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Posts tagged with "apple"

OpenDNS May Slow Down Your Apple TV Streaming

I noticed this issue last week and I thought it was, once again, my ISP’s fault. The Vodafone Station connection I have here doesn’t exactly play well with…anything. Basically, I tried to set up the device using OpenDNS and I saw streaming speed of iTunes content go terribly down – even lower than what I’m used to with the Vodafone Station. It turns out, though, that it might not be Vodafone’s fault at all this time. Instead, it appears that the Apple TV doesn’t play nice with third-party DNS providers such as Google’s DNS or OpenDNS.

According to TUAW, developer Joe Maller and quite a few users on Apple’s discussion boards, setting different DNS other than your ISP’s in the Apple TV can cause iTunes to take even hours to start a streaming session. Maller’s Apple TV took 2 hours to start streaming content under a 20 Mbs connection. Read more

Why Half-Life 1 For Mac Never Came Out→

Why Half-Life 1 For Mac Never Came Out

Jump to the 16-minute mark for the juicy bits. Basically, the game was ready and the developers even managed to deploy a system that allowed Mac and PC users to play together on a special server. The game had a few bugs but was a few weeks away from golden master. Retail stores orders were coming in.

It was done. So why didn’t it come out? Hint: Apple.

[Cocoia via Reddit]

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First Free Download Shows Up in “iTunes 12 Days of Christmas” App

This morning my iPhone sent me a push notification to let me know that a new download was available in the “iTunes 12 Days of Christmas” app. I immediately realized that was strange, as we previously reported Apple’s annual promotion (for European users) should be running from December 26 until January 6. Why sending out a push notification on December 17?

The download is an EP by Kylie Minogue called “A Christmas Gift”, but as you can guess it seems to be an error on Apple’s end. As you tap on the download button, you’re brought to the iTunes app which returns an error and says the item is not available.

Perhaps “A Christmas Gift” will be the first free album to download on the 26. If not, well – at least the music introduction Apple put into the app this morning is pretty sweet. Read more

Apple Tweaks Online Store With “Popular Configurations”

As noted by TUAW , Apple silently updated the online Store to introduce a neat little feature: popular configurations for Macs. Just right ahead of Christmas, Apple is now showcasing popular setups such as “MacBook with larger hard drive” or “MacBook with more RAM” to make it easy for people to get around specs and “build the system of their dreams” (actual words from the Apple Store).

I think this is a very welcome new feature in the Store which will surely help the less tech-savvy wanna-be Apple users get the most out of their computers, and wallets. Not everyone knows what HDD 320GB 5200 rpm means, MacBook “with larger hard drive” just sounds better. Typical Apple move to streamline the experience, if you ask me.

Check out the new Configure page here.

The iPad: 50,000 Apps In 8 Months

The iPad was released on April 3rd in the United States. That was 257 days ago. The iPad App Store, launched on the same day, now has over 50,000 apps. It’s got 51,295 apps to be exact, at the moment of writing this. It only took 8 months for Apple to reach this milestone, but it’s been kind of an unstoppable growth.

In the past months, in fact, we have seen how the iPad App Store was growing to accommodate more apps every month. 10,000 apps in June. 20,000 apps in August. Then, more than 40,000 apps only 24 days ago, when iOS 4.2 was released to the public. We can argue that the App Store (for iPad and iPhone) is increasingly becoming a place for games, rather than standard “apps”, but still – these are the numbers. And even if using and getting a device to fit in our daily lives has really nothing to do with numbers, this is an achievement Apple is going to rely on for months to come.

50,000 apps available for the iPad isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? Thinking about the Mac apps ready to go on sale in another App Store.

Should Apple Own Factories Again?→

Should Apple Own Factories Again?

Horace Dediu:

I’m not an expert in this area, but as a student of disruption I see signs of opportunity to re-engineer the manufacturing business model. The patterns from history are plain to see: Centralized systems get broken down and re-aligned with new bases of competition. Value chains disintegrate and re-integrate as profit algorithms change.

The new algorithm says you need to ramp production quickly (up and down) and to increase “product turns” from one to two each year. Each ramp needs to be even bigger than they are now. Maybe by a factor of two. Products should be built closer to where they are consumed to drive costs and delays out of transportation and tariffs. Carbon footprints need to be reduced.

Sounds daunting. But the rewards could be enormous.

Give Ive his own factory ? Just think about it.

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Toshiba Denies Rumors Of Apple’s Interest In Toshiba Mobile Display

Yesterday we reported that, according to the Nikkei business daily, Toshiba was building a $1.19 billion factory “mainly to supply to Apple Inc’s iPhones”. That’s quite a statement, as it would imply that Cupertino is somehow interested in expanding its mobile display supply chain.

Digitimes has posted a follow-up to the story:

Toshiba has denied rumors that Apple will invest in the new production plant of its small- to medium-size panel subsidiary, Toshiba Mobile Display (TMD).

Panel makers indicated that the rumors could make sense because of limited capacity for LTPS in the market, as well as the possibility to develop AMOLED solutions by leveraging the LTPS production line.

Expect more to come up in the next weeks.

The First iAd for iPad Is Coming This Afternoon [Update: Screenshots]

According to AdAge, Apple will launch its first iAd for the iPad later today. The iAd will feature Disney’s blockbuster movie “Tron Legacy” and, according to an Apple spokesperson, it’ll be the only iAd to appear on the tablet this year.

The format, designed to maximize the ad potential of Apple’s tablet computer, will be launched widely in early 2011 when other ads start flowing onto the platform.

Like its iPhone and iPod Touch predecessors, the first iPad iAd is chock-full of the rich graphics, touch navigation and video native to apps.

The full-screen ad will allow users to enjoy 10 minutes of footage, use a theater locator to check on where they can go see Tron: Legacy, preview the soundtrack in-ad with the possibility to directly download it from iTunes – again, without leaving the ad. The preview should go live in a few hours in apps such as TV Guide which was updated on November 30th to vaguely include support for iOS 4.2. I just fired up the app and the iAd isn’t showing up yet.

In November, Apple announced that it would bring iPhone’s iAds to Europe starting with an exclusive Renault campaign to showcase the Twizy car. Apple has also teamed up with brand agency Dentsu to bring iAd to Japan in 2011.

Update: Screenshots of the Tron: Legacy iAd below. Read more