Mar 17

iPad Scalpers Buy Out Apple Flagship Store

Posted in: Apple, ipad 2, Today's Chili
ipad 2 white flat game.jpg

With sell outs, long lines, and repeatedly pushed-back shipping times, it’s perhaps not surprising that the scalpers are getting into the iPad 2 business in a big way. The tablets are currently selling for exorbitant amounts online, through sites like eBay. Resellers also have plans to sell the things in China.

The New York Post has a piece about the lengths scalpers are going to clean out Apple locations, namely the company’s flagship glass storefront on 59th street. The paper illustrated a scene in which five men walked down a line of roughly 200 people, handing out $100 dollar bills to pick up the devices (and keep with Apple’s strict per-person limit).
“The ones we bought today are already on their way to China,” the “ringleader” told the paper. “It’s been pretty crazy.” The iPad 2 can apparently resell for as much as $2,000 a piece–well over double the asking price of the most expensive model. 
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Mar 17

iPad 2 on eBay: Only $1,700

Posted in: Apple, ipad 2, Today's Chili
ipad 2 flat game.jpg

Need an iPad 2 and need it now? Good news: there are a bunch up for sale on eBay right now. Actually, you can get one right this second for the low, low Buy It Now price of $1,699. That’s the high end, or course. There’s also one for $1,299 and another for $1,200. Heck, it all makes the 64GB Wi-Fi version going for $950 seem downright reasonable.

The bidding situation is better, but not all that much. A 32GB Wi-Fi model ending in 38 minutes is currently going for $860–there’s also a 64GB version for $300, but that one’s still got four days and eight hours left on it.
Great than anticipated demanded is push up these tablets to crazy levels. Apple Stores and a number of other mainstream retailers sold out of the devices on launch weekend. The company also recently pushed the online ship time for the devices back to four to five weeks. For those who absolutely need a tablet, there are still plenty Xooms available, apparently. 
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Mar 16

Verizon Models Now Around 12% of iPhone Market – Report

Posted in: iPhone, Today's Chili, verizon
Thumbnail image for iphone 4 flat.jpg

A month after launch the Verizon iPhone now comprises around 12 percent of Apple handsets currently in use (the number is fluctuating between 12.7 and 10.4 percent) , according to new numbers from analytics firm Chitika Insights.

The numbers are pulled from data gathered by the Chitika ad network, collected over a 24 hour period. The firm put Verizon’s share of the market at around three percent of the market a day after the phone was launched. 
Not quite the apocalyptic numbers for AT&T that many expected, but still, a fairly impressive gain in a fairly short period of time, particularly given the fact that the iPhone 4 was already six months old by the time the device debuted on Verizon.

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Mar 15

Apple’s Impressive Support of Japan Quake Victims

Posted in: Apple, Today's Chili
Apple_Store_Tokyo.jpg

A Japanese Apple Store employee sent a note to Digg founder Kevin Rose detailing his company’s rather impressive response to last week’s massive earthquake, beginning with the quake itself, when the store’s staff “staff calmly led people from the top 5 floors down to the first floor, and under the ridiculously strong wooden tables that hold up the display computers.”
The store remained open during the numerous aftershocks, according to the employee, giving panicked residents access to computers to get the latest news and communicate with loved ones via e-mail, Twitter, and Facebook. The store also serves as one of the few free Wi-Fi hotspots in the area, letting people send and receive updates through mobile devices.
The staff provided extra extension cords for people to use their devices, eventually closing at 10PM, to allow the staff to go home. After close, a number of folks reportedly camped out in front of the store to take advantage of the Wi-Fi.
A follow up note from the anonymous employee is even more impressive. The store’s senior managers were instructed to stock up on food and water after the first quake. The stores let Apple employees (both retail and corporate) sleep in the stores along with their families. 
The company’s head of international HR spent the night in the store and told employees that Apple would handle travel, food, hotel, and other expenses if they attempted to make the trip home.
In all, it reads like a bit of a love letter to the company (including the insistence that FaceTime was far more reliable than Skype during the emergency)–but in this case, a little fanboyism seems warranted. 
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Mar 15

iPad Ship Time Pushed to 4 to 5 Weeks

Posted in: Apple, ipad 2, Today's Chili

ipad 2 ship 4 to 5.jpg

Overwhelming demand for the Apple’s second generation tablet has forced the company to push back ship times for online orders yet again. The company’s site now lists ship time for all models as four to five weeks–up from the three to four weeks the site was listing over the weekend. On launch day last week, Apple listed the ship time as a few days, quickly upgrading it to two to three weeks.

The device has also reportedly sold out in all of Apple’s retail locations and other partner stores. The company addressed the shortages in a recent statement, “Demand for the next generation iPad 2 has been amazing. We are working hard to get iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible.”

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Mar 14

iPhone Daylight Saving Shenanigans Are Back

Posted in: Apple, iPhone, Today's Chili
Thumbnail image for iphone 4 flat.jpg

The iPhone 4 does a lot of things really well, so one might, perhaps, be able to forgive it for falling short at a few simple tasks. Perhaps, that is, if those tasks were quite so simple as making phone calls and telling the proper time. While most the rest of the country was springing ahead, Apple’s handset fell back an hour, assuring that users relying on the device as a handset were two hours late for work, instead of the customary one.

The majority of the reports about the bug are coming via Twitter and other social networks. Apple has yet to actually comment on the issue. The company’s “magical” handsets have run into similar time keeping issues before, having failed to fall back an hour during the last time change.
Thankfully, there’s an easy fix if you’re one of the affected–just restart the phone or put it into Airplane Mode and switch it back. The handset should correct itself from there. 
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Mar 14

Apple Exec Confirms Spring Ship Date for iPhone 4 – Again

Posted in: Apple, Today's Chili
white-iphone-4.jpg

Apple has confirmed what we already knew (thanks to past Apple confirmations). The white iPhone 4 is real, and it’s really coming this spring. For real. In response to a self-proclaimed “16-year-old kid from Albuquerque, future Engadget editor” on Twitter, Apple SVP Philip Schiller confirmed that the long awaited handset is arriving soon. “The white iPhone will be available this spring (and it is a beauty!),” wrote the exec.

That timeline squares with the one Apple has been repeating for a few months now. It’s still three-quarters of a year behind the original planned launch date. Apple first unveiled the handset last summer, alongside the launch of the black iPhone 4. Due to unspecified technical problems, however (most likely having to do with the amount of light a white case lets in while taking photos), the handset has been repeatedly delayed.
Interest in the phone resurfaced when Apple announced the launch of a white version of the iPad 2–a product that has already beaten the white iPhone to market.
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Mar 14

Apple Sells as Many as 500,000 iPad 2s

Posted in: Apple, ipad 2, Today's Chili
ipad 2 white flat game.jpg

If those kooky analysts are to be believed, Apple has a bonafide hit on its hand with the second generation iPad. According to numbers from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, the company moved somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 tablets in the iPad 2’s first weekend–that’s up over the 300,000 for the device’s predecessor. The majority of the sales apparently hit on Friday–if the numbers are to be believed, Apple actually sold out the majority of its stock after that.

Also interesting in these analytics: 70 Percent of buyers were picking up their first iPad, according to Munster. That number comes from a small survey of 236 buyers, conducted by the analyst. Two-thirds of those surveyed owned an iPhone 4, and the numbers were fairly even between Mac and PC users. Almost half of the folks were opting for the pricier iPad 2 3G.
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Mar 14

iPhone 5 won’t have NFC, say insiders at UK carriers

Posted in: Apple, AppleIphone, Features, iPhone, nfc, rumor, speculation, Today's Chili, uk, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom

The Independent is starting our week off on a sour note with the information that Apple’s next iPhone won’t have NFC hardware built in. Near Field Communication has found itself coming to the fore this year, thanks in large part to the Nexus S touting it as a major feature, however sources at “several” of the UK’s major carriers have told the newspaper that Apple intends to skip on it for this year. That intel is reportedly coming directly from meetings with the Cupertino brain trust, which is said to be dissatisfied with the current lack of a clear, universal NFC standard. It’s generally been Apple’s wont to omit or delay features it doesn’t feel it can implement well, and NFC looks fated to be another one on that list.

iPhone 5 won’t have NFC, say insiders at UK carriers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 03:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink 9to5Mac  |  sourceThe Independent  | Email this | Comments

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Mar 11

Apple Adds Passwords for In-App Purchases

Posted in: Apple, ios, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

In-App Purchase - Confirm

Partially billed as a way to keep children from picking up their parents’ iPhones and going crazy with in-app purchases and partially billed as a way to keep less-than-ethical iOS developers from making it deceptively easy to buy a ton of in-app content without knowing you’re agreeing to spend money, Apple’s latest update to iOS forces you to enter your password to accept in-app purchases for a 15 minute window.  During that window, you can make all of the in-app purchases you like in any app before you’re required to enter your password again. 
This all started because some iOS developers discovered that if someone made an in-app purchase within 15 minutes of installing an app on their iOS device, they didn’t have to enter their iTunes password again and they were automatically charged for it. Some people (specifically children) went wild with it, and were ever so slightly encouraged by apps that encouraged in-app purchases immediately after install. All of this led to massive credit card bills, and angry complaints to Apple that the users in question never explicitly authorized the charges.
Apple’s fix is to put the 15-minute password window in place to allow you to make purchases without having to enter your password every single time, but once the window is up, you’ll have to explicitly open the door to in-app purchases again.
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