Category: I-phone

Piper Jaffray has been polling US teens on their iPhone adoption rates twice a year and the current bi-annual report was released yesterday. In the survey, 4500 teens were asked about the iPhones that they already own, or plan to purchase over the next six months.

17% responded that they already own an iPhone and a full 37% told Piper Jaffray that they plan to buy one (or have their parents buy it for them) over the next six months. If this sample is any indication, the future looks great for Apple in the teen segment. I thought the six month time frame was telling, since even the most conservative of pundits believe the iPhone 5 will be out six months from now.

Apple still owns the MP3 market with 80% saying they own such a device, and out of that, 86% own some flavor of iPod with everyone else being left in the dust. This is not all hearts and flowers though, since in the poll taken last spring, 92% of teens owned an iPod, with total MP3 adoption of 86%. It may mean that more teens are using iPhones to listen to music, with over half reporting that they listen to music on their cell phone, the highest number reported for that stat. Though it’s not specifically stated, I don’t think it would be a stretch to say that more teens are listening to music on Apple devices than any other brands in the category.

In a question about tablet sales, 22% of teens say they already have one, with another 20% planning to buy one in the next six months. I think that we can all agree that the lion’s share of those purchases will be iPads as well.

[via Apple 2.0]

iPhone use by teens at a record high and growing originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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News apps on the iPad are getting more and more interesting. With a lot of news going behind paywalls, we’re seeing a trend toward more and more free news apps that are increasingly creative and functional. Pulse is already a popular news reader, and Zite has entered the game with an excellent app that checks half a million sites for news that will be of interest to you.

Now you can add Hitpad to the list. This free app has an interesting take on getting you the news. Using some proprietary algorithms, it determines what people are interested in on the web across various media like Twitter and video. It then displays them according to topic, so if you tap on a listed subject (like Charlie Sheen for example), you get a screen full of headlines about Sheen, videos and tweets. When you click on the headers, you get transported to the source web page in Hitpad’s built-in browser, so publishers should like it as well.

The GUI is nice, and there should be virtually no learning curve in getting up to speed. Stories can be shared to Facebook, Twitter and by email. Google provides the news stories, videos and photos. Relevant websites are also included. Once you bring up a story, Hitpad also displays related stories, which is a very nice feature.

Continue reading Hitpad brings popular news to the iPad

Hitpad brings popular news to the iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The MacBook Air, while extremely popular, is one of the last lines of Apple computers not yet sporting a low power consumption Sandy Bridge processor by Intel — the line is still running on the Core 2 Duo CPU, and while that’s certainly a fast model, it’s not quite the latest and greatest out there. But don’t worry — Intel has announced that it will be bringing out a new Sandy Bridge processor sometime very soon, and that’s the same one expected to go into the new MacBook Air models by the end of the summer.

The best of these models, says Hardmac, is the Core i7 2657M, sporting dual cores running at 1.6 GHz and a turbo mode up to 2.7 GHz, lining up the MacBook Air with the low-end MacBook Pro. That’s one spicy meatball! Of course, none of this is confirmed until we actually see the hardware in action, but if you want a faster MBA and can wait until June, you might want to see what Apple and Intel have in store for the next generation of the extremely thin little powerhouse computer.

[via MacRumors]

Intel’s ultra low voltage Sandy Bridge CPUs bound for MacBook Air? originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The upgrade from Microsoft Office 2008 to 2011 has not been without its drawbacks; for users of Entourage who moved to the all-new Outlook for Mac, in particular, there have been a few holes in the feature lineup. None of them are necessarily showstoppers, but the collection of odd omissions has given the flagship mail/calendar/contact management platform an air of unfinished business over the past few months.

Good news, though: Microsoft’s Office for Mac blog reports that we will be seeing Service Pack 1 for Office 2011 next week. The big-ticket returning feature for Outlook is calendar support in Sync Services, meaning that Outlook calendars may once again synchronize locally with iCal, BusyCal or tethered iPhones, iPod touch or iPad units through iTunes.

Outlook’s punch list also includes editing support for Exchange’s server-side rules (which last appeared on the Mac in Outlook 2001 for Mac OS 9!), the return of the Redirect and Resend options in addition to simple message forwarding, and editing of messages in the Inbox. Excel is also getting better Solver integration, and there are sure to be hundreds of other bug fixes and minor improvements.

While the Sync Services calendar support is welcome, it’s slightly ironic that it’s coming back to Microsoft’s PIM at the same time that Apple’s MobileMe calendars are transitioning to CalDAV–which in turn is breaking Sync Services support for those hosted calendars via iCal and BusyCal. That means there still won’t be a supported way to get MobileMe calendars to synchronize with Outlook for Mac (or Entourage 2008, for that matter), at least in the short term.

There are some Outlook users who will be able to synchronize to MobileMe’s CalDAV servers… but they aren’t using Mac OS X. 32-bit versions of Outlook 2007 or 2010 on Windows can indeed sync up to MobileMe, with the help of Apple’s MobileMe control panel on Windows XP, Vista or 7.

The Office 2011 SP1 download will be available sometime the week of April 11th; we’ll let you know when it drops.

Hat tip to The Loop.

Office 2011 Service Pack 1 due next week, improves Outlook compatibility originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Atari is borrowing a playbook page from Capcom — it’s released an app called Atari’s Greatest Hits on the New Zealand App Store, which should be here in the US by tomorrow. Like Capcom’s Arcade app, Atari’s new title features a ton of retro arcade hits (more than 100), all available via in-app purchase for unlimited play. Touch Arcade has the full, overwhelming list, and you can see everything in there from Asteroid to Yar’s Revenge and all of it in between. Missile Command! Breakout! Centipede! This is basically a retro gaming fan’s dream come true.

The way it works is that each of the in-game packs sell for 99 cents, but you can get the whole shebang for just $14.99 (and fifteen bucks for all of these titles is a bargain). The app is universal, too, which means not only will it work on the iPhone, but it’ll also run all of these games on the iPad — even nicer if you have the iPad set up in ThinkGeek’s soon-to-be-released iCade arcade cabinet. In fact, Atari worked with ION to make these games specifically compatible with just this device, so for an iPad, this game pack, and the price of the $99 iCade, you can take a trip through time right back to the video game palaces of old.

Awesome stuff right here. Keep an eye on the App Store this evening — the Atari’s Greatest Hits app should be available soon.

Atari releases over 100 Greatest Hits to the App Store originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Utah is home to many stunning natural wonders, and soon it will be home to not one, but two Apple stores. Job listings spotted by ifoAppleStore reveals the Cupertino company may open a second retail store in the Fashion Place Mall located in Murray, Utah by the end of the year. This second store will be a mere eight miles away from Utah’s flagship Gateway store located in downtown Salt Lake City.

Though eight miles is a relatively small distance for a state as big as Utah, the choice of Murray as a home for a second store is driven by demographics. Though Murray itself is relatively small with 34,000 residents, the Fashion Place Mall is located in a prime retail district that boasts of over 875,000 area residents whose average salary is $76,098. It is also physically situated on an intersection with vehicle traffic of over 174,000 cars per day. Sounds like a good place to sell a lot of MacBook Airs and iPad 2s, no?

Second Utah Apple Store seen in job listings originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Live from Highlands Ranch, Colorado and Honolulu, Hawaii, it’s TUAW TV Live.

Today my special guest will be Doc Rock, who was the gracious host of a huuuuge TUAW Meetup on April 3 with a bunch of the HiPad (The Hawaii iPad Users Group) members and a Parrot AR.Drone quadricopter. Doc is always a joy to chat with, and today we’ll be covering topics ranging from the future of book publishing to iOS-connected toys. Since we both like to talk a lot, there are probably a thousand other directions that the conversation can go.

The show will begin at 5 PM ET / 2 PM PT / 10 PM BST and run about one hour, although knowing Doc and I, the show could be a bit longer. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you’re unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure.

TUAW TV Live at 5 PM: Steve and Doc Rock speculate and prognosticate originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So yes, says Tap Tap Tap boss John Casasanta, US $70,000 isn’t to be sniffed at, but it still represents only five percent of Camera+‘s two MILLION users using the in-app purchase facility to buy the $.99 “I (heart) Analog” effects pack.

Well, whether or not you sniff at 70 grand depends rather on how much you earn elsewhere; Casasanta, in fact, has sold two million copies of Camera+ (currently on sale at $.99 instead of $1.99) so, yeah, they can consider it small change.

However, the statistics he reveals on the company blog are interesting; half of all Camera+ users upgraded to the new version within six days, he says. And while the app was launched last summer (and then withdrawn because of the use of the iPhone’s volume switch as a shutter release before coming back at the end of 2010) and its first million sales took, well, a while, the second million sales took only three months.

“If we were to stay on the same weekly pace that we’re currently on (~160k sales per week), we’ll get to 3 million in only 1.5 months from now,” says Casasanta. And four million in three weeks, five in the next 10 days and then a million a day, muahaha… perhaps he should buy a white cat to stroke to go with that cackle.

Seriously, Camera+ is a great app and the free 2.2 update adds many worthwhile features that we like here at TUAW. It’s excellent to see them having such success.

[Via AppleInsider]

Tap Tap Tap developer says 5% of Camera+ users make in-app purchases originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even though April Fools’ Day is over and all the Saran Wrap has been removed from the toilet bowl, it is still fun to share some of the notable pranks, especially when the prank involves an unsuspecting news anchor being duped into licking an iPad, live on camera thanks to the Shock Top app. “Piezo electrics” indeed.

The short clip is amusing and uncomfortably awkward at the same time. You so want to step into the video and tell the co-host not to do it, but at the same time can’t wait to see what she does. Read on for the video and feel free to share your responses in the comments.

[Via Razorianfly]

Continue reading iPad licked by gullible anchor, film at 11

iPad licked by gullible anchor, film at 11 originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Searching for system information on a Mac running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard can be confusing to the uninitiated. For example, if you’re trying to figure out what RAM chips are installed in what slot on your device, you need to pop open About This Mac, click the More Info button, and then scroll down through the list of hardware, network, and software items until you find the proper info. Even then, if you’re looking for details on how to upgrade your system RAM means you’ll need to do a web search for instructions.

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will have a new feature that should make it easier for everyone to quickly find the system data they need. A new app, System Information (see above), is available from About This Mac, but provides Mac owners with information displayed in a much more graphical and understandable way.

When launched, System Information initially shows two overview panes, one with data about the operating system and available software updates, and another displaying high-level info about the computer hardware. From the software pane, users can launch Software Update, while the old System Profiler can be launched by clicking the System Report button on the hardware pane.

Continue reading Mac OS X 10.7 Lion features new System Information app

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion features new System Information app originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Having an application in the App Store can be adventure. The application creation process and App Store submission process are filled with long nights, lots of coffee and many highs and lows. When the app finally gets approved by Apple, the next stage of sales tracking gives you a whole new realm to explore and experiment.

Glasshouse Apps, the developers behind Gift Plan, decided to do some experimenting with the pricing of their app to see what happened to their sales numbers. They dropped the regular price of their app from $1.99 to $0.99 and slashed the price to free for 24 hours as a temporary promotion. Glasshouse tweeted this price drop and this limited time sale was retweeted by sixty other twitter members and mentioned by several blogs.

Much to their surprise, this single tweet and the resulting free advertising from twitter and blogs resulted in a jump in sales from 15 per day for the paid app to an amazing 55,290 when it was free. Most of the purchases were through the French App Store where Gift Plan, for a short time, topped Angry Birds on the top free app list. The take home messages for Glasshouse Apps are many, but at the top of its list is the realization that standing out from the crowd of iOS applications is difficult, but when you do, the results can be impressive. Unfortunately, the developers have not released sales numbers now that the application is available for 99¢.

Glasshouse shares results of App Store experiment originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Overnight, Apple put up the yellow sticky note announcing its online store was down. Apple flipped the switch back on earlier this morning and visible changes to the store were minimal. Behind the scenes, though, a tipster to 9to5 mac claimed Apple removed the white iPhone 4 from its retail database. This has led some to question whether the white iPhone 4 will launch as expected this spring.

This report was corroborated by the Italian blog Apple Rumors when it posted up screenshots that reveal the removal of images of the white iPhone 4 from Apple’s Italian website. Yesterday, Apple’s website advertised its bumper cases on a white iPhone 4 model, while today the bumper-cased iPhones are now all black models.

You can’t read too much into this as the images may be an arbitrary switch and the removal of the iPhone 4 from Apple’s database may be in preparation for a launch, not the death knell of the elusive handset. We will have to wait patiently to see if Apple comes through with the white iPhone 4 in the next month or so.

White iPhone reportedly disappears from Apple inventory database originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Marketcircle has released Billings Pro 1.1 with support for QuickBooks and MoneyWorks. Biliings Pro (our review) offers time tracking, invoicing and billing for small business and groups. With support for multiple users, server software, and client side applications, Billings Pro is a nice solution.

This update lets you export clients, invoices, payments and more to an IIF file, which can then be imported with QuickBooks (it goes in the other direction, too). Likewise, it’ll exchange data with a MoneyWorks database.

They’ve also made general performance a bit faster. You’ll find upgrade instructions here. Note that you’ve got to update both the server and the client, so it’s a bit trickier than double-clicking an installer and sipping a latte.

This is a free update for registered users.

Billings Pro 1.1 adds support for QuickBooks, MoneyWorks originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A report out of Digitimes suggests the supply of cover lenses for touch panel modules may influence Apple’s future production rate of its popular iPad 2. Sales of the iPad 2 have exceeded expectation and Apple reportedly shipped 2.4 to 2.5 million tablets in March alone. Conservative estimates predict Apple may ship over four million units per month in the upcoming financial quarter.

Asian supply sources hint that the ability of Apple to meet this growing demand for it popular tablet device hinges on the ability of manufacturers to produce this necessary lens component. Currently, Taiwan-based TPK Touch Solutions, G-Tech Optoelectronics and more are expanding their manufacturing capacity and ramping up production of these cover lenses. In the end, this component may not delay production of the iPad 2, but it does reveal the struggle parts manufacturers encounter when a new device taxes their production line.

Cover lens supply key for 2011 iPad 2 shipment goal originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gary Katz, the same DIY guy behind this cool iPhone shoebox theater, has crafted a delightfully retro-looking case for his iPad 2 out of “about $20 worth of materials.” Calling it “An iPad Case from 1945,” Katz used a bill of materials that just about anyone might find in their garage or basement: a few blocks and squares of wood, an old pair of shorts, screws, a luggage tag, magnets, wood glue and wood stain.

All put together, the case looks like something that’d be right at home in my grandparents’ den, and I mean that in a good way. At the very least, I have to give Katz credit for producing something with a custom retro look without also going steampunk like virtually everybody else. The case does indeed look like it belongs in a film noir from the 40s; if I had even the slightest degree of handicrafts skills (I definitely don’t), I might try my hand at making one of these myself.

Katz has posted full instructions for reproducing his efforts, so if you’ve got the materials, the skills, and you’d like a case that looks like it could go well with a fedora, a scotch on the rocks and a midnight fistfight in a Los Angeles bar, get cracking.

How to make a custom wooden ‘antique’ iPad case originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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