What Does a CDMA iPhone Mean for Apple? A 500 Million People New Market

By Federico Viticci

Tech pundits, blogs and media have been discussing about a Verizon iPhone for years. Since 2007, actually, when the first iPhone came out. According to the latest rumors we heard earlier this week, though, Apple is not working on a Verizon iPhone: it’s working on a CDMA iPhone that, among others, will support Verizon.

CDMA is a technology that’s deeply used in the US, not that much in Europe (do we have any CDMA providers here, fellow Europeans?) - an awful lot in Asia. Of course a Verizon iPhone would mean another huge round of possibilities and success for Apple in the US (the Verizon iPhone is now some sort of a myth), but what about other countries? If you think about it, it would make perfect sense for Apple to release an updated version of the iPhone 4 in January (together with an iPad 2 announcement, perhaps) to work on all international CDMA carriers, and not just Verizon.

So how big is this market? Read more

Is Apple Working On A Game Store?

By Federico Viticci

Apple is looking for a better way to separate “regular” apps from games in the App Store. In fact, in a matter of a few months we might be looking at a brand new version of the App Store specifically meant for iOS games - a Game Store.

How Steve Ballmer Told Me What To Do With My iPad →

Linked By Federico Viticci

How Steve Ballmer Told Me What To Do With My iPad

The truth of the matter is the laptop weighs less – you can set it on your lap, it doesn’t weigh anything at that point and then you can type. I’m not trying to say there’s not a place for touch-optimised slate-based devices, obviously we have shown enthusiasm about that before but you’ll see some optimisations coming in the course of the next year and some of the devices that convert, that have a keyboard, that flip around – I think some of those will be also pretty useful for people in the course of the next year.

Eh?

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On Rules and Android “Openness”

By Federico Viticci

Short version: every ecosystem needs rules. Otherwise, it’s a mess.

Long version: I wanted to briefly inform you about my take on Android’s purported “openness” and the need of rules and control on a mobile platform. Openness is good: everyone wants to be able to have a choice, choices make us feel in control of almost every situation. With computers, choices mean we can decide how to operate a machine. With mobile devices, choices have (sadly) come down to choosing whether or not you want to browse with Flash or find any kind of application in a marketplace. Read more

Apple Now Showcasing Augmented Reality Apps In The App Store

By Federico Viticci

There was a time when getting an AR (Augmented Reality) app approved by Apple was practically impossible. They didn’t want the iPhone camera to be used for other purposes than, well, taking pictures, and developers couldn’t display additional information on the camera screen. Eventually the App Review Team revised its rules and now, especially after Apple’s outing with the App Store Guidelines, Augmented Reality apps are featured in the App Store. Read more

Amazing iPad Optical Illusions Bring Images to Life

By Federico Viticci

We have seen examples of art applied to the iPad before: remember the iPad light paintings ? I’m not afraid to call that “art”: with the technology of today and the creativity of real artists, it is possible to come up with modern implementations of old art forms.

Today’s video shows what it’s possible to do with static images on an iPad and a transparent overlay sheet. The result is mind-blowing, especially the last animation. Check out the video below, then share. It’s incredible.

Apple Allegedly Fighting Against A Music Service They Should Learn From

By Federico Viticci

The latest rumor making the rounds of the internet is the same one we’ve been hearing about for years: an iTunes subscription-based music service. Both the New York Post and CNET are reporting that Apple is considering a subscription music service; the New York Post also reports (be careful, they have a history with rumors) that the latest plan hatched in Cupertino’s black labs wants music execs to agree on a monthly service that could have a tiered pricing model ranging from $10 to $15. The report doesn’t tell us how much music would be included in each tier, and whether this subscription is meant for local content or cloud access. Read more

.Mac HomePage Shutting Down on Nov. 8th, iLife ‘11 To Drop on Nov. 9th?

By Federico Viticci

The Loop is reporting that earlier this morning Apple sent an email to MobileMe members announcing that web content published via the old .Mac service will no longer be available starting November 8th. The email:

Dear MobileMe member,

Over a year ago, we retired the .Mac HomePage application for publishing new pages, but allowed previously published pages to remain viewable on the web. On November 8, 2010, we will discontinue online viewing of photos, movies, and files shared using .Mac HomePage.Please note that your content will not be deleted. Any photos, movies, or files you have published using HomePage will continue to remain on your MobileMe iDisk in the Movies, Pictures, or Public folders.

We recommend MobileMe Gallery as a great way to share photos and movies on the web. Please read these instructions on how to move your HomePage photos and movies to MobileMe Gallery.MobileMe members who have published web pages using iWeb will not be affected by this change. If you have used other software to publish web content to MobileMe or .Mac, or have questions about this change, please read this FAQ.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Thank you for being a MobileMe member.

Sincerely,

The MobileMe Team

Now, Nov. 8th is a Monday. Web content is published through iWeb, which is part of the iLife suite. Shall we expect iLife ‘11 to drop on Nov. 9th, a Tuesday? That’d be likely (and definitely welcome). Previous rumors about iLife ‘11 included iDVD, iOS integration and 64-bit speculations.

iPolitics: German Parliament Replacing Paper with iPads

By Federico Viticci

The iPad is a mainstream success that keeps on giving. With almost 10 millions units already sold (or so they say) and more than 30.000 apps in the iPad App Store, people are sure loving the tablet. We also heard it’s pretty successful in enterprise and business: large corporations are already deploying iPads, which makes me wonder about what’s going to happen with the new enterprise features that’ll come with iOS 4.2 in November.