Double Fine, the company behind such beloved games as Psychonauts and Brütal Legend, has decided to crowd source their funding of a brand new adventure game through Kickstarter. Of course, if any company can make a fantastic adventure game, it will be Double Fine. Tim Schafer, the founder of Double Fine, is known for heading up production of Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango at Lucas Arts. Working with Tim is Ron Gilbert. Gilbert, as many of you know, pretty much invented the genre of adventure games with Maniac Mansion as well as the Monkey Island series.

In their video, Schafer makes it clear that they need $300,000 USD for game development and $100,000 USD for filming of their documentary series. Within eight hours of going live on Kickstarter, they reached their goal. As of 12:30 PM Eastern today, they are over $700,000 USD with no sign of slowing down. Clearly, there is a substantial market for this type of game, and only Double Fine, headed up by the pioneers of the genre, have the balls to make it happen.

Now comes the most important question for us. Will there be an OS X and iOS version of this game? Well, luckily that is covered in their Q&A.

Being that they are in their first day of a total of thirty-three, and they are on track to double their goal by the end of the day, it is almost guaranteed that we’ll see OS X and iOS versions of this game. Want to make sure that happens? Well, don’t hesitate to chip in by backing their Kickstarter program. Your money will help make this happen.

Image Source: Wikipedia

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By snooping around a bit, the folks at Your Daily Mac have found some evidence that March 9th might be the planned launch for iOS 5.1.

While this is far from definitive, iOS 5.1 has been in development for quite some time, so a March 9th target isn’t exactly controversial or hard to believe. However, the proposed timing of this release coincides with the assumed iPad 3 launch in early March. It isn’t proof, but the facts fit the theory. Keep in mind, all of this is just conjecture. For all we know, the iPad 3 won’t come until later in the year, and iOS 5.1 will be delayed. This is worth keeping an eye on, but we won’t be placing any bets.

What do you think? Are we going to see iOS 5.1 right along side the next iPad? Are we going to see any surprises in the OS that isn’t in the beta similar to Siri in iOS 5? Sound off in the comment section with your thoughts and theories. Better yet, hit us up on twitter. Our username is @macgasm. We’re open to alternate timelines, so don’t hesitate to provide some new evidence.

Source: Your Daily Mac

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The fingerprints of iOS encroaching on OS X may be more tangible than realized. As I’ve watched Apple — in particular its video offerings — over the years, it occured to me sometime last year that if you want to know where Apple is taking OS X with regard to iOS, here’s a sure bet: Watch iLife.

2007

Two things happened in 2007. The first is well-known. In January of 2007, Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone to the world, and the world hasn’t been the same since.

The other event was a bit of a PR nightmare for Apple. In August, amidst the wake of the June release of the first iPhone, Apple rolled out iLife ’08, which included, among its standard offerings, an updated iMovie. iMovie ’08 had been completely redesigned by one Randy Ubillos — originator of Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and now Final Cut Pro X.

iMovie ’08

Upon its release, David Pogue said, “iMovie ‘08 is an utter bafflement… incapable of the more sophisticated editing that the old iMovie made so enjoyable…”

And look at all the changes — no processor-intensive effects, no plugins, one project at a time, and support for a limited amount of codecs, revolving primarily around MP4, which even Final Cut didn’t support at the time.

As I mentioned last year:

Because it was a 1.0 program, the “missing features” distracted everyone from the big UI overhaul. It’s on the list, but I think it is primarily the UI that drove Apple to resort to, as Pogue says, “throwing away a fully developed, mature, popular program and substituting a bare-bones, differently focused program under the same name.”

So coming at it from a positive angle, let’s look at what was gained with iMovie ’08 over its predecessor: one project at a time with one video viewer at a time, MP4-based editing, large regions and formed scrollable windows within a single application framework with lots of dragging versus precise clicking.

In short, it was made to be touched, not clicked.

D8

There’s been speculation about a touchscreen Mac for a long, long time. Back at D8, Steve Jobs famously spoke of how the tablet had been in the development stages for a long time, but advancements, primarily in touchscreen technology, caused Apple to opt for redirecting resources to the design of a mobile phone.

Today, the touchscreen Mac is really already among us — a quite capable personal computer running a version of OS X, albeit slightly different. We know it as the iPad. The touchscreen Mac of tomorrow may simply be an evolution of today’s robust iPad, handling tougher, more demanding processes and situations.

iMovie for iOS

Three years after the relase of that first iPhone, three years after the complete redesign of iMovie, we see iMovie for iOS — one of the first Apple-made, non-system, powerful apps for iOS that was built for the every day user. For you. For I.

And man, looking at iMovie for iOS during that keynote revealed one thing: the app looked a lot like that redesigned iMovie ’08 for the iLife suite. What started off as a surprising redesign that people like Pogue didn’t understand at the time began to make absolute sense. It was no surprise when we found out that the man behind iMovie for iOS was the same Randy Ubillos that redefined iMovie with the ’08 edition earlier.

If the iPhone is really five years ahead of the competition like Jobs suggested, that could very well mean that the concept of iMovie for iPhone and iPad could have been floating around as early as 2005, right about the time iMovie was not doubt being rewritten from the ground up. Think about that for a moment. Done? Can you see where this is all going? The picture is certainly starting to get a little bit clearer.

iOS X?

Near the end of his thoughts on the iOS-ification of OS X, Viticci asks, “Will Mac-only applications (and thus Mac-like from a UI standpoint) like Aperture, Final Cut and iBooks Author ever be ported to iOS, triggering an iOS-based rewrite and redesign? We don’t know yet. But soon, maybe?” He then proceeded to link the word maybe to potential specifications for the rumoured upcoming iPad 3.

My guess is that with new hardware on the way for both iOS devices, with iOS 6, and a new Mac OS already well into planning stages at Apple, porting the code for these programs will be a small, final roadblock, should the company decide it’s time to completely bring its professional applications to iOS. Heck, there’s even recent reports that a graduate student was working on testing OS X on ARM architectures while working on his thesis.

Video Apps

This brings us to the most iOS ready professional application in Apple’s portfolio — Final Cut. The UI changes in Final Cut Pro X really start to make sense now. I don’t recall anyone wanting FCP to look more like iMovie, do you? Few of the UI changes facilitate the other new conceptual designs of the FCP underbelly. My only thought is that — as I suspect with the iMovie ’08 changes — they must be preparing us for the inevitable touchscreen Mac.

With iMovie ’08, Apple found itself on the receiving end of  garrish backlash from dedicated users. Pogue’s critique of iMovie ’08 sounds eerily similar to today’s critiques of FCPX. Now, Apple has no doubt fumbled the release of FCPX, but even if everything from 10.0.3 had been present back in June, there still would have been a mass outcry regarding the UI redesign. Once again, just like with iMove ’08, the limitations of an app have distracted us from seeing the potential future.

Photography Apps

What about Aperture? Go look at it. It embodies the iLife-ification of Apple’s pro application lineup. It’s recent changes have mirrored iPhoto updated: face recognition, UI tweaks, bigger buttons, fullscreen modes, etc.

iBooks Author

There’s no way this app was developed inside Apple without someone thinking about making the software touch-friendly So, where does that leave us? Look again at Apple’s first power apps for iOS — iWork — and their desktop doppelgangers, and iBook’s path to iOS is pretty clear.

iCloud

Viticci contends that iCloud is the place to look if you want to know where iOS and OS X are headed. Obviously, I disagree. For the near future, sure. But I see iCloud as an extension of the operating system, a new part of it that doesn’t exist on your device. It’s huge technology that bridges the gaps between our existing day-to-day computing, and sometimes in small ways we now don’t even think about. Casual consumers aren’t taking notes about iCloud. iCloud is plumbing, only noticed when it breaks.

Conclusion

So, I still say, if you want to know Apple’s grand vision for the future, watch iLife.

We now have GarageBand on iPad and iPhone, the iOS Photos app has incorporated some of iPhoto’s editing capabilities, and no doubt a lot of learning from iOS can be seen in iLife ’11, as Viticci handily points out.

While maybe not what some might call the “core” of Apple’s business, it’s no doubt that the casual computer user (aka “consumer”) is the broad base that keeps Apple’s bottom line nice and cushy. Apple sneaks its newness into our every day lives in ways we don’t realize, bringing these new elements into our relationship with our devices; sometimes we don’t see it happening until we’re told that it’s actually occurring.

Tapping into the future

There are certainly many areas in which Apple is navigating the winds of an ever-changing technology industry and a demanding market. There are no doubt many occasions where us fanboys credit Apple with vision when in reality they are figuring it out as they go. I may be doing that here, but I firmly believe that a personally-interactive, wireless, smart, ultra-portable tablet was Jobs’ vision from the beginning decades.

Like a stereogram, the image before us today is beginning to come into focus. Jobs and Apple painted the picture a long, long time ago. It’s only now that it’s starting to make some actual sense.

Photo Credits: eoshd.com, TidBITS, WIRED, socialphy.com

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There’s doing it, and then there’s doing it right. It’s pretty clear that Dave Morin immediately realized Path’s misstep and took immediate action to clean up the security concerns that its users had with the company storing contacts. Starting today, in version 2.0.6, users are now being asked if they would like to upload contacts to the company’s servers. The process is now opt-in, not automagically uploaded behind your back. It’s a small win, but a win nonetheless for iPhone users.

Yes, it’s a small win. Why? Path is hardly the first, and they certainly won’t be the last service that takes iPhone users’ contact information to provide better friend recommendations within a service. For some reason, Path was the lightning rod for all that pent up security anger that consumers have been harboring for the last couple of years. Facebook’s app currently does it, although they give you a disclaimer. But, God knows what Facebook is doing with that information. In the summer of 2010, Lookout published a study that found that one-third of the apps tested (300,000) on both Android and iPhone not only phoned home, but also transmitted contact lists, or retrieved a user’s location. The App Genome Project (February 2011) has recently found that 11 percent of apps on Apple’s App Store have the ability to access users’ contacts.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s really never a good excuse for accessing personal contacts, or even uploading them without the knowledge of a user. The practice shouldn’t happen, ever. That being said, Path is far from the only big name application that does this to its users.

We didn’t run the article yesterday because Path was just the tip of the iceberg for this problem. We’ve gotten some questions about why we decided not to run it. The short of it was we were giving Path some time to reply. The long of it is that it just didn’t feel right kicking Path underneath the bus that so many other apps ride these days. The whole bus needs to be disassembled instead of one company getting kicked off the ride.

We’re glad Path took the steps necessary to quickly eliminate the problem, but we’re more concerned about all the applications out there that do this that we’re not aware of at this point. If anything, Apple needs to start forcing developers to ask users if they’re comfortable with sending contacts to their servers. Apple requires publishers using Newsstand to have readers opt-in to information sharing, so why isn’t it happening in a market place where anyone can develop and upload an application? We’re skeptical about major publishers having access to contacts, but man, it freaks us out to know that a company like Zynga, or even a random high school kid down the street could  completely misuse our contacts, and gain from it financially in some way.

That’s the problem here, not Path. The problem is that somewhere along the way this practice was not only occurring, but that it’s continually being allowed to happen. That needd to change. Props goes out to Path for changing the practice. We love them for it.

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We’re going to let you discover the rest of the update goodness on your own.

The app update is free for anyone who has purchased the original Tweetbot, so you don’t have to worry about paying an additional couple of dollars to gain access to the update.

Tweetbot is easily my favorite Twitter app for the iPhone, and even more so now that Twitter decided to completely bastardize its own offerings earlier this year. Normally we’d suggest trying out a free alternative for Twitter, like the free Twitterific option, but Tweetbot is easily worth the $2.99 on the App Store. I paid the fee, and I haven’t made a switch yet, which is highly unusual for me when it comes to iOS apps.

Quick Look At Some Updated Features

Quick Update: Tweetbot is now available for the iPad too… we’re putting it through the paces and we’ll have an update here for you when it’s ready.

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The speaker lasts between 5 – 10 hours depending on how you’re using it. The speaker will set you back $55.00 and you can buy it on the Austrailian website ModLifeOnline.

To be honest, this probably won’t last too long on the market once Apple’s lawyers find it, so make sure you pick it up as fast as possible if you want it.

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According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Apple has gone on the record stating that, “the telecommunications industry lacks consistent licensing schemes for the many patents necessary to make mobile devices, and offered suggestions for setting appropriate royalty rates that all members would follow.” Long story short, Apple wants a fair and open approach to licensing technology that has become standard in the mobile telecommunications industry. Currently, it could become very difficult for competing companies to gain access to the necessary patent licenses to release a mobile phone.

Apple wants the EU and ETSI to set clear rules about how patent licenses are negotiated, and to ensure that companies working on and developing standard-centric licenses agree to license patents under FRAND terms.

In the original article, it’s pretty clear that Apple, and more specifically Apple’s intellectual property head Bruce Watrous, is worried that the current system gives patent holders a huge advantage in negotiating patent licenses because competing products could be forced to remove products from the market place due to injunctions. Apple’s legal team wants injunctions to be abolished under FRAND terms.

The EU is currently investigating both Samsung and Motorola’s patent licensing practices for anti-competitive behaviour.

If you’re interested in reading up more on this topic, you can give the Wall Street Journal article a read, but sadly, it’s behind a paywall.

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From the Washington Post:

If I was in the US, that unlimited data plan would be mighty enticing. It always blows my mind just how obvious it is that customers want the freedom of an unlimited plan, but carriers absolutely refuse to give it to them. I rarely use over 2GB on my data plan, and I’d still go for an unlimited option if it was available to me. The irony is that it’s not about the data being unlimited as much as it is about not wanting my carrier to clean out my bank account for going over once or twice a year.

If you’re interested in the ins and outs of the Sprint financial call, the company has posted a news release online for you to look through.

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A recent research by Dr. Michael Mandel of South Mountain Economics says that the smartphone industry has created nearly 500,000 new jobs for the economy. It’s hard to doubt such a claim. Since the release of the iPhone in 2007 and the announcement of the App Store one year later, a new market has been created. The app market. I remember when applications were just seen as tiny games that we played while waiting for the train or in the doctor’s office. What were some of their names? I believe Cube Runner was one of them. Great game, but you wouldn’t think that a company could rise from that, right? You’d be correct. The app was created by one guy, Andy Qua. Great guy, but I highly doubt he’s accepting resumes for positions. So that’s where we were one to three years ago. However, today is so different. This is now where the jobs are.

An app can now be a company. Don’t believe me? I’ll list some out right now. Ness, Zite (acquired by CNN), Evernote, Pulse, Path, and Instagram. Not only are those the names of both the apps and the companies, but the CEOs of four out of the six made BusinessInsider’s The Silicon Valley 100 list; right up there with people like Larry Page, Steve Jobs, Kevin Rose, Dave McClure, and the rest. How did they make it up there? Apps. But not just any apps. Apps with impact. That brings us to the study.

With the app economy generating nearly $20 billion in revenue in 2011 (this includes downloads, in-app sales, virtual goods, and  physical goods and services), it makes you wonder where this new phenomenon is heading. Will this soon generate Fortune 500 jobs? Will landing a high-ranking job at a startup that produces one or two apps become the definition of success?

When you break down the research report, it shows that when it comes to employment, just about each app represents job opportunities. Whether that be as a programmer, user interface/experience designer, marketer, or manager, they’re all jobs nonetheless. The new haven for such job opportunities are found in places like NYC, San Francisco and San Jose (Silicon Valley), though the last two substantially exceed that of New York with nearly one in four jobs being app oriented, naturally. However, states like Florida, Georgia, and Illinois are getting there too. In fact, more than two-thirds of this app economy employment is outside of California and New York. The research results also suggest that the app economy’s hotspots and job numbers are likely to shift greatly in a few years.

So what does this mean for the average consumer? You might think not much if you’re not a programmer. However, it’s the polar opposite. It’s beginning to look like apps are becoming the new foundations (or building blocks) for strong companies. Have a well made app? Build a team around it and form a company. Every company needs a support staff, engineer, designer, manager, etc. So if any of that fits your criteria, you’re in good standing. If you’re not, you’re still in good standing. My series of interviews with founders, creators, and leaders of major apps easily suggests that you don’t necessarily need to understand C++ or SDKs to build an app. Have a reasonable idea? Can it become scalable? Then you might be the one sifting through applications in a few years.

All in all, this research and this article both make reference to the fact that our economy is changing – rapidly. No longer are we subject to a degree to pay the rent. Creativity is the way of the future. When it’s harnessed into creating an app, that app can bring food to other people’s tables. With nearly 500,000 jobs created (and counting), an economy breakthrough might be on the horizon. It seems that Steve Jobs’ motto has finally come to fruition: “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” Five years ago, if you were to tell your mother you’d ditch college to make a game, she’d probably disown you. Today, Rovio, creator of Angry Birds (which is a game if you didin’t know), is worth more than $1 billion. How does that sound, Mom?

You can check out the full research sponsored by Technet titled “Where the Jobs Are” here.

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Today Apple sent out a notification to iPhone developers, informing them to begin submitting Retina resolution screenshots of 960×480 pixels with future app submissions and updates to current ones. This could only suggest one of two things. Either the company is tired of seeing blurry images in their “pixel-perfect” App Store, or this is just preparation for the end of the iPhone 3GS. With a lower resolution of 480×320, the 3GS is the longest surviving iPhone model with a sale lifespan of over two and a half years (this June would make three). Of course, this shouldn’t be a daunting task for developers as “Retina” has been in their vocabulary for over one year now.

Nevertheless, this could also hint at another iPhone model on the horizon. That would push the iPhone 4 into the $0 slot, the 4S into the $99 slot, and the iPhone 5 at regular price of $199+ with contracts. Then there’s also the possibility that Apple might soon send out another call to developers for doubling the resolution for the iPad. After all, word on the street is the rumored iPad 3 will come with a shiny Retina display.

Via: TheNextWeb

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Buddy Beers iPhone app from Buddy Beers on Vimeo.

The service lets you buy beers for friends at partner bars worldwide using paypal or in app currency. The application creates a voucher that you can use at the bar. Sounds like you’ll be sipping on those delicious, free golden brews in no time.

Not so fast, there’s probably a downside

This app, like plenty of “deals” and “discount” apps before it, will have a hard time getting off the ground. Bartenders will be looking at your voucher like you’re from another planet, and they’ll likely accuse you of trying to get free beer. Buddy Beers isn’t the only service to have this problem. Just ask FourSquare how many problems they had when customers would try to redeem a reward from within the app. Standing in line at a popular coffee chain, I won a free drink. It took me a heck of a lot time and energy to convince the staff that I had won. A couple of phone calls up the chain later, I was walking out the door with my beverage. Something tells me this is going to be more of the same. It’s going to be a while before employees and staff at pubs and bars realize what’s going on, and accept a voucher for a free beer. But hey, you’ve got to start somewhere, and this is a service I can get behind.

It’s cool, and hopefully it catches on. I wouldn’t mind you guys sending me free beers all the time. You’d do that for me, right?

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The results may not be what you would expect:

The study ran from December 1st through until December 15th, and shows that iOS isn’t as stable as its Android counterpart. There are some points of note, however, that should be discussed further in the future when talking about the stability of iOS and Android applications. First, iOS 5.01 was responsible for 28.64 percent of all crashes in the study. It’s not uncommon for applications on a new operating system to become unstable once a major new OS is released. That being said, iOS 4.2.1, and iOS 5.0 are both responsible for over 4 percent of all crashes, and iOS 4.1 weighed in at 8.24 percent of all crashes in the Critterrcism study.

Some thoughts

While the study provides some interesting insights into app crashes in both Android and iOS, it’s hard to put any weight in the results, and more importantly, it’s impossible to point a finger at which company, Apple or Google, should bear the brunt of the blame. There are just too many variables. First, of all the crashes, how many cases involved applications that weren’t updated to support new OS versions? Second, how many cases involved applications optimized for newer OS versions, but run on legacy hardware? We don’t have access to that information, and it’s that information that’s going to tell the whole story here.

The study does shed light on one thing very accurately, however. App Stores, while still in their infancy, need better mechanisms for weeding out applications that are no longer supported, and further, provide better information on what versions of an operating system an application supports. As a user, when I get a new phone, I’m heading directly to the App Store to download all of my favourite applications, and at no point am I considering whether the application has been optimized for my new handset yet. As a user, all I see is one of my favourite applications crashing a lot. That’s a huge problem for the majority of consumers.

Read Do iOS Apps Crash More Than Android Apps? A Data Dive on Forbes.

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In a bit of a twist, Datacolor is not calibrating the display on your iOS device like you would expect; instead, the Spyder calibrating tool determines the color profile of your iOS device, and then color corrects your photos using the SpyderGallery application. A Spyder device is required for the color correction, so if you don’t have one, you’ll have to purchase one.

It’s an interesting solution to the lack of display calibration granularity available in iOS. Given the possibilities of using the iPad as a portfolio viewing medium for photographers, designers, and artists, it’s a little disappointing that the iPad display can’t be color calibrated.

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It’s Friday, and that means it’s time to take a look at some awesome apps for each platform: iPhone, iPad, and Mac OS. Today, we’re focusing on video content and productivity.

Ready? Let’s begin.

iPhone/iPod touch:

Wunderkit: This past Wednesday, 6Wunderkinder announced the public beta of Wunderkit – a new way to organize your life. Think Wunderlist, but bigger and better. The web based app lets you organize tasks into lists, share them with your group, and get a real-time collaborative operation going. Not to mention, grouping these individual projects is as simple as creating a workspace. The iPhone app doesn’t strip any of the core functionalities away either. Rather, it simply makes them work for your 4:3 screen. Not to mention, the notifications keeps you up to date with what’s going on. However, I’d advise turing off the app’s notifications if you’d – you know – like to really get away from work.

Get the download link below

iPad:

Showyou: This groundbreaking video collection app has been featured before, but v3.0 of Showyou was released today and with it, a ton of new features: User grids, zoom in to social network grids, browsing by category, hashtag grids, new tray for navigation, and dozens of more improvements both “small and large.” Find videos suggested by your social contacts and share them with friends. It’s that simple.

Get the download link below

Mac:

Yes, Wunderkit again: If you’re not all about the GTD (get things done) initiative, then you might find this repetition a bit odd. However, if you’re anything like me and enjoy finding new ways of avoiding balding, stress or grey hairs, you’ll understand. The app goes fullscreen and makes the social platform built on top of Wunderkit all the more fun. However, don’t think of this productivity tool as just all work and no play. There are a few funny “workspaces” set up where you’re bound to get a good laugh. Search for yourself!

Well, that’s it for this week folks! Like the apps we mentioned? Share the post with your friends. Have any suggestions? Email me at jerondu@macgasm.net or ping me @jarederondu and I’ll check them out. Until next Friday, have a great weekend.

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Interesting, right? However, in some shots on Apple’s site we see 9:41. Maybe there are some discrepancies on the seconds? Nevertheless, this just goes to show that the Apple boys are really in touch with their roots.

Via: BusinessInsider

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It’s looking like Apple is cracking down on some developers not using the officially licensed iPhone images in the advertising of their apps.

Mike Arrington, PandoDaily:

While we understand that Apple is worried about controlling their brand, the question still remains why they don’t explicitly allow developers to use any white iPhone imagery to advertise their app. With some restrictions, devs are licensed to use Apple-approved iPhone images to display their apps. Unfortunately, only black iPhones are among the approved in the license. As it stands now, there isn’t any known reason for this to be the case. Maybe they are still reeling from the embarrassment of not being able to ship the white iPhone 4 on time. Alternately, Apple may just like having a Vader-like grip on how their devices are used in marketing.

What do you think? Should Apple lighten up on their restrictions for developers? Sound off in the comment section of this post so we can hear from you. We’re curious to see if you all have any plausible theories.

Source: PandoDaily

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In order to get the entire benefit from the tweak, you’ll need to install another tweak that lets you put more applications in your dock than normal. We recommend checking out Chpwn’s Infinidock to get that done.

Pick it up on the Cydia Store

Via: Cult of Mac

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All Things D is reporting that Path has managed to grow to 2 million users in just the two months since its relaunch. The path to one million took a full year, but growing from one million to two million took all of two months. Clearly Path is doing something right.

From All Things D:

As time goes on, I find myself wanting less of what Twitter and Facebook are offering, and more of what Path offers in a social network. Twitter is undoubtably great at reaching out and finding interesting new people to follow and interact with, but it doesn’t do a very good job of connecting me with people I know, and allowing me to interact with them in a personal, face-to-face social setting. Path limits you to only 200 followers, and forces you to really question whether or not people are worth following before you hit the follow button. Personally, if I’ve met you in real life, there’s a good chance I’ll follow you on Path. I use it in a different, more personal way than I do networks like Twitter and Facebook.

For some reason I have no problem sharing photos of my newborn daughter on Path, but avoid it at all costs with Twitter and Facebook, and that speaks volumes about the interactions I have with the people on Path versus other networks.

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Apple seems to always be on the lookout for a new industry to infiltrate. Its latest foray has been the education industry with the release of iBooks 2 and iBooks Author. Now, it seems that the Cupertino boys want to turn couch potatoes into 5K runners. According to AppleInsider:

Naturally, such a thought would come from a patent, right? A patent filing from only three months ago outlines the technology which seems to be built on the existing Nike+ iPod system. Except this time, there would be real-time sharing. Imagine for a second, a notification during Cut the Rope saying your wife just ran 5 miles. What would you do? Apple gives an instance in which two people, in competition with each other, are working out on treadmills. Their iOS devices are wirelessly synced together and they can view each other’s current pace, distance, calories burned, heart rate, blood pressure, and even blood oxygen levels:

Apple goes on to note that such a concept can also be applied to elliptical steppers, stationary bicycles, weight machines, or even actual bikes. Of course, there would be other benefits to such an update including hands-free workout data uploads. After all, the tedious process that turns some away from Nike + iPod is the step of having to manually input your workout after you’ve done it. Ironic, right? Working out… using your fingers.

Nevertheless, this shows that Apple is always thinking ahead. Just ponder over the idea of head-to-head competitions via your iOS device. Creative, right?

Via: AppleInsider

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Strange events … umm, WT actual F

Macotakara is saying that Apple’s going to hold a “strange” event in February that may be similar to the iBooks 2 and iBooks Author announcement that took place in January. There’s no mention of what will be announced, or even where or when the announcement will take place, just a mention of “strange” and February. Take that one for what it’s worth, because we’re still trying to figure out how “strange” plays into this whole rumor.

The iPad 3

In addition to the “strange” rumor, Macotakara (english) is also indicating that the iPad 3 will be announced in March. Which is great, because Bloomberg actually reported that on January 13, 2012. Traditionally, iPads have been released in the spring, and March foots the bill here. So the real question here is … Who wants to buy my iPad 2?

On the next-generation iPhone

This next rumor is a little hard to stomach. According to Digitimes, who has a track record worse than most other rumor blogs, the iPhone 5 is going to be released at WWDC in June, despite the iPhone 4S being on the market for just 8 months leading up to that point. Up until the 4S, Apple would release a new iPhone every single summer, but the 4S announcement slid into the fall. Digitimes is suggesting that we’re heading back to a summer release schedule, with two iOS devices being released within months of each other (March for the iPad, and June for the iPhone).

Wait, no iOS rumors?

If anything, Digitimes should be rumouring about WWDC and an iOS 6 preview. WWDC is where the next iOS often gets shown to developers. But nope, Chuck Testa iPhone 5 rumors.

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That’s three fairly large talent acquisitions from the gaming industry over the last year. Not too shabby for a company that didn’t seem to have an interest in getting into the video game market when the iPhone first launched, and instead fell backwards into it with the creation of iOS.

According to a report from Flurry back in November 2011, iOS and Android now account for 58 percent of portable gaming revenue in the U.S. That’s huge considering Apple and Google have only really been in the gaming market for a couple of years compared to the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.

It gets worse for Nintendo:

Apple may have inadvertently stumbled into the gaming market, but you can be sure that the company is now doing its best to maintain dominance in the market.

Source: MCV

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Ticket to Ride Pocket, the iPhone version of Days of Wonder‘s award winning train board game, is getting a major update with the focus on multiplayer. Yes, finally, you can play against your friends across the world. The new Multi Mode uses GameCenter to find friends to play against, and each Multi Mode game can have up to four of your friends in it. What’s more, you can play multiple games simultaneously against multiple sets of friends. This mode also supports asynchronous gameplay, so you can switch from game to game, or even to another app without losing your progress.

“This is the update Ticket to Ride players have been clamoring for since we released Ticket to Ride Pocket,” said Eric Hautemont, Days of Wonder Founder and CEO in a press release. “We love online gameplay, but faced a challenge: how do you create a great online experience on a device like the phone that is constantly being used for other functions? We needed to build an experience where players could come and go as they please yet have something meaningful to do when they played; the thought of having multiple games going at once was what convinced us this could work. With Multi Mode, we’ve given players what they want without compromising on the gameplay that made Ticket to Ride so popular to begin with.”

In addition to Multi Mode, the local multiplayer mode has been improved as well, allowing players to play against each other when connected via bluetooth or Wi-Fi, using any combination of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. This release also updates the iPad version of the game to include the improved local mode.

If you’d rather play on your own, the game still offers Solo mode with 4 AI personalities, 20 unique achievements and 3 leader boards just for solo players.

I have to say, I’m a big Ticket to Ride fan, and this update brings it to a whole other level. A multiplayer level. If you want to play, hit me up on GameCenter, I’m yougenius.

Whooo whooo!

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Version 0.4 of Absinthe, the popular untethered jailbreak method for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, has been released. The update brings compatibility to Mac OS X Leopard and fixes up some bugs in the jailbreaking process. However, if you’ve already jailbroken your iOS device with Absinthe, there’s no need to do it again.

Here are some notes from the update:

• Mac: added support for OSX 10.5, PPC and Intel CPU
• Added consistency check on startup to make sure required files are in place
• Windows: fixed bug in payload generator that might cause a crash

Such an announcement goes to show that the iPhone Dev Team is making sure its utility remains as snafu free as possible. It’s nice to know that they’re still thinking of all 1 million of us iOS5 jailbreakers.

Via: iMore

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This is great news for our non-American readers. Frankly, it is surprising to us that more applications don’t take advantage of region-specific content. Localizations aren’t just slight spelling and grammatical differences. Flipboard’s move to customize content for different localities is very commendable. While I like reading things that are US-focused, I would never expect someone in Australia to want to read the same thing.

Is your Flipboard experience better now? Sound off in the comment section and let us know if you’re getting better recommendations. We’re particularly interested in hearing about this topic due to our international predilections.

Source: Flipboard Blog

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The game is going to cost $4.99, but if it’s anything like the first version, and we hear that it is, the $4.99 is going to be a price well spent. Reckless Racing 2 now has 24 routes to play through, and 17 drivers to play as, including the original cast from Reckless Racing. There is also a multiplayer mode, so stay tuned for some macgasmic multiplayer goodness.

Via: Pocket Gamer

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While it was previously difficult to manage our team account while on the go, the iPhone application certainly increases the group management tool’s status for our mobile journalists. The application is free and it ties directly into the Wunderkit service. However, if you’re looking for a standalone ToDo list application, and have no intention of getting into Wunderkit, you should check out the Wunderlist and Wunderlist HD editions. They’re fantastic applications.

Quick Look at the App

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Ed McLaughlin, lead of “emerging payments” at MasterCard, talked to Fast Company about the future of NFC in smartphones. He sidestepped the question about Apple, but it’s pretty clear something is up:

Apple is on the vanguard of sales and retail. Without a doubt, they want their users to have the best possible experience when purchasing things with their phones and at their retail outlets. When Apple figures out the best implementation, we’ll be sure to see it.

With the sheer number of phones sold as well as the mind share that Apple has, they’ll need to be on board before NFC-based payments can really take off. Sure, some Android phones have had NFC for a long while, but the market has responded with a firm “Big whoop.”

Do you think the next iPhone will include NFC? What about the iPod touch and iPad? Sound off in the comment section below this post, so we can really explore this topic.

Source: Fast Company

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From China Daily:

The move would open up China Telecom’s 36.3 million 3G users to Apple. The China Daily report also suggests that Apple has received all three major operating licenses to begin selling the CDMA iPhone 4S to China Telecom customers. It should be an interesting year for the battle between Android and iPhone. There’s a lot of marketshare now up for grabs.

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Starting today you can subscribe to a curated feed, which includes commentators like Hendrik Hertzberg, Erick Erickson, Rachel Maddow, Jared Bernstein, and David Horsey, alongside traditional news outlets like the Atlantic, Fox News, Daily Kos, the New Yorker, Al Jazeera, and a host of other sources.

All you have to do is add the sources you want to your feed, and you’ll be up to snuff politically in no time at all. Applications like Pulse do a great job of providing a mixture of news that I often neglect on a daily basis. My news feeds are very tech heavy. Having access to these kinds of event specific tie-ins within news reading apps is pretty huge. It makes following a particular topic very easy. Make sure you check it out.

If you are going to try it out, make sure you add us to your reading list as well. We’ve got a featured page you can check out!

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Alright, everyone. There are a TON of charging docks out there for the iPhone. Don’t get me wrong. Some of them are amazing, but most are variants on a theme. No creativity – just different colors. However, the Possession Book Charging Dock by A.S. Byatt from 2000 stands up and out. Why? It’s a freaking book! An illegible one, but a book nonetheless. It gives this amazing illusion that your iPhone has perfect balance on its edge.

The charging cord is secured within the “book,” and is compatible with all versions of iPods and iPhones. Pick one of these book charging stations up for $48. If you’re in the U.S., shipping will cost you $7. If you’re in Canada, $14. And, everywhere else on the planet, $17. First thing I’ll do with mine is tell everyone I found the edge of the iPhone’s “center of balance.” You?

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China is one of the biggest tech markets to reach, if not the biggest. Facebook has realized it and is currently working on making its way in. Likewise, Apple has noticed that the nation responsible for 1/6 of the world population is the next major target. That’s why investment bank Morgan Stanley believes Apple will partner with both China Telecom and China Mobile to make its iPhone available on all three Chinese carriers. Such a move could result in the sale of up to 40 million iPhones within a year.

According to a note issued by Analyst Katy Huberty, Apple’s current partnership with China Unicom only has a reach of a mere 10 percent of the nation’s 150 million “high-end” subscribers. Partnering with China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless carrier, would add on another 80 percent and China Telecom would bring in the remaining 10 percent. Huberty has estimated 26 million incremental iPhone sales in China during 2013 if Apple partners with the two carriers. She projects that, in total, there will be 40 million unit sales in 2013, resulting in an increase of $10 in earnings per share.

Additionally, a Stanley survey late last year revealed that the iPhone had passed Nokia to become the number one smartphone in China with 40 percent of respondents indicating that the iPhone was their first choice for a 3G smartphone. Even Apple, usually mum on their plans in the public, commented on the large Chinese demand for the iPhone during its last fiscal quarter result call with analysts. When the 4S hit China this month, the high volumes forced the postponement of sales at all five of Apple’s official Retail Stores. Even the Chinese Apple online store still lists all iterations of the iPhone as “sold out.”

When Apple announced that it had reached an all-time high of 37 million units in its last fiscal quarter, it amazed everyone. Can you imagine what kind of damage the iPhone could do if it finally lands on two extremely large carriers in China? Look out China, Apple’s coming for you.

Via: AppleInsider

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As of now there are two versions of AirPort Utility. Version 5.6 is a slight update to the AirPort that we’ve all grown accustomed to in OS X, and Version 6.0 is the edition that looks exactly like the iOS application.

This move is both brilliant and utterly confusing at the same time. It’s obvious that Apple’s looking to rid its iOS users of the confusion of using a second application on OS X, should they be accustomed to the iOS version of AirPort Utility. Instead of having to relearn the application in OS X, iOS users, who are likely using an Apple product for the first time, can jump in and configure their AirPort devices. On the other hand, it’s utterly confusing because there is now two very distinct ways to do one thing. That’s very un-Apple like.

Either way, it looks like Apple’s still committed to bringing things Back to the Mac, even if those things were never on the Mac to begin with.

The iOS-ification of OS X continues, and in this case, it’s not really a terrible thing. The iOS version of AirPort Utility is fantastic; however, the jury hasn’t even been selected yet, so clearly we have no idea what the verdict is on whether this is amazing or not.

We’ll keep you posted as we play more with it.

Article and Photo Via MacStories

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The amazing Zephyr, a jailbreak tweak from Grant Paul (chpwn), has hit version 1.1. Essentially the application replaces your home button with a series of gestures to switch apps (left-to-right), show the multitasking bar (swiping up) , or close an application.

While the application could easily be used to get around a broken home button, the functionality is slick enough that you may find yourself avoiding a functioning home button altogether.

Version 1.1 brings the following to the table:

• Swipe up to close apps
• Pause while swiping up to show the multitasking switcher
• Swipe to your ned app immediately with a side swipe
• Bug fixes, and performance improvements
• No more conflicts with Multicleaner

The tweak isn’t free. It will cost you $3.00 on the Cydia store, which means you have to be running a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch.

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While we haven’t checked every country’s store front, we can confirm that the following countries have the 4S in stock:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• Australia
• Canada
• Ireland

Sadly, the Hong Kong online store does not have it available at this time.
Because of Apple’s incredible economy of scale, they could be making iPhone 4S devices for many, many years to come. We’ve seen the 3G/3GS chassis stick around for years, and it finally looks like Apple has ironed out every glitch in the system to have the supply chain running smoothly for the iPhone 4S. So much for the 4S being a “Disapointment.”

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I hate to be that guy, but, nope, Siri isn’t gorging itself on all the mobile bandwidth.

The Washington Post ran an article last week that originally suggested that this was a problem:

We’ve been hearing the “network has limits” complaint for years, and it’s easily the biggest argument used by carriers and ISPs looking to increase revenues by introducing usage based billing in a number of countries. What the original Washington Post article didn’t do was provide any numbers, or facts to chew on. Instead, we’re left with the opinion of one journalist, largely based on the results of a study done by Arieso earlier this year. Ironically, the study in question primarily focuses on iPhone 4S data consumption on the whole:

Alright, so just to get this straight, Arieso says the iPhone 4S is one of the most data-hungry phones on mobile networks today, then The Washington Post decides to extend that argument to Siri, because Siri is available on the iPhone 4S, and it’s the first phone to get Siri integration. Paul Farhi, reporting for the Washington Post, states in his article, “Atlanta firm that specializes in mobile networks, found that the Siri-equipped iPhone 4S uses twice as much data as does the plain old iPhone 4 and nearly three times as much as does the iPhone 3G.” In one breath Farhi alludes to the fact that Siri is responsible for the huge bandwidth increase, and in the next he disproves himself, stating that the phone on the whole is responsible for the burst in data usage, and not Siri in specific. Great job. Journalism at its finest.

So, that brings us to today. Forbes has an article up online from Gary Morgenthaler, a partner at Morenthaler Ventures, and someone who also happened to serve on the boards of both Siri and Nuance Communications. Let’s just say that when it comes to Siri, this guy knows what he’s talking about:

So there you have it, using Siri will not ballon your data plan, it won’t cost you a tremendous amount of money in overage charges, and it’s certainly not responsible for the doom and gloom that Farhi is claiming. At this point we have to ask, did Farhi even read the report from Arieso? The synopsis on its website, had he taken a moment to read it, doesn’t even mention Siri at all.

Keep using Siri. It’s not going to bring down the whole mobile network, no matter what the carriers want you to believe.

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The track consists of Siri repeating the phrase “Wayne, I don’t understand… The Moon, The Stars, and The Sun” followed by Erykah Badu singing “and the moon, and the stars.”

But unlike in reality, Siri seems to have achieved autonomous thought, understanding the moon, the starts, and the sun by the time the experimental track reaches its conclusion. Who knows, maybe the Flaming Lips got Siri version 2.0, because the last time I tried sending a text message with Siri, all I got was the “I don’t understand” message over and over and over and over again. It probably won’t be long until we hear, “and the Grammy goes to … Siri!”

All kidding aside, the track is pretty interesting. Give it a listen.

Via The Verge

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It’s Friday, and that means it’s time to take a look at some awesome apps for each platform: iPhone, iPad, and Mac OS. Today, we’re focusing on geo-location services, inspirational videos, and cleaning up the desktop.

Ready? Let’s begin.

iPhone/iPod touch:

Ness: This app had been getting some buzz as of late. I don’t blame it. Not only is this thing beautiful,but it also works. I’m proud to announce that I’ve had a splendid week in terms of dining due to this icon on my home screen. So what exactly is it? Ness wants to be your go-to method for discovering restaurants you’ll love. It “learns” your unique taste preferences over time and uses that information to make recommendations just for you. There’s also a social layer built in to show you where your Facebook and Foursquare friends have been, and makes sharing with them easy. Love food or just trying new things? Download Ness. Don’t care for food? (Huh?) Get the app anyway. The sexy effects will suffice.

Get the download link below

iPad:

TED: This company needs no explanation, but just in case you live under a rock, TED is the go to place for inspiration. “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world,” it says. The letters stand for (T)ech, (E)ducation, and (D)esign and the videos featuring talks given by doctors, leaders, writers, children, etc. are on ideas worth spreading. Now the iPad app brings the more than 900 TEDTalk videos (and counting) right to your fingertips. Send videos to your TV with AirPlay; curate your personal playlist; sort by recency, popularity, tags, themes, or related talks; and share with your friends. In other words, this is an app worth having – now.

Get the download link below

Mac:

Camouflage: Ever wish you could clear all the clutter on your desktop? Well, you can! Just open up Finder, navigate to desktop, right-click and select all, then move everything to the trash. No? Not a good idea? I know, you want to keep all of those non-deletable files. Then download Camouflage. This app just works. After downloading it, the app sits in your menu bar as an icon. Click it, select “hide icons,” and everything on your desktop is hidden. Then when you need them, select “show icons.” This comes in handy when you want to give presentations, but don’t want to organize your screen. Think of this app as the tried-and-true hide under the bed trick for your Mac. Remember when mom knocked on your door and asked you to clean up?

Get the download link below

Well, that’s it for this week folks! Like the apps we mentioned? Share the post with your friends. Have any suggestions? Email me at jerondu@macgasm.net or ping me @jarederondu and I’ll check them out. Until next Friday, have a great weekend.

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It’s interesting, and we’re glad to see T-Mobile making a move to support its customers. That said, it does bring up the nagging question of official T-Mobile support from Apple. As it stands, unlocked GSM iPhones work on T-Mobile, but only with 2G data. As we all know from the original iPhone’s launch, 2G (aka EDGE) speeds are atrocious.

As of now, Apple sells its phones on Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint in the United States. That leaves T-Mobile as the last major carrier without an iPhone of their very own. How long until that changes? Surely they are at a substantial disadvantage by being the only network without the best selling smartphone in the US. Their shareholders must be going bonkers.

Source: TmoNews

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From The Tim Cook letter, according to 9to5Mac:

Apple has been increasingly open about their program implementations in China to help alleviate some of these problems. The company has even partnered with the Fair Labor Association to ensure transparency with their reports on the situation. Sadly, it seems that until journalists are actually on the ground and in these factories themselves, this human rights question is going to keep popping up.

Surely, for some, Tim Cook’s letter to his employees will just be lip service. But, it’s important to realize that Apple is taking large steps towards changing and rectifying the problems at Foxconn for an entire industry, not just themselves. That’s not something that will be fixed overnight. Hopefully Apple’s commitment to eliminating the poor working conditions at Foxconn will rub off on some of its competitors who also use Foxconn for their products. I don’t know about you, but it’s mighty curious that Microsoft, Sony, and Amazon are all extremely quite about the situation, despite having products made in Foxconn factories.

It sure sounds like a plan is in place to rectify the problem. Hopefully we’ll hear more about the results in the days ahead. I’d be lying if I said that the This American Life episode didn’t affect me. It certainly had me questioning whether or not the toll some people pay to bring us flashy new phones is worth it in the end.

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For those of us who speak more than one language, writing in iOS can be somewhat annoying. To make use of features like the built-in autocorrect functionality, we need to switch between languages on the iOS keyboard (1).

On the Mac this “problem” has been solved — at least partly — for languages with Latin writing systems present in Germanic, Italic and most Balto-Slavic languages: The OS determines the language currently in use and automatically offers spell checking for this language. However, once the user switches to a non-alphabetic language (2), this functionality is gone, because the input system changes.

Even for alphabetic languages the keyboards differ strongly sometimes, accounting for the peculiarities of a specific language. Think of the three most prominent keyboard layouts — QWERTY in English speaking countries, QWERTZ in German speaking countries, and AZERTY in French speaking countries — each language has a specific set of diacritical marks or special letters that need to be accessed more or less frequently.

Venturing into languages with Cyrillic or Greek alphabets and then further into non-alphabetic languages not only reinforces the argument, but also showcases one of the major strengths of virtual keyboards: adaptability.

But this is also where problems arise. For example, the language-specific keyboards I have activated on my iOS devices are German, British English (QWERTZ layout), Chinese (Pinyin input) and the Emoji selector. The two languages I use most are German and English, but iOS forces me to cycle through all available keyboards to get back to the first one. This results in annoying load times, mostly because the Emoji keyboard takes longer to load than the others.

What are potential solutions for this convenience problem? I can think of three things:

1. Language auto detection for languages with the Latin writing system, while giving the user the ability to set a preferred keyboard layout (like you can already) and a preferred set of special characters (3).
2. Certain keyboards should be fast-switchable, and others only available upon manual selection; thus not forcing the user to cycle through x keyboards, some of which he or she might need only seldom (4).
3. Bonus: An easily editable user dictionary for each language used, as well as iCloud based synchronisation between iOS devices and maybe even OS X.

I’d be glad to hear your thoughts on the matter in the comments.

Macgasm - Apple Tips, Apple News, Apple Everything.

Good news, gamers! Steam Mobile is available on your iPhone and iPod touch right now. While of course it will work on your iPad, it sadly isn’t optimized.

With this free app you can see which of your Steam friends are online, chat with your buddies, and shop for Mac and Windows games. If you’re a heavy Steam user, this will make your social interactions a lot easier. Just because you’re on the train doesn’t mean you can’t be messaging your bro-hams (that’s the lingo the kids these days are using, right?).

This is great, but don’t start thinking you’re going to see Steam selling games on the iPhone. We saw Apple drop the axe on an in-app gaming platform before, so this isn’t a likely first step for Steam to enter the mobile space. At least on iOS, that is.

It does bring up an interesting question, though. Maybe Valve, maker of hits like Half-Life and Portal as well as the owners of Steam, is interested in making games for mobile platforms. It’s certainly possible. We’ve seen that great first-person shooters can be made for iOS thanks to Rage HD. This probably isn’t Steam’s beginning for the mobile space, but it could signal Valve’s.

Hat tip to Joystiq

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AT&T has announced a handful of interesting things about their business in Q4 2011. Two things in particular are very interesting to Apple and its fans:

Just to be clear, sales and activations are two different but related things. AT&T sold over nine million smartphones while activating over seven million iPhones. Activations can include more cases than just new phones, but it is safe to assume the vast majority of activations are from new sales.

Hot off of the heels of Verizon’s announcement that over half of their smartphones sold in Q4 2011 were iPhones as well as Apple’s record-setting quarter, these numbers are very good for the US’s second largest carrier. We can’t wait to hear Sprint, the third largest carrier, talk about how many iPhones it sold. Meanwhile, T-Mobile weeps mournfully in the corner.

What do you think of all of these numbers? Is the Android market finally hitting its saturation point? Sound off in the comment section, and let’s talk it out. Financial reports have never been this fun!

Source: AT&T

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Clear for iPhone (Coming Soon!) from Realmac Software on Vimeo.

The ToDo list application is simple and elegant. It’s not trying to be an OmniFocus replacement, and that’s a good thing for most of us who only need a simple application to keep track of basic honey-do lists.

I’ve been using the application for a number of weeks now, and it’s certainly taking over my other ToDo list applications. Check out the video, and get your iTunes gift cards ready. You’re probably going to want to check this bad boy out when it ships.

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Neven Mrgan, of Panic, Inc. fame, and the man behind the graphics of the popular iOS game The Incident, decided to check his text messaging stats and provide some information about how deeply iMessage has disrupted his text messaging usage. As it turns out, his usage is down, way down:

He’s not the only one seeing the huge drop in SMS usage either. Jenna Wortham, a journalist for the New York Times Bits blog, has seen similar results:

As you can see, Wortham’s usage has also dropped off substantially. Bizarrely, my text-messaging usage hasn’t fallen off as steep of a cliff as that of Mrgan and Wortham, but I noticed two things. First, I don’t nearly use text messaging as much as I would have thought. Second, since buying my iPhone 4S, my text messaging usage has increased sharply.

Anyway, there was a drop off in my text messaging usage from September to October, and then it dropped off even more in November, only to explode again December. I’ve highlighted the month of October in red in the graph above. October was the month that iMessage was released to the masses in iOS 5. While my December usage exploded, there is a reason for that — on December 19th, I had my first child. Everyone, family and friends included, was getting in touch to see pictures and catch up. That would likely explain the explosion in my text messaging for the month of December. The real tell for me will be how January’s results fit into my pattern. I have a feeling it will be down around the November mark.

As you can see, iMessage has deeply impacted text messaging since its release. Sure, the results are based on the experience of only three people, but I’d be willing to bet that this is happening on a very large scale. If iMessage is ever opened up (it’ll never happen), Apple could completely annihilate a $20 billion dollar industry.

The sad thing is that this has nothing to do with the SMS technology being broken, and instead, it has everything to do with telcos being greedy, trying to absolutely cash in on the service. If these carriers are wondering why people are so happy about the drop in SMS usage, they just need to ask themselves why it costs $7.00 to send seven text messages with photo attachments in the last month. I’m not even going to figure out what that works out to per kilobyte, considering it’s astronomically ridiculous, and considering I have a data plan like every other smartphone user on the planet. I’m glad Apple released iMessage and frankly, if you have an iPhone and you still haven’t upgraded to iOS 5, you’re doing both yourself and your friends a huge disservice. Update your phone. I don’t want to see any more green chat bubbles in my Messages application.

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Apple had an amazing Christmas in terms of sales. The company released some figures for their 2011 holiday season. On Christmas Day alone, the company made $120 million in iTunes sales. This can help to explain those staggering numbers we heard yesterday. In the entire fiscal quarter, the iTunes store brought in a massive $1.7 billion in revenue. In other words, Christmas was responsible for 7 percent of 3 months worth of sales. With such a high revenue report and iOS device sales, Apple CEO Tim Cook had a few words:

Apple also reported that they’ve made available over 20 million songs in the iTunes store. They’ve shipped over 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, and the iBooks Author app has been downloaded over 600,000 times in under one week. Apple is on a roll.

Via: ITProPortal

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So it seems that the fight is no longer just Apple vs. Samsung. Rather, Motorola Mobility wants to snatch up a piece of legal leverage. Filed in a Florida court this Wednesday, Motorola claims that six Apple products, including the iPhone 4S, have infringed on patents related to wireless technology, data filtering, software, and messaging. However, Apple claims that Motorola has done the same to several of its design patents. This counter was denied by the U.S. International Trade Commission last week.

So what’s their reason? For that you’ll have to look past the immediate company and look towards its owner, Google. The tech giant agreed to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in August of 2011 in hopes of gaining control of the company’s deep collection of patents. In December, Motorola won a case against Apple in Germany on a GPRS (cellular radio) patent violation, which could hinder iPhone and iPad sales in that country.

Not to mention, as Jordan Golson of Macrumors explained, Google would have to sign-off on a lawsuit before it’s filed:

In other words, Google might be the driving force behind all of this. Why? It wants to protect its mobile market position. If Motorola were to win, that patent leverage will carry over to Google giving it more legal insulation against Apple. However, that’s a big if as Apple is well experienced in the court of law.

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The Magnus iPad stand relies on magnets to keep your iPad upright, and pretty effectively turns your iPad into a monitor. If Apple made iPad stands, there’s a high likelihood it would look something like the Magnus.

At $49.95, the Magnus iPad stand comes in right where we expected it to, and at a median price compared to other alternatives on the market.

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The source said various sample devices are also floating around (which vary slightly from one another) so it is impossible to tell which one will be the final. Some things in common with all of them, however, are:

• 4+ inch display (made by LG on at least one of them).
• No teardrop-shaped devices as was rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 4S. Samples so far have been symmetrical in thickness. Also longer/wider.
• None of the sample devices have the iPhone 4/4S form factor.
• None of the devices are final versions,

Frankly, we think this is bullshit. These specs are generic enough that any Joe Blow that has read the echo chamber for more than a day could come up with them, and probably did. It’s also been beat into the ground all of the issues that would come with increasing the size of the iPhone screen from 3.5-inch. We’ll eat our hats if the next iPhone’s screen size is significantly different.

This rumor also has the next iPhone announcement coming this summer. That’s more likely than the screen-size increase, but I’m not taking any part of this rumor without a sea full of salt.

Source: 9to5Mac
Image Credit: ell brown

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Dominic Sunnebo, Global Consumer Insight Director, explains:

Many have stated for a while that an iPhone 4S announcement would help fend off Android growth. It looks like that may be occurring right now, but the real question here is whether or not the iPhone 4S can substantially widen the gap. We’re guessing that it won’t happen with the iPhone 4S, but it may happen with the iPhone 5 should everything remain the same between now and then. But, that’s the problem, isn’t it? Things never remain the same.

On another note

Here’s the deal: microcosmic analysis on market growth is starting to get a little bit stale. Release schedules and product announcements aren’t on a parallel timeline between companies. Leading up to the iPhone 4S announcement, Android growth was outpacing iPhone growth, and now that the iPhone 4S announcement has happened and the device has shipped, the tides are turning once again. This isn’t going to stop any time soon. Here’s my prediction: in four months we’ll be hearing that Android is beating the iPhone again, then once the next iPhone is announced and shipping, we’ll be right back here where we started. It’s not going to end any time soon.

Let’s keep some perspective. Looking narrowly at sales trends isn’t doing anyone any good. How about we start looking at year over year growth and measure success that way?

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Last week, we reported that the iPhone 4S is likely coming to China’s third largest cell network, and clearly that is a result of the pent up demand. China, like the rest of the world, just can’t get enough cowbell iPhone.

Interestingly, Tim Cook and the executive team at Apple clearly knew China would be a substantial market, but didn’t predict the demand would outstrip supply so heavily right off the bat. They’re ramping up production as fast as possible, and we’re pretty sure Cook is determined not to leave any money on the table in China:

Those numbers show the iPhone 4 was very successful in China, but the 4S clearly took the ball, and knocked it out of the park. We can’t wait to see how the 4S sells throughout 2012.

Source: BusinessWeek

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