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May 11
Listen up, Apple is eyeing the future of voice...

"TechCrunch" (http://macte.ch/UNEAw) is reporting that Apple is hammering out a deal with Nuance, which specializes in speech software and voice recognition technology, to either license its technology or (less likely) buy the company outright. It's a match that makes sense.

After all, Apple introduced voice control on the iPhone with iOS 3.0. The company is likely planning on extending this functionality -- and perhaps bringing voice recognition to the Mac in ways beyond what's been accomplished before.

According to "The Next Web" (http://macte.ch/Dfd7f), Siri uses Nuance to do the "heavy lifting" of processing speech into data. It then interprets and uses that data in interesting ways -- like firing up an app, writing a text message or checking email.

"TechCrunch" says Apple will announce the Nuance partnership at next month's...

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May 11
Greg's Bite: Ballmer the great deal maker

By Greg Mills

Someone needs to explain the concepts behind selling things at a profit and buying things competitively to Microsoft's Steve Ballmer. The conversation ought to be in one syllable words, quit simple, so he can understand.    

One might imagine selling the rights for to use a fresh mobile OS to the biggest cell phone company on the planet (for the time being) would net you a chunk of change enough to retire on. The great dealmaker Ballmer actually agreed to pay one billion dollars to Nokia for them switching to Windows Mobile 7.  

Nokia had already publicly indicated they were throwing in the towel on their own mobile OS efforts, so Ballmer had them over a barrel. Smelling blood in the water, like a great white shark, Ballmer circled his prey and then viciously bit his own foot off.  

Now, anxious to outdo his Nokia deal making blunder, rumors are that Microsoft has agreed to pay US$4.5 billion more than...

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May 10
Greg's Bite: The Skype deal

By Greg Mills

When Thomas Edison invented the telephone, he and his associates just strung wire between the phones, no matter how far apart they were. Each city had one or more switching stations so wires between cities could be hooked up between users and the long distance lines on each end.  

Remember long distance phone bills? I can remember not that long ago playing musical phone companies to get the lowest prices for long distance. In those days long distance was often more than your local service each month.

What changed all that was the simple notion that the owners of long distance lines ought to be forced to share that capacity with competing services. The FCC made it competitive for companies that got into the long-distance business since they all had access to what had been a monopoly owned by AT&T. That was the giant AT&T of 20 years ago. The AT&T of today is a radically different animal.

The same notion of...

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May 10
Don't hold your breath for ARM-based Macs anytime...

The SemiAccurate (http://macte.ch/LUHV) web site generated a lot of discussion over the weekend when it said that Apple was planning to dump Intel from its laptop lines within 2-3 years. That's an interesting idea, and perhaps it's on target, but I don't think that's going to happen.

But first, some background. Here's part of SemiAccurate's report: "The short story is that Apple is moving the laptop line, and presumably desktops too, to ARM based chips as soon as possible. With A15/Eagle allowing more than 32-bit memory access, things look up, but it seems silly to do so before the full 64 bit cores come in the following generation. Nvidia is directly telling certain favored analysts that they will have Denver out in Q4 of 2012, maybe Q1/2013, and that uses the full on 64-bit ARM instruction set. It won’t be out by then, but that gives you a good estimation of when that ISA will break cover from one vendor or...

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May 10
Apple patents involve compression/encoding,...

Apple has been granted two patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office.

Patent number 7940843 is for a method of implementing improved rate control for a multimedia compression and encoding system. The rate controller in a digital video encoding system is responsible for allocating a bit budget for video frames to be encoded. The rate controller considers many different factors when determining the frame bit budget. One of the factors considered is the complexity of the frames being compressed. Occasionally there will be a very complex frame that is not representative of the overall video frame sequence. Such a rare complex frame may cause a disproportionate affect on the bit budget allocation.

The system of the present invention limits the amount that a very complex frame can change the bit budget allocation. The rate controller of the present invention also includes a relaxation factor. The relaxation factor allows a user to determine if the...

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May 09
Greg's Bite: Speech -- the next user interface?

By Greg Mills

"Star Trek" has a rosy view of the future where hunger and want are historic, and computers listen to users to input information. To access a computer you say "computer," and then give your command or search information. You dictate text and it just appears on the screen. That is a cool concept and it has been hinted at for years on PCs of both stripes.

Speech interpretation is problematic for a number of reasons. Background noise we instinctively tune out easily confuses speech recognition. Strong accents also tend to stumble speech recognition. Once the bugs are fixed, the potential is amazing. The form of speech software to come may be pretty interesting. The old system of speech recognition was for the local computer to do the work of interpreting the sounds into text. The next generation of speech-totext involved the cloud.  

I have a number of MP3 audio files I would really love to convert to text, to clean it up and publish...

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May 09
Greg's Bite: The Daily bleeds $10 million

By Greg Mills

Bleeding, as a medical therapy, is one of those historic absolutely backwards things that were done in Medieval ignorance. Someone who is already weak from an illness would be bled every day to get rid of the "bad blood."

There is no way of knowing how many people died from the bleeding treatment instead of what they were trying to be cured of. We know now there is no such thing as bad blood or good blood.

In business there is normally a period of time where new ventures require an investment to get to a break even point.  Sometimes the venture or new product proves to be so ill-founded the plug is pulled to stop the loss. Recent examples of failed product releases that bad include Microsoft's Kin phone and perhaps RIMs PlayBook. Sometimes the venture or new product turns around and begins to make money and the initial investment is finally paid back, handily.

"The Daily" digital newspaper was launched with great fanfare as...

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May 09
DVD, Blu-ray still dominate home video

While digital home-video options are gaining in popularity and Apple CEO Steve Jobs calls Blu-ray a "bag of hurt," more than three quarters of U.S. consumers continue to view movies on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Nearly 80 cents of every dollar spent on home video movies goes toward the purchase or rental of physical discs.

According to The NPD Group, a leading market research company, consumers are still using DVDs and Blu-ray Disc (BD) to watch movies more than all digital-video options combined. Over the past three months, 77% of consumers reported watching a movie on a DVD or BD, which is unchanged from last year. Those who viewed movies from physical discs reported watching an average of four hours per week, which is also unchanged from the prior year. By comparison 68% watched a movie on a TV or cable network channel, 49%t at a theatre, and 21% used paid video on demand through their TVs.

According to data from NPD's "Entertainment Trends in America" report, when...

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May 06
Will Lion's Server features tempt enterprise...

When the next version of Lion prowls, it will certainly be an interesting critter. In some ways, it's designed to be the ultimate consumer-oriented operating system as it melds iOS and traditional Mac OS elements. In other ways -- or at least one -- it may well appeal to the enterprise.

Lion will include Lion Server at no extra charge. In other words, there'll no longer be separate Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server versions -- there'll just be one Mac OS X. You'll be able to provision any Mac with Lion as a server through a simple setup process.

As Ryan Faas, writing for "Computerworld" (http://macte.ch/PlNri), notes, this move by Apple is pretty surprising, especially if you're used to dealing with Microsoft's client and server products, which are clearly differentiated by features and pricing. Fass says he can't imagine Microsoft ever giving away Windows Server in any form for the price of a client...

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May 05
Rumors of the day: iOS updates, iPad 3, more

Apple will provide over-the-air updates for iOS 5, while the upcoming version of Mac OSX Lion will be delivered via the Mac App Store, according to two separate reports (http://macte.ch/RkI8A). Instead of having users chained to iTunes for their iOS updates, Apple may introduce wireless OS updates, removing the need for a computer in the process.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty says the company sees product cycles as being driven by software rather than hardware and is expected to announce major software updates at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, according to "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com).

The follow-up to the iPad 2 will incorporate a glasses-free 3D screen. The claim comes from an alleged Hollywood insider who told RCR Wireless (...

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May 05
Apple patents involve FaceTime, digital images, more

A handful of Apple patents has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office, several of which relate to the company's iLife suite, FaceTime and Aperture software.

Patent number 20110102457 involves brushing tools for digital image adjustments. Among other things, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for applying an image adjustment to an image. A choice of image adjustments is presented to a user of a data processing device. A user selection is received from among the choice of image adjustments at least one image adjustment that a user desires to apply to an area of interest of the image.

The user selected image adjustment is applied to an entirety of an image. A preview of the user selected image adjustment applied to the entirety of the image is displayed. Also, user input comprising user selection of a brushing application is received. The user selected image adjustment is applied to the area of interest of the image...

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May 05
Greg's Bite: Microsoft buys RIM? LOL

By Greg Mills

Sometimes the synergy of two companies are so symmetrically fitting a merger or takeover is like a marriage made in heaven. Everything just fits like a glove.

Sometimes, such a business marriage is conceived in a far darker and hotter place. PC Magazine's Peter Pachal appears to be having hallucinations or the blue screen of death happened on his PC, once too often. The URL for the story is: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384918,00.asp (this article is best read while eating corn flakes).

Peter Pachal has suggested that in some way Microsoft and RIM could merge and in combination break into Apple's monopoly in the smartphone and tablet markets. This is partly due to a surprise announcement yesterday that RIM will make Bing the default search engine for RIM devices. We don't know how much Microsoft is paying RIM for dumping Google. More on this development later.

If we examine the situation Pachal proposed, one has...

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May 05
Whatever happened to iWork.com?

In 2009, Apple launched its iWork.com site in beta -- and it's been there ever since. That seems likely plenty of time for Apple to work out the kinks, so perhaps a finished version will be part of "iCloud" or "Castle" or whatever Apple's rumored, upcoming cloud service will be dubbed.

iWork.com is designed as a service to share iWork documents online. Using your Apple ID, you click the iWork.com icon in the Keynote, Pages or Numbers toolbar to upload your document and invite others to view it online. Viewers can provide comments and notes, and download a copy of your document in iWork, Microsoft Office or PDF formats. A consolidated online list of all your shared documents indicates when your viewers have posted comments.

The service is still there, and still in beta. Let's hope that one of these days it arrives in finished, polished form.

Let's also hope that iCloud makes it a no-brainer to share documents among multiple Macs and iOS devices. For example, if...

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May 04
Rumors of the day: new Apple hire, Lion, keyboards

According to "Gigaom" (http://macte.ch/yFDta), Apple has reportedly hired Tomlinson Holman as its new audio chief, according to a tweet by Leo Laporte Wednesday morning. Laporte said he had it “on good authority” that Holman “is joining Apple to run audio.” Holman is the brain behind Lucasfilm’s THX sound, and the world’s first 10.2 surround sound system.

According to "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) with the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion this summer, Apple will make the switch to a new kind of digital distribution for its operating system upgrades by releasing the software first through its new Mac App Store. The Mac App Store, available to all users running the most recent version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, will become the de facto method for obtaining the Lion upgrade, the article says, quoting "people familiar...

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May 04
New iMacs offer great bang for the buck

When it comes to bang for your buck, you really can't beat the new iMacs. The all-in-one's rev will certainly spur Apple's desktop sales, which have been slow compared to the company's laptop sales.

It's true that they're not revolutionary updates -- the design is still the same -- but they're substantial updates just the same. Here are some random thoughts on the new desktops.

I had hoped that the new iMacs might sport a "Retina Display," but I didn't really expect them to. Oh well, maybe next time.

A high-DPI mode for resolution independence has purportedly been in development at Apple for a long time and may be coming at long last with Mac OS X Lion. This hints that Apple may expect 200ppi+ laptop and desktop displays to become available during Lion’s lifetime. The system is reliant on pixel doubling and asset redesign, like the move from the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 4, instead of using vector graphics or 3D rendering, meaning this is more about clarity than...

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May 03
Greg's bite: bin Laden iPhone tracked?

By Greg Mills

Sometimes  two elements of current events cross paths.  I just about died laughing at a cartoon I saw where it was implied bin Laden was taken down due to carrying an iPhone.  

The truth is, he didn't trust anything more electronic than a toaster and only toasters without an LED on them. The Australian press ran a story speculating that a million dollar villa that didn't have a telephone or Internet was part of what confirmed to our intelligence agencies that someone who lived there was hiding. The tracking of everything electronic by governments around the world is well known. The extent of that surveillance is not as well known.  

Unlike a lot of people who carry smart phones, the notion that your phone carried a virtual map with dated location points came as a shock to a lot of us. From what I hear, Apple will be removing the location cache held on the computer iOS devices sync with and reducing the maximum location files to...

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May 03
The Mac App Store changing the general perception of...

I'm not sure exactly how many apps are available at the Mac App Store, but there are enough that the perception that there's "no software" for the Mac will vanish -- if it hasn't already.

Also, it seems that the quality of the average app on the Mac App Store is higher than that for a typical iOS device on the Apple App Store. (By the way, don't you think the Apple App Store should be redubbed the iOS App Store? After all, the Mac App Store is as much an "Apple" store as the one for the iPhone, iPad and iPod.)

Joseph Beauliue, senior stock analyst with Morningstar (http://macte.ch/CjURB), an investing research group, also thinks the Mac App Store is going to help Macs in a bit way.

"We think the launch of the Mac Application Store (patterned after the iTunes Application Store) could help Apple maintain or accelerate its pace of market share gains," he writes. "Historically, one of the biggest...

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May 03
Apple patents involve image databases, display signals...

A handful of Apple patents have appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each.

Patent number 7936946 is for migration of an old image database. Techniques are described for causing digital image data to be interpreted according to a particular technique of a plurality of techniques. According to an embodiment, digital sensor data is received, and user input is received that specifies which technique of a plurality of techniques to use to generate a display that depicts an unmodified image from the sensor data, wherein each technique of the plurality of techniques generates a display from the sensor data in a different manner than each other technique of the plurality of techniques. The inventors are Nikhil M. Bhatt and Curtis A. Bianchi.

Patent number 79372306 is for a display digital signal visualizations with increasing accuracy. Digital signal visualizations may be displayed with increasing...

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May 02
Notes on the digital lifestyle...

Arbitron (ARB) and Edison Research released a report recently that bodes well for the future of the iPhone and iPad, as well as Apple in general.

ARB and Edison measured affinity for dozens of products and services, and the iPhone was the clear leader with 66% of its users saying they “love it” (on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is “hate it” and 5 is “love it”). The next highest platform was the iPad, with 53% saying they “love” their device.

That said, there's a big opportunity for the Apple in the living room, especially if it beefs up the Apple TV. When given the choice between having to theoretically give up their non-iPhone smartphone or give up TV, nearly six in 10 (58%) non-iPhone smartphone owners would rather eliminate TV from their lives.

The study used a random sample of 2,020 respondents, 12 years of age and older, culled via random digit dialing and from Arbitron Fall 2010 diary keepers. Telephone interviews, which included both landlines and mobile...

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May 02
The Northern Spy: The Good, the Quick and the Big

By Rick Sutcliffe

Apple bids fair to take over the electronic world as iSteve's little Cupertino company doubles revenues year over year, pushes profits to heights not previously imagined, and bids to continue on this path indefinitely.

As previously predicted in this space, many of the purchasers of iProducts are now buying Macs as well, ensuring a growing dominance in that space as more and more people come to realize that it's better to use a real operating system rather than a cheap, buggy knockoff. Eventually business will "get" it too, and when that tide turns, the whole industry will reach a cusp.
Perhaps this past quarter offered a defining moment of sorts, as Apple's profit surpassed that of MS for the first time since the early nineties (by several hundred million, and no looking back). Given that Apple is a relatively high-cost hardware operation, and MS an extremely low marginal cost software house, this is a truly...

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Apr 29
Greg's Bite: RIM stock falls over PlayBook

By Greg Mills

As I have blogged for some time now, the poorly designed RIM PlayBook is tanking. RIM stock dumped 11% of its value after the market closed yesterday.  

RIM has just reported even worse PlayBook launch sales than hoped for; sales that were projected to be in the range of 13 million the first quarter may be way too optimistic. RIM, according to PlayBook teardown parts pricing, ought to make a profit if they could just sell some, but the company seems to be having a hard time convincing even the BlacKBerry faithful they need one.  

As avid a BlackBerry fan as Obama is, he carries an iPad. There has to be a good reason to buy an US$500 electronic toy, and no one has a clue as to what that reason might be to buy RIM's lame slate computer. When you have to tether it to a BlackBerry to get email working, contacts working and other useful apps operating and AT&T won't support the "bridge" app required, PlayBook is...

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Apr 29
Macs doing well in education, but still have room for...

Apple does exceedingly well in the education market, but there's still room for growth, as shown by the "Academic Library Computer Technology Benchmarks" from Research and Markets(http://www.researchandmarkets.com), which looks at the computer use and purchasing plans of academic libraries worldwide.

According to the study, the mean number of personal computers purchased in the 2010-11 academic year by the colleges in the sample was 18.6. Approximately 10.06% of planned acquisitions were for Macs -- less than 1% for community colleges but more than 20% for research universities. The libraries in the sample had a mean stock of only 6.36 dual boot computers that can run both the Mac and Windows operating systems.

Over 10% of planned purchases is substantial, considering Apple has just under 10% personal computer market share in the US and under 5% worldwide. But with the "halo...

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Apr 28
Apple working on fitness app

A new Apple patent (number 20110098156) at the US Patent & Trademark Office shows that Apple is working on a new fitness app.

The patent is entitled "Systems and Methods for Accessing Personalized Fitness Services Using a Portable Electronic Device." It's directed to systems and methods for accessing personalized fitness services through an integrated application available to a portable electronic device.

Apple says the integrated application can provide a full fitness center experience by introducing potential new customer to a fitness center and then motivating them to return to the fitness center as active members. For example, the integrated application can provide functions to introduce new customers to a fitness center, can provide functions to motivate customers to join and actively visit the fitness center, can provide in-gym motivation, and can provide post-workout motivation. Stanley Carl Ng and Michael Hailey are the inventors.

Here's Apple's...

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Apr 28
Apple patent is for a menuing structure for media...

Apple patent (number 20110099519) for a menuing structure for media content has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. It involves the Apple TV and its on-screen menus and its interaction with Macs on a local network.

According to the patent, methods, systems, articles of manufacture, and apparatus for causing a computer system such as a media device to perform operations may include receiving input from the user selecting a media type category, identifying media content items within the selected media category that the user has previously selected for presentation, prioritizing the identified media content items based on a predetermined set of rules, and presenting to the user a menu of at least some of the identified media content items in an order based on a result of the prioritization. The inventors are Jeffrey Ma, Elbert D. Chen, Jeffrey Robbin, Calin Pacurariu, William Martin Bachman and James A. Young.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the...

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Apr 28
Greg's bite: Apple iOS tracking storm blows out

Yesterday Apple released a 10 point information sheet and did an interview that addressed a lot of concerns iOS users had regarding location logs. It turns out that while the outrage has largely melted away with rational explanations for what Apple was doing, they did admit there were "bugs" in the data logging portion of the iOS, that are going to be fixed soon. Apple's explanation mitigates my concerns, but doesn't reassure me that mobile data is as secure as it ought to be.   

I want to apologize to Apple, Steve Jobs and any readers who were unduly alarmed by my reporting of material regarding this subject that I deemed reliable that turns out to be technically a bit off the mark.  I was alarmed myself when I downloaded the tracker app and ran it on my MacBook Pro.  The map of the Kansas City area that popped up showing the contents of the location log stored on my laptop from iPhone sync data was startlingly revealing about my locations during the previous year.  

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Apr 28
Apple, take a hint from Amazon's Kindle's...

Apple should take a hint from Amazon's Kindle Library Lending and implement such a capability for its iBook/iBookstore app/technology for iOS devices.

The Kindle Lending Library is a new feature launching later this year that will allow Kindle customers to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 libraries in the United States. It will be available for all generations of Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps (http://www.amazon.com/kindle).

Customers will be able to check out a Kindle book from their local library and start reading on any Kindle device or free Kindle app for an iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android device, Blackberry, Windows phone, Windows PC or a Mac. If a Kindle book is checked out again or that book is purchased from Amazon, all of a customer’s annotations and bookmarks will be preserved.

Amazon is working with OverDrive, a provider of digital content solutions for...

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Apr 28
Study finds consumers feel stuck with obsolete...

By Andrew Eisner

If you could upgrade your phone right now without paying a penalty, would you go ahead and get that new iPhone or Android smartphone? If you answered yes, you wouldn't be alone, in fact Retrevo recently discovered that a large number of U.S. phone owners say their phone is either currently out of date or will be soon. The fact is, consumers are justified in feeling their phones are obsolete and frustrated by the fact that they can't upgrade them more frequently than every two years.

Manufacturers are flooding the market with new phones at a very fast rate. Retrevo counted more than 120 new smartphones from major vendors over the course of about a year. The problem is that most carriers require you to hold onto a phone for two years before you can upgrade which has created a condition where new phones appear much faster than consumers are allowed to buy them.

Retrevo's Technology Life Cycle analysis engine looked at smartphones...

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Apr 27
Greg's bite: Apple explains the tracking...

By Greg Mills

Sort of an admission and a defense rolled up into one page... 

1. Apple denies ever tracking iPhone or iPads but the explanation doesn't mention the detailed location files with timestamps reported by
some researchers.  Apple claims the file amounts to sort of a map of cell towers and WiFi sources.  More information on the details of the Location logs needs to be given.

2. Users are confused?  Thanks a lot Apple, I will try not to hold my iPhone or iPad wrong.  

3. This answer does not explain GPS coordinates with time stamps found by some researchers.

4. Reducing both the size of the location cache and reducing the length of time it is held are good moves that fulfill privacy demands of uses.

5. The issue isn't as much Apple knowing who the data came from as someone accessing your personal location data without your consent and knowing who's device they are downloading the location information from....

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Apr 27
Are the MacBook's days numbered?

A forum at MacObserver (http://macte.ch/iEa7D) ponders whether the MacBook's days are numbered. It's an interesting discussion -- and I think the consumer portable's days are indeed numbered.

With prices dropping (a little) on the MacBook Air, it could serve as a replacement in some cases for the MacBook, especially if Apple were to offer steep educational discounts. Of course, Apple could introduce an Air with a traditional hard drive instead of a pricey solid state drive, but that's almost certainly not going to happen.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro could also be touted as a replacement for the MacBook Air. The entry-level MB Pro costs US$1,199, which is only 200 bucks more than the MacBook (and that's not figuring in educational discounts). Of course, 200 bucks is a lot of money for students and schools. Apple could probably trim some off the price of a MB Pro by introducing a smaller hard drive -- say,...

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Apr 26
Apple patent looks at reducing LCD display problems

A new Apple patent (number ) at the US Patent & Trademark Office indicates that Apple has perhaps at least considered making a television set, as some folks are predicting. Of course, the patent for "positioning a first surface in a pre-determined position relative to a second surface," can also pertains to an iMac, a Cinema Display, even laptops.

The patent is for a method and an apparatus for positioning a first device in relation to a second device. An optical signal from a first device is sent to a second device. A reflection of the optical signal from the second device is received. A position of one of the devices relative to the other device is adjusted based upon the reflection. Gabriel G. Marcu is the inventor.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "Innovations in the computer display area have resulted in dramatic improvements of products that are used for displaying computer input and output. Monitors attached to computers have...

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Apr 26
Greg's bite: boycott Apple's location...

By Greg Mills

Since writing my somewhat blistering statement on Apple's iOS tracking issue on Monday, the tech press and general press have continued to pontificate wildly on the subject. Someone even claimed to have gotten an email from sjobs@mac.com denying Apple is tracking anyone, but that Android really does actually track people.  

I take sjobs@mac.com rumors with the same skepticism as little green men landing in Washington DC. Perhaps the little green men could be persuaded to kidnap the US Congress should they land in DC.  

In case there is some twisted dialect of the English language (no offense to Southerners with their distinctive speech impediments) where continuously electronically locating someone and creating a secret year long record of where they were, complete with down to the second dated time stamps isn't "tracking people." Let me be...

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Apr 26
How about an iMac with a retina display?


High resolution artwork discovered in the latest build of Mac OS X Lion indicates that Apple could be planning to bring a Retina display to the Mac. If true wouldn't that make a great feature for the next rev of the iMac.

Preview 2 of Lion features icons in sizes up to 1024×1024, and a desktop background at a resolution of 3200×3200. According to "MacRumors" (http://www.macrumors.com), Apple has reportedly built in support for what it calls “HiDPI display modes." These HiDPI modes allow developers to supply 2x-enlarged images to support double-high resolution displays. Like the iPhone 4′s Retina Display, this means that user interface elements will remain the same size, but everything will be twice the resolution and therefore twice as detailed, says "MacRumors."

Imagine a 27-inch iMac (my model of choice) with 3840 x 2160 resolution. The current high-end model has "only" 2560 x 1440 resolution....

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Apr 26
Apple wins patents for sales system, iPhones, iPods

Apple has won several patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office involving its retail stores' sales system, iPhones and iPods.

Patent number 7933807 is for a stored order system for electronic commerce. In other words, it's for the payment system used in Apple retail stores. Per the patent, a stored order system is used with a shopping cart application for an electronic commerce site. The items of each stored order are saved together, which is an advantage when a main item and accessories are combined in an order. Additionally, a stored order can be emailed to another person. The email message allows the recipient to purchase the items of the stored order. The inventors are Eduardo Cue, Daniel Marusich, Glenn D. Epis and Judy D. Halchin.

Patent number 7933123 involves a portable electronic design with two-piece housing -- the design of the iPhone and iPod touch. Portable electronic devices are provided. Each device may be formed...

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Apr 25
Greg's bite: Location iNsecure, a Rotten Apple...

By Greg Mills

Steve Jobs is the new evil Big Brother. I would like to retract my statement posted November 21, 2010: "Jobs and Apple gone evil? Not so." Remember the iconic Apple commercial of the woman running down the aisle and throwing a hammer at the theater screen picture of big brother (as in the Orwellian novel "1984")?   The evil dictator's image was shattered and we all cheered. Could Steve Job's face become the modern big brother image? This sort of location tracking that came to light last week, previously reserved for the most dangerous criminals has been applied to us all by Apple, and for what? So that Apple could sell stinking pizzas!?

As news of the audaciousness of Apple secretly tracking and recording the detailed movements of everyone who innocently purchased the hugely popular iPhone and iPad sinks in, the question of why Apple did it comes to mind.  While some still want to give Apple the benefit...

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Apr 25
An insanely great Apple iCar

By Andrew Eisner

While we were working on our report on future Apple products we started to wonder what an official Apple car might look like.

Of course, the car would be simple and fun to operate and incorporate all those benefits and limitations of being part of the Apple family but who knows if something like this could ever get beyond the drawing board. Unfortunately, we're pretty sure we'll never see a real iCar but that didn't stop us from dreaming up a list of features we think we could see in a Steve Job- inspired incredible, amazingly beautiful, revolutionary transportation device.

Drivers don't need more than one button

There will only be one button used to make the car run. The big question will be whether the button is used to make the car go, or make it stop?

A patent is pending on a new car UI

Other functions in the car will be controlled by swiping and tapping somewhere on...

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Apr 25
3D Blu-ray disc popularity to explode

It's been a while since I took the time to lament the lack of Blu-ray (which Steve Jobs has called a "bag of hurt") on the Mac. So it's time for another lamentation with good news of sales on the Blu-ray front.

But IHS Screen Digest says 3D technology is about to find a real foothold among fans of Blu-ray discs. Some 3.2 million homes this year will have the equipment needed to watch Blu-ray discs in 3D. That a 305% increase over last year.

The 3D discs can be played on Sony's PlayStation 3 consoles as well as 3D-enabled Blu-ray players. Studios will release about 65 titles on 3D Blu-ray this year, IHS says. That total will include 15 from Disney such as "Tron," "Beauty And The Beast" and "The Lion King."

As a result, the research firm predicts that US consumers will spend US$160.8 million this year on discs that provide 3D images to 3D-enabled TV sets. IHS figures that consumers will buy 5.7 million 3D discs at an average of $28.33 a pop. That contrasts with...

| Read more »
Apr 22
Greg's bite: Apple iNSECURE for business use

By Greg Mills

This is important news, Apple Mac, iPhone and iPad are not suitable for business use.

While Apple has been pushing for respect from the business community due to increased security features found on Mac computers, iPhone and iPad, it seems they were at the same time secretly gathering location data from unsuspecting users. Apple intentionally created a permanent cache on iPhones and iPad that records its users locations with date stamps.  

This cache is persistently and insecurely backed up on the computer used to sync with the iOS device. This makes both iOS devices absolutely unsuitable for business use due to "location record insecurity."   

On Thursday, CNN broke the story on network TV regarding the surprising intentional insecurity of the Apple infrastructure regarding stored location information. This data was gathered without users opting in and without any way to...

| Read more »
Apr 22
Dell and Intel are right: the computer is far from...

Here are some words you probably won't hear often from me: I agree with Dell. Let me explain.

In February 2011, Dell and Intel commissioned Forrester Consulting to leverage its Forrsights Workforce Employee survey along with supplemental customer survey analysis to determine IT decision-makers' adoption plans for tablets in the enterprise. Forrester discovered that notebooks, desktops and smartphones were found to be “must-have” devices, while tablets, slates, and netbooks were “nice-to-have” technologies.

The study says tablets can bring new benefits to a work environment, such as increased productivity, flexibility and mobility, but they also bring with them security and management challenges. They can replace paper-based systems and introduce new productivity places, but this only makes them a companion device, not a replacement for existing computers, according to the study, which is a position I've espoused for a long time.

In the Virtual Era, where we're...

| Read more »
Apr 21
iOS security issue giving Apple a big, black eye

Apple once blasted Big Brother. Now some folks think it's becoming Big Brother with concerns over the company's "spying" features in iOS 4, a matter that's giving the company a big black eye. Maybe two.

Security researchers at Privacy International (https://www.privacyinternational.org) says that iOS 4 keeps track of where you go and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner's computer when the two are synchronized, according to "The Guardian" (http://macte.ch/RcpCR).

Like many others, US Senator Al Franken isn't happy with the situation, which he says raises "serious privacy concerns." He's sent a letter -- which you can read in its entirety at...

| Read more »
Apr 21
Apple working on portable device covers with...

Think the Smart Cover for the iPad 2 is intelligent? Just wait. Apple is working on follow-up devices that may reach the genius level. An Apple patent (number 20110090626) for a cover for a portable electronic device has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office.

Per the patent, the cover can include at least one electrical component. For example, in one embodiment, an electrical component can be embedded in the cover. When the cover is placed on or mated with the portable electronic device, the electrical component embedded in the cover is able to interact with electrical circuitry of the portable electronic device. Advantageously, the cover can not only provide a protective and/or ornamental covering for the portable electronic device but can also augment the electrical capabilities of the portable electronic device. The inventors are Quin C. Hoellwarth and Brett Gregory Alten.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "Typically, the surfaces...

| Read more »
Apr 21
Greg's bite: iOS 4 tracks your every move

By Greg Mills

The notion of privacy is a right only inferred by the Constitution of the Untied States rather than being a specifically enumerated right, such as those rights mentioned in the US Constitution's Bill of Rights. Freedom of religion is an example of an enumerated right.  

The courts have found that an inherent "expectation of privacy" in most situations exists for us all. Without a warrant the government may not search our homes or dig into our private papers, for example. Little did I suspect the iPhone and iPad I carry most of the time represent an incredible potential invasion of my privacy.

Apple has gone on record as supporting the right of privacy for users of Apple devices. Steve Jobs has publicly stated that tracking users of web browsers without them "opting in" for such tracking is wrong. I agree. 

Recently, it was announced that the Apple Safari web browser under Mac OS Lion would have a "do not track" preference...

| Read more »
Apr 21
Apple patent is for an electronic sighting compass

An Apple patent (number 20110090244) for an electronic sighting compass has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. The invention relates to a portable electronic device -- iPhones, no doubt, as well as, perhaps, iPod touches and iPads -- having a compass function and, more particularly, to a device wherein the compass function is integrated with a camera function to provide an electronic sighting compass.

Per the patent, a portable electronic device provides a compass bearing display juxtaposed with or superimposed on a camera viewfinder display. The device includes an image sensor and an electronic compass. When the device is held with the image sensor pointed in a generally horizontal direction, the displayed viewfinder image from the image sensor is combined with a graphic indicating a compass bearing corresponding to the imaging axis of the image sensor. The display may be presented as a linear scale to indicate off-axis headings as well. Achim Pantfoerder is...

| Read more »
Apr 21
Mac beats the growth of PC industry overall -- again

Though iPad sales were less than anticipated and iPod sales were (as expected) down, Apple had a bang-up fiscal 2011 second quarter with great Mac and iPhone sales. So how did I do on my predictions? Let's see...

What I predicted:

iPhone unit sales: 17.7 million
iPod unit sales: 10.3 million
Mac unit sales: 3.7 million
iPad unit sales: 7.5 million
Revenue: $24 billion
EPS: $5.90

The real results:

iPhone unit sales: 18.65 million
iPod unit sales: 9.02 million
Mac unit sales: 3.76 million
iPad unit sales: 4.69 million
Revenue: $24.67 billion
EPS: $6.40

The Mac has been beating the overall PC industry in terms of growth for 20 consecutive quarters. But, as noted by (http://www.asymco.com) -- a site that offers "curated market intelligence" -- if you count the iPad too, the difference is astounding.

The bottom line is...

| Read more »
Apr 21
Apple granted 'unibody' design patent

Apple has been granted a patent (number 20110088838) for self fixturing assembly techniques used in creating the "unibody" design of many Macs, including the portable line.

A process, apparatus, and system for joining at least two work pieces together using at least two adhesives each having substantially different cure times. A first adhesive having a first cure time is used to form a first bond between the two workpieces, the first adhesive having a first cure time.

A second adhesive having a second cure time, the second cure time being substantially shorter than the first cure time is used to form a fixturing bond. The fixturing bond maintaining the first and second workpieces in position prior to the first adhesive curing. The inventors are Peter M. Thompson, Martin Adamcyk, Timothy G. Van Vorhis, Arthur J. Lucchesi, Thomas A. Moore and Matthew B. Morris.

Here's Apple's summary of the patent: The outward appearance of a portable computing device,...

| Read more »
Apr 21
Great companies, lousy stocks

By Bill Gunderson
of Gunderson Capital Management (http://www.PWstreet.com)

I’m selling my book on-line. Thanks to Google AdWords, they are flying through cyberspace.

Does that mean I am telling my clients to rush out and buy Google?

Not a chance.

Johnson & Johnson make some of the most trusted health care products in the world. Surely there is room in my list of 157 Best Stocks Now for such an important part of our national life. No. Not if you want to make money.

I’m using Microsoft products to write, send and read this article. Don’t even think about putting this in your portfolio.

These are all good companies. Great companies. But lousy stocks. Let’s see why.

When Google went public seven years ago, it made a lot of people a lot of money. When the company founders told Wall Street analysts they were not going to play the quarterly...

| Read more »
Apr 20
Greg's bite: RIM's PlayBook teardown

By Greg Mills

As with most any piece of new electronic hardware, the iFixit site sends someone to stand in line to scoop up one unit for immediate teardown. They meticulously pry the darn thing open and prepare a parts list of the innards.  

They estimate the cost to assemble the device and what the parts list amounts to. Then they post pictures and cost to manufacture the new item for all the world to see (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/BlackBerry-PlayBook-Teardown/5265/1).

As it turns out PlayBook is pretty well constructed and has four speakers, two cameras and pretty good memory and processors. Today at 3 pm (Eastern) iFixit will release their estimated cost to manufacture the PlayBook. They are working to identify all the chips and parts used to estimate a likely cost to RIM for each...

| Read more »
Apr 20
My predictions for Apple's financial announcements

Apple will announce its fiscal year 2011 second quarter results this afternoon. As always, I'm offering my predictions on what to expect.

For the quarter, analysts are predicting net earnings of US$5.35 per share on revenue of $23.27 billion, above Apple's guidance of $4.90 profit per share on $22 billion of revenue. Apple's year-ago results for the second fiscal quarter of 2010 included net earnings of $3.33 per share on revenue of $13.50 billion. Here's my forecast:

iPhone unit sales: 17.7 million
iPod unit sales: 10.3 million
Mac unit sales: 3.7 million
iPad unit sales: 7.5 million
Revenue: $24 billion
EPS: $5.90

Tune in later today to see how I did...

-- Dennis Sellers

| Read more »
Apr 19
Apple patents relate to Apple TV, iTunes, iTV

Apple has been granted two patents by the US Patent & Trademark Office for the Apple TV (referred to as the iTV in the patents) and iTunes. They could also relate to the rumored HDTV Apple is working on, if you buy into those rumors.

Patent number 7930650 is for an user interface with menu abstractions and content abstractions. Per the patent media menu items are generated within a media interface environment. Media menu item abstractions are generated, one of the media menu item abstractions arranged in a foreground position, and one or more of the media menu item abstractions arranged in background positions in the media interface environment. Selection of a media menu items transitions to a corresponding content menu interface. The inventors are Rainer Brodersen, Rachel Claire Goldeen, Jeffrey Ma, Mihnea Calin Pacurariu, Eric Taylor Seymour, Jeff Robbin and Thomas Micheal Madden.

Here's Apple's background and summary of the invention: "Media devices, such as...

| Read more »
Apr 19
Greg's bite: Apple sues and gets sued again

By Greg Mills

Anyone who reads a lot about Apple and the tech world run into articles regarding lawsuits over various patents, trademarks and other legal issues between the major tech players. One of the boiler plate lines in standard incorporations papers is the line that the new corporations can "sue and be sued." As a legal "person" corporations can be sued for the things they do or fail to do, especially performing or not preforming contractual duties. Corporations can also own real property and "intellectual property".  

Intellectual property amounts to ideas that are protected by law, such as patented inventions, copyrights, trademarks and the like. To understand the current legal bluster from Apple, one needs to recall the history of the company and the long running and bitter battle Apple fought with Microsoft over the look and feel of the Mac OS, which Bill Gates famously "used" to create Windows 1.   

... | Read more »
Apr 19
eBooks enjoy triple digital percentage growth in...

In what has to be good news for Apple and its iBookstore, the February 2011 sales report of the Association of American Publishers, shows that eBooks enjoyed triple digital percentage growth (202.3%) in February 2011 compared to February 2010.

The report, produced by the trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry, tracks monthly and year-to-date publishers’ net sales revenue in all categories of commercial, education, professional and scholarly books and journals. For February 2011, eBooks ranked as the number one format among all categories of Trade publishing (Adult Hardcover, Adult Paperback, Adult Mass Market, Children’s/Young Adult Hardcover, Children’s/Young Adult Paperback).

This one-month surge is primarily attributed to a high level of strong post-holiday eBook buying, or “loading,” by consumers who received eReader devices as gifts. Experts note that the expanded selection of eReaders introduced for the holidays and the broader availability of...

| Read more »
 

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Zenless Zone Zero opens entries for its...
miHoYo, aka HoYoverse, has become such a big name in mobile gaming that it's hard to believe that arguably their flagship title, Genshin Impact, is only three and a half years old. Now, they continue the road to the next title in their world, with... | Read more »
Live, Playdate, Live! – The TouchArcade...
In this week’s episode of The TouchArcade Show we kick things off by talking about all the games I splurged on during the recent Playdate Catalog one-year anniversary sale, including the new Lucas Pope jam Mars After Midnight. We haven’t played any... | Read more »
TouchArcade Game of the Week: ‘Vroomies’
So here’s a thing: Vroomies from developer Alex Taber aka Unordered Games is the Game of the Week! Except… Vroomies came out an entire month ago. It wasn’t on my radar until this week, which is why I included it in our weekly new games round-up, but... | Read more »
SwitchArcade Round-Up: ‘MLB The Show 24’...
Hello gentle readers, and welcome to the SwitchArcade Round-Up for March 15th, 2024. We’re closing out the week with a bunch of new games, with Sony’s baseball franchise MLB The Show up to bat yet again. There are several other interesting games to... | Read more »
Steam Deck Weekly: WWE 2K24 and Summerho...
Welcome to this week’s edition of the Steam Deck Weekly. The busy season has begun with games we’ve been looking forward to playing including Dragon’s Dogma 2, Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, and also console exclusives like Rise of the... | Read more »
Steam Spring Sale 2024 – The 10 Best Ste...
The Steam Spring Sale 2024 began last night, and while it isn’t as big of a deal as say the Steam Winter Sale, you may as well take advantage of it to save money on some games you were planning to buy. I obviously recommend checking out your own... | Read more »
New ‘SaGa Emerald Beyond’ Gameplay Showc...
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Choose Your Side in the Latest ‘Marvel S...
Last month, Marvel Snap (Free) held its very first “imbalance" event in honor of Valentine’s Day. For a limited time, certain well-known couples were given special boosts when conditions were right. It must have gone over well, because we’ve got a... | Read more »
Warframe welcomes the arrival of a new s...
As a Warframe player one of the best things about it launching on iOS, despite it being arguably the best way to play the game if you have a controller, is that I can now be paid to talk about it. To whit, we are gearing up to receive the first... | Read more »
Apple Arcade Weekly Round-Up: Updates an...
Following the new releases earlier in the month and April 2024’s games being revealed by Apple, this week has seen some notable game updates and events go live for Apple Arcade. What The Golf? has an April Fool’s Day celebration event going live “... | Read more »

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Apple Education is offering $100 discounts on...
If you’re a student, teacher, or staff member at any educational institution, you can use your .edu email address when ordering at Apple Education to take $100 off the price of a new M3 MacBook Air.... Read more
Apple Watch Ultra 2 with Blood Oxygen feature...
Best Buy is offering Apple Watch Ultra 2 models for $50 off MSRP on their online store this week. Sale prices available for online orders only, in-store prices may vary. Order online, and choose... Read more
New promo at Sams Club: Apple HomePods for $2...
Sams Club has Apple HomePods on sale for $259 through March 31, 2024. Their price is $40 off Apple’s MSRP, and both Space Gray and White colors are available. Sale price is for online orders only, in... Read more
Get Apple’s 2nd generation Apple Pencil for $...
Apple’s Pencil (2nd generation) works with the 12″ iPad Pro (3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th generation), 11″ iPad Pro (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation), iPad Air (4th and 5th generation), and iPad mini (... Read more
10th generation Apple iPads on sale for $100...
Best Buy has Apple’s 10th-generation WiFi iPads back on sale for $100 off MSRP on their online store, starting at only $349. With the discount, Best Buy’s prices are the lowest currently available... Read more
iPad Airs on sale again starting at $449 on B...
Best Buy has 10.9″ M1 WiFi iPad Airs on record-low sale prices again for $150 off Apple’s MSRP, starting at $449. Sale prices for online orders only, in-store price may vary. Order online, and choose... Read more
Best Buy is blowing out clearance 13-inch M1...
Best Buy is blowing out clearance Apple 13″ M1 MacBook Airs this weekend for only $649.99, or $350 off Apple’s original MSRP. Sale prices for online orders only, in-store prices may vary. Order... Read more
Low price alert! You can now get a 13-inch M1...
Walmart has, for the first time, begun offering new Apple MacBooks for sale on their online store, albeit clearance previous-generation models. They now have the 13″ M1 MacBook Air (8GB RAM, 256GB... Read more
Best Apple MacBook deal this weekend: Get the...
Apple has 13″ M2 MacBook Airs available for only $849 today in their Certified Refurbished store. These are the cheapest M2-powered MacBooks for sale at Apple. Apple’s one-year warranty is included,... Read more
New 15-inch M3 MacBook Air (Midnight) on sale...
Amazon has the new 15″ M3 MacBook Air (8GB RAM/256GB SSD/Midnight) in stock and on sale today for $1249.99 including free shipping. Their price is $50 off MSRP, and it’s the lowest price currently... Read more

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