Apple has sent out invitations for a special media event on September 1st. The invitation which figures an acoustic guitar seems to imply that the focus of the event is still in music, which is what could be expected from the event in which Apple usually presents its new iPod line. The rumors floating around had these past few days have had all been centering around the possibility that Apple might have a new version of its Apple TV to introduce.  It is still possible that this will happen, however the main focus of the event would seem to be the new iPods.

In an interesting turn of events, Oracle announced that it was suing Google over copyright and patent infringements on its Java intelectual property. While this is not directly linked to the iPad or Apple, it is certainly of interest to those that are  following the moves by several major electronics and computer makers to bring iPad competitors to market. Sun acquired the rights to Java along with Sun in April 2009.  The first statements by Oracle seem to indicate that they don’t intend to try to force Google to stop using Java and Java derived technologies in Android, but rather intend to...

During a conference call LG’s CEO Kwon Young-Soo stated that his company is having trouble keeping up with the demand for iPad displays, despite the fact that its factories are working at full capacity.  It seems that Apple was not the only company taken by surprise by the high demand that met the iPad’s release. According to LG the supply of iPad displays will continue to be tight until early 2011.  Back in March news came out that Apple had contracted with Samsung for 3 million LCD panels for the iPad in addition to 10 million that had been ordered from LG.  It is possible that Apple...

In both Singapore and Hong Kong the demand for the iPad was very strong as it went on sale this Friday.  In New Zealand initial demand seems to have been weaker as there was no clear information available on where the device would be available. In Hong Kong many people coming into stores to try to get a shiny new iPad were disappointed in finding that the best they could do was to put their names into multi-page waiting lists.  It seems that Apple’s Hong Kong resellers have no issues with people who want to buy large quantities of iPads, as they don’t seem to have problems in dispatching...

Apple has confirmed that the iPad will be made available in nine more regions this week.  If you have been waiting to get an iPad you might finally get the chance, if you live in one of the following places: Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore. Of course, if sales do as well as in these areas as elsewhere you might have to be alert to catch an iPad on the store shelves.  At many locations it is still hard to just walk into an Apple store and find the exact model you are looking for.  At several locations only the most expensive 64GB 3g...

Apple has made available an update to the iPad’s operating system.  With this update the version of the operating system goes from 3.2 to 3.2.1, but its name changes to iOS to match how it was already being called in version 4.  iOS 4 for the iPhone has also been updated to 4.0.1. The iPad update includes updates to wireless connectivity, a fix for a problem that could cause video playback to freeze and other small fixes.  This update also adds Bing as a search option in Safari.

The first iAds from Apple are here. Today is the first day of actual operations of Apples new mobile advertisement network and a video of how one of the first ads created work has been posted to YouTube. I’ve embedded the ad video below so that you can check it out. This ad is for the Nissan Leaf, a 100% electric car. iAd has an impressive concept, but we still have to see if users will engage with the ads as much as Apple expects them to. I look forward to seeing the first numbers on the effectiveness of these ads. This one is certainly very...

This week Hulu announced a new service called Hulu Plus which will allow users to watch full seasons of TV Series and movies on their iPads, iPhones and iPods.  This new service will not be free, carrying a monthly fee of $9.99.  This service will also be accessible from other devices such as Sony’s PS3, laptops and even LCD TVs. This service is a change in business models for Hulu who had been relying solely on advertising in shows it made  freely  to registered users to generate revenue.  With this change the company introduces a premium service which offers access to more content but the...

Amazon has introduced a new version of its Kindle application for both the iPad and the iPhone (and iPod) that supports embedded audio and video clips.  This move gives Amazon an interesting advantage with publishers wishing to bring to market multimedia enriched books without having to develop their own iOS applications. It is probably just a question of time before Apple matches this move by adding equivalent features to its own ebook reading application: iBooks. As Amazon and Apple both use different formats for the eBooks they sell through their stores, this means that we will have competing book...

In a press release issued today Apple announced that it had sold over 1.7 million iPhones in just the first 3 days of sales.  Those are the sales registered up until this past Saturday and all indications are that where supplies still last there is still high demand for the phone. With Apple selling  millions of  iPhones each quarter there could be little doubt that there would be strong demand for the new phone, so Apple ramped up production and had a huge quantity of devices available to buyers when it was officially released.  Even so, there are reports of locations where the phone is no longer...

It seems that many people are disappointed with their brand new iPhones.  Over at The Next Web, they’ve collected some comments from disgruntled users who ran into several problems in their first day of usage. Complaints about the iPhone 4 center around two main issues: spots on the display and bad reception. Both of these issues already have some tentative explanations, one of which is good for users while the other is truly disappointing.  There has been a suggestion that the spots on the display are related to a substance used in the bonding process for different layers in the glass and that...

This morning the iPhone 4 has started selling, with a large number of people standing in line for the chance to purchase one.  Lines much longer than those seen for the start of sales of the iPhone 3Gs and for the iPad were reported in Apple’s 5th Av. store in New York as well as other locations.   Long queues with people numbering in the hundreds have been reported in other countries which are also part of the first wave of the iPhone 4′s roll out. TUAW  reader David Platt sent them information from the queue in front of an Apple Store in Charlotte, North Carolina, stating that there...

In a press release Condé Nast, publisher of several magazines including Wired and several Web properties announced that it would be launching a Gourmet application for the iPad, bringing back the brand of the Gourmet magazine that was discontinued last year. The brand has a lot of recognition and some comments made by people with past relation to the magazine suggests that a good deal of content for the iPad application may come from the archives of the original printed magazine, instead of being newly created. With the huge sales success of the first issue of Wired for iPad I imagine that Condé Nast...

Apple has issued a press release informing that it has sold 3 million iPads in 80 days.  During these 80 days 11,000 applications specially developed for the iPad have been made available in the US App Store. In the same press release Apple confirms that next month the iPad will start selling in nine additional countries. In the same sentence they state that they are working hard to get the device into the hands of customers in a non-explicit reference to the fact that the device is selling so fast that it continues to be hard to find the model you want if you just walk into a...

Apple has made available the iOS 4 update for users of compatible devices.  This operating system upgrade is available for free for all devices from the second generation on up.  This means that it just the original iPhone and iPod Touch are not capable of running the new operating system. From what Steve Jobs mentioned in his presentation of iOS 4 and later of iPhone 4 it seems the upgrade restrictions are really a matter of the older hardware being incapable of coping with the demands of running multiple user tasks or handling the graphics requirements involved with the new software.  Ars...