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A Clear Explanation of iTunes Match
Nov 14, 11:05PM
After a bit of delay, Apple launched iTunes Match today. The new $25/year service offers users the ability to match their existing iTunes library with high quality versions in Apple's iCloud. The new service, however, has generated a bit of confusion about what exactly happens to your music library after you have enabled it.
One of the first questions, how to determine the iCloud status of a particular song, is solved by right-clicking the column bar at the top of the iTunes window (or pressing Command-J) and making sure "iCloud Status" is selected.
MacRumors forum user Nunyabinez has written a detailed explanation of how iTunes Match works that should answer a number of potential questions if you are planning to enabled the feature. We've summarized the key points here, but the full post is worth a read if you are planning on using Tunes Match.
- When you enable Match it goes through a three step process. Analyzing your library, matching songs, uploading non-matched content. It does this for your whole library. You can't choose to exclude songs other than taking them out of your library.iTunes Match launched earlier today with the arrival of iTunes 10.5.1. The $24.99/year service offers cloud-based matching and upload of users' complete iTunes libraries.
- If a song is matched, it becomes available to download in 256K AAC. If a song is not matched it is copied in its current format and bit rate up to 320K. If the file is Lossless however, it is converted (presumably by your computer) to a 256k AAC file and then uploaded.
- Nothing happens to your local music when you run match. If you have a lower quality song that was matched you can remove it from your local library and then replace it with the 256k version. What happens is you delete the song, but the entry in iTunes stays, but a little cloud now shows up in a newly added column that shows you that you have a song that is in the cloud but not in your library. You can click on the cloud and it will download it to your local library, where again it is now permanently yours at the higher bit rate.
- Match uses your meta-data. If you in an anal-retentive fashion have made lots of custom edits to your files, that is what gets copied to the cloud. Even if you replace your songs with the upgraded versions you keep your previous meta-data.
Siri Protocol Cracked, But Unique iPhone 4S ID Requirement Hampers Distribution
Nov 14, 10:06PM
Applidium, the developers who brought the open source video player VLC to the App Store only to have it pulled over licensing issues, have announced that they have reverse engineered the protocol used to allow Siri to communicate with Apple's servers. Citing an example in which they were able to communicate with Siri servers directly from a computer, the developers note that they were able to have the servers recognize and analyze their voice input just as if it had originated from an iPhone 4S.Today, we managed to crack open Siri's protocol. As a result, we are able to use Siri's recognition engine from any device. Yes, that means anyone could now write an Android app that uses the real Siri! Or use Siri on an iPad! And we're goign to share this know-how with you.Unfortunately for those hoping to make use of Siri in their apps on iOS or other platforms, the protocol is set up to transmit a unique identifier for a given iPhone 4S. The developers at Applidium were able to extract that identifier from one of their devices and use it to authenticate their non-iPhone Siri input, but such code would likely not survive being included in an application packaged for distribution, as Apple's servers would presumably be able to easily identify and blacklist any device identifier generating excessive usage from multiple locations.
The developers do note, however, that the proof of concept demonstration may prove interesting for developers looking to play around with non-iPhone 4S implementations of Siri for their personal use.
How to Use iTunes Match With Very Large iTunes Libraries [Mac Blog]
Nov 14, 8:56PM
With today's release of iTunes Match, some users with very large music libraries are discovering an annoying restriction. Those with non-iTunes Music Store libraries with more than 25,000 songs are unable to activate iTunes Match. There simply isn't an option to select only certain songs to upload to iCloud. Fortunately, Macworld has a quixotic but effective solution.
iTunes has the ability to access multiple music libraries. By separating out the songs to sync with the songs not to sync, it is possible to force iTunes under iTunes Match's 25,000 song limit.
To do that, quit iTunes, hold down the Option key, and launch iTunes. You'll be prompted to create a new library or choose a different library. Choose the option to create a new library. iTunes will open and you'll have nary a tune in your library.Rather than steal all their thunder, head to Macworld for the full instructions.
Move to the Store menu and choose Turn on iTunes Match. You'll be prompted for your Apple ID and password. Enter them and click OK and iTunes will switch on iTunes Match. Now open iTunes' preferences, click the Advanced preference, and uncheck the Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder When Adding to Library option and click OK. This will prevent iTunes from generating duplicates when you follow the next step.
Apple's October Mac Sales Lining Up for Record 5 Million+ Units in Quarter
Nov 14, 7:28PM
AppleInsider reports on a new research note from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster sharing data on U.S. Mac sales for the month of October from NPD. According to NPD's data, Apple's October Mac sales were up 19% year-over-year, putting the company on target to reach analyst estimates in the range of 5.1-5.3 million units for the full quarter.
Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray shared the latest domestic sales data from the NPD Group on Monday, which showed Mac sales up 19 percent year over year in the month of October. As sales continue to pick up leading up to Christmas, he sees Apple selling between 5.1 million and 5.3 million Macs during the December quarter.Apple last quarter reported sales of 4.89 million Macs, by far a company record. The company also guided toward record revenue and earnings for the current quarter, spurring analysts to push their Mac estimates to over 5 million.
Those numbers would represent year over year growth of between 23 percent and 28 percent. Consensus on Wall Street has called for Apple to report sales of about 5.2 million Macs during the quarter.
As for the iPod, NPD reports that U.S. unit shipments are down about 18% year-over-year as consumers continue to shift away from dedicated music players and instead utilize smartphones for their portable music needs. But even that 18% decline appears to be smaller than anticipated, with analysts currently predicting a 20% drop for the full quarter. Based on the data, Munster suggests that Apple is on pace to sell approximately 16 million iPods in what is easily the company's biggest-selling quarter for the iPod each year.
Roundup of Early Kindle Fire Reviews [iOS Blog]
Nov 14, 6:17PM
Amazon's first color tablet, the Kindle Fire, began shipping today following its September introduction. The Fire, the top-of-the-line Kindle tablet, has reportedly given some potential iPad purchasers second thoughts as the Fire is some $300 cheaper than the least-expensive iPad.
- NYTimes
- "It is designed almost exclusively for consuming stuff, particularly material you buy from Amazon, like books, newspapers and video. It has no camera, microphone, GPS function, Bluetooth or memory-card slot. There is a serviceable e-mail program, but no built-in calendar or note pad."- Wired
- "You feel that $200 price tag with every swipe of your finger. Animations are sluggish and jerky — even the page turns that you'd think would be the pride of the Kindle team. Taps sometimes don't register. There are no progress or "wait" indicators, so you frequently don't know if the machine has even registered your touch commands. The momentum of the animations hasn't been calculated right, so the whole thing feels ornery."
- "The Fire deserves to be a disruptive, gigantic force — it's a cross between a Kindle and an iPad, a more compact Internet and video viewer at a great price. But at the moment, it needs a lot more polish; if you're used to an iPad or "real" Android tablet, its software gremlins will drive you nuts."
- "Pixel for pixel, the tablet's 1024×600 display actually delivers quite nice image quality. Swaddled in ultra-protective Gorilla Glass, the display uses in-plane switching (IPS) technology to deliver a bright, appropriately saturated screen image with solid off-axis viewing (meaning you can still see what's on screen when looking at the display from an exaggerated angle)."- Mashable
- "As far as performance, all the apps I tested worked fine on Amazon's hardware — as well they should have, because not only have they been pre-approved by Amazon, they were also designed for Android smartphones, which (theoretically) boast less processing power."
- "Despite all claims from Amazon that its Silk browser technology would bring sublime web-surfing performance to the Fire's desktop, I found the tablet's overall web experience to be quite ratty."
- "This is a product I wanted to love. The Kindle Fire's unveiling was so impressive. Jeff Bezos hitting all the right notes in true Jobsian fashion, telling the tale of a product vision so clear it made my eyes tear up. Instead, now I'm discovering it's a somewhat flawed gadget — a product that literally does not always know which way is up."- The Verge
- "This interface is not always optimized for 1024×600 resolution on a 7-inch screen. While the bookshelf and items on it are large, some of the controls are tiny."
- "It is the closest tablet I've seen yet to an Apple iPad: a consistent, well-thought out marriage of hardware and services that offer an almost frictionless environment for app purchase and content consumption. This is why the iPad has been so successful and why I think the Kindle Fire, despite its imperfections, is a winner, too."
- "It's been speculated on (and more recently stated as fact by Barnes & Noble) that Amazon used the [BlackBerry] PlayBook reference design as the basis for the design of the Fire, and I wouldn't be surprised if that were true. Don't get me wrong, it's not that the design is necessarily bad — it's just that it's incredibly unoriginal."- Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times
- "Unlike the PlayBook, iPad, or pretty much any other tablet on the market, the Fire has no hardware volume controls, meaning that you have to go through a series of taps (especially if the device is sleeping) to just change the volume. The Fire also has no "home" button — simply a small, hard-to-find nub along the bottom used for sleeping and waking the device, and powering up and down."
- "I found magazine reading to be a little cramped on the small display, and zooming and panning around lacks a smoothness that would make the experience more enjoyable."
- "Kindle Fire is explicitly a device for enjoying books, periodicals, music, video, and games. But it can also handle the sort of computer-ish tasks that are often necessary distractions when you spend an hour or two in a coffeeshop reading a book. Things like checking email, looking something up on the Web, or telling your Twitter and Facebook friends that this dude who just walked into the coffeeshop has the most awesome mane of heavy metal hair spotted in the wild since Poison concluded their '86-'87 "Look What The Cat Dragged In" tour."The Kindle Fire is $199, available now from Amazon.
- "The reader app lacks the lovely little flourishes found in an iPad book reader. Page turns are mechanical, with little thought to transitions or interactions. When you're reading content that benefits from a little manual panning and zooming (like the contents of a webpage, a PDF, or a hard-formatted digital magazine), the experience is very Android-ish. Effective, yes, but not anything like the instantaneous liquid feedback you get from an iPad."
- "Steve Jobs, in the middle of lambasting 7-inch tablets as an utter disaster, insisted that they could only work if the box included enough sandpaper to grind down the user's fingertips to half their normal size. Well, that's just rubbish. All around, the Fire is as good a reader as the iPad. The two different screen sizes are just better in different scenarios."
Apple Launches iTunes Match with Release of iTunes 10.5.1 [Updated]
Nov 14, 5:27PM
Coming several weeks late, Apple has just now officially launched iTunes Match to customers in the United States. The iTunes Match launch is facilitated by the release of iTunes 10.5.1, which now allows users to subscribe to the $25/year service offering cloud-based matching and upload of users' complete iTunes libraries. iTunes 10.5.1 is available via the iTunes download page and should be rolling out to Software Update shortly.
Apple had apparently initially intended iTunes Match to launch by mid-October as part of iTunes 10.5 as seen in a number of developer betas, but the company removed the feature from iTunes 10.5 for the public release, giving it a few more weeks to complete work on the service. Even so, Apple missed its stated launch target of "end of October" and did not provide an updated timeframe for the iTunes Match debut once the target was missed, although the company continued testing with a new developer beta of iTunes 10.5.1 just this past weekend.
iTunes Match is a U.S.-only service for the time being, although the company is reportedly working hard to secure licensing to details to expand availability to other countries. iTunes Store users in a number of countries have been greeted with a "coming soon" tag on iTunes Match promo listings in their country-specific stores, suggesting that Apple is optimistic regarding expansion of the service in the relatively near future.
Update: Demand of iTunes Match subscriptions has overwhelmed Apple's systems, and the company has halted new signups for the time being.
New iTunes Match subscriptions are temporarily unavailable.Update 2: Despite Apple's notice about overwhelming demand still showing on the iTunes Match subscription page, subscriptions do now appear to be going through.
Due to overwhelming demand, iTunes Match is not accepting new subscriptions at this time. Please check back in an hour.
Update 3: iTunes 10.5.1 is now available in Software Update.
Apple Opening New German Retail Store on November 17th [Mac Blog]
Nov 14, 4:28PM
As noted by iFun.de [Google translation], Apple will be hosting a grand opening for its eighth German store this Thursday, November 17th. The new MTZ retail store is located in the Main-Taunus-Zentrum shopping mall in Sulzbach outside of Frankfurt, and is part of a significant expansion of the mall.
Apple made a significant push to open approximately 30 stores during the third calendar quarter of 2011, but in line with the company's usual practice of having new stores up and running well in advance of the holiday shopping season, openings have since slowed to a trickle.
Apple Becomes Top Five PC Vendor in Western Europe
Nov 14, 4:02PM
Research firm Gartner today released its quarterly estimates of PC sales in Western Europe for the third quarter of 2011, finding that Apple bucked the trend in a declining market to join the list of top five vendors. Apple's sales in Western Europe were up 19.6% year-over-year, compared to an overall decline of 11.4% for the market. Apple's performance was understandably strongest in mobile PCs, where it registered 28% year-over-year growth.
Gartner's Western Europe PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 3Q11 (Thousands of Units)
In addition to the totals for Western Europe, Gartner also breaks out data for the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, with the UK being the only one of those countries where Apple ranked in the top five. The company's 21.8% year-over-year growth there landed it in fourth place with 7.8% of the market, although Samsung's 39% growth left it only slightly behind Apple with 7.3% of the market.
Gartner last month released preliminary numbers for the U.S. and worldwide markets, finding that Apple had taken 12.9% of the U.S. PC market during the third quarter, a substantial jump quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, as well as a continuation of a long-term trend that has seen Apple increasing its share of the U.S. PC market.
iPhone 4 and 3GS Continued to Lead U.S. Smartphone Sales in Q3
Nov 14, 3:44PM
While the sheer number of available Android devices has resulted in the platform surpassing Apple's iOS in popularity, Apple's limited portfolio of devices remained popular even as customers looked forward to updated hardware that arrived last month in the form of the iPhone 4S. According to NPD, the iPhone 4 and 3GS continued to hold the top two positions in U.S. smartphone sales during the third quarter, leading a series of Android phones in the rankings.
Led by continued steady sales for Apple's iPhones, the top five best-selling mobile phone handsets in Q3 were as follows:The ranking follows an identical showing for Apple during the second quarter, despite the iPhone 4 having been introduced in June 2010 and the iPhone 3GS launch dating all the way back to June 2009.
1. Apple iPhone 4
2. Apple iPhone 3GS
3. HTC EVO 4G
4. Motorola Droid 3
5. Samsung Intensity II
Even with the introduction of the iPhone 4S last month, Apple is continuing to sell the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS as low-end devices, with an 8 GB iPhone 4 being offered for $99 on contract at all three major U.S. iPhone carriers and AT&T; offering the 8 GB iPhone 3GS for free on contract.
iPhone 4S to Launch in India on November 25th [iOS Blog]
Nov 14, 3:21PM
As noted by The Next Web, the iPhone 4S appears set to launch in India on November 25th, marking yet another milestone in Apple's fast-moving rollout of the new device. Both Aircel and Airtel appear to be participating in the November 25th launch, with Aircel having already provided public confirmation of the debut.
Aircel first posted a teaser on its official Facebook page announcing that the launch details would be coming soon and then followed that up with an official announcement on Saturday that the chosen date was November 25. Impatient customers will be able to start placing preorders on the carrier's website from November 18 onwards.Airtel's participation appears to be unconfirmed at this time, but The Times of India reports that the iPhone 4S will indeed launch on the carrier at 12:01 AM on November 25th.
Aircel and Airtel, both GSM providers, are Apple's two official carrier partners in India.
Samsung Declines to Seek iPhone 4S Ban in Korea, Wins Source Code Access
Nov 14, 3:06PM
The Chosunilbo reports (via The Next Web) that Samsung has at the last minute elected not to request an injunction banning the sale of the iPhone 4S in its home country of South Korea. According to the report, the decision appears to have been spurred by public relations considerations, with Samsung preferring not to irk South Korean customers by attempting to have iPhone sales banned there.
Samsung had debated until the last moment whether to file the motion after making similar applications in France, Italy, Australia, and Japan.Samsung and Apple are of course engaged in legal battles in a number of other countries, with each company seeking injunctions banning the sale of the other's devices based on claims of intellectual property infringement.
The decision was apparently driven by public-relations concerns. A senior Samsung executive said, "We concluded that we should engage in legal battles with Apple only in the global market, but not in order to gain more market share in Korea."
Samsung is one of Apple's key component suppliers for its mobile devices, but also a primary competitor with its slate of Android-based handsets. As noted in his biography, Steve Jobs believed that Android was a "stolen product" and had vowed to "spend every penny" of Apple's cash horde to destroy the platform. Samsung initially adopted a defensive stance in the disputes, but has recently stepped up its efforts and begun targeting the iPhone using its own portfolio of patents covering 3G wireless technologies.
Meanwhile, developments continue in Samsung's case against Apple in Australia, where Apple was able to avoid Samsung's request to see Apple's contracts with mobile phone carriers in that country by simply testifying that the language Samsung was looking for was not included in the contracts. Samsung had been pursing claims of anti-competitive behavior by suggesting that carriers may have committed to paying premium subsidies for the iPhone.
Samsung did, however, win one concession from Apple, as noted by ITNews, with a Samsung engineer being given two hours with the iPhone 4S source code to examine its 3G implementation. Apple had argued that the specific 3G patents being cited by Samsung were licensed by Qualcomm, Apple's chip supplier, absolving Apple from any separate licensing requirement. But Samsung was apparently allowed access to the iPhone 4S source code in order to explicitly determine how the Qualcomm chip interfaces with the rest of the device's hardware.
Apple Releases iTunes 10.5.1 Beta 3 for More iTunes Match Testing
Nov 13, 4:03AM
After again wiping iTunes Match libraries today, Apple has seeded developers with the 3rd iTunes 10.5.1 Beta. This update includes a number of important stability and performance improvements for iTunes Match.
Apple wiped iTunes Match libraries stored in iCloud earlier today in order to "prepare for the launch of iTunes Match". The Beta 3 Release Notes warn that Apple may again wipe iTunes match data during their ongoing testing:
iTunes 10.5.1 beta 3 includes a number of important stability and performance improvements for iTunes Match, and is a required update for all subscribers to iTunes Match beta.iTunes Match is Apple's $25/year subscription service that will match your existing iTunes library with 256-Kbps versions in the iCloud. iTunes Match had been scheduled for release in late October, but has been pushed back without any clear launch date available. Apple's wording in the most recent emails suggests an imminent launch.
Backup regularly and do not delete the music you add to iCloud from your computer. Apple may periodically delete all iCloud libraries during the beta period. This will require you to scan, match, and upload songs again
Apple Launches Worldwide Replacement Program for First-Generation iPod Nano
Nov 12, 5:39AM
Apple today began notifying users of the company's first-generation iPod nano that it is now offering a replacement program intended to address concerns over overheating batteries.
Dear iPod nano owner,Under pressure from regulators, Apple agreed to provide replacements for affected units in South Korea in 2009 and in Japan in 2010. With today's announcement, it appears that the replacement program is now in effect on a worldwide basis.
Apple has determined that, in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk. Affected iPod nanos were sold between September 2005 and December 2006.
This issue has been traced to a single battery supplier that produced batteries with a manufacturing defect. While the possibility of an incident is rare, the likelihood increases as the battery ages.
Apple recommends that you stop using your iPod nano (1st gen) and follow the process noted below to order a replacement unit, free of charge.
Customers with affected devices can fill out a claim form to confirm eligibility for replacement. Defective devices will be replaced within six weeks and will carry 90-day warranties. Customers who have personalized iPod nano devices will not be able to receive personalization on their replacement devices.
Some Users Not Able to Access iCloud Mail or Website [Update: Back Up] [Mac Blog]
Nov 11, 9:39PM
According to a number of readers and our own observations, it seems iCloud is in the midst of a somewhat widespread service outage that has been going on since roughly 4PM Eastern Time. Users are unable to access mail and other services either via standalone applications on the Mac or iOS, or via the iCloud website.
Apple's iCloud service status website doesn't indicate any issues, which may suggest the outage is not serious enough to warrant a notice or more likely that Apple simply hasn't updated the page yet.
Update: Apple has now added a notice to the system status page acknowledging the outage.
Update 2: Service seems to be restored.
Source Claims Hands-On Experience with iPhone 5 Prototype
Nov 11, 9:02PM
While the redesigned "iPhone 5" form factor failed to surface with last month's update that saw the introduction of the iPhone 4S, reports have suggested that the next-generation iPhone expected to debut next year will indeed carry a significant redesign.
Business Insider now reports that it has received word from a source who has claimed to have had access to an iPhone 5 prototype and offered some details on the device.
We've been told this by an industry source who has been right about future Apple products in the past.According to the source, Apple did indeed hope to launch the iPhone 5 this year, but was forced to scrap those plans several months before the iPhone 4S was ultimately introduced. Among the iPhone 5 details cited by the source:
We have not been able to verify what he told us with a second source. So we're still treating these details as rumors. You should probably still read this post with a nice fat dose of salt.
- 4-inch screen
- Aluminum back
- Capacitive home button
- "Flatter" form factor
- Much faster than current hardware, but poor battery life
- 10-megapixel rear camera
- Siri prototype known as "Assistant", which had been the rumored name for the feature until its introduction
According to the source, the primary objection regarding the prototype design came from Steve Jobs, who claimed that the larger screen would result in fragmentation of the iOS ecosystem, something the company has worked hard to limit.
Business Insider does not have a particularly solid track record on Apple product rumors, and is also including its own warnings about taking the report with a grain of salt. But the claims are certainly of some interest given the curiosity surrounding what happened with the claimed leaked design that resulted in significant numbers of cases being produced for a device that failed to appear.
Apple Tweaks Phil Schiller's Title: Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing
Nov 11, 7:55PM
As noted by The Next Web, Apple has quietly tweaked the title of marketing chief Phil Schiller, dropping "Product" from his previous title of Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing. As the report notes, however, it is unclear whether his new title of Senior Vice President for Worldwide Marketing reflects a change in responsibilities or if it simply more accurately reflects what he is already doing. Schiller's biography page had previously listed "Product Marketing, Developer Relations, and Business Marketing" as being under his purview, but the updated page omits mention of any specific programs within Worldwide Marketing that Schiller might be responsible for.
The Next Web suggests that with Ron Johnson having departed Apple as of November 1st to become CEO of department store chain J.C. Penney, Schiller may have taken on some new responsibilities related to retail store marketing. One other possibility relates to Apple's education division, which Tim Cook has reportedly integrated into the company's broader marketing and sales divisions. With Schiller now overseeing marketing for educational initiatives, Apple may feel that the broader "Worldwide Marketing" title is more applicable to his current responsibilities.
Tim Cook has made a few changes to the executive leadership team since he took over as CEO in late August. Johnson's departure as head of retail is obviously one major change, but Apple has yet to name a replacement for Johnson. The other major change so far has been the elevation of Eddy Cue to the senior vice president level as his role as iTunes and App Store chief has expanded recently to include the iBookstore, iCloud, and iAd.
Apple Once Again Deleting Developers' iTunes Match Libraries on November 12th
Nov 11, 7:33PM
As it has a number of times during developer testing, Apple has just sent out an email to registered developers indicating that it will once again be deleting their iTunes Match libraries. The latest deletion is scheduled for tomorrow, November 12th.
As we prepare for the launch of iTunes Match, we will be deleting all current iCloud libraries on Saturday, November 12th at 10 AM PST.Apple has modified the language from past notices to include a specific time for the deletion (10 AM PST) and reference to the deletion coming as Apple "prepare[s] for the launch of iTunes Match". Consequently, the development may offer some hope that a public debut of the service may now be near.
Please turn off iTunes Match on all of your computers and iOS devices. On your computer, choose Store > Turn off iTunes Match. On your iOS device, tap Settings > Music, then turn off iTunes Match. On your Apple TV, please choose Music > Turn off iTunes Match.
The songs on your computer should not be affected. As always, please backup regularly and do not delete the music you add to iCloud from your computer.
Apple had initially announced that iTunes Match would debut in the United States by the end of October, but the company missed that target and has not provided an updated timeframe for the launch. The company has since issued a new iTunes beta to continue testing.
Apple Continuing to Investigate iOS 5 Battery Issues
Nov 11, 7:25PM
Yesterday, Apple released iOS 5.0.1, the first update to the company's latest iOS 5.0 mobile operating system and one designed in large part to address complaints of battery life issues. But even with the update, a number of users are still reporting significant issues with battery life on their iOS devices.
Apple has now provided a statement to AllThingsD indicating that it is continuing to investigate the battery life complaints in an attempt to determine what is causing the problems.
The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices," the company said in a statement. "We continue to investigate a few remaining issues."Apple has not committed yet to a near-term iOS update to address any additional issues, but is presumably already working on a follow-up update incorporating fixes for any other problems it discovers.
Smaller SIM Card Standard Could Be Ready Next Year
Nov 11, 6:54PM
Following on Apple's proposed standard for smaller SIM cards, a German company has proposed its own standard. Giesecke & Devrient, the company that developed the world's first SIM card, has proposed the so-called "nano-SIM" as a card one-third smaller and 15 percent thinner than the current smallest card, the micro-SIM, that's used in the iPhone 4 and 4S and both generations of 3G iPad.
Apple has expressed a distinct interest in reducing the size of or eliminating SIM cards entirely, moves which would save space to allow Apple to either further shrink its devices or make room for other new or larger components. Late last year, Apple was said to have worked with Gemalto to develop a built-in SIM card which would use a chip to store subscriber information. But while the GSM Association and several carriers appeared to be in support of Apple's idea, other carriers threatened to withhold iPhone subsidies if Apple moved forward with the plan, objections that reportedly led to Apple scrapping the soft-SIM idea, at least for the time being.
With carriers nixing the idea of SIM card-less GSM phones, Apple apparently refocused its efforts on shrinking the size of the card further than the current micro-SIM size. Those efforts led to Apple's proposal for the new SIM card standard, which has been under review by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and has the support of a number of carriers.
According to today's report, G&D; has submitted its design to the ETSI, the standards organization behind the three standard sizes of SIM cards (full-size, mini-SIM, and micro-SIM), illustrated above. It is unclear, however, whether the nano-SIM design discussed in today's report is related to Apple's proposed design. Regardless, ETSI reportedly hopes to have the new nano-SIM format standardized by the end of this year, and an adapter will exist to make the new SIM backwards-compatible with older devices.
(Image via Flickr/William Hook)
Logitech Acknowledges Google TV Set-Top Box a 'Big Mistake'
Nov 11, 5:41PM
Google made waves last year for its introduction of Google TV, new software intended to integrate the Internet with television content and revolutionize the TV-watching experience. One of the key hardware launch partners for Google TV was Logitech, which offered its "Revue" set-top box for Google TV at a price of $299.
Google TV failed to catch on with consumers, and by July of this year Logitech had slashed pricing on the Revue box to just $99 and taken an accounting charge on the loss related to the below-cost sale price. The lack of consumer interest in Google TV reminded observers of comments made by Steve Jobs just after Google's announcement of its Google TV project.
Subsidized set-top boxes have squashed innovation because no one wants to pay for separate boxes...ask TiVo, Roku, us, Google in a few months. The set-top box needs to be torn up and redesigned to get people things they way they want them. And there's no go-to-market strategy for that. With the iPhone, and now the iPad, we could partner with carriers, but television is very balkanized...everything is local.Just two weeks ago, Google announced a significant update to the Google TV platform, but Logitech apparently has no interest in being burned twice, as The Verge reports that the company has sworn off any further Google TV work and acknowledged that the original effort was "a big mistake". According to Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca:
To make the long story short, we thought we had invented [sliced] bread and we just made them. [We made a commitment to] just build a lot because we expected everybody to line up for Christmas and buy these boxes [at] $300 [...] that was a big mistake.De Luca notes that Logitech "executed a full scale launch with a beta product", a decision that resulted in a $100 million loss for the company when consumer demand failed to meet expectations. De Luca admits that Google TV may yet have success in the market but that any such developments are some time away and will not involve Logitech.
Google is of course only one of the companies seeking to change the way users interact with and experience television. Apple's current Apple TV set-top box primarily serves to integrate iTunes Store content with television sets, but the company is said to be working on a revolutionary new Siri-based interface for an actual television set product that could launch by 2013. And Sony has also acknowledged its efforts in the field, seeing the need to step up and address Apple's success so far with its iTunes ecosystem as well its future television plans.
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