Posts Tagged ‘iphone’

IRS Blows Minds By Building An App For That (Where “That” = “Your Taxes”)

Friday, January 28th, 2011

“Taxpayers waiting on a refund from the Internal Revenue Service can now check on its status using a smartphone.

The application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android operating system also will give taxpayers daily tax tips during the filing season, the U.S. tax collection agency said today. Smartphone users may download the “IRS2Go” app for free, the IRS said.”

What do you think?

Would you use an app to check your tax refund status? What will be the next government-made mobile app??

First Impression Of The New iPhone: Negative

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Apple’s newest flashy iproduct might not be making quite the positive splash they’d hoped for…

  • Consumer feedback has been harsh on the latest iPhone, reporting that when it is held a certain way reception is sketchy and calls are sometimes dropped.
  • As a result, shares of Apple Inc. have dipped, leaving the company scrambling to issue software updates and attach a bumper accessory to fix the problem.
  • Analysts, however, are doubtful that this blip in Apple stock will have any lasting effects. Apple products like the iPad and iPhone are still too widely popular to truly lower Apple’s stock valuation.

Best Quote

“Checks into Apple’s supply chain do not indicate slowdown in build plans or demand. But a greater focus on this issue could create risk to estimates.” – Shaw Wu, Analyst, Kaufman Bros.

Consumer Reports Criticizes iPhone 4

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Because of a faulty antenna, Consumer Reports refuses to recommend the iPhone 4.

  • Consumer Reports tested the newest iPhone and discovered that it lost reception when held to the ear in a certain way.
  • Apple claims that most cell phones lose reception when gripped a certain way and that the software can be easily fixed.
  • The faulty antenna is located on the outside of the phone in the form of a metal band running around its frame.
  • AT&T has been criticized for poor reception and the inability to handle the network usage of data-guzzling iPhones.

Facts and Figures

  • This is the first time Consumer Reports has not recommended an Apple phone.
  • The antenna problem hasn’t slowed demand for the iPhone 4 – the phone is currently on backorder for about 3 weeks.
  • Apple sold more than 1.7 million iPhone 4s in the first 3 days, making it the company’s most successful product launch ever.

Best Quote

“Our findings call into question the recent claim by Apple that iPhone 4′s signal-strength issues were largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software.” – Consumer Reports

“Augmented Reality” Brings Real Estate To A New Dimension

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

A prosperous new market marries iPhone superpowers with the reality of day-to-day.

  • The European tech company Layar has engineered a mobile browser that layers content over reality using your phone’s camera, compass and GPS data.
  • Layar’s augmented reality technology (A.R.) is now being used in the lucrative real estate industry.
  • Point your iPhone at a home or apartment and watch interior photos and value estimates appear onscreen.

Facts & Figures

  • 1,000 developers have designed 2,000 programs for the iPhone and Google Android using Layer’s technology.
  • By 2014, the A.R. market is expected to have annual revenue of $732 million.
  • Both Google and Microsoft are working on their own versions of A.R.

Best Quote

“There’s a lot of capital, a lot of money in real estate so we expect realtor brands to use it as a service to their customers and customers to use it just out of curiosity.” – Maarten Lend-FizGerald, Layar Co-Founder

Computers Are Too Complex, Make Them More Like iPhones!

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Sometimes it seems as though computers are more trouble than they’re worth, but they may become much simpler in the not-too-distant future.

  • Although personal computers have become easier to use since their inception way back when, most people still encounter problems while using their computers and their current operating systems (like Snow Leopard for Mac or Windows Vista).
  • iPhones are the picture of simplicity, and could serve as a model for how computer companies construct operating systems in the future.
  • While it may seem a simple solution to the complexity problem, integrating an operating system similar to the iPhone’s would be difficult for a multitude of reasons, and especially troublesome for the implementation of the multitouch interface (that thing that allows you to move stuff on your iPhone with your finger).

Facts & Figures

  • Back in the day, if you wanted to open up a Microsoft Word document, you would’ve had to type in a cryptic command, like this:

DIR*.EXE
MSWORD.EXE A:\REPORT.DOC

  • Microsoft tries to make all their new versions of their primary operating system (Windows) familiar to customers of earlier versions, which accounts for the continuing complexity of the system.
  • Apple uses the iPhone’s operating system in its new iPad computer.
  • It would be easier for Apple to design a completely new operating system instead of implementing the multitouch interface onto a desktop computer.

Best Quote

“With the iPad and the horde of tablets that will follow it, we can expect computing to become much easier than what we’re accustomed to today.” – Brian Chen, Wired magazine

Will Cheaper iPhones Create Converts?

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Even a company as glitzy and popular as Apple needs to cut prices to compete in this economy – nobody can escape basic economic relationships between price and demand.

  • Hoping to sustain the momentum for its trendy smart phone in the middle of the recession and among increasingly prominent competitors, Apple decreased the price of its entry-level iPhone 3G from $199 to $99.
  • Main competitors include Palm Inc. and Research in Motion Ltd. (creator of the BlackBerry line of devices).
  • Apple also decreased the price of some of its other products, including the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air, and the Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system.

Facts & Figures

  • Apple has sold more than 20 million iPhones so far.
  • The new $99 iPhone 3G could increase iPhone demand by as much as 50%.

Best Quote

“These are very aggressive prices.” — Richard Doherty, Analyst with Envisioneering Group (a technology consultancy)