Leander Kahney - page 59

If you’re running Leopard, hit Command + Shift + 4 and then the space bar, and you’ll see an icon of a camera that harks back to Steve Jobs’s days at NeXT.

The decades-old icon is one of the last visible vestiges of NeXTStep, the old operating system that laid the foundation for OS X in the late ’90s.

The camera icon looks dated, but it’s pretty good by today’s standards. Look at some of the Windows icons from the same period.

The NeXTStep camera can be found in the Resources of the Grab tool (in the Utilities folder) and comes in several different versions with eyes, stopwatches and camera flashes.

Other holdovers from NeXT in Leopard include various system sounds, including Basso, Frog, Funk, Ping, Pop, and Tink, as one commenter notes at Robojamie.net, which first pointed out the camera icon.

And as another commenter says, there’s another old icon in: /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/NSMultipleFiles.tiff

It doesn’t seem to be used anywhere though.

Steve Jobs founded NeXT in 1985 after he was booted from Apple. He had the company build advanced workstations, hoping to drive Apple out of business. But its black magnesium NeXT Cubes were too expensive except for select clients in academia and the CIA. NeXT eventualy dropped the hardware to concentrate on the its state-of-the-art software and operating system, which Apple bought in 1996 as the foundation for the Mac OS.

Apple got a lot from NeXT: Jobs came on as an adviser, and eventually took on the CEO role. A lot of Apple’s top executives came from NeXT and so did  lot of its technology. As well as basing OS X on NeXTStep, Apple has built a lot of its online offerings on NeXT’s WebObjects, including its first online store, the iTunes Music Store, its DotMac website and the iPhone App Store.

A ringtone company that professes to hate ringtones has introduced three new sets of  ringers for the iPhone that address cellphone etiquette.

Available now for $10 each, the three new collections from San Francisco-based iRingPro are designed to make your ringing iPhone less shrill, annoying and intrusive.

“We hate ringtones,” said founder Joel Hladecek in a statement. “Which must sound odd coming from a company that makes them. But then I think that’s why iRingPro ringers are more sophisticated – why they sound cooler and seem so much more adult than anything else out there.”

iRingPro’s ringtones come in two versions – long and short. While the short tones have a traditional gap between rings, the long version has a longer period of silence, making it more relaxed and allowing you time to check who’s calling before the next ring.

The ringtones also come in “Meeting Grade” or “Active Grade.” Designed for meetings, the Meeting Grade tones are quieter and softer. When you’re out and about, the Active Grade tones are more vigorous, making them audible from a pocket or handbag, or over traffic noise.

Joining iRingPro’s well-received Zen Collection, the three new collections are:

Tek: A collection of sc-fi tones inspired by the futuristic gadgets of Hollywood. “Everybody looks to see what kind of technology you’re holding,” the company says.

Origin: A collection of “hand-made” sounds that invoke the origins of music. “Each time the phone rings, it sounds slightly different,” iRingPro says.

Zen 2: Designed for meetings or quiet settings. Free to registered owners of the original Zen Collection.

Each collection costs $9.95 and available now in iPhone and MP3 formats. You can preview each collection on iRingPro’s website.

Netflix’s fantastic streaming movie service is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch, according to a report in the trade mag Multichannel News.

Citing “an industry executive familiar with Netflix’s plans,” the trade mag says Netflix’s Watch Instantly service is headed to the iPhone, iPod Touch and the Nintendo Wii. However, because of bandwidth concerns, it will likely be available only over WiFi  and not AT&T’s 3G network, MN says.

Either way, it’s great news.

I’m a subscriber and a big fan of Netflix’s service, which I find to be easier, more convenient and much, much cheaper than Apple’s iTunes. For about $20 a month, we get to stream a wide a wide variety of TV shows and movies from Netflix instead of paying a la carte for rentals or purchases from iTunes.

Indeed, Netflix’s Watch Instantly is the strongest of the online on-demand video services — the gold standard for content on demand.

The selection isn’t comprehensive, but I find it to be pretty good. There’s not the latest releases, but there’s a pretty deep and wide library of great movies, which is more than can be said for iTunes, which I find unbearably popcorn and shallow.

In addition, Netflix movies stream quickly, the quality is great, even on a big 42-inch HDTV, and we’ve never, ever encountered a problem — a rare and astonishing testament to the company’s technology.  (We use the service through a Samsung Blu-Ray player which streams Netflix and Pandora).

The service is already available on a wide range of devices from Windows PCs and Macs, to the Xbox 360, TiVo and several Blu-Ray DVD players with support for streaming downloads.

Via AppleInsider.

Porno director Matt Morningwood, who shot the first adult scene on an iPhone 3GS, made the mistake of shooting in portrait mode, or “tallscreen.”

The vertical video format presented Matt with problems when it came to displaying the video at 16:9, but here’s how he figured out how to use iPhone video with Final Cut Pro.

Fake Steve has a hilarious series of posts about Eric “Squirrel Boy” Schmidt’s resignation from Apple’s board. Much better than the real news and boring analysis. Starts with Squirrel Down! and continues:

“Eric, let me tell you something. After what you pulled here at Apple, no one will ever trust you again. You’re a dead man. Okay? You are the herpes of the tech industry. You lame-ass spy. You backstabbing, flack-fucking thief. You sat in our meetings and learned all of our secrets. You listened to our product development plans. Then you went off and copied our products and now you’re trying to fuck me in the ear with my own ideas.”

Then he goes on to detail the hilarious phone calls Steve has taken from wannabes looking to fill Schmidt’s empty seat, including Woz, Kara Swisher, Jon Shirley, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Scoble and Chris Anderson.

Worth reading in order to appreciate how the joke builds (I made the mistake of reading them backwards). Highlights are the Kawasaki and Anderson posts.

Link.

Apple’s tablet, which may be on sale as soon as November, will be the best computer you ever bought. It will be better even than the beloved iPhone.

It will be an entirely new kind of computer that will usher in a new kind of computing.

It will be a horizontal iMac: a touch-screen computer that you use horizontally, in your lap or lying on the couch.

It will be a complete rethink of the computer for play, not work, and it use the original pointing device — your finger.

It will be really easy to use — a pleasure in fact, because it will be magical.

Apple on Friday afternoon released a firmware patch for the iPhone to fix a dangerous SMS security hole.

The 3.0.1 firmware update is available now through iTunes. The 300MB update is available for the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. It doesn’t appear to contain any other features or bug fixes except for the SMS patch, according to Apple’s security advisory.

As previously reported, noted security experts Charlie Miller and Collin Mulliner revealed a major security exploit in the iPhone’s SMS system on Thursday at the 2009 Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas.

The exploit takes advantage of memory hole in the SMS system, allowing hackers root access to the device. Programs could theoretically be sent to any iPhone, through multiple SMS messages if necessary, and take over all functions, including the camera, phone and microphone. The only indication of the hack would be a SMS message containing a single square character.

Miller and Mulliner reportedly chose to reveal the exploit, which is applicable to all mobile platforms including iPhone OS, Android and Windows Mobile, at Black Hat after Apple had been unresponsive in the wake of their showing it to company officials earlier in July.

Looks like Apple woke up fast. The patch was issued in about 24 hours.

UPDATE: Google also patched its Android system on Friday, and Microsoft says it is investigating, according to BusinessWeek. To be fair, Microsoft was just informed of the vulnerability, while Apple was warned weeks ago, which may explain the speed of its patch.

I just visited Apple’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue for the first time — you know, the subterranean one with the glass cube on top that was co-designed by Steve Jobs.

While the architecture is fabulous, the most notable thing was the huge crowd in there at 6.30 PM in the evening on a weeknight. The stores in San Francisco and Los Angeles are often crowded, but the 5th Ave store was heaving. I don’t mean just crowded; it was literally packed, wall to wall.

There were lines for the Genius Bar (OK, expected); there were lines for the checkouts (also expected); there were lines for the iPhone 3GS (not expected); and there were lines for the new MacBooks (set up at a special stand. Also not expected).

There were lines for all the machines in the store. People were hanging about the tables for a chance to use the demo iMacs, MacBooks and iPhones.

It was hard to look at anything on the shelves without asking someone to get out of the way. It was almost impossible to move down some of the aisles because of the crowds.

It more resembled a hip NYC nightclub than a premium consumer electronics manufacturer in the midst of an economic downturn.

Color me genuinely surprised.

BTW: The Fifth Ave locale is one of the five Apple stores to see before you die.

Chinese regulators have approved a modified iPhone for the giant Chinese market, which uses the speedy GSM/WCDMA chipset but has no WiFi.

Why no WiFi? Hit the jump for an explanation (It’s partly business, partly snooping).

UPDATE: The WSJ has corrected its story to say it is “not clear” Apple will attend CES in 2010. However, we were told in January that Apple will attend. “It’s a done deal,” our source said.

Apple has definitely ditched Macworld in favor of the giant Consumer Electronics Show, the Wall Street Journal reports — confirming news first reported by Cultofmac back in January (and later by Apple Insider).

“Apple plans to attend the show’s 2010 version, marking the first time in memory the Cupertino, Calif., consumer-electronics giant will be there,” said the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

The WSJ says that Steve Jobs has been invited to be a CES keynote speaker but hasn’t returned calls. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Intel CEO Paul Otellini are on tap to deliver the speeches at the show.

Neither Apple nor CES has made any official announcements. Apple last year said it would no longer attend trade shows, saying it could better reach its customers through its retail stores.

CES is held in January in Las Vegas, often conflicting with Macworld. It’s a giant zoo, but nonetheless attracts most of the world’s consumer electronics makers, who show off their wares for the upcoming year.

Apple is now more of a consumer electronics company now than a computer company, making CES a much better fit than MacWorld, the source told CoM back in January.

The celebrity website TMZ has bagged the first photograph of Steve Jobs back at work on Apple’s campus. Appropriately, the picture was taken with an iPhone.

“It’s the first time we’ve seen Jobs back in action since January, when he took a leave of absence for a liver transplant,” says TMZ. “Jobs has reportedly been back at work for about a month.”

The picture was taken at 3PM on Wednesday at Apple’s campus in Cupertino. Jobs looks very thin — but, hey, he’s back at work!

Jobs is crossing the road that loops around the campus — Infinite Loop. He’s walking towards one of the car parks that surround the buildings. The photo was taken from inside a vehicle as Jobs crossed in front of it.

The person walking in front of Jobs is likely a bodyguard, but one that looks remarkably like Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head designer. Jobs is reportedly guarded these days, and is driven around in a big black SUV.

The bodyguard is pretty burly, so he’s not the best person to be photographed with if you’ve lost a lot of weight.

Via 9to5Mac.

Microsoft will open its first two retail stores in ritzy malls in Scottsdale, Arizona, and at The Shops at Mission Viejo, California — two locations where Apple already has stores, CNet reports.

A few days ago, it was revealed that Microsoft is considering many of the same features that make Apple’s stores so successful, including a rival to the Genius Bar called the “Guru Bar.”

One of the key factors in Apple’s success is the location of its stores. Apple chooses upscale malls, or shopping streets in tony neighborhoods, with lots of foot traffic and easy freeway access.

Microsoft has obviously learned the same lesson. Its first two shops will be at the Scottsdale Fashion Square in the heart of Scottsdale, one of the richest satellite towns of Phoenix area. Apple opened an architecturally stunning store at the nearby Scottsdale Quarter mall in June.

Microsoft’s other store will be at The Shops at Mission Viejo, another rich town south of Los Angeles in the heart of Orange County. Apple already has a store in The Shops mall.

“Over a billion people use our products every day yet we don’t always have a way to directly connect with them,” Microsoft spokeswoman Kim Stocks told CNet. “We see the physical stores, as well as a consistent online experience, helping that.”

Like Apple, Microsoft also intends to take its shops global, the company told CNet, though declined to give details.

Microsoft has reportedly hired former Apple real estate chief George Blankenship as a consultant to help securing locations for its stores. The company has confirmed that it hired Wal-Mart veteran David Porter to head up its stores initiative.

The stores will open in the fall, just before Microsoft launches Windows 7 on October 22.

An adult video company has found a way to get porn onto the iPhone despite Apple’s restrictions on XXX apps.

Pink Visual has shot what it claims to be the first porn scene using an iPhone 3GS.

“We figured this was the next logical step in our ongoing fascination with the iPhone,” said Pink Visual spokeswoman Kim Kysar in a statement. “I think it’s safe to say we are the most ‘iPhone-centric’ porn company around.”

Based in the San Fernando Valley (or Porn Valley), the company’s slogan is: “We innovate, you masturbate.”

The new scene features “popular cougars” Lexi LaMour and Diamond Foxxx, Pink Visual said, and is being published as a webisode on MilfSeeker.com (Definitely NSFW).

The scene was shot by director Matt Morningwood, who said it was easy to shoot with the iPhone. The 3GS gave the scene a certain ‘cinema verite’ and was easier to get into tight spots than a big HD camera.

“If anything, it was too easy to shoot with the iPhone,” Morningwood said. “I’m used to HD cameras, boom mics, and all sorts of other peripherals being part of the deal. The only thing that was difficult was holding the phone steady with two knockout blonde cougars getting naked and going at in front of the camera.”

Pink Visual is considering making iPhone footage a regular feature of its productions.

“The nature of the footage definitely augments the immediacy and realness of the scene,” Kysar said. “Shooting content on the iPhone is a viable option, and something special we can add to the mix now and again.”

Link to press release.

Apple will release its fabled touchscreen tablet as early as September, the Taiwanese paper Apple Daily claims. If true, the announcement is likely just weeks away. Apple will have to put the device on store shelves by the fall in time for the crucial holiday shopping season.

In a direct rebuttal of AppleInsider, whose sources say the tablet will be launched early next year, Apple Daily pegs a September release date for the device.

The paper details Apple’s suppliers: Wintek is providing the tablet’s touch-sensitive screen. Dynapack International Technology Corp. is supplying the batteries; and the whole device is being assembled by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (Hon Hai’s Foxconn unit made headlines after a worker allegedly committed suicide after losing an iPhone prototype.)

The Apple Daily report jibes with Monday’s report from the Financial Times that Apple is working on a new, revolutionary kind of “digital album” codenamed “Cocktail” to accompany the tablet, which the FT also says will be launched this fall.

New pictures from a Chinese case manufacturer suggest that the next-gen iPod Touch and iPod Nano will get video recording.

Apple has officially declared the iconic “Luxo lamp” iMac as an “obsolete” computer.

Several models of the iconic machine, which won as many enemies as fans for its unusual lamp-like design, will be declared obsolete on September 15, according to HardMac.com.

The obsolete designation means that Apple service centers will no longer stock parts for the machines –and will no longer repair them — though third-party repair shops likely will.

The Luxo-lamp iMac caused a huge stir when it was introduced in 2002. It made the cover of Time magazine and is now exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan.

The machine was the first iMac to feature a flat-panel display, which floated above its CPU, housed in a white plastic dome. The screen was attached by a double-jointed chrome arm, which realigned the screen with the slightest touch of a fingertip, but then kept it in place — no mean feat of design.

The machine was a bear to design, according to Apple’s head designer, Jonathan Ive. At first Ive tried to glom the guts of the computer onto the back of a flat panel display, but the early prototypes were inelegant. Then, during a walk in Steve Jobs’s back garden, Jobs told Ive that each element had to be “true to itself,” which led the designer to look at sunflowers as inspiration, and seperate the screen from the body.

A few years later, Ive was able to marry the guts to the screen, and newer iMacs are much closer to Ive’s original conception, but the freaky-looking Luxo-lamp iMac remains a firm favorite of many.

The family of the Foxconn employee who reportedly committed suicide over a lost iPhone prototype has been compensated for his death, even though the company suspects him of industrial espionage, the New York Times reports.

The family of Sun Danyong, 25, received 300,000 renminbi, or more than $44,000, and his girlfriend got a new Apple laptop.

However, Foxconn, which makes iPods and iPhones under contract to Apple, says the employee had a history of suspiciously “losing” products, suggesting he might be involved in industrial espionage.

“The case also underscores the challenges that global companies face in trying to safeguard their designs and intellectual property in the hotly contested smartphone market, particularly here in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, an electronics manufacturing center known for piracy and counterfeiting,” the Times says.

Apple is designing an entirely new entertainment experience designed specifically for its upcoming tablet, the Financial Times claims today in an interesting but rather vague story.

Apple’s fabled touchscreen tablet will have a 10-inch screen and will be more like an oversized iPod Touch than a full-fledged tablet computer (a key question is what OS it will run).

Contrary to previous rumors, the tablet hit stores in time for the holidays, the FT says, citing record label sources out of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

To accompany it, Apple is working on a new entertainment package to rival the album experience in days of yore, when the release of a new album was a cultural and social event.

“It’s all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music,” one executive told the FT.

Codenamed “Cocktail,” the entertainment bundle would resemble an “interactive book,” but be more than a bunch of hotlinked PDFs, the FT says.

Apple is reportedly working on Cocktail with the big four record labels, who describe the project as “revolutionary” and are hoping it will offset declining album sales. When consumers buy music online, they biuy low-margin singles, not profitable albums.

Unfortunately the FT doesn’t have many details of this intriguing idea. Reminds me of the hype surrounding “multi-media CDs” in the late ’90s when CDs with music and video were supposed to provide a similar revolution in entertainment and education.  There was talk about amazing immersive encyclopedias, but instead we got unreadable digital books with tiny embedded QuickTime movies.

Its also hard to imagine friends sitting around an Apple tablet reading band biographies while listening to music.

Much easier to imagine a couple of kids on the couch sharing the device to watch episodes of Spongebob.

Indeed, one record exec told the FT: “It’s going to be fabulous for watching movies.”

The FT says Apple is also in talks with book publishers who are “optimistic about their services being offered with the new computer.”

Cordell Ratzlaff is the man who designed OS X’s interface for Steve Jobs.

Back in 1997, just after Jobs had returned to the ailing company, he saw some mockups for a new operating system interface Ratzlaff and his designers had cooked up.

Jobs was so impressed, he said it was the “first sign of double-digit intelligence” he’d seen since returning to Apple – Jobs’s idea of a complement.

At the time, computer interfaces were dark and gloomy. They were boxy, with hard corners, square windows and gloomy, grey colors. Apple was working on the first iMac, the world’s first fruity-colored computer that had a unique teardrop shape and lots of rounded corners.

Taking the iMac as their cue, Ratzlaff and his designers cooked up an interface to complement it. The result was “Aqua,” an interface inspired by water, as its name suggests, which was bright and blue, with plenty of droplets, translucent menus and reflection effects.

“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them,” said Jobs when introducing it at Macworld.

Now Ratzlaff has designed the interface for a new web-based investing tool called Kapitall.

Apple is introducing dozens of arty new desktop backgrounds in Snow Leopard, the new version of OS X due in the fall.

There are 40 new desktops  in the latest test seed delivered to developers this weekend, including reproductions of famous paintings from artists like Edward Hopper, Van Gogh and Monet.

The new desktops include:

* Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Monet’s Lilies, Hopper’s Nighthawks, Degas’ Ballet Dancers on the Stage, and Katsushika Hokusai’s Tsunami.

* Three graffiti desktops that will make your computer look like a New York subway car circa 1978.

* Several high-res shots of snow leopards, including the one above.

The art is classic, but the themes struck me at odds with Apple’s optimistic image: madness, loneliness, alienation and death. I don;t know if I want my files hanging out with Hopper’s lonely souls.

All 40 Snow Leopard desktops after the jump.

Steve Jobs is fond of the saying “good artists copy, great artists steal,” which would put Microsoft in the great artist category.

Apple’s rival is planning to open retail stores this fall that are a direct ripoff of Apple’s super successful shops.

In a presentation leaked to Gizmodo, Microsoft is planning stores that are “light and airy,” divided into solution areas, and feature a “guru bar.” Sound familiar?

• Different areas for Windows Mobile, Windows Media Center, Windows 7, and netbook
• A Guru Bar where customers can get answers from Windows experts
• Regular demos and events
• A special Microsoft shopping bag

But here’s one idea that’s not ripped off from Apple.

The Microsoft Store will host birthday parties!

The iPhone has hit its lowest price ever.

For $50, AT&T is offering a refurbished iPhone 3G 8GB for $49 with free shipping. Comes in any color you want, as long as its black. Depends on activation of new voice and data plans. This is the lowest price ever for a factory-packaged iPhone, according to DealMac.com.

For $100, refurbished 16GB iPhones are available. The deal is exclusive to the AT&T online store while supplies last.

Find more deals every day on the CoM Daily Deals page.

Apple is adding moisture sensors to everything, from iPods and iPhones to MacBooks and even its latest keyboards.

But recent reports suggest the sensors may be too sensitive, and may even be triggered by high humidity.

The moisture sensors, or Liquid Submersion Indicators (LSI), are small stickers that change color from white to red if submerged. Apple refuses to honor warranties on products with triggered sensors, assuming they’ve been dropped in a swimming pool or doused with Mountain Dew, no matter what the owner says.

The sensors, which are found in the dock connector ports of iPhones and under the keys of Apple’s latest keyboards, are controversial. There have been complaints that they’re triggered by sweat.

Now, there are reports out of Singapore that high humidity is killing iPhones, but positive LSI indicators are allowing the local carrier to reject warranty claims.

One of the biggest drags of the iPhone – its battery — may one day be supplemented with a wireless charging system that recharges the device in your pocket or bag when you walk in the room.

At the TED Global conference in Oxford on Thursday, Eric Giler, CEO of Witricity, demonstrated an iPhone being recharged wirelessly by his company’s new system.

“You’d never have to worry about plugging these things in again,” he said.

Giler explained the system to the BBC (see the video above). He says the technology could be on the market within 18 months.

Witricity’s wireless charging system is based on the physics of “electromagnetic resonance,” the same principle that makes a wine glass shatter when an opera singer hits the right note.

But instead of sound energy, Witricity’s system transports power over electromagnetic waves. The system has two parts: A transmitter unit, plugged into a wall outlet, which uses a vibrating coil to create a resonant magnetic field. In the target gadget, a matching coil tuned to the same frequency transforms electromagnetic vibrations into juice for the device.

The system works without any physical contact. Other wireless charging systems, like Palm’s Touchstone, require contact between the gadget and the charging base.

The system is claimed to be safe, and will charge gadgets and devices within range, including bigger electronics like flat-screen TVs. Giler demonstrated a TV running on wireless power that is commercially-available.

Giler also showed the system recharging a T-Mobile G1 phone, which had all the components packed inside. The iPhone had to be fitted with a special sled.

“They don’t make it easy at Apple to get inside their phones so we put a little sleeve on the back,” he said.

What’s the worst kept secret in China?

The features and dimensions of Apple’s new iPod Touch and iPod Nano, which are hush-hush here in the U.S. ahead of their expected September unveiling, but are well-known in China.

According to more than a dozen pictures of new cases acquired by CoM, the new iPod Touch and iPod Nano will both get cameras.

The big surprise is that the iPod Touch’s camera is in the center of the device, not offset like the camera in the iPhone.

The Nano’s new camera is placed in the bottom left corner, which becomes top left when the iPod is held horizontally to take a picture, with fingers on each corner.

The outside dimensions remain largely the same as previous models, but the Nano gets a widescreen display, the better to take photos with the camera on the back.

This has all been widely rumored, of course. iLounge detailed the new Nano back in May.

But the dozen pictures of new cases below all but confirm the rumors. Chinese case manufacturers are so certain of the features and dimensions, they are already sending out samples of the cases. They wouldn’t do this unless they were pretty confident.

“My company had got full information and dimension,” wrote a Chinese distributor in an email to a U.S. reseller. “Enclosed some image and instruction for your reference. Most of the sample available now. If you need some sample check quality please freely let me know.”

Hit the jump for dozens of new cases exclusively unearthed by CoM.