Lay-offs have become common as a winter cold as companies from New York to Silicon Valley cope with the ailing economy. But Apple, in its inimitable way, is hoping a bit of employee shuffling will prevent any more pink slips.

Friday, Palm confirmed it would drop employees from the Treo maker, telling CNET the move was made due to “challenges facing our company and the industry.” Although Palm didn’t mention the number of layoffs, Silicon Valley blog Valleyway put the figure at 1,050.

Apple, despite recently eating into Palm’s marketshare, hasn’t escaped worrying about a slowdown in consumer demand for gadgets. However, instead of jobs cuts, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is experimenting with reduced hours for its sales staff and extra duty for Apple Store workers more accustom to answering support questions or tackling creative tasks.

Pirates are back. If you’ve been reading the news you know we mean the bad-ass high-seas kind, not the frilly-shirted guyliner ones from the movies.

It’s likely that aught-age pirates who have been terrorizing ships off the Horn of Africa recently have better tools than the odd rusty compass, at the very least iPhones with Google maps.

With this new breed in mind, Glenn Jones, a graphic designer and illustrator from Auckland, New Zealand designed this Modern Pirate T-shirt, yours for $20.

Those thigh-high boots do look good accessorized by an iPhone, we find.

Via Nerd Approved

There’s an idea you have for a killer iPhone app that no one has made yet. Trouble is, you have the idea but aren’t a developer. Step in iPhone Freelancer, a site that aims to pair idea-happy luddites with the tech people to make those apps happen. Employers post projects, then freelancers bid on them. It just launched a couple of days ago, but there’s already one project for a game with a budget of $250-500:

“I am looking for someone to develop an iphone app in the spirit of ibeer. You will have to know the SDK development kit provided by apple or some mobile phone equivalent. The app is meant to be a simple form of entertainment. If you start with an existing game and can just change the images, that would be fine too. I just don’t have the skill to do it on my own.”

Given the recent spate of stories on of developers making big bucks on iPhone apps, the idea is good, though savvy programmers are sharing iPhone-related gigs already.

If you want to use a racy photo as your iPhone wallpaper it will have to be strictly DIY now that Wallpaper Universe has been pulled from the AppStore.

Some will say this turn of events confirms Steve Jobs’ promise to keep ‘porn’ off the iPhone. Others point out that it highlights the inscrutability of Apple’s review process for selecting what does, and what doesn’t make it into the AppStore catalog.

Leaving aside for the moment the question of whether Apple should retain exclusive gatekeeper authority over apps that can be legitimately run on the iPhone, many would be satisfied if the process for AppStore certification was more transparent, according to MG Siegler, writing for Venture Beat.

Last weekend’s snafu over the release of Google’s voice search update, the punting of approved apps on a third update, debacles such as the I Am Rich app – all raise legitimate questions over the capriciousness of Apple’s distribution of tickets to the big show.

Via Industry Standard

Have you loaded up so many apps on your iPhone you’re now pushing the nine screen limit? Do you ever want to just get back to your home Home screen and wish you didn’t have to start swiping screens back across the phone face?

The latest update to iPhone software 2.2 has a nice little feature built in that will take you home – just push the “Home” button.

So simple. Surprising, actually it took ’em this many updates to load that one in, but thanks, Apple!

One of the iPhone’s great uses is as a pocket reference. So much information can be stored on it and accessed immediately, with flair and panache, no less.

Now this capability extends to the world of vintage wine, with the Wine Vintage Card app. For $2 you can have up to date information on the past decade’s wine production in every major wine region of the world at your fingertips. And where some impressions of people who know and love wine conjure visions of stuffiness and seriousness, this app uses an easy to read and understand emoticon system to confirm whether that ’03 Cabernet from Napa deserves a premium over the ’03 Bordeaux.

The card doesn’t break information down by individual producers, nor does it go back to vintages prior to 1998, but what do you want for two bucks?

Via MacsimumNews

The HP TouchSmart laptop computer will get attention from curiosity seekers when it debuts on November 28 because it is the first consumer-grade full touch-screen-capable notebook computer. If you watch the video demoing the the device above, however, you’d be forgiven for thinking HP may be in a bit of an awkward position once the actual sales numbers from this product start to get tallied.

Watch how taking advantage of the touch screen’s functionality requires two hands – one to hold the open screen steady at the side or the base, and another to actually perform the touch gestures on the screen. It also seems from this demo (which is apparently not a final release version of the product) the screen is not especially sensitive to touch gestures, that many “commands” have to be “repeated” twice and three times before the screen registers them. The screen itself is high-gloss and, well, I know how I feel about finger oils on a glossy glass surface. If these machines do end up taking off for some reason, there ought to be a bull market in screen wipes.

When Apple introduced the iPhone in June 2007 it rocked the mobile computing world almost as much as it rocked the mobile phone world. And with the launch of the AppStore this past summer, Apple’s business and iPhone software development exploded, with both continuing to outpace a clearly struggling global economy.

I don’t expect HP is going to have nearly the impact iPhone has had, despite introducing the kind of product many have been clamoring for from Apple.

No one waits until after Thanksgiving any more to start thinking about and marketing Christmas, so why wait to get your iPhone Christmas Advent Calendar?

Available now from developers Gourmet Pixel, the 24 Days app greets the user upon first opening the application with a countdown to December 1st.

Once into December, you’re able to open each relevant window and in return, receive an interactive gift, which culminates to a spectacular interactive finale on Christmas Eve.

“A lot of the standard individual elements built into 24 Christmas Days are actually being sold in a separated form by other developers as single apps,” says Darren Lynch, a Director at Gourmet Pixel. He adds, “our app can also be used year after year, so it really is cost effective. While it ticks all the boxes, in terms of classic Christmas imagery, watch out for some special surprises that our development team has added –œ it’s a real Christmas treat!”

Last week, Jesper at Waffle Software (makers of This Service, among other apps) posted a lengthy critique of his favorite browser, OmniWeb.

Jesper’s been using OmniWeb 5 for years now, but he feels it’s been languishing, unloved and un-updated, for too long. He says:

“Why are you not caring about your product, and if you are, why doesn’t it show? Why are you letting people chatter feature requests on your forums without showing some degree of involvement? What’s with not even letting slip that either something is up for the future or that you’re thinking of letting this go..?”

When I saw Jesper’s comments, I thought he was making a lot of valid points – so I contacted Omni and asked them if they had anything to say about them.

Today, both Jesper and I got a reply when Omni boss Ken Case added a comment to Jesper’s post. In it, he admits:

“OmniWeb has effectively been in maintenance mode for the last few years while we’ve focused the bulk of our attention on other products.”

But during that time, some ideas have been brewing. Omni doesn’t have enough developers to make them happen, so he signs off with an advertisement: “Would any experienced developers like to come work for us? We’re hiring!”

So if you fancy bringing OmniWeb up-to-date, now’s your chance.

An anonymous tipster pointed us to this photo, posted anonymously on the web, of Woz on his Segway at the urinal. There’s just no place left to hide, is there?

Via

What does it cost to hold an employee’s future on ice? IBM reportedly has paid $3 million in exchange for a preliminary injunction stopping Mark Papermaster from joining Apple.

Last week, Federal District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas determined Papermaster, a 25-year veteran of New York-based IBM cannot join Apple as the Cupertino, Calif. firm’s senior vice president of hardware engineering.

Along with granting the preliminary injunction, the New York judge required IBM to post a $3 million security bond to ensure any losses by Papermaster while the court challenge is underway. Before the injunction, Apple had announced Papermaster’s hiring and set a salary.

Worldwide PC sales will see only a single-digit increase in 2009 with growth next year reaching only 4.3 percent – a nearly 75 percent reduction over prior expectations of a 11.9 percent increase, a research firm announced Thursday.

The picture for Apple sales appears brighter than the glum outlook for overall PC demand. Earlier this week, Piper Jaffray’s Apple watcher Gene Munster said he expects Mac sales to grow 8 percent to 16 percent when Apple reports in December.

Researchers at iSuppli said the drastically lower expectations were due to the embattled economy.

Babies? Yes, babies! That’s all it is! Babies!

Isn’t there a law against this or something?

Wait – there’s two apps here. Babies and Babies Free.

The only difference I can see between them is that Babies costs a dollar and is described as: “Look at babies until you cannot look at babies no more! There is no end to the babies!”

Whereas Babies Free is merely “All the babies you will ever want to look at!”

I see, so there’s a clear functionality difference here. The free Babies app imposes restrictions on the amount of baby viewing. Users are limited to just the babies they will ever want to see; to see babies until you can no longer do so requires the pro-level upgrade. Figures.

So that’s all cleared up then.

Apple, long viewed as primarily consumer-oriented, now supplies more smartphones to corporations, taking the No. 2 spot from Palm’s Treo and breathing down the neck of RIM, according to a survey released Thursday.

Apple’s iPhone now has 14 percent of the corporate market. Palm’s Treo fell to 11 percent and third place while RIM’s BlackBerry held 76 percent of the market, according to a ChangeWave Research survey of IT spending plans.

Apple’s gains came mostly at the expense of Palm, which lost 4 percent of its marketshare to the iPhone. Meanwhile, RIM saw its lead trimmed by one point.

Although one analyst described the iPhone as often just corporate bling, the shifting numbers indicate an attempt to keep ahead of the curve in terms of the iPhone in a business.

“IT managers don’t want to be caught flat-footed,” Kevin Burden, ABI Research’s chief wireless analyst, told Cult of Mac.

As the holidays loom ever closer and the global economic get worse and worse, Apple’s doing its bit to encourage a little seasonal spending.

The new iPhone Your Life section on apple.com is full of tips and tricks for new iPhone users, encouraging them to dive into the App Store and look around.

There are recommendations and staff picks, and on the Top Apps page there’s limited web-based access to best selling apps in a range of categories – the first time I’ve seen Apple replicating some of the App Store functionality on the web.

The Tips and Tricks page is also a good starting point for Christmas Day iPhone newbies (of whom, I have no doubt, there will be many).

(Via John Gruber)

Travis Hammond is a graphic designer located near Baltimore, Maryland. He works for a private auction firm and a local magazine, and does freelance photography and design work. He’s also a bit of an Apple nut, if these among many other examples of his Mac, iPod and iPhone inspired creativity are any indication.

See more at his website and his Flickr pages

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A Long Island woman stabbed an attacker in the neck with her iPod charger, then managed to pick the twice-convicted rapist out of a police line up — he still had the prong marks from the charger on his neck.

According to a local paper, at 2 a.m. the rapist approached an 18-year-old as she was walking home from a friend’s place. He made a pretense of asking for directions, then put her in a chokehold and pulled her behind a church.

In the struggle, she stabbed him with an iPod charger which didn’t prevent the rape but became key in identifying her 23-year-old attacker.

Sources told the paper that by the time police rounded him up as a suspect, about a week later the rapist still bore “two prong marks on the neck from the charger.”

Wondering whether the European iPod charger with rounded prongs would come in as handy for impromptu self-defense.

Via Macenstein

Now that iPhone Firmware 2.2 is out (all 245.7MB of it), what do we all think of it? Initial reactions around the web seem broadly positive, and my own experience so far matches that. In recent weeks I’ve been seeing quite frequent application crashes on my 2nd gen iPhone, so I’ll be interested to see if they happen less often now. On very first impressions, the phone feels faster and snappier in use post-update.

Most of the changes were published in advance, but there are some hidden extras that are new to me.

Inspired by our previous post on an iPhone stand from a standard binder clip, CoM reader Rich Sipe took matters into hand and fashioned another one, a bit more complex than the first one but it looks like it’ll give you a sturdy stand out of pinched office materials.

More on Instructables, too.

Apple’s new MacBooks are great — but as a proud owner of one of the milled wonders, I can confirm that the much-vaunted glass trackpad did have issues. Not constant ones by any means, but it would miss clicks quite often — probably one in ten times.

Having finally downloaded and installed Trackpad Firmware Update 1.0 yesterday, I can also confirm that the problems have completely gone away now. No fuss, and every click counts.

My experience has not been universal, however. MacFixIt reports that many users are having difficulty installing the update, and I’ve even heard of some people getting kernel panics and other bad news. Install at your own risk, obviously, but it’s a very welcome update — makes the already good significantly better.

As has been widely rumored, Apple rolled out iPhone OS 2.2 tonight via software update, which brings Google Street View, mass transit directions, location sharing by e-mail, and, most excitingly, over-the-air podcast downloads, which has been a fairly glaring oversight (and source of considerable controversy).

At the same time, Apple has whipped out iTunes 8.0.2, which is basically a bug fix, plus improved results for VoiceOver, Apple’s accessibility technology for the visually impaired.

Nothing big, but good to see Apple improving its software nonetheless.

Via Engadget

The busiest shopping day of the year is traditionally the day after Thanksgiving, known in the Retail Trade as Black Friday. And this year, anticipation appears to be building for some of the best Black Friday deals to be had for netbooks, the super-cheap small laptops from many manufacturers that may get even cheaper for a retail minute.

Here’s a custom Google search for Black Friday deals, and you’d be well advised too, to be on the look out at local hardware retailers for returned notebooks pre-installed with Linux.

We’ve seen rumors of deals to be had on a Dell mini-laptop, and powerful arguments for why netbooks may just dominate the holiday shopping season.

When you get your hands on your mini-deal, see the references below for tips on how to get ’em to run OS X:

Install OS X on an Acer Aspire One – courtesy of reader Javier Canadillas; thanks, Javier!

Guide to installing OS X on Lenovo IdeaPad S10

Run Mac OS X on an Eee PC

Run Mac OS X on an MSI Wind

If you come across ways to get OS X on other netbooks, be sure to let us know about it in comments.

One of my favorite Mac programs is Garage Band. As a musician and songwriter, I am endlessly impressed with how much creativity and flexibility Apple has built into the program, for my money the star of the iLife bundle.

I learned about a new little trick for creating one-touch sound effects using Garage Band‘s Musical Keyboard, as described by writer Christopher Breen in MacWorld.

You can map up to 18 of the program’s built-in sound effects (select Sound Effect from the Software Instrument Info pane), or pre-recorded AIFF files dragged from the Finder, to keys on the Mac keyboard (as shown above) and save the whole set as an “Instrument” to be called for use in creating any new podcast or other recording project.

Be sure to see Breen’s article for the step-by-step instructions for utilizing this handy tip.

Mac userTom Klaver says, “Command-Tab in this case brings me command-slap, because when I invoke the command-tab keystroke to switch to another app, almost every time this weird unidentifiable
thing happens.”

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

Think you’ve got the hands or, in the case of iPhone, the fingers of a surgeon? You’ll soon be able to find out with a new mobile game from developer ngmoco, inc.. Dr. Awesome, Microsurgeon MD is an iPhone game that lets you import friends from your address book and “perform surgery” on them in a Qix meets Trauma Center gamescape environment, according to blogger Brandon Boyer at Boing Boing.

Check out the trailer above and get scrubbed.