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Those models sure are good looking and happy!

So, here’s an interesting new idea. Take a little bit of Instagram, with it’s ability to snap quick pictures and apply fun visual filters, and combine that with a push-to-record feature that lets you add audio commentary, music, whatever you like, to the picture itself. Digisocial aims to be the next big social thing, obviously, with a well-designed, free app that’s easy and fun to use.

The problem is, of course, a matter of scale.

Playing around with Digisocial today, I was able to take quick snapshots, applying real-time filters to the images as I went. I was prompted to record audio to go with the picture. It felt a little odd at first, but it does add some interesting possibilities. For example, when looking through the stream of other users’ photos, there were a bunch of images that included music, or funny captions, all using high quality audio.

Once an image is posted to the service, friends who are also on Digisocial can like it, add an audio comment, or type a text comment. The social interaction is up front and center here, which makes the idea that much more compelling. You can follow users on the service, which is free and can be connected with via Facebook.

Digisocial works really well, is easy to use, and offers enough of a twist on the familiar Instagram-type concept to be worth a free download. The main issue, for now, is that there aren’t a huge number of people using the app, as it just released to the App Store a few days ago. None of my Facebook friends were on the service, and while I can invite them all, I don’t want to spam each of them with an invite if I can help it.

Features
∙ Combine photos & images with HD voice capture to provide the richest, most vivid sharing experience. Allow your moments to come to life.
∙ Apply various filters to your images and share easily with one-click sharing on Facebook and Twitter.
∙ Voice comment on your friends’ posts instantly and tell them what you think.
∙ Meet new friends and connect with old ones across all of your social circles.
∙ Share your content privately, with your friends or for the whole world to see.
∙ Create chat groups and stay in touch with your friends with Voice Instant Messaging (VIM), images and text anywhere in the world.
∙ Share and control your content in an Ad-Free environment.

Because the app is free, and the devs promise it always will be, and the privacy policies are clear, this could be a great competitor to other services out there. Check it out in the App Store, and send me some pictures with audio. Fun!

Source: App Store

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Apple today added installment payment plans to its online store in China, giving Chinese buyers the option to purchase iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks via credit.

Consumers can choose to pay in installments on merchandise that costs between 300 yuan ($48) and 30,000 yuan ($4,800), through a plan from China Merchants Bank Co.

As Bloomberg notes, the credit option puts expensive devices like the iPad and the iPhone into the reach of Chinese workers, who often cannot afford to purchase Apple's devices.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, is trying to make its products more affordable in China after being surpassed by local suppliers such as ZTE Corp. and Lenovo Group Ltd. in the smartphone market. The iPhone 5, released in China last month, is priced at 5,288 yuan on Apple's local site, equal to about six weeks' pay for the average urban worker.

"There is an enormous mid-range consumer market that they are not tapping into," said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting Ltd., a Beijing-based market research firm. "They're trying to figure out how to make products more accessible to that market segment. This is a good step in that direction."

In the Foxconn factories where Apple's mobile devices are assembled, junior level workers make approximately 1,800 yuan per month, which means the iPad and the iPhone are nearly unattainable without an installment option

Apple is currently offering payment plans over three, six, 12, 18, and 24 months. A promotion that lasts through January 23 makes payment plans lasting a year or less interest free. Payment plans with 18 installments incur a fee of 6.5 percent of the selling price, and 24 installment plans have a fee of 8.5 percent.

Earlier this month, Facebook updated its Messenger iOS app with beta support for making VoIP calls between Facebook accounts. That feature was initially limited to Canadian iOS accounts but is now being opened to all U.S. accounts, reports The Verge.

To access voice calling, open the Facebook Messenger app, open a chat with someone, and click the 'i' button in the top right corner. If the feature has been activated -- and the other user also has Facebook Messenger for iOS installed -- there should be a "Free Call" button. If it's greyed out, try tapping it anyway. Facebook is rolling out the feature to all users over the next several days.

What this means is that if you live in the US, you can now call other Facebook users for free over Wi-Fi or using your phone's data connection while you're on the go. When you call someone, a push notification appears on their screen that says "Ellis Hamburger is calling," for example. The feature is especially critical for people with bad cell service at work or at home, and for those who want to conserve cell phone minutes. It's also a huge step for Facebook — which with a single feature emerges as one of the largest communities of VoIP users in the world. Yes, competitors Viber, Vonage, and Skype have had the feature for some time, but all have much smaller user bases.

Facebook's efforts create a calling system that can potentially reach its more than 1 billion users, providing a massive competition to other VoIP services like Skype, as well as allowing teenagers using iPod touch devices to make phone calls to friends using Facebook's app.

Facebook Messenger for the iPhone is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Apple today seeded build 12D54 of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 to developers, marking the seventh beta iteration of the newest version of Mountain Lion. 10.8.3 was first seeded to developers in November.

Build 12D54 comes just eight days after build 12D50, and like the previous build, contains no known issues or features. Build 12D50 brought only minor changes, and asked developers to focus on testing AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari.

9to5Mac notes that the new build contains significant changes to WiFi, but additional changes are unknown. Registered developers can download the update on Apple’s Developer Page.

AT&T has again expanded access to the FaceTime Over Cellular feature to customers on all tiered data plans with a compatible FaceTime device. Previously, only users with an LTE device -- the iPad 3 and 4, as well as the iPhone 5 and iPad mini -- could use FaceTime over cellular. The only users who still can't use the feature are users with a grandfathered unlimited data plan.

When FaceTime over Cellular launched in September 2012, we explained that we wanted to roll it out gradually to ensure the service had minimal impact on the mobile experience for all of our customers.

As a result of ongoing testing, we’re announcing AT&T will enable FaceTime over Cellular at no extra charge for customers with any tiered data plan using a compatible iOS device.

This means iPhone 4S customers with tiered plans will be able to make FaceTime calls over the AT&T cellular network. AT&T previously made FaceTime over Cellular available to customers with a Mobile Share plan and those with an LTE device on tiered plans.

AT&T says the update should be automatically applied over the next few months, and eligible users won't need to do anything special to begin using FaceTime over cellular.

The upshot is that any AT&T customer with a supported device -- the iPhone 4S and newer, the third generation iPad and newer, and the iPad mini -- will soon be able to use FaceTime over cellular.

Earlier this month, a court threw out Apple's false advertising claim against Amazon in the dispute over the "App Store" trademark, leaving unaddressed the question of trademark infringement. The two companies have been battling over the issue for nearly two years, with Apple claiming that Amazon's use of the "Appstore" name to describe its marketplace for Android apps infringes upon Apple's App Store name and causes confusion with consumers.


Bloomberg now reports that the two sides have been order to enter settlement talks over the alleged infringement in an attempt to resolve the dispute before it heads to trial later this year.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte in San Francisco directed the companies to confer on March 21 and to bring their lead attorneys and people who have full authority to negotiate and settle the case, according to a court filing today. A trial is scheduled for August.

Apple is seeking a court order to block Amazon from using the term Appstore in its service to sell software for devices running Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Apple alleges the online retailer infringes its trademark and violates unfair competition laws.

Amazon has argued that the term "app store" is a generic one and that Apple should not have been preliminarily awarded a trademark on the name back in 2010. Apple originally filed for the trademark in 2008, but once the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office tentatively approved the application and published it for opposition in early 2010, Microsoft filed an objection, also arguing that the term was generic.

The trademark approval has remained in limbo, as Microsoft and Apple have agreed to postpone further debate in the process until the case between Apple and Amazon is resolved.

While questions remain about claims from earlier this week that Apple has slashed iPhone 5 component orders, CNET is now reporting on market research firm DisplaySearch senior vice president Paul Semenza's comments on how the iPhone 5's initial shipment ramp was simply too large to maintain.

"It was a very quick ramp up. The Q4 [estimate] was about 61 million [for the iPhone 5]...that may be dialed back a bit, but anything near that number is still huge," he said, referring to an estimate of display shipments for the iPhone 5.

"That would support the theory that the ramp was too much to sustain."

CNET mentions that the first quarter of sales for the iPhone 4S registered far below that for the iPhone 5, providing little reason for such a strong decline in iPhone 5 interest. Yesterday, Semenza told The New York Times that Apple had cut its display order from 19 million to 11-to-14 million for January, noting that demand from Apple had been "corrected significantly." But he also mentioned to CNET that he'd heard of changes to orders before the new year.

Theories abound as to the just how much Apple has cut component orders and the reasons for those cuts, but many believe that improving yields and aggressive ramping during the holiday quarter may simply have left Apple with an oversupply of parts heading into the new year. Combining that excess inventory with a natural slowdown following the strong launch quarter for the device could lead to substantial reductions in part production. Still, it seems unlikely that Apple would have miscalculated component demand for the current quarter by the nearly 50% number originally cited by Nikkei and The Wall Street Journal.

Recently, it's been reported that Apple is prepping iPhone 5S production for March ahead of a release in June or July, a rapid update cycle that could also be forcing adjustments in Apple's component orders.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a very good track record in predicting Apple's product plans, has issued a new research report outlining his expectations for Apple's 2013 product launches. Kuo believes that Apple will focus its launches on the third quarter of this year, with a number of updates throughout the company's various product families.


- iPhone: Kuo expects that Apple will introduce both an iPhone 5S and a revamped iPhone 5 around June or July of this year, with the iPhone 5S appearing very similar to the current iPhone 5 but carrying a number of upgrades including an A7 system-on-a-chip for better performance, a fingerprint sensor, and camera improvements such as an f2.0 aperture and a smart LED flash. He also believes that lower-cost iPhone will in many ways simply be an iPhone 5 repackaged into a slightly thicker (8.2 mm vs. the current 7.6 mm) plastic enclosure available in six colors.

- iPad and iPad mini: Kuo forecasts that will update both lines during the third quarter of the year, with the iPad mini gaining a Retina display as the most notable change. He also predicts that the full-size iPad will become considerably slimmer and lighter and adopt the thinner side bezels seen on the iPad mini.

- MacBook Pro: In line with his predictions from last year, Kuo believes that Apple will do away with the non-Retina MacBook Pro line in 2013, moving to an all-Retina lineup at cheaper price points than the current Retina models. Kuo also believes that Apple will tweak the design of these thinner Retina MacBook Pros, despite having just introduced the current form factor last year.

- MacBook Air: Retina displays remain a challenge for the MacBook Air given their relative thickness, and Kuo predicts that they will not be appearing in the 2013 MacBook Air lineup. Kuo believes that a move to Intel's forthcoming Haswell platform will be the main upgrade for the machines, with the update coming perhaps as soon as late in the second quarter.

- Desktops: Kuo notes that the iMac redesign has been well-received, but it appears that he does not see Retina displays coming to the lineup in 2013. He simply predicts a shift to the Haswell platform for the iMac and Mac mini in the fourth quarter of the year. Kuo's report does not address a new Mac Pro, even though Apple CEO Tim Cook has personally shared that a significant update for the line was due in 2013.

- iPod touch: Apple will reportedly discontinue the fourth-generation iPod touch, which is currently being sold alongside the new fifth-generation models. In order to fill the gap, Kuo believes that Apple will introduce a scaled-back fifth-generation model with 8 GB of storage and no rear camera at $199.

- Apple TV: Kuo predicts a minor update to the existing Apple TV product as soon as late this quarter, but he offers no details on what the update would entail. He also notes that Apple's more substantial television effort is unlikely to appear in 2013, with content issues and a lack of experience in the television set industry pushing things back until 2014.

Apple vice president of retail Jerry McDougal, a key player in Apple's retail development over the past 12 years, has departed the company to spend more time with his family, reports IFOAppleStore.

McDougal was Ron Johnson's right hand man when he was still with the company and was considered a possible replacement for Johnson when he moved on to head JC Penney.

A key player in the birth of Apple’s retail chain and a potential candidate to lead the retail stores has left the company. Jerry McDougal, Vice-President of Retail, said goodbye to his colleagues last Friday, sources say. His departure was explained as not work-related, but rather so he could spend more time with his family. Apple notoriously requires an enormous commitment of time from its employees, especially at the headquarters level. That commitment increased even more for retail executives after last year’s departure of Ron Johnson.

McDougal was also considered as a possible replacement for John Browett after he was fired earlier this year.

IFOAppleStore notes that McDougal was responsible for Apple's retail marketing, product merchandising, store operations, loss prevention and customer loyalty programs.

Apple vice president of retail Jerry McDougal, a key player in Apple's retail development over the past 12 years, has departed the company to spend more time with his family, reports IFOAppleStore.

McDougal was Ron Johnson's right hand man when he was still with the company and was considered a possible replacement for Johnson when he moved on to head JC Penney.

A key player in the birth of Apple’s retail chain and a potential candidate to lead the retail stores has left the company. Jerry McDougal, Vice-President of Retail, said goodbye to his colleagues last Friday, sources say. His departure was explained as not work-related, but rather so he could spend more time with his family. Apple notoriously requires an enormous commitment of time from its employees, especially at the headquarters level. That commitment increased even more for retail executives after last year’s departure of Ron Johnson.

McDougal was also considered as a possible replacement for John Browett after he was fired earlier this year.

IFOAppleStore notes that McDougal was responsible for Apple's retail marketing, product merchandising, store operations, loss prevention and customer loyalty programs.

Update: McDougal has been replaced by Jim Bean, Apple's VP of Finance, according to a report by AllThingsD. He will retain his VP title:

"Retail has an incredibly strong network of leaders at the store and regional level, and they will continue the excellent work they’ve done over the past decade to revolutionize retailing with unique, innovative services and a focus on the customer that is second to none," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said. "Jim Bean is moving to Retail to help support our store teams. Jim has been at Apple for 15 years and is a great leader who understands our culture and focus on customer service."