Two possibilities come to mind: 1) Apple realizes its antenna problems are due to an internal control issue so they fired a few iPhone/iPad antenna engineers, or 2) Apple was missing this type of expertise to begin with.
Kristena Hansen at the Los Angeles Times writes this about Apple:
The company, which is under fire for reception problems with its newest iPhone model and its iPad tablet computer, has posted three openings on its website for jobs described as “Antenna Engineer-iPad/iPhone.”
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The posts are dated June 23, the day before the launch of the iPhone 4, which customers have been complaining loses signal when held in certain ways that seem to interfere with the device’s antenna.
Should you just skip Apple’s iPhone 4 and wait for the iPhone 5?
Cisco couldn’t have timed this announcement any better with the Apple iPad now flying off retailer shelves to the tune of 3 million in 80 days.
Cisco announced their plans to release an Android powered tablet computer that could shake up the iPad’s death grip on portable PC markets:
Cisco Cius is an ultra-portable device weighing just 1.15lbs (0.52kg) that extends the productivity benefits of Cisco collaboration applications to a highly secure mobile platform. In addition to full telepresence interoperability, Cisco Cius offers HD video streaming and real-time video, multi-party conferencing, email, messaging, browsing, and the ability to produce, edit and share content stored locally or centrally in the cloud.
The Cisco Cius includes specs missing on the first gen iPad such as an HD display port, USB ports and front-mounted 720p HD camera.
A couple of already obvious caveats: 1) the Cius’ planned launch date which isn’t until the first part of 2011 and 2) no target price range.
Could this be a machine for the masses, competing head-to-head with the iPad. Or, will Cisco roll out the Cius as an [expensive] business unified communications solution.
According to Serkan Toto of CrunchGear, Apple took a huge bite out of the notebook market in Japan in May, mostly thanks to the iPad:
The iPhone turned out to be a mega-hit in Japan’s competitive cell phone market, and the iPad is poised to replicate this success. Tokyo-based market research firm BCN [JP] today said Apple’s share of the domestic notebook market more than tripled in May (on a month-to-month basis) to reach 11.5% – thanks to the iPad.
The firm, which collected POS data from 2,364 Japanese electronics retailers, says Apple’s share in that segment stood at just 3.5% in April. But the iPad (launched in Japan on May 28), helped Apple to eclipse Sony, which – at 9.3% – fell down to No. 5 in the notebook sales ranking (at least for the time being).
The Japanese have not found the means to innovate in the notebook market, largely copying the success of other computer manufacturers. This might seem odd to many folks outside of Japan. However, from the perspective of someone having lived in Japan for almost twenty years now, I find it not at all surprising to see Japan unable to revolutionize the computing industry like they did consumer electronics in the 80′s and 90′s.
Bottom line about computing in Japan: the Japanese like small, portable gadgets since they are always on the go, whether on foot, bike, bus or train – public transportation is the single-most popular means of daily transportation to/from work. The industry has mostly focused on adding hordes of useless functionality to their keitai (mobile phones) rather than creating revolutionary devices like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Until the Japanese electronics industry can figure out how to do what Apple is doing, possibly using Android as the foundation for such devices, I believe the companies will continue to flounder.
Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 earlier today, during a keynote speech presented by the man himself, Steve Jobs. As usual, the keynote was a work of art in and of itself, exquisitely displaying the beautifully designed new hardware for the world to see. The iPhone was not the only exciting reveal, for iOS 4 (the OS formerly known as iPhone OS) was unleashed as well – both products unveiled in tandem, available in sync, with each relying on the other to propel their exhilarating new features in to the mainstream and in to the hands of mouth watering consumers. Will you be one of the select few to wield an iPhone 4 come June 24?
Read the full story …
Why use the time consuming method of converting videos to a format capable of being played on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad when you can let Air Video stream them and do the converting on the fly?
Air Video can stream videos in almost any format to your iPhone and iPod touch. You don’t need to copy your videos to the device just to watch them.
Granted, Air Video is not an application you are going to use over 3G, but for use via WiFi on a local LAN it is an absolutely perfect fit. What is really cool about Air Video is that if the video is in a format not natively supported by iPhone OS then it will be converted on the fly. In my experience this can save hours of conversion time, allowing the videos to be watched immediately without any hassle.
Additional software is required for either Mac OS X or Windows to facilitate the on-the-fly conversion and streaming process. The processor time required for the conversion is a little costly, so it is best to ensure the software is installed on a box with some decent specs.
While Air Video is a universal application capable of running on either the iPhone or the iPad, it does not natively support native iPad screen resolutions. It appears the developer is working on an update to address this in the near future.
If you have secondary email addresses tied to your Gmail account, using one of them to “send from” on your iPhone and/or iPad is not a straightforward process. Nick Cernis did the research and figured out a way to make it work, although be prepared for a somewhat tedious process to make it all happen:
The short version is that you just list your email addresses separated by a comma in the Address field of the mail settings on your iPhone/iPad. Sounds simple, but it turns out to be important that you follow certain steps in order, and that you set your Gmail address up as an IMAP account, not a Gmail account. If you’re already utterly confused, read on as I attempt to deconfuddle you.
Nick does an exceptional job breaking down each and every step, presenting screenshots to make it as user-proof as possible. Although nobody has mentioned anything of the sort, I really do hope iPhone OS 4.0 solves this problem. There should not be a need to jump through this many hoops just to setup additional “send from” addresses on the iPhone and/or iPad.
If Steve Jobs has his way, the iPad should ultimately make blogs irrelevant and push bloggers into the unemployment line. Are we staring down controlled media outlets like we’re locked into Apple’s control of the App Store.
Wall Street Journal Tech reports on a discussion with Steve Jobs during an All Things Digital technology conference on Tuesday:
Asked about whether the iPad will be a savior for content creators, Mr. Jobs said: “I don’t want us to see us descend into a nation of bloggers…I think we need editorial oversight now more than ever. Anything we can do to help newspapers new ways of expression that will help them get paid, I am all for.“
I wonder what Steve is referring to when he says “…we need editorial oversight now more than ever.”
Smoking Apples on the Wired App not as a print magazine specifically designed for the iPad:
The one flaw that’s immediately noticeable, is navigation. You swipe left to progress topic by topic, much like any other card based UI seen on the iPad. However, when you hit an article that’s more than one screen tall, you have to swipe up to reveal the next card at the bottom. There is no indication when there is more content at the bottom, so you’re left swiping up on every page, hoping to find something new.
They go on to mention the difference between print and digital content creation in the iPad age. The metaphor must change in order for the transition from print to digital to truly succeed.
When I think of a magazine, I picture a set of pages tightly crammed together making use of every inch of space to provide you some useful information. But the iPad is not a magazine. It’s a platform to deliver information. Before that the magazine was your delivery platform. It’s time to drop years of paper and ink saving tactics, or cutting paragraphs because it doesn’t fit into the page, and of not ‘wasting any whitespace’. Because it doesn’t matter. We’re moving into a new era now. The iPad is dynamic, it’s interactive, it’s fresh. It’s time to rethink how we deliver content to this platform.
This is an excellent point worth mentioning. The iPad is the only device to appear in recent years which is capable of reinventing the print industry. Rather than static images, the ability to offer compelling interactive content on the iPad should be alluring to the what every is calling the dying print industry.
Wired has attempted to revolutionize with their app but it is just not quite there yet. As I mentioned the other day, as the platform matures I expect the interactivity to increase in compelling ways. It is just going to take some time to get there, and highly constructive criticism and feedback will only help to fuel the desire for some enterprising publisher to come along and take over where the dinosaurs are unable to adapt.
Bloomberg’s Cliff Edwards writes:
Sony Corp. is considering developing a tablet-style computer that would compete with Apple Inc.’s iPad, though it [Sony] wants more evidence consumers will buy them, a company executive said.
A product development approach that kills a company, crimps competition and restricts consumer choice. Sony, scrap that P-Series and let’s see that Vaio Slate and see it fast.
Apple just issued a press release stating they have sold over 2 million iPad’s in a mere sixty days:
Apple today announced that iPad sales have topped two million in less than 60 days since its launch on April 3. Apple began shipping iPad in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK this past weekend. iPad will be available in nine more countries in July and additional countries later this year.
“Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”
It would be hard to argue against the iPad being a hit. The devices are selling like hotcakes, often times sold out in most retail outlets.
While encumbered with certain limitations of iPhone OS 3.0, iPad sales continue to climb. Expect the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0 update to help propel iPad sales in to the stratosphere. That is assuming they are not there already.
