Cult of Mac

JBL continues to solidly plug away at the take of making affordable, decent sounding iPhone and iPod portable speaker docks with their latest, the On Stage Micro IV and On Stage Micro III, both boasting a new and eyebrow arching design the company affectionately refers to as “the Weave.”

Compact and easily slung about, the new OnStage units feature aluminum-domed transducers to deliver accurate high-frequency response, as well as a slipstream port design that is meant to optimize bass output while doing away with distortion. The On Stage IV comes with four Odyssey transducers, which will pump out vibrant, deep and limpid sound perfect for most environments, while the On Stage Micro III only comes with two.

If you’re on a Mac, you’ve probably noticed that the connectors needed to hook up an external monitor have changed quite a bit in the last couple of years… especially if you’ve got an older Mac and are trying to hook it up to a new monitor.

Kanex to the rescue, who have just released three new adapters to make it easier to hook any Mac you please up to your sexy new display.

Tuesday’s news that San Francisco-based iPhone game creator ngmoco had been snatched up for a rumored $400 million by Japanese game developer DeNA raised eyebrows for the sheer massiveness of the sum involved, but Stuart Dredge of Mobile Entertainment has broken down the numbers.

As it turns out, the rumors were true, to a point: The actual payment for ngmoco is $303 million, a payment made up of $146 million in common stocks, $27 million in DeNA investments and $128 million cash, which is actually a third of DeNA’s total savings. They’re betting hard on this being a good deal.

Additionally, a $100 million bonus will be paid to ngmoco if they keep their sales numbers up to a certain standard, and as part of his analysis, Dredge has given us a look at the App Store numbers of one of the biggest app publishers out there: ngmoco has seen 50 million downloads on the App Store and has twelve million users on their Plus+ gaming network across 119 games.

Ultimately, though, is this a smart acquisition? DeNA seems to think so based on the amount they were willing to spend, but ngmoco only brought in $3.16MM last year against a $10.89MM loss, and their 2008 numbers were even worse. Either ngmoco’s doing gangbusters this year or DeNA’s gambling hard on this deal.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g73GfmTtUM

Speaking of jailbreaks, check out this trailer for Unlocked, a mock biopic in the style of The Social Network incorporating footage from his various media appearances as well as a movie starring The Wire’s Ziggy that I’d be pleased if you guys would identify for me in the comments.

Brilliant, though I can’t tell if it’s been done by geohot’s fans or people pissed off at his jailbreaking queue-hopping on Sunday.

We’ve only had the iOS 4.1 jailbreak for a few days, but the most publicly vocal (and, let’s face it, beefcakiest) member of the Dev Team, MuscleNerd, has just hit his Twitter feed, letting people know that a new version of the Limera1n and greenp0ison jailbreaks will be coming on Sunday and support iOS 4.2.

Ever since the iPhone was first released, there’s been at least one mouth-breathing dweeb nasally whining that the lack of physical controls completely castrates the device as a serious gaming console. Well, dweeb, three years later and the iPhone’s only the biggest handheld gaming platform ever, but you do raise an interesting point: why hasn’t someone managed to graft a D-Pad onto an iPhone after all this time?

It’s not like people aren’t working on it, of course: the guys doing the iControlPad have been plugging away at the project for years, only to be set back on the eve of release by fears of Apple’s legal team. That appears to have been the last straw for Benjamin Morisse, who has just launched the Controller or Bust project to try to quickly crowdsource the design, production, funding and manufacturing of an iPhone controller.

Coming about one month after the much heralded first release of their client for the iPad, Applidium has just announced that they will be making their popular VLC video client universal as of the next update.

As Apple prepares to show off the next big upgrade of OS X, here’s news that its Mac hardware has cracked 10% PC market share for the first time since the early 1990s.

According to market research firm Gartner, Apple had 10.4% of U.S. PC shipments in Q3, making it the fourth largest computer maker in the U.S.

Gartner didn’t even count iPads, which are a runaway hit. But they had an effect on other PC makers’ numbers. Gartner said Q3 was weak, especially in the U.S., thanks in big part to the iPad.

“Media tablet hype around devices such as the iPad has also affected consumer notebook growth by delaying some PC purchases, especially in the U.S. consumer market. Media tablets don’t replace primary PCs, but they affect PC purchases in many ways,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, in a statement. “At this stage, hype around media tablets has led consumers and the channels to take a ‘wait and see’ approach to buying a new device.”

Gartner’s full release below:

Steve Jobs rebuffed student journalist Chelsea Kate Isaacs dogged pursuit of a comment on campus Macs with “Please leave us alone.”

But the 22-year old has now discovered that not all tech companies are so hard to cover.

Issacs sent in a 140-character statement about why she should be picked in a Microsoft contest to cover the launch of Windows Phone 7 — and won. (All speculation about what that Tweet-sized application said are welcome in the comments).

Cast your mind back to June; remember reading about an app that used the iPhone’s GPS to bulls-eye the user’s location on any map imported into it? Well, the developer, Fog Technologies,  is back with Expo Tec, an app that starts with the same basic principle, but narrows its focus to convention-like events and adds some features to help the user through his chaos-laden convention visit.

The developer says it’s pretty easy for event planners to create “event packs” through a web interface designed for the app, which then shunts the pack to users of the app. Besides a GPS-enabled event map, the app provides event schedules, instant event updates, detailed vendor info and general event info.

Expo Tec is $4, and boasts that it’s a “fist-in-the-industry” solution. Yeah, sure, it was probably supposed to read “first-in-the-industry,” but we like the fist version better; “we’re angry as hell (about getting lost) and we’re not going to take (poor convention info) anymore!” Or something.

Another day, another batch of deals for your favorite Apple devices. Today we have two iPad bargains, whether you need to keep your current tablet operating or want to buy a next-to-new unit. First up is a replacement screen for your iPad or iPad 3G for $93.84. Next is a deal on a factory refurbished 16GB Wi-Fi iPad from the Apple Store – just $449. Finally, if you just bought either a 15-inch or a 17-inch MacBook Pro, add two years of warranty coverage with AppleCare.

Along the way, we’ll also check out cases for your iPhone, music devices for your iPod and software for your Mac. As always, details on these and many more items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

I’ve been mesmerized (along with Pope Benedict, apparently) by video feeds showing the 33 miners emerging from the mine in Chile, where they’ve been trapped for 69 days.

Given the media attention and pathos generated by the story, companies have stepped in to try to make re-adjusting to life above ground easier.

What are in these care packs? Wraparound style Oakley sunglasses (at over $250 each) to help them avoid retina damage, a high-calorie liquid diet, donated by NASA, to suppress motion sickness in the miners as they ascend.

Steve Jobs has apparently been touched by the story too: Apple has donated iPods to give to the miners after they emerge — bet they wished they’d had them with extra battery packs during the ordeal.

Other gifts from various companies for the miners and their families include food, clothing, sexy lingerie, wine, toys and children’s Halloween costumes.

Via AP

Apple is sending out invites to a special media event on October 20 to discuss the next version of OS X. Although the invite doesn’t expressly say so, the event must be about 10.7. “Back to the Mac,” the invite says, showing a lion peeking out of the Apple logo.

Surprising right? We thought it was all about iOS in Cupertino these days. But apparently the good old Mac is still alive and kicking and Steve Jobs hasn’t forgotten about it.

It won’t be the first time Apple has given a sneak peek of its operating system long before it shipped. In 2008, Apple previewed Snow Leopard at WWDC about a year before it was released.

With all due respect, this was originally intended to be a gallery post dedicated to discovering the magic of MC Escher, a 99¢ app that brings users hi-res imagery of the artwork that’s decorated millions of dorm rooms and student apartments worldwide over the years. The app incudes two mindbending games as well, and for a buck, it’s got to be good value. MC Escher on the iPhone and iPad — how could you go wrong?

However, digging around for something to say about the Escher app, iFractal surfaced. It’s a free app that allows users to play around with renderings of the Mandelbrot and Julia sets of images derived from mathematical visualization theory. There’s also Fractals, a $2.99 app that seems to offer the same thing, with perhaps a finer manipulative granularity — but in the end, these apps warrant a gallery.

Apple stock rose above the $300 per share mark Wednesday morning, reaching a historic level. The Cupertino, Calif. company, which has been on a recent tear, now has a market capitalization worth around $275 billion. A poll of financial analysts put the Wall Street consensus at $350 per share.

Last week, we reported Apple is nearing the market value of Exxon-Mobile, the most largest company in history. Exxon-Mobile closed Tuesday with a market value of $329.44. Monday, Oct. 18, Apple is expected to announce record sales for the fourth-quarter, the first full-quarter for the iPhone 4.

Why is Apple supposedly providing South Korean customers refurbished iPhones instead of new handsets when the device breaks? That will be the central question when the Cupertino, Calif. company faces that nation’s legislators. Just days after expected record-breaking iPhone sales are to be announced, the company must answer the Korean parliament October 21.

At issue is Apple’s reported tendency to issue refurbished units when responding to repairs, a move appearing to depart from its stated repair and replacement policy. Farrel Farhoudi, Apple’s senior iPhone service director, is scheduled to take the hot seat. Farhoudi, also the former AppleCare Business Development, has been with the Cupertino, Calif. firm since 1993.

Will the iPad hurt PC sales? Chipmaking giant Intel thinks Apple’s tablet will “probably” make some consumers turn away from purchasing PCs. However, CEO Paul Otellini took the tact that the iPad’s waves will make all boats rise. “Apple has done a wonderful job reinventing the category,” he told analysts.

“Consumers will have a limited amount of discretionary income and some will choose to purchase a tablet instead of upgrading an existing PC or purchasing a netbook,” Otellini said.

On Thursday, we’ll be publishing an exclusive interview with ex-Apple CEO John Sculley. It’s the first time Sculley has talked publicly about Steve Jobs since he was forced out of Apple in 1993.

In the interview, Sculley reveals the secrets of Jobs’ methodology, and a few surprises:

SAN FRANCISCO — Hanging out at the big CTIA cell phone convention last week, I ran into an old friend who used to work at Apple and is now a wireless consultant.

He argues that if Verizon is getting the iPhone, it won’t be until summer 2011 at the earliest. There’s two reasons why, he says:

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEg74pDVek8

This looks cute: Evac is an upcoming pixel block maze game incorporating elements from games as diverse as Pac-Man to Splinter Cell. Your job is to guide a cheery moppet of a pink square through a maze while dodging red guards by any means necessary: from stealthing past them, to trapping them, to outright vaporizing them.

It looks fantastic, and sounds even better thanks to a captivating soundtrack by Kubatko. It should be available on the iPhone and iPad sometime next month.

I’m still not entirely sure what I think about Google Instant, Google’s new search-as-you-type feature that updates your page with search results in real-time, but I do love the Chrome browser, so I guess I’ll have to get used to the new behavior of Chrome’s Omnibar, which now has Google Instant baked right in.

Remember that report that leaked Monday, in which 1,736 surveyed Foxconn employees detailed management transgressions including lying about pay raises to both workers and the media, enslaving interns and management physically beating their employees?

Foxconn’s responded to the allegations, “categorically reject[ing]” the findings and saying that their 937,000 employees all work in a “safe and positive environment.”

If you’ve got the money, you might want to buy any Apple products you’ve got your eye on now: starting next month, all of Apple’s products might get a price jump as their manufacturing partner Foxconn prepares to charge Cupertino more to make their gadgets.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyOUGm0btcI

Alright, couch potatoes… set your TiVos to start recording on Thursday, October 14th at 9:00PM ET. That’s the time you can expect the second episode of Bloomberg Game Changers to air, focusing on Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Microsoft’s mobile devices have never been able to easily sync with Macs, and never through first-party tools, but with Windows Phone 7, Microsoft aims to change all that with a native OS X application that will allow for syncing content between your Mac and Windows Phone 7 handset.

The tool isn’t out now, but Microsoft is promising the application later this year, presumably before the holiday shopping season.

Microsoft can’t be happy about having to do this, but what choice do they have? iOS has a three year lead on Windows Phone 7, and Microsoft wants people to give up their iPhones and iPads for their new operating system… which means appealing directly to Mac owners. They want people to switch, and the kind of people who are going to need good reason to switch are, by very definition, not loyal to the Windows brand.