Apple adds Nokia N97 mini video to death-grip series

Apple has added the Nokia N97 mini to their (growing?) list of smartphones that suffer from the now-infamous “antennagate” death-grip. Here we see the N97 dropping from 7 to 3 bars.

Of course, iPhone 4 doesn’t suffer from death-grip but death-touch, a single point of attenuation on the bottom left side. Apple made a trade-off for better overall reception and increased battery size at the expense of that single point of death-touch, but has since attempted to draw attention to the greater, industry-wide death-grip. (Though there’s at least one video out, not from Apple, showing the new Samsung Galaxy S succumbing to a death-finger all its own.)

Meanwhile, David Chartier has started Don’t Hold it Wrong, a log of similar videos as well as manuals where manufacturers point out attenuation areas on many different phones.

It’s not surprising the whole “antennagate” hasn’t faded away yet. It is a little surprising Apple’s still adding to the attention. Video after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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Flashlight app secretly lets you enable iPhone tethering

Handy Light arrived in the App Store on Tuesday, but the flashlight hides a secret tethering hack. How long until Apple pulls it?

Handy Light for iPhone’s dirty little secret: tethering (update)

You may ask yourself, why on earth would anyone pay 99 cents for an iPhone app whose sole purpose is to flash bright, solid colors? We certainly wouldn't recommend it, but Handy Light has a great little Easter egg that undoubtedly doesn't jive with the folks at Cupertino HQ. Like Nullriver's Netshare app before it, this little piece of software allows for SOCKS proxy tethering, without having to sign up for AT&T's tethering plan. Instructions available via the video below, and if you're looking to pick up the app yourself, better hurry -- we can't imagine Apple will let this one stay in the store for very much longer.

Update: Looks like the app's been pulled. Ye who snoozes, ergo must lose. If you did manage to nab and the video below isn't working (we see it just fine), check out App Shopper for more detailed, text-based instructions.

Continue reading Handy Light for iPhone's dirty little secret: tethering (update)

Handy Light for iPhone's dirty little secret: tethering (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MobileMe Calendar Beta upgrades being offered via iCal

I just launched iCal (by accident!) and was greeted with the dialog box above, asking if I’d like to upgrade to the new MobileMe Calendar beta. Um. Okay. I went through the upgrade, which launched Safari and had me log into my MobileMe account, only to get a server error and a request to try again. Second time was the charm, though, and all my events were updated and I now have the shiny new — clearly iPad-inspired — MobileMe Calendar Beta at my beck and call.

For the MobileMe Mail Beta, I requested an invitation and received an email confirmation, so this was different. Anyone else getting “invited” into the MobileMe calendar beta this way?

Update: I received an email notification for the beta a few minutes later with instructions to log into MobileMe on the web to begin the upgrade procedure. I guess iCal was just a second upgrade vector. Still, a nice surprise.

More screenshots after the break.

MobileMe Calendar Beta upgrades being offered via iCal is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple’s sold 100,000,000 iOS devices and counting

According to Apple’s Q3 2010 conference call today, they’ve officially passed the monstrous 100,000,000 iOS devices sold milestone. At the iOS 4 sneak preview event on April 8, Steve Jobs revealed Apple had sold 50 million iPhones and 35 million iPod touches. On April 20, Apple announced 8.7 million iPhones sold in Q2. So, if we include those in the 50 million number, add the 8.4 million sold in Q3, that’s 58.4 million iPhones alongside 3.3 million iPads, leaving room for 38.3 million or so iPod touches.

To put the iPad numbers in perspective, Apple sold 3.3 million of them in their debut quarter, and they sold 3.5 million Macs during the same period — their best Mac quarter ever.

And while not all of these devices are still actively being used, theoretically each and every one of them can run most of the 225,000 iPhone apps on the iTunes App Store (iPad runs them boxed or pixel doubled), making a ginormous target for developers.

Those numbers will no doubt increase next year, perhaps adding an iOS Apple TV, an iOS layer on Mac to replace Front Row and Dashboard, and only Steve Jobs knows (and teases) what else.

Any wonder WWDC 2010 focused so much on iOS?

Apple’s sold 100,000,000 iOS devices and counting is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Flashlight App Briefly Brought Unofficial Tethering To The iPhone

Apple’s massive North Carolina data center to go online next year

During Apple’s Q3 2010 conference call, CFO Peter Oppenheimer revealed that Apple’s massive North Carolina data center is on schedule and should go online in 2011. Oppenheimer didn’t reveal what the data center would be used for but rumors persist of an iTunes.com streaming music, TV, and movie service.

With 100,000,000 iOS devices sold to date, additional rumors of an iOS Apple TV, and countless desktop iTunes installs on the market, pushing that much content would certainly need a world-class data center.

If this year’s iPod touch event in September doesn’t offer any clues, maybe next year’s iPad event will?

Apple’s massive North Carolina data center to go online next year is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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TUAW review: Email while driving with Text’nDrive Pro for iPhone

Filed under: iPhone, App Review

Sure, you'd love to be able to check and answer your email while you're driving. But fortunately for the rest of us, many countries, states, and municipalities have made the act of reading and tapping out emails on your iPhone while driving illegal. Hands Free Software has come up with a solution that not only reads your incoming mail to you, but allows you to reply to those emails through voice.

Text'nDrive Pro for iPhone (US$19.99) works with a single email account, scanning its inbox to see if any new messages have arrived. If there's something new, it reads the message to you and then lets you reply to it if you wish. After receiving a review version of the application from Hands Free, I installed it on my iPhone 4 and then promptly got into my car and drove away. Within a minute or two, I heard a rather loud and obviously computerized male voice that I knew was not my wife speaking. Sure enough, Text'nDrive Pro had received a new email in my MobileMe inbox and proceeded to read it to me.

While I was able to ascertain what the voice was saying from the speaker of my iPhone, Text'nDrive Pro does work with all Bluetooth headsets and hands-free kits, so you can customize the way that you listen to the spoken emails and prompts to your preferences.

Continue reading TUAW review: Email while driving with Text'nDrive Pro for iPhone

TUAW review: Email while driving with Text'nDrive Pro for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW review: Email while driving with Text'nDrive Pro for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Is Selling Every iPhone 4 It Can Make; Indicates Antenna Issue Is Not A Deal-Breaker

Flashlight App Sneaks Tethering Into App Store (For Now) [Pulled]

Handy Light, a new flashlight app by developer Nick Lee, brings unofficial SOCKS Proxy tethering to the iPhone hidden behind what appears to be a simple flashlight app that uses the screen for illumination. The app's description provides no hints of ...

Flashlight App Sneaks Tethering Into App Store (For Now)

Handy Light, a new flashlight app by developer Nick Lee, brings unofficial SOCKS Proxy tethering to the iPhone hidden behind what appears to be a simple flashlight app that uses the screen for illumination. The app's description provides no hints of ...

Review: beeTV for iPhone

This app, for finding out what TV shows are playing and when, has some nice features. But to be truly useful, its recommendation system needs an overhaul.

Apple: Selling iPhone 4 and iPad as fast as they can make them

Along with 8.4 million iPhones (of which 1.7 million were iPhone 4) and 3.3 million iPads reported during their Q3 2010 conference call, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook repeatedly pointed out Apple is selling units just as fast as they can produce them.

For iPhone 4, Cook said the demand was stunning. He said he wanted to be clear: Apple is selling every iPhone 4 they can make and dismissed rumors Apple was purposefully constraining supply to create artificial buzz. He said Apple would like to fill every order they get as quickly as they can. And again, iPhone growth was particularly strong in Europe, Asia, and Japan.

In terms of the iPad, Apple planned for 1 million a month in iPad production capacity — when some critics said they wouldn’t sell 1 million in a year — did that, and are still doing it. They’re increasing capacity as fast as they can to meet the demand. Cook also said they weren’t seeing the usual early adopter curve with high initial sales that taper off quickly, and that iPad might be hitting mainstream adoption rates faster than any product he knows of. So far, it’s not cannibalizing other Apple products like Mac or iPod touch either — though it’s too soon to tell if there will be a halo that actually increases adoption of those products.

Apple: Selling iPhone 4 and iPad as fast as they can make them is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple’s Massive North Carolina Data Center Ready By End of Year

Apple's massive 1 billion dollar North Carolina data center has been the subject of much speculation since it was first announced in June 2009. The new data center was detailed as occupying 500,000 square feet and roughly five times the size of the...

Apple Posts All-Time Record Revenue Of $15.7 Billion; Sells 8.4 Million iPhones And 3.27 Million iPads In Q3

Apple posts record $3.25b profit in first full quarter of iPad sales, says more ‘amazing products’ coming this year

Apple just posted up its third quarter earnings -- its first full quarter selling the iPad -- and, well, it's raining cash in Cupertino. The company posted a record profit of $3.25b on record revenues of $15.7b, which is up from $1.83b and $9.73b from a year ago. The big stat? Apple sold 3.27 million iPads, nearly matching the 3.47 million Macs sold -- and Mac sales were up 33 percent from a year ago to set a new quarterly record. Yeah, damn. iPhone sales -- including the first few weeks of the iPhone 4 -- were up 61 percent from a year ago to 8.4 million, and the iPod continued its slow decline, down eight percent to 9.41 million units sold. Over half of the Apple's sales -- 52 percent -- were international, and Jobs is quoted saying "we have amazing new products still to come this year." Not a bad way to head into back-to-school and the holidays, we suppose -- we've got a feeling those iPad numbers are just going to go up. The conference call to discuss all this is at 5pm ET, we'll be covering it live right here.

Update: The call is all done -- the full liveblog is after the break. We didn't learn too much apart from the fact that Apple's selling every iPhone and iPad it can make (Tim Cook repeated this over and over), and that Apple's setting aside $175 million in revenue to cover the free iPhone 4 cases. Of course, given that Apple added an additional $4.1 billion in cash to its warchest this quarter for a total of $45.8 billion, that's pretty much pocket change, but there's the number.

Continue reading Apple posts record $3.25b profit in first full quarter of iPad sales, says more 'amazing products' coming this year

Apple posts record $3.25b profit in first full quarter of iPad sales, says more 'amazing products' coming this year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Q3 2010 financial results conference call

Follow along with TiPb as we listen to and comment on Apple’s Q3 2010 financial results conference call. We’re not live-blogging this, just posting highlights so you’ll need to refresh from time to time to see new notes.

If you want to listen while you read, head on over to Apple.com for the audio stream.

Now on with the highlights:

• Waiting on additional participants to show up
• Starting now, IR person reading safe harbor provision
• Tim Cook (henceforth TC), Peter Oppenheimer (OP) on tap, no Steve Jobs announced
• OP: introducing results, began shipping iPad in 10 countries, launched iPhone 4, shipped iOS 4, new record for Mac sales
• OP: Highest revenue ever 15.7 million, 4.23 margin, 3.25 net income, EPS 3.51
• OP: Mac sales. Short version — they did very well.
• OP: 9.4 million iPods. Declining. iPod touch 48% growth. Mix-shift to iPod touch 12% up, revenue growth 4% up. Share over 70%. Top selling MP3 sale, gaining share.
• OP: iTunes exceeded 1 billion dollars. App Store 225,000 apps, 11,000 just for iPad. 5 billion apps downloaded.
• OP: iPhone 8.4 million, 1.7 million iPhone 4 in 5 countries. 61% year-over-year growth. Customers loving new features, FaceTime, Retina Display, glass and stainless steel
• OP: 5.53 billion for ancillary sales, up over 70%.
• OP: 154 carriers in over 80 countries, Asia, Europe, Japan increasing
• OP: Over 100,000,000 iOS devices sold. iOS 4 very favorable, people loving new features.
• OP: iPad off to good start. 3.27 million iPads sold in 10 countries. 9 additional countries on July 23.
• OP: Apple retail still growing.
• OP: [Talking financial details about why their usual conservative numbers were exceeded. Again. Seriously]
• OP: 48 billion on hand, up 4 billion. Still preserving capital, short dated, high quality investments
• OP: Outlook to Q4. Offering free cases to all customers who purchased iPhone 4 until Sept. 30. Deferring revenue on those cases. Should cost 175 million.
• OP: Expect 18 billion, 35% gross margin in Q4. Sequential decline due to higher mix of iPhone 4 and iPad which have higher cost structures, also free cases. Back to school promotions as well.
• OP: In closing, they’re thrilled!
• Now starting Q&A
• Q: What are you hearing from corporations, adoption?
• TC: iPhone now in 80% of Fortune 100 piloting or deploying, 60% of Fortune 500. 400 higher ed institutions as well. iOS 4 was a help.
• TC: iPad in first 90 days. 50% of Fortune 100 testing or deploying. Incredible.
• OP: Higher iPhone and accessory sales than they anticipated.
• Q: Supply/demand breakdown, constraints?
• TC: iPod, none. iPad and iPhone are different, both iPad and iPhone 4 had backlog couldn’t fill, still selling as fast as they can make them. High demand is never a problem. Planning 1 million a month capacity was a bold move, analysts predicted 1 million in sales for years. Did that in 1 month, still doing that. Apple is increasing capacity as fast as they can. Confident they will be able to do it.
• TC: Just started ramping iPhone 4 in June. Limited days, only 4 days in Q.
• TC: greatly reduced iPhone 3GS sales around June 7. Didn’t launch iPhone 4, new 3GS on June 24. Result was significantly lower sales after June 7 until June 24.
• TC: 250,000 more units if they’d held inventory flat.
• Q: Why are there supply problems? Rumors Apple does that on purpose.
• TC: Would rather market move quickly to new products. How they want to manage it. Don’t purposefully create shortages for buzz. Not their objective. Would like to fill every order as quickly as they can. Demand for iPhone 4 absolutely stunning.
• TC: Returns for antenna issue are very small.
• TC: Pleasantly surprised how fast iPad has gotten going. Much faster to 1 million than iPod. Not following typical new product curve where it takes a long time to go mainstream after early adoption.
• OP: Won’t reveal iPod Wi-Fi vs. 3G split, but demand for all of them have been amazing. Average $640.
• Q: Will iPad cannibalize other product lines? Any thoughts?
• TC: Discuss it internally, only selling 3 months. To early to tell. Thrilled they recorded best Mac quarter ever even with iPad sales. Jaw dropper.
• Q: iAds business?
• OP: Just launched in July. Will learn a lot this calendar year. No further specifics.
• Q: Datacenter coming along?
• OP: On schedule. Everything going fine. Expect to complete by end of calendar year.
• Q: Cannibalization of iPad on iPod touch?
• OP: iPod ASPs down $7, driven by start of back to school promotion, stronger US dollar. Mix up on iPod touch.
• Q: Impact of bumper give-away?
• OP: Will need to defer revenue for iPhone 4 they sell where they’ve not delivered bumpers, not heard from customers wanting to place order. Revenue accrual with no cost, will expense cost when shipped to customers.
• Q: Android shipments increasing, competition to iPhone family?
• TC: Haven’t seen Android results, sum of several companies. iPhone up 61% despite drawdowns and transition, growing faster than market.
• Q: Competing tablets, 3G subsidies coming fall, impact?
• TC: Selling every unit they can make, looks good in every country they’ve launched it in. Anecdotally growing faster than early adopter, faster than any product he knows of. Doesn’t know what competition will do. Everyone working on something. Apple extremely happy with position and business model. Affordable rate structure, starts at $15, no commitment, aggressive device pricing. Yes, someone could jack up rate plans, subsidize. Not sure people will want another contract. If someone tries it, both learn.
• Q: iPhone software developers have complained not about App Store rules but about arbitrary nature. Apple done anything?
• OP: Always looking to make developers happy, 225K apps, 5 billion downloads, 1 billion in payments to devs, iAds a second stream. Care deeply. Want to have great apps. Success is unparalleled.
• TC: Vast majority of apps approved within 7 days. Many that aren’t have bugs, re-submitted, approved. Want to ensure pornography, graphic scenes don’t come on platform. Not everyone agrees, but that’s how they’re doing it.
• Q: Dev concern misplaced?
• TC: Value their concerns, modify when appropriate. Won’t say every concern misplaced. Value their feedback.
• Q: Move to mobility?
• TC: Long run, will see portables grow.
• Q: FaceTime, industry standard, how will it role out? Windows, Mac?
• TC: Sticking to financials for today.
• Q: iPhone strong in Asia, Europe, Japan. Why not North America?
• TC: Not law of large numbers. Phone market will increasingly become smartphone market. Steve said that long ago. Lots of domestic, Americas opportunities. Mac, iPhone, or iPad growing faster internationally. See that in revenues as well. Perspective, Americas growing 40% so this is huge number, just international numbers are killer.
• Q: iPhone growth has come from broader carrier distribution. Broaden within countries, emerging markets like China, India, pre-paid?
• TC: Extraordinary opportunity. Mac as example, AsiaPC Mac grew 73%, phenomenal. In China, grew 144%. Korea, 184%. HK almost 200%. Even in difficult economy like Spain, grew 59%.
• TC: iPhone space doing well in all key markets, expanding that, learning what they learned with exclusive deals, looking market by market, opening Spain up. Will go from exclusive in Spain to 3. More countries remaining. Increased distribution, market, move to smartphone. All in iPhone favor. Sees enormous opportunity. Biggest challenge is determining which to deploy resources.
• Q: Will there be iPad halo?
• TC: Agrees, most people external to Apple focus on cannibalization, internally focus on synergy between. iPod historically people at Apple felt iPod created halo for Mac. Will see about iPad, doesn’t want to predict it. Mac share still low. Still enormous opportunity to grow. Might be some synergy. iDevices -> Mac, iPad iPhone. This is where it’s great to have lower share. If iPad cannibalizes PCs, fantastic for Apple. Big market.
• Q: Impact of wage hikes from sub-contractors?
• TC: Don’t want to get into terms of commercial agreements, competitive info.
• Q: Expand carriers to tap domestic demand, or enough with AT&T?
• TC: Very happy to be partner with AT&T. Been first class partner, pioneered smartphone growth from network POV in US. That’s all.
• OP: Best iPhone they’ve ever shipped, higher cost structure.
• Q: Gap iPhone, iPad supply and demand? How many units?
• TC: Don’t know. Only know if you have enough supply. Don’t have it.
• That’s all folks!

Apple Q3 2010 financial results conference call is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple Reports Profit of $3.25 Billion in Q3 2010 on Record $15.7 Billion Revenue

Apple today announced financial results for the second calendar quarter and third fiscal quarter of 2010. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $15.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion,...

Apple details location information sharing

Filed under: Apple, iPhone

Apple had to do some explaining recently -- after a House of Representatives probe into the company's privacy policy came up, the company sent a twelve-page letter to the members of Congress, going into detail on what all of the legalese in the company's privacy policy actually means. The biggest takeaway is that Apple does collect location data from your iPhone -- every 24 hours, an encrypted batch of locations for cell towers, Wi-Fi access points, and GPS coordinates are hooked up to a zip code and sent back to Apple. This is all true -- we've heard from customers who've noticed the daily batch of information sent out over their iPhone's data plan.

Why does Apple do all of this? The company claims that it's all necessary to account for "the ever-changing physical landscape, more innovative uses of mobile technology, and the increasing number of Apple's customers." Of course, if you don't want to be a part of this system, you can shut all of the location tracking down right inside the phone's preferences -- either phone-wide, or on a per-app basis depending on what version of iOS you are using. Version 3 and below requires a visit to each app, iOS 4 allows you to shut it off at the OS level. Just go to Settings>General>Location Services and turn location data on or off. The problem then, of course, is that you won't have access to those services while you use your phone.

Apple also notes that it collects the same data from Macs who use location-based services (like automatically setting your time zone), and the iAd network also sends location information every time an ad is requested. In short, Apple knows where you are, and in return, you get the benefit of location-specific information. Worth it?

Apple details location information sharing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple details location information sharing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iSuppli Boosts iPad Sales Estimates Through 2012 to Nearly 100 Million

Research firm iSuppli today announced a significant boost to its iPad estimates through the end of 2012, pushing its total estimates for the first three years of product availability to nearly 100 million units.


iSuppli pegs 20...