Cult of Mac

The full-time techie and self-described “part-time jackass” at drunken tech took a look inside a new single quad-core Mac Pro to find two mystery ports named “Big Frank” and “Little Frank.”

DT writes: “I haven’t seen an Easter egg, hardware or software, on an Apple product in a LONG time. I have no idea what the “Big Frank” non-socket or “Little Frank” actual-socket is. My only speculation is that the single quad-core board is the “Little Frank” and that the dual quad-core board is “Big Frank.”  I’ll speculate some more and say that maybe the connector is for the equipment testing hardware. ”

Any other guesses?

Via Drunken Tech

Take a step back in time and see how the writers at Saturday Night Live during the 2005 season weren’t too far off in imagining the iPod shuffle released Wednesday by Apple.

[hat tip Lance Ulanoff]

At China’s biggest online shopping site,  Taobao, $200USD iTunes gift cards are on sale for a fraction of their value, some as low as $2.6 USD.

Outdustry broke the story,  interviewing the owner of the site where hundreds of iTunes gift cards are on offer in varying amounts, from $25-200.

“The seller just sells the gift voucher code which they send you directly through Taobao’s IM software. You then redeem the card in your iTunes account.

Once successfully redeemed you then click ‘confirm’ and Alipay transfers your 18 RMB to the seller and you are free to start downloading.

The owner of the Taobao shop told Outdustry the gift card codes are created using key-generators. He also said that he paid money to use the hackers’ service.”

The hacked cards have been on sale for  about six months, the price has been driven down due to competition but a growing market have kept the false iTune cards lucrative.

Prices do seem to vary widely, when we checked there were $200 cards were going for about $15USD.

Via slashdot

A 17-year-old boy stole a number of personal items from Dallas homes, including a clergy collar and an iPod.

Justin Shane Perkins was charged with three counts of breaking and entering, misdemeanor larceny and three counts of larceny after breaking and entering.

Police allege that Perkins stole more than $2,000 worth of goods including  two DVD players, a diamond ring,  a Nintendo Wii with accessories, knives and a Sony PlayStation.
Image used with a CC license, thanks to bbaunach

Via Gaston Gazette

Apple introduced an all-new redesigned iPod Shuffle Wednesday, touting it as the first music player that talks to you.

Except that it’s not the first music player that talks to you. Does anyone remember the Nanocromatic iPods introduced just last summer?

Those iPod nanos also featured the “Voice Over” function being touted as Wednesday’s big new improvement to the shuffle, which now sports 4GB of storage (up from 2GB). Apple’s smallest music player now features playlist support, however and syncs with iTunes through an included USB cable which connects to the shuffle’s audio jack.

The new shuffle also comes with earbuds featuring on-cord remote control.

The new design is rectangular rather than square, comes in Silver or Black and costs, as did previous models, $79. Apple is making these things smaller all the time, with the new shuffle being smaller than a house key and not much thicker.

It’s probably a good thing the shuffle’s Voice Over function, which supports 14 languages, is accessed manually, to tell users the name of the artist and song playing or run through the playlists available on the device. On the iPod nano introduced last summer, the Voice Over feature was an on-or-off setting and quickly grew tiresome when it would kick in at the mere changing of the device’s orientation from vertical to horizontal.

More user control is good; thank you, Apple.

UPDATE: this piece has been edited to more accurately reflect the new shuffle’s capacity. Thanks to readers who pointed out the error in the original report.

I grew up with 1980s home-computer gaming: Atari, Commodore, Spectrum, Amstrad. In the UK, we had, comparatively speaking, no money (yuppies aside), and, rather than being lucky enough to follow our disk-happy American chums, had to make do with cassettes. Inevitably, with tapes being cheap, publishers soon realised that affordable games were very saleable games, regardless of quality. Eventually, the number of £1.99 and £2.99 games being churned out was astonishing, as was the ever-diminishing amount of time it would take full-price releases to show up on budget labels.

Towards the end of the 1980s, it got to the point where almost no-one bought full-price games in the UK, because everyone would just wait for a price-drop. Watching apps on the App Store brings back these memories, and so perhaps it was inevitable that the other bastion of 1980s software—the compilation—would at some point make its way to the App Store.

On March 9, the 5 Fingers Games Bundle appeared, mashing together BurnBall, Chopper, Up There, Sneezies and Blackbeard’s Assault. Time will tell if this process works in the present day. It certainly has the potential to give exposure to poor-selling but quality games. However, compilations were the other thing that broke 1980s gaming in the UK, since almost every half-decent game ended up on a compilation eventually. I’m hoping people will continue to buy and support indie devs, rather than wait for a now seemingly inevitable price-drop or compilation entry that will ultimately lead to cheaper entry points and fewer development resources.

The opening spread of a large iPhone gaming feature in Retro Gamer 61.

In the UK at least, the balance is starting to tip regarding iPod touch and iPhone games. Edge magazine interviewed  Greg Joswiak (Apple VP for iPod/iPhone product marketing) recently, but, more importantly, gave Rolando a double-page spread in the magazine.

Edge is notorious for being one of the few British magazines that actually understands how a rating system should work, and avoids placating publishers, instead scoring games as they deserve. Rolando got a ‘7’, which in Edge’s book is pretty good, especially when you consider games are rated against all the competition. (The general conclusion was the game is good when compared to anything, but a current standout on the platform.)

More astonishing, though, is the current issue of Retro Gamer. This magazine concentrates solely on classic gaming, interviewing the likes of Eugene Jarvis, Toru Iwatani and Yu Suzuki, seeing how old games came to be. This month, ten pages of the magazine are given over to iPhone, exploring how the system is becoming a favourite for indie devs who have a fascination with classic gaming.

The point is that when newsstand mags—and especially niche publications like Retro Gamer—start covering iPhone gaming in this manner, it’s surely knocking on the door of mainstream. That said, such coverage can still prove controversial, and there was a barrage of complaints regarding ‘legitimacy’ on Retro Gamer’s forum—some centring around the relevance of Apple’s device in a retro magazine, but many arguing that it’s not a de-facto gaming platform at all. Long-time readers of Cult of Mac will know that this was a view that I once held, something I intended to address in a feature on this site sometime over the next couple of weeks.

Ego is an aptly-named iPhone app that lets you check web statistics that matter to you, on the go. Because you’re, as the tag-line says, important.

Through hooks into Feedburner, Mint and Twitter, the current version supports statistics on the number of visits to any number of your websites (including daily, hourly and monthly numbers), feed subscription totals and changes, and how many people are following you on Twitter.

Support for Google Analytics is planned in a coming update.

Just $1.99 keeps you up-to-date on your web relevance any time, any where.

More evidence that they just kinda make it up as they go along at the Apple iTunes store.

[Hat tip Harry McCracken]

Sentiment seems about 8:1 against young German artist Darakas’ vision for the Apple touchscreen netbook rumored to be headed to market in the 2nd half of this year.

We asked Cult of Mac readers to step up up with their own renderings and so far we’ve got a sleek looking tablet idea from reader Bobbertson, above, and another from reader Sean, below.

Sean imagines a device containing a 7″ Multi-touch glass screen with a black frame and chrome bezel around the screen. Something more like an enlarged iPod Touch rather than a ‘tablet’, which usually contains a larger screen.

It would have a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Processor, 512MB – 1GB of RAM, 64GB flash memory, bluetooth, WiFi, and a cut down version of OS X Leopard or ‘Snow Leopard’ to fit the device.

Any takers?

Speculation that Apple is poised to release a touchscreen netbook remains persistent as winter snows, with dozens of outlets reporting again today that unnamed “sources” in Taiwan and China “confirm” the new product will be released as early as the 2nd half of this year.

So what the heck, as long as we’re talking about something that may or may not come to pass, why not talk about what it may or may not look like?

16 year-old German artist Darakas, who also goes by the name Jesse, gets the conversation started with this 3D modeling rendition of his vision for the Apple MacTouch.

Until the badly lit spy photos start showing up, we think this is a pretty good jumping off point. Have you finished your Apple netbook mock-up, or see any others out there? Let us know in comments and we’ll feature them here.

Evil Panda says: See me inside Tweetie. I like Tweetie. Apple, stop being stupid, or Evil Panda will get you.

UPDATE: All’s now well in the land of Tweetie. Apple relented and, in double-quick time, posted Tweetie 1.3 to the App Store today. However, this episode highlights that if you’re going to censor things, you really have to censor the ‘right’ ones, and also have some consistently enforced guidelines to work towards. And so Evil Panda is sated for now, but he’s still watching, Apple.

I recently moaned about the App Store on my blog, Revert to Saved, when the South Park app rejection debacle highlighted Apple’s inconsistency regarding application approval. (Short version: South Park app gets rejected for “potentially offensive” content, despite entire South Park episiodes being for sale on iTunes and therefore watchable on an iPhone.)

Today, however, things took a turn for the crazy. Tweetie, an iPhone Twitter client—in fact, the very best and top-selling iPhone Twitter client—just got its latest update rejected. The reason is so staggeringly bonkers that I’m hoping it’s an early April Fool jape. Apple rejected it, according to the developer, because there was an offensive word in the Twitter trends list, which Tweetie provides access to. No, really.

This is so astonishingly stupid that I am still reeling that Apple could be so dumb. Are apps now supposed to police the entire internet? Does Safari filter out rude words? Is Apple suddenly going to wrench Tweetie and every other Twitter client from the App Store? For that matter, maybe Apple should remove the likes of WriteRoom, because, hey, I can write the word “fuck” in it, and I might offend myself.

Sort out your App Store approval process, Apple, because you’re looking stupider by the second. And while competition is currently non-existent, it certainly won’t be that way for long.

iTriage is an app for the iPhone and iPod touch that helps US users find local healthcare information on the road.

Developed by two emergency room doctors, it offers a national directory of emergency departments, urgent care facilities, retail clinics and pharmacies. Drilling down, the info also includes descriptions of capabilities and areas of specialization, web site links, opening hours and contact information. Quality reports on hospitals and physicians can be downloaded, too.

The docs saw a lot of patients making uninformed snap decisions, so they formed partnerships with leading health care information, service and technology companies to offer additional services,  including companies that can provide iTriage users with everything from quality and safety ratings and patient recommendations to 24-7 phone consultations with board certified physicians and assistance in negotiating medical bills.

Reviewers — including an ER doc and closet programmer — suggest  filtering to wade through all the info but otherwise like the app.

Available for $.99 on iTunes.

Apple plans to launch a netbook computer with a touch screen monitor as early as the second half of this year, Dow Jones reported.

Two Apple unnamed sources told the newswire that the mini laptop computers will likely have monitor screens  between 9.7-inches and 10-inches, other specifications and functions are still under evaluation.

Dow Jones was pessimistic about new netbook:
“Apple’s entry may come in what is expected to be a very tough year for computer sales. Desktop-computer shipments in particular are expected to fall by nearly one-third globally in 2009 as consumers increasingly shift to laptop computers, according to projections released by research firm Gartner Inc. earlier in March.”

A Mac netbook has long been rumored since the success of smaller lighter laptops, typically with a 10″ screen, from companies such as Asus, Acer, Dell, HP and MSI Wind.

If you were, like one of our readers, too busy watching “Chuck” last night or you live outside the U.S., you can still vote for Woz on Dancing with the Stars. Polls are open until noon EST.
Check out his moves to the aptly-chosen “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”  then go to the ABC website,  register and you’ll be able to cast all 13 of your votes (yes, the hack Woz  predicted works) as I did this morning from Milan.

Times are tough for Blair Saldanah.

“My wife needs medical care; and we don’t have health insurance,” he explains on the website he just put up, where he is selling quite a collection of Apple memorabilia, including posters, brochures, cards, stickers, manuals, annual Apple fact books, t-shirts, even a vintage Apple ProMouse that was Steve Jobs’ gift to attendees at the Macworld New York keynote address in 2000.

“Don’t be intimidated by the prices!” Saldanah writes on the portal page. “Most items have some bargaining room built-in, and we’ll do quantity discounts too, so find what you want and let’s talk. You might be suprised!”

That’s a good thing, too, because — for example — he’s got eleven t-shirts from various Apple Store grand openings priced at $200 each.

These economic times are difficult for so many people and one never wishes on anyone the need to sell things near and dear to them in order to raise funds for medical bills. We wish Saldanah and his wife the best.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoiGJMZjs0o

Glorious. Just glorious.

Zumobi announced Monday the arrival of the first-ever official American Idol application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. “American Idol Season 8 Exclusive” (link opens iTunes) follows this season’s American Idol Top 13 finalists in their quest to be named the next American Idol and brings fans exclusive multimedia content and news updates for $2.

The app gives dyed-in-the-wool AI nuts contestant bios, pictures, news and exclusive video from behind-the-scenes of the on-air show. In total, 78 original videos of the remaining contestants will be released weekly between now and the Finale, giving fans the opportunity to get know their favorite contestants better.

A “My Rankings” feature allows users to test their talent-picking power by predicting, customizing, and tracking the order of who stays and who gets voted off each week. As users track their favorite contestants’ progress, they are also one click away from the American Idol iTunes page where they can download music from recent performances.

Of course.

Woz’s dancing was hilarious. The kids stayed up specially to watch him and we laughed our heads off. Especially when he first came out on his Segway and went into a dance pose.

Woz had some great moves, saluting his slinky partner, twisting his meaty hips and dropping to his knees. For a big guy, he had surprising energy.

We were expecting a cringe-worthy disaster, but he comported himself superbly. It was a genuine a hoot. Can’t wait till next week.

I’m long on Woz. He might go to the finals, just like the BBC’s pudgy John Sergeant in the UK last year.

UPDATE: The stupid judges gave Woz and Karina Smirnoff low marks. Idiots.

See Also: Voting for Woz on Dancing with the Stars? Here’s how

Photo from Woz.org

Steve Wozniak on “Dancing with the Stars” is the greatest cultural event of the decade. As such, I’m plopped in front of the couch awaiting the Woz for the West Coast broadcast (I’m told we’re just three minutes away). Nicole told you how to vote, and I’m here to tell you how he did. Check out the blow-by-blow below!

9:15 p.m. I just endured a solid three minutes of Jewel’s cowboy husband not dancing. It was absurdly painful. He gets a total of 14 points.

9:18 p.m. There goes Olympic silver medalist Shawn Johnson. She’s being pulled around by a man who looks like the uglier brother of Mark from “Ugly Betty.”

9:23 p.m. Big points for Shawn! I guess! I’ve never watched this show before.

9:23 p.m. Woz just rolled in on a Segway in a cloud of smoke! There is a god.

9:24 p.m. Also, Tom Bergeron just said Woz founded Apple in the early ’70s. A factual error on first sentence.

9:24 p.m. Woz meets his dancing partner by rolling up on a Segway, too.

9:25 p.m. Woz really does not know how to dance, based on these rehearsal shots. Though he does notice that dancing can be mathematical and left-brained.

9:26 p.m. Words of Wozdom: “I like to close my eyes when I’m practicing, because it lets me get an image of my head of me dancing. It’s like I’m dreaming.”

9:27 p.m. “Nerds can dance.” No, Steve, they can’t.

9:27 p.m. Steve comes out with a giant pink feather boa and a tux. He’s actually got a lot of personality, although he might want to close his mouth. Still, he’s a natural ham. A lot of sticking his tongue out.

9:28 p.m. The song is “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.” Quite.

9:29 p.m. You know, by the standards of this show, that was very not embarassing.

9:29 p.m. Bergeron: “Take that, Bill Gates.” Also: “If Safari freezes, should I delete it or restart it?” Yes, because Woz has a lot to do with current Apple software.

9:30 p.m. Cranky Italian judge: “It was like watching a Teletubby going mad at the gay pride parade!” Well said.

9:30 p.m. Lady judge: “You are what this show is all about!” And “You made it to the end! It was fantastic!” It’s true. He didn’t once take a break or sit down.

9:31 p.m. Woz score coming after the ad. I have to say. He looks way more composed than his partner.

9:33 p.m. Here come the scores: 5, 4, and 4 for 13 total. Which means they did worse than Jewel’s stupid cowboy husband. Which is a serious miscarriage of justice. He was so much better than that guy! 

9:34 p.m. Empty headed-host: “You said that ballroom dancing is harder than designing computers. But you just got through that entire dance!” They really seem concerned about his ability to remain standing.

9:34 p.m. Woz: “That was the most incredible fun thing I’ve ever done. It’s so great. I’m so glad to be here!” More fun than pretending to date Kathy Griffin?

9:35 p.m. Dance partner Karina Smirnoff: “Honestly, he’s the nicest man alive, and he gives 100 percent in every rehearsal!” Well, he would have to give at least that much. He’s Woz.

9:36 p.m. And…it’s over. Please turn it off before David Alan Grier dances, and get your vote in now! (Just done with my 13 now; what a worthy cause!)

See you next week? Maybe?

A pre-release version of the original iPhone has surfaced for sale on eBay, though if it’s real, it may not be there for long.

According to the Bloomington, IL seller, up for auction is “a quite rare and collectable example of iPhone prototype,” that even runs on a beta version of the iPhone OS.

The device features a matte plastic screen and has serial number YM649xxxxxx, which the seller claims corresponds to a factory in China, manufactured week 49 of the year 2006. It supposedly works, running iPhone OS 03.06.01_G — the iPhone launched running OS 1.0, version 03.11.02_G.

The seller claims the phone can make calls, browse the mobile versions of websites, and can receive SMS, but lacks any way to manually type an SMS on the phone.

Also for sale is a non-working prototype with a glass screen, a slightly higher serial number, and is described as being in “fair” cosmetic condition, with various scratches.

The bid on the two phones is currently $735, though it remains to be seen whether the auction will close on March 11 as scheduled. Apple demanded eBay take down a recent auction for a pre-release iPod, citing intellectual property concerns. eBay quickly complied, though the iPod owner apparently sold his device privately anyway.

[iLounge]

In other Rock and Roll news, U2 has chosen Blackberry to be the lead sponsor of its upcoming 360 Degrees tour, set to kick off with a June 30th show in Barcelona, Spain and travel across Europe during the summer, before crossing the Atlantic for the first US date at Soldier Field in Chicago September 12th.

The band, which famously stood with Steve Jobs in 2004 and launched a special edition iPod, said at the time, “We want our audience to have a more intimate online relationship with the band, and Apple can help us do that.”

Now, after five years in which Jobs has supposedly raked the music industry over the coals with his tough iTunes pricing negotiations, either the band feels that mission’s been accomplished, or perhaps its record company has merely had enough.

In any event, Bono, U2’s lead singer and most identifiable public figure, is a partner in the firm Elevation Partners which holds a 39 percent ownership stake in Palm, whose highly anticipated Pre smartphone is slated to debut around the time the band’s tour kicks off.

In a statement about the partnership with Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry, Paul McGuinness, U2’s manager, said, “This tour announcement marks the first stage of a relationship and shared vision between RIM and U2 that we expect will lead to new and innovative ways to enhance the mobile music experience on the BlackBerry platform for U2 fans.”

It might be tempting to read an emotional component into U2’s “rejection” of Apple and its public embrace of a major competitor, but the greatest likelihood is that — as the old saying goes — it’s just business.

Fashion supremo Karl Lagerfeld loves iPods. He used to have 100, and even though he is now down to 40, they are carried around in a custom Louis Vuitton trunk and stocked by a dedicated iPod assistant.

So when the fashion guru turned his be-ringed hand to designing motorcycle helmets for his namesake label, he fitted them out with an iPod connection (bluetooth? Even fashion bible WWD didn’t get more specific than saying the helmets were “fitted for an iPod.)” And, then, well  to give it a little punch, draped them in mink and chincilla.

If the model on ready to wear Paris catwalk show is anything to go by, the helmet feels as bad as it looks. Kind of a shame, since they’re made by French bike-couture helmetiers Ruby.

Via Canadian Press

The iTunes Celeb Playlist feature is now a free podcast. Kicking off the 15-minute-podcast of tracks loved by the rich and famous is Tom Jones, who recently admitted that his knowing hands are all a fumble when it comes to his iPod, which is stocked by an assistant.

The podcast is worth it just to hear that Welsh accent as a very personable Jones admits first hearing Aretha Franklin on the car radio thinking it was jazz singer Nancy Wilson , professes his love for Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,”  and thinking Elvis was talking about “salomi” instead of “so lonely.”

Steve Wozniak is hoping to get the geek vote for his fancy footwork on Dancing with the Stars.

He will be tripping the light (?) fantastic tonight with partner Karina Smirnoff on the ABC show (8/7c), where he’s up against “Jackass” Steve-O, former Go-Go Belinda Carlisle and actress Denise Richards, among others.

Here are the numbers to vote:

Steve Wozniak & Karina Smirnoff

phone number:  800-86834-10 or  800-VOTE4-10
text in code:   3410

To vote online, check out the official site (poll page goes up when the show goes live).

You can also follow the Votes for Woz movement via the dedicated  twitter stream or Facebook group.
Dancers are judged by professionals but the folks at home decide whether the couple moves forward in the competition.

Phone lines, text votes (AT&T customers only) and online polls will open at the top of each performance show so viewers can vote for their favorites.

Phone and text lines stay open for 30 minutes after the end of the show. Online voting will remain open until noon (Eastern Time) the next day. (Wonder if that means Woz fans outside the US can vote for him or it will be blocked…Update: you can vote online — 13 times — until noon EST the day after the show is broadcast, from anywhere, as long as you register.)

Wozniak adds: “You can vote up to 13 times with your cell phone. Actually, you can only vote as many times as there are contestants, which will likely be either 11, 12 or 13 this Monday, but extra votes surely don’t hurt.” He also spoke of an iPhone app to vote in the iTunes store, but a quick search didn’t turn it up…

Are you planning on voting your support?