Best Buy To Offer Full Fleet Of iPhone Models

Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech. She is now a writer for CrunchGear. ? Learn More

Best Buy today announced that it will be offering the iPhone 4S, with in-store pre-orders available now and availability beginning October 14.

Just like at Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and Apple, the iPhone 4S will cost $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model, and $399 for the 64GB model. All three carriers offering the 4S will be represented.

If the 4S seems a bit to pricey at the moment, Best Buy is also offering the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS, which have been marked down considerably. The iPhone 4 comes in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB flavors and is available for AT&T, Verizon and Sprint starting at just $99 on-contract.

The 3GS, meanwhile, can be had for free with a signature on the dotted line.

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Sprint Opens Up Pre-Orders For The iPhone 4

Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech. She is now a writer for CrunchGear. ? Learn More

Sprint has long been Android territory, but today everything changes. There’s still about 24 hours left until the brand new, super snappy, personal assistant-equipped iPhone 4S hits shelves, but the yellow carrier has put the iPhone 4 up for pre-order this morning.

The 8GB iPhone 4 is running for $99 on a two-year contract with the “Now Network,” which means it’s the only iPhone 4 to offer up unlimited data. As far as shipping dates go, Sprint says that if you “order today, we’ll charge your card for your phone today and we’ll do our best to get a shiny new iPhone in your hands Friday, Oct. 14 or Saturday, Oct. 15.” So basically you’ll be getting the phone about the same time that iPhone 4S buyers receive their brand new toys.

The iPhone 4S is available for pre-order beginning tomorrow, and starts at $199 on a two-year contract. If you want to experience the in-store iPhone frenzy, go ahead and get in line early (like, really early) on Friday morning, October 14.

Sprint likely won’t have the iPhone 4 in stock for too much longer, so if this is what you’ve been waiting for then head over to Sprint (like right now) and get your pre-order on.

[via MobileBurn]

IPO: October 6, 1980, NASDAQ:AAPL

Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...

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Lack Of NFC In iPhone 4S Won’t Impact Market

While not entirely surprising, yesterday’s announcement of the new iPhone 4S did not include a mention of NFC (near field communication). Although many hoped for the inclusion of the short-range wireless technology which serves as the backbone for current and planned mobile wallet systems, Apple still has plenty of time to integrate NFC into future handsets. It’s possible that NFC will even arrive in the upcoming iPhone 5.

But will Apple’s decision to skip NFC in the iPhone 4S have an impact on today’s market? Not likely, say analysts.

NFC forecasts, to date, have varied. ABI Research estimates there will be 35 million handsets shipped this year, and double that will ship next year. IHS iSuppli forecasts nearly 550 million handsets by 2015. Meanwhile, Berg Insight AB expects there to be 400 million handsets by 2015. Whatever the true number may be, the consensus is that the technology is years out from consumer adoption. Apple can wait.

Although nothing Apple does goes without notice, ABI analyst John Devlin says he doesn’t believe the news will have an effect on current market conditions or trends. ”Having Apple on-board would have been a great driver for NFC – even if only for competitive reasons,” Devlin tells us. “I don’t think it will negatively impact the market.  [NFC] has been heating up, companies are now launching, and strategies are in place,” he says.

Charles Golvin, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, agrees, noting that had Apple announced NFC, it would have jump-started the industry and accelerated competitors’ offerings, but the iPhone 4S’s lack of NFC is neither a death knell for the technology, or a statement about NFC’s long-term viability.

Apple’s skill is often in reinventing and polishing the end user experience, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the first to launch a new technology itself. And in the case of NFC, the market just isn’t ready.

“Putting devices into customer’s hands is only one step towards adoption,” explains Golvin. There also need to be point-of-sale terminals that support NFC and customers have to be able to input all their credit card information into the mobile version of their wallet. “It doesn’t really fly until the mobile wallet is the same as your real wallet,” Golvin says.

Today, for example, only Citibank-branded MasterCards work in Google Wallet, and the carrier-led mobile wallet venture Isis has yet to launch.

Another factor influencing Apple’s delay with NFC, besides general market readiness that is, is Apple’s potential to be disruptive upon entering the competitive landscape. ”Apple likes to own the ecosystem, but the incumbent payment networks are too entrenched,” says Devlin. ”However, Apple is incredibly cash rich so the acquisition of a payments-related company would not be out of the question.”

“Similarly, in order to maximize NFC and the different user experiences that it could deliver,” he continues, “it would make sense to feature NFC in a range of products, such as the iPad, MacBooks, etc., and these upgrades are not yet ready.”

Meanwhile, other companies are now launching their own NFC-enabled payment systems. Google, as noted above, has Google Wallet. Isis, the joint venture between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, recently announced support for its mobile wallet system from the majority of leading device makers, including HTC, LG, Motorola, RIM, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. NFC is progressing in other areas, too, such as Windows 8 tablets – something Apple is likely watching closely.

ABI says it’s not changing its position on NFC forecasts due to the iPhone 4S. It still expects 80 million NFC handsets in 2012, and believes Apple will enter a more developed ecosystem in a year or two’s time.

Forrester doesn’t have a specific handset forecast, but Golvin says that by year-end 2012 to mid-2013, the technology will be much more ubiquitous. By that point, says Golvin, “it will be difficult to find a smartphone that doesn’t include NFC functionality.”

Maybe the NFC-enabled 4G iPhone 5 will be there, too.

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Social Performance Platform Rypple Comes To iPhone

The Web-based social performance platform Rypple is now available on the iPhone, the company is announcing today. Like the desktop-sized website, the new mobile application will allow managers to give real-time feedback to staff, provide coaching, track goals and publicly recognize colleagues for doing great work.

The idea behind Rypple, which sees itself as a “Zynga for the enterprise,” is to use social software in the enterprise environment to build a great work culture. It does this by allowing managers to track projects, guide their team and give kudos to deserving staff for others to see within an online Web application.

The software also employs various game mechanics, like badges, which can be custom-built to reflect a company’s own values. And, as in gaming, employees can rack up “skills earned,” in a method reminiscent of building up a character in a virtual world or MMORPG, for example.

With the new iPhone application, users can track the company feed for news, update teams on the status of a project, post “thanks” and hand out badges.

The app will be available as a freemium offering. There’s a limited free version, a $5 per user per month version that offers access to goals, real-time peer feedback, 0ne-on-one coaching and recognition, and a $9 per user per month version that includes Rypple’s rapid performance review application, Loops, support, rollout and integration into existing company work systems. The app is available here in iTunes now.

Rypple is a social performance management platform built for the way we work today—in real time. Managers who adopt Rypple can quickly and painlessly provide their teams with the continuous feedback and coaching they need to learn faster, stay on track, and achieve their goals more consistently; teams who adopt Rypple can easily share key priorities, update the status of goals, and recognize one another for great work, which makes managing performance both easy and meaningful. Rypple’s customers are...

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International Video Site ViKi Debuts iPhone App, Will Partner With Samsung For Android App

Leena Rao currently works as a writer for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... ? Learn More

ViKi, an international video site for world TV series and movies translated in 100+ languages by its community, is debuting a new iPhone app today, called ViKi On-The-Go.

As we’ve written in the past, ViKi is an open-source-like solution for video, and acquires the rights to TV shows and movies. The site then puts it on one of its channels and within the first 24 hours an organized, volunteer community subtitles the content using ViKi’s software. The site has gained considerable traction in the past year. Currently, ViKi is seeing 8.5 million unique visitors and 36 million tota visits in the past month, which is four times the traffic that ViKi has seen from last year.

One of the most wanted features, says the startup, is a mobile offering. The new app is free (with in-stream ads), and will contain TV series, movies, and entertainment news from around the world, with subtitles created by fans. The app currently includes movies from Japan, India’s Bollywood, Egypt, Indonesian and TV series from Hong Kong, Venezuela, Russia, Korea and the UK (e.g. Hotel Babylon & Mistresses from the BBC).

ViKi is also partnering up with Samsung Southeast Asia to develop an Android app for the company’s tablets. The app will be launching later this year in Southeast Asia. The partnership is expected to expand to other regions early next year.

What’s interesting about ViKi is that the model allows content owners to open up to new international markets. Investors have bet on ViKi’s model too—the company recently raised $4.3 million in funding from Saar Gur of Charles River Ventures, Reid Hoffman of Greylock, Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, and others.

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iPhone 5: Expect Stronger Demand Than Ever [REPORT]

Turns out the tech press isn’t alone in lusting after the phone Apple is expected to unveil within the next month. More people are likely to buy the iPhone 5 than were ready to put their money down for an iPhone 4 before that launched, according to a survey of 2,200 potential cellphone buyers.

The survey, conducted last month for ChangeWave Research, shows that 31% of customers who are currently shopping for a new phone consider it “very likely” (13%) or “somewhat likely” (18%) they will end up with an iPhone 5 in their hands. Compare that with the numbers for the iPhone 4 — 12% and 13% respectively — and what you have is a level of pent-up demand that is unprecedented in surveys like this.

Of course, that’s largely a function of the fact that we’ve had to wait so long for the iPhone 5. Its predecessor is nearly 15 months old at this stage; that’s a lifetime in cellphone years. Some 66% of current iPhone owners say they plan to upgrade to the new model, sight unseen. That includes a whole lot of iPhone 3GS users — myself included — who opted to skip a generation.

There’s also some interesting news for Sprint in the survey: Fully 54% of their subscribers say they are “significantly likely” or “somewhat more likely” to buy the iPhone 5, which reports suggest will be launched on Sprint complete with an unlimited data plan, of the kind that AT&T and Verizon no longer offer. But it may be a case of being careful what you wish for. If current iPhone usage is any indication, the amount of bandwidth those customers will suck up may be more than Sprint can profitably afford.

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Best Buy Sales Suffer Without iPhone Launch

Best Buy, a bellwether for consumer electronics sales, posted weak second-quarter results as sales of TVs slowed and the lack of a high-profile smartphone launch weighed on revenues.

The retailer’s fiscal second-quarter income fell 30% to $177 million compared to the same period last year. The company’s revenues of $11.3 billion for the quarter were less than the $11.5 billion analysts projected and were flat with last year’s second quarter results.

The news sent Best Buy’s stock down about 8% to its lowest level since 2008 in Tuesday’s morning trading. “We’re still facing an uncertain macro-environment with volatile consumer shopping behavior, and this was evident in our results for the second quarter,” president and CEO Brian Dunn told analysts during a conference call Tuesday.

The company also blamed the lack of highly anticipated smartphone launches. Apple has released a new iPhone model every summer since 2007, but this year, the iPhone 5 launch is expected to launch in October.

Image courtesy of Flickr, osed8info

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Will The Next iPhone Be Thinner And Wider? A Gazillion Leaked Cases Say Yes

Matt is currently working as a writer for CrunchGear. Matt Burns is a family man first and attempts to be a freelance writer second. Born and raised in the heart of the automotive world, only cars eclipse his love of gadgets. He previously wrote for Engadget and EngadgetHD before moving into the party house that is CrunchGear. He learned the... ? Learn More

The Internet is awash in purported iPhone 5 cases. Like most iPhone related rumors, it’s hard to decipher fact from fantasy, but the sheer amount of nearly identical cases seem to state that at least several manufacturing houses have the same iPhone dimensions. The image here is a iPhone 4 in one of these many cases. Look different? Yep, this case, and the many like it, are clearly for a phone that’s both thinner and wider.

This isn’t the first whiff of this rumor either. A rather official looking iPhone 5 clone popped up a month ago that was just 7mm thick, 2.3mm less than the iPhone 4. It also shared the same design cues with a rounded edge, slightly convex back and a wider design.

Now, not that any of us in the West truly understand the seedy underworld of Chinese gadget cloning, but it’s entirely possible that, at least from where I sit, these cases and clones are sourcing the same set of unofficial dimensions. Makers are betting that they have the right specs and so they are building out a massive supply ahead of the next iPhone’s launch. But leaked cases have been a major source of leaks for years, properly foretelling even the iPad 2's existence.

A wider but thinner iPhone would match the current trend of smartphones slightly larger than the traditional form factor. This is something might be something even Apple, who is generally a trend setter instead of follower, might not be able to avoid. But what about MG? He stated over and over again that the EVO 4G’s 4.3-inch screen made the device too big. Would he actually pass on the next iPhone if it’s wider? Shock!

Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer,...

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Turntable.fm Launches iPhone App [REVIEW]

Good news for all you Turntable fiends. One of the most requested features for the social music app — an iPhone version – launched Tuesday in the App Store.

Yes, that’s right: you can now listen, rack up those DJ points and chat from anywhere you happen to have your iPhone (though if you happen to be on the john, as one of my fellow DJs told me today, it’s probably best not to share.)

If you’re not familiar with Turntable — well, first of all, where have you been? Mashable has been rocking its own Turntable room with stellar guest DJs every Friday this summer, and we’ll be picking it up again this fall.

Secondly, Turntable.fm is easily the most addictive (and social) music service ever. In each room, avatars stand in front of a DJ booth, where five lucky souls can step up and spin tunes in turn (one from each, then back to the first DJ). Most songs you can think of are in the Turntable database already, but if not, you can upload them. You can hit “lame” or “awesome” on the like-o-meter; enough “lame”s and the song will skip, but an “awesome” will make you bob your head and give the DJ points, which they can then trade in for a bigger and cooler avatar. And all the while, folks in the room are nattering away in a chat window, proving once again that the best way to be social with strangers is to have something specific — like a song — to talk about.

That’s the browser version of Turntable. How does the iPhone version stack up so far? Good in some ways, quite buggy in others.

Visually, the Stickybits team has done a great job of packing everything in to the small screen. It actually seems easier on the iPhone to scroll down the list of rooms people have created (the list loads as you scroll). Step into a room, and it looks exactly like a Turntable room should. Even packed with avatars, it’s not significantly slower. My iPhone 3GS was able to render a 200-avatar room with no problem; the music didn’t skip and the head-bobbing was smooth.

The first difference you’ll notice is that the chat window is on a screen of its own, reached through that speech bubble icon at the top. This is also where your queue of songs to DJ is located. This is a little distracting, having to switch screens constantly. But it’s hard to think how else the app could have done it. One thing it definitely could have done, though, was load the chat history of the room — so you can see what people were talking about before you came in.

As for DJing, I’ve run into a number of snags so far. The first time I tried to spin, the app booted me off when it came to my tune. (Anecdotally, I heard a few stories of iPhone DJs getting booted; it’s easy to tell, because the avatar is holding a phone instead of a laptop). The second time, nobody could hear the music — despite it being a track I’d played successfully many times in the web client.

Still, you’ve got to expect a few bugs in a release version of an iPhone app this complex, and I have no doubt Turntable will iron out the wrinkles shortly. With a $7 million round of funding led by Union Square Ventures, also announced Tuesday, the company now has a lot more resources. We can’t wait to try the (as yet unannounced) Android and iPad versions.

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GameStop Affirms Popularity Of Mobile Gaming; Plans To Sell iPhone, iPod, And iPad

Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech. She is now a writer for CrunchGear. ? Learn More

Still think mobile gaming isn’t a big deal? GameStop disagrees. Though they may not be as in-depth or graphically stimulating as console or PC-based games, but mobile games are accessible to everyone. My grandma can’t play L.A. Noire, but she’s beat every level of Angry Birds. So it only makes sense that GameStop has decided to put a couple new devices on its shelves: the iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

GameStop has made a push into the tablet and mobile gaming space as of late. It started an iOS device trade-in program (for select stores) that is expected to roll-out nationally sometime during this year, reports 9to5mac. The company also said in April it had plans to get into the tablet space, whether that be with a device already on the market or by building a GameStop-branded gaming slate. Turns out, nabbing the iOS trifecta was the best plan.

With the carriers set on a duopoly, there’s no better time to start opening up other retail locations for Apple products. We vote with our wallets, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have the iPhone or the iPad.

GameStop recently received some bad press over taking promotional materials out of games and then selling them as if nothing had happened. Understandably, people weren’t too happy about this. But the Internet has a short memory and it seems that GameStop needs to cover all the bases in its physical stores to remain competitive.

Gamestop is an American video game retailer with over 6,000 locations worldwide. The company spun off from Barnes & Noble in 2004 and operates as GameStop and EB Games.

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Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer,...

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Rumor: Sprint Blacks Out Vacation Days In October To Prep For iPhone 5

Greg Kumparak is the editor of MobileCrunch.com, a mobile industry blog within the TechCrunch Network. Greg has been writing for the TechCrunch network since May of 2008. Greg was born in the outskirts of San Jose, CA, and now lives in the East Bay. ? Learn More

Oh, what’s this? Sprint is reportedly blacking out vacation days between September 30th and October 15th? For a “major phone launch”?

Major phone launch. Early October (right when the iPhone 5 is likely to be launched.)

Yeah, the rumor mill just caught on fire.

Word of the blackout comes from Sprint Feed, who received the memo above from a source they’re confident enough in to refer to as a “beloved Super Spy”.

Last time Sprint did this, it was for the launch of the Pre. That launch obviously wasn’t as big as they’d hoped, but it goes to show that it’s not something they do all that often.

Of course, a memo like the one above isn’t exactly hard to fake — but for what it’s worth, the fonts, icons, and layout all look strikingly similar to the stuff I’ve seen on Sprint retail machines. If it is fake, it’s at least faked by someone who has spent some time working at a Sprint store.

As for the possibility of it being a different major phone launch in early October: maybe if Sprint doesn’t want that phone to, you know, sell. Otherwise, the pieces of the puzzle just fit together way, way too well.

IPO: September 10, 1980, NASDAQ:AAPL

Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...

Learn more Launch Date: September 10, 1999

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two wireless networks serving almost 49 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2009; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone.

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Gootip Turns Twitter Into A Location-Based Q&A Service; Launches iPhone App, APIs, and More

Rip Empson is a writer at TechCrunch. He’s not here to make friends, he’s here to WIN, and don’t you forget it. You can reach him at rip[at]techcrunch[dot]com ? Learn More

Gootip, the location-based Q&A startup from France, launched in May to take on Hipster (we think, as Hipster is still stealth) and other sites like it trying to make Yahoo Answers, for example, a valuable, realtime service. Gootip was founded by PriceMinister alumni Mathieu Bidart, Eric Gagnaire and Thierry Sebba, and operates out of a small garage in the South West of France. I’ve seen the pictures, and these guys are bootstrapping all the way, looking like the Jobs and Woz of Southwestern France.

But Gootip, in spite of a questionable name, is trying to separate itself from other Q&A services out there, like LocalMind for example, by not only enabling users to ask and answer questions in context of a particular city, town or specific location, but by going a few steps farther.

Gootip allows users to sign up and link their accounts to Foursquare and Facebook to integrate their check-in data, along with their home and work location. Users then categorize their questions (be it by nightlife, shopping, arts and entertainment, etc.) and enter an expiration date for when they need their question answered by, whether that be 24 hours or one week.

As Steve O’hear pointed out in our initial coverage, Gootip is proving that the barrier to entry for location-based Q&A sites taking advantage of Facebook and Twitter’s data sets has “gotten lower” and young, savvy startups can quickly build services that offer worthwhile expansions of the popular social networks. However, at the time of their beta launch, as he noted, there were a few key pieces missing.

So, to make Gootip more than a simple website or mobile app, the startup is aiming at building a platform that can retrieve and analyze local questions and answers from both internal and external services: Web, mobile, APIs, SMS, social networks, and beyond. It’s an ambitious goal, but to get started and showcase how functionality can work with other big social networks, Gootip has created “Askgtip”, which it calls a “mentioned application” that works with Twitter (and soon Facebook, Foursquare, and Gowalla) to ask questions of their favorite social networks — in this case, Twitter.

Askgtip allows users to ask questions directly of Twitter, whereupon the startup will analyze the question, pull location data, and post it to Twitter and Gootip.com so that users of both will be able to see the question and post an answer. The application retrieves answers given on Twitter and displays them on their homepage, specifying locations given in the answers.

Askgtip also supports Twitter’s topics, which are often linked to an event (like #tcdisrupt, for example), which will be analyzed by the application and linked to a specific location. That’s the main pain point Gootip is trying to address: The difficulty of finding locations and analyzing questions to produce the correct location and location-correct data.

So, for example, if you were to ask “Who is the best doctor in the ‘Mission District’ in San Francisco?” Gootip would convert “Mission District” to a location that exists on the Gootip website so that when Askgtip answers the question (because users have answered on Gootip), transforming it into a map and location on both sites, in short, bringing Gootip’s functionality to Twitter.

As the startup rolls out its service for various social networks, it is also opening up its APIs and plugins. In the coming weeks, Gootip Co-founder Mathieu Bidart says, Sud Quest (one of the biggest local, daily press groups in France) will be integrating the startup’s API to allow users to ask local questions directly from, in this case, Sud Quest’s website.

Beyond the addition of plugins and widgets to enable partnering websites to take advantage of Gootip’s features, the startup is also launching an iPhone app to enable users to search, ask and answer questions, with content presented based on a user’s GPS location — all from the comfort of your iPhone.

The cool thing about Gootip is that it’s already working with over 30 million locations, so that every Gootip search can be performed by keyword (or by using your GPS default on mobile) from millions of towns and cities across the globe. Results are presented with the number of answers to the question, with locations pinned on an interactive map with all the details, including address, phone numbers, etc.

Gootip has also enabled Facebook and Twitter authentication to the new mobile app to allow users to sign in through the social networks, on top of simply signing in through the Gootip.com — the website already offers authentication with Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla and Google — plus, the service is now available in English and French, with German and Spanish translations launching in the next few weeks.

O’hear pointed out several things that Gootip would need to accomplish after launching their beta, and with a new iPhone app (Android is coming soon), plugins and widgets, open APIs, Twitter functionality, and new languages, Gootip has certainly made some great progress. The UX does still need a little tweaking (along with some of the translations), but for three guys bootstrapping in their garage, Gootip has already made leaps and bounds. Hipster better be ready.

For more on Gootip, check them out at home here, and play with Askgtip here.

Gootip is a local questions/answers website. Users can ask every kind of question linked to a town or a precise place. Where can I see a hip hop concert tonight in...

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Over iPhone And iPad Patents: Apple Sues Samsung In Japan

Dr. Serkan Toto currently works as the first and only Asia-based writer for the TechCrunch network, mainly covering Japan-related technology and web companies for TechCrunch, CrunchGear and MobileCrunch. Serkan also works full-time as an independent web and mobile industry consultant with a focus on the Japanese market. He is sept-lingual, holds an MBA and is a PhD in economics. Serkan... ? Learn More

The patent war between Apple and Samsung is continuing, and this time the battlefield is Japan: Japanese news agency Kyodo is reporting that Apple filed a lawsuit against Samsung with the Tokyo District Court. According to big A, Samsung is infringing on (unspecified) patents on the iPhone and iPad with the Galaxy S Android phone (that carrier Docomo started selling in Japan last year).

If the report is to be believed (neither Apple Japan nor Samsung Japan have confirmed the news), Apple is seeking 100 million yen (US$1.3 million) in damages. A first hearing took place yesterday, and apparently, Samsung’s Japanese unit is ready for a long-term legal battle.

What’s interesting to note is that in Japan, the Galaxy S is a best-selling handset for carrier Docomo, while Apple chose competitor SoftBank as the exclusive distributor for the iPhone and iPad.

And not unlike Apple, Samsung currently sees fantastic sales in Japan, especially with the S II: Docomo sold 100,000 Galaxy S II in the first three days after release of the handset in July, making it the carrier’s fastest-selling phone ever. Today, Docomo announced the Galaxy Tab (LTE-compatible) for the Japanese market.

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PhotoAppLink Ties iPhone Photo Apps Together, Makes Multi-App Editing Simple

Several iPhone app developers have teamed up to launch PhotoAppLink, a new open source initiative that aims to simplify photo editing by tying multiple photo-editing apps together.

As you know, there are an incredible number of photo editing apps in iTunes today, and often, each especially excels in one particular area. For example, converting photos to black and white, cropping, compositing or writing on top of photos are all features of popular standalone apps.

But what about when you want to make multiple edits using multiple apps? That’s a far more complicated process. And it’s the very problem PhotoAppLink aims to solve.

Currently, in order to edit your photo in multiple apps, you have to save the edited photo to the camera roll each time as you move in between applications. But with PhotoAppLink-enabled apps, you can simply select another app to use from within your current app. From the PhotoAppLink interface, you tap the app you want to move to and it’s launched for you, photo edits intact.

You can move back and forth between photo-editing apps, too, as you continue to work with your image.

In order for this feature to work, a group of photo app developers got together and agreed to implement PhotoAppLink within their apps. Originally conceived by app development shops PocketPixels and CodeCrop, the feature is now live in Snap!, Color Splash, Simply B&W, PicTools, AutoStitch, TrueHDR, Juxtaposer, Click! and Photogene.

Several notable developers have already committed to adding PhotoAppLink support in forthcoming updates, as well. Confirmed apps include: PaperCamera, PhotoToaster, ColorBlast!, Color Range and MobileMonet.

Other interested developers can choose to participate in the initiative  by grabbing the source library here on GitHub.

Besides making it easy on end users to hop between apps (certainly a pain point for photo enthusiasts), the new feature will have the added benefit of increasing the opportunities for discovery through other, compatible applications. To this end, PhotoAppLink also includes a commissions program for developers, which pays out a percentage of the sale for new apps discovered and purchased through the PhotoAppLink interface.

In addition to ease of use for end users and discovery for app developers, a third benefit is the feature’s potential for increasing user engagement within niche applications. For simplicity’s sake, users may have previously skipped using the better-functioning app in favor of a more basic “all-in-one” to avoid hassle. But by daisy-chaining apps together like this, it’s easier to use the best app for the job, while still saving time.

You can see all the supported apps where PhotoAppLink can be found on the project’s homepage here: http://www.photoapplink.com.

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iPhone Rumors Gone Wild! New Leaks Point To Two Models, Similar Casings

Matt is currently working as a writer for CrunchGear. Matt Burns is a family man first and attempts to be a freelance writer second. Born and raised in the heart of the automotive world, only cars eclipse his love of gadgets. He previously wrote for Engadget and EngadgetHD before moving into the party house that is CrunchGear. He learned the... ? Learn More

It’s time for your weekly dose of next-gen iPhone rumors. This edition is a doozy, friends. Purported iPhone components are leaking everywhere with every site claiming to have the real deal. It’s hard to say which components are lifted straight from Foxconn’s lines, but when they’re viewed as a whole, these components paint an interesting picture that Apple is about to dramatically shift course and fully disrupt the cell phone market.

Apple is reportedly going to announce the next iPhone (or iPhones) either in September or October. Right now there are two competing rumors circulating that states Apple is working on a low-cost iPhone, likely the iPhone4S codenamed N94, and a higher-end iPhone 5 called internally as the N97.

Just within the last week, a slew of claimed iPhone parts hit the web. Most are of similar design to the current iPhone 4 with a spot for a physical Home button and similar overall dimensions. Macpost and Engadget both posted the same set of “leaked” photos this morning showing what most assume is the low-cost iPhone 4S. The parts are labeled N95 with the EVT1 (Engineering Verification Testing) date of ’03-March-2011'.

Several other leaks including these early repair parts from ubreakifix.com further support the claim that at least one upcoming iPhone model will be very similar to the current iPhone 4. Reuters furthered this claim last week when it announced Apple will soon release an 8GB iPhone 4. Even this chassis claimed to be for the iPhone 4S is very similar to the one used in the iPhone 4 besides a little tweak to the antenna and the lack of space for the home button.

So far, including talk of a Cloud iPhone, seems to suggest that Apple is targeting the low-end of the market with the next iPhone. But that just doesn’t feel right. Apple has so far stuck to a pretty tight two year refresh cycle, which stated a major redesigned was due last June. That never happened.

Then just this morning, industry watchdog DigiTimes, citing upstream panel suppliers and contrary to previous rumors, reported the iPhone 5 will have an LCD smaller than 4-inches and feature a metal back panel rather than reinforced glass used in the iPhone 4 and leaked iPhone 4S parts. This source states that the internal components, including the single-core A4 chip, are likely to remain in play for this iPhone model. It’s not unheard of that Apple would out similar products aimed at different market segments and separated only by cosmetic differences. It is however without precedent that Apple releases two iPhone models at the same time. The iPhone 4S and iPhone 5, if they are both real, kills Apple’s legendary Keep It Simple, Stupid mantra, but officially signals war with lower-end BlackBerrys and Android devices.

Of course this is all just silly speculation until Tim Cook, Jonathan Ive or whoever takes the stage and officially announces the next iPhone, or rather, iPhones. These leaks are hitting at an absurd rate, though. Apple might soon be dealing with the iPhone 4 fiasco all over again.

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Video: This Isn’t The iPhone 5… But I Kind Of Wish It Was

Greg Kumparak is the editor of MobileCrunch.com, a mobile industry blog within the TechCrunch Network. Greg has been writing for the TechCrunch network since May of 2008. Greg was born in the outskirts of San Jose, CA, and now lives in the East Bay. ? Learn More

When it comes to massive news, the past two weeks have been absolutely insane. Google buying Motorola? HTC To Buy Beats? Steve Jobs resigning as CEO of Apple?!

What better way to cleanse the palette than a quick tromp into a conceptual rabbit hole? 3D animation shop AatmaStudio has released a concept video showing what they imagine as the iPhone of the future, and… well.. I’m ready to pre-order.

Now, just how much of this is actually feasible with current tech? None of it, really — but a good chunk of it is within the realm of plausibility if we consider said tech’s foreseeable evolution.

The Design: That design looks far thinner than the 8mm barrier that no one has really managed to crack yet (unless we’re counting those which tuck the thick bits into one lumped region, taper the rest, and then base measurements on the thinnest part of the profile — which is kind of cheating.) With that said, the thickest bits of most modern smartphones tend to be the radios and the camera sensors, and these are getting slimmer and slimmer every few months. Just two weeks ago, for example, OmniVision announced an 8-megapixel camera module that comes in at a build height of just 4.4mm..

The Keyboard: Projection keyboards have been done before (IBM patented them in 1992!), but never quite like this. Though they never really seemed to take off, the few projection keyboards that do exist are generally dedicated Bluetooth/USB accessories, as opposed to being integrated into the handset itself. Even as rather clunky, separate components, the projection was one color, red laser-based stuff — nothing like the high-resolution, beautifully scaling board you see here. But these days, we’ve got itty-bitty pico projectors, and folks like Microsoft/PrimeSense dumping millions into IR-based motion tracking. Let those technologies continue to evolve, and we’re probably but a few years from something like the concept keyboard shown here.

The Holographic Projector: As for projecting video into thin air, without any sort of screen to reflect the light… that’s something that’ll probably be stuck in concept videos and the Star Wars Universe until further notice. Damn you, physics! It’s probably for the better, really: while interacting with a floating screen seems futuristic and fun, the absence of any sort of tactility would be a rather miserable user experience.

Apple’s iPhone was introduced at MacWorld in January 2007 and officially went on sale June 29, 2007, selling 146,000 units within the first weekend of launch. The phone has...

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EscapeCapsule Lets You Use Your iPhone 4 In Water, Sand, Mud, Snow, And Other Gross Stuff

Jordan Crook studied English Literature at New York University before entering the tech space. Prior to joining TechCrunch, Crook dabbled in mobile marketing and mobile apps as well as doing device reviews for MobileMarketer and MobileBurn. Crook is fascinated with alternative energy production and greentech. She is now a writer for CrunchGear. ? Learn More

There really should be no argument when I say that a case for your iPhone 4 is nothing short of necessary. Unless you’ve got cash to burn, the iPhone is just too damn expensive to leave unprotected. The only problem is that most of them make your phone pretty clunky, which sucks since Apple works hard to make the iPhone as slim as possible. Unfortunately, the only trade-off for all the heft is protection against impact. But what if you drop your iPhone in the toilet?

The folks at Catalyst have an answer for you: EscapeCapsule.

This thing is more than just a tough exo-skeleton. Made from a high-impact clear polycarbonate, the case protects against water, rain, snow, sand, mud, impacts, scratches… everything. Did I mention water? You can also double-check whether or not the case is securely sealed around the phone through the clear shell.

Catalyst says the phone’s hardware buttons are protected through a specially designed membrane, as is the touchscreen. The camera works surprisingly well with the cover on, proof of which can be found in the video on the project’s Kickstarter page. The case also comes with an attached lanyard to go around your wrist while you’re playing in the ocean with your iPhone. Because with the EscapeCapsule, you can play in the ocean with your iPhone. Crazy.

The case comes in a number of colors, but if you make a pledge on Kickstarter you’ll get Catalyst’s Kickstarter-only edition Capsule — a green case with a white glow-in-the-dark rubber bumper and a glow-in-the-dark lanyard. It’ll take a $50 pledge to pre-order your very own EscapeCapsule, which is an OK deal considering Catalyst plans to sell the case for $70 when it officially becomes a reality.

As of right now, Catalyst has 28 days to reach its $30,000 funding goal. It has thus far received $3,780. Head on over to Kickstarter to check out a video of the EscapeCapsule in action.

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Rumor: Sprint To Sell iPhone 5 In October

Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More

As we once again enter the iPhone 5 breach, one would do well to keep their grains of salt at the ready, but the Business Insider reports that Sprint will be among the few carriers to sell the iPhone 5.

The news is something of a coup for Sprint, the nation’s third largest wireless service provider. If true, it could provide a stay of execution for a company that would otherwise be facing Verizon and AT&T/T-Mobile without a Cupertino trump card. Sprint’s stock has already jumped due to the news, although at last glance it seems to be returning to pre-announcement levels.

Like Verizon, the backbone of Sprint’s network runs on the CDMA standard. Rather than manufacture a different iPhone for each carrier, the possibililty of Sprint selling the iPhone 5 lends a bit of credence to news of the device’s dual-network nature.

Sources also report that instead of the hoped-for September release window, the iPhone 5 may instead see the light of day later in October.

This story is currently developing, please refresh for updates as they happen.

Update: The Wall Street Journal’s article has gone live, and has fleshed out a few of the more salient details: the iPhone 4 will reportedly be sold alongside the iPhone 5 on Sprint. Additionally, what scant details WSJ has on the iPhone 5's appearance indicate that the new handset will “be thinner and lighter with an improved digital camera.”

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Rumor: Apple Preparing Discount iPhone 4 For September

Chris Velazco is a mobile enthusiast and writer who studied English and Marketing at Rutgers University. Once upon a time, he was the news intern for MobileCrunch, and in between posts, he worked in wireless sales at Best Buy. After graduating, he returned to the new TechCrunch to as a full-time mobile writer. He counts advertising, running, musical theater,... ? Learn More

Déjà vu, much? Like Apple’s original strategy for the aging iPhone 3GS, a new report states that Apple is working on an 8GB iPhone 4 to be sold at a discount while the iPhone 5 will sell at a higher price with contract.

According to Reuters’s sources, Apple has contracted a Korean firm to manufacture the discount iPhone’s flash drive. Samsung was previously one of Apple’s vendors of choice for flash memory (the other being Toshiba) but it’s possible that recent patent unpleasantness may have soured that relationship.

The device, which is expected to launch within the next few weeks, is being looked at as Apple’s attempt to capture customers looking to transition into their first smartphone. Given the amount of mileage that Apple has gotten out of the 8GB iPhone 3GS that launched alongside the iPhone 4, such a device would probably give Apple some extra traction among first-time smartphowners.

The anonymous sources also come bearing news of the iPhone 5: it is reportedly slated for a late September release, but sans the cosmetic changes early renders and case designs have alluded to. The device is said to pack “a bigger touch screen, better antenna and an 8-megapixel camera,” but would otherwise look identical to the current model. Hon Hai and Pegatron, the two companies outed as working on the new iPhone, have been told to be ready to produce a total of 45 million units — nothing to sneeze at, for sure.

Summer is almost over, and the rumors are swirling at a faster pace than ever. The closer we get to the iPhone 5's supposed launch, the more I hope some unrefutable evidence trickles out, but the scenario outlined above may well be what Apple has planned for the weeks to come.

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Source: The iPhone 5 Will Indeed Be A Dual-Mode CDMA / GSM ‘World Phone’

Robin Wauters currently works as a staff writer for TechCrunch and lead editor of Virtualization.com. Aside from his professional blogging activities, he’s an entrepreneur, event organizer, occasional board adviser and angel investor but most importantly an all-round startup champion. Wauters lives and works in Belgium, a tiny country in Europe. He can often be found working from his home or... ? Learn More

The upcoming iPhone 5 will almost certainly be a single phone that supports multiple networks, namely CDMA (such as the one used by Verizon or Sprint in the United States) as well as GSM (which is used by AT&T and T-Mobile in the U.S.).

This has been rumored before, and even at one point half confirmed by a Verizon executive, but nothing like some good old evidence from the field to turn a rumor into a near-certainty.

I was recently approached by a developer of some of the most popular apps on the iOS platform today, who asked not to be named and offered solid proof that supports the above claim.

According to this person, and app usage logs I was sent, a tiny number of people have recently registered for one of their applications from a single, brand new Apple device that is decidedly dual-mode – meaning it supports both CDMA and GSM.

The logs show that the app has been briefly tested by a handful of people using what is almost certainly an iPhone 5, evidently running iOS 5, sporting two distinct sets of mobile network codes (MNC) / mobile country codes (MCC). Those codes can be used to uniquely identify mobile carriers.

Sure enough, some registrations for the app – which the developer also asked not to be named – were logged from a new Apple device, using the MNC/MCC codes from both Verizon and AT&T.

The first iPhone was a GSM phone released on June 29, 2007 exclusively on the AT&T network in the United States. On February 10, 2011, a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 for Verizon made its debut.

Now that Apple is catering to both carriers (and their respective networks), it makes all the sense in the world for the company to combine support for both CDMA and GSM in a single device, turning it into a ‘world phone’ or a ‘global phone’ as the cool kids would say.

In addition, rumors have been circulating since last year that Qualcomm would replace Intel as the baseband supplier to the iPhone 5 smartphone. Notably, Qualcomm already supplies the baseband to the CDMA version of the iPhone 4, but not the original GSM version of the device.

An Apple-made ‘world phone’ would be great news for consumers, especially those in countries where certain carriers use CDMA (the U.S., India, Japan, Argentina, Brazil and more). Travelling abroad with a phone that only supports CDMA, in particular, is a major pain in the ass.

With a dual-mode iPhone 5, users will be able to roam between both networks effortlessly.

If all of the above checks out – and all signs point to yes, overwhelmingly so – that would mean the soon-to-be-unveiled iPhone 5 probably won’t be an LTE device, perhaps disappointingly so for some who still hadn’t ruled out the possibility of a 4G iPhone in spite of mounting evidence that such a handset wouldn’t be coming out this year.

The 5th-generation iPhone is expected to be globally released in Q3 2011, inline with the release of iOS 5, the next generation of Apple’s operating system.

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