Ustream is bringing streaming webcam video to the iPhone, perhaps in time for you to watch the historic inuaguration of President Barack Obama from the nation’s capital next Tuesday, if Tim Cook can make a little rain in Cupertino over the weekend.
Via Gizmodo, via TechCrunch
Proving it really is the coolest company on the web, Google unveiled this week the Prado layer in Google Earth, an amazing bit of functionality that lets users zoom into almost any spot on the planet for a detailed view of what’s to be found there using the company’s earth mapping product.
The Google Earth Prado layer also includes 3D models which allow you to fly around the Prado buildings to experience the museum as if you were actually there. The paintings have been photographed in very high resolution and contain as many as 14,000 million pixels (14 gigapixels).
The iPhone version of Google Earth is not yet updated to support this feature, so you’ll have to use your desktop earth to get there.
As Wall Street looks forward to Apple next week reporting revenue for the holiday period, Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey thinks Cupertino may encounter problems with the March quarter.
Apple’s double-digit growth rates may well sputter as the company “will undoubtedly be affected by softer consumer demand” for its pricier products, Bailey told investors Friday.
The analyst told clients Apple’s revenue for the March quarter will be between $7 billion and $8 billion. Wall Street is forecasting $8.24 billion in revenue for the period.
This prototype bedside lamp with an iPod dock and speaker has simple curve design, it’s exactly the kind of thing that is yes, useful, but that you could buy just for the looks.
Props to designer Sang-Hoon Lee, hope to give more details soon.
Via Yanko Design
Proving itself to be The Little Engine That Could of an otherwise dismal economy, Apple’s iTunes AppStore has reached an inventory of over 15,000 applications (some of which do not exist to reproduce the sound of flatulence) and has entertained more than 500 million downloads since its debut six months ago.
It took just 5 weeks for the AppStore to deliver more than 200 million downloads, whereas it took 6 weeks to go from 200 million to 300 million. So, the volume of interest in applications for iPhone and iPod Touch is increasing impressively, although the most recent bump is likely a result of Apple’s mobile gadgets having been popular gifts this past holiday season.
Via Mashable!
From the Get It While It Lasts department: ImageToys: iJiggles is an app whose developers somehow figured out what Apple’s AppStore gatekeepers didn’t like about the iBoobs app they rejected a while back.
Perhaps by marketing the application as image-reality-distortion magic they confused the AppStore police into thinking people would use it for anything but playing Hooray for Boobies!
Via Macenstein
A little more interesting than your usual hodgepodge of stickers, these black die cut vinyl decals fit on 13″, 15″ and 17″ laptop covers.
Giving your MacBook a little animal appeal, there’s a version with a cat fishing for a goldfish, or a squirrel munching on your Apple logo.
Made by a Milwaukee corporate designer by day who lists his favorite materials as vinyl and a 15-inch MacBook Pro…
$11 on Etsy
Apple is preparing to open its first store in Philadelphia, designed by the same firm responsible for its Fifth Avenue retail location in New York City, according to a Friday report.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has signed a lease to move into a former restaurant situated to attract upscale shoppers and diners, reported the Macnn Website.
Although few details were provided, Apple would remake the Brasserie Perrier restaurant, using the Bohlin Cywinski Jackson architectural firm. The architects lead construction of many key Apple Stores in the U.S. and Great Britain.
Jake of 8bitjoystick.com: I use my old Mac SE as a door stopper. I know that’s blasphemy.
Rott3npeanut: I’ve turned my Mac into a PC so I can use it to record.
Giant Pangolin: I turned my Mac into a half-Mac, half-PC for only $159.
SAL-E: I use my old Mac as a grandfather clock
trevyn: I use my old Mac for running Indigo.
Come on, kids. Confess. What do you use your old Mac for? (No file/print/music servers please; something more interesting. The weirder the better.)
(CC pic from jake of 8bitjoystick.com)
There’s a thriving developer community here in the UK, but not such a thriving calendar of conferences and get-togethers.
The people behind MacDev2009 are hoping to change that with their event in April this year.
The speaker list is looking pretty good, including as it does the likes of Bill Dudney (creater of Riddle Racer and Dot Game, among others, Matt Gemmell, whose source code is found in an impressive variety of applications, and Fraser Speirs, (FlickrExport creator and the person who tipped me off about MacDev2009 in the first place).
There will be 11 hour-long sessions during the weekend, aimed at intermediate or advanced developers – not much at all for beginners. The session list looks very interesting. As Fraser puts it: “You really, really want to be at this one if you’re a Mac Developer.”
Here’s an iPhone stand on the opposite end of the spectrum of one I wrote about a few weeks ago.
Given the the snark I leveled at the ingeniously simple iBend, I’m just speechless about the Ped 3.
$40 from Thought Out
Soccer fans can keep up with Champion’s League games and Italy’s Serie A games on their iPhones thanks to a free web app developed in cooperation with Sky.
Stats, line-ups, photos and play-by-plays (for the moment, in Italian only) are available at https://i.sky.it/
The web app was developed by CEFRIEL, an ICT research hub for three Milan Universities, with a special eye to Apple-friendly design. One example: a list of team members can be rotated horizontally to a soccer field view which shows the positions they play.
A lot of men here in Italy used to walk around with transistor radios on Sundays listening to soccer games. Of late, these have been replaced by videophone services that allow fans ignore wives and friends while having a stroll. Although it would’ve been nice to be able to watch the games live, this lets sports fans keep on top of the score without ruining conversation over Sunday lunch.
Via Alfonso Fuggetta
You’ve got to love Japanese developer Yuki Yasoshima, whose free stopwatch app hit the iTunes AppStore this week. The version of the app on sale in the US store is “English,” but nowhere in the AppStore description is a word of it actually in English, just the same Japanese character information found on Yasoshima’s website, which is also in, yes, Japanese.
Now, that’s confidence in your product!
Fortunately, Big StopWatch is dead intuitive. Not to mention elegant, graphically boss and accurate to the 100th of a second.
If any of our Japanese-savvy readers want to take a shot at Yasoshima’s app description, it’s appended after the jump. Please let us know what we’re missing in comments.
In Apple rumor news having nothing to do with Steve Jobs’ health, a new Mac mini, featuring Intel’s Atom processor and the same Nvidia GeForce graphics processor found in the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros is said to be set for release in March, according to a report at Tom’s Hardware.
Citing an Nvidia partner as the source for the information, Tom’s reports the refreshed mini will pair Nvidia’s GeForce 9400 graphics processor with Intel’s dual-core 1.6 GHz Atom 330 processor and come to market around the time of CeBit, the world’s largest trade show for information and telecommunications technology, held annually in Hanover, Germany.
An update to Tom’s original report cites conflicting rumor talk out of AppleInsider suggesting that Apple may be using Nvidia’s Ion platform for an updated Apple TV, while acknowledging that no one really knows what’s going on for sure.
As I’m preparing to spend away all of my money for a Macbook my classes require, I’m starting to think about protecting it. Not just protecting it, but protecting it in style. I like the custom made Macbook pouches on Etsy because I know that if I buy one, I’m probably never going to see someone with the same pouch. There may be a handful of others out there, but they’re so few and far between that you can consider your purchase unique.
fernfiddlehead has a barrage of Macbook envelopes that look excellent. There’s a simple pattern to their dimensions, but the fabrics available are vibrant and exciting:
This one has a matching power cable pouch.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who underwent pancreatic cancer surgery in 2004, may be headed back to the operating room to remove his pancreas, a doctor Thursday told financial publication Bloomberg.
Wednesday’s announcement that Jobs would leave for a six-month medical absence could indicate complications from the earlier surgery that removed portions of the pancreas, bile duct and small intestine, said Robert Thomas, head of surgery at Melbourne’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
Although Thomas isn’t intimately familiar with the health condition of the Apple founder, the medical expert told Bloomberg that a “pancreatic leak” could require the pancreas to be removed and insulin to keep the Silicon Valley icon alive.
A couple of the larger media egos on the Apple beat got into a public spat on CNBC Wednesday, in the wake of Steve Jobs’ sudden decision to step aside from day-to-day operations in Cupertino.
Newsweek columnist Dan Lyons, who outed himself as the man behind the formerly wildly popular blog Fake Steve Jobs told CNBC’s Silicon Valley bureau chief, Jim Goldman, he’d been “played” and “punked” by his sources at Apple.
Goldman had previously reported, in the wake of Jobs’ decision to forgo the keynote address at Macworld 2009, that his sources had assured him the Apple CEO was fine and healthy and that the company’s decisions around Macworld had more to do with its long-term market strategy, and had not been guided by any concerns about Jobs’ health.
The clip is a bit of Kabuki theater that reminds one of nothing so much as children squabbling over a dying parent. It devolves, as so many of these things do, into a tempest of shouting and mewling. The conversation’s moderator sums it up nicely at the end, saying, “nobody can hear anything you guys are saying because you’re talking all over one another, and we’re out of time.”
Sad.
Via Cnet
Apple has dropped “Mac” from the name of its operating system, filing new trademark applications referring to just “OS X.” The move could be just the latest effort to rebrand the overall company.
The new trademark applications were filed in Trinidad and Tobago following the June 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference where Apple banners announced “OS X Leopard.”
The move may have been made to distinguish the company’s OS X Leopard computer operating system and the OS X used by Apple’s iPhone, according to Apple Insider.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs was forced to take a six-month medical leave following an ailment “preventing his body from absorbing food,” the New York Times reported online Wednesday.
The report, citing medical experts with knowledge of Jobs’ health, told the newspaper the founder of the Cupertino, Calif.-based company was not leaving due to a reappearance of pancreatic cancer which sidelined the Jobs in 2004.
Medical experts also told the executive to reduce stress, a factor that could inflame the illness, according to the Times.
Despite concern over what the six-month absence of Steve Jobs will mean for Apple, “sales will be unaffected,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said Wednesday.
Munster, known for his bullish outlook on Apple, told clients interim CEO Tim Cook will lead the company without a hiccup in product development.
Although Cook took temporary reins of Apple in 2004 when Jobs underwent cancer surgery, that episode lasted only one month, a fraction of the six-month absence Jobs’ announced Wednesday.
U.S. News & World Report named the “Get A Mac” campaign one of the best marketing jobs in recent times, putting it up there 13 killer campaigns including “What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” and “Will it Blend?”
Here’s why:
Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign, which launched in 2006, puts the hip, easygoing Mac against the hapless, problem-prone PC. “The message of these ads is clear,” says communications professor Stephen Marshall, author of Television Advertising That Works.
“Every one of them says, ‘Don’t be this guy.’ You don’t want to be the PC.” The TV ads also appeared online, and the company released a series of web-only ads to capitalize on consumer interest in the characters. People got the message–Mac’s market share grew by 42 percent.
Lesson: Create engaging characters in your online video to help grow an audience that’s receptive to your brand.
Interesting to see some praise outside the community, since the campaign has won several awards but hasn’t always been loved by ad critics.
Via US News
RBC Capital Markets Thursday downgraded Apple to ‘underperform,’ also slashing the stock’s target price to $70 from $125.
The analyst firm also told clients the percent of people who say they expect to buy a Mac or iPhone over the next three months slipped in January.
Just 28 percent of people responding to a January RBC/Changewave survey reported they would buy a Mac laptop, down from 33 percent in Nov. Likewise, 30 percent of people said they intend to purchase an iPhone, when asked in December, slipping from 34 percent in September.
I’ve spent a week or so playing around with the beta release of Picasa for Mac, and here are some thoughts.
– It’s FAST. It does a superb job of pulling in your iPhoto collection in no time at all. Scrolling through it all is much faster than similar scrolling in iPhoto itself.
– It’s considerate. It makes a point of co-existing with iPhoto, and asks nicely for your permission before making a copy of an image that’s being edited. As a consequence, it means people can try Picasa out without worrying about damage to their iPhoto database.
– It finds your photos without fuss. Start it up, and it pokes around in all the usual places (and any other places you instruct it to poke in), looking for new pictures. These then get neatly added to the archive.
– It does things my mum will love. The collages, the integration with Picasa Web Albums – these are features I have little interest in myself, but my mum (who has never got on well with iPhoto) will love them.
– I like the the color searches (as shown in the photo above). Ask it to find “red” stuff and it will. Great for collages, photo books, or artistic projects.
Naturally, as with any beta, there are going to be some teething problems. One bug I’ve noticed is that right-clicking on an image and selecting “Move to (named) album” doesn’t work. And Picasa does seem to take a loooooong time to look through the images already on the camera, and decide if they are duplicates or not. But it does get there in the end.
Beta status or not, Picasa offers a decent alternative for photo management for people who don’t want to spend the kind of money required for Aperture or Lightroom.
Apple products are a natural for high falutin’ teen drama “Gossip Girl,” where just about everything the upper East Siders use has a recognizable brand name.
Gossip Girl, however, is sponsored by Verizon. To keep them happy, producers artfully block the Apple logos from getting into shots, but as a result Apple’s presence is almost more consipicous than it would be otherwise. The shot on the left reminds me of the trick directors use to hide pregnant actesses by placing plants and furniture to hit just mid-tummy.
A nice slide show non-Apple Apple product placement on Gossip Girl at Geek Sugar settles an ongoing argument I’ve been having with a friend over whether Dan’s laptop is a Mac or not…
Photos courtesy of The CW
Funnyman Jim Carrey keeps his love alive with wife, former playmate and comedian Jenny McCarthy, by dancing for her on iChat.
McCarthy tells OK magazine (with much enthusiasm!) that she and her Yes Man text and use iChat to keep in touch while he’s on the set.
Jenny says she and Jim also use a web cam from time to time.
“I haven’t done any dancing, but I make him do that!” she says. “It’s nice! With the iChat, we’re always afraid that there’s a third party watching! We’re a little bit careful, but it’s a great way to have that face connection!”
She also confesses that between the two of them there’s not much ha ha-ing around the house. Somehow I find that hard to believe, especially if he’s shaking his groove thing for her regularly.
Via OK