Apple News, Analysis and Podcasts

Lawsuits notwithstanding, earlier this week Samsung took a few shots at Apple, with a tone that could only be described as defensively whiny, conjuring up images of a certain Star Wars character (must I mention Mark Hamill?...). Samsung appears to be in very vulnerable in the TV space, as Product Manager Chris "Skywalker" Moseley stated at their Prague forum:

Last week Sony announced three new back-illuminated stacked CMOS image sensors. In simple terms, Sony announced better camera capability for smartphones and mobile devices, but they're likely to cost the competition much more than Apple, whle lagging behind in overall speed.

Seriously? Take a look at these analysts number in pink/red highlight. It's these analysts that are pegging Apple's returns at or below Apple's own guidance. And that is just laughable. There is no data whatsoever alluding to such ridiculously low earnings forecasts, but I'm glad they exist!

Apple's move from Intel to ARM processors may be closer than you think.

We are unclear as to exactly what Newt's team is charging up on his campaign bus, but it's a wall-mount power supply for something other an an iOS device. Clearly seen, it appears to be a newer version power supply (shipped with the MacBook air). No offense to Mr. Gingrich's weight, but perhaps he's hoping to start slimming down with a sleek MacBook air by his side.

We want to thank you for making T-GAAP part of your Apple online world. Without Apple, our passion, and yours, T-GAAP wouldn't exist. Thank you!

Erik Schmidt, former CEO and now Chairman of Google, proudly announced that within 6 months, "We [Google] in the next six months plan to market a tablet of the highest quality." Translation can be found here from the Italian site Corriere.it.

On the surface it would appear that Google is going to compete with its recently acquired Motorola Mobility division, which also manufactures tablets that use Google's Android OS. In reality, the forthcoming product (along with Schmidt's initial announcement) should be viewed as nothing more than hype for Google's latest Android 4.5/5.0 tablet OS, due to hit the market in the June time frame.

The idea's a great one. Go to Apple's website after 9 PM, select an iPhone, carrier of choice, and reserve it for pickup the next day. Just one hiccup. It doesn't work.

Netflix has been a huge streaming success story and has been the chief rival to Apple's so-called hobby, Apple TV. But everything may be about to change. According to Barrons report, Verizon is setting its sites on acquiring Netflix or perhaps even Coinstar (which owns the DVD RedBox rental kiosk business). Verizon acquiring either would be a boon for Apple, as the takeover would likely occur in the timeframe Apple launches its own HDTV with integrated offerings.

Analysts have been coming out of Cupertino lately, ratcheting up their iPhone sales figures. The Street predicts roughly 29 million iPhones will be sold for the quarter, while AT&T's CEO recently commented on seeing a record number of iPhone sales for the December quarter being highly likely.

With the dust settling on Final Cut Pro X, with both its detractors and supporters alike, a recent report shed some light that 64-bit Final Cut Pro 8 was ready to roll, but the decision was made to leave it on the cutting room floor and break ties with traditional editing solutions and deliver a new direction. Apple's goal in Final Cut X was clear: Jobs philosophy to skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is now, would rule the day.

Nielson Reports issued shocking numbers yesterday: TV ownership is set to decline for the first time since 1970, which marks the first time since Nielson started tracking this data. An initial reaction would be to blame the economy for such a depressing year in television sales. However, get beyond the simple reasons for the decline and a different story emerges. And with that different story, Apple is set to enter a market that isn't in decline, but in transformation mode. Apple is once again skating to where the puck is going to be, not where it is.

Apple's stock price is off over 10% in as little as one months time. Aiding the slide, DigiTimes has reported that Apple has slashed (yes, slashed) component orders for iPhone, and Apple can't keep iPhones in stock, possibly due to supply shortages. To top it off, Kindle Fire is now out in the market for only $199, backed with amazing hype. Does this mean the end of Apple is near? Should everyone "Repent Now" from Apple?!

Bloomberg recently created a buzz about a forthcoming Apple HDTV, in conjunction with Sharp Electronics. But this is not where the immediate attention should be focused. Our information points towards a Tuesday, January 25 Apple's Special Event from Apple.

Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet was releasd today, and based on the initial reviews, the secret we T-GAAP-ers already knew about is now out of the bag: The Kindle Fire tablet is no tablet.

Podcast Episode 63: Cornholio. The Three Guys (Mark, Karl and Werner) discuss the opening of Apple 5th Ave flagship store in NYC, PBS's show: "Steve Jobs - One Last Thing", iPhone 4S battery life issues, rumors about Amazon updating the Kindle to 8.9" and CBS who apparently turned down Apple's Streaming Service. All this and much, much more in Episode 63: Cornholio.

Does anyone question Steve Jobs' extreme pursuit of perfection? The new glass, unveiled today at Apple's 5th Avenue store in Manhattan, only serves to underscore how different Apple approaches, well, everything. But it also delivers a subtle message to their competition: Don't think for a moment you can fake being us, because you can't. 

Analysts are an interesting breed. They are paid to give their opinion on what the future will hold for a particular company or industry. However, often times they don't know what they are talking about or don't know their subject matter well enough to get it right. Think of an analyst like the local TV weatherperson. They may know about the weather and how high pressure relates to low pressure, but with all their knowledge, they keep their job as long as they're entertaining, not whether the forecasts are completely accurate.

It has been difficult for travelers looking for good Internet access on the road. It was once hard to find a Wi-Fi connection, since most hotels only had an ethernet port. However, times have changed as most hotels have decided to add Wi-Fi hot-spots. The issue is no longer Wi-Fi access, but Wi-Fi service. It can be very frustrating for travelers who find a very poor or nonexistent Internet service at a hotel that advertises "High-Speed" Bandwidth. Some are starting to blame the iPad.

In a recent New York Times article, iBAHN, an Internet provider for hotels and the meeting industry blames iPads for poor Wi-Fi service at hotels. They say the iPad consumes more than four times the amount of bandwidth than an average smart-phone. But is this the whole story?

Renton, WA, South Center Mall Apple Store: Over 200 people lined up to get their hands on one of Apple's newest – or less expensive (dare I say cheap or free!) – iPhones. Apple Stores are handing out voucher coupons similar to the iPad launch, but on a more sophisticated level. Apple employees need to know which carrier, configuration and color of iPhone is wanted. The Apple employee then hands out a voucher for that device (see image above).

The voucher program appears to indicate that Apple will not have enough iPhones on each carrier to meet demand. This does not match rumors that were claiming Apple had been producing new iPhones for well over a month in the 150k per-day range.

Facebook, Twitter, Google +1,... and that's just the beginning of the list. There are well over a dozen different world-wide main-stream social media outlets one can use for free to get "their message out," and most everyone who is anyone is part of this social media trend. Even T–GAAP sports a Facebook page and Twitter account.

Yet someone is missing from this social media upheaval — Apple. Apple has deliberitly made a choice not to directly play in the world of social media. iOS 5 is loaded with goodies for Twitter users, but Apple, Inc. is absent. This seems somewhat bizarre given the fact that social media is especially popular with those under 30 years old — the same group that gobble up the iPad, iPhone and iPod products. So why would Apple not use social media to communicate it's own offerings to this crowd?

There isn't much more that can be said about Steve Jobs, until his authorized autobiography is released  later this month. If you haven't had time to search and find some articles on Steve, here is a short-list to what we found to be the most profound columns about Mr. Jobs.

The shock of Wall Street not seeing the terminology "iPhone 5" on Apple's latest iPhone offering sent the stock careening in Tuesday's trading, down as much as $17 a share to $357.32 before bouncing back in late day trading.

Punditslooking for link-bait notwithstanding, the fears of some analysts and investors seem to be turning a corner today, from emotionally disappointed, to looking at the facts – Apple has put together a world-wide iPhone lineup that attacks every pricing segment head on with iOS devices:

Let's waste no time and just dive right into why Apple's 'Let's talk iPhone' special event is going to be huge:

In the 60's, after President Kennedy's assassination, Simon & Garfunkel brought us the Sound of Silence. That tone can be sensed again this week in for the form of Fire, that has all but gone out. Amazon's gushing moment came from their new line of Kindle's launched this past Wednesday. But since Friday, the absence of any enthusiasm and chatter about the devices, specifically the Kindle Fire, has been deafening. 

We T-GAAP-ers really appreciated your open letter of advertisement yesterday, showcasing the Samsung Galaxy S II and HTC Amaze. Errrrrt! We really appreciated your open letter, explaining why T-Mobile is having difficulties in obtaining the iPhone and what you are doing to ensure T-Mobile customers can order one as soon as possible, as it is clearly the smartphone of choice.

We would probably have served you better by posting this on Monday instead of, well, Friday... T-GAAP took an extended vacation this week. Why now?

To believe anything Eric "creepy line" Schmidt says must mean you're a Google employee, or a big proponent of Kool-Aid drinking. Schmidt was at it again, revising his unprovable feelings while on Apple's board, stating "I was on the Apple board until I couldn’t stand it anymore.”

This is the big one. The photo we've all been waiting for: A shot taken from an iPhone 5 camera!... Or is it? That's one question that has everyone sifting through pixels today. And while this photo may very well be a snapshot taken with an iPhone 5 prototype, the real genius is in Apple's marketing machine. The photo and it's associated data wasn't an accident, it was intentional.

With this singular image, Apple's put the entire smartphone industry on notice, and has the entire tech community in an absolute buzz over the image. But any engineer with an iPhone 5 prototype in-hand (working with the camera no less) knows exactly what data is tagged to photos, and what will be revealed through that data. At least for this round, there was no need to leak timely information to Apple's favorite journalist Yukari Iwatani Kane of the Wall Street Journal. This time, Apple found a clever way to begin it's pre–launch viral marketing campaign – a single photo. Brilliant.

Is Apple going all-out in an effort to acquire the type of contracts that will set their Apple TV and forthcoming HDTV sales on fire? Likely so.

In the wake of Steve Jobs announcing his resignation as CEO of Apple. Inc. this past Wednesday, Apple stock took a $19 plunge in after hours trading, costing AAPL nearly 5.6% of its value. The news of Jobs resignation could hardly be considered unexpected, but would this be a sign that investors viewed Apple as a one-man show or was the after-hours trading a mere knee-jerk reaction?

It appears that MobileMe (formerly known as “Dot Mac”), has been showing some signs of attachment disorder. The above errror message is consistent from more than one MobileMe account when sending an e-mail to the domain frontier.net The same e-mail can be sent to a different domain with no problem — message sent, message received.

If recent reports are to be believed, a new Apple TV will arrive this fall. Information coming from many of these reports cites TV Execs, which have proven to be anything but reliable in the past. The fall timeframe makes little sense for Apple to deliver an all-new Apple TV and Apple HDTV lineup when considering iOS 5, iCloud, iPhones and perhaps new iPads will arrive during a jam-packed season of fall releases. But where there is smoke there is often fire, and while fall makes little sense, our information points to a January Special Event from Apple.

A recent video posted by 9to5mac.com reveals Apple's Grand Central store in mid-construction mode. The footage is a wee bit shaky, so we question whether the person shooting the video uses a Mac and iMovie (or FCP for that matter), but he appears to have held the camera steady enough to incriminate himself during the filming of the facility. At 2:11 into the video a mirror is caught on the tape, revealing the man holding the camera. From the looks of it, he's a security guard of some sort.

On January 9, 2007 when Steve Jobs strolled onto the MacWorld stage and unveiled the first iPhone, he wrapped up the presentation by stating the iPhone had over 200 patents, and that Apple planned to vigorously defend their Intellectual Property (IP).

No kidding.

The latest cell phone market share figures should have tablet makers quaking in fear of what Apple may do to them once iPad 3 arrives. Currently, Apple is sucking all the profits out of the market. Moreover, many of Apple's competitors have taken their best stab at iPad by flooding the channel, but with weak sell-though results (just ask Samsung, HP or RIM how tablets are working out).

The latest figures peg Apple's global tablet market share at 61.3%. Like with iPhone vs Android phones, we saw Android quickly race out ahead in deployment numbers, which are flattening out or starting to work back in Apple's favor. New numbers for the iPhone comes from BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk, predicting up to 30 million iPhones could be sold in the September quarter. If iPhone sales are poised for this absolute explosion, what will halo effect be for iPads vs the rest of the pack?

Unlike the Mac, Windows lets applications install files all over the system and program folders. The result of Windows allowing apps to install files or DLLS in many locations is it can wreck havoc with operating system stability. Apple has a better approach.

OS X confines application files to the application, system's library, and user's library folders. Some application preferences are system wide and others are specific to a certain user (which is why there are two library folders), but hints in OS X Lion suggest things are about to change.

Apple doesn't have partners, they have suppliers. But when Apple entered the cell industry it had no choice but to enter into partnership agreements with AT&T and others across the globe. Don't confuse necessity with anything Jobs and company are happy with, as Apple is setting course to go nuclear with its pernicious carriers.

Until now, the iPhone has been built with the philosophy of design elegance and overall quality. Apple has been able to work this way due to the business model being focused on subsidized products, hidding the true costs of iPhones into two-year contracts. But Apple's forthcoming iPhone 5 launch promises to change this model and the way we purchase iPhones.

Microsoft recently released an upgrade to their WIndows Mobile Phone Line: Windows Mobile Phone 7.5 —codenamed 'Mango'. Besides another lame codename by Microsoft (Longhorn, Mojave and Birch to name a few), Windows Mobile 7.5 is aiming to relaunch Microsoft's dominance in the mobile phone space... Sounds like something from Microsoft's Redundancy Department.

But is this enough to catch iPhone or Android? Moreover, is it too late?

 By using up to 30% of the Internet's Bandwidth, Netflix has become the place to watch movies and TV shows online. They have the largest movie catalog available online with the best prices. Yet, is Netflix opening the door to defeat?

In the past when users subscribed to Netflix, they would get 1,2, or 3 DVDs at a time with unlimited online movies and videos. Recently, Netflix announced new subscriber plans that essentially broke up their two main services. The change has caused a major backlash from its users, as it greatly increases the monthly subscription price. Will Netflix be able to weather the storm, or is this the beginning of the end for them?

Apple will hold their 3Q11 conference call at 2:00pm PT/5:00pm ET on Tuesday, July 19, 2011. 

Whether or not you have interest in Apple's financial results or have never listened to a quarterly financial conference call, we highly recommend you give this Apple financial call a listen. Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer will chair the call, and many things can be learned from listening to their tight-lipped commentary via the questions they choose to answer. Sometimes what they don't say is almost as revealing in what they do.

First there was the Pony Express, then the telegraph and then the telephone. As time marches on man seems to find a better, cheaper and quicker way to communicate.

It is no different in the 21st Century. Today we have rss feeds, twitter, facebook, e-mail and the beloved "mobile phone" But wait, there's more. Mobile phones have now morphed into mini computers with Apple's iOS, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Mobile 7 platforms. In this new war of the mobile device, it appears Microsoft is bringing up the rear with no real chance of catching Apple or Google. Microsoft has lot's of money to stay in the game, but if things stay the same, they are the odds on favorite to being the big looser. And that's exactly why Microsoft may have purchase Skype.

From the days of ThinkSecret or macOSrumors, to today's AppleInsider or MacRumors, Apple Inc. has always had a great rumor mill following, and quite often where there has been smoke we have seen fire. The constant drumbeat of rumors surrounding the MacBook air is nearly off the charts - or so it would seem.

Virtually every day brings forth a new MacBook air rumor. But many sites are conducting mere re-broadcasts of original information, making it appear as fresh information. Thus, we wanted to go back to the sources of these rumors and build a comprehensive list of original sources.

According to a report by All Things D, Apple's iPhone is now the best selling smartphone for Verizon and AT&T.

To that we say a big, collective, DUH! Add in the revelation that T-Mobile (a non-authorized iPhone carrier) now admits they have over one million unlocked iPhones on their network!

While Apple has been enjoying a financial boom during this down economy (selling more Macs, more iPhones and more iPads) it seems like living in an alternate universe when talking about Research In Motion.

If it wasn't bad enough that RIM's revenue fell more than 12% for Q1 (ending May 28th) or that the Playbook has been a major dud (how's that QNX operating system working out for ya?), it looks like now even the rats are abandoning ship.

Today Apple made good on their June promise by making Final Cut Pro X (FCP X) available for download. Apple delivered a sneak peak of FCP X back in April, but the company was very mum about Final Cut's complimentary applications, and gave little indication if they would be included in some form of FCP Studio suite, sold separately, or removed from Apple's lineup altogether.

Apple has answered the questions in full today. Motion 5 and Compressor are sold separately via the Mac App Store for $49.99 each. Own a Mac, spend $100 and you have two professional tools at your fingertips. Amazing. Final Cut Pro X is also available via the Mac App Store for $299.99.

According to Apple Insider, Apple won't be shipping any new Macs until Mac OS X Lion is available. The rationale is that "Apple management is so pumped up over the advantages presented by its forthcoming Mac OS X Lion operating system that the company has been holding back the release of at least one new Mac refresh until the software is finalized". In addition, Computer World reported that Apple has announced all new Macs purchased after June 6, 2011 will receive a free OS X Lion upgrade.

The reason we must wait for new hardware — the spin goes — is because Apple is so excited about Lion its holding back hardware releases, we think there may be more of a practical side to this decision.

If you own Apple (AAPL) stock or are considering doing so, but are not sure when's a good time to get in, this video is a must-see. Michael Holland isn't flashy, nor does he bring anything revolutionary to the table, but his sticking point is AAPL valuation is incredibly low and it can't stay there forever.

AAPL closed the market Wednesday at $326.75 with a intraday market cap of only $302.16b. AAPL is also carrying a forward looking P/E ratio of only 11. These figures for AAPL are starting to become a fixture to the stock, and they are absurdly low. What is Apple going to bring to the earnings table next quarter? There are some sparks out in the analyst world that suggest it will be another above and beyond quarter, but will another strong quarter push Apple's stock price north or leave it in purgatory?

Typically we don't make a big deal about posting our podcasts, but this is the WWDC, so we are making an exception. Available in the upper right of our site, so go for it as you have time. 

The show was, well, pretty hot. Speaking of hot, you can listen to brothers (guy #1 and guy #3) go after it a bit regarding privacy and iCloud. All your privacy belongs to us...

Holy covered banners Batman! We had thought Apple raised all their banners this past Friday, but have been proven wrong. It appears Werner Reschke (Guy #3), was correct in his guess that Apple may put up covered banners Sunday night. Nice call Werner. You can see more original T-GAAP WWDC banner photos here.

We are not sure what this banner holds under it's black veil, but here are three of our best guesses:

Our team is on the streets in San Francisco making sure nothing goes unnoticed as WWDC 2011 takes shape. 

When it comes to smartphones, they've delivered us a lot of mobile computing goodness. But nothing great in technology-land seems to come along without a catch. In the cell phone world, the unsavory lining to success is radiation.

EWG (Environmental Working Group) has served up a plethora of appliance and smartphone test results as it relates to radiation. What this means to the user, that's debatable, but anyone can find articles and test results to support just about any position on the topic. At this point, an overarching rule of thumb is cell phone radiation is not good for the body, but how much can the human body take is another question. Looking specifically at smartphones, EWG tested 83 products, and out of the bunch Motorola came away the loser. As for Apple?...

Can Facebook be a cause of depression in children and teens? That seems to be one of the findings of a study produced by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The study sites,

“Seventy-five percent of teenagers now own cell phones, and 25% use them for social media, 54% use them for texting, and 24% use them for instant messaging.”

Whack! No, that wasn't Apple's Steve Jobs laying some open letter smack down on Adobe. This time the hammer on Flash comes from some former Apple engineering employees (according to 9to5mac.com). HTML5 is claimed to be converted on-the-fly from Flash, with no need for additional coding requirements via a new product called HYPE 1.0.

Conversion of Flash to HTML5 is a wonderful thing, but I wouldn't call this a Flash killer (at least not yet). The product allows for the lazy use of Flash to continue as a baseline authoring tool, being converted upon output for iOS and other HTML5-loving devices. But at some point the question will become (if it hasn't already) "Why can't I just design in an HTML5 authoring tool from the get-go, instead of designing in Flash and converting?"

HP's VP of European operations, Eric Cador, has claimed that HP will be better than number one in the tablet market. "We call it number one plus," said Cador.

Now that HP has thrown their skin in the game, this may mark the time I need to come back with a comprehensive article on why every tablet out there that's trying to be "iPad plus" absolutely stink. Cador also called Apple an expensive island, regurgitating a dated stereotype of the 90's (AKA Microsoft's diatribe against Apple).

Early reports (and videos) are pouring in, in what appears to be a Foxconn manufacturing facility which exploded a few hours ago. The initial reports are claiming the explosion occurred in an iPad 2 production building, and that the explosion has effected several floors.

Initial speculation as to what caused the explosion was thought to be a fine dust (think grain elevators), which ignited and caused the explosion. At this point it is not known as to how many people, if any, have been injured, and we certainly wish everyone the best and are hoping no one has been injured.

A group calling itself Apple Retail Workers Union picked up some nice press yesterday when they sent out their own form of a press release to some major media outlets. The goal? Simple. Unionize Apple retail stores. The chances of this happening? None to, well, none.

There are any number of reasons why Apple retail stores won't ever form a union, such as Apple's overall pay being much higher than the average mall store (you won't find any Genius salaries in The GAP), and benefits are good. But there are two key reasons any union effort for Apple retail employees will fail. First, Apple retail employees are a happy, satisfied bunch, because the atmosphere Apple has created for them is top of the class. Secondly, Steve Jobs has no love for unions (so it appears). In 2007 Jobs told a school-reform conference in Texas "I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way..." Jobs also added "This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy." As a result of Jobs public stance it would appear Unions have no love for Jobs either.

Adobe released version 10.3 of their Flash Player this week. The key areas of improvement are auto-update notification and security control. Both of these features are welcome additions to the Flash Player for Mac users. Does this new version have any new performance enhancements?

As with the last major release 10.2, it is time to run Flash Player 10.3 through its paces to see if there are any performance improvements for Mac users. The tests below were conducted on the same machine and webpages as our previous tests. The latest versions of Safari and Firefox were used to compare Flash Player 10.2.152 with Flash Player 10.3.181 on the chart below.

In the past, adding an external storage device was slow and cumbersome. Back in the day, users had to turn off the computer, plug-in and screw-in a connector, before turning the computer back on to add an external hard drive.

USB greatly helps the situation by allowing users to plug-in devices without having to turn off the computer. The connectors are smaller and don’t have to be screwed in. Laptop hard drives and USB 2.0 made it even easier by supplying power through the USB port, so these devices didn’t even need to be plugged into a power outlet. The next step is to remove one cable that is left.

Reuters is reporting that Apple isn't satisfied with the size of current SIM cards and is pushing for a smaller standard for the iPad and other iOS devices. The information comes to Reuters from an Orange executive. 

Orange is one of the UK's major carriers along with T-Mobile and O2. Any validity to this? Who knows, as Reuters is an odd rumor source, and this is not typical for them. This could simply be an Orange executive with loose lips sinking ships.

Working at an Apple retail store in the past, I felt compelled to share some thoughts on the rumors hinting of a major event coming this weekend at the Apple retail stores. Computerworld's Jonny Evans shares some additional thoughts along these lines, but also shares information from ifoapplestore.com, which has been a faithful follower of Apple retail stores since they opened nearly 10 years ago.

Taking in the smoke from the rumor mill, don't get excited about Apple launching some form of anniversary Mac hardware, or delivering some surprise Apple HDTV product, that just isn't happening. Apple does not waste hundreds of millions of dollars in free press when launching into new markets, and pulling some surprise Mac launch over the weekend would be doing exactly that. What's more likely is a software/cloud initiative.

Final Cut Pro X (FCPX) is coming next next month, yet Apple is still completely mum as to additional abilities and feature sets since it's sneak peak at NAB's Supermeet. As a result, resources and information beyond the presentation are difficult to find.

Scott Moritz of The Street, believes the next generation iPhone is delayed, which may result in sales losses to Android-based 4G LTE smartphones. Moritz builds his thinking upon an analyst who is claims to have inside information on the forthcoming iPhone.

How a product can be "delayed" when a company has never given a launch date it could be delayed from is logically impossible, but we all understand how this works, right? First, the rumor mill builds some mythical launch date for an Apple product, then rumors and analysts claim a different date, thus the launch of the product is late. Brilliantly ridiculous.

According to the UK-based V3 publication, market research firm Context is claiming 3G iPads are a disproportionately large chunk of overall iPad sales figures. In fact, Context claims the 64GB 3G iPad totaled a third of all iPad 2 sales in Europe since its launch. The surge in 3G iPad sales is likely to have pushed Apple's average selling price (ASP) north, but to what extent?

The last known ASP for iPads came during Apple's January financial conference call, where Apple COO, Timothy Cook and Apple CFO, Peter Oppenheimer revealed a $600 figure. But Apple's figure was from the Christmas quarter, when entry-level $499 iPads were likely high volume sellers (when compared to other quarters). If Context figures hold true beyond Europe's boarders, iPad 2's ASP for the June quarter will land somewhere around $680. How much revenue does equate to for the June quarter? Mr. Cook gave us an idea last month.

According to net-security.org, Android malware has exploded 400% since the summer of 2010. Juniper Networks issued the report, which claims there is a shift from attacking the desktop market to the mobile space.

Key reasons cited for increased attacks on the mobile market are:

Microsoft's latest pursuit is yet another sign that Apple is tearing them up. The company from Redmond is rumored to be in pursuit of buying out (or heavily investing in) Skype. If you are a user of Skype you may have noticed their latest updates are pretty much deplorable with regard to user interface, and their video quality typically stinks when compared to Tango or Apple's Facetime.

Based on Microsoft's track record, I can only assume they will purchase Skype, repurpose it for "Windows Phone 7 Extreme Plus Home Edition" and market it as: Windows PeopleTime – The Windows you love, now with video chat... Please.

Cnet's Scott Stein comes up with five creative areas where he'd like to see Thunderbolt deployed. Scott has some creative – and some not so creative – ideas:

• External Storage
• Monitors
• Cameras
• External GPUs
• iPhones, iPads and iPods

Hmmmm... We take a quick look at each area to see what makes sense.

No, this isn't a new column that will come out every Tuesday. It's just that the last few days has seen a heavy does of rumors, so to aid in keeping you up-to-speed with the things that are – or are not – going to happen.

Check it out:

Electronic Arts Inc. delivered a press release today stating they have an agreement in place to acquire Firemint Pty Ltd. Financial details were not disclosed, but it becomes abundantly clear that iOS games are rapidly becoming serious business.

Some may say this marks a maturing in the iOS apps industry, pointing to consolidation taking place, but it is more likely that EA is fortifying their walls, as larger players begin to take the iOS gaming stage. EA is simply getting ahead of the pack. Hundreds of additional startups, and traditional software companies alike, will continue to enter into iOS development in the years to come. Games are likely to be front and center as Apple's ecosystem rapidly grows world-wide and punches into the living-room.

Henry Blogdet's recently ran an article for Business Insider titled, IT'S OFFICIAL: Android Clobbering Everyone, iPhone Dead In The Water. To get a better idea of what he is talking about feel free to check out his column here. Am I going to rip into Henry's column from the get-go? Absolutely. I found his entire piece seriously troubling, as I had thought that only a Dvorak-like mind could come up with such antiquated material – I was wrong.

I'm not here to personally tear apart Henry, that's not my goal, as I enjoyed his latest column on the economy as it was quite refreshing. But whether Henry's mobile OS mindset comes from a financial or viable business perspective it makes no difference, his positions are completely indefensible. It actually took some time to decipher whether or not he was actually serious. Was this just another Paul Thurott link bait article, or did Henry really think he'd struck gold with this one? Sadly, I think it's the latter, which means I'm putting in the midnight oil to give Henry – and hopefully tens of thousands more – pause to reflect as to why this isn't the PC war of decades past, rather, it is the new war of post PC devices, and how the twixt of these twain couldn't be further apart. 

Tomorrow I'll be delivering one of a two-part series in which I will attempt to dissect Henry Blodget's analysis of Android vs iOS, and how he couldn't be more off base. Not to be cruel, but Henry thinks he's sliding into home plate with this one, when he's not even playing on the field. Really.

Henry's position on this topic, whether from a financial or viable business position are so indefensible, it took a while to decipher whether he was actually serious. Was this just another Paul Thurott link bait article, or did Henry really think he'd struck gold with this one? Sadly, I think it's the latter, which means I'm putting in the midnight oil to give Henry – and hopefully tens of thousands more – pause to reflect and think about how this isn't the PC war of decades past, rather, it's the new world of post PC devices, and how the twixt of these twain couldn't be further apart. 

Not all solid state drives (SSD) are created equal. The same is true for Apple's built-in drives on the MacBook Air. When Apple released their new MacBook Air last year, they included Toshiba made SSDs.

Recently, Apple switched their SSDs on new MacBook Airs. These new SSDs, which have a different model number of SM instead of TS, are assumed to be from Samsung. How do these two drives compare with other after-market drives? Time to find out.

Lack of Security within mobile OSes isn't anything new. Developers have seen the gaping holes for quite some time an the public is just starting to become aware. Back on April 5th the WSJ did some pretty impressive research on Pandora's invasive practices within the Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating systems, and both seem to be unable in stop applications from taking what they want out of the phone (at least for now).

With the latest iOS is tracking you story making national headlines, the general consumer seems to be catching on that their devices are peeking in on what they are doing, or at least they think they are (and their apps are likely doing even more privacy damage). The whole buzz around this privacy issue is eerily similar to that of "antenna-gate" and it's best Apple get in front of this as they did with the iPhone 4's attenuation story. It is critical Apple blows holes in mis-information and rumor before it becomes an assumed fact the Apple is stealing your every move from iOS devices.

Recently a big stink over user privacy has reared its ugly head again, but this time about one of my favorite products and something I use daily, if not hourly — the iPhone. Security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warde revealed last week that Apple was storing logs of users' geographic coordinates in a hidden file. The researchers didn't know why Apple was doing this or what it was using the data for, but they said Apple indeed is gathering this information about the whereabouts of its iPhone users.

Apple's financial call is set for Wednesday, April 20 at 5 PM Eastern, and it may be one of the biggest financial thrill rides in recent memory, if our estimates are correct (Imagine that, a financial call being a thrill ride). Apple's CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, delivered guidance of $22m in revenues with a 38.5% gross margin. You can see a full listing of what the pro's and bloggers are predicting Apple will deliver for their fiscal Q211 here.

The highest estimate from Wall Street analysts comes from Jeff Fidacaro of SIG (Susquehanna Investment Group). The highest blogosphere estimate comes courtesy of Nicolae Mihalache over at traderhood.com. They're probably both wrong.

This past February we talked about Final Cut Pro 8's forthcoming release and set of capabilities. The new name, Final Cut Pro X (FCP X), turned out to be different than anticipated, but the changes within the application went well beyond the surprise "X". The latest version of FCP was a bold move by Apple, which – before the official launch – was what Larry Jordan described as "jaw dropping".

But FCP X may have left us with more questions than answers. What exactly is FCP X? Who is its target audience? Will FCP 7 live on? What about the rest of the suite? Along the way to the sneak-peek, Apple gave us some clues with their pro direction.

In business there are times when opportunity knocks and you had better be ready to answer the door. Is your hair combed, your shirt tucked in, does your breath smell good? Because on the other side is royalty, and it's called "opportunity".

Google had such a knock on their door in 2009 when Apple decided to enter into a third year of exclusively with AT&T. On the other hand, Google was working with several handset makers across the other three major US carriers delivering the Android OS. While Android wasn't yet mature and its feature set somewhat lacking, Mr. Opportunity knocking at Google's door. But did Google answer?

On Thursday TechCrunch's Devin Coldewey reported that Best Buy would no longer be receiving shipments of iPad 2's due to the Best Buy withholding iPad 2's for sale after they had reached an internal day's sales quota.

TechCrunch claims the news comes from a tipster within the Best Buy chain who is highly likely to be delivering accurate information. Coldewey was told that Apple COO Timothy Cook is working to revolve this issue. Cook's involvement would indicate this is not an isolated innocent by a single Best Buy store, but a practice implemented on large scale. Yet the question remains, “Why do this?“ It seems counterintuitive to withhold sales, but there are two reasons Best Buy would implement such a policy.

Apple comes to the table on April 20, at 2 PM Pacific, to reveal what will likely be year another record fiscal 2Q11. Financial numbers are one thing, but how Apple achieves them is another.

There's been a lot of speculation revolving around Apple's supply chain for iPad 2 and MacBook batteries since the Japan quake and Tsunami. But a few hints from Apple may be revealing another story. The truth. On April 20th we'll learn a lot based on the little information Apple delivers.

It was a sad day for most Mac OS X Server admins when Apple announced they were discontinuing the XServe line because as Steve Jobs said, "They just aren't selling well." No replacement was offered, save for a beefed up Mac Pro and the Mac Mini server option. While both of these may work for some organizations, a real server solution was now missing from Apple's line-up.

Or is it?

Apple hit the airwaves during the NCAA Final Four basketball tournament to air their first advertisement for the iPad 2. There are no more fast interchanges between scenes, or conceptual shots of the iPad. This time around, Apple brings an intimate view of the iPad. The ad delivers tight shots showing off Garageband, and many others content creating-like apps.

The ad begins with the statement "Technology is not enough." The voiceover is performed by Peter Coyote who also performed the voiceover for the original iPad's debut ad. The theme is dead center of Apple's overarching mission: to remove technology and let the user become immersed in experience.

If you're like us, your inbox yesterday was busy with April Fool's jokes.

Here are some of the best ones that made it our way. If you have your own, let us know.

IDC may have some impressive survey clout and reach, but when it comes to actually delivering decent reasoning behind their numbers, my sub-five-year-old daughter can draw better conclusions by consulting her Polly Pocket dolls.

IDC's latest report concludes that by 2015, the smartphone market share will look drastically different than today, with Apple falling well behind the pack. While I agree with IDC's assessment that the market will have shifted, their conclusions are way off.

iPad 3 has been rumored by Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber and MG Siegler of Tech Crunch as possibly landing this fall, but recent information suggests to T-GAAP that iPad 3 will not be arriving this year.

Any delay in launching the iPad 3 is not due to parts availability or the lack of retina display production, it is because of iPad 2's tremendous holding power in the market. iPad 2 is besting Apple's highest world-wide demand expectations, and therefore may not trigger a speedy iPad 3 launch.

This past Thursday, RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie spun his best story, explaining why RIM would be able to compete in what he called the "Superphone" market space. Balsille also tried to clarify why the RIM's financials were not in line with Wall Street expectations, presenting a rosy picture in just a few quarters from now.

Unfortunately for Mr. Balsillie, renaming smartphones as "Superphones" won't change the Blackberry makers problems. RIM's margins are shrinking, and the physical keyboard market is limited. Making matters worse, RIM's efforts to counter the iPhone with their touch-screen Storm lineup has been a complete failure. RIM's best days are behind them. To make this perfectly clear, 2011 is the beginning of the end for RIM.

Last week I set out on a mission to purchase a Motorola XOOM tablet, in an effort to compare it to Apple's iPad 2. We Three Guys were going to put the XOOM through its paces and deliver test results. We were ready to do live side-by-side video app and browsing comparisons between the two devices. Unfortunately, after five days of line squatting and Apple Store stakeouts for an iPad 2, we are still without an iPad 2. In contrast, finding a XOOM took little to no effort, there are plenty in stock at any Verizon or Costco location.

That said, finding a Xoom and purchasing one is a completely different story. The strings attached to buying a Xoom makes doing your taxes seem like fun. We'll spare you the test results of just the XOOM (after all, there are plenty of benchmarks out there showing the iPad to be vastly superior), and simply let you know the pain you'll be in for if you decide to buy a Xoom.

Circa 1996, Boyz II Men, Happy Gilmore and Doc Martin's were the pop culture of the day. Nordstrom, The Gap and Eddie Bauer were mall favorites and techies were in short supply when it came to the Macy's crowd. But the character and purpose of "Let's go to the mall" was on the precipice of massive change.

Fast forward to May, 2001. Gateway's retail venture had peaked and Sony's radical Matreon in the heart of San Francisco was proving to be a colossal failure. Tech and trend-cool retail just could not co-exist. There was one more small-ish event took place on May 15, 2001. Steve Jobs rounded up some media folk, and introduced them to the first-ever Apple retail store in Tysons Corner mall in Virginia. The mall as we knew it was forever changed.

It has been nine days since iPad 2 rolled out into stores across the U.S. Apple, Best Buy, Target, Walmart and some Sam's clubs all had iPad 2 on it's Friday night debut. But since the iPad 2 launch, the supply chain hasn't been filled, it's been all but depleted, and it's more than just about demand — somethings wrong.

For the ninth day, lines across America continue. Thousands of people are still spending tens of thousands of hours gathering during their much needed REM sleep time for a shot at finally being able to purchase the magical product. But instead of Apple being able to deliver a higher volume of iPads and time moves forward, it appears Apple's manufacturing capability is diminishing.

To-date, iOS devices have seen modest updates, but recent rumblings suggest iOS 5.0 will be a major release integrating a host of new Apple technologies.

Apple has become methodical — if not predictable — in delivering recent updates to both hardware and software. With the exception of the original iPhone launch, each major iOS update has been released only a few days before revamped iPhone hardware. Claims that Apple will deliver an iOS 5 update this spring appear to be erroneous guesswork at best.

Apple's iPad 2 has a hidden advantage over its competitors, and that is their supply chain. This supply chain gives the iPad access to parts its competitors can't touch and at prices they can't reach. With Apple's war chest of cash and high volume production, will their competitors be able to compete?

Steve Jobs has greatly improved Apple's supply chain management since his return to Apple back in 1996. Back in 2000, Dell was viewed as having the best supply chain management. They excelled in a commodity driven computer industry. Apple replaced Dell when the iPod Nano was released by cornering almost the entire flash memory business. Flash memory production increased after that, but by then is was too late for Applecompetitors. Apple was the second best supply chain management back in 2007, with Nokia being number 1. Now Apple is continuing its success with the iPad and iPhone.

Piper Jaffray delivered some interesting survey results over the weekend. The analyst firm conducted a poll from people standing in line to purchase the iPad 2 during Friday's launch event. While many are focusing on how many people the survey claimed were new to the iPad (roughly 70%), there is another statistic that reveals Apple's true genius — the number of people buying higher memory configurations.

Apple has an entry-level $499 iPad, but it's not model that's selling in the majority, at least not this time around. There was rumor as to whether Apple would bump the base model iPad to 32GB and scale north from there. This seemed plausible considering Peter Oppenheimer's remarks during last quarters financial conference call, claiming margins on iPads were very strong. Many companies, if having the chance, would have jumped at including more storage in order to win the specifications game, but not Apple.

This weekend Apple added a Japan Tsunami donation page to iTunes. Apple claims 100% of your donation will go to the Red Cross. Last week social media giant Facebook announced the rental of Warner Bros. movies through Facebook. In response Netflix stock took a 5.8% hit on the news. Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos fired back (in fear) "Nobody goes to Facebook to watch movies."  Ah,... yet. I remember no one was going to watch movies on their computer when Netflix first started their online streaming services too. There really is no reason Facebook can't do what Netflix did by integrating their movie service into the AppleTV, XBox 360, Wii and more.

These are just two examples (iTunes donation, Facebook movies) of giants walking about and running out of room, so they start bumping into one another.

Earlier this week we prominently posted that we would be bringing you our Apple iPad 2 vs Motorola Xoom with side-by-side testing report. Unfortunately, we Three Guys and a Podcast took a bit of advice from our "good friend" Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray. 

The advice he gave all of us? Gene explained we shouldn't expect any long lines for the iPad 2, as it was available at many retailers verses last year. Perhaps Gene missed the fact that the original iPad was available for pre-order, while iPad 2 was available for pre-order for less than 24 hours before retail launch.

Google's Android OS fragmenting into a death spiral may be overblown at times, but it certainly won't be overstated in the tablet arena - assuming of course, one of these years PC hardware vendors will be able to compete with Apple's iPad and its pricing.

Android's appearance in the tablet market is currently minimal, but as PC vendors are forced to get in the game due to shrinking netbook and notebook sales, Google is going to witness Pandora breaking out of her box, with no quick fix on how to remedy the situation. The issue I am speaking of is one that is (or soon will be) staring every Android tablet developer squarely in the face — Android's complete lack of attention to hardware vendor's screen resolution, aspect ratio and pixel density. Mind you, this is no trivial problem.

It was January 2010, and front and center at CES was Steve Ballmer who "demoed" for us three (he really only used one) "slate" products running Windows 7. Well, "demo" is really an generous description. Ballmer picked the slate up, did a few things with it and then put it back on the shelf next to the other two "slates". We were told that 2010 would be a year full of slate product introductions — and it was going to be exciting!

Ballmer got his prediction half correct. On January 27, Apple launched the iPad — a real tablet that ran a sophisticated OS and it began shipping in mass in April. If you had an iPhone or iPod Touch, you knew how to use the iPad right out of the box: download software, sync with your computer and everything else. Even better your iPhone/iPod Touch software could be used on the iPad. Developers also were in luck as they didn't need to do much to adjust their apps for the iPad either.

Intel's Light Peak technology (also known as Thunderbolt) was first introduced on Apple's MacBook Pro line-up last month. Thunderbolt is set to race across the Mac platform, spreading across Apple's entire lineup by the end of 2011.

The next Mac product to include Thunderbolt is the Mac Mini — via a product update due this month. Following the Mac Mini will be updates to the iMac and Mac Pro towers. That said, both systems update timelines have varied greatly in the past few years. What is not known is how many Thunderbolt ports each system will receive.

Yesterday the Nielsen Company reported that for the months of November 2010 to January 2011 Google's Android operating system’s market share has pulled ahead of Apple and RIM with 29% of the smartphone sales in the U.S.

As with most things, when you look behind the curtain there is more than meets the eye — and in this case we don't find a happy, content Android family, but one fighting for its smartphone life.

The iPad 2 launched today with great fanfare and a solid, if not modest, hardware update. Apple's hardware team showed us how they can industrial engineer like no one else, delivering a razor thin iPad 2 — which is even thinner than the iPhone 4. The iPad 2 shows us Apple's hardware prowess, but a few major pieces were missing amongst the mix.

The iPad 2 sports the same resolution screen as iPad 1, humble camera specs, and ho-hum software updates — for now. The big reveal in hardware and software looks to be on the horizon, arriving in the in iPad 3.

The clock struck midnight and February 10, 2011 was born, but apparently no lines materialized at Verizon retailers. Why?

We heard a lot of hoopla surrounding the supposed "event everyone has been waiting for." Verizon made a special commercial with clocks just about to strike midnight and people in anticipation of being able to get an iPhone on the Verizon network. Jon Stewart was exuberant, claiming "a spring in my step... a certain twinkle in my eye" about the iPhone Verizon announcement. Apple even made the "Twins" commercial showing an iPhone on an AT&T and Verizon network simultaneously. So where are all the Verizon iPhone customers?

Adobe released version 10.2 of their Flash Player plugin at the beginning of the month. This latest version adds preliminary support for Stage Video, which is supposed to reduce CPU usage during video playback. In order for Adobe to improve the Flash Player, they need to improve battery life by reducing CPU usage during flash playback. Heavy CPU usage may not be a major factor on desktop computers, but it is on anything using a battery, as it drains the battery quickly. Is this new version any better on the Mac?

Looking at CPU usage will be the way to determine if Adobe Flash has improved or not. The best way to test this new version is to compare it with older versions of the Flash Player and similar sites running HTML5. This test was conducted with Adobe's Flash Player 10.0, 10.1, and 10.2. An Aluminum 24" iMac with 4GB of memory, 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, and running Mac OS X 10.6.6 was used as the test platform. Safari version 5.0.3 and Firefox version 4.0b11 were both used to conduct this test.