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Although you can’t read a Mac publication or talk about Apple without stumbling over lengthy coverage of the iPad, for developers wanting a sneak peak before April 3, the story is much different. Much. In a 10-page document, Apple binds developers to the strictest rules of secrecy outside the CIA.

In a requirement harkening back to World War II, Apple insists developers quarantine the iPad in a room with blacked-out windows, presumably to prevent the tablet device being ogled by telephoto lenses, according to BusinessWeek. If that’s not enough, the iPad “must remain tethered to a fixed object,” according to the report which cites four people familiar with the secrecy rules. Finally, because Apple is a trusting lot, developers seeking to use a pre-release iPad must send Cupertino photographic proof that all steps have been met.

A terse entry from the sometimes reliable Digitimes might spell bad news for MacBook owners waiting for an imminent hardware refresh: Intel is having a hard time meeting demand for their latest Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, the most likely CPU candidates for the next iteration of Cupertino’s laptop line.

It all comes down to Acer. Apparently, the Windows laptop maker was so optimistic about consumer demand for Intel’s latest processors that they made an abnormally large order, slurping up practically every batch spit out of the assembly line. This has caused Intel to prioritize delivery of the remaining chips to major clients.

The question is: is Apple still considered a major client for Intel? Intel and Apple simply aren’t as close as they were two years ago, mostly due to Apple’s GPU partnership with NVIDIA: now, with Apple getting into chip development of its own, Intel may well see the writing on the wall… Apple’s an up-and-coming competitor.

Thanks to some great hardware design and some daringly surreptitious pricing agreements between Apple and the biggest publishers out there, Amazon’s Kindle e-reader has been feeling the pinch from the still unreleased iPad for the last few months, and it’s only going to get worse from here.

Still, the Kindle has at least one advantage the iPad doesn’t (yet): cross-platform libraries. Until (or even if) Amazon can put together a next-gen Kindle device that out-iPads the iPad, it behooves them to get their Kindle e-reading application on as many devices as possible as a stop-gap measure.

No surprise, then, that after a delay of several months, Amazon has finally brought the Kindle application to OS X. Unfortunately, it has all of the hallmarks of a panicked beta release (which is probably what it is) including some very sloppy and un-Mac-like interface design, the bizarre omission of a search function and some very swampy text rendering.

In other words, download at the peril of your sense of clean OS X aestheticism and functional application design. Unless you don’t plan on picking up an iPad, or have a large existing library of Kindle e-books, there’s little reason to give this a go.

Despite last-minute hang-ups on getting content onto the iPad, Apple has sold “hundreds of thousands” of the tablet devices since the Cupertino, Calif. company began taking pre-orders a week ago. The report seems to mirror a Venezualan blogger and analyst who predicted Thursday Apple will reach the 200,000 mark sometime today.

Apple could sell more iPads than it did iPhones during the same first three months, “people familiar with the matter” told the Wall Street Journal. Blogger Daniel Tello has said Apple could reach the 200,000 mark for online pre-orders of the iPad by mid-Friday. Tello, also known as Deagol, bases his estimates on order numbers buyers submitted since Apple unleashed pre-orders March 12. An equal amount of in-person pickups at Apple retail locations are also expected, according to Fortune.

A couple of weeks ago I canceled my MobileMe account. Why? Because it didn’t do the one thing I wanted it to do: share my calendar with my wife so we could coordinate our busy lives. That’s all.

I love MobileMe’s email, calendar, contact syncing (especially on the iPhone) and even iDisk. I gave Apple a year to improve it, but nothing happpened, so I switched.

Here’s how to recreate all of MobileMe’s features for FREE (except one) and how I use it to sync my iMac, MacBook and two iPhones.

You may have beat the crowd to pre-order an iPad, but when you pick it up April 3, Apple still doesn’t know content will be available for it.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Apple is “scrambling” to firm up content deals just weeks before the device ships.

All of the usual unnamed insiders say that Apple has had a hard time lining up TV programs, digital newspapers and other content before the launch as media titans weigh the advantages of jumping on the iPad bandwagon against the potential threat to current revenue streams.

Talks are still on, according to these Cupertino deep throats, to secure discounted TV shows.  iPad users would get $0.99 downloads instead of the $1.99 and $2.99 they pay now at the iTunes store. Deals with newspapers, magazines and book publishers have all been put on the back burner for now.

If the numbers insiders cited in the story are correct — hundreds of thousands of iPads have been pre-ordered and Apple could sell more iPads in the first three months than iPhones in the first trimester after debut– the content owners could soon be the ones scrambling.

What, if any, content do you consider essential for the iPad?

Via WSJ

From the wonderful city of Manchester – birthplace of The Smiths and The Fall, unfairly mocked as Rain Capital of England – comes something wonderful and simple for your iPhone: the MoviePeg.

If ever you needed a sign that Apple was a different kind of technology company, this is it.

What other computer manufacturer would remove its top-selling, hype-inducing, industry-altering new product from the prime spot on its website home page, and replace it with an obituary to an investor?

This is one of those “Here’s to the crazy ones” moments, a corporate action that is uniquely personal. This is one of those times when the vast corporate entity that is Apple speaks with a very human, very uncorporate tone.

Jerome York was a huge figure in the auto and technology business sectors. Apple’s tribute to him is a reflection of just how important a role he played in the company’s early history.

Apple may sell 400,000 iPads during the first week of accepting pre-orders for the tablet device, according to two reports Thursday. Apple may sell 200,000 iPads online by mid-Friday for delivery and an equal number destined for pick-up at Apple retail locations. The Cupertino, Calif. company said it will begin shipping iPads April 3.

Apple has just updated their ITunes Connect app submission service to allow developers to schedule pricing changes as well as set specific launch dates for their apps, according to an Twitter by user amcdev.

The latter’s a big change: up until now, companies have had no say as to when their apps will go live. Even high profile app releases are promoted with vague release dates which can ultimately prove to be so much wishful thinking. The feature additions to iTunes Connect should give both developers and customers a like some much wanted scheduling dependability when it comes to the release new titles.

As for the ability to schedule sales? Expect a lot more 24 hour sales on the App Store, especially over the next few weeks as developers test the functionality out.

If you need a screen protector for your iPhone, prepare to go to Best Buy to pick one up: Apple will no longer be selling screen protectors — including protective cases and screen films — in either its online store or retail outlets starting in May

Apple has devs to the grindstone for a new social networking app called iGroups.

Patently Apple reports that docs out today from the US Patent Office describe a new service that would work on your iPhone and probably MobileMe, too.

Let’s say you’re attending SXSW: iGroups would keep you in touch with your co-workers and friends by allowing you to share your location plus info and comment on events as they happen, greatly facilitating which parties or events are worth attending or already over.

To accomplish this, iGroups reportedly employs a sophisticated cryptographic key generation system to ensure security and privacy.

The patent also states that if one of group devices lacks true positioning technology, Apple’s MobileMe service would provide “virtual GPS” capability to that user so they can still know the whereabouts of other group members.

Would you welcome a geo-location social networking app from Apple, or prefer to stick to Gowalla or Foursquare?

Or do you plan to shun the “Where’s Waldo?” world altogether?

Via Patently Apple, The Next Web

If Palm has problems now, wait until this summer, one analyst predicts. Not only will Apple likely have introduced a new iPhone, but there is BlackBerry-maker RIM, as well as the growing strength of Android-powered handsets.

UBS analyst Maynard Um predicts Apple will unveil a new iPhone in June. Although Palm has a deal to promote its Pri, Pixi and Plus through AT&T, Um believes Palm will be down to a one-carrier strategy as AT&T focuses its marketing muscle on promoting the new Apple handset. Indeed, we saw the first signs of that pulling away when the Dallas-based carrier announced it would delay launching the Palm Pre and Pixi from April to June or July. In another sign the upcoming iPhone may be drawing AT&T’s eye off Palm’s new handset’s, the carrier will “sharply reduce its marketing budget” for the handsets’ launch, according to Cannacord Adams analyst Peter Misek earlier this week.

In addition, amid talk Palm might be better to sell itself to Apple or Google, Um told investors Palm must “drive greater scale” (analyst-speak for sell more handsets) at a time when AT&T is focused on the iPhone into August and Verizon is busy with its Android-based offerings.

Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum said Palm could license its webOS to other manufacturers, rather than hawk its own line of handsets. A BNET writer tweaked that suggestion, promoting Palm as the perfect take-over prospect in the increasingly competitive battle between Apple and Google.

[via Electronista]

Publishers are balking at a new requirement by Amazon for three-year contracts aimed at thwarting the current rush toward Apple’s rival iBookstore and iPad.

Apple has said it will permit publishers to charge between $13 to $15 for best-selling titles, a premium over Amazon, which keeps titles for its Kindle e-reader at a flat $9.99. A number of larger publishers have sided with Apple’s so-called “Agency” pricing model, concerned the Amazon flat-pricing will undervalue printed books in the eyes of consumers.

Next week sees the opening of the CanSecWest digital security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

It’s also going to be host to the annual Pwn2Own contest, where a variety of computers are offered up as prizes to the first individual who can crack their way into them.

This is the fourth year of Pwn2Own and the total prize money has ballooned to US$100,000. Nice work if you can get it.

This year the browser targets are: Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7, Mozilla Firefox 3 on Windows 7, Google Chrome 4 on Windows 7, and Apple Safari 4 on MacOS X Snow Leopard.

There’s also a separate part of the contest aimed at mobile devices, which this year will be: an Apple iPhone 3GS, a RIM Blackberry Bold 9700, a Nokia device running Symbian S60 (probably the E62), and a Motorola phone running Android (probably a Droid).

There are some interesting omissions from the target list this year: no Ubuntu desktops? No Opera Mobile?

In 2009, the a MacBook Air was the first device to be won. Wonder how Snow Leopard will fare this year?

Fake Steve creator Dan Lyons just signed a deal to bring Steve Jobs to another small screen near you.

The half-hour series called “iCon” is billed by the presser as “a savage satire centering on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed.”

Making sure the barbs prick will be the job of Larry Charles, director of “Borat” and  “Religulous.” The single-camera show to be aired on cable channel Epix may borrow something in style from his work as writer and producer of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Charles said, “We are attempting to do nothing less than a modern ‘Citizen Kane.’ A scabrous satire of Silicon Valley and its most famous citizen.”

No word yet on air dates or iTunes availablilty.

Will you tune in or not?

Via Alltop, NYT

Ken from Cooks’ Den has whipped up this snazzy iPad Thai dish in honor of the holy tablet’s launch. Who’s hungry?

Cooks’ Den via BoingBoing

Palm seems in dire straights. Cannaccord Adams has cut its estimates following word AT&T may delay launch of the Palm Pre and Pixi from April to June or July. Now other analysts are suggesting Palm’s 400 handset patents could spark a bidding war between Apple and Google.

Cannacord analyst Peter Misek said Tuesday he’d “recently learned” AT&T would delay launching the two Palm handsets due to what he said was a “long list of technical issues” with the smartphones. Additionally, the carrier plans to “sharply reduce its marketing budget for the launch.” Along with weak sales, technical issues have started impacting Palm’s relationship with carriers, Misek said.

Apple has redesigned its iWork.com Website for the iPad and iPhone, allowing documents to be viewed on touchscreen devices. The company also unveiled new ways to share documents, allowing documents to become public.

The updated interface now allows documents to be scrolled using a finger, an action that has become common for iPhone users and upcoming users of Apple’s iPad tablet device. In a statement, the Cupertino, Calif. based company said the “new interface and improved scrolling help you find your shared documents faster.”

Londoners stuck in the tube now have a handy iPhone app to request ticket refunds.
Tube Refund, which costs $0.99, zaps off the request for riders whose journey is delayed over 15 minutes.

Depending on where you go and what time of day, a one-way tube ticket can cost from £1.80 to £4.00 ($2.75 – $6 circa) and a weekly pass £44 ($67) so the app could quickly pay for itself.

This is a great idea — though according to the London Underground rules, refunds only apply for delays “within our control” that last over 15 minutes.

Given that it’s the oldest underground railway in the world, it’s hard to know how much time riders spend in darkened tunnels is due to reasons beyond control of transport authorities.

Via London Evening Standard, thanks hackneye.

The global PC market can thank Apple’s iMac for being the main reason desktop computer sales have pulled out of a two-year nosedive, an analyst said Wednesday. The popular Apple all-in-one computer accounted for 25 percent of all desktop growth in 2010.

Although notebooks and netbooks account for more than 90 percent of global PC growth, desktops now appear “like they’ve stopped eroding and can resume at least some low single-digit recovery after two years of decline, driven by emerging markets, corporate workhorse use and power gamers,” Caris & Company analyst Robert Cihra writes.

At least two media sites are following Apple’s no-Flash policy when it comes to the iPad. The Wall Street Journal and National Public Radio have produced versions of their Web sites with front pages that do not require Adobe’s Flash, reports say. However, possibly more interesting is how publishers view the iPad experience differently than the iPhone. The iPad, it seems, has jumped that evolutionary hurdle from strictly a computing device to more akin TV.

Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s head of digital operations, told MediaMemo‘s Peter Kafka iPhone apps are a ‘very intentional experience’ where people actively search for information. That possibly is why pages on the NPR Web site deeper than the front page are customized for the iPhone.

Robert Gary Jones was enjoying a jog along on the beach with his iPod when a single-engine plane making an emergency landing hit him from behind, killing him instantly.

The 38-year-old father of two was on a business trip in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina when a Lancair IV-P aircraft lost its propeller and was “basically gliding” Monday evening before hitting Jones, coroner Ed Allen told AP.

“There’s no noise,” said aviation expert Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general for the National Transportation Safety Board. “So the jogger, with his ear buds in, and the plane without an engine, you’re basically a stealth aircraft. Who would expect to look up?”

Pilot Edward I. Smith and his passenger walked away from the crash landing near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa.

According to the Lancair web site, the airplane model that killed Jones is a four-seater that can reach speeds of up to 345 mph and is sold in kit that can “be easily built in one’s home shop,” with a final price tag estimated at $320,000 – $470,000.

Jones’ death is uncommon, but not unheard of: last year a Philadelphia jogger using an iPod died when a tree fell on her.

Hard to say whether volume control might have saved him, but it’s worth thinking about.

Via AP

So another MacHeist has been and gone, and no doubt a lot of Cult readers jumped in to get their bundle of apps for a bargain price.

But not everyone thinks it’s necessarily such a good idea.

Knox Bronson got in touch to tell us about a little video he’d made.

It’s called Pixels at an Exhibition, and it documents the creative efforts of people who took part in the iPhone photography exhibition at the Giorgi Gallery in Berkeley, California, in December last year.