Japanese designer Jun Takahashi’s all white collection for Undercover in Paris this week included a coat with a clear plastic iPhone ready pocket. In a nod to animé, Takahashi designed the clothes for an “alien race called the Graces,” according to a sign at the entrance.
Cool idea, too bad it is one of the more awkward offerings in an otherwise stunning collection. Next time make it iPhone friendly and gorgeous, kay?
Via Fashion Spot
Apple Inc. announced Wednesday it will release its fiscal fourth quarter report Oct. 21, possibly ending speculation how the economic downturn hurt the Cupertino, Calif. company.
Earlier this week, Apple shares dived 18 percent following downgrades by several investment houses, including Morgan Stanley. The stock recovered a day later after Goldman Sachs and Citi retained “Buy” ratings for Apple, suggesting investors went overboard in their reactions.
Analysts said Apple likely did not repeat its third-quarter figures which saw a record $7.46 billion profit, outpacing Wall Street expectations. More than 11 million iPods and 717,000 iPhones were sold during the period.
Apple has decided to drop the iPhone dev NDA for released software.
It said that “the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success”. That’s putting it mildly.
Unreleased software – or even unreleased features inside released software – is still covered by it, however.
This means the lives of software developers (and quite a few book publishers) will now be a lot easier.
That sound you can hear is iPhone devs everywhere breathing a sigh of relief.
Net Applications added another metric to the increasing evidence that Apple is closing the gap with Windows – this time online.
Macs online grew by more than 5 percent to 8.28 percent in September, compared to August, a survey of operating systems used to connect to Web sites found.
Windows, although comprising more than 90 percent of online connections, actually fell by 0.47 percent to 90.23 percent of online operating systems last month, according to Net Applications.
IPhones leapt from 0.30 in August to 0.32 percent in September, a 6.67 percent jump.
In related news, an iPhone Satisfaction Survey by the Technologizer Web site found 91 percent of participants adore their Apple device with the majority having owned the handset for 2-3 months. E-mail, the Web and SMS topped the list of most-used iPhone applications.
Graph from Technologizer
Royal Hawaiian Apple Store Grand Opening from hawaii on Vimeo.
Here’s nicely edited footage of the opening, just a couple of days ago, of the new Apple Store in the Royal Hawaiian Center in Waikiki.
There’s also some behind-the-scenes preparation shots, of the kind you don’t see very often given how secretive Apple is, showing the build team putting the finishing touches on the store frontage just hours before the opening ceremony itself. Which includes dancing and acoustic guitars.
The Apple blogosphere is rife with renewed chatter sparked by Adobe’s Senior Director of Engineering, Paul Betlem at the recent Flash On The Beach conference in Brighton: “My team is working on Flash on the iPhone, but it’s a closed platform. If Apple says yes, Adobe will have the player available in a very short time.”
So, let’s see, getting Adobe’s closed platform to play on Apple’s closed system, that sounds like a fun game, right? Building a plug-in for a browser that doesn’t support plug-ins, what more productive endeavor could a team desire?
Of course, the Internet itself is riddled with Flash and Apple has positioned the iPhone as the must have mobile device for browsing the Internet, so there is that conflict to resolve somehow, plus, allowing people access to the gazillion online Flash games could hurt game sales in the AppStore, but Apple doesn’t see the AppStore as a significant profit center anyway (coughs), and oh yes, there’s the battery issue to resolve since Flash is such a processor hog.
Of the pieces I’ve read, I think Aviv at MacBlogz gets it mostly right, saying if Flash does come to the iPhone, Safari better get a “Flash-Off” setting.
I kinda like not seeing Flash ads on my iPhone, personally.
The BBC web site ran an interview with Woz yesterday, but to be honest there’s not much in it that the average Cult reader won’t know already.
Some of the better quotes:
“You become what you want to be in life. I wanted to be an engineer. I didn’t want to run a company.”
“Lack of resources forces you to do a lot more original thinking.”
“I wanted to do a great engineering job and every time I designed something great, several times in our life, Steve would come and say: Let’s sell it!”
The only fact in the piece that was new to me was the number of cellphones Woz owns: 10. I’m surprised it’s only 10.
Picture of Woz by Eric Rhoads, used under Creative Commons license.
New from geek jeweler Irina Blok, a superb new take on the digital photo frame. Only 50 of these hand-silk screened frames will be produced, at a price of about 50 bucks each. I predict Irina will have sold the lot before the end of today.
Assuming she does, and you’re too late to get your hands on one, she has plenty of other cool stuff for you to have a look at.
There’s been a lot of hot air posted in recent hours about Apple’s apparent “threat” to pull the plug on the iTunes Music Store if it doesn’t get its way.
This is, to put it politely, nonsense.
Apple would be insane to switch off the Store now. It has invested far too much of its business in products and services that integrate with the Store to just suddenly pull the plug and go home.
The quote that has caused all the fuss is this one, submitted by iTunes vice president Eddy Cue to the Copyright Royalty Board last year:
“If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the … royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss – which is no alternative at all.”
Let’s say that again: submitted by Eddy Cue last year. This is an old comment on an old issue and in no way reflects today’s reality: which is that Apple has invested a fortune in developing a line of products (iPhone, iPod) whose future is inextricably tied up with the Store. Switching it off would be little short of madness.
Of course Apple doesn’t want to run an unprofitable Store, that’s obvious. But what should also be obvious to all is that it isn’t going to suddenly have a tantrum and switch the whole thing off if royalties have to go up. The far more likely consequence is that you and I will have to pay a few pennies more for each song we buy.
Still embarrassed for them, those nice Jonas Brothers sporting purity rings at the VMAs. These Hanson clones seemed determined to make the Aughties not very naughty. At least they have cool gear.
Here Kevin picks up shirts from a dry cleaners, keeping his iPhone 3g in hand. Remember, always true to you darling, in my fashion.
Photo: courtesy Bauer-Griffin
Did investors react too quickly to analyst comments which sent Apple shares tumbling 18 percent Monday? Add Piper Jaffray to the list of analyst firms now calling for calm.
“We recognize investors do not see light at the end of the tunnel as market fears appear to be outweighing fundamental analysis” Piper’s Apple analyst Gene Munster wrote Tuesday.
Those fears – not including the Dow plummeting 777 points – were spurred by a spate of downgrades of Apple stock as analysts said slowing consumer sales could derail the Cupertino, Calif. company.
Photo courtesy wwww.stallman.org
Web-based applications like Google’s Gmail and Apple’s MobileMe will force people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that will cost more and more over time and ultimately put user’s data at risk, according to Richard Stallman, founder of The Free Software Foundation and creator of the open source operating system GNU. He calls cloud computing “worse than stupidity” in an interview with The Guardian. Follow after the jump to learn why cloud computing is not such a good idea and why Apple users should already know this.
Analysts went too far with their fears Apple could be caught in the downward spiral of consumer spending. Tuesday analysts say the 18 percent fear-driven drop in Apple shares may have been ‘overdone.’
Apple shares were up 3 percent to $108 early Tuesday after Monday losing $22.98 and closing at $105.26 on Nasdaq.
Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey said Monday’s pullback “more than captures the concerns over Mac growth in a weakening spending environment.”
Yes, we know the iPhone camera is rubbish compared to most of its cameraphone rivals. But that needn’t stop people being creative with it. People like…
P0psharlow, who has created some stunning panoramic images with an iPhone and some very deft image manipulation:
Adobe appears to be pricing its soon-to-be-released CS4 suite of design tools much higher for users in the UK than for its US customers, according to a report at ITHound. For the extra £1000 the full Creative Suite 4 Master Collection is set to cost Mac users in the UK, a clever designer could fly from London to New York, buy the software in the US, and fly home, while still saving around £400.
Google has released Update Engine, an open source (released under the Apache license) software update framework for Mac OS X.
Of course, there’s already a very successful software update framework known as Sparkle, developed by Andy Matuschak. Judging by this comment in his Twitter stream (“Update Engine looks much better-designed and engineered than Sparkle, though a little clunkier in a few minor ways”), he’s already impressed with what he sees.
In an announcement on the Google Mac Blog, engineer Greg Miller says: “Update Engine can update all the usual suspects, like Cocoa apps, preference panes, and screen savers. But it can also update oddballs like arbitrary files, and even things that require root–like kernel extensions. On top of that, it can update multiple products as easily as it can update one.”
So what’s the difference between this and Sparkle? As I understand things (someone correct me if I’m wrong), Sparkle sits inside each app that uses it, and is used by that app to update itself. Update Engine runs separately and independently, and uses a system of tickets to remember which apps it should monitor and when they should be updated. And, as Miller explains, it can be used to update anything, not just apps but also prefpanes and the like.
What should we expect to hear from Apple Tuesday when it releases its fiscal fourth quarter numbers? Analysts offered Cult of Mac a preview of sorts, providing what they think CEO Steve Jobs will say tomorrow.
The overriding theme will be how Apple confronts the economic downturn which seems to be striking at the heart of the company’s consumer-oriented buyers.
When it rains, it pours. Apple shares took a battering Monday as two more financial analysts downgraded the company amid mounting worries how spending cuts will hurt the Cupertino, Calif. company.
Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Hubert slashed her target price for Apple stock to $115 from $178, sending shares down 14 percent to $110 by noon.
Hubert also downgraded the company to “equal-weight from “overweight.”
Another analyst Monday joined the growing chorus voicing caution about how the economic downturn may finally be catching up with Apple.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Mie Abramsky downgraded Apple shares to “sector perform,” shaken by last week’s numbers indicating consumers were holding off purchasing Mac laptop and desktop computers.
Abramsky also trimmed his target price for Apple shares to $140 from $200 and cut his fourth quarter expectations. The analyst said Monday Apple is likely to report earning $32.8 billion, slightly off of $33 billion previously projected. The RBC analyst also lowered his prediction for 2009 to $40 billion from $42.5 billion once expected.
Nitrozac is an artist and co-founder of GeekCulture, a high-tech humor web site, thriving online community and, according to the artist, purveyor of fine propeller beanies. She says she’s always wanted to take contemporary technology subjects and render them in old style media, and has been offering her acrylic and oil paintings on canvas by auction since December 2007. “I love working with digital images on my Mac, but there is something extremely satisfying about creating with paint and a canvas,” she adds, and describes her paintings as “based on my work at the The Joy of Tech. The subject matter will usually be geeky and techy; the people, places, and things that make up geek culture.”
Her latest work is titled, “The Introduction,” a painting of Steve Jobs unveiling the MacBook Air at Macworld 2008, shown above. Click through in the gallery below to see some of her past work.
Chloe & The iTunes Babysitter from Jason Bedell on Vimeo.
OK, this one might divide the audience somewhat.
Here’s Jason explaining how the iTunes visualizer has saved his day, kept his daughter quiet, and enabled him to do some work. You can hear the relief in his voice as he says: “Steve Jobs, thank you.”
Is this the best concept in babysitting since, um, TV? Or is she a little young for Apple cult indoctrination?
Do share your opinions in the comments.
Disney star Vanessa Hudgens plays peek-a-boo with the paps from behind her iPhone on the streets of Beverly Hills. Not surprisingly, after a few steps Hudgens needed to see where she was going and dropped the stance.
The iPhone, however, continued to protect and serve as she speed dialed her mom (or therapist?) for solace.
Funny, it doesn’t look like she was having a bad skin day, maybe she just wants to get in on the game of match the celeb with the cell phone.
The return of the Lightsaber application to the app store is one to be hailed with much fanfare. Star Wars fans everywhere rejoice, and in the three days that the application has been on iTunes it has received over 1,400 reviews with an average four star rating.
Our night of watching the presidential debates was put on hold to test the rereleased application. Shortly after unsheathing my saber I was viciously attacked by an insidious villain! The ensuing epic battle (I’m on the left) was caught on video by horrified onlookers:
Testing Lightsaber Unleashed from Dean Putney on Vimeo.
Ultimately, we loved the new Lightsaber Unleashed. For those every day around-the-house epic battles, there’s really nothing like a good free Lightsaber application. We loved the built-in theme music, the accelerometer was quite accurate with our strokes, the different colors were great, and it really felt like we were holding lightsabers. Our only critique is that we often met our peril to an accidentally retracted beam (if you tap the screen with your saber drawn, you’re brought back to the menu screen).
If you have an iPod touch or an iPhone, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have this application installed. Let’s have some impromptu lightsaber duels!
Here’s hoping that Apple’s feverishly-anticipated “Brick” project is the world’s first all-screen laptop — like this mockup of the OLPC version 2 by designer Yves Behar.
There’s slim chance, of course, but I for one would love a computing device like this: A hybrid iPhone-meets-Macbook-Air that would put hot netbooks like the EeePC to shame.
Apple’s “Brick” would be a hybrid laptop/tablet/ebook that dispenses with a physical keyboard and trackpad in favor of a virtual, adaptive UI that blends multitouch, gestures and its own orientation to switch between different modes:
Laptop — When the Brick is held horizontally with the two screens at an angle, the bottom screen turns into a virtual keyboard and touchpad. There’s no tactile feedback for touch typists, but never mind, corrective text handily makes up for the myriad errors. The top screen acts like a regular laptop screen, except that it also is touch sensitive, and is responsive to multitouch gestures like double-tap to zoom, pinching and scrolling.
Tablet — When the two halves are opened fully they snap together in the middle to make a tablet with a continuous touch-sensitive screen. This mode is best for surfing the web, browsing and editing photos, and displaying mind-altering music visualizers.
eBook — Like laptop mode but held vertically. Each screen transforms into an electronic page for easy reading. Displays eBooks, eMags or specially laid out websites. Readers navigate by swiping the screen to turn the pages.
Tabletop — Like tablet mode but for two people. When an onscreen button is pushed, the screens are oriented for two users sitting opposite each other. Great for collaborative tasks and especially games.
And why’s it called “Brick”? Because it smashes Windows!
More pictures after the jump.
Sonic Lighter is slightly different to all the other iPhone virtual lighters; it checks in with the GPS and pings a remote server with the device’s location at the moment the app was started.
The result: a Google Map covered with little red flames, every one of them an instance of Sonic Lighter getting all lit up.
And the map has few surprises: big swathes of red flames across North America, Europe and Japan. But hold on, what’s that, up there? In the Arctic Ocean, hundreds of miles north of the Chukchi Sea, itself north of where Alaska and Russia kiss? It’s a single, solitary Sonic Lighter ignition. Maybe it’s a member of Sarah Palin’s crack squad of Russia-monitoring sniffer dogs. Or maybe it was just some guy on a plane. Either way, we salute you, most-northerly Sonic Lighter user. You should get a prize, or something.
(If anyone’s taken their iPhone to the north or south poles, and has some interesting iPhone pics to prove it, please contact the Cult.)