Muadib hasn’t posted a lot of stuff at Vimeo, but this mock-up ad for the new iPhone that you just know is coming has design sense and a bit of welcome humor, too.
How far off do you suppose the neural interface revolution is? Because you just know it’s coming.
Skype for iPhone could appear in Apple’s iTunes AppStore as soon as next week, according to a report Thursday at GigaOm.
Citing a “very reliable” source, the report says an iPhone app for Skype could launch next week at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas. The report notes there have been other clues suggesting such a launch, such as other VoIP services changing potential launches of their own. Which makes sense, because when it hits, Skype will immediately become the big dog in the yard with its 400+ million users world wide.
Other VoIP services, such as TruePhone and Fring already have iPhone applications but have yet to catch on as methods for bypassing the cell network to make and receive phone calls. Other applications, such as web-based RF.com are also known to be working on providing native options for VoIP calling on the iPhone.
Skype has grown to become the most well-known and widely used VoIP provider in the world and its appearance on the iPhone would impact the development of mobile VoIP as well as the business fortunes of Apple and AT&T.
Grab your parka, hat and gloves and book your tickets early for WWDC 2009, June 8 – 12 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center West.
Apple announced the dates Thursday via its Developers Connection website for the annual conference that provides developers and IT professionals with in-depth technical information and hands-on learning about iPhone OS and Mac OS X technologies from over 1000 Apple engineers who created them.
Easily one of the most eagerly anticipated Geek festivals on the calendar, this year’s conference should draw even more interest than usual due to the impending arrival of iPhone 3.0 and Mac OS X 10.6, known as Snow Leopard.
Early-bird registration for the conference is $1,295 until April 24th, after which the entrance fee goes up $300. Current ADC Student Members and student Team Members in the iPhone Developer University Program can apply for a WWDC Student Scholarship for free admission to the conference.
From the Euclid Sun Journal police blotter for the greater Cleveland Area:
FOUND PROPERTY, VOELKER AVENUE: A man found an Apple computer at 7 p.m. March 16 on the street at Babbitt Road. He believed the computer may have been mistakenly left atop someone’s car roof when the car was driven away.
What are the chances it’s still working?
Image used with a cc license, thanks to dv0rsky
Proctor & Gamble is now behind (pardon pun) global public bathroom finder app “Sit or Squat.” Below the list of facilities in the area, a Charmin logo appears with the phrase “Gotta Go? Relax. We got your back.”
The app, offered gratis on iTunes, has info on where to find bathrooms, changing tables, handicap access and other amenities. Users can add new content to the service and rate featured toilets.
“Our goal is to connect Charmin with innovative conversations and solutions as a brand that understands the importance of bringing the best bathroom experience to consumers, even when they’re away from home,” explained Jacques Hagopian, Brand Manager for Charmin in the press release. “Helping people find a bathroom that is clean and comfortable is exactly what the SitOrSquat project is all about.”
So far, SitOrSquat has compiled information on more than 52,000 toilets in 10 countries worldwide. Some 1,600 users have downloaded the app, although complaints about the user interface and slow loading times are frequent.
Still, as far as corporate-sponsored apps go, it’s much better than Coke’s “spin the bottle” app or Target’s virtual snow ball.
Via textually
This is a vanilla cupcake meant to look like it’s topped with a handmade fondant iPhone for a senior management meeting at Air Canada.
Apple must have the sweetest distribution deal in the entire retail universe, if a report published Wednesday at TechCrunch is to be believed.
The AppStore refund policy allows purchasers a full refund up to 90 days from the date of download of any application purchased in the iTunes AppStore. Which seems questionable enough in the light of, say, the Android Market’s 24 hour return policy.
But a clause in the developer’s contract all iPhone developers must sign in order to have their apps sold in the AppStore indicates that in addition to a three month return policy, “Apple will have the right to retain its commission on the sale of that Licensed Application, notwithstanding the refund of the price to the end user.”
In effect this means Apple will charge 100% of the sale price to a developer for every refund given, even though the developer only got 70% of the price of the sale in the first place.
Many iPhone app developers are on the record as having no problem with Apple’s 30% sales commission for applications sold through the iTunes AppStore. The thinking goes that independent developers gain access to many more potential customers by having their products in the widely visited venue, save tons of money on marketing and transaction costs and generally benefit from being associated with the legitimacy of the Apple brand.
When consumers get wind of this policy, which may be a new development, according to the TechCrunch report, developers of some widely purchased though basically useless apps could be in for a rude awakening.
UPDATE: No developer is likely to go bankrupt in the real world, according to a level-headed explanation posted Thursday by Erica Sadun, a developer/blogger for ArsTechnica.
The reason, which makes perfect sense when you think about it, is that Apple never gives refunds, except in extreme circumstances and then, only after causing the customer many headaches.
All the Fart app people can rest easy now.
Apple released a firmware update Wednesday for owners of 2009 unibody 17″ MacBook Pros meant to resolve issues with Nvidia graphics processors that have been causing display anomalies for some users.
Reports on March 6 described complaints related to the Nvidia GeForce 9600 graphics processor in new 17″ MacBook Pros that were causing lines to appear all over some users’ notebook displays, as reported in Apple support threads and in comments to Cult of Mac’s original post.
The firmware update released Wednesday applies only to 2009 model 17″ MacBook Pros. Users wishing to apply the firmware fix should consult Apple documentation for information on how to apply the update.
Let us know in comments whether the firmware solves the problem.
Apple was granted a recent patent, no. 7,508,662, for a handle arrangement with integrated heat pipe.
Here’s how it’s summed up in the patent application: “As portable electronic device designs become more compact, managing thermal loads in integrated circuits (e.g. processing units) becomes more challenging.
One reason for this challenge is that high powered portable devices can generate significant amounts of waste heat energy over a relatively compact area. As such, damage due to heat cycling may cause collateral damage to components in close proximity to heat generators. In conventional solutions, fans may be utilized in coordination with a heat sink to dissipate generated waste heat. In some examples, where fans are utilized to cool components, battery life may be significantly lowered.
“Although conventional methods as illustrated may be effective, as noted above, power requirements for fan usage may, in some instances significantly reduce battery life making such a solution somewhat undesirable. Furthermore, use of a fan may, in some examples, contribute to an undesirable increase in noise level. Therefore, handle arrangements with an integrated heat pipe are presented herein.”
The iBook G3 Clamshell had a handle (removed on later models), a quick search turned up third-party handles for newer models, too, though at about $45 you might be better off with a case.
Have you bought handles? Would you like to see them on your next laptop?
via macsimum news
Spotted this yesterday in Milan: a small stool with a faux-Apple logo, missing the bite and a few colors but unmistakably inspired by the iconic rainbow.
Wonder who, for about $17 (€12.90), would want to sit on it, PC people?
Nearly 900 people RSVPd for the boxee meetup Tuesday at Webster Hall in NYC, where the “bleeding edge” media center platform is announcing brand new partnerships with Pandora, Radio Time and PBS, as well as a more robust API and a new XUL-based framework for the boxee browser that will enable easier interaction with any web-based video (translation: Hulu web pages).
Live video of the meetup and a chat session are accessible on the Mogulus boxee meetup channel.
With the new Pandora station, boxee users can listen to their personal quickmix and favorite stations, as well as create new stations, making music in the living room more accessible than ever.
BoxeeHQ is also releasing a new PBS app today, and the company promises its new API will allow developers to build apps using XML pages and Python scripts, giving them control over everything they want from a UI perspective.
They offer as an example the new implementation of Radio Time, an application built using the new API that will allow users to stream over 100k terrestrial radio stations from around the world.
By adding new access to more music and continuing to add to and refine access to video content, boxee is definitely pressing its case as a force to be reckoned with in the breaking down of barriers between internet and traditional media content.
If you’ve been on the fence about whether or not to jailbreak your iPhone due to trepidation over wading into deep geek water, Ripdev’s release of InstallerApp might be just the tipping point you’ve been waiting for.
It’s an application for Mac (soon to be available for Windows PCs as well) that allows you to download iPhone apps on your computer and transfer them to your device in a friendly iTunes-like interface, without “jailbreaking” your phone.
InstallerApp comes with software, called “Pusher”, that RipDev says can install Installer.app on your iPhone without “jailbreaking” it, so you can use Apple’s approved AppStore and InstallerApp simultaneously. The app supports Cydia, a popular installer for jailbroken iPhones, but does so, according to Ripdev, without making a mess of your iPhone’s file system or replacing any system libraries as Cydia does.
You’ll need a Mac with Intel processor running OS X 10.5 Leopard or higher. InstallerApp supports first generation iPhone and iPhone 3G, though not iPod touch as yet.
One $7 license lets you sync up to three iPhones and gives you access to free updates and email tech support for one year. The free version is fully functional and lets you browse the app’s repository of thousands of non-AppStore software titles, and use it to install the Installer app on your iPhone, but you won’t be able to install other apps on your iPhone. That sort of defeats the purpose, but at least you can get a look and feel for free.
Clearly, the jailbreaking community is hitting its stride in providing competitive alternatives to Apple’s walled garden of iPhone apps. Ripdev is even promising to support iPhone 3.0 shortly after the new software is released and jailbroken.
UPDATE: InstallerApp may not be living up to its developers claims, according to some comments to this post and to a report at Engadget. Has anyone had success making InstallerApp perform as advertised? Let us know in comments and we’ll post again as information warrants.
[Macworld]
After a decade of being the clear leader driving market trends in computing, Apple’s influence could wane in the post-Steve Jobs era, according to a thoughtful piece posted Tuesday at TG Daily.
Industry analyst Rob Enderle describes Apple’s amazingly diverse impact on wider market trends:
* The iPhone immediately became the gold standard for mobile phone manufacturers, resulting in an explosion of new devices and innovation across every mobile software platform;
* Apple created integration between power and graphics in computer processors that would not have been possible without the company’s commitment to OpenCL, a framework for writing programs that execute across CPUs and GPUs;
* Apple’s focus on design and higher margins resulted in the introduction of products such as the recently released Dell Adamo, a PC notebook designed and marketed to emulate Apple’s attention to every detail from the packaging inward, down to the absence of stickers promoting Microsoft Windows and Intel;
* The elegance of the user experience in Mac OS X virtually doomed OEMs’ embrace of Linux to a competition not with Apple but with Windows, an outcome which will affect the introduction of Google’s Android when it comes to market next year as well.
In short, Enderle writes, “Apple is at the core” of all recent change in the computer industry, that “as a result Apple’s efforts, the products we will see from a variety of vendors will be vastly more amazing than they otherwise would have been.”
None of the above is really subject to debate. Enderle goes on to question whether Apple can keep it up in the post-Jobs era, however, and this writer disagrees. Follow the jump to find out why.
Business Week got on the case with a long feature about “Dr. iPhone,” calling it a “critical tool for saving time and improving the quality of the care” provided by the doc profiled, Dan Diamond, a family practitioner who works at the Doctors Clinic in Silverdale, Washington.
Of 22 applications Diamond has installed on his iPhone, 10 are health related. The most important, he says, is Epocrates Essentials, which lets him quickly check for drug interactions, look up disease symptoms and find out what lab tests he might need to order. “I don’t have everything I need to know memorized,” Diamond says. “This makes me look like I do.”
Actor Ashton Kutcher gets a lot of mileage out of his iPhone — filming intruding paps and taking candid cam pics of his wife Demi Moore.
Image via San Jose Mercury News
UPDATE: Woz has made it through to round three without even having to be part of a dance-off! He wasn’t in the group of the worst two dance couples! Can you smell what the Woz is cookin’?
Quote: “That was the most incredible surprise. I was setting myself up to be so happy doing my dance again. When that came, my world turned in an instant”¦I was crying. I still have tears a little.”
We’re back! Woz is going on, and he pulled a hamstring! This is going to be good!
9:22 p.m. Woz, sporting a fauxhawk, is attempting a samba. He can barely walk.
9:23 p.m. As my wife notes, this is the only time he hasn’t had a feather boa.
9:24 p.m. Um. Woz just did the worm. Yeah, that worm. That was amazing.
9:24 p.m. The female judge is dissing on his worm. “You’re so cute, but the novelty is wearing thin.” Also: “You’re like the uncle at the party!”
9:25 p.m. Cranky old British man: “You’re meant to be killing the dance, but the dance is killing you.”
9:26 p.m. Bruno: “Steve, this was the worst samba I have seen in my whole life!”
9:26 p.m. Wozdom: “One thing I learned is that if you mix a samba with a little Smirnoff, you’ll end up in the hospital!” Smirnoff is the last name of his partner.
9:27 p.m. Woz got 10 points. That’s the lowest he’s gotten ever. Ouch. Woz remains committed to bringing his brand of entertainment to America.
9:30 p.m. And we’re outta here!
The subtle humor of New Yorker Cartoons are now available in an iPhone app in animated form. Michael Fry and long-time feature animation writer and producer Jim Cox bring the strips as films, one a day, offered on iTunes gratis at this writing.
Via Textually
A businessman who ran a $50 million iPod investment scam was sentenced to 17 years in prison by a federal judge in Miami.
Andres Leonel Pimstein, who pleaded guilty to a dozen wire-fraud counts in December, must also turn over 5,540 of the Apple devices and a Fidelity investment account totaling $138,522, U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan said.
It was a simple enough scheme: Pimstein bough iPods at wholesale prices and resold them to a department store chain in Chile. The chain, named Ripley, was supposedly going to buy the iPods from him at above-market rates.
But there was one slight problem: it was a Ponzi scheme.
‘In exchange for their work, Pimstein made `interest payments’ to the agents that were purportedly derived from the sale of products to Ripley,” according to the criminal information charging him with wire fraud. ‘The agents, in turn, distributed a percentage of the `interest payments’ to their investors and retained the difference as a commission.”
Pimstein was accused of creating false invoices to document the purported purchase and sale of the iPods.
Via Miami Herald
Image used with CC license, thanks to FHKE
Though it’s not entirely surprising that pop-synth vets Depeche Mode, who recently launched the first “iTunes Pass” are Macs, they way they expressed it in a recent interview was entertaining.
The Guardian asked them to link a song from their latest album to typical PC problems:
Guardian: Being in PC World, hoping to by an external disk drive to back up your important data, considering reliability to be more important than price.
Martin “Miles Away would be the best song on the new album for the situation, because Microsoft Vista is miles away from working. You wouldn’t find us in PC World, we’re all Mac users.”
Guardian: You can buy Macs in PC World now, you know.
Martin: “Well I wouldn’t know about that. Does Windows Vista work yet? (Chuckles) I wouldn’t like to be a beta tester for that!”
Dave: “Hard drives always crash. Make sure you back up!”
Hat tip to CoM reader Peter Philipsen.
Image used with a CC license, thanks to mrmatt
Image by shapeshift, used under CreativeCommons license
Next-generation iPhones could enjoy up to twice as fast 3G connectivity and faster WiFi as well, according to rumors being pondered Friday at Silicon Valley Insider and Mac Rumors.
The speculation centers around AT&T’s stated intention to upgrade its 3G network to support 7.2 Mbps speeds, up from the 3.6 Mbps speed of the current network. The cellular provider maintains that that many of its cell towers can be upgraded through software rather than by new equipment, but current iPhone hardware limits connectivity to 3.6 Mbps, so users of Apple’s mobile devices will need a new generation of phone to enjoy faster 3G connectivity.
Additional speculation concerns the possibility of faster WiFi connectivity through a new Broadcom 802.11 chipset that would provide real Wi-Fi speeds of up to 50Mbps (versus 25Mbps for typical 802.11g) in addition to Bluetooth with support for wireless stereo audio.
While none of the speculation has been confirmed at this point, it is only logical to assume that as faster, more powerful chips become available, Apple and its service provider partners will enable devices that take advantage of them.
Perhaps the battery industry will join the advancing technology party in a meaningful way as well.
No matter how many times, nor by how many ways it’s disproved, the canard that Macs are more expensive than Windows machines will just not die.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer yammered on about Apple’s price premium Thursday, speaking to BusinessWeek editor Stephen Adler at The McGraw-Hill Companies’ 2009 Media Summit. Citing February sales data indicating a pull-back in the momentum of Mac sales, Ballmer pronounced Apple’s run at market share in the PC universe all but doomed in the currrent economy.
“The economy is helpful. Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment — same piece of hardware — paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that’s a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be.”
Anyone who bothers to think beyond the superficialities, however, knows the higher cost of Macs to be a myth, debunked at least as far back as the earliest years of this decade, and regularly disproved since.
On top of that, three quarters of companies in a recent survey indicated an intention to increase their Mac purchases in the coming year, citing increased productivity and lower cost of ownership as reasons underlying their purchase planning.
So when are people gong to stop paying attention to blowhards such as Ballmer, a guy who won’t even let his wife or kids have an iPod?
Apple has added HD movies to the US iTunes store, including action flicks “Transporter 3,” “Bangkok Dangerous” and “The Spirit.” HD versions cost five dollars more to buy ($14.99 regular, $19.99 HD) but rentals cost the same as regular flicks, $3.99. HD purchases also come with an iPod/iPhone compatible standard def version for viewing on smaller screens.
Upcoming titles available for pre-order on iTunes include “Quantum of Solace” and “Twilight.”
An independent iPod repairman was charged with fraud and money laundering after acquiring more than 9,000 replacement iPod Shuffles by entering serial numbers into Apple’s Web site.
Nicholas Woodhams, 23, then sold the replacement iPods for $49 each, according to court documents filed Wednesday in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Through his repair business, Woodhams knew iPod owners could get a replacement if their Shuffle had problems.
“Through trial and error, the defendant determined that he could guess valid, warrantied serial numbers and enter them into Apple’s Web site for ‘replacement’ units without ever in fact purchasing or possessing the ‘original’ units,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler wrote.
If Apple didn’t receive a defective iPod in return, the company would charge the cost of a replacement to a credit card provided by the customer. But Woodhams used credit or debt cards that rejected the transaction, the prosecutor said.
His lawyer Randall Levine told the Associated Press: “He is one of those guys who is computer-savvy. This is a very bright man who did not fully appreciate the seriousness of the situation.”
Image used with a CC license, thanks to re-ality
UPDATE: This post corrects a post written and originally published on 4/18 that contained incorrectly attributed information.
The single most talked about and demonstrated feature of iPhone 3.0 software at Tuesday’s launch event — push notification — remains absent from the beta release distributed to developers, with no indication thus far forthcoming from Apple when it will become available.
Scott Forstall, Apple’s Senior VP for iPhone software spent over half an hour Tuesday extolling the virtues of push notification and explaining why — although promised by the company over a year ago — it has taken so long to roll out. Developer “demand we didn’t anticipate” caused Apple to “completely re-architect the server infrastructure for push notification,” he said.
Developer representatives from a half dozen companies were trotted out for a dog and pony show to demonstrate how amazing push notification is going to be in the next version of iPhone software, and yet, despite distributing documentation of how the service is intended to work, Apple has yet to provide developers a method for implementing and testing push notification in their apps.
Forstall spoke plainly in his presentation Tuesday (see 26:45 into the video) “It is now really scalable, and we’re ready to go.”
Apparently not.
Calls to Apple for explanation were not returned as of press time, but we’ll be sure to keep readers apprised as this story develops.
Psystar Corp., the Florida company fighting with Apple in federal court over selling computers that run Mac OS X, launched a new, slimmer clone.
The $600 Open(3) computer, sold exclusively on the company’s website, has an Intel 2.8-GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive and an Nvidia GeForce 8400GS graphics card with 256MB of RAM in its standard configuration.
FireWire, Bluetooth and wireless hardware cost extra, however, as does a keyboard, mouse and monitor, none of which is bundled with the box, putting it up for competition with the base model Mac Mini, which also retails for $599, without monitor, keyboard or mouse.
Psystar started selling Intel-based computers with Mac OS X preinstalled last April. In July 2008, Apple filed a lawsuit accusing the company of copyright and software licensing violations.
A month later, Psystar filed a countersuit, which was tossed out in November 2008.
Psystar, however, refused to back down. In February it won a round after a judge ruled that it could amend its countersuit to charge Apple with abusing copyright laws by tying Mac OS X to its own hardware.
Via Computer World