Leander Kahney - page 53

As anticipated, Apple has updated the Apple TV software to 3.0, which brings a new interface and home screen with quick access to favorite content. Instead of drilling down to get to a recently-rented movie, it’s now accessible right off the home screen, as are favorite TV Shows, podcasts and YouTube movies.

The update also adds support for iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras, as well as Genius Mixes and internet radio.

The update likely breaks Boxee, the unsanctioned internet media player that actually makes the Apple TV useful, but internet radio is a welcome addition.

To support the new Apple TV software, Apple has also updated iTunes to 9.0.2. As well as being compatible with the Apple TV 3.0 software, the update adds a new “dark” viewing option in Grid View. The iTunes update also once again breaks Palm Pre syncing.

Forget Balloon Boy and Billy Mays this Halloween. Dress up as your favorite demonic CEO instead.

You’ll scare the pants off work colleagues when you walk in the elevator, and the neighboorhood kids will be in a bag of hurt when you give them apple slices instead of sickly sweet candy.

Hit the jump for a full-size mask that you can print and cut out.

Thanks Dan Draper for the fantastic image of Steve Jobs and Forbes for the idea.

The world’s most influential computer expert is once again recommending consumers buy Macs over Windows PCs.

Mossberg has just published his annual fall computer buying guide, and says that while Windows 7 is almost as good as Snow Leopard, and PCs can be “priced hundreds of dollars lower than Macs,” Apple wins because of the built-in iLife software:

“The arrival of Windows 7 makes PCs from Hewlett-Packard, Dell and others much better choices than their Vista-equipped predecessors were. Microsoft has closed most of the gap with Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. Also, Windows PCs are often priced hundreds of dollars lower than Macs, and offer many more choices.

But in my view, Apple’s built-in software still has the edge. Snow Leopard is fast and reliable. And it comes with a full suite of excellent built-in programs, including email, photo and video software. Microsoft has stripped Windows 7 of such programs.”

Here’s Mossberg on video discussing some of the options.

Here’s Apple’s head designer Jonny Ive geeking out over reducing lots of parts to one single, unibody part — beautiful.

From the recent ‘Objectified’ documentary about industrial design.

We’ve redesigned the top of the site to make it easier to navigate, bring more attention to our top stories, and add a couple more ad units, which we haven’t turned on yet.

The biggest change is the sidebar, which is now located on the left instead of the right. We’re not certain that’s a good idea, but switching it back is a 10-minute job.

What do you guys think of the new look? Should we move the sidebar back where it was?

What says “I love you” better than a big iPhone cake?

This cake was made by Charm City Cakes (of ‘Ace of Cakes’ fame) for iPhone fanboy Jerry Brito and his lovely bride. It’s fantastically detailed — from the icons onscreen to the screws next to the speakers on bottom. We’ve never seen such a detailed iPhone cake before. Hit the jump for a couple more shots.

Cheers Jerry.

New pictures from CNet show that Apple’s latest store in NYC looks to be a beauty.

Located on the Upper West Side at 67th and Broadway, the massive store will have an all-glass front and a huge glass roof (watch the amazing fly-over from Gary Allen at IFOAppleStore. Allen’s also got a cool mockup). The store’s glass facade will measure 54 feet tall, 75 feet wide and 30 feet deep.

In anticipation of the store’s opening before the end of the year, Apple has removed the big black tarp which covered the construction site, replacing it with a latex wrap. The wrap looks like a red curtain that’s been opened slightly to reveal the teasing message: “Opening soon. Apple Store Upper West Side.

Apple’s stock dropped 5 points on Tuesday to close at $197.37. The stock saw a run last week after the release of a raft of new products, hitting a high of $208.71.

One analyst suggests there’s resistance to the stock going above $207 (even though 2010 price targets are between $250-$300), but perhaps investors took some profits today?

Update: The big sell-off is probably due to the Galleon Group liquidating its investments after billionaire founder Raj Rajaratnam was charged with fraud. Bloomberg said the hedge-fund firm is busy selling 90 percent of its investments, mostly in Apple, Google and eBay. Thanks Fabio.

UPDATE: Oops. Sorry for the embarrassing headline typo. Fixed.

Leaping way, way ahead of competitors, Apple has approved more than 100,000 apps for the App Store, according to App Shopper, an app tracking site.

By contrast, there’s 246 apps for Windows Mobile, which has been around for six years, and about 96 apps for the Palm Pre (see Palm’s list of WebOS applications). Google’s Android,which is probably the iPhone’s strongest competitor, has about 10,000 apps, according to recent estimates. Google has yet to release official figures.

Apple in August said there were 65,000 apps. It took just another 10 weeks to approve more than 35,000 apps. (Apple has approved more than 100K apps, but the number actually available for download is slightly lower: about 93,000)

My beloved truck used to be behind the times. The factory-installed stereo had a cassette deck. Remember them? No iPod/iPhone connection and worse, no hands-free cellphone.

But now its got a shiny Sony Xplod aftermarket stereo, which features both iPod and Bluetooth connectivity.

There’s a lot of replacement stereos, but the Xplod has the easiest Bluetooth setup ever, and it always makes a seamless connection with my iPhone. It just works, every time, period. Now I’m always chatting it up in while I’m driving, and I love streaming music via Bluetooth. I should have got one years ago.

Full review after the jump.

Wow, the launch of Windows 7 on Thursday has prompted Apple to trot out three new ads making fun of Microsoft’s new system.

The big shocker is that they are actually pretty funny. I LOLed at the last line in the “PC Wars” ad above; a line delivered by Justin Long. Yeah Justin Long.

The “Broken Promises” is also pretty good. Watch it – and the third ad, “Teeter Tottering” — after the jump.

You can never be rich enough or thin enough, and you can never have enough storage.

I’ve been playing with Iomega’s brand new StorCenter ix2-200, a 4TB network-attached storage/home server that totally kicks NAS!

Not only is it a nice big target for Time Machine backups, it’s also an iTunes server and a Bittorrent machine. It plays nice with the Mac, and is dead easy to set up and use.

Full review after the jump.

Here’s a video of the opening of Microsoft’s first retail store in Scottsdale, Ariz. As the video proves, Microsoft’s business plan is to shamelessly copy Apple, right down to the whooping and high-five ritual when the store first opens. If you blur your eyes slightly, you’re inside an Apple store. From the wood floors and tables to the staffs’ brightly-colored tshirts. Shameless.

In case you missed it first time around, here’s our totally unbiased review of Windows 7.

A cheap shot, I know, but this is a real picture of the crowd that turned up last night at Fry’s in Renton, Washington, to be among the first to buy Microsoft’s new operating system. Renton is a town just outside Seattle, where Microsoft is headquartered. Photo by the AP.

For comparison, hit the jump for a pic of the line for Apple’s Snow Lepoard in San Francisco earlier this year.

The demo gods shone on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer this morning as he showed off Windows 7 to the Today Show’s Matt Lauer.  

The demo went with nary a hitch, even though he didn’t really “demo” any features — he just talked about how Windows 7 is “faster,” “cleaner” and “snappier.” The Sony touchscreen machine does look pretty cool though.  

He isn’t afraid that the iPhone will soon make PCs obsolete, he told Lauer, because people want different-sized screens for different tasks. And he’s not jealous of Apple’s cool image because nine out of 10 PCs sold in the U.S. run Windows.  

Windows 7 goes on sale today. Watch the video below.

Via Methodshop.

Anyone notice that the Apple Store in Tokyo’s Ginza district looks like the new iMac?

Here’s another view, courtesy of of Google Street View.

Thanks Nobi.

UPDATE: Microsoft has canceled the legal threat. I just got an email directly from DtecNet, the anti-piracy company working with Microsoft, saying they have formally withdrawn the notice. There was no explanation why — or why it was issued it in the first place. “After careful review, we sent the below retraction notice below to your ISP,” DtecNet said. “We apologize for any inconvenience.” The problem is that without an explanation of why CoM was targeted, I don’t know what the best response is. It looks like DtecNet made a mistake with us, but the DMCA is a draconian law and easily abused. How many other sites and ISPs have complied to bogus notices like this?

On Tuesday morning, Microsoft sent a DMCA takedown notice to our Web host concerning a post we published back in January about loading the Windows 7 beta on a MacBook.

The DMCA notice demanded we remove the post because it allegedly makes Windows 7 available for “copying through downloading.” (The full text of the notice is after the jump).

Trouble is, we have no idea what Microsoft is talking about. We presumed the post may contain a link to a pirated copy of Windows 7. But the only download link is to Microsoft’s official Windows 7 beta. Surely Microsoft isn’t trying to remove all links to its beta a few days before the final product goes on sale on October 22?

iFixit’s teardown of the new white polycarbonate MacBook reveals nice, tight construction, but also some scrimping.

Apple has added a faster processor, a bright LED display, a big new built-in battery that adds two  hours of extra life (Apple claims) and an improved Bluetooth antenna that promises to improve reception. The MacBook also has a space-age heat sink to cool the faster chip.

But Apple giveth, and Apple taketh away. Gone is the FirWire port and IR sensor, making it the only shipping Mac portable with no remote control.

Gone also are the two fake screws on the left side of the old MacBook that Steve Jobs insisted on to make the machine look symmetrical.

Announced today, the new MacBook costs $999, the same as the machine it replaces.

Hit the jump for more teardown action.

Apple has created a video showing the new multi-touch Magic Mouse in action. Check it out below.

The mouse looks incredibly easy to use. It has several gestures built-in, including clicking, right clicking, zooming and swiping to backwards and forwards in Safari and iPhoto.

A CoM reader just posted details of Apple’s new products to the comments on our earlier “store’s down” post.

It looks legit — a 21-inch iMac, three Mac Minis, two dualband Time Capsules and an Airport Extreme.

Plus a mystery product called K84 BEST BTR.

UPDATE: K84 is probably a keyboard. There are 84 keys on a compact keyboard.

UPDATE 2: AppleInsider is reporting the same information, but is saying the info came from “reliable sources” instead of admitting it’s an pseudonymous post on the site’s forums.

MC207LL/A – K84 BEST BTR- USA
MC238LL/A – MAC MINI 2.26/2×1GB/160/SD/AP/BT-USA
MC239LL/A- MAC MINI 2.53/2×2GB/320GB/SD/AP/BT-USA
MC340LL/A – AIRPORT EXTREME (SIM DUALBAND) – USA
MC343LL/A – TIME CAPSULE 1TB (SIM DUALBAND) -USA
MC344LL/A – TIME CAPSULE 2TB (SIM DUALBAND) – USA
MC408LL/A – MAC MINI 2.53/2×2GB/1TB/NO ODD/AP-BT-USA
MC413LL/A – IMAC 21.5″/3.06/2×2GB/1TB/4670-256MB-USA
MC434LL/A – APPLE VESA MOUNT ADAPTER
MC461LL/A – MACBOOK 60W MAGSAFE POWER ADAPTER – USA

Jabra’s new Stone headset is the first non-dorky Bluetooth headset I’ve ever seen.

Actually, it’s the second. The first was a Secret Service-style single earbud from Hong Kong that clipped to your shirt. Trouble is, it sounded awful.

The Stone should have no such trouble: it supports A2DP (good for music, even though it’s a single earpiece) and has nice, clear noise-canceling microphone. Volume controls are handled by the surface of the Stone, which is touch-sensitive – how cool is that?

It’s called the Stone because when docked into its portable charging dock, the pair look like a polished stone.

But boy, does it need that charging dock. Battery life is a skimpy two hours talk time, according to Jabra (and less than an hour according to one early review). The charging dock is good for three charges of the headset before it too has to be recharged. Standby is 12 hours.

Jabra’s Stone costs $130 and will be available exclusively from AT&T in early November. Might be worth the price  for the cool touchscreen volume controls — and for not making you look like Lieutenant Uhura.

Apple’s COO Tim Cook says competitors are still trying to catch up with the original iPhone, which was launched more than two years ago.

During a conference call discussing today’s Q4 earnings, Cook was asked about competition hotting up for the upcoming holiday season. How will Apple maintain momentum and differentiation?

“We feel very confident,” Cook said. “People are still trying to catch up to the original iPhone, and we’ve long since moved past that.”

Ouch. Take that Google and Palm. And although it wasn’t mentioned by name, the question was clearly referring to the upcoming Droid phone from Verizon and Motorola, which is based on Google’s Android.

Verizon has launched a weird iDon’t advertising campaign that supposedly highlights all the things the iPhone doesn’t do — like run simultaneous apps. But while the Droid is getting early notice for being very thin (even with a slider keyboard), there’s still no sizable library of apps for it to run — and that’s what Cook is referring to.

The iPhone is a true mobile platform, not just a nice piece of standalone hardware. And a platform is something that takes years to build.

It’s going to be a big day for Apple stock tomorrow if after-hours gains stick. Apple’s stock was up to as much as $204 in after-hours trading. The company reported record profits on blockbuster sales of Macs and iPhones — all during one of the worst economic downturns this century.
Apple’s sales defy logic,

“Recession? What recession?” said Steve Jobs and co. on Monday as Apple reported record sales and near-record revenues for 2009’s fourth quarter.

While Wall Street and most of the technology industry limped along for the last three months, Apple’s fourth quarter revenues rose to a whopping $9.87 billion — the second best quarter ever after last Christmas.

Apple sold a record 3.05 million Macs during the quarter (17% year-on-year increase); 10.2 million iPods (down 8%); and 7.4 million iPhones (up 7%).

“We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” said Steve Jobs in a statement. “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”

The results do not reflect the new accounting rules that recently went into effect allowing Apple to realize iPhone and Apple TV sales, which are currently spread over two years. If these sales were taken into account for the quarter, revenue would have been $12.25 billion, Apple said.

The company is a runaway profit machine. Gross margins were up to an unbelievable 36.6%, which rocketed profits 46% to $1.67 billion for the quarter. Yeah, that’s a lot of cash. Companies like Dell and HP are lucky if they can squeeze 5% profits out of their products.