3G iPhone Pics -- This Time It's White

New spy shots show up in Chinese-language forum.

New spy shots show up in Chinese-language forum.

  • WWDC Wrap Up

    [Photo Credit: Adam Jackson / Flickr] Here it is, our big wrap up of Steve Jobs' keynote speech at WWDC 10. This is going to be written as it goes, with more formal posts in the coming days to discuss the nuances of the big reveal(s). *iBooks for iPad – Update to the app. Table of contents will display bookmarks and notes, and you can view and read PDFs. New bookmarks also (Thank god). There's a bookshelf for PDFs as well. All available later this month. *Netflix announced for iPhone. Neat. *Farmville coming for iPhone. Oh good, another thing I can ignore. I hate seeing Farmville updates on Facebook, thank god I can turn them off. *5 billion downloads from App store. $1 billion paid to developers. Crazy. *iPhone: Named iPhone 4 (Not iPhone HD as rumored, although that's not shocking). Looks like the Gizmodo version, but with black sides instead of aluminum. Compared to a Leica camera – Glass on front and back, steel on the sides. 24% thinner than iPhone 3GS, 9.33mm thick. Front facing camera, Rear camera + LED Flash. Noise cancellation mike up top. Reference to the seams: They're all for the antennas. Antenna integrated into structure of the iPhone itself. 4X the pixel density – called Retina display. Substantially sharper, although the demo looks a bit darker. 960X640 display (I'm surprised they're not referring to this as HD.) 3.5 inches. Same IPS technology as is found in the iPad. Runs A4 processor found in iPad. Micro-Sim tray added for extra space. Bigger battery, 40% more talk time. 7 hrs of 3G talking, 6 hrs of 3G browsing, 10 hrs of Wi-Fi browsing. GPS, compass, accelerometer. 32GB of storage. Added a 3-axis gyro for 6-axis motion sensing with accelerometer. Apparently, it's great for gaming. I hate games that use the accelerometer, so that doesn't matter much to me. Camera system:  5MP camera with a backside illuminated sensor. Better for low-light photography. 5X digital zoom. LED Flash. Camera records HD video. Damn, I shouldn't have bought that Flip. iMovie for iPhone released. I've got this video project I've been working on. I wonder if I could do a multi-camera shoot with two iPhones. iMovie looks pretty cool, with transitions built in, inserting pics, etc. I imagine this would be better on an iPad, but I'll use it on the phone. $4.99 for iMovie iPhone OS name change: iOS 4 – Golden master of OS goes out today, will be released “soon.” Google, Yahoo and Bing are all in Search preferences. iBooks for iPhone: Download book on iPad, you can download it to the iPhone for no additional charge. Only buy once. Syncs together with other platform as well. All the same features as iBooks for iPad. iAd: Made to help developers sell apps. Also labelled in the corner to show that it's an official Apple iAd. Neat, but then again, I'm not an ad guy. Comes out July 1. Video chatting – Steve's “One more thing.” Make a video call on the iPhone. It's called FaceTime, and it's available on the regular screen. Looks like the future. Looks like you can switch the camera around as well to shoot from the other lens. Wi-fi only for now. Comes in black and white. $299 for 32GB, $199 for 16GB. On sale June 24th. Preorder goes up June 15th. iOS 4 out June 21st. Free on iPod Touch as well.

  • Dear Apple: What we want to see in iPhone 4.0, part 3

    Filed under: iPhone This is the third in a series of letters from you, the TUAW reader, to Apple detailing what you want to see in the next iPhone. In the first letter, you told Apple what you want to from the next OS. In the second, you told them what you'd love in the next hardware. This final letter is all about Apple's built-in apps and how you think they can be improved. Even with rumors swirling that iPhone OS 4.0 will be previewed on Wednesday (along with some tablet thingy), chances are the OS won't be finalized until early summer, so there's still plenty of time for Apple to take your suggestions.In past letters I broke down what readers requested by percentages. Because of the sheer number of requests for app improvements, in this letter I just compiled feature requests by app. So, without further ado, here is your letter to Apple: Dear Apple, Who know what you have up your sleeves for Wednesday. Is it "only" a tablet, or will you be showing us a peak at the next iPhone OS? If so, here is some of what we hope to see: CALCULATOR: Yeah, what more can we really need, right? We've got one suggestion for you: some think graphing options ala Grapher app for Mac OS X would be nice. CALENDAR: Out of all the Apple-branded iPhone apps, this one (along with Mail) is one that can use the most work. Our wants: o. Landscape calendar. o. Week view. o. Selectable calendar display. Right now, you can either view one calendar, or all the calendars. If we have 4 calendars synced, we would like the ability to display contents from either one, two, three or all of the calendars. o. Tasks support! o. A way to set the "normal" day hours like in iCal...those hours when we're usually asleep or "off duty" can then be dimmed. o. The ability to dial phone numbers or add attendees from inside Calendar. o. Birthday calendar sync. o. "Go to specific date" button. Pressing backward/forward to view past/future events is somewhat tedious. o. In Month view, double-tapping on a day will allow us to edit/add events on that day. Likewise, a double tap on empty space in the Day view will add an event in that specific time. The Event Name and Location entry field will then automatically open. o. Alarm/badge reminders option for events. In fact, we'd like better notification options on the home screen overall. CAMERA: Most of us think the software here is pretty solid, but we would like to see a few things: o. A "self-portrait" mode that turns the whole screen into a button for easier shutter access. o. Timer mode. o. Image controls: White balance, scene modes, etc. o. Digital zoom. o. A movable shutter button. In its current, fixed position it's awkward for people with bigger hands. What would be awesome is if the user could drag the button around and position it where it works best for him or her (kind of like how you can drag toolbar icons around in apps). CLOCK: o. Give us the ability to play a song or entire playlist as the alarm tone. o. As you'll see in other app suggestions, we love dynamic icons (like iCal's, where it displays the day and date). Show the actual time on the clock icon. o. And please, let us set the length of the snooze alarm. COMPASS: Some of us feel this app is kind of pointless. Many think it should be integrated into the Maps app (see below). Other believe it could become a very powerful travel tool. Image you are wandering around a foreign city. You've designated a certain corner of a street as "the meeting place." Your group splits up, but because you've hit a "remember location" button in the Compass app, you can easily navigate your way back. This is especially useful for smaller cities... if many streets aren't sign-posted it makes Maps much more difficult to use. An improved Compass app would also help us find where we've parked our car in that mall parking garage (there the Maps app can't help at all). This can be done offline (without using Google Maps) only with the compass and the GPS, or online (using Google maps, compass and the GPS). CONTACTS: o. Coverflow landscape view. We could swipe through our beautiful friends and tap their pictures to call. o. Social network integration to grab latest contact details & pics from networks such as Facebook, Flickr, Myspace, and LinkedIn. o. Ability to create groups on the iPhone. o. Thumbnail pictures next to the names in the contacts menu. iPod: We covered our wishes to be able to turn off landscape mode system-wide in the first letter, but we'll repeat it here (because it's annoying to have landscape mode pop on and off while we're jogging). Here's what else we think can make the iPod app better: o. Sort songs in a playlist by name, artists, album, and date added. o. Ability to erase single songs. o. Using the Remote app is a much more pleasant experience than using the iPod app. Why? Because of the playlist icons. Please duplicate that here. o. Does shuffle ever seem not quite random enough to you? It does to us. o. Voice control improvement. "play/pause", "back", and "next." o. The ability to edit playlists. MAIL: Like Calendar, we feel Mail can use a lot of improvement. So here goes: o. Unified inbox! We aren't the first to mention this, and quite frankly we'll be shocked if this isn't in the next version. o. Junk mail filtering. o. Rules! It's annoying to see fifty messages in your iPhone inbox when, if we were at our Macs, we would see forty-five of those already separated into their rule folders. o. Multiple signatures, because we have some pretty annoying witty quotes we want to share with some people. o. Ability to create a to-do from a message. o. Ability to flag a message. o. Let us bounce a message back. o. UI tweak: When composing an email the cancel button should change to say "close" once the user has entered information. Right now, you have to remember that hitting "cancel" is going to prompt you to save. Simple change for a poor UI word choice. o. There needs to be a way to switch from inbox to inbox without going back up the chain. The standard iPhone UI black buttons representing different inboxes at the bottom of the screen could do this. MAPS: o. Integration with our Google Map profiles, My Maps, etc... o. Turn-by-turn GPS! o. Add a mini compass in the corner of the app (thus perhaps eliminating the need for the current Compass app?). o. Save maps directly to the iPhone so when we're out of cell and Wi-Fi range, we can still use the map we saved. o. Landscape mode. o. The ability to save routes. o. The ability to export routes to email. o. Street view with augmented reality option. MESSAGES: o. Group Texting. Sure it's nice to type out a name and add them, but when we want to text a group of people, we don't want to have to pick them one at a time.... we want to either be able to select a WHOLE contact "group", or select them as we scroll through. o. Give us different vibration settings for different types of messages. For example, two pulses means new text; one new email; a long beat means voicemail. Something like this would be helpful for when the phone is in our pocket during a meeting or while driving. o. Quick reply texts! (see video above) o. The ability to save sound clips we receive. o. New colors for the SMS boxes during chat. o. Delivery reports. o. Add character count to SMS edit box. NOTES: o. Let us choose the font and font size! o. MobileMe sync! It's a pain to have to plug in via USB for them to sync. o. Sorting options (date, tags, alphabetically). o. Check boxes so we can use it for grocery lists, etc. o. Voice recording in directly in notes. PHONE: Yeah, some of us actually use our iPhones to make calls. We'd like: o. The ability to forward voicemail. o. The ability to delete one call entry at a time in our recent call log. This potentially could save you from issues with the significant other. o. Ability to display contact pics added via Address Book in full screen, during an incoming call. PHOTOS: o. Ability to arrange photos into albums. Add passcode lock to albums that have sensitive photos. o. Faces & places view. o. Create email-able post cards. o. Sorting options (date, faces, tags, places, albums). o. Basic editing (cropping, etc). SAFARI: o. In Safari, when several pages are open, when you switch to one of the pages it reloads automatically rather than showing the cached version. This is slow and consumes more battery. Please give us a choice of turning this off. o. It would be great to have the ability to view MobileMe webmail via Safari for those times when a fellow Machead wants to check his email on our iPhone. o. Top Sites! It would free up home screen space if we could have easy visual access to our favorite sites directly in Safari. o. Private browsing. o. Search directly in a web page. STOCKS: o. Again, a dynamic icon would be cool. It could change according to a user-selectable market or particular stock. Green badge up, red badge down. VOICE MEMOS: o. Let a single click of the headphone's handsfree button be "pause recording" and a double click be "start recording." Also, there is currently no way to resume a recording if the screen is locked. WEATHER: One of the only iPhone apps that's not been updated since iPhone OS 1.0! Here's what to do: o. More than any other, this app needs a dynamic icon. o. Turn the app to landscape mode to see an hourly breakdown of the weather. o. Add a current location screen to the app, utilizing GPS, so no matter where we are instead of rolling down the window and sticking our hand out, we can reach into our pockets to see if it's raining. YOUTUBE: o. Ability to play our YouTube playlists. o. Allow commenting on videos from inside the app. o. Enable search for peoples' channels. So there you have it, Apple: three long letters about what we would love to see in the next iPhone and its OS. We know you're listening, and even though we know you would never admit to being influenced by this feedback, the people have spoken and we think you'll agree some of the ideas are pretty darn good. Whether you take them or leave them is up to you. Just know that despite our myriad suggestions, one thing is still certain on our end: we love our iPhones and we can't wait to see what the next version brings! Sincerely, The loyal readers and iPhone owners of TUAW. TUAW Readers: Thank you so much for your contributions. In total, I received over 3200 emails from you. I included as many of your suggestions as time, space, and feasibility allowed. If you guys want to see any of the lesser-suggested ideas that didn't make it into the letters, let me know in the comments and perhaps I'll compile them in a follow-up article! Maps and Notes mockup by reader Michael W.TUAWDear Apple: What we want to see in iPhone 4.0, part 3 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments iPhone - Apple - Facebook - Myspace - Google

  • The Complete iMac History -- Bondi to Aluminum

    It was perhaps the greatest gamble of Steve Jobs’ career. Barely 18 months into his second tour of duty with the company he founded, Apple’s interim CEO gathered a cadre of reporters at Cupertino’s Flynt Auditorium on May 6, 1998, to showcase the newest member Mac family: a funny-looking, rebellious sibling with a flashy attitude and a remarkable sense of style. Dressed in blue plastic and built to harness the power of the Internet, the iMac was the first PC that actually felt personal. And it would forever change Apple, the industry, and virtually everyone who came into contact with it.    iMac G3Legend has it that Steve didn’t warm to the iMac name until after it rolled off the assembly line, but it’s hard to imagine it being called anything else. With no less than five meanings attached to its little prefix--internet, individual, instruct, inform, inspire--the original Bondi Blue iMac was the personification of Apple’s think different campaign, an ingenious, incomparable, inimitable all-in-one machine designed to combine "the excitement of the Internet with the simplicity of Macintosh."While not quite the screamer it was billed to be, the first iMac was no slouch: $1,299 bought you a 233MHz G3 processor, 512MB L2 cache, 32MB RAM, ATI Rage IIc graphics, 4GB hard drive, tray-loading CD-ROM drive, 2 USB ports, stereo speakers, a funky mouse, garish keyboard and, of course, a 15-inch CRT display all built around a semi-translucent blue shell. Consumers immediately responded by ditching the boring, beige alternative, and soon iMacs were brightening desktops everywhere.But Bondi Blue didn’t appeal to everyone, and in 1999 (following a minor graphics refresh to accommodate OS 8.5), Steve took the iMac to "a whole new level." Determined to let users "express themselves in a new way," the iMac picked up five fruit-inspired colors (Strawberry, Blueberry, Lime, Grape and Tangerine ) for its first major revision. To sweeten the deal, Apple added 33 extra megahertz and trimmed $100 off the price tag--and in April, a 333MHz processor sped things up even more--but it was the array of colors that consistently stole the show. (If you’re feeling nostalgic--or just looking for a unique aquarium--they can be had today for as cheap as a bag of fruit.)Steve didn’t let the iMac rest on its palette, however. In October, the iMac DV brought the machine’s first FireWire ports, wireless support, slot-loading DVD-ROM drive and 400MHz processor, and added a RAM-stuffed, high-capacity special edition in the same Graphite color as its big brother Power Mac. At Macworld New York in July 2000, four new models made their appearance in an array of new colors, running up to 500MHz and ranging from $799 to $1,499: iMac (Indigo), iMac DV (Indigo, Ruby), iMac DV+ (Indigo, Ruby, Sage) and iMac DV SE (Graphite and Snow). A quiet update most notable for finally ditching the puck mouse, the sixth version of the iMac unofficially kicked off an 18-month waiting game for the next big thing, as the bubble-butt design began to show its age underneath the semi-annual paint job. But first, the iMac had to earn its spots.In February 2001, the iMac sunk to new depths with a gimmick that kicked the Reality Distortion Field into overdrive. Sensing the color wheel had run its course, Steve somehow convinced consumers that trippy, abstract patterns were the most logical way launch the "Rip, Mix, Burn" campaign. The Blue Dalmatian and Flower Power iMacs marked the beginning of the end of the original iMac’s cachet, and the CRT Wunderkind would see just one more update during the remainder of its reign, bumping the three surviving colors--Indigo, Graphite and Snow--to a top speed of 700MHz at Macworld New York 2001. (These days, $75 will get you one of the final models to roll off the assembly line, which still runs OS X, all the way up to Tiger.)A $799 600MHz Snow model would remain on shelves until March 2003, when its hipper cousin, the flat-panel, white-and-chrome eMac G4, picked up the CRT mantle.   iMac G4Time magazine might have stolen a bit of the thunder from Steve’s Macworld San Francisco 2003 keynote, but even a leaked cover story with pics could hardly prepare anyone for what emerged from beneath the Moscone Center stage that morning. A floating, flat screen attached to a chrome neck and a gleaming white base, the iMac G4 had personality to spare and looked more at home in an art museum than on a desktop. Or, to hear Time describe it, a patch of grass:As (Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive) walked through the 1,000-square-meter vegetable garden and apricot grove of Jobs' wife Laurene, Jobs sketched out the Platonic ideal for the new machine. "Each element has to be true to itself," Jobs told Ive. "Why have a flat display if you're going to glom all this stuff on its back? Why stand a computer on its side when it really wants to be horizontal and on the ground? Let each element be what it is, be true to itself." Instead of looking like the old iMac, the thing should look more like the flowers in the garden. Jobs said, "It should look like a sunflower."A testament to Steve’s relentless pursuit of perfection, the iMac G4 brought more to the table than a distinctive design and 800 MHz G4 processor. Sporting an optional SuperDrive, a plethora of professional ports and a brilliant, widescreen display that “usher(ed) in the age of flat-screen computing for everyone,” the iMac G4 didn’t need a candy coating to turn heads and hardly felt like a consumer machine. With three identical models ranging from $1,299 (CD-RW, 700MHz G4, 128MB RAM, 40GB hard drive) to $1,799 (SuperDrive, 800MHz G4, 256MB RAM, 60GB hard drive), the iMac G4 began to blur the line between consumer and professional, and represented one of the greatest advancements in Apple’s history.Naturally, it was a sensation. More than 150,000 units were ordered in the first three weeks and not even a $100 price bump to offset "significant increases in component costs for memory and LCD flat-panel displays" could slow down the sunflower juggernaut.To keep the line fresh, the iMac G4 followed a unique upgrade path. At Macworld New York in July, a 17-inch flagship model topped off the popular trio of 15-inchers, which kept the same specs and pricing. The following February, the line was whittled down to just two models: a 1GHz 17-inch model (SuperDrive, 256MB RAM, 80GB hard drive) with internal Airport and Bluetooth support, and the same 800MHz 15-inch model (Combo drive), which saw its price drop back to the original $1,299. (Head over to eBay and pick one up--new and in the box--for just a tenth of its MSRP.) Six months later, both models were fitted with faster processors and graphics, DDR memory and USB 2.0, and wireless networking became standard.The final update came in the form of a "huge, gorgeous" 20-inch model (identical spec-wise to the 17-inch it supplanted) that joined the line in November for $2,199 (and still sells for more than $500 today), leaving three distinct models for the remainder of its reign.   iMac G5Unlike the iMac G3, which stuck around long after its successor arrived, Apple forced the iMac G4 into early retirement in July 2004 while it ironed out some last-minute issues with the upcoming model. Eventually introduced by Phil Schiller at the Paris Apple Expo on the final day of August, the iMac G5 was met with flurry of anticipation as Apple all but confirmed a dramatic overhaul for its next-generation iMac.The first Mac truly inspired by the halo effect, the iMac G5 was brought to us by "the makers of the iPod" and it looked every bit the part. Abandoning the each-element-should-remain-true-to-itself philosophy, the iMac G5 was dressed in glossy, white plastic with a brushed aluminum foot and gray Apple logo. Sporting a 2-inch-thick housing built around a 17- or 20-inch screen, powerful 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz processor, and "completely redesigned system architecture," the iMac G5 brought the clean simplicity of Apple’s popular music player to its desktop computers in a timeless marriage of form and function.The iMac G5’s upgrade path was anything but ordinary. The first, which didn’t land until May 2005, kept the same lineup--but trimmed $100 from the top-shelf model--and brought the requisite 2.0GHz processors, faster SuperDrives, higher-capacity hard drives and built-in Airport and Bluetooth, but also added a new ambient light sensor that lessened the intensity of the pulsing sleep light in a dark room. But it was the second--and final--revision that really shook things up. Arriving just five months later at Apple’s "One More Thing" event, the iMac Rev. C was noticeably light on the speed boost, bringing just 100 extra megahertz to the table. The Combo drive model was squeezed out in favor of a robust, SuperDrive-equipped 17-inch unit priced at $1,299; and another $100 was shaved off the top model, bringing it down to $1,699 for a 20-inch screen, 2.1GHz processor, 512MB of 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM, 8x SuperDrive and 250GB 7200 RPM hard drive.Even more notable were the superficial changes to the all-in-one desktop machine. Designed to push the iMac closer to the living room, Apple pre-loaded all new iMac G5s with its "amazing Front Row experience" that included an infrared port and mini remote control that neatly attached to the right side. USB and FireWire ports were rightfully turned on their side and the case was trimmed by a half-inch, ushering in the first of the convex enclosures that would make their way into the MacBook Air and iPhone. An iSight camera was added to the top bezel for "out-of-the-box video conferencing," and Apple tossed a Mighty Mouse into the box, just for good measure. (If you’re still looking for one, scrape together $450 or so and head over to eBay.)A subtle, stunning update, the design that Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal dubbed "the gold standard of desktop PCs" would need very little tweaking to stay fresh through the years, up to and including the latest 27-inch behemoth. NEXT: The Intel Changeover    Intel iMac (Polycarbonate)On the heels of the surprising redesign of the iMac G5, Apple kicked off its Intel transition at Macworld San Francisco 2006 by adding Core Duo processors to its iMac lineup, "delivering performance that is up to twice that of its predecessor." Leaving the design, pricing and other features unchanged from its PowerPC counterpart, Apple was sending a clear message that the chip changeover would be clean, seamless and virtually unrecognizable to the untrained eye.Following the introduction of an $899 17-inch education configuration that brought back the CD-burning Combo drive, Apple upgraded the line in September with across-the-board Core 2 Duo processors ranging from 1.83GHz to 2.16GHz, and popped 802.11n Airport cards into the top three models. Once again, Apple made room in the lineup for a large-screen flagship model, this time in the form of an HD-ready 24-incher that sold for $1,999--and still sells for around $700. Heck, even the box can fetch $40 on eBay.   Intel iMac (Aluminum)The first iMac that wasn’t wrapped in plastic was largely an incremental update--if not for its gorgeous aluminum-and-glass dressing. (Glass, of course, meant glossy, the first iMac to ditch the matte screen.) As if the new enclosures weren’t attractive enough, Apple dumped the 17-inch model in August 2007 and trimmed 20 percent from the price of the 2.0GHz 20-inch, bringing the price down to $1,199, the cheapest entry-level iMac since the G3. A 2.8GHz option, healthy RAM boost and faster graphics all around finished off the update, which would remain largely unchanged for two years. The next two upgrades--in April 2008 and March 2009--were two of the quietest in the iMac’s illustrious reign. The first, a minor refresh that pushed the line above the psychological 3GHz barrier for the first time, upped the chip cache and frontside bus, and featured a custom, low-watt Intel processor that gave the metallic iMac a hefty push into the professional arena, what with its 24-inch screen, 500GB hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics BTO option. The early 2009 bump, essentially a lineup shuffle and price cut, was most notable for jettisoning the FireWire 400 port (a fourth USB 2.0 port made up the difference) and doubling the storage and memory; $1,499 now bought you a 24-inch model with a 640GB hard drive.  iMac Intel (Backlit)Which brings us to the current lineup, the culmination of more than a decade of research and development. Hailed as "jaw-dropping," "stunning" and "screenormous," the new incarnation of the iMac presents an LED-backlit 27-inch screen flagship model in true 16:9 widescreen (previous models had a 16:10 aspect ratio) and a resolution that rivals Apple’s premium Cinema HD Display. Sporting a lineup that starts at 3.06GHz and tops off at Mac Pro-worthy Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors, the new iMac is distinguishable from its predecessor by a new “edge-to-edge glass design and seamless all aluminum enclosure” and represents the first mac to come bundled with the brand-new Multi-Touch Magic Mouse. An attention-grabbing force that raises the bar yet again, today’s iMac shows virtually no resemblance to its candy-colored, bubble-butt ancestor that set the ball rolling so many years ago. But while every other Apple computer has undergone a post-Intel transition name change, the iMac, while certainly outgrowing its role as an Internet machine, has never strayed from its individual mission of instructing, informing and inspiring--and has never been shy about looking good while doing it.  

  • More Spy Shots of the Next-Gen iPod touch Leaked Online

    It's rumor Monday! Or, it's just Monday and the news was a tad slow over the weekend, which is why we've got spy shots of the purported next-generation iPod touch floating on our site. The photos come from M.I.C. gadget, and they show iPod touch parts with front-facing cameras. The site says the following about the spy shots:We found these photos on a Chinese online store, showing the front LCD and bezel of the upcoming 4th generation iPod Touch. The part clearly shows a front-sided hole that would leave room for a front-facing FaceTime camera, and the part is labeled “Apple (c) 2010″.An iPhone parts supplier is responsible for the store, and this supplier claimed that they got these parts through a “special channel”, maybe this is the iPod touch 4th generation prototype which is leaked from the factory. This part is on sale for $650 Chinese yuan ($95 USD). Take your time to see the pics below.This September's Apple conference will hopefully have something to do with a refresh of the iPod touch (and maybe even an "iTV"). A front-facing camera on these portable music players would also mean more people to FaceTime with--maybe by then, it'll finally catch on. Follow this article's author, Florence Ion, on Twitter.

  • White iPhone 4 casing shows up in yet more photos

    Steve Jobs didn't seem too upset over the story of the lost / stolen iPhone 4 last night at D8, so we're sure he won't mind that yet more parts for his next-gen phone have leaked out -- this time PowerBookMedic.com has scored the white version of the casing. As usual, the Engadget staff is now in a fierce and somewhat disturbingly violent debate over the relative style merits of black and white iPhones, so don't look for us to get much done for the rest of the day. Many more pics at the source link.White iPhone 4 casing shows up in yet more photos originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  PowerBook Medic  | Email this | Comments

  • The Complete History of the Macworld Expo

    For anyone who attended the very first Macworld San Francisco and then skipped the next 24, this year’s event might seem awfully similar to that very first show. Hot on the heels of the runaway success of the Mac and its own successful launch, Macworld magazine tapped event coordinator Peggy Kilburn in 1985 to develop a conference that “will bring (attendees) in contact with the people who best understand the far-reaching effects the Macintosh will have in business, schools and at home.” It was held in Feb. 21-23 and Steve Jobs didn’t even step foot in Brooks Hall, let alone address the crowd. Similarly, this year’s event won’t take place until February--abandoning its traditional January time slot held since 1986--and Jobs won’t be attending. But there’s something fitting about Macworld returning to its roots for its 25th anniversary. Before Steve turned it into his personal showcase and the Apple booth had to be draped in black curtains, Macworld was a place for fans and professionals to share ideas free from the prying eyes of PC users, where product announcements were welcome but not necessary, and the keynote was the least interesting part of the show.   Macworld Expo the 1980s - The decade of the Mac Macworld Expo San Francisco 1985: When the doors closed on the first Macworld, which shared exhibit space with a boat show double-booked for the same weekend, more than 10,000 attendees had walked through its doors, and the bad taste from the Super Bowl XIX “Lemmings” ad was all but washed away. Hot items for the fledgling Macintosh included the Lotus Jazz office suite (but surprisingly, not Macintosh Office), MacPrompter for scrolling text, and a slew of video and imaging apps that leveraged the Mac’s powerful graphics capabilities.   Macworld Expo Boston 1985-86: While Apple kept a decidedly muted presence at the first two Macworld Boston Expos, the east-coast show quickly became cemented on the calendar of Apple fans and developers. With more than 500,000 Macs in circulation and the resignation of Steve Jobs fresh on their minds, attendees had more than enough to talk about at that first event, held Aug. 21-23, 1985, at the Bayside Exposition Center, and touted as a chance to see “all of the elements of the Macintosh Office. ... The 512K Macintosh, the LaserWriter, and AppleTalk, as well as Jazz from Lotus, are just a few of the products you’ll get to see.”  MWE SF 1986: After observing such a successful inaugural show, Apple CEO John Sculley--who reportedly credited Macworld for reinvigorating Apple after a disappointing end to 1984--took full advantage of the second annual expo, which expanded to the Civic Auditorium to accommodate larger crowds. While not quite worthy of Stevenote status, Apple’s less-than-charismatic leader unveiled the SCSI-equipped, 8MHz Macintosh Plus and pricey LaserWriter Plus during his keynote presentation.  MWE SF 1987: A heavy focus on desktop communications and networking brought the long-awaited AppleShare file server software and AppleTalk PC Card, and delivered effortless, cross-platform file sharing long before IBM developed its own solution. A major component of the floundering Macintosh Office, AppleShare survived long after Apple’s desktop publishing suite was sent to the junkyard.  MWE Boston 1987: Apple landed in Boston ready to show off HyperCard and script language HyperTalk, one of the first apps to utilize the hotlinking hypermedia concept that would become the cornerstone of the World Wide Web. Also making their debut were MultiFinder 5.0, the AppleFax modem and ImageWriter LQ. MWE SF 1988: With some 350 exhibitors and 25,000 attendees, MacWorld kicked off its fourth annual San Francisco show with an emphasis on the Mac’s business capabilities. In his keynote speech, Sculley stressed Apple's commitment to networking and connectivity advancements, and introduced the zippy Laserwriter II family, with up to 8 pages per minute of printing power.    MWE Boston 1988: Apple CEO John Sculley may have landed in Boston to show off the Apple Scanner, but the buzz on the trade floor was all about the Macintosh II, as developers showed off an array of drawing, writing and CAD tools to leverage the power of Apple’s newest Mac. MWE SF 1989: Breaking a pattern of adding an “X” to Macs fitted with a Motorola 68030 processor (maybe Sculley didn’t want to announce the Mac SEx to a raucous convention crowd), Apple used its biggest stage to release the SE/30 upgrade, a Mac that would be as popular as it was long-lasting. Among the show favorites was the streamlined Claris MacWrite II, one of the last times a Claris product would be among the show favorites.  MWE Boston 1989: For the fifth anniversary of the Macworld Expo, Sculley opted to keep the anticipated Macintosh Portable (which would make its debut a month later, on Sept. 20) under wraps, and instead showcased the Mac’s educational possibilities with the Visual Almanac, an interactive multimedia demonstration kit for the classroom that utilized Apple’s groundbreaking HyperCard. NEXT: Macworld Expo: The 1990's  Macworld Expo the 1990's - On the brink MWE SF 1990: The 40MHz Macintosh IIfx made a big splash at the first Macworld of the 90s, despite its six-figure price tag. One of the reasons for all that speed was the launch of a Mac-only graphics-editing program by a little company named Adobe, which generated quite a bit of interest on its own.   MWE Boston 1990: HyperCard 2.0 was all the rage at the subdued summer Macworld, but even Apple’s own booth had a hard time competing with the DTS’ dogcow buttons inscribed with her famous catchphrase, “Moof!”  MWE SF 1991: Developed to optimize the 68000 line of Macs, the slick, streamlined System 7 was the co-star of Macworld, sharing the limelight with Apple’s new multimedia app. Sculley’s keynote was its usual shade of dull, save the impressive QuickTime tour of Ben & Jerry’s Vermont factory, which roused the crowd from its slumber. Also unveiled were a series of networking products, including the Macintosh LC Ethernet card.  MWE Boston 1991: While PowerBook rumors were flying and many Mac users were getting their first glimpse at System 7, the trade floor was still buzzing about a bombshell announcement just weeks earlier. Industry rivals Apple and IBM (and Motorola) put aside their differences and entered into a unique partnership that would eventually produce the microchip that would power the Mac for more than a decade.  Macworld Expo Tokyo 1991-1992: Just because Apple didn’t bother to release any new products (although CEO John Sculley did cut the ribbon on opening day) doesn’t mean Macworld Tokyo had a hard time filling the Makuhari Messe convention center when it opened its doors on Feb. 13, 1991. A rabid overseas fanbase was eager to get their hands on the latest and greatest in Mac apps and accessories, and Apple embraced its new audience with open arms. MWE SF 1992: Continuing the theme of the prior year’s conference, Macworld 1992 featured hundreds of new applications using QuickTime and an astute prediction from Sculley: “I believe pervasive networking will be the driving force of the information industry during the 1990s.” The Mac may have been this crowd’s “ideal multimedia machine,” but an ex-Apple employee’s latest OS was making some noise up the road as the NeXTWORLD Expo opened its doors to those who wanted to think slightly differenter.  MWE Boston 1992: After a successful PowerBook launch the prior October, Apple used Macworld Boston to upgrade its best-selling model with more RAM and a lower price point, setting the stage for a series of dockable PowerBook Duos that would be released in the fall. MWE SF 1993: Held entirely at its now-permanent Moscone Center home, Sculley used his final Macworld San Francisco keynote to unveil a host of imaging products, including ColorSync, LaserWriter Pro workgroup printers, StyleWriter II personal printer, Apple Color Printer and Apple Color OneScanner. Making all those projects that much easier were the Apple Adjustable Keyboard and ADB Mouse II, Apple’s first teardrop-shaped clicker.    MWE Boston 1993: The best product Steve Jobs didn’t have a hand in, Sculley finally rolled out the Newton MessagePad at Macworld Boston, more than a year after publicly demonstrating its prototype. Unlike anything on the market, Newton was a bold device with a brilliant interface that ought to have been as popular as the iPhone. Instead, only a few hundred thousand were sold over its four-and-a-half-year reign.  MWE Tokyo 1993: Apple’s first product launch outside the United States brought a slew of new hardware, including the Macintosh Color Classic, Macintosh LC III, Macintosh Centris 610 and 650, Macintosh Quadra 800, PowerBook 165c, and the LaserWriter Select 300 and 310 laser printers. All those new products paid off, as the expo attracted nearly 100,000 attendees in just its third year.  MWE SF 1994: With more than 70,000 attendees on hand to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Mac, the sprawling Apple booth didn’t disappoint. Visitors were met with a slew of new products, including a walking tour of its online service, eWorld, along with the recently released Macintosh TV and Powerbook Duo 270c. But buzz on the floor was mostly surrounding the upcoming PowerPC transition, which promised faster, more powerful Macs for the next decade.  MWE Boston 1994: The critical, if not commercial, success of Newton brought some 70,000 attendees to the following year’s Macworld Boston, forcing Apple to set up its booth across the street from the World Trade Center. It was worth the trip, as new Power Macs showed off the capabilities of the first PowerPC chips and System 7.5 introduced users to Stickies, WindowShade and the Control Strip.  MWE Tokyo 1994: Instead of showing off OS 7.5 for umpteenth time or adding another PowerPC model to its Power Mac line, Apple took the wraps off the QuickTake 100 digital camera. Designed in association with Kodak, the QuickTake looked more like a pair of binoculars than a camera but made an instant splash with the expo crowd. Also introduced was Color StyleWriter printer, to make sure all those photos looked their best.   MWE SF 1995: As expected, the chip transition was in full swing, with PowerPC Power Macs drawing attention at the expo, but the most excitement centered around Power Computing, the first company to take advantage of Apple’s licensing program.  MWE Boston 1995: Trying to steal some of the thunder from the forthcoming Windows 95 release, Apple demoed Copland in all its buggy, crashy glory on brand-new AppleVision displays. Be thankful it failed; if not, Steve might never have come back.  MWE Tokyo 1995: Apple welcomed a new clone manufacturer to its ranks, Japan-based Pioneer Electronic, and proudly took the wraps off the active-matrix PowerBook 5300c, which thankfully didn’t explode on the stage. The same can’t be said about the Singapore plant that was manufacturing them. MWE SF 1996: Sinking revenue and executive board shake-ups cast a dark shadow over Macworld’s 12th annual event, which saw a continued push away from Apple’s proprietary platform with the release of the PC compatibility card, capable of turning any Power Mac into a dual micro-processor system capable of running Windows 95.  MWE Boston 1996: The first U.S. keynote by CEO Gil Amelio made some attendees long for John Sculley, but the 20 percent across-the-board price cut on the Performa line was certainly welcome, as was the Performa 6400’s new InstaTower case. Before dousing the Copland project with a giant bucket of cold water, Gil got the crowd riled up by declaring Apple was “transitioning from a dialogue that has centered on survival to a dialogue that’s going to center on excitement.” We think the excitement he was referring to had something to do with the imminent launch of the first issue of MacAddict magazine. That, or the return of Steve Jobs, we’re not sure.   MWE Tokyo 1996: CEO Gil Amelio announced the fruits of its partnership with Bandai in the form of a gaming console based on Apple’s Pippin technology. Officially called Pippin Atmark, the device was supposed to combine the best parts of each company into a super-computer-video-game-machine, and if you had stopped by Apple’s booth, it certainly seemed that way. Sadly, we know how the story ended.   MWE SF 1997: Steve Jobs’ first appearance on a Macworld stage was preceded by a lengthy, rambling Gil Amelio, whose three-hour, teleprompter-plagued speech may have inspired Jobs to take over speaking duties. Amelio was supposed to rev up the crowd by showing the stunning Twentieth Anniversary Mac and outlining Apple’s NeXT-based OS strategy, but botched the whole thing up, effectively ruining Steve’s big moment.      MWE Boston 1997: As late as July 2, Amelio was planning to deliver the keynote address at Macworld Boston, so when he was abruptly forced out July 5, all eyes turned to the new kid on the block. The excitement was palpable when the lights finally dimmed, and when Steve stepped out on stage to a 30-second standing ovation, a new era in Apple had clearly begun. And then he announced a partnership with Microsoft, drawing boos.  MWE Tokyo 1997: Before Steve killed the project later in the year, Apple teamed with Fujifim for its last attempt at a digital camera, the QuickTake 200, which used removable cards to store pictures but was lost in a sea of cheaper, smaller entries. Also introduced at the show were the Power Macintosh 4400, 7300, 8600 and 9600, and the Powerbook 3400c, which immediately assumed the short-lived position of the world’s fastest laptop. MWE SF 1998: Just months before the iMac would turn the industry on its head, iCEO Steve’s first full Macworld San Francisco keynote brought no new products, but still had the crowd in awe with a surprise “one more thing” announcement: Apple’s profitable again.    Macworld Expo New York 1998: Making the move south to the Big Apple could have been disastrous for Macworld, but diehard Mac fans would have jumped a motorcycle onto a speeding train to catch a glimpse of the iMac. Attendance dipped noticeably from the prior year’s Boston show, but enough shows up to give Macworld East a permanent new home in New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. MWE Tokyo 1998: The Macworld Tokyo crowd cheered politely for the debut of the first Japanese-language Think Different ad, but went absolutely wild when Steve Jobs appeared on stage (via a taped message). He didn’t show off any new products, but assured the audience that Apple wouldn’t be leaving them out of their new OS strategy: “Apple is committed to having the best kanji (Chinese characters) systems in the world, and we're pouring even more into R&D toward that end.” MWE SF 1999: A rainbow of iMacs greeted visitors to Apple’s booth, but all eyes were on “the world’s most open-minded personal computer,” a sleek tower dressed in blue and white with a hinged door for easy access to its G3 processor. And the color-coordinated Apple Studio Displays weren’t too shabby either.  MWE New York 1999: Say hello to the iBook. But first, say hello to Noah Wyle, star of “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” who fooled the crowd momentarily with his nearly-spot-on Steve Jobs impersonation (though he forgot to unscrew the cap to his water bottle). After a demo of the imminent OS 9, the real Steve unveiled Apple’s newest laptop, a candy-colored clamshell book that had a handle and looked strangely like a potty seat.  MWE Tokyo 1999: Steve’s first keynote at Macworld Toyko was basically a rewrite of January’s Macworld San Francisco presentation, with the exception of an untimely crash of the Power Mac G3 during Microsoft’s Internet Explorer demo. But all anyone really cared about were iMacs.  NEXT: Macworld Expo: The 2000's  Macworld Expo the 2000's - Apple's return MWE SF 2000: With the renaissance in full swing, Steve announced Apple’s next-generation operating system in earnest at the first Macworld of the new millennium. With “state-of-the-art plumbing,” “killer graphics” and a 12-month, “gentle migration,” Steve introduced the masses to the blue-tinged world of Aqua of the Dock and kept his promise: A public beta was in our hands by September.   MWE New York 2000: Indigo, Ruby, Sage and Snow iMacs, dual-processor Power Macs, optical mice, translucent keyboards, iMovie 2, and 15-, 17- and 22-inch displays. None stood a chance against the star-crossed star of the show, the jaw-dropping Power Mac G4 Cube. Everyone wanted to take one home, but strangely, few people actually did.  MWE Tokyo 2000: After an quiet debut in 1999, Steve pulled out all the stops in 2000, unveiling brand-new portables and Power Macs, including the iBook Special Edition and Pismo PowerBook. Steve also made good on his ’98 vow to include the highest-quality Japanese fonts in OS X.   MWE SF 2001: One of Jobs’ shining moments (even by his standards), the 2001 Stevenote featured a shipping date for Mac OS X, two more pieces of the digital hub (iDVD and iTunes), SuperDrive-equipped graphite Power Mac G4s, and the piece de resistance, the “mega-wide,” one-inch thick Titanium Power Mac G4. Suddenly, all was right-side up with the world (including the Apple logo on the case).  MWE New York 2001: A preview of Mac OS X Puma (and a few lengthy third-party demos) brought scarcely any new features, but faster iMacs and Quicksilver Power Macs promised an all-around zippier experience.  MWE Tokyo 2001: The final aesthetic flourish for the iMac brought the trippy Flower Power and Blue Dalmatian patterns and added CD-RW drives to accompany iTunes 1.1 Joining the art-deco all-in-ones were new Power Mac G4 Cubes, which also added the elusive CD-RW drives. MWE SF 2002: A 14-inch iBook joined the wildly popular 12-inch “ice-book” family and iPhoto rounded out Apple’s digital hub vision, but the show-stopper was the flat-panel iMac G4, an overdue update that was well worth the wait. Part-computer, part-sculpture, the “Sunflower” iMac firmly cemented the Stevenote as the greatest show on earth.  MWE New York 2002: A notably lackluster presentation eliminated Apple’s free e-mail in favor of a paid service and delivered a rehash of the Jaguar demo Steve gave two months earlier at WWDC. No killer new products to speak of, but iSync, iCal and iTunes 3 made their debut, along with solid-state iPods (with Windows support) and 17-inch iMacs, but attendees couldn’t help but notice the spring was missing from Steve’s step. MWE Tokyo 2002: Steve crammed another 5 gigabytes into the diminutive iPod music player as the Macworld Tokyo expo was moved to the more spacious Big Sight convention center for Apple’s last overseas splash. Turned out the switch was prophetic, as Steve took the wraps off the stunning 23-inch Cinema HD display, Apple’s largest to date.   MWE SF 2003: Final Cut Express, Airport Extreme, iLife, Keynote and Safari would have been enough for most company’s trade shows, but not Apple. After nearly two hours of nonstop announcements, Steve saved the best for last: The largest (17-inch) and smallest (12-inch) PowerBooks ever, dressed to the nines in classy aluminum.  MWE New York 2003: After Steve bailed on his annual keynote to protest IDG’s plan to move to the expo back to Boston the following year, the show, now known as Macworld CreativePro Conference & Expo, found itself in a tailspin. Apple fulfilled its commitment to exhibit--and even announced the availability of Soundtrack as a standalone product--but the thrill was most definitely gone. MWE Tokyo 2003: On the heels of the east-coast shake-up, Apple abruptly pulled out of the Japan show, too, and IDG cancelled the event altogether. MWE SF 2004: A somewhat disappointing keynote delivered Garageband and way too much John Mayer, but still finished on a high note as Steve unveiled the product no one knew they needed: a smaller iPod in a rainbow of flavors.  MWE Boston 2004-2005: A pair of intimate Boston expos closed the book on Macworld East for good, as IDG vowed to focus its efforts on the sole remaining show in San Francisco. MWE SF 2005: Also known as the keynote that brought down ThinkSecret, Steve took to the Moscone stage in 1995 looking to capitalize on all the attention Apple was getting. Along with a new iLife and a surprise successor to the defunct AppleWorks, two low-priced products sought to dispel the notion of Apple as a high-priced niche company: the $99 iPod shuffle and $499 Mac mini. MWE SF 2006: Apple kicked off the Intel transition by fitting its two most popular Macs with Core Duo processors. Little was changed from the new iMac aside from its new brain, but the PowerBook underwent a series of tweaks and refinements, including the retirement of its famous name “because we’re kind of done with Power and we want Mac in the name of our products.”     MWE SF 2007: The last great Macworld keynote ever. Nuff said. MWE SF 2008: With the near-impossible task of following the launch of the iPhone, Steve took the stage for his last Macworld San Francisco keynote with a bag full of assorted treats--cheaper Apple TVs, iTunes movie rentals, iPod touch and iPhone software updates, Time Capsule--and one big trick. Steve’s lasting image as the master of Macworld ceremonies: sliding the Macbook Air out its plain manila envelope. MWE SF 2009: Apple’s final Macworld appearance was preceded by letter from Steve explaining his “nutritional problem” and “decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote,” so attendees were prepared for a lackluster event. Apple surprised some with the new 8-hour, 17-inch Mac Book Pro, iLife ’09 and iWork ’09, but it just wasn’t the same without the man who made it all happen.   Macworld Expo elsewhere Building off the success of U.S. shows, a number of expos around the globe tried to capitalize on the Macworld name, to limited success: 1989: Macworld Canada 1991: Macworld Mexico, Hong Kong, Stockholm and New Zealand 1992: Macworld Barcelona, Paris (cancelled due to popularity of Apple Expo) 1994: Macworld Expo Summit (Washington, D.C.) 1996: Macworld Taiwan 2004: Macworld UK 2005: Macworld on Tour (only schedule date, in Kissimmee, Fla., cancelled)  

  • Reasons for White iPhone 4 Delay Explained

    With last week's press conference and the drama consuming Apple-watchers' attention around the world, not much truck has been paid to the whereabouts of the white iPhone 4 of late. Fortunately, Engadget has taken the time to explore what's been holding up the release of the white iteration of the handset. What does their Magic Eightball tell them?All signs lead to glass manufacturing troubles.According to Engadget, Chinese company Lens Technology, the manufacturer responsible for putting together the iPhone 4's glass panels, is having difficulties painting them white. From what an inside source at the company has to say, there's a lot more involved in the process than simply slapping some paint on with a brush. Once the panels go through the complicated process of being cut, milled, and sanded, they are polished and cleaned. Only then can they be sent along for coating and screen printing. Out of all of this, the devil is in the details surrounding the coating.Engadget's source suggests that Lens Technology's quality control department was not satisfied with the quality of the panel's paint thickness and opacity. Why are these things important? If you've ever tried painting white over a blue wall, you'll understand the situation. If the paint coating isn't thick enough, the colour underneath with either show through or the tone of white will be darker than desired. Add to this the fact that if the pain on the panel is too thick, then the silkscreening of the Apple logo and the phone's detail's on the back panel will not go over as intended. That's a lot of variables that need to be kept straight in order to crank out a white iPhone 4. At least those holding out for a white iPhone 4 know why it's taking so long. No word yet on whether or not Apple will be taking pre-orders for the device. 

  • In Case You Missed It: June 21 - June 26

     Let's not play games, shall we, Mac|Life readers? Stuff happened this week, a lot of stuff, but unless it had the words iPhone 4 in its title, you weren't really paying attention were you? In fact, some of you were probably camping out, sitting in lawn chairs, live tweeting your experience waiting outside to pick up Apple's latest and greatest. Well, we shall indulge you with this extra special, all iPhone 4 version of In Case You Missed It from the gang at Mac|Life. Features: - How-To Conquer the iPhone 4's Hardware Features - There was a lot to take in all at once. You got a new handset, you got a new OS, and between the two of them you could spend hours seeking out all the bits and pieces of sweetness. We break down some of the best parts of the hardware and dish out the goods.- 10 New MobileMe Features Explained - On top of everything else, Apple went and upgraded their MobileMe offerings to bring in a bit more iPadness and to take advantage of the awesomeness that is the iPhone 4 and iOS 4.0. You still have to subscribe, but with the new functionality at the same price? You'd be a fool not to. How-Tos: - 34 iOS 4.0 Features and Tips For the iPhone and iPod touch - Along with the new hardware, there was new software, naturally. While Apple talks about 100 new features, we've highlighted 34 that are essentials, which is only a third of the goodness (unless you have a 3G, unfortunately).- 25 Top OS X Terminal Tips - Okay, we lied a little when we said this was all iPhone 4 all the time, but this handy-dandy list of copy-and-paste Terminal commands will turn you from a noob to a sudo master in three short pages. Plus, Star Wars as an ASCII feature film. See how we couldn't resist?Reviews: - iOS Game Time - June 22, 2010 - A welcome addition to our weekly regular features, iOS Game Time is here to highlight the best new games and steer you clear of the duds. With all the money we're going to save you with this feature alone, you could be buying Mac|Life subscriptions for your whole family and friends too. Game on!- iHome iA5 Review - We figure now that you've got your new handset, you're not going to want to be away from it for a minute, and iHome has got a cute little alarm clock radio for you to dock it in at night. Of course, the software is the star of the show, but if you start using it to tweet when you wake up, consider yourself unfollowed. News: Uh, how are you holding your new iPhone? Are you a southpaw? Well, just like teachers told your parents and grandparents, knock it off. At least that was Steve Jobs reaction to reception issues that seem to be plaguing the new handset...not everyone was so sanguine, and in comments that were shortly pulled from the forum, it seems there's whispers around Apple that iOS 4.0 might go 4.01 as early as next week....and maybe you can ask someone there if you call this number and get a little FaceTime with someone at Apple...or they might just give away their bumpers to shield the antenna from your greasy mitts...although you might just want to get a case, based on how easily the glass back scratches, which solves scratch and reception problems in one go...in other problem news, if your new OS isn't synching your ringtones, we've figured out how to solve that problem, naturally...unlike the freaks at iFixIt who seem to get a great joy from taking Apple products apart down to the last little screw...there are a few hardware problems, the typical ones that early adopters have to live with while we later adopters wait around to be solved...meanwhile, here's what else early adopters got to stand in line for hours, just like these hardy souls who braved June weather in San Fransisco...some of whom happened to include Mac|Life readers we're sure, and here's a lovely gallery of staff and reader photos of their new babies...and in case you missed out on the handset, turns out Radio Shack might still have a few handsets once the weekend is over...just don't try to get any at Wal-Mart, as apparently their "selling" of the iPhone 4 is limited to one single handset; no, you read that right...and Apple will be sure to be getting more handsets into production and ramping up the manufacture, because just look at these numbers; the handset is their bread, butter, and water too...granted, lots of these customers are repeaters, upgrading, not that that matters much to the bottom line...and although we'd not want one ourselves, expect a slight uptick in those sales figures when the white handset comes out in the second half of July...and we hope families or friends who got more than one iPhone 4 at a time we're filming each and editing those films right on their phones, because iMovie for the iPhone is just one of the perks of the new handset...because you definitely won't be doing it on the 3G; in fact, there were lots of things the 3G isn't swinging with the new iOS...though the jailbreak community seems to have gotten a little crack in the new iOS, but cracker beware is a good motto...  

  • Load Up Your New iPad with E-Books -- Without Going to the iBookstore

    Sure, we all swooned with delight when Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed us how we’ll be reading books on our iPad in the future, courtesy of the new iBooks app. But what if you want to load up your new device with e-books that aren’t from Apple’s own iBookstore?That’s where your old pals at MacLife.com come in. You may be surprised to learn that there are literally millions of e-books out there already available in the iPad-friendly EPUB format, just a few finger taps away. Okay, we hear your cries: “How? Where? Must… acquire… knowledge…!!” Keep reading, dear visitor…What is This EPUB Thing, Anyway?EPUB is just another file format similar to Microsoft Word’s DOC or Adobe’s PDF. But EPUB is free and standardized, which means that pretty much every e-reader (and even a lot of desktop software) can understand and use such files. Apple chose EPUB for the iBooks app on the iPad, since it offers the most widely compatible experience. Some companies (including Apple) apply digital rights management (DRM) to their EPUB files, such as Sony has done in the past for their Reader hardware.Oddly, the one big exception to the list of e-readers compatible with EPUB is Amazon’s popular Kindle, which can’t use the files without first being converted into another format that the hardware can understand (including PDF, TXT and the Kindle’s own AZW). Weird, right? We’re guessing that will change soon, especially if the iPad takes off.Google = (Over) One Million Free BooksSure, things between Apple and Google might not be so friendly these days, but where e-books are concerned, Google Books just wants to make sure you have plenty of stuff to read -- regardless of what platform or device you happen to be using. Last summer, they went nuts and posted over a million public domain books in the iPad-compatible EPUB format. The gigantic archive of books had already been available to select partners including Sony and Barnes and Noble, but those floodgates have been available to all for months now.There is one caveat to Google Books, however (isn’t that always the case?): The search giant used optical character recognition (better known as OCR) to create their free EPUB files. OCR is generally pretty awesome, but only if you edit the document afterward to catch any mistakes… which Google didn’t do with their e-books. Just goes to show you, you get what you pay for. Buyer (or is that moocher?) beware.Public Domain Done Right: epubBooks.comDeveloper Mike Cook has taken it upon himself to reformat the public domain Project Gutenberg titles and make them available on his own epubBooks.com, free of charge. Why would someone do this? The Gutenberg e-books frequently have very basic formatting (if any at all), and a lot of them are only available as standard .TXT files. Cook used his skills with Perl and XSLT to write conversion tools to create his own EPUB files.Of course, that means that most of the finds on epubBooks.com are the same as what’s already available on Google Books, with popular authors such as Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde and Edgar Rice Burroughs all present and accounted for. But Cook and his contributors have spent a lot of time to assure great quality for their free EPUB-format e-books, many of which even include black & white or even color illustrations. That effort has to be worth a look, right?Read and Get Published on Feedbooks.comBilled as “Food for the mind,” the Paris, France-based Feedbooks.com encompasses the usual thousands of public domain e-books, but also adds original works from new authors into the mix and even a publishing service to distribute your own work, should you have any.Like epubBooks, the Feedbooks team developed their own technology to create e-books on the fly. Don’t worry, even though the company is French, the site is available in English language, and they offer a wide variety of e-books in the EPUB format in English, French, German, Spanish and even Russian languages. Their selection also features a number of DC Comics, including characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Aquaman for when you tire of your Marvel Comics app.Just the Classics, Please: ManyBooks.net“The best e-books at the best price: Free!” touts the ManyBooks.net website, which offers strictly classic literature -- 26,688 of them, to be exact. The site is the work of Matthew McClintock, who has also tapped into the vast database at Project Gutenberg to build his virtual library of gratis e-books. McClintock’s site happily accepts donations to keep the wheels turning and to cover the costs of bandwidth, file storage and server hardware, but cheapskates can download all they can read, guilt-free.For the Kiddies: Snee.comA more limited selection of titles is available at Snee.com, which once again uses Project Gutenberg public domain titles but fancies them up with plenty of pictures for the young’uns. The Snee collection is aimed strictly at the tykes, with popular titles such as Little Bo-Peep, The Three Bears and The Sleeping Beauty yours for the (free) taking.Don’t Forget Your Local LibraryDid you know that thousands of local libraries now feature digital libraries online? Thanks to the Overdrive service, libraries have made a splash with free downloadable content in the EPUB format, and it’s quick and easy to find out if you can take advantage of the service by searching for your local library online. A quick search of our local library turned up thousands of titles available for the taking, so once you’ve exhausted the other choices presented here, grab your library card and get downloading. (Note that many libraries also feature e-books in Adobe PDF or other formats, which won’t work on your trusty new iPad without conversion.)Straight to the Source: Project GutenbergIf you have a little more patience and are more forgiving of the end results, you can head straight to the Project Gutenberg website and find over 30,000 free e-books (and thanks to their partners around the world, more than 100,000 other e-books are also available).These books are made available at no cost in the U.S. because their copyright has expired, so they’re now in the public domain and available to anyone, for any use. The downside is, that means you’re stuck with the classics, written by authors who have long since left this mortal coil. But, maybe you can’t get enough of those books, you know?Support The Indies with SmashwordsBy this point, even the cheapest of cheapskates among you have probably tired of hearing the word “free,” especially since that generally equates to “public domain” where e-books are concerned. If you’re looking for an EPUB source that’s slightly off the beaten path and where your money still gets you a tremendous bargain, there’s always Smashwords.com.Smashwords is an e-book publishing and distribution center for independent authors. Their selection includes novels, short fiction, poetry, personal memoirs, monographs, non-fiction, research reports, essays or “other written forms that haven’t even been invented yet.”Best of all, it’s free to publish and distribute via Smashwords, and the authors are in full control over how their work is published, sampled, priced and sold. That means some e-books are free, some are dirt cheap and some are priced more traditionally -- it all depends on what you’re looking for. The site touts over 3,500 serious writers and 100 independent publishers among their stable. Not surprisingly, a quick glance at Smashwords’ most-downloaded titles finds that it’s the free ones that get the most action -- so aspiring e-book publishers, don’t quit that day job just yet.When All Else Fails: Barnes & Noble eReader (or Amazon Kindle)If your tastes run more current or commercial, then you might have to be patient -- while Amazon.com just updated their Kindle for iPhone app to version 2.0, a universal build to include iPad compatibility, Barnes & Noble is still missing in action for launch day.Of course, Kindle doesn’t use or support the EPUB format, so they don’t really count -- but Barnes & Noble does, and is probably the top dog in the paid EPUB world. If you already happen to use the B&N eReader for iPhone and have some books downloaded there, you can always install it on your iPad and use pixel-doubling to fill the screen… but we can only imagine that will probably send you even faster into the loving embrace of the iBookstore. (Thanks to DRM, you won’t be able to load your B&N e-books into iBooks, sorry.)Roll Your Own EPUBsIf you don’t have any luck finding just the right EPUB documents to install on your iPad, why not make your own? Thankfully, there are at least a couple of tools available to convert standard PDF files into EPUB format -- and both of them are absolutely free.The top dog in the “create your own” race has to be Calibre, the multi-platform e-book management software that converts not only from PDF to EPUB, but a whole bunch of others as well (seriously, there’s a long list on their website). The project is supported by donations and the downloadable application may not be for the faint of heart, but the site offers plenty of support if you get lost.On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you just want to get the job done quickly, there’s EPUB2Go.com, a free website that does one thing only -- converts a PDF file into an EPUB file. Tell the site where your file is (either on your computer or at an Internet address) and you’re off and running. The simplistic site was designed to aid folks in getting their PDF files onto the iPhone version of free e-book reader Stanza, so it’s about as simple as it gets.*****It will be interesting to see how Apple’s new iPad affects the e-book market, which has been fractured and slow to take hold over the years. That just means that Cupertino has nowhere to go but up with iBooks and the iBookstore -- even with all of this mostly free EPUB competition floating around the Internet.

  • Soften Your DVD Rip Subtitles

    Subtitles should be seen only when you want them to be seen. Adding soft subtitles to your movie rips is the answer. HandBrake wants to burn subtitles into your video so they're visible all the time. Extracting a separate subtitle track with D-Subtitler is the best workaround.Difficulty Level: MediumWhat You Need: >> HandBrake 0.9.4 or later (free, handbrake.fr)>> D-Subtitler 1.0 or later (free, versiontracker.com)>> A DVD-ripping program like MacTheRipper (free, versiontracker.com) or RipIt ($19.95, thelittleappfactory.com)>> A DVD with subtitlesDigital copies of your DVDs can be a great way to pass the time when traveling, but you lose some of the DVD’s functionality in the ripping process. For instance, in the past, subtitles had to be permanently on or off in a rip, but we’ve developed a simple workaround that will let you add soft subtitles (ones that can be toggled on or off) whether you’re watching your film in QuickTime, in iTunes, or on your iPhone. You can even add subtitles in multiple languages by adding more than one soft-subtitle track. The main software for this process is HandBrake, which lets you add subtitles to your ripped films, but its default option is to permanently burn the subtitle track into your video. The latest release (version 0.9.4) can add soft subtitles instead, but you have to extract the subtitle track from your DVD rip and import it into HandBrake separately. You’ll need an additional application called D-Subtitler for this. We’ll show you how to get it and how to make it work for you. 1. Rip Your DVD First up: Ripping the DVD. Use an application such as RipIt or MacTheRipper, which will create a Video_TS folder on your hard drive. If you’re using RipIt, make sure the “Use .dvdmedia Extension” preference is off. Save the Video_TS folder somewhere memorable, like the Desktop.Uncheck the "Use .dvdmedia Extension" checkbox in RipIt's preferences before ripping.Is this legal? Well, ripping a commercial DVD does break the copy protection, which violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But if you own that DVD, making a copy for your personal use is allowed. Just don’t sell or distribute your rips in any way. That’s what that big FBI warning is about, don’tcha know? 2. Getting D-Subtitler It's easiest to just grab D-Subtitler from VersionTracker.Download D-Subtitler from VersionTracker (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27402). (The developer’s site, objectifmac.com, is mostly in French.) Drag the icon to your Applications folder and launch the program. Go to File > Open and select that Video_TS folder from Step 1. 3. Making Choices Verify that your choices are correct, then click the green button.When your DVD’s Video_TS folder has loaded, you’ll use the pop-up menus to choose the title you wish to analyze (usually, the longest one is the movie you’re after) and the subtitle language you’d like to extract. To make sure you chose correctly, click Preview to play your selections in a separate window. When you’re satisfied, click the main window’s big green button. 4. The Right Setting Keep trying options in the "Choice of gray levels" dropdown until the text appears black on a white background.D-Subtitler will take a while to analyze your subtitle track. Once it’s done, you’ll see a preview of it. For the conversion to work, the text needs to appear black on a white background, and the interface offers you four settings to choose from in order to make this happen. Try them one at a time, and once it looks good, click Continue. Next Page: Soften Your Subtitles continued >> 5. Conversion D-Subtitler will occasionally need a hand recognizing a character.Once the right setting is chosen, D-Subtitler will proceed to extract the text, only stopping when it needs help deciphering a letter or symbol that its built-in OCR (optical character recognition) system can’t understand. The Preview button can help you see the problem within the context of the sentence it came from. When the process is complete (this could take a long time depending on the length of your movie), you’ll be asked to save the file, which will then open up, leading to the final part of the D-Subtitler program. 6. Spell Checking Take the time to read through your subtitles for errors, or at least run spell check.You can use this last section to review the OCR’s work and correct any mistakes that have been made. The Check Spelling button (third from the left) triggers Mac OS X’s built-in spell checker, which can be a great time-saver. Once you’re happy with the results, save any changes you made, and launch HandBrake. 7. The HandBrake Connection File.srt is the subtitle track that D-Subtitler exported in Step 5 and we spell checked in Step 6.Choose the same Video_TS folder and title as in Step 2, then click the Subtitles tab. From there, click Add External SRT and select the file you saved from D-Subtitler. You’ll notice that the Burned In option is off by default and its box is no longer checked. Choose your desired video format in the Output Settings area, then click the Start button to convert your film and add the soft subtitles. 8. Viewing the Results How to find the subtitle track in QuickTime.Once HandBrake is done, drag the resulting video file into iTunes and play it. You can toggle the subtitles on or off by clicking the speech-bubble button toward the right of the playback menu and selecting the subtitle track from the menu that appears. It works the same way when you’re watching on an iPhone or iPod touch. To toggle subtitles in QuickTime, you need to visit the View > Subtitles menu. 

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