What's happening?
What's happening?
Hey, Brian.
Ready to knock out this episode?
You can do this man.
Apple Byte.
You know how we do this.
Apple Byte.
We got to a good job since you know, since it's my last episode and everything so.
Wait.
Hey, what are you talking about?
You're leaving?
You didn't hear, Brian?
Yeah.
I'm transferring to CNET New York.
Transferring?
But why would you leave?
You said that we'd be together forever man.
You said it was forever.
Brian, Brian, Brian.
It's not you.
It's me.
Okay.
Let's talk in a minute, okay?
What talk?
You know what, get out of here.
I don't need you anyways.
Look at this crap man.
What's my line?
What's happening guys?
Brian Tong here and welcome to the best Apple Byte for all the good and bad inside the world of Apple.
That's right.
I called it the best show I've ever done.
Now, let's go to the stories and it's official.
Apple announced WWDC in 2012 will be held in San Francisco from June 11th to the 15th this year but if you thought you even had a remote chance of getting in, tickets are sold out in under 2 hours which is totally awesome for developers in the West Coast and Apple made the 1,600 ticket available around 5 AM.
Well, that's the time when people were still cuddling their hug-me pillows but don't worry, you can always find a ticket at our friends on eBay like this one.
That's already at $2,850 with 3 days ago.
Now, we know Apple can afford one and they announced their quarterly earnings this week with their best-ever 2nd fiscal quarter with over $39 billion in revenue and a net profit of $11.6 billion.
The stand out products were no surprise.
The iPhones selling over 35.1 million units, up 88% year over year and iPad selling nearly 11.8 million units, up 151%.
Now, Mac sold 4 million units of 7% and there was a drop off with a 7.7 million iPod sold, down 15%.
While the interesting magnet of news came from the Q&A session where Tim Cook shut down the idea of a Hybrid Macbook iPad-like device.
So instead, anything can be forced converged but the problem is that products are about trade offs and you begin to make trade-offs to the point where what you have left doesn't please anyone.
You can converge a toaster and refrigerator but those things are probably not going to be pleasing to the user.
I personally would like a refriger-toaster.
Now, Cook's comments aren't discouraging.
They're just making it clear Apple won't be doing anything like it in the near future but there's more and more accessories serving this purpose like the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard cover that earned the prestigious Editor's Choice from CNET so let's check it out.
I'm Scott Stein and I like writing on my iPad.
Well, I usually like writing on it if I don't have to do too many other tasks other than pure typing and then when it comes to finding a keyboard for my iPad, it's a bit of a trial and error because some keyboard cases are really pretty bulky and I don't always like typing on my iPad screen directly.
Low and behold, the new Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for the iPad.
It looks like it's a laptop, right?
No.
It's an iPad with this new keyboard cover attached to it.
It connects the same way that a Smart Cover attaches via magnets and this little thin case doubles as keyboard that you lay and set-up with your iPad, right through this docking connector and it even has magnets on the bottom.
Pretty snazzy.
These thin little case when it's assembled gives you access to a pretty full-sized keyboard that connects via Bluetooth and gives you some really nice feeling keys in the middle, some cramped keys on the sides but an experience that nearly matches what you're gonna get in Bluetooth keyboard that's gonna be sold separately but here, you're getting it a lot thinner and something that attaches in a really sexy way with your iPad.
Now there are some caveats.
One, it's not a case.
Maybe, that's why they call it Ultrathin Keyboard Cover.
In fact, it's not really that great a cover for the front.
It's nothing like a Smart Cover in the sense that it's kinda thick and awkward to close but it does have rubber bumpers that protect the iPad from contacting the keyboard.
You're still gonna need something to cover the back of the iPad however so you may wanna get a Smart Cover or you might wanna keep it in a Folio case when you're not using this.
Unfortunately, if you try to put a Smart back cover on this 3rd generation iPad, it won't dock on the groove of this keyboard but if you have an iPad 2, you're in luck.
I tried the Belkin Snapshield Cover and at least in that instance, it worked just fine.
Now, you can also dock this iPad on portrait mode.
Although it's not kind of supported with the magnets, it does work.
It does feel a little bit tenuous here.
I'm not sure I trust it at a cafe with a lot of jostling people but you can do it.
Although this keyboard is really meant to be used in landscape mode and only in this one orientation where the magnets are to dock and when it does, it's strong enough that it can hold the keyboard on the bottom.
It's 99 bucks which is not cheap but compared to a lot of iPad keyboard cover accessories, it's kind light in that ballpark and Logitech says that this will last 6 months on a charge although that would be with 2 hours of use a day.
Still, that's a lot of hours of use and it charges via micro USB cable that comes in the package.
All told, it's not gonna reinvent the world of keyboards but it really may change your habits in terms of how you carry a keyboard with you.
You can't get much sexier than this ultrabook keyboard cover and the way it connects back with your iPad is simply as this.
All right.
Thanks for that Scott.
Now, everyone is hoping to see the next gen iPhone and the iOS 6 at WWDC.
There are no guarantees but if you like any tidbit of iPhone news, check out these parts from Chinese vendor TVC MO which has begun offering what they call iPhone 5 home buttons for sale in Black and White.
Now, the parts have a rounded square shape and are designed differently from the iPhone 4's home button and will help hold the button in place.
Aren't you glad you guys know that now?
Al so in more iPhone news, CNET's own Roger Cheng reports that Sprint will continue to support the iPhone's unlimited data plan even if the next iPhone is a 4G LTE phone and set it apart from the others on the market.
CEO Dan Hesse told CNET that if the next iteration arrives with LTE, Sprint will continue to offer a no-strings unlimited plan and that's a strong differentiator and I'm all in for that.
And you've got to love some of those analyst that make up an idea and publish it.
A KGI security analyst reports that Apple maybe preparing to drop the 17-inch MacBook Pro from it's line up due to weak sales.
Now, I haven't heard any chatter about this and our own CNET poll, the majority of 45% of respondents say they should kill it, 35% say the 13 and 15-inch ones are good enough for them and 20% say they'd like to see a 17-inch MacBook Air backing up the idea that even if the 17-inch is its least popular model, it serves a specific user and the creative professional market.
And finally guys, we wanted to send you off with some happy thoughts.
Apple owns the pan to an iMac Touch concept all the way back from 2010.
We've seen all-in-one touch smart desktops from HP but check out this sweet concept video from Joakim Ulseth showing off the idea in action incorporating a touchscreen, Mac OS hemline functionality with Siri and more.
It's really, really pretty but how do you, the Apple Byters feel about a touchscreen iMac?
Have you been waiting for one?
Do you hate the idea or is there something else you'd like to touch?
Let us know at the applebyte@cnet.com and we'll read some of your responses next week.
That's gonna do it for this week's show.
Thanks for watching.
I'm Brian Tong and we'll catch you next time for another byte of the Apple.
Hey, great guys.
What's up?
All right, yeah.
Tom.
All right, guys.
I'm gonna see you guys.
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