Graham Spencer

1054 posts on MacStories since January 2011

Former MacStories contributor.
graham@macstories.net

Apple’s Fall Media Event Scheduled For September 7?

For months there has been discussion of a Fall media event for Apple to reveal the iPhone 5 and according to a report by Kodawarisan Apple has scheduled the event for Wednesday, September 7th. The date falls in line with previous years in which the traditional iPod event was held on September 1st in 2010 and September 9th in 2009 and 2008.

MacRumors clarified with Kodawarisan that the September 7th date was not a “product of guesswork, but came from a source in the know”. They also note that Kodawarisan has had a long history of rumors (nearly a decade) but had recently been pretty quiet - with the last “sucessful” rumor arising in 2009 in whcih they correctly predicted the Mac Mini launch date.

If this date does come true and the event includes the announcement of the iPhone 5, it would differ from reports earlier this month in which AllThingsD claimed an “October surprise” for the iPhone 5 launch.

[Via MacRumors]

VUDU Brings Its Video-On-Demand Service To The iPad Via A Web App

Amazon wasn’t the only content provider to launch an iPad web app today, with VUDU also bringing its video-on-demand service to the iPad via a web app. VUDU, which is owned by Walmart and claims to be “a leading subscription-free, video-on-demand movie service” chose to optimise the site for the iPad and now streams videos in h.264 - although unfortunately the videos are only in standard definition due to licensing restrictions (some Disney films are also missing from the catalogue).

VUDU, a leading subscription-free, video-on-demand movie service and wholly owned subsidiary of Walmart stores, has optimized the navigation experience of VUDU.com to enable millions of iPad owners to rent or buy entertainment content and then stream it easily through any iPad browser.

Edward Lichty, General Manager of VUDU, said of the iPad launch that it “plays into that vision as we’re committed to offering the VUDU experience on as many devices as possible so customers can shop for and access their favorite movies and TV shows however they want, whenever they want”. What this means in part is that any movie rented or purchased on the iPad VUDU website is also viewable on any other device that supports VUDU - which Walmart claims is more than 300 consumer electronic devices. According to Engadget, you can watch VUDU on the iPhone through this same web app despite the UI not yet being optimized for it - but don’t be disappointed if this doesn’t work well or if VUDU stops this soon.

Just head to the VUDU website on your iPad and follow the prompts to start using the VUDU iPad interface.

[Via Engadget]

Amazon Releases Impressive Kindle Cloud Reader Web App, Sidesteps In-App Purchase Rules

Over the past six months there has been a (fairly) quiet tussle between Apple and various publishers and other content suppliers over the issue of In-App Purchases and Subscriptions. At the beginning of the year Apple had demanded that by July, all content available within an app must be available for purchase within the app through In-App Purchasing, for the same price as it was available on the publishers website (say the Kindle online store) and that the app did not link to the website for purchases but used the In-App Purchase system. Apple reversed their policy in May, removing the first two restrictions — but still denied publishers from including a ‘Buy’ link that went to a website and then finally late last month various publishers began to abide by these rules, including the Wall Street Journal, Kobo and the Kindle apps.

This obviously isn’t the best situation for consumers and as many have noted, including Dan Frommer of SplatF, it has made purchasing Kindle books more difficult for the user - despite the premise of In-App Purchases aiming to simplify purchases. Consequently, Amazon today released the Kindle Cloud Reader, a web app for Chrome, Safari and the iPad - with support for other browsers and devices promised soon.

The desktop version of the Kindle Cloud Reader is nice, but it is the iPad version that is most intriguing and impressive. It is a web app but it does an excellent job at masquerading as a native app — particularly features such as offline support and menus that hide/reappear when you tap the screen. It starts from when you first load the Kindle Cloud Reader and it asks permission to reserve 50 MB on your device so that it can store all the necessary elements of the ‘app’ and your books to ensure that when you have no 3G or Wi-Fi connectivity, everything continues to work. To really see how well it does at pretending to be a native app, try it yourself or jump the break for more screenshot’s of the Kindle Cloud Reader — pinning it to the Home Screen as a web app (which it dutifully suggests you do) in particular just amplifies the native app feel by removing the browser chrome.

What Amazon has done by creating this web app reminds me of the Financial Times, which also created a web app for delivering their content to users and subscribers after they also felt Apple’s terms were too restrictive and negative. Unlike the Financial Times, Amazon has not removed their iOS app from the App Store — it remains, albeit hampered by the lack of easy access to the Kindle Store. On the Kindle Cloud Reader however, the Kindle Store works great with a link in the top-right corner and it is made better by the fact that the store has also received an iPad-enhanced design and works much better whilst also looking great.

You can access the Kindle Cloud Reader now, simply by logging in to your Amazon account - all your purchased books will already be there.

[Via TechCrunch]

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Boxee Releases Their iPad App: Social Video Sharing & Streaming

Earlier this year at CES, Boxee announced it was developing an iPad companion app to complement the Boxee Box and Boxee installations on PC’s and Macs. Today Boxee has finally delivered and released their iPad app after postponing the initial release date from May.

The main screen of the Boxee iPad app will remind many of the familiar Boxee experience with three streams of videos shown, one is a collection of videos from friends, another is the featured video feed and the last is a stream of videos that you have selected to ‘Watch Later’. Beyond this however, the Boxee iPad app has some more interesting features including what Boxee has dubbed ‘PC to iPad’ and ‘Send to TV’. The former allows any PC/Mac to stream videos directly to the iPad without any syncing or converting (similar to Air Video or Plex) - this feature is enabled with the new Boxee Media Manager which is a lightweight app that allows the streaming from PCs and Macs.

The ‘Send to TV’ functionality incorporates the ability for the iPad to stream video directly to a Boxee Box. What is even cooler is that the Boxee Box (which is also receiving an update from today) now includes an experimental feature where it can now receive AirPlay streams from any iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch - just like an Apple TV can.

You can download Boxee’s iPad app for free on the App Store. Jump the break for the release notes of Boxee for iPad and for a selection of screenshots.

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New Apple Stores In Italy And Australia Opening This Saturday

Apple will this Saturday hold two Apple Store grand openings on opposite ends of the world with one opening in Italy and the other in Australia. The new Australian Apple Store is located in Cheltenham Victoria within the Westfield Southland shopping centre. Dubbed the Southland Apple Store, it will become the twelfth Apple Store within Australia and third within the state of Victoria.

Over in Italy Apple will be opening a new store in Florence located within the I Gigli suburban shopping center — as we reported earlier this year it is on the ground floor of the shopping center and faces a large circular courtyard. The I Gigli Apple Store will be opening at 9:00am this Saturday, August 13th whilst the Southland store in Australia opens at 10:00am this Saturday after the local media have a period for photo opportunities.

It was noted last month that Apple was expecting to open 30 new Apple Stores by September 30th, after these two store openings this Saturday Apple has 26 left with less than two months to accomplish that goal.

[Via Delimiter, ifoAppleStore]

Apple Introduces $999 iMac For Educational Institutions

We reported a few hours ago on reports that Apple was set to launch a new iMac model for educational institutions later this month for a sub-$1000 price. Surprisingly we only needed to wait a few more hours for this new model as it turns out that Apple has decided to launch this new educational iMac today — meaning that for educational institutions they can purchase this new iMac model now.

This new iMac model is available for $999 and is directly targeted at educational institutions — individuals are not able to purchase this model. The specifications of this new iMac model are in line with what was stated in the 9to5 Mac report this morning with a 3.1GHz Core i3 processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB of hard drive storage and an AMD HD 6750 with 512 MB. This knowledge base article contains all the specifications of this new iMac but interestingly this model (which is dubbed a ‘Late 2011’ iMac) does not have Thunderbolt, that makes this iMac the first new Mac from Apple in 2011 that doesn’t support Thunderbolt.

  • 3.1GHz Intel Core i3 Dual-Core
  • 21.5-inch LCD
  • AMD Radeon HD 6750 with 256 MB
  • 2GB RAM
  • 250GB Hard Drive
  • SuperDrive
  • OS X Lion

Updated to include link to specifications page.

[Via MacRumors]

UK Carrier Orange Teams Up With Apple, Offers Customers 1 Free Movie Rental Per Week

European mobile carrier Orange today launched a new “Film To Go” service in the UK which now allows its customers to rent one free movie per week from the iTunes Movie store. Each week a new movie will be available for Orange customers and will be downloadable on the Thursday - this week the movie is ‘My Blueberry Nights’ and in the following weeks ‘The Wrestler’, ‘The Ghost’ and ‘Che: Part One’ will be offered.

To get the free movie rental, Orange customers in the UK will need to send a text message with “FILMTOGO” (no quotes) to 85060 and they will receive a redemption code — beware however that whilst renting the movie is free, this text message will cost 35 pence. The received code is a standard redemption code for iTunes and once entered will allow Orange customers to download the movie (although this can only occur on the Thursday), once downloaded the rental abides by the standard restrictions where it is available for 30 days but once started must be completed within 48 hours before it expires.

[Via The Next Web]

Apple Set To Introduce Education-Focused iMac Model For Less Than $1000?

Apple may be preparing to launch an education-focused iMac later this month according to a report in 9to5 Mac today. The “new” iMac would be less powerful than the current generation of iMacs available to consumers but would be priced at a lower level that is geared towards volume and educational customers.

9to5 Mac claims that this ‘education’ iMac will include a previous generation 3.1GHz dual core processor, 2 GB of RAM, 250 GB of hard drive storage and an AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics processor with 256 MB dedicated memory — the article doesn’t rule in or rule out the inclusion of a Thunderbolt port. No price is attributed to this machine in the article but they suspect it would be sub-$1000 and cite the example of a previous education-focused iMac being sold for $899 and a similar refurbished model selling for $929 now.

This ‘education’ iMac is expected to silently launch on August 16th, but there is potential for that date to change if Apple wishes — there isn’t any real rush to get this product out as soon as possible. Whilst this rumoured new iMac model is a bit odd and out of the blue, the specificity that 9to5 Mac has in terms of specifications (despite the lack of a concrete price) suggests that it is likely that this is indeed a product about to launch.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

“Innovative, Category-Killer Experience” Key Requirement For A Cheaper iPhone

After meeting two Apple executives on Wednesday, RBC Capital Markets has revealed a set of “key takeaways” and have noted that Apple wouldn’t introduce a low-end iPhone unless the device is an “innovative, category-killer experience”. Analyst Mike Abramsky met with Apple COO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer and notes that the condition is Apple’s primary requirement for a low-end iPhone.

It certainly sounds like a fairly obvious statement when looking at Apple’s recent product releases but it is well worth noting after numerous reports of a ‘cheaper’ iPhone launching this year – most of which cite financial reasons and developing country markets for the introduction of such a device.

Some of the other takeaways from Abramsky’s meeting with the Apple executives includes the fact that iCloud will be ready for “significant scale” when launching this fall after Apple learnt lessons from MobileMe. He also says that despite Android’s success in recent years, Apple has maintained “sustained advantages” over their competitors and should be able to do fine despite an “expected explosion of low-priced Android smartphones”.

Concluding his notes from the meeting he agrees with Apple’s executives that the company has an “untapped global opportunity” and maintains a $500 price for Apple stock and ‘outperform’ rating for the company.

[Via AppleInsider]