Archive for November 2010
More Convertible MacBook-Tablet Patents Granted To Apple
We saw some really interesting convertible touch device patents back in August, but they mainly pertained to a sort of “kneeling” iMac and the transitions between OS X and iOS. Now, in a new bevy of patents granted to Apple (including some I examined) we’re seeing a new, interesting sliding-screen design for a MacBook-tablet hybrid.
Back at the Apple event in October, Jobs mentioned that touchscreens like to be horizontal. A “standing” touchscreen attached to a laptop is a bad idea, something ergonomics experts have already determined. But this design allows for a device to be both a horizontal tablet and a vertical screen for touchpad and keyboard input. To be honest, though, I’m not sure it could be executed in as attractive and lightweight a way as would be necessary for it to be a success.
Dell is already exploring this space with the Inspiron Duo, but I think they might have undershot as far as quality goes. A device like this can command a premium, and shouldn’t cut corners, as the touch interface on the Duo seems to do.
It may also be that an Apple engineer found a clever way to do this kind of thing, and Apple just wanted to reserve it for themselves should they ever feel the urge to put one out. No way to tell right now, but don’t expect one of these to come out in January.
[via TUAW]
Report Shows iPad Gaining On Kindle In E-Reader Category
I’m not really sure this research is as revealing as it seems to be. Take a look at the above diagram. The take-away is that since the introduction of the iPad, the Kindle’s share of the e-reader market has dropped from 68% to 40%. This suggests that sales of the Kindle are dropping, or that Amazon is losing ground to Apple. But the simple nature of the study by ChangeWave suggests a different conclusion.
Think about it. The iPad comes out, and millions have sold. Percentage is zero-sum; a new competitor on the market will almost always decrease the points owned by the market leader, but that doesn’t mean that people are buying it instead of the market leader. The Kindle is selling like crazy, and so is the iPad; it’s become, as Ars Technica puts it, a two-horse race for now.
As we so often have to point out, the differences between the Kindle and the iPad are enormous. Comparing the two is a foolish game, as they exist in and appeal to different markets. Very few people said to themselves “the Kindle is a nice device, but I think I’ll spend the extra $ 400 and get an iPad.” They don’t compete the way the Kindle and the Nook or Kobo compete. And within the Kindle’s real realm of competition, they reign supreme.
The iPad has simply added to the total number of people who identify as owning an e-reader, and because of its immense success (which I am in no way trying to deny), it has skewed the numbers.
iOS 4.2 supports new tech to reduce network congestion, Nokia Siemens says
One of the world’s top suppliers of cellular infrastructure, Nokia Siemens, has dropped some juicy knowledge today that Apple’s new iOS 4.2 update supports a technology called network-controlled fast dormancy that better optimizes how the phone connects to the network. The company touts that it’s a win-win — better battery life, less unnecessary network utilization — and also points out that Nokia implemented the technique in all of its smartphones starting earlier this year. Since network-controlled fast dormancy is a feature that benefits the network itself as much as it benefits the individual user, knocking out two power players like Nokia and Apple (over half of new smartphone sales, NSN points out) should make a big dent.
Interestingly, NSN seems to have arrived at this discovery through “tests” it conducted, not by working with Apple on implementing it. Sure, we don’t pretend to know all the interactions that occur between manufacturers, carriers, and suppliers during a phone’s development, but it certainly seems to us that Apple would benefit by engaging infrastructure companies early and often as these baseband updates come together — particularly as it seeks to keep a tight lid on the very congestion issues that network-controlled fast dormancy is designed to help eliminate. Either way, it’s interesting to see how quick Nokia Siemens was to probe for the change this time around.
iOS 4.2 supports new tech to reduce network congestion, Nokia Siemens says originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
Nokia Siemens Networks blog | Email this | Comments
Engadget
[staff pick] If the iPad 2nd-gen gets a Retina display, what will…
If the iPad 2nd-gen gets a Retina display, what will the resolution be?
I've been thinking about the idea of the iPad 2nd-gen getting a Retina display for a while now, specifically because it presents some distinct technological challenges for Apple to overcome. Doubling the dimensions (and quadrupling the number of pixels) of the iPhone was a huge step forward, but was well within the range of technological feasibility:
Original iPhone: 480 x 320 = 153,600 pixels at 165 PPI
iPhone 4: 960…
gdgt – new in gadgets
iPad Camera Provider (Probably Not) Selected
Shama Langan Ding Dong?
Digitimes, whose news we need to take with a grain of salt, is reporting that Langan Precision is making the cameras for the so-called iPad 2. If you read the Digitimes statement, they’re basically saying that Langan Precision is declining to state whether they are making the part or not in a Taiwan Stock Exchange. Langan reportedly makes the 5-megapixel cameras for the iPhone 4. The problem is that many doubt the iPad 2 will have a rear camera. So what is this strange camera? A VGA model for FaceTime? Pointing to another line in the filing, Digitimes stated:
In order to focus on high-resolution lens modules, Largan will outsource production of VGA models for use in tablet PCs instead of producing in-house, the sources indicated. In light of growing demand for tablet PCs, Largan’s shipments of related lens modules are expected to account for 10-20% of its consolidated revenues in 2011, the sources said.
So basically you’re dealing with two bits of info: Langan may or may not make iPhone cameras and Langan is planning to stick those same cameras into a tablet. Then you put the two together and you get a nice bump in share price for Langan and we learn nothing new about the iPad 2 except that, as we suspected, it will probably have a camera. Thanks, Internet!
Product Page
Virgin officially announces Project magazine for iPad (plus other tablets and iPhone soon)
We’re here at Virgin’s press event for Project magazine, which Sir Richard Branson just called the “first all-digital magazine.” It’s launching on iPad first, then on the iPhone, but we also snuck a peek at the app last night and noticed a line about Android tablet support coming soon. Branson says the content will change constantly — and there’ll even be comments. According to him, “this is not a battle, not a war, but the future of publishing.” There’ll be mapping features in the iPhone version, which the Project editor-in-chief describes only as “all the coolest places in the world mapped by our users.” Pricing for the iPad version is set at $ 2.99 per month, with the app updating throughout the period with new content and features. When asked about Rupert Murdoch’s The Daily, the chief editor had this to say: “We’re not similar … they’re a daily newspaper, we’re a monthly style magazine … we wish them nothing but luck.”
Virgin officially announces Project magazine for iPad (plus other tablets and iPhone soon) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 10:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | | Email this | Comments Engadget
Related Posts:Japan’s SoftBank Offers Free 16GB iPad With 2-Year Contract
A free iPad, how does that sound to you? You can get one, but you need to live in Japan and sign a two-year contract with SoftBank, the exclusive iPad provider in this country. The telecom behemoth announced a new pricing plan [JP] under which they fully subsidize a 16GB iPad (the Wi-Fi+3G model).
Dubbed “iPad for Everybody”, the plan requires you to sign up to a 24-month contract and pay $ 56 per month for a 3G data flat fee. Pay $ 5 or $ 10 per month more, and you’ll get the 32GB and the 64GB, respectively. Free usage of all SoftBank Wi-Fi spots in Japan is included in the pricing, too.
The promotion starts this Friday and runs though February 28, 2011.
There are some points to note here.
First, the iPad is said to be very successful in Japan – but sales have apparently been going south recently. According to a recent report in The Nikkei (Japan’s biggest business daily), Tokyo-based research company BCN [JP] found out the amount of iPads sold in October was roughly half that of June (right after the iPad launched). In October, the same newspaper reported that 400,000 iPads were sold in Japan, again citing BCN.
Second, SoftBank is ready to widen the number of its mobile stores that offer the iPad in Japan. The Nikkei recently wrote the company plans to quickly increase the number of stores stocking the iPad from over 100 to about 2,000 by year’s end.
Third, SoftBank has a history of offering Apple products at a discount once the initial buzz has worn off. In fact, with their “iPad for Everybody” program, they are basically replicating a promotion they ran in February 2009 for the iPhone.
In any case, they are offering a great deal.
Verizon sucks at Photoshop: confuses the Droid X for an iPhone
Man, Motorola’s not going to be pleased about this! The Droid X is justifiably one of Verizon’s marquee devices for this holiday season and takes pride of place on the carrier’s Cyber Monday offers page, but wait… why does its screen display the iPhone version of Google Maps? Oops!
[Thanks, Chris]
Verizon sucks at Photoshop: confuses the Droid X for an iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 07:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Verizon | Email this | Comments
Engadget
Apple forces PhotoFast to abandon 256GB upgrade kit for MacBook Airs
Remember that peppy aftermarket 256GB SSD upgrade from PhotoFast that easily smoked (on paper anyway) the SSD found in Apple’s latest MacBook Air? It’s been halted upon Apple’s request before it ever went on sale, similarly to those HyperMac batteries before it. 9to5Mac first reported the news based on a source close to the company and we just confirmed it directly with the PhotoFast GM2_SFV1_Air product manager. The risk of losing access to Apple’s product licensing program was just too grave a threat to ignore. So, enjoy your 160MBps max SSD transfer rate MBA owners, you’ll get that 250MBps sequential read/write speed bump only when Apple’s good and ready to provide it themselves — possibly sooner, we’re told, if PhotoFast is given the green light to restart sales after Toshiba’s SSD modules (Apple’s MBA partner) are available for purchase.
Apple forces PhotoFast to abandon 256GB upgrade kit for MacBook Airs originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
9to5Mac | | Email this | Comments
Engadget
Richard Branson’s ‘Project’ iPad magazine now hitting European iTunes stores
He just had to beat Rupert Murdoch, didn’t he? Project, Richard Branson’s iPad magazine, is now available in the iTunes store — at least in Italy and the United Kingdom, since it’s past midnight there. App is free, cost per issue is $ 2.99 for “a full month’s worth of updating content.” We suspect it’ll hit US, too, the next few hours, but for now, those across the pond can read up on Jeff Bridges (audio and video interview), Earth 2.0, and a “well-informed Godzilla.” Take that, yet-to-be-released The Daily.
Richard Branson’s ‘Project’ iPad magazine now hitting European iTunes stores originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink Mac Stories | iTunes UK | Email this | Comments
Engadget
