Rumor: 'iAd' Mobile Ad Platform Is Apple's Next Big Thing

(Credit: Gizmodo)

From CNET:

MediaPost reports that Apple's next next big thing, after iPads invade the world next weekend, will be iAd, a mobile advertising platform to be debuted April 7. Coffee dates and patent suits aside, this could be the true Apple-Google battleground.

Of course, if you've been reading the tea leaves, Apple's move into mobile advertising is anything but surprising. In January, they bought mobile advertising company Quattro for a reported $275 million, after Google snatched AdMob out from under them months before.

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Apple Puts Out Call For iPad Apps - But Developers Can't Say A Word

Steve Jobs demonstrates the movie function of the new iPad with a scene from Pixar's Up at the launch of the tablet computer in San Francisco Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

From The Guardian:

It might be a while before Britain gets to see the iPad, but it's just weeks away from launch in the United States - and Apple is beginning to crank up the gears.

The latest move? The company is now accepting submissions for iPad applications to be released on April 3, the date when the gadget starts shipping. If developers submit their wares in the next week (the deadline is actually Saturday 27th of March), they'll get told whether they pass Apple's approval process - with an eye to being available through iTunes to iPad owners on day one.

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iPhone Addictive, Survey Reveals

iPhone

From Live Science:

A new Stanford University survey confirms what many iPhone users may have long suspected: Apple's smartphone can be addicting.

The survey was administered to 200 students with iPhones, 70 percent of whom had owned their iPhones for less than a year.

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Can The iPad Tablet Be As Successful As The Apple iPhone?

The iPhone and iPod Touch (collectively) are the fastest-adopted gadget ever. Apple has sold many, many more iPods over the years, but the music players took about two years to pick up steam, as the chart shows. How will the iPad tablet fare? Source: Morgan Stanley / Art: Rich Clabaugh, Staff for The Christian Science Monitor

From Christian Science Monitor:

The iPhone and iPod Touch are the fastest-adopted gadgets in consumer-tech history. Apple hopes that with the iPad tablet, lightning will strike twice.

In about a month, Apple will release its much-anticipated iPad tablet. This new device falls somewhere in between a smart phone and a laptop – small enough to tote around town without exhausting your shoulders, but big enough to feel like you’re reading a magazine instead of staring at a playing card.

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Apple Sues Google Phone Manufacturer As Jobs Warns: Create Your Own Technology, Don't Steal Ours

An HTC smartphone (right) alongside an Apple iPhone. Apple are suing HTC Corp for infringing on hardware and software patents

From The Daily Mail:

Apple is suing the company which makes touchscreen smartphones using Google software.

Apple has accused Taiwan’s HTC Corp of infringing 20 hardware and software patents related to the iPhone.

Although the lawsuit does not name Google Inc as a defendant, Apple’s move is viewed by many as an indirect attack on the company, whose Nexus One smartphone is manufactured by HTC.

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Google vs. Apple: An Epic Battle

By David Goldman, staff writer

From CNN:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Let the smartphone smackdown begin.

In the blue corner, wearing black, weighing in at 4.8 ounces, the 31-month champion of the touch screen phones: Apple's iPhone!

In the red corner is the challenger, appearing on every carrier, a new entrant to the heavy-weight battle: Google's Android!

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Apple: Underage Workers May Have Built Your iPhone

From PC World:

That iPhone you adore may have been built by a child.

Nearly a dozen underage teens were working for Apple-contracted facilities in 2009, the company has revealed. The news was posted to Apple's Web site under a section labeled "Supplier Responsibility."

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Apple's iTunes Store Serves up 10 Billionth Song

From ABC News/PC World:

'Guess Things Happen That Way' by Johnny Cash Reportedly 10 Billionth Song.

Apple's iTunes Store hit a landmark on Wednesday with the download of its 10 billionth song.

A counter on the company's home page hit the 10 billion mark at 9:43 p.m. GMT -- approximately 6 years and 10 months since the store first opened in the U.S.

Back then it was known as the iTunes Music Store and served just music but it has since expanded to include video, TV shows and podcasts.

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'Explicit' Category Rumoured To Be Coming To App Store

Screengrabs show a new 'explicit' category for App Store apps. The listing has since disappeared. Image courtesy of Recombu Photo: Recombu

From The Telegraph:

Apple is thought to be considering introducing a new category to its App Store, as the row over 'overtly sexual' apps rumbles on

Several developers have reported seeing a new category appearing in the drop-down menus of iTunes Connect, the platform they use to distribute apps through the App Store. Alongside standard categories, such as "entertainment", "games" and "productivity", is a new tag: "explicit".

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Why Millions Of Consumers Are Breaking The Law When They Use Their iPod

Photo: Law breaker? Millions of consumers transfer albums to MP3 players

From The Daily Mail:

Copying your favourite CD on to your iPod has become a routine part of modern life for music lovers.

But millions of consumers are unaware they are breaking the law every time they transfer an album or a DVD to their MP3 player or home computer – despite having purchased both legitimately.

Now, the threat of prosecution could be lifted after a customer body called for copyright laws to be updated for the technological age.

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Apple ‘Tablets’ Sniffed By Analytics Are More Likely iPhones

From Gadget Lab:

A mobile analytics company has come forward with what it touts as evidence that Apple tablet prototypes are being tested — without offering any solid details suggesting the mystery devices are tablets at all.

Analytics firm Flurry has tracked down 50 devices that it believes are Apple’s expected tablet. The devices’ IPs and GPS data give away they have not left Apple’s Cupertino campus, according to Flurry, which raises the firm’s suspicion that these are prototypes in testing. Flurry goes on to say its app tracking matches the “characteristics of Apple’s rumored tablet device” even though the analytics don’t provide any data about the characteristics of the prototypes.

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Show And Sell: The Secret To Apple's Magic

From Popular Science:

Flash an exotic prototype, then—Presto!—get people to buy your more boring stuff. That kind of thinking still rules at most electronics companies. Apple under Steve Jobs only shows off actual products. The difference? Apple's arcane secret to success.

A specter harrows the consumer electronics industry: malaise. Like washed-up Catskill magicians unable to let go of old routines while a brash upstart steals their audience, nearly every maker of consumer electronics in the world clings to a quaint song-and-dance about prototypes.

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Verizon, AT&T May Carry Apple Tablet

Apple has sent invitations for a Jan. 27 event in San Francisco, where the technology company will unveil its long-awaited tablet device. Apple

From FOX News:

Which wireless carrier will offer Apple's soon-to-be-released mystery device? Will it be Verizon? AT&T? The answer, according to sources at the two companies, is both.

As any well-read geek will tell you, Apple is releasing some sort of tablet device next week, and the rumors about features have been flying as fast and furious as those men in tights at Cirque du Soleil. I'm not going to add to the noise by speculating about unreleased details like the size, shape, color, price and general feature list. Instead I'm going to add the other noise: the network noise.

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Apple Tablet: Content Will Be Key

From PC World:

On January 27, Apple is holding an event to unveil its "latest creation," which is expected to be a 10-inch touchscreen tablet. Apple's rumored device has been generating a lot of buzz and excitement, but it's not clear yet whether tablet excitement -- assuming that Apple really is unveiling a tablet, of course -- will turn into tablet dollars at the cash register.

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The Mythical Apple Tablet: Rounding Up the Rumors

From PC World:

As you probably already know by now, Apple is holding a product event in later this month. The big question on everyone's mind: Are tablets on the table? There have been countless rumors flying around about the so-called "iSlate/iPad/iTablet" (or whatever Apple decides to call it). Read on for a slew of rumors, along with ratings on their perceived validity.

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Apple In E-Book Talks, May Have Amazon Kindle In Sights

From Arstechnica:

Apple's long-rumored tablet could end up being a Kindle competitor after all if Apple follows through with some talks. The company is reportedly in negotiations with HarperCollins Publishers for e-book distribution on the device, according to insiders speaking to the Wall Street Journal. Though the deal isn't solid yet, it's an indicator that the upcoming device—expected to be introduced at Apple's media event on January 27—will indeed break into the e-book space.

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Fox News "Confirms" Apple Tablet, iLife 2010 & Next iPhone OS

From FOX News:

Fox News posted an article Monday claiming that not only will next week's now-confirmed Apple event play host to the long-rumored tablet unveiling, but it will also see the next iteration of Apple's iLife software on show. Fox's report also claims that Apple will discuss the next iPhone OS update.

The article by Fox News' Clayton Morris is boldly titled "Apple Tablet, iPhone 4 Launch Confirmed for January 27th" (never mind the fact that it's always iffy to "confirm" any new Apple product until Steve Jobs stands onstage with it), and goes on to detail a conversation Morris allegedly had with an Apple source early Monday morning.

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CES: Apple Looms Over CES From Afar

Photo: Steve Ballmer shows off a slate PC during his opening keynote at CES 2010. (Credit: James Martin/CNET)

From CNET:

LAS VEGAS--The most buzzed-about device at CES 2010 wasn't even on display here.

A tablet or slate computer from Apple was basically all anyone wanted to talk about, and it's not even a confirmed product yet. As a result, Lady Gaga might be the only thing that was actually at CES 2010 that could even be described as generating large-scale buzz.

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Apple's iPhone Is Most Popular Phone In US - Study

From Apple Insider:

With 4 percent of all mobile device subscribers in the U.S., a new study has found that Apple's iPhone was the single most popular handset model in the country in 2009.

The iPhone edged out Research in Motion's BlackBerry 8300 series, which came in second place with 3.7 percent, according to new data released this week by Nielsen. The rankings measured the top 10 mobile phones in use in the U.S. from January to October 2009.

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Apple’s Next Media Frontier Will Be Streaming Video

From Gadget Lab:

Video entertainment was “the one that got away” from Apple, but recent moves reveal the company is taking a second stab at the category, and that streaming video will play a major role.

The addition of video cameras to Apple’s latest iPhone and iPod Nano were just the first hints of the company’s new personal-media strategy. The company is also building a 500,000 square-foot data center in North Carolina, which could provide the massive bandwidth required for ubiquitous streaming video. And Apple’s recent acquisition of Lala suggests it’s interested in rebooting iTunes into a streaming service, according to Wall Street Journal. That means music, in Lala’s case, but the same infrastructure could be shared with streaming video.

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