FaceTime for Mac is pretty cool, but it lacks spice. As Chatroulette amply proved, the thril of cold video calling random strangers is spicy indeed. Who will pick up? A nose-picking teenage girl? A throbbing erection with googly eyes glued upon the glans? A foul-mouthed puppet? If only FaceTime could match that degree of titillation!
Well, now it can, thanks to an enterprising programmer named Zach Holman, who has thrown together Facelette. It’s essentially Chatroulette for FaceTime, pairing two random people together through a FaceTime connection.
Yesterday, Apple quietly announced that they would cease future distribution of their own custom Java packages, concerning some Java developers. But no need to worry, Steve’s already already explained Apple’s thinking on the matter, and it makes sense to us.
First, Apple’s announcement of Java deprecation. According to the updated developer documentation for the Java updates for OS X released yesterday, Apple will no longer be maintaining their Java runtime at the same level, and it may even be removed from future versions of Mac OS X.
So does that mean that Macs will no longer have up-to-date Java? A concerned Java Developer from Portico Systems emailed Steve Jobs, asking that very question.
Jobs’ response:
Sun (now Oracle) supplies Java for all other platforms. They have their own release schedules, which are almost always different than ours, so the Java we ship is always a version behind. This may not be the best way to do it.
In other words, Apple’s leaving Java to the company that does it best… that is, if Oracle decides to step up and produce their own version of Java for Mac, as they do for every other platform. My guess is they will quickly fill the void and it’ll be a win for everyone: Apple no longer has to spend the money to produce custom-baked, already-obsolete versions of Java, and Mac users will get Java of the same level and quality as it is available on other platforms.
For a few hours yesterday, the Internet lit up with reports originating from Macwelt.de that there was a serious security hole in the FaceTime for Mac beta.
Frankly, calling it a “security hole” seemed even at the time a tad hyperbolic. Basically, the hole in FaceTime for Mac beta meant that once a user had logged into his account, that user’s AppleID and password could be altered within the app by anyone with physical access to the computer, without any other security checks.
At this point, we’re not really surprised when Apple’s new software drops support for old PowerPC Macs. Apple’s been building PCs on Intel hardware for four years now: at some point, going through all the expense and bother of coding for obsolete hardware just stops being worth it.
So when iLife ’11 dropped PowerPC support, we weren’t surprised. It’s not really a big deal: the previous version of iLife works just fine on the PowerPC architecture, and if you’re going to work on a five year old computer, you can live with a two year old media productivity suite, we reckon.
More surprising to us is iLife ’11’s strict requirement for a minimum OS install of Snow Leopard. That’s more than a little strange, although during the presentation, Jobs did mention that iLife ’11 was built upon many of the core technologies introduced in Snow Leopard.
Apple’s hissy catfight with Adobe over the future of Flash on the web has reached storied proportion at this point, with Apple claiming that Flash is buggy and slow and Adobe… well… not so much saying otherwise as whining about the unfairness of it all.
Given Apple’s strong feelings about Flash, it’s hard not to give perhaps undue importance to word that the new MacBook Airs are actually shipping without Adobe Flash pre-installed… even though it’s been preloaded on all of Apple’s past hardware.
The forthcoming Mac App Store is pretty exciting news, but one thing I didn’t really get a good handle on during Steve Jobs’ keynote is if apps were distinct from programs in Apple’s mind. For me, an app is a smaller bit of less fully-functioned code, easily digested, while a program affords a much more substantial suite of functionality. Would the Mac App Store just be selling tinier programs, eschewing beefier applications like Photoshop or even Apple’s own iLife and iWork suite? I wasn’t quite sure.
It seems, though, that Apple answered my question during their own presentation. During Wednesday’s “Back to Mac” event, the keen-eyed fellows over at Electric Pig spotted iPhoto, GarageBand and iMovie as being apps on sale in the Mac App Store, each for a price of $14.99.
Apple’s new iPhoto ’11 is here and it will continue to be the best part of my iLife. I’d like to think that many of you would agree with me. The new features that Apple announced on Wednesday are really awesome.
The new full-screen views, enhanced Facebook integration, and other new or improved features give me opportunities to be more creative. I’ll be able to share photos with family and friends in ways I wasn’t able to before and I cannot wait to get started.
A recent teardown of the new MacBook Air today revealed that the pretty little notebook is unsurprisingly laden with a bevy of proprietary engineering making it one of the most difficult notebooks on the market to repair. Highlights of the full break down can be read after the jump.
Steve Jobs is reportedly having a one-on-one meeting with President Obama.
Jobs is meeting the president just before Obama speaks at the Palo Alto home of Google executive Marissa Mayer’s this evening.
The meeting with Steve Jobs is not on the president’s official calendar, but a White House official confirmed the meeting will occur.
Jobs is no stranger to meeting presidents. In June, he hung out with Russian president Dimitry Medvedev (who is an iPad user), and has had President Clinton over for dinner. Jobs and his wife are Democratic party contributors; and Obama is a famous Mac user.
Obama’s speech at Marissa’s Mayer’s house is at 7PM PST/10PM EST.
That was quick. An 11-inch sleeve for the MBA was announced from Tom Bihn yesterday, while Waterfield released a whole slew of cases tailored to both version of the MBA.
San Francisco-based Waterfield Designs offerings will ship at the end of this month and include the tough, ballistic nylon SleeveCase in both 11- and 13-inch sizes (at $37 and $39 respectively), which can be customized with add-on options; and the ultra-thin 11-inch ($25) and 13-inch ($29) Suede Jacket Sleeve. and will ship at the end of October. Tom Bihn has made an 11-inch, MBA-specific version of its Cache padded sleeve ($30), which will ship a little later than the Waterfields, in early November.
UPDATE: Well, turns out we were wrong about this one; it’s been around for awhile. Crow, anyone?
That rumor we mentioned yesterday — the one where we thought Apple would announce a new social network based around Apple Genii? Turns out Apple quietly added something very close to what we predicted yesterday during the virtual Apple Store’s refresh for the new MacBook Air and iLife ’11.
We start the day off with bargains on applications for the iPad and iPhone. First up is a new crop of price drops for Apple’s tablet, including “Spirit HD,” a puzzle. A number of iPhone apps are offered for no cost, including “X Invasion 2: Extreme Combat.” The deal spotlight wraps up with the just-announced new MacBook Air computers, including a $999 unit that includes an 11.6-inch screen, 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 64GB of solid state storage.
Along the way, we also take a look at other iPhone applications, as well as a rubber bumper for your iPhone, a 27-inch LED Cinema Display and Apple’s new iLife ’11 software bundle. As always, details on these and many other bargains can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
No, really, that’s not a GameBoy Color… it’s a decal slapped on the back of an iPhone 4.
I’m totally dropping $6 on this: I actually still have the exact model of the GameBoy Color this decal is based upon, right down to the fluorescent 90s hue.
Photo by Quang Minh (YILKA) - http://flic.kr/p/5Acibg
Remember the days when Research in Motion could sit on its enterprise laurels, assured companies would pick the BlackBerry over that upstart iPhone? Well, such security may be waning as one home town analyst warns of a ‘domino-effect’ if Apple gets a foot in the corporate door.
“We believe the potential adoption of the iPhone by key RIM enterprise users may have a domino effect, creating further market disruption for RIM,” analyst Michael Walkley of Canada’s Canacord Genuity told that nation’s National Post. Earlier this week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said his Cupertino, Calif. company had passed RIM. “I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future,” he added.
Halloween’s just ten days away and two of the most popular games on the App Store are getting in the ghoulish spirit of things wit All Hallow’s Eve themed updates. Both are just skinjobs on existing titles.
Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s three-years-late response to Apple’s iOS, is officially being released in Europe today, and even though America won’t get the first WP7 handsets until November, the European release means that review embargoes are over and the first blushes are starting to trickle in.
The good news? Most reviewers agree Windows Phone 7 is a significant improvement over its predecessor, and even a pretty smart mobile operating system… but it’s still about a year behind iOS.
Before the iPhone 4, the worst that could happen to the back of your handset in a clumsy drop is a few dings or scratches, but the new iPhone’s all glass back makes the accidental spill twice as hazardous as it was before by doubling the glass surface area that can be cracked, splintered or shattered in a fall. Add antenna attenuation issues into the mix and a case becomes a better investment than before, but some people simply prefer the pristine look of an uncovered iPhone.
This iPhone 4 accessory is an interesting solution to the problem of Apple’s latest smartphone’s fragile backplate. In essence, it’s a just $14.
With the launch of the Mac App Store set to occur in mere months and with Apple already encouraging developers to prepare to submit applications to Cupertino in November, it was only a matter of time before the App Store for Mac guidelines leaked out in full thanks to some anonymous NDA-breaking developer.
It’s a long list, which you can see in total after the jump, but there’s a few standout restrictions which are sure to raise some eyebrows. ReadWriteWeb has an excellent overview of the more notable ones. We’re particularly puzzled by Apple’s seeming aversion to RSS readers on the App Store, as well as their specific mention of a policy ban against all Russian Roulette simulators.
Steve Jobs is feeling pretty smug after yesterday’s unveiling of the new and svelter than ever MacBook Airs… so smug that he spent the hours after yesterday’s Back To Mac event openly ridiculing the morbidly obese laptops of the journalists present.
The exchange was reported by Forbes’ Brian Caulfield, who reported that after yesterday’s Back To Mac presentation, Steve Jobs loped up to him and pointed one trembling finger at the morbidly obese Dell M1210 Caulfield was writing a story upon and began to laugh at its fatness.
With about a third of iPad owners, the App Store is a rare destination. A survey released Thursday finds, among other information nuggets, that 32 percent of iPad owners have yet to download a single app – not even free ones. This could be disheartening to Apple and others, who see the iPad as an integral part in the Cupertino, Calif. company’s strategy of integration.
Another group, 63 percent of the participants in a Nielsen Co. survey, is the audience likely to adopt Apple’s new App Store Economy. These iPad owners purchase their games, read books, do finances – even plan their vacations on the iPad. With an App Store for music, video, books, the iPod, iPhone, iPad and now the Mac, these self-confessed early-adopters will accept Apple’s vision of the future.
Yesterday, Steve Jobs took the stage for the Back to Mac event and finally put the kibosh on the idea of touchscreen iMacs. He made some excellent points: namely, that multitouch really requires a horizontal configuration instead of a vertical one, making it only a really pleasant-to-use experience on a device like a tablet or smartphone.
Makes sense to us.If you’re just dying for the touchscreen iMac experience, though, why not transform your iPad into a semblance of one with the PadDock, which will turn your iPad into a tiny approximation of a 10-inch iPad. It contains built-in speakers, 360 degrees of rotation and the ability to charge and sync your iPad while it’s connected.
I mean, look: the PadDock is really just an iPad speaker dock with a novelty shape. That’s cool, but you may well not want to spend $100 on it, especially since the iPad in a vertical docking configuration is going to be subject to the same ergonomic difficulties Steve Jobs says is stopping Apple from bringing multitouch to the displays of their laptops and desktops. But take a good look anyway,because this is the closest to a touchscreen iMac you’re going to get this short of a really ingenious Hackintosh.
It’s now possible to jailbreak your AppleTV thanks to PwnageTool and greenpois0n, but there’s not much to do with that jailbreak until developers get cracking on their apps. Luckily, it seems that development for jailbroken AppleTVs is already well under way. A small team of developers over at nitoTV have already written the first native AppleTV app.
It’s not much, really: just a simple weather app for now. Barely even a widget in scope. The point, though, isn’t in the scope: it’s the proof of concept demonstrating that developers can actually run apps on the AppleTV instead of just playing around in the command line.
Photo by Steve Rhodes - http://flic.kr/p/21zyYN Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr CC
AT&T, Apple’s exclusive iPhone provider, Thursday posted third-quarter results of $31.6 billion and a record number of iPhone 4 subscribers. The Dallas, Texas-based carrier announced 5.2 million iPhone activations, up from the previous record of 3.2 million. Almost a quarter of those were from new AT&T customers.
“This was a terrific mobile broadband quarter,” said chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson. “A record number of customers signed new two-year contracts and integrated device sales outpaced our previous best by a wide margin,” he added. AT&T said it gained 2.6 million net subscribers, up 30 percent from a year ago.
Limera1n and greenpois0n have made it possible to jailbreak your iOS 4.1 device for almost a couple weeks now, but if you’re like me, any jailbreak not officially released by the iPhone Dev Team under the PwnageTool moniker is worth an eyebrow arch of circumspection.
Good news, then: the Dev Team have finally released PwnageTool 4.1 for Mac OS X, which used a combination of geohot’s contentious limera1n exploit, Comex’s PF kernetl exploit and the Dev Team’s own pwnage2 exploit.
The previous generation MacBook Air was thin enough to slice a birthday cake or a loaf of bread as an ample library of YouTube videos proved at the time of the notebook’s release. It was so thin, in fact, that though I thought the laptop was functionally useless for real world use in that its wimpy specs and abysmal battery life, it would have been my go-to laptop for use in a post-apocalypse setting: simply file along the edge of the unibody enclosure and the first generation MacBook Air would have made a dandy makeshift machete, perfect for slicing the jugular of a gasoline-crazed motorcycle psycho or lopping off the top of the skull of a flesh-hungry zombie.
The latest MacBook Air is even thinner than its predecessor, and therefore continues the trend of being an excellent survivalist’s laptop. In fact, the new MacBook Air is actually thinner than the blade of an axe, even at the axe’s sharpest point. Yowza. Don’t knock it off the table and onto your toes.
Here’s my question: how long it will take a third-party accessory manufacturer to start selling a heavy, snap-on axe handle for the Air? I’m keeping my fingers crossed!
