Apple never ceases to improvise and innovate, always ready to up the ante and create new benchmarks, whenever competition is seen hotting up.

In the recent past, there has been a great deal of talk and rumors about there being a consistent decline in the ringtone craze off late, and this is mainly attributed to the fact that users are now adept at creating their own ringtones easily from song downloads.

There are sites such as makeownringtone.com that allow users to create ringtones for free. Users just need to upload songs in various formats, such as MP3 and WMA, and then select the part of the song they want to use as a ringtone, remix their selection and upload the final result to their phones. As simple as that!

CNET sources recently created a base for rumors by reporting that Apple has come up with an excellent innovative idea, that of offering ready-made ringtones for the iPhone.

Apple has concentrated a lot on the iPhone in the past and continues to do so. iPhone users have enjoyed the option of creating their own custom-made ringtones for their devices ever since 2007. Users had to look for the bell icon next to the song that indicates the song can be converted into a ringtone, and double click on the bell for the ringtone editor to open. Once the portion of the song for the ringtone is selected, the user has to click buy, for the ringtone to be created and the user charged for the purchase. It will then show up in a ringtone play list to be synced to the iPhone. The whole process takes the least amount of time and one doesn’t have to be tech savvy either to figure out how it is done. Even a child can do it with ease.

However, Apple is bent on pampering and making iPhone users lazier than ever. It is said to have struck a deal with the music industry and obtained rights for offering ready-made ringtones. (more…)

What was meant to be an entertainment center that helps iPhone users download applications is proving to be something Apple did not expect.

Apple is facing unexpected problems with its iPhone application store, which contains more than 50,000 applications and is one of the most popular entertainment and information tools for mobile phones.

BeautyMeter is one of the applications at the iPhone app store.  This photo sharing application is meant for 17 and over, where users have the ability to upload images and rate them on the basis of “hotness.”  The application has a built-in safety mechanism as it requires users to enter their iPhone IDs.  Apple kept this check to ensure no illegal material is uploaded and for ease of tracking if anyone posts anything untoward.

However, in spite of this check, the problem started when kids started uploading images of themselves in the nude and there have been potentially objectionable materials showing up in the past few weeks.  The  latest example that caught the public eye, is that of a 15-year-old girl who uploaded her own nude photo, which stayed up for long enough for 5000 users to rate it.  It was only then brought to Apple’s notice and pulled down.

This was not the sole incident of its kind.  About a week earlier, there was another mobile phone application called “Hottest Girl,” that also showed a photo of a topless woman and was removed from the iPhone app store.

Apple is attracting unnecessary attention due to these happenings.  This has raised several questions about Apple’s ability to control iPhone content and keep its app store clean, which prompted Apple to remove BeautyMeter app from its store. (more…)

What is bigger than an iPod Touch and smaller than the Mac?

An Apple Tablet perhaps!

Rumors are rife that Apple may be on the verge of releasing an Apple Tablet soon, and it all started with a report by the Financial Times claiming that it has inside news that the Apple tablet is ready to be launched.

One set of rumors say that it will be released as early as September and the others say in early 2010.

It is speculated to be 3G enabled, have a 10-inch touch screen and high computing power, providing users the ability to even watch movies. It is said to be more like a large iPod rather than an iPhone, complete with the ability to download media through iTunes. It may also give users the ability to read books, rivaling the Amazon Kindle. Financial Times quoted as revealing that, “It’s a portable entertainment device. It’s going to be fabulous for watching movies.” It sounds like this device is going to be an iPod Touch with the processing power and memory of a netbook. Steve Jobs is said to be the brain behind this. If this is so, then the product is certainly going to be solid.

There have been no rumors on the carrier this 3G device will be on. Amidst all the assumptions, we can also assume that it would be AT&T. But Apple may also deal with someone else, as there had been problems with AT&T and Apple has been communicating with Verizon too. (more…)

Apple has decided to increase the power of the Mac OS X. Towards this end, significant improvements have been made in the software that has been developed for this edition of the Mac. This new version of the Mac OS X is named “Snow Leopard.”

This will use a new technology called Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) that can better use the multicore processors and graphic processors in chips. It takes complete advantage of optimizing the Mac OS X multicore for easy allocation of tasks across multiple cores and processors.

Previously, turning up the clock speed on the processor was the method used by chip makers to develop high speed systems. As the clock speed increased, software also ran faster. But the problem with doing that is the generation of more heat and consumption of more power. The chips are also idle most of the time, with the memory cycles not meeting the speed.

Because of these problems, the focus was shifted from increasing clock speed to making multicore processors, which means chips with multiple processor cores were put into a single CPU, and this consumes less power and provides better performance. (more…)

The iPhone applications are nothing short of amazing, because they leverage the groundbreaking technology in iPhone – like the GPA, 3D positional audio, real-time 3D graphics, the accelerometer and the Multi-Touch interface. You just have to tap into the App Store, choose and download from thousands of applications available.

Apple recently listed its top 20 free apps and top 20 paid apps for the iPhone, based solely on the popularity, which means the number of downloads from their App Store.

Take a look at the top 20 free apps in the exact order as ranked by Apple:

Facebook

This one is for social networking fans and is #1 in free apps. Facebook app can be downloaded at the iTunes app store for free. You have the chat facility, friend requests, check your friends photos, upload photos, full news feeds, notifications, news feed commends, your entire inbox etc.

Google Earth

Compatible with iPhone (2.0 software update) and iPod Touch, this app enables users to view the exact aerial imagery similar to the one available for the desktop version. You can view photos from around the world, search for businesses, cities and places, view mountainous terrain with just a tilt of the phone, geo-located Wikipedia articles and many more.

Pandora Radio

Stream music on your iPhone using this app! You can just use the name of the artist or the song and Pandora will instantly create a station to play that music. You can create stations based on the genre, read artist bios, store recently played songs and play song samples. (more…)

The little Twitter bird is singing the beautiful song of success! Nobody can deny Twitter is hot. The micro-messaging network is so hot right now that it is the topic of discussion wherever you turn. With their user base growing more than 1000% in just one year, it has registered the fastest growth when compared to other social networking sites, what else can you expect? Not one to be left behind, Oprah got in, opened a Twitter account and got 900,000 followers within a month. Everyone wants a piece of Twitter; including Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres and others.

It’s no surprise that all the big cats are now vying with each other to get their hands on this golden bird. Rumor goes that Google wanted it but was turned down. Facebook offered cash and stock worth $500 million, but it is believed Twitter investors were not quite sure that Facebook’s stock was worth as much as they claimed. The price has been going up as fast and furious as the Twitter users themselves.

Now, fresh rumors that have been circulating talk about Apply eying this social networking giant. According to sources, the purchase price it offered is $700 million – in cash and negotiations are on full swing. Oh yes! Apple has plenty of that (27 billion) and can pay cash. Gossip mongers even go to the extent of saying that the acquisition will be announced in June at the World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in San Jose.

Twitter is receiving “tweet” nothings from everyone that matters – Google, Microsoft, News Corp., and now Apple too; although this is being discarded by many as yet another rumor. Putting two and two together, observers remark that it was only a couple of weeks ago that Apple profiled the site. (more…)

Imagine the feeling when the application you installed in your mobile phone has completely vanished! There is a high possibility of this happening, courtesy the “kill switch.”

This killer is being used in many areas in various forms:

A “dad man’s switch” stops vehicles and machines, in case the operator has problems and loses control. A kill switch at pumping stations is used for gasoline pumps and other devices that pump flammable or explosive chemicals. Even treadmills have a “safety key” that comes into action when a person trips or falls.

In IT language, a kill switch is a security measure used to shut off a device or a program. Where software is concerned, the software is rendered useless to users if it is pirated and not obtained in the right way.

Kill Switch in Apple and Google

Coming to the mobile phone segment, kill switch has been incorporated by Apple in the iPhone. Through these switches, the company has the capability of uninstalling or deleting any application that they think should not be on your phone.

This was not something Apple made a whole lot of noise about and preferred to let silence rule – until people discovered it for themselves and the world was up in arms.

The iPhone quietly connects to Apple’s servers to check an application blacklist, and disable any apps that should not be there. (more…)

Recent sales numbers of the iPhone and the BlackBerry have surprised people in the know. The reason for the surprise is that BlackBerry has always been considered to be synonymous with a business phone, but now the iPhone sold more.

Earlier, Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone would support Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which will enable users to synchronize their calendar and contacts along with receiving push mail on their iPhones. This announcement had many critics remarking that Apple is attempting to just grab a small slice of one of the most lucrative markets – the enterprise phone segment and nothing more will come out of it. Of course, diehard Apple fans are never deterred by these comments and have always counted on the iPhone to make a difference in this market, where enterprise phone segment is the arena of players such as the BlackBerry and the Nokia E-series.

The sales reports of smartphones reveal that Nokia still ruled, followed by Apple and then BlackBerry. This is a great achievement for Apple, considering that the iPhone does not have as many models as the other two. Another fact is that the competition has released high-profile devices recently too, such as Nokia’s E71 and RIM’s Bold. However, a device that has not been considered to be a suitable choice for enterprise use until now has won hands down. (more…)

All the top stars on the block seem to be heading with single-minded determination towards the same goal. Blackberry, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, and Google is not to be left behind too. It is extremely impressive to watch the unfolding of the “touchscreen” era.

This was exclusively the domain of the enterprise phone segment just a little while earlier. But things have changed so fast that there perhaps may not be a cell phone manufacturer that does not wish to proudly lay claim to this distinction.

We will have to give credit to the keypad. Even with the possibility and threat of being ousted looming large, it still manages to hold its head high, with the hope that the competition does not invade its territory. As of now there are more phones that come with only a keypad when compared to touchscreen phones. In fact many of the touchscreen phones also have a keypad. (more…)

Apple is riding the wave of innovation with the introduction of the new versions of the MacBook Pro and MacBook portable computers, that Steve Jobs revealed were created using a new manufacturing process. They are said to be made from 2.5-pound blocks of aluminium.

These computers were introduced on October 14, 2008, Tuesday, with an audience of about a hundred journalists, bloggers and analysts in an auditorium on Apple’s campus. The main topic of discussion was not the price but the manufacturing process.

According to Apple, this new process would give them scope to create lighter, stronger and far more reliable products. The new MacBooks have been crafted with a single aluminium block, and Apple started off with a 2.5 pound aluminium block. Traditionally, all notebooks are made with numerous parts, but Apple has come up with a unibody. Steve Jobs said that Apple has been trying to create unibody enclosures for some of the new notebooks.

Nvidia was another important topic of discussion and Mr. Jobs declared that several new Macintosh computer models will feature two custom-designed graphics processors from Nvidia. This should enhance the computer viewing experience and game play. Nvidia is also the supplier of the integrating chipset for the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. Mr. Jobs also mentioned that the new Nvidia graphics processor offers much better, at least five times the graphics power of the Intel graphics processors that the MacBooks currently have. This statement does nothing for Intel and leaves a question on Apple’s relationship with Intel, which is the supplier of the central processing unit for the Macintosh.

The MacBook and the 15-inch MacBook Pro also feature brilliant instant-on LED-backlit displays and new glass multi-Touch trackpads, which offer a whole lot more tracking area, allowing users to use several finger gestures, such as swipe, rotate and pinch. They can easily switch between applications with just the touch of a fingertip.

Apple revealed that the new MacBook features everything their customers always wanted; a complete metal enclosure, high performance 3D graphics as well as a LED-backlit display.

Apple also said that it leads the industry in meeting high environmental standards by eliminating toxic chemicals, by using arsenic-free glass and mercury-free LED-backlit displays.

The new 13-inch aluminium MacBook with full features, which is based on the standard MacBook line, comes at a price of $1,299, which is $700 less than MacBook Pro that costs $1,999. It is a beautifully compact and durable notebook featuring the new Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics processor that delivers extremely good 3D game play and is much faster than the previous generation. It comes in two models; the 2.0 GHz MacBook with a 160GB 5400 rpm hard drive and the 2.4 GHz MacBook with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive with a backlit keyboard.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro weighs 5.5 pounds and is a good looking and compact piece. It has Intel Core 2 Duo processors, that run up to 2.8 GHz, and provides two options for users. They can either use Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphic processor for a more powerful performance or use the Nvidia GeForce 9400M processor for extended battery life. The new MacBook Pro is also available in two models; a 2.4 GHz with 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive and 2.53 GHz with 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive.

Apple updated its MacBook Air, which is sold at a starting price of $1,799 and comes with 50 percent more storage. The 17-inch MacBook Pro has also been updated. The while plastic 13-inch MacBook portable with Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 120GB hard drive as well as a slot-load 8X SuperDrive, comes at a reduced price of $999, a reduction of $100. Although, the price drop may not seem like much, it is a notable feat as this marks the first time Apple is selling a laptop computer for less than $1000.

With all these innovations and better features, Apple expects to see an increase in sales.

The new MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and the 17-inch MacBook Pro are said to go on sale on Wednesday from all of Apple’s retail stores. The new MacBook Air will be available from early November onwards.