Apple’s recent deal with Liquidmetal Technologies will give it access to the most advanced manufacturing machinery on the planet, one insider says.

Apple will soon start experimenting with a new prototype injection molding machine, says Drew Merkel, who is perhaps the most knowledgeable third-party expert on Liquidmetal Technologies. It may allow Apple to make advanced iPhone antennas and seamless gadget cases with holographic logos cast right into the metal.

“This is the most advanced injection-molding machine ever made,” Merkel says. “It is state-of-the-art.”

Apple recently licensed Liquidmetal Technology’s IP for use in consumer electronics. Liquidmetal Technologies is one of the leading companies trying to commercialize space-age metal alloys that are extremely hard and lightweight but can be processed as easily as plastics. NASA has said Liquidmetal is “poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century.”

If your Time Capsule or Airport just won’t blanket your entire house with sweet, invisible WiFi, Western Digital has a new, easy to use solution to extend your network to the basement, the attic or the back yard: the Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit.

The kit includes two Livewire network adapter boxes, each with four ethernet ports. All you do is plug one Livewire adapter into your router or Time Capsule as well as a wall socket. Then plug the other adapter into a wall socket in any room in your house where you don’t have networking. As long as those two outlets are on the same power grid, which most newer homes are, your internet connection will be shot through your electrical socket to the Livewire in the other room.

A practical use for this would be to extend your network to a room that is too far away to get WiFi. For example, if you wanted to set your basement up as an office, you could just set the Livewire adapters up and plug your iMac into the second one. Easy networking, without extending your WiFi network with repeaters or wiring up the room for Ethernet.

According to Western Digital, the Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit can provide data transfer speeds of up to 200 megabits per second, which should, theoretically, be enough to stream even 1080p video. At $140 for a pair of adapters, this is a solution to consider if you’ve got any dead spots in your home network you’re feeling an itch to fill.

Not that we ever expect elegant, fully-realized products from China’s plucky constabulary of Apple knock-off shops, but apparently, it takes a lot more to make an iPad killer than just aping the design and slapping Android on it.

Reviewed by Giz-China, the ePad seems to be an excellent example of what you get if you try to save yourself a couple of hundred bucks when you buy yourself a tablet.

It looks like an iPad superficially, but where the iPad has an aluminum unibody casing, the ePad has a cheap plastic back that’s easy to break. Unlike the iPad, though, at least the ePad has you covered with all your missing features, including a USB port, HDMI port, a microSD card reader and even a front-facing camera.

The display is where things really start falling apart, though. According to Giz-China, the ePad’s display looks “dull and washed out” and is “terrible” compared to the iPad.

As for performance, sure, the ePad boasts a 1GHz ARM A8 CPU… but apparently, even that isn’t enough to get this baby running right. The ePad is apparently plagued by choppy video and app launching so slow, the reviewer compares it to Commodore 64.

Bizarrely, after that litany of complaints, Giz-China ultimately declared the ePad a better device than the iPad in their head-to-head faceoff… only to contradict themselves a sentence later. I’ll have a snootful of whatever you guys are having, it seems like a real loosener.

[via Gadget Lab]

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that a Dallas man, Vincent Hunter, who was visiting relatives in Hartford, Conn. watched the in-progress burglary of his home after receiving an alert from his iCam app (iTunes link) running on his iPhone.

The app warned him that motion had been detected in the house. It turned out that two burglars were attempting to get into the man’s home and eventually made entry into the home by throwing a brick through a glass door.

He immediately called the police and officers were immediately dispatched to his home. The app alerted him to the arrival of the officers and as he watched via webcam they made entry into the home with guns drawn.

The story wasn’t clear about whether or not anything was stolen, but the combination of iCam, some webcams, and the iPhone certainly did their job — advising the home owner of the in-progress burglary.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eUyNh4g0qc&feature=player_embedded

I’m certainly no expert, but I’ve often felt that a lot of what is behind Japan’s seeming eccentricities — the fascination with robots and automation, as well as the strict adherence to a social protocol that can seem , to Westerners, distant and stand-offish — to the crushing biomass of their overcrowded cities. In a country of shoebox sized apartments and packed trains, the only personal space you can get isn’t physical, but psychological.

One of the examples I like to point to is just the experience of walking into a diner. In America, you’d go in, sit at the counter, order your food from a waitress and get it delivered to you a few minutes later. In Japan, though, it is handled with what can seem to be an absurd level of detachment from your server: orders are placed through a touchscreen or ticket machine, where you pay for your food. That ticket is placed, without a word, upon the tray of someone working behind the counter, who later — and just as silently — brings you your food.

I was really interested, then, to see this iPad self-ordering system pop up on Japan Probe. Designed by Sharp Systems Products, it allows Japanese diners to order from a menu on their iPad, completely obviating the need for the aforementioned touchscreen ordering systems or ticketing machines. It’s a more feature rich implementation too: for example, you can pinch to make a picture of your food bigger, or drill down for ingredients.

Interesting stuff. It’s an obvious fit for a country like Japan, but I wonder if this isn’t the inevitable path that American dining will take as well: the tablet as a dynamic, self-updating menu.

[]

Fantastic. This LED-embedded jacket might just be the glue gun and rhinestone vest of the iPhone generation.

Created by Art and Program after collaboration between Yutaka Takahashi and Junpei Wada, the Vanilla Jacket is simple to use. Just shrug it on on and plug your iPhone or iPod Touch into it. Not only will the Vanilla display a graphic visualizer of the beats you are jamming to on the 8 x 8 LED matrix embedded into the back of the jacket, but you can even use the coat as a turn signal: just flick your wrist to let people behind you know if you’re turning left or right. You can even use the jacket to pump out a Twitter message.

The Vanilla jacket series will supposedly be available for purchase later this year at an undisclosed price, but what I love most about this video is how it seems to be a callback to Apple’s own “dancing silhouettes” iPod ads. I could easily see Apple outfitting a bunch of dancers in Vanilla jackets and starting out the September iPod event with a choreographed, LED equalized dance.

[via Gizmodo]

The former global supply chain manager accused by Feds and Apple of accepting over $1MM in kickbacks for insider information might have even more money out there that the authorities have yet to discover.

Paul Devine — whose offshore assets and bank accounts have already been frozen, and who was recently discovered to have $150,000 squirreled away in shoeboxes as fast “escape” money — is now said to have two safety deposit boxes, which might contain even more money and perhaps a spare passport or two.

Authorities are now demanding access to those safety deposit boxes, saying that they won’t allow him out on bail until they know the contents of those boxes since Devine is a serious flight risk. Man, this was a guy with a plan.

There’s not a gadget under the sun that the chroma-crazy lads over at ColorWare won’t slather in Pantone hues if you pay them enough money, alleviating the necessity of the Mac-loving hockey fan from trying to turn his iMac into as gaudy a display of team pride as his torso and face with the help of spray paint alone.

Needless to say, with the advent of the Magic Trackpad, Colorware has now updated their services to allow you to custom-color your new input device. So if you’ve been despairing that your Magic Trackpad doesn’t match your desktop’s Pan-African chromatic aesthetic, head on over and plunk down your change. Who says every Mac has to be so gray, anyway?

Steve Jobs certainly wouldn’t agree, but I know a few of you grumps out there were disappointed when the iPad turned out to more of a big iPhone than a convertible tablet with a built-in keyboard. Even if you’re not one of those people, serious typing on the iPad pretty much requires lugging a Bluetooth-pairable physical keyboard around with you.

If you fall into either category, you might be interested in this case that transforms into an iPad stand, complete with integrated Bluetooth keyboard. It’s a great design: the keyboard’s chiclet keys get folded against the display when closed to protect the glass. Sure, it adds a bit more bulk to your iPad, but if you do a lot of typing on the go, this is certainly preferable to lugging a real keyboard around you.

Unfortunately, this convertible iPad dock is a bit expensive, costing just over $90… which seems like a lot of money to spend for what will only prove to be marginally convenient for most. Perhaps when it passes through the FCC and hits these shores, though, they’ll have figured out a way to lower that price. Halve that tag and this would be a no-brainer for me.

All the internet scuttlebutt at this point converges upon one big and tasty rumor: Apple will announce a new, iOS-driven AppleTV called the iTV in September, which will cost $99 and have no local storage, but support streaming media only.

If the rumor is true, it’s a bold plan by Apple to transform their “hobby device” into a veritable cable, satellite, HTPC and Netflix killer… but if content carriers aren’t on board and the price isn’t right, even iOS isn’t going to save the new iTV from the ignominy of its predecessor.

According to Bloomberg, though, Apple’s really close to inking deals with News Corp. and Walt Disney to offer $0.99 show rentals over iTunes.

Currently, renting a show for 48 hours through iTunes costs $1.99, which is just enough to keep iTunes from being a competitive way to watch a show, especially when it’s on both the boob tube and sites like Hulu for free… albeit with ads.

$0.99 is a much easier to swallow price for renting a show. It’s a no-brainer price point that is hard to resent, and easily justifiable for most consumers if they can watch a show at their convenience, legally and without ads. It’s also an imperative price point for a streaming iTV with no local storage to reach in order to succeed.

All the stars seem to be in alignment for the iTV: the price now seems set to be right for the device itself and the content it’ll play. If Apple doesn’t announce the iTV in September, this will end up being the most disappointing rumor of the year.

As Mac fans, we all know that Apple habitually throws an iPod event in September, where the obsolete iPods allowed to grow dusty in our love are whisked off behind the killing sheds, while the shiniest new models are simultaneously heralded. These events usually see an updated iPod Touch and a new version of iTunes, and this year, everyone’s expecting word on the new streaming iTunes features and perhaps a relaunched, iOS-driven AppleTV called the iTV.

Needless to say, excitement is high… but Apple still hasn’t tipped their hat on when we can expect the conference. Well, you might want to pencil September 7th in for following our iPod Event liveblog, because Bloomberg’s sources are now saying that date’s a lock.

Of course, since Apple traditionally doesn’t alert the press to an iPod Event until a week ahead of time, we won’t know if Bloomberg’s sources are right until the end of this month… but Apple certainly can’t put it off much later. If you’re hungry for a new iPod Touch or even an updated AppleTV, earmark some credit for that date.

Apple released a Mac OS X security update today that patches a critical PDF vulnerability and a handful of other security issues.

Security Update 2010-005 supplies a fix that addresses a “heap buffer overflow” that exists in CoreGraphics and the way it handles PDF files. The vulnerability could have allowed the “unexpected application termination of arbitrary code execution” via a malformed PDF file.

It is interesting to note that this sounds just like the exploit hackers used to jailbreak iOS 4 on the iPhone. It is possible that it is the same since the two Operating Systems are said to share the same code base. However, there isn’t any indication that this is true in Apple’s support document. Apple released the update for the iPhone exploit, iOS 4.0.2, a few weeks ago.

This update also addresses a “stack buffer overflow” that would allow arbitrary code execution through a malformed embedded font and the remainder of fixes in the update resolve problems with network security.

Complete information about this update can be found at support.apple.com/kb/HT4312.

Security Update 2010-005 is available for: Mac OS X v10.5.8, Mac OS X Server v10.5.8, Mac OS X v10.6.4, Mac OS X Server v10.6.4 via Software Update or direct download.

Longing for the gaming arcade but stuck at your desk?  Well, the Pinball Magic [app]cessory from New Potato won’t fool you into thinking you’re at the real thing, but it looks like a cute way to kill both time and disposable income.  Slide your handheld iDevice into the mini pinball machine and Tilt Away:

Get ready for iPhone and iPod touch entertainment that’s in a class by itself! The Pinball Magic [app]cessory creates realistic and engaging gameplay, bringing classic pinball machine cabinet design and fun to iPhone and iPod touch. Pinball Magic, just like the classic cabinets (only smaller), works with the free Pinball Magic app to create a portable arcade experience, complete with flipper buttons and ball-launching plunger.

Perfect for entertaining miniature coworkers or family members.  Available soon at Best Buy for $40.

[via TUAW] [Chip Chick]

Blogger Brian Sweet of Gumball Tech claims to have beaten the world text-messaging record using the onscreen keyboard of his iPhone 4.

The record was recently set by a U.K. woman using a Samsung Galaxy S running the SWYPE keyboard. Melissa Thompson, 27, managed to swipe out the phrase: “the razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human,” in just under 26 seconds. (Her feat is still being verified by Guinness).

Sweet claims to have thumbed out the same phrase in less than 22 seconds, besting the record by 4 seconds. “It’s not official,” says Sweet, “but it’s definitely better than what that woman recently achieved.”

If genuine, Sweet’s feat disproves the notion that the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard is slow. Typing on the iPhone has typically been characterized as slow compared to a physical keyboards, such as those on Blackberry devices.

See for yourself. Here’s a YouTube video of Sweet typing out the phrase. Watch those thumbs fly!

We know, we know: Macs don’t support USB 3.0 yet, which allows USB to pipe through up to a blistering 3.2 Gbit per second of data throughput. The good news is, we all know it’s coming: we just have to be patient.

But why wait for Apple to catch up when Iomega is now selling USB 3.0 compatible external drives in their eGo range, which are not only backwards compatible with USB 2.0 (and therefore, your Mac) but without any price premium over their USB 2.0 progenitors.

According to Iomega, they will be updating all of their eGo portable drives to support USB 3.0 by the end of October. The 500GB currently costs just $114, and the 1TB model weighing in at $189, although these are MSRPs and are quite often yet.

Iomega’s not stopping at USB 3.0 support: they are also adding in 256-bit AES hardware encryption, and promising the drives will be capable of withstanding seven foot drops without a hitch.

As for when we can expect our Macs to be able to take advantage of USB 3.0, Iomega’s Jonathan Huberman told Slashgear that Cupertino’s delay was “interesting,” but he expected them to move to USb 3.0 by Q1 2011.

The bottom line: if you think that Apple is going to shift to USB 3.0 at any time in the near future — and its hard to imagine they won’t — Iomega’s just given you a very compelling reason to pick up one of their new drives. They cost the same, they’ll work with your current Mac, and when USB 3.0 hits Apple’s line-up next year, you’ll be able to take advantage of your drive’s blistering speed the second you unbox your new Mac.

If you’re like us, you’ve got some serious requirements when it comes to a dock. In my house, we’ve got a couple iPads, an iPhone, a couple iPod Touches and even an old 160GB iPod Classic kicking around, always hungry for an umbilical to recharge. We’ve got a handful of docks for these devices, but if there was only some sort of uber dock that consolidated the syncing and charging of all our iDevices into one powerful, attractive desktop dock.

We’re delighted to discover today that there is just such a dock: the iPADock from PhotoFast Co.. This baby’s a beast: using this dock, you can sync and charge up to four iPhones, any iPod and up to two iPads at once. Wow.

And that’s just what you can slam into the dock. If you need to sync more Apple devices, there are seven USB ports in the back (although only four are powered), as well as a connector for the iPad Camera Connection Kit. There’s even several memory card readers, including Compact Flash, SD, SDHC, SDXC, mini SD, mini SDHC, micro SD, Sony’s MemoryStick and micro SDHC.

Amazing, particularly in this compact form factor. It’s also extraordinarily cheap: just $70 all told for all of this docking goodness. Consider the iPADock officially added to our Christmas lists.

Last week’s big news item was the arrest of Apple manager Paul Devine’s arrest for taking over $1 million in kickbacks for insider information.

It certainly looked bad for Devine, formerly of Apple’s iPod and accessories procurement operations department, who was busted by the Feds in what appears to be a seemingly iron-clad case for selling company secrets to various suppliers in Asia through various shell accounts. Apple certainly thought so: they’ve sued Devine in civil court.

Nevertheless, Devine pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Now prosecutors are saying, “O RLY.” They’re skeptical, and it seems like they have every right to be: they have just discovered $150,000 placed in shoeboxes under Devine’s bed.

Does that prove anything? No. Maybe Devine just doesn’t believe in banks. But that’s certainly a lot of fast, easy travel cash lying around. My guess is Devine was ready for a speedy departure if Apple or the Feds caught wind of him. Too bad he didn’t catch wind of them before they busted down his door.

Women out for a stroll at a busy farmer’s market found themselves starring in one man’s iPod video upskirt movies.

Erik Alvarado, 35, landed in jail after shooting video at least 15 women at Saturday’s downtown farmer’s market in Salt Lake city’s historic Pioneer Park.

A sharp-eyed shopper told a police officer that a man had “a mirror or something” inside his shoe, according to jail documents.

Police discovered that Alvarado was in fact walking around with an iPod Nano strapped to his shoe. Alvarado captured video with the Apple device by placing his foot under victim’s skirts.

We start another day of deals with another MacBook Pro bundle from Expercomm. This one includes a Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz MacBook Pro with 13-inch screen, bundled with 8GB of memory for $1,777. For iPhone owners, we have two great games – free. Atrim Escape is a first-person puzzle game, while Golf Putt Pro let’s you brush up on your strokes without leaving the comfort of your easychair.

Along the way, we’ll check out a 2-year iPhone warranty from Squaretrade, along with more iPhone games and cases. We also look at some Mac software and other items. As always, details on these and much more can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Sony has just introduced a pair of new cameras that boast intriguing new translucent mirror technology, marrying the quick-focus of an SLR with the fast-shooting of a mirrorless camera.

Called the A33 and A55, Sony’s latest boast a 23.5×15.6mm APS-C CMOS sensor, a 3-inch LCD capable of tilting up to 180 degrees and rotating 270 degrees, as well as the ability to record full HD AVCHD (1080i) or MP4 (1080p) video while simultaneously employing an impressive 15-point video autofocus system. Otherwise, the only thing separating the A55 from the A33 is the former has more megapixels and a slightly faster Speed Priority continuous shooting mode, along with built-in GPS capability.

The real advance here, though, is the new translucent mirror used in both cameras. Essentially, this mirror allows light to pass directly through it to the camera’s sensors while simultaneously bouncing light up to the autofocus sensor.

What this means from a practical perspective is that you get a much smaller camera body and trade-in an SLR’s optical viewfinder for a digital one, while also inheriting a mirrorless camera’s live view mode. Better, you’ll get some truly impressive shutter speeds out of these cameras — up to 10 shots per second — since the mirror doesn’t have to lift in order to capture an image.

Both the A55 and A33 will come with an 18-55mm lens, with the A55 costing $850 and the A33 costing $750. Both cameras will be available in September.

Chris Nolan’s Inception is such a deviously complicated film that even an unseredipitously timed bathroom break is enough to reduce the rest of the film to mere gibberish. If you’re one of the many, many people who just didn’t get it, though, perhaps this informative Finder-based infographic explaining the dream structure in the film will help.

Of course, that big “Reality” parenthetical is as debatable as a wobbling top, but otherwise… if Finder can’t make sense of Inception for you, what the heck can?

[via TUAW]

Forget iOS’ execrable Notes.app: the best way to keep your post-its in order between your iPhone, iPad or Mac is the incredible Simplenote, which allows you to easily take notes on pretty much any device under the sun and sync it on every device you own.

Now Simplenote has gotten even better, thanks to a beefy update to both the free iOS app and the web backend.

What’s new? For one, tags, similar to Gmail labels (or, if you’re a blogger, your WordPress tags), which allow you to dynamically categorize your notes as you take them. You can also pin commonly accessed notes to the top of your list, making sure it’s always easy to open.

Another cool new addition is the ability to share a note to other Simplenote users, allowing them to edit a simple collaborative document in realtime… with new versioning ability allowing you to easily track changes… and if you want to share your note with someone who doesn’t have a Simplenote account, you can do it through email or the web too.

It’s a big update, and there’s half-a-dozen more new features to play with as well. If you’re not using Simplenote, what are you waiting for? It’s a free download. You’ll never use another iOS note-taking app again.

It’s back-to-school time, but some students may be headed for their headphones instead of campus or class. That appears to be the message from Apple’s Tuesday announcement of 300 million download in three years from iTunes U. The collaboration between the Cupertino, Calif. company and universities provides “iTunes users with an incredible way to learn on their computer, iPhone, iPod or iPad,” Apple said in a statement.

More than 800 universities worldwide have contributed 350,000 audio and video files. China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico and Singapore are just the latest countries to join the program. The free content allows anyone to get a taste of learning or virtually audit a classroom.

Tain’t the heat, t’is the humidity… at least when it comes to iPhone moisture sensors in Hong Kong.

According to the South China Morning Post, numerous Hong Kong iPhone users are having a hard time getting their handsets covered under warranty because the moisture sensors — the small little stickers inside every iPhone that discolor when they get wet, indicating user error — max out at 95% humidity.

The problem? Hong Kong and other Asian countries regularly excess 95% humidity, with some areas seeing greater-than-95% humidity for 73 days between June 1st and August 16th. For an iPhone, this is the equivalent of spending two and a half months in a sauna.

For some users like Justin Hayward, this has resulted in it being impossible to get an iPhone fixed under warranty, and instead being dinged a massive charge for a replacement phone.

“I’ve never used it in the bath, gone swimming or anything like that,” Hayward said. “Let’s face it; many people do break the rules. But a significant number of people are making these kind of report. If the limitation is over 95 per cent humidity, they ought not to be selling the product here. I find it quite unbelievable – a real piece of corporate greed or a great oversight.”

I’m not going to blame this on corporate greed, but Hayward has a point: if the mechanism Apple uses to detect moisture in iPhones doesn’t work in real-world locations, they shouldn’t be denying warranty service on those devices when they fail with triggered moisture sensors.

This isn’t even a problem limited to the Far East: a California woman sued Apple earlier this year over the same problem, and faultily triggered moisture sensors is a rampant problem in the tropics. If Apple’s not going to honor service based upon a moisture detection mechanism that verifiably fails in real-world conditions, they should reconsider selling devices where you can cut the air with a knife.

We always like to tell readers when the ‘other shoe falls’ concerning Apple technology. Earlier this week we reported how Apple products are seeing huge growth rates compared to PCs in both government and business. Today, we see why: corporate IT gatekeepers are becoming more comfortable with iOS-based products, particularly the iPad.

Unlike when the iPhone was first introduced in 2007, the Cupertino, Calif. company has devoted time and effort to answering the concerns businesses expressed early on. Such issues included ways to encrypt information and establishing secure methods to connect to corporate networks, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The latest versions of iOS “adds features that make the devices easier for a tech department to manage, including the ability for businesses to distribute internally developed apps without going through Apple’s App Store,” the newspaper writes.