Apple yesterday phased out the fourth-gen iPod touch in favor of a new entry-level $229 16GB model. Basically the fifth-generation, it includes EarPods and has the same four-inch Retina screen, Lightning I/O and the A5 chip as other models - sans the iSight camera and the lanyard hook.
However, there's one more major difference between this iPod touch and the more capacious models. Ben Pasternak of Sydney, Australia was one of the first buyers and posted a quick hands-on video...
In another sign that Best Buy could be clearing stock (or simply enticing customers to pick up an Apple handset), CNET reports the retailer will trade-in your working iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S on Sunday for a $150 credit, which can be redeemed against the purchase of a new iPhone. Given that Best Buy normally sells the entry-level iPhone 5 on a two-year contract for $150, the promotion lets you trade-in your old iPhone and purchase Apple's latest and greatest handset without paying a dime - of course, excluding the obligatory carrier activation fee and any applicable sales tax...
Listening to much of the tech press, you might get the impression Samsung's new Galaxy S4 would further erode Apple's share of the smartphone market. One Wall Street firm ended the week on a contrary note, telling investors iPhone sales in North America "remain resilient" and Samsung's Galaxy S4 is only selling slightly better than its predecessor.
The analyst firm Detwiler Fenton expects Apple will sell a cool thirty million iPhones during the June quarter amid expectation the nine-month-old handset would lose market share to its South Korean rival...
I really, really wish Apple doubled down on Siri. When the intelligent personal assistant debuted as an iPhone 4S-exclusive back in October 2011, Siri was likened to a seismic shift that would vastly improve our interactions with the devices in our lives. And it did.
But merely nineteen months later, Google has leapfrogged Siri with Google Now, which combines the power of Google search with the company's Knowledge Graph and top-notch voice recognition to deliver relevant info before you even asked for it.
But Google isn't standing still. Today the firm has updated its native iOS Search app with "location improvements and bug fixes." And just yesterday, it announced that nutritional information will start cropping up in search results across platforms, including iOS and Android applications that incorporate Google Now...
Remember iAd, Apple's mobile advertising service that launched with great fanfare in April 2010? After more than three years, iAd doesn't seem to be gaining traction due to high ad rates coupled with Apple's strict requirements and its understaffed and inexperienced ad staff.
Realizing its pitfalls, the iPhone maker is reportedly working on an ad exchange service of sorts, one aimed at helping advertisers target users who browse web sites and use apps on an Apple device, be it an iPhone, an iPad or a Mac...
A mixed-message on the state of mobile advertising is out today. In an announcement expected to hearten both the iOS and Android camps, a UK ad firm reports Apple retains its lead in mobile ad share, while mobile ads rendered on devices by rival Samsung are increasingly being clicked.
Combined, Apple's iPhone and iPod touch account for more than a third of all ad requests handled by the UK-based Adfonic. However, Samsung - with just twelve percent of the mobile ad share - finds the first quarter 2013 click-through-rate on ads served by its Android devices increasingly stronger than Apple...
India has become Apple's test bed for emerging markets, with the company rolling out a series of discounts and payment plans in order to entice purchases and improve its market standing in the 1.24 billion people market.
These efforts are paying off as iPhone sales have risen 400 percent over the past four months.
That's a dramatic increase over prior iPhone numbers in India, where sales only reached a meager 70,000 to 80,000 handsets a month. The key to such a notable jump: Apple has "figured out" the Indian market, which until now has viewed the iPhone as out of the reach of most of that nation's consumers...
We all know the great lengths Apple will go to nurture and preserve its developer ecosystem and user experience on its platform.
One developer, however, has tested Apple's patience by issuing an iPhone app press release that suggests users don't really care which mobile platform they happen to be using.
That drew an interesting response from a representative from Apple Worldwide Developer Relations, who cautioned the comment is at odds not just with Apple's primary marketing messaging, "but the entire reason Apple exists"...
It's easy to get caught in the trap of assuming the iPhone is Apple's fastest-growing product. Although the iPhone sold more units than the iPad - after all, it's been available since 2007 whereas the iPad debuted three years later - the Apple tablet is growing three times faster than the iPhone.
This is just one of the many interesting factoids from Internet Trends, an annual report on the state of the Internet, mobile and social by Mary Meeker, one of the world's top Internet analysts. Read on for more tidbits...
A new image has popped up on a reliable Chinese web site, showing what appears to be a front panel for Apple's upcoming fifth-generation iPad. Matching up previous leaks, the part features skinnier side bezels that Apple first tried on the iPad mini. The part has holes for the FaceTime front camera and the Home button in the same position as the iPad mini’s bezel, along with the touchscreen connector.
Update: as pointed out by the French blog NowhereElse.fr, the image depicts an iPad mini digitizer. Move along folks, nothing to see here...
In the months leading up to 2011's WWDC event, there were numerous reports that Apple would announce a major partnership with voice recognition giant Nuance. Obviously, the gossip never materialized, and Apple didn't even end up unveiling Siri until that fall.
But despite the fact that no one has ever come out and said it, Nuance has long been given credit for powering Siri's speech recognition capabilities. And today, the company's CEO Paul Ricci confirmed the theory while speaking at AllThingsD's D11 conference...
Apple surprisingly confirmed today that it has sold over a hundred million iPod touch units since the device's inception in 2007. The media player colloquially known as iTouch was released on September 14, 2007, following the launch of the first-generation iPhone. Five years later, a fifth-generation model launched with a four-inch Retina display, thin 6.1mm enclosure, Lightning I/O and the A5 chip.
In an interesting move yesterday, Apple has removed the less-pricey fourth-generation iPod touch model from its online store. At the same time, the company has quietly introduced a new fifth-generation SKU that includes sixteen gigabytes of storage, but lacks the iSight camera and the lanyard hook.
The entry-level device retails for $229. The streamlining means that Apple now offers only the latest fifth-generation iPod touch in 16/32/64GB flavors, priced at $229/$299/$399...