This Week's Sponsor:

Turbulence Forecast

Know before you go. Get detailed turbulence forecasts for your exact route, now available 5 days in advance.

Posts tagged with "apple"

Yes, The iPad 2 Is Carrier Unlocked

Over the weekend there were some reports that WiFi+3G iPad 2’s would be locked to a specific carrier after people read on the Canadian Apple site that “the iPad model you purchase is specially configured to work with either Bell, Rogers, or Telus.” It turns out that this wordage, whilst technically correct, is very confusing in that whilst the iPad is initially configured to work with a specific carrier, it can be reconfigured to work with other carriers at any stage.

This has been confirmed by a number of people from iPadinCanada to TUAW that have all confirmed from a variety of sources including Rogers Wireless, Apple Experts and Apple Support that you can swap SIMs and carriers with the iPad 2. The only issue (a very minor one) is that the iPad will need to connect to iTunes after the SIM has been swapped to download the new carrier settings, which is required for the 3G service to be usable.

So to be totally clear to all those interested, the iPad 2 is not carrier locked, rather Apple has just over-simplified the information it provided, because you can indeed reconfigure the iPad to work with another carrier with a simple SIM swap and iTunes sync. The one caveat to all this is of course the Verizon (CDMA) iPad 2 which will not be able to switch to any carrier using a GSM network because it does not contain a 3G chipset compatible with GSM networks.

[Via TUAW]

iPhone 5 To Revert Back To Aluminum Back And Internal Antenna?

A Chinese source has told Economic Daily News (translated by Macotakara) that Apple is abandoning the glass backing of the iPhone 4 in favor of an aluminum casing as well as ditching the external antenna design. According to the source the;

Decision to design similar to iPod touch instead of using glass is supposed that Apple seems to stop problems which are told widely damages from scratching, difficulties of painting white and weight of glass.

The source also reported that Apple is abandoning the current external antenna design that was plagued with controversy over the “death-grip” signal loss and attenuation issue. Although unclear, it seems that the translation implies that the “antenna will be designed to penetrate cellular and Wi-Fi waves via resin made Apple logo” which Apple actually does have a patent for.

Finally the source noted that Apple will include the new A5 processor in the fifth iteration of the iPhone, the same processor in the new iPad 2. As with all Apple rumors, including those regarding the iPhone 5, take them with a grain of salt. In particular when the source has a shaky record in previously predicting a 7-inch iPad by Christmas 2010.

[Via MacRumors]

iPad 2: Apple’s Smart Iteration

By now you’ve probably heard and read everything you need to know about the iPad 2. The second generation tablet that’s thinner, lighter (not so much, after all), has cameras and also happens to come with fancy (some people say revolutionary) Smart Covers to protect and clean your device without putting it entirely into a case. Pretty much as I wrote in November, this is the iPad upgrade I was expecting.

But is this the iPad 2 I was hoping for? Or rather, was March 2 the iPad 2 event I was looking forward to? I would say yes, and no.

I’m going to get an iPad 2 from the United States on March 11. 16 GB WiFi model with a $39 Smart Cover. I guess that’s what most consumers will end up with, and I’m happy to stick with my last year’s choice of “just” 16 GBs of storage considering how it’s possible that Apple will slowly move to cloud storage, always available at any time with a simple Internet connection. Which brings me to the second point: the geek in me was hoping for a brief mention of iOS 5 at the iPad 2 event which, you might have seen, didn’t happen. I can see, though, why Apple decided to keep iOS 5 for a dedicated event in Cupertino. Read more

Top-Notch GTD App Voodo for iPad Gets Reviewed, Plus A Giveaway!

If you are looking for a GTD app that works on the iPhone and iPad you have many, many excellent options that include Things, Due, OmniFocus and a multitude of others. Well now you can add Voodo to that extensive list of compelling GTD apps. Voodo had previously been available as an iPhone app but earlier this week it made it to the iPad as well and I was able to give it a go whilst it was being approved last month.

Jump the break for a review of Voodo for iPad and win one of five copies of the iPhone companion app!

Read more

Apple Negotiating With Record Companies Over Cloud Service?

According to sources who talked to Bloomberg, Apple is negotiating with the key record companies of Universal, Sony, EMI and Warner for an improved iTunes service that would simplify access to music that users have purchased. The service would allegedly allow consumers to retrieve a backup of all their music perhaps if their originals were lost.

According to Bloomberg’s three sources, an agreement could be announced midyear which could have the potential of bringing consumers “closer to universal access to content centrally stored on the Internet.” The record companies are supposedly concerned of the gaining popularity of Internet services such as Pandora, which allow users to stream songs rather than purchase them and want to offer users who purchase music a similar convenience.

Read more

Apple Is Fortune’s “Most-Admired” Company, Again

Remember last year when we reported Apple was Fortune’s “Most-Admired” company? Well, it has happened again. For the fourth year in a row (doesn’t come as a surprise since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007), Fortune has declared the Cupertino company is the most-admired among other tech companies with an average score of 8.16. Fortune’s list includes other 50 companies, most of them based in the Silicon Valley.

Apple took a stock hit when iconic CEO Steve Jobs announced in January that he’d be taking a second medical leave, two years after receiving a liver transplant during a six-month sabbatical. But Jobs assured the market in the company’s recent earnings report that Apple was still “firing on all cylinders.”

It certainly appears to be. Apple nearly doubled its quarterly profits vs. a year ago. The iPad 2 was introduced in March, marking the second generation of one of Apple’s milestone product successes. And Jobs made a surprise appearance at the launch.

And just like last year, I would say one of Apple’s biggest advantages over its competitors in the mobile space is the App Store. Over 350,000 apps available for the iPhone, 65,000 for the iPad. On top of that, an iPad 2 coming next week and the iPhone 5 (which should be a complete redesign) in a few months. Plus, new computers, cloud services and the continuos expansion of retail stores. 2011 is shaping up to be a good year for Apple. [Fortune via 9to5mac]

Mac App Store Adds NetNewsWire Lite To Its Catalogue Of Apps

NetNewsWire, one of the best Mac RSS readers has reached version 4.0 and before a full version is completed, a new ‘lite’ edition has been released on to the Mac App Store. Whilst it is limited in a number of respects, it has an improved and refined UI, is free and remains of the better RSS readers on the Mac.

The biggest limitation is that it doesn’t support syncing, that’ll be a big bummer for many of you, but it’s developer Brent Simmons says that will be coming soon in the full edition of NetNewsWire. The other limitations are the lack of starred items, AppleScript support and searching amongst other more minor ones. Simmons does provide users some comfort in saying “That it supports gestures. That you can edit feed names inline. That it launches and quits very fast.

Read more

Mobile Payment Service Square Hits Milestone And Is Featured By Apple

Yesterday was a pretty big day for Square, with the mobile payments startup managing to reach the milestone of processing more than $1 million in payments per day. It was also featured in Apple’s 2010: Year of the iPad video that was played at its iPad 2 event yesterday (you can stream or download the keynote if you missed it, Square is featured 11 minutes in).

The startup has processed a steady increase in payment transactions since last fall when the figure was a couple of million dollars per week. In January, Kevin Rabois, the chief operating officer of Square, said that they expected to process $40 million in transactions in Q1 2011. Also compared to last fall the company is also adding 100,000 new merchants per month as opposed to 30,000.

Read more

The Genius of Apple’s Smart Cover

The most exciting part of the March 2nd keynote was not the introduction of the iPad 2, but the introduction of its surprise accessory that makes the iPad 2 twice as magical as its predecessor. Approximately twenty-five minutes into his speech, Steve Jobs broadcasts signals of pure excitement. Suddenly the mediocre announcement of the Digital AV Adapter was transitioned into what might have as been Job’s, “One last thing.” With the unveiling of the Smart Cover, Jobs hadn’t yet looked so happy in the keynote. Clearly, this was something to pay attention to.

Read more