Cult of Mac

Somewhat lost in the shuffle of Tuesday’s product announcements was news of the new wired keyboard Apple will bundle standard with all new iMacs, a compact design modeled after the aluminum wireless keyboard, which omits the numeric keypad traditionally found on the right side of the device.

The new keyboard requires Mac OS X 10.5.6, and features two onboard USB 2.0 ports.

It will be available as a separate item for $49, with the long-form wired keyboard also remaining available as an optional upgrade.

The often interesting, always entertaining Dr. Macenstein posted the chart above Tuesday night seeking to explain and illuminate the perennial complaints about price vs. perceived value of new machines that surface whenever Apple has the temerity to upgrade its product lines.

In the end, the Dr. was left to conclude, “The only thing I can think is that when Apple ditched the plastic chassis of the G4 towers in favor of aluminum (or “all-oo-min-ee-um”, as our cute little “petrol-saying” UK readers call it), they didn’t anticipate that today we’d be in the midst of a massive aluminum shortage which has caused the precious metal to eclipse gold in value.”

Follow after the jump for an analysis of where the Doc gets it wrong and what to make of the so-called “Apple premium.”

If nothing else, Apple’s product refresh announcements Tuesday serve notice that even when the world around them seems to be coming apart at the seams, the product teams in Cupertino can be counted on to refine and improve the company’s product line at regular intervals.

And to, more often than not, prove the Apple commentariat wrong in the process.

A case in point is the refresh of the Mac mini. Written off almost a full two years ago by AppleInsider as a dead item, Apple has since then made THREE updates to the product line, two of them substantial. AI were originally saying the mini wouldn’t make it to Intel.

And then, just last fall, Gizmodo tried to bury the mini under rumors that European inventories were being allowed to thin.

The truth of the matter is that as much as great thinkers in the press and great dreamers among the consuming public may want Apple to craft product in the image of their hearts desire, the producers and designers inside One Infinite Loop have their own vision and their own timelines to which they prove, again and again, focused and true.

Yes, the era of locked-down secrecy may be at an end, as leaks and (invariably badly lit) spy-shots tend to precede product announcements more these days, but those who would seek to bury an Apple product before the company itself issues an EOL statement are more likely than not digging a hole they might look to crawl into months or even years down the road.

Apple Tuesday unveiled two new Mac Pro models using Intel’s Nahalem Xeon processors. The high-end computers also sported a $300 price cut.

“The new Mac Pro is a significant upgrade and starts at $300 less than before,” Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller said in a statement.

Using Intel’s Xeon processor with built-in memory controller and DDR3 ECC memory boosts memory elbow-room “about 2.4 percent” while also cutting memory slowdowns by 40 percent, according to reports.

Work on the set of NBC show “Heroes” has its down time. So actor Greg Grunberg, who plays Los Angeles cop Matt Parkman with the ability to hear people’s thoughts, pulls out his iPhone nearly everywhere. To keep himself busy,  in between takes on the studio lot, he uses the device to send missives to Twitter. He broadcasts them to the more than 20,000 friends and fans following him.

Grunberg also started a business to create a free iPhone app called Yowza — think mobile coupons, it’s expected to launch shortly —  with two men he befriended on Twitter but hadn’t met in person.

Via LA Times

Apple Tuesday updated its line of affordable Mac Mini desktop computers, with models offering faster graphics and more display options for $599 and up.

Both desktops come with a 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics and support for either Mini DisplayPort or mini-DVI connections.

The $599 unit includes 1GB of Ram, expandable to 4GB, and a 120GB hard drive.

The $799 model offers 2GB of Ram, a 320GB hard disk.

Buyers can also select “build-to-order” customizations, including a 2.26 Core 2 Duo, as well as an 80GB, 250GB, or 320GB hard disk drive.

After days of rumors and talk, Apple Tuesday introduced a line of updated iMacs sporting NVIDIA graphics. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company unveiled four versions of its popular desktop, aimed at entry-level. mid-range and high-end users.

At $1,199, a 20-inch iMac includes a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2, 2GB RAM and 320GB hard disk drive. As with other iMacs introduced, the entry-level desktop offers the faster NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics.

Apple also introduced three versions of a 24-inch iMac for prices ranging from $1,499 to $2,199.

Apple may unveil a new slate of Macs as early as today, advancing a rumored late March announcement. These latest reports suggest the computer maker could introduce updated versions of its iMac and Mac mini desktop line.

The chatter comes from the French MacBidouille and Dutch OneMoreThing, which offered details of a potential Apple hardware refresh, including model numbers and alleged photos of a new Mac mini.

Some think that the iTunes model — small payments for content subscriptions — might help save floundering old media.

One case in point: London fashion glossy “Drama” pictured above which was shuttered as a monthly newsstand mag only to be reborn on iTunes. At $3.99, the digital version for the iPhone and iPod Touch costs about what you’d expect to pay for something you could read on a train.

The people who came up with the idea of letting the mag rise from its ashes in digital form are calling it “the beginning of the next revolution in publishing.”

Tim Colburne plugged in his iPhone 3G to his computer’s USB port and left it to charge. Three hours later, it caught fire. The above is an aftermath pic.

Colburne writes on his blog: “The fire started in the space between the lead and the phone and resulted in a couple of pins fusing together.

Although the main functions of the phone are apparently unaffected, the device won’t connect to the computer which means I can neither charge it nor transfer data. Result: one dead iPhone.”

Colburne reckons very few iPhones go up in flames, he was able to find one other similar incident on a site from Sweden in 2008.

Anyone else?

And if your iPhone did go into meltdown, how did getting a replacement go?

Via A Roman Thought

We’ve written previously about the odd dichotomy emerging from the general disdain with which the iPhone’s camera is regarded — fixed focal length, only 2 megapixels, blah, blah, blah — and the ever-increasing number of applications appearing to give iPhone photographers unprecedented control and creativity over their images.

Tonight we call your attention to a wonderfully whimsical app called ColorSplash, for two reasons.

First, it’s an amazingly powerful tool that, for $2, gives anyone the ability to transform their snapshots into arresting images in a way that Madison Avenue has long paid professional photographers and creative directors big bucks to do.

Using your finger on the iPhone’s touch interface you can highlight just enough color on a black and white image to make it pop, turning something ordinary and mundane into something extraordinary and memorable.

It’s cool, it’s easy, intuitive and it works. And it’s $2.

Which calls for the second point, which is that, when this kind of thing can be done so well and so easily and so cheaply on Apple’s mobile UI, just imagine the creative possibilities to come when touch interface technology becomes the norm for high-end mega CPU computing platforms.

What I was able to accomplish here tonight, literally in a few minutes dragging my fingers across a little 3″ screen, would have been far more complicated — if not more time consuming — to accomplish using masks and layers and industry standard digital retouching tools in common use today.

The current economic situation may appear to be dire in many respects, but the future of creative expression, as evidenced by the explosion of tools and ideas inspired by the iPhone, seems bright indeed.

Pocketmac and the ASPCA announced Monday a one-of-a-kind fundraising promotion in which $1 of every sale of Pocketmac’s $3 iPhone game ShiveringKittens will go to the ASPCA through the end of April 2009.

ShiveringKittens is a quirky puzzle game in which users must successfully arrange falling blocks of ice in order to free – you guessed it – shivering kittens – from their cold-hearted captors.

Comes complete with a strangely hypnotic soundtrack, appropriately mewly sound effects and 10 levels of increasingly difficult play.

Leave it to Van Morrison to pull back the curtain on the state of the music industry today: “We don’t know where the record business is going, and the record companies say, ‘We don’t know what’s happening, and it’s a really bad time.’ So if it’s really bad, why would you want to do business with a record company?”

Morrison, perhaps Rock’s greatest living iconoclast since the death of Frank Zappa, gave a wide ranging interview to TIME, in which the much-beloved, notoriously cranky Irish troubador downplayed the importance – to him and fans of his music – of download sites such as iTunes, admitted he’s neither inspired nor impressed by anything or anyone in music today, and said if he had one thing to do over he would never have become famous.

Follow after the jump for more on Van the Man’s thoughts on the music business and why he doesn’t need iTunes

I want to ask when the hurting will stop, but the first episode hasn’t even aired yet… This will be the best TV trainwreck of the year, without question.

CNET via Valleywag

An analyst has added his voice in support of two unconfirmed reports Monday that Apple will announce March 24 a Mac Pro, Mac mini and iMac update.

“This would be consistent with our view that new desktops (and generally new products in the future) are likely to be launched at Apple-held events rather than trade shows,” UBS analyst Maynard Um told clients.

Um went on to predict Apple by summer will introduce a 32GB iPhone 3G as well as a 4GB model.

French software development company Visuamobile is planning to launch an iPhone app called  ELIZA AI, based on the 1966 artificial intelligence computer program trained to respond to questions like a therapist, that is by asking other questions.

Though the program is dated, Leca says the Eliza iPhone app still had the same effect that surprised creator Joseph Weizenbaum back at MIT in the day — at a certain point people forget  ELIZA is not  a human therapist.

“What seemed really interesting, and I have tested it at the office, is that people are reluctant to show you what they have been discussing with Eliza,” Dominique Leca of  Visuamobile told Cult of Mac. Leca, who handles business development at the Paris-based company,  had the idea for the app. “And, to tell you the truth, Eliza has helped me several times. The fact that she constantly asks you to explain yourself is a great way to analyze what you think.”

Set to be released for free download on the visuamobile store on iTunes March 3, Leca said the Eliza app will likely remain gratis but the company has more sophisticated psyched-up apps in the works, like one based on AI chat robot ALICE, that will probably be fee-based.

Assisted navel-gazing anyone?

Images courtesy visuamobile

With Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur scoreless after 120 minutes of regulation play in the English League Cup Final, Sunday, United’s goalkeeping coach Eric Steele turned to his iPod to show goalkeeper Ben Foster videos of Hotspur players taking penalty shots.

In the ensuing penalty kick shootout, United prevailed 4 – 1. Foster told BBC Sport afterward, “We went into the shoot-out as well prepared as possible. We have had things to look at over the last couple of days and before the shoot-out, you can see me looking at an iPod with Eric Steele. It had actual video on it and showed where players put things. Eric brought it when he came to the club. I have never seen anything like it. It is a fantastic tool for us.”

The PR lads and ladies ought to be pullin’ an extra pint for Eric Steele today in Cupertino, eh wot?

Via TUAW

Amid talk of a record drop in PC sales, a new report suggests Apple’s iPhone 3G is undergoing a “recent uptick” in production due to increased consumer demand.

The report by the Wedge Partners research firm points to a trio of factors increasing production of the iPhone 3G: Apps Store advertising, wider promotions by carriers and a drive to offer multi-tiered pricing of data plans.

In the case of advertising, Apple has begun a new campaign pushing its App Store, generating increased demand for the iPhone 3G and the iPod touch.

PC makers will ship 257 million PCs in 2009 with “mature” North American and European markets taking the brunt of the slowdown, according to Gartner.

Desktop PCs will lead the economic-inspired sales drop, falling nearly 32 percent. However, the drop in demand will boost sales of notebook computers, expected to increase 9 percent.

Despite a year described by analysts as rocky, Apple moved up from the number two spot to top Fortune magazine’s list of the 50 “World’s Most Admired Companies.”

Apple was given a perfect score for innovation and people management, while it ranked lower in long-term investment, global competitiveness and social responsibility.

“As much of the computer industry struggled, Apple shipped 22.7 million iPods during its first quarter (up 3 percent from last year), 2.5 million Macs (up 9 percent), and 4.4 million iPhones,” noted Forbes writer Alyssa Abkowitz.

Apple was far above Microsoft, which ranked 10, IBM  (17) and Sony (49).

Rounding out the top five: Berkshire Hathaway, Toyota, Google and Johnson & Johnson.

Full list here.

Image used with a CC license, thanks to SheriffMitchell.

Apple may later this month introduce updated iMacs along with other hardware news, according to rumors circulating in the Mac community Monday.

Although Apple has yet commented, two Mac sites point with various degrees of certainty that Mar. 24 Apple will introduce an updated iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro and various chips.

Sources “did speculate that the Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro would all be refreshed,” according to the World of Apple site. Those sources were “confirmed to be in reach of such information,” the site said.

Despite the recent introduction of several rivals, Apple’s App Store is “miles ahead of the competition,” according to a study released Monday.

Apple’s store, created in 2008 for iPhone and iPod touch owners, was compared against similar offerings by Google, Microsoft, RIM and others phone developers.

The Apple App Store has succeeded in attracting developers and surpassing the “number, variety and appeal of applications available,” announced the Global Intelligence Group.

This doesn’t look like the simplest DIY project, but one creative Mac fan turned an old G3 into a house for an old Sega Dreamcast.

The project, dubbed the iCast, started out while doing a workshop cleanup: handy person logicdustbin realized that among the spare parts were a few G3s and an LCD monitor.

Once the Mac was gutted, the LCD fit inside nicely.

Then “it was an easy decision to slap a Dreamcast inside,” logicdustbin wrote on the  www.cgcc.ca forum. “The hard part was figuring out where to place it. I didn’t want to cut a big hole in the side of the case… but I ended up doing a ‘PS1 upside down mod’ – its not great, but it works pretty good.”

In final analysis, logicdustbin concedes: “A lot of work went into this, like getting the original power button to work for the new monitor and adding a power switch for the DC, then adding a sound amp to power the iMac speakers…it was all pretty fun to do and it plays just great!”

Step by step, with pics here, check out the video of the working iCast here.