Cult of Mac

It’s a classic photo op: Apple releases a product and that night we see lines of early bird shoppers forming. The pictures may not be an accurate portrayal of consumer demand, one analyst suggests Tuesday. A combination of wider distribution, the day of the week and pre-orders could mean short lines, but a huge number of buyers.

Indeed, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says Apple has 10 times the number of distribution points, compared to a year ago, when the original iPad went on sale. Little wonder, then, the analyst is predicting iPad 2 sales will hit 1 million units quicker than the first-generation tablet. But never mind the lines.

If only Apple offered their own standalone speakers, we imagine they’d look something like this gorgeous DIY 2.1 speaker set-up, designed specifically to match the aluminum unibody aesthetic of Apple’s 27-inch LED Cinema Display. Finding nothing available commercially, DIY modder Brett turned to a CNC machine to make his own speaker set-up, worthy of the mind of Ive.

Originally, the plan was to integrate a subwoofer into the desk housing the display and speakers itself, complete with box paths and room in the back for a USB hub, a power supply and storage. Unfortunately, that phase of the project has yet to kick-off, and so now these gorgeous and elegant speakers pump out their bass through umbilical to a subwoofer sitting on the floor.

Of course, while undeniably attractive, this 2.1 speaker set-up isn’t really totally loyal to the modern Apple aesthetic. In particular, the gold finish of the speaker phones isn’t exactly the sort of thing Jobs would approve of, and it’s hard to imagine Apple ever releasing a pair of speakers at all… let alone a pair this ginormously room commanding. Still, for audiophiles, these are the iSpeakers of which they’ve always dreamed.

One of the most highly touted features of iOS 4.3 is Personal Hotspot. Although Verizon iPhone owners have had access to the feature since iOS 4.2.6, the latest iOS update will bring Personal Hotspot to AT&T iPhone users as well, allowing up to three other devices to connect to it at once.

Interestingly, BGR is reporting that Apple may have made concessions to the carriers to get this feature out the door: they say that Personal Hotspot can technically support up to five connect devices, but that Apple agreed to give carriers the power to specify the maximum number of simultaneous connections. Boo. Expect this to become just one more bartering chip in AT&T and Verizon’s war to get your business.

In other news, BGR is also reporting that they think iOS 4.3 will be released at 10AM PT this morning. That seems unlikely to us: Apple themselves said it would land on March 11th, and Apple generally doesn’t release a new iOS version before the hardware meant to be debuting it. Still, I guess we’ll all know in just a few hours.

Adobe has finally released a tool allowing developers to convert Flash content to HTML5 format used by Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The pre-release version of the ‘Wallaby’ conversion route may lessen tension between the two companies who last year fought a war of words over Apple’s decision to stop supporting Adobe’s widely-used Internet language.

The software permits developers to drop their Flash designs into an Adobe Air application which converts the original into HTML code that can be edited via Adobe Dreamweaver or a simple text editor. The process will “extend the reach of your content to devices that do not support the Flash runtimes,” Adobe announced. The new tool is best suited for iOS 4.2 and may have trouble converting all aspects of Flash Pro, such as 3D transforms, ActionScript and embedded audio and video, reports say.

Now that Apple has tipped their new, dual-core A5 SoC as the central cortex of the iPad 2, it’s reasonable to expect that the chip will start creeping down the rest of the iOS line-up later this year. That means an A5-equipped iPhone 5 in June, followed by an A5-equipped iPod Touch in September.

But even though it doesn’t look like one, there’s one other member of the iOS family: the Apple TV. Can we expect Apple to update their set-top box offering as well?

For those of us who hate juggling tracks on our iPhones, a 64GB iPhone 4 would be a godsend. It should be more than technically possible: the iPod Touch comes in a 64GB variety, after all. For whatever reason, though, Apple’s let almost five generations of iPhone pass without rolling out a 64GB iPhone.

At least it appears that they thought about it, though. MIC Gadget points out that some alleged iPhone 4 prototypes with 64GB storage capacities that are making their way into the Chinese grey market right now.

Technically, this could be faked, but it looks legit, right down to the correct amount of useable space reported within the iPhone 4’s settings (at 59.1GB, it’s identical to the amount reported by a 64GB iPad). Also, like the found Gizmodo iPhone 4, the back shell of the leaked prototype has the same “XXGB” demarkation.

Obviously, we never ended up getting a 64GB iPhone 4, but let’s keep our fingers crossed that 64GB is the new high-end iPhone 5. It certainly looks like Apple wants it to be.

Every so often, a new Apple product comes along with a breakthrough form factor that Jonathan Ive’s design team will riff on for years to come. As a result, there are many recurring motifs that provide clues to where Apple’s industrial design is heading.

Engineers built and flew a replica of the flying house in Pixar’s “Up” — setting the record for the largest cluster balloon flight ever.

It took 300 balloons, each 8-feet tall and filled with an entire tank of helium. The stint was for or National Geographic Channel’s “How Hard Can It Be?” show. Watch the video report:

Four days before the iPad 2 goes on sale, the first line is already forming.

Apple fan Justin Wagoner has set up camp outside an Apple Store in Dallas, Texas. Here’s a snap of his tent taken by a MacCast reader.

Wagoner appears to be the first person lining up for the iPad 2, which goes on sale on Friday at 5PM. Apple isn’t taking preorders, so its first come, first served.

Wagoner also camped out to be first in line for the iPhone 4 last year. He has set up a site to document his camping trip: iJustinOfficial.com.

When the iPad first debuted, it launched with a $30 unlimited, month-by-month data over 3G courtesy of AT&T… who within months recanted the deal and switched it out with a 2GB per month subscription plan for $5 less per month.

AT&T couldn’t just bait-and-switch existing customers, though: as long as you signed up for the original unlimited plan and never cancelled, they couldn’t downgrade all existing customers to 2GB. That left a big question: when Apple finally announced the iPad 2, would AT&T figure out a way to weasel out of the grandfathered unlimited subscriptions once and for all?

Apparently not: AT&T has just confirmed that grandfathered unlimited data plans will continue to be offered on the iPad 2. So if you’ve got grandfathered unlimited, rest easy: you can upgrade to the iPad 2 safely.

We start the week with a mix of deals for the Mac fan. First up is a series of MacBook Pro laptops, starting at $929 for a 2.4GHz unit. Next is a TuchWallet for the iPod touch and a 27-inch LED Cinema Display for just $849.

Along the way, we’ll also take a look at ways to protect your iPad, either in faux leather case or an envelope sleeve. Also on tap: software, such as iWork ’09 and Navicat for SQL Server 9. As always, details on these and many more items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

While most journalists spent their scant Apple-given minutes with the iPad 2 playing with apps and snapping photos, CNET UK went straight to business, jumping into Safari and running the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark to measure how much better Mobile Safari’s new JavaScript rendering engine was over the original iPad’s.

According to CNET, quite a bit: the iPad 2 is up to four times faster in JavaScript rendering than the original iPad, and it’s not just a matter of beefier hardware. Even on the original iPad running iOS 4.3, there’s a 1.5x boost in JavaScript rendering compared to an iPad running iOS 4.2.

Most impressively, the iPad 2 is faster at JavaScript than all competing tablets, with the Galaxy Tab processing JavaScript at only 1/3rd of the speed of the iPad 2. The web just is faster on iOS.

Apple reportedly sold 1.1 million MacBook Air laptops during the December 2010 quarter, 63 percent above analyst expectations. The 1.1 million figure could mean MacBook Air sales represented about 40 percent of the 2.9 million notebook sales reported by the Cupertino, Calif. company for the three-month period.

The December sales numbers were 400,000 higher than the 700,000 units previously expected by Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Although the results are undeniably gorgeous, Apple’s decision to switch from the 3GS’s plastic back to a glass one for the iPhone 4 has been a disastrous one. Not only did Apple have to put out the fires on “Glassgate” shortly after the fiasco of Antennagate thank to the the glass backing’s tendency to crack when used with a slider-style iPhone case, but the glass backing has also proven to be a nightmare for Apple when it came to releasing the white iPhone 4, thanks to the glass’ tendency to leak light onto the camera sensor.

Reports now indicate that Apple wants to ditch the glass in the iPhone 5, instead moving back to the aluminum back found in the original iPhone. Cupertino ditched aluminum in the iPhone 3G because of wireless and cellular connectivity issues, but it’s thought that advances in antenna design might have mitigated the connectivity drawbacks of aluminum.

One big question we had here at Cult of Mac when the iPad 2 was first announced was whether or not developers would have to update their apps to take advantage of the iPad 2’s faster, dual-core A5 SoC. Now Apple’s clarifying the matter: no, you don’t have to, but it’ll help.

According to a new note posted on the iOS Dev Center, Apple has asked devs to update their apps for the iPad 2 in order to take advantage of the new hardware. Mentioning that most operations inside of applications will be faster just by dint of the jump to a dual-core processor, Apple concedes that software can become faster still if they tune up their software for the iPad 2 with tools like OpenGL Profiler. Devs are further asked to enhance their apps with the “new user experiences” made possible by the iPad 2’s cameras and gyroscope/accelerometer combo.

The first-gen iPad was a sneak peek at what Apple had in store when it came to the iPhone 4’s hardware, and we imagine the iPad 2 will be no different in this regard when it comes to the iPhone 5. Developers honing their apps for the iPad 2 now will be able to reap the benefits immediately upon the release of the next iPhone.

[via MacStories]

If there was ever an Apple launch that seemed to favor the Greg Packers of this world, it’s that of the iPad 2. Uncharacteristically, Apple won’t be taking any orders for the device until the date it hits store shelves: March 11th.

It’s hard to say what this implies. By one way of thinking, it means Apple’s not confident it can supply iPad 2 pre-order demand; thought of another way, Apple may simply want to avoid the problem of customers getting their new products delivered several days early by FedEx.

Either way, though, it’s left most of us wondering just when Apple will allow customers to start ordering the iPad. It looks like now we know: MacAppsDaily is reporting that an Apple phone rep told them that online sales of the iPad 2 would begin at 12:01am PT on March 11th, with “free, fast shipping.” 9to5Mac has also confirmed that time as well.

Looks like a late night for me on Friday. Who else will be awake?

The Federal Aviation Association approved the iPad as a navigation device on some charter flights.

On Februrary 1, the magical device was cleared as a navigation device. The FAA gave thumbs’ up to Cincinnati- based Executive Jet, who said it made 250 flights as part of the certification process.

Late last year, we wrote about a private pilot who was using his iPad with paper charts to guide the plane.

When friends or family come to stay, they might want to borrow your computer for a while. That’s fine, but sometimes you want to keep your stuff private, and you want your personal settings to stay as they are.

That’s when it’s a good idea to make use of the built-in Guest Account, which you’ll find inside the Accounts pane of System Preferences, as long as you’re running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later.

Who can guess this iPad app from the fingerprints it leaves behind?

And what about this one below:

I’ve been blown away recently with Google Translate, on both the web and on my iPhone – just superb speech recognition and translation abilities. But the speech synthesis capabilities of this versatile debabelizer are also quite impressive.

Deciding to run a spontaneous real world test, two young women called a local Indian restaurant and placed their entire order in Hindi – via Google Translate running in Chrome on a MacBook Pro. The software proved up to the challenge – the order was delivered correctly, the expressions are priceless, and a good time was had by all!

[via Solid Blogger]

Not being able to get online can be a frustrating problem. It can cost hours of time and test your patience. See, Mac OS X doesn’t always work properly all of the time, and will occasionally assign itself an IP address, which will result in you being unable to connect to the internet. Luckily, there is an easy solution. You can use System Preferences to set a new Network Location, as well as renew your DHCP lease to fix the problem. This video will show you how to quickly fix the problem of self assigned IP addresses through System Preferences.

New to iOS 4.3 is the Personal Hotspot feature, which turns your iPhone 4 into a 5-device mobile hotspot. You can use it with WiFi, Bluetooth, or USB. The catch? Carriers will charge an extra monthly fee on-top of your already expensive phone bill. Well, there’s a nice little jailbreak tweak called TetherMe which will instantly enable this feature. It’s been out for a while and had originally enabled iOS 3.0’s native tethering feature, but it also works for Personal Hotspot. The best part? It’s only $0.99. Continue reading on to see if it’s for you.

Everyone seemed to be pretty excited about the Clamcase for the iPad, from Clamcase LLC. I was a bit puzzled by that after all the iPad is a tablet and a real laptop, like my MacBook Air, would be a better replacement for an iPad stuffed into a keyboard case.

Yet people wanted to be able to covert their iPad into a laptop and if you build it they will come right? Well build it they did and now you can have a Clamcase of your very own to turn your iPad into a clunky laptop wannabe.

A Hungarian politician is for the first time drafting the country’s new constitution on an iPad.

Politician Jozsef Szajer, a member of the European Parliament for Hungary’s ruling party, said in a blog post:

Steve Jobs will surely be happy when he gets word that Hungary’s new constitution is being written on an iPad, actually my iPad… The best is I don’t have to wait for minutes to turn it on, like with a normal laptop. I can open it anywhere and can take advantage of every minute. It’s a miracle!

Via Bloomberg: Hungary First to Write a Constitution on IPad, Lawmaker Says

It’s almost too easy to make a parody video of Apple and its products these days. The company follows an easily discernible regularity in its product launches and despite growing popularity and marketshare for all of its products over the last decade, Apple’s “image” is tagged with the weight of a certain “hipster cred” that tends to make for easy pickings when it comes to ridicule.

Director Dan Dobi and writer Steve Rogowski skate pretty close to several uncomfortable lines in this one, however, which, presumably is intentional.

After all, parody and sarcasm are about getting people talking, right?