Hasta La Gadget!

Want to write on your tablet without all of the requisite finger grease? How about a stylus? Too pedestrian? What about a Smart Pen? Better yet, what about the aPen A5 Smart Pen? eFun’s peripheral includes a stylus and a receiver that hooks into your iPad or iPhone’s 30 pin connector, digitizing your handwriting or drawings via a number of compatible apps, including the company’s own free Studio Basic Light. The A5 is set, broadly, for a release some time in 2012, and should run you around $99 whenever it actually hits the market.

Zach Honig contributed to this report.

eFun announces aPen A5 Smart Pen for all of your iPad / iPhone writing needs originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple will be expanding its iPhone 4S availability to another U.S. carrier in the next few weeks. No, it’s not T-Mobile, but rather C Spire Wireless, a small, regional carrier that’s popular in Mississippi and pockets of the Southeast. It’s hard to resist that Southern charm.

C Spire, which runs a CDMA-based network like Verizon and Sprint, will begin selling the iPhone 4S “in the coming weeks.” C Spire hasn’t released many details about the announcement, but Jim Richmond, director of corporate communications, said that interested consumers can sign up on the C Spire website to find out more information as it becomes available.

The C Spire announcement comes as a surprise to most Apple enthusiasts, as C Spire isn’t as well known as other national carriers, such as T-Mobile, or even Cricket Wireless. But maybe all the surprise stems from a likelihood that most Apple watchers are concentrated in large, metropolitan markets.

“C Spire offers Apple access to a region typically neglected by the larger carriers and provides the potential for additional growth away from the urban centers Apple already dominates,” John Feland, CEO of analytics firm Argus Insights, says.

Another reason so few people have heard of C Spire Wireless: The company used to be known as Cellular South. The privately held regional carrier primarily has store locations in Mississippi, along with a few locations in neighboring regions of Alabama, Tennessee and Florida.

The iPhone 4S originally launched on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint on Friday, Oct. 14. The handset promises to be a big money maker for carrier partners, and has already sold more than 4 million units in its first weekend alone. In the past, the iPhone was exclusive to AT&T, and then Verizon began supporting the iPhone 4 in January of this year.

Given lowered price points for the iPhone 3GS and 4, it’s clear that Apple is trying to branch out and make its smartphone accessible to more customers. The majority of cellphone owners aren’t yet smartphone owners, whether due to tight personal budgets, network coverage issues, or because they feel they don’t need smartphone features. But partnering with a carrier in an under-served area where smartphones don’t yet rule the roost could provide Apple with a large number of potential new adopters.

Indeed, the location of C Spire’s customer base offers a number of benefits for Apple that may not be immediately obvious. First, Southerners are typically regarded late technology adopters, says Feland (and as a Texas native who spent several years in Tennessee and Mississippi, I can attest to this as well). This means C Spire has strong potential in converting “feature phone” users to iPhone users. What’s more, thanks to an improved broadband infrastructure and the exploding popularity of social media platforms like Facebook, technology-averse Southern customers might now be more easily swayed to purchase an iPhone, confident that (a) they’ll actually have reliable network service, and (b) they’ll have something really fun to do with their new devices.

But what of T-Mobile? Well, it’s a large national carrier, but already has a presence in the same places as AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Because of this, “there are marginal additional unit sales available” for Apple to leverage, says Feland. And, of course, adding a heavyweight like T-Mobile to the mix could anger Apple’s existing iPhone partners. Working with C Spire, the nation’s 8th largest carrier, meanwhile, shouldn’t give anyone much of a scare.

“C Spire’s strong regional presence offers Apple more bang for their buck as they continue to push off an iPhone in every hand and an iPad in every home,” says Feland. “The Southern market is ripe for Apple’s picking.”

Whether C Spire will sell the iPhone 3GS or 4 isn’t yet known. Nor are the carrier’s pricing plans. However, C Spire could potentially offer unlimited data, as the company has an “80/40 plan” that offers unlimited minutes, data and messaging for $80 per month for the first line on a plan, and a mere $40 for additional lines. Currently, Sprint is the only carrier that offers an unlimited data plan for iPhone 4S owners.

Updated 3:38 P.M. with information from C Spire.

Continue reading Apple solar patent wants a sunny display light for your Sunny (De)light

Apple solar patent wants a sunny display light for your Sunny (De)light originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Whoa, stop the presses — we’re not sure if this is officially in the pipeline or if it’s just a matter of wishful thinking, but Sprint may not be the smallest carrier in the US to offer an iPhone 4S for much longer. That’s right: regional carrier C-Spire (formerly known as Cellular South) has the iconic device splattered front and center on its home page, stating that it’s coming soon. We’re not certain if the iPhone 4 will be offered as well, and no specific availability or pricing is given yet, but you can sign up to be notified as soon as more 411 is ready. The possibility of one of the little guys getting the iPhone is an exciting prospect, since it may lead the charge for more regional service providers to get Apple’d up. We love rooting for the underdog, after all.

Update: And just like that, it’s official, folks! C-Spire just reached out to us to confirm that iPhone pre-registration begins today, with the device launch in “the coming weeks.” Needless to say, if you’re a C-Spire customer, your holiday wish list may have just grown.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Is C-Spire getting the iPhone 4S? Its website says so (Update: confirmed) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Instapaper, the internet equivalent of a bookmark, has been given a top-to-toe makeover for its latest outing on the iPad. Fear not, your reading materials remain easy to read (and ad-free), but version 4 has now been smoothed over with a thick layer of tablet gloss. Navigation is all done through a bar on the left, and remains available for prodding as you read through your article selection. The upgrade also adds a subscription option for searching all your previous reads, as well as better social skills, with the ability to pick up and store articles and posts shared by your Twitter buddies — ensuring that you’ll probably never run out of reading material again.

Instapaper gets iPad refresh: more friends, more reading originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Oct 2011 03:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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