iTunes U Hits 1 Billion Downloads

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Lauren Indvik
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The popularity of Apple's online educational catalog, iTunes U, has tripled over the past two-and-a-half years — if the number of downloads is any indication.

Apple announced Thursday that more than 1 billion items have been downloaded from the catalog, up from 300,000 in August 2010. The service was launched in mid-2007 and got a dedicated app at the beginning of last year.

iTunes U allows verified teachers to upload and distribute educational content — in the form of videos, audio and PDF files — privately to their own students, or the Internet at large, for free. They can create courses on their desktops or on their iPads. As with podcasts, users can download materials and subscribe to courses to be notified of future updates.

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Report: iPhone 5 Was the World’s Best-Selling Smartphone in Q4 2012

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Stan Schroeder

Apple's iPhone 5 was the best-selling smartphone in the world in Q4 2012, according to the latest data from Strategy Analytics.

The iPhone 5 took the crown from Samsung Galaxy S III, but the iPhone 4S also managed to overtake Samsung's flagship. According to Strategy Analytics' data, Samsung shipped 15.4 million Galaxy S IIIs, while Apple shipped 17.4 million iPhone 4S units and 27.4 million iPhone 5 units in Q4 2012

"Samsung's Galaxy S3 has long proven wildly popular with consumers and operators across North America, Europe and Asia. However, global demand for the Galaxy S3 appears to have peaked and Samsung will surely be keen to introduce its rumored Galaxy S4 upgrade in the coming weeks to fight back against Apple's popular iPhone range," said Executive Director at Strategy Analytics Neil Mawston.

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7 Apps You Don’t Want To Miss

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Emily Price
It can be tough to keep up with all the new apps released every week. But you're in luck -- we take care of that for you, creating a roundup each weekend of our favorite new and updated apps. This week a new calendar app launched for iOS to help you keep up with your schedule, and a sports stats app launched to help you keep track of your favorite team. Another app brought an interactive version of a popular children's book to Android, and a messenger app brought interactivity to the messages you are able to send to friends. Check out the gallery above for a look at this week's app highlights. If you're still looking for more, check out last week's Apps You Don't Want To Miss. Think we left a great new app off the list? Let us know in the comments below. Photo courtesy iStockphoto, scanrail.
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Apple Has Sold 100 Million iPads

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Todd Wasserman
Tim Cook
Apple has sold 100 million iPads since the device was introduced in early 2010 and it now accounts for 91% of tablet traffic, the company announced Tuesday. Apple CEO Tim Cook told a crowd gathered in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday that the company sold its 100 millionth iPad two weeks ago. The previous figure for iPad sales had been 84 million. "Why is the iPad so popular? Well it turns out there's a simple reason: people love their iPads!" Cook said.

Tim Cook




Click here to view this gallery.

[wp_scm_ipad_mini_launch]

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Apple: There Are Now 200 Million Devices Running iOS 6

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Seth Fiegerman
Apple revealed during its press event Tuesday that there are now 200 million devices running iOS 6, the latest operating system that was introduced a month ago. "This is the fastest upgrade rate of any software in history that we are aware of," Apple's CEO Tim Cook said at the event. To put this statistic in context, Apple said last month that it had recently sold its 400 millionth device. That number has likely increased with the introduction of iPhone 5 and the new line of iPods. A separate report this week from Chitika placed iOS 6 adoption at more than 60% after its first full month of availability. [wp_scm_ipad_mini_launch]

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Apple’s App Store Hits 25 Billion Downloads

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Sarah Kessler

Apple customers have collectively downloaded 25 billion apps from the App Store, the company has announced on its webpage. That's more than three apps per person in the world. The milestone signals not only a vast appetite for apps, but also growing smartphone penetration and Apple profits (the company takes a 30% cut from every app or in-app purchase). People with iOS devices are downloading an increasing number of apps. One 2011 study, for instance, concluded iOS owners download about 60 apps each, which is 50 more apps that the same researcher found each iOS owner downloaded in 2008. And as the number of apps per device has grown, so has the number of devices. In a 2011 Pew Survey, 35% of the 2,277 U.S. adults questioned in English or Spanish said that they owned a smartphone. Pew released another study this week that found this percentage has since jumped to 46%. More Americans now own smartphones than feature phones, and the world bought 37 million of them from Apple last quarter alone. Growing app downloads and growing device sales are a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation: Do people buy iPhones because they want to download apps or do they download apps because they have iPhones? Combined net sales for the iTunes Store, App Store and iBookstore in 2011 was $5.4 billion -- just 6% of Apple's net sales, but a 33% increase compared to 2010. Whether devices are driving app sales or the app store is driving device sales (or, more realistically, some combination of both), growing app demand and growing mobile device penetration have served Apple's bottom line quite nicely. The company reported its highest revenue and earnings ever last quarter. If you go by its market cap, it is now worth more than all the tea in China. In this context, the $10,000 gift card Apple promised to give away when it hit the 25 billionth app from its App Store looks less over-the-top. Apple hasn't yet announced the winner, but considering that to enter the contest, users were required to agree to publicly share some App Store picks with the Apple community if they won, we'll likely be meeting the lucky winner soon.


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Apple Sold More iOS Devices in 2011 Than Macs in 28 Years

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Stan Schroeder

Apple sold 55 million iPads to date, CEO Tim Cook recently revealed in an interview with Fortune. The company also sold 37 million iPhones in Q1 2012 alone, with the total being around 175 million since the device's inception. All in all, Apple sold 316 million iOS devices so far. The numbers seem stellar by themselves, but Asymco created a chart of cumulative sales of Apple computing products which really puts them into perspective. For example, Apple sold more iOS devices (156 million) in 2011 than it sold Macs (122 million) in 28 years of their existence.
What makes these figures even more amazing is the fact that Mac sales are actually rising fast: 2011 was the best year for Mac sales in Apple history. In fact, all the major hardware product categories in Apple's roster are selling extremely well and show no signs of stopping. We can't say what this chart will look like in a couple of years, but right now, sky is the limit for Apple. [via Asymco, Fortune]

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Startup Beats Microsoft, Brings Office to iPad for Free

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Joann Pan

Silicon Valley startup CloudOn beat Microsoft in releasing an iPad app that lets you edit Microsoft Office documents on the Apple tablet. CloudOn provides complete access to Word, Excel and Powerpoint, cloud storage and file browsing. The app supports Microsoft Office 2010 on the iPad and iPad 2. The limited testing stage app sold out Wednesday, as iPad users rushed to download the app. The startup published a statement on its website, explaining that it had been overwhelmed by the response. "Unfortunately, we did not anticipate the thousands of people that would gravitate to the service in a matter of hours. Although we had planned to support a large number of users, the interest generated was beyond our expectations, and we have had a few teething issues with our platform (some of which we have already partially resolved)," CloudOn said.
CloudOn will return to the App Store once the company is confident it can support the influx of new users. Wired was able to test CloudOn -- and said the app was "not touch-friendly" and has a "squeezed" look. There is a pre-registration form online that you can fill out to find out when the app is available again. Though the first release of CloudOn was completely free, the company is now considering a tiered pricing structure. A number of paid apps are available through the iTunes Store that allow for access and editing of Microsoft Office products. QuickOffice Pro ($14.99) allows for the creation, edit and sharing of Microsoft Office files. Documents To Go Premium ($9.99) allows for the same capabilities. But its customers have complained about the limited opening of two sheets within an Excel workbook and printing support. Microsoft is rumored to be working on its own version of Office for iPad. Is this an app you'd like? Let us know in the comments.

BONUS: 11 iPad Apps for Presentations


1. Keynote




Keynote is part of the Apple iWork suite. The app offers a tutorial to explain how to create a presentation file, but Keynote is very intuitive and user-friendly. There are only a handful of themes to choose from, but they are all classic and aesthetically pleasing. Keynote offers standard editing capabilities, including animation. It is also compatible with PowerPoint, so you can open and edit PowerPoint files -- and the presentation can be emailed in Keynote, PDF or PowerPoint formats. If you need to include charts or tables, you can purchase Numbers and Pages, the other productivity apps in the iWork suite. Cost: $9.99

Click here to view this gallery.


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iTunes Match Goes Live Internationally

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Stan Schroeder

iTunes Match, Apple's service which allows users to access their music library - including non-iTunes songs - from Apple's cloud, has started rolling out internationally, TUAW reports. Users are reporting the service going live in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and other countries, even though Apple hasn't officially announced it yet. iTunes Match, which went live in the US in November 2011, appears as an option in iTunes, allowing users to access their entire music collection from up to 10 PCs and iOS devices for $24.99 a year. The service matches users' music with the 20 million+ songs in iTunes Store, and the users only need to upload the songs which aren't available there, which is usually a smaller part of their music collection. All iTunes matches can be played back from Apple's iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC quality, DRM-free, even if the original copy was of lower quality. [via TUAW]

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Apple’s iPad Aims to be a Hospital Helper [VIDEO]

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Mashable Video
[brightcove video="1315081149001" /] Hospitals and doctors continue to use Apple's iPad for a number of tasks around the hospital, but with its growing popularity Apple must make sure it doesn't break FDA guidelines. Check out the video above to find out how iPads are being used in the medical field.
SEE ALSO: 4 Ways iPads Are Helping People With Disabilities
Have you seen iPads being used in hospitals or clinics? How do you envision tablets changing the field? Image courtesy of iStockphoto, melhi


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