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Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10pm ET: iPad no-speculation edition!
It's Sunday, like it or not! If you are in a DST-observing area and remembered to "spring forward," then we'll be right on time for you tonight, 7PM Pacific time, 10pm Eastern. We'll finally be discussing the actual new iPad as opposed to speculating about it; we'll chat about the new updates available for iPhoto and iMovie, and who knows what else. We might even get some updates from SxSW and GDC. Per tradition, Kelly hosting the show means there will be aftershow. Which means...well, anything really, the aftershow has a tendency to wander. Since it's really all about you, the community, join me won't you? To participate, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for +5 Interactivity, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (Viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free X-Lite or other SIP clients (aside from Skype or Google Voice), basic instructions are here. (If you prefer Blink, the pro version is available in the Mac App Store.) Talk to you tonight!
March 2012 Apple Event Metaliveblog: Welcoming our new iPad overlords
Welcome to our March 2012 Apple Event Metaliveblog. Today, we'll be covering an event expected to introduce the next generation of iPad hardware. What else is on offer? Apple TV? iWork 12? We don't know. Join us as we discover along with you! Want to chat with other TUAW readers during the event? Join us in the #tuaw chatroom on irc.freenode.net. Kevin Avila (eddienull) will be moderating.
TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET: The Apple Event episode
After the excitement of the March 2012 Apple Event Metaliveblog has worn off a bit today, you can still discuss the good or somewhat questionable announcements that were made. What did you like? What made you red with anger? Inquiring minds want to know! Today at 5 PM, the lovely and talented Kelly Guimont will be joining me (the not-so-lovely and quasi-talented Steve Sande) for an hour long no-holds-barred discussion of what has transpired. As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel. The chat is now available as well on IRC: join us on server chat1.ustream.tv, chat room #tuaw-tv.
Join TUAW tomorrow for day-long Apple event coverage
The banners are up at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and tomorrow at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST, Apple is expected to announce a new iPad and possibly a new Apple TV. The entire crew here at TUAW would love for you to join us for a day-long celebration of the event. The fun starts tomorrow at 9:30 AM PT / 12:30 PM EST when our chatroom will open up for discussion with the TUAW team. Join us in the #tuaw chatroom on irc.freenode.net. Kevin Avila (eddienull) will be moderating. At 9:45 AM PT / 12:45 PM ET, the official TUAW metaliveblog launches with Erica Sadun behind the keyboard and our new liveblogging tool in control. With this cool new tool, you can scroll back and forth in time to see what you missed while running to the bathroom, and there's absolutely no browser refreshing required. Many thanks to Erik Sagen, Joe Bartlett, and Brett Terpstra for their outstanding work on the front end of the new liveblog tool. This was Joe's first project with the team, and according to Brett he got a "roaring start out of the gate." Kudos to the Blogsmith team for their work on the back end of the system. During and after the liveblog, be sure to check TUAW for breakout posts describing any and all new features and products. At 2 PM PST / 5 PM EST, you can join Kelly Guimont and myself here or at ustream.tv/tuaw for an hour long TUAW TV Live. We'll be talking about the announcement and would love for you to join us. It's all here and all live, tomorrow on TUAW.
Londoners: Join the London MUG for the iPad 3 event on Wednesday
The London Mac User Group knows how to have fun when there are Apple events. According to Steve Naybour of the group, they'll once again be meeting at a pub (this time, the Wood Pub in Marylebone, London) and want any TUAW readers or Apple lovers in the area to drop in. LMUG will be featuring coverage starting at 1730 GMT, with three projector screens on which they'll display the news, video (if any), Twitter feeds, pictures, and liveblogs. Naybour invites "anyone from the site who happens to be in town, or any of your readers ... to come to the free event, grab a beer, a Thai curry and watch the details of the iPad 3." The official Facebook invitation can be found here along with a map to the pub. The group's resident artist Paul Kercal made a special poster to celebrate as seen at right, and even created a short video (below) showing his work as it was progressing. Enjoy the video, and let us know if you attend the get-together on Wednesday.
Daily Update for February 28, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple iPad event confirmed for March 7th in San Francisco
You've heard all the rumors, and now Apple has finally confirmed the details of its next iPad launch event. It will take place on Wednesday, March 7th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. The company is keeping things suitably vague beyond that, of course, promising only that it has "something you really have to see. And touch." You can be sure we'll be there live to find out exactly what that might be.
Notes on the iPhone 4S announcement
Similarly to my previous notes on the iPad 2 launch, here are a few things I noticed about Tuesday's event that were too small to deserve a post of their own. On it being the iPhone 4S and not the iPhone 5 The iPhone 4 is the best selling smartphone in the US. The iPhone 4S presents a solid upgrade over last year's model in several key areas: raw speed, camera performance, and the new Siri voice-recognition technology. And yet, many pundits are disappointed. For a typical example, consider Henry Blodget's post at Business Insider. There's even talk of a company-wide Apple "fall from grace" by Zach Epstein at Boy Genius Report. If you want more where that came from, there's a good round-up of opinions from professional analysts by Charles Arthur at the Guardian. Wall Street was somewhat unhappy too, with Apple shares dropping during the announcement but ultimately rallying to finish down a modest 0.6%. Meanwhile RIM shares dropped to a yearly low, so it seems Wall Street is more skeptical about Apple's competitors than it is about Apple itself. Clearly opinions are mixed. Plenty of people are simply happy, like Dan Frommer and Marco Arment. Others, like MG Siegler (warning, NSFW language), are saying that analysts and pundits "do not understand" Apple and that the backlash is idiotic. And yet... I've spoken with as many family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and Twitter followers that could tolerate me blathering on about Apple again, and I've paid particular attention to the non-technical ones, the normal folk, the not-geeks. Many of them, not all of them but more than half, are slightly negative. They've told me they're "lukewarm" on upgrading, that they are "looking at Android" more seriously, that they were "underwhelmed" by the announcement. One friend waited at the end of his contract for a few months but might stick with his 3GS now. Another wasn't sure if the iPhone 4S was worth the money over the iPhone 4. So do these naysayers have a point? Let me talk for a moment about how I feel. It's my considered opinion that the 4S represents a relatively modest upgrade over the iPhone 4. Having slept on it I've decided that the approximate £275 ($450) it would cost me to upgrade my unlocked 32 GB iPhone 4 is too steep a price to pay for the benefits the 4S would bring me -- but I'm not convinced this is a bad thing. iPhones are expensive devices usually tied to expensive two-year contracts and I don't really want to buy a new one every year. I'm also not convinced Apple can make enough of them for everyone to upgrade every year -- consider how long it was into 2010 before you could stroll into any Apple store and have much hope of finding an iPhone 4 on the shelf to buy. I don't think Tim Cook is losing any sleep because I've decided not to upgrade. Also, looking back, the iPhone 3G wasn't that big of a step forward from the original iPhone (3G chipset, same internals) -- and the 3GS wasn't a huge improvement over the 3G (faster chipset, slightly better camera). Apple's model here is evolutionary changes and I think it's perfectly comfortable with many users being on an "every other" upgrade cycle. It helps a lot that old devices continue to receive new versions of iOS, of course. But! It's important not to lose sight of the fact that value is in the eye of the beholder. Particularly keen photographers, the visually impaired, frequent international travellers: these people will get more value from the iPhone 4S's new features and so find the upgrade cost more reasonable. And also there's (sadly!) plenty of people out there with deeper pockets than I have, who'll care less about the money. Still, though, there's certainly a lot of people out there for whom the absence of a new chassis design for the iPhone seems to be a major problem. Haters gonna hate, as always, and certainly bold "Apple has lost its way! Doooomed!!" headlines will garner cheap pageviews, but is this anything more than that? [Does anyone remember the 3GS update being called disappointing as well? - Ed.] I do wonder if, perhaps, Apple's cone of silence has gone a little too far in recent times and started to work against it. Perhaps it needs to do a little more to calm down the runaway speculation that proceeds one of these big announcements, maybe via some controlled and anonymous leaks. Otherwise these tedious backlashes (and the backlash-backlashses of people criticising the "whiners") will continue. Then again, as Apple continues to print money with everything it makes, it'd be pretty justified in not caring one whit either way. There's also the risk from competitors to consider. Apple is in approximately-annual refresh cycles, so we can assume we're not getting any more iPhones for at least nine months. Does the iPhone 4S take it far enough ahead of the pack of Android, Windows Phone 7, and other smartphone platforms to stay relevant over that timeframe? Certainly, there are crowd-pleasing features that Apple lacks, such as larger screens and LTE or WiMax 4G network access. But again, I keep coming back to the fact that the iPhone 4 and 3GS were selling extremely strongly right up to the eve of this announcement, and they lacked these features too. They matter to some people but I don't think they matter to most. There are two bottom lines here. The first is that for most folk the 4S probably represents a bigger step forward over the 4 than the 3GS was over the iPhone 3, and certainly more than the 3G over the first iPhone -- and yet all those models were huge success stories. I think the 4S will end up doing just fine, a point that even Blodget concedes. As I write this a few hours after pre-orders began, we have the usual stories of websites crashing under huge demand and cellphone operators warning they are running out of stock -- although of course it's how sales go in the first months, rather than the first hours, that really count. But the second point is: no-one actually knows, unless they have a crystal ball hidden away (and I know of no superstar bloggers who win the lottery every week, so that's doubtful). It's possible (but I think unlikely) that Apple committed a strategic gaffe, it's possible (and I think more likely) that the iPhone 4S will sell strongly for the year to come. All we can do is watch and see. Carriers Two things of note in the US carriers part of the announcement. Firstly, Sprint will not be getting just the iPhone 4S but also the 4, which will doubtless help it sell into the middle market as well as the top tier. And the iPhone (in any flavour) is still not available on T-Mobile US. This is probably because the 4S, like previous models, still doesn't support the 1700 MHz frequency band, which T-Mobile uses for its 3G service. Siri Without a doubt, Siri was the most impressive part of the presentation; a real example of what Apple does best. High technology, sure, but tempered with a real depth of thought put into the usability and usefulness of the new features. One open question about Siri is when its language support will improve. Ominously, Apple states that "Siri is available in Beta only on iPhone 4S and requires Internet access. Siri may not be available in all languages or in all areas, and features may vary by area. Cellular data charges may apply." Surveying the various international pages for Siri suggests that, at least at launch, it will support English (US, Australian and UK), French and German. However, on all the other iPhone 4S pages I looked at, Siri isn't mentioned as a feature. Bafflingly, this includes other English-language countries such as Canada and Ireland, plus Japan, Spain, Mexico, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, and Denmark. Of course, it is clearly marked as "beta" and Phil Schiller promised more languages would be added without promising which ones or when. This will inevitably dent sales of the 4S in many countries, as Siri is a banner feature for the new hardware and a big part of the reason to choose a 4S over an iPhone 4. Another improvement I'd like to see made to Siri in the future is an API to allow arbitrary apps to plug into it. For example, if I tell Siri "show me the way to go home" I want it to load CoPilot rather than Google Maps. This seems like one of those things Apple naturally fills in later; it couldn't do anything before the announcement, of course, without giving the game away as to how deeply integrated Siri was. However it could introduce UI problems as presumably the user would need extra configuration screens to manage exactly which apps would be triggered by various Siri actions. That same footnote on the Siri page also says "requires Internet access." We never did find out exactly what that big data center Apple built was for -- given that iTunes content is mostly stored in CDNs and iCloud is implemented on top of Microsoft's Azure and Amazon's EC2 platforms. I'm speculating that at least some of that data center's huge processing capacity is for Siri, and that at least some portion of Siri's sophisticated voice recognition works in the cloud. Presumably not all of it, otherwise it won't work when you are in a weak signal area; but consider what happens when you dictate text to the Siri software. It reads the text back and asks you to confirm that you are happy with the transcription. This is a classic setup for machine learning algorithms, and I think perhaps that each time you teach Siri a correction for a word it is uploaded to the cloud and, eventually, downloaded to everyone else's Siri implementations. There's very few effective ways to build a phoneme database of all the world's dialects and accents, but this would work (for a fascinating look at how Google solved the same problem, look at the history of GOOG-411). If my rampant and baseless speculation is correct, this means that Siri is a huge, powerful, learning network with nodes all around the world. Hopefully it'll never become self-aware, eh? On the iPhone 3GS, the iPod touch, and fragmentation The 3GS is still available on two year contracts for the foreseeable future. That means it'll still have nominally up-to-date users well into 2014, six years after it was introduced. That's a very long time in cell phones -- take a look at PCWorld's "best phones of 2005" for a reminder of how long. This may be challenging for devs to cope with because it widens the performance gap between the best and worst models they might reasonably be expected to support. This isn't the same fragmentation problem as Android faces, as the 3GS will run iOS 5 so the software is the same. Nevertheless, it might introduce problems, particularly for games developers. We've already seen some "iPad 2 only" and "iPhone 4 only" games here at TUAW and this trend might accelerate in the future, leaving 3GS owners out in the cold. However, in an unusual move Apple didn't upgrade the iPod touch to the same A5 CPU and powerful GPU fitted to the iPhone 4S. Smaller games devs might therefore prefer not to allocate resources to making games take full advantage new faster chips. As Apple said itself at the event, the iPod touch is very significant in the games market. App developers writing performance-sensitive apps will have to ask themselves some tough questions about how to best optimise those apps over the coming year. (I'd speculate, incidentally, that this was a move to ringfence A5 production capacity for the iPhone 4S and prevent component shortage. Apple is working hard to ensure the iPhone 4S is as widely available as possible). Also, at least here in the Europe, the 3GS is still very expensive without a contract -- £329 ($510) in the UK. Despite Tim Cook's talk of how Apple only has 5% of the entire phone market, it seems to have not yet decided the time is right for an aggressive push into the pre-pay market, and for that they are going to have to sell a much, much cheaper iPhone. The time might never be right for them to do that. Trading profit margin for market penetration isn't a common Apple tactic. Conclusion Apple is a big, secretive company. Which means the best time to figure out what is on its hivemind is when it makes bold, public moves like launching flagship products. I'd say that the iPhone 4S announcement shows a company confident in its existing products, willing to stick with an existing chassis design and risk disappointing a few people with sky-high expectations. It shows a firm still pushing the envelope in unexpected and imaginative directions, a firm that can "innovate at the margins" as Jason Kottke puts it -- instead of a bigger screen or thinner phone, we got revolutionary voice technology. It shows a vibrant company that, even in the wake of the tragic loss of its most prominent genius, is still fascinating to watch and a pleasure to purchase things from. I will continue to enjoy doing both.
Daily Update for October 4, 2011: Special "Let's Talk iPhone" edition
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. Today, we bring you a special edition dedicated to news of the Apple "Let's Talk iPhone" event. You'll get all the highlights of today's announcements in just seven minutes. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Apple shares huge iPhone sales and approval numbers
Tim Cook, subdued as he is today, was probably most excited this morning when talking about just how well the iPhone has done lately. The iPhone 4 specifically, says Cook, has continued to sell like crazy, and in fact now makes up half of the sales of the iPhone in total, overcoming both the original and the 3G and 3GS in units. "That momentum is far outpacing the industry," said Cook in today's event. Customer satisfaction is huge for the phone as well -- the iPhone is consistently rated number 1 in every survey Cook says he can find, and 93% of the Fortune 500 companies are currently testing or deploying the iPhone in their operations. All of that, says Cook, has given the iPhone just a 5% share in the handsets market around the world. Note that that's handsets as a whole, not just smartphones. Cook says the company is aiming to go even higher with the iPhone. "I could have shown a much larger number if I just showed smartphones, but that's not how we look at it," he said. Cook also promised more iPhone news later on today.
Tim Cook announces impressive Apple Retail Store numbers
Photo courtesy Engadget Tim Cook has taken the stage in San Francisco to kick off today's Apple event, and he's shared some big numbers for Apple's retail stores. The company's largest store in Asia boasted more than 100,000 visitors in just its opening weekend. Cook says Apple was impressed when its LA store had over 100,000 visitors in a month, so that weekend must have been really busy. The Hong Kong store also had a solid turnout, selling more Macs on its first day open than the company has at any other store in the world. Apple currently has 357 stores in 11 different countries, says Cook, and "many more are coming."
TUAW meta-liveblog of the Apple "Let's talk iPhone' event
The wait is over. Today we'll all find out what new device(s) Apple has ready to go. Whether it's one or two new iPhones -- an iPhone 4S, an iPhone 5, or both -- we're ready for our questions to be answered during today's presentation. Want to chat before, during, or after the event? Join #tuaw on irc.freenode.net As usual, TUAW is providing commentary on the announcements through our meta-liveblog. We're sorry to say that the page does not auto-refresh, so please use Command-R or your refresh button to bring up new content regularly.
Why the iPod touch 3G makes no sense
Amongst the frenzied speculation that tomorrow's media event will see new iPhones and the end of the iPods both Shuffle and Classic, there's also been some lower-key talk of a possible "iPod touch 3G", designed to sit halfway between the iPad 3G and the iPhone. I must confess, this makes very little sense to me. Here's why. First problem: the hardware Chris Rawson and I previously went back and forth on the differences between the iPod touch and the iPhone. It comes down to two things: the addition of the cellular technology stack in the iPhone (the baseband chip, antenna, and larger battery to power it) and the use of a few lower-cost components in the iPod (particularly the screen, chassis, camera, and RAM). So if you graft the cell stack onto an iPod touch, what you actually end up with is physically indistinguishable from a low-end cut-price iPhone. Packing in that extra hardware dictates sacrificing the iPod's slim chassis and most of its price advantage. There's nothing left to distinguish it from the iPhone product range any more. This runs counter to Apple's normal strategy, which is to leave very clear gaps between product lines and avoid losing sales to analysis paralysis. Now, perhaps I'm just being pedantic here. So what if the hardware is really just a diluted iPhone; what's in a name anyway? Surely the thing people are really getting excited about is the idea of a cheap data-only plan, just like the iPad has. Well, I'm not sure it's that easy, unfortunately. Second problem: the carriers The iPad has enjoyed enthusiastic support from the cellphone carriers despite Apple mandating its unusual and remarkably cheap data-only no-commitment plans. I claim that the iPod touch would have at best a lukewarm reception and more likely a downright hostile one. I've spent a fair bit of time with cellular network industry insiders over the years and if you get talking to them a common view of the carriers' opinion of the future quickly emerges. The carriers are all deeply, deeply scared of what is usually referred to in telco slang as "carrier commoditization": the idea that the less attached the users are to a service the easier it is for them to move to competitors. This introduces severe downward pressure on prices -- great for users, not so great for the shareholders. GigaOM has a good essay that discusses carrier commoditization in detail. What the carriers desperately want is to preserve the status quo. They want to offer dozens of overlapping plans with confusing naming schemes, thus ensuring as many users as possible are on the wrong plan for their needs. Either users don't have as many bundled discount minutes, messages and data as they use, and pay overage charges; or they select a bigger bundle than they need and overpay that way; or, when contract renewal time comes around, they stay with their current provider out of laziness or sheer confusion. The carriers want long contract terms to lock customers in and reduce churn. The carriers want to promote their own brands as much as possible, which is why so many non-Apple handsets have carrier-specific apps and carrier-specific logos all over them. The carriers want to own the user and anyone who stands between them and the end-user is to be feared and, if at all possible, avoided. Data-only no-lock-in plans like those designed for the iPad threaten this business model. With fewer competing numbers to baffle consumers with, it becomes far easier to shop around between carriers and compare prices. Without artifacts like your phone number tied to the carrier, it becomes trivial to move between operators -- in the same way as a webmail email address makes it easy to change your home ISP without having to tell everyone that your bender.bending.rodriguez@planetexpress.com email address no longer works. The wide carrier support for the iPad can be explained because -- quite obviously -- no-one out there is ditching their normal phone contract in favor of an iPad (well, except perhaps for Dom Joly.) Of course there are also Mifi-type mobile hotspots, and even the awkwardly weird ZTE Peel -- but these devices also can't be reasonably combined with an iPod touch to replace a phone, because they can't receive incoming calls when they're switched off (and they have awful battery life to boot). As such they are "secondary" devices that allow the carriers to extract a second modest monthly fee from a customer who's almost certainly already carrying a phone with a premium contract attached. That's fine, but the second these cheap data plans start taking a bite of the lucrative contract market will be when the carriers drop them like a hot potato. That's exactly what a data-only iPod touch 3G on an iPad-style data plan would be. Apple managed an end-run around the carriers with the iPhone. It brings in high-value customers by the metric ton but those people aren't customers of the network -- a Verizon iPhone is the same as an AT&T iPhone, so the customer belongs to Apple, not the carrier. Have no doubt that this sort of thing induces deep conflicts in the carrier's management and sleepness nights for the senior staff. It's my belief that support for an iPod touch 3G would be a bridge too far for them. But perhaps I'm wrong about this too, and maybe either one carrier (perhaps a hungry third-tier company like Sprint) will bite the bullet or maybe enterprising hackers will figure out a way to make iPad SIMs work in an iPod (expect Apple to make at least a token effort to prevent this, to placate the carriers). What next? Who's going to buy this? Third problem: the users Who needs just data on a mobile device, and doesn't care about voice or text messaging? I think there's less of a market for this mythical device than many people believe. There are people who already have a phone, of course -- say, folk who are locked into a contract, or have a phone provided by work, but would really like to also have an Apple device with mobile data access. I can't deny those people must exist, but are there enough of them to justify a device mostly designed for them? It seems unlikely to me. It's not hard to find tech bloggers who will tell you they "hardly use voice calls any more" -- I'm one of them, in fact. It's a rare month that I use more than 50 of the thousands of free minutes that come bundled with my unlimited data iPhone plan. So surely ditching the voice (and maybe even SMS) parts of our plans to save a few bucks makes perfect sense, right? We can always use Skype or Google Voice to make those few remaining calls. I'm not so sure. It's true I rarely use voice but I still need it around for actual emergencies -- in case of car breakdowns, or accidents, or sudden illness, or an airline misplacing my baggage. These are exactly the times when I need the highest level of reliability from my voice service. However, at no point in my years of using it has Skype ever struck me as a service that has the highest level of reliability. As the Skype website itself notes, "No emergency calls with Skype. Skype is not a replacement for your telephone and can't be used for emergency calling." I can't comment on Google Voice -- because it's only available to US citizens, which is a very good reason that you can't rely on that either. Even if you are willing to trust a VOIP service, it's still no use when you have only a borderline GPRS nine-point-eight-kbit data connection, or if you're traveling and don't care to pay your cell operator's horrifying data roaming fees. The bottom line here is that I feel that even if (for some people) voice communication isn't frequently used any more, that doesn't mean it's not important -- any more than house insurance isn't important because your house hasn't caught fire recently. Wrapping up So, that's why I think an iPod touch 3G is highly unlikely, tomorrow or in the foreseeable future. Think I'm an idiot? Hit the comment form below and tell me so. And whether you agree or not, be sure to join us for our liveblog of the media event where we'll be covering the fun and frolics! And now for the inevitable weaselly footnote where I cover myself in case it turns out Apple is smarter than me. The thing I think we could see tomorrow that will scratch many people's itch for an iPod-with-data is a pay-as-you-go iPhone. In fact, here in Europe we've been able to get the last few iPhones on a no-contract basis (at a hefty upfront premium, of course) so this wouldn't be a radical shift in policy for Apple. We can also get tariffs with tiny numbers of voice minutes but generous data allowances, which is a basically a back door to the same end-point -- a no-contract iPhone that the user can move between cheap plans on different operators as easy as swapping a SIM card. But, please: no-one tell the carriers, or they'll catch on and stop offering these plans! In any event, this would be a significant change on the part of the US carriers, so we'll see if AT&T and Verizon can ante up and offer some appropriate plans -- and Apple can ship a "world phone" handset that works on all the US networks.
Daily Update for October 3, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes, which is perfect for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Join the TUAW team tomorrow for the iPhone event liveblog
All of us at TUAW are giddy with anticipation about what tomorrow's "Let's Talk iPhone" event will bring. We would love to have you be our guest for a special meta-liveblog of the event, with the latest breaking news and commentary from our staff of bloggers. The liveblog will begin about fifteen minutes before the event kickoff at 9:45 AM PDT (12:45 PM EDT), with our very own Erica Sadun taking the helm. Be sure to bookmark the liveblog page for tomorrow's event. There will not be a chat room this time, but rest assured that we'll be giving you all the news and our take on it. The liveblog will be followed by our usual detailed coverage of the announcements, complete with analysis of the features, oddities, availability, pricing, and competition. It's going to be an exciting day, and the TUAW team is ready to bring you the best coverage on the web!
TUAW Talkcast: Wow, I wonder what's happening this week?
Hmmm, I wonder if anything is going to happen this week? It's not as if the world's most valuable company is going to have a public announcement or anything... We'll talk about the many rumors buzzing around about the iPhone 4S and/or iPhone 5, throw out our own opinions, and see what you have to say. That's what's on the agenda for tonight's TUAW Talkcast: Anticipating the upcoming announcements at the iPhone event on Tuesday. We'll review the week's news as well, and of course your questions and comments make the show better each time. To participate, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for +5 Interactivity, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Blink or X-Lite SIP clients, basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!
The secret numerology behind the iPhone event invitation
It's been announced. Invitations to Apple's iPhone event on October 4th have been sent out, and we asked famed numerology expert Helmut Weltschmertz (see photo at right) of the Koblenz Institute of Numerology and Used Car Sales to tell us exactly what the numbers and symbols on the invitation meant. Here's what Dr. Weltschmertz was able to surmise for TUAW: The Calendar icon -- "Here, Apple is telling us that there will be "tues" ("two" in some ancient foreign tongue lost in history) devices to be announced. The number 4 is below the word Tuesday, indicating that both new iPhones are 'raised above' or more capable than the iPhone 4. Some might say that this is indicating the date of the event, but there's much more to this icon than meets the eye." The Clock icon -- "The hands of the clock are pointing at both the number 10 and the number 12. Actually, the second hand is also pointing at the number 12. Add those numbers up -- 12 + 12 + 10 -- and you get the number 34. This is very telling ... Steve Jobs' birth mother Joanne Simpson was remarried to George Simpson when she was 34 years old, which proves that the government is covering up everything that happened at Area 51 in 1966. But I digress. There's a progression there. 3 ... 4 ... 5! Yes! The iPhone 5 will be announced!" The Maps icon -- "280 in the shield on this icon is an obvious indication that iOS 5 will be released and has 280 new or improved features. The meaning of the intersection of the yellow and orange lines is also obvious to anyone with half a brain -- it means that Apple's new products will come in two colors, orange and yellow. The red pin signifies that this icon might fall off of the web page and someone stuck a pin into it to keep that from happening." The Phone icon -- "Ah, yes, the number 1. It can mean many things. One is the loneliest number, and its location on the upper right-hand corner of the icon has special meaning. That points to the northeast, and in the olden days of America, that's where witches were burned -- in the northeast part of the country. It is obvious to anyone that there is magic and witchcraft involved in the design of the new phones. The green pinstripes on the background portend an event where all of the Apple executives will be wearing suits. The white phone icon even has deep meaning. Note that it looks exactly like a silhouette of a fetus, which points to the birth of a new era of technology, cheap beer, and world peace." Alrighty, then. We thank Dr. Weltschmertz for his, uh, insights into the Apple event invitation.
Report: Apple to hold media event on October 4th, Tim Cook to unveil iPhone 5
We have yet to receive official word on this, but All Things Digital is reporting today that Apple's next big media event will be held on October 4th, where freshly minted CEO Tim Cook is expected to unveil the iPhone 5. Sources close to the situation say Cook will be the main presenter at the event, with execs Phil Schiller, Scott Forstall and Eddy Cue playing supporting roles. This would mark the first time that Cook has actually led an Apple event, adding an extra wrinkle of significance to an already highly anticipated occasion. The site's sources went on to say that the next-gen iPhone will be available for purchase "within a few weeks" of the announcement, though All Things Digital acknowledges that the exact date of its unveiling is still subject to change. As always, we'll be sure to keep you posted as soon as we hear more.
Steve Jobs said to be considering attending iPad 2 event
Word on the street is that our own Uncle Steve, currently on medical leave from his post as CEO of Apple, may be planning another public appearance, specifically at the (iPad 2) press event tomorrow. You may remember Medical Leave Steve from such appearances as dinner with the President, and walking on Apple's campus. What's interesting to me is the possibility raised by Kara Swisher. She has an interesting piece over on AllThingsD about her concerns that Steve showing up will be the real headline from the event, regardless of what we hear about the next generation of iPad. It makes sense he'd want to be there, even just behind the scenes. We've heard tell of meetings in his home about the next generation iThings, so of course, he'd want to show up to see their grand debut. On the other hand, given the health-related scrutiny he's already under, maybe he'll stay away so there's no chance of his appearance on stage being the headline grabber as people wildly speculate about how he's doing. If he appears on stage, that'll be nice, and I'll be glad to see him since, apparently, my invitation to dinner with Uncle Steve and the President got lost in the mail. If he doesn't walk out in his black mock turtleneck and jeans, I like to think he'll be backstage so that at least he can peek out and watch the event without being a distraction. Not that it matters much either way; we'll all be glued to the live coverage to learn about the new hotness from Cupertino.
We're liveblogging from Apple's iPad 2 event tomorrow... be there!
There's really no telling what could happen tomorrow at Apple's little event. Sure, the company could talk about its success with iOS devices, how well the iPad has sold, and then introduce a brand new version of the wildly popular tablet... but maybe there'll be surprises too. We can't say for sure at this point, but that's okay, because come 10AM PST (1PM EST), we're going to be delivering all the news as it happens with the industry's best liveblog right here on Engadget. If you want to follow along with the action, tune into this URL right here at the times below tomorrow. Just make sure you've got the popcorn and sodas ready -- this is going to be a fun one. 08:00AM - Hawaii 10:00AM - Pacific 11:00AM - Mountain 12:00PM - Central 01:00PM - Eastern 06:00PM - London 07:00PM - Paris 09:00PM - Moscow 11:30PM - Mumbai 03:00AM - Tokyo (March 3rd) 05:00AM - Sydney (March 3rd)
