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Apple Using New “Pulse” Program for Customer Feedback

MacRumors reports several users in the past week have received email invitations from Apple to join a new customer feedback program called “Pulse”, aimed at providing ”input on a variety of subjects and issues concerning Apple.” The program apparently allows users to receive up to two surveys per month to provide feedback on various Apple products and purchases.

Apple values your opinion and invites you to participate in a survey about your Apple products. Your responses will remain completely confidential, and results will be viewed only in aggregate. The survey should take five minutes or less to complete.

MacRumors also points out Apple ran different customer feedback programs in the past, but this one seems to be a much more extensive market research managed by San Francisco-based firm Socratic Technologies. A little digging into the domain’s info revealed applecustomerpulse.com was registered in January through MarkMonitor, Apple’s usual branding company used to handle domain registrations and other similar efforts. As much as a new customer feedback program can be minor news for Apple watchers and fans, it’s important to note how Apple Customer Pulse is a described as a community with ongoing subjects and material to share – it’ll be interesting to see how the service will play out in the next months and whether Apple has bigger plans for it.

Hearst Confirms They’ll Implement Apple’s Subscriptions In July

The Wall Street Journal reports Hearst, one of the major magazine and newspaper publishers in the United States, has agreed to Apple’s terms and will begin implementing iTunes subscriptions in three of its iPad apps starting with the July issues. The apps – Esquire, Popular Mechanics and O, The Oprah Magazine – will receive an update to enable monthly ($1.99) and annual ($19.99) subscriptions. The July timeframe seems to confirm the rumored deadline for publishers set on June on 30, when developers of existing “publishing apps” will have to update their software to sell subscriptions using Apple’s system.

In a big win for Apple Inc., magazine publisher Hearst Corp. has agreed to sell subscriptions to the iPad editions of a range of its publications through iTunes, beginning with three of its popular magazines, the publisher said.

Starting with their July issues, apps for Esquire, Popular Mechanics and O, The Oprah Magazine, will be available through a new service from Apple that allows customers to sign up for subscriptions inside the apps and get billed automatically. Subscriptions to all three publications will be sold for $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year.

Hearst said it will eventually sell newspaper apps and other content it owns on a subscription basis through iTunes too.

Hearst is the first big name to jump on Apple’s subscription program, which started in February but failed to attract publishers as an initial debate on Apple’s 30% cut and optional sharing of subscribers’ personal information sparkled a controversy as to whether publishers should really consider iTunes as a viable alternative to web apps. Since February though, several app magazines and newspapers for the iPad started implementing subscriptions, some of them even reporting good results after a few weeks. Apple also began promoting iPad apps with subscriptions in its own App Store homepage, and as the June deadline approaches it looks like publishers will be forced to update their apps and accept Apple’s plan if they want to keep selling digital copies to iPhone and iPad users.

Cydia Tweak Lets You Cycle Through Apps With The Volume Keys

If you own a jailbroken iPhone, you don’t mind trying new tweaks and you’ve been looking for yet another way to modify the look of Apple’s iOS multitasking UI, there’s a new app called PhySwitch available in the Cydia Store that I’ve been positively impressed with over the past week and decided to keep installed on my device. Just like Multifl0w, PhySwitch presents running apps as windows, rather than icons. But unlike the aforementioned hack, PhySwitch doesn’t scroll through windows horizontally, like you would do on a computer or larger screen: considering the nature of the iPhone’s display, developer Pedro Franceschi opted for a vertical solution that makes much more sense on the iPhone, and uses the volume keys to let you cycle through apps. You can bring PhySwitch’s fast app switcher in the foreground with an Activator command you, and after that you’ll be able to quickly browse apps with the volume keys, or a vertical swipe. It’s really simple and, for some reason, I’ve come to use it on a daily basis.

The tweak’s not perfect (apps don’t come in the foreground immediately, as PhySwitch goes back to the homescreen for a second and re-launches the app you selected) and could use some speed improvements, especially for the opening animation. However, I think it’s a very clever hack that’s very easy to use and accessible. Get it in the Cydia Store, and check out the demo video below.
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Amid Rumors of Interest In iOS Devices, Intel Unveils Ivy Bridge Chips with 3D Transistors

Earlier today Intel officially unveiled the technology that will power its next-generation of chips, codenamed “Ivy Bridge”, with production set to start for PCs and servers by the end of 2011. After a decade-long research in Intel’s labs, the company announced a new 3D transistor structure named “Tri-Gate” that will allow to boost performances and efficiency in the new chips that Intel will also make for mobile devices and tablets. This announcement comes after speculation earlier this week about Intel willing to consider making processors for Apple’s iOS devices – which currently feature CPUs manufactured by Samsung, a company that’s at war with Apple over several patent infringement claims as previously reported. Intel hasn’t disclosed any plan to make chips for Apple nor did Apple comment on any of these rumors, but the mobile versions of Ivy bridge featuring 3D transistors for optimized speeds and battery life could surely be an option for Apple in future devices.

Intel’s 3-D Tri-Gate transistors enable chips to operate at lower voltage with lower leakage, providing an unprecedented combination of improved performance and energy efficiency compared to previous state-of-the-art transistors. The capabilities give chip designers the flexibility to choose transistors targeted for low power or high performance, depending on the application.

The 22nm 3-D Tri-Gate transistors provide up to 37 percent performance increase at low voltage versus Intel’s 32nm planar transistors. This incredible gain means that they are ideal for use in small handheld devices, which operate using less energy to “switch” back and forth. Alternatively, the new transistors consume less than half the power when at the same performance as 2-D planar transistors on 32nm chips.

Intel’s first 22nm Ivy Bridge microprocessor was demoed today running on a server, laptop and desktop computer. Production is slated by the end of the year, with Intel likely demonstrating the power of the Ivy Bridge platform with more demoes over the next months.

Apple Releases iOS 4.3.3 [Direct Links]

Apple just released iOS 4.3.3. It’s available now in iTunes if you check for updates, and direct links to the downloads will be available shortly.

As previously reported, iOS 4.3.3 improves the way iPhones and iPads handle the location tracking database stored on-device by making it smaller in size. The location database will be no longer backed up to iTunes and it will be deleted entirely when Location Services are turned off.

Here are the direct links for iOS 4.3.3:

Apple also released iOS 4.2.8 for the Verizon iPhone. You can download it here. As for the build numbers: iOS 4.3.3 for the iPad 1 is labelled 8J3, with other iOS devices getting build 8J2. The Verizon iPhone’s iOS 4.3.3 is build 8E401.

New iMacs To Use SSDs As A “System Cache” For Spinning Hard Drives?

Yesterday, we noted the new iMacs featuring Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology came with an option in the Apple Store’s online configuration page to pack a hybrid Serial ATA Drive + SSD setup at an additional cost. What’s curious about this hybrid setup is the note left by Apple to inform users that OS X will come preinstalled on the solid state drive, leaving space for documents and other media on the bigger (but slower) spinning hard drive.

iMac also offers an optional 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), which has no moving parts and delivers increased drive performance for many operations. The 256GB SSD can be purchased in place of the standard hard drive or in addition to it.

If you configure your iMac with both the solid-state drive and a Serial ATA hard drive, it will come preformatted with Mac OS X and all your applications on the solid-state drive. Then you can use the hard drive for videos, photos, and other files.

This led to speculation as to whether Apple was planning to install OS X on the SSD and show the other drive as a mounted volume in the Finder, or they developed a brand new system to automatically handle the processing of files and system info across the SSD and the spinning drive. Several bloggers and Mac users wondered how Apple could manage to easily allow the new iMacs to quickly switch between drives, save the OS on one drive and media on the other, symlink the user’s Home folder to content saved outside the SSD. These technical questions also had to face the 4-6 week delay that showed up when ordering a new iMac with hybrid configuration. However, the solution may be pretty simple, as it could lie in Apple’s use of Intel’s new Z68 platform, which – combined with the upcoming “Larsen Creek” SSDs – allows for a new caching system called ”Smart Response Technology.” Intel’s BD82Z68 Platform Controller Hub is indeed being used in the mid-2011 iMacs, as iFixit confirmed earlier today.

Intel’s Smart Response Technology works like this: in a hybrid configuration such as the one possible in the new iMacs, the smaller SSD acts as a “system cache” for the bigger & slower HDD. The OS (boot files, resources, extensions) are cached on the SSD for faster loading times, but the user only sees one drive in the Finder / Windows Explorer.

Smart Response provides a middle ground between capacious but slow and inexpensive hard drive storage, and fast but small and expensive SSD. With it, one can retain a high-capacity hard drive, and speed it up using a small SSD. The technology uses the small SSD’s low access times and high speeds to make it work as a cache of the HDD, it might even store copies of key parts of the HDD such as the boot volume and system files, to make booting faster, and the system more responsive overall.

It’s not clear at this point whether the delay in shipping times is caused by Apple waiting for Intel’s new solid state drives, and if Smart Response Technology will be enabled at all in Snow Leopard. Apple’s note on OS X coming preinstalled on the SSD surely raises some important technical questions, and we’ll know more in a few weeks when these hybrid iMacs will start showing up. [TonyMacx86 via 9to5mac]

“On the way to Woodstock” for iPad Takes You Back To 1969

From the same creators of The History of Jazz, an interactive timeline about jazz music that was featured multiple times by Apple in the past, comes a new “book” for the iPad called On the way to Woodstock that takes where the previous digital experience left off to offer over 100 hours of video, audio, and editorial content related to the 1950’s, 1960’s and each of the artists that performed at the 1969 Woodstock Art & Music Fair. The History of Jazz was incredibly successful in the way it transcended the meaning of “digital book” to offer an experience that was closer to what Push Pop Press is doing now with Our Choice for iPhone and iPad: more than a simple book and closer to an interactive media gallery packed with content of all kinds, On the way to Woodstock is a digital, multitouch-based homage to the culture, politics and style of the 50’s and 60’s, as well as the historic bands and artists that performed at the legendary Woodstock festival.

I have downloaded the app a few minutes ago, and there’s so much stuff to do with its it’s difficult to get the hang of it in a short amount of time. You can look at photos and read descriptions; browse the timeline at the bottom by tapping on the colored bars and check out every single moment of the Woodstock fair with videos, bios, articles and exclusive photographs; you can even enter a special “screensaver mode” to turn your iPad into the perfect Woodstock-themed coffee table book. The app is full of content, information, and media. It’s definitely a rich experience that will engage you in reading and watching for hours, and perhaps even coming back a few times after you’re done consuming everything the app has to offer. Like I said I’ve been playing with On the way to Woodstock for less than an hour, but the attention to detail, the animations, the options and the selection of songs and videos are amazing. The app also packs related content from iTunes, YoutTube and Wikipedia and lets you check out the original Woodstock set lists as well.

On the way to Woodstock is the perfect app to showcase the versatility of the iPad, something Apple would be proud of. You can get the app here at $6.99, and watch the demo video after the break. Read more

New iMacs: Teardown, First Benchmarks

Following yesterday’s release of the new iMacs with Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt technology, the guys over at iFixit immediately started tearing down a 21.5-inch model. In their official teardown article, available here, there are a few notes of interest: iFixit notes how, design-wise, nothing much has changed in the new iMacs, which can be opened in the same way of the old generation units by pulling off the magnetically-held glass and removing the screws holding the LCD in place. The display is manufactured by LG and it’s the same used in the previous-generation iMac. iFixit also gives the machine a 7/10 Repairability Score, noting that average users can easily replace RAM, but accessing the CPU and GPU requires to take out the whole logic board, which is described as a “tricky process.” The teardown also reveals the Thunderbolt connector is similar (but not the same) to the one found in the early-2011 MacBook Pros; one heat sink is reserved for the CPU, with the other assigned to the GPU. Read more

Spotify Now Lets You Sync MP3s To Your iPod Without iTunes

Spotify, the music streaming service that counts millions of active users in Europe but has been struggling to launch in the US due to the lack of deals with major music labels, announced some important new features last night, both for Premium and Free users. With an update to the official desktop app that will automatically roll out to all users in the next few days to “ensure technical quality”, Spotify now allows you to sync your music to an iPod Classic, iPod Shuffle or iPod Nano without using iTunes at all. With the new Spotify, users will be able to place the MP3s they bought (more on this in a minute) or saved locally inside a playlist (as they usually do) and sync these playlists to an iPod thanks to the new “Devices” section in the app’s sidebar. It’s worth noting that Spotify doesn’t allow sync via USB cable to iOS devices, as they’re only focusing on standard iPod models now. However, with the updated mobile app for iPhone and iPod touch (now also available to free users for playlist sync, whilst Premium subscribers retain the ability to stream everything) users get the possibility to sync playlists wirelessly. Clearly, Spotify has set out to become the standard music player for many both on the desktop and mobile devices, although the software still can’t sync back to iOS devices like iPhones and iPads through a USB cable. Plus, the lack of a native iPad app still makes it impossible for iPad users to properly enjoy the Spotify experience.

For the first time, seamlessly manage any iPod classic, iPod nano and iPod shuffle in Spotify. Simply connect your iPod to your computer via your USB cable and watch it magically appear in the new ‘Devices’ section of your Spotify sidebar.

iPod integration was your biggest request, but there are also a lot of Spotify Free users out there who are iPhone and Android phone owners. You asked for the ability to buy your MP3 playlists and sync to your phones. So we’ve got you covered too…

As of today, everyone can download the Spotify Mobile iPhone & Android apps to wirelessly sync your MP3 playlists in Spotify from your computer to your phone. Fire up your mobile app and see your phone appear in the ‘Devices’ section of the Spotify sidebar, ready to rock and roll. No cables required!

As mentioned above, users can now take the music they bought or already own on the go all the time. Spotify is, in fact, launching a new “download service” that, through a simple click&buy interface, allows you to purchase a range of MP3 bundles offered by the service starting at 50p per song. I haven’t managed to test the new music store and iPod Classic integration as the update is still rolling out and I don’t have it available, but from what Spotify unveiled last night, it really looks like the company’s intention is to take on Apple and (the future) iTunes with a mix of streaming, local cache, USB sync, and online store. The variety of apps offered by Spotify surely gives them an important head start in the music streaming scene for mobile devices, but they obviously still can’t compete with the music catalogue offered by iTunes. And when Apple finally rolls out is iCloud service for music with iTunes integration, it’ll be interesting to see how Spotify will react.

[image via TechCrunch]
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