With the iPhone 4 the most popular camera on Flickr, it’s no surprise that companies are creating all kinds of accessories to make the beloved camera even more versatile. Last month we reported on the Photojojo lens mount that basically turns your iPhone 4 into a DSLR camera. It’s definitely a cool concept, but the […]
Talk about swift justice. It’s been less than a week since we reported on Personal Audio’s second infringement suit against Apple, and an East Texas judge has already put an end to the litigation. In a statement regarding the company’s complaint that the iPad 2, iPhone 4, and latest generation iPods infringed on the same patents put forth in its initial suit, Judge Ron Clark said the $8 million already awarded to the plaintiff should do just fine. He went on to deny the company’s request for a second trial. It may not be the last we hear of Personal Audio, but it is a refreshing change of pace from the usual goings on in Eastern District courtrooms.
Judge shoots down Personal Audio’s second Apple infringement case originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jul 2011 03:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Let the speculation begin! It may not be a sign of an iPhone refresh, but we’ve received multiple tips today about an imminent price drop for Apple’s flagship smartphone. According to a pair of trusty tipsters, Radio Shack is prepping to cut the cost of AT&T’s 16GB iPhone 4 to $169.99, with a two-year contract, from $199.99. The 32GB version will likewise take a $30 plunge at the Shack, ringing in at $269.99, and the price of the 8GB 3GS will drop to $19.99. Phone Arena is likewise reporting on Target slicing up the old Apple price tag, but lists varying numbers based on carrier. If all this talk turns out to be true, those prices should be ripe for the picking starting tomorrow.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
iPhone price cuts hitting Radio Shack, Target tomorrow? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
This article was written on August 04, 2008 by CyberNet.
Amazon’s DRM-free music service is really appealing these days. When it launched last September it got rave reviews because of the ease of use and the attractive prices, not to mention that whole DRM-free aspect. It was appealing when it launched and it’s getting even more appealing these days because of the situation we’re seeing with Yahoo right now.
Some of you have probably heard about what’s going on over at Yahoo right now – they have decided to stop issuing DRM authorization keys which essentially makes songs that people purchased and downloaded from the company worthless. Come September 30th, music owners will not be able to put the songs they purchased on multiple devices, or burn them to CD. Sound familiar? If it does, it’s because MSN’s music service did the same thing about a year ago.
This is turning into a real problem now that two major companies, both Microsoft and Yahoo, have decided to take down their servers that manage DRM and abandon their music services. Yahoo is hoping to keep customers who bought music happy by offering to compensate them for whatever they paid for their music. According to their FAQ, they are encouraging those who purchased music from the Yahoo! Music Unlimited Store to burn all of their music to CDs because those files can be copied back to a computer without problem. For those who have problems, they say:
For any consumers that have problems with their DRM licenses after the store closes, our customer care group will provide coupons to the Rhapsody MP3 store so they can purchase an equivalent collection of MP3s. If any users have serious problems with this arrangement, we will provide refunds to them through our customer care service. This offer will remain open until December 31st, 2008.
We believe this plan will provide a fair deal to consumers who have purchased songs through the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service, and will assist users in making the transition beyond DRM to more flexible, reliable and consumer-friendly digital media.
News.com recently proposed an interesting question – what if Apple stopped issuing DRM keys like MSN and Yahoo? At this point Apple is king of the digital media market so it’s not like it would happen anytime soon, but what if at some point it happened?
One thing we know of for sure right now is that DRM-free is the way to go these days because you just never know…
Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com
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Well, the numbers are in and Q2’s proved to be a mixed bag for the mobile market. According to IDC, cellphone makers shipped a total of 365.4 million units last quarter, a year-over-year increase of 11.3 percent. Nokia, while still the world’s largest handset maker, suffered a significant blow, with shipments dropping from 111.1 million in Q2 2010 to 88.5 million; the company’s market share was similarly down, hitting 24.2 percent, compared to last year’s 33.8 percent. LG Electronics was the only other manufacturer to see a loss, with shipments dropping to 24.8 million from 30.6 million in 2010. Apple managed to maintain its recently acquired number four spot, with iPhone shipments hitting 20.3 million, up year-over-year from 8.4 million. RIM was conspicuously missing from the top five lineup, while ZTE landed the number five position. In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone with a pulse, the feature phone market saw a decline this year, surprisingly its first since Q3 2009. If you’re jonesing for more market share and shipping stats, hop on past the break for the full PR.
Continue reading IDC: Nokia, LG see significant Q2 shipping decline, Apple continues to grow
IDC: Nokia, LG see significant Q2 shipping decline, Apple continues to grow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 18:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you’ve still got an unlimited AT&T data plan that you’re holding onto for dear life to stream gigs and gigs of Spotify and Netflix and god knows what else, your life is about to suck a lot more. More »
I have often said that it is both a gift and a curse that we as tech bloggers live so far out on the bleeding edge of the industry. Especially right now. There are mind-blowingly great phones about to come to market, yet we’re already focused on what is coming next. There’s always something better […]
Yes yes, y’all: it’s the Engadget Podcast. We’re brimming this week, as usual, with the low down on what’s going down with all the new stuff. We’ve got the killer combo of lots of streaming news and a dearth of optical drives. We’ve got shaky earnings calls translating into big deals on the floor at Best Buy. And boy, do we have a little bit of Android news? We do! It’s all here, as usual. Enjoy.
Host: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Guests: Dana Wollman, Richard Lawler
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Beethoven’s 5th
02:24 – Mac mini review (mid 2011)
03:20 – Editorial: Apple’s officially over the optical drive, for better or worse
09:16 – MacBook Air review (mid 2011)
16:10 – Netflix adds Mad Men in the US today, CBS content in Canada and Latin America later
16:34 – Amazon Prime Instant Video is adding CBS TV shows, including all of Star Trek
17:50 – Amazon strikes movie streaming deal with Universal, adds ‘Fear and Loathing’ to free shipping
24:17 – The Engadget Show – 023: We tour a headphone factory, talk record labels, and look at They Might Be Giants’ favorite gadgets
25:36 – Nintendo posts earnings, drops 3DS from $249 to $169 August 12th, current owners get 20 free games
28:47 – Logitech CEO steps down after money losing Q1, Revue price slashed to $99
37:15 – Toshiba Thrive review
39:52 – HTC Status review
44:46 – Windows Phone 7.5 Mango in-depth preview (video)
46:20 – HTC CFO says it’s time to ‘figure it out’ with Apple
48:52 – Two more fake Apple Stores spotted by officials in China, two get the smackdown
50:40 – Listener questions
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Engadget Podcast 250 – 07.29.2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Team, we’re getting very close to iPhone 5 time. You can smell it by the rumors. In fact! Just now 9to5Mac posted a picture of what they say might be the next iPhone. Only one way to be sure: ENHANCE! More »
Nielsen data shows Android still reigns supreme in the land of operating systems, though Apple is owning the hardware manufacturing territory. Photo courtesy of Nielsen
As Android spreads across multiple devices, Google’s operating system continues to dominate on smartphones. A report released Thursday backs that up, showing that Android remains the top smartphone operating system in the United States.
But these numbers miss a key point: Android may be the leading platform on smartphones, but what about all the other iOS-powered devices out there that aren’t iPhones — the iPod Touch and the iPad?
Today’s research report, which was published by Nielsen, claims a 39-percent Android platform market share across the major smartphone manufacturers, while Apple’s iPhone operating system claims a 28 percent stake. The results show data from smartphone purchases occurring during the second quarter of 2011 in the U.S.
But therein lies the huge blind spot in Nielsen’s data measurement: Apple sold over 20 million iPhones over the last quarter, but add iPads and iPod Touch devices to that, and the number bumps up to nearly 37 million iOS devices. In three months.
Technology research firms such as Nielsen regularly publish market share analysis to measure which companies are leading the industry. In mobile, Google and Apple are consistently neck-to-neck in market share reports, but it’s questionable why research firms continue to leave tablets and all-in-one portables like the iPod Touch out of the mobile picture.
Which, considering recent reports, may be a big mistake. For instance, GoGo — an in-flight Wi-Fi service provider that works with Virgin America airlines — told AllThingsDigital that while iPhones make up two thirds of wireless devices connected to its in-flight services, iPod Touch devices account for another 20 percent. That’s even higher than the number of Android devices used to access the network (only 12 percent).
Another tidbit to consider: Despite Android’s platform dominance in the smartphone space, over 80 percent of Wired.com’s mobile traffic comes from iOS-based devices. That includes the iPad, iPod Touch and the iPhone. The iPad and iPod Touch aren’t smartphones, but they run the same operating system as the iPhone.
It highlights a specific problem in surveys like Nielsen’s: Measurement criterion. If we’re measuring a platform’s total market share, homing in on “smartphones” specifically rather than mobile devices gives a skewed representation of total platform penetration. It would be a fairer analysis to count all the tablets,smartphones, and all-in-one portables (i.e., the iPod Touch) powered by Android and iOS and comparing those side by side.
Jim Dalrymple of The Loop gives an apt analogy on the matter in an April blog post:
That would be like comparing one model of Mercedes against all cars that GM makes and saying the Mercedes is losing. It just doesn’t make any sense. You can’t have it both ways. You either have to compare hardware devices or operating systems, you can’t mix and match.
A Nielsen spokesman acquiesced when we made the point mentioned above, but countered with an emphasis on how smartphones are one of the more important metrics to watch.
“Smartphones are really driving a lot of the innovation around the different platforms right now,” Nielsen spokesman Don Kellogg said in an interview. “When you look at the smartphone manufacturer share, it’s still very small compared to Apple or even RIM.”
That point highlights the other very important part of the survey. While Android may or may not reign in the smartphone realm, Apple leads the pack as the top smartphone manufacturer with its 28-percent share. RIM, which also owns both its software and hardware, is second in command with 20 percent. HTC also accounts for 20 percent of the hardware market, when taking into account both its Android phone and its Microsoft OS-powered devices.
Which are numbers that may ultimately matter more than platform penetration.
“These things matter from the perspective of securing the deepest level of customer loyalty,” Forrester analyst Charles Golvin told Wired.com. “Because of their vertical integration Apple gets both loyalty components and cements a deeper customer relationship as a result.”
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
