With all of the recent excitement surrounding Valve's plans to bring Steam and its games to Mac OS X, it pays to remember that other game developers are still putting out Mac versions of their releases.
As noted by Kotaku earlier this week, Blizzard has released a beta version of StarCraft II for Mac OS X. StarCraft II is a highly-anticipated sequel to the popular StarCraft title originally launched on Windows in 1998 and later brought to Mac and Nintendo 64.
Users with beta privileges can download StarCraft II through their Battle.net accounts.
In an article on Motorola's earnings report earlier this week, Forbes notes that Apple has passed Motorola to become the largest mobile phone manufacturer based in the United States.
Motorola sold a total of 8.5 million phones in the quarter, while Apple sold 8.8 million iPhones. Four years ago, when the Razr was still popular, Motorola sold 46.1 million phones in the first quarter.
On a related note, research firm IDC yesterday released a report on global mobile phone sales for the first quarter of 2010, showing overall industry year-over-year growth of 21.7% to 294.9 million. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion entered the top five for the first time, edging out Sony Ericsson for the fourth spot with shipments of 10.6 million and 3.6% market share. Apple's 8.8 million number suggests that a top five placement is within reach if iPhone shipments continue to grow at the rapid pace they have been experiencing.
RIM shipped 10.6 million units in the first quarter while Motorola, which had been a top 5 vendor since the inception of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker in 2004, shipped 8.5 million units. Motorola, the number 2 overall vendor in 2004, registered a fifth place finish last year by virtue of its overall strength in the lower-growth traditional mobile phone category. Motorola has steadily lost share since 2004 when the market started its shift toward higher-end feature phones and smartphones. The ongoing shift has given rise to converged mobile device vendors such as RIM and Apple.
Overall, Nokia and Samsung dominated sales numbers, with Nokia shipping 107.8 million phones for 36.6% global market share and Samsung moving 64.3 million units and representing 21.8% of the market.
Apple today announced the launch of movie downloads for its iTunes Stores in France and Ireland. The offerings include both purchases and rentals and come from major studios such as 20th Century Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal, Disney, and Warner Brothers, as well as smaller European-focused studios.
iTunes movies start at €7.99 for catalog title purchases, €9.99 for recent releases and €13.99 for new releases. iTunes Movie Rentals are €2.99 for library title rentals and €3.99 for new releases, and high definition versions are priced at just one euro more.
Apple's movie rental program allows users 30 days from the time of payment in which to watch content, although once a movie has been started, customers have 48 hours to complete their viewing.
Apple launched movie purchases through the iTunes Store in the U.S. with Disney in late 2006, and has expanded both its content and geographic reach over the years. iTunes Store movie rentals first appeared in the U.S. in early 2008.
Lala.com has announced that they will be shutting down their service as of May 31, 2010. Lala is a streaming music service that was acquired by Apple in December, 2009.
Lala was a four year old startup company that offered customers streaming music over the Internet. This allowed users to listen to a catalog of over 7 million songs for free as a stream over the web -- much like internet radio. If you wanted to buy the right to listen to a particular song on demand an unlimited amount of times from the web, it would cost $.10. In order to permanently download the song to your hard drive or device, however, it would cost the more traditional $.79-$.89 per song.
Some had speculated that Apple would leverage the talent and technology to offer a similar "cloud-based" iTunes service. It was believed that Apple would introduce a version of iTunes that offered streaming music and possibly video services to users. Apple is presumably shutting down Lala to devote resources on its own plans.
Adobe today announced that it has begun shipping Creative Suite 5, introduced earlier this month.
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the availability of the Adobe Creative Suite 5 product family, the highly-anticipated release of the industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. With more than 250 new product features, the Creative Suite 5 product line brings exciting full-version upgrades of flagship creative tools and workflow enhancements to designers and developers -- enabling the creation, delivery and optimization of content across media for greater impact and results.
Adobe is now offering free trial downloads for Creative Suite 5 and its various components. CS5 is also available at Amazon for slight discounts.
Note: Sales through these links financially benefit this site.
As noted by 9 to 5 Mac, Apple will be closing each of its over 220 retail stores in the United States from 4:00-5:00 PM local time tomorrow to prepare for the launch of the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G. Even Apple's flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan, typically open 24 hours a day, will close for preparations.
The store will be closed from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 30, to prepare for the arrival of iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G.
Customers who pre-ordered their 3G-capable models prior to April 19th have seen their orders shipping for delivery tomorrow.
In a very brief press release, Valve Software today announced that the public launch of Steam for Mac OS X is scheduled for May 12th. Officially announced in early March, Steam will bring a major game distribution platform, including Valve's library of popular games, to the Mac.
Valve today announced the public release of Steam for the Mac is May 12. Please stay tuned for more information.
A closed beta of Steam for Mac has been ongoing with testers initially putting Valve's Portal through its paces. Through Valve's "Steam Play" feature, users will be able to play games on multiple operating systems while only having to purchase each title once.
Valve had initially targeted April for a Steam for Mac release, and the reason for the slight delay beyond the original estimate is currently unknown.
Wired reports that it has identified the person who last month found a next-generation iPhone in a Redwood City, California bar and later sold the device to Gizmodo.
Brian J. Hogan, a 21-year-old resident of Redwood City, California, says although he was paid by tech site Gizmodo, he believed the payment was for allowing the site exclusive access to review the phone. Gizmodo emphasized to him "that there was nothing wrong in sharing the phone with the tech press," according to his attorney Jeffrey Bornstein.
While the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office has spoken with Hogan and is continuing to examine the case to determine whether criminal charges are warranted, Hogan has yet to be charged with any crime.
According to the report, Hogan was only able to access the device's Facebook application before it shut down, and only later did he discover that he was in possession of a prototype device. A friend of Hogan's reportedly called AppleCare on Hogan's behalf in a failed attempt to return the iPhone, which appears to be the extent of Hogan's effort to return the phone to its owner.
"He regrets his mistake in not doing more to return the phone," says Bornstein's statement. "Even though he did obtain some compensation from Gizmodo, Brian thought that it was so that they could review the phone."
After Gizmodo published a feature article on the next-generation iPhone, Apple representatives attempted to search Hogan's home, but were turned away by a roommate. Law enforcement officials then became involved in the situation at the request of Apple. In addition to Hogan, investigators have also focused on Gizmodo editor Jason Chen, seizing a number of items from his residence in what the Electronic Frontier Foundation calls an illegal search.
Update: CNET reports that it has identified UC Berkeley student Sage Wallower as the "middleman" who contacted tech sites on Hogan's behalf regarding the lost iPhone. CNET also believes that there was a third person involved in the situation.
In an in-person interview with CNET at his home in Oakland on Thursday, Wallower said, "I'm not the person who found it. I didn't see it or touch it in any manner. But I know who found it." He declined to identify anyone else, however, in part because he said conversations with law professors had convinced him that Apple was a "legal juggernaut."
"I need to talk to a lawyer," Wallower said. "I think I have already said too much."
Silicon Alley Insider yesterday noted that HP appears to be putting its "slate" tablet computer on hold as it looks to complete its acquisition of Palm. The move appears to be related to HP needing to make decisions about how exactly it will integrate Palm's webOS smartphone operating system into its product roadmap.
An analyst asked what HP would be doing with its iPad-rival. HP's Todd Bradley responded, "We haven't made roadmap announcements," but that HP will explain its Slate plans in more detail when the Palm deal closes.
That's at least a few months away: HP expects the deal to close during its fiscal third quarter, which ends at the end of July. And building Palm's WebOS operating system into HP tablets could take much longer -- perhaps even a year or more.
HP's slate, previously destined to use Microsoft Windows, was demoed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in early January, several weeks before Apple introduced the iPad. The following month, HP indicated that it was refining the final specs of the slate in response to the iPad and looking to price it competitively with Apple's tablet device.
Today, Gizmodo reports that Microsoft has cancelled its own "Courier" booklet-style tablet device.
We're told that on Wednesday, Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported. Courier had never been publicly announced or acknowledged as a Microsoft product.
The cancellation was confirmed in a response from a Microsoft representative, who noted that Courier was one of the company's creative explorations of new form factors and interfaces, but that it is not planned to go into production. The Courier concept offered two touch-sensitive screens in a foldable format and incorporated touch, stylus, and handwriting recognition input.
Update: TechCrunch confirms that HP is killing off its Windows 7-based slate project and even considering abandoning the Intel-based hardware for it due to excessive power requirements. Consequently, HP looks to be pursuing Google's Android and Chrome operating systems for its own tablets, as well as moving to convert webOS to a tablet operating system.
Apple today released Aperture 3.0.3, addressing a number of issues with the company's professional-level photo management and manipulation software.
This update improves overall stability and fixes issues in a number of areas. The key areas addressed include:
- Applying adjustments such as Retouch or Chromatic Aberration - Creating and using Raw Fine Tuning presets - Viewing, adding and removing detected faces - Switching target printers and paper sizes when printing - Duplicating Smart Albums - Repairing and rebuilding Aperture libraries - Reconnecting referenced files - Working with GPS track files in Places - Searching for keywords in the Query HUD or Keyword Controls
Full details on the nearly four dozen documented fixes included in the update are listed in the release notes.
Aperture 3.0.3 weighs in at 69.4 MB and requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.6.2 or later.
The Wall Street Journal is currently conducting an exclusive interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen regarding an open letter posted earlier today by Apple CEO Steve Jobs sharing his thoughts on Adobe's Flash technology and reasons why Apple has not included support for it on iPhone OS devices. Video clips and the full interview will be available later, but the Journal is currently providing live updates of the interview in progress.
In his opening comments, Narayen noted that Adobe believes in "open content", stressing that its Creative Suite software is designed to work on a number of different platforms and that the company remains committed to its vision that its software should be able to help people work across multiple operating systems. Narayen also noted that Adobe products, presumably referring to Flash, will be fully supported on the next version of the Android smartphone operating system, as confirmed by Google vice president Andy Rubin earlier this week.
In addressing Jobs' claims of technology issues with Flash, Narayen called the comments "really a smokescreen" and pointed to over 100 App Store applications created using Flash. Further countering Jobs' assertions, Narayen blamed Apple's operating systems for Flash-related crashes and called Jobs' claims of Flash hampering battery life on mobile devices "patently false". In general, Narayen also claimed that Flash issues highlighted in Jobs' letter are rooted in Apple's proprietary nature that prevents Adobe from innovating as they'd like.
Narayen again returned to his claim that Flash is an open standard, calling Jobs' claim of it being closed "amusing". Adobe's view of the world is multi-platform, allowing it to provide developers with tools to easily deploy their content across many devices and platforms, a concept that may not to Apple's benefit in trying to lock customers in to its ecosystem.
In conclusion, Narayen noted that customers have the ultimate voice in the dispute, and he believes that multi-platform solutions like Adobe's will win out.
Jon Stewart, host of the comedy news show The Daily Show, offered an extended segment on yesterday's show addressing the ongoing saga of the lost next-generation iPhone that was acquired by Gizmodo. The clip has been receiving a fair bit of attention today due to the show's popularity and Stewart's angle on the story taking Apple to task for its role in events.
Stewart's monologue, which kicked off the show, highlights many of the key events in the story thus far and sees Stewart professing his love for Apple gadgets but directly addressing Apple CEO Steve Jobs with his fears that Apple is becoming "The Man" in a reversal of the company's landmark '1984' commercial that introduced the Macintosh. Stewart draws a comparison to the reclusive Howard Hughes, suggesting that Jobs could be heading down the same road with the "paranoid corporate genius stuff" that saw Hughes engage in increasingly bizarre behavior. And unsurprisingly, Stewart also takes the opportunity to deliver a rant at AT&T's service, a popular target of discontent for iPhone owners.
Engadget reports that despite Apple's plans for iPad Wi-Fi + 3G pre-orders to be delivered tomorrow in the U.S., at least one lucky customer has had their shipment slip through the cracks and be delivered a day early.
While no details on hidden differences between the 3G and Wi-Fi-only versions have been noted, the one image posted is clearly of a 3G-capable model as distinguished by the black plastic strip visible along the top edge (to allow for cellular signal access) and the status bar noting a connnection to AT&T's 3G network.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been receiving a fair amount of attention of late for his email replies to customers. The replies are typically very short and to the point, but still demonstrate an unusual level of customer interaction for a customarily private CEO of a major company.
Popular comic site The Joy of Tech this week has taken advantage of Jobs' responses to create an amusing Steve Jobs Email Reply Generator, offering readers the ability to customize a generic fake email to Steve Jobs using extensive options in various drop-down menus. Readers can also create a customized fake reply from Jobs.
While the comic experience may not match the excitement Apple fans might feel in receiving an actual reply from Jobs, it does offer an entertaining diversion for those with a few minutes on their hands.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is reportedly looking to charge up to $1 million to companies interested in participating in the company's forthcoming iAd mobile advertising platform. Those companies looking to be launch partners could be looking at sums of up to $10 million.
Apple is making waves on Madison Avenue with its price tag, which comes with initial demands for greater control over advertisers' marketing campaigns.
"It's a hefty sum," says Phuc Truong, managing director at Mobext, a mobile marketing business owned by Havas SA whose clients include Sears, Choice Hotels, Amtrak and Volvo. "What Apple is trying to do is certainly above and beyond what's been done in the past."
The rumored premium pricing agrees with previous comments made by ad agencies who have received pitches from Apple's iAd team, and confirms that Apple will be targeting major corporations for participation in the program rather than smaller entities frequently seen in mobile advertising in many apps on the iPhone today.
According to the report, Apple will be charging one cent per banner displayed and two dollars per interactive ad viewed.
Apple is planning to charge advertisers a penny each time a consumer sees a banner ad, ad executives say. When a user taps on the banner and the ad pops up, Apple will charge $2. Under large ad buys, such as the $1 million package, costs would rack up to reach $1 million with the various views and taps.
The report also notes that Apple itself will build the ads over the first few months in order to ensure proper functioning and aesthetics. But Apple does have plans to release a developer kit that will permit ad agencies to create their own ads down the road and submit them to Apple for approval.
While some ad directors have expressed reluctance at giving up control of ad creation during the initial stages, it hasn't stopped a reported landslide of interest from agencies, who have participated in numerous pitch sessions from Apple's iAd team around the country and have begun gearing up with ideas for their campaigns.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs today posted a lengthy open letter offering his "Thoughts on Flash" in an attempt to clear up some of the controversy over Apple's relationship with Adobe and its unwillingness to incorporate Flash capabilities into its iPhone OS devices.
I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe's Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven - they say we want to protect our App Store - but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.
Jobs then proceeds to lay out six aspects to Apple's argument against the use of Flash:
- Openness: Flash is a proprietary product, making it a closed system. While Apple also offers proprietary products, it believes that all web standards should be open. Jobs points to Apple's support of open standards such HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, as well as its own contributions to open source projects such as WebKit.
- "The Full Web": One of Adobe's arguments is that a lack of Flash compatibility prevents Apple mobile devices from accessing "the full web" because 75% of video in that format. Jobs counters that almost all of this video is available in the more modern H.264 format and viewable on iPhone OS devices. He also points to the YouTube application and a list of other sources all offering video in iPhone-compatible formats. With respect to Flash-based games, Jobs concedes that the iPhone is unable to play them, but notes that there are over 50,000 game and entertainment titles on the App Store, many of which are free.
- Reliability, Security, and Performance: Jobs points to a Symantec study showing Flash having one of the worst security records last year and notes that Flash is the #1 reason Macs crash. While Apple has been working with Adobe to address these issues, the problems remain. Jobs also claims that Apple has yet to see Flash performing well on any mobile device, something it has repeatedly asked Adobe to demonstrate.
- Battery Life: Long battery life essentially requires hardware decoding of formats such as H.264, but most Flash website continue to use older decoders that must run in software, crippling battery life for mobile devices.
- Touch: Interactive Flash content is mouse-driven and not easily compatible with Apple's touch-driven iPhone OS. Jobs argues that developers who need to rewrite their Flash websites to support touch anyway should look to more modern technologies like those supported by Apple.
- Flash as a Third-Party Development Tool: Jobs outlines Apple's arguments against allowing developers to create iPhone applications using Flash or other third-party development tools, citing sub-standard performance and a reliance on those third parties to adopt changes and improvements. Apple wants developers building directly on iPhone OS for the best experience possible.
Our motivation is simple - we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins - we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.
Jobs concludes by noting that Flash was developed during the era of PCs and mice, but today's low-power, touch-based mobile devices require new standards and technologies.
Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
Just one day before they are due to arrive in customers' hands around the United States, iPad Wi-Fi + 3G pre-orders are finally beginning to see mass shipping confirmations from Apple. As noted yesterday, shipments had been staged in various locations around the country, enabling the rapid delivery times.
Several customers have reported that their orders are shipping via standard overnight service, with delivery scheduled to occur before 3:00 PM. Those who have not pre-ordered but are looking to pick up a 3G-capable iPad can attempt to secure one when they go on sale in retail stores at 5:00 PM tomorrow.
Adobe has released a preview release of the 10.1 Flash Player for Mac OS X that supports H.264 video hardware decoding on Mac OS X 10.6.3. Apple recently released information to allow 3rd party developers to take advantage of this hardware support.
Hardware video decoding allows Flash Player to offload H.264 video decoding tasks from the CPU to deliver smooth, high quality video with minimal overhead, improving video playback performance, reducing system resource utilization, and extending battery life.
The new version of Flash Player, code-named "Gala", requires one of the following graphics hardware: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, GeForce 320M or GeForce GT 330M. For those unfamiliar with their specific graphics hardware, this blog post details the computers which are supported:
- MacBooks shipped after January 21st, 2009 - Mac Minis shipped after March 3rd, 2009 - MacBook Pros shipped after October 14th, 2008 - iMacs which shipped after the first quarter of 2009
Mac Pros are not presently supported. The blog post goes on to detail other conditions that hardware support may or may not be available at this time. In the preview release, you can recognize when hardware decoding is in use as a small white square will appear in the upper left corner of the video.
This new feature is expected to make it into the final shipping version of Flash Player 10.1.
Early anecdotal reports in our forums show significant improvements in Flash video playback.
