Posts in news

The iPad Can be Forever Yours with Rumored Free Engraving

You can already etch that precious name of yours into iPods, but currently you can’t personalize the glorious aluminum of an iPad. Though you might be able to soon: AppleInsider reports that Apple may be prepping for such customization by the holiday season.

The report indicated that Apple would have liked to offer iPad engraving earlier, but due to strong demand for the product, the company has been unable to do so. Apple sold 3 million iPads in the product’s first 80 days, and company officials said last week they are unsure when they will be able to catch up with consumer demand.

The report also indicated that the engraving is expected to be free, like it is with the longstanding iPod option.

The words “I love you” couldn’t be written on a more perfect device.

[via AppleInsider]

Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement to Study the iPhone User Behavior

If CIMM is reading this right now, I’d love to be a part of this focus group. With a million available for funding, CIMM (a research initiative formed by TV networks and advertising agencies) plans to hire the Media Behavior Institute to study 1,000 iPhone loving users to research what they’re viewing, who they’re with (what kind of cliques do iPhone peeps hang out in), and if they were multitasking.

Most importantly if you’re one of the lucky 1,000 participants, you get to play with a free iPhone.

[via mocoNews]

iHome’s Latest Clock is an iPad Throne

It had to be around 2006 or ‘07 when I purchased my first iHome speaker. I believe it’s the now discontinued iHR5 (I may have the model name wrong), but it’s still perched atop my dresser till this day, delivering AirTunes and clear FM radio across my bed as I browse websites on my iPad. At the time, the product was geared around the 5th generation iPod Video, which was a fantastic hit in the early days of senior high. While it can certainly play music from the 1st gen iPod touch I’ll replace upon the next announcement, I’m certain it won’t be future proof for much longer (but who knows). Looking big, TUAW recently showcased iHome’s latest model, which is pretty ridiculous. Not only is this rectangular beast designed to blast the infinite musical spectrum straight out of your eardrums, it sits the largest Apple mobile device you may own: the iPad.

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Apple Releases iBooks 1.1.2, Forgets To Include Changelog? [Update: Addresses Minor Issue]

Four days ago Apple released iBooks 1.1.1. Now, a 1.1.2 update has just appeared in iTunes but…the changelog is the same of the last version. Could it be that Apple didn’t want to actually push this update yet, or is it just an temporary error? Also, maybe this is just a bug fixes-related release and Apple forgot to mention it.

Update #1: I think that we found it. The 1.1.2 should only “address a minor issue when updating iBooks”. So, a bug-fix release.

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iPhone Owners Love the iPhone. Android Owners… Hate Android.

Hey, it’s the Yankee Group again! While it’s from the same CNN Money article we’re finding tidbits of information from, we decided to split their statistics into two posts.

Quoting 9 to 5 Mac:

A telling stat from Yankee Group via CNN:

The iPhone is also the gift that keeps on giving: 77% of iPhone owners say they’ll buy another iPhone, compared to 20% of Android customers who say they’ll buy another Android phone.

You’ll all have your own thoughts on Android (haters gonna hate), but I have my own theory on this. There’s so many Android phones available, I can see the this statistic being appropriate for the platform as a whole. I think anyone still running anything less than Android 2.0 would probably want to throw their phone out the window at this point. And I can see owners of lesser Android phones like the Motorola Cliq, the HTC Droid Eris, and the Samsung Moment being generally dissatisfied. But looking at phones like the Motorola Droid, I can see those particular users being very happy as they have a massive development communities behind them. I imagine Motorola Droid X and HTC Evo owners would be happy with their purchase as well if they sought an Android phone, but I chose the Droid specifically since it’s the phone to get if you want to take advantage of every ounce of openness that’s advertised about the platform.

Otherwise, I’m indifferent.

[CNN Money via 9 to 5 Mac]

Positive AT&T Survey Result of the Reality Distortion Field?

When the Yankee Group set out to survey the general happiness of AT&T customers, they were actually surprised by the results. 73% of surveyed US iPhone customers are very satisfied with their service. As a whole, AT&T has a satisfaction rate of 68%.

The Yankee Group concluded this to be quite the head scratcher, claiming that the “Reality Distortion Field” of Apple and Steve Jobs attributed to the iPhone’s praises rubbing off onto the carrier. I’m a Verizon customer myself, so I can’t comment on these claims, but of the readers here who live in the states, what do you think of AT&T?

[CNN Money via MacRumors]

Dragon Dictation Updated with Social Features, iOS 4 Support

I’ve reviewed Dragon Dictation (the iPad version) before on MacStories, and it’s really spectacular for patients dealing with RSI injuries and arthritis. TUAW reports that the latest update brings a pop-up toolbar that allows you speak a status update and send those messages to Facebook, Twitter, the iPhone SMS client, or the clipboard. Also available is the ability to save states between phone call interruptions.

Dragon Dictation is free as a universal application in the iTunes App Store. You can download it here.

[via TUAW]