Apple’s ‘cash balance’ conference call this morning was mostly uninteresting for folks not immediately involved with Wall Street (the actual thing and the Shia LaBeouf masterpiece, as it turns out), but CEO Tim Cook did let loose a few nuggets of interestingness for those hoping for insight into the future. For one, he stated that Apple’s pipeline is “full of stuff,” further impressing upon the masses the message he planted at the tail-end of the new iPad keynote on March 7th. He also stated: “I think our customers will be incredibly pleased with what they see coming out.” Hardly a surprise, but Apple rarely hands out confirmation of boom times unless it truly has something significant in the labs.
He also confirmed that Apple had “a record opening weekend” in regard to the new iPad launch, but stopped short of handing out actual figures. In fact, we could be talking about a record low — we jest, we jest. At any rate, AT&T has stepped in to announce that on Friday, March 16th, the carrier “set a new single-day record for its iPad sales and activations.” Again, no hard figures, but something tells us the number crunchers (and auditors) are hard at work to bring us precisely that.
When Apple dropped the second developer preview of Mountain Lion on Friday it didn’t see fit to include release notes, instead leaving it to us and the rest of the blogosphere to dig up the new features ourselves. The big ones are clearly Twitter alerts in the Notification Center and the introduction of tab syncing in Safari through iCloud. The latter of which should sooth iPhone fans that were jealous of Chrome for Android. Smaller enhancements were also turned on, including warnings when a program asks to access your contacts and location-based alarms in the Reminders app — which can be shared with your iOS-based mobile device as well. We’ll keep looking for more, but let us know you discover any new features in the comments.
The preliminary decision already determined that, in this case, Motorola Mobility hadn’t violated any of Apple’s patents with its Droid series, and now a final review has affirmed those initial findings. While this might not be a massive turn up for the books, it does close the doors on at least one big name patent dispute. That said, Apple can appeal to the Federal Circuit, and given that it has done before, it’s likely the iPad maker will do so here. But, for now at least, it’s cork popping time over in Libertyville.
We already knew about most of the latest Apple TV’s technical upgrades, but a few key specs have eluded us since its announcement. That’s now changed, however, thanks to user aicjofs over at XBMC’s forum, who ripped a fresh unit apart to find out exactly what’s inside of its shell. Apart from its documented single-core A5 SoC, it’s now confirmed that the 1080p-capable streamer features 512MB of Hynix-branded RAM (up from 256) along with an unchanged 8GB of storage, courtesy of Toshiba. Interestingly, there’s no word on whether it’s still packing Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR like the 2010 variant (Apple’s website only lists 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi), but MacRumors notes that aicjofs has discovered what’s possibly an additional WiFi antenna. A few parts are still under investigation, but you can check out the links below for more info.
A slew of successful, high margin products have left Apple sitting on an almost unimaginable amount of money — $97 billion as of its last earnings report — and led to the natural question of just what to do with it. According to a press release just issued, we’ll all find out about “the outcome of the Company’s discussions” tomorrow on a conference call with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer at 9AM ET. What does $100 billion or so of iMac, Macbook, iPhone and iPad money buy? Speculation has already included dividends for investors, a spending spree of acquisitions or even a dip into philanthropy. We’d have blown the entire bundle on the largest indoor laser tag facility ever built long ago, so this time we’ll leave the question to the experts — what do you think the folks in Cupertino will (or should) announce?
Sure, you can take us on our word that the new iPad really is that much sharper than its predecessor — or, you can opt for a more scientific approach, and peek at that Retina display under a microscope. Engadget’s Richard Lai slid his 64GB WiFi iPad under a USB scope, going far beyond the naked eye for a close-up look at those gorgeous high-density subpixels.
As you can imagine, it’s impossible to distinguish one dot from the next when you’re looking at a cool three million pixels packed tightly within a 9.7-inch slab, but that view clears up quite nicely under a 230x microscope. What you’ll see is that those tiny red, green and blue dots are now significantly smaller, when compared to the iPad 2. That means text that’s easily legible without a pinch, smooth icons and far sharper pictures.
There’s a dramatic improvement for sure, but is that new display alone enough to justify the upgrade for you?
Apple certainly had a lot of bases to cover at yesterday’s new iPad unveiling, so some minor details were bound to slip through the cracks. While app suites like iLife and iWork got to bask in the Yerba Buena spotlight touting enhanced resolutions for that Retina Display, the company’s decidedly less high-profile education software was also treated a face-lift — just without the fanfare. According to a report on CNET, prospective owners of Cupertino’s latest tablet will get to download an upgraded version of iBooks 2 and iTunes U that take advantage of the new 2048 x 1536 9.7-inch screen. Aside from the visual tweaks, only iBooks 2 has been imbued with extra features, adding a touch-to-highlight function and a refined page search that unites both print and ebook layouts. You’ll be able to check out the 264ppi panache for yourself when those slates ship out next week.
We’re still not sure how iTether temporarily snuck into the App Store the first time around, but the developers behind that software have returned with a new version that skirts Apple’s guidelines entirely. While Tether.com has standard apps available for BlackBerry and Android users, the new approach on iOS relies on creating an ad-hoc network from a PC, and then visiting the appropriate webpage on the iPhone. Log in to the website, and the company’s “patent-pending” software does the job of tying the two connections together wirelessly through the magic of HTML5, no jailbreaking or other hackery needed. The cost for the service is $30 a year, although it’s currently available for the first year at $15 — no free trials, and of course what happens to your data plan is between you and your carrier. Check out the video above for a demonstration or hit the company’s website for more details.
SXSW isn’t the only thing happening in Austin. The Apple machine is rolling in, but this time it’s not the Cupertino outfit filling us in on the deets. Outspoken Texas Governor Rick Perry says that one of Apple’s next creations will be a $304 million campus in his state’s capital, which will include a $21 million investment over a decade from the Texas Enterprise Fund. Apple’s not exactly a newcomer to the south, though, since it currently holds a customer support base in the area and, if all goes according to plan, the new addition could create up to 3600 more jobs. After all, bigger is better in Texas, right?
Cupertino would like to formally thank you for your interest in iWork.com, but before the summer’s through, it’s hoping you’ll be stuck with your head firmly in the iCloud. Apple sent an email notice out this week, letting iWork.com users know that, as of July 31st, it’ll no longer let users publish or share documents through the service. Moving ahead, the company’s focused on making iCloud the document sharing iService of choice. For more information on how to tie up those iWork.com loose ends as the deadline draws near, click on the source link below.
Apple certainly had a lot of bases to cover at yesterday’s new iPad unveiling, so some minor details were bound to slip through the cracks. While app suites like iLife and iWork got to bask in the Yerba Buena spotlight touting enhanced resolutions for that Retina Display, the company’s decidedly less high-profile education software was also treated a face-lift — just without the fanfare. According to a report on CNET, prospective owners of Cupertino’s latest tablet will get to download an upgraded version of iBooks 2 and iTunes U that take advantage of the new 2048 x 1536 9.7-inch screen. Aside from the visual tweaks, only iBooks 2 has been imbued with extra features, adding a touch-to-highlight function and a refined page search that unites both print and ebook layouts. You’ll be able to check out the 264ppi panache for yourself when those slates ship out next week.
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