Hasta La Gadget!

Sure, you still may not be able to easily find an iPad 2 here in the US, but you can now sleep soundly knowing that the Japanese pen pal you had in elementary school could be rocking one by the end of the week. Amidst all the hub-bub about location tracking and pasty iPhones, Apple let slip that the WiFi iPad 2 will be available in Japan on April 28th, just as promised, coming to Hong Kong, India, Israel, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates a day later, then hitting China on May 6th. Local pricing is not confirmed, but suggested retail pricing matches US MSRPs ($499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB, $699 for 64GB). 3G models are said to match US pricing as well ($629, $729, and $829), but Apple isn’t confirming when they’ll be available abroad, so at least you still have something over Katsumi.

Continue reading iPad 2 extends its global reign of terror to Singapore, Japan, 9 other countries this week

iPad 2 extends its global reign of terror to Singapore, Japan, 9 other countries this week originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 11:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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1. Why is Apple tracking the location of my iPhone?
Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.

The big hubbub that arose last week around location tracking within the iPhone has now received its due response from Apple itself. Firstly, the Cupertino company claims it does not, and has no plans to, track users’ iPhones. What it’s actually doing is “maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location,” which are then used to provide speedier calculation of your position when you want to use the device’s maps or other location-based services. The data collection that was recently brought to the public attention represents, according to Apple, the location of WiFi hotspots and cell towers around you, not your actual iPhone. Still, the fact iPhones have been shown to store as much as a year’s worth of data is considered a bug by Apple, who plans to limit that period to a week in a future software update. The additional issue of data being collected after users turned off Location Services is also a bug, also to be fixed by Apple in that upcoming update. Left unanswered, however, are the questions of when Apple “uncovered” these bugs, as it claims, and why the fix for them is only coming now. Specialists have known about this behavior since at least September of last year. Either way, the software remedy is promised over the next few weeks, while the next major iteration of iOS should encrypt the cache file that’s been the subject of all the scrutiny. You’ll find the full Q&A after the break.

P.S. — One of Apple’s answers seems to disclose an extra bit of new information: “Apple is now collecting anonymous traffic data to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years.”

Continue reading Apple officially answers questions on location tracking, says it doesn’t do it

Apple officially answers questions on location tracking, says it doesn’t do it originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVO and MyTouch 4G owners have been able to enjoy the virtues of video calling via Qik for some time, but Skype’s latest acquisition is finally letting a few more phones in on the action. Qik Video Connect now works with some devices running Android 2.1 and up, iPhones, iPad 2s and any iPod Touch with a camera — letting Apple fanboys and Android apologists speak face to face over 3G, 4G, and WiFi with the device of their choosing. It’s not the first app to do cross-platform video calling, but it is the only one with Qik’s video mail and video sharing services. The catch? It’s only currently available on ten Android handsets, though dev teams are “busy getting Video Chat ready on additional phones.” Let’s hope they work quickly.

Qik Video Connect gets Android and Apple users seeing eye-to-eye originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Apr 2011 02:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the past six months, Android’s appeal has grown while desire for iOS and Blackberry devices shrinks. Source: The Nielsen Company

What type of smartphone are you planning on purchasing next?

If you answered Android, you are now in the majority.

According to surveys conducted by Nielsen for January to March 2011, 31% of consumers plan to make their next smartphone purchase an Android handset. 30% said they’d be getting an iOS device. Those numbers are up for Android since July to September 2010, when only 26% were planning on an Android for their next purchase and 33% wanted an iPhone.

A number of solid Android handsets have been released so far this year, with attractive features like 4G connectivity, large 4-inch+ displays, and speedy processors. And with the addition of in-app billing and the Amazon App Store, Android’s historically underwhelming app ecosystem is looking more appealing for both app developers and their app purchasing audience. Sales for Android devices like the HTC Thunderbolt have reportedly been strong, often outpacing that of the iPhone 4.

But iOS wasn’t the only smartphone to decline in popularity. Research in Motion’s BlackBerry also felt the pinch, with consumer favor for the OS dropping from 13% in 2010 to 11% in the first quarter of 2011.

Smartphone market shares as of March 2011. Source: The Nielsen Company

Not surprisingly, the current shares in the smartphone market reflect that same relationship as these consumer-preference scores. Android handsets dominate with 37% of the market, iOS is currently the second most popular with 27%, and RIM is third with 22%.

But consumers are fickle. Will the release of the next iPhone flip those numbers in Apple’s favor, or will Android gain a large enough foothold that it will dominate for the foreseeable future?

This is the most interesting overall group of photo entries we’ve had in a Shooting Challenge in a long time. The irony? They were taken on your cellphones. More »