Apple fired up the Software Update engines today to push out a new AirPort Utility update (or two!), and as January winds down we’re looking ahead to the inevitable announcement of a new iPad next month, along with a cascade of companion updates such as iOS 5.1 and most likely, the OS X Lion 10.7.3 which has been simmering with developers for a number of weeks. With that in mind, here’s what the tech world has been talking about on this Monday, January 30, 2012.
Apple may still be the king of the tablet jungle, but that doesn’t mean there’s isn’t another device nipping at its heels while gobbling up the low-hanging fruit at the other end of the spectrum. AppleInsider is reporting that Amazon’s Kindle Fire has now shipped something like six million units in the first quarter of the year, which puts it in the neighborhood of the original iPad. Analyst Jordan Rohan of investment bank Stifel Nicolaus called the Kindle Fire sales “quite impressive” and praised how Amazon used its “distribution prowess to define and dominate the low end of the device ecosystem,” particularly when faced with so much competition not only from the iPad itself but also a tidal wave of other tablets running Google’s Android. The analyst predicts that Amazon will eventually use the Kindle Fire to launch a new video subscription service to go head-to-head with Netflix, although the e-tailer will have to expand its horizons beyond its own hardware if it has any chance of succeeding there.
Not to be outdone by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, third-place carrier Sprint today introduced Sprint Mobile Zone, the company’s official iPhone app which “offers Sprint customers immediate access to their account online, Sprint News and promotions.” According to SprintFeed, the app works for both Sprint and non-Sprint customers, offering simple device management, Apple and Sprint store locators and help functions, including access to a Sprint care representative. Sound good to you? Then head to the App Store and get your 1.6MB download on today.
It’s been relatively quiet on the Software Update front recently, but that’s all over now that Apple has pushed out not one but two new updates to the AirPort Utility as well as a new 7.6.1 firmware for the AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule. First up is a modest AirPort Utility 5.6 for Mac OS X Lion update, a 13.10MB download which “resolves an issue using network passwords stored in the Keychain.” Strangely, Cupertino has also pushed out the more full-featured AirPort Utility 6.0 for Mac OS X Lion, essentially an all-new 14.13MB download which completely does away with the old look of the utility app in favor of the one used by the iOS version. Coming along for the ride is the AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.6.1 which “fixes an issue with wireless performance and provides support for remote access to an AirPort disk or a Time Capsule hard drive with an iCloud account,” which certainly sounds like a tasty little update for this sleepy Monday evening.
There has been plenty written about Apple implementing a near-field communication (NFC) payment system for the iPhone, and many were disappointed when it didn’t arrive with last year’s iPhone 4S. Google may have gotten the jump on Cupertino with its Wallet app for Android, but it’s been severely limited to a few handsets thus far. According to MacRumors, Apple is still actively looking to add NFC to a future iPhone, suggested by a recent Fast Company interview with a Mastercard executive who grudgingly coughed up some potential clues: "I don't know of a handset manufacturer that isn't in process of making sure their stuff is PayPass ready,” the executive said, and when pressed to reveal whether or not that includes Apple, he whipped out the confidentiality clause. "Um, there are...like I say, [I don't know of] any handset maker out there… now, when we have discussions with our partners, and they ask us not to disclose them, we don’t.”
9to5Mac is reporting that Apple has modified its existing reservation system in Hong Kong in an effort to thwart would-be scalpers who rained on the mainland China release earlier this month. The updated method is described as “a lottery system of sorts for iPhone reservations that appears to target scalpers employing bots from snatching up all the iPhones every day.” That means no more first-come, first-served -- customers will be required to provide a government-issued photo ID in order to buy an iPhone. This “lottery” is apparently open only during a three-hour window each day, and handsets are not available to walk-in customers at this time. Successful reservations will receive a confirmation email by 9pm that night with a time to pick up the iPhone the next day.
http://9to5mac.com/2012/01/30/apple-combats-scalpers-with-lottery-system-for-iphone-4s-reservations-in-hong-kong/
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