Apple’s Tim Cook hints at cheaper iPhone, prepaid possibilities to come?

Apple COO Tim Cook got all buddy-buddy with Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi this week, talking about Apple’s business strategy — nothing out of the ordinary there — but this morning, that analyst decided to publicly paraphrase an intriguing part of the interview. Guess what? It sounds like a cheaper iPhone may indeed be in the cards:

While Tim stopped short of explicitly stating that Apple would pursue a lower price iPhone, he did state that Apple was working hard to “figure out” the prepaid market and that Apple didn’t want its products to be “just for the rich,” but “for everyone”; he also stated that Apple “understood price is big factor in the prepaid market” and that the company was “not ceding any market.” Cook noted that Apple executives – including himself – had spent “huge energy” in China, noting that it is “a classic prepaid market.” He further noted that the handset distribution model was poorly constructed and that Apple would look to “innovate” and do “clever” things in addressing that market.

As you can see, there aren’t any statements of fact here, just some general strategy ideas, but if Apple indeed plans to put an iPhone in every pot, it would be helpful if it didn’t have to rely on the carrier subsidy model.

Apple’s Tim Cook hints at cheaper iPhone, prepaid possibilities to come? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GMail Now Lets You Listen To Your MP3′s

This article was written on August 22, 2006 by CyberNet.

Play A MP3 In Gmail

GMail now makes it easy for you to play those MP3 files without ever leaving your email. As soon as you receive an attachement that is in the MP3 file format you should see a link below it that says “Play.” As soon as you press that you’ll get a pop-up window and it will start playing the MP3.

This is a really great idea and originally stemmed from them allowing Google Talk users to send voicemail messages…since the people receiving the messages needed a way to listen to them. It is a great feature but I don’t see why they have to put this in a pop-up window. The MP3 player is so small that it could easily be placed right underneath the name of the file just like they do for images that are attached.

It will be interesting to see if they continue along this path of handling your files for you. Maybe when you receive an Excel file it will offer to open it in Google Spreadsheets or if it is a video you’ll just be able to watch it like you would a Google Video. I’m sure they’re getting there we just need to give it some time.

News Source: Google System

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Visualized: Honeycomb statue sweetens up Google’s campus

Well, it didn’t exactly make the most timely appearance, but Google’s statue-makers have now finally delivered a monument to the latest Android release: Honeycomb. As you can see, they’ve also gone the extra mile and actually included our friend the Android robot this time around, although it seems like it’s about to come out on the losing end of its encounter with that giant bee.

Visualized: Honeycomb statue sweetens up Google’s campus originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More rumors of larger iPhone 5 screen

The Web site for the Chinese Apple parts reseller iDealsChina claims to have posted a photo of the front bezel for the iPhone 5.

The 404 766: Where no milk will ever be our milk (podcast)


Today’s show title comes from this scene in Billy Madison, but unfortunately Adam Sandler got no recognition at last night’s Academy Awards.

We thought James Franco and Anne Hathaway made a cute couple of hosts, and we appreciated James’s #oscarsrealtime updates but we also agree with Roger Ebert and the LA Times, who gave critical reviews of the remarkably tame ceremony.

As usual, the Oscar food puns for each nominee were borderline more entertaining than the show itself.

Last week we talked about a Facebook app called Breakup Notifier that would send you a message when your crush changed his or her relationship status to “single.”

Well, an “accidental” change in the Facebook developer’s code permanently disabled access to such notifications, so creator Dan Loewenherz clever shifted his focus to a new project called the Crush Notifier.

The Facebook Crush Notifier lets you purchase Facebook credits that allow you to select crushes in your friend list. Those individuals are notified in an anonymous e-mail, and have the option to rate you back.

If you’re selected as well, you’ll receive a similar message- unfortunately, there’s no service to show you the way after that, you’re on your own, but how could would it be if Facebook Places somehow offered a discount at a mutually agreed-upon restaurant for a first date?

Stay with us after the break for today’s Kodak Deal of the Day, a Dell Vostro 230 Mini Intel Dial 3GHz PC with 17″ LCD for the price of $329. Features include an Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5700 3GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive, DVD-ROM, Gigabit Ethernet, and Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit. Check it out, and enjoy!



Episode 766


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Originally posted at The 404 Podcast

Activision: Modern Warfare-themed countdown site a ‘hoax’

Publisher dismisses findmakarov.com as “speculation”; online report pegs site as viral marketing for indie film out of Canada.

The Story of the Lonely Whale Will Break Your Heart [Video]

Once upon a time, there was a whale called June. Or maybe her name is Margaret. Or Kate. We don’t really know. A few nitrogen-hearted scientists call her 52 Hertz just because she sings at a 51.75Hz frequency, but I will call her Alice. More »

Intel outs SSD 510 Series with 6Gbps SATA interface, 500MBps transfer speeds

We didn’t think the previous generation of SSDs, topping out at around 280MBps read speeds, were in any way hampered by their celerity, but Intel’s bringing the future to us whether we like it or not with its new 510 Series SSDs. These Marvell-controlled flash storage drives will zip data to your processing unit at a rate of 500MB per second and write anything you send back at a clip of 315MBps. That’s mostly thanks to the 510 being one of a new breed of consumer SSDs with a 6Gbps SATA interface, which has effectively removed a bottleneck from the performance equation and uncorked the extra vroom now contained within. When bought in bulk, a 250GB SSD 510 will cost you $584, while the slightly slower (450MBps read, 210MBps write) 120GB model will set you back $284. Full press release after the break.

Continue reading Intel outs SSD 510 Series with 6Gbps SATA interface, 500MBps transfer speeds

Intel outs SSD 510 Series with 6Gbps SATA interface, 500MBps transfer speeds originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Valve Software hints at ‘big picture mode’ for Steam

Valve Software says it will be discussing a “big picture mode” for its Steam PC game download service.

Beluga Delivers Group Chat to Smartphones, Browsers

If Google had executed Google Wave correctly, it would’ve looked something like Beluga, a cross-platform group chat client available for Android phones, iPhones and any computer with a web browser.

The free service has a streamlined interface for group chatting. Conversations are called “Pods,” so when you start chatting with a friend you create a Pod, and then you invite others to join it.

On the Beluga smartphone apps, inside a Pod you can send messages and photos extremely quickly. If you choose to share your location, Beluga displays a map with your coordinates below each of your messages, so you can let your friends know where you are.

Whenever you receive a message, Beluga sends a push notification to your Android device or iPhone; the app is running in the background so you can stay signed on constantly. In this way, Beluga could be a free substitute for text messaging, if you get enough of your friends hooked on it. Getting people to sign up shouldn’t be very difficult, because you can log in through your Facebook account.

You don’t lose your Beluga conversations either: all the Pods are saved in the cloud on Belugapods.com, through the web version of the chat client.

Group chat clients are becoming increasingly popular in the era of smartphones, where e-mail doesn’t adequately keep up with our real-time movements, and threads tend to get chaotic. (Google Wave could have solved this problem, but Google didn’t seem to have a clear vision on what it was trying to deliver.) Other examples of group chat clients include HeyTell, a walkie-talkie app for groups to interact, and Yobongo, a group chat app that will emphasize location features when it’s finished.

I’ve tried many group chat apps and Beluga comes closest to delivering what I need: most importantly it’s cross-platform and pushes notifications in real time so I can keep up with multiple people on the go, which will be useful for coordinating get-togethers and collaborating with coworkers on team projects. Plus, it’s fast, and the interface is straightforward and polished.

The big piece still missing from Beluga is a fully functional web client. The web version of Beluga is still in beta mode, and it lacks the ability to send images as well as geodata. Once that’s finished, Beluga is probably going to be a big hit.

Beluga download link [iTunes]

Beluga download link [Android]