John Brownlee - page 180

Over the weekend, some iPad-specific and resolution-doubled icons found in iBooks Version 1.1 made everyone speculate that the iPad 2 would have a 2048 x 1536 display. Not quite Retina, but close enough.

Unfortunately, the speculation breaks down upon closer examination. Not only are the pixel-quadrupled iBook icons old news, but there’s a conflicting mention of a 1536×800 pixel resolution in the same build.

In fact, Apple’s been suggesting that developers provide a double resolution icon for each iPad app since June. This is just Apple thinking forward: yes, they’d like to have the same pixel density in the iPad as in the iPhone and iPod Touch, but that doesn’t make a 10.1-inch Retina Display economically feasible this generation.

In other words, this resolution-doubled iPad icon business? Much ado about nothing. The iPad 2 might have a Retina Display, but not because of a couple of higher res icons.

Late next month, Nintendo is set to release the 3DS, the successor to their popular Nintendo DS handheld console. Besides a few bumped specs, the main selling point of the 3DS is its glasses-free 3D display, which Nintendo hopes will give their latest handheld a leg up on the competition… most importantly by giving them a clear point of differentiation from the DS’s number one competitor, the iPod Touch.

How long will Nintendo have 3D superiority over the Touch, though? Perhaps not as long as Nintendo thinks. A new rumor coming out of Japan suggests that the next iPod Touch will have the same glasses-free 3D display found in the Nintendo 3DS, based upon Cupertino’s multiple patents for 3D related technologies.

A little more than two years after the controversy started, graphics chip maker NVIDIA has agreed to a settlement of Apple, Dell and HP owners who bought laptops with faulty GPUs.

For Apple owners, the settlement covers anyone who purchased a MacBook Pro from May 2007 to September 2008.

You might remember that this generation of MacBook Pro was prone to graphics failure due to faulty NVIDIA chips.

On Apple’s part, they have been extremely good about servicing laptops for free that were affected by the bad NVIDIA chips, covering those laptops even out of warranty for up to three years and issuing refunds to those who paid for repairs.

Now NVIDIA’s doing the same. If you paid for a repair on an Apple notebook computer related to the NVIDIA GPU, you can submit a claim by filling out this form. For a replacement, send in this form.

Earlier reports this month tipped a January 19th launch for The Daily, Rupert Murdoch’s new iPad-only newspaper, but it looks like that launch will now be delayed thanks to problems implementing the new iOS subscription API meant to drive The Daily’s business model.

According to All Things D’s sources, Apple and News Corp have made a joint decision to push the launch back to give Cupertino’s engineers enough time to tweak the implementation of the new subscription service.

These paintbrushes by Don Lee seem like an incredible idea. Called the Nomad Brush, each brush’s bristles are made of conductive fibers, so that it’ll work for painting on the iPad with any paint tool app.

I’m not sure I entirely see the point though. The iPad’s touch display can only register ten touch points at once, with none of the granularity that would be required to capture individual bristle strokes, not just brush strokes. Consequently, a lot of the feel and look of painting with a brush will be lost, especially since the iPad’s display doesn’t register pressure: you might as well use any rubber-tipped stylus instead for roughly the same effect.

Ultimately, it seems like whether or not the Nomad Brush is worth the dosh for you is how much more comfortable you are painting than drawing. If that sounds like you, the Nomad should be out in February.

It may be the New Year, but sadly, it appears that the mere turning-over of the calendar isn’t enough to put a stop to the slate of Foxconn suicides: last Friday, a female engineer leaped from her brother’s 10th floor flat to her death after being insulted by a superior, ordered to quit, then sent to a psychiatric hospital on Foxconn’s orders.

The suicide is the fifteenth so far, although the first Foxconn suicide in 2011.

In just a little over 200 million downloads, the App Store will serve up its ten billionth app , and to celebrate the occasion, Apple’s going to give the lucky S.O.B. who downloads the 10 billionth app a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Well, technically, Apple’s only saying that the person who downloads the ten billionth app has a chance of winning a $10,000 gift card. Note the verbiage (emphasis ours):

As of today, nearly 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 10 billionth app, and you could win a US $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. Just visit the App Store, and download what could be your best app yet.

The explanation for Apple’s wishy-washiness are pesky American laws that require companies to give an equal chance to no-commitment entries, which is why Apple has provided an entry form that you can fill out up to twenty five times a day. These entries count as make-believe app downloads; if one of these cheapskate entries triggers the ten billionth download, they’ll walk away with $10,000, just as if it were a real download.

Either way, this is super cool. A $10,000 iTunes gift card is probably large enough that even the most addicted app fiend will never have to spend another real-world dime in the App Store again.

It’s been commonly rumored that Verizon was the first carrier Apple approach with the iPhone, only to be rebuffed because of Cupertino’s insistence on retaining control over their phone’s branding and bundled software. Heck, we referenced it the other day.

It looks like that rumor’s not actually true, though. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg has admitted in an interview with BusinessWeek that his company was “never in the running” as US carrier partner for the original iPhone’s launch.

The iPad app being demonstrated in this video is called OMGuitar Advanced, and it looks pretty cool. It’s pretty hard to get through the video itself to appreciate the app in motion, though, between the infinite douchiness of the “American Idol” style judges dancing in their seats to the limpest acoustic rendition of Garbage’s I’m Only Happy When It Rains this side of the 2am dorm room of Evergreen State College’s sole emo student. Still, it’s really nice to see people really playing music on the iPad. And OMGuitar certainly looks like an impressive app indeed, for when you’ve just got to travel without your guitar.

 Although Apple is notoriously tight-lipped about new products in the pipeline, it’s pretty easy to predict when they’ll refresh one of their devices as long as you know when they last released an update… and this is doubly true for iOS devices, which follow a strict yearly update cycle.

Knowing this, you’d have to be addled-of-brain and swollen-of-tongue to bet against the iPad 2 shipping anytime before early April: after all, the first iPad shipped in America on April 3rd, a Saturday. If you’re interested in how Apple’s tablet has evolved since then, check out the current generation iPad to see the advancements made over the years.

MacNotes‘s “reliable sources” tipping either an Apil 2nd or April 9th U.S. release for the iPad 2 aren’t really saying anything jaw-dropping then. They suggest, like last time, that the iPad 2 will ship on a Saturday early in April, and, like last time, it’ll be a U.S. exclusive for a a couple months before launching internationally.Also like last time, they say it’ll be six months before big box retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy get to offer the tablet.

Well, yeah. Duh. My guess is the iPad 2 launch will be more or less identical in timing and specifics to the first-gen iPad launch except for one thing: just a hunch, but I’m betting Apple will have both the WiFi and 3G versions ready simultaneously this time.

A lot of the jailbreak dev scene is about waiting. Waiting for Apple to break a previous exploit with a new patch. Waiting to deploy a new exploit that Apple hasn’t even caught wind of yet.

No one’s better at this sly waiting game than the iPhone Dev Team, who have just let everyone know that yes, they’re working on a jailbreaking tool for iOS 4.2.5 (as seen on the Verizon iPhone) and iOS 4.3.

But don’t expect anything while iOS 4.3 is in beta: tipping the community’s hand about what exploits they’ve found before Apple’s finalized the update would be just stupid.

Anyway, according to Dev Team member MuscleNerd‘s Twitter account, It’s silly to release anything during Apple betas… [because] most people can’t take advantage.”

In short, yes, a jailbreak is coming, even for Verizon iPhones… but only start holding your breath once the Verizon iPhone is officially released.

Looking for the thinnest portable hard drive around to augment your MacBook Air’s paltry SSD storage? Here you go: Freecom’s new Mobile Drive Mg isn’t just the thinnest hard drive around at 10mm thick, the high-end $199.95 750GB model not only boasts a USB 2.0 port (forwards compatible to USB 3.0, whenever Apple gets around to embracing it) but also Firewire 800. If you can live without Firewire, the $69.95 320GB model or $109.95 750GB model are probably more your speed.

What does Capcom’s new App Store game MaXplosion and the Twisted Pixel Xbox Live Arcade game ‘Splosion Man have in common? Everything, much to Twisted Pixel’s dismay.

First tipped in November 2011, Scosche’s iClops accessory for iPad was a tiny, swivel-able camera that would connect to the top of your iPad and allow you to take 2.1 megapixel stills or VGA-quality video on Apple’s tablet slated for release in March of this year.

Sounds like a pretty good accessory for iPad owners happy enough with their current tablet that they don’t want to upgrade to the iPad 2 in April, but wouldn’t mind spending a few bucks on an accessory to bring some of the latter tablet’s video and photo functionality to them. It also did the same for camera-less iPod Touches.

Unfortunately, it now looks like the iClops has been axed by Scosche, and according to one source, it was axed because of “legal issues” with Apple that prevented Scosche from releasing the iClops in time for its forecast March release.

If there were such an issue, it would presumably be due to the way the iClops interacted with the iPod Dock Connector port. Either way, it’s a disappointing development: for now, at least, it seems that current iPad or iPod Touch owners who want to take photos or videos on their camera-less devices will have no choice but to upgrade.

With excellent timing for citation in Microsoft’s lawsuit against Apple over the latter’s App Store trademark, the American Dialect Society has just declared the word “app” their word of the year.

Beating out words like “junk” (?), “WikiLeaks”, “trend” and “nom” (thank God), app was voted the belle of the Dialect Society ball by over 69 linguists. It was a close race, though, with the Dialect Society’s executive secretary saying that while there was nothing “clearly dominant” this year, “there’s no question ‘app’ is a very powerful word.”

A few other Apple-related words also made the American Dialect Society’s list, including “fat-finger” to mean mistyping on a touchscreen and the “-pad” suffix in reference to tablet computers.

If you remember, reports had it at the time that Verizon was the carrier Apple originally came to with the iPhone, only to be snubbed by Big Red because of Apple’s insistence on maintaining full control over the phone’s hardware and software: no bundled apps, no carrier branding. Laughing, Apple went to AT&T and history was made.

Speaking to BusinessWeek, Verizon president and CEO Lowell McAdam makes it clear that Verizon regretted that decision pretty much the second after Apple left their offices: he says they’ve spent the last four years trying to get the iPhone back.

Although Apple rumor-mongers can rarely agree on anything, two things that most of the supposed tipsters and leaksters have managed to agree on is that the iPad 2 will be FaceTime compatible and have a higher resolution display.

Some files in the new iOS 4.3 SDK seemingly confirm the FaceTime claims, as it includes iPad-specific graphic files for the shutter screen seen in the iPhone and iPod Touch, which implies, at the very least, a new backwards facing camera. Interesting, but a no-brainer: there’s no way Apple’s going to leave FaceTime capability out of the iPad 2.

More surprising than the FaceTime implications of those icons, though, are their resolution: 1024 x 768. In other words, the current iOS 4.3 SDK implies that the FaceTime-capable iPad 2 will have the same resolution as the current iPad.

It’s not a live feature in the recently released iOS 4.3 dev beta, but it looks as if Apple will be adding a new feature to its MobileMe service sometime soon, making it easy to see where your friends — or, at least, their iPhones and iPads — are when they’re late for dinner and drinks.

Spotted by MacRumors, several strings in the new Settings app reference a “Find My Friends” feature.

Yesterday’s dev release of iOS 4.3 revealed a myriad of new features to Apple’s already robust mobile operating system, but what’s prompting the most comment this morning is the new multitouch gesture introduced that allows you to pinch with your whole hand to return to the homescreen.

Now BGR is claiming that this new gesture is the first step to removing the physical home button from a future iPad. Nonsense, says I.

High-end a/v makers Denon and Marantz have just issued a firmware update providing AirPlay music streaming capability to nine of their network capable decks.

For Denon, that includes the the AVR-4311CI ($1,999), AVR-3311CI ($1,199) AVR-991 ($999), and the AVR-A100 ($2,499), as well as the RCD-N7 Networked CD Receiver ($599). On the Marantz side of things, there’s the SR7005 A/V Receiver ($1,599), AV7005 A/V Preamplifier ($1,499), NA7004 Network Audio Player ($799) and M-CR603 Networked CD Receiver ($699)

Amazingly, though, the firmware updates are $50 apiece. Ballsy! If that’s worth it to you, though, you can grab the firmware upgrades at both the Denon and Marantz websites.

Got a PlayStation 3? Sony has just released their official PlayStation app for the whole world — or, at least, America, France, UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands — to download.

Don’t expect to use your iPhone as a thin client to play some PlayStation 3 games, though. Instead, the app lets you log into the PlayStation Network, follow your friends, check out the games they own, read their status updates, monitor trophies you’ve earned and check out the official PlayStation blog.

The PlayStation app is a free download. You can get it here

Feeling pinched for space in your new MacBook Air? I know I certainly am, even (or, perhaps, especially) with a 500GB USB hard drive perpetually tethered to my 11-incher.

I’m interested, then, in OWC’s recently unveiled Mercury Auro Pro Express Kits, which are compatible with both the late 2010 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Pros. They are available in three sizes: a $499.99 180GB dSSD, a $579.99 240GB SSD, and a $1,179.99 360GB SSD… all of which are not only bigger than Apple’s in-house drives, but faster as well.

Much as I’d like a bigger SSD in my MacBook Air, at those prices, I’m tempted to wait until they come down a bit… but that might not be an option. Apple has already shut down one company selling MacBook Air SSD upgrade kits, and it’s likely they’ll do the same here, so if you’re going to get one, better scrape that $500 together fast.

[via iSource]

iOS 4.3 Beta Build 8F5148B has just been seeded to developers, and there’s some big changes across all devices to get your head around:

• iOS 4.3 officially drops support for the iPhone 3G and second-generation iPod Touch. iOS 4 never ran particularly well on these devices anyway, and it looks like Apple knows it: they’ve now left all support for less-than-third-gen devices at iOS 4.2.1.

• As predicted, iOS 4.3 brings the Verizon iPhone’s “Personal Hotspot” feature allowing WiFi tethering for up to five devices to all iPhones… or, at least, all iPhones that are blessed with their carrier’s approval.

• A new software option to choose what your iPad’s side switch does: lock rotation or mute. This is a pretty big change: Steve Jobs himself basically said the change in iOS 4.2 from a lock switch to mute was permanent, but it seems user complaints eventually made Apple see sense. Mute just doesn’t make any sense on a non-phone device.

• A new FaceTime icon and full-screen iAds.

• New multitouch gestures for iPad users. You can use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen; swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar; and swipe left or right between apps.

Anything we missed? Let us know in the comments.

The 5th Avenue Apple Store is already one of New York’s most iconic locations, but now Apple wants to bring some of their keen architectural sense to Brooklyn… specifically, by putting their sixth NYC store near the new Atlantic Yards arena, which will be the future Prospect Heights’ based home of the New Jersey Nets.

According to the New York Observer, Apple’s been in discussions with developer Forest City Ratner about moving into a retail slot.

Writing about mobile for a living, it can be hard to keep the names of all of the competing App Stores straight. Apple has the App Store, Google has the Android Marketplace, HP has the Palm App Catalog and Microsoft has the most unwieldy name yet in the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Microsoft seems to be as embarrassed by their app market’s name as we are, because they’re now trying to take Apple to court over Cupertino’s 2008 trademark on the the “App Store,” arguing that the term is too generic to be exclusively used by Apple.