first number after early controversy of the lost/stolen prototype and rumored “Antennagate”. Despite of all doubts the iPhone 4 is the most popular smartphones of the year in terms of sales and reviews.

Silicon Alley Insider formed a chart that shows us the approval ratings of various CEOs at major tech companies among their employees. So, the chart reveals that Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs is the most favored CEO, followed by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Eric Schmidt of Google. Yahoo CEO gets high-50s point rating, while Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, comes in last place. Earlier this year Steve Jobs was also called as “the world’s most valuable CEO”.

A couple of days ago Apple announced a shortlist for this year’s iTunes Best Album 2010 and iTunes Best Song 2010. The winners will be announced in early December. Everybody can vote for a favorite song or/and album on the iTunes in the “People’s Choice” categories. To vote you need download the application for the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch or visit www.bestalbumandsong.co.uk (legit Apple site). Voting has been already opened in the UK, France, Italy and Germany.

To promote its new musical social networking service Ping Apple landed an exclusive track from Michael Jackson called "Much Too Soon".

The song is included in the pop star's forthcoming album "Michael" and can be streamed within iTunes if you access Ping and navigate to the official account of Michael Jackson. This is a new way Apple successfully promotes its social network, as over a million users had listened to the song within first 48 hours after its release.

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On Tuesday Apple revealed the patent application, which depicts a laptop that slides into tablet. On the shots above you may see how the standard laptop with a traditional keyboard, body, display frame and display might be transformed into a tablet by sliding the display across the keyboard. The patent relates to scrolling operations but it does not depict real convertible laptop to tablet form factor. The idea of the patent was expressed by Apples CEO Steve Jobs while the presentation of the new MacBook when he wondered what would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up. So this patent with a touchscreen and a keyboard, laptop and tablet configurations reveals implementation of this idea and possibility of integration between the two products.

Piper Jaffray reports that iPads were walking out of the stores at a rate — 8.8 units per hour during the Black Friday. That translates into 25,000 iPads sold nationwide. There are no other Black Friday iPad sales to compare with. The iPad is expanding Apple’s market and that is significant, even though the per-hour number cited looks small by comparison to those when the iPad debuted in April. Macs were leaving the stores at 8.2 units per hour per store, down from 8.3 last year and 13 two years ago.

Recently Apple posted the new iPad commercial called “iPad is amazing” on their official webpage. New ad is aimed to showcase new iOS 4.2 features, including AirPlay, AirPrint, multitasking and the usual selection of apps. Surprisingly that no folders are shown in the video. Enjoy!

Mic Gadget posted some shots of pretty cute and realistic Steve Job's action figure which is little bit taller than an iPhone 4. Artificial Apple CEO is dressed in his blue Levi jeans and black turtleneck and looks almost like its prototype. I bet it would be a best-seller. Unfortunately, it will never see the light. A law firm representing Apple’s interests sent the following letter to Mic Garden:

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Apple has reportedly expanded its Cupertino campus in California with the purchase of a 98 acre former HP campus earlier this summer. The land had been used by HP for twenty years before they decided to sell it in order to consolidate all parts of the company nearby Palo Alto. The deal may have cost Apple as much as $300 million. So, now Apple is the largest landholder in the Cupertino city. They now occupy 57 buildings in the city and the company continues to grow. Apple has not announced any plans for the new land, and has only started to use some of the existing buildings on its former, 50 acre land purchase made in 2006. Apple has been locating in Cupertino since 1977, when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak set up the new company there.

Apple announced that 2 million songs have been sold since The Beatles recent iTunes launch. Additionally, 450,000 whole albums were downloaded by customers on iTunes.  The Beatles' best selling album on iTunes in the US was 1969's "Abbey Road," while the top selling song was that album's track, "Here Comes the Sun."

In addition to release of new iOS 4.2 Apple updated their software bundle iWork for iPad, which includes Pages, Keynote and Numbers. So, what is new in this version of iWork? The most significant changes include:

For all programs:

• Wireless printing with AirPrint using iOS 4.2;
• Support for iOS 4.2 multitasking;
• Localized in Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Traditional Chinese;
• Improved usability and reliability;
• Improved PDF export using iOS 4.2;

Pages

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Finally, Apple released their rumored iOS 4.2. Here is a list of the new features and improvements added in this firmware:

• AirPlay for steaming audio and video content to the Apple’s set-top box Apple TV with access to Netflix streaming.

• Find My iPhone service became free for the current generation iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.
• AirPrint: the feature allows to print over-the-air directly to certain HP printers. Perhaps, the company is interested in looking into third-party solutions.

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Apple finally released iOS 4.2 for iPhone 3G/3GS/4, iPad, iPod Touch 2G/3G/4G and even Apple TV 2G. Lot's of new features, especially for iPad. Apple calls new firmware 4.2, however the version is actually 4.2.1. Here are the download links:

• AppleTV 2G (AppleTV2,1) 4.2.1 (8C150)
• iPad (iPad1,1) 4.2 (8C148)
• iPhone 3G (iPhone1,2) 4.2 (8C148)
• iPhone 3GS (iPhone2,1) 4.2 (8C148a)
• iPhone 4 (iPhone3,1) 4.2 (8C148)
• iPod Touch 2G (iPod2,1) 4.2 (8C148)
• iPod Touch 3G (iPod3,1) 4.2 (8C148)
• iPod Touch 4G (iPod4,1) 4.2 (8C148)

Apple recently published a press release stating that new firmware iOS 4.2 for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad will be available today.

Apple® today announced that iOS 4.2, the latest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, is available today for download for iPad™, iPhone® and iPod touch®. iOS 4.2 brings over 100 new features from iOS 4.0, 4.1 and 4.2 to iPad including Multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay® and AirPrint.

The iOS 4.2 update is available today to download to iPad, iPhone and iPod touch by syncing the device with iTunes 10.1. iOS 4.2 is compatible with iPad, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, second and third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB) and new iPod touch. Some features may not be available on all products. For example, Multitasking requires iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, third generation iPod touch (late 2009 models with 32GB or 64GB) or later.

However users are unable to update through iTunes right now, as well as there are no download links yet. The expected release time is 10 am Pacific Time.

Full press release is under the cut:

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The Telegraph reports that European carriers forced Apple to abandon their plans to introduce integrated SIM-cards in future iPhone handsets. Well it looks like Apple got a little worried over the European carrier’s threats. Carriers recently accused Apple in trying to gain control of carriers’ relationship with their mobile customers, because such built-in SIM card allows customers to switch between operators easily, sign up for mobile service on Apple’s website without having to call a carrier or visit a store. Obviously, nothing has been confirmed, and, doubtfully, will be. Perhaps, Apple will announce their avoidance of implementing an integrated SIM in future iPhone handsets or may be they won’t.