Now that iPhone Firmware 2.2 is out (all 245.7MB of it), what do we all think of it? Initial reactions around the web seem broadly positive, and my own experience so far matches that. In recent weeks I’ve been seeing quite frequent application crashes on my 2nd gen iPhone, so I’ll be interested to see if they happen less often now. On very first impressions, the phone feels faster and snappier in use post-update.
Most of the changes were published in advance, but there are some hidden extras that are new to me.
Inspired by our previous post on an iPhone stand from a standard binder clip, CoM reader Rich Sipe took matters into hand and fashioned another one, a bit more complex than the first one but it looks like it’ll give you a sturdy stand out of pinched office materials.
Apple’s new MacBooks are great — but as a proud owner of one of the milled wonders, I can confirm that the much-vaunted glass trackpad did have issues. Not constant ones by any means, but it would miss clicks quite often — probably one in ten times.
Having finally downloaded and installed Trackpad Firmware Update 1.0 yesterday, I can also confirm that the problems have completely gone away now. No fuss, and every click counts.
My experience has not been universal, however. MacFixIt reports that many users are having difficulty installing the update, and I’ve even heard of some people getting kernel panics and other bad news. Install at your own risk, obviously, but it’s a very welcome update — makes the already good significantly better.
As has been widely rumored, Apple rolled out iPhone OS 2.2 tonight via software update, which brings Google Street View, mass transit directions, location sharing by e-mail, and, most excitingly, over-the-air podcast downloads, which has been a fairly glaring oversight (and source of considerable controversy).
At the same time, Apple has whipped out iTunes 8.0.2, which is basically a bug fix, plus improved results for VoiceOver, Apple’s accessibility technology for the visually impaired.
Nothing big, but good to see Apple improving its software nonetheless.
The busiest shopping day of the year is traditionally the day after Thanksgiving, known in the Retail Trade as Black Friday. And this year, anticipation appears to be building for some of the best Black Friday deals to be had for netbooks, the super-cheap small laptops from many manufacturers that may get even cheaper for a retail minute.
Here’s a custom Google search for Black Friday deals, and you’d be well advised too, to be on the look out at local hardware retailers for returned notebooks pre-installed with Linux.
We’ve seen rumors of deals to be had on a Dell mini-laptop, and powerful arguments for why netbooks may just dominate the holiday shopping season.
When you get your hands on your mini-deal, see the references below for tips on how to get ‘em to run OS X:
One of my favorite Mac programs is Garage Band. As a musician and songwriter, I am endlessly impressed with how much creativity and flexibility Apple has built into the program, for my money the star of the iLife bundle.
I learned about a new little trick for creating one-touch sound effects using Garage Band’s Musical Keyboard, as described by writer Christopher Breen in MacWorld.
You can map up to 18 of the program’s built-in sound effects (select Sound Effect from the Software Instrument Info pane), or pre-recorded AIFF files dragged from the Finder, to keys on the Mac keyboard (as shown above) and save the whole set as an “Instrument” to be called for use in creating any new podcast or other recording project.
Be sure to see Breen’s article for the step-by-step instructions for utilizing this handy tip.
Mac userTom Klaver says, “Command-Tab in this case brings me command-slap, because when I invoke the command-tab keystroke to switch to another app, almost every time this weird unidentifiable
thing happens.”
Think you’ve got the hands or, in the case of iPhone, the fingers of a surgeon? You’ll soon be able to find out with a new mobile game from developer ngmoco, inc.. Dr. Awesome, Microsurgeon MD is an iPhone game that lets you import friends from your address book and “perform surgery” on them in a Qix meets Trauma Center gamescape environment, according to blogger Brandon Boyer at Boing Boing.
These fabulous tilt-shift G4 iMacs are the work of joelsuplido on Flickr. He’s got a whole set of them, there’s more Mac ones to drool over. It’s not just the tilt-shift effect, it’s the colors; they’re gorgeous.
Fashion czar Karl Lagerfeld, who put his hand to an iPod casehimself once for Italian fashion house Fendi, owns a custom iPod trunk to support his professed love of Mac.
Lagerfeld totes his gear around in a handcrafted custom trunk from Louis Vuitton. Well, probably some bedraggled assistant has to pack his wardrobe of 20 iPods, one charger (what just one?), JBL iPod speakers and a subwoofer.
Too cool even to even carry the LV monogram (but they do have Lagerfeld’s initials near the handle) the trunk is made in trademark Taiga black leather with a microfiber interior.
Custom cases like these take from four to six months to make and run upwards of $10,000.
Microsoft, a day after slashing prices of its Zune media player, Thursday threw a bone to fans of DRM-free music, offering a $15 per month Zune Pass subscription for essentially $5.
Microsoft said it would allow Zune Pass subscribers to keep 10 songs (worth around $10) per month that they can own, even if the subscription ends. Previously, copy-protection meant songs downloaded from the Zune marketplace would be disabled if the $15 per month subscription service expired.
“People want the freedom to listen to whatever they want across millions of songs, combined with the confidence that they can keep their favorite tracks forever,” Chris Stephenson, Zune’s general manager of global marketing, said in statement.
Can see this iPhone power charger, a prototype by a Tokyo designer who goes by the name Mac Funamizu, in the hands of irate Hollywood agent Ari Gold from Entourage as he channels Gordon Gecko.
A diagram in Apple's iPhone status patent application.
Apple has filed a patent application to add always-on status indicators to the iPhone. The innovation would address a common task for cell phones but a headache for owners of the touch-screen handset.
In most flip-phones and even other touch-screen devices, users can instantly know when they’ve missed a call or received a voice-mail message. However, for iPhone users, it requires turning on the phone and going into settings to retrieve the information.
Apple is in talks with three major music studios that have held out selling songs on iTunes free of copy protection, according to a report Thursday. If successful, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony BMG titles could be part of Apple’s iTunes Plus.
Although CNET described discussions as “still preliminary,” an agreement would expand Apple’s iTunes Plus option to include music from all major studios. When the program was launched about a year ago, only EMI signed onto selling tunes free of restrictions that tied iTunes purchases to an Apple device.
With its iTunes and iPod dynasty, Apple has dominated digital music sales. However, a growing number of rivals — Amazon, Microsoft and MySpace among them — have used DRM-free MP3 music to loosen the stranglehold.
Apple Wednesday released a software update permitting the Apple TV device to operate more as a hub for digital content. At the top of the list of enhanced features included in the 2.3 software: AirTunes streaming.
The new ability opens possibilities for Apple TV owners to listen or view content from either another Apple TV or Airport Express speakers.
Additionally, the update expands access to your iTunes playlists, permitting videos, podcasts or music to be accessed via Apple TV. In October, Apple released an update that included the latest features in iTunes 8.0, including support for the new Genius playlist function.
The update also adds support for third-part remote controls besides Apple’s and music volume control.
Users of the streaming-media service boxee are advised to not install this latest upgrade. Apple TV users are reporting the 2.3 upgrade disables boxee.
Flickr user raneko had a mucky Mighty Mouse, and decided to take it to pieces and clean it. This wasn’t something Apple intended to happen, so it’s quite an involved process - you can follow raneko’s progress from this photo in his Apple set (which has a bunch of other great Apple pics in it).
(Photo used under Creative Commons license. Thanks to raneko.)
Last month, the Texas LEGO User Group included a model Apple retail store on main street for the Austin Maker Fair. You can also take a look inside the store, though Lego for Lego, we prefer the interior of this mini Apple store, though the logo roof on the Texas model is pretty sweet.
The big tech news of the last few days is that Hewlett-Packard’s 2008 earnings are better than analyst estimates — and this most recent quarter should be their strongest. It was a major bright spot from one of the world’s largest companies, showing that the current credit crisis doesn’t actually mean that the entire economy has shut down. Specifically, the tech sector might be in less trouble than everyone else.
And it made me wonder, yet again, why exactly stock analysts continue to assume that Apple can’t continue to grow and innovate in the coming years. After all, if one organization knows something about hitting the gas during a down time to get light years ahead of the competition, it is Apple. The stock chart I’ve reproduced above from Google shows the performance of AAPL since the introduction of the iPod in the depths of the post-9/11 and -Enron recession. Even with the recent precipitous drop in AAPL (it’s down almost 60 percent since January), the stock is worth about eight times what it was before the iPod (when you factor in the stock split in 2005).
The iPhone is burning up the charts. Apple has its strongest line-up of laptops in the history of the company and is gobbling up market share. The iPod touch and new nano has cemented Apple’s lead in the media player market. When people aren’t buying cars and houses, they still find time for personal entertainment — it’s a comfort when everything else is crazy. With Apple’s current technology and product pipeline, I believe that Steve has the organization poised to thrive once again. They’re going to maintain their position, continue growth, and get out ahead in creating new markets while their competitors are battening down the hatches and sticking to doing what they already know.
What Apple has to offer isn’t going away because credit is scarce. If anything, it may grow even more appealing.
Italian priest Father Paolo Padrini came up with the idea of a free prayer app for iPhone and iPod Touch users. This virtual breviary, or book of hours, gives the morning prayer, evening prayer and night prayer or complines for the day.
Right now, it’s available only in Italian but Spanish and English versions are on the way.
“Meninos is a creative team with experience from a wide range of clients, specialized in illustration, graphics and motion design,” according to the website copy. the iPhone icon coaster set pictured above is but one of many whimsical designs available on what appears to be a website based in Brazil.
“We start making this products for personal use, then for friends and now we sell for friends of friends,” they say. All products are designed and created (hand made) by the artists and designers at Meninos studio, where they like to make things simple and different.
Snow Leopard, Apple’s code name for its upcoming Mac OS X 10.6, is slated for release early next year, according to Cupertino inside data accidently made public last week.
In a slide presentation before the Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference, Jordan Hubbard, head of Apple’s Unix Technology Group, let slip Leopard will be released during [...]
A California judge Tuesday preliminarily dismissed Psystar’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Judge William Alsup rejected the Mac clone-maker’s counterclaim, writing Apple’s computers and Mac OS X software “are not wholly lacking in competition.”
Alsup gave Psystar until Dec. 8 to amend its countersuit to bolster its argument that Apple was preventing third parties from selling computers [...]
As we enter the critical holiday shopping period, the future of Apple’s iPod hangs in the balance as two courts consider a patent lawsuit over memory chips. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Spansion Inc. Monday named Apple, along with other customers of Samsung in a dispute over alleged abuse of flash memory patents.
While the Delaware lawsuit, covering six [...]
These apples with Apple logos and products are the handiwork of a Japanese Apple fan (more pics on the site) who covered Fuji apples with custom Apple stickers, then waited a month them for to mature.
For the finishing touch, they added a leaf in afterwards in graphics. Wonder if these would be ripe for copyright [...]
Apple’s new MacBooks are great — but as a proud owner of one of the milled wonders, I can confirm that the much-vaunted glass trackpad did have issues. Not constant ones by any means, but it would miss clicks quite often — probably one in ten times.
