It hasn't even been two years since the first widely popular consumer tablet hit the market, but the devices are already making a big impact.
Among people who own an iPad or other tablet computer, many of them are engaging with other, older forms of media less than they used to, according to a new study by GfK MRI. Unsurprisingly, printed books, newspapers and magazines are being read less by tablet owners, who now have a wealth of new digital sources of news, magazine content and eBooks.
The latest version of Sparrow's Gmail client for Mac users is now live in the Mac App Store. Although it's not a major release of the product, it does attempt to take a new approach to an old idea: email attachments.
Sparrow 1.4 integrates with quicky-and-easy filesharing service CloudApp to enable user to include links to files without using the traditional email attachment functionality (which is still included in Sparrow for those who want to use it).
One of the announcements from today's Apple event was iCloud, described as "a set of free [with iOS5] cloud services that work with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices." In other words, iCloud is a file synchronization and sharing solution for Apple devices. Similar in some ways to Dropbox, the leading independent sync solution and arguably the world's 5th most valuable startup.
The big question is: can Apple finally get sync right? Apple promises that iCloud will integrate "seamlessly with your apps, so everything happens automatically." It's absolutely crucial that Apple delivers on that promise, because sync is a key part of the multi-device world that we now live in. Perhaps for the first time since Android appeared on the scene to challenge the iPhone, Apple is at risk of losing customers if iCloud fails.
It is time to take a step back from everything Apple and the nonexistent iPhone 5 for a minute and put everything into perspective. The summer of 2011 has been a building tidal wave of rumors, speculation, false leads and outrageous claims. When you look back at the roadmap that led to what Apple released today with the iPhone 4S, you have to step back and ask: What should you have really expected?
Was it too much to expect an iPhone 5? In retrospect, yes. Making a giant jump in its product line is not in Apple's DNA. Look at the iPhone 3GS in comparison to the iPhone 4. The 3GS was a great improvement on the 3G and it ran iOS 4, but they looked very similar. The 4S runs iOS 5 and looks basically exactly like iPhone 4. Come next summer or whenever the iPhone 5 comes out, it won't look anything like the 4S. But, the iPhone 5S will look a lot like the iPhone 5. Incremental improvements to satiate demand while still leaving consumers wanting more.
Apple slipped in a quieter announcement today amidst the iPhone 4S chaos: The launch of a new app called Cards, which lets you create a real, physical card from your iPhone by taking a photo on your camera and choosing from a simple selection of 21 different designs. Then Apple mails for $2.99 (U.S.) or $4.99 (elsewhere). You receive a push notification directly to your iPhone as soon as the card arrives at its destination.
The Apple and iPhone rumor mills have long been a standard feature of tech reporting and gadget fandom, and their intensity has only increased in recent years, especially when it comes time for a new iPhone.
This time around, we heard dozens of rumors, some which were supposedly substantiated by anonymous sources, hardware suppliers and other clues found in the wild. While many turned out to be true (faster processor, better camera and Siri-powered voice controls), quite a few of them were false.
There will be no deep Facebook integration with iOS 5 or the new iPhone 4S. The notion of Apple and Facebook teaming up for the release of the iPhone 4S has been secondary to most of the discussion surrounding the development of iOS 5. There are a variety of reasons that these rumors came up and why people believed them. None of them were believable. It would have been almost impossible for Apple to put Facebook's Open Graph API into iOS without anybody noticing.
Yet, the rumors persisted. The final beta versions of iOS and the gold master were theoretically supposed to be released a few weeks ago. We now know that iOS 5 is coming October 12. What was the delay? Maybe to keep from people knowing the last minute features Apple instituted. Facebook could have been a part of that. There is still no Facebook iPad app and the Open Graph is not baked into iOS and the two companies are not teaming up on HTML5 development. Take a look at why after the jump.
After months of media speculation and rumors, Apple officially unveiled the latest version of the iPhone at a media event in Cupertino today.
The iPhone 4S will come equipped with a faster, dual-core A5 processor, better graphics processor and an 8 megapixel camera. Unlike previous iterations, the new device will work on both GSM and CDMA networks. The device will also come with hardware improvements that improve the quality of phone calls and the speed of data usage.
The market is hungry for today's iPhone launch. Existing iPhone customers are ready to upgrade. Nearly a third of Android users are would consider switching to iPhone, but only 11% of iPhone users would give it up. Sprint is making a big bet to become the third major U.S. carrier.
Apple just announced the iPhone 4S, a significant update to the iPhone's existing design. The iPhone 4 far outshone its predecessors, and a bump to that phone will surely prove popular. More importantly, the iPhone 4S is now a "worldphone." It contains both GSM and CDMA radios, so all carriers can now support the same hardware. Furthermore, the old iPhone 3GS is now free with a contract. But several Android phone manufacturers are neck and neck with Apple, and most of the mobile world doesn't even have a smartphone yet. Amidst the world's many phones, smart and dumb, where does the iPhone stand?
The next version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 5, will be available for download in just over one week, Apple announced today.
Apple's Senior Vice President of iOS Software told the crowd at the company's "Let's Talk iPhone" media event today that iOS 5, a significant upgrade that was first unveiled at the WWDC in June, will go live on October 12.
