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utorak, 13.03.2012.

Customers pre-ordering latest iPad will have to wait

Customers pre-ordering latest iPad will have to wait

By James B. Kelleher.

(Reuters) - People pre-ordering Apple Inc's new iPad to avoid the release-day crowds at the company's retail stores will have to wait longer to get their hands on the devices.

The latest version of the company's tablet, which was unveiled this week, is set to hit shelves next Friday.

But tablets pre-ordered online will not ship to buyers until the following Monday, March 19, according to the company's website.

Earlier in the week, Apple had promised the newest tablet would arrive at customers' homes on the launch date.

Trudy Miller, an Apple spokeswoman, said the change was made because customer response to the new iPad had been "off the charts," quickly exhausting the supply set aside for pre-order and delivery by March 16.

Apple's new product releases are some of the hottest events on the tech calendar, scrutinized by investors, the media and industry insiders alike.

To the company's devoted fans, who vie to be the first to own the latest device, a three-day delay would be an eternity and could add to the crowds at the company's retail stores.

In January, enraged Chinese shoppers pelted Apple's flagship Beijing store with eggs and shoving matches broke out with police after customers were told the store would not begin sales of the iPhone 4S as scheduled.

The new iPad sports a crisper display and an array of technology advances and tweaks.

Apple said it will continue to sell the iPad 2 but dropped its price by $100. The older tablet now starts at $399 while the new third-generation wi-fi only iPad starts at $499.

The high-end model of Apple's latest iPad starts at $629 and will be capable of operating on a high-speed 4G "LTE," or Long-Term Evolution, network. At speeds roughly 10 times faster than current 3G technology, that may help banish the sometimes shaky video quality of older devices.

New iPad 3 Is Incompatible With International 4G LTE Networks

Despite 4G technology being one of the most-touted features of the new iPad 3, SlashGear have noted that the iPad 3 will be incompatible with the LTE networks being rolled out in countries outside the United States.

While the iPad 3 supports data transfer rates of up to 73 Mbps on LTE, these speeds will only ever be seen by American and Canadian customers with international users to be relegated to 3G speeds.

The new iPad WiFi + 4G put up for pre-order in Europe yesterday supports the same 700MHz and 2100MHz LTE bands as the AT&T version in the US; however, actual LTE roll-out in Europe is expected to use the 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands.

That means, even if commercial LTE networks become more commonplace in Europe – which has for the most part remained using the faster variants of 3G technology, such as DC-HSDPA, which the new iPad also supports – the Apple tablet is unlikely to be compatible with them.

The Wi-Fi + 4G iPad 3 that is being released in the ten international launch countries is the same as that being sold in the U.S. on the AT&T network, despite international networks not running on the same frequency bands as AT&T.

Apple have admitted the issue and thus far only offered up the concession that if international users visit the U.S. they will be able to access the AT&T LTE network on their iPad.

iPads sold internationally will be able to connect to AT&Ts LTE network when in the US with the appropriate SIM and plan.

It is unclear at this stage whether Apple will release a different version of the iPad 3 in the future with LTE frequency bands optimized for local networks.

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13.03.2012. u 04:43 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

Apple runs out of new iPads for Friday delivery

Apple runs out of new iPads for Friday delivery

By Gregg Keizer.

Computerworld - Apple has sold out of initial supplies of the new iPad in every country where it will launch the tablet on Friday, and is now telling buyers that orders will not ship for up to three weeks.

In the U.S. and Canada, all iPad pre-orders placed through Apple's online store will now ship on March 19, three days after the on-sale date. Customers who placed an order very early in the pre-sale process were told they will receive the tablet on Friday, March 16.

Some consumers, including Computerworld staffers who ordered the new iPad last Wednesday, have received emails confirming that their tablets have been shipped.

Australian orders will ship on March 22, while those ordered in other first-wave markets -- France, Japan, Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. -- currently show a shipping delay of two to three weeks.

Hong Kong's online store simply says that the new iPad is currently unavailable.

U.S. carriers AT&T and Verizon, both which will also sell the iPad, are only taking customers' email addresses for later notification when the tablet is available.

The tight supplies and resulting delays were not surprising.

Last year, the Apple iPad 2 sold out on its first day of availability in the U.S., where shipping delays changed several times on opening day, first from two to three business days, then five to seven days, and finally settled on two to three weeks.

Four days later those delays had grown to four to five weeks, a timespan that one analyst called "intense."

Apple acknowledged it could not keep up with demand for the iPad 2.

In an April 2011 conference call with Wall Street analysts, Tim Cook, at the time its chief operations officer, called demand "staggering" and admitted orders were bogged down in the "mother of all backlogs."

Not until the mid-point of 2011's third quarter did Apple claim iPad 2 supplies had matched demand.

More recently, analysts predicted that Apple would face a repeat of the problem, in large part because suppliers of the new model's higher-resolution screen have had difficulty getting high yields from their lines.

Last week, Richard Shim, a senior analyst with DisplaySearch, said manufacturing the iPad's 2,048-by-1,536 pixel screen was a "challenge" for Sharp, Samsung and LG Display.

The shortages have again created opportunities for resellers who claim they will have the tablet next week.

On eBay, for example, prices for a 16GB Wi-Fi third-generation iPad run as high as $1,200, a 140% markup over that model's list price of $499, while 64GB 4G tablets are priced as high as $2,799, or 238% above the $829 list price.

Apple will begin selling the new iPad in its retail stores, as well as other outlets such as Best Buy and Radio Shack, on Friday, March 16.

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13.03.2012. u 04:40 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

Instagram's Highly Anticipated Android App Is Coming Soon

Instagram's Highly Anticipated Android App Is Coming Soon

By Christina Bonnington.

AUSTIN, Texas - The Instagram party is about to go from a few cocktails with friends into a raging kegger. An Android version of the super-popular photo-sharing app will be released "very soon," according to the company's founder.

In a fireside chat Sunday at South by Southwest Interactive, Kevin Systrom showed a glimpse of the upcoming version of the app, which is currently being tested in a private beta. Smartphone photogs who use Google's mobile platform rejoiced.

"I'm glad to see Instagram coming to Android," said SXSW attendee Patrick Asher, who recently picked up a new Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone. "I'm going to download it. I'm looking forward to taking more photos on this than my old iPhone."

The arrival of the new app will end months of frustration for photographers who carry Android devices and can't participate in Instagram's white-hot world of social photography. Instagram earned the honor of being Apple's iPhone app of the year for 2011 and has quickly amassed a tight-knit community of smartphone photographers who enhance their square-shaped images with an array of retro-style filters.

"It'll be really cool to try out the filters with my photographs," said J.J. Martinez, an organizer of SXSW Interactive. "I take photographs with my smartphone a lot, at least every day, but I think I would take more pictures with Instagram."

Others are also eager to check out the photo-sharing app on Google's increasingly prevalent mobile platform.

"It'll be interesting to see how they bring it to the Android platform so the experience is intuitive and natural," said Darren Himebrook, a producer at a Miami-based advertising agency. When asked if he felt left out that Instagram has been iOS-only, Himebrook said, "Oh totally!" a sentiment echoed by several other Android users we spoke with after the announcement.

Android phones provide a fundamentally different user experience than iPhones. For example, Android smartphones have either three or four permanent navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen, whereas the iPhone has a single home button, with all other navigation performed within various apps.

In his talk, Systrom said the Instagram team has been "working hard on making this one of the best Android apps you'll ever see." He also said the iOS version has been downloaded more than 27 million times so far.

Rumors that Instagram for Android existed in some form and would be landing soon have persisted for months. Instagram's founder played pretty coy about the subject until now.

"In some ways, it's better than our iOS app. It's crazy," said Systrom.

Luckily, Android users like Himebrook, Martinez and Asher won't have much longer to wait before sussing this out for themselves. Until then, check the gallery above for a selection of the many Instagram photos Wired staffers have taken in Austin during SXSW 2012.

Instagram Coming Soon To Android, Co-Founder Shows It Off Briefly

By Ray Willington.

Instagram. Just the mention of the world brings up vivid images of slightly tweaked photographs, uploaded via iOS devices to all corners of the web. But there's a problem: it's only on iOS. Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, etc. -- none of those platforms have Instagram. Why? Hard to say why the company hasn't branched out yet, but they know that Android is growing too large as a platform to ignore. At the annual South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, the company announced that they had reached 27 million registered users. And of those, a ton of people are actively using it. Co-founder Kevin Systrom was quoted as saying that they're seeing "Facebook-level" engagement.

But more importantly, that the Android app is coming. He even showed it off. There was no full demo, but he had it on a prototype, and he said that in some ways, it's even better than the iOS app. There's no definite date, but it's coming soon -- soon enough for the co-founder to tease it at SXSW.

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13.03.2012. u 04:37 • 0 Komentara • Print • #

Instagram Reaches 27 Million Registered Users

Instagram Reaches 27 Million Registered Users

By Kim-Mai Cutler.

Instagram, the photo-sharing app that has taken a definitive lead on iOS, said it has surpassed 27 million registered users today at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas.

Co-founder Kevin Systrom didn't disclose daily active users during his fireside chat with TechCrunch editor Alexia Tsotsis. But he did say of all the users who have been active in the last week, 67 percent of them used the app yesterday.

"It's Facebook-level engagement that we're seeing," Systrom said.

He didn't really offer any clarity on rumors that the company is raising $40 million at a $500 million valuation.

"Good companies are always fundraising," he said. "Whether you're meeting people or considering firms, you're always fundraising. But it doesn't mean we're active. We're trying to create a long-term, viable company that doesn't come and go with fads. It should be something that lasts and creates meaningful value."

Systrom also had one more thing up his sleeve - he showed off the company's upcoming Android app. He waved it around very briefly on-stage, but he didn't give a full demo. (That's for later, and the company tells us they aren't totally ready for a walkthrough yet.)

"In some ways, it's better than our iOS app. It's crazy," he said.

Co-founder Mike Krieger added that folks over at Android have been pretty impressed with the way the app leverages the platform. It's taken awhile to come to Android simply because the company was focused on scaling on iOS, Systrom said.

"I don't think it took us so long. We just had priorities. Had we tried to be both on Android and iPhone at the same time, it would've been tough to innovate in the way that we have," he said.

He was also coy about what Instagram's business model will ultimately end up being. The app currently doesn't have any advertising and it doesn't have any in-app purchases. Path, in contrast, sells some filters. (But it also has far fewer users with the latest publicly shared figure being 2 million registered users.)

"We have a visual platform and advertisers like visual mediums. They like TV and magazines, but attention is moving online and they want to switch," he said. "I do believe that Instagram has put a stake in the ground and we're growing more quickly than anyone. Is there something in there we could do to make it a multi-billion dollar business? I think we can figure out something along the way."

Launched in the fall of 2010, Instagram grew out of some unsuccessful experiments in location sharing. While the company would have been too late to a crowded space that included Foursquare and ultimately Facebook Places, Systrom and Krieger saw that their beta users were sharing tons of photos.

"I was not super pumped up about location-based services. But I saw that what Kevin was doing was more about sharing the story of a place," Krieger said.

Systrom added, "Burbn never really failed. We just never really let it fly."

They quickly turned around a native iOS app that seemed to marry elements of paid camera app Hipstamatic with social features. It was perfect timing since the iPhone 4 was just arriving on the market and the device finally had a camera that produced photos of comparable quality to what point-and-shoot cameras could do. Apple also had an installed base of iOS devices that was finally large enough to produce the network effects that Instagram needed to take off.

"Mobile has created a totally different dynamic for discovering apps," Systrom said. "You're sitting in a bar and your friend is taking some pictures and then you ask what app they're using."

The app was soon a home run that quickly secured a top ranking among photography apps and then a consistently high ranking on the free app charts. On the first day, 25,000 registered users showed up. The challenge soon became about scaling the back-end and infrastructure.

"From then until now, it's been a hockey stick," Systrom said. "We've been very lucky with scaling. The difference is that we're served out of the cloud and we can call up instances with the demand. We also have a fantastic team that focuses on scale."

Just months after that, the company picked up a $7 million Series A round led by Benchmark Capital, with participation from Baseline Ventures, Square CEO Jack Dorsey, Chris Sacca and Quora co-founder Adam D'Angelo. Benchmark partner and Facebook alum Matt Cohler joined the board.

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