Posts in news

The Daily Won’t Be Announced Next Week

Looks like we called it: citing “sources familiar with the companies’ plans” All Things Digital reports that The Daily, the joint venture between Apple and News Corp. for an iPad-exclusive newspaper, won’t be announced next week:

Apple and News Corp. have made a joint decision to push back next week’s planned launch, according to sources familiar with the companies’ plans. The delay is supposed to give Apple time to tweak its new subscription service for publications sold through its iTunes platform.

Plans to hold debut the iPad newspaper at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art next Wednesday have been tabled “for weeks, not months,” I’m told.

As we expected, the issue seems to be lying in app subscriptions for iTunes, which aren’t ready at the moment. And with such a feature supposedly being scheduled to ship with a software update to iOS, it appears that we’ll have to wait for weeks before actually reading The Daily. iOS 4.3, in fact, was released as “beta 1” only yesterday.

News Corp. PR confirmed the delay, and Apple declined to comment. Apple is reportedly tweaking the iTunes subscription feature that will allow publishers to push new content to users automatically, with recurring billing in iTunes.

App Store Updates: “Previous Picks” for Apps Of The Week, More Sections

Just like every Thursday, Apple has updated the homepage of the iPhone and iPad App Stores to include this week’s featured apps, updated New & Noteworthy sections and staff picks. This week’s refresh, though, comes with a few more surprises.

First off, we’re one week into the Mac App Store: Apple started refreshing the homepage of the new Store as well, although no custom sectionshave been launched. Guess Apple is still waiting for more Mac apps to become available. Anyway, go check out the updated Mac App Store homepage, as some sweet apps and games like Compartments and The Incident are being featured. Read more

Apple Launches Special One-Day Shopping Event In Asian Stores

To celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year (which in our calendar drops on February 3, 2011), not only are Chinese stores planning a series of events from January 26 to February 13 such as workshops and One to One trainings – Apple has also launched a special one-day shopping event in several Asian online stores. The event offers discounted prices on a variety of Apple devices and computers, accessories, games and software.

Shopping event prices are solely available on 14 January 2011, are subject to change, and are listed in Thai Baht. Promotional pricing cannot be combined with any other offers. Product specifications are subject to change. Sale prices are limited to stock on hand and while supplies last. Quantity of products purchasable by each customer may be limited, please see our store for more details.

The offer is now live in various Stores: Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia have the deal page available. The offer is valid today only, and it’s organized in different sections like Apple Essentials, iPad Anywhere, Made for iPod and iPhone Essentials. Apple is also discounting peripherals like the Magic Trackpad, iPad Camera Connection Kit and Time Capsule together with the usual iPads, iPods and MacBooks. The offers seems, overall, to be similar to 2010’s Black Friday for the Apple Online Store.

App Is 2010’s Word Of The Year

The American Dialect Society has chosen “app” as 2010’s word of the year, which isn’t surprising considering the media’s focus on all things “apps.” Apple took the phrase and injected it straight into the heart of commercial marketing as they continually aired commercials for both the iPhone and iPad showcasing apps available on the App Store, while Verizon’s Droid Does commercials showcased the “limitless potential” of the Android Marketplace. 2011 will continue this trend as devices like the iPad introduce more powerful gestures, and as the iPhone penetrates Verizon for the first time. If 2010 wasn’t the year of apps, do you think it would have been the year of the iPad? I think so.

[MSNBC via TUAW] Read more

You Can Now Watch PBS Shows on Your iPhone

Back in October, we reported that PBS redesigned their website with an online player, and a new iPad app. They also said an iPhone and iPod Touch app were coming in Novem… well, January to be exact. PBS has finally announced the iPhone and iPod touch version of their iPad app. It looks great and it’s (you guessed it) free. Just like the iPad counterpart, you can watch full-length PBS productions wherever you are. It features over 300 videos: full length episodes, segments and previews with new content updated every day.

  • PBS primetime programs: Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, History Detectives, Masterpiece, Nature, Need to Know, Nova, Secrets of the Dead, and more.
  • PBS NewsHour segments.
  • Austin City Limits song performances.
  • Special clips and full-length episodes from the PBS special CIRCUS.
  • Original online series, including Nova ScienceNOW’s “Secret Life of Scientists” and “FutureStates” from INDEPENDENT LENS.

Read more

Flickr For iPhone Now Supports Retina Display, Sharing To Twitter With Flic.kr

The latest Flickr update for the iPhone (Version 1.3) delivers some excellent new features for the Flickr community. EXIF data is now preserved across all of your photos (date, time, geo-data), you can batch upload up to five photos, there’s Retina Display support, and you can now share photos to Twitter via the Flic.kr short URL (which I must say, is a very cool looking URL). Your Flickr account just got much more mobile with their native iPhone app, and we recommend you download this update immediately – your eyes will thank you. Flickr’s official app is free on the iTunes App Store.

iPad 2 Coming on April 2nd or 9th?

As reported by MacRumors, according to German website MacNotes the next-generation iPad may launch in the first week of April, on the 2nd or 9th. The website reports that the iPad 2 will launch in the first “two Saturdays” of April. The first-generation iPad came out on April 3, 2010 – a Saturday.

Reliable sources told us about the upcoming launch of the Apple iPad 2: the first or second Saturday in April will see the first sales of Apples new tablet. The iPad 2 will sell US-only for three months, and Apple Store-only for up to half a year. In July, more countries will follow. Walmart, Best Buy and Co. maybe have to wait until October until they are allowed to sell Apples new tablets.

Read more

The CDMA iPhone’s Next Stop: Asia

According to “sources from upstream component makers” close to Digitimes, the CDMA iPhone won’t be an exclusive to Verizon in the US (as also confirmed by Apple’s Tim Cook at the Verizon event) but it’s headed to China, Japan and South Korea. Digitimes reports the CDMA iPhone is manufactured both by Pegatron and Foxconn; Foxconn’s model (whose shipment started in December 2010) will be exclusive to the United States, while Pegatron’s version will ship to China and “other countries”.

Pegatron started shipping its CDMA iPhone 4 in January 2011 and Foxconn started in December 2010. Foxconn’s model will be solely supplied to the US, while Pegatron’s model will be supplied to China and other countries. Since US-based telecom carrier Verizon currently has over 93 million users in the US, the launch of CDMA iPhone is expected to double the number of the current iPhone users in the market.

Since Apple is also set to start supplying its CDMA iPhone to Japan and South Korea, the company’s iPhone shipments in 2011 are expected to reach a new record.

Reports surfaced in the past suggested the CDMA iPhone would be available in India, China (via China Telecom) and other CDMA European carriers. This latest Digitimes report also points to Apple adopting new technologies like “halogen-free connectors, carbon fiber internals, solar glass charger plates and double-webcams”.

Also in iOS 4.3: “Find My Friends”, iPad 2 Camera Files

iOS 4.3 looks like the beta OS that keeps on giving. We’ve already seen how the new OS contains gestures that hint at deeper multi-touch capabilities for iOS devices, and new camera effects that suggest software like Photo Booth may come to the iPhone or iPad. References of new iPhone and iPad models were also found in iOS 4.3.

A new feature called “Find My Friends”, discovered by MacRumors, points to a new social networking system based on geo-location and tied to MobileMe. Such a service – again, basing only on the name – may allow users to check on friends’ location like Google Latitude or Loopt. We have seen Apple experimenting with location and social patents before; a new functionality in iOS 4.3 like “Find My Friends” would be great to let nearby iPhone users communicate with each other while using the MobileMe infrastructure. Read more