Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Apple Inc.

Apple’s iCloud Gets Price Points and TV Shows

Riley Kennysmith — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:53:53 +0000

Yesterday Apple released cloud storage service iCloud for developers. Along with this release, Apple has announced the pricing for storage upgrades to the service: yearly fees of $20 for 15 GB total, $40 for 25 GB total and $100 for 55GB total. The service comes with a standard 5 GB of free storage for each user, allowing users with more data to choose how much storage they need and wish to pay for. 9to5Mac reports that Photo Stream images don’t count toward the data tally.

Meanwhile, Apple has also added TV to the list of iCloud’s capabilities. iCloud is already integrated with iTunes so, as Mashable notes, movies are the only media not currently integrated with iCloud.

Is the Era of the iPod Almost Over?

Riley Kennysmith — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:55:39 +0000

Wired’s Christina Bonnington speculates on Gizmodo that the end of the iPod in the near future, citing declining sales and a few curious moves on Apple’s part. iPod sales peaked in December of 2008, and the numbers continue to drop. The iPod Touch has features, like FaceTime, that used to be reserved for iPhones. And this year, Apple’s Back To School deal gives students a complimentary $100 iTunes giftcard with the purchase of a Mac, when the promo’s freebie was formerly an iPod touch.

Apple has an event planned for September that could bring the announcement of a retired iPod alongside the new tech. iPods may not be selling as well, but Apple’s general revenues are doing fine.

Paul Allen Does Not Give Up Lawsuit Against Apple, Google, Facebook, Etc.

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 04:34:03 +0000

Back in August 2010 Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) co-founder Paul Allen filed a lawsuit against Google, Facebook, Apple, eBay, Yahoo!, AOL, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, and YouTube over patent infringement. In December 2010, Allen’s case was thrown out by a federal judge in Seattle. U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman had told Allen that he had until December 28th to file an amended lawsuit because it was too vague.

Allen filed an expanded version of the lawsuit with more details about how the companies were violating his patents. The filing has about 40 exhibits that include screenshots of websites. Allen’s patent includes systems that automatically call up and display related content. This approach is used by many e-retailers.

[Seattle Times]

Ohio Man Threatens To Shoot His iPhone, Arrested Shortly After

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:43:27 +0000

When 38-year-old Donald Goodrich walked into the Apple store at the Kenwood Towne Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio he probably did not know he was going to end up being arrested shortly after. Goodrich was upset that his iPhone was not working properly and he told an Apple employee that he was upset. As a matter of fact, Goodrich stated he was, “So mad, I could pop a 9mm at it.”

The Apple employee told the employee that there wasn’t a need for shooting the iPhone. Goodrich insisted “I’ll do it right now. Look!” After that, he took opened his shirt which had a 9mm hand gun in it. The employee said that she’d get the iPhone fixed, but told the manager to cal the police. Goodrich was charged with aggravated menacing and causing fear of harm to the employee.

Goodrich was also charged with a concealed weapons charge for not telling the police he had a gun. However Goodrich did have a concealed weapons permit. The incident took place on October 1.

Chart: Market Share Of Major Cell Phone Manufacturers

Shan Sadiq — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:57:19 +0000

Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff released a mobile manufacturer market share chart today. The chart shows Nokia as having the top market share at 39%. Nokia also tops industry-wide profits at 60%. Interestingly enough, Apple has a very very small market share but a large cut of the profits at 20 percent.

Motorola has about 10 percent of the market but makes no money. Sony Ericsson also has around 10 percent of the market and makes no money.

Apple has a larger share of profits than Research In Motion but RIM has a slightly larger market share.

Via

Rumor – AT&T Considering $10.00 iPhone Data Plan Price Cut

Shan Sadiq — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:34:16 +0000

Cote Collaborative analyst Michael Cote suspects that AT&T may cut its entry level iPhone plan price by $10.00 when Apple introduces the new iPhone this summer. The current entry level iPhone plan costs $69.00 a month. The price cut would reduce the entry level cost by 14%. The 14% drop in monthly fees will help Apple get more iPhone sales and help AT&T win more subscribers.

According to Michael Cote, the current price of a two year iPhone contract does not address the whole market. He uses Wal Mart as an example. Wal Mart iPhone sales have not met expectations.

AT&T may also be willing to lower the price to extend its exclusivity with Apple. It is rumored that Verizon may start offering the iPhone sometime next year.

Apple: Google, Don’t Use Multi-touch for Android. Google: Ok.

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:10:08 +0000

VentureBeat is reporting that Google intentionally chose not to use multi-touch for Android because Apple asked them not to implement it. Apparently not having multi-touch has been one of the biggets complaints from people using the Android. An Android team member reported this to VentureBeat. The Android team member went on to report that he was glad Google did not use multi-touch for their open source operating system because Apple has won a patent for it. The patent puts Palm at risk because they have a new operating system coming out for their Pre phone that utilizes multi-touch.

Google has had a strong relationship with Apple as Eric Schmidt is on their board of directors. The iPhone also comes bundled with several YouTube services such as YouTube and Google Maps. Google Search is also the default for Safari on the iPhone. Both companies are also rivals of Microsoft.

Will multi-touch be implemented in future versions of Android? That remains a big question mark because of the patent. Given the effort Google has put into the Android project and also wanting to capitalize from selling games, it may become necessary. Apple’s relationship with Google may become a bit more iffy as future versions of Android are released into the mobile market.

Apple Rejects iBoobs Because It Does Not Like Wobbling Breasts

Shan Sadiq — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:52:27 +0000

Apple rejected an iPhone application that lets users wobble breasts. The application, appropriately named iBooble, was rejected because of its mature content. It must be noted that the breats in iBooble are being covered by a bra. So the application does not contain nudity.

The application was developed by Mystic Game Development.

A video demo of the application is embedded below.

FORGET PC MODS! Check out 16 Spectacular Apple Mods [Pics]

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 04:32:41 +0000

1. Mailbox Mac [Wired]

2. Necro Mac [Crunchgear]

3. Lego Mac [TechEBlog]

4. NES Mac [Kotaku]

5. Fish Tank Mac [MacQuarium]

6. Pirate Mac [Andrew Moses' Clear G3 Mac Mod]

7. Millenium Falcon Mac [Gizmodo]

8. G5 Neon [MacMod.com]

9. Quicksilver Mac [MacMod: Wookie1212]

10. Beer Tap G3 [Snabbstart.com]

11. Jack o Lantern Mac [Compelling and Rich]

12. Gold-plated MacBook Pro [Computer-Choppers]

13. Rich Willis used a G4 case and stuck a Mac Mini in it. Also check out the virtual keyboard. [Technabob]

14. Project BlueIce G4 [Riscx]

15. Dave Veloz’s Mac Mini Mod [SteamPunkWorkshop]

16. Iron Man Mod [Gizmodo]

[Update] Wal-Mart To Start Selling iPhones On December 15

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:22:20 +0000

The rumors about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) selling their beloved iPhones at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is getting closer to being true. Today Bloomberg contacted several employees at different Wal-Mart stores across California and they have confirmed that they will be carrying the iPhone starting thsi month.

The mass retailer company will be carrying two models of the smartphone. Will it be the $99 phone that is being speculated? I still have my doubts.

All the employees that Bloomberg contacted are being trained on how to sell and setup the iPhone. Aside from their own stores, Apple also sells the iPhone at AT&T stores and Best Buy.

“A $99, Apple-branded cell phone is inevitable,” stated Shaw Wu, a Kaufman Brothers analyst in San Francisco. “One of the key things Apple needs to do to drive broader iPhone adoption is to build a more complete product line.”

I agree that the iPhone will be driven down to a price of $99, but I’m speculating that it won’t happen until 2010. The iPhone still has that “gotta have it” product association. iPhones at Wal-Mart should be available by December 15.

The two models that Wal-Mart will be carrying is the 8GB and 16GB at a price of $199 and $299, the same price as AT&T sells.