Chinese Apple fans threw eggs at Apple’s flagship store in Beijing. Reports say that the store resembled the stores in London after the riot. One media practitioner said that the store smeared in egg yolk (and egg white) looked like a crime scene.

It seems that the Chinese won’t take abuse from the Cupertino company especially when they waited all night in below freezing temperatures just to get their hands on the iPhone 4S. Even if the iPhone 5 will be released soon, Asia is still very much excited about the 4S. No one knows if Apple’s popularity in China will decrease because of the incident. As crowds began gathering in Beijing Apple stores the night before the release of the said device, police had to be deployed to these areas to make sure that no untoward incidents happen. However, even if the police were there, the “egging” was still done. The Sanlitun store located in Beijing failed to open as promised making the already very tired Apple fans angry.

One man interviewed by Reuters said that he has been waiting outside since the afternoon the day before only to hear that the store will not open and of course won’t sell any Apple products. The man, a yuppie in his 20s, added that this broke many people’s hearts. According to Apple, the store at Sanlitun did not open because of the large crowd outside. In their statement, Apple added that they were concerned for the safety of their employees and the safety of the people outside.

What really is annoying according to Apple fans in Beijing is that Apple will stop the sale of iPhones in Shanghai and Beijing for the time being but Chinese customers can still buy the smartphone online or at China Unicom. Other stores in Beijing opened though and did not experience a problem. One might say that Sanlitun is an isolated case but this news has made it to international news channels making Apple-haters hate Apple more.

Photo Via edudemic.com

iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac fans are iSad because the world has lost an extraordinarily talented and extraordinarily bold innovator –one of the very few in our generation. The 56 year old inventor and entrepreneur Steve Jobs died on Wednesday due to a rare kind of pancreatic cancer. Diagnosed in 2004, Jobs continued on with his work in the company he co-founded.

The former CEO of the technology giant battled the disease for 7 years. He was surrounded by family upon his passing on Wednesday, October 5, 2011.

US President Obama said, the world “lost a visionary” and indeed it did because Jobs is definitely one of the greatest American innovators in modern times.

It is not surprising that Jobs’ death caused a lot of sadness in all corners of the globe. Although this is a post-Diana era and hero-worship can be a little over the top, the mourning is justifiable because the world just lost someone who was bold enough to make an idea into reality.

The innovations of Steve Jobs may be considered as “useless” to some but to many, these gadgets have changed lives especially when it comes to storage and downloading information right on the palm of one’s hands.

Days after his death, more and more people are now researching about Jobs i.e. who he was, what he was like and what his journey was like. One common curiosity however is the fact that Jobs is adopted. His biological father, a Syrian national, met Jobs’ mother during their university days. At the time however, his father was not allowed to marry Jobs’ biological mother because her father did not allow it. His biological parents did not really want to give him up but by the time that they were already able to marry, they could not get their son anymore since the adoption papers have already been processed. Steve Jobs said once in an interview however that his adoptive parents are his true parents. Jobs never met his real father and mother.

Photo Credit: Google.com

Google released the iPhone Google Latitude app in the Apple App store on Monday morning. Google Latitude allows you to find your friends based on their location. This app was previously introduced in 2009 but due to the inability for the iPhone to run multi-tasking until around six months ago, Google Latitude was unable to continuously share position with your friends. Since the April 2010 iOS update, the iPhone can now run apps like Google Latitude in the background even when the app is closed.

Unfortunately, if you still own the original iPhone or the iPhone 3g, you can not run the Google Latitude app. According to Google Software engineer, Chris Lambert,

“Today’s Latitude app was built from the ground up using iOS 4’s new multitasking capability to support background updating…you wll need iOS 4 and above on an iPhone 3Gs or iPhone 4 to use the app.”

The great part about the new version of the app is that it is completely opt-in, so you must have friends accept requests or you must add friends to your buddy list to begin to share your location. You also have the ability to turn off background updating to control your privacy. You can also sign out at anytime.

The “checking-in” trend has seen other applications in Facebook Places and other apps such as foursquare or GoWalla. However, the practical side of this app is fairly evident. For instance, you could use it to keep an eye on employees to ensure productivity as well as, other logistical applications.

Today is a great day to own an iPhone, introducing iOS 4

If you haven’t upgraded your OS to iOS 4 yet, please take a few minutes to sync your phone. I’ll wait right here…

Now lets get into the major changes that the new OS brings. First, MULTI-TASKING! (Cue the blaring trumpets) this is what we have been waiting for, for a long while. The multi-tasking features allow you run multiple apps at the same time. For instance if you were running Pandora and you wanted to check your mail, you could run Pandora and check your mail at the same time. The multi-tasking also allows you to “save-state” in apps. This means that instead of relaunching, apps can run in the background simultaneously and then be able to resume where you left off when you closed the app. Another great feature that has been introduced with the next OS is the App Switcher carousel located at the bottom of the screen. The App Switcher lets you double tap the home button and switch apps on the run, toggling back through your recently accessed apps. All very cool stuff!

The new i OS 4 also lets you do something that could only be accomplished through jail breaking, customizable home screen wallpapers. Before, the black background was the only wallpaper you could choose from on your phone. You were able to customize your lock screen with photos from your camera roll but now you can change both screens and you also have a larger selection of pre-loaded wallpapers to choose from. Again, very cool!

The e-mail features now allow you to condense multiple accounts into your e-mail. You can have more than one active account and get all of your e-mail in one location. The one drawback on this feature is that if you exchange multiple e-mails with someone the thread is kept open so finding a new message can be tough if it is hidden within an individual thread. (Really not a big deal, but the point has been made.)

I plan on syncing my phone later this evening because I have heard from friends that the update takes about 45-60 mins depending on the amount of apps and music on the phone.

Photo Credit: iLounge.com

iPhone 4 pre-order today

The iPhone 4 is available for pre-order today so I am expecting Apple to report huge numbers for pre-sale orders. With the iPad release just two months prior and sales soaring at somewhere north of 2 million units, it is thought that sales numbers will continue to increase for Apple and the new iPhone 4.

After seeing the photos and videos, I was turned off to the iPhone 4. I like the casing on the iPhone 3Gs and the sleek rounded back. The new iPhone looks like it took some styling cues from the iPad with the flat edges and more squared off features. I really like the Facetime application but I’m not sure I would use it all that often. Typically, if I want to iChat or Skype I will use a laptop and a solid internet connection. It seems like a great idea but I don’t want to jump on the bandwagon yet. Clearly furture implimentations of the facetime app will see improved performance.

For now, I think I will stick with my 3Gs.