News tagged ‘USA’

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse was finally unveiled for the whole world. It is a sexy mouse designed by Microsoft, whose concept is very similar to the latest generation of Microsoft’s Arc Mouse, except that it has a touch-sensitive surface, and you can straighten it and curl up as you wish! Isn’t it a curious idea to combine Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad? Isn’t it quite interesting?

Of course, it has not yet been officially introduced by Microsoft. We took these photos from a German online store, which reports that it will be available on October 13.

You can buy Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse at € 69,99 in Europe or $ 69.95 in the USA.

After using two iPhones 4 for six weeks Wall Mossberg finally reviewed the newest Apple’s handset.

So, one phone was obtained by Mossberg personally, while the second was provided by Apple. Walt found that iPhone 4 works better than iPhone 3GS in those areas where there is a "strong AT&T coverage", but when it comes to weak coverage areas iPhone 3GS performs better, because it drops less calls and 'no service' status can be seen rarer. That became a reason for Mossberg to not recommend iPhone 4 with its limited AT&T data plans to people who "live, work or travel" in areas with poor reception signal.

Walt also found that the 'death-grip' issue is not a problem as it causes signal bars to fluctuate only and even to rise in some cases.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple started to investigate the compatibility problems of iOS4 and iPhone 3G. The company's spokesman explained that such a decision was made because of numerous user reports, which reveal that after installing iOS4 on iPhone 3G the latter started to work more slowly, became overheated and its battery life had significantly decreased.

Some people are annoyed and disappointed because of the situation:

“This phone has gone from being a dream to constantly annoying me. Not a way to make friends. I would upgrade to an iPhone4, but I’m feeling pretty angry that Apple has forced my hand by making my 3G unusable”.

iOS4 version for iPhone 3G does not support multitasking and Bluetooth keyboards, which was disabled because of RAM requirements, according to Apple.

Online advertising network Chitika published some statistics of what version of iOS is installed on users' iPhones. The results are quite interesting and predictable. The latest iPhone mobile operating system, iOS 4, is already accounting for one-half of all iPhone web traffic. These numbers are based on a statistically useful nine million iPhone page impressions.

Looking more deeply, iOS 4.0 – the version released on June 21st – has 44.5%. The latest version iOS 4.0.1 clocks in at only 5% of the market. This is understandable, since it was released less than a week ago:

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There is no official jailbreak utility for iOS 4.0.1. However you can still jailbreak and unlock iPhone 3G. Just do the following:

• Download the latest RedSn0w 0.9.5-b5 in our utilities page here.
• Download firmware images for iOS 4.0 here.
• Run RedSn0w and point it at the 4.0 IPSW. (Yes – point it at the 4.0 IPSW even though you're at 4.0.1). This will also hacktivate your iPhone3G at 4.0.1 if you haven't already been activated by iTunes.
• Install ultrasn0w in Cydia (add repository http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com) if you need a carrier unlock (and in the USA, remember to turn off 3G mode in Settings→General→Network).

Although it was for the most part overshadowed by the hysteria over the new iPhone 4, Apple had another “new” launch last week – the $99 iPhone 3GS 8GB with iOS 4 support.

Well, obviously it’s “last year’s model”, but just a couple of days ago it was still the best iPhone in the world quite capable of competing with much newer devices. Now with the help of iOS 4 iPhone 3GS supports folders, multitasking, and other cool features, and it’s only for $99.

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Good news from DevTeam. They just announced via twitter that unlock for firmwares 3.1.3 and 4.0 is ready:

RT @MuscleNerd: ultrasn0w tips: 1) Works for all basebands since 3.0 FW 2) Remember to disable 3G on T-Mobile USA

ultrasn0w 0.93 released! Cydia repo is repo666.ultrasn0w.com. Works with basebands 04.26.08 thru 05.13.04

This means, that all users with basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04 can use ultrasn0w 0.93.

There is no jailbreak for just released iOS4, so you need to wait a bit. Firmware 3.1.3 who need unlock can update ultrasn0w and use their iPhones with any carrier.

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Thermaltake Technology company has a devision called LUXA2, which has many interesting luxury products. The recent interesting one is LUXA2 H4 - the Apple iPad solid-aluminum holder.

The holder looks really nice and is well manufactured. The main material is aluminum. The design is great and reminds us different Apple products, especially the iMac stand. LUXA2 H4 holds the iPad with two short and two V-shaped arms, that have six rubber nubs. The nubs tightly grip the iPad without scratching it. The user is able to adjust the width of the stand by pulling these arms. That's why LUXA2 H4 fits not only for the iPad, but can hold Amazon Kindle and many other eBook readers and tablets. This gives the H4 additional advantage over other stands on the market.

The holder also allows 360-degree rotation and 300-degree vertical adjustment. So there is no problem putting iPad at the right angle. Setting the iPad in portrait or landscape orientation is really very easy. However be careful rotating the device, since there are no V-shaped arms on the top.

LUXA2 H4 is great for internet browsing, ebook reading, watching movies and even gaming. It looks especially good when used with iPad and external keyboard.

Specifications:

• Height: 206mm (8.12 inches)
• Width: 151mm (5.98 inches)
• Depth: 138mm (5.44 inches)
• Weight: 446g / 0.98 lbs.
• Adjustable Angle: 360° (Rotated) and 300°(Vertical)

LUXA2 H4 costs around $59.99. The list of distributors is available here.

Here are more photos and video with LUXA2 H4:

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According to Mobile Mix Survey, conducted in May by advertising agency Millennial Media, 56% of all developers in the USA write software for Apple’s mobile platform iOS. This is almost as twice as more than Google’s Android developers. 5% goes to Nokia’s Symbian and 4% of devs work on software for RIM’s BlackBerry OS.

But there are more surprising facts unveiled in the survey.

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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.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky believes that approximately 600-700 thousands of iPads will be sold in June overseas. If he's right then the iPad will definitely become more popular that Mac as only 500,000 Macs will be reportedly sold in June.

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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 The Wall Street Journal had reported that Verizon collaborates with Google to create new tablet device that will compete with the iPad. The information was confirmed by Lowell McAdam, who is a Verizon CEO, in his interview to the paper.

"What do we think the next big wave of opportunities are? We're working on tablets together, for example. We're looking at all the things Google has in its archives that we could put on a tablet to make it a great experience."

Still there were no information revealed about the device's hardware and its manufacturers. McAdam said that collaboration with Google has already led to success in company's efforts to combat the iPhone with Android-based handsets, so he's looking forward for the same result in creating new tablet device.

Verizon CEO also told that the company now will close the gap with AT&T which offers exclusive only 3G data plans for the iPad in the USA. In early 2011 Verizon will present 4G-capable device along with its new high-speed network, which by the end of 2010 will cover 25 to 30 cities. It is planned that there will be more price plans for every selling device, and it may be more expensive than current offers of other carriers who have 3G network.

AT&T seems to not support such policy (at least the company have been repeatedly denying such information), though its CEO Randall Stephenson thinks the industry will be proposing variable pricing once.

"For the industry, we will progressively move towards more of what I call variable pricing. The heavy consumers will pay different than the lower consumers."

As you remember, last week Steve Jobs posted a letter about his thoughts on Flash and that same day Adobe’s CEO commented on it.  Sometime later chief technology officer Kevin Lynch also expressed his opinion on the situation:

"It's not about HTML5 vs. Flash. They're mutually beneficial. The more important question is the freedom of choice on the Web."

In the meantime, Instead of using plugin-based technologies like Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, Apple created a new client-side framework Gianduia to produce quality online applications for retail users.

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Yesterday Apple released a minor update for its media player suite iTunes. Now the version of the app is 9.1.1 and here is a list of issues that were fixed:

• Addressing some issues that improve stability and performance.
• Addressing a usability issue with VoiceOver and Genius Mixes;
• Addressing several stability issues with VoiceOver;
• Addressing issues with converting songs to 128 kbps AAC while syncing (this function was previously available only for iPod shuffle)

More information about security updates can be found on Apple's support page here.

You can update your iTunes via software update utility or download it directly from Apple.