Showing posts with label Steve Jobs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steve Jobs. Show all posts

Friday, January 07, 2011

WSJ: Verizon iPhone wait's over; phone debuts Tuesday

According to the Wall Street Journal, the iPhone comes to Verizon next week.

After rumors for more than two years, Apple's phone will hit Verizon on Tuesday, according to WSJ, which said Verizon will make the announcement Tuesday. It's unclear when the device will launch, but it's expected to run on Verizon's current 3G network and not its newer LTE network which offers home-like broadband speeds.

Analysts expect the move to hurt AT&T, which has been the sole U.S. iPhone carrier since it debuted three years ago, but say it will be particularly hard on Sprint and T-Mobile, which will be the two largest carriers to not have Apple's device.

The WSJ also reports that Verizon has been working to strengthen its network in advance of launching the iPhone to avoid the network slowdowns and dropped calls that have plagued some of AT&T iPhone customers.

Meanwhile, Verizon has sent out media invitations for an event in New York City. It says rather cryptically, "Join us as we share the latest news." Lowell McAdam, Verizon CEO, will handle the keynote.

There was no mention of the iPhone at Verizon's Consumer Electronics Show keynote Thursday, when the carrier touted its next gen network's strength and showed off several phones and tablets that will use the new network, most running Android software.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Obama signs autograph on iPad




On Thursday, at a rally in Seattle, Sylvester Cann IV had a novel idea. Instead of asking President Obama to sign a piece of paper, why not ask him to sign an iPad instead?

Using the Adobe Ideas app, Cann created a big place for Obama to write in his John Hancock. Cann created a website to showcase the moment.

Obama, looking amused, used his finger to write his name.

See video below.





Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Apple introduces Apple TV, new iPods, fixes iPhone issues

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled a new line of iPods Wednesday and a new $99 Apple TV. He also introduced a new operating system for Apple's mobile devices that will correct issues with iPhone 4 and with older iPhones running slowly when using the new operating system.

The new iPod Touch will add all the popular features on iPhone 4, including the "Retina" display and FaceTime video conferencing. Apple TV will let users rent movies and TV shows and stream content from Netflix and YouTube.

Also a new version of iTunes will be launched with a Facebook-like social intergration app.

A quick rundown of the day.

New iPods Launched

Jobs said the company has sold 275 million iPods in its history.

Every iPod is being redesigned and will be available next week. Pre-orders will be taken today.

The new iPod Touch is now the most popular iPod.

"A lot of people call it an iPhone without the phone," Jobs said.

The new iPod Touch is even thinner than the old version, has the Retina Display and runs the Apple A4 chip, just like the iPhone 4. It has 3-axis Gyro plus a front facing camera with FaceTime over WiFi. A rear camera has also been added with HD video recording.

The new touch will have 40 hours of music playback. It's $229 for 8 gigs, $299 for 32 gigs and $399 for the 64 gig version.

More than 1.5 billion games and entertainment titles have been downloaded to the Touch.

-- The new iPod Shuffle is smaller than last year and has buttons, voiceover and playlists. It's about the size of the palm of your hand. It'll speak through your playlists, Genius mixes and the Voice over will tell you song and artist and even let you know when the battery needs charging. The shuffle is good for 15 hours per charge, Jobs said, and comes in five colors. Price is $49.

The new iPod Nano is 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter and loses its click wheel. It's square shaped instead of rectangular. It uses the same multi-touch as iPhone. It has a clip on it to attach to your clothes. It's got FM radio, the Nike pedometer and 24 hour audio battery life. This comes in six colors. Price is $149 for 8 gigs; $179 for gigs.

NEW ITUNES RELEASED

Jobs said 11.7 billion songs have been downloaded from iTunes, more than 100 million movies, 450 million TV episodes and 35 million books.

Jobs announced iTunes 10, the latest version, Wednesday with a new logo. It launches today.

What's new?

The interface has changed and Apple has added "Ping" to iTunes, a social network for music. Ping is available on computer, iPhone and iPod Touch.

"It's sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes," Jobs said. "It's a social network all about music and its' built right into iTunes."

Users can follow favorite artists and friends and find out what's popular. Simply click the Ping link in iTunes. A top 10 chart of songs and albums is customized for each user based on what their friends and favorites are downloading.

NEW APPLE TV LAUNCHES

The old Apple TV was $229. The new one is $99. It'll launch in four weeks with pre-ordering starting today.

Introduced in September 2006, Jobs said Apple has not sold a lot of its Apple TV hardware, but the users who use them tell Apple they love them. Jobs said users said they wanted Hollywood movies and TV shows.

"They don't want amateur hour," Jobs said. "And they want everything in HD."

Jobs said consumers don't want a computer attached to the TV or to have to manage storage. "Your hard disc starts to fill up, what are you gonna do?" Jobs said.

The new Apple TV is about 1/4th the size of the current Apple TV. You can hold it in your hand. It's a small black box. It has a power cord, HDMI, and an ethernet cable. WiFi is built-in. It comes with a remote.

Users will rent all their content and not purchase anything. The device will stream content from your computer with no synching required.

First run movies will cost $4.99, on the day and date they are released on DVD. Renting HD TV shows will be 99 cents. These shows will be commercial free. Only ABC and Fox are on board first. Jobs said he expected the other major studios to come on board soon.

Netflix subscribers can stream content on Apple TV, Flickr, mobileme or YouTube.

NOTES:

-- Apple released its new operating system, iOS 4.1 that fixes promixity sensor bugs, bluetooth issues and a problem where the old 3G iPhone slowed down with the new operating system. Users will be able to upload HD video over WiFI, rent TV shows and Apple's Game Center will debut. The new system debuts next week and is a free download via iTunes for iPod Touch and iPhone.

A new feature is High Dynamic Range Photos. Users tap a button and the camera takes three photos in rapid succession. One will be shot in normal exposure plus one that is underdeveloped and one over exposed. It then combines the three to produce an "HDR" photo. The normal and HDR photos are both kept in the camera roll.

GameCenter is used for multi-player games and allows you to challenge friends or auto-match you with players. Gamers can compare scores and see popular games.

-- Jobs offered a sneak peek at iOS 4.2 for iPad that will come out November, as a free update for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. "It's bringing everything to iPad," Jobs said including folders, GameCenter, HDR photos and wireless printing, a much requested app.

A new feature, AirPlay, will also debut. It'll allow users to stream audio, video and photo to other devices. Users with an iPad or iPhone can stream content to Apple TV.

You can watch a movie or look at photos on iPhone or iPad and watch the rest on your flatscreen via Apple TV.

-- Apple has shipped 120 million iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch products in four years, Jobs said. He said Apple is activating about 230,000 new iOS devices every day. That figure doesn't include upgrades.

-- There are 200 apps per second are being downloaded from Apple's App Store, and more than six billion total in its history. There are more than 250,000 apps currently in the store, 25,000 are iPad exclusive.

-- Jobs said Apple Stores draw more than one million visitors several days per month. He said more than half the people buying Mac computers are new users.


Link: Apple set to introduce new hardware Wednesday

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Apple expected to introduce new iPod touch, iTV today

Apple, Inc, will hold its annual fall media conference Wednesday at 10 a.m. PST, and Steve Jobs is expected to announce a revamped Apple TV set-top box as well as introduce a new iPod Touch that will rival iPhone in screen resolution and other features.

The event will be streamed at apple.com and requires a Mac computer running the OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system and the Safari web browser, an iPod Touch or iPhone running the iOS 3.0 operating system or higher or an iPad.

Businessweek has reported that Jobs will introduce a new $99 Apple TV product that will stream movies and other content from Netflix. The current Apple TV costs more than twice that and is basically a movie and TV rental service that allows users to get content from iTunes and watch on their TV.

Other published reports have speculated that the new Apple TV will also allow users to download TV series for 99 cents per episode shortly after they air.

I think we can expect to see a new iPod Touch that will look a lot like the squarish iPhone 4. I think the new Touch will feature Apple's "Retina" display, front and back cameras and include FaceTime video chat. It will be interesting to see if Apple allows 3G over the device, which may include a microphone and would then allow users to make calls via services like Skype.

A new smaller iPod nano with a touch screen is also expected to debut.

Speculation is running wild about Apple TV and a new iPad 4.0 operating system that will bring features like folders to iPad. Apple may also debut a new iLife suite, which includes Apple's photo software (iPhoto), website creation tool (iWeb) and DVD creator (iDVD).

The wildest rumors claim we'll hear about the white iPhone 4 and the Verizon iPhone at the conference. Meanwhile, a Mexican carrier is claiming that we'll see a new iPhone 4 released at the end of September that has been redesigned to thwart the antenna issue that has caused some users to lose signal.

We'll have a full report tomorrow on what Apple does -- and does not -- do. As usual, the guys in Cupertino sure do know how to get the tech masses into a lather.