Filings from Apple over the past two years reveal that the company is constantly looking to improve upon the ways in which customers interact with its multi-touch devices, the latest of which proposes methods for controlling iPods and iPhones by detecting and using a user's fingerprints.
Known for thinking outside the box, electronics maker Apple Inc. is now apparently working on an in-the-box concept that could provide power to iPods, iPhones and other electronics devices still inside their retail packaging, allowing them to display demo videos and receive firmware updates while hanging unopened on a shelf in a retail store.
The University of Florida is the second school in as many months to announce that students enrolling in one of its curriculums this fall will be required to own either an iPhone or iPod touch, highlighting an increasing role for Apple's multi-touch devices in higher education.
Nearly half of all iPhone users have already jumped at the opportunity to enhance the functionality of their handsets by installing the free iPhone Software 3.0 update, but the same can't be said for iPod touch users, who — deterred by a $10 upgrade charge — are adopting the new software at a snail's pace.
Having pioneered multi-touch for its iPhone and iPod touch handhelds, Apple later extended the technology to trackpads on its Mac notebook line and now appears ripe to introduce the first iPod click-wheels with similar capabilities.
Since the debut of the first iPod in 2001, almost every consumer technology company has tried to create an “iPod killer” to outsell it. SanDisk is one of those companies with its Sansa line of media players, but founder and CEO Eli Harari has now admitted that the iPod has sovereignty.
Just a day after it was introduced, the Zune HD has been demonstrated live and is already generating buzz from at least one major blog that it could provide an experience superior to Apple's iPod touch.
Apple on Wednesday officially kicked off its 2009 back-to-school promotion, which offers a free 8GB iPod touch to students and educational staffers who purchase a qualifying Mac.
After two years of watching iPod sales pass it by, Microsoft has drawn a line in the sand and says it has a new Zune with hardware features to thwart the iPod touch, including a multi-touch display.
Apple will introduce a new version of its iPod nano with a wider screen and built-in camera later this year after first introducing three new iPhone models distinguished by their network hardware, according to a new report.
With Apple's first proprietary system-on-a-chip designs still rumored to be under active development, the iPhone maker may turn to ARM's standard v7 Cortex designs for multi-touch devices it plans to launch this year before building off the platform next year.
Apple will tap Japan's Asahi Kasei to provide hardware support for the "magnetometer" — or digital compass — that's slated to make its debut in the company's next-generation iPhone handset, AppleInsider has learned.
Apple may be planning to add camera functionality to a couple of its next-generation iPod models, according to a new report, which also claims that upcoming iPhones will retain the handsets' existing form factor.
Sling Media's release of its SlingPlayer Mobile application for the iPhone and iPod touch early this morning will give Sling enthusiasts a new way to watch their home TV signals remotely from nearly anywhere, but some significant limitations in the app are likely to dampen some users' initial enthusiasm.
Microsoft is no longer content with turning up the heat against just Apple's Mac lines and has begun a new marketing campaign that attacks the perceived additional costs of filling an iPod with music versus a Zune, but one which omits key flaws in the process.
Web market share for the iPod touch has tripled in just five months, outpacing even the iPhone among mobile devices. Also, Windows' share has dropped to its lowest point since tracking began even as the Mac managed to hold its ground.
Sales of Apple's iPod touch, once discounted as a pricey niche product, have more than doubled over the past 12 months to rates nearly in line with the iPhone, fueled by an explosion of attractive gaming titles on the App Store that are boosting overall multi-touch device shipments into Nintendo DS territory.
The next version of the Bluetooth short-range wireless protocol officially launched this week, promising an eightfold speed increase to boost the low power protocol into the same performance range as WiFi wireless networking, while allowing Bluetooth 3.0 devices to fall back to lower power mode when not actively transferring data.
In spite of concerns touted around the web this week that Apple has arbitrarily padded its margins with the release of its latest iPod, a new teardown from iSuppli obtained in full by AppleInsider reveals that the third-generation iPod shuffle costs the same amount of money to manufacture as its predecessor did two years ago.
Despite a slowdown in consumer spending, iPods remain one of the top go-to gifts during the holidays, with Easter reportedly driving sales to levels not seen since the start of the year.
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Sam Oliver
Katie Marsal
Aidan Malley and Sam Oliver
AppleInsider Staff
Prince McLean
