If you want a Z10 in black, it’s ready and waiting for you by this Friday via Vodafone. Just pre order by 5pm on the 30th.
Sounds too good to be true. Lets hope it will be available on all the networks from day 1.
And if you do get one, you will need a micro sim.
iOS 6.1 was released yesterday.
iOS 6 currently resides on 300 million devices. That level of adoption is from Sept 2012. Now Google can only dream of such an adoption rate for Jelly Bean, which is mainly due to its fragmentation.
Another tidbit is Apple now earns twice as much income from iTunes sales & it’s services as it does from its own iPods.
New with the iOS 6.1 is the dedicated passbook apps page. Open up the passbook app and select view apps. You will now be taken to a tiny list in the UK. The annoying part is there are a lot more but they are not shown. The lock screen now has new music controls. Wifi is stronger and the no service update is fixed.
There is strong speculating that 2013 will be the year that Twitter will earn $1 billion in advertising revenues. Not only that but Twitter is finally gearing up to launch its advertising API some time in Q1. Aimed at large advertisers and their agencies, it will give them the ability to launch scaled-up campaigns across the social network, and it also opens the door to more sophisticated targeting and analytics tools in the process.
I worry about this, since twitter is a free service meaning they have to make money at the expense of our data. Is Twitter moving towards Facebook where issues around ownership of data and photos becomes a problem.
I guess the only way we will find out is later on, if twitter changes its terms of service.
Apple has just released iOS 6.1.
LTE support for additional carriers (36 for iPhone, 23 for iPad), the ability to purchase movie tickets through Siri (US-only) and the opportunity for iTunes Match fans to download individual songs from iCloud. Also a new button to reset advertisers.
At first glance nothing seems that new but the bug fixes are substantial. Wifi and loss of service signal are all addressed properly.
Also of note is that Apple TV update bringing cloud integration and support for Bluetooth keyboards. Now where is the Apple TV heading I wonder?
RIM is really ramping up a gear now. Fresh off their press release is the news you will be able to rent or buy films the same day the are released on DVD. TV shows will be available the day after they are shown.
The full news release –
New BlackBerry World for BlackBerry 10 to Include Extensive Catalogue of Songs, Latest Movies and TV Shows
January 28, 2013
Unified Multimedia Storefront Will Carry Music and Video Content from All Major Studios, Labels and Broadcasters
Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX:RIM) today announced that the new BlackBerry(R) World[TM] storefront (formally BlackBerry App World[TM]) for BlackBerry 10 will offer one of the most robust music and video catalogs in mobile today. The new BlackBerry World will include an extensive catalog of songs as well as movies and TV shows, with most movies coming to the store the same day they are released on DVD, and next day availability of many current TV series. The competitive offering will feature content from all major studios, music labels and top local broadcast networks. Customers will be able to preview tracks and access the content using multiple payment options.*
“Music and video content is an integral part of a rich mobile experience. People want easy and convenient access to their favorite music, movies and TV shows wherever they are,” said Frank Boulben, Chief Marketing Officer at Research In Motion. “RIM is committed to working with content providers to bring the best, most up-to-date content to our customers with BlackBerry 10, and to make it easy for them to get what they want.”
The video download and rental section in BlackBerry World will initially be available in the US, UK and Canada. Varying by region and distributor, customers will have access to movies from the following studios and independents: 20th Century Fox, Entertainment One (eOne), Lionsgate, MGM, National Film Board of Canada, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (US), Starz Digital Media, STUDIOCANAL, The Walt Disney Studios, Universal Pictures (UK), Warner Bros. Customers will also have access to TV shows from the following broadcasters and studios: ABC Studios, BBC Worldwide, CBC/Radio-Canada, CBS, DHX Media, ITV, National Geographic, NBCUniversal (UK), Nelvana, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (US), Starz Digital Media, Twentieth Century Fox Television, Univision Communications Inc, and Warner Bros.
The BlackBerry World storefront’s DRM-free music download section will feature an extensive catalog from all major and independent labels including: 4AD Records, Domino Recording Company, finetunes, Matador Records, [PIAS] Entertainment Group, Rough Trade Records, Sony Music Entertainment, The Orchard, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, XL Recordings and Zebralution. The music section will initially be available in 18 countries: Canada, USA, UK, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore.
Apple’s share price tumbled on news of its last quarters financials. 800,000 Apple shares worth $300 million were executed in 17 second intervals, just before the announcement. Coincidence. Inside information.
Many financial bloggers have offered an alternative explanation for Apple’s decline, suggesting the company has run out of growth prospects, highlighting flat quarterly earnings, as reported in comparison to the quarterly income statements from last year.
However, Apple’s earnings for the winter quarter of 2012, included an extra, 14th week. This extra week is added to Apple’s fourth calendar quarter (Apple’s fiscal Q1) every five or six years. That means Apple’s revenue was $4.2 billion in the recent December quarter versus $3.3 billion in the prior-year period. On an equal week basis, revenue in the quarter rose 26.7%. So much for a decline.
Lets not forget Apple’s sizable $132 billion cash pile, the $2.5 billion distribution to shareholders and $2 billion allocated to the company’s stock buyback plan. As part of being a well managed company, Apple defers revenue for Mac and iOS devices, totalling $7.274, it has sold in order to provide free software updates over the course of those products. This aspect adds great value to the longevity of a hardware purchase. This revenue is counted as net sales over the next 8 fiscal quarters.
Apple also declares US tax expenses on its cash holdings in advance, even though it doesn’t have to pay those taxes until it chooses to bring those earnings into the US. In the December quarter, Apple deferred $1.179 billion in income tax expense, resulting in a total of $14.712 billion in tax expenses that Apple has preallocated, but not actually paid. This means should Apple bring the money back into the USA, there will be no further tax expense.
Due to the above, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Apple’s share price stabilise after 2 quarters. By then we should also have seen the release of new products from Apple and its competitors. And hopefully we will see something special.
UnwiredView reports that the Ascend P2 is expected to offer a 1.8GHz quad-core Huawei HiSilicon K3V2 processor, a 4.5-inch 1080p display, 2GB of RAM, and a 13-megapixel camera. It’s also said to feature a large 3,000 mAh battery, which will be packed into a “wafer thin” form factor.
This phone sure looks good but my only concern with the thin design is that battery life could be awful. It’s about time smartphones were given a battery that can last 2 days of heavy use.
Come on, own up, have you taken a snap of your plate of food, then uploaded it to a social website or Flickr?
Search for food on Flickr and it returns 11 million entries. Seriously !
However, restaurants are fighting back in some areas, as they do not want the mood destroyed by camera happy people. You see if it the photo was discreet, flash off then perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. But nowadays people bring tripods, or table pods and create a scene.
To combat this, some restaurants are quickly asking the patrons into the kitchens whereby they can photograph their food without disturbing the other guests.
I think we really need to sort the root cause of the problem out and stop photographing your food, but then why should we. My ice cream looks magically.
In the news is the story that RIM might sell its hardware side. To be honest I didn’t find this a surprise. The company is going through some tough times and if the transformation to BB10 isn’t a success all options would naturally have to be considered.
So if the hardware division is sold, is this a bad move. I don’t think so as there are other companies that can manufacture state of the art hardware. Not add the BB10 software and you could be left with something special.
However, what is really important is the services Blackberry can provide as an Eco system and as a wider picture. It has worked out that apps are important, and has offered cash incentives for developers to submit apps. The numbers of apps being submitted are substantial. It will be interesting to see on the day of the announcement, just how many apps are available, the quality and range.
Personally I would like Blackberry to survive as we need more competition. Lets see what happens at the end of this month.
Well the easiest way is to show you. Loads of screen shots below. Any questions let me know. And if you have any good suggestions chip in below in the comments.
I also have loads not on the phone 🙂
