On Gear Live: Apple’s M5 Chip Made the MacBook Pro Unstoppable!

Latest Gear Live Videos

Apple set to launch smaller, cheaper iPhone alongside MobileMe revamp

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Rumors,

 

iphone nano

Late last week Bloomberg reported that Apple was prepping a smaller, cheaper iPhone. Now the Wall Street Journal has chimed in, saying Apple is readying a device that's about half the size of the iPhone 4 for a summer release.

The new phone would be added to the existing line of iPhones and it would be about half the price, WSJ said. A 16GB iPhone on either Verizon or AT&T costs $199 with a two-year contract.

The Journal says according to "someone who saw a prototype of the phone late last year," the smaller iPhone is "significantly lighter than the iPhone 4 and has an edge-to-edge screen that could be manipulated by touch, as well as a virtual keyboard and voice-based navigation."

Apple is also planning an overhaul of MobileMe, its cloud-based storage service. The Journal said the company will ditch its one-year $99 subscription model in favor of a free service. MobileMe would "serve as a 'locker' for personal memorabilia such as photos, music, and videos."

Click to continue reading Apple set to launch smaller, cheaper iPhone alongside MobileMe revamp


Advertisement

Trucks & Skulls: Best iPhone Action Game

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Video Games,

Trucks & Skulls 2My pals over at Appy Entertainment make games for the iPad and the iPhone and whatever lower case iProduct is coming up.
 
And they do a heckuva job at it too: their most recent game Trucks & Skulls won the Best Action Game in the iPhone category at the Best App Ever Awards at Macworld in San Francisco.
 
The iPad version of the game placed in the same category, and Trucks & Skulls also scored “podium positions” for Best Arcade Game.
 
Previously, Trucks & Skulls had been selected by Apple as both their iPhone Game of the Week and their iPad App of the Week in November, and was then IGN’s iPhone Game of the Month. 

Click to continue reading Trucks & Skulls: Best iPhone Action Game


Tech Deals of the Day: Dell 15% off, free iPhone apps

dell clearance

Here's today’s  list, where we bring the the top discounts on gadgets and consumer electronics for the day. The highlight for today is a huge 15% off Dell sale, and a 42" HDTV for $340 with free shipping:

Don’t forget, if you’re looking for other deals, be sure to check out our Newegg Promo Code thread.


Apple iPad 2 now in production

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Rumors,

The iPad 2 rumors have been going ever since the current iPad hit stores. If you've been looking for something solid though, the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the next iPad is currently in production. They say the new iPad will be thinner and lighter than the first model, and will support Facetime with a camera on the front of the device. Those hoping for a Retina display will be disappointed though, as WSJ is reporting that the resolution of the display won't be changed. It will also have more memory and a more powerful graphics processor, according to insider sources.

Click to continue reading Apple iPad 2 now in production

Read More | WSJ

Apple forcing publishers to allow iTunes subscriptions

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Apple, Corporate News,

the daily

Before The Daily appeared on the iPad last week, none of the magazines or newspapers could offer subscriptions from their own apps. Apple had a long dispute with publishers that prevented the feature to be added. On the one hand, publishers wanted to keep a direct line between themselves and their customers, to get the full amount from each subscription, and to get user details such as their gender, sex and location in many cases. Apple however wanted in-app subscriptions to go through their systems. Now, it seems Apple has decided that both should be offered. Apps will be able to offer subscriptions, but the publishers will be forced to offer those subscriptions through iTunes as well. Of course, it's likely that most users will go the iTunes route, and that has the publishers complaining. On the good side however, it means iPhone and iPad users will finally be able to get in-app subscriptions to whichever newspaper or magazine they read.


Bleeding Edge TV 374: Intonow for iPhone is like Shazam for TV

IntoNow is a free app for the iPhone that allows you to connect with your friends around the shows you love. Simply place your iPhone in front of the TV, and IntoNow uses it's SoundPrint technology to recognize whatever you're watching. Once your show or movie is tagged, you can see how many other people are watching, share it with your friends, review it on IMDB, add it to your Netflix queue, and buy or rent it on iTunes. 

IntoNow's SoundPrint technology covers more than 140 million minutes of previously aired shows, or the equivalent of 266 years of video. It can recognize a show even if it's airing live for the first time. SoundPrint has an index of "more than 2.6 million airings, indexed during the past five years, and it’s growing by the second." They describe SoundPrint as a “fingerprinting” technology; a series of algorithms that can quickly identify a show based on the audio. They've has even made a SoundPrint API available for developers, so look for more applications to come out using SoundPrint technology. 

Internet-connected social TV is becoming the new trend in technology, and data is showing that Americans are using TV and Internet together on an increasing basis. Google and Apple have launched their own internet connected set top boxes, and companies like Comcast and TiVo are major players as well. The future of social television looks very promising, and soon we'll all be "checking in" to our favorite TV shows on a regular basis, using awesome technology like IntoNow and SoundPrint, or other social apps like GetGlue.

Check out a demo of Intonow's social TV app in this episode.

How many times do you catch yourself watching tv while you're on the internet?

Big thank you to JackThreads for sponsoring the show - be sure to check them out, we've got exclusive invite codes that give you $5 to use towards anything you'd like.


Tech Deals of the Day: Walmart clearance, Best Buy game sale

walmart clearance

Here's today’s  list, where we bring the the top discounts on gadgets and consumer electronics for the day. The highlight for today is a huge clearance sale at Walmart (they've got thousands of items marked down) alongside a Best Buy video game sale:

Don’t forget, if you’re looking for other deals, be sure to check out our Newegg Promo Code thread.


Best Buy and The Source make room for white iPhone 4

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Rumors,

White iPhone 4 Best Buy

We know that the white iPhone 4 has pretty much been like a unicorn by now, originally promised by Apple almost 8 months ago, and still nowhere to be found. However, it looks like that's about to change, as big box retailers like Best Buy and Canada's The Source have actually started making space on store shelves for the elusive smartphone. When they delayed the white iPhone 4 for the third time, Apple said it would appear this Spring. It started showing in Best Buy and AT&T inventory a couple of weeks ago, and the fact that stores are making room give some credence to the rumors that we might be seeing the white model finally available to anyone who decided to wait this long--but seriously, if that's you, you may wanna just wait for the next iPhone to drop in a few months.

Read More | Engadget

iPad 2 to sport carbon fiber, NFC, and a 7-inch option?

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Rumors,

carbon fiber ipad

Our friends at iLounge got a few new tidbits relating to the iPad 2, which are interesting to say the least, but should be taken with a grain of salt. First, Apple has been toying with the idea of using carbon fiber for the casing of the next iPad. Carbon fiber is strong, but also very lightweight, and this would be a move to make the iPad much lighter than the original (which was a complaint from many.) Second, Apple is considering throwing NFC technology into the iPad 2. We think this one is pretty much a lock, as it will allow Apple to tap into a huge revenue stream. Last, Apple is reportedly still tossing around the idea of a 7-inch version of the iPad. Steve Jobs recently trashed this idea, saying that all the 7-inch tablets out there were pretty much dead on arrival because they were too small. We don't buy that, because, well, look at the iPod touch. It's pretty much a 3.5-inch tablet. Still, we aren't gonna hold out hope for a 7-inch iPad to roll around this April.

Read More | iLounge

The Verizon iPhone: 10 things you should know

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Editorial, Features, Handhelds,

verizon iphone 4

The arrival of the Verizon iPhone 4 has been cause for some celebration among Verizon customers and even some who are already using the phone on AT&T. In fact, virtually every smartphone customer is likely wondering if they should adopt one of the leading smartphones on the U.S.'s most reliable mobile network. These 12 facts may help you decide.

1. The Verizon iPhone is No Thicker or Heavier than the AT&T Model
Apple told me and my examination proves that these phones are like twins (more identical than fraternal). Both iPhones are 9.3 millimeters thick—still among the thinnest smartphones on the market.

2. The Antenna Design is Different for a Reason
It's no accident that the AT&T iPhone 4 and Verizon iPhone 4 antenna bands (around the phones) do not look exactly the same. The differences are hard to notice unless you hold the two phones side-by-side—as I did. The Verizon iPhone uses a CDMA network antenna. In fact, it uses two CDMA antennas (a necessary redundancy for the CDMA network). As a result, there are identical antenna band bar breaks on either side of the phone. By the way, Apple told me that, unlike GSM, the CDMA network actually works to give you a few more seconds of connectivity before the call breaks off completely. In other words, even on the worst connections, you may still be able to recover the call. I never had a bad enough connection to see this in action.

Click to continue reading The Verizon iPhone: 10 things you should know


Advertisement