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Entries in iPhone (20)

Tuesday
Aug312010

Apple Bingo & Streaming for Sept 1 Event

DateTuesday, August 31, 2010 at 8:11PM

It's that time again, and you can get your very own Bingo Card (compliments of CarrieActually.com to play along during the keynote.  If you don't like her predictions, print out this Blank Card and fill in your own. 

And even cooler, Apple is STREAMING this event. I think the reason is probably two fold. One to show off that they can stream a huge event and are setup for delivering huge amounts of content, and two, they don't want any MiFis and live bloggers hogging up the bandwidth and spectrum creating problems akin to the last keynote. Apple is using HTTP open standards, but from what I hear, it's not available on Windows. So, you need an iOS device (iPhone or iPod Touch) or a Mac with OS X 10.6; I'm sure TWIT.TV will be simulcasting it. With all of the problems Apple has had this year, I REALLY have my fingers crossed that this goes off well. 

Just for good measure, I'll also be watching the GDGT Liveblog. They always do an excellent job. 

Prediction wise, for me, I'm prepared to be underwhelmed. I think there will be an new Apple TV-ish device, but I don't think it will be everything that people expect. Will it run some apps? Probably, such as Netflix, etc. . However, I don't expect to be gaming on it. Be prepared to be underwhelmed. I promise you will be. 

I do expect to see iOS 4 for the iPad, and I bet it will have some custom features not available on the iPhone. That's been a long time coming, and is sure to make users happy. 

New iPod Touches for sure. Definitely Front and rear cameras, but I'm not sure about the retina display. It would be killer if they added that. 

I REALLY hope for a new iLife suite, but I doubt they would announce it at an event. Well, then again, they may announce it, but not spend any demo time. Hey at least that's ONE affordable Apple product I'm going to buy sight unseen. 

We'll know tomorrow @ 10am PST / 1PM EST

Authorjcost | | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
Jul152010

iPhone 4.01 Update Released

DateThursday, July 15, 2010 at 2:35PM

Apple has just released the anticipated update for IOS 4. The new version is 4.01, which contains bug fixes & improvements, including the formula to determine how many bars of signal strength to display.

It was just seeded to developers yesterday, and it looks like Apple is hot to get this out before their press conference regarding the iPhone 4 tomorrow.

To get your update, connect your iOS 4.0 phone to iTunes and check for an update.

FYI, this does not fix the reception issue. This is a hardware & network issue. Consumer Reports is now advising that the problem is assuaged if you add a 'bumper'. 

Authorjcost | | CommentPost a Comment |
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Wednesday
Jun162010

iPhone 4 Pre-Order Delays

DateWednesday, June 16, 2010 at 5:50PM

Between AT&T and Apple, pre-ordering an iPhone 4 was darn near impossible yesterday. I tried several times, but either the qualification didn't work (AT&T's fault) or the Apple.com server timed out (Apple's fault).

Apple did launch an iPhone Apple Store app, which enabled you to pre-order the phone from your iPhone/iPod Touch. Many people found this to be successful, but I was greeted with an app that crashed multiple times when I tried to check eligibility. Also, it couldn't find an Apple store when I entered my Zip code. This app needs some work.  

As it stands now, Apple has had 600,000+ pre-orders. Pretty amazing that they didn't plan for this. It's the first iPhone that is evolving into something more than the previous iteration. Reports from my followers say that they are getting theirs between June 24th and Mid-July.

Apple has stopped taking pre-orders, and when I tried to reserve mine, I was greeted with 'Stop by the Apple Store on launch day - 1st come, 1st serve'. Even though it says clearly, 'Pre-Order'. Oh well, patience is a virtue.

Authorjcost | | CommentPost a Comment |
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Monday
Jun072010

Apple's World Wide Developer Conference 2010 in a Nutshell 

DateMonday, June 7, 2010 at 2:58PM

First the initial PR and Stats:

Steve Jobs walked out to much applause and started with the public relations and statistics updates about iPhone and iPad.

 

iPad updates-
We have 8500 iPad apps in the store now with 35 Million downloads and 2 Million iPads sold.
iBooks- We've had 5 Million iBooks downloads. Five of six of the major US publishers claim the iBookstore has about 22% share of their products.

 

Steve makes it clear that Apple supports 2 platforms: HTML 5 and the App Store.
Currently there are 225,000 apps in HTML 5 in the App Store.
Apple sees 15,000 apps submitted weekly with 95% of apps approved in 7 days.
Unapproved apps are 1- 'not functioning as advertised', 2- 'private APIs'  and 3- 'crashy'.

 

Then Steve brings out a few friends.

 

- EBay Success report from the CEO John Donahoe - EBay expects $1.5-2B of app related profits this year.

 

- Reed Hastings of Netflix announces Netflix for the iPhone! Free! This summer. The iPad app is a big success. Built of Apple's adaptive bit-rate to help seamless network switching, which is great for movie streaming.

 

- Mark Pincus from Zynga announces Farmville for iPhone. Zynga has 70M users, $2M raised for Haiti. Farmville will have push notices for crops!

 

- Karthik Bala from Activision Games introduces Guitar Hero for iPhone.
It comes with classic rock, such as Queen, Rolling Stones. They've designed a 'new gaming experience', tapping and strumming for play. He demos live. $2.99 in the app store.

 

Steve announces they've passed 5 Billion downloads from app store. The developer cut is

Click to read more ...

Authorsheala | | CommentPost a Comment |
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Sunday
Jun062010

WWDC 2010 Predictions

DateSunday, June 6, 2010 at 1:22PM

I'd be remiss if I didn't at least try to make some predictions for Apple's WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference). Speculation is a key part of of being an Apple enthusiast. Clearly the focus is going to be on the iPhone and iPad, and the Mac is playing second fiddle at this time. 

I really only have thought about what they are going to do with the iPhone, and just a couple thoughts on that. 

iPhone 4.0 - Will be a more polished version of what we saw on Gizmodo's website. That phone prototype has made it's way around too many areas without being the production unit.

- I predict the video chat feature will be a partnership with Skype. I don't think Apple would do an iPhone -> iPhone only video chat. By doing that, they would add a feature that many people wouldn't be able to take advantage of, except owners of the new iPhone 4 hardware. By opening it up to the userbase of Skype, it certainly could become a must have reason to upgrade your hardware.  

- It's launch date will be the weekend of June 25th. They can't do the 29th again, due to it being a mid-week launch and they want to get the press for people waiting in line on the weekend. The following weekend is 4th of July weekend, which is important here in the USA and most people travel out of town.

- No Verizon announcement -- yet. Even though AT&T is doing things that point toward that, it seems odd to me that Apple would create a Verizon specific CDMA version of the iPhone. It would be replaced next year with the 4G LTE phones, which would be more compatible across various carriers. Then again, that might be another technique for making a phone obsolete and a reason to upgrade again. It could go either way.

Verizon has been increasing their backhaul bandwidth substantially, so they are:

A) getting ready for the iPhone

B) getting ready for the 4G LTE network

C) A and B

Personally, I think Apple needs to open it up to all carriers. That's going to be the best way to keep Android phones at bay. If you have choice between an iPhone and an Android phone, I believe most consumers will choose the iPhone if it is available at their carrier [sprint, t-mobile, verizon, etc.].

This new iPhone will be slick, faster (1Ghz Snapdragon processor), higher resolution screen, and hopefully a lot more that we can't imagine. I've prepared myself to be let down. I don't think Apple will have advanced the hardware  enough to compete with some of the new phones like the HTC Evo or Incredible. The hardware more feature rich on those platforms, but the iPhone does have loyalty and a coolness factor that is instantly recognized. 

iTunes - I think the time is right to start their streaming service. It makes sense with the acquisition of LaLa, and the heat of Android breathing down their neck without a similar feature. That would be a must-have feature and give Apple the edge again. That would be more exciting to me that multi-tasking on the phone. 

Oh Apple, how you make us wonder....

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