Apple has launched a new TV ad for the iPad 2. The advertisement shares the tone and narrator of the last video about iPad 2. The focus of the advertisement is on usage of the Apple’s tablet in education. You can see in the video that Apple showcases a language learning application, an astronomy application, reading in iBook app, a chess application, and more.
According to Bloomberg’s report, Nintendo’s investors are urging the company to produce titles for iOS devices. Alternatively, Tokyo-based Stats Investment Management Co considers that Nintendo should try to either develop something absolutely new or buy its way into smartphone market. Bloomberg wrote:
After giving developers access to Find My iPhone feature in iCloud service, it became known that Apple has also turned on Find My Mac feature in this service. Now it is available to developers for beta testing of iCloud service. The service was officially offered in Developer Preview 4 although its addition to Lion was leaked earlier. The user can activate this function within iCloud control panel in system preferences and their Macs will be displayed on iCloud.com.
It is well known that iPad is a fine gaming device. And it looks like Apple is going to improve iPad’s entertainment capabilities as it is a new trend nowadays. Some well-known publishers pay most attention to gaming aspect of the iPad as consumers gradually lose interest in gaming on traditional consoles. Console’s long upgrade cycle, expensive software and hardware for them and allure of touch gaming devices are main contributing factors to the decline of the console business. Recently The Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said IndustryGamers:
Fortune has published a report by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster related to the performance of the App Store. Munster claims that iOS device owners have downloaded more applications in 2011; moreover such applications are more expensive comparing with the average price for an application in 2010.
- More apps: The average iOS device owner will download 83 apps in 2011 vs. 51 in 2010, a 61% increase year over year. "Smartphone users are showing an increasing appetite to use apps to add features to their phones," Munster writes, "and iOS has the leading app ecosystem."
- More expensive apps: The ASP (average selling price) per app is rebounding. ASPs are up 14% y/y in 2011 vs. an 18% decline in 2010. "After the initial race to the bottom in App Store pricing," says Munster, "we are seeing users pay up to add features and games to their iOS devices."
82% of downloads from the App Store are free applications, the rest 18% are paid ones with an average selling price of $1.44. For 2010 and 2011 the average price of application was increasing that could be caused by the iPad launch. iPad applications in general have higher prices than applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Gameloft did the same, just like EA. The sale is not as that big, but you can get several famous games like Asphalt, Nova and Starfront for $0.99. iPad games have the same low price. Take a look:
EA games are on sale for the July 4th Independence Day weekend. EA is Discounting over 90 iOS games to $0.99 or less!
EA's most popular titles include: Need for Speed, C&C, Battlefield, Fifa, Tetris, Scrabble, Monopoly, Battleship and more. You can look through EA games here.
Here is the list of some popular games and prices:
So actively developing Facebook and Twiiter suggest that social networking has been the most growing trend in the recent years. Apple has already tried to enter into this market with its iTunes network Ping, but without any great success.
Based on content of a new patent application publised today, it is possible to suggest that Apple has been making much more ambitious plans using the iPhone location-based functions and interest matching. The result is the possibility of finding you your next date, friend or business partner by your iPhone.
Watch how people use a simple smartphone to play a real life-size version of the cult Angry Birds game. Complete with real shooting birds and exploding pigs!
Apple yesterday, at WWDC, announced iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The new major changes include a completely revamped notifications system, over-the-air software updates and activation for new devices, and iTunes library syncing over Wi-Fi.
The new Notification Center will aggregate all notifications that will appear at the top of the screen and will be less obtrusive overall.
iOS 5 will be "PC free" , so a new device and iOS updates can be activated over the air.
Tunes library can be also synchronized wirelessly via Wi-Fi.
AirPlay Mirroring will also be possible to wirelessly mirror an iPad's display to a television connected to an AppleTV.
Twitter will be integrated into iOS and Contacts can be updated automatically.
John Gruber, founder of Daring Fireball web site, claims that he heard iCloud is something more than a new music service, it’s sooner will be a full replacement for iTunes.
Don’t think of iCloud as the new MobileMe; think of iCloud as the new iTunes.
Instead of simply revamped MobileMe with a new name, new UI, new functionalities and call it iCloud, Gruber pictures a scenario where iCloud becomes the new standard to sync all kinds of media and information to an iOS device:
A new iPhone game, The Heist, hits the Apple’s App Store. In just a few days it managed to knock off famous Angry Birds from the top of the paid applications in the App Store, making huge well. According to the Loop, during the first day the application was downloaded 25, 000 times, but during the second day it had 89, 798 downloads. Taking into account that there are 86,400 seconds in a day, The Heist was selling more than 1 copy per a second. The price of the application is $ 0, 99 and now revenue of developers approaches $100,000 and sales already well above the 100,000 figure. Perhaps, the application will be next best-seller in the App Store that will manage to keep off even the legendary Angry Birds.
Yes, it’s true! Now it seems that our pets may really play a game developed for them by Friskies. Originally, discovering that cats liked to play with the iPad was just a matter of coincidence – а cat just liked to bat around the Magic Piano, and that was fine. But pet food maker Friskies has blown that idea right out, releasing a line of three full web-based games for the iPad meant to be played entirely by cats. Cat Fishing!, Party Mix-Up! and Tasty Treasures Hunt! are all games accessible for the iPad, and all three of them are designed to attract your cat's attention. Friskies even warns that while cat claws can't scratch the iPad's glass screen, certain plastic covers might get scratched, so be careful.
Research firms Distimo and Newzoo conducted survey that revealed that there are roughly 63 million gamers on the iOS ecosystem who (individually) download, on average, 2.5 games per month. Games represent half of all apps downloaded across the iOS and Mac App Stores with more than 5 million games downloaded per day – based on the survey that included the US, UK and five other European countries. A clear majority of 4.6 million are downloaded for the iPhone or iPod Touch whilst just over 400,000 are for the iPad and just a sliver for the Mac with 41,000 per day.
Business Insider conducted an extensive survey having asked more than 850 people questions that surround the iPad and how it is used. Their survey revealed that for about 70% of respondents, there was only 1 iPad in their household and only about 23% has 2 in the one household – less than 7% had 3 or more iPads in their household. Nearly 40% had downloaded between 20 and 50 apps, whilst 30% had downloaded more than 50 apps – with few paying for more than 20 of those apps and only 6% paying for none. Below are some of the other more interesting results: