Category: I-phone

The week after the iPad 2 went on sale, I kept expecting Apple to issue a press release announcing that it had sold a million iPad 2s within X number of days (Apple sold about 2 million of the first version in the first 60 days). However, the first week passed and now, more than two weeks later, Apple has yet to announce any iPad 2 sales. This leads me to believe that Apple won’t be announcing any iPad 2 numbers until its next financial conference call later in April.

Of course, lack of hard numbers from Apple doesn’t keep analysts from guesstimating just how many iPads were sold in total during Apple’s fiscal Q2. Philip Elmer-DeWitt at the Apple 2.0 blog has put together a nice list of analyst estimates. The lowest estimate is 5 million iPads. The highest estimate is a whopping 8.8 million iPads. The average of all estimates is 6.26 million. Those numbers include the 14 days of US iPad 2 sales in Apple’s Q2 and two days of international sales.

We’ll have to wait until Apple’s Q2 earnings call later in April to find out exact numbers, but some of the higher ones don’t seem too outrageous considering the the long lines and high demand that still exist for those wanting iPad 2s.

Analysts: Apple may have sold between 5-9 million iPads in Q2 originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the less than 10 hours since it was announced, tickets for Apple’s annual developer’s conference, WWDC, have already sold out. We hope you were lucky enough to get yours in time.

WWDC 2011 already sold out originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The ability to leave your wallet at home and pay — or get paid — for everything with your iPhone is a hot ticket for financial service providers, and today it got even hotter.

Amex announced a new payment service called Serve that is available immediately, and while you’ll still need a card for paying for items at locations that take American Express cards, that card is completely tied to your Serve account. The Serve card can be reloaded either from the Serve website or from an iPhone or Android-based phone app, then used at any Amex location.

The company also wants you to use Serve to facilitate person to person transactions. Amex uses the examples of paying your nanny, paying an allowance to your kids or giving an employee an expense account. All the other person needs is a Serve account and a device to access the account. Got an iPhone? You can send or receive payments, and there’s no need for a card-swiping dongle or a special Near Field Communication (NFC) case for your device.

Available only in the US at this point, Amex also touts the security of the new system. Serve uses an “advanced” encryption system, a confidential PIN and multi-factor authentication to ensure that your account can only be used by you.

Amex bought out would-be PayPal competitor Revolution Money last year and acquired the technology used in Serve. Earlier this month, Visa announced an agreement with Fiserv and CashEdge that will let the payment apps from those companies — ZashPay and POPmoney — work with Visa accounts. Not to be left out, Google is looking into an agreement with MasterCard and Citigroup for an NFC-based payment system.

[via Macworld]

Amex wants to Serve up money from your iPhone originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re excited to buy the iPhone 5 this summer, you might want to relax a bit. Reports from China are saying that Apple hasn’t even started securing the parts for a brand new version of the iPhone, which would mean that there’s almost no way a new version could be released this year. Especially with all of the changes described in the recent rumors, Apple would need to start early to get all of the manufacturers working on making enough of a new iPhone to go around, and according to this source in China, those manufacturers haven’t heard word one.

When you combine that with what we heard about WWDC lacking a hardware announcement, it’s very likely that we won’t even hear about a brand new version of the iPhone until this fall. That’s fine — the iPhone 4 is a very solid device, and it’s still selling well. If Apple’s cloud aspirations are realized this year, the company from Cupertino will have plenty to work on anyway.

[via AppleInsider]

Apple reportedly yet to order iPhone 5 parts originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last November President Obama saw Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva using an iPad while at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ retreat in Yokohama, Japan. After a brief exchange about the iPad versus lugging around books, it appears the president was swayed.

Maybe it’s the fact that the iPad 2 has just come out, or maybe it’s because Obama and Steve Jobs had dinner together and Steve pitched Obama hard, but now the president has told reporters that he does own an actual iPad.

Speaking at a town hall in Washington, DC today, President Obama was asked by news anchor Jorge Ramos if he owns and iPad to which Obama replied, “I do have an iPad.” The president then went on to joke, “I mean, Jorge, I’m the president of the United States. You think I’ve got to go borrow somebody’s computer? Hey, man, can I borrow your computer? How about you? You’ve got one?”

There’s no word on which iPad Obama owns, but it’s probably a safe bet that he didn’t have to stand in line with the thousands of others on launch day.

President Obama finally owns an iPad originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A bomb threat was called in to Apple’s Elk Grove, California distribution center today. The threat was called in around 8 AM Pacific time. The Elk Grove distribution center is used for warehousing and human resources. According to AppleInsider, the threat caused the evacuation of buildings A, B, and C on the campus.

Elk Grove police officer Chris Trim told Fox 40 news that four bomb-sniffing dogs were sent in to search the 100,000 square foot buildings. After five hours the local police felt there was no real danger and the all clear was given for employees to return to the buildings. There is no word yet on any possible leads about the person or persons that called in the threat.

Bomb threat at Apple’s Elk Grove distribution center originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each year we set our calendars to expect new hardware announcements around WWDC, if not actually during Apple’s annual developers’ conference. Last year we got a glimpse of the iPhone 4 in action. At WWDC 2009, the 3GS was announced. Naturally many of us thought the iPhone 5 would appear at WWDC 2011, but as mentioned earlier, knowledgable sources cited by Jim Dalrymple say we shouldn’t expect any hardware announcements at the keynote.

While WWDC is for developers, Apple’s special magic has always included the strong integration between the OS and the hardware — making the whole widget equals better widgets. By revealing the “next new thing” to developers, the company has traditionally pushed developers to begin considering new hardware features before the gear is generally available. This is good for consumers, who then have apps which exploit new features when the hardware becomes available.

MacRumors says Japanese blog Macotakara reports the iPhone 5 may not ship until the end of Apple’s fiscal year, which ends in September. This would still make the phone available just in time for holiday sales. WWDC this year will be more about Lion, of course, and it seems like an iOS device announcement would simply confuse the message, “Back to the Mac.”

WWDC 2011 unlikely to launch hardware, iPhone 5 may be later this year originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While Apple has been softening their policy on water damage for some iOS devices, any trip to the Apple Store for a repair may still entail a little anxiety about the water indicators reporting a problem — even when you know that your device hasn’t been exposed to any liquids.

Historically, Apple has checked for water damage by adding liquid contact indicators (LCIs) that change from white to red when exposed to water in the headphone jack and the 30-pin connector of iPhone, iPad and iPod devices. The LCIs are supposed to turn red only after 90 seconds of submersion but they seem to be a little more sensitive than intended when exposed to a heavy amount of moisture.

Continue reading iPad 2 loses water damage indicator at headphone jack

iPad 2 loses water damage indicator at headphone jack originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And now for something completely different: a music video featuring FaceTime on an pair of iPhone 4s.

Canadian duo The Blue Stones created their video for the song “I’m A Stereo” using the iPhone 4s, FaceTime, and strategically-placed duct tape. The latter was used to cover up the name info on the phones, but there’s no hiding the fact that the band members are guitarist/vocalist Tarek Jafar and drummer/backup vocalist Justin Tessier.

It’s a pretty catchy song and video, and shows once again just how embedded Apple technology is in our popular culture. Enjoy the video on the next page, and remember when these guys become The Next Big Thing that you saw ’em here on TUAW.

Thanks to everybody who sent this in!

Continue reading FaceTime is the star in The Blue Stones music video

FaceTime is the star in The Blue Stones music video originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The next time you’re in RadioShack buying another radio-controlled monster truck to trick out with a Wi-Fi webcam and spy on your neighbors, you might want to keep your eyes open for something a bit more expensive — an iPad 2.

MacRumors is reporting that despite widespread sellouts of the shiny new toy worldwide, Apple has apparently made enough iPad 2s to supply a new retailer. That retailer is RadioShack, and starting tomorrow (March 29) they’ll have the devices at 500 U.S. locations. This started as simply a rumor when the RadioShack internal memo pictured above was sent to the website, but was verified by RadioShack store representatives who said they expected to have iPad 2s in stock tomorrow morning.

As MacRumors notes, it seems odd for Apple to add a new retailer at this time unless the company is confident that it can ramp up production quickly. RadioShack representatives were unable to confirm how many of the units they’ll have on hand. If you can’t get an iPad 2, they may have enough available monster trucks to keep you happy.

Update: Sneaky monkeys. Radio Shack’s website is already featuring a hidden product page for the iPad 2, ferreted out by 9to5Mac. Looks like it’s for real!

iPad 2 coming to Radio Shack March 29 (confirmed) originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want a piece of Apple history? Bring your wallet and your cutthroat bidding skills and head on over to eBay, where there’s an untouched, unopened Twentieth Anniversary Mac up for grabs.

This wasn’t celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Mac; rather, the TAM was created as an homage to the 20th birthday of Apple in 1996. The special-edition Mac didn’t actually make it to market until 1997 due to the fact that Apple seemed to have overlooked the impending celebration in 1996. At the time it started selling, the Twentieth Anniversary Mac sold for $7,499.

What did you get for your money? A PowerPC 603e CPU running at 250 MHz, 32 MiB of RAM, a 12.1″ active matrix display with a best resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, a CD-ROM drive, a floppy drive, and a 2 GB hard disk drive. Those were pretty low specs even for the time, but the cool factor of the TAM was enhanced by the incredible design.

Made in a metallic green / gold color, the TAM featured one of the first desktop LCD displays, leather palm rests on the keyboard, a built-in TV / FM tuner and remote, and even had a custom-designed Bose sound system. Only 12,000 of these wonders were built, and of the manufactured TAMs, 399 of them were kept for spare parts. Both Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were given TAMs, as well as a group of Apple Australia executives.

While TAMs in good condition usually go for about $1,000, the bidding price as of the time this post was written was $1,205 — probably due to the publicity that the auction of this rare Mac has received. Although the eBay listing shows this as being “unopened,” there are photos of the inside of the box.

We have video of Jony Ive (noted as Jon Ive in the video!) describing his design on the next page. Enjoy — and then go make your bid for this rare piece of Apple history.

(Photo from the All About Apple Official Website, licensed under Creative Commons)

[via Electronista]

Continue reading Get your rare Twentieth Anniversary Mac on eBay

Get your rare Twentieth Anniversary Mac on eBay originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no secret that Apple’s iPhone is a runaway hit. But if past history can determine future success, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

The word comes down from Asymco analyst Horace Didieu. In a whimsically-named report titled “Predicting iPhone Sales for Dummies,” Didieu looked at sales data from all iPhone models to date, and noted that they followed a specific trend as old model production transitioned into building the new model.

Based on the trends, Didieu made some rough forecasts — the iPhone 4 will sell anywhere from 60 to 65 million units before the next iPhone debuts, and it has at least one more quarter of production life left (although some websites are pushing the iPhone 5 launch back to 2012). Over at 9to5Mac, blogger Christian Zibreg did his own take on the data and realized that an iPhone 5 could sell about 100 million units before the 6th generation device appears.

Since worldwide demand for smartphones of all flavors is expected to be in the range of 500 million over the next two years, it’s not unlikely that Apple will sell a good number of those devices. With the strong retail presence that Apple has built up since 2007, as well as the thriving developer community in the App Store, the next iPhone could be even more of a success than all of its predecessors put together.

Analysis: 100 million iPhone 5s could be sold originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your virtual overcoat, that is. Students in a virtual reality workshop at the FH Wedel University of Applied Sciences cloned Fruit Ninja, the best-selling game for smartphones and tablets, in 3D using the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE). The result is a life-size, fully immersive fruit slicing experience that transforms the casual game into a serious workout where players slay seedy sprouts with their (almost) bare hands.

The life-size sword-slasher runs in CAVE, a virtual environment driven by four PCs, four rear-projection 3D displays, four infrared motion-tracking cameras, a 5.1 sound system and two “buttkickers” in the floor that rumble when a player’s virtual steel blade encounters a bomb. To get the juiciest experience, players wear 3D glasses and hold a Wiimote for haptic feedback when hitting a fruit.

Developers Thiemo, Alex, Matze and Moritz, media-informatics students at FH Wedel in Germany, took two weeks to complete the project. Perhaps next the foursome could tackle a 3D version of Angry Birds played from the point of view of the birds, Doodle Jump with real jumping, or Plants vs. Zombies with life-size zombies breaking down the front door. In any case, the 3D clone of Fruit Ninja, the fourth best-selling paid app on the App Store, is a delicious showcase of virtual reality technology and these students’ skills.

Continue to the full article to watch a short gameplay video.

Continue reading Fruit Ninja live, bring your overcoat

Fruit Ninja live, bring your overcoat originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Does a surfeit of marsupials make up for a deficit of iPad 2s? Australian resellers have apparently run out of stock across the entirety of that antipodean country, leaving would-be buyers without information about when supplies will be replenished.

There are still reportedly plenty of kangaroos available if you’re willing to head outside the cities, or if you’re willing to go more Eutherian with your choices, rabbits. Authorities strongly warn potential buyers that wild fauna are not a proper substitute for technology.

iPad 2 lines formed around the globe this past weekend as hopeful customers queued up to purchase the newly launched device. It also sold out in the UK.

iPad 2 sells out in Australia, UK originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The DIRECTV iPad App, a free app that we briefly wrote about when it was first released, is one of the best, most complete iPad apps I’ve used. If you are one of the 160,000 DIRECTV customers with a Wi-Fi connection to an HR20, HR21, R22, R23, HR24, H21, H23, H24 or H25 model receiver (or multiples of these for that matter), download the app before reading any further. Those with other models can’t set a recording, but can browse the program guide. This app is almost perfect with only a few minor caveats, which I’ll get to later. In function, it does all that the free iPhone app does (like searching for shows) and much more. I don’t have a 3G iPad, so my testing was Wi-Fi only.

When you first run it, it will find all of your connected receivers. If it fails, you’ll need to execute the following steps on your remote control: Menu button > Parental Fav’s and Setup > System Setup > Whole Home > External Devices > Allow. To confirm that you’ve done it correctly, touch the little gear in the upper right corner to produce a screen that looks something like this:

This screen not only lists your DVRs, but it also gives you a great deal of control over how the app will operate. I suggest that you check out every option before you really start playing with the app. Tap the little arrow on the right, and you’ll find out if your receiver has an IP address and can be used with the app without using a wired or wireless Wi-Fi connection. In my house, I have connections to Theater 1 and Theater 2, and checking each with the arrow tells me my IP address and that control is enabled. All the rest show no IP address and can eventually be used if I connect them to Wi-Fi. At the bottom left of the screen, you can see your enabled receivers as well as which one is controlling your TV, marked with a check, as seen on the next page.

Continue reading The DIRECTV iPad app in depth

The DIRECTV iPad app in depth originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 28 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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