News tagged ‘app’

New page featuring iBooks for iPad has been rolled out on the Apple's official site. The app will be available as soon as the new device will be launched (the official date is April 3rd). Apple confirms iBooks will use the open ePub standard and the same version of FairPlay DRM that continues to be applied on video content distributed via iTunes.

iBooks will allow users to switch portrait and landscape modes, change fonts and text sizes and even tap on words to see its definition from Wikipedia or built-in dictionary. It is compatible with VoiceOver functionality that makes content to be read aloud automatically.

For some time iBooks will be available only in USA, but as we know Apple already seeks for professionals to expand their book business internationally.

iSMEStorage is the first application for iPhone with cloud storage virtualization service that allows users to manage more than 10 different storage clouds from their device in 1 Cloud file. Clouds include Google Docs, FTP-as-a-cloud, Email-as-a-cloud, Gmail-as-a-cloud, Miscrosoft SkyDrive and LiveMesh, Apple Mobile Me and Amazon S3 and other.

SMEStorage CEO says:

"We are very happy to add the iPhone to the list of clients that users can use to get access to their files from our platform... It is the first [application] to virtualize storage clouds and make them available from one Cloud File System, and it is the first App of any kind in the App Store that enables access to Microsoft SkyDrive files."

iSMEStorage v1.01 is available here in the Productivity Category from the AppStore only for 0.99$.

Members of AAPL Sanity Board at Investor Village resource decided to study the iPad order numbers. By 11:05am EST they received fifteen confirmations about 74,000 orders (the device went up for pre-order at 08:30 am EST).

But there were other who became interested in the dynamics of iPad sells. Valcent Financial Group says about 51,000 orders in 2 hours, Silicon Alley Insider reports about 20,000 devices reserved per hour.

Fortune predicts Apple may have only 300,000 iPads available for sale right now. It also reports 91,000 devices were sold in six hours since 08:30 am.

Today Apple announced new photos of iPad. One screenshot is very interesting as it contains mysterious icon on the home screen. It is situated on the right of the device and appears only in the one picture on site.

As you can see it looks like the logo of National Geographic, so we can assume the icon is for a digital version of this magazine.

Another cool stuff was released by the Jailbreak Collective. It is a set of  iCon Magnets for your refrigerator (or any magnet surface). The authors say these are the icons for the old-school tasks where the usual iPhone apps are coming up short.

The price for 18 magnets is $13 plus shipping. It is available for purchase here.

9to5mac reports that the latest iPhone 3.2 Beta 4 SDK has the new gestures folder. And there are two new types of commands (3Tap.plist and LongPress.plist), that are certainly not implemented in the iPhone SDK 3.1.

Apple will probably allow developers to use these new capabilities in the next version of the iPhone OS. We might even see these next month in the shipping version of the iPad.

In a week after the story about the lawsuit Oppenheimer analyst Yal Reiner wrote a research note, where it is said that Apple started warning Motorola and HTC in as early as January 2009. The Cupertino's company was not so happy to see that rivals' new products look like iPhone (or at least use the same concepts).

Apple COO Tim Cook even commented on this situation:

"Apple will not stand for having our IP ripped off, and we'll use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal".

The words were presumably about Samsung, LG and Nokia (Palm is not mentioned as its sales numbers are not so considerable).

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Developers have found references to multitasking in iPhone OS SDK files. The below mention of a "multitasking dialog box" is just one example:

Actually many different Apple's built-in applications already multitask. For example, phone.app, iPod.app, Safari.app, Mail.app, etc. so theoretically, the dialog box in this case could refer to current functionality.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3MSjwUrxT0

HP confirmed that their slate PC can run Adobe flash and Air applications and emphasized it with a little bit provocative notes in their new ads:

• "Complete Internet - including Flash".
• "Access the full web and not jut part of it!"

The company representatives also ambiguously said:

"With this slate product, you're getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand. No watered-down Internet, no sacrifices."

For more information watch the new video ads above and below.

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Chinese companies are producing iPad clones that will have Windows 7 OS pre-installed on it. Clone makers are interested in putting it on sale as soon as possible as there is still no information about whether Apple will ship iPad to China or not.

Some Chinese stores have already started taking pre-orders for the new Apple devices. They hope to import device from those of other countries where it will be officially on sale.

Apple recently released iPad/iPhone OS 3.2 Beta 4 to developers. Let's see what's new:

1. Application "Photos" has been improved. Here is text from official changelog:

"Launching the Photos application under the iPad Simulator will initially show three tabs: Photos, Albums, and Camera. The Camera tab represents photos available via the Camera Connection Kit for iPad, and is not relevant for the Simulator. The Camera tab will disappear after a few seconds. "

Apple actually specified what we had seen in 3.2 beta 3. The tab Camera is for the Camera Connection Kit, and does not indicate any front camera on the iPad.

The fonts have been also improved and there are some new Gestures added for images.

2. The function Add Bookmark in Safari browser works now (previously only allowed to link to home).

3. When you press the button twice on the lockscreen the iPod controls appear, just like on the iPhone:

4. With the iPad simulator is open, pressing "cmd + shift + space bar" will appear a list of languages. By pressing the space bar you can change language:

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Few days ago Apple filed 4 patents about methods of cooling its devices. Company's products have never been known for the problems of overheating but we can definitely assume that new versions will be more power hungry and thereafter more heat consumable in the future.

This is a list of new patents:

• “Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices Using Flow Sensors”.

The technology is about using sensors that determine air velocity in a device to adjust the fan speeds and computing power.

• “Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices Through User Interfaces”.

The patent describes using input/output ports to increase airflow through a device.

• “Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices Using Conductive Hinge Assemblies”.

The talk is about using notebook screen's hinges as heat exchangers.

• “Methods and Apparatus for Cooling Electronic Devices using Thermoelectric Cooling Components”.

The document explains using Peltier Effect for active components cooling.

Apple today released the iPad/iPhone OS 3.2 Beta 4 SDK.  The build 10M2144 is 2.5GB and can be downloaded from developer.apple.com/iphone.

9to5mac found several interesting facts from Apple's iPad commercial.

The first one is about iBookstore pricing. They to be below hardcover books, audiobook, paperback prices and even Kindles's pricing. For example, Ted Kennedy's memoir, True Compass costs $23 for the hardcover, $19.25 for the B&W Kindle version and $14.95 for the iPad version. Other books show similar prices.

It looks like Apple will store documents on the iPad in a "My Documents" folder, at least for iWork touch. This is funny that Apple had chosen this name. This perhaps will make life easier for PC people. You can see that on the screenshot below:

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During the iPad presentation, Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that it would offer a better experience than a smartphone and a notebook computer in the following areas:

• Browsing
• Email
• Photos
• Videos
• Music
• Games
• eBooks

Apple recently aired iPad ad during the Oscars, which perfectly reflects this. Tuaw analyzed the video based on the on-air time dedicated to a particular function. It showed that a particular focus was on media consumption appeal and differentiation.

About 80% of all 720 frames (30 seconds * 24 fps) of the iPad's ad showed an app being used. And within this time, the photo app was shown the most (26%), the mail app came in second (22%). iBook app used 20% of time to position the iPad as a perfect eBook reader.