Hooray, another Friday is here! It seems like they come faster and faster this time of year, which is a good thing for those of us who need to get out and do some Christmas (or other holiday) shopping, buy and trim the tree and start getting the apartment or house in order so those miscreant relatives have somewhere to stay. If the mere thought of all that has you exhausted, take a break for a few moments and catch up on all the tech news for Friday, December 2, 2011.
TechCrunch is reporting that Apple is changing its relationship with Match.com to “it’s complicated.” Apparently, the dating website has failed to comply with Cupertino’s new in-app subscription policies which kicked in last June, with a 30 percent slice of the pie going to Apple. The free Match.com app has been using the App Store to sponge up customers and collect their credit card numbers through the iOS app, which is a definite no-no these days. The two companies are said to be “now negotiating how the app must change before their relationship can be rekindled and they can have an earth-shattering makeup revenue split.” We’re guessing that can end only one way: With Match.com coughing up 30 percent to Apple. End of story.
We don’t want to call the RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet a complete loser -- after all, it does have some redeeming features, including a quality hardware build and a promising new mobile OS. But the news keeps getting worse for RIM, with the company announcing today that the PlayBook is costing the company $485 million in “a non-cash inventory provision,” according to AppleInsider. (Translation: They’re writing it off.) Things kicked off with half a million units sold in the first quarter of sales, but slid to 250,000 the second quarter and now a mere 150,000 in the third quarter, which is clearly the opposite of what Apple is experiencing with the iPad. Consumers can pick up a BlackBerry PlayBook for a mere $199 these days, and RIM claims they remain committed to the device, despite the bummer news.
According to MacRumors, a second build of OS X 10.7.3 has just hit Apple’s developer portal, two and a half weeks after the first. The latest build is 11D24, which devs have been asked to focus their laser-like precision on Spotlight and Safari in addition to the range of areas listed in the initial build, which includes iCloud Document Storage, Address Book, iCal and Mail. It’s unknown when Apple intends to push OS 10.7.3 out to the masses, but the developer notes list “no known issues with the current build,” which is always a good sign that things are on the right track. Trying to download the latest build but getting no love? 9to5Mac claims the update has been pulled for reasons unknown -- but fear not, it’s likely to return within a few days.
In the market for a new iMac and looking to beef up its internal storage? You might want to consider SSD, since AppleInsider is reporting that build-to-order iMacs direct from Apple are currently experiencing a five to seven week delay. What’s the holdup? It appears to stem from the recent flooding in Thailand, which has shut down 14,000 factories and benched more than 600,000 workers there, many of which are employed by hard drive makers Western Digital and Seagate. For now, the shortage appears to only be affecting 2TB hard drives, while smaller capacities are shipping promptly as usual -- and yes, the more expensive solid-state storage is also unaffected. We’ve been noticing the cost of all hard drives slowly creeping up in the last few weeks, so stock up now while you can -- no telling how long this drought will last.
MacRumors has collected information from a few sources around the interwebs which point to December 16 being the next round of international launches for the iPhone 4S. Apple generally sends out a press release touting such launches which hasn’t happened quite yet, so it appears the local carriers in Brazil, Russia, Taiwan, the Philippines, South Africa, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia may be pulling the trigger prematurely by leaking the information. According to Russian retailer Digital.ru, preorders are already being accepted for the iPhone 4S there, which sounds like they expect to soon have some hardware to offer their customers. Guess we’ll see soon enough...
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