News from category ‘Other’

As far as we know, Siri is a voice recognition service that is available only for the iPhone 4S users. There were various attempts to port Siri to the iPod Touch and iPhone 4, but the early versions of these hacks simply got the user interface working on the iPhone 4. They were unable to actually use the voice recognition.

But tonight developers @stroughtonsmith and @chpwn have finally managed to port Siri on previous generation hardware so that the service works properly. That proves that Siri might be run by other processor, not only by A5 chip.

We've since spoken to @stroughtonsmith who told us that despite it working on the iPod Touch, it doesn't work entirely well due to the relatively poor performance of the microphone. "You have to be loud and close to it", he said. However, it does perform quite well on the iPhone 4 and works "just as fast as the 4S".

The developers are not going to release the hack in order to avoid legal issues that may be filled due to repackaging Apple’s code and distributing it.

Sources close to Microsoft revealed that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer allegedly blocked its former data center manager Kevin Timmons from joining Apple after reportedly being hired by the company in April to oversee iCloud operations. Microsoft even threatened legal action against Apple.

Timmons is said to offer Apple a plan to lower the operating cost of its existing data centers. Apple agreed to hire him, but Ballmer asked him to stay at Microsoft. Then a rumored call from Ballmer threatening legal action ended Timmons' would-be deal.

Earlier this year it was reported that Timmons had been hired by Apple in April and was thought to have been tapped to oversee Apple's iCloud at the company's North Carolina data center. But on October 12, when the service rolled out,  this position was occupied by  Scott Noteboom, Yahoo's former vice president of data center engineering. Timmons is said to take job as the new CTO of CyrusOne.

A couple of days ago we reported that Apple is unlikely to release updated Mac Pro line until 2012 and Intel's Sandy Bridge E processors should be implemented in new computers. Apple's current dual-processor Mac Pro lineup utilizes Intel's "Westmere" processor family, priced at $387, $996, and $1440 respectively.

Newly-released pricing information for processors of E5-2600 series allows us to make suggestion that  Apple will be able to use the $406 6-core 2.0 GHz E5-2620 in its low-end dual-processor configuration at or near the current $3499 pricing. At the mid range the 8-core 2.0 GHz E5-2650 that costs $1106.  But such price may be high, so Apple could released a limited number of this model with such processor. Apple is more likely will use a cheaper a 6-core chip running at 2.5 GHz E5-2640 that costs at $884. The high end of Mac Pro may be run by the 8-core 2.6 GHz E5-2670 processor coming in at $1552 or the 8-core 2.4 GHz E5-2665 processor, which is expected at $1440.

For the lower-end single-processor Mac Pro, Apple is likely to utilize Intel's E5-1600 series processor line. Pricing on those chips was revealed last month. So, for low- and mid-end single-processor Mac Pro Apple is likely to use the quad-core 3.6 GHz E5-1620 ($294) and 6-core 3.2 GHz E5-1650 ($583), the high end of the single-processor line -  the E5-1660 at $1080.

Chinese customers prefer to buy Apple’s iPhone than Nokia’s smartphones, according a report published by the investment bank Morgan Stanley. As more than a third of 2,050 surveyed urban Chinese mobile phone users express a preference for iPhone, twice that for Nokia's models.

Apple presence on Chinese smartphone market grew significantly in 2011. Not surprisingly that over fiscal 2011 the company managed to earned as many as $13 billion, comparing with $3 billion in fiscal year 2010. Morgan Stanley says it believes "China could surpass the US as Apple's largest market in about three years, adding nearly $30 billion more per year to the top-line along the way." The firm notes that sales of iPhones are also driving purchases of related Apple products, noting that Mac use is nearly four times higher among iPhone users, where Mac user share jumps to 35 percent from the standard 9 percent of the general population.

Morgan Stanley’s survey demonstrates that Apple increased its share by 6 percentage points to reach 34 percent of planned purchases in the region. Nokia dropped 8 percentage points to make up just 16 percent of the nation's planned purchases.

Since the iPhone 4S launch, some users have complained about battery life issues. Apple actually reduced the battery life in a standby mode from 300 hours on previous iPhone model to 200 hours on the iPhone 4S, but battery life in active mode was considered to be the same or even better.

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Apple's online store in Sweden

Yesterday Apple launched the iPhone 4S in 22 additional countries, starting the second wave of launches for the new iPhone model. Last week the company began to take pre-orders ahead of the release planned for Austria, Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, Singapore, Norway, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Denmark, Belgium, Mexico, Luxembourg, Latvia, Italy, Sweden, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Hungary, Estonia and Finland.

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According to a research note released by the investment bank Morgan Stanley on Wednesday, a lower-priced iPhone could generate a nearly three-fold increase in demand for Apple in China. The bank conducted research among Chinese customers who hesitate to but the iPhone. 85 percent of them called price as a key factor that prevents them from buying Apple’s smartphones. The right price point could increase demand for iPhone in three times in China.

The maximum price that Chinese customers are ready to pay is $425. But those who said that they were not going to buy an iPhone could afford to pay $344. Nearly 80% of those who took part in the research marked Apple as the leading brand in China. But in last quarter company's share of mobile phone purchases in the region fell from 12% to 7%.

In the third quarter of 2011, China area became the company's second largest market, behind only the U.S. China is "the fastest growing region by far."  China sales of iPhone were $4.5 billion in the September quarter, 16 percent of Apple’s total revenue, comparing with $3.8 billion Apple earned in the June quarter. Meanwhile, one analyst believes that the mobile market in China poses as much as a $70 billion opportunity for Apple.

According to Forrester research, Mac business users are more productive than their PC counterparts, because MacBook laptops from Apple tend to be more reliable and require less maintenance than PCs. Forrester issued a new report entitled "People are Bringing Macs to Work - It's Time to Repeal Prohibition" in order to encourage companies to support Apple hardware in the workplace.

Although the use of Mac in enterprises is increasing, approximately 41 percent of companies that took part in the research do not officially allow their employees to use Mac. Of course, users find ways how bypass company restrictions and use their Mac at work.

Moreover, Mac sales in the enterprise sector have seen a huge spike in 2011. In May, Apple announced that corporate Mac sales grew by 66 percent. But sales of iOS products are more significant. 93 percent of Fortune 500 companies are deploying or testing the iPhone, while 90 percent are doing the same for the iPad.

Nick Bilton at the New York Times is pretty sure that Apple is building a television set. It is believed that the TV set will include Siri voice recognition service. Apple could announce the new set by the end of 2012 with public reliance in 2013. Anonymous sources say that an Apple television is a "guaranteed product for Apple" because "Steve thinks the industry is totally broken."

The rumors about Apple’s television set have been circulating for years, perhaps as far back as 2007, since the launch of the first iPhone. Some days ago we reported that Apple now is making prototypes of the Apple TV.

It’s the stuff of science fiction. You sit on your couch and rather than fumble with several remotes or use hand gestures, you simply talk: “Put on the last episode of Gossip Girl.” “Play the local news headlines.” “Play some Coldplay music videos.” Siri does the rest.

As the line between television programming and Web content continues to erode, a Siri-powered television would become more necessary. You aren’t going to want to flip through file folders or baskets of content, checking off what you want. Telling Siri to “play videos of cute cats falling asleep” would return an endless YouTube stream of adorable napping fur balls.

Bilton also reports that Apple still has “quite a bit of work to do on the project.” But the launch of the new Apple’s television set is just a matter of time.

Apple is rumored to be interested in new ways of interacting with devices. The company is known to exploring hand gestures to navigate and control a video recording system without touching anything. As reported, apple filed a patent application entitled "Real Time Video Process Control Using Gestures." In the application they mentioned hand gestures that can be performed without touching the device, allowing to remotely control and editing video recordings on a mobile device. Moreover, a user can perform such gestures in either two or three dimensions. Such gestures could be registered through infrared sensors, optical sensors, or other methods

"As with the touch based gestures applied on or near the touch sensitive input device, the hand gestures can be interpreted to provide instructions for real time processing of the video by the video capture device," the filing reads.

CNET reports that LG Display and Samsung are still struggling for the opportunity to become supplier of displays for the iPad 3 that is rumored to be launched next year. Sources have claimed that Apple is planning a 2048 x 1536 display for the device, double that of the current iPad in each dimension.

But whether manufacturers can make them in volumes that Apple demands is the question. "They have production plans for 2,048x1,536 displays. Starting in November. But those are only plans at this point," said the source, referring to LG and Samsung.

"It's not a question of making just one. That, of course, can be done. The challenge is making lots of them," the source said. "This is a quantum leap in pixel density. This hasn't been done before."

Apple was said to plan the launch of the iPad 3 later this year, but it had to push the release back to 2012. The main problem for the company was display production.

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Yesterday Apple filled its 2011 annual report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The report includes several interesting facts about company:

• Apple now has 60,400 employees comparing with 46,600 employees last year. 36,000 employees work in the retail division of the company.
• Apple enlarged number of stores up to 357. In this year the company opened 40 additional stores. The average number of employees per store grew from 83.6 to 100.8.
• The company spent $933 million on advertising, enlarged number of investment into research and development up to $2.4 billion.
• Apple also mentioned some risk factors for investors:  "if [Apple] is found to have infringed on intellectual property rights", "support from third-party software developers", "the Company’s ability to obtain components in sufficient quantities", and numerous more.
• As of September 24, 2011 Apple has 13.2 million square feet of building space, among them about 7.0 million square feet are leased building space.

According to the Charlotte Observer, Apple has quietly begun building a solar farm at its massive new data centre in Maiden, North Carolina. The new solar farm is said to generate a large amount of power for the facility. Although building permits have yet to be submitted to Catawba County officials, the County has given Apple permission to reshape the slope in preparation of the solar farm.

Apple has quietly begun work on a solar farm that apparently could help power its sprawling data center in southern Catawba County.

Permits issued by Catawba County show that the Cupertino, Calif., company has been approved to reshape the slope of some of the 171 acres of vacant land it owns on Startown Road, opposite the data center, in preparation of building a solar farm.

The Hickory Daily Record confirms that the plot is indeed across the street from the data center and not far from residential houses. Nearby residents haven’t exactly been thrilled with the land work being done. To clear the land, Apple uses fires that cause significant amount of smoke that is drifting into the houses.

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Earlier this month we reported that Sony Pictures had acquired rights to the recently-released Steve Jobs’ authorized biography by Walter Isaacson. As the company is planning to adapt the story  for the big screen, Sony suggest that the best person for writing screenplay would be Aaron Sorkin, who had successfully transitioned the story of Facebook to film The Social Network. He also gained fame for his work on A Few Good Men, The West Wing, and most recently Moneyball with Brad Pitt.

Sony is moving forward with a Steve Jobs movie based on Isaacson's book. And one of the writers being courted by producers to pen his story, according to a person who was briefed on the project but not authorized to speak about it publicly, is Aaron Sorkin, Hollywood's chronicler-in-chief of the complicated visionary. Sony and a Sorkin representative declined to comment on the writer's potential involvement.

Noteworthy, Jobs tried to hired Sorkin to write a film for Pixar, bur he declined his proposal, giving the following explanation:

The truth is I don’t know how to tell those stories. I have a young kid who loves Pixar movies and she’ll turn cartwheels if I tell her I’m writing one and I don’t want to disappoint her by writing the only bad movie in the history of Pixar.

Reuters suggests that Steve Jobs’ authorized biography by Walter Isaacson may become the best-selling book of 2011 on Amazon. But it is not surprisingly. Apple’s fans and others show extraordinary interest in the late Apple CEO’s life, especially after his death early this month.

The book is the best-selling book on Amazon.com and is also listed as the top-selling electronic book on the company's Kindle eBook store.

"The way things are trending, it could very likely be our top-selling book of the year," Amazon spokeswoman Brittany Turner said in a statement.

But now the book is ranked #13 on Amazon’s list of best sellers. Noteworthy, some analysts predict that the digital version of Steve Jobs’ biography outsell the print version. It is know that digital sales of best sellers are typically coming at 50-70% of total sales. Though, Amazon prefers do not comment the difference between digital and physical version of the book.