Over the seven days prior to July 18, iPhone users in Australia, Canada and the UK have been playing at designing and creating their own theme park with the popular application Happy Theme Park. The game, which was the most downloaded free iPhone application over the last week, allows users to create, customize and manage all aspects of their own theme park from installing rides to hiring staff …
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iPhone users designing their own theme parks with popular app
A game for the iPhone called Smack That Gugl has proved popular with iPhone users across North America, Europe and Australia over the last week. The free iPhone application challenges players to tap as many of the otherworldly ‘Gugl’ creatures as they can before the blob-like animals explode. Other popular iPhone apps around the world included voice-to-text recognition in China and a personality …
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iPhone users around the world ‘Smack That Gugl’
A game for the iPhone called Smack That Gugl has proved popular with iPhone users across North America, Europe and Australia over the last week. The free iPhone application challenges players to tap as many of the otherworldly ‘Gugl’ creatures as they can before the blob-like animals explode. Other popular iPhone apps around the world included voice-to-text recognition in China and a personality …
Continued here:
iPhone users around the world ‘Smack That Gugl’
BusinessInsider relays an analyst report from Avian Securities which claims that the iPhone 5 won’t start production until September and that this suggests that next generation iPhone won’t make it to the market until the end of the year or even early next.
Supporting out comments over the last month, conversations with yet another key component supplier indicates that production for iPhone-5 will begin in September. This is consistent with Avian findings in the supply chain in recent months and we believe the consensus view is moving towards this scenario.
Avian cites “key component suppliers” as the source of the information. They also revive the possibility of a cheaper/lower cost iPhone also in the works, but no new details.
While some may tire of the on-again/off-again nature of these rumors, the information from Avian is consistent with previous claims that no new iPhone hardware would be coming in June as well as claims that due to part production timelines, the iPhone 5 won’t be shipping until Fiscal 2012 (after September 2011).
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Forbes today released its annual list of the world’s billionaires, ranking Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a tie for 110th place with a net worth of $8.3 billion. Jobs’ net worth is up from $5.5 billion and 136th place in last year’s rankings. Jobs’ net worth also ranks 34th among billionaires in the United States.
In March the Apple founder made a surprise appearance at the unveiling of his iPad 2, after taking medical leave in January. Insanely creative Apple chief transforms a multibillion-dollar industry every few years. First, personal computers with Apple II, Macintosh; then film with Pixar; music (iTunes), mobile (iPhone). Now iPad is treated as messiah tablet, savior for publishing industry. Apple still sells computers, but twice as much revenue now comes from music distribution and hand-held devices. Shot past long-time rival Microsoft as world’s most valuable tech company in May. Shares of Apple surged more than 80% over the last year. Still, the majority of Job’s fortune comes from Disney; as largest shareholder he owns about $4.4 billion of stock. Reed College dropout founded Apple 1976.
Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim Helu holds the top spot for the second consecutive year with a net worth of $74 billion, easily outdistancing Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his $56 billion fortune. Despite strong growth in the fortunes of other billionaires, Gates’ net worth has remained relatively stable over the past few years as he and his wife Melinda have siphoned off over $28 billion to support their foundation’s philanthropic endeavors.
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The first report indicates that AT&T will be simplifying its text messaging plans as of January 23rd, doing away with the existing plans offering 200 messages per month for $5 or 1500 messages per month for $15 and replacing them with a single plan offering 1000 messages per month for $10. The unlimited messaging plan priced at $20 per month will remain.
The document indicates that users currently on either of the two messaging plans being discontinued with be grandfathered in and be able to stay with their current plans, even through device upgrades.
According to the second report, Best Buy’s training documents for its retail staff are offering arguments (apparently reprinted from a BGR report from last week) noting that with Verizon having spent significant time at CES 2011 earlier this month touting its 4G network and forthcoming devices, the Verizon iPhone will already be outdated at its launch.
Verizon’s entire presence at CES last week was focused on one thing and one thing alone: 4G. Its LTE network is now live in 38 markets and a flurry of 4G phones will launch in the coming months. But their iPhone… the smartphone millions of Verizon Wireless subscribers have been dying for… is a 3G device.
The presumption is that Best Buy will not be carrying the Verizon iPhone for some time after the device’s launch, making it advantageous for the retailer to convince customers to purchase alternative phones available in its stores. But at the same time, the company’s arguments also curiously seem to argue against the AT&T iPhone, which is also a 3G device and available from Best Buy.
We’ve similarly heard from AT&T employees, even those who are not involved in customer-facing positions, who have received “talking points” from the company about why the iPhone on AT&T is better than the Verizon iPhone. Among the key talking points being highlighted by AT&T: network speed (memo claims 35% faster than Verizon on average nationally), ability to talk and surf simultaneously (memo claims one-third of customers use it daily), global network coverage, and Wi-Fi hotspots.
The memo goes on to note that AT&T is proud to have partnered with Apple over the last three and a half years on a ground-breaking device and that it continues to be on “great terms” with Apple. Finally, AT&T points to the fact that two-thirds of its iPhone users were already AT&T customers to begin with, and 80% of iPhone subscribers are on family or business plans, which make it more difficult to switch carriers.
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Prominent British international business newspaper Financial Times today announced that it has selected Apple CEO Steve Jobs as its “Person of the Year” for 2010, marking yet another accolade for the company and its leader that have seen remarkable success over the last decade.
A rebuttal of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s much-quoted aphorism that there are no second acts in American life does not come more decisively than this. When Steven Paul Jobs first hit the headlines, he was younger even than Mark Zuckerberg is now. Long before it was cool to be a nerd, his formative role in popularising the personal computer, and Apple’s initial public offering on Wall Street – which came when Mr Jobs was still only 25 – made him the tech industry’s first rock star.
Now, three decades on, he has secured his place in the foremost ranks of the West Coast tech titans who have done so much to shape the world around the turn of the millennium
As with many profiles of Jobs, the article focuses on Jobs’ salesmanship and attention to detail, aspects of his personality that can drive the company to achieve remarkable design standards but also result in him being viewed as a “stern taskmaster” obsessing over the every aspect of Apple’s products.
The iPad is the culmination of an approach that he has seemingly been perfecting for his entire career. Those who have laboured under him describe him as a stern taskmaster who understands the art of the possible, rather than a long-range visionary. That means pushing relentlessly forward rather than milking old successes even ones as significant as the iPod.
Earlier this month, Jobs was named Marketwatch‘s CEO of the Decade, mirroring a similar honor bestowed on him by Fortune in late 2009.
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An analyst report making the rounds on Monday suggests that Verizon Wireless has seen its smartphone growth lag over the last few months, while iPhone sales have taken off. According to the report, from ITG Investment Research, AT&T saw iPhone sales grow from 2.7 million devices in the first quarter to 5.7 million in the third …
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Report Says iPhone Kicking Droid’s Posterior
Over the last few months, Apple has taken some heat for its decision to continue utilizing Intel’s Core 2 Duo processors in its smaller notebook models, including the 13-inch MacBook Pro, MacBook and new MacBook Air, while the larger MacBook Pro models have incorporated more powerful Core i5 and i7 processors. Rather than it being a cost-saving move or an intentional crippling of the cheaper machines, however, the decision is related to a dispute between Intel and NVIDIA that has prevented NVIDIA from offering integrated graphics packages for Intel’s Arrandale processors.
Given that design constraints inherent in the smaller notebook sizes prevented Apple from offering discrete graphics packages to pair with Intel’s i-series processors, the company was left with deciding between using Intel’s inferior “HD” integrated graphics with the latest i-series processors or sticking with the Core 2 Duo processors for which NVIDIA could provide its own integrated graphics solution. Apple ultimately decided that “killer graphics” would address the biggest performance bottleneck and thus opted to pair the Core 2 Duo with a custom-built GeForce 320M graphics package from NVIDIA in its smaller notebooks.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Intel and NVIDIA have settled their dispute, and while the details of the settlement have not been made public, many observers have hoped that it could allow Apple to use a package of Intel’s latest processors with NVIDIA integrated graphics for better performance.
But a new report from CNET claims that Apple, impressed by Intel’s forthcoming Sandy Bridge processors that will offer enhanced integrated graphics capabilities, has already decided to adopt the all-Intel solution for its smaller notebooks, squeezing out NVIDIA.
Intel’s newest processor, to be formally announced January 5 at the Consumer Electronics Show, will find its way into new MacBooks that will supersede current models, according to industry sources familiar with Apple’s plans. Current MacBooks use Nvidia graphics chips along with Intel Core i series and Core 2 Duo processors. But due to the enhanced graphics capabilities of Sandy Bridge, Apple–at least for now–has determined that it will not continue using Nvidia’s graphics processing units (GPUs) in some models.
According to the report, Apple is even shifting at least partially away from NVIDIA in its larger MacBook Pros, opting to include graphics solutions from AMD in those models. It is unclear, however, whether NVIDIA options might still be available on those machines.
One question that has remained about Apple’s potential adoption of Sandy Bridge is whether Intel will offer support for Apple’s OpenCL specification that greatly enhances system performance in some cases by offloading tasks from the processor to the graphics hardware. While NVIDIA has supported OpenCL for some time, Intel is only just now stepping up with support for the framework on the CPU side, and CNET‘s sources indicate that the company is in fact also working on OpenCL for Sandy Bridge’s graphics component. Should Intel be able to offer full OpenCL compatibility on Sandy Bridge, it appears that Apple stands to see significant benefits from full adoption of the platform in its notebooks.
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In something of a psychological milestone, Apple’s stock opened for trading today at just over $300 per share, having risen 25% since late August and 42% since the beginning of the year.
Apple has passed several stock-related milestones so far this year, including blowing past $200 billion in market capitalization back in March and passing Wal-Mart in market capitalization just a few days later. In April, Apple’s stock topped $250 for the first time, and by late May Apple had passed Microsoft to become the second-largest U.S. company by market capitalization, trailing only Exxon Mobil.
Since that time, Apple has expanded its lead over Microsoft in market capitalization to nearly $50 billion, although it has been unable to close the gap on Exxon Mobil as the energy giant’s stock has also performed well over the last few months.
Apple is due to release its earnings report for the June-September quarter next Monday, with some observers predicting that the company will reach $20 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time in its history and surpass Microsoft in revenue for the first time in 15 years.
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