Oct 7, 2008 Oct 9, 2008 Wednesday October 8, 2008
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MacForensicsLab announces free MacLockPick training CD
Posted by Dennis SellersMacForensics Lab has announced a free MacLockPick training CD. Learn to do a live forensic triage using MacLockPick, the only cross-platform live forensic triage tool on the market. Locate critical suspect data fast with just a couple clicks of the mouse. Web browsing history, passwords, iPhone contents, and more can...
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More pics of Apple's supposed new laptops surface
Filed under: Laptops Oh Apple -- release some new laptops so this madness can end. The forums at MacRumors are abuzz over a Taiwanese site that's showing off pictures of what appears to be a very close cousin of that MacBook Pro-esque casing we saw earlier. This isn't the same model, surely, but it does bear a striking similarity in both design and materials -- and after lots of deliberation and comparisons, we're fairly sure this isn't the Air either (the hinge ends in a totally different spot in relation to the keys). That machined quality we noted in the earlier post is present, though as we said previously, the sides of these housings do look like separate pieces. Regardless, if any of this is even remotely true (and not another Photoshop from someone's mother's basement), Apple is indeed taking its laptops in an Air direction, which isn't surprising -- but signs of these being the end-result of new manufacturing process? The jury's still way out. One more pic after the break of that controversial side piece.[Via MacRumors]Continue reading More pics of Apple's supposed new laptops surfaceRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Apple cancels Colorado call center over economy and reduced need for support
Apple Insider reports that Apple has canceled plans to open a new customer support call center in Colorado Springs, due to the troubled economy and a reduction in the number of calls regarding the iPhone since the release of the 2.1 firmware. This call center was always meant to be a temporary service, but the 500 jobs that will not be heading to Colorado Springs has to be disappointing to the local economy. The staffing company that was putting the call center together especially. They are trying to scramble and see how many of these 500 people they can put to work in other areas.
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Deflation Changes the Rules
Are American high tech companies the big winner from the current bouts of deflation? Is the US itself a winner? Remember, deflation changes all the rules we've been used to. You've got to think upside down now that cash is king, at least temporarily.Fred Wilson points out that companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL) have loads of cash and no net debt. He speculates that the others will emulate Microsoft and do massive stock buybacks at the their current relatively low trading prices. That would be a pretty boring use of all that cash. Remember that traditional companies in our economy – phone companies, for example – run on mountains of debt. Debt's hard to get now (how's that for an understatement?). Debt you've already got is hard to roll over. Is there an opportunity here?
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Samsung launches new line of external hard drives
Posted by Dennis SellersSamsung has announced its new S Series external hard disk drives. The family consists of a 2.5-inch drive S2 Portable and a 1.8-inch HDD S1 Mini.
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Rebrickulous: Cutting Through The MacBook Rumors
Daniel Eran Dilger After hearing about the “brick,” supposedly an Apple code-name for an unreleased something, the web has gone wild with pundits trying to attach their personal visions for the future with Apple’s capacity to deliver them. These visions make it clear why Apple does not use focus groups to create its products. . The idea got [...]
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Therese Poletti's Tech Tales: Tech investors should be preparing for more bad news
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Next week, the earnings barrage for the technology sector begins, with third quarter reports from big giants such as Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Intel Corp.
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Incipio announces Feather case for iPhone 3G
Posted by Dennis SellersIncipio Technologies has released the Feather form-fitting case for the iPhone 3G.Measuring less than 1mm thin, it's made of a polymer and offers form-fitting durable protection.
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Gigabyte M912X hack makes a smarter, cheaper Modbook
Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs A fellow named Stuart Lowe installed Leopard on his Gigabyte M912X netbook / tablet hybrid, and we like the results. Though this isn't the first Mac tablet hack, it's a tightly wrapped little package: the interface seems smooth with either fingers or a stylus, and Inkwell's onscreen keyboard allows complete functionality when the computer is folded into its slate configuration. Much of the necessary software functionality existed in Leopard already, and since installing OS X on something other than a Mac isn't the challenge it used to be, we're envisioning a pretty smooth ride for other would-be-hackers. We've embedded a video on the other side of the jump -- take a look, and then cast your vote on what to call this niche category of netbook-like tablets.[Via Slashgear]View PollContinue reading Gigabyte M912X hack makes a smarter, cheaper ModbookRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Alta Vida announces Babelingo Travel Phrases 1.3 for iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersAlta Vida has released Babelingo 1.3, an update of the language translation utility for the iPhone and iPod touch. Version 1.3 includes professionally translated phrases in the Portuguese language.
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Google’s Open Source Patches to Wine
This idea deserves a full essay, but for now, consider: In the same way that Apple took Mac OS X and Cocoa and shrunk them to serve as a handheld device OS, I think Google could take Android and grow it to serve as a PC OS. Wine would be to Android what Classic was to Mac OS X. The big win is saying “screw you” to KDE and Gnome and all those crap Linux interfaces and APIs. Start over with something new, cohesive, better, and, most of all, which is not, conceptually, a watered down clone of Windows. ★
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Latest NPD data shows RAZR V3 still top-selling handset in America
Filed under: Cellphones No need to defog your spectacles, what you just read there in the headline is the truth. Astoundingly enough, Motorola's nearly archaic (in cellphone years, anyway) RAZR V3 is still the top-selling handset in the United States. Of course, it helps that it's highly subsidized on practically every carrier from coast to coast, but we're still a little stunned that it's selling this well nearly 2.5 years after Moto moved its 50 millionth unit. The rest of the top five isn't nearly as shocking, with Apple's iPhone snagging the silver, RIM's BlackBerry Curve grabbing the bronze, LG's Chocolate at number four and the BlackBerry Pearl at five. With the original RAZR still selling so well, one would think Motorola could just tweak it slightly and issue a second iteration for even more windfall profits. Er, wait.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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YouTube videos gain links to iTunes store
Filed under: iTS, InternetYouTube has added links from promotional and music videos to the iTunes store and AmazonMP3, where you can buy the song featured. The links appear on its website, beneath videos like this one. Currently, EMI appears to be the only major music label participating in the deal. Electronic Arts has links related to its Spore game to Amazon.com, where you can purchase a copy. Google (whose CEO, Eric Schmidt, is on Apple's board of directors) has been looking for ways to earn money from YouTube, its $1.6 billion purchase from 2006. YouTube probably already earns some revenue from Apple via a partnership that includes a YouTube player on the iPhone and Apple TV, but the financial details are unknown. [Via Macworld.]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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EyeTV software gets maintenance update
Posted by Dennis SellersElgato has released EyeTV 3.0.4, a free update to the EyeTV 3 television software. It includes some improvements to the editor, some additional hardware support, and a few bug fixes that are country specific.
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ExpanDrive 1.3 Beta - Funnest Version Yet!
Fans of Magnetk's ExpanDrive — a great SFTP client for OS X — should definitely go out and grab the latest beta (1.3) of this fine application. For starters, they support plain-ol' FTP (and FTP/SSL) which, though insecure, is still used in many, many hosting outfits. The developers also tapped into the magic of OS X system notifications and the application does a much better job of detecting a lost (or reconnected) internet link, system sleep/wake events and IP address changes (which is literally an option equivalent to manna from heaven for those of us on 3G cards in metropolitan areas). While Magnetk has made great strides in their support of FTP, anyone who has ever tried writing an FTP client knows that not all FTP servers are made equal. If you give the beta a try, but are having difficulty, make sure you take them up on their generous offer: If you have an ftp server that ExpanDrive can’t connect to and you can give us a login to that server, then we’ll send you a generous ExpanDrive coupon for your trouble. I feel obliged to point out, though, that if you can't use the application to connect to your FTP server, having a free version of it will not do you much good. ExpanDrive runs on OS X 10.4+ as a Universal Binary and will set you back US$29.00 should you decide to purchase it. I've been running ExpanDrive since it was in pre-release form and this update will really improve my workflow. Give the new beta a go and let me know what you think.
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'MacVoices' looks at VMware Fusion 2
Posted by Dennis SellersOn the new MacVoices Pete Kazanjy of VMware discusses the newest edition of their virtualization software, VMware Fusion 2.
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Opera 9.6 offers advances in convergence, communication
Posted by Dennis SellersOpera Software has launched Opera 9.6, the newest version of its web browser. The company says the upgrade enhances the performance and flexibility of Opera's built-in e-mail client, while adding new features to Opera's free browser-synchronization service, Opera Link. Opera 9.6 is available as a free download.
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Incrudo 8GB flash drive reeks of expensive
Filed under: Storage Don't spaz out or anything, but that thing you're peering at above actually isn't a small flask of cologne. No, no -- it's an 8GB USB drive, and it's one of the most expensive you can buy. Reportedly built with titanium, the drive is water-resistant, crush-proof and fancied up further with a single red ruby. Sure, it's 21,750 rubles ($837), but dollars to donuts they'd trade you one for a sure-to-be-authentic iPhone.[Via Gadgets-Weblog]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Picking RIM for My Nasdaq Proxy
Looking around, I've noticed we had killed off all technology exposure - so trying to think of things that could go well, I want to get something on that side of the ledger. Unfortunately, all my favorite names are also the hedge funds' favorite names - the Apples (AAPL), Research in Motions (RIMM), Qualcomms (QCOM) - even Amazon (AMZN). Or Mastercard (MA), which is not a technology stock but along the same line of thought....So I am sort of tossing a coin on which one to buy. One name is good enough in this market where they are all treated quite the same. Unless we know which hedge funds blowing up owned each of these, and to what degree they still own it on their books, there is no way to figure out which has the least risk. I still really like Apple here, but decided on Research in Motion.
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KRK Systems releases limited edition Yellow Rokit studio monitors
Posted by Dennis SellersKRK Systems, the world's leading manufacturer of powered recording monitors, is releasing a Limited Edition Rokit Studio Monitors. The concept and color design is part of a joint collaboration with Guitar Center. Available only in the 5-inch model and at Guitar Center's in the U.S., the Rokit5 G2CB will feature...
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Free O'Reilly iPhoneLive webcast October 14, 2008
Posted by Dave MertenIn this live, online event, Bill Dudney and Raven Zachary share a preview of the presentations they'll give at the upcoming iPhoneLive Conference taking place November 18 in San Jose. Following this preview, you'll have plenty of time to ask questions about the current state and future of iPhone application...
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Godfather of Ambient Creates iPhone App
Seemingly not content with having fathered an entire musical genre, pioneered generative music, produced U2's Where The Streets Have No Name, collaborated with Bowie and generally rubbed-shoulders with a raft of modern music legends, Brian Eno has now released his first iPhone app dubbed Bloom ($3.99). Developed by Peter Chilvers, in collaboration with Eno, the app is described as, “Part instrument, part composition and part artwork…” The idea is that anybody can play with Bloom and coax gentle melodies and ambient soundscapes out of their iPhone. Having downloaded the app, plugged a pair of speakers in to my iPhone and cranked up the volume, it took only a few moments to compose an authentic ambient piece that sounded like a convincing out-take from Eno's Music for Airports. It works and it is a joy to toy with. Being a sound-based app, the screenshots on the store do it absolutely no justice, Bloom ends up looking somewhat staid. It's in hearing Bloom and experiencing the ambience that it creates, that you truly understand how magical it is. According to the App Store product page, “… Bloom's innovative controls allow anyone to create elaborate patterns and unique melodies by simply tapping the screen.” Setting aside the marketing spiel, Bloom is utterly unique — a truly enchanting experience, like nothing else I have experienced on the iPhone, this is an app that will make you smile. (more…)
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Weather Underground launches WunderRadio for the iPhone
Posted by Dennis SellersWeather Underground has released WunderRadio, an iPhone application that gives users access to streaming Internet radio stations powered by RadioTime's guide. WunderRadio utilizes the iPhone's GPS capability to locate nearby radio stations including NOAA weather radio streams.
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MyAnalytics puts Google Analytics in your pocket
Ever wanted to catch up on site activity on the go? An iPhone app called MyAnalytics lets you peruse your Google Analytics traffic right off your device.
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1Password adds new sync options
Posted by Dennis SellersAgile Web Solutions has updated 1Password, a password manager for the Mac, to version 2.9. Before this release, this was only possible using MobileMe. Now, many additional sync options are available.
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Oct. 8 'Macsimum Podcast' now available
Posted by Dennis SellersThe Macsimum Podcast for Oct. 8 is now available here and the RSS feed is here.
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Apple launches 'Field Trip to Apple Store' site
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has launched the Field Trip to the Apple Store site that tells teachers how to take students on a field trip to an Apple retail store “for an unforgettable learning experience.” Field trips are open to K-12 students in the U.S. and Canada.
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Apple granted patent on Mac OS X Dock
The trademark application launcher in Mac OS X is now covered by a patent, but the debate over Dock positioning endures.
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BlackBerry Media Sync for Mac, Storm Announced Stateside
The Boy Genius Report brings word of relief in sight for Mac users with BlackBerry. The official Research In Motion (RIM) application BlackBerry Media Sync for Mac will bring all the functionality of BlackBerry Desktop Manager to OS X users. Third party solutions like PocketMac for BlackBerry have filled the void left by RIM's lack of official support, but in practice these solutions were not always elegant or simple enough for novice users. The new app seems to address both these issues, although the early version depicted in the screenshots apparently doesn't yet seem to offer much sophistication when it comes to handling and distinguishing between different media types. What it does promise, however, is the ability to sync your iTunes library, playlists or specific songs to either the internal memory of your handset or to microSD cards. Expect RIM to add the ability to sync other media types as well in the final release. Including, one would hope, movies and other videos from your iTunes library, to take advantage of the apparently very impressive screen on the company's latest handset, the BlackBerry Bold. The application is said to be compatible with the BlackBerry Pearl and presumably all later models as well. For more information about what to expect from the upcoming release, it's probably safe to assume that the featureset from the Windows version will be closely mirrored. (more…)
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YouTube's E-Commerce Play: Watch It, Click It, Buy It
Search engine giant Google has taken yet another step in its effort to monetize YouTube, the online video portal it acquired for $1.65 billion about two years ago. Now, YouTube users can click on advertisement links leading them to products offered for sale at online outlets like Apple's iTunes store and Amazon.com. Here's how it works: Say you're watching a Feist music video and get the sudden urge to own the song. Beneath the usual rate and share options, you'll find direct links to Amazon.com and iTunes where you can purchase a download.
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2009 MWSF's Digital Arts Gallery has call for entries
Posted by Dennis SellersMacworld Conference & Expo has announced a call for entries for the new Digital Art Gallery attraction to be featured at the 2009 event. Digital artists of all backgrounds are invited to submit original works of art that have been created or enhanced using Mac hardware or software tools.
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'Macsimum Recommended Reading' for Oct. 8
Posted by Dennis Sellers“The iPhone 3G: Let's just say it up front—the iPhone is the greatest piece of consumer electronics that has ever been made.”—Daring Fireball
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The latest rumors in the Apple world: Oct. 8
Posted by Dennis SellersMacsimum News doesn't have its own rumors thing going on, but, for your edification and entertainment, here's a round-up of today's rumors regarding the Apple world….
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'Brick' MacBook Pro leaked in up-close spy shot?
Filed under: Laptops Since we heard those "Brick" rumors the other day, the mill has been all but silent... until now. It's hard to tell exactly what we're looking at here, but damned if this doesn't look like some fancy new MacBook Pro carved out of a single piece of metal (except for those sides, so, there goes that theory). We'll let you make your own decisions after giving this the once over, but if this is what Apple has in store for us, our curiosity is definitely piqued.Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Pearson offers Apple developers access to 'iPhone Developer's Cookbook' eBook
Posted by Dennis SellersAddison-Wesley, a division of Pearson Education, is releasing the iPhone Developer's Cookbook, providing Apple developers with information on how to build iPhone applications using the recently-released SDK (software developers kit).
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News: Mix: Hudson, YouTube + iTunes, South Park
As a promotion for the upcoming Tokyo Game Show 2008, Hudson is now offering three of its iPhone and iPod touch games — Aqua Forest, Catch The Egg, and NeoSameGame — as free downloads from the App Store. The games normally sell for $8, $4, and $4, respectively; the promotion ends on October 12th. [via Touch Arcade] YouTube has begun adding links to the iTunes Store from select music videos. The links can be found below the video and sharing…
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Apple Gazette Daily 361 - Apple issued patents, iPhone wins awards, and more!
podcast sponsor link:Click Here to check out Blogflux Groups! Today's Show: Apple issued patents, iPhone wins awards, and more! You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or… you can listen to the episode right here: In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.
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PDF version of iPhone developer's cookbook available
Filed under: Developer, iPhoneIt's a good day to become an iPhone developer: in addition to the screencast we mentioned, someone near and dear to us at TUAW finally got her book out into the wild ... at least the PDF version. Erica Sadun's* "The iPhone Developer's Cookbook" is available as an electronic download from informIT. If you want to dig in and start developing native iPhone applications with the SDK, this is a great way to start. The paper version is set for release on October 15th, if that's what you're into, but having the code samples in a cut-and-paste-friendly format is far preferable to me. Coupling that with a complete lack of patience, I bought the PDF this morning and am avidly poring over it for new information. I'm planning a combination tip calculator/grocery list application with several language translation apps and an ebook reader built in ... although I may consider doing a Pinocchio app that lets people know when I'm joking instead. So, up-and-coming iPhone developers, head on over to informIT for some SDK development goodness. Editor's Note: Since Erica has moved on from TUAW to her new home at Ars Technica, we no longer have conflict-of-interest concerns about reviewing her books -- but we still love her & wish her all the best.Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Yahoo shares hit five-year low ahead of earnings
Shares of Yahoo Inc. dipped to a five-year low Wednesday as the embattled Internet company grapples with a number of challenges including a weakening advertising market and regulatory scrutiny of its proposed partnership with rival Google Inc.
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A Field Trip to the Apple Store
Apple have recently announced a new field trip scheme, encouraging youngsters to visit their local Apple Store. The aim is to either let children use the hardware and software in the store to create a new project (likely using different iLife packages), or to turn the area into a theater to showcase a movie or production to the children's teachers, families and parents. A field trip lasts one hour, and Apple have created a package around the event offering a free t-shirt to children and a complimentary year long One-to-One membership to the event organizer. It's a great idea, but does raise a few questions about the motives behind the promotion and whether it can really add much value to education. Ripe for thepicking Children soak up information like a sponge at a young age. Apple are definitely portraying the field trip scheme as something which will be a fun and creative event, but it's clear that their main aim is to have young minds exposed to their products and software. They will like nothing better than a class of 25 kids to go home and explain in animated and passionate voices to their parents the virtues of being able to run iLife. Apple already have a very high brand recognition with teenagers, as surveys illustrate. They need to be very careful when moving into the territory of younger minds that they don't push their products too hard. Is it a sign of our material times that children will be taken to an Apple store on a field trip rather than a beach, park or museum? It's a great idea from Apple, but one that generates a lot of potential debate.
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Twister USB Hub
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Norway and iTunes: The DRM War
Norway has taken their two-year fight against iTunes and Apple's FairPlay DRM to its next step, and will now ask the government to force Apple to open their iTunes music to other devices besides the iPod. As background, this all began when Norway's consumer ombudsman, Bjorn Erik Thon, ruled that Apple's FairPlay DRM violated the country's consumer rights laws by locking down iTunes Store content to iPods and iTunes. This was first communicated to Apple in June 2006, and a few months later was escalated to Norway's Market Council, which has the power to order companies to change their business practices. In January 2007, Norway declared Apple's DRM illegal and gave Apple until October 1 of that year to open up FairPlay to other parties. By this time France and Germany had joined in on the action as well. (more…)
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Apple Field Trip program: hands-on classes for K-12 students
Apple's new Field Trip program offers hands-on classes for Garage Band, iMovie, and more for K-12 students. There's even an educational performance incentive for the participating kids. Read More...
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Found Footage: Writing your first iPhone application
Filed under: Multimedia, Developer, Found FootageThe removal of the NDA from the iPhone development scene means that a trickle of educational content for would-be developers is rapidly turning into a flood. Xcode instructor extraordinaire Bill Dudney of The Pragmatic Programmers has made a 22 minute video screencast available for those who want to join the elite ranks of beginning iPhone developers. The free video covers the details of how to start getting acquainted with Xcode and Interface Builder for iPhone development. Dudney actually builds a simple application while guiding viewers through the process of creating an iPhone app. The video is available at the following URL along with links to several other "pay per view" screencasts sold by The Pragmatic Programmers:http://pragprog.com/screencasts/v-bdiphone/writing-your-first-iphone-applicationA zipped QuickTime version (.mov format) of the video is here, while a zipped version for iPhone / iPod touch is available for download here. Bill Dudney is the co-author of iPhone SDK Development and several other development texts. If you want some in-person instruction from Bill to supplement the books and the 'casts, he is teaching a November iPhone programming course in Denver, CO.Thanks Mike!Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Kids Today
Survey of U.S. teenagers shows high interest in the iPhone and incredible market share for iPods. ★
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Weird Al's new parody single “drops” in iTunes
Many recording artists are trying new things with digital distribution these days - and one of my personal favorites - “Weird Al” - is using iTunes to strike while the iron is hot with the new single off his next album. The song is a parody of the T.I. #1 hit “Whatever you like” - and it's the first time Weird Al has ever been able to release a parody song while the real song was still at #1 on the charts. If you're a “Weird Al” fan, you can get itright here.
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New app brings space down to your iPhone
NASA will phone home daily views of the infinite cosmos, as long as you're sporting a shiny new Apple iPhone and a neat new ...
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Munster: Apple overestimated Q3 margin impacts
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple FinancialGene Munster is skeptical that Apple's guidance of lower margins for the rest of the year in its Q3 conference call back in July, and expects the company to continue to outperform expectations. The Piper Jaffray analyst said that lower prices for NAND flash memory will offset any reductions in price for new iPods introduced last month. Munster speculates that even with an introduction of a sub-$1,000 MacBook before the end of the year, Apple's margins will remain healthy. Yes, it will have an impact, but not to the degree that Apple execs hinted in their phone call: Munster thinks margins would only fall to around 30 percent. In fact, Munster says "investors would see the lack of redesigned, lower-priced Macs as a more significant negative than they would a 30 percent GM guide in the December quarter." (Emphasis mine.) He reiterated his "buy" rating. Munster's price target for AAPL is still higher than many others (at least recently), at $250 per share. [Via Ars and AppleInsider.]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Accordance Bible Software releases Piper Sermons and Grudem-Theology
Posted by Dennis SellersOakTree Software has released The John Piper Manuscript Library (Mac) CD-ROM, andSystematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. They cost US$55 and $40, respectively. (Those are sale prices; they're normally $80 and $50.
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The story behind Cydia on the iPhone
Cydia has become the premier iPhone application distribution channel for the jailbreak community. So why the strange name? Ars investigates.Read More...
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Article: iPhone Gems: Top Photography and Image Manipulation Apps
Since both the iPhone and iPod touch offer photo features, it was only a matter of time before third-party developers released applications to expand the devices' photo viewing and manipulation abilities. There are now four pages of apps in the App Store's Photography category, and even more photo apps available on the store if you search around. These apps range from nearly useless to bizarre to truly useful, and with the iPhone still…
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Audi confirms pure electric car, will likely be based on VW Up! concept
Filed under: Transportation With an electric MINI Cooper just around the bend, a Twin Drive hybrid Volkswagen landing in 2010 and Chevrolet's Volt rolling into showrooms in a matter of months, Audi's ten-year plan is looking a little awkward. Though we've yet to hear that it's actually speeding things up, Peter Schwarzenbauer, who sits on the management board at Ingolstadt, recently confirmed that the company would be offering "a pure electric car" sometime in the future. Additionally, rumors of it being based on the A1 were dashed, opening the door for speculation that it will instead be built around the VW Up! (Lupo) concept. Here's hoping we find our prior to 2018.[Via Autoblog]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Luxology announces Rhinoceros file translator for modo
Posted by Dennis SellersLuxology has announced the immediate availability of a new 3DM file translator that allows modo users to exchange files with Rhinoceros (Rhino), the 3D design tool from Robert McNeel and Associates. Modo is Luxology's 3D modeling, painting and rendering software.
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Apple awarded patent for user interface items (the Dock)
Posted by Dennis SellersApple has been awarded a patent (number 7434177) for an user interface for providing consolidation and access with the US Patent & Trademark Office. It's for the Dock in Mac OS X.
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EyeTV 3.0.4 update fixes "Record All Matches" bug
Elgato has released an updated version of its EyeTV software, offering a number of bug fixes and new features. Finally, we can count on improved recording reliability (we hope). Read More...
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Why Flash Will Suck on the iPhone
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For Apple, the kids are alright
Piper Jaffray's biannual survey of U.S. high school students shows that Apple continues to enjoy a strong position with the iPod while interest increases in the iPhone.
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Kensington releases 32GB DataTraveler
Posted by Dennis SellersKensington is shipping the 32GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash drive. It costs US$139 and offers the largest capacity in Kingston's line of DataTraveler USB drives.
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Rotating QuickTime Movies
Once you upgrade to QuickTime Pro, select one of these buttons to flip or rotate your movie using QuickTime Player. I recorded a bunch of movies on my digital camera by holding it vertically instead of horizontally, but now they only play sideways on my Mac, and I can’t figure out how to rotate them. read more
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Apple pulls Shaker from App Store
Apple late last night pulled Shaker (iTunes link, now throws an error) from the App Store. The game, a free Tetris clone with a twist, was released by Phunkware on 9 September 2008. Tetris LLC contacted Apple claiming the game was too close to Tetris for comfort. Having played in, I agree with the LLC [...]
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iPhone wins heart and mind of British public, takes 4 awards
Apple has been awarded five British Technology Awards, including four for the iPhone and one for iTunes. Other winners included Nintendo, Google, and Amazon.Read More...
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Research group says eight percent of US teens own an iPhone, 22 percent want one
Posted by Dennis SellersPiper Jaffray's 16th bi-annual survey of teenage buying patterns and preferences, which surveyed 769 high school students in the US, shows that eight percent own an iPhone (up from six percent in the spring) and 22 percent want one (that's up from nine percent in the spring), reports Fortune.
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Study: iTunes, Rhapsody grow in brand awareness
Amazon's music service also fared well in a survey of music downloaders, but MTV and VH1 lost some ground.
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Apple wins 5 British Tech Awards
Filed under: Other Events, Apple, iPhoneThe British Technology Awards represent "... a celebration of technology." That's our kind of event! Winners were chosen by the voting public, and in this, their first year, Apple won five awards. Best Mobile Technology: Apple iPhone Best Music Technology: Apple iTunes Gadget of the Year: Apple iPhone Most Stylish Technology: Apple iPhone Technological Innovation of the Year: Apple iPhone Congratulations, Apple. Or, more accurately, congratulations, iPhone for winning 4 of the 5 awards. We admit that "Most Stylish" seems a bit silly, but the rest of the categories are solid. But honestly, I would have chosen something else for number five.[Via MacNN]Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Yahoo! offers new beta version of online calendar
Posted by Dennis SellersYahoo! Inc. has announced the availability of an all-new Yahoo! Calendar. The new version of the web-based calendar, which will begin rolling out in beta to users today, offers a social calendaring experience.
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Garmin Finds The True Path - All Trails Lead to Mac
Garmin has finally embraced the Apple Mac platform by bringing it's entire geo-targeting and tracking software to OS X. The suite of applications can be found and downloaded here. The applications include: read more
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Meet me at Øredev in Malmö, Sweden
Daniel Eran Dilger I’ve been invited to give the presentation “Surviving Software Platform Disruption” at Øredev, a conference ‘for developers by developers’ taking place for the forth consecutive year November 19-21, 2008 in Malmö, Sweden. The conference, including the pre-conference workshop day, will host more than 150 seminars and workshops plus a Scrum Certification Course. [...]
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Survey: One-third of US teenagers lust after iPhone
The latest results of a Piper Jaffray survey show that Apple is riding high with the all-important teen demographic when it comes to cell phones and digital music.Read More...
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Mozy launches business level online backup
Many of you may remember Mozy's Home remote back up client for Mac. We've talked about it before. Yesterday Mozy launched a Beta version of their Mozy Pro back up solutions for Mac as well. The service allows back ups of all your business computers while managing both backup and restore processes from a web-based admin console. The service looks nice and full featured, and is priced at $3.95 per desktop, or $6.95 per server, and $0.50 per GB. I needed an online back-up service like this, and signed up for Mozy today. I'll let you know over the next few weeks how well it works, but so far - I have no complaints. You can find out more about Mozy Pro for Mac right here.
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Analysts cut estimates for mobile phone growth
Posted by Dennis SellersSome analysts predict that the worldwide growth of mobile phones will see slower-than-expected rates next year, reports Reuters.
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NPD Group: RAZR still number one cellphone, iPhone number two
Posted by Dennis SellersAccording to the latest stats by the NPD Group, the Motorola RAZR is still the top-selling cellphone in the U.S., with the iPhone in second place. You can vote on which cell phone you have here.
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Starbucks wiped from Apple's site, but what does it mean?
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Wireless Fresh off an extensive corporate decaffeination downsizing and a scaling back of its foray into music sales, it's a fair question to ask: just how ironclad is Starbucks' commitment to rolling out iTunes WiFi Music Store integration across its entire chain? We just happened to notice that the Starbucks page on Apple's site is now stone-cold gone, redirecting to the standard iTunes 8 stuff. You might say "no big deal, Apple's just playing down an agreement that's now been in place for a full year," but there's some other weirdness, too -- the company's iTunes WiFi Music Store at Starbucks FAQ, for example, still references the dead link. The partnership was kinda ill-conceived to begin with; getting access to the store meant hooking up to AT&T WiFi, which you wouldn't normally have configured unless you actually had an AT&T WiFi account. We haven't heard any official word here that the deal is in danger, but really, would anyone be welling up if it fell apart?Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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baKno releases Xplorer hide-and-seek game for Mac
Posted by Dennis SellersbaKno has released Xplorer for Mac and Windows. A demo is available for download; registration is US$19.95 for a single seat license or $29.95 for a two-seat license.
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News: Economy poll ends, majority of readers cutting back
After receiving just over 3,000 votes, our latest iLounge Poll — “Have recent economic conditions made you change your holiday shopping plans?” — has ended. Users were given choices ranging from major or minor cutbacks to spending the same or larger amounts, with the final choice noting that the economy is not an issue in their area. More than half of readers — 61 percent — said they planned to spend less on holiday…
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Vodafone posts Blackberry Storm with iPhone screen shots
Check out the promotional photos that Vodafone posted of the new Blackberry 9530 - a.k.a Storm. Someone in the art department (accidentally?) mocked it up with iPhone screen shots and posted it in official RIM marketing material – most likely because the actual screens were still under pre-launch embargo when the ad was created. Oops. Engadget has tracked [...]
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The BlackBerry Storm is no iPhone
Don Reisinger thinks the BlackBerry Storm is great in its own right, but it can't quite compete with the iPhone. Is that true?
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How to use Photoshop's Lens Blur tool with masking (Part 2 of 2)
Filed under: Features, How-tos, Graphic Design Yesterday, I showed you how to simulate a photograph taken with a tilt-shift lens by using Photoshop CS3's Lens Blur tool. Today, we'll do something a bit more practical: clipping out an object that's not entirely in focus. Clipping out objects that are out of focus can be something of a chore: either you have a hard, dark edge somewhere you don't want, or you have to settle for feathering the whole thing, leaving edges that should be sharp a little too blurry. We'll be clipping out this old book, and dropping it on a new surface. Continue reading How to use Photoshop's Lens Blur tool with masking (Part 2 of 2)Read|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Netgear announces dual-band firewall with VPN security
Posted by Dennis SellersNetGear has announced the ProSafe Wireless-N VPN Firewall (SRXN3205)—which the company says is the first product to combine dual-band Wireless-N with SSL and IPsec VPN. It costs US$485 and is Mac compatible.
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★ The iPhone 3G
Pt. 1: Macro Let’s just say it up front: the iPhone is the greatest piece of consumer electronics that has ever been made. If I could travel back 20 years and show my then 15-year-old self just one thing the future of today, it would be the iPhone. It is our flying cars. Star Trek-style wireless long-distance voice communicator. The content of every major newspaper and magazine in the world. An encyclopedia. Video games. TV. Etc. None of these features is quite what an imagination of the ’80s would have predicted. The TV, for example, is far from the imaginary “pocket TV” of my youth, which was rooted in the concept of broadcast TV channels. But it is a TV. In some ways it is worse; you cannot use an iPhone to, say, watch a live broadcast of a sporting event. In many ways, though, it is better; it stores content, including full-length major motion pictures, which you can watch whenever you want. A pocket full of movies was simply unimaginable 20 years ago. And it’s all in one easily pocketed gizmo. Each of these features is of course available in devices other than the iPhone. A checklist of the iPhone’s features is not, in and of itself, impressive. Some competing devices, in fact, offer all the same fundamental features of the iPhone. The difference is in the overall experience. (Even a $10 Nokia dumbphone, combined with today’s worldwide cellular and satellite phone network, can do the Star Trek-wireless voice communicator trick. That alone would be impressive compared to the brick-sized fabulously expensive cellular phones of the ’80s.) Everything Apple as a company has ever stood for, good and bad, was to get to the point where they could make this. It’s a computer you can take with you everywhere, so small you wouldn’t really even want it much smaller, even if it were possible. In software, Apple went back and rethought certain priorities with the iPhone compared to Mac OS X. On Mac OS X, scrolling prioritizes visual fidelity but can be painfully slow. (Not so much with today’s Mac hardware, but in the early days of Mac OS X, scrolling or resizing windows could be molasses slow. iPhone scrolling, on the other hand, is almost always fluid and perfectly responsive, but the content often doesn’t keep up. The checkerboard background in MobileSafari is the most obvious example of this. The illusion that your thumb or finger is actually moving the screen contents is astoundingly effective. Mac OS X values the visual over the feel; iPhone OS is vice versa, and I prefer it. In hardware, the radical reduction of physical buttons has proven to be genius. The iPhone not only eschews a keypad and keyboard, but also those green/red place-call/end-call buttons that you see on nearly every other phone in the world. The iPhone has just four buttons: power, volume up, volume down, and home. That seems just right. I’ve gotten satisfyingly proficient typing with the on-screen touch keyboard. My single biggest gripe is that my right thumb often hits the Return key when I’m trying to hit the space bar. In another five years, one of today’s iPhones will be no more than a sentimental curiosity, painfully slow both in terms of networking and computation. The iPhone has significant and obvious shortcomings. But it is an order of magnitude better than anything that came before it. Pt. 2: Micro I bought my original iPhone on day one. When the iPhone 3G arrived, I figured I could wait. In early August, one month after they went on sale, I upgraded. In a nut, the iPhone 3G is aptly named, in that it isn’t much more than the iPhone plus 3G. If they’d called it “iPhone 3G (and GPS)” the name alone would have completely described what was new, technically at least. The iPhone 3G uses the same CPU and has the same amount of RAM (128 MB) as the original. It is an iteration. If you’ve got an original EDGE iPhone, the only factor that really matters with regard to whether you’d be happy after upgrading is the quality of the 3G service where you live. I, apparently, am lucky. 3G service in center city Philadelphia, the surrounding suburbs, and at the New Jersey shore has been terrific. Even before the 2.1 OS update, I had few complaints about dropped calls, and network speed has far exceeded my expectations. Browsing with 3G on the iPhone generally feels just about as fast as browsing with Wi-Fi — the CPU often seems to be the limiting factor in MobileSafari’s rendering speed, not the network. In addition to the faster data speeds and higher-quality audio, 3G offers one additional advantage over EDGE: 3G can take an incoming phone call while simultaneously using the data network. I missed a surprising number of calls on my old iPhone while dicking around waiting for pages to load in Safari. The main problem I initially ran into with 3G networking was that it would occasionally get stuck. I’d try to load a web page, and the inside-the-location-field progress bar in MobileSafari would simply never get past the “h” in “http:”. In most cases, turning the iPhone completely off and back on would fix this. Even better: I have not seen this problem once since upgrading to the 2.1 OS. Tethering my 3G connection with NetShare — sadly, no-longer-available from the App Store — my MacBook Pro achieves download speeds of 700-900 kb/s, and upload speeds of 200-400 kb/s. Tethering with EDGE, I see download speeds of about 200 kb/s. Thus, for me, networking far exceeds Apple’s marketing claim of “double the speed”, and for that alone the upgrade price and slightly higher monthly plan are well worth it.1 (NetShare is simply remarkable, and deserves a full digression. After just one month of owning an iPhone 3G, the $10 I spent on NetShare is some of the best money I’ve ever spent. The multi-step process required to get it working, which you can only partially automate, is a hassle. If Apple can build a feature like this into the iPhone itself, it will be a smash hit feature, and, if it were something that only worked with Mac OS X, yet another impetus for iPhone/iPod users to switch from Windows. (My use of “can” is a reference to the challenge of getting phone carriers on board with it, not any technical hurdle.) The biggest limitation using NetShare is that because it’s a SOCKS proxy, it mostly only supports HTTP/HTTPS networking traffic. iChat can be configured to use a SOCKS proxy, but I’m aware of no way to get Apple Mail to use a SOCKS proxy for IMAP or SMTP, which means Mail doesn’t work using NetShare. But for web surfing, NetShare is a spectacular success. Yes, I’m aware that you can buy external Mac-compatible EVDO dinguses from Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint, but those are separate services that cost like $60 per month. With NetShare, I paid $10 one time and I can use it with my existing iPhone data plan without paying one additional cent. Performance is way better than the Wi-Fi service in most hotels.) The 3G’s ringer is louder. (I sometimes missed calls with my original iPhone because I didn’t hear or feel the phone ringing in my pocket.) The speakerphone sounds much better. As noted shortly after the 3G shipped, the color temperature of the display is different — warmer if you like it, yellower if you don’t. I prefer the original (cooler) temperature, but it’s only noticeable to me when compared side-by-side. Temperature aside, the screen seems identical to that of the original. Looking at the front face, the form factor is practically unchanged. The 3G is slightly wider overall, but since the display is the same size, there is now a small black border between the screen and the chrome, where previously the screen ran nearly chrome-to-chrome. The back is completely different, plastic instead of metal, and differently shaped. (I chose black, of course.) Aesthetically, I prefer the original iPhone case on all counts: shape, appearance, touch. The original iPhone is, to put it bluntly, sexier. I even liked the black plastic panel at the bottom of the original iPhone — it made it easy to tell which way the phone was oriented without looking at it, such as when pulling it from a pocket. From a practical standpoint, however, the all-shiny-plastic 3G has one significant and perhaps very valuable advantage: it is not slippery. There’s a tackiness to the iPhone 3G in hand. There is something to be said for the fact that the phone with the strongest brand in the world has no visible branding whatsoever on its front face. The home button on the 3G seems to require a more forceful push. The clickiness of my original iPhone’s home button is better. On the other hand, the clickiness of the 3G’s volume and sleep buttons is better. Apple sometimes seems to be the lone consumer electronics company that pays any attention at all to the tactile response of buttons. Battery life is the single biggest shortcoming. The simple truth is that the iPhone pushes the limits of what a device this size can do. Power consumption is perhaps Apple’s single-biggest engineering concern with the iPhone — both in software and hardware. Last year, when criticism of the original iPhone centered on the lack of 3G, Steve Jobs said it was about power. He was right. The iPhone 3G consumes power faster. However, the 2.1 OS update improved battery life dramatically. In particular, after upgrading to OS 2.1, the iPhone 3G does not seem to lose much power while idle. Part of it, too, is that because 3G is faster, you can do more in the same amount of time. So if you measure by time, yes, one hour of web browsing on EDGE will leave you with more battery life than one hour of browsing on 3G. But if you measure by the page, I think loading and reading, say, 15 web pages on 3G stands up just fine against loading the same 15 pages on EDGE. It just happens faster. Pt. 3: Coda “What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.” — Andy Warhol So too with the iPhone. A billionaire can buy homes, cars, clothes that the rest of us cannot afford. But he cannot buy a better phone, at any price, than the iPhone that you can have in your pocket today. Once you get used to 3G performance, you’ll agree with this tweet from Adam Lisagor: “They should change the symbol for EDGE to stink lines.”↩
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Time Reports on BlackBerry Storm Rumors
The article title is “BlackBerry’s Storm Aims to Blow the iPhone Away”, but it’s based not on a hands-on review, but on rumors regarding the Storm published on the web. The author is Anita Hamilton, whom when we last heard from her, was questioning why Apple didn’t just force every app in the App Store to be distributed for free. Her BlackBerry piece starts: You just can’t keep a secret in the tech industry these days. Which seems contradicted by much of Apple debuts, including, for example, the iPhone. ★
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Tetris Co. strikes again: another iPhone app clone is pulled
Sit close to the fire and listen closely to the harrowing tale of iPhone game clones, intellectual property, and the perils of iTunes Store exposure.Read More...
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Windows XP Lives On…Again
Several websites have reported in recent days that Microsoft are once again extending their period of official support for vendors offering Windows XP on new machines. The proposed deadline had already been extended to the end of January 2009, but appears now to have been prolonged to July 31, 2009. For Microsoft, it is usual practice to have a period of change-over where sellers are allowed to bundle copies of an older OS with their machines. With Apple, however, the switch is made, more or less, immediately. A friend recently bought a new MacBook on the day Leopard was released and, while the operating system was not installed, a free upgrade copy was bundled with the purchase. Within literally a couple of weeks it was very difficult to purchase a Mac with anything other than the new operating system. (more…)
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My Apple Space, a social networking site for Apple enthusiasts, launches
Posted by Dennis SellersApple enthusiast Brian Floe has introduced My Apple Space, a social networking web site for fellow Apple enthusiasts. My Apple Space is aimed at providing Apple users around the globe a place to connect, cultivate relationships, build a strong sense of community and designed to be a user driven switcher...
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First Looks: Altec Lansing inMotion MAX Premium Portable Stereo for iPhone and iPod
Also known as the iMT702, Altec Lansing's new inMotion MAX ($200) represents a step up in size and price from the company's prior iM600 system, preserving the integrated digital FM radio -- now augmented with an external antenna -- and using a set of two full-range drivers with two passive radiators. Featuring retro styling, inMotion MAX has metallic sides, a mostly black color scheme with gold-outlined speaker drivers, and a remote control that matches…
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Exclusive HP / Toshiba laptops first in Best Buy's Blue Label lineup
Filed under: Laptops Hey guys / gals, check this out. Best Buy is practically admitting that it is just now starting to "gather insights from customers and work with manufacturers to design products that address [consumers'] needs." In a rather odd release, the big box retailer is announcing two new laptops that'll be exclusive to its store: the 14.1-inch Toshiba Satellite E105-S1402 (we which already knew of) and the 13.3-inch HP Pavilion dv3510nr. As for the former, expect a 1.2-inch thin frame, WXGA (1,280 x 800) panel, backlit keyboard, DVD burner, 5.5-hours of battery life and an $1,199 price tag. The HP (shown after the break) will include a LED-backlit WXGA display, up to 4-hours of battery life, inbuilt webcam and precisely the same retail price. Eventually, Best Buy is hoping to expand the Blue Label series to other product lines, though there's no word on where to find these elusive input cards that it's supposedly using to pick and choose wares.Continue reading Exclusive HP / Toshiba laptops first in Best Buy's Blue Label lineupRead|Permalink|Email this|Comments
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Sync'Em syncs Microsoft Exchange, Google, Apple contacts and calendar information
Posted by Dennis SellersDerman Enterprises has released Sync'Em 1.0, a new sync hub for Macs. It's compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 and higher and costs US$39.95 for a single user license.