Alex Heath - page 108

The LandingZone is a dock for the MacBook Air that boasts a Mini DisplayPort, 4 USB ports, an Ethernet port, and a handy clamp or managing cables and your power cord. There’s also support for the Kensington lock cords so you’re MacBook Air stays safe.

For $200, the LandingZone looks like a pretty solid docking station for your MacBook Air. The project on Kickstarter is needing to reach its $50,000 goal before shipping begins, and pledging right now guarantees you a unit when they roll off the production line.

In case Apple needed more of a pat on the back, comScore has reported that the company was the fifth most-visited retailer on Black Friday. Apple is the only individual product brand to make it so high on the list.

Sitting behind the likes of Target, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Amazon, Apple’s success on Black Friday is unprecedented.

What’s better than an iPhone 4S? How about an iPhone 4S with a see-through back! The folks at iFixit have announced their transparent rear glass panel mod for Apple’s latest smartphone, and if you buy now you get a nifty care package to keep your iPhone clean and free of damage.

For $29.95, you can’t beat this deal. The mod is also available for the GSM iPhone 4.

iTunes Match gives customers access to their music libraries from any iOS device or authenticated desktop computer. The service uses the magic of iCloud to ‘match’ and upload tracks from an iTunes account so that songs can be played and downloaded multiple times on multiple devices.

While Apple has offered some documentation on the innards of iTunes Match, aspects of the service remain unaddressed. For those wondering, one iTunes Match account can be used with a maximum of 10 devices. You can manage your registered devices and iTunes Match subscription inside your iTunes account settings.

The media is constantly comparing Apple’s incredible bottom line to other companies and industries. At one point, it was said that Apple was worth more than the entirety of the U.S. government. Apple’s market cap recently reached a staggering $370 billion, and things don’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.

We all have a pretty good understanding of what Apple is larger than. But who has less market cap than the moneybags in Cupertino?

Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief strategy and research officer, recently said that Windows Phone 7 beat Siri to the punch. In an interview, Mundie argued that Apple only marketed Siri well, and that Microsoft has had the same technology for more than a year already.

Jason from TechAU has created a video face-off between Microsoft’s voice recognition software, called TellMe, and Siri on the iPhone 4S. We’ll let you guess which one actually works.

Apple’s series of heated lawsuits with Samsung have put the two companies at odds, and Apple has been reportedly looking to other suppliers for hi-res displays. Specifically, Apple now has Sharp on deck to supply screens for the upcoming iPad 3.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is adding Sharp to its roster of screen suppliers for the next-generation iPad. The displays will allegedly be of higher resolution and thinner than the screens found in previous generations.

There’s a new jailbreak app on the block, and it doesn’t place nice. MobileMonitor is perhaps the scariest activity monitoring tool we’ve come across for the iPhone, and it’s available for anyone to download in the jailbreak equivalent to the App Store, Cydia.

Once installed, not only does MobileMonitor become untraceable on the iPhone itself, but it records and uploads all of your personal data to a website that can be accessed by anyone with the correct login information.

We Americans have stuffed our faces with turkey and various assortments of tasty dishes, and now it’s time for Black Friday. That means Apple’s online stores around the world are getting updated with special sales. Many other retails are also offering hot deals on our favorite Apple gadgets and accessories.

Things aren’t looking good for AT&T’s T-Mobile USA acquisition proposal. AT&T withdrew its merger application with the FCC today and agreed to pay a $4 billion pre-tax charge to the affected parties in its next quarterly earnings report.

While AT&T and Deutsche Telekom are still committed to the merger, this action signals that the deal will likely not make it past the courts. The proposed merger is facing opposition from multiple sides, including the FCC’s own chairman.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGrDMVk2isc

Apple has aired a new commercial for the iPod touch called “Share the Fun.” The advert features the white and black 4th gen iPod touch and several of the main features in iOS 5.

In the ad, people tweet from the iPod touch, use Game Center, talk on FaceTime, take pictures, and more. This new iPod touch ad joins Apple’s recent iPhone 4S and iPad 2 commercials.

In a recent interview with Forbes, Microsoft’s chief strategy and research officer, Craig Mundie, sat down to talk about the future of the “Kinect effect” and other aspects of the company’s business.

When asked about his opinion on the hype surrounding Apple’s Siri voice technology in the iPhone 4S, Mundie promptly stuck his foot in his mouth.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs5ddFlc5Tw

The highly anticipated sequel to Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade is launching on December 1st, and the official trailer has been made available with commentary from the game’s developers.

Infinity Blade II will feature 40 new locations, millions of new hit points, and stunning visuals for iOS devices that boast the A5 processor, like the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is looking to recruit more senior-level executives to help run iCloud. As the company continues to build up its cloud offerings, more expertise is needed.

Apple is looking for talented execs with a knowledge of web-based services to help manage and expand its iCloud services. The report also says that Apple is looking to introduce iCloud apps that “reduce the need for people to carry around numerous devices at once.”

Apple is allowing Big Fish Games to incorporate a subscription model for its iPad games in the App Store. According to Bloomberg, Big Fish will be the first game maker in the App Store to allow customers access to all of its titles for $4.99 per month initially.

Games from Big Fish will be streamed to users over Wi-Fi and a customer’s subscription is managed in a dedicated app for the iPad.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXS5VHw7rwA

We stumbled across this rare video of Steve Jobs at the CAUSE 1998 Conference in Seattle. In the short clip, Steve Jobs gives a particularly comedic and lighthearted talk about the PC and TV.

The video quality is pretty awful, but what’s said in the talk is very interesting. In the video, Jobs says, “TV turns your brain off, PCs turn your brain on.” What most don’t know is that Jobs was quoting a failed campaign for the original iMac.

Apple has snatched up several iPhone-related porn URLs from a domain squatter. The sites in question were handed over to Apple after the company filed a complaint a few weeks ago.

The high profile domains, including iPhone4S.com, have been given over to Apple from the previous owner.

It was recently reported that Apple was putting the finishing touches on its new flagship store in New York City’s Grand Central Station. The store was supposed to be unveiled to the public by Black Friday on November 25th or during this upcoming weekend.

Eager shoppers will apparently have to wait to drop their hard earned cash on Apple products in Grand Central Station, as the store’s opening “won’t be any time too soon.”

When Apple announced that it was going to sell OS X Lion exclusively as a digital download, many were skeptical. By not selling physical copies of the operating system, wouldn’t Apple be crippling Lion’s consumer reach?

As it turns out, Lion has already sold more than 6 millions copies in the Mac App Store, making it 80% more popular than Apple’s previous desktop OS, Snow Leopard. The folks in Redmond have taken notice, and Microsoft has announced that its upcoming operating system, Windows 8, will also be offered as a digital download.

After Apple finally converted its entire Mac lineup to AMD, SemiAccurate is reporting that Apple is switching back to NVIDIA as the graphics chip supplier for the upcoming MacBook Pro model in 2012.

While the report doesn’t specifically say why Apple is planning its move back to NVIDIA, it looks as though the rumored MacBook Pro refresh for 2012 will include NVIDIA graphics and possibly the Intel Ivy Bridge processor.

Greg Joswiak is Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod, iPhone, and iOS product marketing. He’s presented at past iPhone and iOS Apple events and is a critical member of Apple’s corporate team.

While speaking at the “Silicon Valley Comes to Cambridge” event in the UK, Joswiak shared what he believes to be the four keys to Apple’s success.

Nick Bilton of The New York Times recently sat down with Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson. In the interview, Isaacson shared his opinions of Jobs and other details surrounding the book.

Steve Jobs “didn’t go into details” about Apple’s future products during his discussions with Isaacson, but Jobs did reveal three things he wanted to reinvent: the television, textbooks, and photography.

Microsoft recently unveiled its first retail store on the East coast at the Tysons Corner mall in McLean, Virginia. Like other Microsoft stores, the new location is strategically placed near the local Apple Store.

In an attempt to appeal to the hip and cool computer geeks out there, Microsoft hired a DJ to play music during the store’s opening. Can you guess what kind of laptop the DJ used?

It’s that time of the year. The busiest shopping day in existence is nearly upon us: Black Friday.

As Apple and iOS fanatics, we naturally look to the App Store for useful apps when life’s obstacles are thrown our way. The topic of Black Friday is no exception, so we’ve collected some of the best, free iPhone apps available to help you make the most out of your shopping experience this year.

Just when you thought you could buy a totally free iPhone, AT&T raises the subsidized price of the iPhone 3GS to $0.99! What gives?

As spotted by MacRumors, one of the nation’s largest carriers is listing the iPhone 3GS as costing $0.99 on its online store. The carrier activation fee is waved with the purchase and AT&T is offering free overnight shipping. What’s really weird is that Apple still lists the iPhone 3GS as costing $0 on its own website.