We start with a couple deals on iPods. First up is a 4GB iPod Shuffle for just $57. Next is an 8GB iPod nano for $99. At the other end of the spectrum is a Mac Pro Workstation powered by 12-core Xeon processors running at 2.93GHz for $6,469.
Along the way, we check out price drops on iPhone and iPad apps, plus various software and hardware deals. As usual, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Last month, the always somewhat suspect Digitimes asserted that Apple intended on going head-to-head with the netbook market by releasing an 11.6-inch MacBook Air something later this year. Here’s one fan’s wishful thinking Photoshop on what such an Air might look like.
There’s nothing too hard to buy about the way Apple would choose to layout the keyboard on an 11.6-inch MacBook: as netbooks have shown, twelve inches is the sweet spot when it comes to not compromising keyboard size. Nor is the trackpad hard to swallow, given the fact that Apple will doubtlessly eliminate the physical button from future Air trackpads.
Making the Air even thinner seems like a pipe dream, though: Apple’s not about to switch over to an Atom chip, which means a thinner Air would come at the expense of battery life. And where’s the black glass bezel that Apple’s favored for all of their modern computer designs?
Still, I’d buy a smaller Air if the price was right and Apple could match the existing MacBook line’s battery life: my Hackintosh netbook is getting woefully long in the tooth.
[via 9to5Mac]
Dear Steve Jobs:
What happened to quality?
Not long ago, before Apple became big and popular, your company was loved by many of us without hesitation. We still love Apple, but it’s getting harder to feel that way. Apple is clearly loosing a foothold on quality. Perhaps you are taking on too much at one time.
I’m writing this letter after experiencing a ton of problems with my new iPhone 4, including issues with Bluetooth, the proximity sensor, and yellow-tinged photos from the camera. I just took it back to the Apple Store to be replaced. Customer service is still awesome, but quality is slipping.
It’s obvious you’ve noticed quality problems too. That’s why you just appointed Jeff Williams as a Senior Vice President of Operations, and gave him the job of ensuring the highest standards in quality for Apple products. He’s got his work cut out for him. So we hope he’ll hit the ground running.
Steve, please consider the following examples of why Apple’s attempts to do too many things at once are resulting in quality failures in just about everything it does.
Remember the recent iPod Shuffle rumor predicting Apple will shortly launch a new version with a 3-inch multitouch screen?
Well, here’s how it might look.
Our friend Graham Bower from MacPredictions made this mockup. He has some good ideas about how it might work. Graham predicts the device is a bit bigger than the current iPod shuffle. It has two buttons on the bottom: On/Off and Shuffle. The square screen shows nothing but album art.
In shuffle mode, it transitions quickly between multiple album covers, moving in different directions to suggest shuffling.
Swiping your finger from left to right across the screen cues the next track, and in the other direction it goes back to the previous track.
Swiping your finger up and down controls the volume. Tapping on the screen toggles between pause and play. It’s that simple.
To celebrate Woz’s 60th birthday today, his wife Janet commissioned this song as a gift.
“That’s Woz,” is sung by Jonathan Mann, an up-and-coming YouTube singing star whose song about the iPhone 4 antenna was played by Steve Jobs at a press conference. Mann followed this up with a song about Jobs. A song once wrote a tune about Paul Krugman that went wildly viral and landed him on the Rachel Maddow Show.
Mann’s song about Woz is a tribute to the Apple co-founders pure geek values. “Do it for fun,” he sings during the chorus. “Don’t do it for the money. That’s just Woz.”
Mann is singing a song a day and posting them to his YouTube channel and his Song A Day website.
(See also Mann’s funny NSFW tribute to heroic JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater.)
We start another day of deals with something for everyone. Today’s featured bargains include a leather case to protect your iPad, a 1.33Ghz iBook G4 for $269 and Apple’s on-going Back-to-School hardware sale, which offers a free iPod touch when you buy a computer.
Along the way, we’ll also check out new iPhone and Mac software, hardware deals and gadgets that caught our eye. As always, details on these and many more items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.
Apple next-generation iPad is rumored to appear later this year or early 2011. Along with a smaller form-factor, the new tablet may include some technology already unveiled for the iPhone 4, such as 3-axis gyroscope.
Apparently, an iPad prototype included a gyroscope, but Apple decided to use that technology in its new iPhone handset. That’s the word from a company that tore apart an iPad and poked around inside.
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has an excellent track record when it comes to casually dropping details about the next Apple product, so we’re inclined to believe his latest:
[I] if you wait a few weeks to buy the Touch, you’ll get one with a Retina Display and dual cameras.
The Retina Display has been an assumed given since the iPhone 4 hit the market, but the insistence on dual cameras is interesting. We knew the next iPod Touch was bound to have at least a FaceTime camera, but according to a story last month, the iPhone 4’s 5MP camera module simply can’t fit into the existing iPod Touch, so Apple would either need to make the iPod Touch thicker or max the iPod Touch’s back-facing camera out at 3.2MP.
The “within a few weeks” is also interesting, since it seemingly contradicts a rumor that we heard earlier this week that Apple would be hosting their annual iPod event by August 17th. Then again, since we haven’t yet seen press invitations for that event, that rumor’s pretty much contradicted itself.
It is only three words, but it was enough to get speculation revved-up: Is AT&T admitting it’s iPhone deal is coming to a close? In a late-Friday filing with the Security and Exchange Commission, Apple’s U.S. partner told regulators exclusivity contracts on ‘a number of attractive handsets’ are about to end.
Although Apple’s iPhone was not mentioned by name, the oblique reference had analysts scurrying to connect the dots. For some time, rumors have floated that Apple is preparing to introduce a CDMA version of the iPhone, potentially for AT&T rival Verizon. While neither firm has spoken directly on the issue, AT&T’s statement is just the latest piece in the puzzle.
It’s been almost two years since Microsoft’s laughable, misleading and creatively bereft “I’m A PC” ads, and you’d think they’d have learned something about appearing too defensive… but no! Right in time for the annual “Back to School” laptop sales wars, Microsoft has launched an official PC vs. Mac section on their website.
Needless to say, it’s laughably misleading.
