Cult of Mac

The original iPod, just a decade old today, was little more than a hard disk with earbuds. But this humble little gadget launched five revolutions that made consumer electronics what it is today.

In fact, everything Apple is today sprang from the iPod seed. From Apple’s revenues to design influence to the fundamental business and distribution models that glue the industry together, the iPod started it all.

So put in those white earbuds and click “play.” Because if you love consumer electronics, you’re about to hear how the iPod started it all.

A recent report details an interesting tale of woe for preorder iPhone 4S customers. These customers decided that the right thing to do would be to preorder their iPhone 4S for home or office delivery. After all that sure beats waiting in line for hours on launch day right?

Unfortunately for some customers that isn’t true since they are going to have to wait weeks to get their preordered iPhone 4S while Apple Stores or other brick-and-mortar stores either had or continue to have stacks of them.

The biggest problem – they can’t even cancel their pre-orders and buy one from a local store.

The days of the stand-alone music player may be over, but the iPod’s role as the preeminent fitness gadget could keep the product relevant for the next decade to come.

William Joye, who originally reported the problem about iOS 5 updates bricking first generation iPads, has reported back that the prescribed fix using Redsn0w fixed the problem with his iPad.

Here are the steps he used to bring his first generation iPad back to life.

iPod 10th Anniversary: To celebrate the iPod’s 10th anniversary on Sunday October 23, we’re running several special features this weekend. We’ll have an illustrated cultural history, appreciations and op eds. Check back for more.

Fire, the wheel, and the iPod. In the history of invention, gadgets don’t come more iconic than Apple’s digital music player.

The iPod is to the 21st century what the big band was to the ’20s, the radio to the ’40s, or the jukebox to the ’50s – the signature technology that defines the musical culture of the era. And what a marvelous technology the iPod is. Inside Apple’s little white box is magic, pure magic, in the guise of music.

The first review of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs is in, and it’s a good one.

Writing in the New York Times, critic Janet Maslin says the 630-page tome is “clear, elegant and concise.”

Review by Kelly Keltner

Let me begin this review by saying, while I’ve found some love for certain models, I don’t really care for most canalphones: They’re uncomfortable, and while I love the idea of plugging a foreign object into my ear and having that object deliver magical sounds just like an owl delivers a Howler, I usually wind up being disappointed with either the sound or the fit. So, with that in mind, it was time to try the Etymotic mc3 ($100).

This set, with a three-button remote on the cable and four sets of super-sealing, deep-seating eartips (two flanged, two foam), was now tasked with being tested by me. May the Force, that I’ll probably have to use to shove them into my ears, be with them.

Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor invoked Apple co-founder Steve Jobs as an example of fairness that the U.S. should emulate in the heated ongoing debate about income equality.

Not all of us on the Cult of Mac staff walk around with an Apple logo shaved into the back of our head. Actually, none of us do because we value our furs too much. However, there are a few hardcore Apple fans out there that represent the cult with pride. Example #1: As pictured above, this fan had not one, but two iconic Apple images shaved into his hair to commemorate Steve – the famous portrait, as well as the silhouette of Steve’s face inside the Apple logo.

Gene Munster must be having an orgasm right now: in an interview for his upcoming bio with Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs said he had finally ‘cracked’ the ‘integrated’ TV problem.

Don’t read too much into this, though. Jobs may not be talking about the iTV, and just the plain AppleTV.

You don’t need a crystal ball to tell you that the iPad 3 is almost definitely coming in March of next year, twelve months after the iPad 2 debuted. What changes will we see with the third generation of Apple’s tablet? Expectations for the iPad 3 include a Retina Display, a slimmer form factor, Siri support, Apple’s next-gen A6 SoC and even the possibility of LTE 4G.

We won’t know for months whether those expectations are accurate, but thanks to a Japanese rumor site, we do have a lead one one change to the iPad 3: it will have a smaller, redesigned dock connector that will require an adapter to work existing Apple Dock Connector products, according to Macotakara. Argh. Not again.

Steve Jobs once famously said that people don’t read anymore, but he did, and amongst the revelations of Walter Isaacson’s upcoming biography of Apple’s co-founder are his favorite books and bands.

You probably won’t be surprised by the bands — hey, Steve loved the Beatles, go figure! — but would you ever have guessed that his favorite books include both Moby Dick *and* Mucusless Diet Healing Systems?

If you’re a Mac Pro customer, you’ve been waiting a hella long time for an update at this point. The last revision to the Mac Pro line, after all, came out in July 2010, which in computer upgrade terms may as well be part of the Metazoic era.

So an update’s right around the corner, right? Don’t hold your breath. It’s looking extremely unlikely that the new Mac Pros will come out before early 2012 at the very earliest.

Imagine someone wanting to work for Apple, but saying “they’d have to pay me $1 million a week.” Sounds absurd, right? But T-Mobile is taking a similar tack in its attempt to sell iPhones. The carrier insists the tech giant support a little-known 4G spectrum, AWS.

Another surprising revelation from Walter Isaacson’s upcoming bio of Steve Jobs has leaked out: in the 1980s, Steve Jobs unknowingly met his biological father on multiple occasions.

With every new release, there’s always someone claiming to have filmed the first feature length movie or captured the first professional photo shoot on their new iPhone, and the iPhone 4S is no exception. Here’s the so-called first music video filmed on the iPhone 4S’s incredible new camera.

Cult of Mac reader, William Joye, brought an interesting problem  to our attention. According to William there is “an issue concerning upgrading first generation iPad 3G to iOS 5. A number of owners, including myself, now have disabled iPads after attempting to upgrade to iOS 5.”

This is the first we’ve heard about this problem and by far the worst after iOS 5 was released last week. Sadly, it seems that Apple isn’t showing a lot of concern about the problem and may not be helping users resolve the problem.

Want another example of how Apple’s masterful use of design fuels sales? Like the empty iPod that just screams out for you to buy music, the empty shelves of recently-unveiled iOS 5 Newstand begs to be filled with magazine and newspaper subscriptions.

Its first generation Kindle Fire hasn’t even launched hit store shelves yet, but already Amazon has the Foxconn factory in China knocking up its successor, the Kindle Fire 2, with plans to ship the device during the first half of 2012.

We’re all looking forward to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, which will be released on Monday, October 24. But if you’ve been keeping an eye on the news over the past couple days, you’d have already seen some interesting stories from the book.

One of those details Steve’s initial opinion on third-party apps for the iPhone. In the beginning, Steve was opposed to third-party apps, and wanted developers to create web apps that could be used through the device’s mobile Safari web browser. According to Apple board member, Art Levinson, “Jobs at first quashed the discussion” of allowing apps on the company’s debut smartphone.

Questions asking whether Tim Cook could mimic the late CEO Steve Jobs was exactly what the Apple co-founder wanted to avoid, former vice President Al Gore now says. Gore, an Apple board member, said Jobs urged executives: “Don’t ask what Steve would have done.” Instead, the iconic Apple leader said: “Follow your own voice,” Gore recalls.

A Chinese plant temporarily closed because of noxious odors wafting into nearby communities is spending millions to reopen. The Catcher Technology site, which produces 60 percent of unibody cases for Apple’s top-selling MacBook and iMac, hopes to reopen by November.

It’s been a heck of a year for first ever tweeting… especially on Apple devices. In July, President Obama sent his first tweet from a MacBook Pro, and in June, the Pope got in on the action by pushing the “Send tweet” button on his trusty iPad.

Now it’s the First Lady’s turn to get in on the Tweeting action.

How well are U.S. carriers selling the iPhone? Verizon Wireless, the second domestic carrier to get the Apple handset, announced it sold 2 million of the smartphones during the third quarter. The company did not reveal how many of the latest iPhone 4S units it sold, however.

Apple has today opened up iPhone 4S pre-orders through its online store for an additional 22 countries, where the Cupertino company will launch the device a week today, on Friday, October 28.