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| Thursday, 18 June 2009 10:05 |
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applesinsider
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| By Aidan Malley Published: 06:05 PM EST Research in Motion put pressure on Apple Thursday with word that about 7.8 million BlackBerries had shipped during its latest fiscal quarter, again setting a new record -- and dismissing the likelihood of new and cheaper iPhones as immediate threats. The tally for its first quarter of fiscal 2010 is a sharp 44 percent jump from what the Canadian company sold just one year earlier and matches the all-time record for smartphone shipments set just before, in the winter quarter. Since almost all BlackBerry devices are attached to subscriptions to push e-mail, RIM can also roughly say how many of its customers are new to the platform: just about half of these, at 3.8 million, were first-time subscribers. A small portion use prepaid services instead or else use their own non-push e-mail accounts. The handset designer's finances were decidedly more mixed. Its net income shot up more than 33 percent year-over-year to $643 million, but its revenue actually dropped very slightly compared to spring 2008, at $3.42 billion. Part of this stems from a lower gross margin -- it built in 43.6 percent of headroom on prices versus 50.7 percent last year -- but is also blamed on a stronger Canadian dollar. Like Apple, RIM doesn't break down its shipments by individual model and so wouldn't say how much its only touchscreen phone, the BlackBerry Storm, was adding to existing sales. Most of its phone additions during the March-to-May period were from lower-cost or mid-range phones like the more frugal BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230, which shipped for Verizon, and AT&T's edition of the BlackBerry Curve 8900. The future and the impact on the iPhone For its next quarter, RIM forecasts that it should add as many or more new BlackBerry subscribers as it did now, at between 3.8 million and 4.1 million, and a total of between 8.1 million to 8.7 million. The company in its financial conference call said it would almost certainly sell more during the second half of the year, when back-to-school, back-to-work and holiday sales would all come into play. Most of its hopes in the short term are pinned on the summer release of the BlackBerry Tour, a "world phone" without a touchscreen that provides 3G on CDMA phone networks in the US and Canada as well as 3G for GSM carriers in Europe. The predictions potentially spell continued second-place status for Apple. The iPhone maker shipped about 3.8 million iPhones in its last quarter; even with the surge of demand likely to take place with the combination of the iPhone 3G S and a $99 iPhone 3G, analysts expect Apple to ship 5 million iPhones during its quarter ending this month. Apple has already ... |
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| Thursday, 18 June 2009 08:00 |
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applesinsider
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| By Neil Hughes Published: 04:00 PM EST Struggling satellite radio provider Sirius XM's new iPhone app released Thursday doesn't do anything wrong. In fact, it works quite well. It's what the app doesn't do at all -- namely, play some of the service's most popular content -- that will likely catch the ire of subscribers. The fine print in Sirius XMs press release says it all: Some select programming, including MLB Play-by-Play, NFL Play-by-Play, SIRIUS NASCAR Radio, and Howard Stern, will not be available on the iPhone and iPod touch. Its a rights issue that keeps this content from being available on the iPhone. If youre a Sirius XM subscriber, and youre OK with those losses, you already know what to expect from this application ( AppStore ): dozens of specialized radio stations catering to nearly every listening need you may have. There is a wide breadth of specialized, exclusive content ranging from heavy metal music to Christian talk radio, and everything in between. Stations are separated by category, and each category has numerous options for listeners. As far as iPhone streaming radio apps go, Sirius (conspicuously labeled version 1.2.4) ranks up with the best of them, performance-wise. On a WiFi connection, selected stations will begin streaming music within three seconds, and the quality is acceptable. Stations can be added to a favorites list for easy access, so you dont have to navigate your way through the large number of stations every time. A great feature of the application is the ability to instantly buy a song youre listening to via iTunes. Songs can also be added to a shopping cart to be purchased in bulk at a later point in time. Even if youre not near WiFi, the service works great. On Edge, it took roughly 10 seconds for a station to begin streaming. After it started, there were no hiccups or stutters, though the sound quality did suffer a bit to accommodate for the limited bandwidth. When browsing stations, song titles will occasionally lag behind what is actually playing on the station. You might select a channel expecting to hear the song being displayed, but the station has already moved on to the next track. Sirius XM subscribers already know that this is nothing new those who have a receiver in their car or in a portable stereo system will encounter the same delay problem. While the performance is excellent, content and value are an entirely subjective matter. The app itself is free, but the Sirius XM service costs $12.95 per month. Sirius announced this month they would be increasing their rate by $1.98 to offset royalty fees starting July 1. In addition, current subscribers must pay an extra $2.99 per month to use the streaming service. New subscribers, without a hardware... |
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| Thursday, 18 June 2009 06:25 |
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applesinsider
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| By Neil Hughes Published: 02:25 PM EST Apple this week stepped up its efforts to take on rivals Research in Motion and Microsoft in the corporate smartphone market, releasing a lengthy guide aimed at helping system administrators deploy iPhones throughout big businesses while simultaneously taking advantage of over a dozen new enterprise features delivered this week. The 83-page guide [ PDF ], titled iPhone OS Enterprise Deployment Guide: First Edition, for Version 3.0 or later," highlights 18 new corporate-friendly features in iPhone Software 3.0, signaling the Cupertino-based company's most recent efforts yet to push adoption of its touchscreen handset in a market currently dominated by devices running variants of Windows Mobile or BlackBerry operating systems. If Apple intends to gain a dominant share of the enterprise market, the company has its work cut out for it. A study released by TradingMarkets in April of this year shows that BlackBerry and Windows Mobile hold a combined 63 percent total market share. The same report also states that Apples iPhone along with Google Android and Symbian devices are not serious contenders for U.S. business use. Clearly thats a stigma Apple hopes to change. For businesses to make the leap to the iPhone may not be too difficult a transition: the report highlights AT&T, the iPhones exclusive U.S. provider, as a dominant enterprise carrier, along with Verizon. The enterprise smartphone market has been in Apples sights for the duration of the iPhones existence, but the company has pushed harder to compete in the space with each update to the phones software. In 2008, chief executive Steve Jobs introduced initiatives to appeal to business users. More than a year later, that plan is still being carried out with this weeks launch of the version 3.0 operating system. Apple has also maintained an enterprise-centric section on its Web site to promote its phone in the corporate world, in which it bills the handset as "The best phone for business. Ever." As the iPhone platform has matured with regular software updates, some companies have become more open to adopting the phone. Last summer, market research firm Gartner approved the iPhone for limited enterprise use after the then-release of iPhone Software 2.0 introduced Microsoft Exchange support and a "remote wipe" feature via Microsoft Exchange. At the time, Gartner remained critical of the iPhone Configuration Utility used to set up configuration profiles on new phones, because it worked through an unencrypted XML file. This week, that concern was also addressed with the 3.0 software update, which allows configuration profiles to be encrypted and locked to a device. Apple just on Thursday evening released iPhone Configuration Utility 2.0 ( 8.7MB ) to help manage updated phones. The configuration security feature is one of many detailed in the new enterprise deployment guide available on Apples Web site. The document highlights a wide range of new business-friendly features, ranging from security to accessibility. They include: CalDAV calendar wireless syncing is now supported. ... |
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| Thursday, 18 June 2009 03:00 |
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applesinsider
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| By Neil Hughes Published: 11:00 AM EST A bundle of new filings from Apple this week reveal the company's ongoing pursuit to patent a Nintendo Wii-like magic wand remote first detailed by AppleInsider earlier this year, one which could be used to rapidly navigate a 3D movie browser on big-screen living room TVs. The five new filings ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ), like those discovered in March , suggest the remote could become part of a new iteration of the Apple TV. But while the earlier filings centered around the wand itself, the latest documents address some additional software-based concepts that will coincide. Among them are actions for scrolling through on-screen objects via a "3D remote controller" and calibrating the remote by centering it on the screen. One patent describes an on-screen video scroll bar that would include a preview window of the video. The wand may include a motion detection component operative to provide an output reflecting the motion of the wand to the electronic device, such that the movements of a cursor displayed by the electronic device may be related to the output of the motion detection component, Apple wrote in the filings. The wand may also include an input mechanism operative to receive user inputs. Using the input mechanism, the wand may detect a user's inputs and direct the electronic device to zoom or scroll displayed objects. The remote would provide the user control via motion control, pointer technology, and buttons on the physical device, much like Nintendos Wii remote. Another, vague concept for a "three-dimensional movie browser or editor" shows a 3D landscape with videos scrolling by. Its not clear whether the 3D navigation would be for a future version of Apple TV, or if it was simply a previous concept of Apples Cover Flow technology. In one aspect, video frames are quads in space, Apple says of the 3D browser. A movie plays at full quality by moving the quads in space at a speed of the movie and having a camera follow the quads. A focus frame in the movie is put forward by a cover-flow/dock like expansion around it. Video frames are loaded at a resolution and with an interval that depends on their position regarding a focus point or the optical flow between the frames. An unrelated patent was also revealed in this week's disclosures. It shows how an iPhone might be used for an in-car navigation system. Given yesterdays release of iPhone Software 3.0 and the potential external hardware controls it provides, the patent could be moot in 2009. In its WWDC presentation last week, Apple highlighted a TomTom-branded hardware attachment that 's due to hit the market shortly accompanied by turn-by-turn navigation software that the iPhone maker is helping the GPS device maker develop. |
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