John Brownlee - page 208

Apple’s fastest Mac is the 12-Core Mac Pro, featuring two 2.93 GHz Xeon processors. Configure it with 25GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM, and Apple’s fastest Mac will cost you $8,749.00.

Yowza. That’s an extraordinary amount of money. If you don’t mind dropping an extra $300, though, you might be interested in Macintouch’s guide to building not Apple’s fastest Mac, but the world’s fastest Mac yourself.

Yup, according to Macintouch’s tests, their Hackintoshed monstrosity — a total beast of a machine running two 3.33GHz hexacore Westmere processors overclocked to 4.2GHz each and supplemented with 24GB of DDR3 RAM — melted the Mac Pro’s face off.

Of course, there’s a lot of drawbacks to this approach, including compatibility issues and a much louder system than the Mac Pro, as well as a desktop footprint that makes the Pro look compact. But as of right now, it seems that a Hackintosh is the fastest Mac in the world. God help us.

[via Hardmac]

Apple’s Automator is a fantastic way to manage your iTunes tracks… but with Apple’s iTunes 10 update, many iTunes-specific Automator workflows have simply stopped working.

According to upset users in Apple’s discussion forums, the vast majority of iTunes Automator actions go missing when you install iTunes 10. Try to run a previously created iTunes workflow and you will ironically be prompted to install iTunes 4.6 or higher. Ugh.

The good news here is that none of the functionality has disappeared from AppleScript, so it should be able to replicate the functionality if you change gears. Still, the sudden absence of iTunes functionality in Automator is mysterious: did Apple purposely drop the functionality, or is this a bug? If the former, what was Apple’s rationale?

When Steve Jobs announced the new palm-sized AppleTV on Wednesday, replete with AirPlay-streaming functionality from your computer’s iTunes library, 720p high-def video and Netflix capability, many of us wondered if Cupertino would (or even be able) to extend the new functionality back down the line to the older, drive-based model.

Nope, says Ars Technica. An Apple spokesperson confirmed to them that there will be no software updates to bring the new AppleTV functionality to the last generation model.

To be honest, I wasn’t suspecting anything different. According to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, even though the AppleTV doesn’t look like it is running iOS, it is… an assertion supported by the new AppleTV’s A4 CPU. The new software probably doesn’t even work on old AppleTVs, and rolling out a major software update for the obsolete model would essentially require coding the functionality from scratch.

Still, it’s disappointing. I, like many AppleTV owners, gave Apple my money for their “hobbyist” device, supporting and defending it for years even while Apple ignored it. Now that they are taking the device seriously and finally bringing the AppleTV brand up to spec, though, Apple’s quick to abandon us.

[via 9to5Mac]

All across Europe, iPhone exclusivity deals have already toppled, but here in Germany, T-Mobile still remains standing as the sole carrier of the iPhone 4. The foundations are wobbly, though, as numerous other carriers in the country have begun selling the iPhone 3GS, marking the first time more than one company has offered the iPhone… even if one of those iPhone’s is markedly superior.

It now looks like T-Mobile’s exclusivity deal is finally about to collapse entirely though. According to the Wall Street Journal, Deutsche Telekom is preparing for the loss of the iPhone 4 exclusive in time for the holiday shopping season… while Vodafone and O2 are similarly preparing to carry it.

It’s in Apple’s best interest to sell the iPhone 4 on as many networks as possible, and every country that has seen an exclusivity deal end has seen iPhone sales and profits meteorically rise.

Note the timing here as well: T-Mobile is losing the iPhone 4 exclusive by the end of the year. Meanwhile, here in the States, it is heavily rumored that Verizon will get a special CDMA version of the iPhone 4 in January.

It looks like Apple is just letting all of its existing contracts lapse. Now that T-Mobile looks set to lose its exclusivity contract for the German market, can AT&T be far behind?

Twitter for iPhone — née Tweetie — is a wonderful first-party client with almost any functionality you could care to name, but one area in which it loses to some of its competitors is in its lack of support for push notifications.

No worries, though, because along with yesterday’s triumphant debut of Twitter for iPad, the iOS team are also working on integrating push for iOS 4.1.

Says Twitter:

We’ve been testing push notifications internally. When we launched Twitter for iPad, there was a configuration error that caused us to offer push messages to a small set of users. We’ve stopped sending push messages, but users may see an option to turn on push until we release an updated version of the app. So, push isn’t ready yet but we look forward to rolling this out soon.

As Twitter notes, you may be able to turn push notification on under settings even if you aren’t on iOS 4.1 Gold Master, although we’ve heard reports that it may require uninstalling and reinstalling the app to get working.

Perhaps not so coincidentally, push notification service Boxcar — which does a healthy bit of business in the tweet pushing market — has just gone free for all Twitter notifications.

The lack of an official, native version of the Twitter client for the iPad has been a puzzling omission, but now the big blue bird has set things right, having pushed their native iPad app to iTunes.

I haven’t had a chance to play with it, but it seems that a big part of the native client’s delay was because Twitter had big ideas for the app, grafting a truly unique (and, perhaps, a bit quirky) interface on top.

Gizmodo’s Matt Buchanan explains the new interface:

The interface starts out straightforward, like a simple cross between the Tweetie for Mac and the iPhone app. But Twitter for iPad is actually a bit more complicated than it lets on—it’s the most complex of the three. Rather than sticking with the iPad’s standard split-pane views, like in Mail, Twitter is kind of like its own desktop environment, with overlapping, stacked panes that move from left to right. So, on the far left, you’ve got the main control panel, like Tweetie for Mac, which is the bottom pane. To the right of that, and on top of it, you’ve got the tweet list—either the main feed, mentions or direct messages. Whenever you touch on a tweet, a third pane opens to the right, on top of the other two. If there’s a link in the tweet, it’ll open the browser. If not, it’ll open that person’s somebody’s profile. (And if you type a direct message, that’s layered on top of everything else via a popover, for four total layers.) You can switch back to the main tweet list or control pane by touching it, and it’ll load browser pages in the background while you browse through other tweets. It can get cluttered quickly if you’re opening sub-menus and other things—at the same time, it gives you a lot of flexibility.

Buchanan ultimately finds the new interface bold, but quirky, but Techcrunch’s MC Siegler declares it a triumph, announcing that it completely and totally obviates not only any other Twitter app out there, but Twitter’s own website. Then again, I thought pretty much any Twitter client had killed the need to visit Twitter.com over a year ago.

Twitter for iPad is a free download, and it’s available now on iTunes

To their credit, Aurora Feint has always been remarkably blase about iOS 4.1’s built-in Game Center, even though they currently run the business of the App Store’s biggest gaming social network and match-making service, OpenFeint. In fact, they went as far as to say they were “thrilled” about Game Center, boasting about big future plans for the service… despite Game Center’s seemingly direct competition.

OpenFeint’s plans in an iOS ecosystem with Game Center preinstalled on every device are now becoming clearer, and it seems like Aurora Feint have figured out a killer feature that only their service can provide to gamers: the ability to play cross-form multiplayer matches in games that are available on both iOS and Google Android.

The OpenFeint PlayTime network will not only let you play your buddy even if he is shackled to his Android phone, but the software supports real-time video chat, as well as bot support. That latter addition is particularly interesting, as it means that if a player drops in a multiplayer match, an AI-controlled opponent will seamlessly take his place.

This is a smooth move on the part of Aurora Feint giving developers who have titles on more than one mobile platform a strong incentive to bake both Game Center and OpenFeint support into their titles. I just wish, as a player, I could keep my achievement points in both networks synced.

Perhaps more than any other device in Apple’s electronics arsenal, the iPod nano has changed dramatically over the years. Birthed as the iPod Mini, the first generation nano rounded off and slightly shrank the design, while adding a color screen.

The second generation nano contented itself with a mere material shift to an aluminum case, while the third generation was crunched down to a a squat while gaining Coverflow and video playback.

That squat design was reversed in the fourth generation and the display lengthened while the nano gained an accelerometer and shake-to-shuffle capabilties.

The fifth put the nano’s display on the rack and stretched it out so long it was capable of displaying 16:9 movies when held horizontally, as well as adding a video camera, voice recording, an FM radio and a pedometer to the mix.

And now here we are in the sixth generation, which shrinks the nano down to the size of a Shuffle, ditching the 16:9 display, video camera and voice recording of the previous generation in favor of a smaller form factor and a 240×240 pixel multitouch screen.

As the above infographic by DVICE shows, the nano’s been a polymorph. Who knows what other forms the nano’s shapeshifting design will take over the next half decade?

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlkPaHc_5kM&feature=channel

If Apple’s livestream broke down for you last night during the world premiere of Apple’s new iPod nano and iPod Touch commercials, Apple has just shot both of them up online via their official YouTube channels.

The new iPod nano ad is backed by the track “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” by Cake from the album Comfort Eagle, and largely focuses on the new nano’s built-in touchscreen and the ability to flick the display around to any orientation depending upon where it’s clipped, as the nano itself is traded between the usual headless iPod models, morphing between the nano’s new colors as it is handed off.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t_IobxOsVc

On the other hand, the new iPod Touch ad is heavily focused on gaming and the touch’s new camera abilities, backed by the song “Come Home” off of Chappo’s Plastique Universe.

The end of the spot is a bit surreal, though, as a pair of white male hands each uses its gripped iPod Touch to take part in a FaceTime call with its partner. The faces on the display, though, usually don’t match the hands… giving me, at least, the impression that FaceTime on the iPod Touch was being demonstrated by some sort of pieced-together Frankenstein of spare body parts, or being silently observed by two spectating device hackers who had somehow managed to hack into the FaceTime protocol.

As revealed yesterday, The latest version of Apple’s iTunes media-managing software, iTunes 10, is now available to download through Software Update or via direct download here.

iTunes 10 has long been rumored to be the first version of iTunes that capitalized upon Apple’s acquisition of Lala and brought cloud-streaming to the masses, but Steve Jobs belied that expectation yesterday by saying that Apple remains “skeptical” of the cloud for the time being.

Instead, the major new feature in iTunes 10 is Ping, a baked-in social network based around music discovery. You can follow friends and artists like on Twitter and be alerted to new music that they rate and review, while also giving the heads up to friends about hot new tracks you might enjoy.

The findings of a recent survey by Coupons.com has all the trappings of some sort of offensive, stereotypical joke… but without the punchline.

Analyzing the findings of how both users on both the Android and iOS operating systems use their website, Coupons.com came to some interesting findings as to what separates the two.

iPhone users? According to Coupons.com, they can best be described as “feminine-smelling, chicken-eating, entertainment-reading fish owners.”

Android users, though, are “manly-scented, pork-eating, news-reading bird lovers.”

These results certainly don’t seem to apply to me. On one hand, I fall into the Android category as far as my pheremonal stink and budgerigar ownership are concerned, but I certainly prefer chicken to pork, and I use iOS exclusively… which according to Coupons’ research, makes me some sort of weird, fish-stroking girl. And what about pork-abstaining Android users, Hassidic and halal alike? There is more research to be done here methinks, Coupons.com.

[via Gizmodo]

The FCC has just beaten our the guys over at iFixit to the device vivisecting punch by tearing down and publicly airing the guts of Apple’s brand new iPod Touch… and it looks nearly as gorgeous on the inside.

While managing to slim down the iPod Touch’s already thin form factor, Apple managed to cram an A4 CPU, a Retina Display and even two cameras into the already svelte chassis. Okay, granted, one of those cameras is a ridiculously paltry affair capable of capturing still shots of less than 1MP… but it’s better than nothing, especially given that getting two cameras into the iPod Touch is pretty much an engineering miracle to begin with.

To check out more shots, head on over to the FCC site and marvel, yet again, at how Apple’s fantastic design starts from the inside-out, and not vice versa.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqYi_WRq6M4

Ever since Epic Games first demonstrated the Unreal Engine 3 running on the iPhone 3Gs last year, we’ve been wondering just what the creators of Gears of War and the Unreal Tournament series had in store for us when they finally turned their attentions to the App Store.

Yesterday, at Apple’s annual September iPod Event, Epic gave us our first taste of what’s to come: Epic Citadel, a free and utterly gorgeous next-gen app that works as an interactive technology demo of Unreal Engine 3 running on iOS.

The 82.2MB tech demo doesn’t include any real gameplay, per se, but as a demonstration of what iOS is capable of — particularly on the A4 CPU — it utterly breathtaking, offering a fully-realized medieval town to explore. I imagine Epic won’t be able to crank so much detail out of their engine once the bullets and bodies start flying — and they will — but even so, this is astonishing. We are looking at Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 caliber graphics here… on a device that fits in the pocket.

We didn’t think anything could look better than id software’s recent demo of the Rage engine running on the iPhone 4, but Epic’s one-upped Carmack.

Too busy to read our liveblog coverage of Apple’s September iPod Event? Everything you need to know about Apple’s new products is below the fold, including details about the new iPod Shuffle, Nano, iPod Touch, AppleTV, iTunes and iOS update.

Apple’s sexily diminutive new iPod Nano, replete with 1.13-inch touchscreen, certainly looks like iOS. It might even — held close enough to the nostrils — smell like iOS. But it’s nothing of the sort.

Backstage at today’s iPod Event, an Apple spokesman confirmed that the new iPod Nano is not running iOS.

That makes sense, given Jobs’ own failure to identify the Nano as a new iOS-driven device, or his failure to brag about a wide range of apps to run on the device. It also makes sense from the engineering perspective of trying to shove a chip powerful enough to run a current version of iOS into a Shuffle-sized footprint.

Rather, what we see in the new Nano is a skin layered most probably over the traditional iPod Nano operating system, with some of iOS multitouch software scraped out and grafted onto it.

The move makes sense for Apple. The new Nano is too small to really avail itself of multitouch, but iOS is Apple’s sexiest operating system, as well as one synonymous with touch. Apple couldn’t well make a touchscreen iPod at this point without making it at least look like iOS.

We wonder, though, if confusion will ultimately set in. If it looks like iOS, but doesn’t run apps, isn’t that going to confuse customers? We imagine that in the brainpan of one Apple Store Genius is throbbing with premonitory headache right now.

In what has proven a remarkably succinct presentation, Steve Jobs has just unveiled his “one more thing…” and it’s the new AppleTV. Except, as Jobs quips, it’s “one more hobby.”

Also surprising: despite rumors, it’s still not called the iTV, and doesn’t run iOS. It’s still just the AppleTV, except now it’s black. The only rumors that were true? It runs Netflix and it costs only $99.

“We introduced Apple TV four years ago. We’ve sold a lot of them, but it’s never been a huge hit. Nor has any competitive product,” says Jobs. “

We’ve talked to people who have Apple TVs, and they love them, a lot! What have we learned? The number one, two, and three things they want: Hollywood movies and TV shows whenever they want them. They don’t want amateur hour, they want professional content. And they want HD.”

“The HD revolution is over, HD won. They want lower prices for content. They don’t want a computer. This is hard for people in the computer industry to understand, but it’s very easy for consumers to understand. They don’t want to manage storage.”

The new AppleTV is a fourth of the size of the last AppleTV, and you can hold it in the palm of your hand. The back contaiTins the usual slots, including power, HDMi and Ethernet, with an Optical Audio port to boot.

As Jobs hinted, there are no purchases (except if you do it through iTunes), and no storage management. The new AppleTV is streaming only, and you can either stream them directly from Apple or from your computer.

HDTV shows will cost only $0.99 from ABC and Fox. As for movies, expect them to cost $4.99 to rent… which is certainly not competitive with the rest of the market, although it’s worth noting these are first-run films.

Wondering if a film is worth your time? Movies will now be accompanied by the RottenTomatoes rating.

The new Apple TV will also include the usual gaggle of internet providers, including the rumored Netflix, the ubiquitous YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe and Internet Radio.

You will be able to use AirPlay to stream content from an iOS device to the AppleTV.

“You’re going to be able to watching a movie, walk into your living room, and push a button and watch the rest of it on your Apple TV,” explains Jobs. “Walk into your home with photos on your iPhone, push a button and share a slideshow on your TV. It’s going to be pretty cool.”

The AppleTV will be available in four weeks, with pre-order opening today. It’ll cost just $99.

If you thought Apple was bound to announce iTunes in the cloud today, think again: Steve Jobs himself just said Apple is very wary of going streaming only right now.

“We are very skeptical of anything cloud- or streaming- related at the moment,” said Jobs in his introduction to iTunes 10.

It’s obviously not from want of trying… Apple’s been scrambling with its new data center to make just that happen. Apple is cynical because of the likes of the RIAA and MPAA gumming up the works with pointless legal wrangling.

iTunes 10 might not be in the cloud. But if Apple has its druthers, iTunes 11 certainly won’t be.

We’d previously heard reports that the next version of iTunes might eschew streaming media for social networking. Those rumors were right. Meet Ping. It’s like iTunes and Twitter and Last.FM collided together.

“One of the biggest things we focused on with iTunes is discovery. With over 12m songs, how do you find out about new stuff? People are always asking what are my friends listening to, what are my favorite artists up to? There’s not a great way to do that, there must be a better way,” says Jobs.

That’s what Ping is for. It’s a social network based around music: the convergence of the philosophies behind Twitter and Face with iTunes.

Once you click on Ping, you see the recent activity of the friends and artists you are following, which shows you the music they are listening to and endorsing. You can even be alerted to concerts.

Apple acknowledged privacy concerns about Ping, noting that you can selectively allow people to follow you, and even set yourself to be invisible. Given my embarrassing library of Brittany Spears tracks, thats a relief.

Ping will be available to up to 160 million iTunes users in over 23 countries, starting today. Anyone else think that’s a fantastic name?

[Image via GDGT]

With the new iPod hardware out of the way, Apple turns to iTunes, and after a brief bit about the statistics we already know are impressive… Apple unveils iTunes 10, complete with a new and simplified logo.

First the stats. “People have downloaded over 11.7 billion songs from iTunes, and we’re just about to cross 12b. Over 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, 35 million books, and over 160 million accounts with credit cards and 1-click shopping in 23 countries,” says Jobs.

Those stats are relevant to the logo change. “Since iTunes is about to bypass CDs in sales, we thought it was appropriate to ditch the CD,” quips Jobs.

[Image via GDGT]

And here’s what many of us have been waiting for: Apple officially unveils the new iPod Touch. And as suspect, it takes more than a bit of a queue from the iPhone 4, with dual cameras, an A4 CPU and a Retina Display. But orget about 3G. It is a smidge thinner, though, if that’s a comfort.

“The iPod touch has been a remarkable product for us,” says Jobs. ” It has become the most popular product for us — it used to be the nano. A lot of people call it the iPhone without a phone. But it’s also an iPhone without the contract!”

So what’s new?

• A beautiful new Retina Display.

• Apple’s 1GHZ A4 CPU

• A 3-Axis Gyroscope

• iOS 4.1 With Game Center

• FaceTime with both front and back camera. Unlike the iPhone 4, there’s no flash.

• HD video recording capabilities.

And what about the price? $229 buys you 8GB, $299 buys you 32GB and $399 buys you 64GB.

[Image via GDGT]

Wondering what that little 1.13 touchscreen Apple commissioned was for? Wonder no longer: it’s going into the Nano… and it seems to be losing movie capabilities and camera, in exchange for very limited iOS.

“The first iPod nano was a stunner when it first came out. Then we took it to extruded aluminum… we gave it a taller screen, and an even taller screen. So how can we make this better? We want to make it smaller,” Jobs explained.

“The only way to make it smaller, and that’s to eliminate the click wheel, and the only way to do that is to add multi-touch. And that’s what we’ve done: the new iPod nano has multi-touch. It’s very tiny. It’s amazing and super easy to use.”

So what are we looking at for the new Nano?

• A multitouch interface.

• 46% smaller footprint

• A clip, which means no more armbands for users

• Volume buttons and VoiceOver

• An FM Radio, Nike+ Pedometer

• Playlist navigation similar to an iPhone or iPod Touch.

• Screen orientation through a built-in accelerometer.

Don’t expect apps besides what are baked in though. It doesn’t appear the new Nano uses it.

The new Nano will be out today in the same colors as the new Shuffle, and will sell for $149 for an 8GB model, $179 for the 16GB.

Here comes the iPod Touch.

[Image via Gizmodo]

Steve Jobs just preceded his announcement of a new Shuffle by acknowledging Apple’s failures with the last model. It is not a touchscreen. It’s a return to the previous generation, but even cheaper!

“Let’s start off with the shuffle… it was based on the idea that shuffling was a really good way to listen to music,” said Jobs. (No, it isn’t.)

He continued: “We removed the buttons and added VoiceOver and Playlists. People clearly miss the buttons.” (Well, yeah, because now they are part of the easily broken earbuds.

“So what are we going to do? The new iPod shuffle. It’s got buttons and VoiceOver and playlists. Of course it’s got the clip, and it’s got some great features. It’s small and wearable, it’s got those easy to use buttons, it’s got playlists, we’re adding Genius mixes, and, of course, VoiceOver.”

$49 for 2GB in four colors. Looks like the touchscreen is destined for the Nano!

[Image via GDGT]

Another new feature coming to the iPad with iOS 4.2 is AirPlay. But what is it? It’s an update to Airtunes that supports more than just music. It does all your media

“Now, what is AirPlay? You know what AirTunes is… listen to music from all over your house from your mobile device,” said Jobs. We’re changing the name of AirTunes to AirPlay, and it’s not just music anymore. You can stream all kinds of media anywhere in your house.”

It’ll come to the iPad and hopefully other iOS devices in November.

[Image via GDGT]

If you noticed anything about 4.1, it’s that the iPad wasn’t supported.

Well, don’t fret. Steve Jobs just assured us that the iPad’s getting an iOS 4 update… but it’s coming with 4.2.

“It’s bringing everything to iPad. Multitasking, Game Center, HDR photos, everything you saw is coming to iPad. We’re adding wireless printing…” says Jobs. “It also adds a little thing called AirPlay which we’ll talk about in a sec.”

Is this the future of iOS releases? One staggered to the iPhone and iPod Touch, the next for iPad?

[Image via GDGT]

As we’ve long suspected from the beta iOS SDKs, Apple has just announced that they will be releasing iOS 4.1 today.

What’s new? The proximity sensors have been fixed, against earlier reports. Bluetooth is fixed, as well as the iPhone 3G slowness issues.

There’s also now baked-in support for HDR photos.

“Let’s start off with HDR photos, what are they? A lot of times when you take a photo, it’s blown out with bright light. Now, when you turn on HDR, it takes 3 photos in rapid succession: one normal, one under exposed, and one under exposed. It combines the three with some pretty sophisticated algorithms…” says Jobs.

Even better, you now get HD video upload over WiFi, obviating recent apps that got around the iOS’ compression issues.

Game Center is also finally coming to iOS, after being teased since the iPhone 4’s debut. Your iPhone just got its Xbox Live.

[Image via GDGT]