Got a Time Capsule that’s giving you problems? According to a new Apple Knowledge Base article, Time Capsules with a serial number conforming to XX807XXXXXX – XX814XXXXXX are now eligible for a trade-in.
According to the article, “Some Time Capsules sold between approximately February 2008 and June 2008 may not power on or may shut down unexpectedly after starting up.”
I actually have a 500GB Time Capsule with that serial number, but it’s still working like a champ for me… despite the fact that the average Time Capsule sold during that time apparently dies every 19 months and 20 days. Anyone with an ailing Time Capsule going to take Apple up on their exchange offer here?
Last we heard, it seemed likely that the next iPod Touch would be camera-equipped with, at the bare minimum, a forward facing, video-only FaceTime camera… but due to space constraints, it didn’t look like the Touch would also gain the iPhone 4’s 5MP camera.
Today, MacRumors is following up last week’s speculation with the idea that while the 5MP camera won’t fit into the iPod Touch’s chassis, 3.2MP camera could conceivably fit… if Apple made the iPod Touch’s thickness uniform across all capacities.
Keep it secret! Keep it safe. Given Apple’s once impeccable track record of keeping their future products under wraps up until the very moment that Steve Jobs held them aloft on stage, the product-leaking Smeagol lurking around the underdark of their supply chain is really doing Cupertino a bad turn.
The latest supply-chain leak, spotted by Apple.pro, shows a tiny 1.18″ square, 3cm x 3cm touchscreen, complete with an Apple copyright branded upon the connector cable. The obvious assumption? A touchscreen iPod Shuffle, possibly as early as September.
ARSoccer from Laan Labs is the first soccer game in the App Store to use augmented reality, along with your iPhone’s camera, to juggle a virtual ball with your feet.
There are two game modes; Free Play, which pretty much explains itself, allowing you to practice at will and perfect your skills; and Arcade Mode in which you try to keep the ball from dropping to the floor and get as many “hits” as you can for your highest score.
The best way to see how this game works is to check out the video here.
It’s a fantastic concept and it’s a great way to get involved in a game. I wouldn’t advise you play at the bus stop, however – you may get some funny looks.
At just $0.99, ARSoccer is a bargain! Get it in the App Store here.
Wow I heard rumors this was going to happen, but I thought we would end up with a web app. Instead we’ve got a new free iPhone 4 app (iTunes Link) that kind of resembles the famous Chatroulette website. Sorry, but it doesn’t work on other iPhones since it uses the new front facing camera to set you up with a random chat between users.
Iomega’s new Mac Edition eGo Desktop Hard Drive packs a whopping 2-Terabytes in a compact, stylish package.
Available now for $249, the eGo drive offers plenty of connectivity options — USB 2.0 and a pair of FireWire 800 ports — making it suitable for a host of tasks, from backup to iMovie video editing.
The immediate popularity of the app and how it interfaces to Skype video and voice calls has resulted in the removal of Skype support from the app. Fring wants to concentrate on Fring-to-Fring video calling so Skype support is being temporarily reduced until some system capacity issues can be addressed.
Fring’s official statement can be found on their website.
If you haven’t updated your Fring app on your iPhone 4 or in iTunes yet you should refrain from doing so. You may still be able to access Skype using the older version. The new version without Skype support is 3.3.0.9. If retaining the old version of Fring still works with Skype for you please leave us a comment.
I’ve already given you the run down on my experience about being bummed when I found out that some of my iPhone accessories would not work with Apple’s Bumper case. That was Part 1 and now here is Part 2: the Apple Bumper case crash test performed by iFixYouri.com. I’ll let the video speak for itself.
With outstanding 3D visuals and impressive gameplay, Glu’s best-selling Deer Hunter 3D is recognized as the greatest hunting game available for the iPhone & iPod Touch. Now Deer Hunter 3D for iPad has hit the App Store and gives fans the opportunity to enjoy this highly popular game on the iPad’s high-resolution screen.
Regular visitors to this blog will probably have noticed that we mentionDropbox a lot. I mean, we won’t shut up about it. Why? Because it’s so ridiculously useful.
The way it works is simple: It’s a portal for files from your iPhone to your Dropbox account, a free service that gives you your own 2GB cloud to store files and media, and if you want to, lets you share those files and media.
We close out another week with a deal on a 2.53GHz MacBook Pro bundle. Along with the MacBook Pro, the bundle includes an 8GB memory upgrade and three years of Applecare, all for $1,540. Also up is another chance to grab Apple’s iWork ’09 productivity bundle for just $27. Lastly, if you’ve tired of soccer (for our American readers), or just long for the autumn rites of football, here’s your chance to tune up your kicking foot without leaving the livingroom lounger: “Flick Kick Field Goal” is an iTunes app for your iPhone or iPod touch — and it is free.
As usual, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Popular multi-IM and voice-chat service Fring has just been updated to bring 2-way video calling on iPhone 4 over 3G (Apple’s FaceTime is Wi-Fi only), as well as voice and text chat.
We’ve tested it out; while it has a few minor issues, Fring has freed videochat from Wi-Fi. If you like to videochat on your new iPhone 4, it’s a must-have app.
Here’s a new, strange little app; Gyro Draw lets users draw with the iPhone 4’s gyroscope, by sliding a piece of virtual paper (responding to inputs from the gyroscope) under a stationary virtual pencil. Don’t have a 4? It also works with the older iPhone’s accelerometer, only in this mode it’s the pencil that moves. Also works on the iPad.
Not sure this app’ll produce anything prettier than the etch-a-sketch masterpieces I made when I was five, but it’s free right now for a limited time, so it might be cool for a quick impress-your-gyroscopeless-friends session.
Emboldened by a $612.5 million settlement from Research in Motion, a company claiming to have invented wireless e-mail, Friday sued Apple, Google, Microsoft and three other handset makers. NTP Incorporated alleges the companies are violating eight patents on wireless e-mail.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Eastern Virginia, is aimed at getting Apple and others to pay licensing fees. In a news release, NTP said the defendants all make hardware or software to deliver e-mail via wireless communications.
DropCopy is a free (for personal use on three machines) utility for transferring files between computers.
Once installed, it puts an unobtrusive circular “black hole” on your desktop. To move files around, drag them on to the black hole and wait for a list of destinations to appear, then drop on the one you want to send to.
Like magic, your file will instantly be sent to that computer. DropCopy is great for any local network where files get moved around. At home, you might simply be moving music files between your laptop and desktop. In the office, you might want to share stuff with colleagues. Either way, DropCopy provides an easy alternative to shared folders and networked storage drives.
It does some really neat stuff, like allow you to grab the clipboard contents of another computer or device, then save that to your own. There’s also a built-in messaging feature.
These days there’s also a version for iPhone and iPod touch that allows you to do pretty much all the same tricks between mobile devices, no intermediary computer required.
Of course, you can share files and send messages for free using other means; particularly Dropbox. But if you’d rather keep your files away from the internet, DropCopy is a great alternative. It’s useful in all sorts of ways, and at just $25 for the non-personal version, a bargain for small business teams.
(You’re reading the 12th post in our series, 50 Essential Mac Applications: a list of the great Mac apps the team at Cult of Mac value most. Read more.)
Although there are five names on the list of smartphone makers, most eyes are on just two: Apple and Google. While Apple retains its second-place position with 25.4 percent of the market, the Cupertino, Calif. company’s share fell 1 percent between February and May, according to comScore. Meanwhile, Android-based handsets grew from 9 percent of the smartphone market to 13 percent over the same period, a 45 percent jump, the analysts said.
Most of Android’s growth is coming at the expense of other smartphone brands, such as RIM, Microsoft and Palm, all reporting negative growth. Microsoft’s share slipped as partners await an expected fall introduction of the Windows 7 platform. Palm also fell amid its acquisition by HP.
Apple and Google have battled back and forth with competing product releases. Apple announced selling 1.7 million iPhone 4s in the first three days of availability in June. Meanwhile, Google announced last month 160,000 Droid x handsets were activated daily, compared to 100,000 per day in May.
Although Google hopes to grab a few more RIM users by upcoming Blackberry-like products from Samsung and Motorola, the Mountain View, Calif. company still has a long hill to climb. The market-leading RIM has 41.7 percent of the smartphone market, according to comScore.
(Yes, this is tip #18 and it’s appearing out of order – that’s my fault, because I wrote it then forgot to post it. Apologies to all. Now without further ado…)
Spaces is Apple’s implementation of an old idea known as virtual desktops. You might have used virtual desktop software on your PC.
It’s pretty self-explanatory. With Spaces active, your computer suddenly has a bunch of virtual screens hovering in mid-air around your monitor. You can switch between them with a keyboard shortcut or a mouse command, and make it seem like you have much more screen space available than you actually do.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs was named “Smartest CEO in Tech” by Fortune Magazine. Jobs bested Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos in a list of the 50 smartest people in technology. Jobs was described as a “visionary, micromanager, and a showman who creates such anticipation around new products that there releases are veritable holidays,” according to the publication.
Also named were Dendreon’s Mitch Gold, Alibaba’s Jack Ma and Demand Media’s Richard Rosenblatt.
A clone is a bootable backup of your Mac’s hard drive that provides redundancy for both your data and the Macintosh Operating System. Cloning is easy to do and is complementary to other backup methods like Time Machine. The ability to get up and working in minutes after a crash or system update gone awry can be a very useful thing.
Clones provide a way to rollback your Mac OS X installation. You can keep your clone updated using synchronization software to perform incremental updates, and can use your clone to boot another Mac should the need arise.
Globe-trotting IT executive Steve Shantz wrote a short post comparing the battery life of his Windows 7-running Dell XT2 tablet with that of his colleague’s 3G iPad.
Flying from Chicago to Singapore on business, Steve’s Dell battery gives out on him after just 2.5 hours of work. There are many more hours to go. His iPad-toting colleague, meanwhile, lands in Hong Kong and still has plenty of juice left.
Again, in the conference the two of them attend, Steve is left running around looking for power points, while his friend happily cruises through the day without them.
Developer Keven Smith (neither doppelganger nor relation to Silent Bob) has just released a fantastic new text editor for Dropbox users on iOS.
Called Droptext, the app allows users to open, edit and save text files directly within their Dropbox account. It supports standard text files, naturally, but also any file with a text-based mime type, such as HTML, PHP or even C programming code.
If you’re a big Dropbox user like I am, it looks like a great app. It’s available now on the App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and costs a mere $0.99.
Trade company Alibaba claims to have a lead on the next-generation iPod Touch that strongly suggests it’ll come with a front-facing camera.
Their lead comes from an LCD assembly unit with digitizer and a stand-alone digitizer, both of which include a hole in the top center which they speculate will form the occulus of a FaceTime-capable iPod Touch.
The only problem with the theory? Sure, Apple probably wants FaceTime on the iPod Touch, but because of the way the iPod Touch is built, putting two back-to-back camera (one forward-facing, the other back-facing) is impossible.
Me, I’m not sure the iPod Touch is going to get a back-facing camera: I think Apple wants FaceTime to gain more ground more than they want the iPod Touch to be able to take snaps. Only the September iPod event will tell, though.
File firmly in the rumor folder, but NewTeeVee is resurrecting the old iOS-driven AppleTV rumor, but with a twist: this time, they say a future $99 AppleTV will feature the ability to stream television shows for just $0.99.
On one hand, such a move would make iTunes television offerings a lot more competitively priced, especially compared to services like Netflix and Hulu Plus… but on the other hand, it seems that this would replace (on the AppleTV, at least) the current purchase scheme of $1.99 – $2.99 per episode, depending on definition.
At the end of the day, though, it all seems a bit expensive to me: $20 bucks to rent a television season is a hard sell when that’s what the DVD will cost. There’s no doubt, though, that a change in the way iTunes currently prices television shows will go a long way to making the AppleTV a lot more popular, though.
As if the antenna and proximity sensor woes weren’t enough now we can add one other issue to the pile of iPhone 4 woes: catching fire. BGR reported today that one unlucky iPhone 4 owner ended up with a “fried iPhone 4” and a “slightly burned” hand.
According to the story the customer attempted to get help with the iPhone 4 by bringing it into a local store, but it was to far gone to be repaired. The incident occurred while the user was plugging the iPhone 4 into their computer using the Apple USB cable that came with it. The conclusion was that the USB port on the iPhone 4 was probably defective and while the iPhone 4 suffered some damage the cable seems to have been damaged the most.
While this could happen based on prior reports about the iPhone 3G and iPod Nano it isn’t likely going to happen to you. However, if you are overly worried about things like this then you might consider keeping a pair of oven mitts and a bucket of water (or chemical extinguisher per the comments) handy just in case.
