After BlackBerry even Apple crumbles, new software launch hit by glitches

London: Even as BlackBerry users are dealing with the outage that brought their social and work lives to a grinding halt for 3 days, there is news of how Apple's services were hit after users tried to download the new version of the the iPhone operating system iOS5.

'Error 3200' become a trending topic on Twitter as thousands of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad users were affected by the error. Their screen simply said 'Error 3200' as they tried to download the new version of iPhone's operating system, iOS 5.

According to the British tabloid Daily Mail, many people reported that the download was extremely slow.

The free update is intended to bring (some) older iPhones into line with the functions offered by iPhone 4S. But it seems that Apple was overwhelmed by demand.

Last night, as the software launched, many users complained of slow download speeds, with some asking plaintively 'Has anyone successfully downloaded iOS 5 yet?' Not all users encountered the 'Error 3200' message, but most found the process excruciating. Questions about the error flooded Mac forums and social networks.

One Twitter user said, 'Steve Jobs has only been gone a few days and we are already experience the start of the techpocalypse.' While another said ,"
BlackBerry is down and downloading iOS 5 results in 'ERROR 3200'. I can see the headlines already: 'APPLE AND BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE (sic)".

Ironically, the inability of Apple's servers to deal with demand may have been due to the coordinating power of social networks, after 'Downloading iOS 5' became a trending topic last night.

It's traditional for geeks to be on the edge of their seats in advance of any new Apple software launch - but social networks may have ensured that a wider audience was aware the instant the new software was available.

Unlike BlackBerry's high-profile collapse this week, 'Error 3200' seems eminently curable - just keep trying.

Other glitches have been reported even once users install the software, such as the new music service iCloud refusing logins

iPopping: iPhone 4S pre-orders top 1 million in first 24 hours

Cupertino, California: Pre-orders of Apple's iPhone 4S have crossed one million in a single day, said the company today.

In an official press release, Apple said the pre-orders have surpassed "the previous single day pre-order record of 600,000 held by iPhone 4".

Promoted as the "most amazing iPhone yet", the device comes with new features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip, an all new camera with advanced optics, full 1080p HD resolution video recording, and Siri, a personal assistant that responds to voice command.

“We are blown away with the incredible customer response to iPhone 4S,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

“The first day pre-orders for iPhone 4S have been the most for any new product that Apple has ever launched and we are thrilled that customers love iPhone 4S as much as we do,” he added.

The latest from will be available at all Apple retail stores in the US beginning on Friday, October 14.

iPhone 4S includes iOS 5, the Apple's own mobile operating system with over 200 new features, and iCloud, Apple's set of free cloud services.

The device comes in black or white colours and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the new 64GB model.

Twitter, Facebook flooded with condolence messages for Steve Jobs

New Delhi: The death of Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, who died on Wednesday after prolonged illness, triggered online reactions from his admirers and supporters in hi-tech world.

Minutes after the sad demise of Apple’s visionary leader, micro-blogging sites Twitter and Facebook were flooded with condolence messages and odes.

Jobs, 56, who had been battling cancer for years and died on Wednesday, spearheaded the concept of a personal computer.

After the news of Jobs’ death made rounds on the Internet, Twitter recorded the flood of messages paying tribute to the man. The official twitter figures reached 10,000 tweets per second.

Businessman Anand Mahindra tweeted, “Steve, the only way I can commemorate you is by committing to cut the crap from my life and to dance to the tune of an inner voice. It's hard to wake up to a world without Steve Jobs.”

BJP leader Sushma Swaraj also took to Twitter to pay tribute to Jobs. “Rest in peace Mr Steve Jobs - entrepreneur and inventor par excellence!” Sushma tweeted.

While many people simply tweeted the familiar Apple symbol, others posted condolence messages and some recounted his achievements and contributions to the world.

Indian internet users were sad to hear about the death. 'R.I.P Steve Jobs', 'Miss you Legend Steve', 'Thank you, Steve' were just some of the status messages that had swarmed the web world.

Steve Jobs: What will happen to his fortune?

Apple's genius co-founder Steve Jobs left behind a fortune of $8.3 billion. The figure puts Steve Jobs just outside the world’s top 100 richest billionaires.

The question now is what will happen of his fortunes. This has no simple answer as his tangled family tree will make this distribution tricky. There is his wife and their three kids of course. But his family tree branches out further and includes a biological father, two sisters and a love child he fathered out of wedlock.

Steve Jobs biological, Abdulfattah Jandali, now 80, is a Syrian who now owns a casino. He fathered Jobs with Joanne Simpson, who did not want to bring a child out of wedlock and hence gave up Jobs for adoption.

Jobs is thought to never had contacted his biological father. Abdulfattah, on the other hand, was worried that Steve would think he was after money if he did call him.

Jandali later fathered another child Mona Simpson with Joanne. She is a novelist and has once written a book loosely based on her biological brother.

It is unclear how Steve tracked down his sister but she has described their relationship as being ‘close’.

Steve Jobs was adopted by working-class couple Clara and Paul Jobs, who have both since died. They later adopted another child, Patti Jobs.

In 1977, Steve Jobs fathered Lisa Brennan-Jobs with his high school sweetheart Chrisann Brennan. At that time denied fathering her and Lisa was born in 1978, the same year Steve created the ‘Lisa’ computer. Although many believe it was named after his daughter, he steadfastly denied it saying it stood for 'Local Integrated Software Architecture'.

Lisa was initially raised on benefits and two years later he took responsibility for his daughter.

She graduated from Harvard Univesity and is a journalist and writer. She told Vogue she was invited by Steve and had spent some years with her father.

'My father was rich and renowned, and later, as I got to know him, went on vacations with him, and then lived with him for a few years, I saw another, more glamorous world,' she told Vogue in 2008.

Steve Jobs met his wife Laurene Powell in 1989 while speaking at Stanford's graduate business school. They have three children together- Eve, Erin and Reed
According to International Business Times, there are 338 U.S patents or patent applications by Steve Jobs for technology and electronic accessories.

He owned a 5,700 sq ft home which is estimated to be worth $2.6million. It has seven bedrooms and four bathrooms. He also owned a huge historic Spanish colonial home in Woodside. 

Samsung strikes back again; countersues Apple

New Delhi: The long drawn battle over smartphone and tablet PC related patents took another turn when Samsung Electronics filed a lawsuit in Australia, alleging Apple products like the iPhone range of smartphones and iPad 2 violate several wireless technology patents held by it.

The South Korean electronics giant also appealed a German court order that had banned the sale of its Galaxy range of tablet computers in Germany.

At last count, at least 22 lawsuits are pending between the two companies across a number of countries.

Last month, Apple had managed to win a permanent ban on the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Germany.

Apple can grow by over 1000% in India, says Credit Suisse

Mumbai: Apple’s tablet computers may not have flown off the shelves here but India could be one of the largest emerging market opportunities after China for the iconic American consumer device maker known for popular gadgets such as the iPhone and the iPad.

If analysts at Credit Suisse are to be believed, India represents a $9.4 billion opportunity for Apple in four years — up over 1000% from its estimated 2011 revenues of $900 million.

Emerging markets, including India, could contribute up to 63% of Apple’s incremental sales between now and 2015, representing as much as $70 billion in additional revenue.

In India, the over $9 billion revenue milestone translates to Apple selling 98 lakh iPhones, 57 lakh iPads, a little over 3 lakh Mac desktop computers and nearly 5 lakh Mac laptops, according to Kulbinder Garcha, Deepak Sitaraman, Achal Sultania and three others at Credit Suisse.

As a way of substantiating their projection, the Credit Suisse analysts point out the telecom carrier relationships that Apple has in India and how that gives the gadget maker a captive audience to sell its products.

Bharti Airtel with about 156 million subscribers and Vodafone with about 130 million subscribers are the two carriers with which Apple currently has a relationship in India and these carriers together give it access to nearly 300 million mobile phone subscribers, who could be potential owners of Apple products.

Analysts based in India, however, are sceptical and think that the estimtes are over optimistic and too much of a stretch.

“The projections imply very steep growth rates that far exceed GDP growth rates of the local economy,” said Vishal Tripathy, principal research analyst at Gartner.

“Apple targets a niche audience, which is not growing as fast as the famed Indian middle class.”

Tripathy added that the only way numbers could add up is if Apple slashes the prices of its products or comes up with specific emerging market products and “that is not something Apple is known to do”.

Even now, Apple has not been that successful with its tablet PC, iPad.

According to researcher Cyber Media Research (CMR), the American firm has a long way to go to catch up with its South Korean competitor Samsung, which has an 85% market share in India, where tablet PC market is still at a very nascent stage.

In 2011, CMR expects 250,000 tablet PCs to be sold in India.

However, with Apple’s new chief Tim Cook talking about coming out with products that are ‘not just for the rich’, jury is still out on what Apple could do in India.

In August, Reuters reported Apple’s plan to launch cheaper products aimed specifically at emerging markets. It said this would include a cheaper iPhone 4 version, for which suppliers in Asia have already started making low-cost components.