Some of the panels supplied by Wintek have been found to suffer “delayed bubble” problems, DigiTimes reports, where bubbles of gas are trapped in-between the multi-layer films used. There’s no word on exactly what proportion of Wintek’s touch panels are believed to be affected.

Wintek is providing up to a quarter of the iPhone 5 touch panels, the sources claim, with Apple supposedly aiming to ship as many as 26m units of the fifth-gen smartphone in Q4 2011. The company has only publicly said that all of its products are being delivered “on schedule” and has not commented on specific orders or customers.

With the application process of the iPhone 5 touch panels being identical to that of those in the iPhone 4, industry insiders don’t envisage that Wintek will experience any significant delays in rectifying the problem. Exactly how many of the panels it has already supplied will need to be replaced is unclear.

Apple is believed to be readying two new versions of the iPhone, the iPhone 4S with almost identical aesthetics to the current iPhone 4 and targeted at the more affordable end of the market, and the iPhone 5 which is tipped to have a larger display among other changes. Cases for the iPhone 4S were caught in the wild yesterday seemingly confirming that Apple is indeed close to launching at least one of the new handsets.

[Thanks: http://www.slashgear.com]

One of the first applications with iOS 5 compatibility to be approved was “Camera+” from developer tap tap tap. As noted by Cult of Mac, the release notes for version 2.2.3 of Camera+ noted that the software features “compatibility with that upcoming OS That Must Not Be Named.”

Less coy about iOS 5 support was “Mashable,” which updated its own iPhone application this week to version 1.5.4 and advertised that the software now has “iOS 5 compatibility.”

The software updates have led to wishful speculation that the release of iOS 5 could come sooner than expected, perhaps earlier than the fall debut Apple previously announced.

However, while some software may now be “compatible” with iOS 5, the latest builds released on the App Store are likely still based on the iOS 4.3 application programming interface provided by Apple. Developers are able to test application compatibility with iOS 5 by using the latest beta of the forthcoming software update.

There is no indication that Apple has begun approving applications based on the iOS 5 API. For example, last year Apple began accepting applications based on the iOS 4.0 API only 10 days before the update became publicly available, allowing software to take advantage of new features such as multitasking.

That means any iOS 5 software currently available on the App Store likely does not yet take advantage of new features in the forthcoming update. With iOS 5, developers will be able to take advantage of new functionality such as Notification Center for prompting users; Newsstand for purchasing, organizing and updating newspapers and magazines; and system-wide Twitter integration.

[Thanks: http://www.appleinsider.com]

The flaws, exploited by the Jailbreakme.com
project, essentially allowed remote code execution attacks via
specially rigged fonts and escalation of privileges to escape the iOS
sandbox.  The Jailbreakme.com project used rigged PDF files to deliver
the malformed fonts.

Here’s the skinny on the three vulnerabilities patched by Apple with the iOS 4.3.4 software update:

• CoreGraphics (CVE-2010-3855) – Viewing a
  maliciously crafted PDF file may lead to an unexpected application
  termination or arbitrary code execution Description:  A buffer overflow
  exists in FreeType’s handling of TrueType fonts.
• CoreGraphics (CVE-2011-0226) – Viewing a
  maliciously crafted PDF file may lead to an unexpected application
  termination or arbitrary code execution Description:  A signedness issue
  exists in FreeType’s handling of Type 1 fonts.
• IOMobileFrameBuffer (CVE-2011-0227) – Malicious
  code running as the user may gain system privileges. An invalid type
  conversion issue exists in the use of IOMobileFrameBuffer queueing
  primitives, which may allow malicious code running as the user to gain
  system privileges.

The iOs 4.3.4 update is available for iOS 3.0 through 4.3.3 for
iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (GSM); iOS 3.1 through 4.3.3 for iPod touch (3rd
generation) and later; and iOS 3.2 through 4.3.3 for iPad.

[Thanks: http://www.zdnet.com]

Case in point, in today’s mobile/Post-PC universe, we see clearly how major companies like Microsoft, HP, Dell, RIM and Nokia are struggling to remain relevant in the face of developer apathy.

Meanwhile, Apple and Google have left the competition in the dust by virtue of their tremendous success in courting application developers.

But, there is a “pink elephant” in the room that no one is really discussing, and it gets to the nut of what investing time and energy in a software platform is all about. More on that in a minute.

First, some table setting. As an apps developer, I care about three things. First and foremost, is having a great platform to develop on top of.

After all, great software is a by-product of: A) Enabling your target audience to achieve a well-defined set of outcomes; B) Solving the right problem, technically speaking; and C) Delivering an engaging user experience.

Simply put, if you are working on the wrong canvas, or using an inferior palette, accomplishing these tasks is hard to do. The good news here is that whether you’re a devotee of Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, third-party frameworks like Ansca’s Corona, or open web approaches like HTML5, the getting’s actually pretty good in this realm.

The second requirement is having a readily addressable, targetable base of users. All things being equal, this is preferably a large base of users, but ultimately, the metric of audience size is less integral than factoring the lifecycle value (in dollars) that you can reasonably hope to capture from the base of your users that you actually do monetize. Again, 200 million iOS devices, and 100 million Android devices is a very large footprint for targeting purposes, so no complaints there either.

This brings me to my third requirement. As a developer, while I am of course very passionate about what I build, I am not doing this for the dark joys of being a starving artist.

Rather, I am in it to make money; namely, to build upon my profession, and if all goes well, sing and dance all the way to the bank. Here’s where the circumstances are cloudy at best, and deeply troubling at worst.

Thinking about success: What’s past is prologue

When I close my eyes and think back to the days of old PC, I can recall legions of very large, breakout successes that emanated from the PC model (i.e., $100M+ revenue companies).

The high profile names include companies like Intuit, Lotus, Adobe, Symantec, Borland, CheckPoint, McAfee, Siebel and Sybase. But trust me, the landscape was dotted with successes across a dizzying array of application categories and vertical segments, and serviced by a wide range of solution providers.

Similarly, when I think about the dotcom phase of the web, companies like Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Google and PayPal come easily to mind.

Even the post-dotcom phase of the web is spotlighted by monster successes like Salesforce.com, Facebook and LinkedIn, with Facebook being doubly noteworthy for having already spawned a true cash-generating machine goliath off of its platform, in Zynga, which is expected to reach $1.8 billion in revenue, and $630 million in profits in 2011.

Now, contrast these companies with their “breakout success” counterparts on iOS and Android, and you are left with the chirping sounds of crickets.

Shockingly, lost in the stunning growth of iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android-derived devices — 300 million devices sold combined and counting, 600,000-plus apps built, and more than 18 billion app downloads — is the disconcerting truth that no one is talking about. Namely, that the closest story of financial success that we have to Facebook, Amazon or Intuit is … Angry Birds!

What the frak? Angry Birds is ridiculously addictive, it’s cute and it’s brilliantly executed, but it is perhaps a $15-25 million business.

Is this the best that we can do in painting a picture of software success in an industry that is projected to grow to 10 billion devices worldwide?

Cry me a river: Why should Apple or Google care?

I trust that Apple CEO Steve Jobs felt tremendous pride when he announced at WWDC that Apple had paid app developers more than $2.5 billion in revenue share from sales of their applications.

He should be proud. Apple has created an amazing platform that seemingly overnight, but actually a decade in the making, has achieved the disruption trifecta: first re-jiggering the music business, then mobile, and now, the PC industry.

But, I’d like to submit an uncomfortable truth that should give the chess players at Apple (and to a lesser extent, Google) some cause for pause.

As Amazon first began to prove out back in the mid-’90s, creating a discovery engine, distribution platform and marketplace optimized for long tail-oriented product offerings can create great financial rewards for the platform creator, and no doubt Apple has innovated upon this model incredibly well vis-á-vis iTunes and the App Store.

However, whereas Amazon’s model did not completely re-write the economics of selling electronics, toys and books, such that what once sold for $25 is now $0.99, the App Store is fundamentally different. Its sole purpose seems designed to create surplus, so as to commoditize software, and since the incremental cost of each piece of software is effectively zero, the race to the bottom is almost assured in this environment.

This is ironic because Apple’s own highly disciplined business strategy is geared toward maximizing profit margins, without leaving pricing overhang for the competition to attack them from the low-end (which is what happened to Apple during the PC era).

Yet strangely, for all of the brilliant creation, orchestration and curation efforts that Apple has made on behalf of developers, little attention seems to have been made to ensuring that app makers can actually build profitable, scalable businesses.

Thus, it’s noteworthy that in Amazon’s nascent Android App Store, the company is exerting a measure of pricing control over app developers, presumably to avoid this race to the bottom.

Why is this? Perhaps, unlike Apple and Google, Amazon is in the business of making the lion’s share of its money selling other people’s stuff. Silly as it sounds, Amazon actually needs its vendors to be fiscally healthy enough so Amazon can sell lots of their products. By contrast, Apple just needs a steady supply of “there’s an app for that” chum to keep the platform fresh and exciting.

Lest one wax poetic about Google saving the day, remember that their real customer is the carrier and device OEM, and the lion’s share of their dollars are derived from search advertising, so they merely need the “optics” of app diversity to remain relevant.

(Sidebar: If you watch Apple’s TV commercials for iPhone/iPad and mobile carriers’ ads for Android phones, this qualitative distinction becomes clear.)

Netting it out, the current state of affairs raises the following questions:

1. How is a large software industry going to grow around this type of model, and what happens if it doesn’t?
2. From an economic viability perspective, what would the ideal platform approach look like for developers?
3. How might another platform, such as Amazon’s, or Facebook’s rumored Project Spartan, outflank Apple and Google by building a better mousetrap for developers to make money?

A final thought: Once upon a time, the notion that people would even pay for software was scoffed at. But Microsoft, acting purely out of enlightened self-interest, helped catalyze a packaged software industry that would grow to more than $200 billion in annual revenues.

The moral of the story? What’s past is prologue in distinguishing between mere survival and breakout success. How do I know this? A little birdy told me.

[Thanks: http://radar.oreilly.com]

“We just renewed our map and search agreements with Apple, and we hope those continue for a long time,” said Google Executive Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt during a Tuesday appearance at the D9 conference, squashing rumors that Apple would sever ties in the face of increasingly intense competition between the two tech leviathans.

Schmidt–a former Apple board member–admitted the relationship between Google and Apple became “rough” as his company began developing its Android mobile operating system. Android now commands 36 percent of the U.S. smartphone segment, far ahead of iOS at 26 percent according to new data released by The Nielsen Company. Despite the rivalry, Schmidt said Google and Apple remain good partners in certain businesses.

There is speculation Apple is at work on its own mapping initiative: In March, AppleInsider uncovered a job listing seeking an iOS Maps Application Developer to help “radically improve” Apple’s location-based services. With the April 2010 release of iOS 3.2 for iPad, Apple also began relying on its own databases for location solutions alongside Google map data.

Google rakes in almost 97 percent of U.S. mobile search spending, with Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing dividing the remaining 3.2 percent, according to data issued in March by banking and investment firm Macquarie Group. Last summer, Google stated that its mobile maps solution tops 100 million users a month.

Last week, Google officially launched its much-anticipated Near Field Communications-based contactless payment platform, which comprises two complementary applications: Google Wallet and Google Offers, the latter a Groupon-like deals and discounts service going live today in Portland, Ore. Google VP of Commerce Stephanie Tilenius joined Schmidt onstage at D9 to demonstrate Google Wallet: “This is the next version of mobile commerce… 80 percent of commerce is done locally,” she said, adding that Google will not charge retailers, merchants or consumers to use the wallet solution but will instead generate revenues via Google Offers.

[Thanks: http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com]

Patients of Plastic Surgery Associates, a full-service cosmetic surgery practice, and the Allegro Medspa (http://www.dayspa.com), a Napa area day spa, now can benefit from a convenient iPhone app with built-in calendar reminders to keep track of their appointments. The new feature also provides helpful information about the practice, including video testimonials and additional information about board-certified plastic surgeons Dr. Francisco Canales and Dr. Heather Furnas.

“The new iPhone application is a helpful resource to manage appointment times, but more importantly, it’s a way for people to get to know our practice,” Dr. Canales says. “With plastic surgery and medical spa treatments becoming increasingly common, it’s more important than ever to choose your provider carefully. We hope that the additional information on the iPhone app helps people to feel informed and confident when they walk into our practice.”

Allegro Medspa serves women and men who are looking for a Sonoma or Napa Valley day spa that offers some of the latest cosmetic enhancements. Popular treatments include BOTOX® Cosmetic, Fraxel®, Ultherapy™, laser hair removal, and cellulite treatment.

“The people who come to Allegro Medspa for noninvasive treatments expect the very best, and it’s our goal to deliver highly satisfying treatments,” says Dr. Canales. “Our team is skilled not only in providing single treatments, but in developing a comprehensive treatment plan for each patient that can take caer of several cosmetic concerns, all without surgery.”

Dr. Canales and Dr. Furnas oversee all treatments performed at Allegro Medspa. Both doctors are board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and have received extensive training in all aspects of plastic and reconstructive surgery. Additionally, they specialize in aesthetic plastic surgery – meaning that they have additional expertise and experience in performing cosmetic surgery of the face, breasts, and body. When they are not serving the surgical needs of people in Santa Rosa, Dr. Furnas and Dr. Canales volunteer their skills and experience abroad in developing countries.

“I spent a year in Kenya with my father who volunteered with the East African Flying Doctors, a charitable program that sends medical specialists to health facilities throughout Eastern Africa,” Dr. Furnas says. “It was during this time that I became inspired by the transformative effects of plastic surgery. Since then, plastic surgery has been my passion.”

Dr. Heather Furnas and Dr. Francisco Canales at Plastic Surgery Associates of Santa Rosa and the Allegro Medspa (http://www.dayspa.com) are board-certified plastic surgeons performing a variety of cosmetic surgery procedures. Dr. Heather Furnas graduated from the UCLA School of Medicine and completed a six-year residency in plastic surgery from Stanford University. Dr. Canales received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Stanford University in 1982, completed his plastic surgery residency at Stanford University Hospital. They are both board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and have been performing cosmetic and reconstructive surgery procedures such for Santa Rosa and Napa area breast augmentation, body contouring, and facial rejuvenation for patients since 1992.

[Thanks: http://www.prweb.com]

Microsoft acquired Skype for $8.5 Bn, and with at least 170 million users worldwide, Skype is now scheduled to invade Microsoft’s Outlook email program, Bing search engine and the Xbox video game console. Apparently, the Skype acquisition is totally related to the growing products and services of Google inc, one of the biggest rivals of the Redmond, Washington-based company.

Aside from expanding Bing by possibly integrating Skype (vice versa) to rival Google’s search popularity, Microsoft’s Skype acquisition is also related to Apple’s growing smartphone market, the iPhone, and Google’s Android operating system success. Microsoft is expected to pre-install all future Windows Phone 7 devices with Skype application to challenge the iPhone’s FaceTime and Google’s new Talk with video.

But here’s the issue, is Skype enough to attract more customers from Apple and Google? Windows Phone 7 will face another serious smartphone competitor from Apple, the iPhone 5 (or iPhone 4GS, an analyst claims), and dozen of new powerful Android-powered smartphones this year, including some Android phones that is compatible with LTE of Verizon Wireless.

Speaking of Google, the company recently unveiled the first two ChromeBooks that will hit the United States store. According to ChromeBook’s official page, Samsung’s ChromeBook (WiFi+3G and WiFi only) and the Acer ChromeBook (WiFi+3G and WiFi only) are scheduled to debut in Amazon on June 15. Google also announced the flexible installment plans for business and students. The Chromebooks for businesses will begin at $28, while $20 is the price tag monthly per ChromeBook for educational institutions. You can see the specs of Samsung and Acer ChromeBooks here.

Meanwhile, ZDNET’s Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols thinks that Google’s new internet-based PC operating system is a “Windows killer.” The pricing, ease of use, lots of application, brand name and security are the reasons he mentioned.

Related Video from YouTube:

[Thanks: http://www.popherald.com]

The iPhone 4 was named the “Fastest-Selling Portable Gaming System” after selling an estimated 1.5 million units when it launched on June 24, 2010.

Guinness compares the iPhone 4’s numbers to that of the PSP, which sold 200,000 units at launch in 2005 and the DS which sold 500,000 consoles during launch week in November 2004.

Apple’s App Store also received high marks, earning the title “Most Popular Application Marketplace.” Guinness notes that as of September 2010 the store hosted about 260,000 apps, 61 of which are “flatulence simulators, a genre that includes such masterpieces as Fart Machine, Fart Ocarina andiFart — Epic Rip Edition.”

Cheap humor aside, Guinness World Records Gaming Editor Gaz Deaves said the iPhone was a game changer in both video game and mobile space.

“The release of the iPhone has not just changed the mobile industry, but the video game world too,” Deaves said in a statement. “With the never-ending App Store selection and an intuitive device, Apple has created a gigantic new space for itself in the casual games genre that literally brings entertainment to users wherever they may be.”

A few staple casual game Apps also made it into book.

Angry Birds was named the “Top Paid-For App Store Game in Most Countries,” Plants vs. Zombines was named the “Fastest-Selling iPhone/iPod Strategy Game,” and Tap Tap Revenge was named the “Most Popular iPhone Game Series.”

[Thanks: http://www.pcworld.com]

“Everyone uses their smartphone for everything these days. Our new APP makes it even easier and more convenient to fight your traffic ticket”

“Everyone uses their smartphone for everything these days. Our new APP makes it even easier and more convenient to fight your traffic ticket,” said Steve Miller, President and founder of TicketBust.com.

Available now to download from the iTunes Store and Android Market, iTicketBust is the only APP of it’s kind. This Application will allow the user to take a picture of their traffic ticket, fill out some basic information and send the ticket and information to TicketBust.com so that they can help contest and dismiss your California traffic ticket.

Mr. Miller goes on to say, “We feel it’s a no brainer. Every California driver should download this free APP.”

[Thanks: http://www.theautochannel.com]

Unirac said it has rolled out a WR code reader, mobile-optimized web
site, and an inclinometer application all focused on solar installers,
contractors, and project engineers.

The firm’s U-Clinometer app allows
users to measure tilt and angle, an important part of solar
installations.

[Thanks: http://www.techrockies.com]