Omg Techies !: ipod

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Disney / Associated Press ) - This undated product photo provided by Disney, shows the Disney AppMates. AppMates, is a toy car based on the characters from the company’s “Car’s 2” animated movie. One car sells for $12.99 while a two-pack goes for $19.99. The free app lets kids drive around on different courses by moving the car across the iPad screen.

Crayola allows tots to doodle on the iPad using its iMarker just as they would a crayon on a coloring book. Tweens are able to belt out their favorite Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez tunes on a Disney microphone that turns the tablet into a karaoke machine. And technology accessories company Griffin enables teens to fly its toy helicopter by using the iPhone as a remote control.

This holiday season, toy makers have turned Apple Inc.’s pricey tablet and smartphone into playthings for kids. They figure in this weak economy, parents will be willing to splurge on toys for their children that utilize devices they already have — or want — themselves.

Tiffany Fessler of Gainsville, Ga., certainly was willing to do that even though when she initially bought her $829 iPad she never imagined she’d be sharing it with her 20-month-old son. But whenever she sat down to check emails on the iPad, he’d climb into her lap wanting to use it.

So, Fessler decided to get him the $29.99 Crayola iMarker, which transforms the iPad into a digital coloring book using a Crayola’s free ColorStudio HD application that parents can download. Kids can draw and color using the iMarker, which has a soft tip so it doesn’t scratch the tablet’s glass screen.

“When you have a screaming toddler in a restaurant or any public area, you want to have something to calm him down with,” says Fessler, 39. “This is just another way to keep him entertained.”

That the iPad and iPhone, which can cost as much as $849, have infiltrated the $22 billion toy market this season is no surprise. Smartphones and tablets — particularly Apple products — are more popular than ever with people of all ages. This year, Apple is expected to double the number of iPhones sold to 90.6 million worldwide, according to research firm Gartner. Meanwhile, while the number of iPads sold is expected to triple to 46.7 million.

And Apple products have a certain “cool factor” with kids that toy companies, which can make up to half of their revenue during the holidays, are hoping to tap into. In fact, the iPad and iPhone are among the most coveted electronics this holiday season among kids. About 44 percent of 6- to 12-year-olds want the iPad this year, according to a survey by research firm Nielsen. The iPod touch came in the No. 2 spot with 30 percent, followed by the iPhone at 27 percent.

Not to mention, anyone who’s a parent knows all too well that babies and older kids alike love to fiddle with or drool all over mommy’s iPad. Nearly 40 percent of 2-to 4-year-olds have used a smartphone, iPad or video iPod, according to a survey by nonprofit group Common Sense Media. That number rises to 52 percent for 5- to- 8 year olds. And even 10 percent of infants have used one of the devices before their first birthday.

“It’s mostly something for kids to use in the car or at the doctor’s office,” says Chris Baynes, a toy analyst. “It’s a way to get the kid to be quiet.”

With that in mind, Crayola teamed up with Nashville, Tenn.-based Griffin Technology, which is mostly known for selling iPhone and iPad cases and car chargers, to make the iMarker and the ColorStudio HD app for kids. The iMarker, which is like a stylus that resembles a Crayola marker, is targeted at children ages three and up.

Source - [ washingtonpost.com ]

iOS: Now through December 2, cloud storage provider Box.net is giving away free 50 GB accounts you can use forever. The account is good on your PC too, but to get the 50 GB upgrade, you'll need to download and sign in or register from the iPhone or iPad app.

Basically anyone who uses a Box Personal account on an iOS device will get this upgraded free storage space (increased from the usual 5GB of free space usually doled out). According to Box.net's blog post introducing the offer, you'll also get an increased file size upload limit of 100MB instead of 25MB.

It's unfortunate that Android and other mobile users aren't getting this same love, but one of the comments on the blog post suggest a "fix" (we haven't tested this yet):

Download itunes. Make an account. Go to apple store. Download the app on the device. Create account get 50GB space. Go to the phone's settings and scroll down to Store. Click on logout so it logs you out of your itunes account. Also remember to delete the App off the phone.

You have 50 days from now to grab your 50GB of free space. What do you think? Will you be using Box.net for your cloud storage now?

Box for iPad and iPhone | iTunes App Store via Fat Wallet

Source - [ lifehacker.com ]

By Jonny Evans

Apple now sells as many Macs in a quarter as it once sold in a year, is the world's biggest smartphone maker and dominates the nascent tablet industry in the absence of anything like credible competition. The iPod nanowas an early catalyst for some of this growth, a circumstantial slice of evidence which reinforces expectation of a future iPhone nano, one day.

[ABOVE: Apple's explosive Mac sales.]

Apple has the 'i' factor

Take a look at the graph above. It shows the company's quarterly Mac sales since the turn of the Century. The graph speaks for itself, underlining the big change that happened in Apple's fortunes starting in around 2005. Look at the relative flatness in the graph in the years before 2005, then the bounce,

[This story is from Computerworld's Apple Holic blog. Follow on Twitter or subscribe via RSS to make sure you don't miss a beat.]

What happened in that financial year?

The company was seeing major success with its iPod range. The iPod mini was incredibly popular. In fact, while 2005 was the best year yet for iPod sales, the first quarter of the subsequent year was amazing. And that was the moment the iPod nano appeared, a classic, 'what would Steve do?' moment.

Apple sold 22,497,000 iPods (which included the best-selling iPod mini) in 2005. That was impressive, then it sold an astonishing 14,043,000 iPods in the first quarter of its 2006 financial year. Remember how Apple's years work -- the first quarter in its calendar includes the Christmas season (September - December). And in 2005, that first quarter saw the firm put the iPod nano up for sale.

[ABOVE: Look at the massive growth in iPod sales with the release of the low cost iPod mini (2004) and the subsequent iPod nano.]

Widening the market

The iPod nano was Apple's first full weight flash memory-based music player. People loved the things and the company sold a million in 17-days. People loved its portability.

The market already had the heart for iPod, but iPod nano bought the devices to a wider market, and propelled Apple to set new sales records. Bear in mind that the iPod nano replaced the popular iPod mini, itself only introduced in early 2003, relatively soon after the introduction of the original iPod in 2001.

There's been lots of talk about the iPod halo. Once you put iPod sales up beside Mac sales you can see that halo take effect.

Sure, it starts slowly, but as the years click by and the iPod market grows, you can clearly see a commensurate increase in Mac unit shipments. By the beginning of 2007, Apple's Mac shipments had more than doubled on 2001, while its iPod sales were an incredible 21 million. And that's when Apple cannibalized its own media player with the introduction of the iPhone.

There's plenty of writings on iPhone growth. Now the world's biggest selling smartphone handset and facing stiff competition from imitative ex-manufacturing buddy, Samsung, iPhone sales are booming, now at the expense of iPod sales.

[ABOVE: To my mind, those iPhone (yellow) and iPad (red) sales figures seem to reflect early growth -- there's still upside.]

Become value conscious

All these are boosting Mac sales, which are themselves now seeing a little cannibalization by the industry-defining iPad.

But the story here isn't just growth. The story here is about how Apple has historically succeeded by widening its addressable markets at a time of its own choosing -- before competitors or the media reckon it should. Sometimes the company surprises us by deleting a popular product (such as the iBook or the iPod mini) in favor of a new system.

Android devices are doing well at the moment. Every time someone I know ends up with one, I ask them why. I have to ask them this as every person who does purchase one knows I write about Apple and likes to mention it. They always tell me they chose an Android device because: "It's cheaper than an iPhone." By cheap they mean the initial cost is lower, and the contract terms on offer are slightly better.

Break your preconceptions

Historically, Apple hasn't focused on being the low cost option. Traditionally it focuses on making the best products it can in hope audiences appreciate them. This isn't a hard and fast rule. The iPad is a product which is defining an industry, but which competitors cannot match on price. This shows that Apple can and will compete on price when it thinks it can continue to deliver best-in-class product at a low price point.

Now imagine what an iPhone nano type device could do for Apple's iPhone sales, and how this might impact Apple's shipments in other areas.

Look to 2005/6 and you see Mac shipments break the million mark in Q1 2005 to exceed 1.5 million by the end of 2006. That's as iPod sales grew enormously. What this means is that conversations on how any low cost iPhone moves could widen iPhone sales are only part of the discussion. Also important is how such a strategy could act to once again galvanize Mac sales.

I'm not blind to the argument that Apple may not yet require to make this move. After all, recent PriceGrabber research tells us 35 percent of consumers plan to get themselves an iPhone 5 when that device ships.

However, with smartphone sales set to exceed a billion units by 2016, the company will certainly work to grab as huge a slice of that market as possible. On iPad, iPhone and Mac sales, we really ain't seen nothing yet. Particularly when you consider the impact of Apple's moves to monetize the Chinese market, while creating a template for emerging markets you can next expect to see applied in India, where Apple hasn't yet opened retail stores.

Source -[ blogs.computerworld ]

Though based entirely on “sources” from a Dutch blog, the whispers that Apple could be preparing to launch a 3G-capable iPod touch this Fall are worth listening to. If true, this could have the potential to shift the smartphone landscape and pave the way for the data-only offerings that many customers have been waiting for.

The Scam

As it stands, the wireless carriers are running the show. While competition among them may keep overall prices from going higher than they are, they have agreed upon certain pricing structures that don’t benefit customers – and no longer make any sense. Chief among these are a) text messaging plans, and b) the failure to offer data-only plans.

Maybe in the early days of SMS – when having data capabilities on a phone was a novelty – charging extra for texting made sense. Maybe. Today it is absurd. On a line that already has a voice plan and a data plan, tacking on another $15/month for unlimited texting (which, in the highest use scenarios, might add up to a few MBs of data) is the ripoff of the century.

The problem is – your average consumer doesn’t even know he’s getting hosed. After all, that’s how he’s always been charged, so “I guess that’s just how it is.” The carriers feed on this mentality like vultures on carrion.

The Data-Only Holy Grail

A 3G iPod touch would give people the opportunity to have the biggest thing that carriers have been withholding – a contract-free data-only plan on a high-end phone. This would be monumental.

iPhone Lite

If Apple keeps the same formula that they’ve been using, and keeps the iPod touch a notch or two behind the current iPhone, it would likely be almost an iPhone 5. The 4th gen. iPod touch has several major differences from the iPhone 4:

an inferior camera
a somewhat cheaper display with worse viewing angles (though it keeps the stellar “Retina” resolution)
no GPS capabilities
no earpiece above the screen
the microphone is positioned farther back

A 3G touch with those handicaps would serve as the low-cost “iPhone lite” that has been rumored. It would not only offer a low-cost way to get an (almost) iPhone, but it would be contract-free, and the monthly costs would be affordable for nearly anyone.

iMessage

Apple has already taken a swing at the carriers by introducing iMessage in the upcoming iOS 5. iMessages are free to other users on iOS, and only messages to non-iOS friends count as regular text messages. This iPod touch would have iMessage built in. Users can easily text all of their buddies on iOS using their data plan. Apps like Google Voice, Textfree, or any one of a zillion others could handle the texts to people on other platforms.

Skype

Skype’s business would boom (and Microsoft would look brilliant for buying them), as people would turn to the most popular VoIP provider for their calls. Other services like Fring, Line2, and countless SIP clients would be options as well.

Cheap Bills

If data plans were priced similar to those on the iPad, monthly wireless bills would sink like the Titanic. This chart (worked up several months ago by AllThingsD) compares AT&T’s and Verizon’s iPad data plans:

If you can live with 3GB or less of data per month, you would be paying no more than $35 (before fees) for your 3G iPod touch. That’s $100 less than what some people pay for iPhone plans with voice/data/SMS. If you want an extra cushion and would like 5GB, you’re still saving big at $50/mo.

Upgraded iPod touch?

Of course, if Apple really wanted to go for the carriers’ jugulars, they’d make this the year that the iPod touch catches up with the iPhone. We’re talking the same camera, same screen, GPS, earpiece, and proper microphone. It would essentially be a data-only iPhone. Unfortunately, there are many factors flying in the face of that. The first among those obstacles is cost. If Apple churns out an iPod touch that’s the equal to the iPhone, how are they going to sell it for several hundred dollars less than they sell an unlocked iPhone 4? The answer is simple: they’re not.

Will it happen?

What would suffice would be an iPod touch that keeps the same qualities as previous generations, only it would need two things: an earpiece and a microphone in exactly the same places as they are on the iPhone. Users can live with a worse camera, no GPS, and shoddy viewing angles – if everything else is there. At $300-400 with no contract, it would be the best buy in wireless.

A 3G-capable iPod touch would finally put some power back in consumers’ hands. It would provide a low-cost iPhone alternative, and – perhaps more importantly – it would help educate more customers that data is all you need. More people will question why they’re being billed for voice minutes, text messaging and data. And when the consumers realize that, they will demand it, and carriers will be forced to oblige. It will happen at some point, and Apple is one of the few companies that can help spark that change.

… then the only problem would be preventing the carriers from doubling the cost of those data-only plans.

Source - [ gottabemobile ]

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