John Brownlee - page 211

If you’re like us, you’ve got some serious requirements when it comes to a dock. In my house, we’ve got a couple iPads, an iPhone, a couple iPod Touches and even an old 160GB iPod Classic kicking around, always hungry for an umbilical to recharge. We’ve got a handful of docks for these devices, but if there was only some sort of uber dock that consolidated the syncing and charging of all our iDevices into one powerful, attractive desktop dock.

We’re delighted to discover today that there is just such a dock: the iPADock from PhotoFast Co.. This baby’s a beast: using this dock, you can sync and charge up to four iPhones, any iPod and up to two iPads at once. Wow.

And that’s just what you can slam into the dock. If you need to sync more Apple devices, there are seven USB ports in the back (although only four are powered), as well as a connector for the iPad Camera Connection Kit. There’s even several memory card readers, including Compact Flash, SD, SDHC, SDXC, mini SD, mini SDHC, micro SD, Sony’s MemoryStick and micro SDHC.

Amazing, particularly in this compact form factor. It’s also extraordinarily cheap: just $70 all told for all of this docking goodness. Consider the iPADock officially added to our Christmas lists.

Last week’s big news item was the arrest of Apple manager Paul Devine’s arrest for taking over $1 million in kickbacks for insider information.

It certainly looked bad for Devine, formerly of Apple’s iPod and accessories procurement operations department, who was busted by the Feds in what appears to be a seemingly iron-clad case for selling company secrets to various suppliers in Asia through various shell accounts. Apple certainly thought so: they’ve sued Devine in civil court.

Nevertheless, Devine pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Now prosecutors are saying, “O RLY.” They’re skeptical, and it seems like they have every right to be: they have just discovered $150,000 placed in shoeboxes under Devine’s bed.

Does that prove anything? No. Maybe Devine just doesn’t believe in banks. But that’s certainly a lot of fast, easy travel cash lying around. My guess is Devine was ready for a speedy departure if Apple or the Feds caught wind of him. Too bad he didn’t catch wind of them before they busted down his door.

Sony has just introduced a pair of new cameras that boast intriguing new translucent mirror technology, marrying the quick-focus of an SLR with the fast-shooting of a mirrorless camera.

Called the A33 and A55, Sony’s latest boast a 23.5×15.6mm APS-C CMOS sensor, a 3-inch LCD capable of tilting up to 180 degrees and rotating 270 degrees, as well as the ability to record full HD AVCHD (1080i) or MP4 (1080p) video while simultaneously employing an impressive 15-point video autofocus system. Otherwise, the only thing separating the A55 from the A33 is the former has more megapixels and a slightly faster Speed Priority continuous shooting mode, along with built-in GPS capability.

The real advance here, though, is the new translucent mirror used in both cameras. Essentially, this mirror allows light to pass directly through it to the camera’s sensors while simultaneously bouncing light up to the autofocus sensor.

What this means from a practical perspective is that you get a much smaller camera body and trade-in an SLR’s optical viewfinder for a digital one, while also inheriting a mirrorless camera’s live view mode. Better, you’ll get some truly impressive shutter speeds out of these cameras — up to 10 shots per second — since the mirror doesn’t have to lift in order to capture an image.

Both the A55 and A33 will come with an 18-55mm lens, with the A55 costing $850 and the A33 costing $750. Both cameras will be available in September.

Chris Nolan’s Inception is such a deviously complicated film that even an unseredipitously timed bathroom break is enough to reduce the rest of the film to mere gibberish. If you’re one of the many, many people who just didn’t get it, though, perhaps this informative Finder-based infographic explaining the dream structure in the film will help.

Of course, that big “Reality” parenthetical is as debatable as a wobbling top, but otherwise… if Finder can’t make sense of Inception for you, what the heck can?

[via TUAW]

Forget iOS’ execrable Notes.app: the best way to keep your post-its in order between your iPhone, iPad or Mac is the incredible Simplenote, which allows you to easily take notes on pretty much any device under the sun and sync it on every device you own.

Now Simplenote has gotten even better, thanks to a beefy update to both the free iOS app and the web backend.

What’s new? For one, tags, similar to Gmail labels (or, if you’re a blogger, your WordPress tags), which allow you to dynamically categorize your notes as you take them. You can also pin commonly accessed notes to the top of your list, making sure it’s always easy to open.

Another cool new addition is the ability to share a note to other Simplenote users, allowing them to edit a simple collaborative document in realtime… with new versioning ability allowing you to easily track changes… and if you want to share your note with someone who doesn’t have a Simplenote account, you can do it through email or the web too.

It’s a big update, and there’s half-a-dozen more new features to play with as well. If you’re not using Simplenote, what are you waiting for? It’s a free download. You’ll never use another iOS note-taking app again.

Tain’t the heat, t’is the humidity… at least when it comes to iPhone moisture sensors in Hong Kong.

According to the South China Morning Post, numerous Hong Kong iPhone users are having a hard time getting their handsets covered under warranty because the moisture sensors — the small little stickers inside every iPhone that discolor when they get wet, indicating user error — max out at 95% humidity.

The problem? Hong Kong and other Asian countries regularly excess 95% humidity, with some areas seeing greater-than-95% humidity for 73 days between June 1st and August 16th. For an iPhone, this is the equivalent of spending two and a half months in a sauna.

For some users like Justin Hayward, this has resulted in it being impossible to get an iPhone fixed under warranty, and instead being dinged a massive charge for a replacement phone.

“I’ve never used it in the bath, gone swimming or anything like that,” Hayward said. “Let’s face it; many people do break the rules. But a significant number of people are making these kind of report. If the limitation is over 95 per cent humidity, they ought not to be selling the product here. I find it quite unbelievable – a real piece of corporate greed or a great oversight.”

I’m not going to blame this on corporate greed, but Hayward has a point: if the mechanism Apple uses to detect moisture in iPhones doesn’t work in real-world locations, they shouldn’t be denying warranty service on those devices when they fail with triggered moisture sensors.

This isn’t even a problem limited to the Far East: a California woman sued Apple earlier this year over the same problem, and faultily triggered moisture sensors is a rampant problem in the tropics. If Apple’s not going to honor service based upon a moisture detection mechanism that verifiably fails in real-world conditions, they should reconsider selling devices where you can cut the air with a knife.

When we posted yesterday about a new Apple patent hinting at future touchscreen Macs, one of the excellent points made in our comments section was that one reason behind Apple’s reluctance to install touchscreen panels in their non-mobile computers is the ergonomics factor: it’s just not comfortable to constantly be leaning forward to poke and prod a screen.

A new patent from Apple shows how future touchscreen Macs might just solve the ergonomic dilemma. The patent describes a touchscreen iMac with a swiveling display that rotates into a more appropriate, horizontal configuration for multitouch. A built-in accelerometer could automatically determine the display’s orientation and trigger the appropriate interface or even operating system: for example, OS X in an upright position, iOS when prone.

At the end of the day, I don’t buy that a swiveling display is how Apple would go about solving desktop touchscreen ergonomic problems. It seems a little too finnicky as a solution. Still, at least Apple’s thinking about the problem, and if Cupertino’s history with multitouch mobile devices is anything to go by… when they finally do an iMac Touch, they’ll do it right.

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Google Goggles is easily one of the biggest app advantages the Android operating system has over iOS… but Google seems ready to hobble their own advantage by releasing it to for the iPhone later this year.

Goggles itself is incredibly neat, allowing you to use your smartphone’s camera to take a snapshot of anything around you that you might want to search for on the Internet. For example, thwarted by your own swollen-tongued artistic plebeianism while on a date at the museum, you could take a snapshot of a painting you know absolutely nothing about and quickly get a list of talking points back about it. You can also use Goggles to scan text and then manipulate with it your phone, by emailing it to yourself or using a number as a contact.

It often seems weird to see Google obviate their own advantages over the iPhone, but all Google really cares about is getting as many people using their search engine — and therefore, viewing their search-targeted ads — as possible. Android’s just one means to that end; every other smartphone is another.

A dozen individuals have been arrested in the United Kingdom for laundering money through iTunes.

The twelve individuals’ plan was pretty simple, all things considered. Using stolen credit card numbers, they purchased tracks that they themselves had uploaded to Apple’s digital music delivery service. All things considered, they laundered over $300,000 worth of purchases in just four months.

For the record, this isn’t a security vulnerability with iTunes. Transacting digital goods is actually a common way to get money off of a stolen credit card number: I myself had $1500 stolen from me a few years back when someone got a hold of my credit card number and simply lost game after game of online poker against another account that he controlled.

The same thing pretty much went on here, and Apple wasn’t the only company to get hit: Amazon’s MP3 service was also used by the criminals in question.

Should this worry you? Probably not: in most cases of credit card fraud, credit card companies are quick to side with the card holder. In my case, all I had to do was assure Mastercard that neither I nor my girlfriend were secret gambling addicts. If you ever do see a suspicious iTunes charge come through on your credit card statement, give your bank — not Apple — a call, and they will very quickly set things right.

The Magic Trackpad is a fantastic addition to a desktop, but it’s insistence on being battery powered is a little strange. For most users, it’ll never leave their desk, yet there’s no USB option, unlike Apple’s own keyboards; additionally, unlike the Magic Mouse, where a cable would limit its effective range, the Magic Trackpad is designed to stay stationary.

For a lot of people, then, the Magic Trackpad’s battery guzzling represents something of a waste, and while Apple’s introduction of their own Battery Charger mitigates a lot of the environmental concerns, its still a shame there isn’t at least an option to plug it into your iMac or MacBook’s USB port directly and never worry about its juicing at all.

That’s why MacRumors modder markbog hacked his Magic Trackpad to hook straight to his Mac’s USB port by taking the batteries out of the device, stripping down an old USB cord and attaching them to a battery sized dowel.

Supposedly, it works great. Let’s not forget, though, that the Magic Trackpad is a pretty great mobile accessory as well: it easily fits into a laptop bag, and I can say from first hand experience that it makes an absolutely fantastic way to control your Mac mini driven HTPC set-up.

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It’s really rare that an App Store game can sell me with just four achingly beautiful words, but Deceased Pixel’s upcoming iOS action game Super Mega Worm has done just that… and those words are “Great Death Worm Wojira.”

The trailer embedded above gives a bit more details about the game. The Great Death Worm Wojira? That’s you, a Tremors-style nematode who needs to chew into great, spattering hunks the miserable humans who have wreaked havok on the poor skin of Mother Earth… all with a fantastic soundtrack and fun, rich SNES-era pixel sprites.

And yes, oh yes: just like the MegaShark, the Great Death Worm Wojira can take out planes. Heck, you can even take out satellites.

Look, Deceased Pixel. You can charge me anything you want for this one. Just fulfill your promise and get it out to us by the end of the month.

After being caught completely unprepared for the iPad’s debut, this Christmas season is looking to be a slugfest between different electronics companies each aiming to out iPad the other.

What’s the outcome going to be? According to Acer chairman JT Wang speaking to the Chinese language paper the Economic Daily News, Wang said that by the time the tablet market “stabilizes” Apple’s share will plummet from almost 100 percent to close to 20-30 percent.

While we’re skeptical that the drop will be quite so profound, this isn’t really news that Apple fans should be discouraged by. Apple barely controls 15% of the smartphone market. Android, in comparison, controls 17%, RIM 18% and Symbian a whopping 41% of the smartphone market. But so what? That hasn’t stopped Apple from making billions off of the iPhone. It hasn’t stopped the iPhone from leading the way in the mobile arena. And even though Apple’s in fourth place, it hasn’t stopped the iPhone from being absolutely synonymous with the very definition of a smartphone. iPhone is in a class by itself.

The same thing’s going to happen here. Everyone is going to release a poorly realized tablet to compete with the iPad, and since they can’t license iOS, they’ll install Android, webOS or Windows on their devices. I have no doubt that, very quickly, those operating systems will be fatter slices on the tablet marketshare pie chart than iOS will be… but so what? There’ll still only be one iPad; all the other tablets will just be competing with each other.

We’ve been hearing rumblings of an iOS-driven AppleTV rebranded as the iTV and priced at $99 for a couple months now, and now it seems that Digg founder Kevin Rose thinks that these rumors have a lot of weight.

Although it’s not clear if Rose has any inside information, he writes: “From what I hear we should expect to see the iTV launch in September.” That would certainly confirm rumors we’ve heard that the new ‘iTV’ will debut alongside a freshly rejiggered iPod Touch at Apple’s iPod event in September, and it makes a lot of sense besides: the AppleTV, after all, has always pretty much been just a big iPod you could hook up to your television.

More to the point, Apple themselves said that their plans for a media-streaming iTunes update would likely be “more limited in scope” than people were anticipating. We all know that the music industry and film industry have been being difficult when it comes to signing licensing agreements with Apple for streaming, but television’s another story… as an institution, they are already quite comfortable with digital streaming. Could that mean that the streaming iTunes rollout will be limited in scope for everything save television at first?

Pretty much every iOS game is played with fingers, but the (i)Pawn app from French studio Volumnique is trying to change that by employing a set of physical token that are each capable of being uniquely identified by the iPhone’s touchscreen. Click through for a video.

It’s a neat demonstration, but I’ll be honest with you: I’m not entirely sure how it works. Looking at the site, each token appears to be glued onto a different sized cell battery. Since the iPhone’s capacitive touchscreen works by using a layer of capacitive material to hold an electrical charge, and senses a touch when the amount of charge under your finger changes. If the bottom-loaded batteries on the tokens predictably change the amount of charge sensed by the touchscreen, this could conceivably work… but I’m not sure the iPhone’s touch software is that nuanced. Any developers out there who might be able to hand us their theories?

Either way, it’s a neat demonstration, an even if (i)Pawn looks like a pretty boring game, it could have some neat practical merits. The iPad’s a great size for a game board, after all: a Monopoly app with mail-away top hats, locomotives, irons and terrier tokens could be a pretty satisfying experience.

Déjà vu. A likeable geek whose job is largely dedicated to testing mobile phones leaves his precious new iPhone in a bar… except this time, that affable geek wasn’t Gray Powell. Instead, it was Gizmodo editorial director Brian Lam… the same guy who helped okay the purchase of the lost/stolen iPhone 4 prototype months before its official debut.

According to Lam’s Twitter account, the Gizmodo chief lost his iPhone at a restaurant while having lunch, but a random bystander sitting at a nearby table held onto it for him until he returned. Seemingly without a dose of sarcasm, Lam then tagged his tweet with the Twitter #karma tag.

Perhaps it should have been tagged with #dramatic-irony instead. If anything, the whole misadventure underlines how different things could have gone for Apple and Gizmodo if someone with some scruples had found the iPhone 4 prototype and tried to return it to Powell, as they did for Lam, instead of almost immediately rushing to the highest bidder.

The most surprising detail of this story is that since the tweet, Lam has Brian Lam has locked down his Twitter account so people can’t read his tweets, presumably in response to the Twitter taunts of people on whom the irony was not lost. What a weirdly defensive move, especially from a guy like Lam, who certainly realizes that his job at the largest gadget blog on the Internet makes him a public figure.

Look, Gizmodo, at the end of the day, you landed the biggest tech scoop basically ever, but at the cost of some of your journalist’s ethics. That’s cool, but you’ve got to be ready to take your lumps when people loudly laugh at the irony.

[via Daring Fireball]

Even as Apple has blazed trails in forwarding multitouch as a bonafide interface for mobile devices, they have completely abstained from installing touchscreens on their MacBooks and iMac-lines, despite the fact that numerous competitors have jumped with both feet forward into the multitouch PC arena.

According to a recently discovered patent, though, Apple’s at least thinking about bringing multitouch to their desktop and laptop lines, detailing a touchscreen MacBook boasting iPhone-(and iMac)-like IPS display technology.

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iOS4’s “multitasking” isn’t really anything of the sort, although it’s a sublimely elegant illusion: a handful of API calls for the most common multitasking functionality like VoIP and background uploading married to a sophisticated, built-in app save state functionality which gives both the effortless appearance and (for most intents and purposes) practical advantages of true iPhone multitasking.

For the most part, I’m pleased, even if I yearn for the ability to update apps like Instapaper and Reeder in the background… but one thing I’ve never really cared for is the new multitasking menu, brought up with a double click and stretched across the home row. For me, that’s where the illusion breaks down: instead of a list of truly running apps, it largely functions as a “most recently used” app list. It also makes accessing the media player controls one swipe further away than they once were.

So I really like MultiFl0w, a new interface for iOS multitasking that represents open apps with fluid, Expose-like elegance. Working in coordination with the free Cydia backgrounder app, MultiFl0w not only allows apps to truly run in the background, instead of simply access a few API calls, but it gives a beautiful and effortlessly Apple-like way of navigating between and closing those apps as well.

Unfortunately, Apple is right at the end of the day: if you have a jailbroken iPhone and run backgrounded apps, your battery life will suffer dramatically. But I can’t help but hope that someday, Apple will figure out a way around this, and something like MultiFl0w will be baked into iOS on the system level.

[via 9to5Mac]

Take it from me: Germans love their iPods, and they love their hard-boiled eggs. The eiPott, then, is a cute little example of German kitsch: it’s an egg holder shaped like an abstraction of an iPod.

You’d think it’d be hard to get upset about such an innocuous little piece of dishware, but Apple apparently did, bringing a lawsuit against koizol, the manufacturer… and now a German high court says that koizol needs to redesign and rename the product, citing potential confusion.

This is ridiculous. While we certainly understand Apple needs to protect their trademarks and brands, the eiPott only shares the most abstract similarity in form to the iPod, and — needless to say — none of the iPod’s functionality. They’re not trying to confuse consumers: they’re trying to entertain them with a tongue-in-cheek homage to one of the most popular brands on Earth.

[via TUAW]

We’ve all seen what id software has in mind as far as bringing their upcoming Rage to iOS as a 60 frames-per-second FPS, but what about id’s classic games? They’ve already released incredible ports of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D to the App Store, and id’s engine-building maestro John Carmack had promised to bring Quake to iOS devices too, as well as the mobile specific title, Orcs and Elves. What’s the hold up?

TouchArcade got a chance to talk to Carmack, and it doesn’t sound good:

Currently, id is completely focused on Rage, and John isn’t sure when they will get back to the classic games “even though it makes a lot of sense.” He also explained that while both Doom II RPG [$3.99] and Wolfenstein RPG [$1.99] have done well on mobile phones, their performance on the App Store has been less than ideal, leading to the decision to not bring the Orcs & Elves games over to iOS.

That’s disappointing news, because both Doom II RPG and Wolfenstein RPG are great titles. Moreover, when Doom Classic was released, Carmack promised that it would soon be updated to allow in-app purchases of the sequels, Doom 2 and Final Doom. That update still isn’t out.

Rage for iPhone looks incredible, but id’s doing the best FPS ports on the App Store, and their classic library of games is non-pareil. Let’s hope id software figures out a way to get back to the App Store in earnest.

I’ve long been mystified by both Apple and Microsoft’s inability to put together a useable mouse. Consider my experiences with each company’s showcase mice. On the one hand, Microsoft’s Arc Mouse was a pleasant-to-use and attractive foldable travel mouse, which — like every wireless Microsoft mouse I’ve tried — mysteriously gave up the ghost and experienced catastrophic hardware failure within the first couple of months. On the other hand, Apple’s Magic Mouse is a reliable piece of kit, but it’s ergonomically terrible and nearly unusable for things like gaming.

If only these two mice could come together somehow. Unfortunately, what I want is the hardware reliability of Apple and the conventional feature set of Microsoft’s mice, not the other way around. Microsoft’s forthcoming Arc Touch Mouse is the latter sort of abomination, offering the Magic Mouse’s touch capability as re-imagined by one of the most inept hardware manufacturers on earth.

Even worse? Early rumors pegged Microsoft’s Arc Touch as not launching with the Magic Mouse’s robust multitouch gesture set, but being single-touch only. So what the heck’s the point? It doesn’t even look as good as the original Arc. Forget it. I’ll stick with my Magic Trackpad.

Nikon have just announced an incremental update to their beginner’s SLR called the D3100, and while it’s a marginal update over its superb budget predecessor, the D3000, it does add one feature into the mix that even their most expensive and pro-oriented cameras have yet to integrate: 1080p H.264 video at up to 24FPS, stored in a QuickTime .MOV file. It even boasts dynamic, constantly updating autofocus for video scenes.

The camera’s other specs are tasty: a 14.2MP, DX-format CMOS sensor, an 11-point autofocus system, ISO support up to 3200. The kit lens is the same old 18-55mm autofocusing kit lens, which — if you’re a beginner — you’re going to want to ditch for something like their classic 50mm 1.8f Nikkor lens as soon as you possibly can to see the real difference between this and a more expensive point-and-shoot.

I have a D3000, and I love it, but I’ve sometimes sorely missed video capability… a deficiency the D3100 ably corrects at a $250 premium: the D3100 will cost $700 when it’s available in September.

Elements is a fantastic new app for iOS devices that doesn’t really do anything new, except for how well it does it: it is a lovely and versatile text editor for iOS that deftly integrates with Dropbox and TextExpander to allow you to create and edit documents across multiple devices, from your iPhone to your Mac.

As a fiction tinkerer, I love it: Elements will slurp in any document in your Dropbox folder and allow you to easily edit it, versioning any changes every thirty seconds. It even gives you statistics on what you’re writing, like word and line count. The interface is just the way I like my text editors, devoid of any fancy rich text formatting. I’ve been using it in conjunction with my favorite OS X text editor, WriteRoom, and it’s like the two applications were umbilically entwined from birth.

Another fantastic feature? A scratchpad: a pop over panel where you can jot a note or paste some text for easy use later. As Gadget Lab’s resident hungover bike poloer Mr. Charlie Sorrel agreeably writes, this feature “should be standard in any app, mobile or desktop, which uses text.”

Elements is a fantastic program for any iOS writer. It can be purchased from the App Store now for just $4.99.

Yesterday, Apple chipmaker Intel announced a surprising move: they are buying for security firm McAffee for $7.7 billion.

It’s a curious move, and Intel’s motivations for buying McAffee are murky at best. Since McAfee is mostly known for its PC software line-up, which is practically infamous amongst Windows users for being an expensive, system-intensive hog of an anti-virus suite, many are seeing this move as a bet by Intel on Windows.

With the iPad and iPhone’s increasing popularity in enterprise environments, Apple might finally be ready to take serious steps to beef up iOS device security: a new patent titled “Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device” describe future iPhones and iPads that could bond with its owner and initiative security measures if an unknown person was trying to access it.

According to the patent, future iOS devices cold use voice print analysis, face analysis and even the rhythm of a user’s heartbeat to determine whether or not the current user was the one that device has been paired to. It would also be able to detect suspicious activity like hacking attempts, or “particular activities that [indicate] suspicious behavior.” Presumably, that could be anything, from the order in which apps are launched to the speed and staccato of a user’s typing.

If an unauthorized user was detected, the iOS device in question could then go into lockdown mode, taking a FaceTime snapshot of the user’s face while simultaneously logging all keystrokes and phone calls made, as well as the GPS location of the device at the time of the unauthorized entry. Furthermore, a warning could be pushed into the cloud to the user’s authorized owner, as well as the automatic uploading of sensitive data and then a complete, spontaneous device wipe.

It’s an interesting patent, and it would certainly go a long way to satisfying the security misgivings many corporations have about iOS devices. Unfortunately, Apple patents just as often as not flow forth from Cupertino like corporate fever dreams; until we actually see these features in action on a real-world device, there’s no telling how serious Apple is taking this parent.

[via Ars Technica]

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Today, I was burned by this Qrank question: “Apple has delayed the launch of the white iPhone 4. Why?” I answered because of a manufacturing defect in the hardware, but the answer Qrank wanted was that Apple was unhappy with the color. I suppose both are true, but only as much as the iPhone 4’s ivory veneer (and its reportedly associated light leak) counts as a “color” and not a “hardware defect.”

Either way, 9to5Mac just posted this great video of a white iPhone 4 unboxing, the origins and appropriation of the elusive handset still being unknown.

It certainly seems to be legitimate and not just a skinjob, but it raises maddening questions about the imminency of the white iPhone 4’s launch: if the videographer had chosen to film the white iPhone 4 in the dark, we’d be able to tell if Apple had fixed its production problems related to light seepage in the white iPhone 4, and therefore be able to predict whether or not this would be hitting AT&T Apple.com soon. In the meantime, we just have to speculate, and hope that this is just the first of a veritable deluge of white iPhone 4 unboxings that you and I will experience sooner rather than later.