Buy iMac

A company you’ve never heard of is being blamed for dragging Apple’s stock down to its lowest point since late 2011, $401.68. Cirrus Logic, which makes audio chips, reported revenues of $170 million for first quarter, missing analysts’ expectations by nearly $30 million. The reason Apple investors reacted the way they did is because Apple is believed to be Cirrus Logic’s biggest client: if its sales are down, it signals Apple’s mobile device sales could be down too.

According to Bloomberg:

Cirrus will record a net inventory reserve of $23.3 million for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended in March, the Austin, Texas-based company said in a statement yesterday. Most of that — $20.7 million — is from a high-volume product from one customer, Cirrus said, without naming the client.

Bloomberg reports that the unnamed client is Apple, and that 90 percent of Cirrus Logic’s revenues come from selling audio chips that Apple puts inside of iPhones and iPads. If Cirrus Logic has huge amounts of unsold inventory, the thinking is that it’s because Apple had no need for them — that it possibly overestimated the number of iPhones and iPads it was able to sell during the first three months of 2013.

Even if that’s true, there’s more than one possible explanation for Cirrus Logic’s excess supply of chips. Apple could have switched providers of those chips, for instance. Apple CEO Tim Cook warned when similar negative supplier reports caused a massive freakout among investors a week before earnings last quarter: “I’d stress that even if a particular data point were factual, it would be impossible to interpret [the meaning] for our overall business. Yields can vary, supplier performance can vary … there’s an inordinately long list of things that would make any single data point not a great proxy for what’s going on.”

And here we are again, a week from Apple reporting its fiscal second quarter earnings, which will take place April 23. The signs that this isn’t going to be a blowout quarter are there: Apple had no major new product introductions between January and March, and it might also be drawing down production on some models of iPhones and iPads as it may be preparing for new devices this summer.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Analyzing the wearable computing market
• The connected planet: Smartphones aren’t the only player
• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues

Facebook has updated its iOS app to 6.0 and with it comes a cleaner look for the News Feeds, a tweaked icon, plus new ways to chat anywhere in the app with ‘chat heads’. Also new is the ability to send stickers within chats. Full change log below:

What’s New in Version 6.0
Brand new ways to chat and a cleaner look for News Feed.

New for iPhone
• Keep chatting from anywhere in the app with chat heads (available to everyone soon)
• Send stickers to liven up your messages (available to everyone soon)
• Explore new feeds like Music, Photos and Games

New for iPad
• Keep chatting from anywhere in the app with chat heads (available to everyone soon)
• Browse brighter, more beautiful stories

Do note the chat heads and stickers features are being rolled out. We were able to see chat heads but the option to send stickers weren’t available on our end.

With chat heads, you can drag a circular thumbnail of your friend (or friends) anywhere on the app’s screen, akin to your thumbnail window when you’re doing a FaceTime chat. You can quickly move between your Messages inbox and your friends by tapping the circular thumbnails.

To end a chat or remove it, just drag the thumbnail down to the bottom of your screen to close it.

Overall, this 6.0 update seems to bring a more refined feel to the iOS app. Let me know what you think of this update!

Click here to download Facebook from the App Store–it’s free.

Facebook 6.0 for iOS Brings Chat Heads, Stickers, Improved News Feed [PICS] is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog – Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Google has announced its Flipboard competitor, Google Currents, has now added Canadian news content for its users:

Today, we’re bringing Canadian publications to Currents. We have great editions from publications like The Toronto Star, CBC, iVillage Canada, Canada.com, and Cottage Life. You can scan through all your favourite categories and specific editions with just the swipe of a finger. And, we use some of the technology behind Search to bring you breaking stories on those celebrity scandals, news that shakes the business world, or latest and greatest sports moments.

Another addition adds reading in your preferred language, as Google Currents now has built-in support for Google Translate. Just tap on the globe icon while reading an edition to choose from 38 supported languages.

Google Currents first debuted in the U.S. back in December of 2011, but eventually went global in April of 2012.

Click here to download Google Currents–it’s free. You can subscribe to iPhoneinCanada.ca within Google Currents by clicking here.

Google Currents for iOS Adds Canadian News Content, Translation Support is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog – Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Globalnews.ca has launched a new responsive website design to target the increasingly growing number of mobile users that access news from their smartphones and tablets.

What’s also new about the site is there will be featured editorial content written by journalists but commissioned by advertisers, to go alongside news stories, as the media industry continues to experiment with new revenue models.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Ron Waksman, senior director of online and current affairs says this model is already existent on its television newscasts. With the new responsive site, it will cater to Canadians who want access to local news video, which he calls their “secret weapon”:

“Original content is very important to us,” Mr. Waksman said. “We tell everyone that our competition is everyone. But we believe our secret weapon is local news video – we gather the most superior local news in most Canadian markets … we need to we fit into the consumers life from when they wake up and check their iPhone, move to their computer during the day and then check a few videos before going to bed.”

The new website is slick and designed well for easy navigating of news stories. Just visit Globalnews.ca from your iPhone or iPad to see how the site will adjust to your screen’s resolution.

Global News Launches New Responsive Design to Target Mobile Users is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog – Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

If you use RSS feeds to keep up with the news, Google probably broke your heart yesterday by announcing that it’s shutting down Google Reader on July 1. Reader, aside from being a great web RSS reader, provided the syncing backend for many RSS readers in the iOS App Store, including Reeder, Mr. Reader and Newsify. I’ve been using Google Reader to sync my feeds for five years, so I’ve come to rely on it heavily for my news.

But recently I’ve also come to rely on several news aggregation apps (most of which are really just RSS readers with special features). Real RSS readers will still be around when Reader’s gone, especially given the market opportunity Reader’s demise presents for companies like Digg — which announced Thursday it would pick up where Google Reader leaves off — but it can’t hurt to have options for consuming news on your  mobile device. Sometimes I’ll find articles in these apps that I wouldn’t have found in my more focused list of RSS feeds.

Here are five good iOS apps — all of them are free — that you can personalize to help you keep up with the news:

Zite

Zite bills itself as a personalized digital magazine, and it’s actually been around for awhile (it was acquired by CNN in 2011). Zite’s interface is kind of boring, but it’s also straightforward. When you first start Zite, you can choose from a list of default topics for it to pull articles from. You can also add your own topics through the search interface. A newsfeed displays rectangular article previews for your top news. You can like or dislike the articles Zite shows you, and that data is used to find other articles you might like. You can switch between topics by swiping left or right, and view which topics an article has attached to it by swiping up.

Flud

Flud is unique in that you can follow articles that other users are sharing. Each user also gets a Flud iQ score, which measures your influence on the service based on your activity. Besides following other users, you can also search for new sources to draw from, which are added to a favorites menu. Flud’s interface is more interesting than Zite’s, with large article previews and pretty red buttons. However, the large previews mean only two article previews can fit on the screen at one time, so scrolling through them ends up feeling tedious at times.

Circa

Unlike the others on this list, Circa doesn’t show you full articles from a source. Instead, Circa has editors that condense articles into nuggets of information called “points.” Rather than reading the full text of the article, you swipe through a list of points. Because the articles have to be condensed by humans, Circa has a feature where you can follow an article, so you’ll get notified whenever a new point is added to it. You can’t add new sources or topics to Circa, and it only comes with four topics by default. If you’re fine with that caveat and like things straight to the point, Circa’s worth checking out.

Flipboard

Flipboard’s been pretty widely covered by now, but it can’t hurt to throw it in. Flipboard has a sort of homescreen where you can add and arrange topics. As implied in its name, you “flip” through articles rather than scrolling a list, which means you also have to flip through the ones you might not be interested in.The biggest strength of Flipboard is that you can add a multitude of social networks as sources, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+. You can even add your Google Reader account as a source — until it shuts down.

Pulse

The thing that stands out about Pulse’s app is its interface. Instead of a list of articles, you’re shown a vertically scrolling list of sources and under each is a horizontally scrolling list of articles from that source. The advantage of this is that it allows Pulse to fit nine article previews in one view. Flud only fits two, for comparison. The disadvantage is that it requires a little more scrolling to get through your articles, since they’re arranged horizontally. The headline text is rather small too, and there’s no way to change it. Old eyes beware.

What’s your favorite news aggregator? Are there any you’ve tried that aren’t on the list? Tell us in the comments. 

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The 2013 task management tools market
• How do developers ride the Siri wave?
• Connectivity means making the machine disappear

Winston is not just another news app, it’s a personal assistant that reads you the latest news headlines and updates from your social feeds.

Winston’s content is broken up into channels. There are general channels, such as Technology and Business, there is a Briefing channel that has some content from all of your channels, and you can add channels for a specific news source, such as The Guardian or The Onion. When you select a channel, Winston will read about 10 of the latest updates from it, and when you select the Briefing, Winston will also tell you the local weather report.

Unfortunately, Winston has a couple issues. The first is content. There are only a handful of websites Winston pulls headlines from, so your preferred news site may not be available.

The other is Winston’s voice, and I’m not talking about his accent. Too often Winston will read a Tweet or headline, and I find it won’t be clear or make any sense. This is because Winston often echoes, repeats itself, and blurs words and syllables together. However, most of the time I could still understand what Winston was saying.

Share interesting news

Tap a headline to view the article

Also, Winston’s pronunciation is ok, until it gets to a name. For example, Winston would pronounce Killzone as Kill-zin, Sinestro as Sine-s-tro, and G. Stroumboulopoulos as G. Strambo… mubble… mubble…. This didn’t make understanding Winston difficult, because usually the pronunciation was close or the word was in the headline, but this definitely made Winston more entertaining.

If you think having news, and social updates read to you sounds useful, or you want some free entertainment, give Winston a try. You can download Winston for free from the App Store here. Then, let us know if you understand what Winston is saying.

Winston – Your Somewhat Comprehensive News Reader [Review] is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog – Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Winston is not just another news app, it’s a personal assistant that reads you the latest news headlines and updates from your social feeds.

Winston’s content is broken up into channels. There are general channels, such as Technology and Business, there is a Briefing channel that has some content from all of your channels, and you can add channels for a specific news source, such as The Guardian or The Onion. When you select a channel, Winston will read about 10 of the latest updates from it, and when you select the Briefing, Winston will also tell you the local weather report.

Unfortunately, Winston has a couple issues. The first is content. There are only a handful of websites Winston pulls headlines from, so your preferred news site may not be available.

The other is Winston’s voice, and I’m not talking about his accent. Too often Winston will read a Tweet or headline, and I find it won’t be clear or make any sense. This is because Winston often echoes, repeats itself, and blurs words and syllables together. However, most of the time I could still understand what Winston was saying.

Share interesting news

Tap a headline to view the article

Also, Winston’s pronunciation is ok, until it gets to a name. For example, Winston would pronounce Killzone as Kill-zin, Sinestro as Sine-s-tro, and G. Stroumboulopoulos as G. Strambo… mubble… mubble…. This didn’t make understanding Winston difficult, because usually the pronunciation was close or the word was in the headline, but this definitely made Winston more entertaining.

If you think having news, and social updates read to you sounds useful, or you want some free entertainment, give Winston a try. You can download Winston for free from the App Store here. Then, let us know if you understand what Winston is saying.

Winston – Your Somewhat Comp News Reader [Review] is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog – Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

The Globe and Mail iOS app for news has been updated to support videos on the iPhone and iPad, plus push notification alerts for breaking stories. Also, the app now features higher quality images than before and also support for their interactive multimedia features.

For iPhone 5 owners, galleries now work in landscape orientation, plus there are some improvements and bug fixes. If you’ve been having issues with this app this update should address them.

What’s New in Version 2.6
- Videos on iPhone and iPad
- News alerts for breaking stories
- Higher quality images throughout the app
- Support for interactive multimedia features
- Galleries now available in landscape on iPhone 5
- Performance improvements for newer devices
- Small styling fixes
- Fix crashes related to offline reading
- Other minor bug fixes

Once you launch the updated app, you’ll be asked to accept Push Notifications. Within settings in the app, you can toggle the alerts on or off. It states you will receive no more than a few alerts during a normal week.

Click here to download The Globe and Mail: News for iOS–it’s free.

The Globe and Mail: News for iOS Updated with Breaking Alerts, Videos is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog – Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

For all the sports fans out there theScore Mobile has received a decent update today to include full coverage of upcoming ‘March Madness’ from the NCAA College Basketball tournament, breaking news push alerts for your favourite leagues (NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB), easier customization of league ordering, and more. Not much to say here other than to download this if you love sports.

What’s New in Version 3.5.3
• NCAA College Basketball Tournament – full coverage of draw and all games. Turn on Upset Tracker alerts to be notified in real time of any potential upsets! The All Games alert will notify you at the end of every tournament game with the final score.

• Breaking News push alerts for your favorite leagues – We’ve now got breaking news alerts for the biggest trades, injuries and happenings – for NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB. Turn them on when you go into the “News” section for each league. You can turn them off easily in the settings area.

• Customize your league ordering even easier on iPhone – click “More Leagues” and tap the plus / minus buttons.

• Proper team calendar names for full seasons.

• Optimizations to team alerts. Note: If you want to make any changes to your alerts you can customize all alerts under settings now.

• Full coverage of NBA Trade Deadline in the Scores and News sections. Live Feb 18th.

 

Back in October, ScoreMedia was acquired by Rogers, with the latter also having a 10% stake into ScoreDigital, the maker of theScore.

Click here to download theScore for iOS, it’s free and also a universal app.

theScore for iOS Updated with NCAA Basketball, Breaking News Push Alerts is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog – Canada's #1 iPhone Resource

Winston for iPhone, a completely re-designed speech-enabled personal assistant that narrates you the news from your social streams and favorite news sites, is now available on the App Store for free. Unlike Siri, Winston is a personable British butler that focuses on news instead of sending messages, bringing you an audiovisual newscast that you can enjoy on your iPhone (via TUAW).

Developed by Reactor Labs, the app has been completely redesigned since its initial launch last year. With Winston 2.0, users can create a personalized news briefing from their favorite news and social sources. Users get to watch the slideshow of images as Winston reads the news in a charming British accent. Currently, there’s only one voice option (British Male), and the news sources are also limited to what’s available in the app.

From the iTunes description:

What’s New in Version 2.0.0

Winston has been completely redesigned since our sneak peek in August. Here’s a look at some of what’s new:

- New channels have been added including a personalized Twitter channel.
- Newscasts now display more information in the new, more elegant design. If you own an Apple TV, try out landscape mode over AirPlay. It looks great.
- Tap the bottom bar in newscasts to access a web view that allows you to browse the actual text of any news story Winston is telling you about.
- Fully customize what appears in your briefing by rearranging your channels in the main menu. The order and content of your briefing now reflects the order and content of your selected channels.
- Winston has grown wiser over the past several months. He has expanded his vocabulary, and it may surprise you how much he knows about the news and social content present in your newscasts.

Download Winston 2.0 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad [Direct Link]

Siri Like News Assistant ‘Winston 2.0′ Hits The App Store [VIDEO] is a post from: iPhone in Canada Blog – Canada's #1 iPhone Resource