Reuters news quote that Apple Inc said the first iPads will be in US stores on April 3rd. Apple announced on last Friday that the tablet will go on sale in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Apple said that an iBooks application for the iPad which will compete with the Kindle would be available as a free download on April 3.

The U.S. launch date for the iPad model with short-range Wi-Fi wireless links, starting at a price tag of $499, is slightly later than the previously expected late March launch.

Beginning March 12, U.S. consumers will be able to go to Apple’s website to preorder both the Wi-Fi-only model and the version with 3G and Wi-Fi, or reserve a device to pick up at a store on April 3.

OCWorkbench will be following the developements and news from MWC2010. You can catch our news on our main news page at main site , our forum at this link, on twitter, Facebook

and follow us on Google Buzz @ocworkbench.news

Vodafone has just released two new SIM only packages that appear to be targeting existing iPhone users from rival companies that could be out of contract soon i.e. more specifically in this case, O2.

Both £25 SIM only deal come with 1GB worth of web and unlimited access to WiFi access courtesy of BT Openzone hotspots. There’s also unlimited texts thrown in the package.

The only difference is over the amount of inclusive anytime, any network minutes. 600 minutes if you go for a 30-day contract and 900 minutes if you take the plunge for one whole year.

Vodafone has better deals either on 30-day or one year contracts. But they come with 500MB of mobile internet and webmail and no WiFi, although there’s up to 50 percent more minutes or unlimited landlines.

You can also have a look at our article, “8 SIM Only Deals From £15 For Google’s Nexus One” which found out that O2 was the most compelling offer; 600 minutes, 1200 texts and unlimited web bolt-on (not 1GB) for £20.

Article continues after advertSo if you don’t need roaming WiFi or unlimited texts, you’d better stick with O2’s Simplicity deal.

We’re due an update of our SIM-only deal list fairly soon and things have changes significantly since last year. T-Mobile has been pretty active lately and we will be exploring the various options currently available if you want to upgrade.

Source

Apple Releases Aperture 3

New Features Include Faces, Places & Brushes

CUPERTINO, California—February 9, 2010—Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the innovative Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto® ’09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organize large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine your photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let you share your work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.

“Millions of people love using iPhoto to organize, edit and share their digital photos,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets.”

“Aperture 3 gets it right,” said National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson. “The image editing tools are exactly what I have been asking for, they’re so easy to use and give me a level of control that I never even thought possible.”

“I chose Aperture because it was the most powerful archiving application around, but it’s now an unbelievable imaging tool as well,” said Bill Frakes, Sports Illustrated staff photographer. “I am beyond impressed with the massive changes made in Aperture 3.”

Aperture 3 allows you to organize large photo libraries with even more flexibility using Projects and the new Faces and Places. Faces uses face detection and recognition to find and organize your photos by the people in them. You can view faces across your entire photo library or view just the faces that appear in selected projects. In a new view that speeds up the organization process, Aperture 3 displays faces that have been detected but haven’t yet been named. Places lets you explore your photos based on where they were taken, and like in iPhoto, Places automatically reverse geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, you can assign locations by dragging-and-dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS enabled cameras, tracking devices or your iPhone® photos.

The new Brushes feature allows you to add professional touches to your photos by simply painting effects onto the image. Aperture 3 includes 15 Quick Brushes that perform the most popular tasks like Dodge, Burn, Polarize and Blur, without the complexity of layers or masks. Brushes can automatically detect edges in your images to let you apply or remove effects exactly where you want them. Aperture 3 includes dozens of Adjustment Presets that apply a specific style or look to the entire image with just a click. You can create your own custom presets or explore the techniques of other photographers by importing theirs.

Aperture 3 makes it easy to share your work with stunning slideshows that weave together photos, audio, text and HD video. You can select one of six Apple designed themes or choose your own transitions, background, borders and titles, and even add your own soundtrack. You can export your slideshows directly to iTunes® to take with you on your iPhone or iPod touch®. You can also share photographs as beautiful prints, create custom-designed hardcover books and publish to online photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr, right from Aperture 3.

Pricing & Availability
Aperture 3 is available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com.sg) and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of S$298 and existing Aperture users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of S$148. A downloadable 30-day trial version is available at www.apple.com.sg/aperture/trial. Aperture 3 runs as a 64-bit application on Mac OS® X Snow Leopard® on Macs with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Full system requirements, online tutorials and more information on Aperture 3 can be found at www.apple.com.sg/aperture.

My biggest complain would be the bad drain of power on the iPhone 3GS after purchasing it in replacement of my old defunct phone.

Although i love the interface and multitouch, the single task machine seems to be draining the battery like drinking water. Within minutes, you can see the percentage drop 1%, 2%, … The worst i have seen is that it drops 25% overnight doing nothing and the Usage indicator shows 1 hr in use!!!

I flashed in version 3.1.3 firmware and enabled 3G (it is a 3G phone why disable it), disabled WIFI, Notifications and Push Mail. I was able to get a pretty good result.

Head over here and see my results log since 3-Feb-10 1100pm last night till now 4-Feb-10 1034pm

Check it here

iPhone OS 3.1.3 and iPhone OS 3.1.3 for iPod touch

 The iPhone 3.1.3 OS fixes some bugs, including a number of security issues. It doesn’t add any significant features. Some of the bugs that were fixed in iPhone 3.1.3 OS aside from the security issues are:

•improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
•resolves issue where 3rd party apps would not launch in some instances
•fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard

• CoreAudioCVE-ID: CVE-2010-0036Available for: iPhone OS 1.0 through 3.1.2, iPhone OS for iPod touch 1.1 through 3.1.2Impact: Playing a maliciously crafted mp4 audio file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code executionDescription: A buffer overflow exists in the handling of mp4 audio files. Playing a maliciously crafted mp4 audio file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This issue is addressed through improved bounds checking. Credit to Tobias Klein of trapkit.de for reporting this issue.

• ImageIOCVE-ID: CVE-2009-2285Available for: iPhone OS 1.0 through 3.1.2, iPhone OS for iPod touch 1.1 through 3.1.2Impact: Viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code executionDescription: A buffer underflow exists in ImageIO’s handling of TIFF images. Viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. This issue is addressed through improved bounds checking.

• Recovery ModeCVE-ID: CVE-2010-0038Available for: iPhone OS 1.0 through 3.1.2, iPhone OS for iPod touch 1.1 through 3.1.2Impact: A person with physical access to a locked device may be able to access the user’s dataDescription: A memory corruption issue exists in the handling of a certain USB control message. A person with physical access to the device could use this to bypass the passcode and access the user’s data. This issue is addressed through improved handling of the USB control message.

• WebKitCVE-ID: CVE-2009-3384Available for: iPhone OS 1.0 through 3.1.2, iPhone OS for iPod touch 1.1 through 3.1.2Impact: Accessing a maliciously crafted FTP server could result in an unexpected application termination, information disclosure, or arbitrary code executionDescription: Multiple input validation issues exist in WebKit’s handling of FTP directory listings. Accessing a maliciously crafted FTP server may lead to information disclosure, unexpected application termination, or execution of arbitrary code. This update addresses the issues through improved parsing of FTP directory listings. Credit to Michal Zalewski of Google Inc. for reporting these issues.

• WebKitCVE-ID: CVE-2009-2841Available for: iPhone OS 1.0 through 3.1.2, iPhone OS for iPod touch 1.1 through 3.1.2Impact: Mail may load remote audio and video content when remote image loading is disabledDescription: When WebKit encounters an HTML 5 Media Element pointing to an external resource, it does not issue a resource load callback to determine if the resource should be loaded. This may result in undesired requests to remote servers. As an example, the sender of an HTML-formatted email message could use this to determine that the message was read. This issue is addressed by generating resource load callbacks when WebKit encounters an HTML 5 Media Element.

Check out what is the iPad, how it differentiates from the rest.

Apple officially unveil its latest gadget that will put a direct challenge to netbooks and ebook readers. Here comes the iPad. It will be priced at the following range from as low as USD 500 for 16GB model up.

Size and weight¹

Height:

9.56 inches (242.8 mm)

Width:

7.47 inches (189.7 mm)

Depth:

0.5 inch (13.4 mm)

Weight:

1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model;

1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

What will Apple announce in 2 hours time ? iTablet ? What is in stored for iPhone OS 4 ?

These are what keeps most Apple fans wondering for the past week.  Join in the predictions and what you think will shape the new gadgets in the thread link below

Link

According to a report on BusinessWeek. Apple is in talks with Microsoft to replace the default search engine Google on its phones with Microsoft’s BING.

This came as a surprise as Apple might just work hand in hand to ward off a potential giant Google. It is also becoming clear that Google is the common enemy.

The Nexus One competes directly with the iPhone; Apple is allowing Google to use Lala, for now; and with Apple’s purchase of Quattro Wireless and Google’s acquisition of AdMob it seems each company is gearing to directly compete with the other in the mobile ad market. “Apple and Google know the other is their primary enemy. Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle,” says one of BusinessWeek’s sources who is familiar with the matter.

But this isn’t just about Apple and Google. As the BusinessWeek article points out, clinching the coveted default spot on the iPhone would also help Bing gain market share in the quickly growing area of mobile search. 86% of mobile searches belonged to Google in November, according to the Nielsen Co. Only 11% belonged to Bing.

Source

Apple is slated to make announcements to it’s tablet device next week. From the source, it is said that it will be known as iTablet. In addition, they will also provide an update to the iphone OS to ver 4.0

Here are some iPhone OS 4.0 features :

* There will be multi-touch gestures OS-wide. (Would make sense for that as the rumored OS for the iTablet is close if not the same as the iPhone)
* “A few new ways” to run applications in the background — multitasking.
* Many graphical and UI changes to make navigating through the OS easier and more efficient. We haven’t had this broken down, but we can only hope for improved notifications, a refreshed homescreen, etc.
* The update will supposedly be available for only the iPhone 3G and 3GS, but will “put them ahead in the smartphone market because it will make them more like full-fledged computers” more than any other phone to date. Everyone is “really excited.”
* The last piece of information is the most vague, but apparently there will be some brand new syncing ability for the contacts and calendar applications.

Let’s wait for next Wednesday for more official news from Apple.

Source

According to a report that appeared on Korea Times. It is said that South Korea telecom operator KT will Introduce Apple’s 4G iPhone in April 2010. KT, an exclusive local partner of Apple to sell iPhone, plans to introduce it first to corporate clients in April and mass market it in June.

“We don’t see any bigger hurdle to introduce 4G iPhones here, as legal issues were completely cleared. It’s possible to launch the devices within the first half,” a high-ranking KT executive told The Korea Times, asking not to be identified.The rumoured iPhone 4G would have OLED display, vidoe chat feature and a removable battery pack. It is also mentioned that the 4G iPhone is also going to be loaded with dual core processors and higher and powerful graphic chips that can deliver higher video resolutions and better “still” images when taking pictures.

“Still, there are some 3G iPhone stocks. But KT and Apple have reached a broad consensus to introduce the advanced models as early as possible,” according to the executive.

The move to introduce iphone 4G earlier is probably due to Google high speed smartphones Nexus One. On the other hand, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are rushing their smartphone line up to counter the impending phone war.

Source

Singtel throw it’s towel into the ring with a tweaked package, increasing it’s bundled data to 12GB and lowered data cap to S$30 for it’s iPhone plans. To date, all 3 telcos have very similar price structures.

Singtel also included a S$20 daily flat rate roaming plan in seven countries (Australia, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines) to cater to those who like to use data while roaming.

M1 reacted by lowering it to S$15 cap per day when you roam in 6 countries – Bangladesh, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Cambodia and Indonesia.

iPhone will be available on a 12-month contract for £20 a month, but will cost £222 upfront.

In the UK, the Apple iPhone will soon be available with Tesco, as well as Orange and O2.

Tesco today announced its iPhone tariff and revealed it will become the first company to offer the phone to customers on a 12-month contract.

The iPhone is already available on O2 and Orange, but until now buyers either had to sign up for an 18-month contract or pay the full price for the phone and opt for a pay-as-you-go plan.

Last month, the supermarket giant announced it was in talks with Apple to start selling the iPhone. It had promised to bring a bit of “Tesco value” to the must-have phone of the past two years.

This morning, the retailer said that from 14 December the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS would be available from just £20 a month, the lowest monthly contract price in the UK market – although they come with a hefty price tag.

The 3G phone will cost £222 to buy alongside the 12-month contract. Buyers wanting the more upmarket 3GS phone will have to pay £320. The £20-a-month contract includes £60 of calls and texts.

Tesco Mobile will also offer the iPhone 3GS for free with unlimited calls, texts and browsing on a two-year contract, but it will cost £60 a month.

The 12-month deal is expected to appeal to customers who want a short contract. Until now the only affordable way to get an iPhone has been to sign a contract for 18-months. O2 and Orange, the only companies currently selling the phone, charge an up front fee of £87 and £35 a month for 18 months.

Tesco is also offering the iPhone 3G and 3GS on its Triple credit pay-as-you-go price plan. All Tesco iPhone customers will have at least 12 months free unlimited data and access to the BT OpenZone Wi-Fi (UK) service.

Lance Batchelor, chief executive officer of Tesco Mobile and Tesco Telecoms, said: “iPhone is now available and affordable for all, with the best deals in the UK market.

“This is a fantastic announcement for us and we’re delighted to make iPhone available to our customers. It shows what a serious player in the mobile market Tesco Mobile has become.”

Vodafone is to start selling the iPhone in January.

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