News from category ‘Other’

On November 16, 2010 The Beatles came to iTunes. Two weeks after the initial release, Apple announced 2 million songs had been sold.  And recently Apple has informed The Loop that the iTunes Store exceeded 5 millions of Beatles songs and 1 million Beatles albums sold worldwide. "Abbey Road" is the current best-selling Beatles album in the U.S., while "Here Comes the Sun" is the currently best-selling Beatles song. The Beatles reportedly earn between 18 to 22.5 cents per track sold on iTunes. With five million individual tracks sold so far, that equates to a cool $900,000 to $1.125 million profit for The Beatles for just seven weeks of sales.

This week James Choi, who is a marketing strategy and planning team director at LG, have an interesting interview to Pocket-lint, where he expressed his disappointment about Microsoft's Windows Phone 7:

"From an industry perspective we had a high expectation, but from a consumer point of view the visibility is less than we expected".

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The iPhone Dev-Team has announced via Twitter that they will release new unlock only after release of iOS 4.2.5 or 4.3. It is a little bit surprising and of course disappointing for many but overall in the best interests of the community.

The statement claims: “Official iPhone unlock statement: no unlock will be released until after 4.2.5 or official 4.3 (whichever is last) is out.”

At the latest CES, InteraXon (a Canadian company) has announced and demonstrated a headset that can connect to iPhones and iPads and allows you to control apps and games with your mind. Technically, this custom EEG headset pairs with a thought-controlling framework that has been added to the popular iPad game Zen Bound 2 game, letting users control the wooden shapes on screen with their brainwaves. Now the real question is: are you willing to put a headset on to control stuff with your brain? Doesn’t it look a little bit, well, weird?

Yesterday Apple launched a new 10 Billion App Countdown promotion to celebrate the upcoming milestone. Nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store, which was launched in 2008. In January 2010, App Store downloads topped 3 billion; during Summer 2010, Apple reached the 5 billion milestone. Now, it’s time to get to the 10 billion figure. Apple will award the user who downloads the 10 billionth app a $10,000 iTunes gift card which is also valid for the Mac App Store. As noted in the official rules for the contest, users can make up to 25 contest entries per day; entrants have to be at least 13 years of age and resident in a country where the App Store is available.

The iOS 4.3 beta was released a couple of days ago. But the update isn’t available for second generation iPod touch and iPhone 3G installation. iOS 4.3 beta 1 noted that AirPrint was the dominant component of attention. AirPrint requires an iPad, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 3G iPod touch, or 4G iPod touch. AirPlay and Game Center require an iPad, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 2G iPod touch, 3G iPod touch, or 4G iPod touch. General multitasking an iPad, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, 3G iPod touch, and 4G iPod touch. Two of the three dismiss the 2G iPod touch and all dismiss the 3G, however, AirPlay and Game Center are important features. Take it as at least a warning that the second generation iPod touch and iPhone 3G are nearing the full “end of life” designation.

Some users found the iPad 2's Camera app in the iOS 4.3 beta and made some screenshots which you may see above and below. 9to5Mac reports: "These screenshots are 1024 x 768 which indicate the same screen resolution as the current iPad. That might upset those hoping for more a retina-ish display in iPad 2. This may only be because the current simulator only simulates 1024 x 768 so those hoping for more pixels shouldn’t lose hope."

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A Norwegian woman was driving her car, with the iPhone plugged in the stereo playing some music when suddenly, her iPhone explodes. The glass shattered, the iPhone broken on its back. Of course, she took the iPhone to the nearest Apple Store but the assistant said that they couldn’t repair it under Apple’s policies because an iPhone wasn’t meant to be working under such temperatures. Apple does not replace a device if it has been used under normal conditions. But freezing is normal in some countries.

People are beginning to dig into the newly released iOS 4.3 developer build and has revealed settings for a new feature called "Find My Friends, " which is tied to Apple’s MobileMe service. Apple may be looking to offer a location-based friend-finding service like Loopt and Google Latitude. Moreover, such services have seen incredible growth and interest in the recent years, with several companies like Twitter and Facebook offering location-based features. Location-based services allow you to find your friends by leveraging your mobile phone’s GPS signal. The constant updates can broadcast your location to your friends to know who is nearby.

This week U.S. Patent and Trademark Office made public another patent application from Apple. It is entitled "Touch Sensing Device Having Conductive Nodes" and reveals a new way of creating new capacitive touchscreens that allow to make devices even thinner than before.

It is noted that existing capacitive sensing technology works very well, but it can be further improved, and not only to make devices thinner, but also to achieve better results in power saving and therefore battery life.

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Yesterday Apple released the first beta of iOS 4.3 for the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. iOS 4.3 brings new multi-touch gestures built specifically for the iPad, including 4- and 5-finger gestures. The new beta reportedly allows users to pinch to access the home screen, to swipe up to reveal the multitasking tray, and swipe left and right to switch between open applications. The new update also reportedly adds the ability to change the functionality of the iPad hardware switch. The new beta confirms rumors that Apple would add its new Personal Hotspot feature to existing GSM iPhones with iOS 4.3. The functionality allows users to share their 3G data connection with up to five devices over Wi-Fi. Those reports claimed that Apple plans to publicly release iOS 4.3 in March.

A couple of days ago Apple released the iPhone 4 for Verizon. And now Bloomberg reports that that a version of the iPad directly compatible with CDMA network is set to follow suit. Verizon Wireless will sell a version of Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer that can connect directly to its network.

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This week Bloomberg took an interesting interview with Verizon Communications President Lowell McAdam. He talked about the deal between his company and Apple that needed few years to reach.

It became known that both companies agreed to trade "inside information" about their upcoming services and products. An extensive testing of iPhone 4 became possible due to CDMA towers, which were installed at Apple's campus in Cupertino. That allowed to avoid network issues, while similar problems have became a public relations concern for AT&T.

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Yesterday analyst Katy Huberty from Morgan Stanley released another note for investors where she forecasted that Apple will sell 72 million iPhones 4 in current calendar year. Wall Street analysts in turn expect only 60-65 million Apple's handsets will be actually sold in 2011.

Katy is optimistic about the appearance of Verizon iPhone and notes that according to the proprietary Morgan Stanley survey, this year the largest network of the US will be increased by 7-8 million iPhone users, while totally there will be "10-11 million incremental shipments, including those who switch to Verizon".

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Apple today has opened the Mac App Store with over 1,000 apps available at launch and released update Mac OS X 10.6.6 for Snow Leopard bringing the new Mac App Store via Software Update.

The Mac App Store, is a new application users will find in the Dock, and it includes the following features:

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