Apple today announced that it will begin taking pre-orders for all iPad models in nine new countries on Monday, May 10th. The devices will launch on Friday, May 28th.
Apple today announced that iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28. Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple's online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10. In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore.
Customers should check their country's Apple Store for pricing information, but as an example, the UK is seeing Wi-Fi iPad price points of 429/499/599 including VAT, with 3G-capable models carrying a 100 premium.
Apple also announced that the next round of international releases will occur in an additional nine countries in July: Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore. Pricing and pre-order details will be announced at a later date.
WWDC 2010 will take place June 7-11 and is expected to focus intensively on the iPhone OS platform. Apple is widely expected to introduce its new iPhone hardware during a keynote address at the event, although the device has already received considerable publicity since Gizmodopublished details on one lost by an Apple employee in a California bar.
This is the third straight year that Apple's WWDC conference has sold out, with the streak beginning in 2008.
World of Apple reports that Apple has seeded a new version of Mac OS X 10.6.4, termed Build 10F46, to developers. The report notes that the update currently weighs in at 573.1 MB and asks developers to focus on GraphicsDrivers, SMB, USB, VoiceOver, and VPN. Apple also highlights nearly a dozen issues addressed in the update and lists one known issue in the current build involving an error message with fonts.
Apple today gave a select number of developers access to the second build of Mac OS X 10.6.4. Build 10F46 includes a multitude of fixes and just one known issues affecting a font within the operating system.
Apple seeded Build 10F37 of Mac OS X 10.6.4 to developers just last week, focusing on many of the same areas. Mac OS X 10.6.3 was released to the public in late March and brought a significant number of fixes to Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
Yahoo today published the results of some number crunching it performed on iPad users accessing its Web content. According to the data, males currently outnumber females 2:1 among iPad users on Yahoo's network, significantly about the nearly 50-50 split seen for overall usage. The survey also shows relative overrepresentation among the 30-54 age range (peaking in the 35-44 age group), as well as data revealing that early iPad users tend to be more affluent than typical Yahoo users.
As expected within the classic early-adopter profile, we identified a male skew in the 35-44 age group among these early users. In fact, among all users, men outnumber women 2:1. Given the economy, people with higher earning power were probably the first to buy the iPad. The first Yahoo! iPad users were 94% more likely to be affluent consumers with solid wealth and strong incomes than typical U.S. Yahoo! users.
In analyzing what iPad users are looking at on Yahoo's network, the company also found higher-than-average usage for Flickr, with Finance, News, and Sports also seeing heavy interest.
Possibly the most interesting piece of data from Yahoo's analysis is the observation that approximately of 10% of users are coming from outside the United States. Given that the iPad has only been made available in the U.S. and that Apple has taken steps such as limiting per-person orders and cutting off third-party services facilitating international orders, it appears that a relatively significant percentage of iPads are still making it out of the United States.
During the measurement period, the iPad has only been available for purchase in the U.S. market; however, we observe approximately 10% of IP traffic coming from Europe and Asia Pacific. Specifically, the U.K., France, and Germany are the top countries in Europe, and Taiwan and Hong Kong make up the most traffic in Asia Pacific.
Finally, Yahoo noted that nearly half of Yahoo iPad users own an iPhone and had visited Yahoo sites using the iPhone.
TechCrunch reports that social document sharing and publishing site Scribd has announced that it is scrapping its current Flash-based system for one based on HTML5.
Scribd co-founder and chief technology officer Jared Friedman tells me: "We are scrapping three years of Flash development and betting the company on HTML5 because we believe HTML5 is a dramatically better reading experience than Flash. Now any document can become a Web page."
Instead of displaying documents in a Flash-based box, Scribd's content will become large webpages viewable directly in the browser and will offer bookmarking support to assist with long documents. The move to HTML5 will obviously also make content compatible with devices such as the iPad that do not support Flash.
Scribd's currently uses a Flash player much like YouTube's to allow people to upload and view documents on the Web. But with HTML5 standards now making their way through not [sic] browsers, there is little reason to do that. "Right now the document is in a box," says Friedman, "a Youtube-type of experience. There is a bunch of content and a bunch of stuff around it. In the new experience we are taking the content out of the box."
According to the report, Scribd is rolling out HTML5 versions of 200,000 of its most popular documents today as it begins the switch for its complete library, which numbers in the tens of millions of documents.
TechRadar reports that a representative of Opera Software, the company behind the Opera browser for a number of platforms including the iPhone OS, has stepped into the discussion of Adobe's Flash and its role in Web content at the present and going forward. According to Opera product analyst Phillip Grnvold, Opera will continue to support Flash in its products due to it being an integral part of the Web experience, but sees Flash taking a backseat to HTML5 in the future for video-based content.
"But at Opera we say that the future of the web is open web standards and Flash is not an open web standards technology.
"Flash does have its purposes and will have its purposes, the same as [Microsoft's] Silverlight and others, especially for dynamic content.
"But flash as a video container makes very little sense for CPU, WiFi battery usage etcetera - you can cook an egg on [devices] once you start running Flash on them and there's a reason for that."
While Opera may not be going as far as Apple CEO Steve Jobs's condemnation of Flash, it is clear that the company believes in a future where Flash plays a less ubiquitous role in the Web experience and open standards such as HTML5 arise to provide more universal access to content.
Microsoft has expressed similar views in recent days, acknowledging that it is throwing its weight behind H.264-based HTML5 for video content in its forthcoming Internet Explorer 9. While IE9 will continue to support plug-ins such as Flash Player, Microsoft too is expecting Adobe's dominant role as a container for video content on the Web to wane over time.
Hardmac reports that Intel has yet to begin shipping significant quantities of its six-core Xeon processors that many expect to appear in a refreshed Mac Pro. According to the report, distributors will have to wait until "the end of the second quarter" to receive mass quantities of the chips.
Intel informed its distribution networks that the 6 core Xeon will only be available in limited quantity until at the end of the second quarter.
A report from mid-March indicated that a Mac Pro refresh was due "by June", and it is unknown whether there has been any change to this timeline with Intel still not producing mass quantities of the necessary processors. Given the company's history of being first in line for chips used in its Mac Pro machines, it has been suggested that Apple could receive priority access to new processors.
Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) has been scheduled for early June, and while the conference seems to be carrying a heavy iPhone OS focus this year, it does represent a reasonable opportunity for Apple to introduce revised pro-level machines like the Mac Pro. An introduction would not, however, necessarily mean immediate availability, as chip supply constraints could cause Apple to delay shipments by several weeks as it gathers sufficient quantities of the Xeon processors.
For the last several years, netbooks have been a booming business for a number of computer manufacturers as consumers look for low-cost, portable machines to browse the Internet and perform other light tasks. Apple resisted entering the netbook market, repeatedly pointing to numerous shortcoming of such devices as it wrapped up development on its iPad tablet device, its own take on how consumers will want to consume music, video, and Web content in a portable form factor.
Fortune today reports on a new note from Morgan Stanley research analyst Katy Huberty that reveals just how dramatically growth in the netbook industry has slowed since the beginning of the year. Huberty attributes the slowdown to Apple's iPad, which saw tremendous publicity leading up to and since its introduction in late January.
As her chart (above) shows, sales growth of these low-cost, low-powered computing devices peaked last summer at an astonishing 641% year-over-year growth rate. It fell off a cliff in January and shrank again in April -- collateral damage, according to Huberty, from the January introduction and April launch of the iPad.
Huberty also cites data from March showing that 44% of surveyed consumers who were planning to purchase an iPad were doing so instead of purchasing a notebook or netbook computer, the largest category of cannibalized products. Notably, over half of those customers were planning to purchase an iPad instead of an Apple notebook, with the remainder forgoing a non-Apple netbook or notebook.
Also of note, a full 41% of those surveyed said that they would be purchasing their iPad instead of an iPod touch, suggesting that Apple may take a hit to that portion of its sales going forward. The news isn't as bad as it appears, however, as Apple is undoubtedly happy to be keeping those customers in the Apple fold and "upselling" them to the more expensive iPad.
A pair of interesting patent applications from Apple were published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revealing concepts Apple engineers have been tossing around as they work to develop features for future products.
iPhone with various cardiac activity monitor leads (322, 324, 326)
Unwired View points to an application entitled "Seamlessly Embedded Heart Rate Monitor", and while some might assume that Apple is looking to build new Nike+ capabilities into its mobile devices, the company's focus on this technology actually appears to be related to biometric identification of users.
To determine the user's heart rate, heartbeat, or other cardiac signals, the electronic device can include one or more sensors embedded in the device. The one or more sensors can include leads for receiving electrical signals from the user's heart. . . . To provide an electrical signal from the user to the processing circuitry, the leads can be exposed such that the user may directly contact the leads, or may instead or in addition be coupled to an electrically conductive portion of the device enclosure (e.g., a metallic bezel or housing forming the exterior of the device).
In particular, Apple envisions the use of heartbeat signals either for authenticating a user for access to the device's content or for identifying the user and loading a customized profile utilizing their preset preferences for the device.
A second patent application, entitled "Multidimensional Widgets", demonstrates Apple's research into offering Dashboard widgets with multiple sides, allowing users to rotate them in virtual three dimensions to present different data or functionality and reduce visual clutter.
As an example, Apple describes a stock ticker widget where a user can define each side of a three-dimensional widget to contain detailed financial information on a single stock. The widget could adapt in shape to the number of entries made by the user, expanding or contracting based on additions or subtractions.
For example, a three-dimensional widget with four or fewer functions can be of the form of a tetrahedron; a three-dimensional widget with five or six functions can be of the form of a hexahedron; a three-dimensional widget with seven or eight functions can be of the form of a octahedron; and a three-dimensional widget with nine functions can be of the form of a dodecahedron. Thus, if a user specifies ten stock tickers for quotes and technicals, the widget 420 can expand from a hexahedron to a dodecahedron.
Apple also describes a "widget receptacle", where multiple 3D widgets could be grouped together based on certain criteria and represented on a single larger 3D surface. Upon activation of one of the faces of the receptacle, the corresponding widget would be instantiated on its own.
Representation of a widget receptacle housing multiple widgets
Apple has explored other virtual multidimensional interface environments in previous patent applications, including on an iPhone-like mobile device and in a 3D desktop similar to that used by BumpTop, which was recently acquired by Google.
Computerworld reports on comments from Broadpoint AmTech research analyst Brian Marshall suggesting that AT&T may have gained an extra six months of iPhone exclusivity in the United States with its bid to provide data service for the iPad, extending its window through the end of 2010.
"AT&T had to do something dramatic to get the iPad," said Brian Marshall, a Wall Street analyst at BroadPoint AmTech. AT&T's move was to discount their normal wireless data plans by 50% to iPad customers.
As part of the tit-for-tat, AT&T got what it wanted. "For that pricing [on the iPad], AT&T was able to negotiate a six-month extension on the iPhone exclusive," Marshall said.
Marshall provides little evidence for his claim beyond the observation that Verizon failed to win the rights for iPad service. Numerous sources had indicated to Marshall that Verizon was a "certainty" for the iPad, suggesting that some major happened to push Apple's focus to AT&T.
AT&T's exclusivity window for the iPhone in the United States has been the subject of some debate, with early claims pegging it at five years being disputed by other reports that AT&T initially had a two-year agreement that extended through mid-2009 but gained an extra year when it increased the handset subsidies paid to Apple. A report from early last year suggested that AT&T was searching for a way to extend its exclusivity for yet another year until mid-2011, and its iPad data pricing offer may have been a means to get halfway to that goal.
As noted by TechCrunch, Apple appears to be leveraging their unique position as App Store curator in their upcoming iAds service.
The above slide shows Apple's ad company Quattro Wireless pushing a program to potential iPhone app advertisers called "Verification of iTunes Purchase" (VIP). The program allows advertisers to track actual App Store purchases to measure an ad's performance. Apple can then use this knowledge to prevent the ad from being displayed to that user again. While this sort of ad conversion tracking is routine on the web, it is a bit more complicated for 3rd parties on the App Store.
Ad companies such as Admob do provide a similar feature but it requires code modification to the target app to track usage. Apple, however, has already taken steps to make this feature difficult for 3rd parties to offer. Apple's latest SDK terms stipulate that Apps may not "collect and send Device Data to a third party for processing or analysis". This restriction is the source of some debate as well as a topic of the FTC investigation into Apple.
Clamcase is likely the first of many integrated keyboard case designs for the iPad. The Clamcase promises a protective shell, integrated bluetooth keyboard and stand for the iPad. The iPad, itself, is housed in the top segment that can open up and fold backward.
The images look like they may just be renders than actual product photos, however, so its hard to say how well the case will work in practice. The case is claimed to be available sometime later this year.
In his "Thoughts on Flash" letter last week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted his company's frustration with Adobe's slow pace at getting Flash working well on mobile devices, citing missed timelines and a sense of relief that Apple didn't wait for Adobe to deliver the technology.
We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we're glad we didn't hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?
In answer to that question, Zedomax reports that Adobe at this week's Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco is showing off an Android-based tablet running Flash, as well as the company's AIR cross-platform runtime.
Despite the author's claim that Flash and AIR apps run "flawlessly" on the tablet, Daring Fireball's John Gruber points out that the device's browser crashes while the user is accessing YouTube in one video clip.
Notebook computer sending simultaneous video streams to external display via Light Peak
PC Pro reports that Intel this week is showing off a laptop running the company's "Light Peak" connectivity standard initially offering transfer speeds of up to 10 Gbps in both directions. The company previously demonstrated the technology using a prototype Mac Pro motherboard last year, but has now reduced the required hardware to fit inside a laptop enclosure.
Intel's chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, claimed that the bandwidth afforded by the optical technology is practically unlimited. "Light Peak begins at 10Gbits/sec, simultaneously in both directions," he said. "We expect to increase that speed dramatically. You'll see multiple displays being served by a single Light Peak connection. There's almost no limit to the bandwidth - fibres can carry trillions of bits per second".
Intel envisions Light Peak as being able to replace USB, Firewire, and display connectors in the future, and notes that the hardware should become available to computer manufacturers by the end of this year. Given the initial demonstration using Mac Pro hardware and rumors that Apple played a role in the development of the technology, many observers expect Light Peak to quickly make its way into Macs.
In a widely-publicized blog post today, Robert Reich, who served as U.S. Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, offers his thoughts on the rumored antitrust inquiry being considered by federal regulators over Apple's exclusion of cross-compilers for creation of applications running on its iPhone OS devices. Reich argues that the Federal Trade Commission's efforts targeting Apple could be better spent on investigating Wall Street banks, but federal law excludes the financial industry from the FTC's purview.
Our future well being depends more on people like Steve Jobs who invent real products that can improve our lives, than it does on people like [JPMorgan Chase CEO] Jamie Dimon who invent financial products that do little other than threaten our economy.
Reich's position is that Apple's move is not anti-competitive, with many other companies rapidly innovating in the sector, and if Apple's decision results in less competition on the iPhone platform, Apple itself will be the one to suffer.
Apple's supposed sin was to tell software developers that if they want to make apps for iPhones and iPads they have to use Apple programming tools. No more outside tools (like Adobe's Flash format) that can run on rival devices like Google's Android phones and RIM's BlackBerrys.
What's wrong with that? Apple says it's necessary to maintain quality. If consumers disagree they can buy platforms elsewhere. Apple was the world's #3 smartphone supplier in 2009, with 16.2 percent of worldwide market share. RIM was #2, with 18.8 percent. Google isn't exactly a wallflower. These and other firms are innovating like mad, as are tens of thousands of independent developers. If Apple's decision reduces the number of future apps that can run on its products, Apple will suffer and presumably change its mind.
While Reich is not the first to make this argument, his public statement comes with the perspective of an academic and political insider who has spent considerable time in the upper reaches of government.
One of the many new features provided to developers in iPhone OS 4 are new APIs that give developers full access to Video capture data. This could open the door to some interesting apps including Video Capture/Editing and more robust Augmented Reality apps when iPhone OS 4 finally becomes available to the public.
The iPhone 4 Beta SDK, however, also reveals the ability to capture video at higher resolutions than the current standard 640x480 ("VGA") resolution. These preset values suggest that a future iPhone will be able to capture at 720p (1280x720) resolution:
The next iPhone has been pegged to use a 5 Megapixel camera, though the video capabilities of the hardware are unknown. The next iPhone revision has been also rumored to be dubbed the "iPhone HD" which would fit well with this new 720p video recording capability.
Apple is expected to introduce the new iPhone at the Worldwide Developer's Conference which takes place between June 7-11th in San Francisco, CA.
Yesterday, as part of its announcement regarding the release of the Google Chrome 5 beta, Google teased a series of "speed tests" it had conducted using high-speed cameras synchronized to show various events alongside Chrome loading a webpage.
Well, Google today announced that it has posted a new video showing the speed tests in action.
The video highlights three speed tests:
- A potato gun shooting a potato through a slicer and into a fryer while Chrome loads AllRecipes.com in the background. - A keytar connected to a speaker spatters paint using the speaker's vibration while Chrome loads Pandora.com. - A Tesla coil is used to send current arcing to a model ship while Chrome loads Weather.com.
MacStories reports on a new email response to a customer from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, this time promising that full support for HTML5 is coming "soon" to the company's Safari browser. HTML5 has been a popular topic recently, given Jobs' continued support of the next-generation Web standard as a key component of future technologies that he believes will leave Adobe's Flash Player in the past.
But as you probably know, Apple doesn't actually fully support HTML5 in its flagship browser, the desktop version of Safari. Indeed, Safari for Mac (and Windows) doesn't have official and full support for many HTML5 specs like Geolocation API, Drag and Drop, Form Features and Inline SVG but according to this new email from Steve we received, all this stuff is coming.
Given that Google has just introduced several of these HTML5 features in its new Google Chrome beta version, it appears that Apple will likely need to move forward relatively rapidly in order to demonstrate its commitment to deploying the tools necessary for HTML5 in Safari to reach the potential espoused by Jobs. "Full" HTML5 adoption may be a bit of a moving target for Apple, however, as the standard has not yet been officially formalized.
