“Innovative, Category-Killer Experience” Key Requirement For A Cheaper iPhone

After meeting two Apple executives on Wednesday, RBC Capital Markets has revealed a set of “key takeaways” and have noted that Apple wouldn’t introduce a low-end iPhone unless the device is an “innovative, category-killer experience”. Analyst Mike Abramsky met with Apple COO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer and notes that the condition is Apple’s primary requirement for a low-end iPhone.

It certainly sounds like a fairly obvious statement when looking at Apple’s recent product releases but it is well worth noting after numerous reports of a ‘cheaper’ iPhone launching this year – most of which cite financial reasons and developing country markets for the introduction of such a device.

Some of the other takeaways from Abramsky’s meeting with the Apple executives includes the fact that iCloud will be ready for “significant scale” when launching this fall after Apple learnt lessons from MobileMe. He also says that despite Android’s success in recent years, Apple has maintained “sustained advantages” over their competitors and should be able to do fine despite an “expected explosion of low-priced Android smartphones”.

Concluding his notes from the meeting he agrees with Apple’s executives that the company has an “untapped global opportunity” and maintains a $500 price for Apple stock and ‘outperform’ rating for the company.

[Via AppleInsider]

Banca for iPhone Giveaway


You’ve read the review. Banca is a downright beautiful currency converter for the iPhone, quickly enabling you to convert dollars to euros and australian bills with a couple swipes and a few button presses. Need to figure out how many Washingtons that swank Italian leather jacket is going to cost you? Whip out the iPhone, tap the lower Euro amount, and enter that 250 to get good ol’ USD in return. You’ve got all of the world’s currencies at your fingertips from South America to the outskirts of China, and a simple arithmetic calculator so you can quickly add up totals without having to leave the app. Beautiful, simple, customizable, and good to have on you when traveling, Banca is perhaps the most useful gadget you’ll have on your iPhone if you spend dough overseas. Banca by Radiant Tap is currently $1.99 in the App Store.

For our MacStorians, we’re giving away five copies so you too can translate currencies (like a boss) in the palm of your hand — no Google search required. Check past the break for all the details.

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OmniVision Reveals New 8 MP Image Sensor, Better And Smaller Than Ever

OmniVision today revealed details of a new 8 MP image sensor that is 20% thinner than modules available on the market today. The 8-megapixel OV8850, which they are marketing as “the first CameraChip™ sensor built on a 1.1-micron OmniBSI-2 pixel architecture” is just a quarter of an inch thick and designed for implementation and smartphones and tablets.

With our new OmniBSI-2 architecture, we have further miniaturized our pixels while delivering a 20 percent improvement in peak quantum efficiency in all color channels, a 35 percent improvement in low-light sensitivity and a 45 percent increase in full-well capacity in an extremely compact and power efficient package

The module has also made improvements in its power efficiency and image quality – further making it a good fit for next generation mobile devices. 1080p/30 video recording is also supported but more interesting is that it supports 720p/60 with electronic image stabilization.

This new image sensor is set to go into mass production early next year, so it probably won’t feature in this year’s iPhone refresh – but it gives you an idea of how these tiny cameras are constantly improving and shrinking in size. An OmniVision image sensor currently resides in the iPhone 4 and reports from earlier this year suggest the company (perhaps with Sony) will also contribute an image sensor to the iPhone 5.

Gmail: Now Pull to Refresh and Retina Display Ready

Use Gmail on your iPhone? There’s an update waiting for you when you log in, including sharper graphics that shine on the iPhone 4’s Retina display. The  new graphics were a highly requested feature by Gmail users, and now Google’s gone and made everything prettier so their web interface doesn’t look as fuzzy or pixelated on our high resolution phones. And hey - now it feels like it belongs!

Want to refresh your inbox or a conversation? Simply pull down to refresh. Gmail now lets you refresh your inbox naturally, and you keep the conversation going if you’re rapid replying to a friend’s or coworkers email.

Finally, there’s some new transitions you can check out. As you navigate across Gmail, sliding transitions help create flow while generally looking pretty — it’s that final polish that iOS users come to expect on all apps (native or web).

There you go kids. A better Gmail for iOS.

[via The Official Gmail Blog]

By The Numbers: What Can An OWC 6G SSD Do For Your 2011 Mac mini?→

By The Numbers: What Can An OWC 6G SSD Do For Your 2011 Mac mini?

But if you’re into audio editing, video editing, or doing anything else that reads and writes large amounts (or several small amounts) of data – there’s just no substitute for a SATA Revision 3.0 capable SSD such as the OWC Mercury EXTREME 6G SSD. The speeds are well over twice as fast [as Apple’s SSD] boasting 506MB/s read speeds and 432MB/s write speeds from a single drive!

Then we tested two OWC Mercury EXTREME 6G SSD in a RAID 0 configuration (on the server model of Mac mini – again we’re looking into how to get a second hard drive into the consumer model, but that will be another blog post down the road after we figure it all out) we got Thunderbolt-saturating speeds averaging 995MB/s and 994MB/s for read and write speeds respectively.

When I put a Mercury EXTREME 3G into my MacBook, cold boot times were reduced from a minute thirty to just 25 seconds — reboots are even faster. OWC knows their stuff, and their USA grade solid state drives are impressive as always. With the Mac Mini, they found they could achieve more than 10x the speed of a conventional hard drive, and over 4x the speed over Apple’s SSD with their setups. Regardless of whether you choose Apple’s or OWC’s Mercury EXTREME 6G SSDs, the performance boost over a traditional hard drive is stunning.

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150 Million Photos Uploaded on Instagram So Far

When you launch one of the world’s most popular photo service, how long does it take to reach 150 million uploads? Only nine months according to Instagram, whom launched their slam-dunk-app back in October of 2010. Instagram is celebrating this afternoon by showing off their favorite Instagram photos, and noting the success of their app thanks to the seven million users who’ve downloaded the app since its inception. That’s seven million people uploading at a rate of fifteen photos per second. Instagram’s success is well deserved: those guys got a top-notch formula down. From the Instagram team:

We’re constantly amazed by the range of photos shared on Instagram. People use Instagram to snap photos of everyday moments with friends and family and also to document significant personal moments, like weddings and honeymoons. There are Instagram photos from major events like the World Series and the Grammys, and some Instagram photos have even made the national news. Artists and celebrities have begun to give fans a unique look into their lives through photos, while brands like Burberry have started to realize the power of communicating with their followers through images.

Here’s to another 150 million.

For the post picture, we’ve re-posted the 150,000,000th photo according to Instagram from user @janefot. It’s a great pic too!

[Instagram blog via The Next Web]

Apple’s Training Site Back With Lion, FCP X Certifications

As noted by TUAW, Apple’s training website has come back online with new OS X Lion certifications and training courses – some of them “coming soon” and others starting “this fall”. The training website is available at training.apple.com and it’s also received a facelift with a cleaner design, and plenty of OS X Lion and Final Cut Pro X graphics.

Indeed, the New Releases section on the site points to new FCP X training and exams, OS X Lion training and exams, as well as new Mac Integration Basics. IT professionals willing to support and learn about new OS X technologies might want to look at the new Lion courses coming this fall to Apple Authorized Training Centers worldwide. Books and resources are already available online and others will soon be for pre-order, and the new 10.7 certifications coming this fall will include:

  • Apple Certified Associate: Mac Integration 10.7
  • Apple Certified Support Professional 10.7
  • Apple Certified Technical Coordinator 10.7

The Mac Integration Basics 10.7 exam “will be available soon” according to the Training website, but full documentation has already been posted online for download as PDF or iBookstore guide. On the other hand, those interested in Final Cut Pro X certification can watch Final Cut Pro X Apple Pro Video Training, with classes coming “soon” worldwide.

Snow Leopard certification and courses are still available and according to Apple will remain online until January 2012.

iPhone and iPad Dominate Smartphone and Tablet Choices for Small and Medium Businesses

The iPhone and iPad are leading the charge in small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) for smartphones and tablets according to Intermedia. In a study by Intermedia, who handles 350,000 premium hosted Microsoft Exchange servers, Apple’s iOS devices are dominating the stats when it comes to ActiveSync activations performed by the company. The iPhone has an overwhelming 57% coverage in this bracket and the iPad has 21% as well. That leaves only about 22% for competitors such as Motorola, HTC and others. The nearest competition to the iPad’s 21% is Motorola with only 9%. See above graphic for full stats.

The graph data compares the use of ActiveSync devices in Intermedia’s clientele. ActiveSync is the syncing protocol that smartphones use to sync email and other information with Microsoft Exchange. Intermedia supports email, contact and calendar syncing for smartphones, including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows 7 phones.

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