News tagged ‘Free’

A new application for the iPad, iPod and iPhone from US President himself has just been released: Organizing for America.

This is an ambitious plan to connect to the voters in this year’s election season and to reach out to those who were inspired by the elections in 2008. With the application you can always stay involved and up to date with the main political events no matter where you are. You can even find some local events and get in touch with OFA supporters in your area. With Organizing for America, you’ll have immediate access to the latest news, photos and video.

Organizing for America features:

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Keeping up with the times, the official Twitter application now supports iOS 4 in its latest build. The program can now run in the background, and you’ll be able to send twits while working with other applications. Nor will you have to start the application all over every time you want to check on the latest events.

The app is free and can be downloaded here.

For those who are impatiently waiting for their pre-ordered iPhone 4 to arrive or are going to get one soon, Apple has released the user guide for iOS 4 and iPhone 4 (available here in PDF). The guide is 243 pages long and can also be found in a version for iPhone accessible via mobile version of Safari. It consists of 28 chapters and reveals some information on certain features of iOS 4 related to iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.

The guide covers a great number of topics about iPhone 4, such as its physical features, setup and various software installed by default. There’s a special section on the App Store, iTunes Store and the free iBooks application. In the user guide you’ll also find more information on the iPhone’s Nike + iPod capabilities.

According to a recent Piper Jaffray's  research, out of 4 billion applications downloaded onto iPads, iPods and iPhones, 81% are free and the cost of the other 19% is averagely $1.49.

These numbers mean that Apple’s profit from apps since the opening of the App Store is $428 million, about 29 cents per application, while the company spent approximately $81 million to distribute the apps themselves.

It sounds like a huge sum of money at first, until you understand that it makes up just 1% of Apple’s total gross profit of $33.7 billion over the same period.

A new version of iBooks 1.1 has just been released for iPad and iPhone (you will need iOS4 to install this application). The version was shown at WWDC 2010 and included some of such often demanded features as bookmarks and notes.

A short list of what you’ll find in the new iBooks 1.1:

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Apple has just released iOS4: the highly anticipated operating system update for iPhone and iPod Touch. The update is free for both iPhone and iPod Touch. Some functionality is limited for some models. For example multitasking will not work on iPhone 3G.

You can download iOS 4 now by connecting your device to iTunes and hitting Check for Update. The other option is to download it directly. Here are the links:

iPhone 3GS

iPhone 3G

iPhone 4

iPod Touch 2G

iPod Touch 3G

For other earlier models, like iPhone 2G, there is no iOS 4. The version for iPad is on its way. Stay tuned.

Finally, Microsoft has released Windows Live Messenger application for iPod touch and iPhone. Here is a shortlist of actions it allows to perform:

• Instant messaging;
• Viewing and commenting friends' status updates and photos from Windows Live, MySpace, Facebook and some other;
• IM notification even if the app is closed;
• Uploading photos from the phone for sharing;
• Accessing Hotmail accounts.

The app is free and may be downloaded here.

Yesterday Apple presented new version of the MobileMe subscription service alone with its new design and Find My iPhone application.

New version of the MobileMe mail was in beta since May, and those who wanted to try it had already had an opportunity. Here is a shortlist of innovations:

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A new Apple’s patent application entitled “Digital Radio Tagging Using an RF Tuner Accessory” has been revealed this week. It describes an HD Radio technology that may be later delivered to iPod touch and iPhone and gives its users greater flexibility in interaction with broadcast media. Nowadays HD Radio is a trademarked wireless radio format that allows FM and AM radio stations to simulcast analog and digital audio at the same time on the same channel. Currently it is owned by iBiquity.

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Today Apple released a new application for the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad that allows customers to find the company's local stores, purchase its products, read customer reviews and so on. It's called simply an Apple Store and it’s free. The app requires the device running iOS 3.0 or later and has only English interface.

Here is a short list of available features:

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So today is the day when iPhone 4 becomes available for preorder in the U.S., Germany, France, Japan and the U.K.

The Apple's site reveals that the white model is currently unavailable, which was explained by yesterday's AT&T memo, where it is said that supplies may be scarce at launch. The AT&T site reveals that white iPhone 4 is "coming soon", though it is disclosed in the memo that the company's stores will actually take reservations for white model, but it will be shipped later this summer.

Anyway, black iPhone 4 and 8GB iPhone 3GS may be freely preordered, and then picked up in stores or shipped directly to your home on June 24.

The price for iPhone 4 with a two-year contract with AT&T in the USA is $199 for 16GB model and $299 for 32GB model.

The price for unlocked iPhone is €629 for 16GB model and €739 for 32GB model in France, the prices for U.K. customers were revealed earlier.

A wonderful story happened with one WWDC attendee.

One developer of China's popular IM client TenCent got an invite to an Apple's annual conference and made a long trip to San Francisco where he was robbed. As a result he got his iPad smashed and a few signigicant injuries. The story would be sad if this guy didn't go to Apple Store and had his iPad replaced for free after revealing his story. Moreover, when the developer checked his e-mail later, he found a letter from Steve Jobs with a short "Safe travels home" message.

Photographic coverage can be seen below.

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New report published by Reuters reveals that Hulu is finally coming to the iPad and a bunch of other non-PC devices.

Unfortunately, there is little information other than that, but previous rumors indicated that the service will be subscription-based for those who want to have an access to a library of older content, and a library of newer episodes and randoms will be free.

It is likely that Hulu for the Xbox 360 console will be presented at next week's E3 gaming expo.

As you remember Hulu is a service that offers commercial-supported streaming video of movies and TV shows for users in the U.S.

Yesterday Apple officially presented its new back-to-school promotion. This is an annual sale, when school faculty and students can purchase a Mac and get a 8GB iPod touch for free. Apple claims on its website:

"Take a free 8GB iPod touch to school. Along with tons of other great features, iPod touch has built-in Wi-Fi for downloading thousands of games, movies, songs, apps, and amazing, free educational content from iTunes U."

If you have an education discount, along with acquiring new iPod touch you can save $50 on a low-end MacBook, $100 on a MacBook Air and iMac desktop and $200 on a MacBook Pro. Such educational discounts are available to staff and faculty of K-12 schools, and to students, professors and staff of any college.

The deal applies between May 25 and Sept. 7, 2010. Those who doesn't want to get free iPod touch can receive a $199 discount for purchasing 160GB iPod classic or a higher-capacity iPod touch, a $179 discount for a 16GB iPod nano, $149 discount for a 8GB iPod nano, $99 discount for a stainless steel 4Gb iPod shuffle, and $79 discount for a regular 4GB iPod shuffle.

Customers can use their educational discounts in an Apple online store, retail stores, authorized campus stores or call 1-800-MY-APPLE.

Recently Billboard published a report that reveals new information on Apple's share on music sales market. When the first generation iPhone was presented, iTunes had only 12,7% of American music market. In 2008 Apple almost doubled it and made 21,4%. 2009 reveals five percentage points increase - now iTunes has 26,7% of music sales.

Such mobile providers as AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless on the contrary lose their positions, downing from 6,6% to 4,9% in 2009. Partly it is explained by lower priced ringtones in iTunes and its free tools for making custom ringtones. Both of these factors eventually attracted more people.

Physical media music in turn loses its popularity from year to year. Numbers reveal its share fell from 57,5% in 2008 to 49,3% in 2009. That means that iTunes actually makes a half of all digital music downloads overall.

iTunes' closest rival Amazon also increased its sales. But in digital MP3 sales the company's share grew from 0,8% in 2008 to 1,3% in 2009, which is not even close to Apple's 26,7% share. Such results, according to Billboard, were "still well short of where major labels had hoped Amazon's download store would be by now, dimming earlier expectations that it will be able to significantly reduce the labels' heavy dependence on iTunes for digital sales."

It is interesting to look forward for Google which recently acquired Simplify Media to expectedly turn it into iTunes rival for Android users. But for now the company's subsidiary AdMob reveals the amount of media bought or even downloaded by Android users is still so small that it cannot be compared with iTunes success.