(Credit: Apple)

Analyst Peter Misek of Canaccord Adams wrote in a note to investors that a “manufacturing bottleneck” may limit the number of units available, Apple Insider reported Monday.

“An unspecified production problem at the iPad’s manufacturer, Hon Hai Precision, will likely limit the launch region to the US and the number of units available to roughly 300K in the month of march, far lower than the company’s initial estimate of 1,000K units,” Misek wrote.

Wired.com said an Apple spokeswoman told it that the “iPad will be available in late March.” In other words, there is no change in the shipping schedule.

It’s hard to tell if the iPad is facing any challenges or not. One analyst claims to have knowledge of production problems, but Apple says everything is on track. There is less than 30 days to know for sure.

As it readies a streaming feature for the Nintendo Wii to accompany its support for televisions, set-top boxes, TiVo and other gaming consoles, Netflix asks customers if they would use an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch to stream videos from Netflix’s streaming library via Wi-Fi without paying additional fees.

The company asked the same thing about the Wii before announcing support for that device, which starts this spring. Assuming customer response is positive, the long-rumored Netflix iPhone app could appear within the next few months too.

“Imagine that Netflix offers [sic] its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone,” reads the survey question Hacking Netflix says Netflix sent to subscribers (via Silicon Alley Insider). “The selection availability to instantly watch [sic] includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again… for no additional fee.”
Continue reading full article at Wired.com

The Associated Press (AP) is a media organization. They have reporters embedded all over the world. A lot of outlets depend on their information. Many people read their stories. The AP knows their content is valued so they have decided to place a premium on that content. Yes, their articles are refreshing but are they that enticing? Soon, the marketplace will answer that question.

Their medium is the new device spun out by Apple; it is their iPad tablet product that is supposed to shake up the world. The AP wants to take advantage of that platform and charge the users of this device to read their stories. Why would someone pay to read their stories on this device when they could just read them for free at home or at work? Why read them at all when that same information is free on Fox News or other media outlets? Well, AP believes if you can buy the tablet, you can pay a little extra to read their articles.

This will be a paid subscription model. AP’s chief executive, Tom Curley, has been promoting this revolutionary idea. It may not just for the iPad, this idea could spread over to smart-phones and eReaders in the future.

On February 25, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals various concepts behind a newly advanced touch screen login system that uses a signet based concept that could take on many shapes – such as a specialized card or cool ring. In fact, it would act very much like a secret decoder ring was supposed to – though you won’t find it in your cereal or Cracker Jack box – hopefully, that is. The signet based system could act as a form of security system and the actions could initiate when logging onto your home computer or a computer network so as to permit authorized individuals access to restricted areas of the computer or computer network, loading a user profile associated with a user’s preferred arrangement of the computer desktop and so forth. The signet based system would or could apply to all present and future Apple touch screen based systems and the patent in fact makes it clear that that will include the iMac, MacBook, Mac Pro and also extend to public computer systems at schools, libraries, kiosks, gaming machines, restaurant reservation terminals and more. This could and should be a lot easier to use than keying in a sophisticated security password while making it incredibly more difficult for hackers to crack – being that the signet could include patterns and shapes unique to the individual user or institution.

Much more, including patent app illustrations, in the full article here.

Originally posted at Webdesigner Depot

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“We’re grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services, in the press release. “We’re proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering.”

Apple’s iTunes Store currently has a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 movies including over 2,500 in high definition video.

[Via MacDailyNews]

NY Times posted an article today on how to make your own video madlibs. “Making your own Hitler video turns out to be refreshingly easy, which is why so many of them can be found on YouTube. All you need is a PC and Microsoft’s Movie Maker, a program included with both Windows XP and Vista. (If you run the new Windows 7, you will need to download the old Movie Maker 2.6, rather than the new but less powerful Windows Live Movie Maker. If you’re a Mac user, Apple’s built-in iMovie application will handle the job.)”

Read full post here.

That Apple is looking to spread iPhoneOS’s reach isn’t too surprising. From most hands-on accounts, the operating system translates well to the larger iPad — a device which likely would have been over-burdened by a full installation of Mac OS X. Given the iPhone OS’s success on small devices like the iPhone, and now the larger iPad, Apple would be blind not to see its potential in other devices.

The addition of iPhoneOS could completely revitalize the struggling Apple TV device. In particular, the Apple TV would be well-served with the introduction of applications via the App Store. Not only would it be useful to run certain iPhone applications right on your television, but it would also open the door for specialized apps developed specifically for the Apple TV. This could allow for developers to bring more functionality to the historically restrictive Apple TV without hacking — perhaps a paid Hulu application like the one being considered for the iPad.

Computerworld speculates further that Apple’s new A4 chip architecture, which was unveiled for the iPad, would likely follow iPhoneOS to new devices as well. The chip is certainly powerful enough to drive HD content to the AppleTV, and it could also lead to cheaper and smaller versions of the device in the future.

Smartphone chips are the new hot-ticket item in the semiconductor industry, as recently reported by the New York Times. But they can also be used in more than just smartphones, as the iPad shows. Apple likely caught on to the importance of mobile processors early with its experience with the iPhone. Now it’s the only major tech company out there that controls both the hardware and software of its devices — something both Microsoft and Google are likely wary of.