Category: I-phone

While Apple continues to line up 3rd-party retailers, discount chain Costco is bailing out. The Seattle Times reports that Costco will begin to phase out all Apple products, though a timeline was not given. The retailer has been selling iPods and pre-paid iTunes gift cards for years. However, Apple did not allow Costco to sell its products online. Nor did the store offer a significant discount on either. The Times reports that both partners “agreed to wind down.” We can only assume that these issues contributed to the change.

If you’ve got “buy an iPod from Costco” on your holiday to-do list, you best hop to it. When the current stock is gone, it will be gone for good.

[Via Benzinga]

Costco to stop selling Apple products originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s December, which means that print and digital magazines are gearing up to write their lists of the “Top 10” in a thousand different categories.

TIME, the magazine that seemingly started this end-of-year tradition, has gone crazy this year, with their web site listing 50 top 10 lists. Fortunately for those of us at TUAW, we were able to glean an Apple-related story from the Time list-of-lists.

One of the many lists was the Top 10 Gadgets of the year, and Apple had a total of four products in the category. Not surprisingly, the iPad took top honors, followed closely by the Android-based Samsung Galaxy S. In the third spot, and deservedly so, was the 11-in. MacBook Air. The fourth and fifth item on the list were mind-boggling — the Google TV via the Logitech Revue (fortunately they didn’t select the ridiculous Sony Google TV controller) and the quickly-discontinued Google Nexus One smartphone.

Two more Apple products filled the sixth and seventh slots on the list. The iPhone 4 got the honor of being in the top 10 list, followed by the second-generation Apple TV. Both devices deserved their spot on the list; the iPhone 4 has overcome the “grip of death” stigma to be a best-seller, while the new Apple TV is a vast improvement over the first generation in both capability and design.

TIME also featured a list of the Top 10 iPhone Apps, with Netflix, Groupon, and iMovie taking the top three spots. I had to agree with many of the apps, although the low iTunes reviews for Hulu Plus make me wonder if they actually tried some of them. Absent from the list was the perennial top-selling Angry Birds, which will probably make the birds angry.

If you were writing these lists, what would be in your top 10 for gadgets and apps? Leave your ideas in the comments.

Four Apple products in TIME’s Top 10 Gadgets list originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve got to hand it to Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Although he hasn’t really done anything for the company since 1987, he is becoming quite the TV star. He’s been a competitor on Dancing with the Stars, did a cameo on Big Bang Theory, and was recently seen on CNN flashing a white iPhone 4.

A white iPhone 4? You mean one of those oft-delayed mythical beasts that may actually appear in the spring of 2011?

Well, it turns out that Woz is having the last laugh. The white iPhone 4 is actually a fake. Woz purchased a set of white front and back plates from the young entrepreneur that Apple later shut down, and modded his iPhone 4 with the plates.

We think that Woz just wanted to have a white iPhone 4 before “that other Steve” got one.

Woz flashes fake white iPhone 4 on CNN originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Deals and more deals: here’s today’s installment of the Daily Deals, courtesy of our friends at dealnews.com. Highlights include a $10 discount on Logmein Ignition for iPad and savings on iPad refurbished units. Enjoy!

• iTunes Music Store: iPhone App Store Freebies: Ace Sniper, Rogue Runner, Heights, Yeah DJ, more
• iTunes Music Store: Red Conquest! for free
• MacUpdate Promo: MacUpdate Promo Winter Bundle: 12 Mac apps for $50
• iTunes Music Store: iPad App Price Drops: HTML Edit, Agents!, Braveheart HD, LogMeIn, more
• Apple Store: Refurbished Unibody Apple MacBook Pro Laptops from $929 + free shipping
• Apple Store: Apple cuts prices on refurbished iPad, most by $50, from $429 + free shipping
• B&H Photo Video: Drobo 4-Bay FireWire 800 / USB 2.0 Hard Drive Array for $299 + free shipping
• MacMall: Apple MacBook Air Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz 13″ Laptop for $940 + free shipping
• Dell Small Business: Dell P2311H 23″ 1080p LED LCD Display for $139 + free shipping
• iGoneMobile: Ink and Toner Roundup: Deals from $11 + free shipping
• mwave: MWAVE Bluetooth Keyboard Keycase Folio for iPad for $60 + free shipping

Daily Deals for December 9, 2010 originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has highlighted the best of iTunes from 2010, showing off their picks for the best apps, movies, TV shows and more. There are several categories and many of our favorites made the cut. Here’s an overview of the winners.

Let’s jump right to the fun one — apps. Apple has created separate categories for iPhone/iPod touch apps and iPad apps, but the big honors went to Hipstamatic, which Apple named “iPhone App of the Year” (also a former TUAW Daily App pick) and the record-breaking Plants vs. Zombies which took home the “iPhone Game of the Year” title.

On the iPad side of the store, Flipboard was named the “iPad App of the Year” for 2010, while Cosmos picked up “iPad Game of the Year.”

From there, Apple breaks down the hot trends in both iPad and iPhone/iPod touch apps. Categories include food and cooking apps, news, stories, apps for kids and more. We’re particularly amused that zombies get their own category of iPhone apps.

Have a look around to see how your favorites fared. If only Infinity Blade had come out earlier.

Apple highlights the best of iTunes in 2010 originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shenzhen MacTop Electronics has posted (English translation) a picture of what is supposedly a case for the next-generation iPad, complete with more pronounced curvature and a hole for a rear-facing camera. Also, the speaker slot (assuming that’s what it is) is much larger than what’s currently on the iPad. The tiny hole that we assume is for a camera is in the upper left-hand corner, similar to where the camera lives on the iPhone and iPod touch.

As MacStories notes, it might be odd to shoot photos with that gigantic thing, but what do I know? We’ll find out soon enough, as the so-called “iPad 2” is rumored to hit shelves in April of next year.

[Via iLounge]

New iPad case shows curves, camera hole originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yes, you read that correctly.

Best Buy is going to be offering the 8GB iPhone 3GS with an instant rebate on December 10 that will reduce the price of the phone to… zero. The deal, initially reported on Boy Genius Report, is for one day only, and is valid for new customers, existing customers who want additional lines, and also to people who are qualified for an upgrade from an earlier iPhone. Reading the fine print, you need to sign up for a 2-year plan at the time of “purchase.”

All stores apparently have a good inventory of the phones on hand for the promotion, which seems to be in line with AT&T’s stated plan of trying to get as many iPhone users signed up by the end of 2010 in case the exclusive deal with Apple ends during 2011. The usual Best Buy price for the iPhone 3GS is $99, which is line with the pricing at both Apple and AT&T stores.

If the kids have been hounding you for their very own iPhones, this is a perfect opportunity to pick up the phones for nothing. Just be sure to let the kids pick up the costs for their own voice, text, and data plans. Bah humbug!

[via Electronista]

Get a free iPhone 3GS at Best Buy on December 10 originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the first round of Sandy Bridge-powered PC laptops is about to hit the market. Intel’s new chip architecture is intended to provide a major boost in power for mobile and desktop machines, but there’s been some concern about the integrated GPU on these devices when it comes to Apple’s laptops.

Today, CNET is reporting that Apple has made the call: future MacBooks will indeed use the Sandy Bridge integrated graphics exclusively, while MacBook Pro models will sport GPUs supplied by Advanced Micro Devices. This may leave current GPU supplier NVIDIA out in the cold with the next or 2nd-next MacBook Pro revamp, although the crystal ball is a little cloudy on that point. Electronista suggests that Apple’s testing of Sandy Bridge chips is a lot further along than expected, meaning the company could conceivably be aiming for new model availability relatively close to the January introduction of the new CPUs at the Consumer Electronics Show.

The MacBook Pro line is using NVIDIA graphics hardware in the current generation, with the discrete chips providing more rendering power and also allowing the OpenCL coprocessing stack to run; however, Intel’s support for OpenCL in Sandy Bridge is tentative and preliminary at best. Without the ability to offload general computing tasks to the GPU, future MacBook or MBP models might be kneecapped as Mac OS X pushes forward to take advantage of all the goodies in modern hardware.

The good news is that Intel and NVIDIA appear to have buried the hatchet in their licensing dispute that was preventing Apple and other manufacturers from pairing the latest Intel Core i-series chips with NVIDIA GPUs. The bad news is, that rapprochement may not be coming soon enough to affect the design of forthcoming machines in the short term.

[via Engadget]

Sandy Bridge GPU may suffice for low-end Apple laptops, processor could show up sooner than expected originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Citrix, the company behind GoToMyPC and various flavors of virtualization, has released the results of a survey they recently took of iPad users. These weren’t just any iPad users, though, but those who are part of the Citrix iPads At Work community, a site with information and forums for people who have or want iPads as part of their enterprise environment.

What did Citrix learn about the iPad in the enterprise, from people who have and/or want them there? Unsurprisingly, they’re popular! What’s interesting is the data that contradicts my own personal experience, primarily that 57 percent of respondents said the company will buy iPads for corporate use. All of my experience has shown that people who purchased iPads for personal use aren’t that interested in using them to access corporate data. They mostly just want to take notes in meetings without looking like they’re texting. However, more than one person who has asked me about mine has mentioned that everyone they talk to has a company-issued iPad.

I also noticed while reading the survey and results that a lot of people think it is a benefit to have another way to work in even more places than before. I guess I’m in the minority that believes there’s a benefit to a line between work time and personal time. Another thing I found interesting is that “iPad” isn’t recognized by whatever spell checker Citrix is using. I was wondering how my computer could possibly think that iPad was misspelled, and then I realized the red underline was part of the graphic.

There isn’t a lot of revolutionary information here, but I did find it interesting to see how many people have come to rely on the iPad as heavily as they do. Considering the iPad was announced less than a year ago and only released eight months ago, it seems like a very steep adoption curve in the traditionally more conservative enterprise environment.

What has your “iPad at work” experience been?

Citrix survey finds enterprise iPad enthusiasts are enthusiastic originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Stuart Dredge over at MobileEntertainment is reporting live this week from Paris’ LeWeb 2010 conference, and quite a few iPhone publishers and developers are in attendance and talking about Apple’s platform and beyond. Of the most interest to us are probably the statements by Japanese publishers DeNA (who recently bought Ngmoco) and Angry Birds developer Rovio Mobile.

First up, DeNA says it’s still got acquisition money to spend, and while most of the company’s business is currently running on feature phones in Japan, it’s very much seeking out smartphone developers in North America and Europe to run social games on its platform. And DeNA’s representative, Tomoko Namba, even says that Zynga would be welcome to join them. DeNA is trying to build a platform, not necessarily specific games. It’ll be very interesting to see what happens with DeNA in the future — it’s clear that they don’t know a lot about how to run mobile games in the US, but joining up with Ngmoco (and whoever else they pull on board) is a good way to learn how to do that.

Rovio Mobile is at LeWeb as well, sharing that Angry Birds has reached 12 million paid downloads and 30 million free downloads on other platforms. The company says that ads have worked out very well on platforms besides iOS, but on iOS, with a trusted store in place, paid still seems to be their system of choice. Rovio also confirms that the game is probably headed to consoles next year and even teases some new, non-Angry Birds related titles coming in the near future. There’s no question that 2010 was a landmark year for mobile gaming, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens next year.

DeNA and Rovio Mobile chat from LeWeb ’10 in Paris originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most football video games nowadays go all out on features — you can play any position, just coach fantasy-style, or even design plays in some games. But NaturalMotion’s Backbreaker series for iOS goes the other way. It’s just good old tackling and running, boiled down into an arcade mode designed to show off the dynamic tackling and motion built into the engine. Backbreaker 2: Vengeance is really impressive. If you’re a hardcore football fan you’ll want a more full-featured game, but if you just love dodging and diving into players on the football field, you’ll really enjoy the wave after wave of points-based attacks here.

Especially on iPhone 4, the presentation is great, with smooth and beautiful graphics and very responsive controls. This is the second in the series, and it shows — NaturalMotion is really learning how to do cool stuff with their engine. There are also tweaks to moves from the first game, and a few new moves as well. And Backbreaker 2’s got Game Center integration, so you can chase after achievements and leaderboards, too. It’s an excellent game for US$2.99 — check it out (at least when you’re not playing Infinity Blade today).

TUAW’s Daily App: Backbreaker 2: Vengeance originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If the cheap $99 price tag of the Apple TV hasn’t persuaded you to buy one of the tiny media centers yet, perhaps this news of a new deal between Netflix and The Walt Disney Company will make you reconsider.

Netflix is one of the content providers for the Apple TV, streaming a growing library of old and new movies and TV shows to subscribers who are paying a minimum of US$7.99 per month for instant access. Now the LA Times is reporting that ABC’s parent, The Walt Disney Company, has reached a one-year agreement with Netflix to stream shows from ABC, The Disney Channel, and ABC Family to Netflix customers.

The deal, which is worth an estimated $150 – $200 million to Disney, will give Netflix subscribers access to previous seasons of shows such as Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters, and Lost. In addition, subscribers will be able to view some shows that have aired only 15 days before.

As noted in the LA Times blog post, the deal is sure to upset traditional cable TV, satellite TV, and telecom operators, all of whom see Netflix and Hulu as encroaching on their turf. The Disney deal comes after earlier Netflix arrangements with NBC and Warner Bros. Apple CEO Steve Jobs is the largest single shareholder in The Walt Disney Company, and serves on the company’s board of directors.

[via Fast Company]

Netflix/ABC/Disney streaming deal will bring TV all-you-can-eat to Apple TV originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 07:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long time coming: Apple has begun offering 90-second previews of songs in the iTunes Store. Previously capped at 30 seconds, all songs longer than 2 minutes 30 seconds will now have a 90-second preview available. According to MacRumors not all songs offer the extended previews yet, but eventually, all songs over 2:30 in length should.

Apple played hardball with the music labels last month, stating its intent to extend song previews to 90 seconds and remove from the iTunes Store any labels who didn’t agree to support the new licensing terms — so if some music mysteriously goes missing from the iTunes Store over the coming weeks, we’ll know why. Music licensing entities who resisted the extended previews (for whatever reason) must now weigh that reticence against the potential costs associated with not having their wares available on the number one music vendor in the US.

For us consumers, this is nothing but good news; the old 30-second previews often weren’t nearly long enough to get a sense of whether or not a song was worth a download, but 90-seconds is just right.

Thanks to everyone who sent this tip to us.

iTunes begins offering 90-second song previews originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 01:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Note: Infinity Blade is now available on the US App Store.

Opinions on Epic Games’ Infinity Blade will likely be divided among two camps: those who played through Epic Citadel, and those who didn’t. If you skipped out on Epic Citadel, then Epic Games’ newest roleplaying game will likely blow you away. Infinity Blade has, hands down, the best graphics I’ve ever seen on an iPhone. However, if you played around with Epic Citadel a few months back, that demo may have given you expectations for what Infinity Blade would turn out to be, … and depending on your expectations, Infinity Blade may be infinitely disappointing.

Before diving into the game’s features, here’s some broader info about it. For a cost of US$5.99, Infinity Blade will run on the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch, the iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 and the iPad. Earlier iOS devices like the iPhone 3G, if they’re even capable of running the game at all, will likely have such low frame rates that playing the game would be torture.

There’s no separate “HD” version for the iPad, which is an admirable move by Epic Games; the company could have easily charged a 150-200 percent markup for an iPad version like other studios, but Infinity Blade is a universal app. It also comes with Game Center integration, with 48 possible achievements and leaderboards for stats like total number of enemies killed, player level and total gold earned. According to Epic Games, a future update will even bring some multiplayer action into the game.

If all of that sounds good to you so far, you’re probably halfway to buying Infinity Blade already. I’m certainly not going to discourage you from doing so, but before you click that “Buy App” button in iTunes, it’s probably a good idea for you to click “Read More” and find out what you’re in for. Especially if you played through Epic Citadel, Infinity Blade may not be exactly what you expect.

Continue reading Infinity Blade for iOS: A beautiful garden with very high walls

Infinity Blade for iOS: A beautiful garden with very high walls originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the good things about our friend Jim Dalrymple at The Loop (to be clear, he has many positive qualities) is that when he says “my sources tell me,” you know he’s been talking to people in a position to have the real scoop. In this case, he’s laying it on the line and saying the Mac App Store will positively, certainly not launch next week.

We noted reports on Tuesday that had rumored an early launch for the Mac App Store, with an anticipated date of 12/13 — now Dalrymple says that those rumors are pure hokum, and the target for the store launch is sometime in January. He doesn’t have an exact date, but he believes it will be in time for Apple to meet its announced launch horizon of 90 days post-Back to the Mac event.

Mac App Store will be live in January ’11, says The Loop originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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