March 15, 2010

Fujitsu Preparing For Legal Fight Over iPad Name?

744px-Fujitsu-Logo.svg.pngWith the dust around the newly-launched iPad barely settling, it appears Fujitsu is preparing to fight Apple over the iPad name. As MacRumors uncovered, prior to the launch of iPad, Apple had been filing for the iPad trademark in several countries, but not in the U.S. because that trademark was held by Fujitsu. Later investigation by MacRumors however uncovered that Apple had filed multiple extension requests to extend the allowed timeframe for Apple to oppose Fujitsu’s still-pending trademark application. That said, it does appear that Apple has finally filed for the iPad trademark in the U.S.

The New York Times is reporting that Fujitsu doesn’t intend to allow Apple to go unchallenged, hoping to protect the iPad name of Fujitsu’s retail inventory management device.

“It’s our understanding that the name is ours,” Masahiro Yamane, director of Fujitsu’s public relations division, said Thursday. He said Fujitsu was aware of Apple’s plans to sell the iPad tablet and that the company was consulting lawyers over next steps.

Apple still has until February 28th, 2010 to file its opposition agains Fujitsu’s iPad trademark application. Or they could just file for another extension.

This reminds me of the spat Apple and Cisco had over the “iPhone” name right after the introduction of the first iPhone in January 2007.

SDK iPad Simulator Suggests Camera Support

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With the launch of the long-rumored iPad this week, I was surprised by the device’s lack of camera. CrunchGear is reporting that the iPad simulator included in the new iPhone SDK 3.2 contains hints pointing to the ability to take photos in the Contacts app.

Tucked away within the iPad’s contacts application is an “Add Photo” button, purposed with.. well, adding photos. Everyone likes having photos assigned to their contacts, and there’s more than enough space on this thing to sync photos of all your friends – so nothing too strange there. What is odd, however, is the prompt that pops up: do you want to “Choose Existing Photo”, or do you want to “Take Photo”?

The “Take Photo” button could be included for several reasons. The least likely would be that Apple ported over much of the iPhone code to the device and neglected to remove the button. More likely is the idea that Apple is already working on the second-generation iPad with a camera built in. Another possible hypothesis is the idea that Apple scrapped the inclusion of a camera in the product at the last minute. Only time will tell.

iPad SDK 3.2 Details

6a010535fde333970c011570e9e07c970b-250wi.jpgMacrumors has a list of the largely overlooked announcement from yesterday’s iPad launch regarding iPhone OS 3.2 SDK. iPhone OS 3.2 only runs on iPad and will not run on iPhone or iPod touch. The SDK also reveals some interesting tidbits.

MacRumors:
- External Display Support. iPad applications will be able to display content specifically targeted to an external display connected to the iPad via the Dock connector. This sort of external monitor support has never been allowed with the iPhone SDK.

- File Sharing. A shared file directory is provided that will mount on your Mac or PC. This is presumably how files such as iWork documents will be transferred to and from the iPad. iPad applications will be able to access this shared directory.

- No Multitasking. Only one application runs at a time according to official documentation.

Apple Posts iPad Event Keynote Video

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Apple has released video of today’s keynote wherein Apple launched iPad. It’s worth a watch, and clocks in at around an hour and a half.

Apple Introduces iBooks Store Alongside iPad

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In conjunction with today’s launch of iPad, Apple also launched the iBooks store. iBooks is a virtual bookstore built the iPad. With the applications 3D bookshelf to display the user’s collection of books, a simple tap and you’re in the iBooks store where you can download book previews before you purchase them.

When reading a book, users can tap to the right to flip a page forward, and tap to the left to flip a page back.

The store will open with five major book publishers on board. They are, HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, Penguin, Macmillion, and Simon & Shuster. More are reportedly on their way.

This might just be crazy enough to save the print industry.

Say Hello to iPad

Apple has released it’s much rumored iPad tablet device.
Here are the core facts:

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General
-9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology
-0.5 inches thick
-1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
-Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating
-Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously
-Storage: 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive
-Processor: 1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip
-Accelerometer
-Ambient light sensor
- On screen keyboard. Can use iPad keyboard dock accessory
-Runs all existing iPhone apps
-iBooks (books purchasable from online store. More details forthcoming)

Two models:
Wi-Fi model
-Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
-Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Wi-Fi + 3G model
-UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
-GSM/EDGE (850, 900,1800, 1900 MHz)
-Data only
-Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n)
-Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Location
-Wi-Fi
-Digital compass
-Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model)
-Cellular (Wi-Fi + 3G model)

Battery and Power
-Built-in 25Whr rechargeable lithium-polymer battery
-Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music
-Charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

Input and Output
-Dock connector
-3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
-Built-in speakers
-Microphone
-SIM card tray (Wi-Fi + 3G model only)

In all, I feel that iPad is an evolution and not a revolution. It is striking, but it really does appear to be a big iPhone.

The Wi-Fi iPad model ships in 60 days, and the Wi-Fi+3G model ships in 90 days.

In the mean time you can watch Apple’s official video on there new product.

Introducing the iPad: Coverage of the Apple ‘Come see our latest creation’ Event

10AM: Steve Jobs is on stage.
10:03AM: Apple has 284 retail stores.
10:04AM: Over 140,000 Apps now in the App Store.
10:05AM: $15.6B in FQ1 2010 revenues.
10:06AM: Apple is the largest mobile product company in the world.
10:08AM:Talking about the first Powerbook
10:08AM: “SO all of us use laptops and smartphones… the question has arisen; is there room for something in the middle. We’ve wondered for years as well — in order to create that category, they have to be far better at doing some key tasks… better than the laptop, better than the smartphone.”
10:09AM: “What kind of tasks? Browsing the web. Doing email. Enjoying and sharing pics. Watching videos. Enjoying music. Playing games. Reading ebooks.”"If there’s gonna be a third category, it has to be better at these tasks — otherwise it has no reason for being.”
“Now some people thought that was a netbook — the problem is that netbooks aren’t better than anything!”
10:10AM:

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10:14AM:

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10:15AM: NO Flash Support.

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10:18AM: “Next, photos… this is what photos looks like. I can look at everything as a list of photos. I can tap on it…” Flicks and gestures just like the iPhone.

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10:22AM: iTunes on iPad

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10:24AM: Maps app.

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10:25AM: YouTube and Movies

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10:30AM: Tech Specs Runs 1Ghz Apple A4 Chip. Apparently designed in-house.

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10:32AM: Runs all iPhone apps right out of the box. Can pixel double games to full screen.

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10:35AM “So all of the iPhone apps will run on this. In fact when you buy it, download all the apps you have right onto the iPad. Now if the developer spends some time modifying their app, they can take full advantage of this display.”

10:36AM “We rewrote all of our apps for this display. the iPhone SDK supports development for this now… and we’re releasing it today.”

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10:36:AM: App Store

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10:40AM: Game Demos

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10:45AM New York Times and other print media demos.

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10:49AM: Need for Speed Shift. Graphics are reportedly smooth.

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10:50AM: Chad Evans from MLB.com — “We were excited to build something for the iPad. We had to create a whole new experience for this display.”

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10:52AM: Scott: “While we wait for those apps to come out, we can all run our existing apps… and that is the app story for the iPad.” Steve Jobs is back on stage.

10:53AM “Isn’t that awesome? These guys only had two weeks. So we’ve seen some really great apps. Let me show you another… one of our apps. That’s an ebook reader. Now Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this… we’re going to stand on their shoulders for this. Our new app is called iBooks.”

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Book shelf.

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Five big partners.

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10:56AM: Book Store is similar to iTunes.

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10:58AM “Now, something very exciting… iWork. A little over a year ago I asked the head of our team about creating iWork for the iPad. The reaction was… ‘ahhh they require a lot of horsepower’”

10:59AM “Could the tablet handle that? You betcha. But they required a new UI — here’s Phil Schiller to tell you about it.”

11:00AM Phil Schiller SVP Product Marketing is on stage. “Good morning everyone. iWork is a suite of apps that millions of customers love.”

iWork for iPad.

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Totally redesigned interface for iPad.

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It appears iPad has different keyboards for different needs. Spreadsheet keyboard is different than, text entry keyboard.

11:11AM: “So what are we going to charge for applications like this? We’re gong to charge just $9.99 each.” $10 for Keynote, $10 for Pages, etc

11:12AM “Isn’t it great?” Some slight hesitation. “A few other things. I’d like to talk for a minute about iTunes. The iPad syncs over USB just like an iPhone or iPod.”

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11:13AM “Now I’d like to talk about wireless networking. Every iPad has WiFi… but we’re also going to have models with 3G.”

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11:14AM “Now what does it cost for the data plans? Well in the US carriers charge about $60 a month. We have a real breakthrough. Two awesome plans for iPad owners. The first one gives you 250MB of data a month for $14.99.”

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11:14AM “We have an unlimited plan for just $29.99 a month.”

11:14AM “We have a breakthrough deal with AT&T.” Wow. Some serious sharp intakes of breath here.

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11:15AM “So how do you turn this on and manage it? You can activate this right on the iPad. And there’s no contract — it’s prepaid.”

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11:16AM “So we have a breakthrough deal in the US. We hope to have our international deals in the June / July timeframe. However, all of the iPad 3G models are unlocked, and they use the new GSM microSIMs.”

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11:17AM “WiFI plus 3G if you want it. So iPad. It’s phenomenal. Email is fantastic, best device for photos, great for music, great for video. It runs almost all of the 140k apps on the app store, as well as a whole new generation of apps.”

11:17AM “And the new iBooks application. You can carry literally thousands of books around. And the iWork suite of apps with the best UI we’ve ever seen for something like this.”

11:17AM “What should we price it at?”

11:18AM “And just like we were able to meet or exceed our tech goals, we have met our cost goals… iPad pricing starts at $499.”

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11:18AM “If you listen to the pundits, we’re going to price it under $1000, which is code for $999. When we set out to develop this, we had ambitious tech goals, but we had aggressive price goals.”

11:18AM “And just like we were able to meet or exceed our tech goals, we have met our cost goals… iPad pricing starts at $499.”

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11:20AM “So $499 for 16GB of iPad. That’s our base model. 32GB is $599, 64GB is $799. 3G models cost an extra $130. $629, 729, and 829 with 3G.”

11:20AM “We will be shipping these in 60 days. 3G models will ship in 90 days.”

11:21AM “We’ve got some really great accessories. First one is a dock. You know the slideshow I showed you? When it’s in the dock you have a great picture frame. We have another dock that’s interesting… the keyboard dock.”

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Now playing a demo video. No multitaksing, no phone calls (as far as I can tell).

11:30AM “Do we have what it takes to establish a third category of products?”

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11:31AM “We think we’ve got the goods. We think we’ve done it. Another thing we’re excited about is that there’s already 75m people who know how to use this because of how many iPhones and iPod touches we’ve shipped.”

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And that’s a wrap.

Most of these updates came from Engadget’s live update feed.

Today is the Day. Apple Media Event, Tablet Likely to Be Announced

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Ladies and Gentlemen, we are moments away from the start of Apple’s scheduled media event, wherein it is widely expected Apple will unveil their widely-rumored tablet device.

I will attempt to keep Mactropolis up to date with semi-live updates. So don’t turn that dial.

Apple Pushing Networks to Lower TV Content Pricing on iTunes?

itunes1.jpgFinancial Times is reporting that Apple has been pushing TV networks to lower the prices of their content on the iTunes store, in an effort to bolster what Apple considers low sales of TV episodes. This move would reportedly cut episode pricing in half from the current $1.99 to a new price of $.99.

The plan is seen as an integral part of the iPhone maker’s strategy for the tablet computer, which it is expected to unveil tomorrow.

However, networks are resisting the move as they fear a repeat of the music industry’s pact with Apple in 2003 to sell individual songs for 99 cents on iTunes. The price helped to simplify and boost downloads of digital music but dented album sales .

The report goes on to claim that Apple has been more concerned with print publishers ahead of tablet launch, but Apple will soon be turning their attention once again to the television networks hoping that the tablet will be a suitable platform to leverage against TV networks.

It’s also worth re-mentioning that Apple is rumored to be working on “best of television” packages of TV content that would in effect replace the need for cable TV subscriptions.

Apple Has Released Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.1

btkeyboarddd-1264516142.jpgApple has released Aluminum Keyboard Firmware Update 1.1. This update addresses an issue where a Magic Mouse paired with the same computer as the wireless keyboard, would quickly drain the keyboard’s batteries in significantly less time than normal.
Here’s what Apple’s release notes say about the update:

“…improves battery performance of the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard when used in combination with other bluetooth devices (eg. Magic Mouse, some bluetooth headsets) and addresses an issue with the 2007 aluminum Apple Keyboard and the 2007 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard where a key may repeat unexpectedly while typing.”

You can download the update that weighs a modest 1.52MB, here. You can also read the full release notes here.