The new hexacore Mac Pro’s are coming, the screaming performance and egg frying potential of those new machines are making my previously five thousand dollar 2006 model look positively dated.
To be sure, I’m in the midst of a computational mid-life crisis. Follow me after the jump for the cure…
Want to play a bunch of imaginary drums in the air around you? Who doesn’t! Buy an iPhone 4.
That’s right, developer Logic Consulting has created an app called Gyro Air Drums that leverages the iPhone 4’s gyroscope to create a virtual drum kit positioned in a two-tier, 300-degree arc around the user, then turns the iPhone itself into the drumstick. The $3 set includes a snare, hi-hat, hi and low toms, a finger-controlled bass pedal, the all-important cowbell and even a taiko drum
Judging by the demo in the clip above, the app isn’t sophisticated enough for any Dave Grohl-style drumming delight, and you’ll still look like a dork, waving your iPhone around — but it doesn’t matter; the idea is so cool, you’ll get dates anyway.
The Apple Store went down this morning, and when it came back up, Apple had given us all a depressingly good excuse to give them five grand: their new 12-core Mac Pros.
Even the minimum specs for this thing are eyeball melting: two 2.66GHz hecacore Xeon Westmere CPUs, 6GB of memory, an eighteen-speed dual-layer SuperDrive and an ATI Radeon HD 5770 GPU with 1GB of DDR5 memory.
Prices start at $4999.99, but I was able to spec one close to $15,000 with all the bells and whistles before my eyeballs bugged out of my sockets. Shipping is in seven to ten business days, so get ordering
While Apple’s own iPad Camera Connection Kit comes with two different attachments to juggle between USB and SD connectivity, but look at this piece of kit the Chinese are rocking: a $26 two-in-one dongle that allows you to switch between SD and USB with just the push of a button. Why can’t we get something this slick officially, Apple?
[via Gizmodo]
From Steve Jobs’ promise to ship millions of FaceTime capable “iOS devices” this year to a leaked iPod Touch front plate with a front-facing camera hole, the imminent release of a FaceTime-capable iPod Touch is looking more likely by the moment.
The latest evidence? Confirming earlier rumors about how FaceTime would be handled on the next gen iPod Touch, MacRumors has discovered that the latest beta of iOS 4.1 supports email-based FaceTime initiation.
I’ve been banking on an iPod Touch capable of FaceTime ever since the iPhone 4’s release, but now I’m really beginning to wonder if we won’t see that device in the next couple of weeks. Take the existence of email-based FaceTime in iOS 4.1 beta 3 and combine it with Apple’s seeming slowness in releasing a fix for iOS 4.0.1’s PDF security vulnerability and today’s rumor that the next iPod event will happen next week, and I think what we’re looking at here is an update to iOS 4.1 timed around the imminent release of a new iPod Touch. What do you think?
Osmos for iPad is a unique game for Apple’s new platform. It reminds me a little bit of Spore from Electronic Arts, but only a little. I got bored with Spore on my Mac and iPhone pretty quickly, but I cannot say the same about Osmos.
The app makes good use of the iPad’s graphic abilities, touchscreen interface, and audio hardware. The latter provides nice music and sound effects that make playing the game for long periods of time enjoyable. However, the rapidly changing game play, that made me feel immersed in a totally new gaming experience, was what really made me fall in love with this game.
I’ve been using Apple’s Magic Trackpad for just over a week, and I can confidently say it’s replaced the mouse for me.
The Magic Trackpad is easier to use, much more functional than even a multibutton mouse, and possibly less prone to causing repetitive strain injuries.
We wrap up another week with three hardware deals. First up is an 8GB iPod touch for $149. Next is a 24-inch LED Cinema Display for $709. Our last highlighted deal for the day is a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with two years of AppleCare for $1,598 from Expercomm.
Along the way, we’ll also check out new software for your iPhone and Mac. As always, details on these and many other items are available after the jump.
If you can buy it before Apple pulls the sale, you could snap up a 3G iPod prototype with camera.
You’ve still got a day to bid the 32GB iPod, at this writing there were 34 bids and a ceiling of $449. However, this isn’t the first time one has cropped up on eBay, the last one for sale in April was pulled shortly after it made news.
The iPod with camera prototype will probably be a museum piece, but you may have trouble using it — the device doesn’t come with the as-yet unreleased camera software. (duh).
If you’ve wondered why there isn’t a smaller iPod nano or a cheaper MacBook Air notebook, someone at Apple must have read your mind. The Cupertino, Calif. company may unveil those new products in September, according to a prominent analyst.
BMO Capital’s Keith Bachman expects Apple will unveil two new iPods – a new Touch and a new Nano. The Nano will be “much smaller” than previous versions and will omit the track wheel, according to the analyst. The introduction of a small Nano may mean we’ll be waving goodbye to the Shuffle.
