If you have listened to the Today in iOS podcast long enough you know that I have a love / hate relationship with stats. As in I love them when they prove my point and hate then when they don't.
Well Google just gave some stats I kind of think I love. Way back in August Google said Android phones were being activated at a clip of 200,000 per day. And that was the last time they talked about those numbers - that is until Monday December 6th when Google said they are now up to 214,000 activations per day.
During that time Apple went from 230,000 activations of iOS devices per day on September 1st to 270,000 average activations per day in Mid October. Which is a nice growth vs Android phones which actually have seen lower per day activation numbers since August. But Rob Going from 200,000 to 214,000 is an increase you say. Ah but least we forget that the Samsung Galaxy tab which is in that 214,000 per day number and they represent approx. 17,000 activations per day. So for Android phones since August there is actually about a 3,000 per day decrease. See why I can love stats.
And if you take these number further. On an average day there are 56,000 more iOS devices activated then there are Android devices. But since everyone likes to talk about quarterly numbers - this quarter based on those number Apple will increase its lead of iOS over Android OS by over 5 Million units. That is a lot more potential iOS customers for App developers vs Android.
It looks like third time is a charm - As in third golden master. Or I guess first - really as both iOS 4.2 GM's were bypassed for iOS 4.2.1 - so for the public there is no iOS 4.2. Just a jump to iOS 4.2.1. We have mentioned some of the new features in the past - but a quick summary of the new features are:
1. AirPrint - Which allows direct Printing to an ePrint Printer, or to any printer connected to your Mac - while you Mac is turned on.Update - Per printing to any Printer connected to a mac that was true in the beta version of Mac OS 10.6.5 - but was removed for the GM version.
2. AirPlay - Which allows streaming of audio or video from your iOS device to your Apple TV.
3. Improved Bluetooth control - allowing for AVRCP control. You know skip tracks, volume control, and more from your bluetooth headset.
4. Find my iOS device - for free. You can easily set up your iOS device for the find my device feature and if your device gets lost - you can locate it on a map, send a message to it, lock it down or even remote wipe it - all for free - no more need for a paid mobileme account.
NOTE: If your iPhone is Unlocked and/or your iOS device is Jailbroken - you should not update to iOS 4.2.1 at this time. Please wait for more info on this to come shortly (hopefully).
If you are on an iPad - you get all the features from iOS 4.0 and 4.1 as well. So for iPad owners it is a major plus plus update. For iPad owners you also get - folders, multitasking, GameCenter, Unified Mailbox, iAds, and a bunch of smaller features.
If you have an iPhone 3G - iOS 4.2.1 brings one key new feature - Usability - as in you can use your iPhone 3G again. If you updated your iPhone 3G to iOS 4.0 or iOS 4.1 - you may have noticed a little bug where in your iPhone 3G slowed to 1/4 impulse power. Well now it looks like your iPhone 3G is back up to full impulse power. Granted not at warp speed like the iPhone 4 - but back to what you were used to in iOS 3.x
"The Find My iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) feature is now free to use without a MobileMe℠ subscription and helps you locate your missing device.* The Find My iPhone app is a free download on the App Store℠ and lets users easily locate a missing device on a map and have it display a message or play a sound. Users can even remotely lock or wipe data from a lost device to protect privacy."
I set this up for my iPhone 4 and it was quick to set up and easy to use and I did not have to pay for mobile me for this. So I do find it interesting that Apple made one of the most compelling reasons for getting mobileme - a free option. I wonder if this means in the near future all of mobileme features will be free to iOS owners. I hope so.
According to Apple you can use Find My iPhone for free with your iPhone 4, iPad, or 4th generation iPod touch that has iOS 4.2 installed. Or you can use Find My iPhone with a paid MobileMe subscription. Again not sure on that paid subscription thing now. But lets say you have in addition to an iOS device from 2010 (iPhone 4, iPad or iPod touch 4th gen) that have a pre 2010 iOS device. Like the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G and you want to set up find my iPhone on them - are you SOL - NO no you are not. You just need to set up your 2010 iOS device first.
Life hacker has an article that goes over this. I have not had a chance to try this out on my 3GS yet - as I have not updated it to iOS 4.2.1 - as it is jailbroken and I was going to wait. But if anyone else does this with success - as the authors of the lifehacker article claim to - please let me know. But it does look like it is easy to do assuming you also happen to have a 2010 iOS device.
One other feature I did not mention that is added to iOS 4.2.1 is the ability to set specific SMS alert tones for your contacts. You are still limited to using the stock SMS tones - but that list of stock SMS tones has grown - but sadly most are still long tones - which is not the best for Text messages. Who wants a 10 sec tone when you are getting a test message every 5 secs. Just sayin. So this is not custom SMS tones - it is specific SMS tones from a predetermined list of tones that you can assign to your contacts - which is still much better than how it was before - if you are someone that is looking to set up specific tones to different people.
Feedback from many different listeners has been very positive for this update. The one issue that has been reported more than once was after the initial update - the Apps and podcasts did not get sync'd over and it required another sync to get that content brought over. So as long as you are NOT jailbreaking and / or unlocking - it does look safe to update. But you should still backup before you do the update - as always.
Below is a video of my 2 year old son dressed up in his Retro Robot Custom which has 2 iPhones - one to scroll "Boo" and the other to scroll the Binary version of "Boo". And no he is likely not going to date until after high school.
Here is a very quick summary of the latest quarterly numbers from Apple.
Rev $20.34 Billion
Total Cash = $ 51 Billion
Last Quarter Sales
iPhones Sold = 14.1 Mil
iPads Sold = 4.2 Mil
iPod Touches Sold = Not given as usual - but you can back into 4 Mil iPod Touches.
All iPod's Sold = 9.1 Mil
275,000 iOS devices per day on average last 30 days. (Means 133.25 Mil iOS devices sold to date through end of September.)
Misc Notes
iTunes Store = >$1 Bil Revenue for the Quarter.
$8.82 Bil Rev from iPhone
166 Carriers around the world for iPhone.
80% of Fortune 500 companies deploying iPhones.
26 Countries have the iPad at the end of last quarter.
Steve came on the call to give a wrap up and talk about Apple selling more Smartphones than RIM sold in their last quarter. 275,000 iOS devices per day on average per the last 30 days. He also went into details on the Android fragmentation issues. Steve slammed the 7" screen and comments about 7" display is just 45% as large as the iPad screen. Did he listen to the last Today in iOS? He says the 10" size is optimal - not the 7" size. Called them tweeners. Called 7" Tablets DOA.
The WSJ is back to their link bait ways with another Verizon iPhone rumor. I will not even call it a story. The latest rumor they posted is here (Yeah link bait worked again for them). What I think is most frustrating about this latest rumor is that it is just a rehash of a rumor the same "reporters" spread back in the spring. While the internets never forget it does appear WSJ editors do.
But the real reason to call total BS on this is the lack of any real sources. That is unless you count "people familiar with the matter" or "these people" or "people briefed on the phone" or "One person familiar" or "people briefed on the matter" and "a person familiar with the matter". With harding hitting fact check journalism like that the WSJ must be proud to have their name linked to this BS.
Sorry for the tone and temper of this post - but come on WSJ it was bad enough the first time you brought up this rumor but to completely rehash it and just update the dates is plain lazy.
Here is the Bingo Card with all the major rumors out there that Apple might announce at their September 1st event. As always we will go over these on the show following the actual event. (ep 144).
On the last episode I talked about Frash which is Flash for iOS. Seems I forgot to mention an important point and that is you need to add a resource to Cydia before you can install it. Here are the instructions for installing Frash.
Go to the - Search - section in Cydia and search for "Frash"
Install the app.
VERY IMPORTANT - You MUST include the "/" at the end of the URL in step 6 or it will not work.
Again as I said in the show I see Frash more needed for the iPad than the iPhone or iPod Touch. But this will work for any iOS device. Once it is installed go to a site that has Flash running and you will see a light grey box with "Flash" in the middle - tap on "Flash" and it will run the flash elements for that site.
Below is a video showing the jailbreak of an iPhone 3GS running iOS 4.0.1 - However this jailbreak works for any iOS device running iOS 4.0.1 or lower. There were some early issues with MMS and Facetime not working. It is reported that MMS is now working. I have heard reports from others that skype does not work in the background. And I am sure there will be some other issues that are found.
UPDATE: 8/2/10 11:42 PM CT - I jailbroke my iPhone 4 running iOS 4.0.1 - NO issues - All is working great including Facetime. Looks like they have resolved the issues they had last night. Both my iPhone 4 and 3GS are working great. As with any jailbreak - as you ad more and more apps you increase your odds exponentially of there being a conflict. So keep your jailbreak App downloads to a min and to just the ones you need. If you try an app and don't like it - remove it ASAP. Also those jailbreaking with iOS 4.0.1 for an iPhone seemed to report the best results. Mostly the reporting has been overwhelmingly positive for this Jailbreak - Kudos to those involved in making this possible.
UPDATE 2: 8/3/10 12:05 AM CT - One other common thread seems to be those that do the jailbreak when connected to wifi are having better results then those trying the jailbreak via 3G. Also it seems better when clicking on a link like that below then when typing in the URL. If you do have an issue - make sure to force quite safari and then clear your cache before trying again.
BIG NOTE: Do not try to jailbreak if you don't like when things go to (expletive). If you need your device for your business and being without it for any period of time will cause you to loose your job - stop now. If you get mad at your significant other at how they fold towels or put the toilet paper on a roll - Jailbreaking is probably not for your personality. Sometimes things break and your device will likely crash more often then if it was not jailbroken.
To Jailbreak just point your iOS device running iOS 4.0.1 or lower to:
There is no need for a computer, SHSH Blobs or anything else. Just point your iOS device to the link above and slide the slider to jailbreak. See the video for more info.
To learn how to use Cydia - The App store for Jailbreaking - See the following tutorials.
Of course - Make sure you backup before trying this. And don't upgrade to iOS 4.1 or 4.0.2 or whatever comes after iOS 4.0.1 if you want to use this jailbreak method.
Update 2: No Recall. Apple will give free cases to everyone that buys an iPhone through September 30th - if you already purchased a bumper case they will refund the purchase. More about the meeting on ep 138 early next week.
As the title of this post suggests and conventional wisdom is now indicating an iPhone 4 recall announcement is all but a certainty when Apple has its special media even tomorrow at 10:00 AM PT. However when it comes to conventional wisdom and Apple - history is not on the side of conventional wisdom. Remember the iPod Touch 3rd gen with a camera, or the iPad that was not going to be called an iPad or that said iPad would be on Verizon. Those were all conventional wisdom that Apple did not go along with. And what about the time of the event - 10:00 AM PT when the markets are still open in NY. That timing seems odd - especially for a major recall announcement from a company with regards to its biggest individual product. Why not push the event out a couple of hours until after the markets close. That seems even more obvious than the issues from touching an exposed antenna.
If you are not aware iOS 4.0.1 is officially out for the iPhone 4 and its effect on fixing the Antenna bars dropping issue is negligible at best. I can with a tight death grip get the iPhone 4 to drop 3 bars - however now that the first bar is so much bigger I don't seem to feel as bad. It is however now much harder to get 5 bars on the iPhone 4.
There are some very good posts out there on what to expect tomorrow and one in particular from MG Siegler from Techcrunch is very well done.
But what if Apple throws conventional wisdom out the window and Steve gets up there and shows data on the iPhone 4 having 10 to 15 dB better reception performance than the 3GS when not held with the death grip and only 5 to 10 dB worse performance when held tightly with the death grip. Then Steve offers up a free bumper or gift card for all iPhone 4 owners. And then does the completely unexpected and announces the iPhone 4 will be available in XX days on Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. I just heard from a good friend in the electronic components industry that his good friend told him Fox Con is already building the CDMA versions of the iPhone 4. Yeah I know a friend of a friend - almost sounds like something from Digitimes or BGR. Not that I really think this will happen - just throwing it out there as a possible anti-conventional wisdom possibility.
If you have thoughts on what will happen tomorrow or if you have upgraded to iOS 4.0.1 please share your experience / thoughts below.
Update: Some listener email feedback
Hi Rob, Just thought I'd share an experience I had this morning while eating breakfast at a McDonald's in my area. I was sitting with my girlfriend when I pulled out my iPhone 4 to check the weather. A group of elderly people were sitting at the table next to us. One of them saw my phone and asked me if it was "that new apple phone that was going to get recalled". I said "well it the new apple phone but I'm pretty sure it isn't going to be recalled". This group then began asking about the antenna issues that had been in the news and were curious if I had any problems. I told them that yes the signal does appear to drop but that rarely results in a dropped call. Another group at a table also nearby, this time with a group of 30-ish age people then joined the conversation saying that they ha gotten android phones because of the reported issue with the iPhone 4. I guess I hadn't realized just how big of a public perception problem this antenna thing is. Apple is in some serious trouble if a group of random people of various ages are all aware of the reported issues. Anyway, I hope apple can do something to alleviate the problem. Regards, Jason
There are a lot of posts popping up this past weekend about iTunes being "Hacked". While "Hacked" does not appear to be an accurate description - as it appears no rouge hackers broke through the walls and stole passwords from users randomly. What it does look like is in Apple's "Pristine" walled garden there are lots of weeds. I for one have said iTunes and Apples ability to control what goes on in iTunes is in the long run a key advantage over the Android eco system. However that is only true if Apple does their part - and right now that does not appear to be the case. The current incident appears to be where some less than reputable App developers have taken purchasing / account info from users of some of their apps to purchase their other apps.
Again I don't think from what I read that "Hacked" is an accurate description - I think "Shady developers mis-use iTunes accounts" would be a better description. Reading through the one post from The Next Web - they mention some of the developers doing App farms and if these developers are responsible for the illegal activities and Storm8 is one of the guilty parties as mentioned by The Next Web - then I think Apple has shown they have not done their job in policing the iTunes App store. Back on Episode 104 I mentioned a post on Boing Boing - iPhone game dev accused of stealing players phone numbers - At the time I had this to say on the show:
Ok - what I am not sure on this next one is what shocks me / surprises me the most - And this is per the story about how the company storm8 is being sued for harvesting cell numbers of the iPhones where the app was installed. What I am not sure on which surprises me the most - is one that they did this after what was reported earlier this summer with a company in Switzerland doing the same - or that Storm8 and their games are still in the App store - and some were free ones I even talked about in the past - World War, Vampires Live, Ninjas live, iMobster and more - although I think I only talked about World War. Which by the way sucked and I removed from my iPhone long ago. I am really shocked apple has not just kicked them out. They are claiming it was a bug - you know they type of bug where you accidentally climbed up on a chair and reached up on the fridge and were reaching into the cookie jar when your parents turned the light on - type of bug. Yeah. And Boo boo boo storm8
I am not saying Storm8 has stollen users passwords and put false charges on users account - I don't now that one way or the other - but to even see them mentioned and one of their Apps mentioned in some of the posts on this subject leads me to think where the is smoke there is fire. And if they do in fact prove to be one of the guilty parties - Apple had been given warning about these guys back in 2009 and did NOTHING. Just like they have done nothing with the App developers that have paid for their reviews.
That's right Apple having it brought to their attention of bogus paid app reviews in iTunes back on April 30th has done nothing and taken no actions with regards to the App reviewers taking payola for app reviews or the ones paying for the App reviewers. Apple was made aware of Storm8 in 2009 and did nothing. Apple has weeds in their walled garden, those weeds have been brought to their attention and it sure looks like Apple is not interested in yanking out those weeds. This in my opinion is a bigger issue than anything that may or may not be wrong with the iPhone 4. It is the eco system stupid and it sure looks like Apple is not on top of their developers.
I know there have been a LOT of videos out there showing reception issues with the iPhone4 depending on how you hold it. Personally I am not seeing this issue - As the video above shows. Don't get me wrong I am not saying this issue is not happening to some people - just that it is not happening to all people. Here is what Apple said about the issue. (From Engadget)
Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.
There are also many other post out there - Gizmodo has a post that has many videos showing people that do have the issue.
Here is my theory on this and mind you it is a long time since I worked with a Smith Chart (Yes I have an Engineering Degree - and was even the Chief Engineer at a company that made Quartz Crystal Oscillators - which are the heart of RF systems). I think this is a Stub issue where depending on what band you are on and the size of your hand, and the amount of muscle / fat in your hand / body you may or may not see this issue. Yes that sounds like voodoo - Welcome to RF engineering. One part science one part magic.
The following is as non-technical as I can make this. Antennas are tuned for specific lengths - known as Stubs - where if you hit the right length you get the best reception. However there are specific lengths that cause an anti-stub and these will actually cause total loss of reception. The way the system sees the antenna length will vary when external stimuli are introduced (you). How the circuit looks at you in addition to the circuit will depend on many factors - How big you are overall, the size of your hand, the make up of the fat / muscle in your body, and where you are touching the antenna. Some people I think are perfect anti-stubs and cause complete loss of signal. Others will have minimal to no effect. It is possible when (if) I loose 20 pounds - that my results above could change - just as they could change based on the Cell band the phone is on.
Again I have been away from the bench (RF Engineering) for a while - almost 10 years. So above is just my theory. I am sure others have their theories. And by no means was the above meant to be a RF Engineering 101 course - I leave that for Les Besser who I met a long time ago when just a college student and he pointed me to the RF world. Actually I reached out to Besser and Associates - the foremost authorities on RF engineering and they gave me the contact info of their Antenna Guru. If he replies back I will update this post with his thoughts.
Let me know in the comments below if you are having the issue with the reception of the iPhone 4 getting worse when you hold it in your hand.
Update 2: Here is a link to my second video which shows me holding with the "Death Grip" for over a minute with Zero issues. Again not saying it is not happening to others - just that it is not happening to me. Obviously your results may vary.
Update5: 7:09 AM ET 6/16/10 - Looks like AT&T is at fault for most of the pre-order issues. One thing to make sure when putting in your phone number put it in as 9135551234 format - no spaces or dashes - that seemed to work for some.
Update4: 10:47 AM ET - If you still can't pre-order from the Apple site - maybe you will want to try the new Apple Store App here - If that does not work then you can look at pre-ordering with ATT, Best Buy or Radio Shack:
att.commust pay up front Best buys. 50.00 deposit radio shack 50.00 deposit Walmart will be selling the day of delivery 6-24 (Thanks Steph for sending that in)
No one has White iPhone4's - so it just looks like the Black Model at Launch.
Update3: At 9:00 AM ET lots of reports coming in about the Apple system being down or timing out. Just keep retrying. It took me three tries at 8:00 AM to get all the way through. Just looks like lots and lots of interest in the iPhone4. I am also getting people emailing in they also were able to reserve / order their iPhone - so you will get through - it just make take a few (dozen) tries.
Update2: You can as of 8:00 AM ET reserve or pre-order your iPhone4. However only the black iPhone is available for Reserving at the Apple Store for pickup. :( I hope Apple lets us change the reservation to the white iPhone on the 24th.
Update1: New link for reserving the iPhone added. Rumor is now 8:00 AM ET.
Sometime between 12:00 AM ET and probably 9:00 AM ET the iPhone 4 will be available to pre-order.
When it is available I will send out a push with the URL to pre-order and also update this post.
If you will want to pre-order for delivery to your house you will need to go here - http://store.apple.com/
Right now the Apple reps do not know what time Pre-Orders / Reservations will start. But if the past is any indication it likely will be around sunrise on the East coast.
Again this post will be updated as soon as I have more info.
Below is an email from the person running the App review site that offers up Paid App reviews in iTunes we talked about / exposed in this post. His email is in Blue my comments are in Black. If you have not read the original post - please do so now.
As you can easily imagine, I'm very surprised and upset by this smear campaign against our company.
I call it an awareness campaign and it is not against your company but rather it is for the endusers.
The most disturbing is that your scenario is only based on assumptions.
Read the original article I give links to all the reviewers and list the apps they reviewed - That is not assumption that is fact. The Assumption is that the App developers actually paid you - I have no proof of that - but what is not an assumption is that said reviewers from that article reviewed with 4 and 5 star reviews all the Apps I listed and for the most part only those apps listed.
If I had to post a review on your report, I would put no more than 2 stars.
Then that would probably be the first 2 star review your company ever did. I guess that would be considered progress.
YES YAR offers developers to test their Apps by real users. YES developers pay for it. YES users are paid for performing their review.
What's wrong with that?
To Start - Where is the Full and Fair disclosure? There is no mention in the reviews that they are paid for. Not one of them says that. Any paid review system needs to have Full and Fair disclosure.
User test is one of the key tools for any good marketing process. It has been part of the basics used by any marketing agency for decades. Have you never used such services inside or outside your company? It's quite normal when you launch a new product to ask real users whether or not your product is responding to their expectations, whether or not they understand how to use it, whether or not they find the interface intuitive... And the most important is that, if they don't appreciate it, they can advise about the areas for improvement.
Yes and that is done in private without posting up reviews to a public site where said product is available for sale. And it is never done where a person is paid for doing a review does not fully disclose said relationship with the company. I don't think you fully grasp the concept of full and fair disclosure. But the FTC sure does. You might want to check into what they say. The fines can be pretty big.
Why did you mainly find positive reviews? Our reviewers are free to give positive or negative feedback. However, If you had read our offer in more details, you would have seen that only positive reviews are automatically published. The negative reviews are forwarded to the developers to help them improve their Apps. They then decide if they want them published or not which explains why some of the Apps you've mentioned only have a couple of reviews even if our minimum package size is 5 reviews.
So they are paying for just positive App reviews in iTunes. Are you essentially saying that some reviewers have ethics and give real reviews while others sugar coat things. Because when I look at many of the Apps you appear to have reviewed and you take away all the reviews you did - you are left with lots of 1 and 2 star reviews.
Take a look at the reviews for the App HealthCalcs. Reviewers from your service gave 20 - 4 or 5 star reviews. The App has a total of 26 reviews. Of the other 6 reviews that do not appear to be involved with your service there are ZERO 4 or 5 star reviews - Zero as in nada, zip, none, There is 1 - Three Star review, 2 - Two star reviews and 3 - One star reviews. So your App reviewers which are doing "honest" reviews all thought the App was great. And everyone else that was not being paid to review the App thought it sucked or at best one was in the middle at 3 stars. Hmmmmm. What are the statistical possibilities on that one.
The assertion that they/you are doing "Honest" reviews is laughable IMO. Well unless you were someone that purchased one of the apps mentioned and then you probably were not laughing. Now in fairness - because we are all about fairness - one of the apps I mentioned in the original post did have some 4 and 5 star reviews from those outside your group. Sadly now however all reviews look suspect from the consumers perspective.
NO, YAR doesn't sell positive reviews.
Sure seems like you do.
We offer to the App developers a chance to see their App tested by real users in the sole purpose of having a feedback. As I've said to you by email (04/29/10) "We are not posting fake reviews. Our reviewers are real iPhone and iPod users. We don't pay them to post fake positive reviews but to give their honest opinion re Apps".
It's true that students are part of our reviewer team. For them it's a way of earning some dollars to finance their studies and we are proud of supporting them. As some of them don't own an iPad, they use one of ours and review the Apps using one of our iTunes accounts. That's why our accounts have multiple Apps reviewed which can sometimes be conflicting. Our customers are aware of it and have never complained about it. Our practice is perfectly honest and we have never tried to hide it. Yes some of our students seek the soul mate, some try hard to lose weight, some are marathon runners... and one of them has lost a loved one and has kindly accepted to test a relating App.
I am not saying that is Total BS - but come on. Really your answer to why one reviewer reviewed a subliminal weight loss app and a Marathon App is that they are college students and don't have their own iPad? Really - So what you are then saying is they are doing reviews for apps on a product they don't own - so then they are not real reviews by real users. Well I bet that section looked good before you hit send. But come on - They shared an iPad defense is a poor one at best. Per the App with loss of a loved one either the Dev or Apple yanked that one from the App store. It was pretty slimy to include that app for review with your service. But thanks to admitting that they paid for that one.
I hope I have clarified our way to conduct business. I also hope you understand that your comments have been very hurtful for us but above all for our reviewers and our customers.
What is that old saying - Oh Yeah - The Truth Hurts. And as my Dad would say - Deal with it.
As a right of reply, I would appreciate to see this complete letter published on your blog (http://tii.libsyn.com) and I would like you to remove from your article the names of our reviewers and customers in order to prevent them to sue your company for libel.
It is not libel if it is true - Tell me one thing I said that is not true. So simple answer NO!!!!! Actually I have put up a second post here with even more of the apps and reviewers you appear to be involved with. And I am sure I will be adding more as you add more customers and reviewers. Consumers have a right to know who appears to be paying for app reviews and who appears to be getting paid to do reviews. If all your reviews are so above board and legit - why not just post on your site who you do App reviews for and who is doing the reviews for you? Until you do that there are my posts and others in the iPhone Podcasting and blogging space to help people out.
Thanks in advance.
Sincerely, Alan Kane
Founder of YourAppReviewed
Alan thanks for taking the time to reply to my post and per your request - above is your complete email.
Well it has been almost 2 weeks since we broke the story on the 300 plus bogus app reviews in iTunes, who the App reviewers were and what apps were apparently paying for said reviews. It has been over 9 days since Apple replied they were reviewing. And sadly Apple has yet to take any action.
That said - We will keep finding those that are doing paid app reviews and those apparently paying for said reviews and exposing them here. This way you know which reviewers not to trust and which apps not to buy. Since the original story broke - Link to Original Post - There have been more reviewers and Apps reviewed. Here are the new ones:
Update 1: This is for Jailbreaking - NOT for unlocking. If you want to take your iPhone to another carrier (unlock) then this is not the tutorial for you.
Note: This tutorial works for OS 3.1.3 and 3.1.2 for all iPhones and iPod Touches. It also works for the iPad and OS 3.2. This works if you are using iTunes 9.1.1 - but please note to make sure iTunes is shut down before running the jailbreak. The Spirit jailbreak is a very very easy jailbreak and if you can download and open an app you can jailbreak your device.
There are some very good articles on how to jailbreak but many miss a couple of steps that new jailbreakers need to know especially when it comes to using Cydia - the resource for finding and installing jailbroken apps. This tutorial tries to help those first time jailbreakers. If you are on an iPad regardless of your experience level read all the way through.
Do not try to jailbreak if you don't like when things go to (expletive). If you need your device for your business and being without it for any period of time will cause you to loose your job - stop now. If you get mad at your significant other at how they fold towels or put the toilet paper on a roll - Jailbreaking is probably not for your personality. Sometimes things break and your device will likely crash more often then if it was not jailbroken.
1. First you need to download the program Spirit. Make sure to download to your desktop. Download Spirit per the links below:
You will then have the Application - Spirit - on your desktop. Connect your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to your computer. Quit out of iTunes. Then open the application Spirit. You should see the following.
Next simply click on the button "Jailbreak" inside the Spirit application. That is all you have to do to jailbreak. After just a few seconds the application will say it is jailbroken.
Your device will need to reboot. And when it does you will see it go to what looks like the beginning of a Dr. Who episode. There is a status bar as it loads. Once it finishes the load and reboot, your device should be jailbroken now. So what do you do next? Well first thing is to find the Cydia App on your device. It is brown with a white circle in it and says "Cydia" underneath. See the image below.
Tap to open it. The program will do some maintenance the first time you open it.
After it closes - you will need to reopen it. The second time is the charm and you will be ready to go.
Next you will be asked "Who Are You?" If you are reading this article - then you are "User (Graphical Only)" - select that option.
Per the screen - Welcome to Cydia.
One App almost everyone will want and that works on the iPhone's, iPod Touch's and the iPad is the app Backgrounder. This app allows true multitasking on your device and it is free. To install this app Tap on "Search" in the bottom row of Cydia and then in the search box type "backgrounder"
Next Tap on "Backgrounder from BigBoss" the second one - not the one that says "(2.x only)"
Then Tap on "Install" in the upper Right corner
Then Tap on "Confirm" in the upper Right corner
At this point you have installed your first jailbroken App. It is recommended you open up Backgrounder and adjust some of the settings.
First tap on "Global". After you make your donation that is.
Set all the switches to "ON". Then go Tap "Back" and then Tap "Control"
Finally scroll through and select how you want to be able to enable and disable backgrounding for apps. Personally I like the "Short Hold" of the Sleep Button. It makes it very easy to enable and is not likely going to be enabled by accident.
Thats it you are now jailbroken and have your first real jailbroken app running on your device.
Please understand sometimes installs of apps are interrupted - in which case you need to try and re-install. Things are not as stable when you jailbreak - expect some additional crashes and conflicts between apps.
Note: If you have an iPad - do not - repeat - do not - install Five icon dock - it will really mess up your iPad and you will need to restore it. However that app works great on the iPhone and iPod Touch. For iPad owners most apps at this point do not work.
Jailbroken Apps that work on the iPad:
Backgrounder
Veency
Safari Download Plugin
SBSettings
OpenSSH
MXTube
FakeLocation
Quicklock
Insomnia
If you come across more jailbroken apps that work on the iPad - please add them to the comments below.
Ep 129 is a little delayed as I am distracted with shinny things - ie Spirit jailbreak. Working on a tutorial which should be up soon. But here is a quick video of me jailbreaking my iPad. Right now the only Jailbreak App I am using on the iPad is backgrounder as most others are not working or needed.
When you start doing research for what you consider shady at best practices and then during that investigation you come across something that really makes you sick to your stomach it is hard not to get emotional when writing the blog post for said story. That said that is what happened here and I do apologize upfront for the tone of this post.
I was forwarded an email from a listener of the show that has an app. He was contacted by a site by the name of YourAppReviewed dot com - no I am not going to put the link to said site and from here on out I will just refer to them as YAR. This site is claiming to offer paid reviews in iTunes for your Apps. I contacted the person running the site posing as someone interested in this service. Well really I was not posing I was very interested in the service just not in the way they thought.
I asked the following question: "Can you give us a few examples of Apps in the app store you have worked with?"
YAR's response to that question was the following: "As I'm sure you can easily imagine, our customers are not really keen to have there name disclosed."
Which lead me to send the following: "Now you have me a bit concerned - is your service something that our clients should be worried about using? In other words is this something that Apple would throw an app out of Itunes for using?"
YAR response to that was: "As we are not posting fake reviews, it's not something which is conflicting with Apple rules. Our reviewers are real iPhone and iPod users. We don't pay them to post fake positive reviews but to give their honest opinion Apps. Don't worry about that."
Well first I don't think Apple would be happy with any paid review services - and second he comments that they were "honest" reviews. This I seriously questioned in my mind. So I started doing some research and was able to figure out who many of the reviewers are that they use and the apps they reviewed. When I started looking at the reviews it became clear they were anything but honest - IMO. Here is a list of the Apple usernames I was able to work out that are part of YAR and doing the paid reviews. The number of 4 or 5 star reviews for each is listed - along with a link to their reviews so you can see for yourself.
Note - There were additional reviewers that did single reviews for some of the apps below - but as they only did a single review it was tough to prove they were part of YAR so I did not include them in the list above. If they do more I will add them at a later date.
The group above was responsible for doing well over 300 reviews in iTunes for the following apps, The number of likely paid reviews performed by the "reviewers" above is listed before the App in question.
# Reviews
App
44
Various Prof McMurphy's Subliminal Techniques Apps
19
Super Camera 2: ALL-IN-1
18
HealthCalcs
12
iSMEStorage
10
Attack of the Titans
10
Color Me!!!
9
AmplioWords
9
sleep deeply
8
easy weight loss
8
iExit
7
Total Confidence & Success
7
Wagumo
6
abcDJ
6
easy stop smoking
6
Emoti
6
TapFolio
5
BandMate: Concert Tipster
5
Battery Status Pro
5
CarSpot
5
chinaquiz, a game to learn chinese characters
5
Crap of Defense
5
Dock Suite
5
Elemental (PToE)
5
FoodEssentials Scanner
5
Geotag Photos
5
Health Spender
5
Herbs+
5
iWeddingManager
5
Kaeru Jump
5
New Mom
5
NoteCalc
5
Sailing Log
5
TrackinU Universal
4
Disaster Readiness 2011
4
Doodle Air Hockey
4
Life Goals
4
Qwik BT
4
Relax Completely
4
ShowMe Stories
4
Tennis Bundle universal App for iPad, iPhone and iPod-Touch
4
triathlon and marathon training with ontri.com
4
Yada 6 Family
3
Bible Books
3
Dolch Sight Words Complete Edition
3
QwikClique Lite
3
Yada 6 Friends
2
Air Hockey Ultimate
2
Crash Test
2
FastCalc
2
iTinnitus Solutions
Update 2 - More Apps Likely getting Bogus Paid Reviews:
5 HeartScan
4 Diet OK
2 Sound Memory Family
2 Tic Tac Toe - iPad Edition
Note: Again there were other apps I am pretty sure were part of the YAR reviews - but as they were just a single review and I did not want to include them in the list above. I am sure there are other apps and reviewers I did not come across - but the ones above I have a very high level of confidence that they are part of YAR. Sadly some of the apps above had 4 or 5 star reviews from people that clearly were not part of YAR - but those are now IMO rendered moot as you can not trust anything you read for reviews for any of the apps above - except the 1 and 2 star reviews - which many of them have.
Per the start of the article where I was disgusted by what I discovered, that was when I came across a review by apple user - RobbyRedPort. It was for the app - Overcome the loss of a loved one with prof McMurphys subliminal techniques - Thats right they appear to be paying to put up a fake review for an app that "prays" on those that lost a loved one. That to me was way over the top. Oh and if you think I am jumping to conclusions - go an look at the apps he reviewed for the developer (ZENESSA) of that and the other Prof McMurphy apps. Apparently RobbyRedPort - also had issues with Acne, Weight, keeping new years resolutions, finding a mate, improving his sex life with the mate he was looking for, being successful, being happy, and oh yeah he also reviewed an app for Marathoners and Triathletes because nothing says I need subliminal help with my weight like someone that is running a marathon. Yup they all seemed like honest reviews (Heavy Sarcasm). Looking at the other "reviewers" reviews that have multiple apps you find other conflicts. Like Amberg914 that reviewed apps for New Moms, a Wedding Planner, and how to find a man. I guess that is possible. After all - RSS Comm, Violin Lady and Bartsrock all reviewed the New Mom and Wedding planner apps - Maybe they should have reviewed a birth control methods app.
It is possible some of the reviews are real and heart felt - but you know what - not a single one of them said they were paid to do the review by the App developer they did said review for - and that is what the real issue here comes down to. These are app reviews as an end user you really can not trust. It makes you wonder how many others are doing this as well. Granted 300+ bogus app reviews is small in relation to all the app reviews out there and thankfully Apple does have control of the App store and what goes in it so they can do something about this.
I hope Apple reads this and takes appropriate action - especially with regards to the app that prays on those that just lost a loved one. To me this went from a fun project to something that just made me sick to my stomach.
In the iPhone OS 4.x event. Steve Jobs gave an update on the iPad sales about 450,000 units sold up to April 8th and Best Buy is out of stock. Over 4 Billion App downloads to date and over 185,000 apps in the App store, and over 3,500 iPad specific Apps. The iPhone has a 64% of the US mobile browser usage. Sold over 50 Million iPhones and another 35 Million iPod Touches.
The iPhone OS 4.0 update will be available this Summer for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and then in the fall for the iPad. Developer preview available April 8th.
Over 100 new user features including: Bluetooth Keyboard access, Home Screen Wallpaper, 5x Digital Zoom on the camera, Spell Check, Tap to focus on Video and more.
However there are 7 key "Tentpole" features
1. Multitasking - Not to be confused with pure backgrounding. There are some limitations. Such as it will work only on the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd Gen (and the iPad). This means for all other owners - Jailbreaking is your only option. As I said this is not 100% backgrounding of Apps. In most cases apps are frozen in the background, only some options are able to run in the background. Like audio in Pandora. But IM's in Skype or AIM are not live in the background. Apps must be setup by the app developers to use the limited set of background features.
2. App Folders - similar to categories on the jailbreak side, accept these folders don't look like folders they look more like tiny docks. In all you can now put 2160 apps on your device. If you max that out - there are issues you need to work out with your shrink. I was surprised on this one - I did not think they would do folders - but am very happy they did. They actually combined Categories and Overboard - This is a nice addition.
3. New Mail App - Finally - Now you can have a single unified inbox - multiple email accounts including multiple exchange accounts. And organizing by threads.
4. iBooks - Yes the same iBooks as is on the iPad except smaller for the iPhone and iPod touch. Can buy a book once and transfer between iPad and iPhone / iPod touch - including wireless syncing of page and bookmarks.
5. Enterprise - This is for reaching out to the Enterprise users. In includes - Better data protection, Mobile Device Management, Wireless App distribution, Multiple Exchange Accounts, Exchange Server 2000, and support for SSL VPN.
6. Game Center - Think of this like match.com for Gamers. Or I guess X-Box Live. This will not launch until later in the year. You can challenge your friends to games or they will match you up with strangers.
7. iAd Advertising - Remember Apples purchase of Quatro in January - well they will be putting that purchase to use very soon. Apple will build in Ad serving for apps into the SDK. Apple will take 40% of the Ad revenue - up a little from their 30% cut of App sales. Will be interesting to see what type of inventory they can get and what the ad rates are.
Also Custom background images - As mentioned above. While not as full featured as Winterboard with full themes. It is nice to see this added - and not surprising at all - as it is already available in OS 3.2 on the iPad.
Overall the new features are really nice - and folders will be really welcome on my iPhone. However if you have an older gen iPhone or iPod Touch - Apple really is saying go and jailbreak because you are not getting some of these features. Some you will get - but not all.
Ep 126 is a little late due to me playing with my iPad more than I expected. However I do have the review done for the iPad which you can read here. This means I can now go out and read the other reviews. However I am staying away from any reviews where the iPad was given to the reviewer.
Below will be a list of reviews of the iPad from those that actually purchased their iPad that I liked.
Waiting here in line for my iPad and it is 45 degrees out (Thanks Steve) and I am kept warm by my blankets and the bottom of my MacBook. Last night before I went to sleep my wife asked me why I needed to get on line early, I tried to explain - but she did not get it. However it is per the email below that makes me remember why it is I am in line. Looks like not all are going to get their iPad's that pre-ordered them for shipment today.
Hi Rob,
Just got the notice today that UPS will not deliver my iPad until Monday instead of on Saturday. This in spite of the fact that on the Apple website they guaranteed delivery by April 3rd when I placed my order.
Both Apple and UPS lost credibility with me over this one. There are three Apple Stores in Honolulu. I could have and would have gone to any of them to pick up my iPad if Apple had mentioned that delivery to my house was not guaranteed.
Place my vote in the very disappointed column.
Aloha and keep up the great work on your Podcast,
Will B Honolulu, HI
If you have received notice that your iPad is not being delivered today as promised - please let us know in the comments below.
Update: 4/3/10 2:03 PM Central From Will B:
Hi Rob,
Well, I guess the notification from UPS was just insurance in case they could not make the Saturday delivery, but the UPS truck was at my house by 8:30 AM on Saturday after all, even before the Apple Store opened. That's more like what I expect from Apple.
Enjoy your iPad. Look forward to hear yours and the experiences of your listeners.
In the weeks leading up to the iPad launch, Verizon, Sprint and then Clear.com all made announcements, pushes, or even commercials talking about their mobile hot spots to support the iPad or even iPhone in the case of the Sprint Ad. What none of them are doing is breaking down their costs vs. what it will cost from Apple / AT&T. But no worries the attached graph breaks down the total cost of ownership for the iPad and a Mobile Data Plan for all 4 options.
As you can quickly see the cheapest solution is going with Apple / AT&T - which for 3 years is $1000 cheaper to own and operate on AT&T than on Sprint or Verizon. It is also the most convenient solution as there is no extra hardware to carry around as is required by the other three solutions. However if you are looking for the fasted connection speed. Then you will want to look at the 4G (WiMax) solutions from Clear and Sprint. But note with both Clear and Sprint when you are not on the 4G network - then the data is not unlimited. You have a 5GB cap on the 3G connection or 300 MB/mo. while off-network roaming. Additional monthly usage over 5GB costs $0.05/MB. You may not use more than 300 MB/mo. while off-network roaming.
My recommendation - If you want the simplest and cheapest solution - hands down go with built in 3G and AT&T.
If you do not want anything to do with AT&T or want the fastest solution then Clear is the next best option.
But each solution does have it pluses and minuses. Here they are to help you decide for yourself.
Apple / AT&T:
Pluses: Cheapest solution by a wide margin. Most convenient solution - All in One. Best for the road warrior that cuts the handles off of tooth brushes to save on weight. Never any overages if you go with $30 plan. Very easy to turn on and off 3G plan so you can save even more money or even go with the $15 a month plan for very limited bandwidth (250 MB).
Minuses: If in NY or San Francisco - AT&T - enough said. Need to wait until late April for your iPad.
Clear:
Pluses: Fastest connection speed (same as with Sprint) WiMax. Cheaper than Sprint and Verizon. Can go month to month with data plan. Can use 4G/3G modem also with your laptop when not using iPad.
Minuses: Very limited 4G coverage. Data cap on 3G coverage area with $0.05 per MB fee after cap is reached. Need to buy both a hot spot unit ($140) and a 4G/3G modem ($225) - on top of the iPad - highest up front cost.
Sprint:
Pluses: Overdrive is one device ($99) so lower upfront cost vs. Clear.
Minuses: Very limited 4G coverage. Data cap on 3G coverage with $0.05 per MB fee after cap is reached. Most expensive solution. Over $1000 more than Apple / AT&T solution for first 3 years.
Verizon:
Pluses: MiWi is a single device and cheaper ($50) than the other options. Verizon 3G coverage is the widest of all the options.
Minuses: $1000 more over 3 years than AT&T option with a slower connection speed than AT&T 3G. Data cap of 5 GB per month.
NOTE: The cheapest solution overall really is just getting the $699 WiFi only iPad and not getting a data plan. This post is just on comparing the iPad for those that must get a data plan or feel they must get a data plan.
You know that is a pretty strong title I used - You might say "Rob you are opening yourself up to a libel lawsuit" - but there is one thing about libel - it is not libel if what you say is true. Wired Magazine had an article this week titled - Pay to Play: Some iPhone App sites Demand Money for Reviews . That article is something we have mentioned multiple times on the Today in iPhone Podcast and you know how much I hate sites that do that. Full and Fair disclosure all the time is a must. But that is not what this post is about - you can listen to my past shows for my soap box rants on that. No this article is about something in the Wired Article that really got me mad. It is the following from the Article.
"The iPhone App Reviews editor-in-chief Shaun Campbell said he was unaware that his sites writers were requesting payment in exchange for reviews. He explained that the reviewers work autonomously, so he is unsure of how theyre paid by app creators. As of this writing, The iPhone App Reviews About section remains unchanged, stating that fees only apply to expedited app reviews."
See here I have a big issue - as Mr. Cambell is claiming he was unaware of this. As of March 18th 2010. However, here is the full Email from Mr. Cambell to me after I called out his site for the same thing back in September 2009.
My name is Shaun Campbell, Im the Editor in Chief of The iPhone App Review.
It has come to my attention that your podcast "Today in iPhone" made a number of (incorrect) assumptions and allegations about theiphoneappreview.com which I would like to address.
I do not deny that there is a charge for a review to be published – just about every other leading iPhone review website charges a fee - most charge more than us - but I fiercely deny the allegation that the reviews are dishonest. The other review websites may refer to the fee as 'an expedition fee' to speed up the process of the review. However you choose to word it, the outcome is the same – the review is being paid for, and we are then no more deserving of your criticism than any of the others. It seemed that the lack of discretion was your main concern - this was not intentional and has since been remedied.
We have a strict policy on the reviews – the developer is purchasing exposure, not a glowing recommendation. I instruct all my authors to write honestly. We have published several reviews in just the past week that have scored ratings of 50% or lower. iDrop Dead was a paid review and scored 4/10 ( Hostile Waters was a paid review and scored 5/10 - there are other examples.
I would appreciate it if you would check your facts before you make such claims in the future. We take pride in having some of the best written and comprehensive iPhone reviews available, and this will continue into the future.
Regards,
Shaun Campbell
Oh but that is not all in February, 2010 the following email was sent out from one of his reporters that he claimed he did not know how they were paid. (Hint - BS)
From: "Nancy" <nancy@theiphoneappreview.com>
Date: February 28, 2010 xx:xx:xx AM CST
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: App Review Opportunity
My name is Nancy Jones, I'm an author at The iPhone App Review Would you be interested in having your app, xxxxxxxxx, featured and reviewed on the website? The iPhone App Review is a leading online source of iPhone application news and reviews, and with thousands of readers each week, you’ll gain invaluable exposure to a targeted audience of potential customers.
We can provide an expedited review on The iPhone App Review for only $25. Our review will provide a permanent direct link to your app on the iTunes store. Additionally, we can link to your corporate website to help with your promotion and sales. Reviews on The iPhone App Review are both comprehensive and honest, and apps will still be judged on merit.
Your app looks like it would be a lot of fun and educational as well. I look forward to testing it.
If you would like us to feature your app, please forward me your iTunes link, preferred website URL, promo code and any supporting images, and I will publish your review within 7 working days. Payment can be forwarded to PayPal ID shaun.p.campbell@xxxxxx.xxx
Nancy Jones
Author
The iPhone App Review
(xxxxx's added by Today in iPhone to protect all involved - even if one did not deserve protection)
For him in the article on Wired to say he knew nothing about the pay for play and how they were paid is a lie - plain and simple. He knew it in September when he emailed me - and he definitely knew it in February when the email went out with his pay pal account for payment.
As I said before do not trust any reviews you read on - the iPhone app review - site or any other site that charges for reviews. And as a developer don't ever pay for an app review.
I would love to hear your feedback in the comments or call it in for the next show. If you are a listener you know the number.
Update: 3/20/2010 10:41 AM CT - Mr. Campbell sent me an email threatening legal action if I do not remove the emails above. He claimed they were in violation of Copyright law. However I claim they fall under the fair use doctrine - as the emails present a counter claim to his public comments in the Wired article and as such provide the public with needed information. I guess we will let the courts decide. I don't like being threatened - Mr. Campbell I will NOT remove the emails above. Mr. Campbell here is something to try - How about full and fair disclosure next to each post where someone paid for the "expedite fee".
Update: 3/21/2010 9:02 AM CT - Mr. Campbell contacted me to let me know they are now including with each post which ones paid an expedite fee. As per what we recommended above and in compliance with what the FTC requires. However he is still threatening us with legal action. And claiming the following: "You don’t even have the common decency to reply to criticism, you just post your ramblings where there is no right of reply." Ummm - How about the comments button below Mr. Campbell? Or calling into my show?
While Apple touted that you could starting today reserve your iPad for pickup at an Apple Store - they sure are not making it easy to find out how to do so.
After waiting on the phone for 25 Minutes with Apple support - They spilled the beans. Go to http://www.apple.com/retail to reserve your iPad for pickup. There is a big section right now for the iPad at the top of the page - if it is not there when you go - here is another link you can try.
I reserved mine and will be at the Apple store in Leawood for pick up of mine prior to 9:00 AM when they say the iPad will be available. See attached pic for more info.
A phrase I have quoted before and will quote again is that "There are lies, Damn Lies and then Statistics." Let me show you what I mean. There was a survey that was done both before and after the iPad was announced of over 1000 random US users of the service doing the report. In the second survey 82% of those contacted had heard of the iPad. Prior to the Jan 27th event only 48% had heard of an Apple Tablet that might be revealed. So Apple grew product awareness from 48% to 82%. Pretty nice.
Lets put the mac market share in perspective. In the 3rd Quarter of 2009 in the US Macs had an 8.8% market share of PC sales. This according to Gartner. That was Apples best market share since the 80's and a slight improvement from the 8.6% market share from the year earlier period.
What if I told you the survey found that of those that had heard of the iPad 11% answered that "I think I would like to buy one" and another 26% said "I'm interested but I need more information before I'd buy one" or spun another way 37% said they were interested in the iPad and / or wanted to buy one. Over one third that knew of the iPad after the event on the 27th were interested in the iPad. That is really impressive. Even if you took it back to all those that responded 30% were interested in the iPad. That is over 3.5 times the market share Apple currently has with the Mac. That is what the survey said. Those are the facts from the Survey.
If you projected that out to the US population as a whole - Over 31 Million iPads could be sold to those that want one now and another 73.5 Million to others interested or that there is potential demand of over 100 Million iPads in the US alone. Again that is based on the survey numbers. But let me show you some of the headlines for the survey - Starting with the one from the Company Retrevo that actually put this survey together.
Yup those are the titles of the blog posts out there all from the same survey data I just spun a different way. I think Apple if they even bothered reading the post from Retrevo was doing cartwheels because 37% or 30% or 11% or even 9% interested in the iPad and / or wanting to get one - is really really good and higher than their current market share for Mac's. Yet Every and I mean Every Post on these results was negative and coming to the conclusion the iPad will be a failure or not a significant player in the market. I think looking at these numbers nothing could be further from the truth. But then again there are Lies, Damn Lies and Blog Post titles from Retrevo. Comments are welcome below.
The "iPad" is announced officially and you probably already know my thoughts on the name. Which we will go over along with the iPad itself in Ep 118 which should be out later this evening. But in the mean time here are the bingo card results and also how I did on my speculation of the specs vs. the reality. Both charts I will go over in detail on Ep 118.
First up is the Bingo card results that shows which rumors were true and which missed. And once again Bingo did not happen.
The next chart is how I personally did with my speculation for specs back at the end of December.
And Yes I am getting an iPad - most likely the 64 GB WiFi only version as I already was mentally ready to spend more than that.
Update: Thanks to John in Mesa AZ for pointing out the error with Bluetooth keyboard support - the iPad does have it. So changed to green above.
Well I guess when the company has your last name and your are the CEO you don't worry about spilling the beans and those darn NDA's. After all you really don't need to worry about those things when on CNBC it's not like anyone is listening.
Wow is all I can say. Someone at Valley Wag owes him some money. He even talks about it being based on the iPhone OS. Nice - Think Steve and Company are happy about this one.
Here is the video of him talking about it back end of the video.
It is less than one week until the Jan 27th Apple event so that means it is time to make available the Bingo Card for you to play along at home. This one covers most of the big rumors and info, from Inside sources / Industry sources, that are out there for the Tablet, plus a few more for the iPhone OS v4.0 that is likely to be announced. Enjoy.
Calling All App Developers - we are introducing a new segment to the Today in iPhone Podcast - it is an elevator Pitch challenge for iPhone Apps. What we are looking for is a 60 second audio recording by you the developer - talking about your app that is already in the App store. This must be in your voice - no celebrity or guest voices. You can either record on your iPhone or computer and email to us at: todayiniphone@gmail.com or you can call in to 206-666-6364.
Please note it is a hard fast 60 sec limit - at 60:001 - We will cut off any extra audio - even in mid word.
The Challenge part is we will play your recording along with two other recordings from other developers. Then ask for listeners to vote by emailing in for a promo code for just one of the three apps. So your app must be a pay for app and you must supply at least 5 promo codes to participate. You can supply more promo codes if you like - but to keep from biasing the audience we will say only 5 are available for each app.
After 7 days from when the segment airs we will count the votes (requests for each promo code) and put up the results in a blog post on the site and also mention on the next episode.
If you would like to participate - Please send us your recording first. Do NOT repeat do NOT send the promocodes YET!!! - as they expire and we are only doing 3 Apps per episode. Once we have you scheduled we will let you know and then follow up a week prior to the airing of the segment for the promo codes. But we must have your recording to schedule you. Placement in episodes will be based on a first come first serve basis. No Pay for placement is allowed / possible for this segement. Your ONLY cost is the 5 promo codes and time to make the recording.
Please also send a link to both your iTunes Store page and your website when you send in your recording. We use your Website link to tag for upcoming show notes so we need both.
When we provide the promo codes to the listeners we will be asking for them to write reviews in iTunes and Blog / tweet about your App. Plus your app will get mentioned in at least two episodes and one blog post on the Today in iPhone site.
If you have any other questions please email us at todayiniphone@gmail.com or just send me your recording. Again first come first serve so get us your recording.