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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

iPhone Nano – The Rumor That Won’t Die

Case of rumored iPhone nano.

Case of rumored iPhone nano.

The iPhone nano is back. The vaporware – part handset, part iPod – has re-emerged more than a year after first speculation. The newest iteration comes from China.

The latest rumor is that iDealsChina is producing a case for the unnamed product that supposedly will be unveiled at Macworld in January.

The Chinese company, which MacRumors says has “a very mixed track record” when it comes to leaking news of actual products, notes the case’s dimensions “have the same height as the just release Nano but wider and thicker and with the same iPhone 3G contours.”

The reports come as analysts suggest Apple won’t unveil a new product category at Macworld. The tradeshow has been used by CEO Steve Jobs to launch new devices.

In 2007, a JP Morgan analyst launched a thousand blog posts by writing Apple was about to unveil “a cheaper version of the iPhone in the fourth quarter that could be based on its iPod nano music player.”

Avi Greengart, a handset analyst for Current Analysis, told Cult of Mac, rumors of a smaller iPhone rank among the top three rumors during the annual “silly season” leading up to Macworld. Other unconfirmed reports that never seem to die: a tablet Mac and a subscription-based music service.

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

2 comments

    Not happenin.
    Any news at MW will be about Snow Leopard.

    What about a disk-based nano? Nobody is going to pay $600 for an 64GB SSD, not even those freaks who bought iPhones for that price. Apple pretty much destroyed the essence of the nano/mini with this version, making it an iPod “junior,” and the classic is all but orphaned. Why not combine the two into a single platform with a slightly different back panel? Everything inside is the same, so save money by manufacturing fewer parts.

    Maybe they’re making a nano touch that does nothing extra except use a cool touch screen and stick you for an extra hundred bucks. Actually, considering Apple’s new market identification as the leader in touch screens, this isn’t so outlandish, is it? It fills out the iPhone line, and just think of all the games they can sell on the App Store.

    I meant it as a joke, but a nano touch makes a lot of sense. Should the PSP be worried?

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