Cult of Mac

As we reported eariler the Apple Store was closed this morning when I went for my ‘O-Dark-Thirty’ run, and as anticipated, we’ve got new i5 and i7 Macbook Pros to enjoy. I will be picking one up today if possible and will give a full rundown later in the week for an in-depth hands on.

Pricing looks great too, with $200 off the 17″ model. The 17″ configured as I’d buy it with an i7, is just $200 more (or in other words back to the original pricing).

No updates today for Macbook Air, or Macbook Pro… Which is good ’cause I don’t think I could justify to even my generious and understanding wife, upgrading two three thousand dollar machines at once!

Beautiful. Thanks Steve.

Check back here this weekend for a deep-dive hands on.

The apple store is being updated as I write this, new Macbook pros anyone? Let’s hope so

After a wait of 20 days, Opera Mini has been approved by Apple for release to the App Store.

There are quite a few similar services around, but Cloud is the latest of the instant file sharing apps, and it’s very nicely done.

The aim is to make sharing of files – any files – as quick and painless as possible. Whatever you wish you share, you drag up to the icon in your Menu Bar. The app does everything from there; uploading the file, creating a short URL for it, and putting that URL on your clipboard. All you need to do is paste it somewhere.

Cloud is still very young. It was only officially out of beta on April 1st, and there are still some rough edges. What I like about it is that the dev team are very open about what’s going on, as you can see from posts like this one on their blog.

Steve Jobs appears to still be banging out email replies to regular Joes and Janes. His latest customer missive was sent out to German Apple owner Niko, who wanted to know whether Apple would still be supporting or updating the iPhone 2g.

Jobs’ typical cut-to-the-chase answer? “Sorry no.”

The death knell for the 2g isn’t super surprising, it wasn’t part of the iPhone 4.0 presser and in device years, the original iPhone was pretty long in the tooth, discontinued in the US in summer 2008.

For those of you curious about what device Jobs used to send this answer, this one came from his iPhone, not his iPad.

Via Mac Stories

Pilgrims trekking Italy to ogle the the Shroud of Turin, on public display for the first time in a decade, now have iPhone apps to help them see more.

Last time thousands of visitors flocked to peek at the yellowed cloth said to depict the face of Jesus, the best mobile option was probably some lame WAP browser.

This time around, iPhone apps can help negotiate the challenges of Italian travel — opening hours, monuments off the grid — with the flick of a finger.

iSindone (“sindone” is Italian for holy shroud) costs $0.99, and offers opening times, directions for getting there and info on the cathedral. There’s also a hi-res image of the shroud, rumored to be a medieval fake, which may give you a better look than the quick drive-by visitors get of the real thing.

Instant Turin, gratis for the next two weeks in honor of the shroud unveiling, promises to steer you clear of restaurants with dreaded tourist menus and get you to the Mole on time.

The official app,  also called Sindone, hasn’t been released yet. Registering on the web site will give you details when it launches,  we’re going to hope before the shroud display ends May 23.

And, if you need to walk off the chocolate and Barolo, try the sprawling gardens of  Venaria Reale outside Turin — just remember to get bus times and hours handy or printed out or you will risk getting stranded.

Had you bought stock in Apple Computers when the Macintosh was introduced in 1984, you’d have received quite a nice return on your investment over the past 25 years. Had you bought Apple stock in 2001, when iTunes was introduced, your nine-year ROI would look pretty stellar, too. Heck, if you’d bought some AAPL in 2007, when the iPhone came out, chances are you’d have doubled your money in three short, mostly lackluster stock market years.

But what about now? Is 2010, the year of the iPad’s introduction, time to buy or time to sell shares in the company Steve Jobs founded?

Self-described mobile industry enthusiast, author and chronicler Tomi T Ahonen is unequivocal: “[Apple’s] time of ascendancy has come to an end.”

We start off another week with a deal on MacBook Pro laptops. The laptops run at 2.4GHz using a Core 2 Duo processor. The machines have a 15-inch screen. Also on the top deal list for today is the Decloner, software that finds and eliminates duplicate files on your Mac. Finally, we offer a universal GPS car mount.

Along the way, we check out a number of storage options, as well as other bargains. As always, details on these and many more devices are available on the CoM “Daily Deals” pge, which starts right after the jump.

Last week, I wrote about an upcoming bullet hell SHMUP from Cave called ESPGALUDA II due to hit the App Store last Saturday. As promised, it did, and at a special low introductory price of $4.99 to boot.

Unfortunately, though, ESPGALUDA II came with some big problems.

For one, it would only run on the iPhone 3Gs or iPad. Even worse? Due to a developer error, third generation iPod Touches like mine were inexplicably incapable of running the game, even though the hardware supports it. This put iPod Touch owners in a nasty position: they either dropped five bucks on the ESPGALUDA II app now and hoped an update came along soon to fix the install problem, or waited for the fix and risk paying an extra four bucks for the game later.

If you’re a SHMUP-loving iPod Touch 3rd Gen owner, though, don’t despair. There’s an easy way to get ESPGALUDA II running on your device right now. Just follow the instructions below.

We’ve got some miscellaneous iPhone apps to give away, but this time we’re going to keep it a surpirse! We did it last week on Facebook, and if you were following us that day on the Facebook page, then you know that I hooked you up! Today will be no different, except we’re doing it on Twitter. Here’s how it will work:

1. Follow us on Twitter. (this is a must or else you won’t know when we drop the codes).
2. I will randomly drop the codes in a tweet throughout the day until 12:00am EST
3. The codes are a free-for-all, so the first one to redeem it, claims it. If you want to be nice, @mention us with the one you took so people don’t bother going for that one.
4. To redeem the codes, either log in to the iTunes store from iTunes on your desktop and look for the “redeem” link, or open up the “app store” app on your iPhone, and scroll all the way down the bottom. Push the “Redeem” button, and type in the code.

We don’t have time to go through every code and verify that it’s still good, so they are expired, just let us know. There are numerous reasons why they expire. Some just expire after 30 days, and others expire if a new version of the app has come out. Keep following us throughout the day, so you don’t miss out!

Apple’s upcoming iPhone OS 4 removes any mention of Google from the iPhone’s search feature, the latest step by the Cupertino, Calif. company to erase any connection with the Mountain View, Calif. Internet giant.

Already part of iPhone OS 3.2 used by the iPad, the elimination of the word “Google” from the iPhone’s Safari Web browser is part of iPhone OS 4, currently in beta stage. The current iPhone 3.1.3 includes a “Google” button in the bottom right corner of the handset’s touchscreen keyboard. The beta software will likely be made public this summer.

We already know Apple has a lock on consumers, particularly teens. However, the world of the corporate cubicle has been dominated by Microsoft and the Blackberry. That picture may be changing, according to a new survey finding corporate interest in the iPhone increasing.

Apple share of the corporate smartphone market reached 27 percent in February, up from 22 percent in November, according to ChangeWave Research. The three chief reasons: demand by employees, more corporate applications available on the “cloud” via the iPhone, and improved security.

Jon Berg injected some fresh life into his broken 17-inch iMac G4 by cramming a touchscreen PC’s guts inside and re-skinning the desktop to resemble OS X.

I wonder, though, why he didn’t decide to make it a dual-boot hackintosh. Windows 7’s multitouch is a total hack job. It’s hardly worth sacrificing OS X as your day-to-day operating system.

It’s certainly exciting that the iPhone is getting multitasking… but with only the very last generation of iDevice’s supported, a lot of people are going to be left behind. Even Apple seemed a little bit embarrassed not to be rolling multitasking out across all devices.

Presumably, the issue is one of horsepower, but not complete inability for pre-3Gs devices to multitask. A developer has discovered that by switching just one variable, you can enable multitasking on the iPhone 3G fairly easily.

Personally, I wonder if Apple wouldn’t have been wise to be a little more flexible on their rigid performance expectations for multitasking. When Apple introduced the App Store, they essentially eliminated the biggest and most obvious reason why the average iPhone owner would choose to jailbreak their devices: the ability to run third-party software. Getting multitask on older iPhones and iPod Touches is going to be a big reason for people to start jailbreaking again.

The evidence continues to mount that the next iPhone, iPad or both will support video conferencing. Just a few days after the iChatAgent process was found running under iPhone OS in the 4.0 Beta… and now 9to5Mac has unearthed the motherload of all video chat references.

According to Mark Gurman, “We’ve found references to moderators, chat rooms, encrypted video conferences and other features which could be even be used by developers in the future to add video chat to gaming applications, perhaps with ties to Gamecenter.”

A built-in video chat API for game developers to use in their apps is exciting enough, but 9to5Mac have also found that Apple is testing iPhone video conferencing services and have opened four servers (one external, three internal) to test out the feature.

Finally? According to 9to5Mac’s sources, iPads and iPod Touches are going to get video in the fall, simultaneous with the next iPhone release. And you thought you’d have a year before you had to upgrade your iPad.

Introduced way back in iPhone OS 2.2, the “Rate on Delete” feature was a great example of how even Apple sometimes get it wrong.

The intention, of course, was to prompt users to actually rate the apps on their iPhone in a non-intrusive way, but if you never deleted an app, you were never prompted to rate it. Combined with the fact that people deleting apps tend not to care much for them and you had a system that promoted app reviews but with a slant to the negative.

Now MacRumors is reporting that Apple has fixed its mistake and removed Rate on Delete from OS 4.0

I’m not sure this is the right tack. You still want user ratings, it’s just the current system skews towards bad ratings. Why not supplement Rate on Delete with a one-time Rate prompt the fifth time you open an app? That would cover all the bases.

When it comes to teen and electronics, there’s seemingly only one company on the playing field: Apple. “Apple’s dominance in the (consumer electronics) and online music markets is going seemingly unchecked,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told investors Monday.

At the head of that urge to own anything with the Apple logo is the iPhone. Nearly a third – 31 percent – of teens the financial analyst surveyed said they plan to buy an iPhone in the next half year. That’s up from 22 percent last fall and almost double the 16 percent found a year ago.

Who knows how the iPad will ultimately be used? Certainly no one at this early date.

Is it merely an ebook reader, or is it a gaming device? Could it be an honest-to-goodness tool for business?

Like so many things, it all depends on your expectations.

It’s well known by now that early impressions of the iPad find it pooh-pooed by the technorati and generally lauded by the great unwashed as a fantastical window (if you’ll excuse the pun) into the future of mobile computing.

The highly regarded founder of Daily Kos, one of the Internet’s most widely read blogs, weighed in Sunday with a wide-ranging, detailed review of Apple’s latest creation and pronounced the iPad a gadget that “scored big as … a device that makes my life easier,” calling it “better than a laptop.”

Almost as big is the Mahoubar’s lofty reputation, having been named Bicycling Magazine Editors choice for Best Commuter Bag of the year. So it was with no lack of excitement when Crumpler asked us to review the Mahoubar Messenger Backpack….

Update: This article is not intended for the Irony challenged.

So I’m a hypocrite. After swearing that there was no way I’d ever own a tablet with a phone operating system, I broke down and got one. At this price point, I don’t see how I couldn’t. The wife couldn’t be happier, one needs just look at my bathroom above to see why. Gone are the endless stacks of magazines and books. Gone, is the image of her husband stuck behind his desk, nose in the computer (now, I’m on the couch, nose in the iPad, but at least being in the same room gives the impression of being engaged with the family).

Follow me after the jump for my impressions after week one.

Apparently MicroCenter has got new part numbers in their system for Macbooks, the pricing and models seem to line up nicely to the Macbook Pro lineup. Will this Tuesday be upgrade day? Steve only knows, but my fingers are crossed.

via Macdailynews

As noted in my last review, I’m not a big fan of iPhone cases (or any sort of cases, really. Or even clothes — when I was a kid, I ran around nak…uh, but back to the case). When I saw Incase’s Perforated Snap Case, and heard it was one of the lightest and leanest iPhone cases, I expected to find a case I would finally keep permanently attached to my 3GS. Well, not quite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xAJmdhQzJ4&feature=youtube_gdata

Golf aficionados — or viewers agog about Tiger Woods’ emergence from hibernation — might have noticed a curiously new AT&T in a TV spot during the start of the PGA Masters in Augusta on Thursday.

The introduction of the iPad is a clarion call for major music labels to finally recognize the future of the music industry and embrace the development of applications made to run on Apple’s new device, according to a feature article in the latest issue of Billboard Magazine, which officially hits news stands Saturday.

Once the province of industry insiders, filled with reams of stats and reportage on music industry minutiae, behind-the-scenes comings and goings and gossip, Billboard is now a smart and snappy magazine with its finger on the pulse of the larger forces at work in the music industry, with articles seemingly targeting a more general audience while remaining the go-to source for the numbers that drive the industry.

The cover of the current issue promises a look at The Next Killer Apps, though what the article inside actually suggests is that – generally – the next killer apps on the iPad are going to be music-related offerings tied to artist branding that will give consumers something more than the aural experience provided by CDs and music downloads, and will provide the industry new realms of revenue producing products that go well beyond the marketing value of the web content and promotional aspirations of most mobile offerings produced to date.

Even in the age of blogs, this has got to go down as a first for corporate PR. Adobe is telling Apple to “go screw yourself” over the new iPhone developer’s license that appears to ban apps made with Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone programming tools.

Writing on the Flash Blog, Lee Brimelow, Adobe’s Flash Platform Evangelist, writes:

What is clear is that Apple has timed this purposely to hurt sales of CS5. This has nothing to do whatsoever with bringing the Flash player to Apple’s devices. That is a separate discussion entirely. What they are saying is that they won’t allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe. This does not just affect Adobe but also other technologies like Unity3D. […] Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.

Note: this is an earlier version of the post copied by Via 9to5Mac.com before someone at Adobe ordered edits.