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Filed under: Gaming, Hardware, Apple, iPhone, iPod touch

Survey: Less than half of touchscreen users prefer touchscreen

Here's a few interesting stats from a survey recently conducted in Europe. These aren't specifically about the iPhone, but given that smartphones relied on buttons almost exclusively before Apple's handheld came along (and nowadays, everyone's bragging about their touchscreen technology), a temperature-taking on what people think of touchscreen controls is more or less a referendum on what people think of Apple's influence.

At least in France, Germany and the UK, reactions are mixed. While 38% of those surveyed say they were planning to get a touchscreen on their next mobile phone, only 47% of people who already owned a touchscreen said they would get another one. In other words, less than half of touchscreen owners thought they'd stick with the technology on their next purchase. Apple remains an anomaly -- both HTC and Apple have a higher amount of current customers planning to stick with their touchscreen interface (with the full numbers being released at a conference later this month), but the fact remains: current touchscreen users aren't anywhere near 100% on living button-free forever.

Especially as a gamer, that makes a lot of sense. Touchscreens are great for a lot of things -- they allow for limitless flexibility in the kinds of interfaces on offer, and especially with multi-touch, a lot of the controls on the iPhone are extremely intuitive (you automatically know now that pinching equals zooming, and so on). But as nice as touchscreen is, there are a lot of functions on mobile phones, from adjusting volume or changing music tracks on a phone out of sight in your pocket, to hitting exact button controls while twitch gaming, that work much better with tactile feedback. Steve, as he always does, made a big deal about the iPhone being a one-button interface, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see future iterations of the iPhone include either a few more buttons, or, even better, a few more haptic interface technologies.

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail

Apple retail news: three new stores opened this weekend

While all of the attention this weekend was around the launch of Snow Leopard, Apple opened up three new retail stores; two new stores in the US and one in Germany.

First, the company opened a new store in Hamburg, Germany on Saturday, which is now Apple's second store in Germany, after the store in Munich opened last December.

Second, there's a new store in Dedham, Massachusetts at the Legacy Place shopping center. This store will be the ninth store in the state of Massachusetts.

Finally, Apple also opened up a new store at the Stonebriar shopping complex in Frisco, Texas. This store makes it the sixth store in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

If you live in or are near one of these areas, be sure to check out your new Apple Store. As always, we would love to hear your stories of your first visit or see your photos!

Filed under: iPhone

French and German carriers release iPhone pricing (Update: and Italy's, too)

Heads up, mimes, and er... strudels: the iPhone 3G S pricing for France and Germany has been released!

One of France's providers, Orange, plans to charge €229 ($318US) for the 32GB version and €149 ($206US) for the 16GB with a one-year minimum contract. The least expensive contract will cost €39 and last two years. Orange plans to open its Champs-Elysées store one minute past midnight on the day of release, which means the French will have their iPhones in hand a full 14 hours before the U.S.

Orange is also releasing a new data plan that has four hours of calling and unlimited e-mail and text messages, 60 TV channels and Internet access through 3G and WiFi at €52 per month, an imporvement over previous plans with fewer TV channels and unlimited texting only at certain times of day. Tethering will also be available at €9.90 per month for 200MB of traffic, or €29.90 for "unlimited service" that will be throttled once the user exceeds 1GB of data.

Germany's T-Mobile, in a similar approach to O2 in the UK, is pricing the iPhone 3G S at €1 for both models, but to get that price the customer must agree to a two year contract at €119.95 per month. The most expensive configuration at the outset is the 32GB phone at €249.95, but it will allow for cheaper contracts.

Orange's competitors, SFR and Bouygues Telecom, have not yet released pricing information. SFR plans to release the 3G S on June 24th, and Bouygues has not yet announced a date.

Update: Italy's provider, TIM, has also released their pricing scheme for prepaid plans: €719 for the 32GB phone and €619 for the 16GB. Thanks, antiorario!

[Via Macworld]

Filed under: iTS

Movies come to German iTunes Store

After much time and negotiation, movies have finally come to the German iTunes Store. As of this writing, there are 500 films available to German customers (just about 100 are available in HD), including American hits like The Dark Knight (good movie, but the motorcycle is a bit over the top) and Die Fälscher from German cinema.

Pricing breaks down like this:
  • Older titles are sold for €7.99
  • Newer titles sell for €9.99
  • Brand-new releases are €13.99
Rentals are either €2.99 or €3.99. TV shows came to the German iTunes Store earlier this month last year.

[Via iPodNN]

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, OS

German Mac clone maker claims it won't face Psystar's legal troubles

Matthias Kremp, of German periodical Der Spiegel, has an interesting story about PearC, "Der PC mit Mac OS X." You don't need Google Translate to figure out what that means, though a mechanical translation of the story is available here.

PearC is offering three flavors of Mac clones in Germany, starting at €499. All of the options are built to order: The Starter edition can be equipped with anything from an Intel Pentium Dual Core E2200 to a Core 2 Duo E7300. The Professional version, though, starts at €1,499, and can be powered by a 3.2GHz Intel Core i7 Extreme processor for an extra €720 -- a processor that Apple does not offer. PearC also offers Blu-Ray optical drives as an option.

All come with the option to install Mac OS X. Kremp notes that PearC's parent company, Hypermeganet, says that since the End User License Agreement (EULA) is sealed inside retail copies of Mac OS X, there's no legal way to review the EULA. If you'll pardon the bad translation, "the restrictions that Apple [has] for its Mac OS X in the EULA [...] in Germany [has] no legal explanation," said Hypermeganet spokesman Dirk Blößl.

"Hypermeganet assumes, therefore, that the product (meaning the Mac clone) in Germany is legal," he says.

Similarly, Psystar, possibly bankrolled by a larger PC clone maker, is defending itself now against charges that it violated Apple's EULA by selling clones with Mac OS X. That dispute is ongoing.

Apple did not return Spiegel Online's request for comment. However, Kremp concluded by suggesting "one may probably assume" that Apple will pursue legal action against the clone maker.

Thanks, Hauke, Holger and Martin!

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail

Munich Apple Store opening draws huge crowd


Here's a familiar story -- an Apple Store opening draws a huge crowd. This time, the store in question was Germany's very first. Construction on this location began all the way back in July of 2007, and we started to see job postings in May of this year. Some reports state that 4,000 people visited the store in the first few hours.

iPhone Savior reports that the day was busy but the crowd was handled efficiently. To get a glimpse of the throng, check out this cool Quicktime VR.

Congratulations, Munich! Enjoy your new Apple Store.

[Via MacDailyNews]

Filed under: Retail

Ausgezeichnet! Apple's first German retail store opening Saturday

It's been in the building phase for a while, and now the date is set: Saturday should see the opening of Germany's first official Apple Store, on Rosenstraße in beautiful Munich. No word yet on whether the German retail employees will be applauding and cheering the first customers at 10 am, but we sure hope so. Perhaps the commemorative t-shirts will be printed with "Hallo, Ich Bin Ein Mac."

Coverage (auf Deutsch) of the press opener is here, and a very nice Flickr set of photos from inside the store is here. If you are attending the Saturday store opening, send in your reports in the comments.

Thanks Yosi, Killian and Chris!

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Surveys and Polls, iPhone

Wired iPhone reception survey results


Wired has published the results of the iPhone reception survey they were running, and clearly Antarctica needs way more coverage. But they also pulled a lot of useful data out of places where people actually live, and it probably doesn't surprise you.

3G performance is slow almost all over, especially in cities where the 3G service is getting overloaded. If you want to have fast speeds, hang out in Germany and the Netherlands -- those folks had the fastest speeds (and it's no coincidence that the 3G network there has three extra development years on its American counterpart). The worst reception is apparently in Australia, as Optus and Virgin users had their iPhones chugging along at just 759 Kbps.

What can we draw from this? Just like those Swedish scientists told us, it's the service, not the phone. But you know what Mark Twain said about statistics, so just in case you want to draw your own conclusions, Wired has kindly made a Google Spreadsheet of all the data available to anyone who wants it. Anyone want to try putting together that heatmap?

Filed under: iPhone

iPhone 3G on display in Germany: alles in Ordnung

Hallo vom aus Deutschland! Since I haven't been able to participate in most of the line-waiting, MobileMe-stalling, activation-collapsing fun yesterday and today, and the 29 pages of lovely iPod touch apps are inaccessible until the touch update drops, I figured the least I could do was post a picture of one lonely iPhone 3G on display in the T-Mobile store in the Innenstadt (central city) of Osnabrück, a medium-sized city in the northwest portion of the country.

The caption reads "Das iPhone, auf das Sie gewartet haben" -- the iPhone you've been waiting for. Despite reports of mob scenes elsewhere, I can report that if you're looking for an iPhone 3G in Osnabrück you can just walk in, lay down your euros and buy it with nobody in a sleeping bag blocking your way register for one when they get back into stock (weak!).

Filed under: iPhone

T-Mobile to retain iPhone exclusivity in Germany

At the Reuters Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in Paris today, T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan said he expected to continue being the exclusive iPhone provider in Germany, citing the company's strong relationship with Apple.

He also noted that "if and when" there is a 3G iPhone, T-Mobile anticipates selling it exclusively in Germany as well. Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile's parent company) will sell the iPhone in Austria, but Orange will carry the iPhone in Germany's southern neighbor as well.

[Via Reuters]

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Retail

Apple posts job listings for Munich Apple Store

In June of last year, we wrote about the Apple Store that has been planned for Munich, Germany. At the time, rumors identified an opening date of "...the 2nd half of 2008."

Today, Apple has posted several retail job openings for Munich, from concierge up to store manager; eleven in total. If they've begun looking for employees, the store must be near completion.

The iPhone was made available to Germans in November of last year, and a June store opening would coincide nicely with the rumored 3G iPhone release.

If you're a TUAW reader in Munich, head down to 1 Rosenstrasse (formerly home to Sport Schuster sporting goods) and let us know what you find! The time has almost come for Germany's first Apple Store!

Thanks, Chris!

Filed under: iPhone

German iPhone buyers get discounted 8GB handsets

Was is los in Deutschland heute? First the iTunes video store finally makes a German-language debut this week, and today we receive word via a T-Mobile press release that the first tiered-discount plan for iPhone purchases is now in effect. German buyers can take advantage of a limited-time offer (April 7 to June 30) to purchase an 8GB iPhone for as little as 99 euros, if they sign up for the top 2-year contract on a service plan (the Complete XL, 1000 minutes and 300 SMS for 89 euro a month) at buy time. Translated offer pages here and here. Lower-priced plans offer a comparatively lower discount, with the top price for an 8GB iPhone at 249 euros. Note that the 16 GB iPhone remains full freight at 499 euro.

Is this another example of the iPhone shortage phenomenon, or just some clever promotion by T-Mobile to enhance sales of the lower-end handset? Ach du meine Gute, ich bin völlig verwirrt.

Thanks Thorsten & c0caine

Filed under: iTS, Features, Deals

Kostenlos Mittwoch: Es Gibt TV!

As Brett posted earlier, guess what's neu over at the Deutschland iTMS? TV Sendungen! Finally, TV has macht its way over the channel from England and für nur €1,99-€2,49 an eppy, you can get your TV on with South Park and Desperate Housewives. As far as the new hinzugefügte goes, I had a bit of trouble getting it all working this morning. You might have to wait until the store gets fully sorted. Here's a direct link to the new TV section, which features TV so wie Tramitz and Friends, Kaya Yanar, und Sechser Pack. Bitte forgiven Sie mein Deutsch. Despite having taken Erste Jahr Deutsch dreimal, not a lot of it stuck with mich. Kostenlossen/Gratis heute gibts jetzt in TV:

Deutschland: Ladyland, Staffel 1
Ihre Frauenfiguren in "Ladyland" geben ihr die Möglichkeit, in die verschiedensten Rollen und Charaktere zu schlüpfen. Dabei stammen die Geschichten direkt aus dem Leben: überraschend, spannend, zum Schmunzeln, haarsträubend, verrückt und manchmal auch tragikomisch. Eben (fast) so, wie sie jeden Tag irgendwo auf der Welt passieren könnten. Anke Engelke schlüpft in jeder Folge in ganz unterschiedliche Rollen: Mal ist sie eine arrogante Immobilienmaklerin, die sich plötzlich in einem Kuhstall wiederfindet, dann die kleine kaufmännische Angestellte, bei der sich ein Scharfschütze auf dem Balkon einquartiert, mal eine angehende Ministerpräsidentin mit Alkohol-Problem, dann eine Hotelrezeptionistin mit künstlerischen Ambitionen oder ein einfältiges Blondchen, das tatsächlich eine SMS von Gott erhält.

Deutschland: Pastewka, Staffel 3
In der 3. Staffel von "Pastewka" zeigt sich, dass das Leben eines Promis nicht nur extrem aufregend ist, sondern vor allem auch unglaublich kompliziert sein kann: Bastians Bruder Hagen ist immer noch mit der launischen Nachbarin Svenja Bruck liiert und führt diese - trotz Bastians massivem Widerstand - auch noch offiziell in die Familie ein. Vater Pastewka und Nichte Kim sorgen ebenfalls für Zuwachs: Kim hat endlich ihren ersten Freund und Vater Pastewka eine neue Putzfrau, die sich ganz offensichtlich nicht nur um seine schmutzige Wäsche kümmert. In der Beziehung zwischen Bastian und Anne kriselt es, und Annes dauerfröhlicher Ex-Freund Jo provoziert bei Bastian Eifersuchtsausbrüche. In all dem familiären Chaos dürfen natürlich auch in der 3. Staffel die lieben Kollegen nicht fehlen. So gibt es Gastauftritte u.a. von Michael Kessler, Maddin Schneider, Bully Herbig, Til Schweiger und Barbara Salesch.

Deutschland: Switch, Staffel 1
Ob Daily-Soap, Talkshow, Nachrichten, Werbung oder Erotikmagazin - nichts ist vor "Switch" sicher und alles wird persifliert. "Switch" stellt mit hintergründigem Humor die Besonderheiten von Inhalten, Formaten und Darbietungen aus der gesamten Fernsehlandschaft heraus.

Filed under: Apple Financial, iPhone

Report: iPhone selling very well in France

When the iPhone became available in France on November 29th, the French said, "Oui."

According to a report at Reuters, Orange has sold 30,000 iPhones in the first five days . As Fortune points out, that's nearly 1 iPhone for every 2,000 Frenchmen. Compare that to the 270,000 iPhones sold in the United States' opening weekend (or about 1 for every 1,111 Americans), and it's clear that the iPhone is a hit in France.

What's more, 17 percent of Orange France stores sold out of iPhones in the first 21 hours. It should also be noted that France shoppers can purchase iPhones without a contract that ties them to a single carrier.

Thanks, Eddie!

Filed under: iPhone

Report: Germans buy 10,000 iPhones

T-Mobile is reporting that 10,000 iPhones were sold in Germany on the first day of sales. A store in Cologne re-opened at 12:01 AM for the event, and T-Mobile reps distributed blankets, umbrellas and warm snacks to shoppers standing in wind and rain.

No activation numbers have been released yet. It has been speculated that demand will be greater than supply during the holiday shopping season, but a T-Mobile spokesman told Reuters: "We have plenty."

To our German readers: Enjoy your iPhones! Let us know how it goes.

[Via MacNN]

Tip of the Day

F11 moves all your windows off the screen so you can quickly glance at your desktop. F10 shows you every open window in an application. F9 shows every open window for every application that isn't hidden or in the dock.


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