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TheAppleBlog
TheAppleBlog, published by and for the day-to-day Apple user, is a prominent source for news, reviews, walkthroughs, and real life application of all Apple products.
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The Tangled Web: PA Semi, Processors, and Magic

New details have emerged which suggest chip maker Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) might not be the hive mind behind the iPad's "A4" processor as was widely expected.

In case you missed it, the A4 is the diminutive custom silicon that lies at the heart of Apple's new iPad. It's the wee beasty that has the raw power to make Magic Move work so smoothly in the upcoming Keynote app, while providing the intelligence to manage energy efficiently enough to squeeze 10 hours of actual use out of the iPad between charges. Oh, and it runs at 1Ghz and is fuelled by unicorn tears, or something.

Anyone with an iPhone (and everyone who has ever relied on laptops to do a days work) knows that there's usually a big difference between a mobile device's advertised and actual battery life. So, unless Steve Jobs is lying through his teeth, how exactly does the iPad's A4 processor manage to deliver its number-crunching goods over such a long period of time?

Certainly Apple's developments in battery design help a lot, but it's thought that the real magic happens in the custom-designed processor itself. Venturebeat.com's Paul Boutin has been investigating the A4, and pushing chip engineers for answers. In an article published on the weekend, he offers the following (possible) explanation;

Apple has invested heavily in OpenCL and LLVM, which are technologies to distribute work across multiple CPUs and multiple GPUs. In this Apple is different than other mobile devices: other vendors want video decoding and 3D games at a good rate, but often leave the GPU mostly idle.

Apple is looking to drive a lot of work through the GPU all the time, as part of any application. For Apple, it makes sense to put a lot of GPU cores in the chip. It even makes sense to put in so much GPU that the chip would overheat, but throttle back the ARM clock speed to leave more thermal envelope for the GPUs to run.

Ah, right then. Magic. Got it.

Terribly Clever

This all sounds plausible, and makes Apple's 2008 purchase of PA Semi (a snap at only $278 million) seem like a terribly clever move. And since we have yet to see a new custom brain in any iPhone, the iPad offered the most likely candidate as the first recipient of the chip maker's special silicon.

Only, it's not. Boutin adds the following;

A very trusted source tells me: PA Semi didn't do the A4. It was the existing VLSI team. Apple has made custom chips for years like the Northbridges for G4 and G5.

So, if the iPad didn't get the PA Semi treatment as we originally thought, what's going on? $278 million is an awful lot of money (even for a company with billions in the bank), and I'd have thought we'd start seeing the results of that purchase by now.

If we haven't yet seen the full might and majesty of PA Semi's magic in Apple's mobile offerings, that might all change soon. After all, we're just months away from the anticipated 4th generation iPhone…

Back to Front

Maybe I’ve got this all back to front? Was the acquisition of PA Semi — like the more recent acquisition of music streaming service Lala — not so much about Apple getting its hands on new technology, but more about securing the mad skillz of new engineers? If that's the case, the iPad may be the fruits of that acquisition after all.

Either way, if the next generation iPhone inherits any of the genetic characteristics of its iPad big brother, what might we expect from Apple's next smartphone? A blistering-fast processor, perhaps, light-years ahead of the best competing handset? Insanely long battery life, perhaps two or three days between charges?

One thing is for sure; last month Steve Jobs very deliberately redefined Apple as a mobile devices company. In the last few years, the company has aggressively enhanced the processing performance and battery life of all its products, from MacBooks to iPods to iPhones and now, of course, the iPad. A breakthrough advancement in one device ultimately migrates across product lines into another, until we're left with an ecosystem of devices that offer unrivalled power and interoperability. It's those refinements that have helped sell MacBooks at record levels in spite of a global recession, and allowed the iPhone to steal valuable market share from well-entrenched competitors.

So with all these remarkable advancements in battery life, power management, custom silicon and hardware/software interoperability in mind, ask yourself – what can we expect to see in the next iPhone? Looking at the iPad's A4 processor as a guide, I'm beginning to think it'll be the most significant iPhone revision Apple has ever made. And we don't have very long to wait before we'll know for sure.

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SD Card Reader Coming to the iPhone

I often wish the iPhone and iPod touch supported memory extension via external modules. It would make my old iPod touch much more useful, which I suppose is why Apple doesn’t allow it (it’s a good reason to buy a new one). Soon, you’ll be able to use external SD cards with your devices, though probably not in the memory expansion capacity I’ve been dreaming of.

Still, you should be able to do at least as much as you can with the SD camera connector accessory that Apple’s officially releasing for use with the upcoming iPad. There’s no indication of whether or no that device will also work with the iPhone and iPod touch, but a third-party device by capitalization-challenged company zoomMediaPlus definitely will.

The accessory in question, called zoomit, will plug into your iPhone’s dock connector, and features an SD card slot that’s compatible with all currently available SD classes and capacities. Using a free app available from the App Store, you’ll then be able to access the data found on any card you insert.

A careful examination of zoomMediaPlus’ overly wordy press release reveals that you won’t be able to transfer files from your device to the SD card or vice versa, but you can view movies and photos, listen to music and preview documents stored on your external media. You can also share said media with others via email and various social networks, including Facebook. The only condition is that all of said media has to be in a format supported by iPhone OS 3.0 or higher, so those DivX files will definitely still require conversion.

At the very least, it should be incredibly useful for photogs on the go. You’ll be able to view and share you photos with others via the iPhone’s screen, which is undoubtedly better than the back of your camera in almost all cases. You should also be able to then create Facebook albums and post those photos to social network sites without first having to connect to a computer.

zoomMediaPlus envisions a future where content providers will sell specialized SD cards for use with the system:

In the future the zoomIt application will also support, among other things, protected content types enabling streaming of licensed music, videos, and other forms of protected content.

I wouldn’t count on this becoming a groundswell movement or anything, but it is an interesting possibility. Still, I see the value of being able to access documents anywhere without having to connect wirelessly to any kind of network. You take a look at soft proofs at an impromptu client meeting, or check out someone’s demo as long as they have it stored on SD media, which is fast becoming the only really strong player remaining on the flash card scene.

zoomit will retail for $59.95 when it is released in April 2010. You can save $10 now by pre-ordering, and get a free Kingston 4GB SDHC card in the bargain, but personally I prefer to wait until units actually begin shipping before putting down any kind of commitment.

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Sponsor post: Atimi Software Joins AT&T Business Alliance Channel Program as an Apple Ecosystem Elite Member

Atimi Software Inc. has joined the AT&T Business Alliance Channel program as an Elite Member in the Apple ecosystem providing mobility solutions. Atimi joins a small number of firms supporting AT&T's business customers in the United States as they develop and evolve their brand image, e-commerce, and publishing strategies on Apple's iPhone and other smartphone platforms.

Atimi is one of the leading iPhone development firms in North America and by December of 2009 had produced more than 25 iPhone applications for leading U.S. brands in Media & Entertainment; Fashion; Health; Education; Finance; Games; Municipal Mapping and Utility. Atimi is also is one of the leading Macintosh development houses in the world; it supports global firms in development and porting of applications to the Mac platform. Atimi's immediate partnership goal will be to help AT&T support its ever-growing base of iPhone and Mac desktop clients.

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Apple Grabs a Quarter of U.S. Smartphone Market

Perhaps it has to do with Apple positioning itself as a mobile devices company, but the iPhone is on a serious upswing in the U.S. smartphone market, even while all of its competitors seem to be losing ground. Except for one, that is, and the rate at which that company is building up steam should give the Mac maker cause for some concern.

For the moment, though, Apple is doing much better than anyone in the space, really. The latest comScore report, which covers a three month period from September to December of 2009, shows Apple as having 25.3 percent of the total smartphone market share, up 1.2 points from 24.1 percent at the beginning of the period measured.

Research In Motion (RIM) came in first place overall once again, with 41.6 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers opting for a BlackBerry device. But that number represented a slide, ultimately, as RIM began the measurement period with 42.6 percent. Microsoft and Palm likewise slipped, with MS dropping from 19 to 18 percent, and Palm losing 2.2 points, down to 6.1 percent.

Google had the lowest market share of the bunch, with 5.2 percent of subscribers. But that number was up from only 2.5 percent in September, suggesting that it was probably helped along considerably with the introduction of the Motorola Droid. 2.7 points also represents the largest market share grab made by any smartphone manufacturer over the period of the report, so Google is indeed the company Apple needs to be most worried about.

Palm is probably the company everyone needs to be least worried about. The Pre and Pixi maker lost almost as much market share as Google gained, and was the only company on the list to post such a significant loss of ground. The Pre Plus and Pixi Plus could alter its fortunes, but I honestly can’t see customers who were disappointed with the originals going back for more at this point.

Going forward, Apple’s main concern is going to be with Google and how it fares now that it’s begun taking more control over its own smartphone future. The Nexus One drastically undersold the iPhone both in the first week and in the first month, so that’s got to be good news for Apple. That said, Google is doing something pretty much unprecented with regards to smartphone sales in the U.S., and it’s only selling the device in the U.S. as of yet. Apple had the advantage of selling its device through AT&T when it launched, which was an established sales and marketing channel for such devices already.

Apple’s growth over the period measured in the comScore report remains impressive, though, given that it had not introduced a new smartphone model since much, much earlier in the year. Google’s rise can be almost entirely attributed to the initially strong sales of the Motorola Droid, which was arguably the “it” device of the pre-Christmas season.

Related GigaOm Pro Research: As Windows Mobile Stumbles, Which Smartphone OS Will Seize the Lead?

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Apple Finally Releases Aperture 3

A month ago I vented about Aperture 2’s stagnation, and many of you rallied along with me. Well everyone can stow their torches and pitchforks — Aperture 3 has finally been released today by Apple. With over 200 new features, the latest version of Apple’s professional photo processing and organization software should have something to please everyone.

The fairly obvious improvements like Faces, Places and 64-bit architecture (for Snow Leopard users with Core 2 Duo Processors) are there, of course. But there are so many cool new features — I won’t touch on all of them here — I had to mention a few.
- Backup on Import Smart & necessary!
  Automatically back up your master images to a second drive during import, freeing you from the need to perform a separate, manual backup.
- Color Labels
  Apply up to eight different color-coded labels to images to organize and group them. Add a custom name for each color label in Aperture preferences. Simple keyboard shortcuts allow you to apply labels using the keyboard.
- Fast Library Switching
  Close one Aperture library and open another on the fly by selecting the desired library from the Switch to Library submenu — no need to quit and restart Aperture.
- Focus Points
  Hover over the Focus Points button in the Camera Info pane to see the focus points used by your camera to autofocus the image. You can also click the button to turn the display of focus points on or off.
- Nondestructive Brushes YES!!!!
  Make nondestructive image enhancements to specific areas of any photo using new adjustment brushes. Use brush strokes to modify — brush in or brush away — most of the standard image adjustments available in the Adjustments inspector. You can control the size, softness, and strength of each brush with intuitive sliders.
- Create Multiple Instances of Adjustments
  Apply multiple adjustments of a single type to different parts of an image by creating multiple adjustment bricks for each adjustment. For example, set one Levels adjustment to create the perfect sky. Then add another Levels adjustment brick to selectively perfect skin tones. To add a new instance of an adjustment, choose the Add New option from the Action pop-up menu in each adjustment brick.
- Support for GPS Track Logs
  In Aperture, you can easily assign locations to photos by importing the track log from a GPS receiver. Then simply drag photos onto the track to have Aperture sync the photos to the location data in the track log. You can also reset the time zone of the track in Aperture.
So yeah, that’s maybe more than a few features I listed, but believe me, there’s plenty to get excited about with Aperture 3. Try it out for free for 30 days, and then if you’re upgrading, pay $99, or $199 for a new user license. (If you’re thinking about picking Aperture up, check out the new ‘in-action’ videos of it here.) We can breathe easy, folks — it looks like our day has finally come.

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Apple May Lower the Price of the iPad: This is Not News

Sometimes I have to wonder whether everyone has taken leave of their senses. The big "news" doing the rounds in the last twenty four hours is that Apple execs have admitted they are prepared to change the price of the iPad should consumer reception (read: sales) demand it.

Yeah, that's right; Apple admitted it might revisit the price of the iPad sometime in the future, and change it according to sales performance. Shocking, that a company might operate according to a business plan designed to encourage sales and make money, eh? Apparently, that's somehow mind-boggling news.

It got started because of a report by Matt Phillips of the Wall Street Journal, who wrote;

Apple intends to stay "nimble" on pricing of the iPad, possibly lowering prices if the newly unveiled tablet device fails to gain traction among consumers.

(Top prize goes to Engadget for their humorous response/headline, "Apple to be 'nimble' on iPad pricing, athletic on pommel horse".)

Phillips quoted a note from Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope who, following a meeting with Apple executives, said;

"While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated),"

This only bolsters my long-held belief that analysts are, apparently, paid for pointing out the blindingly-obvious. That tendency to wrap together common sense and "what we all knew anyway" as "something new and worthy of reporting" is usually exemplified by Gene Munster, but since he's been quiet for the last week or so, I guess Shope will have to do.

(I predict that, in the weeks ahead of the iPad launch, Munster, or some inspired analyst like him, will issue a note to the press proclaiming, "Apple's App store sales will perform better in this quarter than in the same quarter last year." Or it'll be something even more obvious, like "Apple will sell more iPads this year than they did in 2009…" and I guarantee the tech press will rush to report that 'advice' like it's vitally important "news." You just wait and see.)

Confidence

The point here is that Apple is doing nothing revolutionary or surprising by admitting the fact that, according to the ebb and flow of consumer demand, it will revisit its pricing strategy for the iPad. This is what all businesses do with all products, all the time. Apple is always revising its prices; MacBooks, iMacs, iPods and iPhones get at least one price change on an annual basis. It's not a big deal that they will do the same for the iPad, and it certainly doesn't point to any lack of confidence in the product itself.

Let’s not forget the infamous iPhone price-cut of '07; after launching the iPhone with a hefty $599 asking price, Apple reduced it by a whopping $200 just a few months later. The only difference between then and now is Apple's transparency (yeah, I can't believe I said that either). During his keynote presentation late last month, Steve Jobs said of the iPad; "We want to get this into the hands of as many people as possible." That is, after all, the overriding reason for the agreeably-low price of the entry-level iPad.

Here Come the Trolls

Sadly, the predictable fan-baiting didn't take long, with the likes of Should-Know-Better-Than-That Windows evangelist Paul Thurrott writing, in a blog post provocatively entitled "Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Buy an iPad";

Following news that I was right about Apple’s decision to not allow iPad pre-orders would cause many potential buyers to reassess things, comes this unbelievable bit of news directly from Apple itself: The company said that it would aggressively lower prices on the iPad if/when it doesn’t take off in the marketplace.

Aside from the clumsy jumble of clauses and inventive use of the adjective 'aggressively', (as far as I can see, neither Shope nor Phillips ever used that word) I really want to point out, one last time, and for the record — this is not "unbelievable" news. Far from it. It is, in fact, the most ordinary, run-of-the-mill, standard business practice, entirely believable news one could expect from a consumer electronics company. (Quite what Apple's flexible pricing strategy has to do with Thurrott's theory about the inability to pre-order an iPad is beyond me; can anyone say "straw man?")

It comes down to this; the wider tech press are, inexplicably, falling over themselves to write-off the iPad as a failure before it's even out of the starting gate. (Don't forget, the iPod was panned by critics and tech "experts" when it first launched. The iPhone was subject to its own fair share of harsh criticism, too.)

No one can say exactly how successful the iPad will be, and while there's no harm in speculating (after all, much Apple coverage is precisely that) it's sad to see how some corners of the tech community choose to interpret every little thing Apple does (or says it might do) as "evidence" of failure.

I think I'm being rational and level-headed. You might think I'm a shameless fanboy. Either way, let me know exactly what you think in the comments below.

Related GigaOM Pro Research:
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