Apple iPad

Tijdens de voorstelling in San Francisco demonstreert Jobs -in traditionele jeans en zwarte trui- het nieuwe toestel dat voor Apple een vierde pijler moet worden, naast de Mac, iPod en iPhone. De iPad is iets breder dan een A4-blad en lijkt op een grote versie van de iPhone.

Virtueel keyboard

Steve Jobs liet tijdens de presentatie zien hoe gebruikers films kunnen kijken, muziek kunnen luisteren en websites kunnen bekijken. Net zoals bij de iPhone beschikt de iPad niet over een echt toetsenbord maar over een touchscreen dat bediend wordt met de vingers. Wil je bijvoorbeeld een internetadres invoeren, dan verschijnt er op het scherm een virtueel toetsenbord waarop je kunt typen. Voor wie het echt wil, wordt er een apart toetsenbord verkocht.

De specificaties van de iPad zijn afgestemd op gebruik in de huiskamer. Het is compact en licht (1,2 cm dik en 680 gram zwaar), heeft een 9,7-inch kleurenscherm met een heel brede kijkhoek, draadloos internet, Bluetooth en 16 tot 64 gigabyte geheugen. Een 3G-modem is een optie. Alle software uit de App Store van Apple werkt ook op het tablet.

E-reader

Met de iPad treedt Apple, dat de laatste tien jaar geëvolueerd van computerbouwer naar consumentenelektronicaproducent, in de arena tegen gelijkaardige toestellen als de e-readers van Amazon en Sony. Zo demonstreerde Jobs hoe je er een krant als The New York Times op kan lezen.

Via iPad kunnen boeken gekocht worden in de ‘iBookwinkel’, een variant op de iTuneswinkel waar muziek gekocht kan worden. De boeken worden geleverd in het ePub-formaat, een open e-bookstandaard die de meeste e-readers ook ondersteunen. Dat wil zeggen dat er in principe ook veel Nederlandstalige werken leesbaar zullen zijn, bijvoorbeeld afkomstig van boeken.be.

499 dollar

Het toestel komt binnen zes weken op de Amerikaanse markt en krijgt een prijskaartje van 499 dollar voor de versie met 16 gigabyte geheugen. Voor versies met 32 en 64 gigabyte komt er telkens 100 dollar bij. Wie 3G-verbindingen wil opzetten moet nog eens 130 dollar extra betalen.

En wat met België? Pas in juni worden internationale lanceringen gepland, maar in tegenstelling tot de iPhone zal een Amerikaanse versie probleemloos hier werken. De iPad invoeren of meebrengen van een reisje naar de V.S. is dus een mogelijkheid.

Volgens sommige analisten kan Apple tot 3 à 4 miljoen iPads verkopen dit jaar.

Source: DE standaard

TechCrunch

Popular technology blog Techcrunch has been hacked and is currently down with all but a message noting that the site has indeed been compromised.

The blog has experienced frequent downtime of late but as have other blogs who host on Rackspace including, Mashable and The Inquisitr – we fortunately aren’t (we’re with Slicehost, owned by Rackspace interestingly enough).

This case appears different however with other blogs remaining live and Techcrunch admitting they had been targeted with a message that reads:

Earlier tonight techcrunch.com was compromised by a security exploit.
We’re working to identify the exploit and will bring the site back online shortly.

Earlier, presumably when the initial hack took place, text with a link to a rapid share download site was posted:

Oddly enough, sister blog CrunchGear is running smoothly, which indicates that TechCrunch in particular rather than its network was targeted.

The irony here of course, as it would be for us, is TechCrunch is a reliable source for information on site downtime.

More info over at Inquisitr and and Technologizer.

Update:

TechCrunch is now back up, interestingly all comments gone. Stay tuned for more info as to what happened.

Update 2:

A statement now on the blog reads:
“As some people noticed, at approximately 10:30 pm PST on Monday evening the main site in the TechCrunch Network – techcrunch.com – was hacked and redirected. The site was back up briefly at 11:30 pm but shortly went down again. As of 2:00 am, the site is back up and appears to be stable.

At this point we’re still gathering information on how the site was compromised, and will update this post with additional information.”

Source: thenextweb

Apple iTablet: the obvious name?

With all the recent talk about the iSlate, iPad, iSlab, whatever… doesn’t it seem like the obvious candidate for the name of Apple’s rumored tablet computer is being completely overlooked? Like Apple’s first phone that later came to be called the iPhone, isn’t the most obvious name for an Apple tablet the iTablet? To support the theory we decided to share the above image that we received from a trusted source and believe to be authentic. It’s a picture taken of an Apple Store employee’s corporate email after receiving information about the time and place of Wednesday’s Apple event. While the content of the email wasn’t very enlightening, note the word used in the filename of the second attachment: “itablet.” Now this doesn’t prove a thing. The administrative assistant who sent the mass email could have been using “itablet’ much in the same way that we’ve been using the term for years as a generic placeholder for the rumored device. Then again, maybe we should heed the wisdom of Occam’s Razor when speculating about Apple’s naming preference for a 10-inch tablet computer?

P.S. Amtek currently holds the US trademark (and itablet.com domain) for “iTablet” and continues to sell products under that name as it has for years. Not that a silly thing like trademark ownership could stop Apple from announcing its iPhone at a time when Cisco owned the rights.

Source:  engadget

Apple Logo

There has been a lot of speculation as to what Apple’s rumored tablet will look like and how it will work. One analyst is now speculating on how much potential revenue the device, expected to be announced next week, could bring the Mac maker.

Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital estimates that Apple will sell each tablet for $600, according to an AppleInsider report. At that price, the “base case” scenario of 5 billion units sold during the first year would bring Apple an additional $2.8 billion in revenue.

Of course, we all know how important price is these days, when launching a new product, so Abramsky gave a couple of other scenarios to consider. If Apple sells the tablet for $800, Apple would see $777 million in revenue for the sale of 1 million units.

You can see the trend here–as the price goes up, the predicted number of units sold goes down.

“Anticipation for an Apple tablet (expected January 27) resembles that of Moses bringing down the 10 Commandments,” Abramsky wrote in a research note, reprinted on AppleInsider. “Despite high expectations, we believe that Apple plans to redefine portable computing–as the Mac redefined the PC–by ‘creating’ desire for a new converged portable device with innovative touch/gestures [and] iTunes content. A ‘hit’ could provide a possible new growth engine for Apple.”

Rumors surrounding the tablet have hit fever pitch since the company announced its event on January 27, but few other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs really know what it will be yet. Expectations of a larger-looking iPod Touch with the ability to read magazines and newspapers, as well as watching video and listening to music, seem to be the consensus among the most popular current rumors.

Apple Inc shares reached their all-time high on Thursday as excitement builds over the expected release of its tablet

Although Apple has never acknowledged that a device exists, anticipation is peaking as the company enters the new year.

Option traders exchanged about 275,000 contracts in Apple, above its average daily turnover, as calls outpaced puts by nearly two to one, according to option analytics firm Trade Alert

“Investors are excited about an anticipated release of an Apple tablet,” said William Lefkowitz, options strategist at brokerage firm vFinance Investments in New York.

“People are expecting this to be a product that would allow Apple to continue its tremendous growth. In addition, Apple stock hit a new high today and looks very strong on a technical basis,” he said.

On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported on its blog that the company has rented a stage at a venue in San Francisco and will make a “major product announcement” on January 26.

The report, which cited people familiar with the plans, did not say whether Apple would introduce the tablet at the event. Apple has declined to comment.

The tablet could be a touch-screen device that resembles a larger iPhone or iPod touch, and could cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000, analysts have said.

There is a 50 percent chance that Apple will announce the tablet in January, with a shipping date by the end of March, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said in a research note on Wednesday.

The tablet could be released in late March or April, Oppenheimer & Co analyst Yair Reiner said earlier this month.

Although most analysts have not included the tablet in their financial estimates, many expect it to be significant for Apple, complementing its portfolio of iPhones, Mac computers and iPods.

Reiner said the device could add 25 cents to 38 cents to Apple’s earnings per share.

The median price target on Apple is $242.50, roughly 16 percent higher than its closing share price on Thursday.

Shares of Cupertino, California-based Apple rose as high as $209.35, passing their previous all-time high of $208.71, before closing up 3.4 percent at $209.04 on the Nasdaq.

Source: Reuters

Is Firefox Approaching 50% Market Share?

At least in one large region of the world, the answer is “yes”.

The folks at Gemius have been kind enough to aggregate their individual country data (e.g., www.en.ranking.pl/) into a single view across their entire sample – a sample totaling more than 60 Billion page views each month. For an overview of the various market share providers and their samples, please read here.

We’ll eventually look to expand the conversation around this data, but for now, we’ll highlight just one breathtaking view.  The chart below shows weekly browser market share data since the beginning of 2007 and it includes aggregated data from across nine countries – Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine.

Source: Blog of Metrics

The Real Live Search – Bing API experiment

Wouldn’t it be cool if search engines were as fast as you could type and actually showed you results as-you-type? As I found out this evening with jQuery in one hand and JSON in another, not only is it possible but turns out to be just as cool as I imagined.

Inspired by the realtime-ness of Google Wave, I wanted to build a prototype search engine that did away with a search button and page loads. Instead, search queries are sent character-by-character to the lightning fast Bing AJAX APIs which returned JSON results easily processed and formatted by Javascript on the page. The UI experience is driven solely by the browser.

The result is a truly “live” search experience which I’ve cunningly dubbed “The Real Live Search” as tribute to the former Microsoft search engine. I invite everyone to give it a quick whirl, but please bear in mind it’s only a couple hour’s work and may bite if prodded the wrong way.

Source: I started Something

Gmail

Good thing Gmail is out of beta. It is now the third largest Web mail service in the U.S. In July, Gmail nudged past AOL Email with 37 million unique visitors compared to 36.4 million for AOL, according to comScore estimates. (Gmail is the orange line in the chart below). That puts Gmail within sight of the No. 2 player, Windows Live Hotmail, which has 47 million unique visitors. After that there is a wide gulf separating Yahoo Mail and its 106 million monthly unique visitors.

The last time checked on Gmail’s progress was at the beginning of the year, when it seemed like it would still take at least two years for it to catch up to its nearest rivals. But so far this year, Gmail’s unique visitors grew 25 percent, while AOL’s declined 22 percent. Thus, the two crossed paths in July. (Hotmail grew only 8 percent during the same period, while Yahoo Mail increased unique visitors by a healthy 16 percent).

If Google wants Gmail to pass Hotmail quickly and gain the No. 2 spot, my suggestion is to keep pumping in new enhancements through Gmail Labs and to speed up the pace at which mail storage increases. Not that I am a typical user, but I am already at 97 percent of my allotted 7,358 megabytes. One of the primary lures of Gmail has always been its seemingly endless and ever-expanding storage limits. Please don’t make me pay for more storage.

Source: TechCrunch

Nokia to announce Microsoft deal, denies ditching Symbian

Blu-ray, set for a big Christmas

Toshiba has applied for membership of the Blu-ray Disc Association, with the electronics giant behind the rival HD DVD format finally confirming that it is about to introduce Blu-ray products.

Although rumours have been growing about the move, Toshiba has issued a statement of intent, confirming that it has applied to join the BDA and make Blu-ray products, months on from the failure of HD DVD.

“In light of recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers alike, Toshiba has decided to join the BDA,” said the company in an official statement.

Products this year

“Toshiba aims to introduce digital products that support the Blu-ray format, including BD players and notebook PCs integrating BD drives, in the course of this year,” it continued.

“Details of the products, including the timing of regional launches, are now under consideration.

“We will make announcements in due course.”

HD DVD loss

Although Toshiba and Microsoft threw their not-inconsiderable weight behind HD DVD, it became clear that Sony’s Blu-ray would win out in the latest format war.

Eventually, Toshiba confirmed that it would not persist with the doomed format, and now after months of planning, will join the Blu-ray camp to try to push the high-definition spinning media ahead of the Christmas period.

Source: TechRadar