Those crazy MacHeisters are at it again, and this time the deal is even harder to resist.
The first ever MacHeist Nano won’t cost you a penny. You can download, without charge, fully licensed copies of ShoveBox, WriteRoom, Twitterific, TinyGrab, and Hordes of Orcs. If 500,000 people take part (which I think is a pretty safe [...]
A couple of weeks back, I wrote Temporarily Get More iPhone Home Screens Via Cunning Bug Exploit, but had heard staying away from the iTunes Applications tab within my iPhone was probably a Very Good Idea. Reader Larry Pressnell noted that since the most recent iTunes update, his extra screens have been accessible in iTunes.
Since [...]
I really like Stacks on my Mac. Stacks makes it fast and easy to find files, folders and apps right from the Dock. It makes managing a Mac pretty slick with all sorts of little UI tricks. That’s why I recently gave MobileStack a go on my jailbroken iPhone.
I must say that it lives up to the [...]
Is this Steve Jobs driving a tank in a classic Apple TV spot from the late 1990s? That was the rumor at the time: Jobs was making cameos in Apple commercials.
Ken Segall, the TBWA ad man responsible for naming the iMac and Think Different, reveals the truth after the jump. He also shares some rare [...]
Full category list for displayed posts: Apple, Rumors
9:02 am, October 20th, 2009, Pete Mortensen
In spite of early morning reports to the contrary, you may still want to hold onto your seats for new Apple product. Why?
1. The Apple Store is down
2. It’s Tuesday
I think that’s an indisputable case.
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple, Rumors | 4 Comments »
2:38 pm, October 19th, 2009, Pete Mortensen
Internet genius/sockpuppet Fake Steve Jobs, aka Dan Lyons, has just posted to his blog the following teaser post:
We’re going to have news tomorrow
Can’t tell you what, obviously. But there’s something brewing. Gruber doesn’t know about it, but the people we care about are being briefed in advance. Stay close to your Mac or iPhone, and have your credit card ready.
Sounds like we have a date for those updated iMacs and white MacBooks, eh? And it would also be a logical step given Phil Schiller crowing that Apple has the opportunity to reap huge rewards during the Windows 7 launch, which kicks off Wednesday…
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Hardware, Rumors | 4 Comments »
9:58 pm, October 13th, 2009, Pete Mortensen
Last week brought reports that Apple’s much-touted album format, iTunes LP, had serious challenges. Brian McKinney of Chocolate Lab Records claimed that he had been told that Apple was charging a $10,000 production fee for iTunes LP, but it didn’t matter anyway, because the product was only meant to extend to major record labels, anyway.
This set off quite a ruckus. I called iTunes LP a form of paid advertising instead of a legitimate offering, for one.
In a rare move, Apple has responded to the explosive rumor and denies all charges. Apple contacted UK blog Electric Pig, informing them it will be “releasing the open specs for iTunes LP soon, allowing both major and indie labels to create their own. There is no production fee charged by Apple.”
That’s very positive news, and if it means what it seems to, it’s well-worth celebrating. I should also note that Apple’s announcements need to be very carefully read. They typically mean just what they say and no more. Pledging to allow labels to “create their own” iTunes LPs does not mean that you will approve them, for example. Saying “There is no production fee charged by Apple” does not mean that some other intermediary won’t charge for production. Bear in mind, Apple still claims it hasn’t rejected the Google Voice app for iPhone, claiming it has yet to approve it months after submission and heated letters to the FCC later.
Honestly, this topic looks murkier all the time. Apple is a remarkably opaque organization. The truth is, we will never know if Apple previously intended to allow indie labels to participate in iTunes LP prior to this minor controversy, nor do we know if the rumored production fee once existed. Apple keeps its inner workings so locked down that we can only ever judge the company based on its external actions. If an iTunes LP SDK is released in the next month, that’s a positive sign. And if we see the selection of iTunes LPs grow from about 12 to 1,000 titles in the relatively near future (with abundant indie label participation at no extra charge), it will be clear that the format is a major push toward a true digital album.
I’m thrilled Apple is taking this seriously, and I hope iTunes LP lives up to its potential. Keep your eyes peeled.
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple, Rumors, iTunes | 10 Comments »
1:14 pm, October 2nd, 2009, Leander Kahney
Here’s what Apple’s rumored new multitouch mouse might look like, courtesy of MacBlogz.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, Hardware, Rumors | 8 Comments »
3:43 pm, September 30th, 2009, Leander Kahney
As Brian Lam on Gizmodo today says about Apple “redefining print” for its upcoming tablet, it’s all about the content.
If Apple has learned anything from the iPod, it’s that a modern consumer electronic device is a three-legged stool: hardware, software, and media that fills it.
Apple doesn’t want to launch a tablet without media to consume on it. This is the mistake Apple made with the Apple TV: It’s a great piece of hardware and software, but the content isn’t there yet (especially the paucity of Hollywood movies).
So Steve has set out to persuade publishing houses, magazine companies and textbook publishers to make interactive books and magazines that make sense on an interactive, multitouch device. Here’s the key paragraph from Lam’s story:
“Some I’ve talked to believe the initial content will be mere translations of text to tablet form. But while the idea of print on the Tablet is enticing, it’s nothing the Kindle or any E-Ink device couldn’t do. The eventual goal is to have publishers create hybridized content that draws from audio, video and interactive graphics in books, magazines and newspapers, where paper layouts would be static. And with release dates for Microsoft’s Courier set to be quite far away and Kindle stuck with relatively static E-Ink, it appears that Apple is moving towards a pole position in distribution of this next-generation print content. First, it’ll get its feet wet with more basic repurposing of the stuff found on dead trees today.”
But what might this “hybrid content” look like?
One clue comes from Enhanced Editions, a U.K. startup founded by former-book industry executives that seeks to marry technology with traditional print publishing. “We have long-since seen the destiny of the latter bound to its embrace of the former,” the company says.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Opinions, Rumors, Tablet | 8 Comments »
10:57 am, September 29th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Gizmodo has another mockup video of Microsoft’s Courier tablet concept showing how the device might be used for creative work.
The heart of the system is an “infinite journal,” an interactive work area that’s used to store and work on photos, handwritten notes and messages from colleagues.
But in four minutes of video, there’s just the pen. Fingers are used for navigation, but all the input is via pen and handwriting recognition. There’s no virtual keyboard to be seen.
It’s a pretty compelling vision of how a touchscreen device might be used in real life. I’m half convinced, but I can’t help feeling it won’t work. A tablet device has to be multitouch, not pen-based, otherwise it’s going to be mainstream flop. History has shown, pen-based systems are niche products. The future is fingers.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Rumors, Tablet | 5 Comments »
10:22 am, September 29th, 2009, Leander Kahney
The Apple tablet is 10.7-inch device that runs the iPhone OS and is ready to go, subject to Steve Jobs’ final approval, iLounge reports.
Citing a rock solid source with a proven track record, iLounge says the “iPad” looks like a jumbo iPhone with a curved back and an approx. 720p touchscreen. The device will be announced on January 19 and ship in May or June — the delay is designed to build iPhone-like hype.
It will come in two configurations: One with built-in 3G networking and another without. “Think of the 3G version as a bigscreen iPhone 3GS, and the non-3G version as a bigscreen iPod touch,” iLounge says.
The device is not designed for a work or productivity. It’s for media consumption.
“It’s a slate-like replacement for books and magazines, plus all of the media, gaming, app, and web functionality of the iPhone and iPod touch,” iLounge says. “It is not meant to compete with netbooks. It’s an iPhone OS media player and light communication device.”
And Steve Jobs is 80 percent likely to give the green light for a January 19 launch.
Why January 19? That’s the big question.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Rumors, Steve Jobs, Tablet | 18 Comments »
6:08 am, September 29th, 2009, Nicole Martinelli
Don't call it a comeback. The Newton and iPhone @http://www.mediabistro.com/mobilecontenttoday
After a 15-year hiatus, Apple has taken Newton Tablet developer Michael Tchao back into the fold.
Tchao, once part of the original Newton team, will now be a vice president of product marketing.
Steve Dowling, the Apple spokesman who confirmed the hire did not say exactly what the man who helped create the grandfather of PDAs will be doing in Cupertino.
The NYT speculates that he’ll be helping define the market for an Apple tablet; though they can’t resist calling the Newton a “groundbreaking but failed personal digital assistant. ” (Most other takes, including ours, say the product was axed when Steve Jobs returned.)
It’s not such a big jump from the Apple tablet to Tchao’s most recent gig, serving as general manager of Nike Techlab, which designed armbands and running shoes to integrate with iPods.
It’s just as easy, for now at least, to speculate he’ll be doing more in-house integration with these devices.
Via Mediabistro
Posted by Nicole Martinelli in News, Rumors, Tablet, apple tablet | 3 Comments »
3:26 pm, September 25th, 2009, Leander Kahney
An arty iMac shot, courstesy of Lordgoroth on Flickr. CC-licnesed original at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordgoroth/3753720029/
Here’s a rumor we can get behind — the next-gen iMac will get quad-core processors and a SD-Card slot, according the French website Mac4Ever.
New iMacs are just around the corner, according to reports, and may be released in a matter of weeks. While some recent rumors suggest the machine may get a Blu-Ray drive, a SD Card reader seems much likelier, especially as card readers are now included in the 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pros.
The iMac is also rumored to get new processors, but reports are all over the place. Mac4Ever says the iMac will get quad-core chips, and possibly Xeon processors, while MacRumors says the iMac will stay with dual-core chips.
Mac4Ever also predicts a mouse with a surface that is 100% touch-enabled, allowing for advanced configuration options. There’s alos an aluminum remote in Apple’s pipeline, which sounds nice and classy.
Meanwhile, AppleInsider is saying the entry-level MacBook may also get a revamp shortly. The MacBook may split into a couple of sub-$1,000 models, AI says, thanks to the crummy economy, and may also be available in weeks.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, Hardware, Macintosh, News, Rumors | 9 Comments »
5:28 pm, September 23rd, 2009, Pete Mortensen
Earlier today, Gizmodo posted a pair of pictures of what are presumed to be the fruits of Microsoft’s Project Pink — long-rumored to be the so-called ZunePhone. The merits of the designs have already been debated endlessly online (most people seem to like the one above, called “True” “Pure” and are puzzled about the one below, “Turtle”). For what it’s worth, they seem perfectly fine to me and could even make a pretty big splash if they come to Verizon, have a great OS, a decent app library, and Xbox-linked games; as I’ve said before, it’s not about the product, it’s about the platform and the network.
But since this is a Mac blog, I’m not going to spend a long time analyzing what Project Pink might or might not mean. I’m more interested in how this major leak, likely months before official announcement or release, shows just how difficult it is to handle the innovation thing the way Apple does: in secret, on time, and with big impact.
Consider what we knew about the iPhone prior to its release: That Apple would make a phone. Maybe. That’s it. Honestly, I wasn’t sure there actually was an iPhone until Steve announced it at MacWorld. We’d seen a million renderings from designers, none of which turned out to be even close to what Apple released. Compare that to what we knew about the Google G1: EVERYTHING. With the Pink phones, we now know virtually everything about the industrial design and the hardware, we know the OS, and we have a sense of the UI.
This doesn’t happen because Apple’s competitors are incompetent — far from it. It’s just the fact that in the media environment we have today, it’s almost impossible to keep secret anything that people want to know about. One slip-up by any of thousands of people can send your top-secret project out to the world. We don’t know the source of the Pink leak — it could literally be anyone — a Microsoftie, a Sharp employee, someone at the ODM, someone at the ad agency, someone at the PR agency, or even an embargoed journalist gone rogue. It’s incredibly hard to trace, and even harder to prevent from happening in the first place.
And this is why Apple’s ability to create, sustain, and often exceed hype is such a remarkable thing. There have been leaks at times, but nothing this big, ever. Instead, Apple manages to stoke the rumor fires just enough that we all have some notion of what it might make next — we’re all convinced that Apple’s making a tablet — but none of us have any idea of what the actual thing will be. We don’t even know which operating system such a tablet will run.
Maintaining that mystique requires incredible loyalty from your employees, extreme paranoia, and even an unwillingness to let any of your partners touch or see the final devices. It’s obviously so hard that Apple doesn’t even try to do it for incremental or non-surprising products, which could explain how all those case manufacturers leaked the nano with the video camera all those weeks ago.
It’s the stumbles of Apple’s competitors that remind me just how special Steve Jobs and team are when they’re at the top of their game. The reason the entire tech media corps went insane for the iPhone was that it was a great product and a huge surprise at once.
And in the connected age, that’s just as hard as a solid multitouch implementation.
Posted by Pete Mortensen in Apple, Rumors, iPhone | 5 Comments »
2:18 pm, September 21st, 2009, Leander Kahney
Like Apple, Microsoft is rumored to be working on a touchscreen tablet. Hopefully it won't resemble this earlier effort.
Like Apple, Microsoft is developing on a touchscreen tablet, several sources say.
CoM has heard rumors that Microsoft has a touchscreen tablet in the works. 9to5Mac is reporting that Microsoft is working on a tablet (and two touchscreen phones to compete with the iPhone).
Mary-Jo Foley at ZDNet has some details: Microsoft’s tablet effort is being led by James Allard, the Microsoft executive in charge of the XBox and Zune, and members of Microsoft’s Surface team, Foley reports.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Hardware, News, Rumors, apple tablet | 9 Comments »
1:35 pm, September 16th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Apple's popular iMac is rumored to get a refresh soon. Many are hoping Blu-Ray will be added, but that's unlikely. CC-licensed pic of an iMac by QuattroVageena: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quattrovageena/1709649008/
The iMac will get a design refresh in coming weeks, according to a report from Wall Street analysts, and everyone’s hoping Apple will finally add Blu-Ray.
Wedge Partners predicts the introduction of an updated iMac with “thinner, organic design, likely with smoothed or rounded edges,” reports Tech Trader Daily. Sounds like the iPhone 3GS to me. The iMac is already styled after the iPhone, and the 3GS is more rounded and organic than previous models. (The MacBook will also get a refresh, Wedge says, but design and hardware changes are likely to be minimal)
There have been rumors of new iMacs for several weeks. AppleInsider reported that an iMac release was imminent, and that the machine would get two “compelling new features.” The iMac is overdue for a refresh, according to MacRumors Buying Guide, which says the current models are 197 days old and the average period between upgrades is 220 days.
Most intriguing is whether the refresh will bring new capabilities. High on everyone’s wishlist for compelling new features is Blu-Ray — see this thread on MacRumors with 850+ comments. What could be better than adding high-def movies to Apple’s premier home machine?
Unfortunately, it’s not going to happen any time soon. Here’s why.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Rumors | 10 Comments »
10:54 am, September 14th, 2009, Leander Kahney
A major update of the Apple TV may be in the works.
Apple has slashed the price of the 160GB Apple TV to $229 (from $329) and discontinued the 40GB model. Meanwhile, it looks like Apple’s new iTunes LP — a new format for multimedia music bundles — is designed for high-resolution output on the AppleTV.
The iTunes LP content is output at 1,280-by-720, the native resolution of an Apple TV when hooked to a high-definition TV. Apple’s new iTunes Extras (bonus movie material usually included on bonus DVDs and now available for download on iTunes) is also designed to be output at the same high resolution. While this is natural for movie content, it’s a curious choice for music content, albeit multimedia music content, which might naturally be formatted for playing on computers and laptops.
Which all points to a major update for the Apple TV in the near future. The AppleTV hardware has remained essentially unchanged since its introduction, although it has received a couple of software upgrades.
The 160GB model is the only configuration of the Apple TV now on offer. The 40GB Apple TV was previously priced at $229.
Steve Jobs usually refers to the AppleTV as a “hobby,” and not a real business. The choice of movies for the device on the iTunes store remains relatively limited.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, AppleTV, News, Rumors, Top stories | 1 Comment »
11:59 am, September 8th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Basically: new iPods and iTunes, no Beatles and no tablet.
In declining order of likelihood, here’s what Apple will show off tomorrow:
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Opinions, Rumors, Top stories | 11 Comments »
8:53 pm, September 2nd, 2009, Lonnie Lazar
Apple is expected to announce the availability of pre-cut ringtones made from popular music tracks at next week’s media event on September 9, according to a report Wednesday at CNET News.
Despite being able to easily make their own ringtones out of any mp3 file for free, consumers have in the past shown a willingness to pay as much as $3 to hear a few seconds of a favorite song when receiving an incoming phone call.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment for the report and no details are available about what the company might charge for ringtones, but the formerly booming, high-margin source of music industry revenues saw a 24% decline from 2007 – 2008, according to a recent report from the research firm SNL Kagan.
With many expecting little more than some tweaks to iTunes and a possible refresh of the iPod line next week, Apple appears to have done a good job of setting the stage for a blockbuster announcement of some kind.
On the other hand, Apple can’t be expected to put a ding in the universe with every single press conference; maybe what we’ll get next week will only amount to “Hey, Look – Ringtones!”
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, Music, Rumors, iTunes | 1 Comment »
Sure, I could write a whole How-To on rolling your own “Back To My Mac.” It involves port forwarding, obtaining a Dynamic DNS, blah blah blah.
Or you could use the iPhone app LogMeIn Ignition [iTunes Link] to remotely access to your Mac or PC in three steps.
This is a great idea, and bound to go down very well with your kids.
Balloons is simple: you launch a virtual balloon into the air from your phone. You add a photo and a text message to the label that dangles below the balloon, and send it off.
Anyone with the Balloons app can catch [...]
The San Francisco based company Waterfield presents the Muzetto laptop bag. This “urban man bag” will make the geekiest nerd feel hip. Don’t be surprised when your fashion-forward girlfriend tries to steal it.
Designed as a lightweight laptop tote, this bag is high quality; it’s made from distressed dark brown leather and [...]
Seems like a no-brainer: Take two different concepts that work great separately, Frankenstein them together and — viola! Instant more amazingness!
Except we all know how the Frankenstein story ended. The LiquidAUX story isn’t as ugly as that. But it isn’t pretty either.
Bash the jump for the full review.
Some readers might remember the fuss a few weeks ago, when Snow Leopard came out and people noticed that it did something screwy to the way files behave.
George Hotz a.k.a GeoHot has released blackra1n RC3, which is an update to a 1-click jailbreak that adds activation options and an add-on blacksn0w, which unlocks latest iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS baseband version 05.11.07. To use blacksn0w, make sure you have this new baseband (check under Settings –> General –> About –> Modem Firmware) [...]
As I noted a couple of weeks ago, I want a way to view all my iPhone apps on my iPhone, not just through iTunes. I review lots of iPhone apps and am a keen iPhone gamer. When apps vanish into the void, I forget they’re there (and so Spotlight isn’t much use), and it’s [...]
Our recent preview of Lightroom 3 – Beta has generated a lot of buzz about the future of digital processing. One of the questions that keeps coming up is: how do I migrate from Aperture to Lightroom?
Well, it’s not has hard as you think, as long as you’re willing to invest a bit of time [...]
