LA Fitness

The new application helps members find information about group exercise classes, competitive leagues for basketball and racquetball, as well as LA Fitness club locations. Other features that the new app includes are:
- Ability to schedule personal training sessions and receive emails with reminders of when they are scheduled.
- Reserve racquetball courts in advance.
- View your LA Fitness check-in information.
- View your membership information
- and more.

The app is also available on the Android App Market, by simply doing a search for “LA Fitness”.

Facetime for Mac

One of the main negative points that people were talking about when Facetime was first released, was that it could only be used by those with iPhone 4 devices. Now with the release of Facetime for Mac, even if you do not have an iPhone, you can still connect with your friends and family who do. That is of course if you have a Mac.

According to reports, there are some errors when trying to connect to iOS 4.0 devices, but those running iOS 4.1 had no problems. There will probably be updates and fixes in the near future if these problems persist.

It should be interesting to see if this newest integration of the Facetime service helps Apple sell more iOS and OS X devices. The latest Macbook Air was also released today. If you thought the previous version was incredible, the new one is even more so. The 13.3 inch model is only 2.9 pounds, and has a solid state flash storage hard drive, that can hold up to 128GB of data.

If you are interested in downloading the new Facetime for Mac software and you are running Mac OS X v10.6.4 Snow Leopard or later, you can download it here.

Ugly Meter App

The App has been out for some time now, but was recently updated to version 1.2. The seller is Eugene Overline, and it has been rated appropriate for kids 9 years of age and older.

The way the Ugly Meter App works, is that it allows users to upload photographs of anyone’s face. It then scans the face checking for symmetrical bone structure and other things, then provides a score between 1 and 10. A 10 is the ugliest, while a 1 is the least ugly (or best looking).

Does the app really work? Well, we tried it with several “good looking” celebrities. When we used a photograph of Brad Pitt, the Ugly Meter said, “You Scored 9.8 / 10 on the Ugly Meter. You’re so ugly, you could make a glass eye cry.”

When we put in a photo of former President George Bush, we got the following result:
“You Scored a 2.0 / 10 On The Ugly Meter. You’re so hot that you make the sun jealous.”

So as you can tell, it probably isn’t the most accurate assessment of a person’s looks, although it can still be entertaining to use.

Representatives from organizations against bullying have problems with the app. They feel as though it is just another weapon for kids at school to use to tease and torment their classmates.

CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute, Stephen Balkam, had the following to say:

“I can see that the guys who programmed it were having a bit of fun and all,” Balkam said. “If you’re 25, 26 or 28, this sort of thing could be quite funny or amusing. But in the hands of a 14- or 15-year-old, it could be quite the reverse, and particularly if someone is submitting someone else’s photograph and then circulated that photo around school. For impressionable young teens and tweens, it could potentially be quite damaging,” he said. “It could be used in cyberbullying.”

What do you think? Will the Ugly Meter encourage more bullying in schools, or is it just an fun little app to play with?

Apple Reports Earnings Later Today

Analysts are all over the place in terms of expected earnings, as well as total sales numbers on the Apple iPad and iPhone. With the stock already having moved up a tremendous amount in the last few weeks, some experts think that anything besides a complete blowout of expectations will cause the stock to lose some of it’s recent gains.

What would be considered a “complete blowout”? It’s hard to say, however I think that if they can report about $19.5 billion in revenue for the 4th quarter, as compared with their forecast of $18 billion, and an analyst consensus of $18.86 billion, investors will likely continue to jump into the stock, even at the today’s prices. Other important numbers that investors are looking for are the total sales figures of iPad and iPhones. Likely a number around 5 million iPads, and 12 million iPhones will please them. Anything less could be seen as a slight weakness, something that Apple has yet to really show. Either way, despite the numbers we get today, Apple should continue to be a strong investment, with continued innovation, and a PE ratio that is not at all expensive, historically speaking.

How Many iPads and iPhone Did Apple Sell Last Quarter

Analysts expect revenue of anywhere between $18-21 billion this quarter alone, however they are all over the place in terms of total iPads and iPhones that the company likely sold last quarter. Analysts expect the company to report anywhere from 9.35 million to 13.5 million iPhones sold, while they expect anywhere from 2.4 million to 6.2 million iPads sold. Either way the company certainly looks to be on their way to another remarkable quarter.

The stock price closed at $314.74 on Friday, a day in which Apple shares hit another all time high. Helped by the amazing results from Google on Thursday, investors seem very optimistic in the company. With sales of iPhones and iPads also driving the adoption rate of iMacs in the PC industry, Apple seems to be firing on all cylinders. Are they overpriced? Likely not. The company has billions of dollars in cash on their balance sheet and is riding a wave of strong sales all the way to the bank.

Verizon to Sell the iPad on October 28th

Verizon will offer the following 3 bundles which include the wi-fi iPad along with the Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot:

$629.99 for iPad 16GB
$729.99 for iPad 32GB
$829.99 for iPad 64GB

In what is likely even more evidence that the iPhone is headed to Verizon very soon, since Apple and Verizon are certainly working together on this offer, fans of the iPhone may soon get to use Verizon’s superb network.

John Stratton, the COO of Verizon Wireless stated, “This is the perfect pairing for holiday travels. iPad together with the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G data network allows customers to easily connect on the go wherever they are.”

Apple’s COO, Tim Cook stated, “We’re thrilled to be working with Verizon Wireless to get iPad into the hands of even more customers this holiday season. iPad allows users to connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before, and together with Verizon Wireless we’re offering an easy way to stay connected wherever you go.”

More information on this deal can be found at www.verizonwireless.com/iPad

iOS 4.1

According to the iPhone DEV team, the new iOS will not be compatible with the iPhone Jailbreak, which was released last month. Whether the iPhone Jailbreak will be made available for iOS 4.1 is not yet known, but currently it is not. The DEV team may opt to wait until iOS 4.2 is released before announcing a new jailbreak.

The new operating system will include several minor upgrades to your device. iTunes features, Game Center, TV show rentals, AVRCP in-car control support, HDR photography, and a few other minor things have either been added or modified. A few bugs in the Bluetooth audio system as well as the proximity sensors have been fixed as well.

Before you decide to upgrade, make sure that you backup your iPhone or iPod, and be certain you don’t have your device jailbroken. If you do, it will no longer be jailbroken upon upgrading.

Are you upgrading your iPhone or is the jailbreak feature just too important to you?

AR Drone

What is a Quadricopter, you may ask. It is a futuristic looking flying machine that has four helicopter blades that all spin. They help control the aircraft with incredible precision. The AR Drone has cameras located on the actual drone itself. These videos are sent instantaneously back to the controllers iPhone or similar “i” device such as iPod, iPad, etc.

The user then can control where the AR Drone flies simply by pressing buttons on their device and tilting it the directly the wish the drone to fly in. It can be used both indoors and outdoors, and there are augmented reality games available for download and play.

The new AR Drone will be available to the public for purchase on September 9th, and can be pre-ordered now for only $299.99 at Amazon

Check out the video below:

Amazon is currently offering free shipping on the AR Drone.

Netflix

This comes as big news for both Apple and Netflix shareholders. Netflix should see an influx of new users signing up, at least for a free trial, just to test out the service on their iPhones. The quality of video looks to be very good, if you are using a WiFi connection. If you opt for the 3G connection, quality will take a hit, based on your signal strength from AT&T.

The Netflix app for the Apple iPad has been out since April, and it has caught on quite well. There is no reason not to expect this to become one of the more popular apps in the iTunes store.

In order to get the new app, you can download it from the iTunes store at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/netflix/id363590051?mt=8#

To be able to watch a movie on your Apple device, you will need to be running iPhone OS 3.1.3 or later, and be a Netflix member. Netflix memberships start at as low as $8.99/month. You can also request a free 30 day trial at Netflix.com.

Last month when there was much news on the Apple iPhone 4 Antenna issue, people were quietly wondering if someone would lose a job over the issue. Then Steve Jobs held a conference during which he basically denied any wide spread antenna problems. Since then, Apple has been saying that there are no major issues with the antennas on the new iPhone 4 devices. Looking at the numbers, they appear to be correct.

There are issues with a select few devices, but the percentage is very small overall. Apple has tried to make good on this by giving all owners of iPhone 4s a bumper case which is supposed to solve the problem.

On Saturday we have learned that the head designer of the new antenna, Mark Papermaster is leaving the company. Upon first hearing this, the media jumped all over it. We’ve been hearing rumors swirling that Jobs asked Papermaster to leave because of his poorly designed antenna. However these rumors appear to be false. They are false simply because, if Apple were to get rid of Papermaster over the antenna issue, they would be admitting to themselves, and to the world that there are in fact major defects with the new iPhones.

Papermaster appears to have left on his own. Perhaps he had a better job offer somewhere, or maybe has plans on starting up something of his own. As of now, it doesn’t appear as though there was any bad blood between Jobs and Papermaster. There will be more news on this later.