News tagged ‘Apple iPad’

The Japan Sumo Association has carried out their decision to hand out 60 iPads to 51 wrestling club in the country. The idea was to improve communication between the wrestlers themselves and the sports body. The Association decided that the wrestlers’ fingers weren’t small enough for ordinary mobile phones and that iPads might help them not to miss the information sent by fax or phone – something that had often happened before.

However, first of all the Association’s princely gesture was aimed at making amends after some scandals that involved gangsters, match-fixing and illegal gambling. Sumo came under harsh criticism for the lack of investigation and control, which was partly due to poor communication.

The iPod touch 4G is most probably going to change its shape. The back of the device will be neither flat glass, like for the iPhone 4, nor is it going to be a curved surface, like a dome.

The anonymous source claims that the shape is going to be

Familiar. Think of the top of a MacBook Pro, only smaller, which is to say flat rather than curved at the center—closer to the look of the first-generation iPod touch’s back, only with modifications. The rear camera is there, but there is still some question as to whether what’s next to it will be a LED flash like the one in the iPhone 4, or a microphone like the one next to the video camera of the iPod nano. We’ve been told to expect a microphone rather than a flash, with a continuation of the bottom-mounted headphone port and Dock Connector port.

The new iPod touch is going to be announced at the Special Event on September 1^st.

Regular Mercedes-Benz tuner Brabus today showed off a special package for the S600 that gives it an Apple-focused mobile office. The S600 iBusiness package gives the two rear seats an iPad each as well as a 64GB iPod touch. Both of the iPads can not only be used for work but can control the car's audio, navigation and phone systems.
A Mac mini is shared by both with a central 15.2-inch LCD and two breakout USB ports in the rear to attach peripherals. Brabus provides one mouse but two Apple Wireless Keyboards to let either passenger control the Mac, and the entire rear seat electronics can reach the Internet on the road.

And it's all built into a car that goes from 0 to 62 in 4.0 seconds, with a top speed of 211 miles per hour, runs on a 750HP. There's leather everywhere, wood trim, color-changing interior lighting, LED running lights outside, the sport steering wheel.

Brabus doesn't give a price, but the car itself (without any options) starts around $150k.

Yesterday Facebook released some astonishing statistic results showing an astronomical number of monthly active users – over 100 million on iPhones, almost 60 million on BlackBerry and 12 million on the Android client. However, double-checking, these numbers seem a little bit strange: can there really be more than 100 million iPhone users, when by June 2010 only 100 million iOS devices had been sold, and this includes the iPod touch, iPad and iPhone? Turns out, the explanation is just in the definition of “active”. Here’s how a Facebook spokesman accounted for the figures:

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Netflix has finally released their updated application to support both the iPod Touch and iPhone, as well as the iPad. It is now available at the App Store.

Get Netflix on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. Just download this free app and you can instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix.

• It's part of your Netflix unlimited membership. Not a Netflix member? Start your FREE trial today.
• Watch as often as you want
• Resume watching where you left off on your TV or computer
• Browse movies and manage your instant Queue right from your device

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In America, you’d go in, sit at the counter, order your food from a waitress and get it delivered to you a few minutes later. In Japan, though, it is handled with what can seem to be an absurd level of detachment from your server: orders are placed through a touchscreen or ticket machine, where you pay for your food. That ticket is placed, without a word, upon the tray of someone working behind the counter, who later — and just as silently — brings you your food.

It was really interested, then, to see this iPad self-ordering system pop up on Japan Probe. Designed by Sharp Systems Products, it allows Japanese diners to order from a menu on their iPad, completely obviating the need for the aforementioned touchscreen ordering systems or ticketing machines. It’s a more feature rich implementation too: for example, you can pinch to make a picture of your food bigger, or drill down for ingredients.

According to iSuppli, Apple will command 74.1% of the tablet market for 2010. And even though competitors will soon be launching a number of tablet devices seeking to compete against the iPad, Apple is predicted to maintain its leadership position with 70.4% of the market in 2011 and 61.7% in 2012. iSuppli last month predicted iPad sales of nearly 13 million this year, surging to over 50 million in 2012 for a total of nearly 100 million iPads sold by the end of that year.

Acer chairman JT Wang reportedly claimed that Apple's share of the tablet market will eventually stabilize at 20-30%. However, iSuppli observes that the most interesting competitor is likely to come from HP. But the potential iPad competitors exist in the form of HP, Dell and Lenovo’s upcoming tablets, iSuppli believes that none of them can seriously challenge Apple’s tablet from a solution perspective before 2011.

The Japan Sumo Association is having trouble with the wrestlers and its managers. To put it simply, they don’t hear from them – either by fax or by phone! So, the sports body came up with a 21^st-century solution: iPads. The tablets will be distributed among 51 wrestling clubs in the country and they are expected to improve the communication speed. Maybe the 10-inch dimensions of the devices will be exactly right for these sportsmen, whose fingers are a little bit too large to use mobile phones comfortably?

Recently Facebook has released a new version 3.2.1 of Facebook for iPhone to correct some bugs. At the moment there is nothing new, but we observed only some bug fixes. Press the update button right now and tell us if you notice any changes.

Facebook for iPhone 3.2.1 is available here.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revealed a patent application from Apple entitled "Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device." The invention describes methods to identify users through a picture, the sound of their voice, or even their heartbeat.

"The photograph, recording, or heartbeat can be compared to a photograph, recording or heartbeat of authorized users of the electronic device to determine whether they match," the application reads. "If they do not match, the current user can be detected as an unauthorized user."

If an unauthorized user were to attempt to access an iPhone or another device, the owner of the handset could be notified via a phone call, text message or e-mail. It could send the owner - or the police - a picture of the unauthorized user, or other information specific to the potential thief.

The handset could recognize an unauthorized user if they do certain uncharacteristic activities with the phone, such as hacking, jailbreaking, unlocking, or removing a SIM card.

It became known that Lady Gaga, the famous singer, has visited Apple’s 1-Infinite Loop Campus in Cupertino, California, where she was photographed behind the main building with the Apple’s staff. But what was the purpose of her visit? Do you have the same opinion as we, don’t you?

Now it is said that she was probably invited to make a new series of commercials for iPhone 4 about which we have already reported in May. There is also a possibility that she was invited for a small private concert, which Apple organizes from time to time? Nevertheless, soon we’ll know about the event in more details.

According to the Wall Street Journal, recently Foxconn developed a new strategy that must solve the problem with suicides. It reveals that every employee will have less overtime work and more time for entertainment.

It is also said in the report that this Friday the company held a special meeting for employees and its theme was "treasure your life, love your family and care for each other". One employee told that current changes can help to boost morale and make employees less stressed and that previously Foxconn did not care about the emotional needs of its workforce.

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Apple is testing the first material update to its iOS 4.0, next-generation iPod touches, an iPad revision, and an "unknown" product.

The latest beta of iOS 4.1 includes three new "Configuration Descriptors" within its USB configuration files - all of which pertain to devices that list "Apple, Inc." as their "manufacturer" (see screenshot).

The first product, a fourth-generation iPod touch, is referenced as "iPod 4,1." This year's iPod touch calls for models akin to iPhone 4, equipped with dual cameras, FaceTime support, Apple's A4 processor, and Retina Display.

The second product referenced in the USB configuration files is "iProd 2,1." All indications are that this device represents a material update to the iPad.

Finally, is a previously undiscovered mention of a mysterious device listed as "unknownHardware." Although the configuration files tag this device with Apple product ID of 20547, it's textual descriptor is similarly listed as "Unknown- Add device descriptor info for this device." It's possible that those place holders are to be dubbed iTV - capable of running App Store applications and based on iOS 4.0 platform.

Can not wait for the official release? Do you want to get CineXPlayer for iPad on your iPhone and iPod touch right now? For those of you who do not know, CineXPlayer is an iPad application that allows you to download Xvid AVI files using iTunes, so you can easily reproduce the format that Apple won’t. Because the developer has not invented version of the application for the iPhone, the hacker decided to do everything by himself.

It is a complete step by step tutorial on how to install it on your iPhone or iPod touch available here. You just need to jailbreak these devices, because the process involves SSH (SSH program for secure file sharing on the network) to access the iPhone, but it's worth it if you want to get it right now!

After iPad's appearance in late April many Apple's competitors decided to release their own tablets. Almost four months had passed since that moment and now we decided to study the market of iPad's rivals and write down every one that worth attention.

But before we start the list it is important to note that we chose the tablet devices that satisfied next criteria:

1. No physical keyboard;
2. Availability for purchase;
3. The screen must be at least 5''.

Let's go!

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