Mac notebook and other portable computing is covered in The 'Book Review, and general Mac news is in
Mac News Review.
All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News, Reviews, & Opinion
Apps & Services
Accessories
iPod Deals
These price trackers are updated every month.
News, Reviews, & Opinion
Foxconn to Ship 20 Million iPad 2s in Holiday
Quarter
DigiTimes' Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai report that Apple subcontractor
Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) has announced net
profits of NT$27.38 billion (US$945.93 million), and that for the third
quarter of 2011, the company expects to ship 20 million iPad 2 units to Apple, representing 60%
growth sequentially, with iPad 2 orders being Foxconn's major
growth driver in the second half.
Link: Foxconn Expects to
Ship 20 Million iPad 2s in Q3/11 (subscription required)
Basic Care and Maintenance of Your iPad: An End
User's Guide
AppleTell's Katie Gatto says:
"So, you've had an iPad for a while and you want to protect your
investment. The best way to do that is by practicing the basics of
system maintenance and troubleshooting. Lets take a look at some of the
skills you'll need. We will cover a wide variety of simple tasks in
this tutorial."
Link:
Basic Care and Maintenance of Your iPad: An End Users Guide
How to Back Up the Data on Your iPad
AppleTell's Katie Gatto says:
"Keeping the data on your iPad stored in a safe location is a good
idea. After all, it is a mobile device that can be lost, stolen or just
plain broken, and when that happens you can lose all of your work, and
your other data. It is also just an important step for any who does not
want to have to reset everything in the case of a device failure.
Luckily, performing backups is incredibly easy to do, and you can have
it done quite quickly. So let's get you backed up."
All you need is iTunes on your Mac or PC.
Link: How to Back Up the
Data on Your iPad
iPad 3 to Feature Thinner, Lighter Batteries
China Economic News Service's Steve Chuang reports that with the
upcoming iPad 3 to feature a thinner, lighter battery module that is
widely believed to be priced 20-30% higher than iPad 2's, Simplo
Technology Co. and Dynapack International Technology Corp., both Apple
Inc.'s contract suppliers of iPad and MacBook battery packs, are
anticipating a surefire profit drive for the near future.
Chuang says that institutional investors point out that the iPad 3
battery pack, scheduled for mass production in the first quarter of
2012, has been redesigned to be thinner and lighter with a longer
service life than the iPad 2 battery, and also to meet the CTIA
IEEE 1625 standard for better quality and safety reliability, and that
Taiwanese battery suppliers Simplo and Dynapack have had their battery
packs pass the IEEE 1625 test, expecting their sales revenues for the
third quarter of this year to surge 10-15% from Q3 metrics, and with
iPad 3 battery packs slated for delivery starting in the fourth
quarter, the two companies are likely to record new highs in revenues
for the quarter.
Link: Simplo,
Dynapack to Strike Gold With iPad 3 Battery Modules
Microsoft's Dream: Windows Phone Overtakes iOS
Motley Fool's Evan Niu reports that Windows Phone marketing head
Achim Berg expects Windows Phone to claim more than 20% of the
smartphone market by 2015, noting that with Apple's most recent market
share - pegged at 18.2% by
Gartner Group last month* - scoring a 20% share would be a Redmond
victory over Cupertino. However, Niu observes that the same Gartner
report showed Windows Phone logging a mere 1.6% share last quarter.
Windows Mobile + Windows Phone totals just 0.56% of the installed base
and is lumped into "other".
The disparity is even more dire than that if you factor in the iOS
sector as a whole. NetMarketShare's August 2011 market metrics for the
Mobile/Tablet OS category show Apple's iOS with a commanding combined
53.03% market share, and Windows CE, Windows Phone 7, and Windows
Mobile with a princely combined 0.56% share.
* Publisher's note: Gartner and NetMarketShare obviously measure
things very differently. Where Gartner give iOS 18.2% of the smartphone
market, NetMarketShare counts iOS at 53.04% of the mobile and
tablet market. Either way, iOS is a dominant player. dk
Link: Can Windows Phone
7 Overtake iOS?
Link:
Mobile/Tablet Operating System Market Share
Link:
Mobile/Tablet Operating System Market Share Trend
BlackBerry PlayBook Gets the TouchPad Deep Discount
Treatment
Network World's Brad Reed observes that the only way to beat Apple
in the tablet market these days is to knock down your prices to the
point of unprofitability, noting that Best Buy over the long weekend
hoped to replicate the recent sales spike generated from selling $100
HP TouchPads by slashing the price of RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook by $50
for the 16 GB and 32 GB models, and by $150 for the 64 GB model.
Staples is rumored to be planning an even deeper PlayBook discount
later this month that would knock 50% off the original price for all
models.
Link: BlackBerry
PlayBook Getting the TouchPad Deep Discount Treatment
Hoffa Calls Apple Unpatriotic for Not Hiring More
Workers in US
Free Republic's Meghashyam Mali cites International Brotherhood of
Teamsters President James P. Hoffa criticizing the patriotism of US
corporations that are sitting on assets and holding back from employing
more American workers.
Hoffa called American businesses "unpatriotic" for opening factories
and stores overseas instead of helping boost employment at home on
CNN's State of the Union Sunday. Hoffa singled out Apple Inc.,
commenting "every time they do something, they do it in China, they do
it somewhere else."
Publisher's note: Apple has 30,000 employees in 325 stores around
the world, with the bulk of them in the US. That sounds like 20,000 US
jobs, give or take a few, not to mention additional hiring in Cupertino
and in Apple's new North Carolina data canter. The UAW, on the other
hand, has lost about 55,000 members in the past two years in an
industry where most "domestic" cars have more non-US content than most
of the "foreign" cars assembled in the US. dk
Link: Union Chief
Calls Apple 'Unpatriotic' for Not Hiring More Workers
Apps & Services
TextGrabber OCR for iPhone
PR: TextGrabber allows you to capture any part of
printed text from a magazine, book, document, etc. in more than 60
supported languages, directly on smartphone. The recognized text can be
immediately edited, forwarded by e-mail or saved onto your iPhone. The
application is compatible with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.
TextGrabber is easy to use application just take a picture of
the text you are interested in from any printed source and select the
desired option. No Internet connection is required for application
performance.
Also you can look for additional information about any unfamiliar
word or term by searching the Internet directly from the
application.
Useful information will never be lost with the save history
function. To restore your data just open a history folder or open and
recognize a picture of a previously captured text.
Thanks to ABBYYs Mobile OCR Technology, TextGrabber provides high
quality results and recognizes any plain text in more than 60 languages
in a few seconds.
Main features:
Recognizing text in more than 60 languages, including English,
German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese,
Japanese, Korean and others: Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Bulgarian,
Byelorussian, Catalan, Chechen, CrimeanTatar, Croatian, Czech, Danish,
Dutch, Fijian, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hawaiian, Hungarian,
Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Kabardian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian,
Macedonian, Malay, Maori, Moldavian, Mongol, Norwegian (both Bokmal,
and Nynorsk), Ossetic, Polish, Provencal, Rhaeto Romanic, Romanian,
Samoan, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tatar,
Turkish, Ukrainian, Welsh, Yiddish and Breton.- No Internet connection required for application performance
- Editing captured text or copying it to the clipboard to paste it
into other apps
- Searching for additional information about the recognized text or
its parts in the Internet
- Sending recognized texts by e-mail or SMS.
- Storing photos of texts on your iPhone
- All captured texts are saved in a history folder as a back-up and
available for reopening and editing
System requirements:
- The application is compatible with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS
- Requires iOS 3.1 or later
$1.99
Link:
TextGrabber OCR for iPhone
More Than 150 Years of British Journal of
Photography's Excellence Available on the iPad
PR: The world's longest-running photography magazine is
now available free as a quarterly app, created bespoke for the
iPad.
Tailor-made for the iPad's unique digital environment, making full
use of its tactile navigational tools and spectacular, backlit display,
the app transforms BJP's acclaimed mix of arresting imagery, elegant
design and
thought-provoking articles, truly bringing the magazine to life on a
digital screen for the first time.
Created by in-house designers using the Mag+ platform, the BJP app
gives readers the highlight features of the magazine's print editions
together with extra features, photos and a raft of new multimedia and
video content,
including a moving image cover created by New York-based artists
Reed+Rader.
Available quarterly, exclusively through iTunes, the first issue is
available free to download from today.
For download details, video previews and more, visit http://www.bjpapp.com.
Link: British
Journal of Photography
Link:
British Journal of Photography App
ChronGlobal Tidal Chronoscope for iPhone: Star of
Navigation Category
PR: ChronGlobal Corp. has announced their
ChronGlobal Tidal Chronoscope 1.01 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
users. Featuring a Swiss watch display, the application offers tidal
conditions and forecasting, lunar and solar positions, along with
luxurious looks and accurate, flexible features. Users are able to view
current tide levels based on their GPS location, or view automatically
retrieved tidal information for any of the app's more than 9400
worldwide tidal stations.
The newly launched application shot to the Number One
position in the App Store's Navigation category in less than one week's
time. The fledgling app already has the highest consumer rating of all
Tide Apps, thanks to its luxurious looks and accurate, flexible
features.
Set in the noted very luxurious Swiss watch display, the app's easy
to use interface provides a host of features and options. Users are
able to view current tide levels based on their GPS location, or view
automatically retrieved tidal information for any of the app's more
than 9400 worldwide tidal stations. Users are able to save their
favorite stations for fast retrieval and also have the option of
manually selecting stations.
Sun and moon phases and relative positions have their own, dedicated
watch faces but a compilation of all desired information can be viewed
on one convenient screen. All of these offerings, combined with the
gorgeous display and data accuracy, has shot ChronGlobal Tidal
Chronoscope to the Number One position in the App Store's Navigation
category in less than a week.
A timeline of ChronGlobal Tidal Chronoscope's rise to top
position:
- August 22, 2011 - App is released
- August 25, 2011 - App rises to 28th in the Top Charts for Paid
Navigation Apps
- August 25, 2011 - App hits the 51st spot in Top 200 Grossing Apps
in Navigation
- August 29, 2011 - App is featured as Number 1 on default Navigation
page
- August 29, 2011 - App has 25 five star ratings plus 22 written and
glowing reviews
- August 29, 2011 - App has the highest consumer rating of all Tide
Apps
ChronGlobal Tidal says this application has been twenty-seven years
in the making, which is likely why it is achieving such accolades,
along with the highest consumer rating of all Tide Apps in the App
Store. All the bugs have been long ago worked out in this tide
watch.
Device Requirements:
- iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
- Requires iOS 4.0 or later
- 7.0 MB
ChronGlobal Tidal Chronoscope 1.01 sells for $2.99 and is available
worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Navigation
category.
Link:
ChronGlobal Tidal Chronoscope for iPhone
Accessories
Seagate GoFlex Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage
for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac
I
knew my instincts were correct when I opted for a 16 GB iPad 2 instead
of a pricier model with higher storage capacity. Sure, Seagate's new
GoFlex Satellite external hard drive for iOS and other devices costs
more than an upgrade to 32 GB of Flash storage in the iPad would have
cost, but it holds 500 GB that will still be available when I upgrade
to a newer iPad.
PR: The Seagate GoFlex Satellite device goes wherever
your iPad or Android tablet goes and lets you access all your movies,
photos, music and documents wirelessly. No more worrying about running
out of space on your mobile device.
GoFlex Satellite features:
- 500 GB of storage capacity
- Up to 5 hours of battery life
- Up to 25 hours of standby time
Stream Media Wirelessly
With a GoFlex Satellite device in your backpack, you can stream
all your HD movies to your iPad without tangled cords or cables. 802.11
b/g/n WiFi delivers reliable skip-free streaming WiFi range of more
than 30 feet.
Three Different HD movies. Three Different Devices All At The Same
Time
Everyone in the family can have wireless access to the hundreds of
movies you load on to the GoFlex Satellite device. Stream to almost any
WiFi enabled device using a Web browser or the free app optimized for
iPad and Android devices
Easy Access To Your Media
Use the free app or Web browser on your device to access and
stream your media library easily wherever you are.
Works With Laptops And Smartphones Too
Stream to almost any device that has WiFi connectivity and a Web
browser including laptops, most smartphones and tablets.
Simple 1-2-3 Setup
Start by loading your media library on to your GoFlex Satellite
mobile wireless storage device. Next, charge the device with the
included portable wall charger or car charger. Now you are ready to
start streaming media wirelessly to your WiFi enabled device.
Flexibility Built In
The GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage device is part of the
Seagate GoFlex Storage System, which makes it easy to upgrade or change
the interface on your GoFlex Satellite device, so that you can always
have optimal transfer speeds when loading and synchronizing your
media.
- Includes USB 3.0 connectivity for fast data transfers (fully
compatible with USB 2.0)
- Other available interfaces include FireWire 800 and powered eSATA
(sold separately)
Load Media From Both PCs And Mac Computers
- Simply plug the GoFlex Satellite device into your PC or Mac to sync
your media library quickly.
System Requirements:
- iPad, smartphone, tablet or computer with a Web browser and WiFi
connectivity (802.11 b/g/n)
- PC or Mac computer running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP or
Mac OS 10.5.8 or later operating system for loading media on to the
GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage device via USB
- SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port (required for USB 3.0 transfer speeds) or
USB 2.0 port
List Price: $199.99
Link: Seagate GoFlex
Satellite Mobile Wireless Storage (available through Amazon.com
for $179.99)
