Apple’s $1 billion million data center in Maiden, North Carolina is where iTunes in the cloud will live. And the Mac App Store. And MobileMe. And whatever Apple has in mind for its cloud-based features.
According to a report by DataCenterKnowledge, the data center “is expected to begin operations any day now”. Which means it’s ready, and as Apple promised in July it’ll be up and running before the end of the year. Read more
Apple has wanted to put a location aware app on your phone for a while now. Specifically, Apple envisions a future where your phone integrates into various retail stores and commercial establishments (such as libraries) through temporary, location based applications. A source close with MacStories has informed us that we could begin seeing some of this technology arriving as early as next week in Apple’s own retail stores.
MG Siegler:
Yours truly, two days ago:
Either “micro” or “simple”, it is clear that the biggest issue Apple has to face is convincing the big names to jump on board. Or maybe Apple doesn’t need them, as they’ll come back on their own once they’ll see the money “simple micro apps” can make.
Remember when the iPod used to be the most important product for Apple? Now it’s all about the iPhone and iPad. The Mac’s coming back (and frankly, with Lion and the Mac App Store what a comeback), and the iPod sales are slowing down.
The chart below, Sonic-style, gives you an idea of how times change. [via Fortune] Read more
FullScreen for Safari is a great tweak available in Cydia at $1.49 which I previously reviewed here, that brings a lot more features to Apple’s default browser. Fullscreen navigation mode, gestures, customizable activation methods for almost anything you can do with Safari but Apple doesn’t let you act on.
FullScreen for Safari is undoubtedly the best way to make the best mobile browser out there even better. Read more
With iLife ‘11, Apple implemented a lot more social features to better integrated the desktop suite with social networks such as Flickr, Facebook, Vimeo and Youtube. As spotted by HDBlog (Google Translation), iMovie’11 can upload 1080p HD videos directly to Youtube without having to trick the application in god knows what obscure way as in the previous editions of iMovie. Read more
So how well is the iPad doing, exactly? Apple sold 7.46 million units since the release date through September 25th; analysts regard the iPad as the fastest selling consumer electronic device in history. How about the Mac? It outsold Apple’s computers too, in just two quarters.
Take a look at the chart below, courtesy of Horace Dediu. The iPad has been around for 6 months; Macs have been on the market for 322 months. Oh, and it’s not that Macs have slowed down: they’ve grown faster than the overall PC industry.
I don’t know what to think anymore, but to me it seems like this is just a big and confused mess over some carrier restrictions. Oh, and lots of PR gone wrong. Anyway, FaceTime in the Middle East countries: does it work? Yes and no. Yes, you can find a way to make it work, like buying a European iPhone unit. No, Apple doesn’t support it and it’s doing everything they can to remove FaceTime mentions and features from certain countries. Why? “Carrier issues”, or so they say.
How about FaceTime for Mac? You guess: Apple didn’t include Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Egypt in the preferences, SaudiMac reports. What’s interesting is that Jordan and Qatar made the list, even though they don’t support FaceTime on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Heh. Still, if you change your country to United States you’ll be able to use FaceTime for mac even from one of the countries not officially supported.
What a mess.
