If there is one thing that changed the world of technology some 10 years back, then it would be Apple iPod and truly the iPod of today make the iPod of 10 years ago look like a total relic.

A Glorious Journey

Today is an occasion worth celebrating as it is Apple iPod’s 10th anniversary today which literally turned out to be a tidal wave of success for Apple. Long back in 2001, the new portable music player gadget was launched in a 5GB and 10GB model which amazed everyone with its storage capacity. With the launch of iPod in 2001, it gave Apple an unbelievable jolt and the company was able to reach to the mass market easily. In a nutshell, it gave Apple a bigger exposure!

iPod and iPhone

After the iPod, it was the Apple iPhone which revolutionized the world of technology and shook the mobile phone industry to the core. Today, every single person wishes to the owner of Apple iPhone and it has become a status symbol. So, it is the 10th anniversary of the music player you can’t live without, whether you are listening songs in your iPod or enjoying the MP3 collection of your iPhone.

Recommended for you:

Verizon My FiOS Android Application

Verizon’s new MY FiOS mobile application, offering customers on-the-go access to entertainment, personal content, TV controls, home monitoring, customer service tools and more. The application also adds smartphone simplicity to an already significant inventory of borderless lifestyle tools.The application will allow Verizon customers to more nimbly enjoy the company’s expanding base of remote-access media and entertainment services, while also making it easier to manage their personal accounts anywhere and anytime on their favorite devices. It also paves the way for easy access to dozens of new remote applications currently in development by Verizon and the company’s content provider partners.

It’s available immediately on all Android devices and will be accessible on Apple devices before year-end. It provides Verizon FiOS customers with a single point of access to a vast variety of FiOS remote-access services, including FiOS Mobile Remote, which includes DVR manager and Verizon’s Home Monitoring & Control service, as well as personal content with Media Manager and movies and TV shows with Flex View. The easy-to-access app also provides users with the ability to manage billing and FiOS Digital Voice service.

In addition, the app reflects Verizon‘s customer focus by organizing apps according to customer needs, like accessing entertainment on the go, checking in on your home, managing your account and other remote access benefits.[TJ]

Samsung’s recently announced Galaxy Nexus may remain free from the legal tussle between Apple and Samsung. Head of Samsung Mobile, JK Shin confirmed that they’ve started taking patents “very seriously” and have tried to avoid features on Galaxy Nexus that may infringe any patents.

However, this does not mean Galaxy Nexus is free from any patent infringements. Shin acknowledged the fact that patents “can be difficult to identify” and it will be a matter of time to know if Galaxy Nexus is really free from patent infringements.

When asked about the ongoing lawsuits, Shin reckoned the lawsuits could “last for a considerable amount of time” which in turn is damaging Samsung’s brand reputation.
[SH]

Apple iPad Mini may be more real then you think.

According to the Taiwanese Economic Daily News, two potential suppliers – Korean LG Display and Taiwanese AU Optronics – have recently sent samples of their iPad Mini displays to Apple. EDN sources tell them that Apple has already set the specifications for the smaller tablet, which is scheduled to ship early next year.

iPad mini display panel size is 7.85” and it has the same resolution as the iPad 2.

There is a lot of speculation that iPad Mini is Apple’s response to the cheap 7” Kindle Fire that Amazon launched earlier this month. But I do not think this is a case.

While Steve Jobs dismissed 7” tablets in Apple’s earnings conference call a year ago, it does not mean much. Steve has been known to publicly deny and dismiss a lot of products until Apple was ready to launch them. E.g.video iPod or even the idea of tablet PC itself.

A smaller 7-8” iPad does have a lot of merit in and of itself. In addition to being cheaper due to smaller display panel size, it will be a much more portable device, easier to carry around, which could make it attractive to a whole new set of customers.

And while Apple seems to have found a sweet spot, “one size fits all” form factor for the iPhone, and has no immediate plans to change that, tablets are a very different category of device. It is a completely new and uncharted market, with a lot of room to explore an additional device sizes and form factors.

Broadening a product range with a cheaper, smaller and more portable tablet should help Apple maintain the market dominance it enjoys now, even longer.
[UW]

Apple has just announced that it has managed to sell more than 4 million iPhone 4S units in the first three days of its availability. The iPhone 4S went on sale on Friday, October 14, in seven countries (the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK).

As a comparison, the iPhone 4 managed just 1.7 million sales in its first weekend, but there’s a caveat to take into account when comparing numbers. The iPhone 4 was initially available in just five countries (the US, the UK, France, Germany and Japan). On top of those, the iPhone 4S was also sold in Australia and Canada, and that may influence the numbers a bit.

But anyway, this is probably Apple’s biggest ever product launch, and it’s pretty clear that the iPhone 4S has sold more than the iPhone 4 in its first weekend. Exactly by how much is hard to tell at the moment considering the territorial availability issues described above.

This is a great start for Apple’s newest iPhone, and it goes to show that people have been anxiously awaiting something new from Apple. Perhaps delaying the launch by a few months was just a strategy to get even more people to go for an iPhone 4S. We’ll never know.

Apple has also let us know that 25 million people are already using iOS 5, the company’s newest mobile operating system version which was also launched last week. In rough numbers, that means that about 21 million people have already updated to this version of the OS. Apple also boasts that 20 million people have signed up for iCloud, its new services offering.
[UWV]

iPhone 50 GB

Life is all about the Cloud. It might actually someday be about iCloud if Apple’s servers can catch up. (We’re still waiting for that to occur around here.) But, life is all about moving your files to the Cloud these days. iCloud is supposed to be a big move for Apple, but it probably won’t be replacing services like DropBox or Box.net anytime soon. Once Apple lets others hook into its iCloud we might see some of that, but at the moment, iCloud only offers a place for your contacts, calendars, photostream (as opposed to photos) some documents, and few other goodies to go back and forth between the Cloud and your devices.

What services like Dropbox and Box.net have been offering is Cloud Storage. Dropbox is the acknowledged leader here in my view simply because so many Apps have hooked into the Dropbox API that makes moving documents and files around so easy. But Box.net started making a name for itself with the launch of the HP TouchPad by offering a free 50GB of Cloud storage to TouchPad and webOS users. Well, as good as that was we all know what happened to the TouchPad.

But Box.net is back in this big week and weekend of the iOS and iPhone 4S launch, preparing a promotion that will offer iOS users 50GB of free Cloud Storage. The promotion kicks off tomorrow at 12 noon Pacific Time and runs for 50 days. To take advantage of it, you need to download the Box.net App and access your account or set up a new one from the App on your iOS device. But once that’s done you can access it from any device. Box.net has updated its service so you’ll be able to include AirPlay streaming of videos and photos and music. I’m betting this will be a big hit.

Apple’s iCloud tosses in 5GB of free storage when you get started but an equivalent 50GB will set you back $100 a year. Dropbox charges you beyond 2GB and for 50GB you’ll pay $10 a month. If this takes off look for Box.net to hustle up on releasing and API for other Apps to take advantage of its service. [GB]

iOS 5 Twitter

In accordance with last week’s keynote, Apple users have some downloading to do: iOS 5, iTunes 10.5, and Mac OS X 10.7.2 have all been released. These updates collectively enable Apple’s new iCloud service, which will eventually replace the older MobileMe service and provide syncing and backups for users’ documents, pictures, and other data.

iOS 5, which supports the iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S, all iPads, the third and fourth-gen iPod Touches, and the Apple TV 2, enables a number of other new features: a new notifications system and the Notifications Center, the iMessage protocol, wi-fi syncing, and over-the-air OS updates. You can download the update to your devices after downloading iTunes 10.5. Expect our full, in-depth review of the new OS soon.

Mac OS X 10.7.2 doesn’t bring major new features to the OS, but it does apply a range of security and reliability patches to the operating system which should help with some of the teething issues most new OS X releases have. Release notes for the update haven’t yet been published, but we’ll update the article to link to them when they’re live.

Along with these updates, Apple has also published a Lion Recovery update, which updates Lion users’ recovery partitions to work better with the new Find My Mac feature.[BN]

The Apple iPhone 4S price in the UK has been set to £499 for the basic 16GB model, while the iPhone 4S 32GB and 64GB models will cost a recession-busting £599 and £699 respectively

Following months of waiting and countless rumours, Apple has officially unveiled the Apple iPhone 4S, with the iOS 5 touting device to land with a premium price tag ranging from £499-699.

Whilst Apple only confirmed official US pricing figures during its October 4th ‘Lets talk iPhone’ event, the Cupertino company revealed iPhone 4S UK prices via its online store, with prices to kick off at the princely sum of £499.

Apple iPhone 4S Price
With three storage capacities of Apple iPhone 4S each to be available from launch in black and white colour schemes, Apple’s official app outlet has confirmed the 16GB iPhone 4S will line up at £499 sim free. The 32GB and new 64GB storage options will land at a £599 and a whopping £699 respectively.

Unveiled alongside the iPhone 4S Apple has outed a new, lower spec 8GB Apple iPhone 4 with the now former generation handset to land for £429.

Apple iPhone 4S Release Date

Boasting an 8-megapixel camera with a wide range aperture and 1080p Full HD video recording capabilities, the Apple iPhone 4S UK release date has been confirmed for October 14th. Set to launch with the new iOS 5 mobile operating system the iPhone 4S will play host to the same ARM A5 dual-core processor found within the current iPad 2.

Apple iPhone 4S Details: All the network plans

Apple iPhone 4S UK Price: Orange
Orange is the first network to officially out its iPhone 4S tariffs and pricing plans. The company has confirmed that it is to host all three storage capacities of the new Apple iPhone 4S, with consumers able to snap up a 16GB iPhone 4S free on a £46 per month two year contract. packaged with 1200 inclusive minutes, unlimited texts and 750MB of monthly data.

Those looking for a more reasonable £31 per month two year contract will be able to pair 200 minutes, 200 texts and 500MB of data with a 16GB, 32GB or 64GB iPhone 4S for an upfront payment of £169.99, £269.99 and £379.99 respectively.

Full tariffs and iPhone 4S pricing structures can be found at Orange.co.uk.

Apple iPhone 4S UK Price: T-Mobile
Undercutting Orange by a poultry 4p, T-Mobile is to offer consumers a 16GB iPhone 4S free on a £46 per month two year contract packaged with 1200 inclusive minutes, 500 texts and 750MB of monthly data.

On a £30.64 per month two year deal bundled with 300 minutes, 300 texts and 500MB of data the iPhone 4S will set T-Mobile customers back a one-off handset payment of £169.99, £269.99 or £379.99 based on the 16, 32 and 64GB capacity handsets respectively.

Full tariffs and iPhone 4S pricing structures can be found at T-Mobile.co.uk.

Apple iPhone 4S Price: Three Mobile
With 16GB iPhone 4S handsets on Three to be available only through physical retail outlets the company has revealed it will offer the handset free of charge to those signing up to a £43 per month two year deal bundled with 900 minutes, 5,000 texts and 1GB of inclusive data.

For those looking to sign up to a more pocket friendly £35 per month deal will be able to pair 500 minutes, 5,000 texts and 1GB of data with a 16, 32, or 64GB device for a one off handset fee of £49, £139 and £229 respectively.

Full tariffs and iPhone 4S pricing structures can be found at three.co.uk

Apple iPhone 4S UK Price: Vodafone
The cheapest monthly option available is on a 24 month contract which offers 100 UK minutes, 500 UK text messages and 250MB of internet data for £26 per month. However, users will be charged £359 for the 16GB handset and a recession-busting £519 for the 64GB version.

Even with a £62 per month two year contact, a charge of £29 will be levied on the 64GB handset, however, the 16GB Apple iPhone 4S is being offered for free on this price plan.

Apple has already confirmed SIM-free pricing for the newly launched 16GB, 32GB and 64GB iPhone 4S handsets with the three models to line up at £499, £599 and £699 respectively.

Full tariffs and iPhone 4S pricing structures can be found at vodafone.co.uk
[T3]

It goes without saying that each new release of a smartphone or any high profile device would lead to pundits scratching their heads and calculating just how much was spent to make up the sum of the parts of a particular device. The same goes for the recently announced iPhone 4S, where analysts claim that Applecurrently forks out around $203 to manufacture each 32GB iPhone 4S.

That might sound like a lot, but if you are going to purchase the handset outright before counting a carrier subsidy, then an unlocked 32GB iPhone 4S would set you back by $749 instead. Bear in mind that these figures were quoted from research firm UBM TechInsights, and the $203 price point is pretty much in a similar range that Apple paid to make the iPhone 4 in 2010.

That roughly equals to a similar level of profit margin, where this particular preliminary projection comprises of $26 for the new A5 processor and $31 for the Retina display.
[UG]

Well folks here it is – the latest addition to the iPhone line up dubbed the iPhone 4S. Finally we can put the rumors to rest and know that Apple will be giving us a brand new iPhone 4 with built-in A5 chip, improved battery life (8 hours of talk time) and a design the looks quite literally exactly like the iPhone 4. Network wise Apple tells us the iPhone 4S will be able to reach theoretical download speeds of up to 14.4Mbps download. Near HSPA+ speeds.

The screen is the same Retina Display we’ve seen in the iPhone 4. Camera wise we’re looking at an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture which lines up nicely with the rumors we’ve heard previously. And, last but not least, Apple has told us that the device will be a world phone meaning it supports both GSM and CDMA bands.

And last but not least, Apple has given the iPhone 4S a personal assistant named Siri that will understand natural language. So for example, if you were to say “Siri, find me an Italian restaurant in New York City” your phone will do just that utilizing various Internet connected services.
[MW]