Just over a year after its launch last February, news magazine app The Daily has finally made its way to the iPhone. The app went live in the iOS App Store today. The iPhone app has a separate, cheaper set of subscription options than the iPad version. You can pay monthly for $1.99 per month, or get a full year for $19.99. On the iPad version of the app, individual issues of the magazine are $0.99, and a full year’s subscription is $39.99.
The app is not universal. That is to say, the iPhone app is separate from the iPad version. For those who have subscriptions in the iPad version, you get the content on the iPhone version for free. All you have to do is sign into the iPhone app with the same credentials you use in the iPad version.
The Daily launched in February of 2011. It was the first iPad-only news magazine, and introduced in-app subscriptions to iOS apps. It has proven to be a fairly popular news magazine, and was even the first news organization to publish the name of one of the women who filed a sexual harassment complaint against former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain.
The Daily for iPhone is available as a free download from the iOS App Store. Subscriptions are purchased from within the app.
Are you a subscriber to The Daily? Are you excited to see the magazine making its way to the iPhone? Let us know what you think in the comments.
If you paid much attention to the rumor mill prior to the launch of the new iPad, you may remember a last-second rumor that surfaced the morning before Apple’s announcement. The rumor went that Apple might be incorporating haptic feedback technology into the touchscreen of the new iPad.
The rumor drew a lot of attention in the hours before Apple announced the new iPad in large part because of the source. Ville Mäkinen, senior vice president of Senseg, a company that specializes in haptic technology for touchscreen interfaces, said that his company was “currently working with a certain tablet maker based in Cupertino.” When pressed for comment, Senseg representatives said they wouldn’t be commenting until Apple’s announcement was over.
As you no doubt know, the new iPad announcement came and went without a word being spoken about a haptic feedback touchscreen. The rumor was largely forgotten and life went on. Until today. A patent application uncovered by AppleInsider reveals that Apple really is investigating the possibility of incorporating haptic feedback into future touchscreen devices, and has been since at least 2010.
In case you’re not familiar with it, haptics refers broadly to the use of tactile feedback to facilitate interaction with technology. A video game controller’s vibrations are an example of haptics. Your sense of touch is incorporated as a way to enrich the experience. With haptic touchscreens, there are a few possible methods to simulate tactile feedback. Senseg’s method is to incorporate electrodes (which they call “Tixels”) into a touchscreen. The electrodes send a very low-power charge into the user’s fingers to simulate texture.
The haptic system Apple wants to patent, on the other hand, works a bit differently. In place of low-power electrodes, this system employs a dual-layer solution that would actually raise and lower a flexible OLED display to create actual on-screen textures to match what was being displayed on the screen. Beneath the display would be a three-tiered array of “shape change elements” that would raise and lower to simulate the texture of whatever was on the device’s screen.
As always, a patent application should be treated a bit cautiously. The fact that Apple has applied for the patent doesn’t mean the technology will ever actually see the light of day. It may prove too expensive, it may prove impractical, it may even prove unworkable. That said, the technology is pretty cool, and the thought of a touchscreen that actually allows you to feel what you’re seeing is exciting.
You can read the full patent application here. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments.
In the wake of the most recent round of quarterly earnings reports, there’s been quite a bit of discussion over just who the leader of the pack is when it comes to the smartphone market. While Samsung passed Nokia to become the world’s biggest overall cell phone vendor, two conflicting analyses led to some uncertainty as to whether they had also passed Apple to become the top smartphone maker. Another report seemed to confirm that yes, Samsung is the world’s leading smartphone maker.
While those reports were based on unit sales, a study released today by Wireless Intelligence paints a slightly different story. Drawing information from the quarterly reports of the U.S.’s top wireless carriers – AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint – Wireless Intelligence found that the iPhone is America’s top-selling smartphone by a margin of nearly two-to-one.
During the first quarter of 2012, AT&T reported that 4.3 million of their 5.5 million smartphone activations (78%) were iPhones. Meanwhile 3.2 million (51%) of Verizon’s smartphone activations were iPhones, and 1.5 million (60%) of Sprint’s smartphone activations were iPhones. All told, then, the iPhone accounted for 9 million of the roughly 13.5 million smartphones sold by the three companies.
Wireless Intelligence’s data lines up with a report published yesterday by Business Insider, which showed that that the iPhone was beating Google’s Android platform in the U.S. smartphone market. Based on the same sales data used by Wireless Intelligence, BI concludes that the iPhone has 63% of the smartphone market among the big three carriers. These carriers, in turn, account for about 80% of the overal U.S. mobile phone market. Consequently, the iPhone accounts for 50% of the U.S. smartphone market in the first quarter.
That, however, is contrary to a report released by NPD Group yesterday. This report showed Apple with a mere 29% of the smartphone market, while Android reportedly had 61%. While BI and Wireless Intelligence are using carrier sales data, NPD’s data comes from a survey of 12,811 consumers. NPD responded to BI’s report by pointing out that they track “sellthrough of new handsets,” rather than activations, that they only track consumer sales, not enterprise sales, and that the big three carriers actually only account for 60% of the U.S. mobile phone market.
All in all, NPD’s reasoning seems a bit problematic. While they have a point about activations being different than new sales, it’s unlikely that the difference between the two is great enough to account for the discrepancy between the two sets of numbers.
As the launch date for the iPhone 5 gets closer, certain details about the new phone’s design appear to be firming up. Or, if not firming up, then at least getting repeated more widely, and from an increasingly diverse array of sources. Some of the most common ones include a larger screen and some kind of metal rear panel.
Today, iLounge has published details of the new iPhone, and they appear to confirm many of the rumors. According to iLounge’s sources (which have proven pretty reliable in the past), the next iPhone will, in fact, have a 4-inch screen. The new phone will apparently make room for the larger screen by getting a height boost of 10 millimeters – from 115 millimeters to 125. Width is reported to stay virtually unchanged.
The new iPhone is also, it seems, going to get a metal panel on the back. Interestingly, only part of the rear panel will be metal – a metal plate near the middle. The upper and lower portions of the rear panel will be made of some other material – plastic or ceramic, most likely. If true, this is a fairly unusual move for Apple. Historically the iPhone’s rear panel has been one single piece (be it plastic or glass). Blending two different materials in one rear panel is a design choice that Apple has tended to avoid (with good reason).
Height isn’t the only dimension that’s likely to change, apparently. The next iPhone will continue Apple’s preference for making its gadgets thinner and thinner with each major redesign. While the iPhone 4S is a fairly hefty 9.3 mm thick, the new iPhone will be 7.4 millimeters, a reduction of around 20%.
Finally, iLounge’s report confirms a rumor that’s been around for several months: a new, smaller dock connector. While the current dock connector on iOS devices has 30 pins and is fairly wide, this one will have fewer pins and be significantly narrower. The reason for the narrower connector is a matter of real estate: the smaller connector would take up less space inside the phone, making a little extra room for things like 4G radios, a larger battery, or any number of other components.
While this is all still just rumor, the fact is that iLounge has a pretty good track record. Though they don’t have a perfect record, they’ve often been right about the details of upcoming products. If they’re right this time, then it looks like Apple really is finally abandoning the 3.5-inch screen that they’ve held onto through five generations of iPhone.
What do you think? Would you like to see a 4-inch iPhone? Can Apple make the iPhone thinner and still fit a 4G radio inside? Let us know in the comments.
A couple of weeks ago the rumor mill was all abuzz with the possibility that Apple’s next iPhone would be getting a Liquidmetal body. After all, Apple licensed exclusive rights to use Liquidmetal’s technology two years ago, and so far as anybody knows, they haven’t done much with it. Incorporating it into the body of the new iPhone would be a great implementation for the technology.
Well, according to Liquidmetal’s creator, we shouldn’t get our hopes up for a Liquidmetal iPhone just yet. In an interview with Business Insider, Liquidmetal creator Dr. Atakan Peker. In the interview, Peker talked about what Liquidmetal is and how Apple might use it in the future. First of all, he said, the name “Liquidmetal” is a trade name. It covers a class of alloys with an atomic structure similar to that of glass. It blends many of the advantages of some of the more traditional materials used in gadgets like smartphones: it is strong like metal, but easily cast into complicated shapes like plastic, while being as aesthetically pleasing as glass.
Though the mind races with all sorts of uses to which Apple could put this sort of technology into its products, so far they haven’t done much with it. Peker says that the only thing he is certain Apple has used Liquidmetal for was the SIM ejector pin that came with the iPhone 3G, which he discovered when he bought one. When asked about rumors that Apple might be developing a MacBook with a Liquidmetal body, Peker said that the “size of the MacBook and the scale of Apple products” made it “unlikely” that such a thing would happen anytime soon.
He did not mention rumors concerning a Liquidmetal iPhone, though he did say that he expects that Apple will “use this technology in a breakthrough product.” Now, that leaves a lot open for interpretation – the next iPhone could be considered a “breakthrough product,” under the right circumstances. But considering that the next iPhone will be the sixth generation, it would have to have a pretty spectacular feature set to be called “breakthrough.” What’s more, if the scale of the MacBook is prohibitive to the use of Liquidmetal, it’s a fair bet that the scale of the iPhone is, too. For all that a Liquidmetal iPhone would require less of the material to build, Apple also sells a lot more iPhones than Macs these days (almost nine times as many last quarter). So although Peker didn’t specifically say that the next iPhone wouldn’t be getting a Liquidmetal body, it’s pretty strongly implied by what he did say.
It’s worth noting, too, that Peker doesn’t appear to be privy to Apple’s product decisions. Note how he found out about the Liquidmetal SIM ejector for the iPhone 3G: he bought one and looked at the pin himself. Apple has licensed exclusive rights to use Liquidmetal’s alloys. That doesn’t mean that Liquidmetal necessarily has a hand in the actual design or creation of Apple’s products. That means that the “breakthrough product” Peker mentions should be treated as a hypothetical, not something that Apple actually has in its pipeline. It also means that Apple could be working to implement Liquidmetal tech on a larger scale than Peker thinks. Though, of course, the man did invent the stuff, and if he says it’s not ready to be put into MacBook- or iPhone-scale production, he probably knows what he’s talking about.
What do you think? Would you like to see a Liquidmetal iPhone? What about a MacBook? Is it possible that Apple is preparing to use Liquidmetal on a large scale, or will we have to wait a few more years for that? Sound off in the comments.
Everybody knows what a pain it can be to change your phone number. Not only do you have to memorize your new number (a step some people never bother to take), you have to update your contact info all over the place, and you have to let all your friends know that your old number doesn’t work anymore. If you’re the kind of person with an address book full of people who need your digits, getting them all your new contact info can be a pain. Sure you can post it on Facebook or Twitter, but what if you don’t want all your Facebook friends or Twitter followers to have your number?
With current technology, you have to either send out a massive email, or bombard everyone you know with texts. Now, thanks to group texting, that last one isn’t too terribly difficult, but it is still a bit time consuming. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to just have your new contact info go out to everybody in your address book?
If you think so, then you may be in luck. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has just granted Apple a patent for that very technology. The patent deals with a smartphone feature that will automatically detect when your phone’s number changes and send out a mass text to the people in your address book, letting them know your new contact info.
Of course, you may not want to text everybody in your address book about your new number (for example: my local Pizza Hut has no need to know the best way to get ahold of me). The patent doesn’t mention any customization options with this feature, but it’s highly unlikely that Apple wouldn’t include the ability to select who gets your new info.
Unfortunately, this is only a patent, so there’s no real clue as to when we might actually see this sort of feature coming to the iPhone. On the other hand, it seems like a fairly straightforward software issue, so there is likely no reason it couldn’t be incorporated as soon as iOS 6, which should be coming out this autumn with the next iPhone.
What do you think? Would you like to see a feature like this come to the iPhone? Let us know in the comments.
Have you ever wanted to see if you could make the grade and join the world famous Navy SEALS? Well now there is an app for that. A former Navy diver named Marty Costello came up with the idea to write an app for the iPhone that features a simulated published physical screening regimen that is used by the Navy for candidates for SEALs, Divers, EOD, Surface Warfare Combatant Crew and Air Rescue Swimmers.
“I challenged the iPhone program APP writers and coders to figure out where the sensors indicated a proper military push-up and they nailed it.” Said Costello, “we did the same for the sit-ups and pull-ups in the same manner but each a little differently.”
The program that his company developed includes a formula that runs in the background recording the person’s performance and a scored report is completed at the end of the run to be emailed for tracking.
“Two of the coolest features includes a female voice-over guiding you through the times, rest periods, distances remaining and all the while you can jam to your motivational music.”
The developer wants to remind you that this is only an app and is in now way a substitute for the real thing. The real training and tests has more strenuous adverse things involved including competition.
The app is currently in the App store on the iPhone and costs $4.99. It’s a little pricey for what it does, but they do feel the money is worth the experience.
Apple’s App Store has quite a storied history when it comes to which apps get rejected and which get accepted. For the first few years of the App Store’s existence, there often appeared to be no apparent rhyme or reason to which apps were allowed and which weren’t. Things got a bit better when Apple finally got around to publishing guidelines that were publicly available to developers in September of 2010, but some problems remain. Even with the guidelines in place the app review and approval process can seem a bit arbitrary at times.
That’s the way it probably seems to the developers of several apps with Dropbox integration. It seems that since the release of Dropbox’s latest software development kit (SDK), the App Store’s reviewers have been hitting apps that use Dropbox with a ban-hammer as fast as devs can submit them. The problem first came to light over the weekend when developers started posting to a thread on Dropbox’s developer forums, saying that Apple was rejecting apps that used the new SDK. Multiple devs chimed in, saying that Apple was issuing rejection notices for both new apps and updates to old apps.
So, why is Apple rejecting these apps? Are they somehow using Dropbox’s SDK to bring porn into the App Store (something Apple has always rejected)? Are they using it for some sort of scam? Nope. It turns out that the new Dropbox SDK is guilty of the grievous sin of sending users who don’t have Dropbox installed on their phones to a page on Dropbox’s website that includes a link they can click to pay for more storage space. That’s it.
You see, there’s a section in Apple’s app submission guidelines that prohibits apps from providing “access to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app.” You see, Apple wants all purchases made for apps in the App Store to go through Apple, so they can have their 30% cut of the sales price. You may recall that Amazon and Barnes & Noble ran afoul of this particular rule last year. Their Kindle and NOOK apps provided links that sent the user to each company’s e-book store in Safari. That way users could purchase Kindle and NOOK books from their iPhone or iPad without requiring Amazon or Barnes & Noble to fork over 30% of the price of every book purchased.
According to Apple’s reviewers, Dropbox’s new SDK violates this rule. As with many services – e.g., Twitter, Facebook, etc. – when you download an app with Dropbox integration, you have to authorize it to access your Dropbox account. Of course, not everyone who downloads such an app has a Dropbox account, and not everyone who has a Dropbox account has the Dropbox app on their phones. For those people, the SDK now directs users to Dropbox’s website in Safari, where they can either authorize the app to use their Dropbox account, or create an account if they don’t have one. On Dropbox’s account creation page, there’s a conveniently located link that you can click to pay for more than the 2GB of storage you get with a free Dropbox account. That link, it seems, counts as an “external mechanism for purchases or subscriptions.”
In response to the problem, Dropbox posted an updated SDK that removed the link to the desktop version of the Dropbox site. The updated SDK, though, is intended to be a temporary workaround while a better solution can be found. In a statement to The Verge, Dropbox representatives said that “Apple is rejecting apps that use the Dropbox SDK because we allow users to create accounts,” and that Dropbox is “working with Apple to come up with a solution that still provides an elegant user experience.”
It’s not clear whether apps using the upgraded SDK are starting to get into the App Store yet, nor what kind of solution Apple will find acceptable.
What do you think? Is Apple’s rule reasonable, or is it ridiculous? Let us know in the comments.
Music streaming service Spotify has just launched a long-awaited app for iPad for use by Premium service members, though trial subscribers can test it out as well. Premium Spotify users pay a monthly fee, and the content is streamed directly from Spotify’s servers, as with the iPhone version of the app. This practice hints at the possible future direction of the company’s content platform, moving away from the P2P sharing model currently running on desktop versions.
So, trial users can test out the new app for 48 hours, which can be extended to 30 days after filling out some forms on iTunes, allowing subscribers to:
– Access millions of tracks
– Stream online
– Listen offline – no mobile connection needed
– Share music with your friends
– Star your favorite tracks
– Wirelessly sync your own MP3s to your iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad
– Create and sync playlists
– Send the tracks you listen to direct to Last.fm & Facebook
Below is a clip that shows off the iPad app a bit:
Spotify has released a multitude of apps of late, including Digster and Play it Again Sam, though like with the iPhone version if the new app, the iPad version won’t work with every other app the platform offers. On a related note, a friend was recently mixing audio for a live, 5-piece musical performance at the downtown library, using an iPad as the sole controller – it would seem like the new Spotify app would be a good way to push a signal to a larger home entertainment center. No word on why the app took so long to make it to iPad, though the launch will likely eclipse the buzz surrounding Spotify’s partnership with Coke.
Screenshots for the upcoming Facebook Messenger iPhone app have turned up online. 9to5Mac received the images from a “reliable source,” who remained unnamed. They report that the app, which is currently in beta, is mostly a larger version of the iPhone app. There is no word yet on when the app may be released.
Just like the iPhone app, the iPad app will feature normal messaging with friends as well as a group conversation feature. The app will also feature push notifications, so that messages arrive immediately, instead of waiting for the app to refresh. There is also the neat ability to see your friends on a map, assuming they have their location tracking enabled.
9to5Mac also reports that Facebook is currently working on an updated version of the Facebook Messenger for iPhone that will implement Skype video chat, and that an updated Facebook Messenger app for Android phones with “similarly new functionality” will follow soon after. Of course, video chat for Facebook Messenger is a feature that has been rumored since late last year. Still, both of those updates are rumored to come sometime this summer. While it is unknown whether the new iPad app will have Skype calling, one of the screenshots released shows notifications for a “missed call” beside the Facebook video call symbol. I can’t imagine Facebook would leave such a feature out of their new tablet app, so expect to be Facebook Skyping on a iPad sometime this fall.
Are you excited for the new Facebook Messenger features? Leave a comment below and let me know.
comScore’s latest survey of roughly 30,000 mobile users via its MobiLens service produced the typical findings of very little difference in the mobile market over a three month period, though Apple and its iPhone have actually achieved a full number in percentage of change regarding devices in use. Since a posting of the same study conducted over the prior three months, Samsung still sells the most devices, with 26% of the market share in the U.S., while iPhone remains at 12.8%
Below is a comparison of the two most recent mobile EOM surveys:
The biggest change in mobile content usage was an increase in app downloads by 2.4%, to 50% on the nose. It would appear that exactly 74.3% of mobile users at all times send text messages:
The slight increase in app usage might be especially good news for RIM – back in February, that company’s Vice President for Developer Relations Alec Saunders pointed out that RIM garners more app downloads than both Android and iOS.
How would a world look in which Apple not only manufactured iPhones and provided the iOS software platform for iPhones, but also provided wireless service for iPhones? If you are an Apple fan, that probably sounds like heaven. If you’re not an Apple fan, you are probably thinking that Apple couldn’t possibly be worse than current carriers. Regardless of which side you fall on, the question might not be completely hypothetical if one wireless industry strategist is correct.
Boy Genius Report (BGR) is reporting that Whitney Bluestein, an industry strategist who has managed deals for carriers and manufacturers such as Apple and AT&T in the past, is stating that Apple will begin selling wireless service to iOS device users in the near future. BGR’s Zach Epstein quotes Bluestein in his article:
“The battleground is set, but Apple will be the first mover,” Bluestein said while speaking at the Informa MVNO Industry Summit in Barcelona. “Google will have to scramble because it lacks retail distribution, experience with subscriber services and the iTunes ecosystem of content. iTunes and the iTunes Store provide Apple with one-click buying and customer care. Google can acquire most of these capabilities, as it has before, but it is not a core competency of the company.”
I’m not really sure why Google would have to scramble. Google already makes 4 times more mobile revenue from iPhones than Android phones as it stands now. The goal behind Android was to provide a free platform for manufacturers to build upon and provide Apple with competition, not for Google to take over the market. No, this would be a problem for current carriers and for Samsung, HTC, Motorola, and other manufacturers who would be excluded from an Apple carrier network.
Bluestein is citing Apple’s solid distribution channels, customer base, iTunes credit card records, and some network architecture patents filed in 2006 as proof that Apple has the means to become a carrier. It all sounds very speculative and incredible to me. I don’t see Apple heading in this direction, mostly because I don’t see the company making the huge upfront investment that setting up a nation-wide network infrastructure would require. Still, it is a juicy rumor that a small part of me hopes is true. After all, Apple as a carrier could frighten the complacent carriers we currently have into providing some decent, un-capped service at more reasonable prices.
What do you think? Will Apple challenge AT&T and Verizon at their own game or is this all just attention-garnering hokum? Leave a comment below and let me know.
When Samsung released their quarterly earnings report last week, they declined (as usual) to list the actual number of smartphones they sold. That, as you might expect, led to a bit of speculation as to who was really the biggest smartphone maker in the world. While Samsung definitely passed Nokia to become the world’s largest mobile phone maker overall, there was some question about whether they had passed Apple to become the largest smartphone maker. While one analytics firm held that they had only sold 32 million smartphones (coming in a close second behind Apple’s 35.1 million), another report estimated that they’d sold 44.5 million units, passing Apple by a sizeable margin.
Now another voice has weighed in, and it appears that Samsung really does sit atop the smartphone market. A report released today by IDC estimates that Samsung shipped 42.2 million smartphones in the first quarter, beating Apple by just over 7 million units. Samsung’s surge to take the top spot represents a remarkable 267% growth over the first quarter of 2011, when they sold only 11.5 million smartphones.
Interestingly, of the top five smartphone vendors, only Apple and Samsung experienced year-over-year growth. The other three – Nokia, RIM, and HTC – suffered badly in the first quarter of 2012. Nokia, which posted a $1.7 billion loss for the quarter, sold 50% fewer smartphone in the first quarter of 2012 than in the first quarter of 2011. Meanwhile, BlackBerry maker RIM, which recently made news for a fairly ridiculous PR stunt, sold over four million fewer BlackBerrys in Q1 2012 than in Q1 2011.
IDC’s report also includes a chart tracking the changes in market share among the top five smartphone vendors over the course of the last year. While Apple suffered a dip in market share during the third quarter (the quarter in which the iPhone is usually released), it surged back in the fourth quarter, following the October release of the iPhone 4S. Samsung’s growth, on the other hand, was fairly steady throughout the year, though it leveled off during the third quarter. The other three of the top five, however, showed a steady downward trend, each finishing the year well below where they started in the 2011.
Chart: Top Five WW Smartphone Vendors, 1Q 2012, Five Quarter Market Share Changes (Units)Description: Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, May 1, 2012Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker provides smart phone and feature phone market data in 54 countries by vendor, device type, air interface, operating systems and platforms, and generation. Over 20 additional technical segmentations are provided. The data is provided four times a year and includes historical and forecast trend analysis. For more information, or to subscribe to the research, please contact Kathy Nagamine at 1-650-350-6423 or [email protected]. For more information about this tracker go to: http://www.idc.com/tracker/showproductinfo.jsp?prod_id=37Tags: IDC, Tracker, Mobile Phone, Mobile Phones, Mobile Phone Tracker, 1Q201 …Author: IDCcharts powered by iCharts
If trends like this continue, it’s pretty clear that the smartphone market will ultimately become a two-horse race between Apple and Samsung. In fact, it’s arguably a two-horse race already. With BlackBerry 10 on the way and the Nokia Lumia 900 just released, there’s a possibility that RIM and Nokia could get back in the game (with Nokia possibly bringing Windows Phone along for the ride), but otherwise the smartphone market appears to be coming down to Apple and iOS versus Samsung and Android.
What do you think? Could Nokia or BlackBerry recover their losses in the near future with BlackBerry 10 and the Lumia 900? Let us know in the comments.
If you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention to the goings-on in the tech world, you know that Apple is a pretty big deal. Once primarily a maker of computers – in which market they were a distant second to rival Microsoft – Apple has transformed itself in recent years into the leading maker of tablets, smartphones (maybe), and MP3 players in the world.
So yeah. A lot of money. Sometimes it can be a little difficult to fathom those kinds of numbers, though. Sometimes we need some help putting the kind of data released in an earnings report into perspective. To that end, BusinessDegree.net has put together a handy infrographic that breaks some of those numbers down and makes them a little more manageable (for example, did you know that Apple makes $7 million in profit per hour?).
Check out the infographic below, then let us know what you think in the comments.
Decades ago, Snow White’s evil stepmother gazed into a magic mirror and said words you no doubt know by heart: “Mirror mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairst of them all?” Now, imagine that instead of a magic mirror, the evil queen had been using an iPhone. Got it? Now imagine that instead of answering “Snow White,” the mirror iPhone had answered, “Certainly not you. Aren’t you due for your rabies shot? Woof!” If you can imagine that, then you’ve got a pretty good idea of what Ugly Meter for iPhone is all about.
Using your iPhone’s front-facing camera, Ugly Meter does pretty much what the name tells you: it rates how ugly (or hot) you are. It rates you on a scale of 1-10. Contrary to what you might expect, being a 10 is not a good thing. It turns out that the ugly meter is kind of like golf: the lower your score, the better. Of course, the app isn’t content to give you your score and leave you to wallow in your misery. Oh no, Quasimodo, you’re not that lucky. Just for good measure, it pours a little salt in the wound with messages like “You’re so ugly, when your mother went into labor the doctors went on strike,” or “Wow you’re ugly, is your doctor a vet?” or “If ugliness were bricks, you’d be the Great Wall of China.” I, apparently, am “so ugly you couldn’t get a date off the calendar.”
Of course, the app doesn’t appear to actually measure anything. Or, if it does, it doesn’t use any standard of beauty that actual people use. The Daily Mail put the app through its paces and found that while Angelina Jolie scored a 2 (remember, low is good), other similarly attractive people fared far worse. Brad Pitt, for example, scored a dismal 8, while British Prime Minister David Cameron beat him with a 7. Meanwhile, singer Cheryl Cole and actress Dannii Minogue got pretty dismal scores.
So basically, the app is a random insult generator that pretends to look at your face for a few seconds. No big surprise there. Unfortunately, however, not everybody is pleased with the results they get. It seems that the creator of the app, Joe Overline, has been on the Howard Stern show a couple times talking about his creation. As you might expect, the first appearance gave the app a huge boost, prompting over 220,000 downloads, which earned around $400,000.
During that first appearance, though, the app gave Ronnie the Limo Driver, Stern’s limo driver, bodyguard, and head of security, a score of 0. This, combined with some other comments made by Overline later, made Ronnie a bit… grumpy. Okay, maybe “grumpy” isn’t the right word. Maybe “furious” would be better. At any rate, Overline’s return to the show sparked quite the confrontation with Ronnie, who apparently believes Overline rigged the app to score him a zero, including a little profanity-laden shouting from both sides, and culminating in Ronnie actually spitting in Overline’s face. You can check out a rundown of the show here. You can also hear the audio of part of the confrontation embedded below. Check it out, but be warned: the language isn’t exactly safe for work…
The app is available for $0.99 in the iOS App Store. Go check it out, if you’re brave enough.
Earlier this month we brought you news that Apple and Samsung had been instructed to meet to discuss a settlement for their ongoing patent lawsuit, which will soon be heading to trial in California. The meeting, ordered by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, was to be held within 90 days.
Now, Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents is reporting that a date for the settlement meeting has been set. Apple CEO Tim Cook will meet with Samsung CEO Gee-Sung Choi, along with their respective general counsels, in San Francisco on May 21st and 22nd at 9:30 AM (Pacific time, naturally). The is to be mediated by U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero, who has asked the companies to provide “a candid evaluation of the parties’ likelihood of prevailing on the claims and defense” by May 9th.
Apple and Samsung have been engaged in this patent infringement battle since last April, when Apple filed suit in U.S. District Court. Apple’s suit alleged that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy smartphones “slavishly” copied design elements of Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Samsung countersued in the U.S. and elsewhere. The current dispute now consists of roughly 20 separate suits in ten countries.
The likelihood of this settlement meeting actually resolving the dispute and avoiding a trial is fairly low. Though Tim Cook may not share his predecessor’s ferocious anger over situations like this one, he has said that Apple will continue litigation unless he can be satisfied that companies like Samsung will stop infringing on Apple’s designs and make appropriate reparations. A similar settlement meeting between Oracle and Google concerning their current patent lawsuit was not able to avert a trial.
Have you ever had trouble wondering what to do with your phone, lipstick, or bank card when wearing a dress with no pockets? This Kickstarter project has got you covered. A duo from Seattle has invented a bra with a small underarm pocket for discretely storing everything from lipstick and gum to credit cards and iPhones. Meet the JoeyBra:
The duo, Mariah Gentry and Kyle Bartlow, are now taking pre-orders at their website. The bras, for now, only come in “Sexy Leopard” and sizes range from small to large, meaning roughly bra sizes 32A to 32D. The special spring per-order price of $19.99 ends today, so act fast if you are intrigued.
The Kickstarter fundraising for the JoeyBra is still active for the next 19 days. Bartlow mentioned in the video above that a prototype sports bra is already in the works, and could be rolled out if the Kickstarter is very successful. Donors can receive everything from a video thank you to a trip to visit Kangaroos in Seattle.
If you are ambitious, you could also get this iPhone case and stash a condom inside of it. Then you could have a condom inside of a Playa Case which is on an iPhone that is inside of a JoeyBra which on a woman who is wearing a dress over all of it. You could be a strange russian-doll-like condom hoarder.
What do you think? Is a bra of this sort useful or silly? Leave a comment below and let me know.
Like any woman, Siri’s heart is a vast and complex landscape that’s unable to be fully understood by a large portion of the population. But unlike a real woman’s heart, there is now a For Dummies guide to Siri.
Yep, for those of you who want to get the most out of your personal voice assistant and have yet to discover all her secrets, the now-ubiquitous reference series has just unveiled their newest guide. Apparently, Siri is useful enough to warrant 192 pages of instruction.
According to author Marc Saltzman, his book will “pull back the curtain on Siri to reveal everything your trusty intelligent assistant is capable of doing.” This includes using Siri to keep your calendar, schedule appointments, crank out the tunes, get the weather, etc. The book also includes a section on all of those Easter Eggs hidden inside the software, those interesting responses that gained a lot of attention when Apple first unveiled the product.
Siri has received mixed reviews in its first year on the market. Although a recent survey suggests that a majority of iPhone users are either satisfied or very satisfied with the product, we’ve seen multiple lawsuits filed against Apple on the basis on false advertising. Those lawsuits basically contend that Siri sucks, and Apple deceived users with their advertising blitz. They claim that Apple falsely promoted capabilities that the voice assistant simply cannot perform reliably.
Maybe if people were more familiar with all of Siri’s capabilities, they would be more apt to user her on a daily basis. Or maybe Siri just isn’t the game-changer that we were marketed. What do you think? Are you still using Siri? Let us know in the comments.
If you’re Scottish, you might not be able to make Siri understand a word you’re saying. If you’re an aspiring photographer, your Instagram app might not make you into the next Annie Leibovitz. But if you’re a fairly successful actor, your trusty iPhone might just land you in one of 2013’s biggest blockbusters.
Courtesy of the New York Times comes the incredibly amusing little tale about how one English actor impressed J.J. Abrams and won a spot in a Star Trek movie.
Benedict Cumberbatch (yep, hater gon’ hate) is riding a recent wave of popularity. Along with starring in the BBC’s critically acclaimed Sherlock Holmes reimagining Sherlock, Cumberbatch has had recent roles in the Oscar-nominated War Horse as well as the taut spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But 2013’s currently untitled J.J. Abrams-helmed Star Trek sequel will be the first time the 35-year-old actor finds himself in a major role in a huge summer blockbuster.
How he landed the role is the really interesting part – I mean, it involves a (presumably) drunken iPhone audition.
Apparently Cumberbatch was in Gloucestershire around the holidays when he received word that Abrams wanted a video audition from him for his new Star Trek film. He couldn’t find anyone to man the camera, so he thought of the next best thing. He set up his iPhone and did it himself.
“I was pretty strung out,” he told the NYT, “so that went into the performance.”
We can only hope it was done on the 4S, you know, with the nice new camera and all.
Abrams saw the video and gave him the role, saying it was “one of the most compelling audition readings” that he had ever seen. Apparently, Cumberbatch is signed on to play a “not-so-good” guy.
Be on the lookout for the new Benedict Cumberbatch Siri ad.
Last last week we brought you news of Nokia’s first-quarter earnings report. Despite additions to its Lumia line of smartphones, the company reported a $1.7 billion loss for the quarter.
Interestingly, although the iPhone is almost certainly one of the major culprits behind Nokia’s flagging sales, the iPhone also kept Nokia’s first quarter losses from being even greater. How is that, you ask? Last summer Nokia and Apple settled a lengthy patent war (much like the one currently raging between Apple and Samsung). As part of the agreement, Apple paid Nokia a one-time sum of about $600 million, and licensed the infringed patents from Nokia to the tune of €8 in royalties per iPhone sold. At current exchange rates, that works out to about $10.60 that Nokia made from the sale of every iPhone.
Now, while Nokia only sold 11.9 million smartphones in the first quarter, Apple sold a whopping 35.1 million smartphones, making Apple either the largest or second largest smartphone maker in the world, depending on who you ask. After a little quick math, it turns out that Nokia made $372 million from the sales of Apple’s iPhone between January 2012 and March 2012 (Nokia’s 1st quarter, Apple’s 2nd). Conversely, Nokia’s mobile phone division saw quarterly loss of €219 million ($290 million). In a nutshell, Nokia made $82 million more on iPhones than it lost on its own mobile phones.
The moral of the story, then, is that while patent lawsuits like the ones currently going between Apple and Samsung, Motorola and Microsoft, Motorola and Apple, etc. may look (and may be) ridiculous, they can make a huge difference to a company’s bottom line. In effect. The licensing agreement agreement between Nokia and Apple resulted in Nokia getting over a third of a billion dollars in free money last quarter. While that wasn’t enough to keep Nokia in the black, it did mean the difference between $1.7 billion in losses and over $2 billion in losses, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.
Apple’s Q2 earnings report was very impressive. With a 94% year-over-year increase in profits, the largest tech company in the world is still growing. The increase in profits come from impressive new iPad and iPhone sales. The iPhone 4’s drop in price was likely a huge motivator in getting people to buy. Most (58%) of Apple’s revenue share comes from iPhone alone.
If you’re having trouble reading the graph, here are the important figures:
Revenue: $39.2 billion (up from $24.7 billion one year ago)
Net Profit: $11.6 billion (up from $6 billion one year ago)
iPhone sales: 35.1 million units (88% year-over-year increase)
iPad sales: 11.8 million units (151% year-over-year increase)
Mac sales: 4 million (7% year-over-year increase)
iPod sales: 7.7 million (15% year-over-year decline)
“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.”
This is shaping up to be a big year for Apple. Rumors have been circulating about the release of new iMacs and Macbooks this summer along with the much anticipated Mountain Lion iOS 6 Upgrade. And don’t forget the speculation that Apple will be releasing a new version of the iPhone late in the year.
Expect to see similar, if not better, numbers in Q3 and Q4.
