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Posts tagged with "apple"

Dear Apple, This Is What I Want On The iPad

I’ve been playing around with my iPad for three months now, and it has definitely changed many things in the way I approach my job, Twitter, news and the web in general. Is it magical? Yes, it is. Is it magical enough to completely reinvent the way people think of mobile devices? Maybe, but it’s personal.

The iPad is a highly personal device. Even more than the iPhone, which is and always will ultimately be a phone, the iPad has no defined purpose. Sure, Apple says that it’s the best way to read emails, surf the web and watch movies, but it’s up to you to turn the tablet into your machine. A productivity machine, an entertainment one or a gaming device? Your call.

For as much as I enjoy using my iPad, there are some things I’m missing. Features, let’s just say. Whether it’s about hardware adjustments I’d like to see, or software updates coming in the next months, I’ve put together a list of “stuff I want on the iPad”.

Maybe you’ll find something that you want in there, too.

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Will the MacBook Air be the First to Embrace a new Design Concept?

Apple’s flagship products consist of their Macs and MacBooks, but nobody really thinks of the MacBook Air as a machine that would showcase new concepts which in turn could be later introduced into the rest of Apple’s product-line. Though I have my own thoughts about why a MacBook Air totally shouldn’t be replaced by an iPad (it’s an amazing machine), Cupertino might be prepping to blow our minds with its next vital update. It’ll no longer be a product that says, “Look what we can do!” Rather, it’ll be a product that implements new technologies and reveals where Apple is planning to take their entire MacBook line.

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Apple Fires Back At Nokia with N97 Antenna Performance Video

Well, this is shaping up to be an interesting war between cellphone makers about who’s got the tightest grip on…whatever. Customers or devices? As you maybe have read, Nokia responded to Apple’s Antennagate with this statement:

“In general, antenna performance of a mobile device/phone may be affected with a tight grip, depending on how the device is held. That’s why Nokia designs our phones to ensure acceptable performance in all real life cases, for example when the phone is held in either hand. Nokia has invested thousands of man hours in studying how people hold their phones and allows for this in designs, for example by having antennas both at the top and bottom of the phone and by careful selection of materials and their use in the mechanical design.”

And they sounded pretty serious about it. Too bad the folks at Cupertino have just posted a new video showing the Death Grip killing a Nokia N97 reception.

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Steve Jobs: “We have amazing new products coming this year”

Apple has just posted the official financial results for its fiscal 2010 third quarter, and once again they broke records established just a few months earlier in the first quarter.

Skimming through the press release this caught my attention:

“It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple’s history with iPhone 4,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”

Of course they have new products coming this year. He’s stating the obvious, but let me make a few considerations about it. The iPod Touch is set to go under a major overhaul in September, perhaps with the addition of a camera and FaceTime capabilities. We can pretty much bet on it.

What intrigues me is thinking about new Apple TVs and new Macbooks for the holiday season. Apple TV has been marked as a hobby many times in the past, but judging from Apple’s press releases and conferences, they keep on mentioning the device as if they’re teasing us. And what about Macs, which had the most successful quarter ever? What about rumors of Mac OS X 10.7 approaching advanced development stages?

My best guess is, Apple will roll out new Apple TVs (perhaps with Magic Trackpads) later this year, together with new Macbooks by the holiday season and new iPod Touches in September.

The Mac isn’t dead. The iPad 2 won’t be released until next year. Steve, surprise us.

Apple Breaking Records with Third Quarter Results

Apple has just announced their third quarter fiscal results for 2010. 3.47 million Macs were sold this quarter, setting a quarterly record with a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. iPod sales have predictably declined by 8 percent over the year-ago quarter, all while Apple managed to sell 9.41 million units. 8.4 million iPhones have been sold, representing a 61 precent increase, with 3.21 million iPads sold.

These are incredibly positive numbers for Apple all around, and Cupertino is claiming new records have been broken with record revenue earnings increase of 78 percent – a revenue of 15.7 billion dollars, with a new quarterly profit of 3.25 billion.

From Apple’s press statement:

“We’re really pleased to have generated over $4 billion of cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue of about $18 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $3.44”

Steve Jobs is reported as saying, “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”

The numbers for Macs sold are quite amazing, especially as people expected sales to be cannibalized by the iPad. Even when Apple’s not showcasing their prime product, Macs are practically flying off the shelves.

You can catch Apple’s entire third quarter press release here.

Apple Planning to Charge for iOS 4 on iPad? Spoiler: No.

Earlier today Stuff reported that, according to their source, Apple is planning to charge for iOS 4 upgrade on iPad. This is the original report:

“The top secret plans were whispered to Stuff by an anonymous source. There are no details of how much Apple will charge for the upgrade, but we’d expect in the region of £5.

Asked how sure they were about the forthcoming iOS 4 charge, our source replied, “Definite.” And we don’t think they’re wrong.”

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