My Daily Inquirer

Apple's iPhone does well without being the best

SEATTLE – It's been three years, an eternity for gadgets, since Apple Inc. unveiled the iPhone, and by now other phones do some things better. Yet Apple is selling more iPhones than ever.

What is it about the iPhone? Its success shows how Apple has triumphed at two crucial qualities: status and simplicity. And it's a reminder that while intense Apple fans will obsess over the upgrades the iPhone is expected to get this summer, such details won't matter as much to everyday buyers.

Other phones have higher-resolution cameras and can shoot high-definition video. The processor seems faster in new phones such as the Droid Incredible. A more energy-efficient touch-screen technology is eclipsing the one used in the iPhone screen. And competitors are matching features that once set the iPhone apart, including its slim shape and its store with thousands of applications and games.

"This thing is not state of the art," says ABI Research analyst Michael Morgan.

But whether the iPhone has the best technology doesn't seem to be the question most people ask.

Instead, many people crave the aura of cool that iPhones seem to convey.

"When you see people with them, I'm like, `Oh, OK, they get it,'" says Jason Sfetko, a designer at Complex magazine in New York. When he sees someone with a BlackBerry, "I might think, maybe they're an accountant or something. They're answering too many e-mails."

The allure extends to China, where Apple started selling iPhones in October. "I'm quite amazed about what the iPhone has achieved," says Deng Jinchun, a manager at Jing Lang, a large iPhone retailer in China's Hunan province. With slight changes, "Apple has been selling the same phone for about three years and the sales are still increasing. I can't imagine a Nokia phone or any other brand could achieve something similar."

Others are more focused on the simplicity of using the iPhone.

Mark Britton, CEO of a company called Avvo that publishes ratings on lawyers by their clients, is on his iPhone so much that his wife jokes it's his fourth child. He says it's surprisingly easy to talk on the phone and look up something on the Internet at the same time.

The Web browser helped sell Sara Maternini, 35, who works in public relations in Milan, Italy, on the iPhone 2 1/2 years ago. She needs to always be online and says the iPhone was the only device that made Web surfing feel as it does on a computer.

Maternini says her next phone will be another iPhone.

This raises a common criticism from Apple's dissenters: Once users build their lives around the iPhone system, they're essentially locked into buying more Apple devices. Other phones can't connect to iTunes, which manages iPhone owners' music, video, photos and other files. Nor can other phones run the "apps" people download for everything from online banking to crossword puzzling.

For many iPhone users, though, familiarity breeds contentment.

Ingrid Ougland-Sellie, 41, a writer and part-time hospital employee, uses her iPhone to take photos of mystery vegetables she gets from a community-supported farm program. She e-mails pictures to the farmers to be identified, then looks up recipes on an iPhone app. She uses it for scheduling, finding addresses and swapping photos of her son with her husband, also an iPhone owner.

"I'm sure technology has come a long way," Sellie says. "But I am kind of a creature of habit at this point. I know how to use this phone. I'm comfortable with it."

Apple has sold more than 51 million iPhones since they hit the market in 2007, including 8.75 million in the most recent quarter. That was more than double the number it sold in the comparable quarter last year.

The surge also has helped Apple's stock double over the past year, and investors are betting that the iPhone still has room to grow. The iPhone ranks third in the global smart phone market, with a 14 percent share. Nokia Corp. has 47 percent and Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, has 20 percent. However, phones that use Google Inc.'s Android software are increasing sales faster. Android accounts for 4 percent of the market, up from less than 1 percent last year, according to Gartner Inc., a market-research company.

Carolina Milanesi, who lives in Britain and analyzes the mobile market for Gartner, has tried to switch away from the iPhone but gets hung up on something every time. She spent 20 minutes trying to set up e-mail on an Android phone, only to fail. The iPhone is so simple her 2 1/2-year-old daughter can operate her spelling and animal-noises apps herself.

The iPhone isn't as flexible as some others, and Milanesi bristled at things Apple wouldn't let her do, such as set custom tones for incoming text messages, a common tweak in Europe.

"But then you kind of get used to it, and you don't miss it," she says. "You kind of think that that's for your own good."

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Associated Press Writer Colleen Barry in Milan and AP Researcher Xi Yue in Beijing contributed to this report.

Source: Technology

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Amazon gearing up for games on next generation Kindle

Love or hate Apple, it’s hard to deny that the company makes some impressive products that are widely popular with consumers the world over. The iPod dominates the music player market, the iPhone is among the most popular smartphones around, and the new iPad is doing very well in the market.

One of the big appeals of the iPad is that the device can do all sorts of things from surfing the web, to reading books, to playing games all with very impressive performance. The usability and wide feature set of the iPad is putting lots of pressure on one dimensional devices like the Amazon Kindle.




Amazon isn’t taking this lying down though and is hiring lots of new folks to help it fight Apple on even ground. Perhaps the most interesting tidbit in all the hiring according to the New York Times is that Amazon is reportedly in meetings with publishers to talk about new games that it will bring to a future version of the Kindle. Sadly, there is no clear indication on how far out the new version will be. If Amazon wants to fight Apple on the gaming front, the Kindle will need more than a few word games and a black and white screen.

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Jobs made phone call seeking return of lost iPhone

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Brian Hogan's world closed in fast almost as soon as he sold the next-generation iPhone he found in a Silicon Valley bar to a popular technology website for a stack of $100 bills, according to court documents released Friday.

By April 19, Hogan's roommate had tipped off investigators that he was at the center of the drama, Apple's top lawyers were meeting with police to press for criminal charges and Steve Jobs himself was personally demanding the iPhone's return.



The ordeal has set off ethic debates in journalism and law enforcement circles while Hogan and a website editor are now at the center of a criminal investigation that has been rife with speculation but devoid of many facts -- until now.

On Friday, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Clifford Cretan ordered unsealed a 10-page sworn statement with details written by San Mateo Sheriff's Detective Matthew Broad to obtain a warrant to search the car and home of Jason Chen, a Gizmodo.com editor. Broad's statement was used to obtain a search warrant for Chen's home and car.

According to the statement, the saga began March 25, when Apple engineer Robert "Gray" Powell left the iPhone prototype in the bar area of Redwood City's Gourmet Haus Staud restaurant.

It said Gizmodo paid Hogan $5,000 for the device, cracked it open and posted images of it on April 20 despite a phone call from Jobs the day before demanding website editors return the gadget. Gizmodo promised Hogan an additional $3,500 bonus if Apple formally unveiled the device by July, according to Broad.

Now, Chen is under investigation for theft, receiving stolen property and damaging property, according to the affidavit. The affidavit also suggests Hogan and a third roommate, Thomas Warner, also may face criminal charges, and alleges the two panicked and attempted to hide evidence when they caught wind of the criminal investigation.

Nobody, including Chen, has been charged with any crime,

"The events have taken on a life of their own," said Jeff Bornstein, Hogan's attorney. "He thought it was dumb luck that he stumbled on to something valuable and he regrets not doing more to return it."

Bornstein said Hogan always intended to return the phone and didn't believe he was breaking the law in dealing with Gizmodo.

Bornstein also denied the affidavit's suggestion that Hogan was trying to get rid of evidence on April 21. That's when, shortly before midnight, Hogan's roommate Katherine Martinson called investigators and told them that Hogan and Warner were removing evidence from their apartment, the document said.

Investigators found Hogan at his father's Redwood City house and he directed them to nearby Sequoia Christian Church, where they recovered Hogan's computer and monitor.

Bornstein said that Hogan was in the process of moving out of the apartment and that Warner ended up with Hogan's computer, panicked and dropped them off at the church.

The investigation has prompted debate over whether he should be shielded from prosecution by California's so-called shield law, which protects journalists from having to turn over to police unpublished notes and the names of anonymous sources. But the shield law doesn't immunize journalists from breaking the law.

The investigators themselves have come under fire as well for apparently launching the investigation at Apple's behest. Detective Broad belongs to a special high technology task force called the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team, which is comprised of investigators from several jurisdictions and investigates crimes against technology companies.

According to Broad, task force investigators met with two high-ranking Apple executives and outside lawyer George Riley on April 20, the day Gizmodo published the images. Riley told the task force that Gizmodo's action were "immensely damaging to Apple," because consumers would hold off buying iPhones until the new version was released. Riley didn't estimate a dollar figure, but said losses were "huge," according to the affidavit.

Apple is a member of the technology crime task force's board, but the company said it didn't use its influence to pressure law enforcement to investigate.

"We reported what we believe was a crime, and the D.A. of San Mateo county is taking it from there," said Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton.

San Mateo County prosecutors had argued to keep the affidavit under seal to protect the identities of witnesses and the ongoing investigation. But The Associated Press and several other media companies convinced a San Mateo County superior court judge to make the document public, arguing disclosure was necessary to ensure that the raid of a journalist's home was proper.

AP Technology Writer Jessica Mintz contributed to this report.

Source: Yahoo

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About iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G
Take a network with you wherever you go.

iPad is available in a Wi-Fi + 3G model for fast cellular network access when you’re not within range of a Wi-Fi network.

iPad 2010

The great way and means of experiencing the Internet, photos, music, email, etc. is with iPad.

All of the built-in apps on iPad were designed from the ground up to take advantage of the large Multi-Touch screen and advanced capabilities of iPad. And they work in any orientation. So you can do things with these apps that you can’t do on any other device.

Safari

iPad is the best way to experience the web. View whole pages in portrait or landscape on the large Multi-Touch screen. And let your fingers do the surfing.

Mail

There’s nothing like the Mail app on iPad. With a split-screen view and expansive onscreen keyboard, it lets you see and touch your email in ways you never could before.

Photos

A vivid LED-backlit IPS display makes viewing photos on iPad extraordinary. Open albums with a tap. Flip through your pictures one by one. Or play a slideshow and share your photos.

Videos

The 9.7-inch high-resolution screen makes iPad perfect for watching HD movies, TV shows, podcasts, music videos, and more.

YouTube

With the YouTube app designed specifically for iPad, videos are even easier to find. And on the amazing iPad display, they’re more fun to watch. Especially in HD.

Source: iPad