Leander Kahney - page 59

Pretty convincing  pictures and a video of the upcoming iPod Touch with a camera have surfaced. The pictures and video show clearly the camera and microphone first hinted at in dozens of cases for the device.

Posted to a blog by Maxim Radio talk hosts Covino & Rich, the pictures and video show a prototype device with a distinctive red motherboard and a cracked screen. The blog has published several images of the device.

The prototype was a “durability test phone,” the blog’s tipster said, and was likely tossed out. It was purchased from an iPod parts dealer. According to the tipster, who claims to work with Apple:

-to show it’s real. If you look at the board, it states Apple 2009 very clear. The 2nd gen AKA iPod touch out now, has 2008 on it. They haven’t revised the 2008 touch. I will compare them in pic in a sec.

-BTW, these phones NEVER leave Apple and this one left but it was a durability test phone, so that’s why the screen is all gridded off and cracked.

-The side by side picture is the inside of the current gen vs the 3rd gen (one coming out in September).

-I acquired this from a guy that I buy parts phones and iPods from. I believe he’s a recycler in ***********, so what most likely happened is that Apple threw this away and he some how got it and sold it for parts.

Here’s a clever way to use Twitter to get attention for a new iPhone app — get Twitter users to tweet about a MacBook prize giveaway.

Taptaptap is giving away a $6,000 custom MacBook to a lucky follower of the company’s Twitter stream, drawn at random.

The competition is hotting up as Twitter users retweet the details and the promotion spreads virally. More than 10,500 people have entered so far, less than a day after the competition opened.

To enter, users must follow Taptaptap’s Twitter stream, and then broadcast details of the competition by updating their Twitter status with the competition URL: https://tweetblast.taptaptap.com. The winner will be drawn at random on August 27.

The competition is to promote Taptaptap’s new app called Convert, a unit calculator that costs $1 (launch special).

The winner will get a brand new ColorWare Stealth MacBook Pro — a limited edition MacBook Pro that’s been customized with a soft-touch, matt black coating. Only 10 made, says ColorWare, and worth $5,999.

If you enter, keep an eye on your Twitter account. The winner will notified with a direct message. If they don’t respond within a week, a new winner will be chosen.

An authorized Apple reseller in Portugal has started selling new cases for the upcoming, camera-equipped iPod Touch and iPod Nano.

Promai’s Jivo TPA cases look for the most part like the new cases out of China, but for one important detail: the placement of the headphone jack on the iPod Touch.

Look carefully at the Portuguese pix, and you’ll see the headphone jack has moved to the top, like the iPhone’s. But in the Chinese cases, the headphone jack is at the bottom, like current models. I’m inclined to put more faith in the Chinese cases, whose makers say they have good intelligence about Apple’s new offerings.

Hot off the Chinese forums are three new pictures of a prototype iPod Touch — or are they?

Certain details do look right. The iPod Touch has a metal backplate, like its predecessor. And the camera on the back is in the center of the device, not offset to one side like the iPhone’s — a detail first reported by Cultofmac.com.

However, there’s no microphone next to the camera — a feature indicated by the new cases Chinese manufacturers are already making for the device.  Also, the Touch is pretty beaten up for a new device, even if it is a prototype.

Fake or not, something very like this is just a couple of weeks away. A new iPod Touch and iPod Nano, both with cameras, will likely be released at an Apple press event on September 8, and will cost $199/$299/S399 for 16/32/64 GB models.

As well as pictures, the new iPods will also likely be able to capture and edit video, and send clips via email, Mobile Me and YouTube.

All the forum pictures after the jump.

Apple’s Board of Directors is meeting next Tuesday to discuss possible replacements for Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Schmidt resigned two weeks ago because of increased competition between Google and Apple. One of the leading candidates to replace him is Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, who has acted as CEO during Steve Jobs’s medical leave. Cook has ben praised for Apple’s performance during Jobs’s absence, and is tipped as his successor. But as the Journal notes:

The board has been criticized for a lack of independence from Mr. Jobs. Half of the company’s six outside directors have served for at least a decade, which some governance experts say is too long to maintain their independence from the CEO of a company.

“The biggest danger is that the board will be unable to truly take the perspective of the shareholder and will feel beholden to the CEO or unwilling to confront the CEO,” says David Nadler, a corporate governance specialist with Oliver Wyman Consulting.

Independence from the CEO has not been one of the characteristics of Apple’s board in recent history. Jobs had most of the board replaced shortly after he returned to the company in 1997, and since then has recruited friends and allies like former vice president Al Gore or Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

Whoever the board chooses to replace Schmidt, it is not going to be someone antagonistic to Jobs.

As CoM’s Pete Mortensen has noted, the current board is light on tech folks, but because of Apple’s wide-ranging businesses interests (from cell phones to online media), there’s not a lot of people in the Valley Apple’s not in competition with. Pete likes John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems. “He’s an incredibly bright guy, a brilliant manager, and he really gets tech and telecommunications without being an Apple competitor in any meaningful sense. Additionally, he has a reputation for remarkable ethics, both personally and across his organization — Cisco was one of the only organizations in Silicon Valley that didn’t have stock backdating issues a few years back. He also gets business customers in a big way.”

Google Chrome 4.0 Beta  is the fastest webrowser on the planet, CNet claims.

In benchmark tests, the new Chrome beta smoked Safari, rendering JavaScript 34% percent faster.

“It completed the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark in just 657ms. Only 4 per cent faster than its PC brother, sure, but 34 per cent faster than Safari 4.0.3, which scored 886ms on the same 2.0GHz Intel MacBook.”

In the same test, Firefox version 3.5.2 on OS X scored 1,508ms and Opera 10 beta 3 scored 5,958ms, CNet says.

JavaScript rendering is important because developers are using it more and more to add bells and whistles to websites. CNet cautions though that the software is alpha, and will be retested against Safari when the final version ships in several months.

And while speed is important, the browser is nowhere ready for public consumption. “Chrome for Mac is still riddled with bugs,” says CNet. “Big ones, like those spiders in Eight Legged Freaks, only even more hellacious.”

Apple is planning a special media event for the week of September 7, MediaMemo reports, citing “multiple music industry sources.”

But Apple won’t tell anyone exactly when the event is. Apple always holds keynote presentations on Tuesdays, so the likeliest date is September 8.

Apple has held a keynote event every September for the last four years to introduce its consumer-focused holiday offerings, typically new iPods and new versions of iTunes.

At this event though, Apple could be introducing several things:

* Cocktail: The presence of multiple music execs suggests a music focus. Apple’s rumored Cocktail project is a secret skunkworks rethink of the LP for the digital age. But it is rumored to be part of the secret tablet project though…

* The Tablet: Many expect the fabled Apple tablet as early as September.

* New iPods: New iPod Nano and iPod Touch with cameras. This seems the most likely.

* iTunes 9: The next version of iTunes is tipped to get Blu-ray, social software support and iPhone app organization. Also seems likely.

* Steve Jobs: Will Jobs make his first public appearance since returning from medical leave?

Maybe all of the above?

Gizmodo’s Brian Lam talked to a high level source who claims to have seen and handled prototypes of Apple’s upcoming tablet.

* The tablet is real (we already knew this though — CoM’s sources have also confirmed it).

* 10-inch screen.

* Looks like a giant iPhone with the same Home button and a shiny black plastic back.

* Two editions: One with a webcam and one for education.

* Will sit between iPod/iPhone and a MacBook, costing $700 to $900.

* Will also function as a secondary screen and/or a touchpad for iMacs and MacBooks, like this 7-inch external USB monitor form MiMo.

* It’s been under development in one form or another for six years, but the first prototype was built at end of 2008. Time to market is 6-9 months, pegging the device’s release date this holiday season.

But just as Lam — who is a great reporter and a straight-shooter – was was about to get to the juicy bit — what OS the tablet will run — his iPhone dropped the call. Classic!

Writes Lam: “My call dropped on some windy road off Skyline Drive. Fucking AT&T.”

UPDATE: I contacted Lam, who said his source didn’t know the tablet’s OS. It’s the biggest secret surrounding the device, he says. Entrepreneur and ugly dog-lover Jason Calacanis just tweeted it runs a modified version of the iPhone OS, citing a developer. Maybe. Here at CoM, we like the idea it’ll run Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Outlook is coming to the Mac, Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit said on Thursday. The next version of Office for Mac will replace Entourage for Mac with a new application – Outlook for Mac.

Is this good news or bad? I hate Entourage, but I hated Outlook on Windows even more when I had to use a PC. In fact, Outlook is my second-most hated program of all time, right behind Lotus Notes.

Outlook for Mac will be included in Office 2010 for Mac, which Microsoft said will be ready for the holidays next year. (Apple has promised better Exchange support in Snow Leopard. It’s likely that Microsoft announced Outlook so far in advance to discourage current Entourage users from switching to the new Exchange-compatible version of Apple Mail coming in Snow Leopard).

It will include:

* A new database and Exchange protocol. Database supports Time Machine backups and Spotlight searching — finally!!!!

* Better cross-platform collaboration and calendering.

* Built from the ground up in Cocoa to offer better performance, better OS X integration, and get this, “make Outlook beautiful,” said said Eric Wilfrid, general manager for the MacBU.

No word on whether Outlook for Mac will be compatible with PST files exported from Windows versions of Outlook, which are a bear to import into other email programs.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is reducing the number of versions of Office it offers from three to two. Alongside the Standard Edition, it is now offering Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Business Edition, which bundles Entourage Web Services Edition and Microsoft Document Connection for Mac.

It will be sold alongside the current Standard Edition for the same price: $399, or $239 to upgrade. It is available to some customers today as a download or on Sept. 15. in shrinkwrap.

Link to Microsoft’s press release.

There’s a pair of great but fake videos making the rounds of the Apple tablet. Two videos posted to YouTube supposedly show the tablet running the iPhone OS on some kind of development hardware. The hardware controls — volume, the home button — are on a separate hardware box wired to a large touchscreen screen. So it’s not the genuine hardware, but something like a breadboard.

It looks great. The device can run multiple Apps simultaneously. App windows are tiled on top of each other and can be moved around on the touchscreen. The App bar runs the full length of the screen at the bottom like the Dock in OS X.

But unfortunately it looks totally fake to me. The up-close, grainy video just seems too constrained. Whoever shot the video doesn’t want to show too much — just enough to tease the viewer. If it were a real spy video it’d be much less Blair Witch.

UPDATE: As reader Gene points out in the comments, it’s interesting because it shows how the tablet might run current iPhone/iPod apps: “Fake, but gives us a good idea for dealing with the fixed size of iPhone apps on a larger screen: basically, every app becomes a dashboard widget. Simple, and apps don’t have to be resized!”

Also, after the jump, screenshots of the same device have been posted to the MacRumors forums. One of the screenshots shows the “About” screen. The device runs OS 3.0 and has a memory capacity of 120GB. The model number is N/A and the serial number: W8922DP91SO.

I ran the serial number through Chipmunk International’s serial number tool, which returns details of the hardware’s specs, manufacture date, the factory it was made in, and so on. This serial number wasn’t found in the database.

Apple’s been getting a lot of flak lately for its heavy-handed App Store policies – a direct consequence of its new-found status as a market leader, says author Graham Bower.

For years, Apple capitalized on its underdog status, able to skirt the rules because it was always coming in second.

But now that it dominates with products like the iPod and iPhone, it’s getting the same kind of grief that dogged Microsoft for years.

Bower, who lives in London, has just published a fascinating new book called Secondonomics: How Coming Second Can Be a Winning Strategy, which is about the advantages of coming second. Contrary to popular belief, winner doesn’t take all. Take for example what happens to the first penguin into the water versus the second. Which one gets eaten?

Apple figures large in Secondonomics. Bower argues that Apple has gotten a lot of passes because of its underdog status.

“The Mac has a big advantage over Windows because it’s the second most popular desktop OS,” says Bower. “It’s not targeted for viruses as much, and it’s not targeted for anti-trust cases. Can you imagine Microsoft getting away with hooking something like MobileMe so tightly into their OS?”

Hit the jump for a fascinating IM interview with Bower, who’s a smart cookie. Bower has a lot of insight into Apple, coming second, the challenges Apple faces as it becomes bigger, and Steve Jobs’s psychological need to be an underdog.

After Canada’s Rogers Wireless told Gizmodo “There is no 8GB 3GS iPhone,” the website has turned up a photo of the company’s internal sales system showing that low-and-behold, there is an 8GB iPhone 3GS after all.

Reportedly sent by a Rogers’ employee, the photo of the system shows an 8GB 3GS priced at $74 — the same price as the current iPhone 3G that it will likely replace ($99 – $25 customer discount).

Earlier this week, Rogers told Gizmodo that a webpage showing the new phone was a “mistake.” Gizmodo now suspects it was lied to.

“This is the second such internal reference to a 8GB 3GS to come from Rogers in as many weeks, not to mention their recent website fiasco, where an 8GB 3GS was listed in a feature comparison chart, then deleted as ‘a mistake,'” says Giz. “None of these leaks stand alone as totally convincing, but three unconnected reports? That’s a little too much to ignore, even for a skeptic.”

Apple is getting serious about getting green.

To make sure that its massive new data-center is energy efficient, Apple has just hired a top eBay executive and leading expert in the “greening” of cloud computing facilities.

Apple has picked up Olivier Sanche, eBay’s Senior Director Data Centers Services and Strategy, according to the Green Data Center Blog.

Based in San Francisco, Sanche has helped make eBay’s massive global operations carbon neutral since 2007. Most recently, he helped oversee the construction of eBay’s newest data-center, which will meet the highest green standards when it goes online in 2010.

“This new center is built to meet LEED Gold standards,” Sanche writes on his LinkedIn profile. “We broke ground in late-2008 and we are on track to deliver state-of-the-art efficiencies in cooling and power management.”

It looks like Apple needs someone of Sanche’s stature for its fast-growing cloud computing operations.

Apple is building its own huge data-center in North Carolina. The billion-dollar facility will reportedly be 500,000-square-feet and will serve as Apple’s primary East Coast data-center. In 2006, Apple bought a giant 107,000-square-foot facility data-center on the West Coast, in Newark, Calif. The new North Carolina facility will be nearly five times the size of Newark operation. Ground is expected to be broken later this month.

Data-centers are huge power hogs. Google puts its data-centers as close to power plants as possible, just like Las Vegas is next to the Hoover Dam. McKinsey has projected that data center emissions will overtake those of the world’s airlines by 2020.

At eBay, Sanche helped to green a massive data-center operation. The auction company runs more than 15,000 servers worldwide to support of 84 million eBay users. Sanche says the company has been carbon neutral since 2007 thanks to a combination of conservation, solar energy, facilities management and a high-quality carbon offset program.

Sanche is also Vice Chair of the advisory council for The Green Grid, an industry consortium that promotes energy efficiency.

Via 9to5Mac.

Amid tight security, Apple shot a TV advert for an unreleased product at Jax Truckee Diner on Tuesday afternoon.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures or even a description of the mystery product. Because of the security, no photographers or reporters were allowed on set. Filming took place on Tuesday afternoon.

“Apple found us, they’re trying to show us as a hip and cool spot for the 20-something crowd,” Jax on the Tracks owner Bud Haley told the Sierra Sun newspaper.

Of course, rumors that Apple is about to release a Web tablet are reaching fever pitch. Many think the tablet will be announced next month in time for the holiday season; but conflicting reports say the tablet will be launched early next year.

But if Apple is already shooting ads for the new product, chances are its release is imminent. After all, the probability of leaks are much greater when products are sent to outside partners like advertising agencies.

Jax Truckee Diner is a classic 1940s-style diner next to the railroad tracks in downtown Truckee, California.

The question is, why would Apple put a Web tablet in a diner? Perhaps to show a crowd of hip 20-somethings sitting around a booth, playing digital 45s before watching a streaming MTV video and then ordering waffles over WiFi?

UPDATE: I called Bud Haley, owner of the diner, who in a roundabout way confirmed the shoot, and said it was “exciting.” Unfortunately, Apple has him tied up in a confidentiality agreement, and he couldn’t/wouldn’t say if the ad was for a new product or an existing one.

“As you can imagine, I’ve got to be careful and confidential,” he said. “I can’t say anything about it, I’m afraid. I’d love to give you more info, but I can’t. No comment is the best comment.”

Asked if his afternoon yesterday was exciting (I was desperate), Haley said: “Obviously, anything where Apple is involved is exciting. But I still can’t tell you anything. Sorry.” Haley has taken several calls from reporters and was very patient and gracious. He’s a good sport and is handling the nosy questions very well.

Here’s what Jax looks like inside:

Here’s a game that 3D Realms has actually shipped. Duke Nukem 3D, the classic first-person-shooter from the mid ’90s, is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

3D Realms is famous of course for not shipping games. It’s follow-up to Duke Nukem — Duke Nukem Forever – has been promised for more than a decade, earning a top slot on Wired.com’s Vaporware awards year after year.

Duke Nukem 3D is a simple port of the 13-year-old game. It’s pixely and low res — but who’d want it any different? The controls are a little difficult to master, according to reviews on iTunes, which are generally favorable. Players are reveling in gaming nostalgia.

No word on whether the hookers, sex shops and bare-breasted strippers are still in the game though.

Duke Nukem 3D currently costs $2.99, a “One Day Launch Special.” No word on how much it will cost tomorrow.

Buy from the iTunes App Store.

Good news for haters of Apple’s glossy MacBook screens: the matte display is back as an option on the 15-inch MacBook Pro, although Apple is charging an extra $50 for it.

Check Apple’s online store. The glossy widescreen display can be replaced with an optional antiglare display. The specs are the same — 1,440 x 900 pixels and a LED backlight — but the matte display has a silver bezel around it instead of a black one. Plus it costs an extra $50.

Apple’s not selling it though. Look how the website copy downplays the antiglare option:

“Choose a standard glossy display that lets you view graphics, photos, and videos with richer colors and deeper blacks, or an optional antiglare display.”

The matte screen was already an option on the top-of-the-line 17-inch MacBook Pro, but isn’t yet offered on the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro. It’s just a matter of time though. I personally like the glossy screens, which I think look great. I’ve never, ever been distracted by its much hated “mirror” effect.

Meet Tadataka Goh, a Japanese jazz bassist who is perhaps the world’s biggest collector of Apple-branded goods — you know, Apple t-shirts, pens and hats.

Over the last 15 years, Tadataka has amassed the largest collection of Apple knickknacks on the planet. He has thousands of items, including hundreds of pens, t-shirts, baseball caps, posters and buttons. He has the first issue of Macworld magazine and an Apple-branded traffic cone.

Tadataka has possibly spent more than $100,000 on them. That’s right — more than $100,000.

“Looking at his collection, he’s probably spent several hundred thousand dollars,” says Steve Naughton, co-owner of RedLightRunner.com, which sells Apple collectibles and counts Tadataka as its best customer ever.

The Japanese are well-known for being enthusiastic collectors, and the most otaku can be fanatical completionists. Even so, the scope of Tadataka’s collection boggles the mind.

He’s got so much stuff, even he doesn’t know how much he’s got. He recently posted pictures of more about 4,000 items to an online gallery, and has scores more pictures to upload.

Click on to see some of Tadataka’s collection. You have to see the photos to appreciate how big this collection is.

Just weeks after getting permission to tear down his historic mansion, Steve Jobs is embroiled in more wrecking ball controversy.

Preservationists in Melbourne, Australia, are up in arms about the imminent destruction of a historic art deco building in favor of a new Apple store.

Developers have just received permission to rip down Lonsdale House — described as one of the city’s finest examples of art deco architecture.

In its place they’re building a new shopping center called “Emporium Melbourne,” and are angling for Apple to be the anchor tenant. See the artist’s impression above.

Apple already has four stores in Australia, most notably the huge landmark store on Sydney’s George Street, which drew a huge crowd when it opened last year.

The Save Lonsdale House campaign say there’s no reason the building should be demolished, except to make more room for delivery trucks. In the past Apple has been sensitive to historic buildings. The Apple Store in New York’s Soho district, for example, is housed in a historic post office.

Last month, Jobs reached a deal to save his historic Jackling House mansion in Woodside California, which he’d been trying to demolish for years. Jobs will pay $600K to angel investor Gordon Smythe to have the mansion dismantled and moved.

More on the Lonsdale House controversy in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Via 9to5Mac.

UPDATE: Rogers denies there’s an 8GB iPhone 3GS. It’s a formatting error, a spokesman told Gizmodo and Electronista. “There is no 8GB 3G s iPhone,” the spokesman emailed. “There is a formatting error on our website. It is being corrected asap.” Too bad. There was the Boy Genius memo though, which hasn’t yet been strenuously denied by Rogers.

The existence of an 8GB model of Apple’s hot iPhone 3GS looks more likely if you take a gander at this webpage from Rogers Wireless of Canada.

There it is in full public view in a comparison chart — the iPhone 3GS is available in 32GB, 16GB and — now — 8GB.

The lower-capacity 3GS was rumored last week when photos of a Rogers’ internal memo were published by Boy Genius Report. The memo said the company would sell through all of its older iPhone 3G stock before offering the new 8GB 3GS.

Whether the new phone will be offered outside Canada isn’t clear, but seems likely. It’s also likely to be lower-priced, perhaps replacing the current 8GB iPhone 3G, which is sold by AT&T for $99 with a contract.

Entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, the dog loving, Tesla driving, indefatigable self-promoter, is forsaking Apple products in his fury at some of the company’s recent actions, like banning the Google Voice app — The Case Against Apple-in Five Parts.

While he has a couple of points, he’s wrong about the rest. In fact, the things that Calacanis rags on are the things that make Apple and the iPhone great, and he’s misguided not to embrace them. Here’s why:

New rumors this weekend suggest that Blu-Ray may finally be coming to the Mac. But while Blu-Ray is high on many people’s wish list, the rumors just don’t make sense.

Citing a “pretty reliable source,” Boy Genius Report says Blu-Ray is coming to iTunes 9, maybe as soon as September. The rumor jibes with a particularly vague story on AppleInsider suggesting that new iMacs will get new features (yeah, it’s almost sounds like self-parody), possibly Blu-Ray.

But although Blu-Ray format is gaining popularity, it’s unlikely to come to the Mac, ever. Here’s why:

Displaying an impressive level of tech savvy, Ice-T took a claw hammer to an old PowerBook he’s getting rid of.

In this 4-minute video, you can watch Ice-T smash his old PowerBook to bits. At first, it seems the former rapper is getting revenge on a glitchy machine.

“This Mac gave me a lot of hell,” he says. “It’s kinda like payback.”

But as the video goes on, it’s clear Ice-T is trying to remove and destroy the hard drive, which he’s afraid might fall into the wrong hands.

“I’m gonna get this hard drive out of here, make sure none of my secrets are in here, if somebody should find this computer,” he says.

In the comments, Ice-T takes a lot of flak for destroying the machine (and a bunch of racist garbage). The geniuses on YouTube rip him for not taking the machine to an eWaste facility and releasing toxins into the environment.

While the toxins criticism might be on target, Ice-T was right to destroy the hard drive first. Data is incredibly easy to pull off old hard drives, whether the drive has been erased or not, even in multiple passes. There are plenty of cases of identity theft from old machines. And just weeks ago, journalism students were able to buy a drive full of government secrets from a dump in Ghana.

As the actor knows, the one sure-fire way to destroy all data on a hard drive is to destroy the hard drive. “There’s probably a better way to do it, but i just said, ‘fuck it,'” the Law & Order actor says.

In fact, if recycling an old laptop, it’s a good idea to drill several holes into the case and right through the hard drive before taking it to an eWaste facility (Only if the drive can’t be easily removed obviously, which is the case with many older PowerBooks and iBooks).

Pay no attention to the glitches and errors! We’re moving to a new host.

I’m in New York with my family on a work vacation (I work, they vacation), and  have just spent a miserable week sweating in my skivvies in a hot, humid Harlem apartment trying to move this site to a new host.

You may have suffered from a few database errors this week and last. It was so bad on Thursday, a couple of readers on Twitter suspected we were under DDoS attack, like Twitter itself that day. We weren’t, but we were being hit by spam bots — and still are. There was a big spike in spam traffic last week and a huge one this week. See the chart below.

Whether the spam is causing the database errors or not, I don’t know. I suspect it’s a combination of the spam, the growing traffic and the crumminess of the current host. As we’ve grown, we’ve attracted hack attacks that infected the site with spam and Windows viruses. The support has been hopeless, which is what you get with the cheapest hosting plan on the planet. It’s time to move up to a bigger, better host.

We’re moving to Laughing Squid of San Francisco. It’s a local, independently owned firm, run with quiet competence by the redoubtable Scott Beale (Here’s Scott’s great Laughing Squad blog). Laughing Squid is home to a lot of companies and people I like and admire. It’s plugged into the tech and arts community, and renowned for its support and reliability.

I did most of  the moving work myself, so fully expect it to melt down. In fact, I’ll flip out if it works. If you’re reading this, it must have worked. So fingers crossed, and please let us know if you spot anything that needs fixing. Thanks for your patience.

— Leander.

Apple’s upcoming iTablet will be a hit and run the iPhone operating system, according to new report out of Wall Street.

Analysts at Piper Jaffray say the upcoming iTablet will be released in 2010, will cost about $600, and will shift about 2 million units in its first year.

“Last week we spoke with an Asian component supplier that has received orders from Apple for a touch-screen device to be fulfilled by late CY09,” the report says. “This data point underscores our thesis that a tablet will likely launch in early CY10.”

The tablet will also run the iPhone/iPod Touch OS — not OS X, the report predicts. CoM believes the tablet will run OS X, which will be the “killer app” that cements the tablet’s success. Apple appears to be prepping Snow Leopard, the next version of OS X, for touchscreen devices.

“Apple could choose to simply run the current App Store apps on the larger device, with enough usable space for multiple apps to run (multi-tasking),” says the investment firm.

The report continues: “Key apps, like Safari and Mail, could be made larger to make use of the larger screen resolution, making Apple’s tablet appealing for more extended use, and the company could continue to leverage its primary asset in mobile computing, the App Store, in this scenario. We believe this is the most likely scenario given the success of the multi-touch platform and the App Store ecosystem, which could be accelerated with a tablet device.”

The analysis says Apple will reap extra revenue from the tablet that hasn’t been included in most forecast models.

“While at first glance this may appear to address a niche market, we believe the addressable market is larger than that of the Apple TV, of which Apple sold about 1.2m in its first year,” the report says.

Via AppleInsider.

An iPod Touch plus a mobile WiFi router is better and cheaper than an iPhone, says Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrell.

Sorrell just got the MiFi — a mobile, battery-powered WiFi hotspot that can share a high-speed cell connection with several devices via WiFi. It’s sold in the U.S. by Verizon for $100. (Requires a two-year contract and a monthly plan costing $40 or $60 — 250MB or 5GB of data, respectively.)

The MiFi is fast and reliable, he says, and can be used with an iPod Touch to make Skype calls and play music streaming from Spotify’s fantastic music library.

“The real point is that if you have a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot in your pocket, it is going to be cheaper than an iPhone contract pretty much anywhere, and can not only enable your iPod Touch to have an always on connection, but let you make Skype calls and stream music without having to worry about the usual iPhone size limits, as you’re on Wi-Fi. You can also share the connection with five machines in total, including a netbook, for true on the go video calls and (gasp) Spotify.”

Setup was a little tricky and he’s not been using the setup long, but Sorrel thinks the combo could be all he needs. He’ll be testing his new setup in coming weeks and promises to report back.