Leander Kahney - page 28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPzRWca53Is

As you’ve probably heard, touchpad scrolling is backwards in OS X Lion. Instead of pulling your fingers down to scroll down a window, you know push your fingers up.

Confused? You will be. It undoes years of muscle memory. So why would Apple do this?

It’s easy: because of iOS. It’s the same gesture you make on the screen of an iOS device when you scroll up and down the screen. You want to scroll down? You pull the content up.

It’s another example of the influence of iOS on OS X.

The HappyBirthdaySteveJobs.com tribute website is going gangbusters.

Thrown up a couple of days ago, the site has survived attacks from malicious hackers and has seen more than 45,000 visitors from 147 countries.

It is currently displaying more than 13,000 birthday wishes to Steve Jobs, whose birthday is today.

One of the site admins, London student Raoul-Gabriel Urma, says he’s been up for 48 hours trying to keep the site running. Here are the stats:

Apple is adding several auto-saving features to Lion, including Auto Save, Versions and Resume.

“Mac OS X Lion automatically saves your work — while you work — so you don’t have to,” says the company.

One of the most interesting implications is that you may never have to quit an application again, or go hunting for the file you were working on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jbOZvNidCA

Apple has posted video of OS X Lion’s new gesture controls in action. Look how iPad-ish the whole experience is.

Lion features several new multi-touch gestures, including rubber-band scrolling, page and image zoom, and full-screen swiping.

Apple shareholders have voted down a proposal that would have required Apple to disclose Steve Jobs’ succession plan.

The vote came at Apple’s annual meeting today. The proposal was brought by the Laborers’ International Union. Apple’s board also opposed.

Apple has said in the past that it has executive succession plan, though it hasn’t revealed what that plan is.

Steve Jobs wasn’t present at today’s meeting. He continues his indefinite medical leave. This is only the second time in a decade he has missed the annual event.

All Things D: Apple Shareholders Reject Proposal to Disclose Succession Plan

It’s official: The iPad 2 launch will be March 2.

Apple is issuing press invites to a special media event on March 2 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, according to Loopinsight.com.

“Come see what 2011 will be all about,” says the invite. Looks like Apple is pretty confident about the iPad 2.

The event starts at 10:00 am. It’s the same venue Apple traditionally uses to introduce products.

We all know that Steve Jobs is obsessed with crafting top-notch customer experiences. Of course, he’s famous for being dismissive of focus groups, but did you know he spies on customers at his local Apple Store?

If you’re wondering were all the comments went, they’re currently being imposted into Disqus. We’ve switched to Disqus, a commenting platform with all kinds of great features, including great social integration, notifications and multimedia.

When it’s up and running, it promises to be a great system. However, importing the old comments can sometimes take a while: maybe even two or three days.

That’s for existing comments. New comments should post immediately. Fingers crossed it’s up and running quickly. In the meantime, please leave any questions, comments or complaints in — you guessed it — the new comments system.

And thanks for your patience — Leander.

Raoul-Gabriel Urma writes:

We are computing students from Imperial College London and created a website dedicated to Steve Jobs allowing members of the public to leave their birthday comments and this way to support him while he is currently dealing with serious health issues.

Our aim is to allow as many people to wish him a happy birthday this way letting him know he has a back-up of so many.

Leave your best wishes here: Happy Birthday Steve Jobs.

Apple is helping finance a major remodel of Stanford Hospital (where Jobs was photographed by the sleazy National Enquirer). But is Apple also helping design the $2 billion facility, perhaps based on the design of its retail stores?

Check out the rendering of the atrium above. Look familiar? Note the massive skylight, the marble floors. Is that a Genius Bar on the right?

Most important, the brains behind Apple’s stores — Ron Johnson — is intimately involved.

The new MacBook Pros expected later this week will boot off solid-state drives, claims Boy Genius Report, citing unnamed sources.

In addition:

• The new MacBook Pros will feature larger glass trackpads. It’s hard to imagine how this is possible, but they’ve been growing with each successive machine, so maybe so.
• The lower-end models will have 8GB-16GB SSDs for Mac OS X, and will also come equipped with a regular hard drive. This will offer the benefits of SSDs — instant on and super fast performance — while also providing lots of room for power users’ files (video and Photoshop).
• The higher-end models will be SSD only, just like Apple’s new MacBook Air line.
• The new machines will be up to a half-pound lighter than curent models. Again, hard to imagine how this is possible given that Liquidmetal rumors are unlikely.
• The report also note there will be five different SKUs, jibing with previous rumor reports.

Boy Genius Report: New MacBook Pro models imminent; we’ve got some new details

It looks like Apple’s all set to launch new MacBooks next week, but the launch day is — a Thursday?

What’s up with that? Apple’s big product launches are almost always on Tuesdays. (It allows reporters on the East Coast to fly into California on a workday instead of the weekend).

So why would Apple launch new MacBooks on Thursday February 24?

It’s new MacBook Pros next Thursday February 24, according to MacRumors, citing a “reliable” source.

We’ve since heard reliable confirmation that this information is accurate and that the expected release date is next Thursday, February 24th. The move would be a bit unusual for Apple to launch new machines on a Thursday. So, if you are about to buy a new MacBook Pro, wait until next week.

MacBooks were last updated a year ago with Intel Core i5 and i7 chips. The new machines are likely to get Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors, which are faster and a lot less power hungry. Rumors that the machines will have cases made  of Liquidmetal are unlikely, but they will probably will be lighter, thinner and have higher-resolution screens. A big price drop is predicted too.

Apple’s said to be releasing five new models, which will include two new 13-inch versions, two new 15-inch versions and one new 17-inch version.

Years ago, the Sun tabloid newspaper kidnapped a donkey and kept it in a Spanish hotel room for a story. Yesterday, Gizmodo hired a plane to take aerial photos of Steve Jobs’ demolished mansion.

Demolition began Monday of the abandoned mansion. Jobs won a long legal battle to have the old pile torn down. He wants to build a smaller, greener place on the property.

More demolition pictures below:

And here are some really beautiful pictures of the Jackling House before it was demolished, courtesy of photographer Jonathan Haeber, who sneaked in one night.

Steve Jobs is sitting next to President Obama. He’s wearing a black turtleneck!

This is an official White House photo. Here it is zoomed in:

Both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported that a smaller iPhone nano was in development, but now the New York Times says a shrunken iPhone is NOT on the cards.

Apple is developing a budget iPhone, the NYT says, but the device will not be any smaller than current models. Instead, it will scrimp on internal components, like memory, as we exclusively reported on Monday (More Detail On Apple’s iPhone Nano).

Keeping the iPhone nano’s screen size the same as current models makes perfect sense. Developers won’t have to code apps for different screen sizes, like they do on other platforms.

The Times did corroborate our report earlier this week, also reported in the WSJ, that Apple is planning a major overhaul of MobileMe. MobileMe will put a lot more media and files in the cloud, allowing users to stream and sync to all their devices without using cables.

The budget iPhone will make more use of voice commands, the NYT says.

Here’s the cover of the March 2011 edition of Wired magazine, which just showed up in the mail:

1 million workers

90 million iPhones

17 suicides

This is where your gadgets come from. Should you care?

Yes, you should care. We do. Kudos to Wired for shining a much-needed spotlight on this important issue.

On Monday, we reported how Apple is working on a streaming-only iPhone. The smaller, lighter device will have limited storage. Media and data will be streamed to the device over the network, like the second-generation Apple TV.

In November, we reported that the iPhone 5 will use a Near Field Communications chip (NFC) to enable an ambitious remote computing system. Wave the NFC-equipped iPhone near any compatible Mac, and the user’s entire Home directory will be loaded onto the guest machine — files, photos, music and even the same desktop background. It will be as though the user is sitting in front of their home computer. Apple has even patented the system.

How are the two related?

It’s unlikely that Apple will use Liquidmetal for the new MacBooks that are expected any day now, but it sure would be sweet. Check out how svelte the machines would be if Apple used the extra-stiff material.

Mockup by designer Dario Crisafulli.

Via SagiaMente.

Who wants one?

If Apple shrinks the iPhone to nano size with a screen that runs edge-to-edge and no Home button, how will users quit apps and return to the Home screen?

Developer Max Rudberg suggests that users could squeeze the sides of their iPhone to close apps. He writes:

This could be a real wow effect. Seeing how the phone reacts to your grip and then having the app vanish in the palm of your hand.

To avoid ‘squeeze to go Home’ from happening by accident, a visual cue could show that pressure is being applied. In this concept, the app begins to shrink to reflect the pressure that is being applied. When the pressure goes over a defined threshold, the user is returned to the Home screen.

The strength of a users grip will of course vary. Therefore, a setting for how much pressure that’s needed before an app is exited could be a good idea.”

Rudberg, who runs Max Themes and created popular jailbreak themes Glasklart HD and Serious SBSettings HD, suggests the iPhone nano have a pressure-sensitive body. He made a cool video showing how it would work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7uk_sxYW98

[via iPhone Download Blog and MacStories]

Our friends at Hong Kong-based M.I.C. Gadget have received a letter from Apple! It’s not a very nice one though. It concerns the Pineapple CEO action figure, which portrays our favorite technologist as a star-throwing ninja (remember the story about Jobs being stopped at airport security?).

“Mr. Jobs has not consented to the use of his name and/or image in the Product. Unauthorized use of a person’s name and/or likeness constitutes a violation of California Civil Code Section 3344, which prohibits the use of any person’s name, photograph or likeness in a product without that person’s prior consent… The figure and its stand are replications of Mr. Jobs image and Apple’s trademark. The thin attempt to “disguise” the figure in its current iteration does not impact the fact that you are plainly trading on Mr. Jobs image…”

M.I.C. Gadget says it’s sorry and will no longer sell the action figure.

Actually, we are wondering what took the law firm so long to send us an email to request us to cease the marketing and sale of the figure. We reviewed it on January 18, and we received the email on February 8. That’s almost a month time! We believe someone from Apple has bought the figure so the lawyer took so much time to look for us. So, who bought it??

M.I.C. Gadget: Apple Is Not Happy With The Pineapple CEO Action Figure

Apple will build a massive store in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, Cult of Mac independently confirmed.

The store will open in the fall, likely early September — and it will be Apple’s largest retail space in the world.

The store already has a name: Apple Store, Grand Central, according to a source close the company. The source said Apple will be making an internal announcement within the next month or so.

“The company will certainly pull out all the stops on this one,” said the source, who asked not to be named.

This year is the 10th anniversary of Apple retail, and Apple wants to make a big splash, our source said. Apple’s retail operation has been a spectacular success, helping fuel the company’s explosive growth and creating shops that make twice as much money as Tiffany & Co.

Apple’s stock is taking a hit on fresh rumors that Steve Jobs has only a few weeks to live. Apple stock is currently down about three points in after-hours trading. It’s likely to take a big hit tomorrow when the markets reopen. The stock dropped a few points last week on rumors that Jobs was in hospital.

The sleazy rumors, published by the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, reportedly show photos of Jobs outside the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, his home town. The pictures don’t seem to be available online, but apparently show Jobs looking very thin and frail. The tabloid says Jobs has dropped from 175lb to just 130lb and has just six weeks to live. The topic is lighting up Twitter.

We don’t know whether the information is correct, but we certainly hope not. Best wishes Steve.

Daily Mail: Paper publishes shocking pictures of skeletal Steve Jobs claiming ‘cancer-stricken Apple boss may have just six weeks to live’

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is working on a “major revamp” of MobileMe, including a “locker” that will stream movies and TV shows to iPhones and iPads.

We’ve learned that Apple is going far beyond this. The company is looking to add a ton of ambitious cloud computing features to MobileMe — possibly in anticipation of a streaming-only iPhone.

Among the many services Apple is working on are:

• A live video-streaming service like Ustream
• A location-based check-in system like Gowalla or Foursquare
• A geo-tagging system codenamed “Tokens” that tags real-world locations, like Facebook Places on steroids.

According to our source, who asked to remain anonymous, Apple is working on a lot of streaming data services and location-aware technologies. It’s not clear when or how these features will be rolled out, but they appear to complement our report that Apple is working on a streaming-only iPhone.

“A ton of ideas were hatched on what they could do, and from what I heard, a lot of their ideas were shelved for a later date in order to focus on a few of them,” said our source.

Demolition crews have begun tearing down Steve Jobs’ ramshackle mansion in Woodside.

Preservationists had wanted the historic mansion saved but Jobs wants to build a smaller, modern residence on the property. The 86-year mansion was subject to a long legal battle, which Jobs eventually won. Jobs famously lived in the mansion during the ’80s. It was empty of furniture and he neglected to mow the lawn.

The San Francisco Chronicle talked to a local resident and got a great quote from Jobs’ attorney:

“I just heard a bunch of noise up there and saw it going on,” said Greg Moretti, 37, of Woodside. “Whatever side of the demolition debate you are on, it’s hard to deny that what we are witnessing here today is the loss of a significant piece of California architectural history.”

Jobs’ attorney, Howard Ellman, said, “He applied to demolish the house, we got the house demolition permit, and the demolition started today. What more can I say?”

For a good look on just how run down the mansion was, check out Jonathan Haeber’s amazing photos.