Leander Kahney - page 25

Steve Jobs is keen to bring wireless syncing to iPods this year, and carbon fiber may be the key.

Following the news that Apple has just hired a leading carbon fiber expert, we can reveal that the company has been testing Wi-Fi syncing in iPods for the past two years.

Getting large libraries of music and movies to synchronize wirelessly over WiFi hasn’t been easy, according to a source close to the company who asked to remain anonymous. But Steve Jobs himself sees it as key to updating the aging devices, which are becoming increasingly obsolete in the iPhone/iPad era.

“Jobs is pushing hard to get WiFi syncing into the next-generation of iPods,” says our source.

It looks like a stack of iPhone 4s, but this is a coffee table — the iTable.

It’s also a speaker dock with a motorized speaker bar that rises like a stage organ when your hand is swiped across the  touch-sensitive controls (see the video below).

Designed a built by Kyle Buckner, who is best known for custom car interiors, the iTable is the first in a line of Apple-themed furniture.

“I am creating a line with this category,” said Buckner by IM.

Lots more pictures and a video after the jump:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sj2Q0rGUmo

Here is British comic Eddie Izzard on OS X’s Software Update. It’s pretty funny and spot on.

The clip is taken from his Izzard’s live show at the Madison Square Garden, which is just out on DVD.

It has got to be the first standup skit ever about OS X’s Software Update. In fact, it’s the first skit I’ve seen from a popular comic about Macs in general, except Sinbad of course. A sign of Apple’s ever-expanding popularity?

Via Gizmodo.

Author Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Steve Jobs is likely to be a doozy, if this fascinating profile of Bill Gates in Time is anything to go by.

I just spent the last hour or so reading the 1996 profile, which Isaacson published when Gates was at the height of his power. Isaacson managed to get full access by persuading Gates it was a shot at winning Time’s Person of the Year. Gates didn’t win, but the profile is a great piece of work. It’s full of personal anecdotes and is psychologically penetrating. Isaacson talked to Gates’ friends, family and colleagues, and paints a rich, detailed portrait. It’s highly readable but also critical of Gates. We can only hope Isaacson does the same thing for Jobs, who has famously resisted biographers so far. As previously reported, Jobs has granted Isaacson full access for iSteve: The Book of Jobs, which is to be published early next year. (I don’t think it’s fair, but columnist Michael Wolff says Isaacson is a social-climbing sycophant).

Here’s a taste of the Gates piece:

When Gates decided to propose to Melinda in 1993, he secretly diverted the chartered plane they were taking home from Palm Springs one Sunday night to land in Omaha. There Buffett met them, arranged to open a jewelry store that he owned and helped them pick a ring. That year Gates made a movie for Buffett’s birthday. It featured Gates pretending to wander the country in search of tales about Buffett and calling Melinda with them from pay phones. After each call, Gates is shown checking the coin slot for loose change. When she mentions that Buffett is only the country’s second richest man, he informs her that on the new Forbes list Buffett had (at least that one year) regained the top spot. The phone suddenly goes dead. “Melinda, Melinda,” Gates sputters, “you still there? Hello?”

Time: IN SEARCH OF THE REAL BILL GATES

Via Apple 2.0: The man who won Steve Jobs’ trust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isUFXNYT80k

You’ve got to watch this video. I know April Fool’s Day is long gone, but this one is worth it. It’s the perfect set-up: a local news team prepped a segment about a new app that emits smell and taste via “piezo-electrics.” The other anchor, who’s in on the joke, tells his colleague that amazingly, it works. Skeptically, she tries it out, and everyone cracks up. Very funny.

Via NextRound

Apple has pressured Toyota to remove a custom theme for jailbroken iPhones advertising the Scion car.

Available through Cydia, the interface theme was perhaps a sign that jailbreaking was gaining mainstream acceptance.

However, Cydia was contacted on Monday night and asked to remove the interface theme. According to Toyota’s advertising agency, Velti, Apple contacted Toyota and asked for the theme to be pulled.

Toyota complied to “maintain their good relationship with Apple,” according to a spokesperson for Velti speaking to ModMyi.com.

Apparently the controversial theme had been available since February 10th, but flew under Apple’s radar until Toyota started advertising it on sites like ModMyi.com at the the end of March and it got some press.

Jailbreaking is not illegal, but Apple says its voids warranties.

Via MacObserver.

Celebrated computer iconographer Susan Kare is offering limited-edition prints of her famous Macintosh icons for the first time.

The signed and numbered prints include the world-famous Happy Mac icon and Moof the Dog Cow.

The prints are available from Kare Prints and range in price from $89 (8.5” x 11” edition of 200) to $499 (30” x 40” edition of 100).

Hit the link for more detailed pictures of the prints:

A couple of screenshots have just leaked of Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablet user interface.

Currently in pre-beta, Windows 8 is Microsoft’s shot at building a UI that’s suitable for both tablets and PCs. Windows 7 is not being ported to tablets. Early versions of Windows 8 have reportedly been shipped to Microsoft’s hardware OEM partners. So far, the UI hasn’t been seen, but two new screenshots indicate it is based on tiles, very much like Windows Phone 7.

The screenshot above shows the home screen, which features Microsoft’s Bing search engine front and center. Underneath are big tiles for shortcuts to Web apps or Web pages. Each app opens in a full-screen version of Internet Explorer, according to Within Windows, which first published the screenshots (The site is currently down. The screenshots have been republished at WinRumors)

The screenshot below shows a new e-reader app that includes built-in support for Adobe’s PDF format. Looking at the diagrams in the screenshot, it will include page scrubbing (to quickly scrub through a document) and multi-touch pinching and zooming. Apple may not like that.

Microsoft appears to be pushing a new file format called AppX (.appx), which will reportedly allow Windows Phone 7 developers to repackage apps in AppX and offer them through an app store that will be built into Windows 8. Sound familiar?

Our take? It looks OK. The tiled interface is pretty good on Windows Phone 7, but why are there still scrollbars if the interface is full-screen?

We’re hearing rumors that Steve Jobs is on the verge of resigning from Apple.

Nothing more than that: Jobs is about to leave the company he co-founded 35 years ago. The anniversary of Apple’s founding is today. It was established on April 1, 1976.

This is totally unconfirmed, but there is chatter about it. A local TV news channel has also been asking about the rumor.

Maybe it’s an April Fools’ joke. Most likely, it’s just the Silicon Valley echo chamber. We’re throwing it out because there’s talk about it.

Jobs is still on medical leave that began in January.

That didn’t take long: Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is already sold out — less than 12 hours after $1599 tickets went on sale.

This looks like a record. Last year, it took 8 days for WWDC to sell out.

Apple’s annual developers conference takes place June 6-10 in San Francisco. The conference will focus on iOS 5and Mac OS Lion — and Apple seems to be setting expectations that there’ll be no iPhone 5 at the show. In past years, Steve Jobs has used to the WWDC stage to introduce new iPhone hardware.

It’s not just Americans that are crazy for the iPad 2. Check out this video of the huge line outside the Apple Store on London’s Regent Street on Friday. It just goes on and on.

Via OnlyGizmso

Check out this totally pro video of the iPad 2 launch in Munich, Germany. It was shot, edited and uploaded entirely on an iPad 2 using iMovie. The entire process took less than a hour. It’s even in HD (720p).

It was shot by journalist Richard Gutjahr. Gutjahr made headlines himself last year as the first guy in line for the original iPad at Apple’s 5th Ave. Store in New York. Gutjahr bumped pro-line sitter Greg Packer.

It’s pretty amazing that such a professional video was prepared and published in less than an hour. Could never do it that quickly with a camcorder/MacBook/Aircard combo.

Here’s the finished product:

Here are some pictures and an explanation of the equipment and methods (in German).

Mac OS X celebrates its tenth birthday today. The groundbreaking operating system was introduced to the public on March 24, 2001. Mac OS X helped reverse Apple’s fortunes in the desktop PC market, and has underpinned a lot of Apple’s subsequent success. Most importantly, it spawned iOS, which runs today’s iPads and iPhones.

Below is the story of how OS X’s game-changing interface came about. The story gives some insight into corporate creativity at Apple. OS X’s interface started as a side project. But as soon as Steve Jobs got wind of it, it was fast-tracked. Jobs became intimately involved in its development — a scary prospect for the programmers working on it.

But the struggle wasn’t just in its development. Apple had to nail the switch from the old Mac OS to the new, or it could have sunk the company. Guess which ally was crucial to the transition — Apple’s old enemy, Microsoft.

With the launch of OS X, Jobs finally took the title of Apple’s permanent CEO. Prior to that he’d been the interim CEO, or iCEO, and OS X was the last major part of the company he needed to fix.

Disney shareholders have re-elected Steve Jobs to the company’s board of directors, despite opposition from the AFL-CIO, the labor union federation.
As previously reported, the AFL-CIO opposed Jobs’s re-election because of his poor health and his job as CEO of Apple. The union argued that Jobs already had his hands full and advised shareholders not ro re-elect him.

Nonetheless, Jobs was re-elected on Wednesday at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting in Utah, according to Bloomberg.

With 7% of Disney’s stock, Jobs is the largest individual shareholder in the company. He has been a director at Disney since 2006, when Disney bought his other company, Pixar, for $7.4 billion.

Four U.S. Senators have sent a letter to Apple urging it to pull several apps they claim help drunk drivers avoid the police.

“Giving drunk drivers a free tool to evade checkpoints, putting innocent families and children at risk, is a matter of public concern,” the senators said. “We hope that you will give our request to remove these applications from your store immediate consideration.”

According to the senators, there are “numerous” apps that help drivers identify DUI checkpoints, allowing drunk drivers to avoid them. One app has a real-time database of DUI checkpoints, while another allows its 10 million users to alert each other to DUI checkpoints in real time, the senators say.

The letter was sent to Scott Forstall, who is in charge of iPhone software at Apple.

The four Democratic senators include Harry Reid (D-NV), the Senate Majority Speaker. The others are Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Tom Udall (D-NM).

Are there really numerous DUI checkpoint apps? And should they be pulled? Last year, I talked to Trapster (likely one of the apps targeted by the Senators), which was seeing a number of police departments using the app to highlight their own checkpoints. It’s just another way of increasing enforcement, the police say.

Here’s the full text of the letter that the senators sent to Scott Forstall:

UPDATE: Brian Tong sent me a note pointing out my unfair characterization of him as “just a TV show host.” Brian has worked at CNet for three years where he is an editor. He’s a journalism major and even used to work in Apple retail. He’s got lots of contacts at the company. My apologies to Brian for unfairly questioning his credentials.

New iMacs with Sandy Bridge CPUs and the zippy new Thunderbolt port are due at the end of April or the first week of May, according to CNet TV presenter Brian Tong, citing “anonymous sources.”

There won’t be a redesign. The new machines will look the same as the old, which is no bad thing.

The source of this info is a bit iffy. Tong isn’t a traditional is a tech reporter — he’s a TV show host — but he does work in tech news and Tong is an editor at CNet and host of CNet TV’s The Apple Byte Show. He says he’s “highly confident” about his source.

The Sandy Bridge update is definitely on the cards. What’s new is the ship date — four to six weeks. This in line with our interactive Buyer’s Guide, which says an iMac update is overdue.

Please, please, please let this be true. I’m in the market for a new desktop to replace my old Mac Pro, and Sandy Bridge, big screens and Thunderbolt make for a juicy, juicy update.

The last iMac update was about eight months ago with Intel’s Core i3, i5 and i7 chips and ATI Radeon graphics. But the MacBook Pros were just updated with quad-core Sandy Bridge processors, and they’re screamers.

Thunderbolt is a new port for high-speed peripherals and displays. Dubbed “one connector to rule them all,” it’s a single 10Gbps cable that consolidates almost all existing ports, from FireWire to USB to miniDisplay to eSATA.

Like one of the commenters says, “What other phone platform has a mascot THIS cool????”

There’s been a lot of complaints about the long lines and short supplies of the iPad 2. But there have some nice stories too, like the iPad that Apple sent to one man when his wife made him return it.

Here’s another great story.

The AFL-CIO is opposing Steve Jobs’ reelection to Disney’s board of directors.

The AFL-CIO, which holds about 3.8 million Disney shares, says Jobs’ poor health, plus his job as CEO of Apple, make him a bad choice for Disney’s board. Jobs is likely to be reelected at Disney’s annual meeting on Wednesday.

Jobs is the largest individual sharholder with 7% of Disney’s stock, awarded after the 2006 purchase of Pixar.

The union isn’t the only group opposing Jobs. It is joined by an institutional investment group that is also questioning Jobs’s reelection to the Disney board because of his health.

Institutional Shareholder Services notes that Jobs has attended less than 75% of board meetings in the last three years, and wonders if Jobs should be reelected.

“Jobs’ poor attendance in three of the past four years, and recent leave of absence from his primary employer, raises questions about his ability to fulfill his responsibilities as a director of the company,” ISS wrote in a note to shareholders.

ISS stopped short of rejecting Jobs but said shareholders deserve greater disclosure about his ability to function as a director.

Los Angeles Times: Advisory firm questions Steve Jobs’ reelection to Disney board

Apple is suing Amazon over the use of the “App Store” name, according to Bloomberg.

Apple filed a complaint in California on March 18, accusing Amazon of trademark infringement and unfair competition in regards to the upcoming “Amazon Appstore,” an online marketplace for Android devices.

“We’ve asked Amazon not to copy the App Store name because it will confuse and mislead customers,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told Bloomberg.

Apple is seeking a court injunction on the “App Store” name and unspecified damages. According to the suit, Apple has applied for a trademark on “App Store,” but the application has been opposed by Microsoft. The matter will go before the trademark appeal board.

Here’s a great story about an iPad 2 that was returned to Apple.

Apple is keeping a close eye on iPad 2 returns as part of its QA process. The company wants to identify any problems in early production units, like the light-bleeding backlights we’ve been hearing about.

But one customer returned his iPad 2 for a different reason: his wife wouldn’t let him keep it. He took his iPad back to the Apple Store with a sticky note on it: “Wife said no.”

But a pair of executives at Apple got wind of the story and sent him a replacement iPad 2 with a new sticky on it. Guess what it said?

“Apple said yes”

If the lucky fellow reads this, please get in touch. We’d love to hear more.

MacRumors: iPad 2: Wife Says No, but Apple Says Yes

I’m not sure this is news to anyone, but Apple is working on an iPhone with a Near Field Communications chip, the New York Times has confirmed.

Whether the prototype iPhone is the next iPhone, the NYT’s source couldn’t say.

This all sounds a lot like our NFC iPhone story last week, wherein our source said Apple is working on several NFC-equipped prototypes. Of course, an NFC iPhone has been rumored for some time.

What the Times brings to the story is not one, but two sources:

According to two people with knowledge of the inner workings of a coming iteration of the Apple iPhone — although not necessarily the next one — a chip made by Qualcomm for the phone’s processor will also include near-field communication technology, known as N.F.C. This technology enables short-range wireless communications between the phone and an N.F.C reader, and can be used to make mobile payments. It is unclear which version of an iPhone this technology would be built into.

New York Times: The Technology Behind Making Mobile Payments a Reality

One week after the launch of the iPad 2, there are still overnight lines for the device.

Friday morning, there were 71 people in line for possible iPad 2s at the Los Gatos Apple store, according to CultofMac.com columnist Mike Elgan.

Mike called neighboring stores, and was told there were similar lines at stores in Santa Clara and Palo Alto.

It’s the same story at Apple’s stores all around the country. Look at the photo of the Waikiki store above. “Still no iPad2!” reports the photographer, Jayson Smith. At the 5th Avenue store in Manhattan, there’s a perpetual line of several hundred hopefuls.

Most are turned away disappointed. All these lines are for “possible” iPads. Although many stores have been getting fresh deliveries of iPad 2s every day, not all do. Still, standing in line seems quicker than ordering online. Shipping for online orders has been pushed back 4-5 weeks.

The Apple Store in Charlotte, NC, gave disappointed customers free Smart Covers when deliveries of iPad 2s failed to arrive, according to AppleBitch.

The store… told customers the previous day that an iPad 2 delivery was due for the following morning. However, when no iPads arrived, the customers in line, around fifty of them, were apparently offered a free Smart Cover by the Manager as an apology for the mis-information.

Some Apple stores have resorted to telling customers there are no stocks right off the bat. At one store in Los Angeles, this is how staff are answering the telephone:

“Hello. This is the Apple Store and no, we don’t have any iPad 2s available,” reports Twitter user SB ARTS TV.

Back in 2000, when Google was just getting started, its venture capital backers insisted the fledling company find an experieced CEO to provide ‘adult supervision.’

Venture capitalist John Doerr arranged for Google’s young co-founders to meet with half-a-dozen Silicon Valley CEOs in an attempt to get the process started. Larry Page and Sergey Brin met with Intel’s Andy Grove, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and several others.

At the end of the tour, they were ready to hire a CEO but there was a problem, according to Wired senior writer Steven Levy:

… they would only consider one person: Steve Jobs.

Jobs was busy running Apple, of course, which was just about to introduce the first iPod, the product that would transform the company. Doerr persuaded them to widen their net and introduced them to Eric Schmidt, then CEO of Novell. Schmidt became Google’s CEO in 2001.

The nugget about Steve Jobs is from the latest Wired magazine, in a story about Larry Page retaking the reins as Google’s CEO. It is not yet online. The story is an excerpt from Levy’s upcoming book, “In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives,” which is available for pre-order on Amazon.

With all the rumors about NFC being in the next iPhone — or not in the next iPhone — we have a few more details about Apple’s remote computing plans that revolve around the technology.

According to a source close to the company, Apple is busy testing several prototype iPhones with near field communications (NFC). Unfortunately, the source has no knowledge of when Apple will actually introduce the technology in the iPhone. It could be the next model, due this summer, or next year’s, they said.

However, Apple is working out the kinks in an ambitious remote computing system — and a key component utilizes the recently launched Mac App Store.

As we previously reported, Apple is working on a system that allows users to log into another computer using an NFC-equipped iPhone. The iPhone pairs with the host machine, and loads the user’s files and settings over the net. It’s as though the user is sitting at their own machine at home.