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>Back in 2008, Apple wanted chip design guru Mark Papermaster so much that they actually got into a lawsuit with IBM over him. A mere fifteen months later, though, Papermaster has left his position of Senior VP of Devices Hardware Engineering at Apple… and all signs point to Papermaster having been canned.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Papermaster had a a “falling out” with Steve Jobs over Apple’s corporate culture, and has lost Jobs’ confidence months ago.

As Daring Fireball’s John Gruber points out, that seems to be consistent with external evidence: namely, despite the fact that Papermaster was in charge of the iPhone 4’s hardware, he is nowhere to be seen in Apple’s iPhone 4 promotional videos. Nor was he on stage during Apple’s “Antennagate” press conference.

Rather, in both instances, Papermaster’s ostensible subordinate, Bob Mansfield, took his place to talk in detail about the iPhone 4’s hardware. No surprise, then, that Mansfield has now been promoted into Papermaster’s now vacant position.

Ultimately, this seems to be a case of a square peg not being able to fit into an Apple-shaped hole.

The most interesting detail of this story is the fact that Papermaster was not fired by Jobs over the iPhone 4’s antenna issues. In fact, according to Gruber, the iPhone 4’s antenna issues were ticked as a bug over two years ago, and Steve Jobs himself gave the okay on releasing the handset as designed, believing the “death grip” issue to be comparable to antenna-issues on other smartphones.

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.

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A few times a year, some dusty old Beatle pops up out of his crypt, coughs out a centipede and tells us that they really want to bring their catalogue to iTunes and it’s coming soon, honest.

It can be confusing: three years ago, Paul McCartney said that an iTunes deal was “virtually settled”, but just three months ago, he said a deal was just a far away as ever, claiming those boneheads at EMI were the ones gumming up the works.

Now John Lennon’s infamous wife has emerged from her Black Pyramid and recited the incantation that transforms her into Yoko-Ono The Ever-Living. She doesn’t blame EMI: she basically just says Steve Jobs is messing things up by not paying them enough money.

“Steve Jobs has his own idea and he’s a brilliant guy. There’s just an element that we’re not very happy about, as people. We are holding out,” Yoko said.

“Don’t hold your breath… for anything,” she then ominously added, punctuating the implied threat with a maniacal cackle before returning to her mausoleum to plot the attainment of the fabled Sword of Omens.

An uncanny resemblance, don’t you think?

On the left, an in-app screenshot of Where To?, an iOS app nudging travelers along a GPS trail to local points of interest. “Where To? makes it incredibly easy to locate the closest steakhouse, bank branch, billiard club or anything else you may be looking for, at the drop of a hat!” That in-app homescreen has not changed since version 1.0, which was a Day 1 download on the App Store.

On the right, Where To’s eerie doppelnganger, plucked from the Aha-like inner mindscape of an Apple patent attorney. The patent is dated December 18, 2009 and describes “systems and methods for integrating travel services in a single application available to a portable electronic device,” allowing users to easily be directed to local restaurants, banks or nightspots. Sound familiar?

In other words, Apple seems to have patented the functionality of another company’s app, right on down to that app’s physical design and title.

Independent app developer Tim Sears has just released his latest creation for iPhone, and if you are a Foursquare user, this is one for you.

Future Checkin utilizes the new background location features available with iOS 4 and allows you to check-in to your favorite, recent or nearby venues without even getting your phone out of your pocket.

Ever since the iPad’s debut, it has handily dominated the 10-inch tablet space… but that hasn’t stopped companies like Dell from trying to make a dent in the iPad’s sales with smaller 5- and 7-inch tablets.

According to iLounge, Apple might be looking to compete with the burgeoning 7-inch tablet market with an iPad Mini of their very own.

It’s plausible, I guess: the iPad is pretty big — sometimes it seems a skosh too big to me — and a 7-inch iPad wouldn’t sacrifice much in usability for an easy gain in slingability.

9to5Mac is confirming that they’ve also heard this rumor from their sources, adding that the iPad Mini would likely have a 1500×1920 Retina Display.

What do you think? Is Apple aiming to shrink the iPad? If they did, would you want one? Let us know in the comments.

The Blackberry Torch misses the mark. We all know this. From its bastardized Palm Pre meets Chinese black market phone industrial design to its Android-by-way-of-Vectrex UI, the entire product is just a complete whiff as an attempt to release a modern, relevant phone for the multitouch and App Store era. Not only that, this is RIM’s third straight swing and miss for an iPhone-killer. We all know this.

But why can’t RIM manage to put forth a phone at least on a par with the Droid or the Samsung Galaxy S line? The answer’s simple, really. They’re so jealous of Apple’s success that they can’t bring themselves to find their way forward.

For all those who took the liberty of running the ridiculously simple JailbreakMe 2.0 installer over the weekend (before having second-thoughts based on the security hole it exposes), the accompanying package to unlock your iPhone to run on any GSM carrier worldwide has dropped.

Ultrasn0w 1.0-1 is the first baseband unlock for iOS 4 phones, and works with iPhone 4s, 3GSs, and 3Gs. It might also work with 3.x devices, but it’s unclear from the documentation. Gentlemen, head for T-Mobile (at EDGE speeds)!

Via Engadget

At times, it seems, store employees fill many Apple retail outlets at a near one to one ratio with customers. Which raises a question about just what those employees are doing on the clock, for this summer’s favorite prank is quickly becoming jailbreaking Apple devices right under those employees’ noses — or behind their backs, as the case may be.

Perhaps it’s nothing more than bored kids on summer break with nothing better to do, but since our report Monday of a self-proclaimed “bored” anonymous prankster jailbreaking all the display phones at an unnamed Apple store, at least three more incidents of similar mischief have been reported.

Ever since Apple bought the web-streaming music service Lala, our teeth have been aching in anticipation of our iTunes libraries vaporized from our hard disks and existing in the Wonkavision like ionosphere of the cloud.

According to CNET, though, we may very well have a while to wait before Apple truly capitalizes upon its Lala purchase… and when it does come, it might be a far more modest proposal at first than even Cupertino would like.

In talks with the four major labels, Apple is apparently downplaying expectations, saying that if they launch their cloud-streaming iTunes functionality in the next few months, it will be “modest in scope” when it comes to streaming music.

Say goodbye to that wedge of magnetized plastic in your wallet. If AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile have their way, the future of credit is your smartphone… and they are going to war against the likes of Visa and Mastercard to accomplish it.

According to Bloomberg, the three carriers are working with Discover and Barclays, testing a system in four US cities that would enable special smartphones embedded with NFC (near field communication) chips to make credit card payments with just a wave of the hand.

Making a credit card payment from your iPhone isn’t exactly a new idea: Visa already lets you do this with special payWave cases, and Digg founder Kevin Rose is backing Square, which is a similar idea.

The point here, though, is that it’s the carriers who are making the most concerted push yet to consolidate and bring ubiquity to smartphone payment systems, by cutting out the biggest credit giants entirely.

iOS hackers have released jailbreakme.com, a browser-based jailbreak utility for the Apple iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G when running iOS 4 or 4.0.1. The jailbreak is reminiscent of one of the original jailbreaks for the original iPhone.

In addition to the above devices the jailbreak is compatible with an iPad running iOS 3.2 and 3.2.1 and an iPod touch 3G running iOS 4.0.

Apps-on are Post-its that look like the iPhone 4, made to help people who design and develop apps plan out the various stages quickly and easily.

The paper stickies match the exact specs of an iPhone 4 — width, height, display area — and have a dotted grid system that lets you sketch accurately but doesn’t show up if you photocopy or scan the post-it.

Hope for iPhone 3G users running iOS4: after weeks of suffering under the radar, the Wall Street Journal blog Digits reports today that Apple is aware of the performance issues plaguing 3G users running the latest update:

Apple is investigating reports that the latest iPhone operating system causes problems for users of the iPhone 3G, after a series of complaints on Apple support forums and technology blogs. Apple is aware of the reports and is looking into the matter, a spokeswoman told Digits.

iOS4 performance on an iPhone 3G can be a painful experience – sluggish performance, poor battery life, many more reboots, along with vastly increased levels of user angst.  We’ve covered this issue before, as have many other websites, and Apple’s own support forums are buzzing on the topic.

Apple Tuesday updated its all-in-one iMacs with Intel’s Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors, confirming rumors that the Cupertino, Calif. company would completely replace the Intel Core Duo line of chips powering the desktop machines. The low-end 21.5-inch iMac now sports a 3.06GHz i3 processor for $1,199.

The mid-range 21.5-inch iMac is powered by a 3.2GHz i3 chip for $1,499, while the high-end 27-inch iMac includes a 2.93GHz Quad-Core i7 processor for $1,999.

The Apple Store is back up following some downtime this morning and the Magic Trackpad is now available.

At just $69, the Magic Trackpad provides your desktop Mac with all of the multi-touch functionality and gestures you’ll find on your Mac notebook. It looks fantastic and uses the same sculpted aluminum design as Apple’s wireless keyboard, so it will blend in perfectly on your desk.

Many of the most vocal critics of jailbreaking — a group which includes Apple itself — have been quick in the past to cite the fact that hacking your smartphone is a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and thus illegal.

It wasn’t a bad argument, all things considered, but if you’re used to relying on it, you’re going to have to ditch it: the Copyright Office has just issued a new set of exemptions to the DMCA, making jailbreaking and unlocking your iPhone officially legal.

If you’re living in one of the many international countries yet to experience the iPhone 4’s transcendent Retina Display, futuristic FaceTime capability or the infamous Death Grip, good news: Apple has just announced that they will be shipping iPhone 4s to 17 more countries this Friday.

The second-tier first-worlders who can expect to get the iPhone 4 are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Launch day? July 30th. We can’t wait to see the iPhone 4 waiting line photos from far more exotic climes.

If you woke up this morning ready to pull the trigger on that long-lusted for Mac Pro, here’s some counter-intuitive good news for you: it’s currently “unavailable” for purchase at both the Apple Store and many retail stores around the United States.

This is good news, trust us. Apple pulling an item from inventory usually signifies an imminent hardware refresh, and rumors have been swirling for the last few days about what the next MacPro might have going for it.

What does the scuttlebutt have to say for itself Try a USB 3.0 capable Mac Pro with FireWire 1600 (or even 3200) ports, and — in all likelihood — a couple of Intel Core i7 processors.

We’ll keep readers informed if and when new Mac Pros go on sale. We’re certainly hopeful that any new Mac Pro update will hearken a company-wide adoption of the faster USB and — in Pro-level computers — FireWire processors.

[via Mac Rumors]

Newton Peripherals carved out a niche in the gadget-universe, guided by the simple principle that the best gadget is the one you take with you — because that’s the one you’ll use. They created the MoGo Mouse, a mouse-remote hybrid that tucks away into a laptop’s pc-card slot, then followed it with the MoGo Talk: an ultra-slim Bluetooth headset that resides in — and actually forms part of — a case which attaches to the back of the iPhone 3G/s.

But while the design concept is brilliant, engineering-wise, the Talk wasn’t quite ready for prime-time when originally released; complaints surfaced that the headset was difficult to eject from the case, and more alarmingly, that the case’s pop-up charging port was fragile and often broke, removing the only method available for charging the headset.

ID8-Mobile has since snapped up Newton Peripherals, addressed the Talk’s problems, made a few other minor improvements to the case (while leaving the headset unchanged) and re-released it as the MoGo Talk XD. So did they get it right?

To make applying for a free Bumper or case for the iPhone 4 process easier, Apple launched the Case Program app, offered gratis on iTunes in nine languages.

Once you download and install it, you’ll need to sign in with your Apple ID and select a Bumper case or iPhone prophylactic of choice.

While the Case Program states that it can take from three to five weeks for the cases to arrive, a few people have said Apple has promised that they might arrive sooner (three to five days).

Let us know in the comments what Apple told you about great bumper expectation times when you applied for the case.

Via The Apple Blog

If you use Safari as your main web browser, you might want to open your preferences, switch to Autofill and untick the option to autofill web forms using info from your Address Book card: a serious vulnerability in Safari allows websites to steal information from your Address Book without any user input at all.

The exploit was discovered by Jeremiah Grossman. Here’s how it works:

All a malicious website would have to do to surreptitiously extract Address Book card data from Safari is dynamically create form text fields with the aforementioned names, probably invisibly, and then simulate A-Z keystroke events using JavaScript. When data is populated, that is AutoFill’ed, it can be accessed and sent to the attacker…

As shown in the proof-of-concept code… the entire process takes mere seconds and represents a major breach in online privacy. This attack could be further leveraged in multistage attacks including email spam, (spear) phishing, stalking, and even blackmail if a user is de-anonymized while visiting objectionable online material.

Grossman submitted the exploit to the attention of Apple over a month ago, but decided to publicize it after failing to receive a non-automated response about the matter.

For now, no need to panic, just shut off autofill until Apple works out a fix.

[via Cult of Mac]

If you’re tempted to pick up a new iMac sometime soon, you might just want to wait: according to Apple Insider, new iMacs may well be imminent.

According to their sources, Apple is informing distributors not to expect any further stock of the entry level, 21.5-inch, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, while advising other retailers to sell off their existing iMac models.

Such moves generally tip a hardware refresh. In this case, we’ll probably just see a speedbump, except for the entry-level iMacs, which boast last-generation Intel Core 2 Duo chips instead of Intel’s quad-core i5 and i7 CPUs. The most obvious assumption, then, is that the low-range iMacs will get Intel’s low-end quad-core processor, the Core i3.

If true, this rumor’s worth getting excited about if you’re looking for a new iMac. Let’s just hope that the update brings something beefier than just an updated processor to the table. USB 3.0 support would be very nice indeed, Apple.

Clues to the causes of Mac startup problems can be found by analyzing when in the boot process the system fails.  Problems may be related to the power supply, battery, hard drive, logic board, OS corruption or an issue with a user account.  Macs are reliable machines, but like many of us they get cranky from time to time.

Isolating where the problem is occurring is key to finding the solution.  Unplug any external peripherals (disk drives, printer, etc.) to help narrow down the cause.

There were a few of our readers (but not many) who thought Steve Jobs’ attitude at the iPhone 4 “End of Antennagate” press conference was a little arrogant, defensive or condescending.

Here’s a video translation in plain words (a few mildly NSFW) of what he was “really” saying for everyone else, starting with “We’re not perfect. We’re better than you, but not perfect.”

I got a few guffaws out of it, especially the translation of his attitude towards the press (“Gizmodo, how’s your signal now?”).

Via lindenitzan