Apple has just posted its first quarter fiscal 2012 results. (There is a live conference call to follow). One of the biggest items to pop from the press release is the status of the iPod.

Unlike iPhones, iPads, and Macs, all of which experienced terrific gains, the 11-year-old iPod line experienced a 21% unit decline year-over-year, from last winter's quarter.

Apple did not introduce a new iPod touch this Autumn, breaking a tradition of Fall iPod launches and refreshes.

Of course, the function of an iPod or iPod touch has been filled for many customers by the iPhone, which sold like gangbusters this quarter.

iPod line experiences major decline year-over-year originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The iPhone's default Music app already has lyrics support built in, but you have to fetch the lyrics yourself; songs sold on the iTunes Store still don't include lyrics after all these years. Shazam, makers of the well-known app that will identify songs playing in your vicinity after sampling a few seconds of audio, has released a free music player app called Shazam Player for the iPhone and iPod touch that addresses this gap in a big way.

When first launched, Shazam Player will scan your entire music library to find songs compatible with its LyricPlay feature. Depending on how big your library is, this could take awhile; my iPhone 4S has close to 5000 songs on it (though for some reason Shazam Player only scanned 1600 or so), and it took about 5 minutes for the app to finish scanning my library for the first time.

Shazam's lyrics database doesn't appear to be especially comprehensive yet, or at least not for the kind of music I tend to listen to. Out of 4936 tracks, Shazam Player found only 374 compatible with LyricPlay.

For songs that support it, LyricPlay is pretty cool and mildly reminiscent of the kinetic typography music videos I've seen on YouTube. Lyrics scroll or fly onto the screen perfectly in time with the music. There are a variety of fonts and animation styles in LyricPlay, with some of them easier to read than others -- one particular style displays the currently playing snippet of lyrics at the bottom of the screen with all other lyrics jammed above it, which isn't particularly readable. Fortunately Shazam Player also includes Lyrics sheet, a more standard text-based view of lyrics for when LyricPlay wears out its welcome.

Shazam Player has a nice UI, and the price is right -- since it's free, there's no reason not to check it out. But while LyricPlay and the other features are novel features, I'll most likely stick with the standard Music app on my iPhone; Shazam Player seems to lag and choke a bit on a music library as large as mine.

That having been said, I strongly hope that Shazam is working on a version of Shazam Player for the iPad. While I don't feel that Shazam Player is going to replace the Music app on my iPhone in daily usage, the Music app on the iPad is so terrible that something like Shazam Player would be a most welcome alternative.

Shazam Player brings lyrics support and more to iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We all expected that iOS sales would be incredible during the holiday season, but now a study by Localytics reported on GigaOM shows that the activation level for new iOS devices was even greater than expected.

The study showed that 12.5 times more iOS devices accessed games and apps using Localytics' platform during the holiday weekend than over previous weekends. That's the worldwide average -- in the US and Germany, the average was 15 to 16 times greater than the average new device activations. For the competing Android platform, the gains were in the 11 to 12 times greater range.

Other fascinating numbers from the Localytics study include the fact that in the US, activations of iPod touch devices were 21 times greater than usual, while iPhones were activated at 14 times the standard rate.

Apple ruled the roost in terms of activation gains in the US, UK, and Germany, while Android won the contest in other European countries and in Asia.

Study finds many iOS activations during the holidays originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Small Bluetooth speakers for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad seem to be the current rage. Recently, I did a review of the Logitech Mini Boombox, an amazing small speaker that packs a punch. However, I felt that the bass end on that speaker was bit on the weak side. Satechi has recently come out with the new BT Wireless Pocket Speaker (US$44.99) with a unique patented fold-out resonator that is designed to boost the bass without increasing the size of the speaker. How did this work? Read on for a full review of this little speaker.

Design

The design of the Satechi BT Wireless Pocket Speaker is completely unique. It's a small four-sided blob that is reminiscent of a small turtle. There are no visible buttons -- they're hidden under a chrome bezel strip that winds its way around the exterior of the device. On top of the speaker is a rounded area that, when rotated, causes a resonator to pop out. While the drawings in the user manual seem to show the resonator more than doubling the height of the speaker, it actually only pops up about a half-inch.

The Pocket Speaker comes with a USB to mini-USB cable for charging, as well as a small pouch for protection. On the bottom of the speaker is a short cable that neatly tucks into place if you'd prefer to plug the Pocket Speaker into your iPhone's headphone jack or chain several of the Pocket Speakers together to make an über-speaker.

Gallery: Satechi BT Portable Speaker System

It's cute, it's tiny, and it is attractively priced. But how does the Satechi BT Wireless Pocket Speaker sound?

Functionality

The speaker pairs with your iPhone, iPad, or pretty much any Bluetooth device. The pairing process is simple -- you press and hold the power button (designated by the universal power icon on the chrome bezel) until you see the blue light flashing. Once that happens, going into Settings > General > Bluetooth reveals the unpaired device, and typing in 0000 as the pairing code makes the connection.

Unlike the more expensive Mini Boombox, the Pocket Speaker is not a stereo speaker. Basically, you're getting monaural sound from the device and hooking up more of them in series is only going to give you monaural sound from a bunch of speakers. Multiple speakers would make the sound louder, but wouldn't give it true stereo.

The volume is adjusted either on the device or using the Music app controls. I found it worked best to turn the Pocket Speaker's volume to the maximum and then use the Music controls to adjust the level.

The maximum volume on the Pocket Speaker isn't all that loud. While the Logitech Mini Boombox would work admirably to blast music at a noisy party, the Pocket Speaker would probably be drowned out by conversation. I didn't find the sound quality to be as good as that of the Mini Boombox either -- a side by side comparison showed that the resonator on the Pocket Speaker, while a good idea, just didn't add any "punch" to the bass. Both of the speakers are rather weak and low in terms of bass, but that just seems to be a side effect of small size.

Like many of the other speakers of this type, the Pocket Speaker can be used as a speaker phone for your iPhone as well. The same button that allows you to turn up the volume or go to the next track on a playlist also answers an incoming call, while the play/pause and power button also serves to reject or end a call. Note that the Pocket Speaker doesn't have a built-in microphone -- instead, it's using the microphone on your iPhone.

Finally, the speaker "Safety Rules" in the owner's manual gave me a good laugh, especially rule number 3 -- "Take note that this speaker is not edible and should not be placed in your mouth."

Conclusion

This is without a doubt the smallest Bluetooth speaker that I've seen so far, and it works reasonably well. The small size of it keeps the bass sounding rather weak despite the innovative design of the resonator, and it's not a stereo speaker, so if you're looking for big bass and good stereo separation, look elsewhere.

On the other hand, if you just need a small travel speaker that doesn't take up a lot of room, works as a speaker phone, and has an eye-catching design, then the Pocket Speaker might be the one for you. The low price is also a plus for the Pocket Speaker. Satechi also has an even smaller speaker that is designed for the iPhone and iPod touch -- the SD Mini Portable Pocket Speaker -- that sells for $29.99. Kudos to Satechi for creating these tiny speakers and making them affordable for everyone.

Satechi BT Wireless Pocket Speaker review originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The BBC's wildly popular iPlayer app was updated last week to include support for the iPhone and iPod touch plus the ability to stream TV over 3G. As a result of all the new features, iPlayer for iOS has been downloaded over 1.1 million times in just the last week alone. What's more interesting is that 500,000 of those downloads were to people who have never downloaded the app before.

Daniel Danker, BBC's General Manager of Programmes and On Demand, told The Guardian that the new 3G streaming support is the main reason the download numbers were so high: "Last week, 20% of all requests on iPhone were on 3G. That's amazing in such a short period of time. And yet when we look at the audience feedback, nobody has really reported streaming problems over 3G."

Stuart Dredge's Guardian article shares more numbers from Danker along with the BBC's thoughts about on mobile television and developing for Android versus iOS. For those who are more interested in the creation of the app from concept to implementation, read this excellent post by Chris Elphick, Senior Designer of the BBC iPlayer iPhone App project.

BBC iPlayer for iOS is a free download, though the app is not yet available to US users.

BBC's iPlayer racks up 500k users, BBC shows how they made the app originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sadly, there's still no release date in sight for the global BBC iPlayer in the U.S., but those lucky countries that do have it will have it be expanded to the iPhone and iPod touch on Thursday.

The iPad app launched in 11 countries initially, and the number has expanded to 16 with our Canadian neighbors being the most-recent country to get the player. It's the BBC's foray into a video-on-demand service, geared toward bringing its TV library to international viewers. A subscription nets access to programs ranging from the classic Fawlty Towers to the venerable (and still supremely awesome) Doctor Who.

With the constant additions to the BBC's pilot program, I'm hoping that the U.S. will be on tap to get the app soon.

Global BBC iPlayer app will launch for iPhone, iPod touch on Thursday originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

JiWire culls a requests from approximately 289,000 public Wi-Fi locations in the US and uses this information to produce a quarterly report on mobile devices. Its latest report for Q3 2011 confirms what Apple fans already know -- iOS devices rule in the connected device category.

In its broadest sense, a "connected device" is any device that connects to the Internet. For the sake of this study, connected devices are defined as mobile devices that may or may not have a cellular connection. It's the device you pull out of your bag when you're sitting at Starbucks.

According to JiWire, almost 80 percent of ad requests in the US come from an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. The iPhone is number one with 41.9 percent of ad requests, the iPad is second with 23.8 percent and the iPod touch is third with 14.1 percent. Number four is Windows Mobile 7 with 4.9 percent, and the numbers drop precipitously from there.

From quarter to quarter, iOS fell 2 percent, but it still has a significant lead over Android in the US. Ad requests from iOS devices (79.9 percent) are 7 times greater than Android (11.0 percent). Interestingly enough, the mobile platform with the biggest jump is Windows Phone. It's in third place with 5.2 percent of the ad requests, but its quarterly share jumped 1.2 percent. Microsoft recently released Windows Phone 7.5 Mango and unveiled its first Nokia Windows Phone handsets; two factors which could explain this jump

A similar trend occurred in the UK. The iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are the top three connected devices with 71.1 percent of the ad requests. Android is second with 16.6 percent, and Windows Phone is third with 8.1 percent. iOS, though, dropped a significant 6.5 percent, while Windows Phone jumped 5.5%. Android was the only other platform to gain ground last quarter in the UK. It climbed 1.5 percent, while all other platforms fell.

In the US, Apple is clearly in the lead and holding its own against the competition. Apple also dominates in the UK, but it appears that Android and, particularly, Windows Phone took a bite from Apple's lead. Now that the iPhone 4S is available, it will be interesting to see if this trend continues in the current quarter.

Research shows Apple makes top 3 connected devices in US originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple released a new commercial that debuted right before the Thanksgiving holiday break. The ad showcases the iPod touch and all the fun you can have when you share photos, messages and more with your iPod-owning friends. It's obviously targeting younger people who don't have an iPhone and prefer the iPod touch because it doesn't come with a monthly cellular bill. This ad is a timely reminder of the capabilities of the iPod touch. iPod touch sales are declining, and the device could use a holiday shopping boost.

Apple releases "Share the Fun" iPod touch ad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.