There are lots of disgruntled people in the UK this evening, following Apple’s announcement that the new Apple TV, retailing for $99 in the US, will cost… £99. If you subtract our sales tax (which is always quoted upfront, unlike in the US) that’s the equivalent of $128, a rather excessive 28% hike. We’re used to paying a premium for Apple goods here — the graph above shows how much more expensive we are across all the new iPods and the entry level iMac and 15″ Macbook Pro — but it’s normally around 7-10%. Continental Europe fares no better. The French store’s Apple TV page show a price of 119,00 €, which works out to $128.

Apple is perhaps feeling a little defensive about this; all its new iPod pages on the UK store have little notes next to the price. For example the iPod Nano 8Gb page states “£129.00 (Includes £25 VAT, duty and levies)”. Certainly, Apple have been criticised for European price hikes before, sometimes deservedly and other times less so, and this tagline suggests it is sensitive to that and wants to stress that in Europe prices are quoted inclusive of sales tax and have an import duty charged.

None of that explains the anomalous price of the Apple TV though. Considering that us folk back in the Old Continent also don’t have access to that tasty, tasty Netflix streaming, this really does make the Apple TV look like a significantly poorer deal east of the Atlantic.

TUAWWhy is the Apple TV so expensive in Europe? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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During this morning’s event, Steve Jobs tossed out the factoid that the iPod touch was trouncing traditional handheld gaming, claiming that the system had sold more than Nintendo and Sony’s portables combined. If, like us, you thought that meant Apple had sold more devices than traditional game makers, then Steve was wrong — he mentioned in the same event that Apple has shipped 120 million iOS devices, and while that’s very impressive, it’s not quite as big as the 125 million Nintendo DS systems the Japanese company had sold around the world as of January. That doesn’t even count the 62 million PSP units Sony has sold worldwide. In terms of gaming devices sold, Apple has a long ways to go.

But Steve can’t have been that wrong — he said that the iPod touch had sold more than Nintendo or Sony combined. He can’t be off by over 60 million, right? It’s more likely that he meant software sales. There have been about 718 million DS games sold in the system’s history, and about 252 million games sold on the PSP. And there have been 6.5 billion downloads of iOS apps so far (with 1.5 billion of those being game and entertainment apps). When you compare the numbers that way, yes, Apple is far outselling Nintendo and Sony in terms of game sales. But of course, iOS apps tend to be much cheaper than Sony and Nintendo’s software (if not free), and gamers could probably argue all day about the difference in average quality of the two platforms.

Either way, Steve was stretching the truth a little bit on that stat. Apple has done a terrific job making inroads on portable gaming (some of it even without planning to do so), but the Cupertino company has a little way to go yet before it starts really competing with the established console manufacturers.

Update: A few commenters suggest that Apple has sold more iPod touches than both other systems combined recently, as in the last quarter or so. But the other two devices are a few years older than the oldest iPod touch, so that doesn’t seem like a great comparison either. Again, Apple has made really incredible strides into handheld gaming, but the company isn’t quite overwhelming its competitors in this market yet.

TUAWiPod touch outselling PSP and DS in games, not systems originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has announced the next generation iPod Touch 4G at today’s special event. The new iPod Touch 4G specs are pretty similar to that of iPhone 4.

Full iPod Touch 4G technical specs after the jump…

iPod Touch 4G Specification

Display

• 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
• 960×640-pixel resolution at 326 pixels per inch

Graphics look incredible on 960×640 Retina Display. Which means games are even more immersive on the highest-resolution iPod Touch screen even made.

Processor

• Apple A4 Processor

The A4 chip – the same technology as of iPas and iPhone 4 helps giving a gaming experience like no other. It also makes iPod Touch more powerful and more power efficient.

Sensors

• Three-axis gyro
• Accelerometer
• Ambient light sensor

The new, built-in, 3-axis gyroscope on iPod Touch gives you fantastic pitch, roll and yaw. Rotation around gravity and extremely precise position information.

Capacity

• 8GB, 32GB or 64GB flash drive

Size and weight

• Height: 4.4 inches (111.0 mm)
• Width: 2.3 inches (58.9 mm)
• Depth: 0.28 inch (7.2 mm)
• Weight: 3.56 ounces (101 grams)

Wireless

• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)
• Bluetooth^® 2.1 + EDR
• Maps-location based service
• Nike + iPod support built in

Cameras, photos, and video

• Video recording, HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio
• still photos (960 x 720) with back camera 0.7MP
• VGA-quality photos and video up to 30 frames per second with the front camera
• Tap to control exposure for video or stills
• Photo and video geo tagging over Wi-Fi

Battery and power

• Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• Playback time
  • Music playback time: Up to 40 hours when fully charged
  • Video playback time: Up to 7 hours when fully charged
• Charging times: Fast charge in about 2 hours (80% capacity), full charge in about 4 hours.

Audio

• Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz
• Audio formats supported: AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV
• User-configurable maximum volume limit

TV and video

• H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
• MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
• Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
• Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable (cables sold separately)

Input and output

• 30-pin dock connector
• 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack
• Built-in speaker
• Microphone

iPod Touch 4G will be released after a week loaded with iOS 4.1 firmware.

You can follow us on Twitter, Join us at Facebook, and also Subscribed to RSS Feed to receive latest updates.

Also checkout:

• iPhone 4 Specs
• Download iOS 4.1 GM
• Download iTunes 10

The entire process of building and distributing apps for the app store has always been somewhat painful.  Things have gotten considerably better since the early times with improvements from Apple, and knowledge about the build process being shared amongst developers.

Something that has made things even more painful is distributing ad hoc test apps to those who may not be very tech savvy.  Even though it was supposed to be as simple as getting the UDID and dragging the created beta app in iTunes occasionally you would run into errors that  would make the whole process a nightmare.

In a more recent version of the SDK the ability to distribute beta apps easily, and wirelessly was added.  This requires the creation of some files which are uploaded to your web server, and can get someone tedious.

Fortunately, Hunter at Hanhor LLC has generously distributed their beta builder which easily builds all the files required for distribution, and can even zip things up neatly.

You can read more about it and download the iOS Beta Builder here:
Introducing iOS Beta Builder

Thanks for reading, please share this using the buttons below!

[via Under The Bridge]

©2010 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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Rejoice, ye lovers of magnetic drives and scroll wheels! While Steve announced no updates to the iPod Classic, that doesn’t mean it is going anywhere. In fact, it is prominently displayed on the iPod page over at Apple.com. So if you’re into “retro” tech and you like big capacities and thick gadgets, you can still grab one of the hard drive-based multitaskers for US$249.

TUAWApple hasn’t buried the iPod classic yet originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today’s a special day for the Apple world, as we anxiously await word on what new products or services are forthcoming from the wizards of Cupertino. TUAW will be liveblogging the event at 1 PM EDT (10 AM PDT) today, and later this afternoon on TUAW TV Live, fellow TUAW editor Mike Rose will be joining me to discuss the announcements.

As we do every week, we invite your comments, your questions, and your insights into what’s going on in the world of Apple. The show starts at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT) here at TUAW.com — drop by a few minutes early and we’ll have the livestream and chat windows warmed up and ready to go, along with full instructions on how to join in on the fun.

It’s sure to be a lively discussion of the news of the day, and we hope you can join us.

TUAWTUAW TV Live: The after-liveblog episode originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s billed as “One More Hobby.” It hasn’t been a big hit, but those who used the Apple TV have shown affection for the device and provided Apple with valued feedback. Apple took this feedback and retooled the Apple TV into a smaller form-factor that clocks in at 1/4th the size of its first-generation sibling.

The power supply is built into the Apple TV along with HDMI and Ethernet connections, and onboard 802.11n WiFi support. It also includes an Apple remote.

The biggest change is that it’s an all-rental model, with purchases no longer available. The rentals will all be high definition when available. There is no storage management, and all the content is streamed rather than synced — including items you have on a desktop computer. Netflix and YouTube streaming is available, along with photo streaming from Flickr and MobileMe.

The new AppleTV will also be able to stream content from an iPad using the just-announced AirPlay in iOS 4.2 that’s slated to come out in November. Content is currently available in 6 countries.

Apple delivers on the $99 price point for the second-generation Apple TV. You can pre-order it today, and it will be available within the next four weeks.

Edit: The just-released specs page puts the HDMI cap at 720p.

TUAWNew AppleTV delivers on $99 price point, streaming originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs announced iTunes 10 today, complete with a new logo. The core interface does not receive much tweaking, however in the list view there is a hybrid view where if you have more than 5 songs from the same album, it will show you the album artwork.

Most of the new release’s focus is on Ping, a social network for music. “It’s like Facebook and Twitter meets iTunes,” Jobs said. Jobs is right; it looks almost, but not quite Facebook. It’s much like that service where you can follow friends, have a circle of friends and share what music you’re listening to through the network. When following an artist, you can be alerted to their concert listings.

Ping will be available for 160 million iTunes users in 23 countries right off the bat. It will also be available in the iTunes Store on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

iTunes 10 will be available for download today.

TUAWNew iTunes features Ping social media network originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FaceTime. It isn’t just for iPhone any more. Apple has just introduced a new generation of iPod touch with an improved chip (the same A4 that powers the iPad and the iPhone 4), a better display (the iPhone 4’s double-resolution Retina display), and a built-in, front-facing camera that introduces FaceTime video conferencing capabilities.

This is a hefty refresh for an already great device, providing lots of new features that really expand the way consumers can use the device in their day-to-day lives. If you can’t walk away from your Blackberry, the latest generation iPod touch units bring nearly all of the iPhone magic to a Wi-Fi only platform.

Preorders start today, and they’ll be shipping within a week, well in time for the Christmas season. Prices start at $229 for the 8GB version.

TUAWApple introduces 4th gen iPod touch with camera originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At today’s press event, Steve Jobs announced a full revamp of the iPod line. The new iPod shuffle is smaller than the 2nd generation device and brings back something that many users missed with the previous model. Specifically, buttons!

The new shuffle has a familiar-looking click wheel on the small postage-stamp shaped model that was introduced a few years ago. It will hold 15 hours of music, is available in 4 colors and sells for US$49. As of this writing, availability has not been announced. The iPod shuffle, and all models introduced today, will go on sale (pre-orders) today, with expected delivery next week.

We’ll have more on this and the rest of today’s announcements all day long.

TUAWApple updates the iPod shuffle originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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