Cody Fink

1547 posts on MacStories since January 2010

Former MacStories contributor.

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Apple No Longer Pursuing “POD” Trademark

Seven years in the making, Apple is giving up on pursuing the POD trademark. While this doesn’t have an effect on on Apple’s iPod brand, it does open up the opportunity for competitors to brand their products using the POD nomenclature. Patently Apple makes this point clear:

Any competitor who wishes to brand a device with the word “Pod” is able to do so without any legal ramifications from Apple. That should make copycats like Samsung, very happy indeed. Will someone try to introduce something like an “ePod” device in the future? – Yes, more than likely.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has published Apple’s abandonment, citing April 13th, 2011 as the day Apple dropped the trademark. Although Apple is no longer pursuing securing the Pod trademark, do they have anything to worry about? The iPod is a household name, and consumers are every skeptical of “copycat” products in the marketplace. You only need to look at iPad and MP3 competitors to see how well Apple dominates, and I doubt anyone else using the word “POD” is going to confuse Apple educated consumers.

[via Patently Apple]

With iMac Orders Delayed, We’re Expecting a Refresh

CNET’s Brian Tong previously reported at the end of March that now would would be a bad time to purchase an iMac, as a refresh coming in May would bring no cosemtic changes, but Thunderbolt and Sandy Bridge would flesh out the range of Apple’s refreshed desktops. 9 to 5 Mac reports that the iMac is continually seeing supply restraints for the current generation of iMacs, and that a source revealed new iMacs should be shipping next week as Apple stops shipping to resellers this week.

Due to an unexpected delay, we are unable to ship the following item(s)
by the date that you were originally quoted:

Z0JP, IMAC 27\”/5750/SD
will now ship on or before
May 02, 2011

We’re keeping an eye out for May 3rd and 4th delivery dates, and we expect a MacBook Air refresh to include Sandy Bridge processors in June, with Thunderbolt products to hit the mainstream this summer.

[via 9 to 5 Mac]
Image via: MacRumors

Next Generation iPhone 4 Revealed to Have 3.7-inch Screen?

M.I.C. Gadget reports that they’ve gotten hands on with an iPhone they’re pretty sure isn’t an iPhone 4, but possibly an updated model that includes a 3.7” display, and the same proximity sensor as the white iPhone 4. The new display is nearly edge-to-edge, bumping up the screen size but not nearly large enough to be a 4” display as previously rumored. M.I.C. Gadget also speculates that it may have an A5 processor (a prototype model) that game developers are using to build games. Strings in iOS 4.3 revealed that the iPhone was slated to receive the updated processor, and recently a white iPhone was rumored being tested on T-Mobile’s network packing an A5 processor. A bigger screen has been seen floating around on leaked design documents in the past.

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Lion May Sell on Combination of Reinstall Drives and Optical Media

With the MacBook Air refresh, Apple introduced the concept of installing the OS via a packaged thumb drive, leading us to speculate that Apple would make the transition from DVD to a new digital format with the distribution of Lion. John Brownlee from Cult of Mac reporting on AppleBitch notes that Apple may hold on to optical media a little bit longer, possibly offering consumers the choice of both disc and digital formats when they purchase a new copy of Lion to update their Macs. It’s possible Apple will continue to sell optical discs in stores (while bundling all new Macs with a copy of Lion on a thumb drive) as they transition away from optical media, and Brownlee notes that the speculation comes as a result of the disc version of Lion having shown up in Amazon of Germany’s listings.

You could ship Lion exclusively on thumb drives, but the biggest problem I see is in ditching the disc completely is cost. While thumb drives are inexpensive to produce, I’m making the assumption that the costs for producing optical media are cheaper, and as long as the current MacBook and Mac line of Apple computers still have an optical reader, there’s no reason not to utilize it. However, MacBook Air owners wanting to upgrade will either have to purchase the SuperDrive or install Lion from another Mac remotely if Apple doesn’t provide the option of selling the thumb drives on their own. Who knows? Maybe they’ll sell both as a part of this crazy transitional phase.

[AppleBitch via Cult of Mac]
Image via: http://www.maciverse.com/

Apple vs. RIM: Who sells more smartphones?→

Apple vs. RIM: Who sells more smartphones?

For the year, RIM shipped 52.4 million devices. Apple topped them by shipping 57.39 iPhones. That’s about 5 million more iPhones sold than RIM shipped BlackBerrys.

Jim Dalrymple from The Loop offers insight into just how Apple sales figures are trending against RIM’s BlackBerry. Steadily since Apple’s fourth quarter in 2010, they’ve been selling more iPhones than RIM has reported shipping. Combine this with Apple’s reported figure that 88% of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying the iPhone today, and the outlook doesn’t look good for RIM. Don’t forget about the PlayBook.

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Could iPad 2 Sales See a 200% Boon in Sales for Q3?

In Apple’s Q2 2011 fiscal results, Apple announced that only 4.7 million iPads were moved for the quarter, and Time Cook went on record for saying that the iPad 2 has the mother of all backlogs and that they’re working to resolve the issue to deliver backlogged iPad 2s to customers worldwide. Apple believes it can meet the increasing demand for Q3, and so does Asymco’s Horace Deidu. The analyst believes Apple could sell up to 9.8 million iPads in Q3, a 200% increase if Apple can meet current demand (which Cook later iterated was not a result of the recent natural and infrastructure disasters in Japan).

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Barack Obama Seen Toting iPad 2, Smart Cover

Barack Obama is pretty enthusiastic about his iPad, but does he have the first iPad or does he have Apple’s latest iPad 2? A TUAW reader submitted a few photos found on Flickr on the subject, revealing Obama has picked up the new iPad 2 with one of Apple’s delicious grey Smart Covers. Not a bad choice Mr. President! We’re pretty sure he’s loaded his iPad with the usual suspects such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and maybe he’s utilizing Flipboard to keep track of anything related to the White House or events overseas via Twitter. The man is pretty tech savvy (you have to admit his YouTube channel is very impressive), and maybe he’s going so far as to FaceTime with his daughters while away from home. Now that? That’s magic with the Presidential seal of approval of course.

[via TUAW]

Steve Jobs on iPhone Location Tracking: “We Don’t Track Anyone”

When security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden revealed a file in the iPhone’s backup history that contained time and location data, the media broke into a frenzy as Apple, Android, and smartphones became a target of scrutiny for privacy. It’s believed that Apple’s location data exists to reduce the time it has to look for cellular towers and GPS data by caching your known location. The data is accurate but not pinpoint accurate, and Apple has taken significant strides to increase battery life by regulating wireless services on the device. Quite simply, this file is simply for reference and is stored locally, used by the phone to preserve battery life and connect to known wireless “hubs” faster depending on your location. The issue, however, is that the file is likely “leftovers,” meaning cache was accidentally saved as a persistent file. This morning, MacRumors reports that one of their readers reached out to Steve Jobs on the issue, and got a response.

Q: Steve,

Could you please explain the necessity of the passive location-tracking tool embedded in my iPhone? It’s kind of unnerving knowing that my exact location is being recorded at all times. Maybe you could shed some light on this for me before I switch to a Droid. They don’t track me.

A: Oh yes they do. We don’t track anyone. The info circulating around is false.

Sent from my iPhone

Steve Jobs slams Android (claiming Google tracks users while Apple doesn’t), and it’s possible a future update from Apple could fix the issue in question (permanent storage of temporary cache). While Jobs has likely started a firestorm  this week over Android’s integrity (think antennagate all over again), there’s nothing to be worried about here and this issue has been overblown. You can always turn off your iPhone’s GPS services if you feel compelled, but the evidence suggests that Apple has nothing to hide.

[via MacRumors]

A market for iPads, not for tablets→

A market for iPads, not for tablets

Apple seems to have captured something with the iPad that is far more than just a tablet-shaped computer. They hit upon some “X factor” in the combination of the pleasing physical design of the iPad, and the simple, intuitive and pleasing look-and-feel of a user interface.

This X-factor, whatever it is, will be very hard to duplicate by companies that aren’t Apple. Other companies will build products to compete with it, but they’ll never manage to build anything that comes close to what consumers see as the real thing. In fact, I’m not sure that tablets will ever be a space where numerous brands with strong product offerings will constantly fight it out for market share. The “front-runner and also-rans” dynamic will always exist.

I wouldn’t be surprised if many critics would argue (with a fair bit of snark) that the x-factor is the Apple logo alone. However, people who’ve gotten their hands on the iPad and have explored the App Store ecosystem know the iPad is much more than just good looks wrapped around a mediocre OS. Apple gets both hardware and software right: whatever you think of their multitasking solution or lack of openness, the “limited” features critics bash it for work a hundred times better than the “real deal” competitors are supposed to be offering. Everything on the iPad is fluid, simply just works, and for the “lack of features,” no one seems to be complaining about missing anything once they’ve set up their iPad. Apple is smart to know that they’re going to implement features and make that experience perfect before shipping lots of features that are half baked. This is what puts Apple above the competition.

Not to pick on the Xoom as there are other competitors, but I’ll be blunt when I say it’s a joke. Honeycomb is jittery as you scroll and navigate apps, Adobe still can’t get Flash to run buttery smooth on something that’s dual-core (Flash being an advertised feature that’s supposed to just work), and Motorola shipped the Xoom without 4G and an unusable SD card slot. Apple would never ship a product like this, which is why the delay has been so great on the white iPhone (presumably an issue revolving around light sensitivity with the proximity and camera sensors). If Apple does have a software bug in their product, they promptly fix it with an update via iTunes. Aren’t those 3G Honeycomb tablets at the mercy of the carriers? Android feels messy - this is why the masses don’t want to buy these tablets.

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