Category: I-phone

Asymco always has great graphical analysis of Apple’s performance, and the site’s latest is no exception. Dirk Schmidt has analyzed Apple’s market cap during the Steve Jobs era, and the graphs show just how dramatic Apple’s turnaround was during Jobs’s time as CEO.

At the beginning of Jobs’s tenure, Apple’s market cap was lower than every one of its competitors. But after an average 42 percent increase in market cap from 1997 to 2011, Apple became the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world.

Asymco’s second graph, which shows Apple’s of combined market cap among its competitors, shows how dramatic an effect Apple has had on the tech sector. Almost everyone is getting squeezed by Apple’s ascendancy, but it seems Microsoft has been hit hardest of all; the company that Windows built has gone from over 50 percent of the market cap share down to measurably less than Apple’s share.

If you’re a graph junkie, definitely head over to Asymco and check out their analysis for yourself.

Asymco graphs Apple’s performance under Steve Jobs originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A report from Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita claims Apple is preparing to launch its iTunes music store in ten new countries throughout Europe. These new additions may include Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and seven other unnamed locations.

If Rzeczpospolita’s report is correct, this rollout will significantly boost the reach of Apple’s music store. Apple currently operates its iTunes music store in a little over 20 countries globally. Its reach is hindered by music licensing agreements that limits sales to select countries. As a result, the iTunes Music store only logs about 12 million song downloads each month. It is outpaced by Apple’s App Store which has a wider reach and over 31 million app downloads each month.

[Via MacRumors]

Report suggests iTunes store coming to additional European countries originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Way back in 2009, the European Commission reached a voluntary agreement with 10 mobile phone manufacturers to adopt a standard Micro-USB charge and sync interface. Apple, with its proprietary Dock connector design, was one of the parties that signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) stating that they’d comply. Could the new iPhone(s) expected next week finally move to the standard connector? There are some compelling arguments why Apple won’t and will stick with the 30-pin dock connector design for the foreseeable future.

On one hand, this isn’t legislation, so Apple is under no obligation to comply with the new standard. On the other hand, the company did sign the MoU, and to keep in the good graces of the EU at a time when Apple is locked in a number of patent-infringement battles, the company should follow through.

The overwhelming reason that Apple is likely to stick with the dock connector is the huge number of accessories both from Apple and other manufacturers that use that connector. The dock connector is used not only on the iPhone, but also on the iPod touch, iPod Classic, iPod nano, and iPad. If the Dock connector was to be eliminated from the iPhone, accessory manufacturers would need to totally redesign most of the docks and cables that have been produced for the iPhone, and Apple would also need to change the connector port on the other devices.

The wording of the MoU is clear: the European Commission requires manufacturers to have a cable assembly that “terminates in a Micro-B plug” (outlined in red in the photo above). But that still doesn’t keep Apple from holding onto the dock connector. There’s also a section in the agreement which states that “In case a mobile phone does not have this connector (Micro-USB) integrated into the device, an Adaptor may be available to ensure compatibility. An ‘Adaptor’ is defined as a device with a Micro-USB receptacle/plug connecting to a specific non Micro-USB connector.”

My take on this is that Apple will most likely ship new European iPhones with a USB Standard-A cable that ends in a Micro-B plug, along with a Micro-B to Dock connector adapter. This means that Apple complies with the word of the agreement and also keeps backward compatibility with the thousands of dock connector accessories.

For the EU, it’s a win as there is one standard charger design for all phones made by the ten signatories. For Apple, it’s also a win since the company only needs to design an adaptor to go from the Micro-B end of the charging cable to the dock connector. And for the accessory manufacturers, it’s time to breathe a big sigh of relief, knowing that every product they’ve made over the past few years will still work properly.

Will new iPhone designs include Europe’s common charger? originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Forbes has put together an interesting list of three things the iPad does well for seniors. The writer points out that Apple’s iPad makes it easy for seniors with bad eyesight to adjust the text inside apps like Safari or iBooks. Safari’s pinch to zoom text adjustment is especially easy compared to iBooks because there are no menu button commands to tap.

Forbes relates a touching story of a man in a nursing home whose hands were crippled with arthritis. Normally he wouldn’t be able to hold pictures in his hands if he wished to look at memories of a family vacation. However, with the iPad’s ability to navigate photos just by swiping a finger (or any part of a hand) over the screen, the man was able to browse all of the photos his family loaded onto the iPad.

Forbes also says Apple got one thing wrong. They say that most people over 40 don’t like looking at pictures of themselves, and that facial reflections in a dark (sleeping or powered off) iPad screen are an oversight on Apple’s part. That’s an idea I frankly find ridiculous. However, maybe Forbes will overlook that when they see all of the gesture accessibility menu options that are added in iOS 5.

Three things iPads do well for seniors originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cars.com has launched a free iPad app called Cars to help you find your next automobile.

The app features reviews from the Cars.com editors, as well as side-by-side comparisons of up to three vehicles with videos, specs, and costs. When you select a car, a section on the right lists cars that are similar in type, price and specifications.

After you price the car you like, you can see what’s in stock near your zip code and ask for a quote. The app also lets you find used cars.

The app was stable, but not every car had full reviews. There was a like/dislike section, but it didn’t go into the level of depth I’d like to see. Videos were sometimes quite slow coming up, but as they say in the auto biz, “your mileage may vary”. The app also works only one way in landscape view, with the home button to the left. Hopefully an update will let me hold my iPad the way I want to.

Cars is a nice app for shopping and comparing, but I’d go elsewhere for more in-depth reviews. I like the free Edmunds Inside Line app, which is universal for iPad and iPhone.

Daily iPad App: Cars originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Welcome back to another episode of TUAW TV Live, the weekly live streaming video show where the chat room is the star! This week, the conversation will primarily focus on one topic — what is expected and what we’d really like from Apple next Tuesday. Of course, there were some announcements from a different source earlier today, so that will shape the conversation as well.

Below, you’ll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments.

If you’re driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you’re stuck in traffic, please don’t — keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream App. It’s a universal app and is wonderful on an iPad, both for viewing and participating in the chat. Speaking of the chat, you can also drop into our IRC room #tuaw-tv on the chat1.ustream.tv server.

We’ll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you’re seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you’ll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.

Don’t like Flash? Click here to watch the video without the Flash viewer seen below.

TUAW TV Live: Let’s talk iPhone originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AllThingsD has an interesting report on the boom of travel ads in the last year. Mobile ad network Greystripe has seen travel-related mobile ad campaigns grow by 50% this past year. While researching why, they found the iPad has a lot to do with it. Greystripe found that a whopping 91% of iPad owners use their iPads for travel-related tasks, like booking flights and hotels, or planning trips.

Breaking it down, the study revealed that 47% of iPad users booked hotel rooms on the device, while 37% used the iPad to book flights, 28% used it to make restaurant reservations, and 24% used it to rent a car. Greystripe found that survey respondents were more likely to use the Safari web browser to book their travel needs through websites instead of dedicated apps.

Only 49% of iPhone users were willing to use Safari to book their travel needs, instead relying primarily on apps. The willingness of iPad owners to visit a company’s website to book their travel needs probably relates to the iPad’s larger screen.

Travel ads doing especially well on the iPad originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday we told you that Fortune was publishing a Kindle ebook called “All About Steve.” The ebook is a collection of 17 stories and interviews with Steve Jobs drawn from Fortune’s articles. Now, while it’s nice that Fortune is collecting all their interviews in one place, its no shock they are doing this either. After all, its previous Kindle-only, Apple-themed title, “Inside Apple,” landed on the Kindle top ten bestseller list and earned a boatload of money.

For those of you who don’t want to shell out $10.99 for an ebook of reprinted articles, Apple 2.0 editor Philip Elmer-Dewitt has pulled some choice clips from some of the Fortune interviews. The best quote, however, is one that have heard before. In 1995 Steve Jobs told Fortune’s Brent Schlender, “You know, I’ve got a plan that could rescue Apple. But nobody there will listen to me…”

As was always the case, Steve Jobs wasn’t just blowing smoke. Just two years later Jobs was back at the company and led the greatest turnaround in corporate history. Apple was transformed from a company on the brink of self-destruction into one of the most respected, recognizable and valuable companies in the world.

Steve Jobs in 1995: “I’ve got a plan that could rescue Apple” originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’ll be brutally honest: The iLuv WorkStation doesn’t exactly win a lot of points for beauty — it’s a bulky device, as you can see above. But what it’s lacking in subtlety, it tried hard to make up for in functionality, basically turning your iPad (or Samsung Galaxy, if you happen to swing that way) into a full-sized desktop computer. Plug the iPad in, and you get a tilting and rotating bracket, a keyboard (different models run with a connected or wireless Bluetooth keyboard), and a full set of speakers.

If you need a dedicated station for your iPad, this doesn’t look like a bad choice. Just make sure you have plenty of room on your desk. The models run from US$50 to $180, and all of the units are available on iLuv’s website right now. Expect them in retail stores later this month.

iLuv WorkStation dock is for serious iPad typists originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iFixit has gone all destructo on Apple’s new Thunderbolt display, and the gory details are now available over on their site. They ripped the beautiful monitor apart so you didn’t have to, and inside they found the same display seen in the iMac Intel 27″ from a couple of years ago, as well as a 49 watt, 2-speaker sound system, a big brushless fan, and a bunch of other impressive digital junk. It sounds like iFixit had a great time — they say the disassembly didn’t require any special tools (just a few suction cups and a couple of Torx screwdrivers) and rated the display 8 out of 10 for repairability.

Not that you’d ever really need to repair these things — monitors are pretty sturdy unless you’re really tossing them around, and Apple is pretty good about handling you for the standard failures and repairs. But it is cool to get a look inside the monitor itself. How surprising that it’s filled with so many dohickeys and what zits. As iFixit puts it, “both sides of the logic board are packed with enough chips that it’s hard to believe there’s no computer inside this display.”

iFixit tears down Apple’s Thunderbolt display originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You’ll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what’s happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today’s Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for September 28, 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ad network InMobi has been asking its customers what they think of the rumored upcoming iPhone 5 (purportedly to be announced at the event in Cupertino next week), and as you might imagine, the response is overwhelmingly positive: 41% of current mobile customers in North America say that yes, they’re planning to buy an iPhone 5. That’s even before the phone’s features or specs are officially announced, and again, that’s all mobile users in the US, Mexico and Canada. 50% of those planning to buy the phone say they’ll do it in the first six months. Now, as any sales exec will tell you, intent doesn’t actually equal action, so there’s no guarantee that these people will actually buy the phone. But demand, it’s safe to say, is high.

Those numbers drop off a bit if you start talking about a possible “iPhone 4GS”, however. Fewer than 15% of customers say they’ll go after a revised version of the iPhone, rather than an actual numbered iteration. We just don’t know what Apple’s planning — there was no 5, or 4, or 4GS included in the official announcement at all. But it’s clear the public is more interested in a brand new phone rather than a faster version of what we’ve already got.

And finally, the most troubling numbers here are for the iPhone’s competitors: 52% of current Blackberry users and 27% of Android users are planning to jump to an iPhone 5, and even if it’s a 4GS, 28% of Blackberry users still plan to switch over. Apple’s certainly got users drooling for a new iPhone — we’ll have to see what they unveil next week.

[via 9to5Mac]

Survey: 41% of smartphone users set to buy iPhone 5 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our readers in Switzerland will be happy to hear that Apple has finally begun selling books in the Swiss iBookstore. Up until today, Apple has only had free Project Gutenberg books available for download. MacPrime.ch notes that currently there are a few hundred paid books on the Swiss iBookstore, including 71 works by Stephen King, some Dan Brown titles, and the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson (pre-order only). Books cost between 4 and 24 Swiss Francs, with most titles costing 7, 15, or 24 Francs.

[Thanks, Steve]

Swiss iBookstore starts selling books originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With a new iPhone or two just around the corner, TUAW has been getting the usual flood of “how can I check to see if I’m eligible for an upgrade” emails. At least for those of us in the US on either the AT&T or Verizon networks, that’s a fairly easy proposition. Here’s how to see if you’ll be eligible for an iPhone upgrade.

AT&T

For AT&T users, checking eligibility is drop-dead easy. Open the Phone app on your iPhone, tap in the magic code *639#, and tap the Call button. A message appears telling you that “a message will be sent to your phone.” Within seconds, a text message arrives with the details of your eligibility (or lack thereof):

In my case, AT&T is offering me an upgrade for $18 and a pair of handcuffs tying me to AT&T for another two years. I bought my iPhone 4 on the first day of availability, and spend a few bucks on my data plan, including a Personal Hotspot tethering plan. Although none of us at TUAW know how AT&T decides who gets an “early upgrade,” it seems that the more you spend, the more they like you. Imagine that…

Verizon

Verizon users need to log onto the Verizon website and go to the My Verizon tab. For each phone, you’ll see whether or not you’re eligible for an upgrade, and the date that the particular device is eligible.

Many thanks to my colleague Kelly Hodgkins for grabbing the Verizon screenshot for me.

Now that you can tell whether or not you’re eligible, you might want to start thinking about how to get rid of that “slightly used” iPhone 4 that is currently in your hand. Just a reminder that Gazelle.com and other resale sites are ready and willing to purchase your iPhone 4. Gazelle’s current bounty for a 32 GB iPhone 4 in good condition is $169, while a mint condition model bumps your take up to $250.

How to check if you’re eligible for an iPhone upgrade originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s no question that Amazon has Apple in its crosshairs with the introduction of the US$199 Kindle Fire.

However, buried in the description of the also-announced Kindle Touch, $99 with ads or $139 without, is a new feature for the device — a rebranding of its newspaper and magazine offerings, which used to be broken into two separate parts of the Kindle area of Amazon’s site.

“Newsstand: Shop and subscribe to your favorite magazines and newspapers such as Time, Newsweek, and The New Yorker, from Newsstand. New editions are auto-delivered wirelessly direct to your device the second they go on sale.”

Does this sound familiar? It should.

“Newsstand: A custom newsstand for all your subscriptions. Read all about it. All in one place. iOS 5 organizes your magazine and newspaper app subscriptions in Newsstand: a folder that lets you access your favorite publications quickly and easily. There’s also a new place on the App Store just for newspaper and magazine subscriptions. And you can get to it straight from Newsstand. New purchases go directly to your Newsstand folder. Then, as new issues become available, Newsstand automatically updates them in the background — complete with the latest covers. It’s kind of like having the paper delivered to your front door. Only better.”

While the two newsstands will deliver content in somewhat different manners — standalone app for Apple vs. dumping on main screen for Amazon — the common name and marketing will probably be enough to bite Apple’s crawl and probably the name of the Kindle Touch itself. Will Apple get into a pissing match with Amazon over its newsstand or the Kindle Touch? Well, they’re already engaged in one over the use of the word “App Store.”

When Apple’s injunction against Amazon was denied, the judge agreed that “App Store” is not a generic term, but also stated that Amazon’s use did not meet the “likelihood of confusion” threshold required for an immediate injunction. “Newsstand” is a common word first used in 1866 to describe a physical location where newspapers and periodicals are sold. However when it comes to the Internet, it’s easy to see Apple arguing that Amazon using “Newsstand,” like the term “App Store,” will “confuse and mislead customers.”

Apple and Amazon’s day in court over the use of “App Store” is scheduled for October 2012.

Buried among new Kindles, Amazon introduces its own Newsstand originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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