5 O’Clock Roundup: Stem cell handout, Chinese iPhone rollout, Kodak’s near-wipeout
California’s stem cell agency hands out $230M of its $3B fund in grants – Stanford scored big, landing $52 million in grants for research that might cure leukemia, stroke and deadly skin disease epidermolysis bullosa. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and its $3 billion warchest were created by California voters in 2004 via Prop 71, in response to the Bush administration’s ban on embryonic stem-cell research done on cells harvested from human fetuses.
Fun fact: Most… Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: Nokia enters world’s largest market, New York Times boss clams up on Apple tablet
Nokia launches 6788 phone with China Mobile – The world’s largest handset maker meets the world’s largest wireless carrier in the world’s largest market. The 6788 is Nokia’s first phone for TD-SCDMA networks, China’s proprietary standard for its largest network. Engadget has the parts rundown:
The handset itself brings a 2.8-inch QVGA display, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual-LED flash, 4GB of memory plus microSD expansion, GPS, 3.5mm headset jack, and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, all… Continue Reading
Asurion AddressBook unlocks Android’s social media potential
A new application called Asurion AddressBook launches on the Android Market tomorrow, opening up new ways to use social media on the phone — and instantly making the iPhone look even more outdated for not running applications in the background and its lower app integration. Asurion AddressBook can be downloaded here.
At its core, the application is an address book that integrates various app feeds, just like the Palm Pre, Motoblur, or what Friendfeed does on… Continue Reading
Apple revamps MacBook, iMac, ‘magic’ mouse
Apple announced several additions to its computer lineup today, with a new MacBook laptop and iMac desktop computer, as well as a mouse with multi-touch capabilities. The news represents a refinement of Apple’s product strategy — rather than a breakthrough on the level of the much-discussed, still-not-announced tablet computer — but that strategy continues to pay off in impressive earnings and by chipping away at the marketshare of Microsoft Windows.
Here are the products, in descending… Continue Reading
Apple’s Tim Cook scoffs at iPhone competitors
The iPhone was the hot new thing a year or two ago, but now it’s seeing increasing competition from Google, Palm, and others — for example, my editor Matt Marshall just declared that he’s abandoning his iPhone for Droid, the Android phone coming at the end of the month. Asked today about that competition, Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook said he’s not worried.
“I think they’re trying to catch up with the first iPhone that… Continue Reading
Apple profits leave predictions in the dust
Apple has been consistently beating analyst expectations for its financial performance, and its most recent numbers were no exception.
The company’s ’s fourth quarter ended on Sept. 26, and the company says it made $9.87 billion in revenue during that period. That is up 25 percent from a year ago and far above analysts’ expectations of $9.2 billion.
Its net profit was $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per share. That’s up from $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per share,… Continue Reading
Android’s search gets a lot richer than the iPhone’s
If there’s one area where Google’s Android platform should blow Apple’s iPhone completely out of the water, it’s search.
So Google’s aiming to do just that with the Quick Search Box it released today for Android-based phones. It combines web search with search inside your phone. That means you can look up your personal contacts and do a generic Google search from the same place. It also learns from your prior behavior — if you’ve looked… Continue Reading
U.S. Chamber of Commerce strikes back after Apple defection: “We don’t have regrets”
Days after Apple announced that it would be quitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to its opposition to greenhouse gas limits, the Chamber has very publicly shouted back. During a press conference this morning, the group’s president and CEO Thomas Donohue stated firmly, “We don’t have regrets about our position and we’re not going to change it.”
This louder response follows a letter sent directly to Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday, reading, “It is… Continue Reading
AT&T: Just kidding! VoIP apps like Skype can run on our network
AT&T, the iPhone’s exclusive wireless carrier in the United States, said it has paved the way for Apple to let voice-over-Internet-protocol apps like Skype run on its 3G network instead of only on nearby Wi-Fi connections.
VoIP technology allows voice calls to be treated as data, making them significantly cheaper per minute.
The “iPhone is an innovative device that dramatically changed the game in wireless when it was introduced just two years ago,” said Ralph de la… Continue Reading
Apple becomes first tech co. to ditch U.S. Chamber of Commerce over emissions
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been hemorrhaging members in recent weeks after opposing legislation curtailing greenhouse gas emissions. Today, Apple joined companies like Nike, Exelon and Pacific Gas & Electric, who have also quit or scaled down participation in the organization to take a stronger stance on climate change issues. But it’s the first technology company to do so — which could touch off a trend in eco-conscious Silicon Valley.
The Chamber of Commerce is… Continue Reading
Apple’s new hire might be its tablet salesman
Reports that Apple is developing a tablet computer have been swirling for a while now, and any lingering doubts are looking more and more misplaced. Today, for example, Apple made an awfully suggestive re-hire — Michael Tchao, one of the developers of Apple’s first “tablet,” the Newton personal assistant.
Tchao has joined Apple as vice president of marketing, according to The New York Times, and will report to Senior Vice President Phil Schiller. Apple isn’t saying… Continue Reading
Spreadsheet of branded iPhone apps begs to be crowdsourced
Blogger Johnny Makkar has started this Google doc that lists only the branded iPhone apps in Apple’s store, and lays them out in a pretty, tabular format. It’s intended as a resource for marketers and developers, rather than consumers. There’s potential for a great crowdsourced resource, if brand managers make sure their own entries here are up to date.
Makkar says he “will also be adding Android, Palm, BlackBerry soon.” Johnny, you’re an iPhone guy. Stick… Continue Reading
Android app audience more global than iPhone’s
The latest report from mobile applications reporting software maker Distimo finds a pattern no one has explained yet, but one that mobile app followers will want to know: iPhone apps, Distimo’s data shows, tend to be more popular in the geographic region they are produced. The top paid apps bought the United States differ a lot from the top apps bought in the UK.
On Google’s Android market, there’s no such distinction. Two applications, Power Manager… Continue Reading
AT&T turns on iPhone multimedia messaging: Should I be excited or scared?
AT&T activated multimedia messaging (MMS) for iPhone owners in the United States today, as planned. This should silence some complaints about how the carrier is lagging behind iPhone carriers elsewhere, but could also lead to howls of frustration if it puts an even greater strain on AT&T’s much-criticized network.
If you want to turn on MMS, which allows you to send photos, videos, and audios through your text messaging application, see the instructions here. I’ve just… Continue Reading
Google says “You lie!” to Apple on Google Voice rejection
The word’s finally out.
Google said Apple did reject its Google Voice application for the iPhone because it “duplicated the core dialer functionality”, according to parts of an unredacted letter released by the Federal Communications Commission today.
That’s funny, because Apple just said last month that it “continues to study” the application and hadn’t rejected it. (The parts the FCC released today were originally blacked out in that same announcement last month.)
Furthermore, it seems this was no… Continue Reading
Steve Jobs says no Apple e-book. No one believes him
After Apple’s fun-but-not-earthshattering debut of a video-shooting iPod Nano earlier this week, Steve Jobs gave New York Times reporter David Pogue an interview. Asked if Apple was ready to debut an e-reader like Amazon’s Kindle — but much, much prettier, of course — Jobs said he didn’t think e-readers made sense:
“I’m sure there will always be dedicated devices, and they may have a few advantages in doing just one thing,” he said. “But I think… Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: the all-Apple edition
At VentureBeat, we wear our Apple-fanboy tattoos in plain sight. In the wake of Steve Jobs’ return as ringmaster, we’ve rounded up the event stories that may not change the world, but that draw the mad clickz anyway. Oh wait … that’s us clicking. [Photo: Dean Takahashi]
AT&T to upgrade network, but San Francisco, NY iPhone users are out of luck
After constant complaints about the crummy service on its 3G network (a problem linked to its exclusive support for the iPhone), AT&T just announced that it’s boosting network speed in six cities. This is great news — assuming you don’t live in San Francisco or New York.
AT&T says it’s rolling out support for the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 technology in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami by the end of this… Continue Reading
Apple’s $400 iPod Touch lacks a camera — rumors claim technical problems
Steve Jobs and his sidekick Phil Schiller took the stage at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center today to debut new models of Apple’s pocket gadgets.
The most striking new product is a $149 iPod Nano that includes a tiny video camera, microphone, and speaker, yet maintains the Nano’s gumstick-slim size. It’s a marvel of miniaturization. Instead of a Flip camera, you can now slip a tiny Nano into your pocket and, assuming you can find it… Continue Reading
Ten-second iPhone tethering fix may be OK with AT&T
If you’ve got an iPhone and an Apple laptop, it’s possible to configure the iPhone as a cellular modem for your notebook in a few seconds.
The original problem is that AT&T has not enabled the default means of “tethering” the phone to the laptop. But there’s a workround: Fast Company blogger Chris Dannen has posted step-by-step instructions, culled from other sites, to set up tethering yourself. Australian blogger Benjamin Miller figured out the fix, but… Continue Reading