Issues Force Apple to Delay new iTunes Refresh

At its iPhone 5 event in September, Apple announced a new version of iTunes. iTunes 11, which features an intuitive redesign along with new features. The software was originally supposed to come out shortly after the announcement, in October.

Yesterday, Apple announced that it was planning to delay the debut of its newest version of the iTunes software until November. Here’s what Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr had to say about the decision:

The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right. We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November

There’s no reason to think that this delay is related to Scott Forstall, who is no longer serving as Apple’s Vice President of iOS Software. iTunes 11 falls under the jurisdiction of Eddy Cue, so the date change is likely unrelated.

Here’s what we can look forward to seeing with the release of iTunes 11:

• Redesigned mini player
• New layout
• Simpler playlist creation
• Full library search
• Enhanced iCloud integration
• Better performance

[via All Things D]

MacBreak Weekly 323: Cook Cleans House

Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Alex Lindsay, and yours truly talk about the leadership shakeup at Apple, the iPad mini, and the rest of the week’s news.

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Gamestop takes on toy stores with ‘Gamestop Kids’

The holiday season is pretty much here and that means parents with their kid’s shopping lists. That’s why GameStop is looking to steal some business from traditional toy stores with new “GameStop Kids” holiday stores across the U.S.

Canon CB-2LB Battery Charger for Canon NB-9L Battery Packs

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Canon Battery Charger CB2LB for Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS Camera 4723B001

Apple Expected to Sell Over 100 Million iPads Next Year

When Tim Cook took the stage at Apple’s iPad mini event, he announced that to date, Apple has sold over a hundred million iPads. That’s over the course of two years, as the first iPad debuted in March of 2010.

In 2012 and into 2013 Apple may sell 100 million more iPads, bringing its total sold to more than 200 million devices as sales of the iPad mini and the fourth generation iPad ramp up.

According to analyst Michael Walkley of Canaccord Genuity, Apple will sell 101.6 million iPads (including sales of the iPad 2, iPad, and iPad mini) during 2013, giving the Cupertino-based company a 58.4 percent share of the total tablet market.

Walkley predicts that Apple will continue to dominate in the tablet market. Amazon, he says, will sell just 10.7 million total tablets in 2013, and he predicts that Samsung will sell 8.4 million tablets.

Noticeably absent from his projection is the new lineup of Google Nexus tablets, which were revealed earlier today. With components that rival the internals of both the fourth generation iPad and the iPad mini, the Nexus 7 and the Nexus 10 could cut into Apple’s projected sales.

[via AppleInsider]

The Nexus 4 doesn’t have LTE because, unlike the iPhone 5, it’s not a flagship phone, and was never intended to be

There’s quite a bit of schadenfreude ricochetting through the Apple community (and grumbling in the Android camp) today after Google’s latest phone, the Nexus 4, was announced without support for fast LTE 4G networking. That’s because the iPhone 5 has support not only for LTE, but for international LTE, all wrapped up in an incredible thin, decently long-lifed package. And Android certainly is no stranger to LTE. If Apple can add it for its flagship phone, and many an Android manufacturer has LTE (like, all of them), why can’t Google? It’s actually more a matter of “won’t,” not “can’t.” Simply put, the Nexus 4 isn’t, was never intended to be, and could never be a flagship phone.

Arguably no Nexus phone has been a “flagship” since the first one, the HTC Nexus One. The Nexus One was an Android phone from the future, with features we wouldn’t see in the rest of the line, much less other platforms, for months to come. It was aspirational, as compelling in hardware as software. And Google couldn’t sell it. Not to customers via its web store, and not to carriers, which already had to deal with an uncontrollable Apple and weren’t about to let Google secure that kind of power.

So, instead of a Nexus Two, Google teamed with Samsung to ship the Nexus S. It wasn’t an Android phone from the future by any stretch of the imagination, it was a summation of what had gone on with Android the year before. It still satisfied the demands of geeks and developers for an unlocked phone with the latest, greatest version of the Android software, but it did so safely, leaving plenty of room at the top of the hardware food chain for the next generation of carrier and manufacturer phones.

The also-by-Samsung Galaxy Nexus did likewise. It had the very best and most up-to-date version of Android software, but Its camera sucked, a GSM/LTE version never shipped, and it compromised the very nature of Nexus to get on Verizon.

The point of Nexus, at least to me, at least originally, was Android as Google intended, not only free from carrier and manufacturer shenanigans, but showing those ne’er-do-wells a better, brighter path forward. And the carriers and manufacturers killed it for that very reason.

I don’t think there’s an Android geek on the planet who wouldn’t have rather had a fantastic camera in the Galaxy Nexus, along with every other cutting-edge bell and whistle imaginable, even if it drove up the price to something comparable with flagship phones. I don’t think there’s anyone reading a Mobile Nations site who wouldn’t prefer a Nexus 4 with LTE. Conversely, any developer in charge of a test bed with 37 existing Android phones on it probably prays every night the next one is as cheap and dirty as possible, just to keep costs down and their business in business.

If you’re walking into an Apple Store, carrier store, or electronics retailer with your eyes set on an iPhone 5, the Nexus 4 isn’t meant to be on your radar. The Nexus 4 isn’t aimed at the masses and isn’t intended to sell in the tens of millions. It isn’t allowed to be, not in scope or in strategy, much as Google might wish it. The Nexus 4, in the current incarnation of the Google Play Store, is aimed at geeks and developers as a non-flagship phone that does its best to meet both their diverging needs, while leaving plenty of room at the top for their carrier and manufacturing partners that do intend to compete with the iPhone 5.

If anyone is looking for an alternative to Apple, for an Android flagship phone with LTE and all sorts of other amenities, Samsung, HTC, LG, and their ilk will more than happily sell them, and everyone else one, by the millions, or tens of millions.

That’s what the Samsung Galaxy S 3 and HTC One X and other, carrier flagships are for.

It’s not, nor was it ever intended to be, what the Nexus 4 is for.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn Episode 4 Live-Action Movie Released (video)

Its Friday again and the fourth instalment of the Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn live-action action series has been released to help you through the day. The new instalment adds another 15 minutes of live-action to the story and can be viewed after the jump together with the first three episodes if you haven’t had the chance to see any.

This Trippy Playground Puts Normal Play Places to Shame

This crazy playground stucture is shaped like something called a “Klein Bottle,” a mathematical model with only one surface, and no inside or outside. Designed by artist and architect Vito Acconci, it’s going to be coming to a neighborhood in Miami in 2014.

Acconci was recently named Designer of the Year, and along wtih that title comes the privilege of being commisioned to design a large-scale work. This Klein Bottle play structure, in and on which kids will be able to climb and ostensibly learn about mathematical objects, is Acconci’s. In addition to being plain old crazy, the play structure will also be the first area in the Miami Design District that will be dedicated specifically for children. Kind of makes you want to be a kid again, doesn’t it? [Dezeen]

Britain’s First Klingon Wedding [video]

I’ve always wanted to go to one of the official Star Trek conventions in Las Vegas but from everything I have seen this week, it sounds like the convention in London is the one to go to. Not only were all of the Star Trek captains on hand for the event, apparently they even had Britain’s first Klingon wedding at the convention!

In the video below from the Destination Star Trek London convention, you can see 23-year-old Jossie Sockertopp and 29-year-old Sonnie Gustavsson from Sweeden get married in a Klingon wedding ceremony inspired by the one between Worf and Jadzia Dax on an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This is exactly what I have wanted for a wedding ever since I saw the episode so I am very happy for this couple and very jealous.

Pass this along to any Star Trek fans and romantic geeks you know! Like us on Facebook too!

[via Geeks are Sexy]

Amazon Sold the Most Kindle Fire HDs since Launch the Day After the iPad Mini Was Announced

If you’re wondering if the iPad Mini had an effect on its competitors, it did. Just not the one you were thinking. The Kindle Fire HD actually had its biggest day of sales since its launch, the day after the iPad Mini was announced.

In a statement sent to AllThingsD, Amazon said:

“Wednesday was the $199 Kindle Fire HD’s biggest day of sales since launch and up 3x week over week”

The $199 Kindle Fire HD is the 16GB Wi-Fi version with special offers. Seems like instead of killing the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7, the iPad Mini actually legitimized them. Or maybe people were waiting to see what Apple would do with the iPad Mini before they made their decision on buying a smaller tablet (with a lot choosing the cheaper option).

In the bigger picture, we’re not sure exactly what it means since Amazon doesn’t release sales figures but it sure can’t be a bad thing for Amazon. [AllThingsD]