The Apple iPad 2 will be sold in Target stores starting March 11 at 5pm ET, according to a spokeswoman.
"We will be offering all 18 versions and price it as all other retailers have, starting at $499," the spokeswoman told PCMag.
The "18 versions" refer to the three Wi-Fi only models (16, 32, and 64 GB), three AT&T GSM models, and three Verizon CDMA models, totalling nine versions, all of which are offered in white or black.
Target will only sell the tablets in-store, the spokeswoman added.
Furthermore Target will launch an original iPad trade-in program for store credit starting March 13, at Target Mobile locations only.
Last Thursday Best Buy also announced that it will start selling the iPad 2 on March 11; there are also rumors that the reseller is giving free iPad 2s to all its sales associates.
Additional reports claim Walmart and subsidiary Sam's Club will carry Apple's highly anticipated new tablet, although spokespersons have not commented.
The Apple iPad 2 officially goes on sale this Friday, March 11 in Apple stores. No news has come out about pre-sales, however. Last year Apple began taking pre-sales nearly three weeks before the tablet was available in stores.
For more details, see PCMag's hands-on with the iPad 2 and the video below.
By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson, Ap Technology Writer
–
2 hrs 16 mins ago
NEW YORK – The Verizon iPhone loads Web pages just as fast as AT&T's version of the phone, even though Verizon's network has lower data speeds, a phone testing firm reported Monday.
Verizon Wireless started selling Apple Inc.'s phone in February, as the first carrier to do so in the U.S. after AT&T Inc.
Verizon uses an older network technology with data speeds lower than AT&T's. Testing firm Metrico Wireless said data downloads on the Verizon iPhone turned out to be half as fast as those on AT&T's network.
However, because Web pages load just as fast, users may not notice the difference, except when downloading large files.
Verizon Wireless is widely thought to have a more reliable network that AT&T, and Metrico's testing bore that out. But the firm's vice president of information products, Rich McNally, said the difference in terms of calls that dropped or didn't go through weren't big. He didn't reveal the exact percentages.
Metrico tested the Verizon iPhone's performance with 4,000 calls and 10,000 Web page downloads in New York, Seattle, Washington, Baltimore, Chicago and Dallas, McNally said.
In a minor surprise, the Verizon iPhone turned out to be less reliable than the AT&T version when downloading a file in a moving vehicle, McNally said. Its failure rate was 10 percent higher in that situation.
When stationary, the Verizon iPhone had a 10 percent better success rate for uploads, as compared to the AT&T phone.
Consumer Reports has criticized AT&T's iPhone 4 for being susceptible to the "death grip" — holding it a certain way can reduce the signal strength. It recently said the Verizon phone is vulnerable to the same phenomenon, despite a redesign of the antenna. Metrico's results have no bearing on the "death grip" issue, because the phones it tests are attached to measuring equipment, not held by humans.
We wouldn't trade anything for our beloved Macs, but Dell knows that not everyone feels that way. Most people just care about the final price. Unfortunately for them, their most recent Dell to Apple comparison has been outed for being just plain inaccurate. We know companies often omit a lot of the extras Macs come with when they make these comparisons, but we're glad the rest of the world, via Electronista, is catching on.
New iMacs Add IPS Displays, Core ‘i’ Processors Across the Range
The iMac just got a little bit faster, thanks to an update across the line. Processors, graphics and even the displays have been improved, although the prices have stayed the same.
All iMacs now have i-processors, as in Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 (the last an upgrade option), so the Core 2 Duo now exists only in the Mac Mini. Graphics are now discrete across the line, which means that every iMac has a separate graphics card inside, using its own dedicated memory.
The screens have been replaced, too, using the IPS (in-plane switching) technology found in the iPad. The advantage of IPS is its crazy-wide viewing angle, making the new iMac perfect for watching movies.
There is also a new high-end, small-screen option, letting you put a 3.2-GHz Intel Core i3 in the 21.5-inch iMac (the base chip runs at 3.06 GHz). It’ll cost $1,500 against $1,200, but you also double video memory to 512 MB and get a bigger, 1-TB hard drive.
The sweet spot is now the 3.2-GHz 27-incher, which has the i3 processor and still costs just $1,700. Sure, that’s not a cheap computer, but for what you actually get, it is a real bargain. Add to this redesigned, bassier speakers and an SD card slot that works with the new SDXC spec, and you’ve got almost everything you might want in a home-entertainment computer.
Finally, the iMac doesn’t come with the new Magic Trackpad. You’ll have to buy it for an extra $70. Thanks, Apple.
(Image courtesy of sharetv.org) At this rate, it only has to be a matter of time before Apple starts touting the iPhone as a crime fighter via its GPS features. Who was the unlucky thief this time? Someone who decided to steal an iPhone during a demonstration of its GPS capabilities, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Apparently Horatio Toure, a 31-year-old resident of San Francisco rode a bicycle up to a woman on Monday afternoon in the South of Market neighborhood, and grabbed an iPhone out of her hands, and then proceeded to bike away. But what our karma prone friend didn't realize is that the woman that had the iPhone was using it as part of a company's demonstration of a real-time GPS tracking program. Had Toure so much as bothered to look at the screen, he probably would have noticed his getaway path was also being tracked. He wound up being picked up by police a half-mile away 10 minutes later, said police Sgt. Troy Dangerfield. He was taken to jail on suspicion of grand theft and possession of stolen property. "This reminds me of the bank robber who arrives during the security test," according to phone owner David Kahn. Kahn, chief executive with Covia Labs of Mountain View, was in San Francisco on Monday demonstrating a product called Alert & Respond to some of his PR colleagues. The product is geared for the police and military, but can also be integrated with phones, computers, and the like. Kahn had asked an assistant to take his phone out on the sidewalk area during the demonstration so that he could track her location on a laptop. But seconds after she walked away, she immediately reappeared on Alert & Respond, and was running quickly down the street. The assistant would go back into the office and call police, relaying the phone's location to them. "What are the odds," asked Kahn, "that you would grab someone's cell phone during a demonstration of the ability to track the phone's location in real time? That's what this unfortunate thief did."
Follow this article's author, Matthew Tilmann on Twitter
T-Mobile USA is very close to getting the iPhone in the fall, ending Apple’s exclusive relationship with AT&T, according to a highly placed source at the wireless company.
Talks between Apple and T-Mobile are at an advanced stage, our source says, and it’s 80 percent likely that the iPhone will be coming to T-Mobile in Q3.
The source works at T-Mobile but asked not to be quoted directly and to remain anonymous because they aren’t authorized to talk to the press.
T-Mobile’s parent company, Deutsche Telekom, which carries the iPhone in Germany, was able to influence, the source said. T-Mobile USA is the fourth-largest U.S. carrier with 33.7 million customers.
Apple’s exclusive contract with AT&T is reportedly ending this year, and many expect Apple to offer the iPhone to other wireless companies. Overseas, Apple has routinely added extra carriers when exclusivity deals in those markets expire.
Most pundits expect Apple to add Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest mobile phone provider with 92.8 million subscribers. AT&T is the second-largest US carrier with 87 million customers. The major problem is hardware: Verizon’s network is based on incompatible CDMA technology. However, Apple is already working with chipset-supplier Qualcomm on a CDMA chip for the iPhone, according to Wired.
But some analysts think it would be a lot simpler for Apple to go with T-Mobile, even though the carrier has a third of the customers of Verizon. AT&T and T-Mobile are the two primary GSM carriers in the US, and the iPhone wouldn’t require major hardware changes. Indeed, many T-Mobile customers already use unlocked iPhones on the company’s network.
Perhaps more importantly, a switch to Verizon would require a major realignment of corporate allegiances. Verizon is committed to Apple’s main wireless rival, Google, and has spent the last year heavily marketing the search giant’s Android phones. Verizon routinely runs ads directly attacking the iPhone. The most recent attack ad mocked the iPhone 4’s “death grip.”
Several analysts see Apple moving to T-Mobile. Last month, Shaw Wu, an analyst with Kaufman Brothers, predicted the iPhone will come to T-Mobile because of its compatible GSM network. “We continue to believe that T-Mobile USA is the most likely candidate given its use of similar cellular technology as AT&T,” he wrote in a note to investors.
Doug Reid, an analyst at Thomas Weisel, has also said on several occasions that the easiest way for Apple to extend the iPhone market would be to offer the device to T-Mobile. ”Apple wants to move away from exclusivity; T-Mobile would achieve this for Apple in the U.S.,” Reid told The Street. Reid noted the battle lines drawn up between Apple and AT&T versus Verizon and Google.
In fact, Deutsche Telekom’s CEO René Obermann already told the Financial Times that T-Mobile is getting the iPhone. ”T-Mobile USA is hoping to start selling the popular smartphone later this year or next year,” he said.
One important point, to which I don’t have the answer, is whether the iPhone 4 is compatible with T-Mobile’s 3G network. Customers with unlocked iPhone 3GS are able to use T-Mobile’s Edge data network, but not the faster 3G, which operates on the 1700/2100 MHz bands. According to Apple’s specs, the iPhone 4 adds the 2100 band, but not the 1700 band, which has led some to conclude that it is incompatible with T-Mobile’s 3G network.
However, there is some debate whether Apple simply didn’t list the 1700 band, which seems to be the convention when listing such specs. And no one has yet tested the iPhone 4 on T-Mobile’s network. Despite the efforts of the Dev Team, there isn’t yet a publicly available unlock for the iPhone 4.
T-Mobile declined to comment. “T-Mobile does not comment on rumor or speculation,” said the company’s PR department in an email to CultofMac.com.
Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Apple already tried to partner with Verizon before the iPhone launched. Apple offered the carrier an exclusive deal in 2007, which Verizon rejected over issues of software control and revenue sharing. The iPhone has been credited with AT&T’s robust growth these last few years.
Posted by Leander Kahney
In the wake of Consumer Reports announcing that it would not be recommending the iPhone 4 due to the much-discussed antenna problems, there have been calls for Apple to recall the device.
While a recall could be damaging to Apple's reputation, it would also be a costly endeavor, according to some calculations made by Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi. In a research note on Tuesday, Sacconaghi estimated that while "a full product recall of the
iPhone 4 (is) highly unlikely," it would cost Apple $1.5 billion, or 3.5 percent of its total cash on hand.
What would be more likely--and cheaper--is that Apple could issue a free rubber bumper case with each phone. That would prevent a person's hand from coming into contact with the phone's antenna, which is built into its exterior metal strip. Although Apple charges $29 at retail for the rubber cases, Bernstein estimates that giving them away to iPhone 4 customers would cost the company $1 per unit.
"It could be done immediately, would directly address the Consumer Report's concern, and would be financially immaterial," Sacconaghi wrote. "While it would force Apple to 'acknowledge' a design issue with the iPhone, we believe that consumers are increasingly aware of the antenna issue, and remedying it rather than dismissing or ignoring it appears most appropriate."
Looking to the future, the Wall Street firm says a more troubling consequence of this event than the iPhone antenna problems is Apple's response to it.
"Perhaps the bigger, longer-term concern for Apple investors is the emerging pattern of hubris that the company has displayed, which has increasingly pitted competitors (and regulators) against the company, and risks alienating customers over time," Sacconaghi wrote. "Examples of its behavior have included its limited disclosure practices (Steve Jobs' health; plans for deploying its cash balance), its attack on Adobe's Flash, its investigation into its lost iPhone prototype (which culminated in a reporter's home being searched while he was away and computers being removed), its restrictions on app development, and its ostensibly dismissive characterizations of the iPhone's antenna issues (i.e., phone needs to be held a different way; a software issue that affects the number of bars displayed). The worry is that collectively, these issues may, over time, begin to impact consumers' perceptions of Apple, undermining its enormous prevailing commercial success."
Apple has not offered a fix for the hardware issue beyond the instruction to hold the iPhone in a different manner or buy a rubber bumper case. Instead, the company says it is working on a software update that will fix the number of signal bars displayed on the phone.
Secret Sale: $5 Subscriptions (USD)
In case you'd like to read on your iPhone or iPad. :)
 If anyone needs proof that we’re all living in the future, look no further than the latest update to the Chase Mobile iPhone app, which now allows not only person-to-person QuickPay to any e-mail address, but also the ability to make a check deposit right from your handset -- without ever stepping foot inside your local branch. On Thursday, JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA updated their free Chase Mobile iPhone app, taking it far beyond just a simple utility to only check your balances. In addition to being able to pay bills or credit cards, send wire transfers, see account balances and transaction history or transfer money between your accounts, Chase has leapt into the future with two new features: QuickPay and Quick Deposit. The most exciting of the two features -- that is, if you happen to be a Chase customer -- is Quick Deposit, which allows you to deposit checks to your account right from your iPhone. Choose the checking account you want to deposit into, enter the amount and then snap a picture of the front and back of the check -- confirm your details and like magic, the check is deposited into your account without ever having to leave the house. Best of all, Quick Deposit is absolutely free -- no signup fee, no monthly fee, it requires just a quick sign up right from your iPhone and you’re off and running. The other new feature included with Chase Mobile 2.3.1 is Person-to-Person QuickPay, which allows you to pay anyone fast, right from your Chase account -- and you only need to know their e-mail address. The free 1.9MB update to Chase Mobile is now available in the App Store and requires iOS 3.1 or later. While the app also works on the iPod touch, since it doesn’t have a camera, the Quick Deposit feature only works on the iPhone. A separate version of Chase Mobile is also available for the iPad, but as yet hasn’t been updated to include QuickPay. Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter
|
