News from category ‘Official’

Apple hosted their media event today and announced a number of new products and updates:

• Apple announces all new iPod models:

1. iPod Shuffle with the new VoiceOver button on top, which allows users to hear the name of the currently playing song and to switch between songs, playlists or Genius Mixes- the iTunes feature
2. iPod Nano with multi-touch display and without Click Wheel, with built-in FM radio and new feature "Shake to Shuffle," giving music lovers the ability to shake their iPod Nano to shuffle to a new song in their music library
3. Thinner iPod Touch with Retina Display, forward-facing camera and Apple's A4 chip

• Apple introduces updated apple TV
• Apple releases iTunes 10 with 'Ping' Social Networking and Open/Minimize/Close buttons are vertically oriented
• Apple announces pending release of 4.1 and 4.2 preview
• The iPod Classic is still for sale but with no changes
• The new iPod Touch's back camera takes still photos at a disappointingly low 960x720 resolution
• The impressive game demo by Epic Games is now available on the App Store as a free download
• The new iPod nano has no camera and apparently can't play video any longer

Here are the latest news from Apple PR - they will live broadcast their event today:

Apple will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.

For people whose machines don’t match Apple’s requirements there will be a lot of re-streaming the event on Ustream and Justin.tv using Flash.

The other workaround is to use Open Source Video Player VLC and enter Apple's livestream URL in the streaming portion:

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Come on, lets face it: there are a lot of bad apps available in the App Store. Some would say crappy apps! Even with Apple’s strict app approval process, if a developer creates something stupid, it can still find its way into the App Store.

Now, there is a website that highlights the best of the worst apps available. Created by Josh Helfferich (who hosts the popular website, iPad Apps That Don’t Suck), Crapptastic “celebrates the hilarity that is the iTunes App Store.”

The site just debuted, so there isn’t much there. Still, with sites called “Horse Trailer World” and “Listen to the pig” already included, I can’t wait to see what is added soon!

Intel will increase its presence in the mobile phone market with the announced $1.4 billion acquisition of the wireless division of Infineon, a significant component supplier for Apple's iPhone.

Intel and Infineon announced  that they had agreed to the deal, in which Intel will own the wireless business of Germany's Infineon Technologies in exchange for $1.4 billion in cash. The deal pertains to a range of wireless technologies, including Wi-Fi, 3G, WiMAX and LTE. Infineon makes the baseband chip found in the iPhone, and the company has had a strong partnership with Apple, supplying chipsets for Apple's smartphone since it was first released in 2007.

A new lawsuit takes aim at the accelerometer- and gyroscope-powered abilities of Apple's iPhone 4, alleging that the interactive, three-dimensional input methods are in violation of a U.S. patent. The lawsuit, filed this week by Triton Tech of Texas, names both Apple and Nintendo as defendants. Triton is the owner of U.S. Patent No. 5,181,181, entitled "Computer Apparatus Input Device for Three-Dimensional Information."

That patent describes a handheld device that includes multiple accelerometers and angular rate sensors for detecting positioning and motion. By interpreting acceleration, velocity and relative position of the device, it can allow users to interact with a computer or other device with six degrees of motion in a three-dimensional space.

Triton's lawsuit only specifically singles out the iPhone 4 from Apple as an infringing device, though it implies that other devices could be in violation. Apple's iPod touch and iPad also include accelerometers that are used for input.

A new Apple iTunes survey reveals quite interesting information – among other iPad features, it suggest the ability of “instantly” watching iTunes Store video – something that is not currently available.

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Apple has posted a new job listing looking for a marketing manager specifically for the iBookstore. The listing seeks an experienced business marketer "to drive awareness and sales of iBooks through co-marketing programs with publishers and authors, strategic partnerships, and via online and direct marketing tactics." It seems like a lot of the position will be self-driven, as whoever's chosen will be asked to come up with some interesting schemes to push iBook sales, both with publishers, and even across the other divisions of iTunes. But the bottom line is of course sales -- Apple wants someone to push iBooks, specifically in the US.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have created a display with nanometer-thin sheets of metal (called nanoresonators) that use slits to create pixels eight times smaller than the pixels currently on the iPhone 4. To show off their work, the University of Michigan researchers created their school's logo on a display only 9 microns tall (a strand of human hair is about 100 microns wide).

Crazy. You have to wonder what an iPhone-sized display would look like with a resolution like that (or if we'd even tell the difference, given that our eyes have a limit on the amount of detail they can discern). Obviously, such  display would probably cost a lot more than the iPhone 4 actually does.

iTunes users will be able to sample a minute of a song before purchasing. Currently, iTunes song samples are limited to 30 seconds.

The report said that the addition of more sample time is one of a number of expected changes to iTunes, aimed at helping users discover music. It is rumored that Apple will spend "a large part" of its 1st September  special event detailing how the new iTunes improves the user experience. But Apple is not expected to introduce a cloud-based iTunes service, which would allow users to stream music to devices such as the iPhone.

Apple and its  iAds mobile advertising service are the target of a new lawsuit from a company that owns a patent related to location-based ads. Apple was named in the lawsuit from StreetSpace, along with Quattro Wireless, which is now being phased out in favor of iAds. Other defendants include Google, AdMob, Nokia, Navteq, Millenial Media and Jumptap.

StreetSpace is the creator of a remote Internet terminal the Web Station. Users can walk up to one of these terminals to access the Internet, and are delivered targeted advertisements in the process. The suit alleges that iAds service, launched on July 1, is in violation of StreetSpace patent because it delivers personalized advertisements based on a user's location, profile and usage history.

Related to that invention is U.S. Patent No. 6,847,969, which StreetSpace has alleged Apple is in violation of. Named "Method and System for Providing Personalized Online Services and Advertisements in Public Spaces," it was granted on Jan. 25, 2005.

Who knew that credit card processing would be the new hotness for smartphones? The Square mobile payment system has been making waves by letting small businesses receive credit card payment directly on their smartphones. Now, mophie and Intuit are looking to get in on the same action with their Complete Card Solution for iPhone. It's a $179 package that includes both mophie's card-swiping phone case and the 3.0 version of Intuit's GoPayment app. After a quick application users are said to be approved (or, erm, declined) within 15 minutes and can immediately start accepting payments.

A single account can also cover up to 50 users, meaning an entire sales team could be equipped with these devices. But this case, which encrypts every credit card number before it gets to the phone, will only work with the iPhone 3G/S.

Steve Jobs introduces the Think Different Ad campaign and explains how a brand can become successful.

Enjoy the video below…

2 years and 49 days after it was opened, the US App Store has passed the milestone of 250,000 applications. According to the chart, the largest categories are Books, with 17% of all applications; Games with 14% and Entertainment with 11%.

Recently Royal Pingdom determined that 70% of all App Store applications are paid. At the same time, 64% of the Android Marketplace are free.

These statistics are likely to be discussed further on September 1^st at Apple’s Special Event.

According to the first-hand information in China, China Unicom is currently advertising services for jailbreaking when you buy the iPhone 4. Quite intriguing, right? Thanks to online services such as Jailbreakme.com, jailbreaking has become much easier and it seems that the Chinese carrier of cell phones can realize this service, turning it into a great marketing scheme.

According M.I.C. Gadget, the advertisement is as follows: "Support Service: Free SIM-trimming, jailbreaking, installing more than ten hot applications."

However, with jailbreaking, China Unicom also offers free cases for your iPhone 4 with purchase, so buyers will not have to use the Apple's case program.

Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and owner of a patent licensing company Interval Licensing, has filed a suit against 11 companies, including Apple, over several patents related to Web search technologies and e-commerce.

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