News - page 2004

Apple has seeded OS X Lion 10.7.2 Build 11C71 to developers. The update addresses no major issues and instead focuses on some finishing touches for what will most likely be the public launch of OS X 10.7.2 next week.

This beta build of OS X makes a few slight improvements to the Lion Recovery tool and fixes a firmware password issue with Find My Mac. Earlier today, Apple also released iTunes beta 9 for developers currently testing iTunes Match.

The previous beta build of Lion addressed several issues with iCloud, and Apple will push out an official Lion update to customers with iCloud integration when the service is made available to the public after Apple’s next media event.

Oops. It appears that Apple may have let the cat out the bag a little early with an accidental email saying “Welcome to iCloud.” As reported by AppleInsider, Apple has allegedly sent out at least one public invite to iCloud prematurely.

iCloud and iOS 5 will be officially announced to the public this Tuesday, although both products have been in beta since Apple’s WWDC conference this past Summer. These email invites will assumedly be sent out in bulk to Apple customers when iCloud launches.

Steve Jobs is already richer than most of us can ever dream. He’s worth more than 8 billion dollars according to the most recent estimates.

But he could be richer. A lot richer. In fact, a single mistake once cost Steve more than twenty nine billion dollars.

Earlier today, Apple released Beta 9 of iTunes 10.5, and wow: for the first time since they rolled out the beta, iTunes is actually mirroring our songs to the cloud. Previously, it would just hang indefinitely. So if you’ve had problems with iTunes Match before, give it a shot now: it seems to be working fine.

Note, however, that it takes forever. Didn’t Steve Jobs said it would mirror in seconds?

The Griffin MultiDock aims to fix a problem that most of us never have to deal with: charging and syncing 10 iPads at once.

This $700 piece of technology calls itself, “the complex, flexible way to charge and store multiple iPads.” You can daisy chain three of these bad boys together to create a hub that can charge/sync 30 glorious iPads.

MacRumors has helped put together an artist’s rendition of what the next iPhone’s top secret iOS “Assistant” feature will look like. The artist is Jan-Michael Cart, also known as the man behind many of the popular Apple concept videos that have circulated around the internet.

Nuance’s voice technology will power Assistant for iPhone 5/4S users. The feature will reportedly not work on older devices due to the need for Apple’s A5 processor.

Are you running Lion on a MacBook Air that shipped with a Snow Leopard restore drive? Would you like to turn that sexy Apple-emblazoned USB stick into something that will restore your slim laptop to the latest and shiniest version of OS X in a pinch?

Great news: it’s actually possible to rewrite the MacBook Air Software Reinstall USB Drive to restore Lion to your Macs, not Snow Leopard. And while it’s not for the faint-hearted, nor is it for the superhacker.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GDSL-89cEg&feature=player_embedded

NBC’s The Office decided to poke some fun at the tablet craze last night with Dunder Mifflin’s introduction of a new would-be iPad Killer, The Pyramid, so called so you can say to your friends: “I unleashed the power of the Pyramid.” Unlike competing tablets, it computes its storage in the Ls, and without the Memory Booster Pack, barely weighs three pounds.

[via All Things D]

Hey developers! Get downloading! Apple has just released iTunes 10.5 Beta 9, which is needed to use iTunes Match. The download is 103MB, and makes some slight changes to the iTunes Match interface.

With a new version of iTunes out, could a fresh beta of iOS 5 be far behind… maybe even the GM?

Release notes after the jump:

I’ve never found a stylus for the iPad that I’ve really liked. Whether an aluminum tube filled with cheap capacitive foam, or something more beefy like Wacom’s official $35 Stylus, I’ve found that more often than not, iPad stylii are maddeningly unpredictable when it comes to registering the tip of the pen and where a pen stroke actually starts.

That’s why I’m blown away by this demo of the XStylus Touch by Hong Kong inventor Elton Leung. He’s noticed that all styluses have an issue with where the pen stroke starts, and he’s designed an incredible stylus that seems to register on the iPad at the exact pixel when it first comes in contact with the display.

Apple seems focused on marking its mark in Europe recently, what with the launch of its online store in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland; and the introduction of its iTunes movie store to new even more countries EU countries this week. However, its plans across the Atlantic don’t stop there: the company is also launching its Apple TV in another seven countries from Tuesday.

This morning, a report surfaced that the next iPhone would come with 64GB of storage for the first time ever. It’s looking pretty solid.

At the same time, rumors have been bubbling up for the last couple weeks that Apple would soon be discontinuing the venerable iPod Classic… and today’s move to axe the iPod Clickwheel Games section of the iTunes Store certainly seems to confirm as much.

That’s a bummer. Okay, sure, iTunes Match and iCloud take some of the hurt out… but what if you want to carry your whole music collection around with you without having to sign up for a data plan? For customers like that, the death of the only 120+ gigabyte iPod is a bitter pill to swallow.

Don’t worry. A new 128GB iPod touch is almost definitely coming.

Fearing its Galaxy Tab slate will never hit shelves down under, Samsung has reportedly proposed a deal with Apple that would allow the Korean electronics giant to launch its iPad competitor in Australia.

Following AT&T’s announcement back in July that confirmed it would begin throttling heavy data users, the carrier has today begun sending SMS messages to those who are being a little too greedy to warn them that their speeds will be reduced.

We all know that the writing is on the wall for the venerable iPod Classic. It’s a touchscreen world now, unfortunately, and with the global rollout of iCloud and the rise of streaming a la carte services like Spotify and Rdio, there’s just no reason for Apple to sell 160GB iPods anymore.

One casualty of all of this though? The apps. Before Apple rolled out the App Store for iOS, they experimented with software for the iPod, namely through iPod Click Wheel Games. Now Apple has killed off that section from its online store.

Apple’s MobileMe service is currently experiencing issues that have resulted in an outage lasting several hours for 75% of subscribers. The issues mean those affected are unable to access Mail, Me.com web apps, or Find My iPhone.

While recent reports have quashed the possibility of an all-new iPhone 5 — and evidence has suggested an iPhone 4S will be the only device Apple announces on October 4 — iPhone 5 cases delivered to AT&T keep our dreams of all-new iPhone alive.

For the first time ever since its launch, Apple’s next iPhone could be available with up to 64GB of storage — double that currently available from the iPhone 4 — according to a reliable source.

Apple rumors are an interesting breed. No other company garners the same level of speculation and anticipation that Apple receives.

The rumor mill is always churning, especially leading up to a major Apple announcement, and sometimes rumors fly so fast that it can be hard to make sense of it all. In case you were wondering, this clever infographic shows how the typical Apple rumor forms over time.

Apple is working on a new type of drive that combines the best aspects of both traditional platter-based and flash storage. According to a recent patent published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Apple has some innovate ideas up its sleeve for a SSD/HDD combo drive.

Following the news that Disney is introducing a series of iPad games that interact with physical toys, Lego is also introducing its next generation of games with the “Life of George” iPhone app.

The game consists of classic Lego bricks, a free iPhone app, and a mat that basically acts as a green screen. The player tries to create the image shown on the iPhone app in Legos on the mat before time runs out.

Remember Psystar? The small company used to put together computers running OS X to then sell on the cheap. Apple won a permanent injunction against Psystar back in 2009 that prohibited the company from selling any unauthorized computers running OS X.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirms that Psystar did indeed violate Apple’s Mac OS X copyrights, and that the ban on sales will be upheld.

If you’re expecting to see iPads with a “Assembled in Brazil” marker engraved across the aluminum back starting next year, think again. Brazilian officials are now claiming that “crazy demands” by Foxconn could totally nix the $12 billion deal, keeping iPhone and iPad manufacturing firmly rooted in Asia.

Right now, it’s looking unlikely that the next iPhone will be a true new design, a real iPhone 5. Instead, it looks almost certain that Apple will announced the iPhone 4S on Tuesday instead… an upgraded device that looks almost identical to the iPhone 4.

That said, the sheer volume of reports that say that Apple has been working on a thinner, teardrop shaped iPhone with a bigger screen are hard to ignore, and many industry folks’ best guess is that that device will come in 2012. And here’s what it will look like.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB11hiwupKM&feature=player_embedded

This is a total fake, for a number of reasons: the date on the unlock screen isn’t the same as the one on the calendar, and the apps obviously activate themselves before the guy doing the supposed iPhone 4S actually touches them.

Got to say, though, this is still one of the better YouTube fakes we’ve seen, and we’re guessing the boys at ECA Games are responsible, given that their unreleased stunt motorcycle game Rock(s) Rider is prominently featured in the app. Well done, scoundrels!