Apple’s much-awaited tablet device may include graphics capable of “stunning resolution” able to outshine the iPod, iPhone and possibly sound a death-knell for Amazon’s Kindle. The device, which many expect to see during the first quarter of 2010, may also offer a Webcam for mobile video conferencing, according to a survey of analyst speculation.
Analyst Laura DiDio of ITIC told CNNMoney.com the device will include a “high-end graphics card” for its 10- to 12-inch screen. “The tablet will change the game, because Apple will throw down the gauntlet at the competitors, and force them to follow along,” DiDio told the Web site.
Used with a cc-license, thanks to juanpol on flickr.
The Economist’s quarterly mag Intelligent Life did round robin interviews with a number of design luminaries, literati and museum curators about what objects define life in the aughts.
The iPod and iPhone came up most frequently, leading the editors to name this the iDecade.
That doesn’t mean they have anything nice to say about them, however.
Most of the comments veer towards the “these devices cut us off from humanity” type. Young’uns in other times were more social and less social media, apparently, we were all the better for it.
A few choice excerpts:
STEPHEN JONES, Milliner
iPhone. Txt spk
What is the Mini of today? Probably the iPhone. I wish I could say floor-length dresses or big green hats, but I can’t. Communication is the issue now, not freedom and mobility: iPhone, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter. This is a big sea-change: it is more about communication through the word and less about the image…
DOMINIC SANDBROOK, Author of “White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties”
iPods. Extreme materialism. Politicians cycling.
People listening to iPods on their way to work—and not merely as a symbol of technology, but as a representation of a sort of introversion, a retreat within our own bubble…
EKOW ESHUN, Artistic director, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
The Prius. iPods. Style jams
The Prius is the car of the decade. It’s unlovely in lots of ways, but it has become an icon of aspiration. And then the iPod and social networking. Something that spools from these is that we don’t really have style subcultures anymore. Instead we have a playlist culture, where you’re allowed to mash up everything around you in a sort of pick’n’mix…
You know how the new amazing new augmented reality concept, in apps like Bionic Eye and Urban Spoon, have you blindly following the screen’s marker and bumping into people? Or the side of buildings? No? Fine, maybe it’s just me.
Point is, it’s usually easier to navigate to the nearest Starbucks with a map rather than AR.
But using AR to predict the future — hey, now that’s a cool idea. Sun Seeker does exactly that, estimating where the sun will be in the future. hold the iPhone up the sky, and an overlay displays the sun’s current position (usually not too difficult to find, even without AR) and its predicted path overhead.
If you’re not into AR, the app has a more conventional screen that provides a top-down overview.
Who will use this? Like the app’s iTunes Store page says, Sun Seeker is probably a great boon for pilots, architects, photographers and the like. Or residents of London or San Francisco. Sometimes it’s just good to know the sun is still there.
Currently, the only Apple-made game listed in the Cupertino, Calif. company’s App Store is Texas Hold’em. That may change as Apple reportedly begins searching for “a passionate” gamer able to help design for the iPhone and iPod touch. The job search would fit Apple’s vision of gaming as the next arena for its handheld devices.
In September, Apple unveiled two new iPod touchs, each with beefier hardware for gaming. To reinforce the importance of gaming, the company labels the iPod touch as the “funnest iPod ever.”
Be careful what you wish for. That may be the lesson Florida-based Psystar received after a judge issued a summary judgement in favor of Apple. “Psystar infringed Apple’s exclusive right to create derivative works of Mac OS X,” the court ruled.
Judge William Alsup denied Psystar’s motion for a summary judgement alleging Apple’s End User License Agreement was a form of copyright abuse. Alsup also ruled Psystar violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by installing a version of Apple’s OS that would run on the company’s computers.
I’m always wondering how many Onion vodcasts I’ll get though while waiting in line at the DMV before before my iPhone’s battery shuts down and leaves me staring at the back of the bald guy’s head in front of me.
Not only will Battery Gauge tell me that, say the folks over at Tap Mode, but it’ll also crunch the numbers and give you an idea of how long I have remaining for any of the other myriad activities the iPhone is good for, like audio playback, connecting to the Internet and yammering on the phone. It’ll also reveal how much standby time is left.
Battery Gauge figures all this out by monitoring your iPhone use, and apparently needs to watch you through just one single charge-cycle.
Not bad for a buck. Also works with the iPod Touch.
We’ve written before in this space about Apple’s unique status as a Muse to creative people. In fact, the initial impulse for this post was a search for striking pieces of art created on the iPhone.
Those are out there, too, in droves — and we’ll be featuring them soon in another gallery post.
Today, however, we bring you something we didn’t quite expect to find: a series of art pieces that shed a bit of perspective on the dark side of Apple.
The original manual comes with the Apple 1 up for auction on eBay.
There’s another Apple 1 on the eBay auction block, this one comes with enough collateral to stand as its own museum exhibit.
The starting bid is $50,000, the auction is on for another two days.
The owner, who wished to remain anonymous, told us how this Apple artifact got there.
CoM: How did you get your hands on an Apple 1?
Anonymous Owner: I came to own the Apple 1 through a very convoluted story, but in short I found a guy in Minnesota who bought it from the original owner in 1990 and, eventually, he sold it to me.
CoM: What made you decide to sell it?
AO: It is killing me to sell it but I’m on very hard times and I’ve sold everything else of value. I want to keep this magnificent piece of history forever. There is no price I would willingly put on this item…but I have kids and of course that takes priority.
CoM: How did you decide the price?
AO: I set the opening price because a) an Apple 1 has sold for as much as $43k and b) if I have to sell my most prized possession and I sold it for an inadequate amount I’d have to take my life.
So, really, the price is all about saving lives. lol.
CoM: In the selling info, you say that Woz looked at it and said that it probably wouldn’t boot because the first batches of Apple 1s used a brand of chip they later replaced because they blew out easily.
MagicHour is a world clock app with great information presentation.
In one screen, the app displays a wealth of info about time, daylight stages and moon phases in different cities. Edward Tufte would cream his pants. All world clocks should be like this.
Are you looking for a way to keep you iPod or iPhone charged, but not happy with the bulky options out there? PhoneSuit introduces the Primo battery, a compact mini battery unit that attached to your dock connector port. The unit’s 800mAh battery claims to power your iPod for up to 45 hours of music playback, or three hours of talk time on your iPhone 3G. The lithium-ion battery is good for 500 charges, according to PhoneSuit.
To charge the Primo, simply use the included USB cable to plug into any USB 2.0 or USB 1.1 outlet. A LED meter displays the battery’s remaining charge – when the LED turns blue you are fully charged.
The Primo costs $35 per unit or $89.95 for a three-pack. The mini charger comes with a 1-year warranty.
We end the week with three hardware deals. First up is a 120GB iPod classic for $189. Next is Apple’s 24-inch Cinema HD Widescreen LED display for $800. Our top trio rounds out with a 500 GB Time Capsule. Along the way, we talk about various accessories, discounts and skins for your favorite iPhone or iPod.
As always, for details on these and other items (like Logitech’s Pure-Fi Elite Stereo System for the iPod or iPhone, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
AT&T has fired back against Verizon Wireless, telling customers its rivals’ recent ads “are so blatantly false and misleading, that we want to set the record straight about AT&T’s wireless data coverage.”
The letter to AT&T customers claims that it covers 97 percent of the U.S. population and has twice the number of smartphones than Verizon.
Rogue Amoeba becomes the latest developer to quit the App Store in frustration over Apple’s lengthy review process. The developer “no longer has any plans for additional iPhone applications, and updates to our existing iPhone applications will likely be rare,” according to a Friday blog post.
On Thursday, Joe Hewitt, developer of the iPhone Facebook app, announced he’ll stop developing for the iPhone out of a “philosophical opposition” to the reviews. Like Hewitt, Rogue Amoeba developer Paul Kafasis told App Store customers the Cupertino, Calif. company was “acting as a gatekeeper” and preventing developers from getting software to users.
Just in time for iTunes Store customers to send family and friends links to their favorite songs, Apple has created the iTunes Preview Web site. Now clicking on links to iTunes media no longer requires launching the full iTunes media software suite.
iTunes Store customers can use the “Copy Link” feature to send links to an iTunes Preview page.
The iTunes Preview Web page allows you to browse artists and albums, read biographies and get more information on song prices or customer reviews. Browsers will still need the iTunes software to listen to song snippets. The iTunes Preview site includes a “View in iTunes” button. Although the iTunes Store offers music and movies, the new Web site currently supports only music.
Apple updated its iTunes 9 software in October. The iTunes 9.0.2 included support for the new Apple TV 3.0 and gave customers the option of also viewing iTunes LP or iTunes Extras through Apple TV.
The 21-year-old Australian behind the first iPhone virus got a death threat, media interviews and job offers as the result of his efforts.
Ashley Towns, who said the result was an “experiment that got out of hand,” created a worm that switches iPhone wallpaper for an image of 80s pop singer Rick Astley. Astley, who sang the 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up,” who morphed into the Internet prank known as “Rickrolling.” The bait-and-switch worm replaces an ordinary video with one of Astley.
Here’s how it happened:
“I was reading a blog that said in bold letters to change your passwords and I wondered how many had.”
It turned out that most of the people on his network had not.
“So I started writing it from there. I stayed up all night and when I was half asleep I decided to test it.
“I didn’t really think about legal consequences at the time. I honestly never expected it to go this far.
“I thought it would spread to no more than 10 or 15 people.”
Let’s say you’ve got $30 grand to blow on a gold and diamond iPhone but the idea of just buying one without the thrill of an auction bores you.
Two of these tricked out iPhones are up for sale from “bespoke luxury communications” (read: cell phones that go bling-bling along with ring-ring) purveyor Stuart Hughes on BillionaireXchange.com, a site that launched this week billing itself as the first online marketplace for, uh, billionaires.
The pink 3GS model above, coated in 18-carat solid rose gold, was designed entirely by hand and dusted with 53 pink diamonds on the Apple logo. Each phone takes four craftsmen months to make. If that’s too girly, there’s also the 22-carat gold model with a white diamond logo.
Retail price for both? Nearly £22,000 ($36,000). Starting bid on the auction site is £18,000 ($30,000).
Both auctions say the reserve price has already been met, so maybe diamond-encrusted iPhones aren’t the white elephants of the aughts.
The package (ahem), available from USBFever.com, includes the scope, a stand and an iPhone hardcase that is used to attach the scope to the lens.
What could it be used for? A handy promotional video seems to suggest perhaps spying on your neighbors in the pool, and a Mashable post wonders if the telescope could be used by “predators with less-than-pure motivations.” Although with its bulky length — the scope looks like it’s almost the length of the iPhone (4.5 inches, in case you were wondering) — it’s probably not something a budding James Bond could easily…uh…whip out of his pocket.
The scope kit runs $28.99 and the site says it’ll ship “on or before 25 Nov 2009”
There’s also a 6x version available that’s $10 cheaper and ditches the stand. Although, with all the hand-shake jitteriness displayed in the video with the 8x, the stand is probably a good idea to save yourself an eyestrain headache — even though the 6x’s susceptibility to hand shake is probably reduced.
The V-Moda Vibe II with Microphone fits this explanation so exquisitely, you might well see them being whipped out as a teaching aid by your Latin instructor when the above phrase comes up.
Carpe diem. (Seize the day. Best way would be by clicking on the link for the rest of the review.)
Screens of all shapes and sizes can end up cluttered with windows and palettes all over the place. On tiny little MacBook screens you get everything overlapping everything else; on ginormous 27″ iMac screens, everything’s so far apart you have to crane your neck to take it all in.
Step forward Zooom/2, a utility designed to make managing all those windows a little bit easier.
There are only thought to be about 50 Apple 1s still in the wild, this is the second one up for auction on eBay in a month.
The last one sold for about $18,000, several thousand over its estimated value, to an anonymous computer collector who also tipped us off about the sale of this 1976 progenitor of the personal computer. The starting bid is $50,000.
So why is this Apple 1 , which the seller states won’t boot up, priced at 177% more than the other one?
It’s pretty much a capsule history of early Apple: the wise person who first bought it for Electric City Radio Supply in Montana kept everything — the invoice, the box (which shows the return address as Steve Jobs’ parents house), a cassette with BASIC, the operation manual and a typed letter on ring binder paper from Steve Jobs answering questions about it, including how to hook up a keyboard. Even if you don’t have the cash, the photos are worth checking out.
We wrote to the seller, more when we hear back.
Hit the jump for the letter signed “Steven Jobs” on notebook paper and more details…
I call it a temple because the architecture conveys a nearly religious aesthetic, a place to worship Apple, beyond any other Apple store you’ve ever been to. The top floor’s a vast open space, enclosed by spartan stone walls which support a massive glass ceiling. The rows of tables in the main room feel like pews.
I can’t tell you – and the pictures can’t show you – how utterly open and expansive the room feels. Apple says it has more demo units than any other store in the world. To give you an idea of the space, the walls are 45 feet tall, and could fit 11 Apple 5th Avenue Cubes inside. It’s the spareness that’s breathtaking. It’s cold. Not literally, but the stone walls, the glass, the sheer space rob it of any sense of warmth or feeling. The only sense of life in room is the products. It’s a temple to them, really.
Today’s bevy of bargains starts with a bundle of nano applications from MacHeist. Included in the offer is VirusBarrier X5 for free. The VirusBarrier barrier is part of MacHeist’s nanoBundle: twitterific, mariner write and four other applications. To partake, you’ll need to register and post a Facebook announcement. The deal ends today. Also on tap: an iPhone 3GS for $149 and a number of MacBook Pro laptops, including a 1.83 GHz version sporting a 15-inch screen for $750.
As always, for details on these deals and more, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.
Apple’s iPhone now accounts for 17 percent of global smartphone sales, propelled by a nearly 50 percent growth rate for the third quarter, new research released Thursday indicates. Cupertino’s rising star in worldwide smartphone demand is expected to only increase as the iPhone becomes available in China and more carriers begin offering the popular cell phone.
During the September quarter, Apple shipped an estimated 7.04 million iPhones – a 49.2 percent jump over last year, making the company the third-largest smartphone maker behind Nokia and Research in Motion. Apple had 12.9 percent of the market during the same period in 2008, according to Gartner.
