(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.
“The statement is appropriate,” says Chang. “It’s actually the most attractive part of the shirt. I can’t say that Apple has an exploitative relationship with China, but according to Ron Johnson’s speech in the Shanghai Apple store, I believe that Apple is trying to build up a relationship with China.”
During the store’s press preview, Johnson — the head of Apple’s stores — said the company is planning a big push in China and will open 25 retail outlets there by 2012.
Check out these awesome pictures of Apple’s new Shanghai store, courtesy of our friend Chris Chang of M.I.C Gadget.
Chris’ pictures clearly show how and why Apple is making a killing right now. While other companies are going out of business, Apple is building great glass and steel monuments to its brand that broadcast its growing influence and power — and make tons of money at the same time.
The Shanghai store is the biggest and boldest yet. It’s a big statement of the company’s success in glass and steel. What other corporation anywhere in the world is building such huge architectural monuments to itself?
We start the day off with two hardware and one very soft deal. First up is a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo Mac mini for $499. Then we take a look at a 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro for just $1,540. Finally, we wrap up our highlighted bargains with a leather case for your iPad.
Along the way, we check out many other items for your iPhone, iPod and iPad, including iPad and App Store freebies and price markdowns, as well as cases and software. As usual, details on these and many more products are at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
As unusual as it is to find an electronic gadget manufactured in the U.S. these days, it’s even more unusual for that gadget to hail from New York City — but that’s exactly where Grado’s SR60i is made. Appropriate, because just like the city, these cans have an unpolished-but-genuine persona that’s a little off-putting at first, but incredibly charming once you get past the gritty exterior.
I gawped in disbelief at this picture in the New York Times of Apple’s new store in Shanghai. At fist glance, I thought it was a special effect from a sci-fi movie. The spaceport-looking thing in the background is the Oriental Pearl Tower.
A growing number of large US businesses are arming their employees with the iPad, proving that the tablet computer’s usefulness goes way beyond keeping the kids quiet.
Recent corporate converts to the iPad include Wells Fargo, SAP and Telllabs.
“This iPad thing has taken the world by storm,” Ted Schadler, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc. told Bloomberg. “It came in as a consumer product and very quickly the people who actually bought them were business people.”
Japan’s third-ranked mobile carrier Softbank reported Wednesday it had 229,500 cell phone subscribers in June, topping the country’s biggest carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc., which recorded 164,000. Second-ranked KDDI Corp. had just 61,300 new subscribers. Softbank is the exclusive iPhone provider in a country where nearly three out of four smartphones are made by Apple.
In April, Softbank’s head, Masayoshi Son, said “the iPhone is selling so well that we are really feeling a boost from it.”Apple sold 1.7 million iPhones in Japan, 72 percent of all smartphones in that country. Indeed, the iPhone is credited with doubling the smartphone segment over 2009, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Predicting sales of a new product based on demand from eager early adopters can be risky. However, one analyst made such a leap. Bernstein Research analyst Tom Sacconaghi told investors Thursday Apple could sell 25 million iPads in 2011. But, then again, it might sell 18 million tablets next year. It kind of depends, you know?
“An analysis based on extrapolating sales trajectories of [the iPhone, iPod and all netbooks] suggests that Apple could sell a staggering 25 million iPads or more in fiscal 2011,” the analyst wrote. This seems to go along with Apple reporting selling three million iPads in the first 80 days.
There’s no shortage of choices available for gabbing with buddies these days, but instant messaging remains a favorite (I’ve actually worked in at least one newsroom where the primary method of communication was IM).
There’s no lack of IM iPhone apps either; but a clean interface, wealth of features, ability to connect with practically every IM service in the galaxy and availability for free makes Meebo the best of these.
Apple's Shaghai Store (Image courtesy Flickr user Lesh51)
Apple’s Shaghai China store opens Saturday. With the impending opening comes comparisons with the Cupertino, Calif. company’s New York City flagship. Yep, the same glass cylinder, the same hoopla, the same moat. Moat?
Yes, along with a 40-foot high glass cylinder (with possibly the largest glass panes in the world) is a moat filled with water. While Apple Senior Vice President of Retail Ron Johnson wanted to focus on the “stunning architecture,” the site Shanghaiist wanted to talk about that moat. “There is an inexplicably shallow moat of water surrounding the store, tripping up those who don’t watch their step,” a writer comments. We aren’t sure about that architecture feature, ourselves. Could it be a concession to China’s government leaders, perhaps a way to track potential troublemakers; look for the wet socks?
If Apple were interested in marketing their computers to people who live just to print, they’d probably use a slogan like: “Macs: PDF everywhere.” Or something.
Because it’s true. The ability to turn anything that’s printable into a PDF file is built right in to the OS X operating system. And it’s easy to get to from anywhere.
iPhone 4 Video medical consult: Dr. David Armstrong confers with Dr. Lee Rogers (inset).
The iPhone 4 videochat feature FaceTime may not be televising the revolution any time soon, but at least one pair of doctors have used it to consult on a patient who risked amputation.
In what may be the first documented iPhone 4 medical video consultation, University of Arizona surgeon David G. Armstrong, connected via FaceTime to give with Los Angeles Surgeon Lee Rogers’ a look at a patient who had undergone foot reconstruction at the University’s Southern Arizona Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA). The virtual consult came in handy since Dr. Rogers was attending the American Diabetes Association meeting in Orlando, Florida when he took the “FaceTime” call from Armstrong, who had returned from Orlando to his SALSA clinics a day earlier.
Another chunk of genius from The Onion, poking fun at those of us who love our Apple products a little too much.
The Apple Friend Bar, it says, is a new service where ordinary Mac fanatics can book appointments with experts who will be happy to just chat about Apple products. All. Day. Long.
My favorite part is when the Friend Bar employee is quoted saying: “Unlike your girlfriend or co-workers, we’re not going to get tired of discussing the wireless networking capabilities of the Snow Leopard operating system.”
Concept designs in general tend to be wishful-thinking affairs, but we can’t help but wish that this smart packaging design by Sverre Wiik Øberg uses the iPod’s own packaging as a charger. The box protects the iPod during shipping, then out pop the prongs to juice your iPod in any wall socket once it arrives.
What a snazzy design. Apple’s been increasingly moving towards minimizing its packaging in the interests of green friendliness over the past fe years. The next obvious step seems to be something just like this: discourage customers from throwing away their packaging to begin with by making it legitimately useful.
For the last few days, numerous iPhone users in major AT&T network hubs have noticed apparent 3G upload throttling. AT&T has just released a statement concerning the problem: its a bug with the Alcatel-Lucent HSUPA hardware, and they are working on it.
“AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent jointly identified a software defect — triggered under certain conditions – that impacted uplink performance for Laptop Connect and smartphone customers using 3G HSUPA-capable wireless devices in markets with Alcatel-Lucent equipment. This impacts less than two percent of our wireless customer base. While Alcatel-Lucent develops the appropriate software fix, we are providing normal 3G uplink speeds and consistent performance for affected customers with HSUPA-capable devices.
In other words, something went kablooey, and until Alcatel-Lucent gets around to fixing the problem, users with HSUPA-capable devices like the iPhone 4 will be limited to regular 3G UMTS upload speeds.
Wonder if you’re affected? If you’re in NYC, Central Jersey, Boston, Orlando, Seattle, South Jersey/Philly, Columbus, Cleveland, West Houston, Phoenix, Northern Colorado, St. Paul/Minnesota, Suffolk County/Long Island, Quad Cities, South Jersey, Denver, Detroit Metro, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Fairfax and Minneapolis… well, could be.
By many people’s estimations, the iPad is missing anywhere from between one and two cameras, and Apple’s curious choice to eschew adding at least one web cam to their tablet when they already had their video-conferencing standard FaceTime in the wings is often cynically described as a move to encourage customers to quickly upgrade to the second-gen unit once it pops out of Cupertino’s manufacturing shops.
Why wait until then, though? This iPad Cam-Case design by Chet Rosales adds a swiveling camera to the enclosure. Of course, without proper support from Apple (and a port of FaceTime to iPad), a case like this would be pretty useless… but we’re hopeful, if not optimistic, that Apple might choose to sell something like this themselves when the camera-equipped, second-gen iPad comes out sometime in the next year. Let’s not leave the early adopters behind.
This gorgeous pinhole camera on Etsy isn’t just elegantly simple in its design, but its made out of an old iPhone box. Load a standard 35mm film reel into its spool and you’ll be able to take simple pinhole snaps with the best of shoebox toting grade schoolers. It even has a built-in advance and rewind reel, enabling you to “shoot a picture, advance to the next frame, use the entire roll of film, rewind it back into the canister and take it to the drug store for processing!” Who needs iPhoto?
