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iPad announcement anniversary: January 27, 2010

Before two years ago, we didn't yet know much about the hypothetical Apple tablet device, prescient leaks and rumors aside. We didn't know for sure which OS it would run (although we were pretty confident it would be iOS and not Mac OS X). We didn't know what it would cost -- the WSJ hinted at pricing near the $1,000 mark -- and we didn't know what it would look like. We certainly didn't know what it would be called, even though there were strong suggestions; apparently the Mad TV writers and some Dubai architects had some good sources.

We couldn't have guessed that our most extravagant estimates of sales would prove to be woefully meager. We could not foresee that Apple's tablet would come to dominate its own category in a manner similar to the iPod's remarkable run through the 2000s, and contribute to a level of financial success the company has never seen before (and that few companies ever have).

We didn't imagine that both consumers and businesses would gravitate to the iPad's flexibility and power, with enterprise customers adopting it at a breakneck pace. We probably could have anticipated a revised and updated version months later. And we did not expect that case polishing operations at two iPad suppliers would suffer deadly explosions, deepening concerns and questions about workplace safety and employee treatment at the factories owned by Foxconn, a manufacturing partner to Apple and scores of other electronics companies.

What we did know, in early 2010, was who would be introducing it to the world. Below, a video clip of Steve Jobs announcing the iPad.

iPad announcement anniversary: January 27, 2010 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Siri probably isn’t the bandwidth hog the WaPo warned you about

"How Siri is ruining your cellphone service." That's the searing headline from the Washington Post in an article by Paul Farhi. Farhi claims that "Siri's dirty little secret is that she's a bandwidth guzzler, the digital equivalent of a 10-miles-per-gallon Hummer H1."

Where's he coming up with this? Apparently, the "Siri eats bandwidth" claim is based on a study by Arieso that reports that iPhone 4S owners consume twice as much cellular data as iPhone 4 users and 3 times as much as iPhone 3G users. Recent Android phones are also chewing up twice as much data as the iPhone 3G, while 3G and 4G mobile hotspots are by far the biggest download hogs (26x the baseline).

At least in the press release summary of the study, however, there's no mention of Siri at all; just the increased usage for the 4S, which just happens to support a faster download standard on AT&T's network. Our sister site Engadget helped put that study in perspective by pointing out that Arieso has a vested interest in the results of the research. We've asked for a full copy of the report to see what, if any, linkage there is between Siri and data volume.

If we take the study at face value, though, why more data on the 4S? The likely answer hasn't much to do with Siri and a lot more to do with the profile of the iPhone 4S buyer.

The people who buy the latest phone are also the power users who take the most advantage of their devices. We've seen that happen before with new technology, and once people stop amazing themselves and their friends, the consumption of bandwidth drops off. I haven't seen any convincing data that says the iPhone 4S inherently uses more data than an iPhone 4, and iOS 5 iCloud features, also available on the iPhone 4 and 3GS, probably play a role in increased bandwidth use.

As for Siri, most of the heavy lifting goes on at the Apple servers, where your query is translated into data and then sent back to your phone in a quick burst. Streaming radio, Netflix and a host of other apps can use way more bandwidth, and they are utilizing the network for minutes or hours at a time, not seconds.

Of course Siri is on every iPhone 4S, so it is getting used more than some 3rd-party apps, but it's hard to believe that the average user doing perhaps 2-3 queries a day is destroying our cellular infrastructure. GigaOm this morning also poured cold water on the Post story, and there will probably be more to come.

One thing is for sure. Smartphones, and the iPhone in particular, are using more data than the dumb phones of old. Compare that to the internet connections in our homes, where Netflix has been identified as the biggest user of bandwidth in the U.S. It's up the internet providers, both wired and wireless, to keep growing their networks so they can continue to charge those premium rates; it's also up to Washington regulators and cellular carriers to make efficient use of bandwidth and future spectrum technologies.

Readers, are you heavy Siri users, and are you destroying our cellular networks?

Siri probably isn't the bandwidth hog the WaPo warned you about originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld | iWorld Best of Show liveblog

I'm live at the Best of Show awards, where Macworld has chosen the best products from the show (hence the name). Sorry about the lack of images, you'd basically see washed out photos of a projected image. Be sure to check out the links to each product.

3:07 Just now getting started! Up first, Boinx with iStopMotion. Florian from Boinx is doing a demo of iStopMotion. As we said back in December, it is pretty nice.

3:12 A beautiful little paper cutout animation from a kid who used iStopMotion -- really cool stuff.

3:15 PDFpen for iPad is up next from Smile. Really interesting to see how something as simple as a PDF tool (and there are several on the store) can be fresh and awesome.

PDFpen is basically Adobe Acrobat Pro for your iPad. But much, much easier to use. I just saw a signature from Photos applied to a tax document -- with transparency so it didn't block the field below! You can easily drag and drop text boxes and more. Oh, and iCloud storage. How cool is that?

There's a Mac version as well, but PDFpen looks fantastic either way.

3:20 TourWrist is up next. They call it "remote reality" -- sort of like QuickTime VR for your iPad. The authoring side of the app is really pretty nice. It uses a simple line to help you line up your images for a full panorama, better than a gyro-based solution that automatically lines them up.

3:25 The other winners:

DevMicro makes a small microphone in a cone shape that captures 6 channels of audio at once!

FileThis has a service called Fetch that will gather online docs from various financial accounts and puts them together for you.

Blue Microphones won for their Spark Digital microphone. It's a digital version of their analog mic of the same name.

i4software has a video studio app for your iPhone. It can handle multiple cameras, which is pretty amazing.

Global Delight has a product called Game Your Video, which adds effects to video (for iOS).

Ryz Media has blinQ, a remote control that uses your iPhone and adds some social sharing. Not sure how this won -- there are a bunch of apps (with hardware dongles) that do this. I'll give it a whirl and see what makes it special.

Adonit's Jot Touch won because it is the stylus that allows you to add pressure sensitivity to your iOS device. It's a cool product that will make you miss your Wacom tablet.

Lantronix won for the xPrintServer, a product that connects to your network and makes printers available for AirPrint.

3:35 And we're done! Early! Congratulations to the winners. Check out our Macworld hub for more coverage.

Macworld | iWorld Best of Show liveblog originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Doxie’s new DoxieGo + Wi-Fi: Demo video at Macworld iWorld 2012

Yesterday while I was on the show floor at Macworld | iWorld 2012, I came upon a 7-foot-tall scanner walking around. After I figured out that my cold medicine wasn't making me hallucinate, I knew that I was in the right place -- the Doxie booth. There I was able to interview Paul Scandariato of Doxie about their new DoxieGo + Wi-Fi mobile scanner and grab some video.

The new scanner communicates with your Mac or iOS device over Wi-Fi, and allowing you to scan straight to the cloud if you wish. Paul noted that many users scan their documents straight to Dropbox, then open them for viewing or annotation on the iPad.

The DoxieGo + Wi-Fi is priced at US$249, while the DoxieGo previously reviewed by TUAW remains at $199. For Macworld show-goers, you can the Doxie scanners for $50 off of list price through Saturday.

Here's the DoxieGo + Wi-Fi in action:

Doxie's new DoxieGo + Wi-Fi: Demo video at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Seen at Macworld | iWorld 2012: $68,000 diamond speakers

Standing in the middle of the Macworld | iWorld 2012 exhibit floor looking a bit out of place, Alljack's $68,000 diamond-studded speakers -- fresh from CES -- are drawing a bit of attention.

Inspired by a wine bottle and a flower, the speakers are crafted with Russian diamonds, gold plating, simulated wood grain and other decorative metal. Alljack works with industrial designers and engineers to create their products, and these speakers are crafted from precision-controlled machinery.

Alljack is a prototype center from Taiwan, so these are most likely the only set of these speakers that'll be made. They're here more to show off Alljack's skill more than get a pair of these speakers in your home.

Seen at Macworld | iWorld 2012: $68,000 diamond speakers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Other World Computing at Macworld iWorld 2012

If there's one company at Macworld | iWorld 2012 that epitomizes the leading edge of Apple accessories, it's Other World Computing (OWC). At this year's event, the company is showcasing a number of new or soon-to-be-released products for Mac and iPad.

In the Mac realm, OWC is about to release two new versions of the venerable miniStack external drives for the Mac mini. The miniStack Max and miniStack have the same footprint as the post-2010 Mac minis, and features FW 400/800, USB 2.0/3.0 and eSATA (optional) ports, as well as an optical drive (Max only) and USB hub.

When it comes to enterprise storage, OWC has announced and was demonstrating their new Jupiter mini-SAS storage solutions. Jupiter features input/output speeds three times faster than fibre channel and twice as fast as Thunderbolt, all with an infrastructure cost much less than you'd pay for fibre channel storage.

Companies deploying iPads will like the new GripStand Station, which charges and secures up to eight iPads at a time. There's more to come in this short video from the show floor:

Other World Computing at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NYPD meets FMI: Cop nabs iPhone thief in NYC

Don't walk past police with a stolen iPhone in your boot.

According to the New York Times, a quick-thinking police officer and Apple's Find My iPhone managed to retrieve a woman's stolen iPhone. The woman was in a handbag store in Manhattan when a thief allegedly held her up at gunpoint and took her iPhone.

After searching the immediate area, NYC police officer Robert Garland entered the woman's Apple ID on his own iPhone and used "the iCloud feature" (we're going to assume that means Find My iPhone) to track the phone. Once they had arrived at its apparent location, the suspect walked past with the iPhone beeping in his boot. He was apprehended and the iPhone returned to its rightful owner.

Well done, Officer Garland! For another lost-and-found NYC iPhone story, check out Newsday's LIRR report.

NYPD meets FMI: Cop nabs iPhone thief in NYC originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Ex-Apple, ex-Palm exec Jon Rubinstein now leaving HP

Sometimes the revolving door spins quickly at the top. AllThingsD reported today that HP executive Jon Rubinstein is leaving the company for places unknown.

Rubinstein is perhaps best known for his days at Apple, when he spearheaded the rapid growth of the iPod music player -- the piece of Apple hardware widely remembered as the "gateway drug" that has since attracted millions of customers to the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. After Apple, Rubinstein worked at venture firm Elevation Partners, then moved to Palm.

In 2009, Rubinstein replaced Ed Colligan as Palm's CEO, overseeing the ill-fated switch from the old PalmOS to WebOS. The latter mobile operating system first appeared on the Pre, Pixi, and Veer smartphones. Rubinstein became an HP exec when the consumer electronics giant acquired Palm, and was at the driver's seat of the mobile division as the WebOS-powered TouchPad tablet crashed and burned.

When HP decided to get out of the mobile devices hardware market, Rubinstein was given a "product innovation role" at HP's Personal Systems Group designed to lessen the eventual impact of his departure.

Ex-Apple, ex-Palm exec Jon Rubinstein now leaving HP originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

2011 Best App Ever winners announced

Jeff Scott of 148 Apps has announced the winners for the Best App Ever for 2011, and you can review at the official site right now. Jetpack Joyride from Halfbrick was the overall winner in the iOS devision (which is a great app, but probably also benefited from actually promoting the Best App Ever vote inside the app itself). There are several other winners across various categories like Most Innovative (Codea), Most Useful (Amazon Mobile) and Best Time Killer (Tiny Wings).

Scott tells us that 148 Apps received a record 1.5 million votes this year, which is three times the total of last year's choices. Before voting began, there were 287,643 nominations across 7,243 apps. This year also featured Android winners in many categories, but Scott says that iOS topped the Android votes by a factor of 10:1.

The Best App Ever awards are always an excellent check of what's available on the App Store, so review the list and find some great new apps. Congratulations to all of the winners, and thanks to 148 Apps for putting the whole thing together.

2011 Best App Ever winners announced originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

AT&T’s iPhone “sales” versus “activations”: Doing the Math

Love Apple gear? Like math? TUAW's Doing the Math series examines the numbers and the science behind the hardware and software.

Several sites -- including TUAW -- reported yesterday that 80% of all smartphones AT&T sold in Q411 were iPhones, based on AT&T's quarterly earnings report. On closer inspection, however, there's a subtle but important detail that we overlooked in AT&T's wording. It reported "9.4 million smartphone sales" but "7.6 million iPhone activations" (emphasis mine).

So, consider the following series of events. Alice buys an iPhone 3GS back in 2009 on a two-year contract. In late 2011, she treats herself to a new iPhone 4S -- that's both a sale and an activation for AT&T. She gives the 3GS to her husband, the long-suffering Bob, who can finally ditch his flip phone.

Bob needs service though. His "new" 3GS is locked to AT&T -- unlike in many other countries around the world, most American carriers won't voluntarily unlock even out-of-contract handsets. Even if it were unlocked, though, it's not compatible with either the CDMA networks used by Verizon and Sprint, nor the oddball 3G frequencies used by T-Mobile USA. Finally, AT&T refuses to support iPhones on its pay-as-you-go GoPhone plan (although if Bob read TUAW he'd know he could work around this). So, with no other choices, Bob rings up AT&T and starts an iPhone contract so he can use the old handset as more than just an oddly-shaped iPod touch.

At the end of this process, AT&T has closed one new sale -- but counted two activations, one for Alice's new iPhone 4S and one for Alice's old iPhone 3GS in Bob's name. This means the 7.6 million activations includes some double counting, and can't directly be compared to sales.

We reached out to AT&T's Seth Bloom to confirm whether our reasoning was true. He said "You're right that activations are a bit different than sales -- and activations includes things like gifted iPhones as you suggest." However, he also added that "In this quarter, the number of activations from things like gifted iPhones doesn't change the math much. We aren't sharing a number, but gifted phones is a relatively small portion of total activations."

How much might a "relatively small portion" be?

Let's revisit those numbers: 9.4 million smartphone sales and 7.6 million iPhone activations. Suppose that 10% of all those iPhone activations were to used handsets. In other words, out of all of those brand-new iPhone sales AT&T made in the last three months, about one in ten of them (a virtual cookie to any commenter who spots why I had to say "about" there) were made to a person who a) already had an older iPhone and b) then proceeded to sell or give that handset away to someone else, who reconnected it back to AT&T's network. That would mean that AT&T activated 6.84 million new iPhones and 760,000 old ones. In turn, that means that the iPhone took 73% of AT&T's overall smartphone sales. The other 27% will be split between Android, Blackberry, and Windows Phone 7.

More generally, we can plot a graph of how the iPhone's market share changes as a function of the recycle factor or the proportion of activations which went to reused handsets:

If we revisit AT&T's statement we can also see that "82 percent of postpaid sales were smartphones." This means, remarkably, that unless 25% of iPhone activations went to reused handsets (which seems unlikely in light of Bloom's comments) then over half of all contract phones AT&T sold were iPhones. This story is repeated on Verizon too.

The bottom line is: Apple kicked all kinds of posterior in the smartphone market during the last three months of 2011. Can it continue to do so in 2012? It might not be able to maintain quite this stupendous a lead. The timing of the iPhone 4S launch (in autumn, versus the previous summer iPhone introductions) likely boosted sales by causing some greater-than-usual pent-up demand. Supporting this hypothesis, Tim Cook admitted that sales of the older models waned between July and September. It'll be fascinating to see what this massive quarter does to the overall smartphone market share of iOS versus Android in the coming months.

AT&T's iPhone "sales" versus "activations": Doing the Math originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.