Rumor of Sony Camera In iPhone 5 A Misunderstanding?

During the weekend, a rumor about Sony being selected by Apple as the only supplier for the image sensors in the next-generation iPhone quickly made the rounds of the Internet following some statements from Sony’s CEO Howard Stringer in an interview with Walt Mossberg at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The report came as a surprise to Apple fans and market watchers as the company has been using camera lenses provided by OmniVision in the iPhone 3GS (3.2 MP), iPhone 4 ( 5 MP), iPod touch 4th gen. and iPad 2 for the past few years.

The rumor suggested that, due to the earthquake and tsunami that damaged Sony’s Japanese facility in Sendai, shipments of image sensors to Apple would be delayed.

Stringer just said that their camera image sensor facility in Sendai was affected by the tsunami. Getting image sensors to Apple will be delayed.

The Wall Street Journal also published a blog post with a partial transcript of the interview:

Early on, he raised the irony of Sony supplying camera components for Apple devices. It “always puzzles me,” he said. “Why would I make Apple the best camera?”

It is unclear what devices he was talking about as Sony isn’t known to supply key camera components, known as image sensors, to Apple; A Sony spokeswoman declined to comment and an Apple spokesperson couldn’t be reached for comment.

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Pogoplug iPhone App Updated With New UI and Faster Media Players

If your digital life is in the cloud as much as mine is, you’ve probably heard of the Pogoplug: in its Pro version, the $99 device can be configured on your local network to share content from attached external drives over the Internet. That means your music, movies and photos stored on regular USB drives can be easily accessed from anywhere thanks to the Pogoplug’s sharing capabilities; plus, the device also allows you to share files, “cloud print” and add unlimited storage as long as you keep attaching external drives to the Pogoplug. Basically, it’s a great way to put your media library in the cloud with minimal setup and, at the same time, get a bunch of additional features depending on the Pogoplug you choose. The great news is, Pogoplug is getting a lot better for iOS users thanks to the recent 4.0 update for the iPhone app.

Pogoplug 4.0 for iPhone adds a new dashboard design with slick icons that allow you to easily navigate between the various sections of the app; among these, a completely new music player that sports new indexing features which don’t force you anymore to manually load songs by letter from the library, but continually index the existing contents of your Pogoplug. The music player is faster, works in the background, and it’s got a new bottom toolbar to switch between songs, artists, albums and genres. The photo and video players have been updated in version 4.0, too, with a cleaner look and faster performances.

Last, the entire file browsing section of the iPhone app got a facelift and a huge speed boost to feel more stable and responsive. As reported by Peter Redmer at Pogoplugged, “navigating through your multiple Pogoplugs, attached drives, and desktops is now much easier and more streamlined”.

You can find the Pogoplug app for iPhone here. You can check out Pogoplug devices on the official website.

 

Q&A: MLB.com Boss Bob Bowman on Android Owners, Facebook Video and Apple’s Subscription Rules→

Q&A: MLB.com Boss Bob Bowman on Android Owners, Facebook Video and Apple’s Subscription Rules

Peter Kafka: You’ve complained publicly before about the difficulty in supporting multiple flavors of Android for your apps. But this year you’ve expanded the number of Android handsets you’re supporting from 6 to 11. Did you ever consider not working with Android at all?

Bob Bowman: The short answer is no. But what we have done is that we don’t support every Android phone. Because at some point, it’s diminishing returns. The Android user typically is less likely to buy, and therefore the ROI on developing for Android is different than it is for Apple.

In comparison, the NFL Network announced that 76% of NFL Mobile Only From Verizon customers subscribed to watch video of Combine events, with a 128 percent increase in NFL.com’s total video streams from last year. The NFL Network also announced a record 2010 season with 6.6 million viewers.

In the first season of NFL Mobile Only from Verizon, a record number of fans turned to their mobile devices for NFL coverage as NFL Mobile is one of Verizon’s most successful apps.

The success of NFL Mobile was only available to select Android phones on Verizon, and I’d argue the MLB would do just fine support a few of the worth mentioning Android phones in the market. Kafka and Bowman also discuss Apple’s subscription model, and the MLB’s desire in primarily supporting the iPhone and iPad.

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Official Facebook App Updated, Gets Map View and “Unfriend”

An update to the official Facebook app for iPhone was released in the App Store a few minutes ago, and it adds a number of new functionalities and design improvements. The app, which reaches version 3.4, introduces a new Map view for Facebook Places: friends that have checked in places nearby are now displayed through thumbnail previews on a Google Map; also, the app can now let you check in to Events you’re attending.

The app feels slightly faster and more responsive than before; the News Feed and Notifications UI have been improved (although I still haven’t noticed visible changes) and, overall, switching between sections from the main dashboard should be snappier now.

Perhaps more importantly, Facebook now lets you “unfriend” people directly from the iPhone. Tap on the Friends tab, select a person and hit “Unfriend” in the action button. Previously, this feature was only available on the desktop.

You can find Facebook for iPhone here. More screenshots below.

Update: MG Siegler at TechCrunch details how the new event check-ins work:

To be able to check-in to an event you have to (obviously) be invited and RSVP’d “yes” to attending. Your location also has to match the location of the listed event venue, and it has to be the correct time of the event. All of this will help with gaming.

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Social and App Tabs to Play Big Role in Firefox 5

Mozilla has stepped up to the plate with their launch of Firefox 4, which has now garnered well over 59 million downloads as of its launch on March 22nd. With App Tabs, much improved performance, and some incredible features like Panorama baked right in, I’ve adopted Firefox 4 as my browser of choice for the time being over Chrome and Safari. While I leave my love of WebKit behind (perhaps only temporarily), ConceivablyTech dug into the Firefox UX planning pages to give us a glimpse of what’s next for Firefox 5.

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Switching From MobileMe to Google Sync

As you might have read if you follow me on Twitter, my MobileMe subscription expired last week. In the past year, I’ve relied on MobileMe’s services (but not the webapp) for syncing all my contacts, calendars, emails and bookmarks from the desktop to the cloud and back to iOS devices such as my iPhone 4 and iPad. But when the subscription was nearing its expiration date (Apple notifies you weeks before with a series of emails and a brief note on Me.com), I was left with a question: should I renew? Considering all the rumors about MobileMe being completely revamped and going free we’ve heard in the past months, I was skeptical about a renewal because I didn’t want to pay for a service that is likely going through some major changes and won’t no longer be supported (at least in its current iteration) a year from now. And even if I still have access to some sections of my old MobileMe account (mail, contacts and Find My iPhone), I decided that renewing wasn’t simply worth it and it was time for me to find an alternative – even a temporary one until MobileMe is updated to include new features and pricing schemes. That alternative is Google Sync, and here’s my experience so far. Read more

AViiQ Announces Smart Case for iPad 2

AViiQ has already announced a spectacular 2011 lineup, and today AViiQ is introducing the Smart Case for the iPad 2. Available in in Black, Silver, Red, and in colors to match your polyurethane Smart Covers, AViiQ’s Smart Case for the iPad 2 is designed to work with the hot iPad accessory you already own. The shell protects the back of your iPad 2, while giving you access to all of the iPad’s controls without sacrificing wireless connectivity or function. Designed to match and work in conjunction your Smart Cover, the Smart Case rounds out the full bodied protection you desire. You can pre-order AViiQ’s Smart Case for your iPad 2 right now at AViiQ.com for $49.99. You can catch the press release after the break.

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#MacStoriesDeals - Monday

If you didn’t already know, we’ve set up a new twitter account for Deals, it’s @MacStoriesDeals. We’ll tweet the daily deals there as well as exclusive weekend deals too. Help spread the word! Here are today’s deals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get ‘em while they’re hot!

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This Album Was Recorded Entirely In GarageBand for iPad

As noted by Jim Dalrymple at The Loop, we knew this was going to happen. Ever since the release of GarageBand for iPad, I have wondered: “when will someone come out with an album recorded entirely using this app?” Well, someone did, and the album is now available for download on iTunes.

This is not the first time musicians have shown interest in Apple’s iPad as a content creation platform for music. The Gorillaz, for example, released last year a new album completely realized using music apps available in the App Store. Similarly, hundreds of videos surfaced on Youtube and other social media websites showing people making music on the iPad or doing live performances with the tablet and other iOS devices. This new experiment from pop punk band The Ultramods relies on Apple’s GarageBand software for the recording of digital instruments, and voice through the iPad’s mic.

Pop punk band The Ultramods on Monday released its latest album that was done using GarageBand for iPad’s eight-track recording studio. All of the instruments used to record the album come bundled in GarageBand, according to the band.

The Ultramods’ “Underwear Party” is available now at $9.99 in the iTunes Store. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not Damon Albarn will consider GarageBand’s features for a new, digital-only Gorillaz record.