• apple,  ipad,  rumors

    iPad 3 Rumor Round Up [Rumors]

    February 13, 2012 /

    There has been a lot of rumors lately about the next generation Apple iPad.

    We assume that the next iPad will be called ‘iPad 3’, however, the name of the next iPad is still not confirmed.  Talking about the new iPad, AppleInsider.com wrote:

    “Apple’s plans to release a third generation iPad within the next few weeks have been broadly anticipated, although the report, published by the New York Times, notes that its “unclear” if the next iPad will be named iPad 3.”

    As with many things Apple around product launches, we won’t know everything until Apple CEO Tim Cook walks off stage.

    Announcement

    Apple has not yet announced the iPad 3 or talked about when it might unveil the new tablet.  But we know the iPad 3 is coming soon if past history is any indication.  In late January, we started to hear that Apple would hold an event in February to announce the iPad 3 with a March launch.  Last week, AllThingsD.com reported that they understand that Apple will be holding a media event to announce the iPad 3 in early March and the new iPad will begin shipping closely there after.

    “Apple’s not holding an event in February[,] [b]ut it is holding one in March — to launch its next iPad.
    Sources say the company has chosen the first week in March to debut the successor to the iPad 2, and will do so at one of its trademark special events. The event will be held in San Francisco, presumably at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Apple’s preferred location for big announcements like these.”

    One tell tail since that a new Apple product is about to be released is when the current model starts to see constrained quantities.  The following appeared on 9To5Mac.com recently:

    “Typically a solid indicator of an Apple product refresh is when the previous model of that particular product begins to see constraints and shortages. We saw this process prior to the launch of the iPad 2 in March of 2011, and we typically also see this process to prior to launches of Apple’s new Macs.
    According to a source familiar with Apple’s product distribution channels, the iPad 2 WiFi + 3G is constrained. Supply shortages span beyond Apple’s own distribution channels, though, as major retailers are reporting “out of stock” status for the 3G iPad 2.”

    Hardware

    The latest rumors say that the iPad 3 will be of a similar size and form of the current iPad 2.  9To5Mac.com reports, “[t]he iPad 3 case was not noticeably thicker than the iPad 2, countering previous rumors that the new iPad would be thicker.”

    The biggest feature that I’m looking forward to in the iPad 3 is the Retina Display-like display that is rumored to be supplied by Sharp.  Last Thursday, AppleInsider.com reported:

    “The display has three flat cables that connect to the base of the LCD, which is said to sport a high-resolution 2,048-by-1,536-pixel display. That’s the same size that has been rumored for an Apple-branded Retina Display on the third-generation iPad. 

    The resolution suggests that Apple’s so-called “iPad 3″ will not match the 326 pixel-per-inch density of the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPod touch. Rather, the rumored resolution would be a pixel density of around 260 pixels-per-inch, with quadruple the resolution found on the current iPad.”

    Wireless Technology

    Another interesting item that has come up this past Friday is that AT&T Wireless will begin supplying 4G LTE compatible micro-SIM cards.  In a BGR.com article posted on Friday, Dan Graziano notes that while the new Nokia Lumia 900 and the Pantech Burst will likely use the new 4G LTE cards, it is possible that these cards might be used in an iPad 3 before Nokia’s new smartphone.

    iPad 3 Ready Applications

    What’s an Apple keynote address without some flashy advertising and software to go with the hardware?  BGR’s Mr. Graziano, on Friday, posted another article suggesting that Apple was in “crunch mode” getting ready for their iPad 3 product demonstration.

    “The Cupertino-based company is now looking for apps that will show off the stunning quality of the iPad 3′s high-resolution Retina Display.”

    Having high quality applications to show off the new capabilities of their new hardware is a staple of Apple product announcements and there is no reason to doubt Apple won’t have select software developers on hand to help unveil the new iPad.

    AppleInsider added:

    “The iPad maker is also reportedly forwarding some apps to its advertising partner TWBA/Chiat/Day as the agency readies commercials for the third-generation tablet. Author Matthew Panzarino noted that the process is entering its “final phase” and is on a tight deadline for the presentation and subsequent television broadcast.”

    [Via AppleInsider, BGR, AllThingsD…]

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  • apple,  eddie cue,  itunes

    Jobs Wins Grammy Trustees Award

    February 12, 2012 /

    The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences has awarded Apple co-founder Steve Jobs this year’s Grammy Trustees Award posthumously.  Apple senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, Eddy Cue, was on hand to accept the award on behalf of the late Jobs.

    “Steve was a visionary, a mentor, and a very close friend,” Cue said. “I had the incredible honor of working with him for the last 15 years. Accepting this award means so much to me, because music meant so much to him.”

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOV-TJdLZ-4]

    [Via AppleInsider.com…]

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  • android,  google,  motorola,  verizon

    Motorola DROID 4 on Sale at Verizon

    February 11, 2012 /

    The latest version of the popular Motorola DROID, the DROID 4, is now available for $199.99 at Verizon with a qualify new service contract.

    “The sleek QWERTY slider features a 4-inch qHD display, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4G LTE connectivity, 1GB of RAM and an 8-megapixel rear camera, and it is being billed as the “thinnest and most powerful 4G QWERTY smartphone.””

    The DROID 4 ships with Google Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread.  I would have liked to see Motorola’s new flagship phone ship with the latest build of Android, 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, while I’m sure will be long as soon as Motorola and get Verizon to certify it.

    Of the few Android phones that I’ve used, I do like the Motorola DROID line of smartphones the best.  The HTC Android phones have their slick UI skin, but I think that Motorola’s UI is cleaner and just gets out of the way and lets you use the phone.

    The full specs for the new DROID 4 can be found on the Motorola Mobility website.

    [Via BGR.com…]

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  • apple,  lion,  mac,  mac os x

    Apple Releases Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 Update

    February 11, 2012 /

    Earlier this week, Apple released the third update to their Lion operating system for the Macintosh.

    Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 is a maintenance release for all Macs running the Lion operating system and Apple recommends installing the update if you are running a prior release of Lion.

    You can download the OS update using the Software Update control panel on your Mac, or you can download the update from the Apple website.  Mac OS X 10.7 Lion can be purchased from the Mac App Store for $29.99 (requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6 or later to purchase and upgrade).

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  • apple,  foxconn

    CBS Report on Apple’s Manufacturing Partners [Updated]

    January 30, 2012 /

    http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/cbsnews_player_embed.swf

    Love it or hate it, no one can argue with the financial results and sales figures that Apple is cranking out quarter after quarter.  There has been a lot of focus lately on Apple and one of the companies that they use to build their “insanely great” products: Foxconn.

    CBS news recently ran a story about Apple and Foxconn and about the labor that is employed to build, by hand, many of the Apple products that we have come to rely on in our daily lives.

    UPDATE:

    In addition to the video produced by CBS News, PaidContent.org has a good written article posted on their website about Apple and Foxconn.

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  • apple,  eddie cue,  icloud,  ipad,  itunes

    Apple Hosting Education Media Event Thursday

    January 14, 2012 /

    Earlier this week, Apple sent out invitations to an invitation only special event relating to education from Apple in New York City, also known as “The Big Apple.”

    The event will be held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum at 10:00am.  It has been rumored that Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software, will be involved in the event, however, there has been no confirmation from Apple on this point.  You’ll recall that the iTunes Store, the App Store, the iBookstore, the iCloud and iAd services are all under Mr. Cue’s supervision.

    The speculation is that with an education focus, Apple is gearing up to make an announcement around electronic text books, iTunes U, and the iPad for all sorts of educational opportunities.

    As a parent, and an active member in my children’s school community, I personally, would love to see advancements in the area of text books and supplemental content.  Year after year, my children’s backpacks are loaded up with hard and soft cover books, library books, and binders of notebooks.  Lugging all of that back and forth to school every day can’t be good for their backs.  I think a little Apple ingenuity is just what the educational market needs.

    [Via Barron’s Tech Trader Daily…]

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  • hp,  web os

    Mace: Why webOS Really Failed

    January 9, 2012 /

    Long time Palm veteran, and Palm/PalmSource vice president, Michael Mace has some interesting comments posted on his blog, Mobile Opportunity, about the lack luster performance of webOS.

    In the article, “Why Web OS Really Failed, and What it Means for the Rest of Us,” Mace makes reference to a New York Times article in which Paul Mercer, a senior director of software at Palm, was that webOS wasn’t ready for “prime time.”  As a Palm fanatic who waited in line for the Sprint Palm Pre, I can certainly say that webOS, while cool, did feel undercooked at times.  (I just recently switched from the Palm Pre to the Apple iPhone 4S.)

    Mr. Mace, however, has his own theories as to why Palm’s web-based operating system got into trouble.

    “If Paul says Web OS was unready, I’m sure it was.  But respectfully, I don’t think that’s why Web OS failed. I think the company’s business strategy was fundamentally flawed, in ways that would have almost certainly doomed Web OS no matter how it was built.”

    Mace, by trying to analyze what happened to webOS at Palm, and then later at HP, seeks the lessons that need to be learned by vendors trying to build, or rebuild, their faltering mobile strategies (read: Nokia and Research In Motion).

    The bottom line for companies building a new mobile OS is do they have enough money to build version 2 and 3 of their OS to make things right that didn’t work in version 1; and making sure that they have at one unique, “killer feature” that will draw people and developers to the platform before the bugs are all ironed out.

    [Via Mobile Opportunity…]

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  • apple,  eddie cue,  rumors

    Rumor: Apple to Hold Media Event Later This Month

    January 3, 2012 /

    Kara Swisher, of All Things D fame, is reporting that she has heard chatter than Apple has scheduled a ‘media event’ later this month in New York.

    “[S]everal sources underscored that the event is not related to an upcoming version of the iPad 3, the next iteration of the popular tablet device that many expect to be available in 2012.  Also unlikely, the rollout of Apple’s large-scale rethinking of the interactive television initiative that it has been working on.”

    Eddie Cue, Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services, is also allegedly involved with this event.

    [Via AllThingsD.com…]

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  • hp,  palm os,  rumors,  web os

    webOS Failure Related to Poor Management?

    January 2, 2012 /

    A pair of articles (1, 2) from technology blog Electronista hints that webOS’ main difficulty in getting off the ground was related to poor management and inexperienced software engineers.

    According to the website rumors “suggested that Palm, and later HP, may have ultimately had hurdles at the corporate level, not just technical.”  “WebOS didn’t have either the needed management or engineers to bring it to completion.”  “This was compounded by a rush to finish the OS in nine months, which required taking shortcuts such as skipping proper APIs (app programming interfaces) until later, hurting the ability for third-party developers to sign on.”

    The article goes on to show that the exit of high profile, former Palm employees, such as the highly respected Matias Duarte, now batting for the Android team, accelerated the decline of the web standards based mobile OS.

    “The string of executive departures after the HP takeover are now believed to have gutted the webOS team. Matias Duarte’s jump to Google saw webOS lose its defining employee, one tipster said. The replacements were described as “fourth- and fifth-stringers.” Design VP Peter Skillman’s exit to Nokia had its own tangible impact.”

    Chuq von Rospach, who recently held the role of webOS Community Manager at Palm and then HP, states:

    “During my tenure at Palm/HP — just under three years — I had six direct managers, averaging about 5 months per, ranging from a first level manager to directors to a couple of VPs.”  “I reported to, or up to, eight different VPs in that time. One of my direct managers (the last one) and two of those VPs are still with HP. Does that give you a sense of how well things were going in the organization? Yeah, I think it does.”

    Mr von Rospach goes on by saying, “Most of the damage, he said, was “self-inflicted.” Palm had already been on the verge of collapse when it was bought by HP, and HP gave it the cash and logistical support it needed to survive. That it floundered a second time was the Palm team’s fault.”

    Palm was a really create company back in the 1990’s.  It’s sad to have had to watch is slow slide into a footnote in the book of mobile computing history.  Palm OS, was the iOS of it’s day.  Many years later, webOS was a good contender, it just wasn’t good enough.

    [Via Electronista.com…]

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