iPhone 4 Vs. Android
Which Is Faster For Browsing The Web?
A new study finds that Android phones load webpages more than 50 percent faster than iPhones.Running a series of field tests between the iPhone 4 and the Google Nexus S, Blaze Software found that the iPhone's median load time is 3.2 seconds, while the Nexus S's median load time is 2.1 seconds. Over the course of 45,000 tests, the Android beat the iPhone 84 percent of the time.
The results actually contradict a study released a month ago that found browser speeds for both iPad and iPhone beat those of Android smartphones.
Still, when it comes to tablets, Android's speed advantage might be something for Apple to worry about. Researchers noted that while the devices "use the same OS and similar hardware phones do," "users expect the full experience on tablets, not the simplified mobile sites."
Most of the tests were run over a Wi-Fi connection, with some done on the phones' built in 3G. Wi-Fi was faster 82 percent of the time, but by a mere half a second. But these times owe something to the conditions of the testing. Researchers ran the study at night, in an area with good reception. Download speed at night is over five times faster than during the middle of the day.
The results surprised the authors. They explained:
So what is Google doing right?
Guy Podjarny, CTO of Blaze attributed Google's success to the software used to organize downloads, guessing that it might use more efficient methods in getting different parts of the page, according to Bloomberg.
Apple and Google also have different priorities when it comes to smartphone design, he said. While Apple focuses on design, Google has a team dedicated solely to making its sites run faster. Pojardny suggested that Google, as a later entrant to the smartphone battle, allowed them to design for better speeds from the outset.
"It's not that Apple doesn't care about speed, but Google is fanatical about it," Podjarny told Bloomberg.
How much does speed matter to you?
7:10 AM 0
Apple Delays iPad 2 Release In Japan
The device had been set to go on sale March 25. Apple said it is delaying the launch "while the country and our teams focus on recovering from the recent disaster."
The new iPad has been widely sold out since going on sale earlier this month in the U.S. One analyst estimated that Apple may have sold as many as half a million of them in their first day on the market, a faster pace than the first iPad's sales.
The iPad 2 was slated to go on sale in 26 markets on March 25, including Mexico, New Zealand, Spain and other European countries.
7:01 AM 0
iPad 2 Shortages Delay Online Orders 4-5 Weeks
Apple's online store currently displays a four- to five-week wait for a new iPad 2. No matter your color, connectivity or storage preference, the devices are back-ordered.
Though Apple hasn't released exact sales figures for the iPad 2's opening weekend, the device reportedly sold out out at many retail stores. Some analysts predict that Apple may have sold as many as one million iPad 2 devices.
Last year, Apple reported 300,000 original iPads were sold during the tablet's debut weekend.
If you purchased an original iPad when it launched on April 2, 1010 (or soon thereafter), we want to hear from you.
Do you have any tips, advice or helpful stories to share with people currently seeking an iPad 2?
6:56 AM 0
Microsoft Will Reportedly Stop Making Zune Devices
According to Bloomberg, Microsoft will no longer release new versions of the Zune player, due to poor demand. As recently as February 2011, Microsoft insisted that Zune wasn't going anywhere.
In some sense, this is true. The software, at least, will live on, as Microsoft moves its attention to mobile phones, using the Zune software to let customers access media on those phones.
Microsoft released the following comment to Winrumors:
We have nothing to announce about another Zune device - but most recently have introduced Zune HD to Canada via Zune Originals store and remain committed to supporting our devices in North America. We are thrilled by the consumer excitement for Zune across many new platforms, including Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360. Our long-term strategy focuses on the strength of the entire Zune ecosystem across Microsoft platforms.Zune, first introduced in 2006, did not crack the list of the top five in portable music players in 2010.
6:42 AM 0
HANDS ON: Portable Speaker Creates Big Sound on Any Flat Surface (UPDATED) [PICS & VIDEO]
WOWee ONE Slim is a rechargeable speaker, the company’s second product that attempts this trick, and it’s even smaller than the original WOWee ONE Power Bass Speaker released early last year. The idea is to stick this smartphone-sized device against a flat surface, and it’s supposed to deliver “room filling sound.” Because it costs $90, our expectations were high.
It’s extremely easy to use. I plugged it into my iPhone 4′s earphone jack, and its blue power indicator immediately lit.
There is an onboard speaker that handles the midrange and highs, and as soon as I placed the device on a glass door here in the office, there was a noticeable increase in bass response. While it sounds much better than the iPhone speaker, I wouldn’t call it “room-filling.”
As you can see the video below, the speaker won’t stay attached to any vertical surfaces.
(Update: Its manufacturer told me after my review was published that it’s not designed to stick to vertical surfaces as we tested it — the company’s offering an accessory called the “WOWee hug” that can hold the speaker in place properly against a wall.)
Its gel backing isn’t strong enough to hold its weight, so you’ll have to set it on a table if you want to listen to it for more than a few seconds. I will say one thing, the device is not the least bit fragile. It survived a couple of hard drops to a wood floor and was no worse for wear.
An interesting characteristic is the different sounds the speaker produces when pressed against various surfaces. I found it sounded best and warmest with wood, but large glass surfaces spread its sound out more for a equally pleasant effect. When pushed against drywall surfaces, its bass was more boomy.
The WOWee ONE Slim rechargeable speaker is fun to play with, and if you like to take your tunes on the road and travel light, it’ll let you listen to music with a better fidelity than you’ll get from your smartphone’s speaker.
Or, you could save yourself $90 and use earphones.
2:07 AM 0
George Bronk Used Facebook To Hack Women's Emails
The California attorney general's office said Friday that George Bronk, 23, commandeered the e-mail accounts of dozens of women in the U.S. and England. He then scanned the women's "sent" folders for nude and seminude photos and videos, and forwarded any he found to all the women's contacts, prosecutors said.
Bronk coerced one woman into sending him more explicit photographs by threatening to distribute the pictures he already had. One victim told authorities the intrusion felt like "virtual rape."
Bronk, who lives in the Sacramento suburb of Citrus Heights, pleaded guilty Thursday to seven felonies in Sacramento County Superior Court, including computer intrusion, false impersonation and possession of child pornography.
Prosecutors are seeking a six-year prison term when Bronk returns for a sentencing evaluation March 10.
His attorney, Monica Lynch of Roseville, called her client a "23-year-old boy going on 15."
"He's accepted full responsibility. It's a tragic situation," she said.
Lynch said she will argue for less than a six-year sentence.
Prosecutors said Bronk would scan women's Facebook accounts looking for those who posted their e-mail addresses. He would then study their Facebook postings to learn the answers to common security questions like their favorite color or father's middle name.
He contacted the women's e-mail providers and used the information to gain control of their accounts. He also often gained control of their Facebook accounts by hijacking their passwords, then posted compromising photographs on their Facebook pages and other Internet sites.
"This case highlights the fact that anyone with an e-mail account is vulnerable to identity theft," Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement announcing Bronk's guilty plea.
Investigators found 172 e-mail files containing explicit photographs of women when they searched Bronk's computer in September, according to a court affidavit. They were able to track his victims to England, Washington, D.C., and 17 states: Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
"He is a sick individual," said 22-year-old Danielle Piscak of Parkland, Wash., one of Bronk's victims.
Piscak said one of her friends alerted her that nude photographs she had sent privately to her husband were posted on her Facebook page last fall. Facebook removed the photos the next day.
"I have a network of like 1,500 people, so they all saw my pictures. So my graduating class of 2007 saw that. I'm in the military, so all my army friends saw that," Piscak said. She had to explain the embarrassing situation to her family and husband, from whom she is separated.
Piscak used a different e-mail account to contact the person who had hacked her page.
"I said, 'Why are you doing this?' and he said, 'Because it's funny,'" Piscak said in a telephone interview. The Associated Press does not identify victims in sex cases as a matter of policy, but Piscak gave permission for her name to be used. She also said she has agreed to tell her story on a nationally televised talk show.
Piscak said she fears the postings could harm her future in the military and her plans for a career in criminal justice, though most people who saw the photos were understanding.
A second victim, Stephanie, 24, of Los Angeles, said she, the FBI and other authorities tried for seven hours to remove an album of 10 photographs that Bronk posted on her account before Facebook took it down.
"Then he wrote just crass, racist, disgusting comments on people's walls that I was friends with," said Stephanie, who did not want her last name used for fear the story could harm her career. She said she felt violated, "kind of a rape-like situation."
Stephanie said she originally had sent the private photos to a boyfriend, only to have them seen by her college professors and co-workers.
Both of the victims, along with Bronk's attorney, said Facebook should have caught Bronk's activities more quickly. Facebook spokesmen did not return telephone or e-mail messages Friday.
Bronk began his hacking in December 2009, prosecutors said. He will have to register as a sex offender because of his guilty plea.
Investigators caught on after a victim called Connecticut State Police, which referred the complaint to the California Highway Patrol. They used information from Bronk's confiscated computer to e-mail questionnaires to 3,200 of his Internet contacts, asking if they had been victimized.
Forty-six women said they had. Bronk was arrested in October and remains jailed on $500,000 bond.
The attorney general's office advised those using e-mail and social-networking sites to pick security questions and answers that aren't posted on public sites, or to add numbers or other characters to common security answers. Additional safety tips are on the California attorney general's website.
1:45 AM 0
Will Tablets Make Us Less Creative?
If there was one thing obvious at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it's that just about every company in the consumer electronics industry envies the success of Apple's iPad.
But until Apple came out with its little iPad, they simply never gained any traction. Microsoft certainly tried with various versions of its Windows tablet editions, starting with a version based on Windows XP. And at last year's CES, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off a prototype of a Windows "slate" PC from Hewlett-Packard that was supposed to be aimed at consumers, but when it finally emerged in October 2010, it was an enterprise device released with little fanfare.
In the meantime, HP acquired Palm and is expected to announce its own line of consumer-oriented tablets later this year based on Palm's webOS.
Besides Apple, the biggest player in tablets is likely to be Google, whose Android operating system is being adopted to work on scores of new tablet devices. Even before the tablet-friendly "Honeycomb" version of Android was announced, several companies, including Samsung, began shipping tablets based on phone-centric versions of Android.
End of PC Era?
With all the hype about tablets, it's no wonder that many observers, including my San Jose Mercury News colleague Troy Wolverton, have observed that the reign of the PC may be ending. Even Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who owes much of his fortune to the Apple II and Mac PCs, declared the PC to no longer be a consumer device, saying last June that "PCs are going to be like trucks," and that most people won't need them.
Jobs might be right but I'm not sure that's something to celebrate. His analogy to trucks refers back to a time when most people made their living growing food or working in trades and had to haul around goods or tools. Most of today's workers can get by with cars.
Great for Consuming but not Producing
After using an iPad for several months, I'm convinced its a great device for consuming media but not great for producing it. Just as we have fewer farmers and craft people using trucks to haul their goods to market, we'll have fewer people producing documents, spreadsheets, reports, software, professional quality videos and other "goods" that require a PC with a keyboard, a powerful processor, lots of storage and plenty of input ports for accessories.
Is that a good thing? I don't think so, especially if tablets wind up replacing PCs in schools.
Teaching Kids to Program
There was a time when kids were encouraged not just to use PCs but to program them using tools like Logo, Apple's own HyperCard or even HTML to build their programs and websites from scratch. I admit that blogging or even posting status updates to Facebook can be creative work, and there certainly are many examples of kids being extremely creative with their video cameras and cell phone camcorders. But there's more to creativity than posting a clever phrase on a social networking site or pointing a camera toward a funny or interesting scene.
When your only keyboard is a virtual one on glass, you're less inclined to write serious essays, stories or books. And though we are seeing an explosion in video creation, there is also the art of video editing. That can be done on a tablet with the right software but -- for now at least -- can be done more effectively on a more powerful PC.
Smartphones and laptops have created an enormous demand for applications or "apps," and that represents an opportunity to keep the art of programming alive. But in the vast majority of cases, the preferred hardware for creating these apps are PCs and Macs, not tablets and phones.
Of course we're not going to see a complete end to productivity. Just as there are still a significant number of people who buy trucks to haul produce, products and tools, there will continue to be professional programmers, writers, accountants, videographers and others with access to whatever tools they need to do their job. But I worry that this group, just like farmers and skilled craft people, will become a smaller and smaller segment of our population. And I'm especially worried that an increasing number of them will be working from outside the United States at lower wages.
I fear we are becoming a nation of technology consumers rather than creators. Whatever form factor we wind up having in the technology in our homes and schools, I want it to be useful for helping young people understand how to build, program and enhance the technology itself.
I give Steve Jobs a lot of credit for creating products that make it easy for the rest of us to consume technology. But I also want to make sure that our kids have the same opportunity as Job's one-time partner Steve Wozniak had to help create the technologies that they and their children will use.
2:48 AM 0
What We Learned From CES: 5 Big Consumer Tech Trends to Watch
The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a wrap. Tech’s largest trade show tends to kick off the year with a slew of new gadgets and provides a first glimpse into what will be hot in tech for the rest of the year. This year’s CES was no different.
We spent nearly a week talking with tech leaders, testing out products, visiting booths and attending press conferences in order to find out what devices, emerging trends and technologies to watch in 2011. A few trends clearly stood out at this year’s show.
From tablets to the influence of a certain company in Cupertino, here are five big consumer technology trends to watch.
Three recently announced phones, the LG Optimus 2X, Motorola Droid Bionic and the Motorola Atrix 4G, all have one thing in common: They run 1GHz dual-core processors.
This year will be the year smartphones take a major leap in power and functionality. More and more phones will come packed with HD screens, 4G connectivity, increased RAM and dual-core processors. The latter is especially important, because users are demanding more and more multitasking capabilities in their handheld devices.
Right now, the only dual-core devices on the market run Android (
), but you can expect Apple and the rest to launch their own dual-core phones later this year.
CES was once again dominated by Google’s Android OS. The best devices at the show all ran on the Android platform. The biggest draw, the Motorola Xoom tablet, also showed off the upcoming Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” interface, made specifically for tablets.
Why have Samsung, Motorola, LG and many other electronics companies put their money on Google ()? Simple: It’s the only viable alternative to Apple, who would love to do nothing more than crush Android and CES. It’s an alliance of necessity if anybody is to gain traction against Apple’s growing power and profits.
Thanks to the iPad, 2011 will be known as “The Year of the Tablet.” Microsoft, Samsung, Motorola, BlackBerry and more showed off their tablet devices at CES. The Samsung Sliding PC 7 is a Windows (
) 7 tablet with a nice slide-out keyboard, while Toshiba showed off a yet-to-be-named 10.1-inch Android tablet. Oh, and let’s not forget about The BlackBerry PlayBook.
The winner of the CES tablet wars, though, was clearly the Motorola Xoom. With a 1GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 10.1-inch screen, 1280×800 resolution, 4G connectivity, 32GB of on board memory and the Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” OS, the Xoom clearly outclassed its competition.
Does that make the Xoom a viable iPad competitor? We’ll have to wait and see how many of these devices people snatch up when March rolls around, but for now, it has the momentum, power and potential to give Apple a run for its money.
Sony, Samsung, Sharp and LG revealed new TVs this year, and every single one can connect to the web and run apps.
LG calls its platform Smart TV. Sony has bet the farm on Google TV. Samsung’s TVs have ultra-thin bezels on top of 3-D and Internet () connectivity.
We saw a lot of connected TVs last year, but now they’re essentially standard. Almost every new TV you see from now on will be able to browse the web, connect to Netflix and more. And these TV manufacturers are even signing deals to bring content directly to the device, bypassing cable. Samsung has a deal with CBS, while Sony has penned one with Time Warner.
Still, most people don’t turn on the TV to check out YouTube (), and with alternatives like Apple TV and Roku, will consumers really choose their TVs based on how adeptly they connect to the web?
One of the most talked about companies at CES wasn’t even there. Instead, it worked behind the scenes to undermine the show and steal the spotlight. And boy, did it succeed.
I am talking about none other than Apple, the world’s second most valuable company. Apple sees Android, which CES has embraced, as a threat and has worked every year to suck the oxygen from the room. Last year, Apple took over the show with fervent speculation about the iPad. This year, Apple did it twice with the the launch of the Mac App Store and the announcement of a press conference to reveal the Verizon iPhone.
It’s shocking that one company can be so powerful and influential that it can undermine technology’s largest trade show, but that’s exactly what Apple has been able to accomplish year after year. The game has become Apple vs. CES and iOS vs. Android.
We spent nearly a week talking with tech leaders, testing out products, visiting booths and attending press conferences in order to find out what devices, emerging trends and technologies to watch in 2011. A few trends clearly stood out at this year’s show.
From tablets to the influence of a certain company in Cupertino, here are five big consumer technology trends to watch.
1. Dual-Core Smartphones
This year will be the year smartphones take a major leap in power and functionality. More and more phones will come packed with HD screens, 4G connectivity, increased RAM and dual-core processors. The latter is especially important, because users are demanding more and more multitasking capabilities in their handheld devices.
Right now, the only dual-core devices on the market run Android (
), but you can expect Apple and the rest to launch their own dual-core phones later this year.2. Android or Bust
CES was once again dominated by Google’s Android OS. The best devices at the show all ran on the Android platform. The biggest draw, the Motorola Xoom tablet, also showed off the upcoming Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” interface, made specifically for tablets.
Why have Samsung, Motorola, LG and many other electronics companies put their money on Google (
)? Simple: It’s the only viable alternative to Apple, who would love to do nothing more than crush Android and CES. It’s an alliance of necessity if anybody is to gain traction against Apple’s growing power and profits.3. Seeking the iPad Challenger
Thanks to the iPad, 2011 will be known as “The Year of the Tablet.” Microsoft, Samsung, Motorola, BlackBerry and more showed off their tablet devices at CES. The Samsung Sliding PC 7 is a Windows (
) 7 tablet with a nice slide-out keyboard, while Toshiba showed off a yet-to-be-named 10.1-inch Android tablet. Oh, and let’s not forget about The BlackBerry PlayBook.The winner of the CES tablet wars, though, was clearly the Motorola Xoom. With a 1GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 10.1-inch screen, 1280×800 resolution, 4G connectivity, 32GB of on board memory and the Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” OS, the Xoom clearly outclassed its competition.
Does that make the Xoom a viable iPad competitor? We’ll have to wait and see how many of these devices people snatch up when March rolls around, but for now, it has the momentum, power and potential to give Apple a run for its money.
4. TVs Get Smart, But Will Consumers Care?
Sony, Samsung, Sharp and LG revealed new TVs this year, and every single one can connect to the web and run apps.
LG calls its platform Smart TV. Sony has bet the farm on Google TV. Samsung’s TVs have ultra-thin bezels on top of 3-D and Internet (
) connectivity.We saw a lot of connected TVs last year, but now they’re essentially standard. Almost every new TV you see from now on will be able to browse the web, connect to Netflix and more. And these TV manufacturers are even signing deals to bring content directly to the device, bypassing cable. Samsung has a deal with CBS, while Sony has penned one with Time Warner.
Still, most people don’t turn on the TV to check out YouTube (
), and with alternatives like Apple TV and Roku, will consumers really choose their TVs based on how adeptly they connect to the web?5. Apple Casts a Giant Shadow
One of the most talked about companies at CES wasn’t even there. Instead, it worked behind the scenes to undermine the show and steal the spotlight. And boy, did it succeed.
I am talking about none other than Apple, the world’s second most valuable company. Apple sees Android, which CES has embraced, as a threat and has worked every year to suck the oxygen from the room. Last year, Apple took over the show with fervent speculation about the iPad. This year, Apple did it twice with the the launch of the Mac App Store and the announcement of a press conference to reveal the Verizon iPhone.
It’s shocking that one company can be so powerful and influential that it can undermine technology’s largest trade show, but that’s exactly what Apple has been able to accomplish year after year. The game has become Apple vs. CES and iOS vs. Android.
7:37 AM 0
iPad 2 to Have SD Card Slot & Qualcomm Chip [RUMOR]
The Verizon iPhone 4 utilizes a Qualcomm chipset instead of the Infereon version used in the AT&T/GSM iPhone in order to connect to Verizon’s CDMA network. However, Engadget reports that the Verizon iPhone 4 is just the first of many Apple devices that will use Qualcomm as its primary chipset.
Both the iPhone 5 and the iPad 2 will utilize a dual CDMA/GSM chipset from Qualcomm, assuring that both devices work on Verizon and AT&T simultaneously. There won’t be a need for two different versions of the same device.
According to Engadget‘s sources, the new iPad will be slimmer and sleeker, but will retain its 10-inch screen. It will have two cameras (something that we’ve often heard) and a “super high resolution” screen much like the Retina Display in the iPhone 4, though it won’t have the same pixel density.
The most surprising revelation though is that the iPad 2 will have an SD card slot built into the device. And contrary to previous reports, it will not have a USB port. Still, the ability to load and unload media and documents via a traditional SD card is a surprising but welcomed addition. The iPad is on track for an April release, once again in line with previous reports.
There is no word about what new additions will be made to the iPhone 5, but it is going once again be a complete redesign of the device. It will run on Apple’s A5 multi-core CPU. One thing it won’t have is support for 4G LTE connections, though.
While we have to classify all of this information as unconfirmed rumors, all of this information lines up with previous leaks and reports about Apple’s upcoming 2011 line of iOS devices. We want to stress though that Apple still has a few months before the release of either device, so they could easily change designs or features before their eventual releases.
7:28 AM 0
This Is the E-Ink Watch of the Future
This two-display beauty uses E-Ink on both screens. The bottom screen shows its striped numerals over a sinister black background, while the top display’s day and date peek through a grid of shiny black metal. Everything is controlled with buttons on the side.
I’ve worn and reviewed an E-Ink watch, and it proved itself to be more energy efficient than conventional watches with LCD displays. An E-Ink watch drains its battery the most when it’s changing its numerals; the rest of the time it simply keeps time while it displays the results of the electronically charged rearrangement of its particles.
Another advantage: Designers love it. E-Ink displays can be configured in radically different ways from their LCD forebears, including curved surfaces that really do look like something you might see on the wrist of Captain Picard on the deck of the USS Enterprise. And later this year, color E-Ink displays will become available.
There’s no telling when this watch might see the light of day, but given the rapid expansion of E-Ink technology, watches like this can’t be too far off.
7:24 AM 0
Learn How to Code this Weekend
Whether you just want to be able to hack a few scripts or make a feature-rich application, writing code can be a little overwhelming with the massive amount of information available. Here are some resources to help get you started.
Learn the Basics
Before you click any other links on this page, you should read our Programmer 101 Guide so you can get acquainted with the basics. One of the first pieces of advice in the guide is to avoid getting hung up on choosing a programming language. Nonetheless, if you're having any trouble making a decision we asked our code-savvy readers for suggestions awhile back and that's a good resource for help. If you're looking to make web applications, you should take a look at our guide on building a web site from scratch with no experience as well.
Choosing Frameworks and Helper Libraries
Learning to code doesn't mean you need to use a programming framework, but it can make your life a lot easier once you know what you're doing. Before you even start looking at frameworks, however, you should understand the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern. This is the pattern frameworks generally follow and eNode has a great overview of MVC to help you better understand it.
One of the most popular frameworks in recent time (that happens to follow MVC) is Ruby on Rails. Ruby is a comfortable language that feels a little bit more like writing English and less like writing code. This may or may not be appealing to you, but it's nonetheless very capable and a good place for a lot of people to start. Rails, however, is meant to scale for larger web applications and isn't always the best choice for less ambitious projects.
With JavaScript amounting for much of what the web does nowadays, it has its share of helper libraries to make coding a bit easier. Scriptaculous is one popular option, and jQuery can help you out with Ajax interactions and other operations you'll perform often with JavaScript.
Finally, if you're thinking of making a simple game, ActionScript is a good language to learn. Flixel and Flashpunk can be very helpful in your game development and are worth a look.
Starting Your First Project
One of the best and most fun places to start, once you know what you're doing, is to make Pong. This can easily be accomplished in both JavaScript and ActionScript (which aren't too different, so if you learn one you'll have an easier time with the other). Perhaps surprisingly, one of the easiest things to make is a blogging application, which is even easier to do with the Ruby on Rails and CakePHP
frameworks. Really, you can start with anything you feel comfortable with. Often a project that interests you is best, or something that's so simple you can make it in an hour or less and feel like you've accomplished something. Whatever you pick, hopefully it will be first of many to come. If you learn how to code and eventually come up with something pretty awesome, be sure to share it in the comments.2:32 AM 0
Apple's Mac App Store sparks another software gold rush
(CNN) -- With the launch of an App Store for the Mac last week, Apple has proved that its all-in-one digital marketplace model -- so successful for the iPhone, iPod and iPad -- can flourish on old-fashioned laptop and desktop computers as well.
Developers with software ready for the store's January 6 opening were met with throngs of click-happy customers.
Mac users have appeared eager to spend money on apps, even for software that was previously available on the Web and in brick-and-mortar stores. Downloads on the first day exceeded 1 million -- out of a pool of about 1,000 apps, Apple said.
Distributed evenly, that works out to 1,000 downloads for each app, although name recognition and how Apple allocates promotion tend to skew results. But some development houses did gangbuster business.
Scott Forstall, Apple's vice president for iPhone software, said last year that the company's iPad would spark "a whole new gold rush for app developers," a prediction that must now apply to the Mac store as well.
App Store winners
One big winner from the Mac App Store launch has been Evernote. The free note-taking app catalogs text and multimedia files; synchronizes them over the internet to be accessed from phones, a website or desktop software; and lets you search through them.
Evernote was downloaded 90,000 times on the App Store's opening day. That's about a 10th of all apps purchased that day. It's been consistently listed in the section of most popular apps.
"Having a well-formed app store is the most important part in getting attention," Evernote CEO Phil Libin said. "We were on the iPhone App Store since that launched as well. We've kind of been through this once before, so we had pretty high expectations of what being in an app store means for getting attention."
The Mac App Store launch, Libin said, "exceeded our expectations."
Being in the Mac App Store helped expose Evernote to 40,000 people who had never used it, he said.
Evernote has also benefited from Apple's promotional efforts in the store. It sometimes gets top billing in a rotating list of featured apps, similar to the top section of the iTunes Store. Apple spokeswoman Jacqueline Roy also listed Evernote among the top five "must-have" apps, which is determined by consistent top performers in downloads and ratings.
Another Mac App Store hit is SketchBook Express, No. 7 on the must-have list. Autodesk, the maker of that free drawing program, says the store "effectively doubled" the number of people using the professional version of SketchBook on opening day. The company declined to provide exact figures.
SketchBook Pro costs $30 on the Mac App Store, versus almost $70 on Amazon.com. It's now among Apple's highest-grossing apps.
A lucrative business model
Apple takes a 30% cut of app sales, which makes its app stores a lucrative business for the company as well as developers. Because of this success, the stores are facing increased competition from Google's popular Android Market, a forthcoming Amazon.com app store and other rivals. This week, Microsoft contested Apple's trademark request for the term "app store."
Free applications benefit from the app store exposure too, even though they don't help Apple's business as directly. For example, Twitter is also on the Apple must-have list. The social networking company launched on the store with its first official desktop client, based on work by the engineer who made the iPhone app.
A Twitter spokeswoman said the company is "pleased" with the results but declined to say how many times the free app had been downloaded.
The App Store program is included as part of a software update for Mac computers running the newest version of the operating system, called Snow Leopard. Further enhancements to the app model will come as part of OS X Lion, which is scheduled to go on sale this summer.
Previously, Mac software could be found on vendors' websites or in stores (in cardboard boxes, no less; how quaint).
For developers, submitting an application to Apple for sale in the Mac App Store can be easier than getting their software on a retailer's shelf, which can require complex business deals. It is also easier to sell through an established app store than through a developer's own website, which can require building payment mechanisms and systems for licensing customers' copies.
Mac owners like the store because it makes software easier to find, manages what's been downloaded, makes it easy to move apps between computers and provides alerts when a new version is available.
Some software makers complain that Apple's rules about what it will accept are too stringent and that the company takes too big a cut of revenue. But Apple doesn't bar developers from distributing their wares in other locations on the Web.
Pros and cons
But are these early success stories sustainable?
Caffeine, a simple utility that helps prevent the computer from automatically going into sleep mode (get it?), did exceedingly well early on. The app has been downloaded more than 135,000 times. About one-third of those sales came on launch day; as for other apps, they have tapered somewhat since.
While daily downloads are decreasing steadily for Caffeine at a pace of about 30% per day, the app continues to attract new customers at a rate several times greater than anytime since it came out four years ago.
"The App Store opens up the opportunity to sell 99-cent apps, which was previously not really feasible, and I think that could bring a lot of new smaller apps," Caffeine developer Tomas Franzen said. "It's a lot easier when they handle hosting and payment for you.
"I'd say I'm a believer" in the app-store model, he wrote. "The App Store makes downloaded software easy for regular people, and it turns out there are a lot of regular people out there!"
However, not every company has the Midas touch for launching app stores. Google, which produced a hit with its Android Market, has drummed up minimal interest in its Chrome Web Store.
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales isn't sold on the app-store concept. At an event in England, Wales spoke out against the idea of app stores, calling them "a threat to a diverse and open ecosystem," according to blog reports.
A magic formula?
But many developers seem convinced that Apple has hit on the right formula.
Scott Gilbert had been planning to build a weather-report app for the iPad or iPhone. The product manager for Swackett immediately changed course when he heard Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveil plans for the Mac App Store in October.
"There's so much competition in the regular App Store," Gilbert said of Apple's mobile software store and its 300,000 apps. "I thought if we could be there on day one in the Mac App Store, we could rise above the noise."
And they did. Swackett was on track to get 100,000 downloads in its first week. The developers are making money from ads, which had been shown 2 million times in six days.
"We would not have come out with a Mac app first if not for the (Mac) App Store," Gilbert said.
And for the 61-person team at Evernote, the App Store is something of a blessing.
"We don't have experts here that think about logistics or channels or distribution or advertising," said Libin, the Evernote CEO.
Evernote had the distribution method in place on its site, but that was created out of necessity, said Libin, who was happy to let Apple take the reins on managing server infrastructure and promotion.
"Before, you used to make a great product, but no one would ever get it or use it or be able to buy it," he said. "The app stores have made the software business more of a meritocracy than it's ever been, which really favors geeks like us."
2:23 AM 0
The Hottest New Technologies Of 2011
SAN FRANCISCO -- Oh, what the iPad hath wrought.
As predicted, tablet mania ensued at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. At least 75 were introduced at the annual Las Vegas gadget extravaganza. The tablet with the most buzz was Motorola Mobility's XOOM. It's the first tablet to run on Google's ( GOOG - news - people ) highly anticipated Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system. XOOM, which is expected to launch in the first quarter, supports Flash for easy and fast video viewing and includes 3G wireless access that can be upgraded to 4G LTE. Motorola's tablet also has a 10.1-inch screen, front- and rear-facing cameras, a camcorder and Nvidia ( NVDA - news - people ) Tegra dual-core processor.
In spite of the tablet avalanche, a number of other gizmos and technologies were able to rise above the din and capture attention. The Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft's ( MSFT - news - people ) Surface, the next generation of the software giant's table-top computer, wowed the CES crowd. True, it might be the world's biggest iPad, but it's still impressive, boasting a 40-inch HD 1080p touch-screen for optimal Web surfing and info sharing, and the top is coated with Corning's ( GLW - news - people ) rugged Gorilla glass. Samsung SUR40 also has something called PixelSense, technology that gives LCD panels the power to see without the use of cameras," Microsoft says. Uh huh.
In Pictures: The Hottest New Technologies Of 2011
Video: Sing Like T-Pain, Or Not?
Samsung SUR40, however, is aimed at businesses, not consumers. Fujifilm ( FUJI - news - people ), Red Bull, Royal Bank of Canada ( RY - news - people ) and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts Worldwide are some of the companies that will take delivery of the table-top computer later this year.
2:15 AM 0
Apple Service Rep: Swollen MacBook Battery “Normal”
MacBook Pro owner Tommy reports that his 1.5-year-old replacement battery is swelling and that an Apple service rep told him that this is “normal.”
First, nobody seemed to know what to do with me or who I should talk to. Second, while they Apple Customer Representative could look up the age of my computer by the serial number, they had no way of tracking (and “proving the age”) of my battery by its unique serial number. Third, while nearly everybody I talked to seemed to show much concern over this safety issue, the “Senior Customer Representative” who finally spoke to me was quite apathetic about my battery problem. According to him, this issue is normal and the result of wear-and-tear on the battery and, more importantly, this was Apple’s official position.Since the battery is too old to be covered by Apple’s one-year warranty, the rep refused to replace it. That is, unless it might cause bodily injury or fire.
He did reassure me that, had the battery caused any damage to my computer or personal injury, he’d be willing to discuss that. So, basically, I would have been better off leaving the defective battery in my computer instead of being smart and removing it.This sounds like a good reason to head to an Apple store with the laptop in tow in the hopes that someone might agree to replace it…
2:06 AM 0
Skype-Killer VoxOx Relaunches, Adds Tons of New Features, iPhone App Coming Soon (Hopefully)
VoIP service VoxOx thought its rebranding at CES — which includes a massive effort to unify almost every method of communication known to man, and new features like being able to pick your own phone number for free — was such a big deal, they had an army of extras with duct-taped mouths following around an alien who gave away “dozens” (according to VoxOx) of iPhones at the show.
In fact, the PR stunt attracted so much attention it detracted from VoxOx’s actual message about all the neat stuff they’ve bundled into their reworked desktop app, and that they’re well on the way to having an iPhone app out, pending Apple’s approval (and as should be expected, VoxOx says they’ve focused on putting out an iPhone app ahead of any possible Android app).
Here’s the big picture about some of the new features; everything — apart from some outgoing calls — is free:
* Everything from Facebook and Twitter updates, to AIM and Yahoo Messenger chat, to voice and fax communication has been unified under a single window; all the various channels through which to get hold of contacts is now grouped and contacts can be contacted directly through whichever means you choose through a single point; VoxOx is stressing the concept of unification very heavily (the titanic “UNIFY” on the VoxOx website might be a hint).
* Users signing up for their free account can now select whatever phone number they want, (as long as it’s not already taken), and even pick the area code (although users signing up outside the U.S. get a pre-selected area code). That new VoxOx number can then be set up to forward calls, with a dizzying array of options, to any mobile number or landline. The VoxOx number also comes with voicemail.
* Two-way realtime language translation: type stuff into the chat window, and VoxOx will automatically translate it to one of the other available languages. Works for incoming text too; great for conversations with your new Brazilian girl/boyfriend.
* Files up to 100 MB can be uploaded to the VoxOx servers and shared with a VoxOx-generated link.
* There’s more we haven’t mentioned. Here’s a chart comparing VoxOx with services like Google Voice, Skype and others.
VoxOx seems less expensive than Skype too — for instance, their unlimited calling plan for outgoing calls to the U.S. & Canada mobile and landlines (from within the same) is $2.45, compared with $3 for the same Skype plan. And all incoming (and VoxOx-to-VoxOx) communication of any kind is free.
We’ll have a review up eventually (hopefully when the iPhone app is released), to see if the quality of the service really does stack up; In the meantime (and while we’re waiting for the iPhone app), we think the massive plate of free features makes signing up a no-brainer.
1:58 AM 0
BlackBerry Storm 3 Specs Leaked?
In addition to posting several leaked pictures of the BlackBerry Storm 3, Boy Genius Report shared (unofficial) product specs. The Storm 3, which will reportedly be released around September, "will feature the highest resolution display to ever ship on a BlackBerry smartphone -- a 800 x 480-pixel display and yes, it will have an optical trackpad," writes BGR.
It will also have a 3G mobile hotspot, 5-megapixel camera, and 512 MB of RAM, according to the site's scoop.
BlackBerry's Storm hasn't been well received in the past. Venture Beat calls it "kind of a bust" and Engadget writes, 'We've no doubt that the phone is real at this point, but considering the lukewarm reception the Storm 2 got, we're surprised RIM hasn't pushed harder to get the updated device to market -- only thing we can figure is that the carrier partners keep sending it back for tweaks."
See a picture of what is allegedly the Storm 3 below, then visit BGR for more details.
4:52 PM 0
Mark Zuckerberg Named One Of 2010's Worst Dressed Celebrities
So which techie was awarded this dubious distinction? None other than TIME magazine's "Person of the Year," the founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.
Despite Zuck's status as one of the richest techies in America, he's never been one to flaunt his wealth. He has publicly stated that he rents his Palo Alto home and he is known for giving press conferences in sneakers, jeans and a T-shirt (à la Steve Jobs).
Perhaps hoping to keep him off next year's list, Esquire offered Zuckerberg some wardrobe advice:
[N]o matter how much money you have or how many people's secrets you hold in your digital palm, you cannot show up to a black-tie event in a t-shirt and jeans and expect to be taken seriously. [...] You just gave a hundred million to Newark's schools. Would it kill you to throw a couple thousand to, say, Zegna for a couple of nice suits?
To view a sample of Zuck's infamous threads, check out the slideshow (below). Then, check out Esquire's complete 2010 Celebrity Style Hall of Shame, which includes other questionable dressers, such as Robert Pattinson, Russell Brand and Rush Limbaugh. And take a look through our slideshow of Steve Jobs's uber-casual business attire and how his signature style has evolved over the years.
4:46 PM 0
Report: Scosche’s iClops for iPad Accessory Axed By Apple’s Legal Department
First tipped in November 2011, Scosche’s iClops accessory for iPad was a tiny, swivel-able camera that would connect to the top of your iPad and allow you to take 2.1 megapixel stills or VGA-quality video on Apple’s tablet slated for release in March of this year.
Sounds like a pretty good accessory for iPad owners happy enough with their current tablet that they don’t want to upgrade to the iPad 2 in April, but wouldn’t mind spending a few bucks on an accessory to bring some of the latter tablet’s video and photo functionality to them. It also did the same for camera-less iPod Touches.
Unfortunately, it now looks like the iClops has been axed by Scosche, and according to one source, it was axed because of “legal issues” with Apple that prevented Scosche from releasing the iClops in time for its forecast March release.
If there were such an issue, it would presumably be due to the way the iClops interacted with the iPod Dock Connector port. Either way, it’s a disappointing development: for now, at least, it seems that current iPad or iPod Touch owners who want to take photos or videos on their camera-less devices will have no choice but to upgrade.
4:55 AM 0
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